The following morning, Remus Lupin walked slowly down the stairs. He had slept three hours that night, which wasn't unusual for him these days. The sun had not yet risen outside the small windows, as he took yet another step down the narrow staircase. The further he walked down, the louder the noises from the kitchen got. Who in the world would be up at this hour as well?
He drew his wand from inside his robe and held it tightly in his hand. He reached the bottom of the stairs and slowly crept around the corner so he could see into the kitchen. "Merlin!" he burst out when he realised who made the noises. "Tonks?! What are you doing?"
The young woman jumped and spun around quickly. Once she saw Remus she smiled widely. "I wanted to surprise you," she said sweetly and took a step to the side. Behind her was a plate complete with everything an English man could desire for breakfast. "Sit, sit."
Remus wasn't sure what else to do, so he did what he was told. She quickly walked over to him and placed the plate in front of him. "For you," she said. He noticed then that her hair was unusually bright pink this morning. Wasn't pink her favourite shade?
"Thanks I guess," Remus replied honestly feeling a bit confused, although the smile on Tonks' face made him not question it any further. She took a seat across from him and, with a bright smile, watched him take his first bite. He had to admit it was the best breakfast he had had in a really long time, which made him realise that he had lost weight in the past few months. He looked at Tonks, who still looked just as excited as before. He quickly took another bite.
Another tall man entered the kitchen. "Breakfast," Sirius said with great delight.
"Sorry, Sirius," Tonks said without getting up. "I'm afraid I only made breakfast for Remus."
"Well, well, well," Sirius said slowly and took a seat. "Favourism, don't ya think?"
"It's called favouritism"
"So you admit it? Blood's thicker than water, dear cousin, remember that."
"Are you done with the lecture?" Tonks said angrily as her hair changed it's colour to fire red for a few seconds. "I didn't think you'd be up this early." She still remained seated.
"Yeah, yeah," Sirius said. He stood up and walked over to the fridge. "Well I'm making pancakes for everyone. Except you, Nymphadora."
Remus swallowed the piece of sausage he had been chewing on. "Real' mature, Padfoot." Sirius glared at him, but didn't say anything. He continued his silent treatment as he waved his wand around, and the pancakes slowly started building up on the plate he had put out.
Before they knew it, four teenagers were sitting at the table.
"It's six in the morning!" Remus said as he finished the last of his breakfast. "I thought holidays were all about sleeping till noon." He looked at Harry, who seemed to agree.
Ron looked just as tired. He opened his mouth to say something, but the only words that came out clear were "smell of pancakes." Sirius grinned and placed the, now, tower of pancakes on the table in front of the teenagers. Plates flew from the shelves and neatly placed themselves in front of each of them. Sirius took a seat and immediately dug in.
"Actually," Hermione said as she let Harry and Ron take some pancakes first. "We wanted to get up early to hear more about your story."
Sirius suddenly started coughing and choking on the piece of food that was now in his mouth.
"But we finished that yesterday!"
"Not all of it, Sirius!" Hermione insisted. "You never told us what happened before you and Reilly actually got together, or what happened with your relationship further on."
"It's a bit early for that, don't ya think?" Sirius said with a yawn. He looked at Ron and Harry, who tried very hard not to look as if they agreed.
"Sirius," Ginny pressed on with as much enthusiasm as Hermione, "we have 10 days before we have to return to Hogwarts, and we can't go back, not knowing what happened!"
Sirius sighed and stuck his fork in yet another pancake, "that makes no sense to me whatsoever." He stuck a piece of the pancake in his mouth, but chewed much slower than previously. He stared blankly into the air in front of him, not focussing on anything, lost in thought. He continued chewing on the same piece for a long time, something he normally never did.
Ginny and Hermione looked at each other with a sigh and started their own breakfast. Harry's expression turned into worry, but his tiredness still shined through.
Remus glanced at Tonks, who looked just as worried as Harry, when Sirius stood up and excused himself. The six people he left behind stopped eating and looked at Sirius plate – two pancakes were still on it.
