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I don't tend to write sex for sex's sake, and I hope I've done it tastefully enough not to come through as anything else than what it's meant to be: making love.
Chapter 5 - Mated!
On one of the first days back to school Sirius and Remus were called to Dumbledore's office. They went up there after dinner and were welcomed warmly. Remus returned the book to the headmaster.
"Have you thought it all through?" Dumbledore asked.
"Yes, we have. We want to do it," Sirius said.
"Very well. I will allow you to miss your classes for a week, though you will have to do the work afterwards of course. For that we have prepared a room where you can spend that week completely on your own. Your meals will be brought to you by house-elves. At the end of the time I will call you back. And the door will be hidden completely, so that no one can disturb you."
Remus looked at Sirius.
"And when..." he started.
"Right now is probably the best time," Dumbledore said cheerfully and stood up from his chair.
Remus and Sirius gasped. They followed Dumbledore to a corridor leading away from the headmaster's office down to his private quarters and then down a spiral staircase to another part of the tower which was topped by the headmaster's office. Three levels down they walked and then they were shown a small suite with a living area and a bedroom as well as a bathroom.
"This will be your place for the next seven days. Remember that you will need skin contact throughout the seven times twenty-four hours. You may never let go or it will all be for naught. Do you trust yourselves to maintain that contact throughout your stay here?"
Remus swallowed and nodded.
"We thought we could use a shawl or something to ensure the contact when we sleep," Sirius said.
"That is a very good idea. Now, you can summon house-elves through this little bell, which will sound down in the kitchens. There are some clothes for you in the bedroom, comfortable enough for day wear."
Dumbledore waved his wand and Sirius held a long silk scarf, long enough to wrap around their wrists comfortably. Sirius smiled.
"I will leave you to it then. I will inform your friends that you will be out of their dorm for the next week. Did you tell them about your plans?"
"No, we didn't."
"Do you want me to give them the reason for your absence?"
"Not this one," Remus said, blushing.
"Very well. Have an excellent week, gentlemen!"
Dumbledore left the room, closed the door and sealed it, even though no one normally got to this part of the castle. Remus and Sirius looked at each other. Sirius pulled his lover into an embrace and kissed him.
"How about starting this with a bath?" he asked.
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Remus nodded into his shoulder. He felt very insecure all of a sudden. He hadn't expected something like this so soon. But now there wasn't much left for them than pulling it through. They decided to go to the bathroom and shed their clothes. There was a nice large tub that beckoned them in as soon as they filled it and they took the opportunity to wash up thoroughly. A bit reluctantly they left the bath and dried themselves off. Sirius spell dried his long hair and brushed it shiny. Remus smiled, watching him at it. He took the opportunity to look at his lover. Sirius was tall, well built and had left all traces of baby fat behind long ago. His torso was well toned from the Quidditch training as a beater. Straight legs. Thick black pubic hair and a thin down of hair up to his navel and on his arms. Quite a bit of hair on his chest. Remus gently caressed Sirius over his upper arms and continued to his chest, down to his stomach. He smiled, because when he just stroked over Sirius' cock lightly he could feel it harden.
"Mm," Sirius moaned.
They quickly brushed their teeth and went to look at the bedroom. It was beautifully decorated and Sirius thought it must be a guestroom for high standing guests of the school. There was a superbly decorated four poster at one end, with dark blue velvet hangings, the bed was covered with light blue silk sheets and downy duvets in the same shiny dark blue as the hangings. There were carpets on the floor, wonderfully worked and soft to the touch of the boys' feet.
"Wow."
"Looks like paradise for our honeymoon, love!" Sirius remarked with a smirk.
"Yeah..."
They pulled back the covers and climbed into the bed, where they settled down for some cuddling.
"I love you, Moony! Can't wait to feel you inside of me..."
"Sure you don't want to make the start, love?" Remus asked back, stroking Sirius' side.
"Absolutely."
"Well then..."
Sirius kissed Remus again and Remus returned the kiss immediately, both of them slowly getting hotter and more comfortable. Remus felt his skin reacting to Sirius' caresses. Having slept in the same bed since summer and having done a lot of things except for that last go Sirius knew exactly what he had to do to get Remus hot and hard. He kissed his lover again and after endless heated exchanges of kisses he moved down following the jaw to the throat and over the collarbone down to Remus' nipples, where he made a short stop on his way down to Remus' crotch. Remus caressed Sirius' back, stroked over the spine to Sirius' buttocks and gripped the one he could reach.
And Sirius found his way to that already hard organ he wanted to feel sheathed firmly inside of himself. He licked it for a bit and then drew back to blow on it. Remus drew a sharp breath and sat up, becoming active now. He pulled Sirius into another kiss and shoved him on his back on the bed to take care of his cock for a while before starting to prepare him. Sirius turned around to lie on his stomach. Remus let his hands run over Sirius' back again.
"Come on, start working on it, love!" Sirius urged him.
"I love that view and I enjoy it, sweetheart," Remus replied.
Sirius growled.
"Anything amiss?" Remus teased.
"Get on with it now! I want to feel you inside of me, Remus!"
"Patience is a virtue, love."
Remus said the spell that would clean Sirius' intestines completely. He cast a little lubrication spell and spread some of the stuff on Sirius' opening, nudging at the puckered ring of muscles to relax them as well as he could, then he started pressing his finger inside. Sirius moaned softly.
"Feels good..." he mumbled.
"Really? Well, then I'll continue, I think..."
"Yeah... go in deeper!"
Remus pushed in deeper, came back out again and slid a second finger in with the first. He hooked around behind the opening for a moment to loosen the muscles. He found that he glided well with his lubricated fingers, so he pressed them in as deep as he could get, until he was stopped by the rectal wall. He felt a round object behind and pushed against it. Sirius cried out loud, startled Remus who pulled his fingers back out immediately.
"Oh, I'm so sorry, love, did I hurt you that badly?"
Sirius breathed hard, shook his head and finally said:
"No! Not hurt! That was the bloody most incredible feeling! Can you go there again?"
Relieved, Remus returned to the previous place and searched for the same spot again.
"Yes!" Sirius hissed.
"'S that it?"
"Spot on! Rub it a little!"
