6. Well Deserved Vacation

One consequence of their official status had been that they needed Muggle passports. Both had received the necessary papers and so they could use regular Muggle transport. The flight was long, they were quite tired when they arrived, but it took them no more than a day on the beautiful island to recover from the trip. For three weeks they explored Bali, enjoyed the beaches and the sights, enjoyed the food and each other's undisturbed company and never once received one owl. They had a wonderful suite in their hotel, more like their own bungalow with a huge bedroom and a lovely cosy living room.

"It's just simply unbelievable that we're here and so happy, Sirius."

"Waiting for the other shoe to drop?"

"Sort of. It always happened in our lives, so it's sort of natural, isn't it?"

Sirius was lying on the couch with Remus on top of him and they enjoyed some quiet necking.

"Yeah, it's true, but there were always Death Eaters and Voldemort. Nothing of that kind around anymore. We just have to believe in peace to make it come true!"

He stroked over Remus' chest, slowly and softly. He could feel the skin underneath his fingers shiver. Both had a nice tan after two weeks of sunbathing on the island. The sun was just slowly sinking into the ocean and they watched, fascinated by the beauty of it all. They had spent the full moon at the beginning of their vacation in their room, Remus transforming and quietly rolling to a tight ball on the bed. Now it was the New Moon already and they decided to go out and stroll on one of the lesser populated beaches to watch the stars.

Remus smiled. He took Sirius' hand as they walked through the quickly falling darkness. It was warm and the sky was completely clear. Perfect conditions for some stargazing. On a small hill they dropped on the grass, lying on their backs and Remus cuddled up to Sirius. He looked up and searched for the constellations he knew. But mostly they just watched, immersed deeply in their own thoughts.

It was late in the night when they apparated back to their rooms. Sirius quickly shed his clothes and waited for Remus to do the same, then they both decided that a nice bath would suit them, so they filled the tub and Remus leaned back on Sirius' chest. Sirius wrapped his arms around his lover and kissed him.

"I love you, Remus. Thank you for being with me all the way. Wasn't it a wonderful year? With all the work we've done we probably made history! Can you imagine in three hundred years when Professor Binns bores all the students with my surprise coup?"

Remus chuckled.

"Good mental image, Sirius, you'll have to relate that one to Harry and Ron, I'm sure they'll appreciate it…"

"Won't they though? I'm missing everyone. I loved those weeks here, but now I'm ready to face other people again, and you?"

"I am, too, actually. What are we going to occupy ourselves with now? Can we just lay back and do nothing?"

"I don't think so. I'm thinking of getting a part of a Quidditch team. That would give me something to do, and it would be fun…"

"Not a bad idea."

"And you will write the ultimate book on werewolves. And then probably the perfect text book for Defence against the Dark Arts classes. And then my biography…"

Remus laughed. He looked up and saw that Sirius seemed to be serious about what he said.

"You think I should write books?"

"Yeah, why not? I'm sure after that year you'd find publishers easily. You could make quite a lot of money if you wrote my story…"

"I could. Would you want that? Everyone knowing about the horrors you went through in Azkaban?"

"It could prepare the grounds for what I have in mind. A complete prison reform."

"Oh! I take it that Dementors have no part in that?"

"Definitely not. Lock dangerous people away, yes, but Dementors? No! There's something else that worries me deeply. Wizards tend to just lock people away. That doesn't do much to teach them that they made wrong choices. It either makes them more bitter, more hateful, more determined to be what they are, evil or they go mad."

"So how would your reform look?"

"It will have to be done in several steps. First step is thinking about taking away the magical abilities of a person to be imprisoned. We all know that wandless magic is unfocused, but it's not that difficult. So any prison must be a building that makes the use of magic impossible."

"But that would include the people who guard the prisoners."

"Right. I don't think you'd need magic for that. If your next door wizard is incapacitated to use magic you just have to have the physical advantage and I suppose that's something that can be trained."

"Yes, that makes sense."

"So there will be a lot of research involved on making a building immune against magic. I'm not sure if that has been done yet. That's one way it could be done. Another could be a series of anti-apparition and new confinement spells that would be cast over the cells. Personalised and the prisoner would of course be tagged to their cell."

"That might be the better course of action in my opinion," Remus commented.

"But would take a lot more research, I think. I mean there would be all the spells that would have to be developed…"

"True, but it sounds like a better solution. Could be worked out while we gain the time to do it with your first idea. And what would happen with the Dementors?"

"They should be completely destroyed. I mean, weren't they invented for the bloody fortress?"

"Yes, they were. But I know only of the Patronus to chase them away, so far I haven't found out if there is a way to destroy them."

"I was thinking of fire…" Sirius whispered.

"Worth a try. We might get permission to use a Conflagratio spell on them. I don't think Amelia would mind to have one of them less," Remus said with a grin.

Slowly they stopped talking, when Remus started to lightly undulate on Sirius. That always sparked a reaction and he didn't have to wait long for Sirius to respond with a very soft moan.

"Bed?" Sirius asked in a husky voice.

"Bed," Remus confirmed.

