HARRY POTTER AND HIS MAGICAL UNIVERSE WERE CREATED BY JK ROWLING NOT BY ME. WARNER BRO.S, BLOOMSBURY, SCHOLASTIC ETC. HAVE RIGHTS TO IT ALL AND I DON'T.

Good Boy

Up against a wall like a prostitute in an alleyway. How appropriate.

Sirius yanked up his jeans. Stepping over Bill's prone body, he made it out of the pantry and, pasting a false smile onto his face, through the kitchen. He hated his body for wanting Bill's. He was angry with Bill, but instead of listening, Bill had shoved him to the wall and fucked him. And he had loved every minute. But as soon as it was over he had hated them both.

He stomped up to Buckbeak's room and sat in the corner on the stinking straw, despising himself. If only he had the strength to tell Bill to get lost. He'd never been any good at taking turns. Well, he wasn't going to share nicely like a good Boy. He wouldn't be going round to the wife's house for tea and crumpets (or the French equivalent. Éclairs? Cheese?) like the over-painted, large-breasted women his mother had vetted for his father. He ripped off a rat's head before throwing it to the Hippogryph. He would break as many Rules as he could. Then maybe Bill would end their relationship. Sirius couldn't.

Harry came up to fetch him for supper and he did his best to look cheerful for the lad's sake. The youngsters would be going back to school tomorrow. He didn't want Smellerus Snark to fiddle about with his godson's thought processes. What was Dumbledore thinking?

There was a flurry of activity after supper: packing trunks, finishing off homework and polishing boots. All were reminders that soon Sirius would be alone again. He tried to have a last relaxed game of Exploding Snap with Harry and Ron, but found he had nothing to say to them. Molly cut the game short when she sent the younger ones up to bed, because they 'had a big day tomorrow.'

Sirius had been about to wander upstairs himself when the twins dragged their father into the sitting room to show him the packets of baby wet wipes they had collected for him. Arthur was fascinated and Sirius found himself drawn to their little group. The boys made a show out of peeling back the packaging and revealing that the handkerchiefs were (dun dun dun) moist! And what's more they were (gasp!) disposable!

Arthur was just asking what Muggles used them for, when Molly came into the room. Fred and George eyed her warily, as though expecting to be sent to bed, but she just gazed fondly at her men folk.

"Er, Mum …" Bill stood in the doorway.

She turned and smiled at him.

"I have to tell you something."

All the saliva in Sirius' mouth dried up. The three Weasley men simultaneously turned to gauge his reaction. His escape route was blocked by Bill and Molly. He ducked down low on the armchair he was occupying. Arthur and George turned to watch the conversation on the other side of the room, but Fred continued to eye him with a glint of sadistic amusement.

How would Molly react? Sirius heard his blood rocketing round his body. Bill lead his mother over to the sofa. When they were sitting, she patted his hand encouragingly.

Bill started stammering and making a complete mess of coherence. Sirius tried to despise him, tried hard not to feel sympathetic. He failed.

Eventually Bill managed to cough out, "I'm in love with a man."

Molly reared back. "You're what?" she snapped.

"Molly, dear …" Arthur moved gently towards the sofa. Unfortunately, this drew her attention to the side of the room where Sirius and the twins were sitting. She gave them all an assessing glare.

"I see I'm the last to know!" she huffed.

"No, Molly …" Arthur soothed.

"Don't lie! I can see that none of you are surprised!" She looked at each of them in turn. Sirius tried to shrink into the upholstery. She turned back to Bill. "You're not gay!" she accused.

"Yes, I am," he answered meekly.

"Since when?"

"Since forever."

"You didn't bother to tell us?" Her voice was getting louder. "When's forever? What does that mean?"

Sirius spotted the twins exchanging a look.

"Since Hogwarts, I suppose."

Fred held up three fingers, George one. They both nodded then turned their attention to the clock.

"They let you carry on with other boys at school?" Molly was red-faced. "I'm going to have a word with Albus! Someone should have stopped you! Were you abused by an older boy?"