Remus followed the order, smiling, but concentration showing on his face. Sirius instinctively pulled up his knees and lifted his body up a bit, pushing against the fingers.
"Oh Merlin, this is good! It's a shot at my cock every time you as much as brush this spot!" he exclaimed.
"Wow."
It had been a good thing that the boys had taken their time to become more intimate, they were at ease with each others' bodies now, they knew what turned them on and they were ready to find out new things. It wasn't awkward at all, and after the initial surprise that they would go ahead with it at this point already it became exploration territory for Remus. He greatly enjoyed that exploration and so it didn't take him long to figure out how to pass this very tight opening of his mate's with his cock. Sirius knew the size of that cock already, after all he had learned to swallow most of it down in the past six months. He expected to feel quite a bit of pain. But since they weren't in a hurry Remus took his time in preparing Sirius. And Sirius loved his lover's work, since it turned him on immensely. He lifted himself up a bit and pushed against the fingers poking around inside of him. He felt Remus' free hand on his butt to keep the skin contact while the other hand picked up the cock. Remus placed the tip, slicked with a bit more of the lube right under the opening to push up just a little and breach the barrier. He gave a pretty good shove and the head slipped inside.
"Aww..." Sirius made.
"Hurts?"
"Not much... feels great!" Sirius assured him.
Remus pushed and found himself deep inside of Sirius.
"Yes, it does feel great," he moaned.
Sirius pushed against the cock, Remus pushed back and after a while they found a rhythm. Remus moaned and growled all the while he thrust into Sirius, the growing tension in his cock made him go faster and faster until he couldn't hold back anymore and let go, coming with more cries and growls than Sirius had so far heard from him. At the same time he grabbed Sirius' cock and stroked it, giving a lot of pressure to the head, when he pushed the foreskin over it. Sirius yowled, growled and finally came with a howl that fit the huge dog he was. They slumped down on the bed and Remus pulled back out. He buried his face in the small of Sirius' back for a moment. Some of his semen oozed out from Sirius' opening. Remus sniffed it and spread it over the cleft.
Sirius slowly turned around, facing Remus again.
"Gods, I loved that," he said, still panting.
Remus smiled and kissed him.
"I did, too. Won't mind to do that a couple of times in the next days..."
"Does it have to be every twelve hours, sharp?" Sirius asked.
"I don't think so. The way I understood it, it's more once during the day, once during the night at least."
"Well, we should manage that, what do you think?"
"I think I'll work you back to form, so you can show me how this feels as well..." Remus said.
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Two floors up Dumbledore packed a small globe into his desk and left to tell two boys in the Gryffindor tower that their friends would not be with them for an entire week.
When he entered the common room every noise died down immediately. It was on very rare occasions that the headmaster would turn up in a house common room, and it certainly hadn't been seen in years before this moment. He asked for James and Peter.
"They're up in their dorm, I think. Should I go and call them down here?" a fifth year asked.
"No, I think they would prefer some privacy for what I have to tell them. Thank you, I am going there."
He knocked on the door, which was opened by a worried looking James, who was rather surprised to see the headmaster in the door.
"Professor! We are missing Remus and Sirius, weren't they coming to see you after dinner?"
"Yes, James, which is why I am here. May I come inside?"
"Yes, of course..."
The room was slightly messy, but Dumbledore didn't seem to be fazed by that fact. He just said:
"Your two friends will be out of commission for a full week. Expect them back next Tuesday in classes."
"Oh! But why? They're not being punished for something or other, are they?" Peter asked anxiously.
"No, Mr. Pettigrew, but there is something they have to do and they can only do this completely undisturbed. Do not go and look for them, because if they are being interrupted it would be very bad indeed. Rest assured that they are not in any kind of danger and they are well."
James still looked very worried. This sounded very suspicious.
"I'm worried about them..." he said.
"There is no need to worry, believe me. The worst that can happen to them is that they will feel a little sore and tired. May I ask the two of you to take meticulous notes in your lessons, because they will have to go through their homework for this week later on. And once again I must stress that you do not go looking for them, they will be back in a week. And they will probably tell you then what their task was."
"Okay, Professor, I promise not to go looking for them. Quidditch practice will be a bit difficult without my Seeker and one of my Beaters though."
"That shouldn't harm your success in the sport, Mr. Potter. That much I can promise you!"
But the moment Dumbledore had left them, James ran to his trunk to retrieve the Marauder's Map.
"I solemnly swear that I'm up to no good," he said and waited for the map to show on the parchment.
Then he and Peter started to look over it to find where Remus and Sirius were.
"What the heck? I can't see them," Peter said.
"Neither can I. Do you think they might be outside of the castle?"
"No idea..."
"Let's follow the headmaster... there he goes, straight back to his office. Oh! There they are, almost only one dot, look! Where is that? It looks like it's right underneath Dumbledore's office!"
"We won't be getting in there... and he was really adamant that we don't follow them."
"Yeah. I still wonder, but there's probably nothing we can do..."
But they kept the map under their eyes the whole evening. The two dots never parted, they just moved on a very small bit of the map and always stayed connected.
"That's strange. Do you think they're shagging?" Peter asked.
James looked at him in shock.
"Looks like they're very close in any case. Do you really think Dumbledore is letting them shag and covering for it? Why would he do that? I mean, he obviously knows what they're up to... and it's supposed to take a whole week!"
"Can't really imagine that. But seeing them connected all the time can't mean much different than them doing something very intimate," Peter thought aloud.
"Yeah, you're right about that."
The next day Peter and James went to their classes as usual and wondered that not one teacher asked about the absence of Sirius and Remus. The girls noticed that the boys didn't turn up for breakfast and asked James and Peter about it.
"If their missing costs us any more points, Potter..." Lily said in a menacing tone.
"...then what?" James shot back.
"Let's just say that you're not the only one who knows a good hex or two," she replied coldly and tapped her left hand with the wand held in her right.
"Well, let me assure you that Dumbledore in person told us last night they'd be gone for a full week and would return to school next Tuesday. And that's all he was ready to tell us."
"Oh... well, that puts Remus out of commission as a prefect..." she growled.
"Obviously. Complaints care of the headmaster, please," said James and went past her to get into the Transfigurations classroom.
