Sirius' POV
I plod slowly into the kitchen and nod in greeting to the others.
"Did you sleep at all last night?" Prongs asks. "You look like… like… like something very bad…"
"No, and thanks a lot Prongs," I roll my eyes. "I wanted to keep an eye on Moony. But he's asleep now, so won't wake up again until eight."
"Does the New Moon always affect him like that?" Ron asks.
"Nah, not normally. He gets more sensitive, but the worst time of the month is normally just before and just after the Full Moon."
I down a mug of scolding coffee and pour a second.
"I have some advise for you boys," I gesture to Harry and Ron.
"Oh yeah," Harry laughs.
"Don't laugh," I grin, "I'm your godfather, I can do responsible!"
Prongs snorts with laughter,
"Sure you can, Padfoot."
"Anyway," I continue, putting on a strict no-nonsense voice. "Number 1: If your friend betrays you, do not chase after him, or her, to commit murder and gain your revenge."
"Fair enough," Harry smirks.
I nod,
"And Number 2: Unless you like being in a high maintenance relationship do not fall in love with a werewolf."
"High maintenance huh?" Prongs grins.
"Yup," I gulp down some more coffee.
"I'll bare it in mind," Harry tells me dryly.
"Don't you like being… involved with Remus?" Ron asks.
"I never said that," I look over at him. "I love him, and I love caring for him. There is nothing I would rather do than comfort him when he's scared. I just thought I'd let you know what it's like."
"In other words he's nackered, worried about his boyfriend and hoping that you will find a partner that won't drive you to the emotional edge once a month," Prongs adds for me.
I nod slowly,
"Something like that."
Later
"Morning Moony," he nuzzles closer into my neck.
"Padfoot?"
"You expecting someone else?"
"I wasn't expecting anyone," he stretches against me and mutters happily as he back pops softly.
"You feeling better this morning?"
"Yeah, sorry about that…"
"Don't worry about it," I smile at him gently. "If I didn't think you were worth it I'd never have gotten involved with you in the first place."
"Thank you, I think…" he laughs softly as he tries to engage his tired mind on whither or not that he had just been insulted.
"I love you, Moony," I pull him closer. "Even if you are high maintenance."
"High maintenance?" he sounds amused.
"That's what Prongs said," I muse.
"I have no idea what you're talking about," he laughs.
"Never mind," I laugh and pull him up from the bed. "Let's get you some food."
He nods and follows me willingly.
Later, Remus' POV
So I'm high maintenance?
I guess so. Not many lovers live on a monthly emotional roller coaster and turn into a crazy animal that can only be tamed by Animagi and a very complicated potion…
Sirius doesn't seem to mind though. I don't think he has ever failed to react to my pain.
In the very start, of course, he sneered at it. However, most people wouldn't even notice, so that must mean…
"Earth to Moony! This is Prongs calling Moony!" James waves his hand in front of my face.
I blink and look at him,
"Yes, James?"
He rolls his eyes,
"I asked you if you really mean to move back into Grimmauld?"
I look over at Sirius,
"I don't know. Do we?"
"I promised you that we would," he tells me calmly.
"Yes," I agree, "but that was while you were trying to calm me down. I'm currently not an overly emotional lunatic."
He grins,
"You aren't?"
"I think I want a new Mate," I turn away from him. "Prongs; you interested?"
Prongs snorts with laughter and Sirius growls with mock anger.
"I worry about you three," Harry tells us.
"Who us?" Sirius fakes shock.
"Yes, you," Harry smirks.
"Respect your betters boy!" James grins.
"I will when I meet some!" he shoots back.
"We need to get your eyes checked," James tells him.
"Huh?" Harry is baffled.
"You clearly can't see more than a foot in front of your nose!"
"No, I just…"
"Alright! Enough!" Sirius interrupts with a laugh.
"So, are you?" Harry puts the conversation back on track.
"Yeah, why not?" Sirius grins.
"You hated it there!" Ron reminds him.
"I hated being confined there," Sirius corrects, "and I hated growing up there. But with Moony with me I think we can make the place half decent for the first time in it's long history."