"No! Merlin! No, Mum!" Bill looked to his father for support, but there was little chance of anyone getting a word in edge-ways. Fred gave Sirius a very nasty look. Then he turned back to the clock.

He's ten years younger than me, Sirius thought, and she doesn't like me anyway. What's she going to accuse me of? He tried to regulate his breathing, tried to convince himself, he's a grown up. He's old enough to make his own decisions. But would she see it like that?

She had changed tack. "You were Head Boy! What sort of an example was that to set the younger students? Come to that, how's it going to look to your younger brothers? And poor innocent little Ginny?"

George chewed at his lower lip.

"What about that poor girl at the bank?"

George looked back up to the clock, sighed and handed Fred a coin.

"Ah!" Arthur interrupted. "That is the real issue, Molly dear." He sat on the arm of the settee and patted her shoulder, while giving Bill a meaningful look.

"Not really," Bill muttered petulantly, kicking at the carpet.

"He's going to marry her anyway," Arthur said.

Sirius was pleased to see that Molly looked horrified.

"Fleur knows, she's fine with it." Bill gave a cavalier shrug.

Arthur muttered darkly, "Old-fashioned Pureblood apparently."

Fred and George raised their eyebrows in a disconcertingly identical manner. There was a brief pause before Molly hit the roof. She was so incandescent with fury that it was impossible to make out any individual words.

Oh, everything's worked out brilliantly, has it Bill? Sirius allowed himself a smug smile. Then he noticed that George was giving him a questioning look. Sirius curled a lip and shrugged a shoulder. Molly had quieted slightly and it was possible to make out phrases like "abhorrent way of life" and "exactly what we're fighting against!"

Bill started to shout back then. "None of your business! If the three of us are happy with the arrangement, then everyone else can just butt out!"

That was probably Sirius' cue to speak up. But he didn't fancy being in the middle of a huge Weasley row. Bill and his mother were screaming spittle into each other's faces.

"What we're fighting is You-Know-Who murdering people, how I arrange my private life is --"

"Precisely the sort of Pureblood hypocrisy and tradition the Death Eaters want to impose on --"

"Bollocks is it! I'm the Heir, I can do what I bloody like!"

Arthur rose to his feet and fixed Bill with a glare. There was quiet. "Stop swearing at your mother," he said calmly.

Bill muttered an apology. Molly's blotchy, tear-stained face turned away from him; she moved to regard the rest of the room. She noticed Sirius.

"Why would you tell him before telling me?" she croaked.

Sirius was sure his own face stayed poker blank. It was the way Fred and George looked at each other that gave him away. Molly's hand flew to her mouth and he knew the game was up. She took in a deep breath and he decided to try to head her off before she got started.

"Hear me out, Molly. Don't jump to conclusions." He stood up.

"You!" she hissed. "You? You!"

"Yes, me but …" he trailed off. He couldn't think of any mitigating factors and he wasn't about to say something poofy like 'I love him' in front of a room full of Bill's relatives.

He had let Molly build up a head of steam: "You reckless, inconsiderate, devious, depraving, thoughtless animal!" she screamed, standing up herself. "I might have known you'd be behind this! You might have been brought up with the Dark Pure family ways, but my son has been --"

Sirius found he was pointing at her and raising his own voice, "This 'Mistress' set-up isn't my idea! You think that's what I want?" His finger was shaking.

"Bill?" Arthur turned on his heir.

"I thought it was all cool, Siz," Bill mumbled, sinking into the cushions.

"What made you think that?" Sirius snapped back.

Bill looked up and for a moment they just stared at each other. Sirius found he couldn't breathe. All he was conscious of was Bill's perfect face: the spray of freckles round the nose, the clear hazel eyes, the tanned, even features. Then his knees gave way and he sank back into the armchair.

Molly released a soft "Oh".

Then a voice from behind Sirius brought him back.

Fred asked, "Are you saying that Fleur's not bothered about you two sha … sleeping together?"

Bill shrugged. "Not the tiniest bit. She's old-fashioned, believes in the old Pure ways."

"Which are?" Fred asked.

"A load of old nonsense!" Arthur answered. "Just an excuse to keep a mistress."