After three days in their room Remus and Sirius had almost lost all sense of time. They were happily coupling and hardly left their bed. Only when a house-elf knocked on the door informing them that food was on the table in the living room did they take breaks. The meals brought in was the only thing that helped them remembering to keep their lovemaking to be at least once in every twelve hours.
Getting up meant taking care not to lose skin contact. They used the scarf, which they wound around Remus' right and Sirius' left wrist, since Remus was ambidextrous and could use his left hand as well as his right to eat. They would only pull a pair of silk pyjama pants on and sit cosily on the sofa by the fire to eat the delicious food they got. At one point Remus thought that the drinks were spiked with aphrodisiacs, or how else could he go on and on for so many days?
Since there were a few books and a chessboard around they didn't get all too bored. They took the chessboard over to their bed and played a few matches there. Remus found a neat novel in the bookshelf and started reading it to Sirius while Sirius lounged next to him on the bed caressing him. They managed to never lose their skin contact quite easily, since they were practically glued to each other. It was only a bit awkward having to go to the toilet with the partner holding on, but that only enhanced their shared intimacy. And all the while they noticed that their magic sparkled. It started after about four days. Remus had left his wand on the table in the living room and needed it for something. Sirius' wand lay out of reach as well.
"Can we get up and retrieve either yours or my wand, please, Siri?" Remus whined.
"Let's try a little wandless summoning," Sirius said, pointed his index finger in the direction of his wand and casting "Accio wand".
The wand came bursting over, almost knocking the wind out of Sirius.
"Wow," said Remus.
"Wow indeed. I know that summoning spells are no problem for me anymore, but I don't think anything ever came flying to me like this! Will have to learn to dose the spell down, I think!"
"Let me try it, too..."
Remus summoned his wand from the other room and was rewarded with the same result. Then they tried a few spells from the Charms textbook and found that they had to be very careful in casting them if they didn't want to have everything overdone. They dropped their wands.
"That's bloody amazing! Now I see what Dumbledore meant with a surge of power that would come with the mating..." Sirius said.
"Do you think that it will be even more? I mean we still have a couple of days left here, don't we?"
"Yes, we do. I don't think that's the peak. This will be scary! Snivellus be warned!" Sirius giggled.
"You will NOT misuse that power on Severus, Sirius! That would be highly unfair now," Remus chided his lover.
Sirius pouted and sighed.
"Yes, I suppose you are right."
It was time for their dinner and then they returned to their bed which had been redone by the house-elves while they ate. It was now a lovely shade of lavender, the bed curtains, pillow-cases and the duvet covers a nice darker violet.
"Not exactly a very male colour that," Sirius moaned.
"Meaning you won't shag me on that or what?" Remus inquired.
"I'll not go that far in rejecting it," Sirius countered immediately and pulled Remus down.
A few hours later they connected their arms with the scarf again. Remus pressed his back firmly on Sirius' front and felt Sirius' arm around his waist.
The seven days and seven nights passed quickly. At the end of them they were both extremely exhausted. They slept through most of the last day, taking the time to make some more love in the late morning and the late afternoon. And in the late evening they were finally released by the headmaster, who entered the living room, calling for them. Receiving no immediate reply he went on and poked his head around the door to their bedroom. Both were under the duvets and slept. Dumbledore smiled contentedly. He had followed their progress and knew that their increased power had started to unfold days before. It was now just a few minutes before their full seven times twenty-four hours would run out. Dumbledore checked the watch by which he had timed the days and just as he was about to move to the bed to wake them the boys sat up and turned to each other.
"Remus, my love..." Sirius whispered.
"Siri... I love you!" Remus said and crawled onto Sirius' lap.
He took the scarf off with a mere nod of his head and embraced Sirius tightly, kissing him deeply. Sirius' arms closed around his mate's shoulder.
"Have you felt that? It went through me like a whiplash!" Sirius said.
"Yeah, it woke me up. And I had a whole rush of images running through my head!"
"Me too! They looked like memories of your family."
Remus' eyes widened.
"Then it was what happened to you at your home what I saw? Oh goddess, Sirius! That was all terrifying! What they did to you..."
Sirius' face darkened. He hated it that Remus knew about that.
"Forget about that, love! It's not important. The only important thing is that I'm free now and that I'm with you! I love you!"
"I love you, too, so much, Siri! It's just so sad what happened to you."
"It's in the past, Remus. I will have to leave it there and possibly forget it."
"Yes, I suppose you're right about that. Do you think our time is up soon?"
Dumbledore took that as his opportunity to knock and tell them:
"Yes, I believe that the time is up and you have succeeded in your mating! You can get up and return to your house now."
Remus looked up.
"That's nice. Though we'll have to face James and Peter now."
"They will be glad to have you back, believe me, Mr. Lupin. Now get dressed and join me in my office, we will still have to talk about a few things."
"Okay, we'll be there in a few minutes."
Dumbledore left and the boys looked for their clothes and got dressed. They walked up the stairs again and entered the headmaster's office. And they were surprised to find Richard and Venetia there who pulled them both into their arms.
"This is such a wonderful moment, boys! We were so afraid Remus would stay alone, you don't know how happy we are for you two!" Venetia said.
"Mum! What are you doing here?"
"We want to be the first to congratulate you! After all, what you just did is a form of getting married."
"Oh. We completely forgot about that part," Remus mumbled.
"They have taken notice of your new status at the Registry, Remus. I'm afraid that my responsibility for you has now been placed into Sirius' hands. All spouses of werewolves are regarded as something akin to a guardian if they're not werewolves. You will both have to turn up there in the next two weeks to sign the respective papers."
Remus' face darkened. He had known that as long as his parents lived they would be responsible for him, but that their responsibility would now be in Sirius' hands was a bit unnerving. Sirius looked at his father-in-law with shock written in his blue eyes.
"You mean, I'm not only Remus' husband, I'm also his guardian? He's of age! Why a guardian?"
Remus pulled lightly on Sirius' sleeve to get his attention.
"Werewolves don't get full maturity, Sirius. If there are no spouses or parents then it's a willing sibling or other relative and if there's no relatives it's an appointed guardian among the Support Unit's staff..." he explained.
"But that's outrageous! Honestly!"