Silence hung heavily over the room before Hermione finally spoke up. "Lupin, you don't think we upset him, do you?" Her guilt was clear in her expression and voice.
Remus smiled wearily. "He has had a long time to think about this, Hermione, but this is probably the first time he has had to tell the story out loud. Before Azkaban, everyone knew what happened, some even knew Reilly personally, so he never had to talk about it because… well, we were there. Now that he is out, some of them are still there… and then there're you." The three remaining teenagers now shared the same guilty look as Hermione. Mechanically, he glanced to Tonks for help.
"I can understand why you want to hear about her," Tonks said with a more hopeful tone of voice. "To be honest, I never heard much about it either. If I know Sirius right, he will come around… just give him a few minutes."
They ate the rest of their breakfast in silence. Remus glanced out through the dirty windows and noticed the rain falling heavily outside – it looked like it wasn't going to clear up anytime soon. He thanked Tonks for the lovely breakfast before going back upstairs. He stopped on the staircase and wondered what this day had in store for him. At the moment he had no mission for the Order. Sure, there was plenty to do, but frankly, he wasn't sure where to start.
A heat from the sitting room hit his face and broke his thoughts. Sirius was sitting inside, staring into the fire just as Remus had done the night before. Remus walked into the room and sat down on the couch behind Sirius. None of them said anything for a while; however, Remus was sure Sirius knew he was in the room.
"I knew I would have to talk about it," Sirius suddenly spoke.
"Maybe it's good to get it out," Remus said. "You have nothing to be ashamed of, Padfoot."
"Ashamed, Remus?" Sirius turned around to face him. "Guilty is the word! Everything... everything that happened was my fault. If she had never met me, she would have-"
"- been involved in the war in another way," Remus finished for him. Sirius looked slightly defeated but didn't turn away from him or storm out of the room. "Sirius, you can't predict someone's fate anymore that the next man." Sirius sighed but did not argue. "They'll come back and ask you to continue the story – and it's probably good for you. Tell them about the good times we had with Reilly and how your relationship changed you for the better, because, let's face it, that did happen."
Sirius let out a small laugh. "Fine," he replied. "I'm not saying it will be easy but I'll give it a try."
"I'll back you up if you need me to – and do the occasional clean up, when you make yourself shine too much."
"Well, I do set the standard for perfection," Sirius said while trying to hide a grin. Remus was quite happy to see him smile again.
As predicted, Hermione and Ginny were not going to back down easily. The zoomed around after Remus most of the morning, trying to get a green light from him to start questioning Sirius. He finally managed to make an excuse to leave the house. Not sure where else to go, he spent the day in Diagon Alley trying to stay dry.
However, it was only safe for him to stay in one place for so long. He decided to return to Grimmauld Place just after dinner. Bright lights greeted him in the corridor and familiar voices sounded from the kitchen. He followed the voices and was soon able to hear them clearly, "Alright, alright," Sirius said. He looked up when Remus entered the kitchen. "Moony, they finally managed to corner me." Remus smiled slightly and took a seat next to Ron. Hermione was sitting on his right side, and Harry and Ginny across the table. All eyes were full of expectation and facing Sirius, who was sitting at the head of the table. Mrs. Weasley silently placed a plate of leftovers in front of Remus before returning to clean the plates by the sink. Remus guessed that Arthur was at work, Tonks had left and the twins off pulling a prank somewhere. "I don't even remember where we left off," Sirius continued.
"You were on a date with Reilly in Hogsmeade, but apparently something had happened between the two of you some time earlier," Ginny happily reminded him.
"Right, well remember I can only tell one side of the story…"
----- Late September 1977 ----
"No luck with Walker then?" Peter Pettigrew asked Sirius one afternoon in the Gryffindor common room. The two boys had their Charms books out and open on the table, and several pieces of parchment and quill lying next to it, but little work seemed to be getting done.