"Or a Boy," Sirius added, softly.

"That sounds brilliant! Institutionalised philandering! I'm going to do that!" Fred enthused. Molly sighed.

Bill snapped, "Well you can't 'cos you have to be the heir, the first-born son!"

Fred's face fell.

"It came about because there were so many political marriages among the Dark families," Arthur explained. "It's hardly applicable."

"Sirius is an oldest son, too," George pointed out, emotionlessly. "Does he get his own Boy?"

Bill spun round and blasted his younger brother: "If he did, he wouldn't want some scrawny schoolboy like you!"

There was a frozen silence.

Crimson-faced, George broke it with a hate-filled hiss, "Thanks bro. That's how I was planning on Coming Out to my folks -" Then his voice rose as he stormed from the room, shouting "Nice and calm, and in my own time!"

Molly rubbed her face and muttered, "Oh, Merlin, Arthur! Two of them! What did we do wrong?"

"Molly!" Arthur warned, exasperated.

"Oh, no, no, I didn't mean that, I didn't mean that," she tried to reassure Bill.

Arthur said, " I'll go after George. Remind him that we love him unconditionally and embrace all his choices." He looked pointedly at his wife before leaving the room.

"Godric's G-string! George'll be mortified," said Fred, concern and amusement in his voice. He gave Bill an evil stare as he followed their father.

Molly patted Bill. "You do know I do love you whatever, don't you?" she asked.

"You'd just prefer it if I was straight," Bill answered.

Molly sighed again. "It would just be easier for you. Gideon had so much trouble --"

Sirius cut in, "Bill's hardly Gideon! Your brother was a screa -- A brilliant man, don't get me wrong."

"He was always getting into fights," Molly complained, moist eyed again.

"But that was the point, Molly!" Sirius chuckled. "He was never happier than when he had his wand pointed at a Dark Wizard and nothing brought out the bigots like his lilac-haired, limp-wristed, boa-swishing, high camp, screaming queen --" he suddenly broke off and put his head in his hands, "I miss him."

"Me too," Molly added simply. "Even though he did borrow my sweaters without asking and stretched them at the shoulders."

They were both lost in their own thoughts for a while. Bill didn't disturb them.

"Do you remember your Uncle Gideon?" Molly asked him eventually.

"Not really," Bill admitted. "Well, the hair. And the shoes. A bit."

"One of the good guys," Sirius said.

Molly looked from Sirius to Bill a few times and eventually said, "I wouldn't mind so much if you seemed to be making each other happy. But Sirius has been as miserable as ever this past week."

"It's Fleur, isn't it?" Bill conceded.

Sirius nodded self-consciously. Molly turned crisply to her first-born and began to interrogate him. "Does Sirius make you happy?"

Bill blushed, but replied, "Deliriously." Sirius felt himself colour then.

"Then why propose to that girl?" Molly demanded.

"You want Grandchildren."

Molly snorted. "You're hardly the only person who can give me those."

"Well, I want children," Bill admitted.

"I don't know if you've noticed, son, but we are at the start of what will probably be a long and hard-fought war. It's horrible, but there will be orphans. They will need parents. Think how different Harry's childhood would have been if he'd been adopted by a loving couple like you two."

Sirius realised how true that was. He had always felt guilty that he hadn't been there for Harry during the early years. He'd never really considered raising a child. If that was what Bill wanted, it would be OK, though.

But Bill muttered, "Not the same. I want my own."

Molly raised her hands. "And I want Narcissa Malfoy's figure, but I wouldn't put up with her husband to get it! Life isn't perfect. If we're lucky, it's the next best thing! It's all about children then?"

Bill shook his head. "I want to be taken seriously," he said, slowly and quietly. "I hated it at school. The open hostility I could fight, I could hate them. But I hated the sniggering, the whispers, the assumptions. I want to be respected, not … not some old joke."

It was quiet. The clock ticked. Nobody spoke, they did not look at each other. Sirius was hurt, he realised that he was being humiliated for Bill's pride. In the context of prison and death and evil, Bill's reasoning seemed petty. At the same time, Sirius understood perfectly.