"I know. But right now there isn't too much we can do about it, Sirius, the Ministry is in a pretty ugly state because of this Voldemort person and his followers. Did you know that they call themselves 'Death Eaters'? He's found a fairly large group of supporters all through the wizarding world. We are still looking for a sign to possibly recognise them. But whatever they're up to they are also trying to get the Dark Creatures on their side and it seems they've had a certain amount of success with some werewolves by promising them a cure. That doesn't prepare a very good ground for more liberal werewolf laws," Richard explained.
"And that leads us straight to one of my motivations of seeing the two of you mated. Believe me that it is not the top reason, because in the first place I wanted to see the two of you in a happy and hopefully very long lasting relationship. But this procedure has strengthened your power. We will begin with an enhanced training for you two in the next weeks. You will be going through more advanced Transfiguration, Defence, Charms and Potions training than any of your friends. You will receive extra Auror training by two or three Aurors from the Ministry and you will learn to cast more advanced curses. I will personally work with you. We need to get you ready to help in the fight against Lord Voldemort, as he calls himself. Let me tell you that behind this Lord Voldemort is a former student of Hogwarts, who unfortunately is a direct descendant of Salazar Slytherin and takes Slytherin's preference of pure-blooded wizards and witches to the extreme, and his plans include killing every Muggle-born witch and wizard as well as all half-bloods and if he can get rid of all the Muggles he will do that, too. And finally his hobby seems to be to find a way to bypass death and become immortal," Dumbledore continued.
Sirius and Remus stared at him open-mouthed and terrified. Both gulped and turned to look at Richard and Venetia, who looked grim and hardly less terrified.
"I didn't know it was quite that bad," Richard admitted. "My Aurors are doing their utmost, but they are usually too late on the scenes."
"I am afraid it is. - Now, I am not forcing this on you two, but you would certainly become an asset to our side and would do a lot of good to win what this will become in the next two or three years, a full war. But would you be willing to undergo this training?"
Sirius and Remus looked at each other for a moment and took each others' hands, then Remus nodded.
"Yes sir, we would. We noticed that we will need the training to control all that magic that's grown in us anyway. And there's something I need to tell you, sir..." Sirius replied.
"I knew I could count on you. Thank you very much. What is it that you need to tell me?"
Sirius grinned and transformed into the dog. As usual, Remus put his hand on Padfoot's head and petted him, brushing the shaggy hair from his eyes. It wasn't such a shock for Richard and Venetia anymore, but McGonagall, who was in the room as well, gasped audibly. Dumbledore's eyes showed the famous twinkle. He was quite surprised, but he didn't show it. Minerva recovered quickly and scolded Sirius:
"Sirius Black! Are you aware of how dangerous that is? It's a miracle you got this right!"
Padfoot just sat and tilted his head slightly, panted, wagged his tail and looked at them with those incredibly big and moist pale blue grey eyes. And he basically behaved fully like the dog he was. Not even Minerva was able to withstand that doggy glance and Remus had to laugh as he watched her face turning from looking at the dog sternly to being touched. Sirius had won her over as he always did. Her best Transfigurations student in the year, how could she be mad at him for a long time? He barked and then turned back.
"Sorry, Professors, we just had to do this..."
"We?" asked Professor Dumbledore.
"James, Peter and I. We just couldn't watch Remus suffer in that shack all alone! So we went about to find something to help him."
"When did you start on that transformation?" Dumbledore asked.
"Right after we figured out he was a werewolf. Took us a while to find out that werewolves would only eat other animals, but were otherwise no danger to them. Then we had to find out how to become Animagi, that took longer."
"Now I know! Irma Pince told us that those three spent an incredibly long time at the library two years ago, Albus. And she was wondering what you were studying..." Minerva said.
"Well, at night we went there to find the books we needed, noted them down and during the day we went to study them. We copied all we needed to know down and worked on it whenever we knew Remus was somewhere else than we were," Sirius told them proudly.
"So you didn't know they were doing this, Remus?" Venetia asked.
Remus shook his head.
"No, it was a complete surprise when they finally showed me."
"And when did you succeed?"
"Christmas break fifth year," Sirius replied.
He heard gasps from everyone in the room.
"You are certainly not registered anywhere, are you?" Dumbledore wanted to know.
"No, of course not. We thought if we turned up at the Ministry to register they would not be commending us for doing this in secret..." Sirius admitted.
"I suppose they would not. But I have to say I am pretty glad about it right now. Do not worry about the Ministry, not registering as an Animagus is illegal, but not a really great offence. I would expect there are a few dozen unregistered Animagi to every registered one. And for our purpose it would certainly be a lot better if not too many people knew about your ability. Who knows besides we here?"
"Only Madam Pomfrey. We told her when we came back after the summer. We thought it would be good if she knew that we stayed with Remus during his transformations."
Minerva gasped again. Only now did she think of that. But she looked at Sirius fondly and said:
"That is friendship as everyone would like to have it..."
Sirius smiled. He took Remus' hand again. Then he asked:
"When's the next Hogsmeade weekend, Professor?"
"The coming Saturday in two weeks."
"Good. I think, Remus and I need rings..."
Richard and Venetia shared an amused glance with Minerva. Venetia looked at Remus and what she saw in his face was pure bliss. Her son had not been this happy since that blasted bite, but if he now found some perks in being a werewolf then she would be very glad for him. She pulled him close and felt him snuggling to her.
"You seem to be so happy now, love," she said.
"I am, Mum. The future doesn't look quite so dark now."
She hugged him again.
"Well, there is not much else that I can tell you right now. Oh, one last question, Sirius. What are the Animagus-forms of Messrs Potter and Pettigrew?"
"James is a stag and Peter is a rat."
"A rat, hm? Wonderful. I think I will have special jobs for a person with such an ability. But for now, off you go, back to your common room, it is already after curfew. Here is the note that will get you off if anyone meets you."
Dumbledore gave Remus a small slip of parchment and the two said goodbye to Richard and Venetia. Both hugged them tightly and said:
"And if you want to come home during the Easter break we'll hold a nice little celebration for your mating."
Remus thanked them and pulled Sirius out of the room. They walked back through the corridors and were 1promptly accosted by Filch who didn't like their slip of parchment at all that allowed them to go back to their house unharmed. When he was gone, Sirius turned and pushed out his tongue at the despised care-taker. Remus pulled him on and they reached the portrait of the Fat Lady who sleepily asked for the password.