"Sirius hates being confined anywhere," I add softly.
"Remember the number of times he just left the school? Especially on the weekends…"
I laugh,
"Remember when he just vanished for three days in year four?"
Sirius laughs,
"I just hate staying put for long periods of time… Which is why I'm thinking the sooner we move out the better."
"You're felling confined already?" James laughs.
"Molly's great, but it does feel odd having her treating us all like children… I mean, I'm 40 for heaven's sake!" he laughs.
"It's nice though," I smile. "I think Moony accepts the people here as an extension of the Pack."
"Really?" Ron sounds interested. "What, all of us?"
I shrug,
"Your mother and father certainly, and you and Ginny. Hermione too, I think. He doesn't fully accept the others, but he recognises them as non-threats."
"Moony here classifies everyone into three categories," James adds. "1: Pack members, 2: Non-threats, and 3: Threats."
"You forgot my personal favourite," I offer a crooked smile, "4: Food."
Sirius laughs,
"I can't believe that you have ever looked and someone and thought to yourself, 'Yumm… food!'"
We all laugh.
"Ok," I admit, "maybe not."
"Is it true that Moony won't hurt members of his Pack, even if they're in human form?" Harry asks.
"Only Sirius is completely safe," I shrug gently and look down. "But he won't go out of his way to hurt James, Lily and Harry."
Days later, Sirius' POV
"Never thought I'd come back here willingly!" I laugh and look around the hallway of our new home.
"How did you get my mother off the wall, anyway?"
Moony winces,
"We burnt her off."
I stare at him for a second, then crack up laughing,
"I wish I could have seen that!"
"It wasn't funny, Padfoot," he mutters softly.
"She screamed the entire time?" I ask him, more gently now.
He nods,
"But she was only a portrait, right?"
"Yes, Love. Just a portrait of an evil witch of a woman, who does not deserve your sympathy."
"We don't have much stuff, do we?" he changes the subject.
"No," I grin again. "Just some clothes be bough the day after we came back and your photo albums…"
"We need food…"
"Oooh!" I grin, "let's fill all the cupboards with Muggle food!"
He stares at me,
"Do you even know how to cook Muggle food?"
"No, but you do!"
"I see."
"You like cooking," I remind him.
"Yes, but I also like to decide what I want to buy based on what I want to cook. Not based on my Mate's odd whim to put Muggle stuff in his parents' old house."
"Spoil sport," I pull him into my arms.
"We need to redecorate too," he smiles.
"Really? You don't like the… the… gothic?" I gesture to the house in general.
"No," he grins. "You know the first thing I want gone?"
"The house elf heads?"
He laughs,
"They are quite horrid, but nope. Guess again."
I look around for inspiration,
"The Troll-foot thing?" I gesture to it.
"Nope."
"Is the family tree still up?" I guess again.
"Yes, it is. But that isn't it either."
"I give up, what do you want gone?"
"The single beds in your room…" he leers at me.
I laugh heartily and he joins me,
"Fair enough! We buy our first ever double bed tomorrow."
"Think bigger…" he grins.
"Queen?" I suggest.
"No, bigger…"
"You want a King sized bed?" I'm honestly surprised; Moony isn't normally into telling me how to spend my money.
"Yes," he nods. "To make up for years of singles…"
"We need to clean the place too…" I look around.
"The others will help," he rests his head on my shoulder and sighs happily. "I love you, Sirius."
"I love you, too."
Later
I lay on my back on the three-seater sofa in the lounge. Moony is pressed up beside me, resting his chin on my chest as we talk.
"Do you want to keep my old room, or claim the Master bedroom?" I ask.
He scowls with thought,
"I don't know."
"The Master bedroom has a ensuite…" I tempt him.
"That's your parents' bedroom, Sirius," he sounds bemused. "Do you really want to sleep with me in there?"
"Heck yeah!"
He laughs,
"Ok then, we take that room."
"Good man!" I grin, "Ok, next important decision. Do we, or do we not, tidy the garden ourselves?"
