A History of Romance
Year 6- Part One: Out of Control
Dear Moony,
Come off it! What was that, not saying good-bye to me on the train and just leaving me? Are you angry at me because of what I did to Snivellus? Oy, I thought we were past that. Hanging him upside-down wasn't that bad! Remember, I became an illegal Animagus just for you, not that slime ball. I really care about you, Moony … don't do this to me. I can't bear the thought of wondering incessantly why you didn't bid me farewell. Please answer this letter and don't try to throw it away; it'll just fly out of the trash bin and follow you around, I made sure of that. You still love me right, Moony?
Your very sorry, but no promises about stopping the Snivellus-teasing friend (and love of your life, don't hide it!),
Padfoot
P.S. How's the furry little problem?
---
Dear Padfoot,
What you did to Severus was cruel and I thought it would teach you a lesson, not saying a word to you on the train. Alas, like everything having to do with you, my plan backfired. The bloody letter you sent followed me around for three days; I ignored it as best I could, but then my father attempted to read it. After the shock of a piece of parchment squirting him with Firewhisky and yelling, "PUT THE LETTER DOWN! ARE YOU MOONY, NO! YOU'RE NOT MOONY, SO DON'T READ THE BLOODY LETTER!" he managed to get the hex off and read it. Thank you ever so much, Padfoot. My father keeps giving me strange looks, talking to me about "risky behavior," and my mum keeps asking me for fashion advice! How should I know what blouse goes best with turquoise robes! (The answer being none, of course.)
To answer your question, yes, I still like you. Even if you are an insensitive, arrogant, self-centered, jealous, overly violent, quick-tempered, needy, control-freak, you have a soft side to you. Severus can't come between us, you should know that. Moreover, I'M the one who told you it was dangerous and illegal. I'll see you in September, same compartment as always.
Much love to you, your furry little friend,
Moony
P.S. Furry, little problem is more or less the same-- all under control. Next one is in two weeks. Stop worrying!
---
Sirius put Moony's letter down on the black sheets of his bed and grinned.
'So, I'm forgiven! Hah! It's so simple to sway you, my Moony …'
A rap on the door made Sirius come back to the reality of his dingy room, lit by a single oil-lamp on his bedside table.
He sighed and sat up. "Who is it?"
The person he least wanted to see at the moment answered. "Aunt Walburga told me to tell the abomination to come down for dinner. That would be you, Sirius."
Without saying anything else, Bellatrix threw open the door and strode in, head held high. Sirius stood up and instinctively reached for his wand on the bedside table.
Her dark eyes swept the room in a single glance. "You have such a mess in here. Look at this!"
She picked up one of the books on his desk. "A Collection of Muggle Poems!"
She threw her head back and laughed her cold, high, mocking laugh. "You amuse me, Sirius, ever so much,"
She let the book fall to the floor. "In any case," she began, but stopped when she spotted the letter.
Sirius lunged at it, but Bellatrix cried, "Accio letter," and she beat him to it.
"Tut, tut, tut, Sirius, being around all those half-bloods, blood-traitors, and Muggles certainly has made you oh, so soft," she taunted and lowered her eyes to the letter.
"Give that back, Bella. I mean it," Sirius warned.
She kept on reading, her eyes widening with every line of the letter. "Well, well, well, I now know what it is you do in Gryffindor Tower. Auntie will sure want to know about this!"
"Bella, what the hell are you blabbering about!" Sirius asked, growing less and less confident as Bellatrix moved towards the door.
"This talk of liking and loving … this Moony is a man! I know because I've heard Regulus speak of him!"
With a cackle, she strode out and practically ran down the stairs to Sirius' mother, with Sirius at her heels.
"Give that back, Bella! You'll be sorry!" Sirius yelled and walked into the dining room just as Walburga Black had finished reading the letter.
"This Moony is a man!"
"A boy," piped Bellatrix. "He goes to Hogwarts with Sirius."
Walburga's eyes widened madly. "It's Potter, isn't it! Yes! I knew it! Oh, if your father were here … he would-"
"Would what? Take your side only less so, like an imbecile? Do whatever you say like an utter pansy, then give me a few Galleons to cheer me up! He hasn't the balls to do anything! And you're a raving lunatic!" Sirius yelled, finally letting loose the hatred that had been boiling in him ever since he could understand what his mum was talking about.
Walburga only stood there, eyes wide, a vein quivering in her temple, too stunned to speak.
"It's like that in every generation of brothers, isn't it? One's a pansy, and one has courage! Look at Uncle Alphard, he's brave and isn't completely unhinged. I know what you're going to say, but I'll do it for you! I'm a pouf! A complete, utter, forever and ever queer! A pink-wearing pansy, and a pouf! And you know what, mum, I LIKE IT!"
Walburga was taken aback by the mad glint in her son's eye. "G-go to your room, Sirius. We will talk more when your father's home. We shall see what measures, however desperate, we have to take to set you back on the right path."