"Phoenix tears," Remus replied.
The door swung forward and they entered the common room. Since it was just after eleven there were only a few students left, most of them sixth and seventh years. Lily and her friends were studying at one of the tables, James and Peter sat close to the fireplace. They turned their heads to see who came in so late and James jumped up, shouting:
"Where the hell have you been? We've been sick with worry! No one wanted to tell us anything at all!"
"Hi Jamie, good to see you, too," Sirius replied, somewhat sarcastically.
Dari and Peter stood up and came closer, too, even Lily looked curious but wouldn't let it show too much by coming after her friend.
"Can we sit down, please?" Sirius took the initiative.
He pulled Remus over to one of the squashy sofas, sat down and Remus sat down in his lap. They were still so used to having skin contact that they could barely stand it not touching the other yet. When the others had sat down as well, Sirius started:
"It all started during the Christmas break, when Dumbledore sent us Fawkes with a message and we went to see him. That was just before you two came to the Lupins."
Then all of a sudden, Remus stopped him and looked around. None of the younger students were in the room but he still felt uncomfortable about letting six other students know about his condition, but he knew them all well and trusted them to keep his secret within Gryffindor tower. He looked up at them and said:
"Before we go on I have to confess something to you guys. But you have to promise not to tell anyone outside of this room and if you are uncomfortable with it once you know I will have to ask Professor Dumbledore to memory charm you..."
"I think, I know anyway, Remus," Marjorie, a seventh year girl said.
"You do?" he asked with round eyes.
"Yes. You are a werewolf, aren't you?" she asked.
There were gasps from two seventh year boys behind her, but Lily looked just as unfazed and Dari knew already. Remus nodded.
"Well, I've suspected for a long time. It's not your fault, Remus, and you should not be ashamed of it. Though I do understand why you're not advertising it. So what happened?" Marjorie asked softly.
Remus' eyes moistened and he looked at her from Sirius' shoulder, really thankful for her pragmatism. Sirius continued now:
"Well, apparently the myth about werewolves mating for life isn't just a myth only."
"What! So it's true that the first person a werewolf sleeps with will be the life-bonded mate?" Dari asked.
"Not quite. It's a bit more than that. But yes, it has to do with sex. Both partners have to still be virgins. And if they are willing to undergo the rites then they will be bonded for life. It's more demanding than just having sex for the first time though."
"Do you mean to tell us that you two underwent some archaic rites to become bonded for life?" Lily asked from behind.
She was now far too curious to stay away.
"Yes, that about sums it up. And yes, we're bond-mates now," Remus replied.
"Wow... and what did you have to do?"
"We had to spend exactly seven full days and nights together from the moment we made love for the first time and then keep skin contact, and that means skin on skin, not through fabric for the entire seven days. We were not allowed to let go even for a second. And it included quite a lot more lovemaking," Sirius replied with a grin while Remus blushed crimson.
Sirius caressed him over the back and went on explaining:
"The good thing about it is that we are now legally married! The bond between us can only be broken by the death of one of us. And there's been an immense increase in our magical power! It seems that before the days they passed the first laws against werewolves there were quite a lot of couples like that. It doesn't matter if the werewolf bonds with another werewolf or a human or if the partner is the same or the other gender. They go through the rites and become bonded. Now most werewolves that are created are adults, most of them have already had partners, so they're out of the run, but Dumbledore noticed we were together, asked us whether we had already gone all the way and when we said we didn't he gave us this book in which the rite was described. We had time through the break to think about it and when he called us up to his office we thought we'd just say that we wanted to go through the rite. But he had already prepared these rooms in his tower for us and we went right through it..."
"Wow," was all the others knew to say.
"It was a huge surprise for us that he wanted us to go through right away," Remus said.
"I can imagine."
"And then we started to feel how our magic exploded! It was all amazing. Almost put making love in the shadow!" Sirius said.
"So you're much more powerful now?" Marjorie asked.
"Yes! At one point both of us had left our wands out of reach, so we just summoned them wandlessly and they didn't only come flying, we were almost speared by them! That's where we noticed that we will have to learn to control all that magic. I can imagine that this is the main reason why such couples vanished after the werewolf code of conduct came into being, because no one at the Ministry was very interested in having such powerful werewolves around. There hasn't been a life-bonded werewolf for about four hundred and fifty years."
"Is it illegal?" Peter asked.
"No, it's not. There are holes in the law. It's like a marriage rite and you know that werewolves are allowed to marry, even though each marriage is not only registered in the normal family register, but also at the Werewolf Registry. I mean, there's some who are bitten when they are already married. You can't possibly force them to get a divorce because of this. Especially not if the partner is willing to stand by the infected partner," Remus explained.
"Oh, that's good then. So now you're actually married? That's cute!" Dari exclaimed.
"Yes, we are. And we'll have something to do come next weekend, I want us to wear rings," Sirius said.
"That's so sweet!" Dari said.
"Thanks, Dari! You're a real good friend, you know? You guys are all great, because none of you have put us down for being together. That gives us a real cosy feeling in our stomachs!" Sirius said.
"Well, if you're together you won't hit on any of us, that's fine with me," Ryan, one of the seventh year boys, replied with a grin.
"I don't even know if I'm really gay," Remus said, "I just knew it was Sirius for years. No one else. So maybe I'm not homo- but simply Sirius-sexual."
Everyone in the room laughed and Remus grinned shyly. He found all that attention more than embarrassing, but since the others were okay with it he thawed a bit. Even Lily thought they were a cute couple. They finally went up the stairs to their dormitories. Once the door was closed safely behind them, Remus turned to James and Peter.
"I'm afraid, Sirius and I outed you to Dumbledore and McGonagall, they know about your Animagus forms now," he said.
"Oh. How did they take it?"
"Dumbledore wants us to stay unregistered for the time being. He talked a lot about this Lord Voldemort who's so intent on getting all Muggle-borns and Muggles killed. He says we'd be great assets in the fight against them if we didn't let everyone know about it. And even though I think McGonagall wasn't too happy about us staying illegal, she agreed. Dumbledore thinks that your rat form would be very helpful indeed, Peter," Sirius said.
