Foreshadowing by Name

A/N: It's been a while, so I've had a dynamic writing afternoon. Proud of me? No matter how big the gaps get in my updates, I'm not giving up. I love writing this fic.

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"Nope. I was just going to say it looks good on you." Remus's comment was somewhat unexpected; Sirius raised an eyebrow.

"You have got to stop saying stuff like that," he said quietly.

"Yeah?" Remus reached over to put the bottle on the table. "Why's that?"

Sirius edged closer to him and answered suggestively: "Because it makes me want to spirit you off somewhere, but the dormitory has people in it right now."

Flashing him a smile, Remus shrugged. "Big deal; we can get James and Peter back down here like that if we do it right. Just tell James that you heard Lily talking about him or something."

"You're good…" Sirius was impressed. "Where did you get that devious mind, Moony?"

Remus grinned. "Hey, I've been best friends with you for five and a half years, right?"

"Oh gods, I've corrupted you, haven't I?" Sirius asked in mock horror. "I'm so sorry, innocent child…"

With an exasperated sigh, Remus batted him round the head. "Do you ever stop the melodramatics, Pads?"

Sirius deliberately widened his eyes, waiting for Remus to get his meaning.

"Oh." Remus had got it. "Apart from when… apart from that."

He shook his head. "Apart from that, I guess not. Now are we going to gently evacuate our bestest buddies or not?" Standing up, he grabbed Remus's hand and made a break for the stairs, ignoring all the looks of adoration he received from various girls on the way.

On reaching the sixth year dorm, Remus swung open the door and, dropping Sirius's hand, went in. "Hey guys."

James made a noncommittal noise without looking up. He was sitting on his bed; Peter was on the floor a few yards away, his face still set in the sycophantic expression he had been using as he tried to cheer James up.

Sirius flumped down on his bed, which was next to James's. "So what's up?"

James looked up to glare at him. "What do you think? You knocked the other Seeker out! I got the Snitch by default, and you knew how hard I'd been working on the Wronski Feint."

Sirius adopted a look of deep regret. "You know I wouldn't ever undermine you deliberately, Prongs. I didn't mean to knock him unconscious; I swear. It was a complete accident." He ran a hand over his immaculate hair, trying to look bored. "I think they're getting a bit sick of me downstairs; I'm pretty sure I heard Evans say a while ago that it's not fair that I'm the hero when it was you who got the Snitch."

Sure enough, James's eyes lit up, and he looked over to Remus for confirmation. "Really?"

Remus nodded sincerely. "Yeah, they're all losing interest in Sirius's story now. You should go down; I bet they'd love to talk to you."

James pondered for a moment. "Yeah, I think I will. Thanks, guys." He stood up and headed for the door. "You coming, Wormtail?" Peter jumped up (well, as much as he could jump) and followed him.

Once the door had slammed shut, Remus, leaning against the end of James's bed, grinned over at Sirius. "I told you that'd work."

Sirius shrugged. "I never disputed it. Nice master plan."

Yawning, Remus slowly walked over and sat down next to him, not quite touching. "Thanks." He looked up slightly at Sirius's face. "You know, that really does look great on you."

A smile spread over Sirius's features. "Oh yes, I remember why I brought you up here now…" He moved a little closer and placed a hand on Remus's arm, then stopped suddenly. "If I pin you down or anything, you'll just use wandless magic on me again, won't you?"

Remus frowned slightly. "I don't know… um, can I say something, before we… do anything?"

"Yeah, shoot." Sirius turned to look at him properly. "What's up?"

Unconsciously, Remus started to fidget, until Sirius took hold of his hand and held on to it firmly. Biting his lip, he at last spoke. "It's about… about my… condition."

Sirius sighed. "I thought we'd been over this, Rem. It doesn't matter to me."

"No, it's not that." Remus swallowed. "It's just something I forgot to mention before. It's something that might interfere with our relationship if we do… you know."

Sirius's heart rate had begun to pick up with worry. "What is it?"

"It's just that… I don't know, you might have read this somewhere before, but I want to make sure you know about it. Um, it's just that werewolves –" the word felt awkward on his tongue "– always mate for life. So if you were my first, then you'd be my last as well, and everything in between. It's just it's a pretty big commitment, and I wanted to make sure you knew." He looked away, a weight seemingly lifted from his shoulders.

There was silence for a moment, until Sirius put an arm around him and murmured close to his ear: "I already knew that. It's okay." Feeling Remus relax against him, he moved his other arm to turn the smaller boy around to face him. "You shouldn't have got so worried. It's not just about me, you know. This affects you more. How do you know I'm the right person?"

"I don't know," Remus whispered. "I can't justify it in any other way than to say I'd rather be with you than with anyone else in the world, and it feels so right to be with you." He gave a small smile. "Oh yeah, and I love you."

Smiling back, Sirius pulled him close and hugged him. "You're so amazing; did you know that?" He dropped a kiss in Remus's hair. "What did I do to deserve you?"

"Absolutely everything," Remus mumbled in reply, his words muffled against Sirius's chest. "You've been my friend for years, stood up for me, supported me, cared about me, and you've even become an animagus for me. That's pretty special."

Sirius sighed. "Maybe you're right. I still can't believe I got quite so lucky."

