HARRY POTTER AND EVERYTHING RELATING TO THAT MAGICAL UNIVERSE BELONG TO JK ROWLING, WARNER BROS, BLOOMSBURY BOOKS ETC. AND I AM VERY LUCKY TO BE ALLOWED TO PLAY WITH IT ALL.

Warning: Remus Lupin might seem a bit out of character. My excuse is that it's nearly his time of the month. Nasty werewolf alert. Grrrr!

Bitch-Slapped

The best thing about having a row, Bill thought, was making up afterwards. He'd been impressed by Sirius' temper. He could yell like a Weasley.

Bill hadn't taken long to calm down after the argument, but he'd gone out with Fleur anyway. He didn't want to look like he needed Sirius so badly that he would come crawling back straight away. He decided to give it twenty four hours. That should be long enough for them to miss each other.

Fleur had spent dinner telling him how kind and responsible he was for looking after someone else's dog like that. Then she moved on to what a gentleman he was. All the other men she'd known had been bewitched by the Veela in her. Bill was the first who had bothered to get to know her as a person. He could see past her physical beauty. She loved that about him.

Yes, he felt a bit guilty. But he took the praise. He had no intention of explaining to her what made him less susceptible to her charms than most other men nor his real relationship to Snuffles. After he walked her home, they'd kissed on her doorstep. He had got into it, he really had, it was just that he'd been keeping a wary eye out for a dark dog in a doorway.

This morning at work, he had slipped into her little post room, stroking her hair and holding her tiny, soft hand. But by the end of the day all he could think about was coarse, dark, messy hair and a calloused hand big enough to squeeze both his balls at once.

He left work early and Apparated straight to Grimmauld Place without telling Fleur he was leaving.

Remus Lupin answered the door, looking strangely smug. Sirius came up the steps from the basement behind him. He didn't look happy. It was probably their argument the night before that was making him look so shifty, Bill decided.

Sirius said quickly, "Remus was just leaving."

"I just got here," Lupin corrected.

"Didn't you have things you needed to find? Upstairs?"

The three of them stood, awkwardly, in the hallway. Bill wanted to be alone with Sirius, to get the apologising over as quickly as possible.

"You not going to help me?" Lupin asked. He looked pointedly at Sirius, paying Bill no attention.

"You know which was Regulus' room." Without meeting his friend's gaze, Black turned and walked back down the basement steps. Lupin looked at Bill then, his expression something like amusement. Bill headed for the kitchen.

Sirius stood with his back to the room. The set of his shoulders was stiff. His pale, skinny arms rested on the range's rail. Bill's eyes stroked the familiar dark hairs on them.

"I'm sorry I lost my temper last night," Bill started.

Sirius swung round and bounded over to wrap his arms round him.

"No, I'm sorry. You were right, I was wrong. I'll never say anything about her ever again. I'll never question anything."

Bill wished he could see Sirius' face, but it was pressed against his shoulder. He hadn't been expecting complete capitulation.

He murmured into the dark hair he loved so much, "I was so worried. I'm scared something's going to happen to you. You're safe here. Stay here."

They could hear Lupin moving things around upstairs and a shuffling in the boiler cupboard. Bill tuned out everything except for Sirius' breathing. He was clinging too tight. He smelled of stale booze. Bill stroked his hand down the long back.

"The master's unnatural affections again …"

The door to the boiler cupboard was open. Over Sirius' shoulder, Bill could see the crumpled face of Kreacher peering out of it.

"Leave us alone, Kreacher!" Sirius grumbled.

"The other one it was last night. Touching his nakedness he was."

Bill felt Sirius tense. He couldn't quite process what he was hearing.

Something fell into place and he pushed Sirius' head up just in time to watch his guilty expression as Kreacher added, "The werewolf it was last night engaging in his depravities."

"No, I … wait, I can …"

Bill ignored Sirius and ran for the basement steps. His stomach was closing down. A voice in his head was saying, "What do you expect? You've got no right to feel possessive. What made you think he was yours?" But his body clenched. His head filled with hot fury. And his eyes stung. He could hear footsteps pounding from two directions behind him, gaining on him as he made the front door.

Then, Lupin's voice, "You stay here! I'll get him," just before Bill slammed the front door behind him.

He ran at top speed across the square, not knowing where he was going, his brain had shut down. His body pulsed with adrenalin and nausea. He had no right to feel this devastated. As he was turning into a side street, his sleeve was grabbed.

Bill had been running at top speed. Lupin was slight, ten years older and looked permanently knackered, but somehow he'd caught him. He was the last person Bill wanted to see just now.

"You and Sirius? Last night?" he panted.

Lupin's eyes twinkled. He laughed as he answered, "Oh, yeah!"

Bill saw red and swung his fist. Lupin caught it and held it in a grip that was surprisingly strong. Bill found himself being pushed against a wall.

"You forget what I am, Bill Weasley." Sharp white teeth glittered dangerously close. "You can't fight a werewolf."

Bill struggled, fear and fury overtaking him. He was young and strong and not used to losing fights, but the short, grey-haired man dragged him easily into the dark passageway by the side of a shop. He twisted Bill's arm up his back and shoved his face against the brick.

"He's mine. He's always been mine." Hot breath whispered into Bill's ear. "I let you borrow him, but I can have him again whenever I feel like it."

"No!" Bill choked. He was desperate to run away, to not know.

"You should have come back last night. I could have showed you how it's done!"

"Don't need …" but Bill didn't know what he was trying to say.

Then Lupin grabbed his hair and pulled, scraping his face against the rough surface until they were eye to eye again.

"I fucked him on the sofa …" Lupin began, menacingly.

"You fucked him?" Bill could believe it! This was the ultimate betrayal. Bill had let him, only him, but he said he'd never …

If Lupin paused, Bill didn't notice, his head was too full of rage and humiliation.

"That's right. I rammed it in his arse so hard he screamed. I pounded into him …!"

Bill vented a screaming growl, anything to block out the words, to try to stop the pictures that were forming in his head.

"And he loved it! He called out my name as he came!"

Bill yanked his head down and ducked out of the werewolf's grip, leaving a fistful of ginger hair behind. He stumbled a few feet down the side of the shop and Apparated away.