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.

Author's Note: I'm afraid it's a bit short and smutless this time. Things will get better again, I promise. Also, please forgive any weirdness: I completed it while recovering from having a wisdom tooth removed. I'm still numb around the tongue, actually.

I've Been Working Like a Dog

Bill was shaken roughly in the early hours of the morning. He drifted between consciousness and sleep, catching an occasional word:

"…snake … Ministry … Dumbledore … told him to be … St Mungo's … Arthur …"

He pulled his eyes open and tried to make sense of what his mother was telling him. His father? St Mungo's?

"Dad?" he asked.

Her face was wet and she was talking too fast.

"For Merlin's sake, concentrate Bill," she snapped, "this is Sirius!"

Except that he knew full well that what she'd said was 'this is serious'. How long did it take to recover from a three week long affair that had been over almost two months?

"Dad?" he asked again.

"Yes, at St Mungo's. He was attacked on guard duty by a snake."

"Snake?"

"Just get dressed as quickly as you can and we'll Apparate to the hospital."

He pulled himself up from the low single bed as she left the room. He missed Egypt. He missed his wide divan, enclosed by its white mosquito net and covered in silk pillows. And he missed the United Nations of young men who had passed through it. Almost as much, he now found, as he missed one tall, dark, gaunt Animagus.

Dressed and on his way to the door, he passed the bed which had once been Charlie's and kicked it because his brother had managed the permanent escape for which he yearned.

At St Mungo's they were asked to wait in a corridor while Arthur was made comfortable enough to receive visitors. As they sat on the hard, plastic chairs, Molly told him about Harry's dream and how Dumbledore had sent 'the children' to Grimmauld Place.

"Well, it's closer. So they'll be staying with Sirius," she did say his name that time. "Can you take the morning off work to sit with your father while I supervise them? Then we can all come here this afternoon. You'll need to pack a few things …"

"Where am I going?"

"I do wish you'd listen. We're all moving into the Black house while your father's in here …"

"But I can Apparate from The Burrow! Come to that the twins can …"

His mother's voice became shrill. "I can't leave them to their own devices. Sirius has been very kind but I can't expect him to baby-sit …"

How old were they? He'd been babysitting them at that age. Just because he was the eldest …

"I still don't see why I have to --" sleep in the same house as my ex and his boyfriend.

"Bill, please. I want you with me." She spoke quietly this time, pleading. He noticed the tension in her jaw, the pale skin and red eyes.

Some things were more important than his sex life.

"Of course, Mum. We should stick together. I'll stay with Dad this morning, then go to work for the afternoon, nip back and pack some things and meet you there in time for dinner."

She beamed at him and it was worth it. He would just have to avert his eyes when he passed Sirius on the stairs, concentrate on his food at meal times and when he was using that bathroom … well, he'd work something out.

"I know the twins are of age," she said, placatingly, "but they can't be trusted. Not like you. You've never given me a minute's trouble. You're my rock, Bill. You and Arthur. And now he's …" she couldn't vocalise it.

Luckily the Healer came out to talk to them just after that and Bill didn't have to produce a reply.

He had coped by throwing himself into his work - at the bank and for the Order - and wooing Fleur. He didn't blame Sirius. What they'd had hadn't been, well, serious (for want of another word). There had been no promise of exclusivity. Bill had had Fleur after all. It made sense for Sirius to decide to get back together with Lupin. It was only Azkaban which had separated them in the first place after all. Bill would rather have found out a different way. Still, it was for the best in the long run. They had had to stop messing about like that. It wasn't like there could have been any future in a relationship between men.

But he hurt still. He could calm himself down but that didn't mean he never got angry. He still thought of a different body sometimes when he was kissing Fleur. Soft was nice. But so was rough. He remembered, dreamt, fantasised about that other body. The hips, the hair, the face, the penis, the arms. He always looked twice at dogs in the street, but none of them were the right one.

He had only been able to stay reasonably relaxed by avoiding Sirius. The older man had tried to talk to him after Order meetings, but Bill didn't need to hear regrets. It would only make it harder to cope. He wished he could regret, but he was grateful that it had happened, that they had had those three weeks. He'd noticed that Lupin and Sirius always sat apart at Order meetings now. Couldn't trust themselves to keep their hands off each other otherwise.

Arthur was in a bad way when they went into the ward. He had been given pain-numbing charms and sedative potions, but he still bled through his bandages and his rasping breaths revealed that he was uncomfortable. He never complained, though.

The doctors didn't seem to know what they were dealing with and there was a limit to how much information it was safe to pass on to them. As Molly fussed with pillows and the like, Bill tried to hear what his father wasn't saying. He had been on guard duty at the Ministry. Secrecy was important.

Unfortunately, during the morning Arthur slept a lot. Molly had gone off to Number Twelve. Bill would not have been quite so tense had she said a little less about how good Sirius was being, how he might have his faults but his heart was gold, how kind he was underneath it all. It was easier when she complained about his rebelliousness, rudeness, dissolution, temper. Bill liked to tell himself that his parents would never have been able to reconcile themselves to his choice of man. He was going straight for the sake of family unity.

It was even harder when she mused that what Sirius really needed was the love of a good woman. It was, apparently, such a shame that he was stuck in that house where he was never going to meet anyone suitable. He had been so handsome in the old days -according to Molly - Azkaban had taken a terrible toll on his looks and it would be very difficult for him to attract a mate.

Bill loved Sirius' jutting bones and his hollow cheeks. He longed to drown in those fathomless eyes again.

He tried to concentrate on the his poorly father as he slept: to work out his injuries and treatment. Unfortunately, nobody seemed to understand much about his wounds yet, so there was little to concentrate on.

So he thought through the attack itself. What were the implications for the Order? He would have had more to work on there if his father had seen anything.

There was Gringotts. He was working really hard there. But he knew he was being sidelined. The goblins were now reluctant to trust any wizard and he was constantly fobbed off with mountains of mundane paperwork. Dundas had never reappeared and now others were going missing. A few had whispered to him that they were going into hiding, others were certainly Disappearances orchestrated by the Dark Lord. Many could have been either. Loveday Pappillon from Muggle Liaison hadn't been in to work for nearly a week. He didn't want to dwell on work any more.

But he had to have something to occupy his mind. He knew that otherwise he would think about Sirius. He laid his head back in the chair and tried to doze, to catch up on his lost sleep. The back of his eyes became a screen onto which were projected images of his time with Sirius. As with his dreams, only half of them were sexual. Again and again, memories of their one night and morning together would sneak up on him. They had fed each other toast and washed each other's hair. Like a proper couple.

He would have that with Fleur. It would all be fine.

The only thing he regretted from those three weeks was the bottoming. He had never done that for anyone else. What he regretted was the years he spent denying himself that intense pleasure. Ironic that he had been introduced to it by the last man he would ever sleep with. For he was determined to go straight from now on.

_______________________________________

If I could coerce them into bed together, you know I would. But what can I do? To help us get through this fallow period, I will provide some Onanism in the next chapter. OK?