"Oh, really? I want to help if I can..." Peter said modestly.
"You will be able to help greatly. You know how many times you already got out of scrapes last year because you could hide out as a tiny rat! James and Sirius are much too big to have a chance to get out of something as easily as you can. I could imagine he'd want you to hide and gather information..." Remus explained.
"Wow. That would be great!"
"But let's go to bed, we have to be back in class tomorrow morning and it's late already," Sirius said and went off in the direction of Remus' bed.
"Don't forget silencing charms, if you intend to do your marital duties..." James teased.
Remus just waved his hand. They undressed and went to sleep. It seemed impossible for them to sleep far apart now and he had already got used to snuggling up to Sirius back to front. And immediately he felt Sirius' arm around him upon which Remus was asleep in a moment.
They hadn't missed too much in this first week back after the holidays. But they still had to catch up, which even not so serious Sirius did quite determinedly. The information he had received from Dumbledore about the rise of the Dark Lord had troubled him deeply. He had fled his home for a good part because he would have nothing to do with Voldemort, if he now got a chance to do some good damage in this war he was determined to take it. And if all he could help now was by studying more he would do just that as well.
Harry had simply watched it all and smiled. So - that ritual boosted the power of the two people who underwent it. He was really looking forward to see what the two boys would be able to achieve. He was worried now that Dumbledore might try to manipulate them into… but the Prophecy wasn't yet out and maybe with this slight change to the time-line it would never go out at all! He would certainly watch out like a hawk for things that might go differently because of this one change. With Fate in his head Dumbledore might go down a completely different route.
He didn't suppose that Sirius and Remus would have been bonded the first time around, even though he thought they must have been a couple. They were certainly often behaving like a couple, the few times he'd seen them together. He felt a bit sorry for the things he had thrown at Remus when Remus had sought them out at Grimmauld Place. If Remus still loved Sirius he would really be a very reluctant Partner to Tonks! Harry regretted it for a moment that Teddy Lupin would now never become a reality, but that was certainly a small price to pay for happy lives all over. Tonks should never fall in love with Remus now that he was with someone else long before she ever even grew out of her childhood robes.
'Just all of us stay far away from that horrible place in the Department of Mysteries,' Harry thought.
But amidst all that studying there was still the boys' blossoming love, which they enjoyed quite openly. The next Hogsmeade weekend came and the sixth and seventh years were allowed out a bit longer than the rest. Sirius had convinced James and Peter it would be lovely if they got dates to go to Hogsmeade, so they wouldn't just brood over Remus' and his relationship, but enjoy some happiness of their own. Remus had even gone so far as to chat up a cute Hufflepuff fifth year girl he knew Peter had a crush on, because Peter was too shy to talk to her first. He found out that the girl wouldn't mind going out with Peter. She must have been as shy as Peter was, so with a little help from their friends Peter got the girl. Once together the two seemed very happy. James of course was still after Lily, but she still mostly turned up her pretty nose. Until one day in the common room James exploded:
"You know, Lily, in some ways you're as conceited as you claim me to be! You've just got that image of me in your head and you won't let it go, because you're as stubborn as a mule! Or is it that you find pleasure in seeing me crawling in the dirt in front of you? Sooner or later I will quit, you know, but I don't want to, because I love you!"
With that he stormed off to the dormitory and Dari said:
"He's not all wrong about that, Lily, you know."
Lily shot her an evil glance and stalked off to her own dormitory. Sirius and Remus looked at Dari and they all shrugged.
Harry understood his father's frustration. He also knew that while everyone looked at Lily with reverence she was no saint. Not that she pretended to be a saint, but she did like to point out others' error of ways regularly. Harry thought that it was time she learnt to take as good as she gave in that regard.
Dari, being the good friend she was, went after Lily and talked to her some more.
"Lily, I know you hate James' guts sometimes, but I also know you don't hate James. He's not just trying to get in your pants, he's in love with you. Hasn't he shown you dozens of times this year? What about all the flowers and the cards? Have you ever seen him with another girl? He's really given you a thoughtful gift for Christmas. He's not been as evil to Snape as he used to be. You should really award him for that restraint, because Snivellus frankly is as evil as he always was, he hasn't grown up one bit. It must have cost James a lot not to hex him half the times Snape provoked him."
This was sound reasoning and Lily knew it. She looked at Dari and said:
"I can't just give in, Dari..."
"Why not? There's a point where you just have to concede. You can always go back on your decision if he takes up hexing people again just because he can. I don't think he will, Lily, because I think he's growing up."
On the other side of the tower Remus talked with James.
"I know that you were right to explode, James, but don't give up just yet. I think she shows signs of giving in..."
"I thought so, too, but that was just a moment I couldn't take any more. What else can I do but show her I've grown up? I love her! There are days I really don't know just why I love her, but I know I do. It's not just that I'm trying to get in her pants and then drop her."
"I know. But if you see her again at dinner go to her and apologise for exploding and ask her out once more. You didn't mind the rejections so far, so what's one more if you're convinced she's the one."
James sighed deeply. Then he nodded and said:
"You're right. That would be a good tactic."
And so in the same evening James passed Lily before going down to the Great Hall for dinner and said softly:
"I'm sorry for exploding like that, Lily. Can you forgive me?"
She looked him in the eyes and said:
"Yeah, I guess I was a bit very harsh. I'm sorry, too."
"So would you go to Hogsmeade with me this Saturday?"
She sighed.
"Oh well, yes, if that's what it takes to get some peace..."
James couldn't hide his grin as he joined the other Marauders at the dinner table. They watched him throwing dreamy glances over at Lily, who sat a few seats away on the other side of the table with Dari and two other girls. Dari looked over to him and gave him a smile and a thumbs up sign. He turned back to his food. All was not lost yet.
"She said yes..." he remarked casually.
"She said yes? To go to Hogsmeade with you? That's great, mate!" Sirius said and beamed.
James nodded happily.
"So what are we going to do then? Just hang around?" he asked.
Remus rolled his eyes.
"Take her for a long walk! Listen to her for a while and find common grounds. You're not dumb, James, but sometimes you're dense, you know! If you're entirely uninterested in what she's interested in she'll not be impressed. I don't mean that you've got to show interest in every bit, but there must be some subjects you're both getting along. I also don't think it wise to simply adjust just to please her. It's called finding affinities…"
"Thanks for that advice, mate," James said, suddenly glumly.