Getting out of the tub, drying each other with a spell and walking over to the huge bed only took a minute of their time. And for the next hour or two they were busy until they fell asleep, sated and exhausted.

Three days later they were on their way back to the UK. On the plane Sirius asked:

"Do you think that something will ever change in that cosy flat between Harry and Hermione?"

"I'm shortly before giving up hope, to be honest. He's out playing Quidditch now and she's staying home most of the time, withering at the office and withering at home. We will have to meddle, Siri," Remus admitted.

"Yes, I think we'll have to. Somehow it all just halted midway between them, didn't it? I mean, both of them certainly know they feel something for the other and both of them don't believe the other feels something for them. Isn't that the most idiotic situation possible?"

"Hm. I'm thinking about what we could do. There are several approaches. We could see that Hermione 'finds' someone and goes out here and there, that would make Harry jealous…"

"Won't work. Harry will just wish her the best of luck."

"Shit, I forgot about Harry's tragic hero complex."

"Why not send them to dance classes together? Sign them up at a good place and maybe they will recognise their feelings when they dance together…"

"Part of the plan. And a good one! Now that we have time we can plan some more little schemes."

It was murderously cold when they came out of the plane in London. Both men shivered, passed the customs and looked for a restroom immediately to apparate home, where they could cast warming charms and ignite a blazing fire in the grate. Which they did immediately.

Much to Hermione's displeasure the whole Weasley clan and Harry had decided to give Remus and Sirius a house-elf as a house-warming gift. Cilly turned out to be a delightful little creature who charmed the whole family. Sirius and Remus had a lovely feast in front of them not ten minutes after they came home and dismissed the helper after that, thanking him kindly. They also found their bedroom toasty warm, with warming charms cast over their bed, best conditions to just drop their clothes and hop into bed for some lovemaking and a long rest afterwards. When they got up the next morning they didn't even bother to pick up anything or Cilly would complain he had nothing to do. Remus, who had cleaned up after himself all his life still had the habit of picking everything up, by hand or magically, and he apologised about ten times a day to Cilly about that. He decided to make good on it by ordering the elf to read books he put in his hands thus winning points in Hermione's book.

After a shower and getting dressed they went down to the dining room, where breakfast was served a minute later. By now Cilly knew exactly what they liked most and usually came up with it right away. About seven owls with "Welcome home"-letters awaited them, two stayed back after delivering their mail, so Sirius and Remus knew they waited for a reply. One of them was Hedwig.

"Hello, old girl!" Sirius greeted her and stroked over her head.

The snowy owl turned her head, looked at him and hooted. He promised to read the letter and write an answer as soon as he had had his breakfast. He fed her some of his bacon and a bit of toast. While he ate, he read Harry's missive:

"Hi Sirius!

Hope the two of you had the greatest of honeymoons (smirk) and have returned back home safely! I've got some tickets for the next Puddlemere match, we're playing against the Ballycastle Bats. Want to come and watch? Now that you've got some time left over I thought you might be interested!

Send your reply with Hedwig and I'll keep the ones you want on hold. It's a weekend, so Ron will be there and I think, Hermione might come as well.

Harry."

"What is it?" Remus asked.

"Harry's offering us tickets for their next match – against the Bats. Should be interesting! Want to go?"

"Yes, why not? It's been ages since I've seen a match the last time!"

"Same for me… we're really back to a normal life, sweetheart! This is the perfect sign for it. We can plan fun without fear! It's going to take some time to adjust, won't it?"

"Yes, I think so, too. All my life I've felt danger rising around me. And all my life have I been right in the thick of it, I'm really relieved that we've made it through."

"If I never have to cast a defensive or offensive spell in my life anymore it will be just the right amount," Sirius said.

"Exactly. So when is the match?"

"On Sunday. That's why he wants a reply immediately," Sirius said while he picked up some parchment and a quill to write a quick reply. He fixed it on Hedwig's leg and told her: "Off you go, girl, back home. Nip Harry's finger for us!"

He pointed his wand to the window, which sprang open and Hedwig took off.

"What's the other letter?"

"It's for you, too…" Remus said.

Sirius sighed and took it. He read it while Remus went through the other mail.

"Minerva welcomes us back and writes to tell us that Harry and Hermione are shortly before their initial transformation, Siri."

"Wow. That's great! I can't wait to see what they become!"

"We should open a betting pool…" Remus suggested with a twinkle in his eyes. Sirius snickered.

"We do need to find back to some of our Marauder moods anyway! Twenty years of war are more than anyone can stand, it's time for some levity!" he declared.


Shinigami: It's not the end for this story, but here they will only talk about it, not yet do it, it's just what Sirius plans to work on after leaving the Ministry. If you do want to read about Dementors being sacked you should read my 'Chronicles', where they're actually working on it. Not Sirius and Remus themselves, but they support the people at the Ministry and the result will be shown in the story :-) - Thanks for the review!

Shameless plug here for 'Chronicles', which is the sequel to 'A Year In Switzerland' - Chronicles is still a WIP, but I keep working on it as long as I have ideas. Read it and you'll find out more!