A/N New chapter! Huzzah! Just… cuteness and such.
Chapter Two: Of Plans and Pets
Remus inwardly thanked every greater force he could think of for the previous moon having been on a Friday. It meant that neither he nor Sirius needed to attend school for two days and gave them more time to figure out what precisely to do.
It was noon on the day following Sirius' bite, and the scruffy canine had remained unconscious or just slightly awake since it had occurred. Remus, of course, worried endlessly about this, but his nerves were eased slightly when he forced himself to remember that Sirius did this on Saturdays anyway and that Madame Pomfrey was a skilled healer. Even so, when the big, grey eyes of Sirius finally opened to their normal aperture once more, Remus let out an immense sigh of relief, causing the two that had been waiting on their own beds halfheartedly reading or doing homework to look up and hurry over at the sight of the stirring dog.
"He's up!" said Remus unnecessarily, wincing as the unsteady foot of Sirius applied pressure to a large bruise on Remus' calf as he tried to stand. "Sirius," said Remus, pushing him gently back onto his lap, "whatever you do, don't transform. There are some things we need to discuss." The dog, still looking a little worse for wears, cocked his head curiously and shifted himself into a more comfortable position (for himself) on Remus' beaten legs. Looking around through his dog eyes, Sirius recognized the inside of Remus' bed and vaguely wondered what he was doing there, amusing himself with some jokes on the topic he would have been eager to share (and use to make his friend upon whose lap he currently resided uncomfortable) had Moony not been so insistent on his not transforming. As such, Sirius, finally settled, looked up with a most attentive face that he usually reserved only for times when Remus gave him his serious face. Anyway, Sirius welcomed the idea of having the blur of the previous night, his soreness and sickliness and his location sharpened somewhat.
"I…" started Remus, suddenly and quickly faltering. "Sirius…. Oh god, someone else say it." He looked positively ill. Even more so than a usual day after the moon. Remus, as soon as he was back to the dorm and only in his friends' presence, had completely lost his entire façade of calmness and snapped in a way that the others had only ever seen thrice before: once upon their announcement that they knew his secret, once when they told him that he had escaped for an hour one moon, and once immediately following the Snape incident. Though he had eventually calmed and adopted the duty of not taking his eyes off of the sleeping dog for an instant, it would appear that Sirius' awakening had banished his calmness once more.
"Sirius, he bit you," said James plainly. "But!" he interrupted, when Sirius' eyes filled with panic and he looked like he wanted to transform and address them and Remus swayed to the point where he looked like he might actually keel over and concuss himself on the bed post, "BUT, as long as you stay in your dog form," he continued, emphasizing the importance of not transforming, "you should be fine." James being the one to keep them calm was an almost as rare occurrence as Moony loosing his cool. Usually that was Moony's job, so this reversal merely emphasized how important remaining calm was.
Sirius barked. The others didn't know what that meant. Sirius barked again and James merely took this as a prompt to explain further. "Madame Pomfrey tended to the bite, and gave Remus some medicine that he'll be giving you daily, and until the… venom," he said, casting a nervous glance at Remus who still looked nauseous, "is out of your system, we're… you'll be able to be…Sirius, you're gonna need to spend the next month as Remus' pet dog," finished James succinctly. "You can't be a human when it's still in your body."
Sirius, tempted to whine at the prospect of being unable to be a human for a month, changed his mind upon glancing at the person he was sitting on. Seeing how sleep-deprived, weakened, and self-loathing the boy looked, Sirius expressed his lack of blame as best he could. He adjusted himself, this time more mindful of Remus' injuries, and nuzzled against him, licking the side of his face. Remus, apparently lacking the energy or will to comment on how uncivilized and undignified that show of affection was, as was his usual response to licks from Sirius (human or dog), merely stroked the head of his new pet and smiled weakly. Sirius wagged his tail and took this as an invitation to add another lick or two to the first, this time earning him a light whack on the nose from Remus, though Remus did giggle a bit.
James and Peter watched this exchange, smiling, and patted Remus reassuringly on the shoulder. James also added another ruffle of Sirius' fur for good measure.
"So, Padfoot, can you manage keeping your mouth shut for an entire month?" asked Peter, deciding it was about time to laugh at the situation a bit before they started freaking out again. At this Sirius did whine. Loudly. Weather it was for the sake of saying 'no' or saying 'what could possibly make you think that this would make me keep my mouth shut' was unclear, but both sounded likely to be true.
The three spent the day figuring out what the dynamic of the next month would be. For starters, they decided exactly when Sirius would be allowed to resume human form. Madame Pomfrey had used the words 'two or three weeks,' but she had not said that with the thought of the animal becoming a human in mind, nor thinking of the possibility of actual lycanthropy being an issue in mind, and her use of the word 'or' had them all nervous, so they decided to make it four weeks just to be safe. They felt that they should be cautious and while they would assume just a few days extra would be sufficient, they had no one to confirm this, and decided to give it a bit of extra time. Then they needed to figure out a reason for Sirius to miss a month of school. That was the hardest problem by far.