Sirius gritted his teeth, strode over, and snatched the letter from his mother's hand. "Well sod your desperate measures! You'll never change me! I'll never be one of those hood wearing, masked idiots who worship some psycho! Deal with it! You can't keep me away from Moony! There's no hope for me, mum! It's too late now! I'm a traitor, a pouf, and a proud Voldy-thingy hater!"
Bellatrix gasped. "He mocks-- he mocks the Dark Lord! Auntie, please, let me destroy him, rip every bit of skin from him, cell by cell!"
"You're mad, Bella," Sirius said in a mocking voice. "You're in love with a corpse."
Bella pleaded with her aunt, but Walburga shook her head and motioned to Regulus, who had been just sitting down, looking at his plate the whole time.
"Regulus, my son, come here. Bella says you have seen this Moony and the traitor together. Tell me, Regulus, my only son, is it true?"
Regulus looked at the floor and didn't lift his eyes, even as he walked to Walburga's side.
"I have heard of Moony, mother, not seen him," Regulus said softly.
"Well, is this true? Is your brother an abomination in more ways than one?"
Regulus nodded. "Moony is male, yes."
"Well!" Walburga asked impatiently. "Who is it!"
Regulus looked up, into Sirius' wide, fearful eyes. Sirius begged him silently to not reveal Remus' identity… if he did, who knows what his family would do.
"Mother," Regulus began, his eyes fixed on Sirius.' "If I knew, I would tell you. However, I do not."
Walburga breathed hard and turned to a very, very grateful to Regulus, Sirius. "I am throwing you out, Sirius!"
"No, you're not! 'Cause I'm leaving!" Sirius retaliated and marched up the stairs to his room.
"Get out! Get out!" his mum yelled.
"Keep your wig on, old hag! I'm not leaving you my things!" he yelled back.
He stomped as hard as he could on each step as he climbed the never-ending staircase to his room on the third floor. Once inside, he withdrew his Hogwarts trunk from under his bed and started stuffing everything he cared about in it. First went his clothes, leather trousers he'd recently acquired, an old gray sweater Moony had given him for his birthday, a tie he'd stolen from Remus (his scent was till there; the smell of fresh, green grass, wolf musk, and chocolate), and all his school-clothes and other unimportant articles of clothing. Next, his schoolbooks, the Muggle books Moony had lent him, and old Quidditch and Muggle motorcycle magazines. On the very top went his most precious articles; the various letters Moony had sent him throughout the years, a Beatles record, a half-finished Marauder's Map they'd been working on since last year, chocolate bars, Sugar Quills, random candies, a bag of ink-repelling quills from Zonko's, and a framed picture of him and Moony, sitting by the lake. Sirius had his arm around Moony and was grinning, Moony was wearing his reading glasses and had an open book on his lap; he was glancing sideways at the camera and his eyes sparkled as he smiled.
He shut and locked his trunk just as Bellatrix and Regulus walked into his room.
"We're here to make sure you leave," Bellatrix informed him smugly.
Regulus just looked at the floor, like always,
"If you honestly think I want to stay you've got another thing coming," Sirius said as he turned to face them. "And, Regulus, if you think what you did down there will bond us somehow, you're wrong. I can tell everyone about you and Snivellus."
Regulus looked up at him, eyes wide and fearful, begging him not to tell Bellatrix.
'Oh, how dearly I want to tell mum and everyone I caught you snogging Snivellus in the dungeons. But, no … I won't.'
Bellatrix frowned. "Him and Snivellus?"
Sirius shrugged it off. "You know, Snape … he's trying to drag Regulus down with him, right into the Death Eaters, Bella."
Bellatrix laughed madly and pulled up the sleeve of her robes. Sirius' breath caught in his throat as he saw the skull eating a snake, the Dark Mark, on Bellatrix's arm.
"That is our aim, Sirius. Consider gazing upon my Lord's mark an honor, traitor. Now, get out."
Sirius tore his eyes away from the Dark Mark and looked at Regulus. He shook his head and bewitched his trunk to make it feather light. After looking around and tearing down a Chudley Cannon's poster off his wall, he grabbed his Shooting Star 70 and made for the door.
Bellatrix and Regulus led him down the stairs, and onto the hall. Sirius glared at Kreacher, who kept trying to steal his rolled up Cannon's poster, and ended up kicking the house elf in the leg. Finally, he faced the large, wooden door and smirked.
"I keep forgetting," he said as he passed Bella and Regulus. "You're all nutters, the lot of you."
With a nod to Regulus, which Regulus returned promptly, Sirius strode out of Number 12, Grimmauld Place, head held high.
"You ran away?" Peter asked, black, watery eyes wide.
"Yup," Sirius said proudly, and glanced at Remus who was absorbed in a book as usual. "I was planning on going over to Moony's, but then I realized I have no idea where he lives. So, I went to Prongs' and as expected, his parents were delighted. It's a nice change to be around sane people, you know?"
Peter nodded. "Wow, you sure have some guts!"