Sirius yawned and leaned back in his chair. "Nah," he answered and placed his hands behind his head. "That girl talks too much."
The portrait suddenly swung open and two laughing girls walked into the chamber. Sirius immediately took his hands down and straightened himself in the chair. He leaned over the table, quickly turned some pages in his book and pretending to be reading. None of the words on the page seemed to reach his brain as he kept his attention on the girls' conversation.
"Quidditch practise at seven o'clock, right Sirius?" One of the girls suddenly asked him.
"Huh?" Sirius said absentminded and looked up. "Oh yeah. Sorry Reilly, I was just working on our Charms essay for next Monday."
"No worries," Reilly said with a smile and glanced at the second girl, who was trying to hold back a laugh. "I'll see you then. We better start as well, Lily." She smiled again, turned and walked away.
Lily followed her but turned around just before following Reilly up the stairs to the girl's dormitory. "Oh Black?" She said. Sirius looked up again. "You might want to turn a few pages. We handed in the essay on Aquamenti two weeks ago – we're studying the Protean Charm at the moment."
Before he could answer, she had started climbing the stairs as well. He was sure he could hear Reilly giggle at the top of the stairs. He still wasn't sure what Lily was talking about, until he looked back down at the open book and finally took in the words on the right page:
AQUAMENTI (AH-gwa-MENT-tee) – Charm that conjures a fountain or jet of clear water from the wand. "Aqua" comes from Spanish and Portuguese meaning water (as well as Latin) and "mentis" means…
He closed the book angrily and ignored the laughter coming from Peter. "Smooth, Padfoot," Peter said between laughs. "Are you ever going to ask her out?"
"What's the point? She's best friend with Lily Evans, who has been rejecting a Marauder from year one." he was referring to James Potter's countless attempts of asking Lily out. He had finally given up at the beginning of this year though it was obvious he still had a huge crush on her.
"Since when do you give up?" Peter asked. "Besides, she called you 'Sirius'."
"So?"
"So, she hasn't been calling the rest of us by our first name. As late as this morning she called me 'Pettigrew' in Potions class."
------------
"Do you want to hear the story, or not?" Sirius asked annoyed looking at Harry and Ron, who were both hugging their stomachs, while holding on to the table in order not to fall over and roaring with laughter. Remus looked away from Sirius and did his best to suppress his own laugh.
"Sor-sorry," Harry said and wiped a tear away from the corner of his eye. He took a deep breath – it helped him to stop laughing, but he was still had a broad smile on his face. "Continue…"
"Alright, so I made a tiny mistake," Sirius continued, ignoring Ron. "I made my way down to the Quidditch pitch at six that evening. I was an hour early – something team members normally weren't. However, I found James and Reilly there. They were sitting on the other side of the pitch, both laughing. I don't know why I did it, but I quickly returned to the castle without them noticing I had ever been there."
He paused for a second and seemed to be replaying the scene in his head. Remus remained silent and waited for Sirius to carry on with the story.
"I returned an hour later." Sirius continued. "When practiced finished, Reilly stayed behind to help James tidy up and the two of them walked back to the Gryffindor common room together. It was only a matter of a few hours before everyone in the castle was under the impression that they were dating."
"Peeves," Remus explained the four questionable faces staring at Sirius. Harry nodded understandingly.
"I avoided James the next four days. We didn't speak until late the following Saturday – the day of our first Quidditch match that year. We were playing a difficult match against Ravenclaw, but 50 minutes into the game, a hard bludger hit Reilly in the head and she fell off her broom. I wanted to fly down and help her straight away, but we had to play our best if we had wanted any chance of winning with one player down. Fortunately, our seeker caught the snitch a quarter of an hour later…"
-----------------
The teenage Sirius finally managed to escape the cheering crowd and hurried towards the castle. He followed the corridors left and right and climbed staircases until he reached the hospital wing. The doors were closed into the infirmary. A boy was sitting outside in the deserted corridor still in his Quidditch robes. Sirius recognised him immediately as his best friend.