"Okay… so… a month of missed school. Right," said Remus, pinching the bridge of his nose, partially at the task of figuring out an excuse and partially at the idea of all the homework he would have to do for Sirius while his hands were incapable of writing and his days were occupied by laziness and lounging around.
Upon hearing these words uttered, Sirius reacted in the same way he had when James and Peter had said it: he stood up, stuck out his tongue, tried to muster a dog equivalent to a smile, walked in a little circle while wagging his tail and then sat down to snuggle on Remus' lap extra affectionately, just to make very clear to the others his enthusiasm at the prospect.
"Dead relative!" said Pete. Sirius wagged his tail once more, and James did not miss the obvious go at Sirius' relatives he was trying to make. As such, he patted the dog on the head and said "Sirius, dear, they would all know it was a lie if we said your mother was dead. Though I suppose we could always just actually kill her…"
"I think it's too well known how little Sirius would care," advised Remus, knowing that saying that they weren't going to kill anyone would somehow only get them further off topic. "Ill?" he supplied.
"Yeah. We'll totally get that one past Madame Pomfrey. Riiiight," retorted Peter sarcastically.
"Cousin! Dead cousin! He doesn't hate all of those!" said James who had apparently missed the ill part of their discussion altogether, caught on the idea of pretending (or not pretending) that one of the people who had made Sirius' life hell had died.
"James, I'm sorry, but the fact of the matter is that Sirius has too well-known a family and too many people would wonder," said Remus, his hands wandering from the bridge of his nose to his temples. "I think a friend maybe. A close friend. An ill friend who's only got a month to live."
"Aw, but that's actually saaaad," whined James, hugging Sirius who was now doing a superb job demonstrating how the expression dubbed 'puppy dog pout' was even less convincing on an actual puppy dog than just any average whiner.
"So you want us to say 'yeah, Sirius was so happy he just had to take a month off!' hm?" asked Remus, flashing James a dangerous 'the moon was last night and I'm STILL PMSing, so don't test me!' look that James and Peter ignored completely, as per usual.
"What? He's rich and from the Black family. He can do what he wants," said Peter, sitting down now.
"I think Sirius has publicly separated himself from his family enough for hat excuse to be pretty useless. Anyway, sick friend is the best bet," said Remus, leaning back and closing his eyes. Not the best plan as Sirius took this as an invitation to curl up and lean against the lycanthropes face. Surprisingly, Remus did not object.
"Girlfriend, perhaps?" supplied James. Remus' eyebrow twitched. No, he thought, Sirius had quite enough of those. The thought was a little bitter and petty for the situation, he supposed, but he was usually bitter and petty when it came to the girls in Sirius' life. Odd, considering 'petty' wasn't usually a word most associated with the withdrawn bookworm. But honestly, the girls were just so steadfastly… there!... All the time! In their common room, in their dorm, in the hallways, at meals. Always. Now, contrary to popular belief, Sirius wouldn't date anyone. He chose girls that he thought his friends could stand, who were pretty and who were at least somewhat to his taste, and he didn't switch them up every other day as most seemed to think. That, however, didn't change the fact that they were always around.
"That is even less believable," said Remus, hoping that his voice didn't sound too irritable. "A friend," he decided. "One from a summer vacation. One you don't talk much about. I'm not sure how exactly we can drag that out to take up a full month, but… we'll manage it. Dumbledore's a huge softie, he'll buy it. Or maybe figure out that we have a good reason and let us get away with it. Anyway, I think it's our best bet," finished Remus definitively.
"Alright," agreed James, nodding.
"Sounds good," said Peter. "His name can be John. John Smith."
"Peter! Oh my god! That is depressing! I can't tell if that's a joke or if it's actually the extent of your originality!" cried out James instantly, to which Peter shrunk back defensively, apparently having outlived the glory and slight credibility of the previous night of good thinking and watching over his horribly wounded friend.
"Fine, then let's hear you think of something better," challenged Peter.
"Daniel Herold," decided James on the spot. Peter opened his mouth before he even could think of a retort, and after a moment of him sitting with his mouth open in silence, Remus interrupted.
"Daniel Herold it is, then. A bit plain, but it'll do. If we call him John Smith, no one will believe us, Pete. And I suppose the same goes for a name like Merlin Ravenclaw. Daniel Herold. Okay, so… we'll need a few ideas about what this guy is like, his story and such, and a fake letter." And that occupied the next hour or so of their weekend.
