It was the first time since Halloween that Sirius had woken up in a good mood. Naturally, Regulus was a little suspicious. "What's going on?" he demanded groggily, still unused to getting up around dawn. Automatically he started searching for his glasses.
Sirius shrugged and handed them to him. "There's a Quidditch match today. I thought I'd come watch."
Regulus considered this announcement. "If you didn't get into the Gryffindor common room Halloween night, how do you know there's a match?" he demanded.
Sirius shrugged again. "I've sat in on a few Gryffindor practices," he admitted. "I overheard."
"You could've been caught," Regulus said reproachfully.
"For the thousandth time, you are not my mum," Sirius snapped, crossing his arms over his chest. "And actually I was caught. By the Chasers."
"And what did you do then?" Regulus demanded.
"Rolled over on my back and let them rub my belly," Sirius answered with a shrug. "I'm not an idiot. I was in the shape of a dog."
"Oh." Regulus sat up, stretching. Now that an explanation had been given, he was much more interested in the contents of the message. "Gryffindor against who?"
"Oh— Hufflepuff. It was going to be against Slytherin, but apparently their Seeker fussed continually about a broken arm and they used it as an excuse not to play in this weather."
Regulus glanced up at the sky, which had been storming on and off, soaking the both of them thoroughly, all week. "You're going to hate me, but I can't say I can't blame them."
"Yeah, yeah. Should actually be a pretty good game, from the sound of it. At any rate the Captain's a bit worried."
"Then I won't be completely embarrassed when I root for Hufflepuff?" Regulus asked innocently.
"Why would you do that?"
"Because I'm a Slytherin. On principle, I don't root for Gryffindor." He grinned, and partly because of the subject matter and partly because they'd missed so much of each other's adult lives, he reverted back to teenage banter. "Besides, I'm your little brother. My goal in life is to get on your nerves."
"Maybe back when you were six," Sirius grumbled. "I'm going hunting."
"And I'm going back to bed," Regulus retorted, a bit sleepily. "Good luck."
That afternoon, as a fox and a dog made their way up the steps of one of the more sparsely populated Quidditch stands, the weather had only gotten worse. Regulus's small body had turned black under the pounding of the rain, even though he'd spent much of the time walking under Sirius and using the bigger animal as a canopy.
Once up on the stands, Sirius bounded up to the highest part, his sopping tail wagging. Regulus hopped up after him and took refuge under the stand. A few more people came up the steps, but it seemed that the weather had scared some spectators off and led the others to crowd together. A girl with long blonde hair and big eyes sat down beside Sirius and patted his head. "Oh, good," she mumbled. "I was afraid you were a Grim. Or a Horund."
Sirius glanced down between his paws at his brother, who cocked his head in a canine shrug. Neither of them had the slightest idea what a Horund was.
The girl petted Sirius for a little while longer, but when the match started she got up and wandered down, closer to other people.
Considering the near blinding rain, Sirius was right— it was a fairly good match. Regulus couldn't really hear anything above the sounds of the storm, let alone the commentary, but he could see the scoreboard if he squinted, and sometimes he thought he could tell who was on which team.
The sky got steadily darker as the game wore on, and Regulus sank farther beneath the bench as he watched. He wondered if a Quidditch game could ever be halted because of weather. That hadn't happened when he was in school, but there had never been a game in this kind of a storm when he was in school, either. Assuredly Dumbledore would call the game off if the students were in danger from the lightning. . . .
Gryffindor was fifty points up when their captain called a time out. Regulus glanced up, wondering if Sirius would walk off now— goodness knew it was late enough. But Sirius showed no sign of moving, and Regulus wasn't leaving his brother in a prime position to do something incredibly stupid. Besides, in this miserable weather the Forbidden Forest probably wasn't much drier than his seat under the stands, if it was even drier at all.
After a few minutes, the players took to the air again. Regulus glanced around, hoping to see the glint of gold and a Seeker streaking towards it. He didn't, but he did see a Gryffindor player that looked a lot like James Potter— Harry— looking around.
Suddenly Sirius leapt off the bench and started back down the steps as Harry did a double take, staring right at where the dog had been moments before.
Regulus hesitated, reluctant come out from under a roof, but as Sirius's black tail disappeared down the steps a creeping, cold situation gripped the pit of his stomach. Evidently Sirius had sensed the dementors first. As quickly as was safe on a slippery platform fifty feet in the air, he followed his brother down.
He didn't stand a chance of catching up to Sirius as a fox, and the two were well into the Forbidden Forest before he even saw the dog again. Sirius was whimpering and shaking under an elm, and his eyes were huge.
Regulus took human form. "Are you all right?"
The dog jumped to his feet and whirled around to face him.
"Sirius. . . ." Regulus shook his head, unable to think of anything sensible to say, and reached out to scratch Sirius's ears. To his surprise, Sirius let him.
