Present once more... :P
I curled in a ball at Remus' feet, trying to sooth the mind of a fretting man with that of an untroubled dog. I'd spent almost half of the last foot of the tournament, waiting, praying that Harry would be fine, with no word to tell me otherwise, until my thoughts were so riddled with fear and despair that I could no longer watch – I'd already seen James dead once in my lifetime and once was quite enough for me. Remus let out a deep sigh, clearly as lost as me, and leaned forward to play his hands soothingly through the fur on my back. I lifted my head and wriggled my muzzle under his arm, in an attempt to comfort both him and myself.
"Please, Sirius. Being a dog isn't helping anybody – Harry will be facing whatever's out there regardless of whether you're in animagus form or not."
Letting out a quiet whimper, my head rested its weight on his perching knee, pursuing the warm fingers of security that only he possessed with my literal puppy dog eyes.
"You know, you're so much nicer as a dog." He grinned, a hand smoothing the dark hair on my head and planting a delicate kiss on the top.
Eager to play with the wonderful lips that hovered above my head, I licked up at his face, trailing a sparkling line of slobber across every feature.
"Oh...Siri, you're just disgusting!"
I leapt up onto the sofa and continued to lap at his writhing, childlike face as he giggled, trying to push me away.
"C'mon, stop, stop, stop!" He laughed "Get off the sofa."
Defiantly resting a proud head on his thighs, I yapped in joy.
"Pleeeeease... Do you know what hell it is removing dog hair from the fabrics?"
My body rolled to lie upside down on the sofa and wriggled, forcefully placing more and more hair in the worn cushions, snout dipping into the gap between his legs.
"You're a bastard." He grumbled, caressing the fine, wispy hair on my stomach.
I opened my mouth to yawn, tongue falling out and nearly covering my eye with drool.
"Oh, Siri! How proud your mother must be at your classiness – the Ancient and Noble House of Black reduced to dribbling over themselves and pissing up lampposts."
My torso twisted and turned until I found a comfortable position on top of him, sinking into the familiar smell of Remus' clothes and the warmth radiating of his sweet subtle frame, watching him fall quietly asleep beneath me.
A small rap on the door met my waking body, a shift in weight as Remus slid up to see what it was, leaving me to steal the affectionate dip he'd left in the cushions.
"Oh... Albus... What brings you here?"
The low, mellow voice I hadn't heard in a very long while slid through the door.
"I was hoping to talk to you –plural – about Harry..."
My mind popped, exploding with energy – having Dumbledore knocking for you was never good, but it also meant some evil shit was going down and evil shit was my favourite pastime. Without even thinking, I changed back into my normal form and bounded over to the entrance to grasp Remus' shoulder with excitement.
"Rems, you wouldn't mind making the lot of us a cup of tea, would you?" I beamed but he did not reply, looking forward in shock, as if someone had told him that he had only 2 months left to live. My lips stroked the top of his ear. "Please, honey."
He stormed of and returned, almost as quickly as he'd left, to sit beside me in nervous anticipation, squeezing my hand in a knuckle breaking grasp. Our old headmaster took an extended sip, glancing around the room in though and then breathed out, placing the cup on the tea table beside the couch.
"He's fine, Remus, there's no need to break your partner's wrist."
He quickly let go and heaved a sigh of relief, letting me free for a moment to relocate all my little bones back into their sockets, before kindly clasping me again in a tender lock.
"If you don't mind me asking... why are you here?"
"The Order – we need to get it back together." Albus said in his normally calm voice, as always, like he had not noticed the meaning of what he'd just implied.
I felt Remus' nose nuzzle into my shoulder blade and breathe down my back, overly controlled. I knew he could still remember what had happened last time, all the innocent people who'd lost their lives, all the good friends we'd no longer be able to see again. And for a moment, I lost myself in the past, how much we'd love and then argue and then love once more, an evil, never ending circle of distrust and passion mixed into one ugly mess, my thoughts only disrupted by a quiet mutter in my ear and then an empty space beside me. Dumbledore stood and gave a composed smile.
"Oh, and Sirius, would we be able to use Grimmauld Place as head quaters?"
I lead him back out of the house.
"Sure, you do whatever you want with the place. It was nice seeing you again... even with the circumstances."
He slid out of the door, pulling it to a close behind him. My head spun, as I tried to let everything I'd just realised soak in, my mind unready for what met me when I turned into the bedroom to find Remus once more. A gold spec glinted in his hands, smiling up at him from inspecting fingers, face stunned, as if he'd discovered a diamond the size of his head.
"Siri... what's this?"
"Rems... before... before Russia, I bought the ring... because I thought... that maybe I'd ask you... to be my other half... but now... you see... now-"
He broke in on me.
"Now you're not, I get it." His eye looked broken, gazing up at me like a man who'd just lost everything he'd ever had, ever wished for.
I moved over and rubbed a consoling arm around him.
"Rems, you know how the story goes – Voldemort's coming back and no amount of getting married is going to stop it. Harry needs us, we can't just lose focus now, everyone depending on us."
He sighed and looked away. "Isn't that more of a reason? If I'm going to die, I want to do it with the man I love."
"Don't think like that, Rems."
"No, it's true. Anyway, why do you have to always be the one to save the day? Can't you just be a normal human being for once, not a super hero?"
I smiled warmly and kissed his cheek.
"No one has to know?"
"No one."
"Oh, Rems, I love you," I smirked, slipping off the bed and onto the floor in one swoop, snatching to gold ring as I did so. "Will you marry me... or whatever we do?"
"You're the most romantic man I know, Siri. 'Or whatever we do' you really are hopeless." He smirked down at me.
"Will you please say yes already? My knee's going to give soon."
"You're a fool, was there any doubt that I wouldn't?"
A gleeful wave of tears drove down his face as I slid the gold onto his finger, making him smile, deep, beaming, lighting everything in the area with his radiant beauty. My hands pulled up to cup his stunning face and watch the salty mix of happiness dribble down his face, like a father watches a new born baby.
"I love you, Remus Lupin, with all the passion and longing this heart can bear."