Remus pulled out of the hug to look at him reprovingly. "Sirius, are you getting mushy on me?"

He was answered by a smirk that was much more Sirius. "I'm back to normal now, I promise."

"You'd better be." He slipped an arm round Sirius's waist. "I was starting to think you'd forgotten why we came up here – again."

Sirius shook his head resolutely. "Good heavens, no." He shifted his weight quickly, pushing Remus down onto the bed. This time, he showed no sign of annoyance at being the submissive, just laughing.

"You're getting too good at this, Pads."

"That's as may be. But you know you love it." Smirking, Sirius braced his hands at either side of Remus's head. "Promise not to magic me this time. If it was unintentional before, that must mean it's raw magic, in which case you're at risk of blowing me up or turning me into a chicken or something."

Remus broke into laughter. "Okay, I promise. But… not to ruin the moment or anything, but anyone could walk in; we haven't put wards up."

Sirius just smiled, raised his wand and directed a locking spell at the door. "There. The unlocking charm's too complicated for Peter or James to work out without making enough noise to alert the whole tower to what they're doing."

"What about your fans?"

Sirius rolled his eyes, dropping his wand onto the bedside table. "If James can't crack it, I'm certain none of them can."

"You're sure he doesn't know the counter-charm?"

"Positive." Sirius dropped his hand back onto the quilt. "Now are we going to get on with this or not?"

Remus bit back another laugh. "You're so romantic."

"I know." Still smiling, he lifted one hand to touch Remus's cheek. He was just leaning down to kiss the smaller boy when something heavy landed on his head, knocking him off the bed. "Remus! I thought I told you not magic me this time!"

Remus sat up, frowning. "I didn't."

"You didn't?" Sirius rolled over to see what was responsible for putting him on the floor, and promptly screamed as a set of claws dug into his face and showed no signs of letting go.

Jumping to his feet, Remus grabbed his wand and aimed it at Sirius's attacker. "Remotum!"

The claws left the dark-haired boy's face, and he put one hand up to his cheek. "Moony, I'm bleeding!" He stared at his fingers in shock.

Remus sighed. "Enough with the melodramatics already. At least we've got the culprit." He held up a ball of white fluff, which Sirius glared at viciously. Suddenly, he stood up, took the fluffball from Remus's hand, and headed out of the dormitory.

Seconds later, he slammed dramatically into the common room with Remus two steps behind him. He held up the fluffball and glared at a certain redhead. "Evans, your bloody cat attacked me!"

"Bellona!" Lily came running over and gently took the cat, shooting Sirius a nasty look. "You must have provoked her."

"Oh great," Sirius muttered to Remus, his voice barely a whisper. "It's a homophobic cat…" He turned back to Lily. "I damn well did not; it just mauled me. I mean, for god's sake, you named it after a war goddess, don't you think that foreshadowed its personality slightly?"

Lily just glared at him. "My cat does not maul people, Black. Even you." She stroked Bellona's head and the cat purred angelically.

"Just keep it the hell out of our dormitory, okay?" Sirius snapped. "Or else people might start to think you're using it to spy on James."

Lily's face reddened slightly, making a shocking contrast with her hair. "Rest assured, Black, neither my cat nor I have any intentions of coming near you again." Nose in the air, she turned and disappeared up the girls' staircase.

Remus turned to his bleeding boyfriend. "Do you want to go to the hospital wing?"

"No, we've put to many prank-victims in there; Pomfrey hates me and James. And she'd laugh when I said a cat did it."

Remus sighed. "Alright, fine. Come on." He grabbed Sirius's sleeve and led him back up the stairs to the dorm. When they arrived, he gestured for Sirius to sit down, and started to look at his face. "Does it hurt much?"

"Stings," Sirius answered. It looked like his pride was a little injured too.

"Okay." Remus flicked his wand to produce a pad of wet cotton wool, and started wiping up the blood with it, ignoring Sirius's wincing. "It's just a few claw holes. Do you want me to glamour it? I can't heal it, so that's the best I can do."

Sirius smiled appealingly. "Would you do that?"

The smile was enough to win Remus over. "Yeah, sure. Hold still." He waved his wand in a square in front of Sirius's now clean face, and muttered a few words. The holes in the skin disappeared. "You're done."

"Thanks, Moony." Sirius jumped up and went over to the mirror on the wall. "Wow, it looks completely normal!" He put one hand up to his face and touched where the holes had been. "It's still there, though."

Remus walked up behind him and looked over his shoulder. "Sorry Pads, all I know how to do is disguise it." He smiled. "But you look handsome as ever."

"You old romantic," Sirius smiled back at him. "Shame that stupid cat ruined the mood."

"Yeah." Remus put his arms around the taller boy's waist. "But there'll be other nights."

Sirius rested his hands over Remus's. "And other mornings, and afternoons… plenty of them."

Leaning his head on the dark-haired boy's shoulder for a moment, Remus sighed. It was a happy sigh. "Shall we go back downstairs?"

"Let's." Sirius turned around and looked closely at him for a second or two. "But first, I want to see whether eyeliner suits you too."

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A/N: What did you think? Who liked Bellona? Hehe… Review, please. Love you all.