Next was the explanation of the sudden appearance of a dog, as it was decided that keeping Sirius cooped up was not at all wise and if he were discovered rather than announced, it would look more than a little suspicious. On this one, at least, they wouldn't have to fool the teachers, as Madame Pomfrey knew the true origin of the dog and could therefore vouch for him amongst that portion of the population. Despite the fact that the decision to get a pet was not all that sinister, it would appear to students somewhat suspicious to get one with no warning and for it to vanish after a month. It was therefore decided that 'Midnight,' as he was so cleverly dubbed, would be explained as the dog of an Uncle of Remus' who had wished to go on vacation with just his wife and not bother with the hassle of a dog. As for the rather obvious overlap between Sirius' absence and Midnight's presence, they had decided to deal with it by not actually showing Midnight to the public until the following Wednesday, and to either have him vanish before Sirius' return or appear on occasional walks with Remus after Sirius' return. They would cross that bridge when they came to it.
Then they decided that they were about done with planning for the day. James, having the attention span of a two year old that could be extended at most to an eight year old when his friends were in any sort of trouble, vanished to chase Lily. Peter, having an attention span that usually chose to be focused on whatever James was doing, followed almost instantly. Remus, still bed-ridden and intent on keeping Sirius company, Shifted around and gave Sirius a look. His eyebrows were raised and he was not showing how much he enjoyed either this alone time or his particular position looking down on Sirius.
"So. Just you and me," he observed, to which Sirius rolled over and panted, exposing his belly in the most obvious gesture of 'pleeeeaaaase scratch my tummy!' he could muster. Remus rolled his eyes and sighed exasperatedly, but obliged with little second thought. "So what now?" asked Remus, refusing to smile as Sirius looked absolutely adorable at him. "I know…" he mused, smirking somewhat now. "You're still… filthy." Sirius' tail stopped in midair and he became utterly still. It wasn't so much the thought of Remus bathing him, which he would normally use as a wonderful theme for jokes that would never end, but more to do with never having bathed as a dog before. Or been bathed before, by someone. And also, in his dog form, the power between he and Remus was inevitably switched, which made him somewhat nervous in general.
Then, mostly due to the fact that Sirius lacked the heart to put up a real fight against his sickly friend, Sirius shortly found himself in a bathtub with water pouring onto him, pointing his nose in the direction he wanted Remus to turn the knob for a suitable temperature. Ultimately it was quite a project. Neither were quite ecstatic at the sight of the water turning red when Remus scrubbed the fur around Sirius' neck, but they brushed that off and generally had an interesting experience filled with splashed water and more soap ending up in Remus' hair than Sirius'. Brushing his hair was interesting as well. Mostly as, for some reason, every time he transformed into a dog, regardless of how messy or neat it had been before, his dog hair was in a permanent state of utter grossness that had little to do with the state of his human hair. Ultimately, one hour later, Sirius was dry and looking rather amusingly groomed to the point of making a show-dog jealous. Meaning he wasn't half as scruffy as before… maybe a fourth.
The pair spent the rest of the afternoon playing an improvised, dog/human-accessible version of chess, at which neither were too good, and milling about finding ways of entertaining themselves. They ended the first day with three of the four crawling into their respective beds and Sirius sitting beside Remus'.
"What?" asked Remus, eyebrows raised, in a tone of completely false annoyance that Sirius knew well. And he knew what, but enjoyed watching Sirius beg. After a minute of amused silence, he patted the bed beside himself and Sirius gleefully leapt into Remus' lap. Remus smiled fondly and stroked the fur on Sirius' clean head. He reopened the book he had been reading when Sirius had begun to beg. Sirius whined and nudged the book. "What now?" Sirius nudged it with his nose once more. "What?" Nudge nudge. "Oh come now, you can read. That hasn't changed." Sirius whined. "Fine," said Remus, rolling his eyes, and he flipped to the first page of his book. If Sirius was going to get what Remus was sure was his first exposure to Charles Dickens from him he was going to get it properly from the first chapter. Then, with a quick silencing charm so as not to disturb the others, Remus begun to read Great Expectations aloud, complete with improvised voices for each character. To his surprise, Sirius immediately calmed, resting his head upon the thinner boy's chest and following along in the text, his expression demonstrating nothing but the utmost attention. For this, Remus thought himself to be a complete and absolute girl, but it sort of made his heart… flutter.
A/N I truly would appreciate a favorite or a story alert, but just so you know, if you do that I have no doubt in my mind that you have something to say, so for the LOVE OF GOD, REVIEW! Thaaaanks :) xoxoxoxo
Also, quick side note, so after making Sirius criticize poor Peter of unoriginality, I had the nerve to comprise a name out of the first and last names of two of my friends… Oh, for shame, me. Poor show. Anyway, that's all :)