Thank you all reviewers! Albino Redneck suggested a first meeting chapter and I like the idea that it continues a sort of beginnings and endings theme through the story. Hmmm...Nobody guessed this title (to be fair, it isn't exactly obvious!) but Achava wasn't far off with 'infinity' or lupinsmoon12391 with 'innocence'. By the way, I actually stole the title from the Gary Oldman film 'Immortal Beloved' about Beethoven. Now there'a guy who can act... Gary Oldman... Not Beethoven.
I is for Immortal Beloved
I haveImmortal longings in me
-William Shakespeare, Antony And Cleopatra
You're beautiful you're beautiful
You're beautiful it's true
I saw your face in a crowded place
And I don't know what to do
-James Blunt, You're Beautiful
Remus lay on his back, cradled in the crook of Sirius' arm, listening to his boyfriend's soft snore. They were on Remus' bed, with the hangings drawn closed. It was like a mini world – their own world – the world where nobody cared if you liked boys or girls, or what you got up to in your spare time. Remus snuggled up closer to Sirius, enjoying the shared heat and practically purring: more cat than wolf on this occasion.
Sirius was wearing that tee shirt: the white one, unbelievably tight, cleverly designed to flaunta muscular, lean, unbelievably sexy torso. And the tee shirt had ridden up slightly. Remus swallowed. He traced his fingers across the inch of bare flesh between shirt and jeans. Very nice. He ran his finger across the darker downy hair that crept from just below his belly button beneath his jeans. Very nice indeed.
"Hey, that tickles!" A sleepy-eyed Sirius gave a lopsided smile. "Can't you keep your hands to yourself!"
Remus shook his head. "That would be a resounding 'no'," he said. And just becuase he could, he freed himself from Sirius' arms, rolled onto his side and leaned over to kiss that rather delectable inch of stomach.
"I was dreaming," Sirius half-whispered. "About… But I don't suppose you remember…"
"Tell me."
"The beginning…"
…Every story has a thousand beginnings: first breath, first cigarette, first love, first times…
First sight…
…The castle loomed, a black shadow, proud, primeval, twinkling lights like fireflies.
And there was Sirius, eleven, a pretty boy with the slight chubbiness of a young Byron: a Casanova not yet formed. He was a little too tall for his age with hair a little too long to be respectable. Once a rebel, always a rebel.
"Firs' years, this way!" They were in the entrance hall now.
"First years, be quiet!" Professor McGonagall glared at two of Sirius' cousins, Bellatrix and Narcissa. "I will have silence!"
Sirius glanced around at the other first years. He grinned at Andromeda who grinned back; they had always been friends. And then he spotted a black-haired messy-looking boy with glasses. The boy gave a awkward smile and rolled his eyes in the direction of McGonagall.
"I'm Sirius," Sirius mouthed.
The boy pointed a finger at his chest. His lips formed the name "James."
Sirius smiled.
"Excuse me?" A voice, soft and low, rich as velvet spoke to him. "Do you know what happens during the sorting?"
Sirius shrugged and turned to the newcomer. And (forgive the cliché) his heart skipped a beat.
"Um." Sirius said.
Okay, so it wasn't love at first sight. But God, the person standing before him must surely have been an angel.
"Um," Sirius repeated.
And the eyes. They might have been brown, except that they weren't. They were melted honey, amber, molten gold, warm and wary and tinged with liquid fire. Sirius swallowed.
"I'm Remus," said the angel.
"Sirius Black," Sirius said.
The angel frowned. A nervous hand, pale as ivory, swept through his hair. "Black... You'll be in Slytherin…"
"Yeah… Hey!"
Sirius didn't know what he had or hadn't said; all he knew was that the angel had turned and was walking away.
"Hey, Remus!" Sirius called.
But the angel kept on walking.
God… Sirius thought.
Somehow, he knew everything was about to change. He was eleven and he was teetering on the edge of the beginning of the end.
"Sirius Black!"
Sirius was the third to be sorted. He put on the hat, that ridiculously old tatty hat, not really knowing why his hands were shaking. You'd do well in Slytherin… That was a voice, there, right inside his head, the serpent whispering in Eve's ear.
"Damned if I will," Sirius whispered.
Sirius smiled at Remus, who was back nestling in the crook of his arm and looking thoroughly angelic. "So that was the beginning… Where d'you think it'll end?"
Remus Lupin always had an answer. "I don't think it'll ever end," he said.