Eventually Sirius also took human shape. "Sorry about that," he mumbled.
"You dealt with them for twelve years. I run after putting up with them for fifteen minutes." Regulus shrugged, tugged off his coat, and handed it to his brother. "You're shaking," he pointed out.
"Not from the cold," Sirius retorted, but he accepted the jacket. "I can't believe they came onto the grounds."
"Well, Dumbledore certainly isn't the one that authorized it," Regulus pointed out absently. "He'll be bleeding furious— I wouldn't be surprised if one of those kids fell off their brooms, with them coming up on the crowd suddenly like that."
Sirius nodded. "I'm going to kill Peter," he mumbled.
Regulus shook his head. He was not going to ask what Pettigrew had to do with anything right now. At the moment Sirius needed a friend, not the little brother who demanded explanations for everything. Unfortunately Regulus was unaccustomed to providing the former.
Finally, however, Sirius seemed to shake off his gloom. "So, who do you think won?" he asked absently.
Regulus stared up at him in surprise. "Well . . . Gryffindor was in the lead when we left, but not so far they'd win if Hufflepuff got to the snitch first."
Sirius shrugged. "Let's just say Gryffindor won then, shall we?"
"Unless we find out later that you're wrong," Regulus replied, shrugging. "Sure, Gryffindor won."
Sirius raised his brows. "You're giving in so easy?" After all, the last time the two had been together on this constant a basis, Sirius had been sixteen, and they certainly had never let each other win back then.
And why would I fight you over something stupid like that after what just happened? Regulus wondered. He wasn't about to admit that, however. "If it had been Slytherin instead of Hufflepuff, I would have fought you."
"Had it been Slytherin, there would have been no room to fight me, because regardless of who caught the snitch, Gryffindor would've won."
"Keep thinking that, Sirius, keep thinking that." Regulus shook his head and glanced back up at the heavens, which was still soaking them through the canopy. "And whatever you do, mate, don't scare me like that ever again."
Snape was up to something. Remus had to admit that it wasn't anything unexpected, really, because he was just trying to communicate the truth of Remus's absence to the students. Still, assigning five years an essay on werewolves . . . there were one or two students in each class that, if they did the essay, might figure it out. Hermione Granger— who had, of course, already done her homework— was at the top of the list.
He didn't suppose it was something he should worry about. If Hermione confronted him about it, she would probably not do it in public, and nearly everyone else had put off the assignment in hopes that they wouldn't have to turn it in.
He shook his head as he searched for his lesson plans— the only ones Snape had stuck to were the first and second years. Evidently he had not considered them experienced enough to unravel his clues. Well, Severus Snape was not precisely one to go out of his way to make Remus's life any easier, was he?
"Remus?"
He looked up in surprise to see Professor Dumbledore standing at the door to his classroom. "Oh . . . Hullo, Professor," he said awkwardly. "What brings you here?"
"I thought I'd make sure you were really all right," he answered with a shrug. "The students all seemed happy to have you back in class, but I know you didn't like the idea of handing your classes over to Severus."
Remus smiled slightly. "Wether or not I liked letting Severus teach my classes, sir, I had no intention of coming back into the classroom until I was sure I was okay," he replied.
Professor Dumbledore shook his head. "I see you've made a mess worthy of your school days," he remarked dryly. "What are you actually trying to do?"
"Frankly, I'm trying to figure out what Severus did with my lesson plans. Whatever it was, it wasn't stick to them," Remus told him. "I have been listening to complaints about two-rolls-of-parchment-long werewolf essays all day."
Dumbledore raised an eyebrow.
"Oh, I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume one of us lost them," Remus answered. "He knew I hadn't covered werewolves with any of my classes, after all. I just could have sworn I left them on the top of my desk."
"That desk or the one in your office?"
"This one. Snape especially was not coming into my office, even if he's the one that brewed the potion for me," Remus reminded him.
"Well, it still seems rather likely they were lost, doesn't it?" Dumbledore smiled slightly.
He glanced back down at his desk, which was piled with papers he'd either had yet to grade or yet to pass back. "Er . . . yes, Headmaster, I see your point." He shook his head. "I knew I was going to have to cover them at least with the fifth years, but I still wish he hadn't done werewolves."
Dumbledore shook his head. "Why don't I help you look?" he suggested. "You've set yourself quite the task, after all."
Author's Note: Hullo again, all, sorry this isn't my best chapter. To answer a few reviews: SupportSeverusSnape: Actually, I'd say Sirius is very smart; he did become an Animagus at fifteen. He just has not common sense whatsoever. Daydreaming Git: Actually, the reaction to the Black brothers I was looking forward most to writing was Snape, since Reggie is going to throw him off a bit. Anyway, until next time, Cheers! -- Loki