"Ourselves," he replies instantly. "Sirius, the fact is I'm going to have a lot of time on my hands. I'm going to want something to do with it all."
"Maybe we should buy a dog; to keep you company."
"I'm not sure how Moony would respond to that. Or the dog, for that matter."
"Padfoot will have a word with him, and, besides, Moony wouldn't hurt a puppy."
"No," he agrees, "he wouldn't."
"Do you want a puppy, Love?"
"If you don't think it's too expensive…"
"No such thing, Moony."
"We could name it after you!" he sniggers. "Our own little baby!"
"Moony, that is really pathetic!"
"Snuffles!" he giggles again. "Can you imagine yelling that out at the park?"
"Remind me to not let you buy a black dog," I murmur.
"Why?"
"You'll call it Blacky or Orion or something like that…"
"And you called me a spoil sport!"
"Yeah, well, I'm just trying to protect you from yourself!"
"My saviour!" he gushes dramatically.
"Does that make you my damsel in distress?"
"No, no I don't think so somehow," he wrinkles his nose.
"You are just too cute…" I murmur.
He laughs as he blushes,
"Thank you, I think."
"I have to go into the Ministry tomorrow to discuss being reinstated," I remind him. "Will you be ok here on your own?"
He smiles,
"I will. Besides, James is coming over to finish off my wolfsbane tomorrow. I can chat to him and Lily."
"I thought the wolfsbane was at the Burrow?"
"It is. He is bringing it here tomorrow. Besides, the ingredients needed to finish it are here."
"While I'm in London I'll order our bed. With any luck we'll have it by that night." I add.
He laughs softly,
"I can't believe we are finally making a home for ourselves. And here of all places!"
James' POV
"Hey Harry," I drop down beside him.
"Hey," he looks up from his textbook. "What's up?"
"Ah, nothing much. I'm just bored," I shrug casually.
He raises his eyebrows.
"Ok, fine," I give in. "I'm nervous about tryouts tomorrow."
"You'll do fine," he laughs. "Quit worrying."
We sit in silence for a time.
"Weren't you going to see Remus tomorrow?" he asks.
"Yeah," I nod. "That's during the day. My tryout is at six in the evening."
"Won't it be dark by then?" he looks up.
I shrug,
"Yeah, but that isn't a problem."
He gives me a strange look.
"Well, I've caught Quaffles and scored goals in the pitch black before…" I argue.
He shrugs,
"Ok. Fair enough."
Later
"So," Molly smiles round the table at us all. "What are you kids doing tomorrow?"
I resist the urge to laugh and just answer the question,
"Taking the wolfsbane potion to Moony, then going to Quidditch tryouts."
"I'm going back to work," Lily says. "I've been given the Minister of Education job."
"Oh, congratulations!" Molly beams.
"We've got a DADA practical," Ron groans, answering for himself and for Harry.
"Nothing much for me," Ginny shrugs.
"Well, you have fun," Arthur murmurs, not really paying attention as he reads an out-of-date Screw-fix magazine.
The others all wander off after dinner and I manage to convince Lily to take a walk with me.
We walk across the fields at the back of the house.
"I guess we need to move out too," Lily murmurs.
"Hmm," I nod. "Yeah. I do feel that we are rather imposing on them."
"How about we look at houses tomorrow?"
"Yeah," I nod again. "We'll need to rope in Harry to help, if he is still going to live with us."
"He hasn't said that he isn't," Lily confirms.
We walk in silence for a while.
"He turned out rather well, didn't he?" I grin.
Lily laughs loudly,
"Yes, yes he did."
I put my arm round her shoulder as we keep walking and she leans into me a little.
"I love you," I tell her quietly.
"Love you, too," she smiles brightly.
Author notes:
Before you ask, I have no idea where this fic is going now. I swear I just sit by my computer and the thing types itself…
Anyway. Thanks for the reviews, and yeah, I do know the last chapter was rather… odd… like I said I don't know why it came out that way.
Suggestions and spelling corrections are always welcome!
Altered- Because I have been told that James is actually a Seeker, I have changed a couple of lines in this chapter to reflect that.
Thanks again.
