The night before the match Remus was walking back from a late revision session at the library. He walked briskly back to Gryffindor tower, he would have to up early for the match. Well, James and Sirius had to be up early and it was their first match, he wanted to give them as much support as possible.
"Psst" Remus turned around, wondering if Mrs. Norris was hissing at him or something "Psst!" no cat "Remus, over here" he recognised that voice, deep, gentle, Irish, deceptive.
"What do you want Cunningham"
"I'm Cunningham now? I liked being Caelan more"
"Whatever, what do want?"
"I just wanted to talk"
"About..."
"Us"
"There is no us Caelan"
"I have some memory of a night in May that begs to differ"
"I seem to vaguely remember a big 17 year old I'd known for an hour coercing me into sex, after I'd said no... Then I remember not having any contact with him for months, then some half arsed apology and then nothing again"
"I know... I'm a bastard... it wasn't a half arsed apology you know"
"Right, good night"
"I really need to talk to you Remus"
"I remember what happened the last time you wanted to talk to me" he felt his hand dig into shoulder
"Remus wait, I really need you right now" Remus tutted at him, furious
"You don't need me, you need an orifice"
"I... that's not true... I," he closed his eyes and put both hands on Remus's shoulders, he was about 3 inches taller than Remus, he came down to his level "I'll let you be on top this time" Remus opened his mouth to reply no. But this was just a little too tempting. Caelan was a bastard and a user... but he was still really nauseatingly attractive.
"Where would we go?" he said smirking, feeling a little disgusted in himself, but sill smirking
"We can go to the prefect's bathroom"
"Come on then" he said, Caelan smiled, flashing everyone of his white straight teeth
*
"James?" It was the morning of the match, Sirius had woken up in a cold sweat, dreaming Cunningham had pushed him off his broom during their match, that he had fallen to his death and Remus had flown off into the sunset with Cunningham
"Wha?"
"What time is it"
"Time for Quidditch?" James mumbled half asleep, Sirius groaned
"Peter, what time is it" he received no real reply only a snore "Remus, what's the time?" he waited for a crisp clear and fully awake answer. Nothing. "Remus? Reeeeeemus?" he sung playfully "Reemy Reemy Reeemy?". Still nothing. Sirius stood up and walked the short distance to Remus's bed, he pulled back the hangings round his bed. No Remus.
"Where's Remus?"
"It's 5:30... Need more sleep" mumbled James, snuggling at his pillow, asleep again he trilled "Evans you hair is so pretty"
Where's Remus... I won't be able to sleep if I'm worried about him thought Sirius, he went down to the common room, no Remus. Shit.
*
Remus unwrapped his arms from Caelan's chest and pulled his left leg from between his thighs. They had slept curled up on a bed-like rather lavish sofa in the prefect's bathroom. He searched around for his clothes, his underwear were hanging from one of the taps in the large bath, his jeans were strung across a painting of an outraged looking mermaid, his shirt was just in front of the door, his socks were tucked inside his shoes which were lined up neatly in the corner.
I've been sleep organising again He thought. He put his shoes and socks on. Pulling an old piece of parchment from his bag, which was placed neatly by his shoes, and his quill and ink, he scribbled Caelan a note
Last night was interesting, sorry I won't be here when you wake up, have to be back to the dorm before James, Sirius and Peter wake up and start to worry. You kick in your sleep by the way
Good luck, Remus xxx
He pressed the note into Caelan's hand and began the walk back to Gryffindor common room.
As he climbed through the portrait hole, he saw Sirius sitting on the top of the stairs looking panicked
"Remus?"
"That's my name" he replied embarrassedly
"Where the FUCK have you been?"