Remus patted him on the shoulder and said:
"Don't be glum, old fruit, just start talking with her. Don't even mention that you love her, just start talking about school and maybe some of the tests lately that made you happy when you got good grades. All it takes is a place to start. You'll see how things develop from there."
Harry was amazed at how much he saw of himself in James at that moment. He was more than glad to see his Mum finally coming around to his Dad!
On the way to Hogsmeade Remus just grinned. He felt Sirius' hand on his thigh and sighed, too, but happily. They would be off looking for rings. Then on Monday they were due for the visit at the Ministry to sign their papers. He didn't feel all that comfortable that Sirius was now officially his guardian, but he shoved it away knowing that the true leader in their relationship was himself. In the end if it had to be that way then Sirius was better than just anyone.
The Hogsmeade weekend dawned with a crispy cold but clear January morning. The students walked down to the village in thick throngs or in couples. Many of the older students used these weekends to go out with their girlfriends or boyfriends. The Marauders, Lily and Sabina, Peter's new girlfriend walked together, but separated soon after reaching Hogsmeade. Sirius took off with Remus to the jeweller's shop. They found it on the main road, a quaint little house all covered with snow and a small window showing off some lovely jewellery. They went inside and were met by the owner of the shop. When they asked to see wedding rings he looked at them slightly reproachful, but he didn't want to lose their business so he said nothing. They looked over the selection and finally decided on a pair of lovely red gold rings containing one single tiny ruby. The rings were immediately fitted to their fingers and they had their names and the date of their mating engraved. Sirius gave the jeweller his Gringotts vault number and after a quick check with the bank they could leave the shop, both wearing their new rings. They held hands as they walked through the village to Honeyduke's, where they bought a selection of sweets to last them until the next Hogsmeade weekend. Sirius added some extra chocolate for Remus to his pile.
Some of their classmates whom they met on the streets and in the shops noticed their new rings. Most commented in a friendly way. Sirius and Remus had not kept their relationship a secret, so the whole school knew about them being together. But of course there were still taunts about it, mostly from Slytherins.
A few metres before the entrance of the Three Broomsticks where they wanted to meet up with their friends they were accosted by some of the Slytherins. Bellatrix Black, Rodolphus and Rabastan Lestrange, Sirius's brother Regulus were among them, Snape, Wilkes and Avery were behind them. There were a lot of people on the road, but even when Sirius and Remus were bound into a circle none of the adults or other students intervened. The gang had a bad name at Hogsmeade already, they were known to most of the salesmen and the people usually avoided having anything to do with them. Most of them were also banned from the Three Broomsticks.
"Hey, look who we have here... two little poofs out on a walk. Aren't they just cute and poncy?" Rodolphus Lestrange asked in a sing-sang voice.
"Why, if it isn't my brave little cousin," Bellatrix went on.
"Oh, and just look! They're wearing rings, isn't it sweeeet?" Regulus cooed.
"And? What's it to you?" Sirius asked, wondering when Regulus had decided to turn away from his brother.
Neither he nor Remus showed much respect and when some of the Slytherins pulled out their wands to start hexing them, Sirius and Remus only exchanged a glance and cried, at the same time, without even pulling their own wands.
"Expelliarmus!"
The power of their spell didn't only make the Slytherin's wands fly, but most of the other peoples' around as well. And the people. Many around the two found themselves on the ground while Sirius and Remus just shrugged and left the spot in the direction of the pub.
"What the heck was that?" Avery asked Rodolphus Lestrange.
"No idea. But something's fishy. I'll find out. This kind of power would be of interest for the Dark Lord, that much is sure."
Remus and Sirius had found an empty table in the meantime and Remus went to get the drinks. He noticed the two of the group of Slytherins who were still allowed in the pub coming in. Regulus and Rabastan watched him taking his drinks over to Sirius. Then he got up and went straight to the two fourth years to tell them off:
"As a prefect I'm warning you not to cause any more trouble or I shall have to not only take points from Slytherin but hand out detentions. Is that clear?"
His tone made it clear that he was no push-over. Rabastan still thought another taunt was called for and replied:
"You can't throw me out of here. Besides you're nothing but a weak little homo..."
"I may be gay but that doesn't make me weak, Rabastan. You'd better back down while you can still do it without pain. We only disarmed you out there, but believe me, I could do much worse to you. Now leave or I'll have Madam Rosmerta get you out."
Regulus didn't want to push it any further and pulled his classmate out of the pub. Remus returned to the table and sat down on the bench next to Sirius. They were soon joined there by Peter and Sabina.
"Hey, what went on outside? We've heard lots of talking about two guys who didn't use their wands to disarm about two dozen people around them. Could only have been you two, eh?" Peter asked.
"Bellatrix's gang thought they had a chance getting at us surrounding us out on the street. We just showed them that they were slightly wrong," Remus said.
"Cool! But I bet their curiosity has been stirred now."
"I'm afraid so. But I know that Dumbledore wants them to know, and this was a natural opportunity. I'm sure they'll report it to their homes and from there it will go to Voldemort," Sirius said.
"Why would Dumbledore want them to know?" Sabina asked.
"Can't talk about that here. It's a part of a scheme he has," Remus said.
"That contains you two as part of it? Ouch. Rather you than I! This You-Know-Who guy scares me to death."
"Voldemort, Sabina. I really don't like that new fashion of the Daily Prophet of referring to him as You-Know-Who. It's ridiculous. Voldemort's real name is Tom Riddle, use that if his self-styled one makes you so afraid," Remus said.
Sabina looked at him with admiration.
"Well, if I had the power to disarm two dozen people without so much as lifting my wand I'd not be afraid either," she said.
"We're just as afraid of him as you are, Sabina. But Professor Dumbledore says fear of the name only increases the fear of the thing itself and that's precisely what Voldemort wants. He wants us all in fear so he can go ahead and massacre everyone who doesn't fit into his spectrum of tolerated people," Remus told her.
To everyone's surprise Peter piped up and put an arm around his girlfriend.
"I think, Remus is right, Sabina. We have to remember that this is only a man and not some kind of an Über-person, he can only cook with water just like everyone else."