"Listen, Wormtail, when you've taken that much shit, you just totally crack, man. It becomes too much to bear."
Remus finally looked up from his book. "Padfoot, eventually you're going to get a place of your own, right?"
Sirius rolled his eyes. "Duh! I can't mooch of Prongs for the rest of my life, however much I'd like to."
James threw a chocolate frog box at Sirius' head and Remus just nodded. "I see."
Sirius looked at him to ask Remus why he had asked that, but it was too late-- Remus had gone back to his book.
Sirius sat in History of Magic, in the middle row where the Marauders had sat since first year, and doodled absentmindedly on the parchment he was supposed to be taking notes about some broad who had cross-bred a dragon and a tiger.
It was a hot, muggy day, most of the students weren't wearing their heavy, hot robes over their uniform, and Sirius assumed they couldn't possibly be expected to pay attention in History of Magic.
He had so far drawn a crescent moon and a tower, a bunch of stars in the sky (the biggest one had an arrow that said "Sirius" on it, naturally), and the Shrieking Shack off to the side. Sirius sighed and rested his head on the table; he examined his drawing and pronounced it, "pretty good, if I do say so myself."
Sirius walked up the stone steps to the tallest Astronomy Tower, expecting the complete solitude this tower had given him on other nights. He was surprised to see someone sitting on the side, his legs dangling off the tower.
"Moony?" he asked softly, for he knew Remus was easily startled.
Remus jumped a bit and looked at him. "Padfoot! I didn't think you'd come up here."
Sirius sat on the ledge next to him. "Yeah, why not?"
Remus shrugged and looked out at the crescent moon, the various stars, and the Shrieking Shack in the distance.
They sat in silence for a long time, just sitting close to each other, and looking out at the grounds. A cold burst of wind whistled by and Remus sneezed, barely audibly.
"I'll give you my coat," Sirius announced.
"Oh, no," Remus protested. "I couldn't. You'll freeze."
"Well, then share it with me. It's big enough, considering it used to be my dad's.
Remus shuffled forward and pressed himself against Sirius. Sirius shuddered as he felt blood rushing down. He tried to distract Remus from the very obvious bulge in his leather pants.
"W-would you look at … that moon? It's pretty tonight, isn't it?"
Remus nodded and pressed his forehead onto Sirius' neck. "It's getting quite hot isn't it?" he asked quietly.
Sirius laughed like an idiot and responded, "Maybe we're too close, you know?"
Remus looked up and Sirius almost gasped. His clear, amber eyes were dark, lustful, and questioning. Sirius could only gulp as Remus straddled his waist and slowly began taking off his own shirt, unbuttoning each button painfully slowly. He let his shirt slip off his much-scarred shoulders and leaned close to Sirius.
"Padfoot, I want you so much … Take me and ravish me; I want you to f-"
"ARGH!" Sirius yelled and awoke with a start. Everyone in the class except Professor Binns turned to stare at him, including Remus. Sirius looked down at his trousers and was dismayed to see and feel wetness leaking through.
"What the hell's a matter with you?" James hissed and glared at everyone who was staring. "Alright now, turn away, do your own thing. Mind your own business; hullo, Evans."
'Oh, Godric … sweet Merlin, how the hell am I supposed to go out like this! People will laugh; girls will stare; Moony will know!'
Sirius turned to James and whispered. "You're the only one I can trust. Prongs … I kind of-- well, look."
Sirius motioned to his pants and it took James exactly five seconds to realize what exactly he was looking at. And he laughed … not his normal laugh, but a stifled giggle-laugh that annoyed Sirius all the more.
"C'mon, Prongs! Help me out here."
"Well, Moony's got his robes on. I can ask-"
"No! Not moony … I don't want him involved in this in any way."
James' eyes widened. "Did you … is this about Moony!"
James laughed that stupid stifled-giggle again. "Mate, if you really, truly can't have Moony then get yourself a girl!"
"Are you implying I should cheat on Moony!" Sirius demanded and James shook his head sadly.
"Padfoot, Footpad, Padfoot … you can't cheat on someone unless you're with them. Are you with Moony? No! And it's your own fault!"
"Shut up, Prongs. Are you gonna help me or not!"
James shrugged and pointed his wand at Sirius. "Aguamenti."
Sirius yelped as a stream of cold water hit his crotch. "You're insane!"
James laughed a bit and shrugged. "Now you can't tell where you … had your little accident."
Sirius hid his face, redder than before and tried to will Remus to look the other way. To his dismay, Snivellus leaned over to tell him something, obviously funny, because they both laughed and Sirius was forgotten.
Sirius felt a stab of annoyance as HIS moony totally flirted with Snivellus. They compared notes, traded sheets of parchment, borrowed ink, and by the end of the class period, Sirius was boiling with anger.
'This is getting WAY out of hand!'
A/N: Yay, an update! Uh, yeah, another long, long chapter. But, that's good right? Anywho, yes, another two-part chapter ... the years are getting longer, and longer, and Sirius can't take much more.
Please review, and thank you for reading.