"What?" his eyes instantly expanding to puppy dog form, as they did when he was frightened
"I woke up half an hour ago, to find an empty bed next to me, I come down to the common room, you aren't here, so tell me Remus, where exactly have you been?" Snarled Sirius, he was never a morning person
"For a walk"
"Bull shit! I've been thinking, what could Remus possibly have been doing alone, all night when it isn't a full moon and I was confused, then I thought, who does Remus know that would be after some relief the night before a Quidditch match and all the pieces feel into place" Remus fixed his eyes to the ground, his natural reaction to anything stressful. He laughed coldly "That's exactly what I thought, I can't believe you Remus, after what he did to you. And now this. Of all people, I know, you're the person I'd think was most likely to notice when someone was using you! Completely Un-fucking-Believable. You make me sick" he stomped up the stairs.
Remus even heard him slam the door to their dorm.
And he was left, standing alone. Guilty, he couldn't blame Sirius for getting so angry at him because he understood exactly why he'd gotten so. But right now, no one was more angry at Remus than Remus himself.
*
Sirius had no idea why he'd gotten so angry. He hadn't had a problem with Cunningham and Remus before. But now. Ugh. They'd spent the night together. And Remus looked pretty damn happy when he walked through the portrait hole, not like last time. As he threw himself into bed, ripped back his hangings and heaved himself under his duvet, he felt tears sting the back of his eyes and had continuing strange empty lurches in his stomach. He'd never felt betrayed before. Why did he feel betrayed? Seemed a little weird. Probably just because it was the Quidditch match and it was early. He suddenly realised that ,in classic Black fashion, he had overreacted.
He would need to apologise.
Remus quietly opened the door of their dorm, his soft footsteps moved towards Sirius's bed. His voice sounded thick and uneven
"Sirius... I know you don't want to speak to me, but, I just want to say I'm sorry, and you're right. I'm stupid, I should be able to tell when people are just using me, and I'm grateful to have a friend who's not afraid to point it out to me when I don't. Sorry. I'm not going to see to him again" Sirius waited a minute, to make sure there was no lump in his throat, before he replied. He stuck his head through his hangings
"I'm sorry too, I totally over reacted. Next time I get like that, just ignore me, it's just the Black in me showing through" They smiled at each other.
"Good luck Sirius"
"We won't need it. Cunningham is easily the best player Slytherin have and I'm assuming you wore him out last night" It was a joke, but just the thought of them together made him feel sick, he had to force the smile onto his face. Remus blushed and climbed into bed in his clothes.
*
"The Gryffindor team! Newly captained by Chaser Rob Collins" Called Brain Grey, the Quidditch commentator, also a Gryffindor, the crowd roared as he called the teams names "Also Chasing, Orla Flowers and Toby Cheng, Keeping, Samantha Bradley, Beating we have John Mitchell and brand new addition to the team Sirius Black!" The crowd roared, Sirius was very popular, girls could be heard screeching, his mouth went dry "And finally Gryffindor's brand new seeker, only in third year and already a legend on his broom... James POTTER" The crowd roared again, James grinned and gave Sirius a thumbs up before they mounted their brooms.
"And now the Slytherin team!" Called Brian considerably less enthusiastically. "Returning as Captain and Beater Caelan Cunningham" Only the Slytherins and some girls cheered " also beating we have Michael Weller, Keeping, we've got Pete Yorke, Chasing we have Dylan Steele, Jake Downing and Lucius Malfoy and Seeking we have a new addition to the team Pandora Bridgeman!" This time only the Slytherin's cheered, Slughorn was Reffing:
"Give me a nice clean game okay? Collins, Cunningham shake hands" Cunningham gave his usual gleaming, smarmy, smirk and shook hands with Collins.
"They're off!" Called Brian "Straight away Gryffindor are in position of the Quaffle with Flowers, Flowers passes to Collins, Collins is going for the goal, Cunningham just whacked a Bludger towards him, he's dropped the Quaffle ,ooh he's off his broom, that has to hurt. An interesting start to the first game of the season" Collins gave Cunningham the finger while Slughorn's back was turned. He shrugged and smiled insincerely. The second Sirius got anywhere near a Bludger he was going to smack it right in Cunningham's mouth.
