I didn't get any reviews last chapter, not that I blame you. It was just a set up for this and future ones.
On with the show
Sirius decided to take the rout by the library seeing as it was Friday so people wouldn't go anywhere near it until Sunday. No one will see me. Over the steady pounding of his heals on the stone floors came the sound of an unusually high, girly voice. Sirius skidded to a halt and made to turn around but then another voice joined the girlish one, one he heard frequently in the dreams that he rather not share with anyone. It sounded shakyand harassed.
Sirius marched towards the voiced of Remus Lupin and Dolores Umbridge.
"Isn't it convenient that you are always sick around the full moon?" the toad like girl squeaked.
"You track the moon, might I say that is a tad obsessive? Professor Ales isn't even good looking," Remus said, feinting calm.
"Lupin," she started but cut her self off to let a grin spread across her wide face. "That must just be a coincidence. Remus- the child suckled by a she wolf; Lupus- wolf in Latin."
"No, my father did that on purpose. He's a muggle historian. He thought with the lat name Lupin Remus would be a good joke. No one could commend his sense of humor." Remus continued to play dumb.
"I'm talking about you being a part-human," Umbridge's voice dripped with venom as she spoke. The girl was obviously trying, very hard, to tip the young werewolf off balance.
"Part-human? Who fed you that load of hippogriff droppings?"
"Don't act dim, I know all about your monthly happenings."
"What do you care if I have tidal fever? It's not contagious and I'm perfectly human."
"Tidal fever?" Umbridge made a face that made her look much like a frog that had just lost a meal.
"Why are you so keen on labeling people as part-human? If you must know my mum had a bad run in with a mermaid while carrying me." Anyone who had ever heard of Remus' mother would believe this. She was a magical zoologist specializing in creatures of human intelligence. "You see water tides and currents are at the mercy of the moon. So, when the moon is at its strongest the fever breaks out worst," the boy's voice was shaking a little now.
Sirius felt himself gravitating towards Remus as if being dragged by some invisible magnet. The other boy's face lit up when he saw Sirius approaching, then raised his eyebrows when he saw his ears.
"Remus, how many times must I tell you not to turn girls into gigantic toads?" Sirius asked his voice even.
Dolores glared daggers at him. "What's wrong with your ears Black?" she asked in her sickly sweet voice. She was pretending to be interested rather than scornful.
"Actually that's why I'm here." He turned to Remus and winked at him. "Prongs and I messed with some water we are going to put in the girls lavatories. When they wash their faces they'll get like this. Re, we need your help getting the ears big enough."
Umbridge sniffed loudly and bustled off, most likely to squeal to Filch. Sirius internally did a victory dance; he had gotten her to forget about Remus.
"So what really happened to your ears?" the werewolf asked.
Sirius snorted indignantly. "I was going for a new look. I thought it was sexy." Remus suppressed a laugh. "No I did something wrong to this potion I was working on and I don't know what."
"How 'bout we go to the library so I can help you figure out what you did wrong?" Remus suggested. Sirius nodded and they found a table between some shelves so there was no chance of Filch finding them as he and Mrs. Norris were currently at odds with Madam Pince.
"I still have the directions," Sirius said, removing them from his pocket where he had stuffed them earlier. Remus' eyes flicked back and forth across the page as he read and mauled his lower lip with his teeth. Sirius, not completely aware of what he was doing, put his fingers on the other boy's chin, tugging the lip out from between his teeth. "Stop doing that," he said, his voice huskier than he had initially intended.
"Sorry," Remus muttered, blushing.
"Don't apologize, just stop."
"Right. You must have copied this wrong," Remus said, turning back to the parchment.
"Hm?" Sirius was concentrating on Remus and not what was going on, again.
"You must have copied the instructions wrong." Remus pointed out at a section of the paper. "See, you missed a step here and this one is from a different potion. But at least it's easy to rectify."
Something clicked in Sirius' head. Damn Snivillus, he did this on purpose. Unconsciously he balled his hands into fists. Calm yourself, he told himself, Snape has stuff on both you and Moony. Re should never forgive you if you got Snape spouting about Remus' condition. He wouldn't but he should. Sirius noticed what his hands had done and quickly unclenched them. He then looked around for Remus and couldn't find him. "Moony?"
"Coming Padfoot. I just left to get something to fix your ears while you were off in Padfoot land." Remus came into view from between some shelves carrying a small jar. He sat down nest to Sirius, pulling his chair until he was so close Sirius could feel his breath on his neck. He unscrewed the top of the jar and slopped some of the blue gel onto his fingers. Then he took Sirius' right ear into his hand and began massaging it with his gelled fingers.
Before Sirius could stop himself he let out a low moan. "You okay?" Remus asked, taking his hand from the other boy's ear.
"Yeah, sorry, the- the gel felt nice," Sirius said unevenly.
"Mum gave it to me after that time Lastrange turned my skin all funny when his hexed missed you and got me instead. It reverses small bits of physical magical change," Remus told Sirius while he continued the massage. "All better," he said when done.
"Thanks." Sirius ran his hands over his fixed ears. "I could kiss you." Sirius quickly turned into Padfoot and knocked Remus off his feet, pinning him to the ground.
"Geroff you big lug," Remus said between fits of laughter. After another few licks Sirius complied and helped his friend up. I wish I was brave enough to do that as me. Remus scraped the dog slobber off himself and rubbed it on Sirius.
"You bugger!" Sirius yelled, attacking and laughing.
"You two trouble makers! Out! Before you hurt any of the books. Mr. Lupin, I would have expected better of you," Madam Pince admonished. Remus tried to pull a straight face as he left and apologized, but to no avail. Seeing a test book attack Sirius was just too funny.
He suddenly remembered the smile Sirius had on his face when he came to rescue him. Had that been because of the tutoring session? Maybe Sirius was just getting tutoring because he had found someone he thought fetching to give him lessons. Jealously gripped at the boy and he promptly stopped laughing.