"Bravo, Wormtail, that's the spirit!" Sirius applauded his friend.
"It's just - they're killing so many people. And so many others have just vanished," Sabina said shyly.
"You're right. And apart from Dumbledore no one really does anything against it. They just stand there not knowing what to do it seems. The Minister had to be CONVINCED by at least four heads of departments to finally get into gear. My Dad has stocked up on Auror training. He also started to offer additional defence training for everyone who is interested in self-defence," Remus said.
James and Lily joined them a few minutes later. They had heard about the incident, too, and wanted to hear all about it. Half the school passed by their table in the course of the afternoon to hear all about that incident on the street. By the time they returned to Hogwarts and went to the Great Hall for dinner it was all over the school and even all the teachers had already heard about it. One of the passers-by who had been caught in the spell had collected his wand and practically ran to the school to talk with Dumbledore. He promptly called them to his office after dinner.
They sat down in front of his desk and Remus apologised:
"I'm sorry, sir. We didn't want to hex them or fight with them, but we would have had to, they were seven and we were in the middle of them. No one seemed to want to interfere, so we decided to disarm them..."
"That is quite alright, my boy. In fact I am convinced it will be reported to Voldemort. Sooner or later he will seek you out. What I want to do is to talk about protection for the two of you for when you are not at Hogwarts. We need to intensify your training. It seems that casting that spell has increased your individual power. We will test certain spells and their strength under these conditions. If the two of you are in harmony you will achieve a great number of things."
Dumbledore took the boys to a room where they usually trained and had them levitate very heavy objects. They managed alone, but when they tried the spell together even the heaviest stone flew to the ceiling. And when they focused their magic with a wand they almost broke the ceiling. So they whispered the spell and still levitated a big block.
"Quite amazing. Try an Incendio spell on this large wooden block in the grate there..."
They pointed their wands and cast the spell. The log burned up immediately. Dumbledore conjured a larger log, and then yet a larger one, and then one that barely fit inside of the fireplace, but all of them were gone within minutes of the two boys casting their spells together.
"I see that we shall have to take this to another part of the castle. There is too much wood in here to go on safely. The more destructive part of your training will be held in the dungeons, but a good bit away from the Slytherin common room, do not worry. There are parts of this castle that no one knows but me and the old headmistresses and headmasters. Now try a Reducto curse on this block of stone!"
Dumbledore conjured a huge block of stone and Sirius and Remus had a go at it, wandless first, which cut the stone in half, then with their wands, first one half and then the other. They reduced the two slabs to dust.
"Amazing. That will be all for today, boys, you have spent a considerable amount of energy tonight. Go and get some rest. By the way - I commend you for not choosing to hex the Slytherin students. It's always better to find a solution like disarming an opponent."
'Yeah, right,' thought Harry slightly bitter, 'especially when they help each other back up and re-enter the fight with their Killing Curses...'
He had to admit that in the situation in Hogsmeade it was certainly the right thing to do, but his experience with Death Eaters was of the kind that it was sometimes better to take them out of the fight permanently.
"Thank you, Professor," the boys chorused, then they left the office to return to their house.
Dumbledore stayed back, looked down on the dust from the stones and repeated several times: "Remarkable. They are truly remarkable."
If Dumbledore had promised to intensify the training he hadn't promised too much. The boys worked with him and Flitwick, then there were two Aurors who overlooked their defensive and even some offensive spell-casting, they learned more in Potions than they liked and McGonagall and Dumbledore both worked them in Transfiguration. They also took some time off to learn some basic healing magic from Madam Pomfrey, who was only too pleased to teach them.
But before all that they had to go to the Ministry. They were allowed to floo from the Headmaster's office directly to the Ministry. They reported to the Werewolf Registry where some of the staff looked down on Sirius for getting involved so intimately with a werewolf, but he remained calm. He knew there would be more of that contempt from many people. He had stamped himself a bit of an outcast, too, when he got mated with his Remus, but as long as they had their friends and their family they didn't feel bad about that. There were a bunch of papers to be signed and that done they were free to return to Hogwarts. As Remus was still one school year away from finishing his education his new married status as well as his condition would not be turned public just yet.
"Did everything pass alright?" Dumbledore asked them upon their return.
"Without a hitch. I'm quite sure they don't even realise that there's one top powerful werewolf walking all over Hogwarts," Sirius grinned.
"Good. Though sooner or later it will come up, but I hope we can get you through Hogwarts before that is the case. Voldemort won't know that you are a werewolf, but that you are powerful, the Werewolf Registry will know you are a werewolf, but not that you are powerful. I think I like the balanced beauty of that."
"I'm not so sure I like it myself. I feel a bit manipulated in all of that," Remus sighed.
"I am trying not to manipulate you, but I will not hold back that I am very interested in having you in my ranks, Remus. But foremost let me assure you that I am especially fond of you. You have grown from a shy little boy to a very self-confident one! We would not have chosen you for prefect if we did not think you were very able to do it."
Remus and Sirius returned to Gryffindor tower and spent the rest of the afternoon behind closed curtains and silencing charms making love. Since starting out they had discovered many things they liked doing. Remus loved it when he could lay on his side, Sirius behind him and Sirius liked it most on his back, Remus taking him from the front. And in the middle were many shades of grey which they all enjoyed. But they usually ended up with Remus' favourite position at the end, just before falling asleep. Remus wiggled his hindquarters a little to get the most comfortable snug position in Sirius' crotch and Sirius pulled him closer to make sure that his cock found a nice tight bed between Remus' legs. Sirius usually pushed it right behind his mate's testicles.
They woke up in the middle of the night. The dormitory was quiet apart from Peter's soft snoring. Sirius kissed Remus and asked:
"Hungry?"
"Quite. Kitchen raid?"
"Yep!"
They opened the curtains, only to find a plate of food for each of them, kept warm by a charm. Both looked fondly over to James, sending a silent thank you for sparing them the long walk down to the kitchen. They gobbled up their food, put the plates back with a thank you note for the house-elves on the bedside table and pulled the curtains close again.
"That was even better, saved us from having to go all the way down..." Remus remarked.
"...let alone coming all the way up again," Sirius added, snuggling closer to his husband.