"Malfoy has the Quaffle, he's just weaving in and out of the Gryffindor Chasers, on his way to the goal HANG ON! Rats, nice try Mitchell" John had smacked a Bludger at Malfoy, but had only managed to brush the twigs of his broom "Malfoy scores, 10 points to Slytherin, let's just hope Potter can find the Snitch soon" said Brian begrudgingly "No pressure though"
After 20 minutes the score was 70-90 to Slytherin. Sirius wished he could gnaw at his fingers like he would usually do at a time like this
"Gryffindor in possession of the Quaffle, with Flowers, she's going for it this time, come on Orl- BLACK BLUDGER LOOK OUT!" screamed Gray hysterically, reacting quickly Sirius swung his bat frantically, he hit the Bludger, which had come completely out of nowhere. It was as if he and the Bludger were somehow linked, because the it flew straight at Cunningham and hit him right in the nose, breaking it... again.
"OOH! CHRIST THAT LOOKED PAINFUL!" Cunningham waved his hands, indicating he was fine to keep playing. It seemed James had taken this distraction to his advantage, as Pandora, who had been tailing him annoyingly the entire game, flew over to Cunningham to check he was alright. James dived for the Snitch, which he had spotted 5 minutes ago, Pandora made a dive as well, but it was useless, she was half way across the pitch. They had won. "Oh bloody hell Potter's got the snitch! POTTER'S GOT THE SNITCH! GRYFFINDOR WINS! 220 – 90!"
*
"Hey"
"Oh, hi" Lupin looked round the door of the Slytherin changing rooms, he had watched every player leave and decided to enter when he was sure it was just Caelan in there. He hadn't even bothered to change out of his Quidditch robes, he was just sitting with his head in his hands.
"Did they fix your nose?"
"Sort of, it's just a little more off centre now, not too bad, all I need to do now is learn to stop using my face as a bat and I'll be alright"
"Sirius said he was sorry about hitting you by the way"
"Did he?"
"Well... no... He thought it was pretty funny"
"Anything you wanted to say?"
"Well yeah..." as Remus was about to explain that last night, he had used Remus as a means of stress relief the night before the match, Caelan decided this was when he would get changed. He pulled off his robes, revealing his lean muscular figure which was glistening with sweat.
*
"Did you do it?" asked Sirius
"No..."
"Well where were you for the last hour then"
"I was with him"
"But... if you weren't telling him to fuck off, what were you doing" Sirius looked confused, Remus smiled crookedly and laughed awkwardly
"The funny thing is-"
"OH REMUS!" Sirius clapped his hands to his forehead
"I'M SORRY ALRIGHT, HE STARTED GETTING CHANGED, HE WAS ALL MUSCLY AND SWEATY, WHAT DO YOU EXPECT ME TO DO!?"
"TELL HIM TO FUCK OFF"
"WHAT IF I DON'T WANT HIM TO FUCK OFF?"
"HE'S USING YOU"
"WHAT IF I LIKE BEING USED? HE'S DIFFERENT NOW ANYWAY"
"HOW IS ANY THIS ANY DIFFERENT TO WHAT HAPPENED IN MAY, WHEN YOU WERE TRAUMATISED FOR WEEKS BECAUSE OF HIM?" Remus took a deep breath in, and an evil smile split across his whole face.
"Because... I'm on top now"
"I DON'T CARE REMUS, HE'S A BAD GUY! I'M WORRIED, I CARE ABOUT YOU" Remus looked upset that his last remark, clearly intended to freak Sirius out by putting an image in his head, hadn't given the reaction he'd expected. Then he just looked upset, he turned his back on Sirius and ran up to the dorm
"I don't see why you should care so much" At this Sirius scowled and stormed out of the common room, mumbling something about "fucking half breeds"
James looked over at Peter, Peter shrugged
"What the fuck was that?"
"No idea, I'm just glad we were the only ones who saw it, imagine if the common room had been full"
"That would've been embarrassing"