Sirius sighed but ignored James and walked straight towards the big wooden doors. "Padfoot don't go in yet," James said.
"I'll do what I want," Sirius replied angrily without stopping.
"Will you just WAIT?" James yelled and jumped to his feet.
Sirius stopped and turned around. The two of boys stood across from each other – Sirius, who was slightly taller than James, looked down into his eyes, grey meeting hazel. "I just want to see if my teammate is okay," Sirius spoke quietly. "After that, I'll leave you two alone."
"You can't be serious? I am not dating Reilly – I never did!" Sirius looked away dismissingly, pretending not to be interested. "Sirius…" James continued. "I can't believe you'd rather listen to a school rumour rather than your best mate."
"I saw you with her though."
"When?"
"On Tuesday… before Quidditch practice. You both seemed to be having the time of your life." Sirius sighed and let himself slide down the wall and sit on the stone floor.
James sighed as well and took a seat next to him. There was a long silence between them before James spoke softly, "I never said this to anyone… I guess because I was a bit embarrassed, but I just couldn't take it anymore." Sirius looked at James with a quizzical expression. "I approached Reilly Tuesday afternoon, asking her if she would come to practice early that evening, so we had a chance to talk before the rest of you joined us. I wanted… well I wanted to ask her if she thought I would ever have a chance with Evans. I've been asking her out for ages and was always rejected, so I figured I needed some inside information, so to speak."
A new silence hung over them. "And?" Sirius asked. "What did she say?"
"She thinks I do," James said with a smile. "We talked for a long time about everything. You're right, we did have fun together. However, I see her as nothing more than a friend. I left the Quidditch pitch fully determined to talk to Evans that evening, but before I even reached the Great Hall, Reilly and I were an 'item'."
"You should have come up with that a long time ago, Prongs," Sirius said. He knew, when James laughed, that he understood that was his way of apologizing for what had happened.
"Probably. We'll see if it works. I'm planning on asking her to go on a date with me in Hogsmeade next week.
"Good luck." The two of them sat in a third silence, but this time it wasn't awkward. "Why can't I go in though?"
James smirked and replied, "Evans is in there. I have a feeling they are having a similar conversation to what we just had."
"Do you think she's mad at me?"
"Probably," James said and bit his bottom lip. "She'll most likely be ignoring you for the next months before graduation and possible quit the Quidditch team just to avoid seeing your big head."
"That's not funny!"
"Relax!" James said and showed the grin he had been struggling to hide during the last speech. "I'm sure she'll let you talk to her, which you should do soon before you've missed your chance… again!" Sirius opened his mouth but James cut him off quickly before any words came out, "And don't try to tell me you're not interested! I'm sure Wormtail and Moony will back me up on this. We're sick of hearing you talk about Roberts twenty four/seven, so please… talk to her!"
"Fine," Sirius sighed. "You talk about Evans all the time, you know!"
"I know," James grinned. "Which is why I'll speak to her as soon as she comes out of the hospital wing."
-----------------
Sirius adjusted himself so he was sitting in a more comfortable position. "Unfortunately Reilly had just been given a sleeping potion just before Lily had left the room. She came out with a smile on her face that only grew bigger once she saw James. I quickly hurried back to the common room to give them time to talk. Reilly was out of the hospital wing the next day, but quickly returned to the homework she had missed, so I didn't get a chance to talk to her before the Hogsmeade trip."
No one spoke after this. "Then what?" Ginny asked.
"Well I told you yesterday…" Sirius said a little confused.
"I know – but then what?"
"Well we dated."
"There must be more to the story."
"Fine," Sirius said. "All right, I promise to tell the full story, but can we continue tomorrow? This seems like a good place to stop." Before anyone could answer he stood up and walked out of the room. "Good, glad we agree!"
Remus smiled a little and silently agreed with Sirius.
A/N: DONE! You have no idea how many times I've read this, written a paragraph or two, taken a break and redoing the routine. But there it is. I hope you enjoyed it!