Past - In the previous chapter Sirius beats up Kaadweeb.

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"Siri," Remus whispered into my ear, the warmness in his his words brushing the very insides of body, my mind, willing me to snuggle further into the duvet. "Sirius, we have to get up. We've got an exam in an hour."

I senselessly threw my hand about the covers, letting my fingers explore the surface of the sheets until they made sweet contact with his face, circling his lips and all his wonderful scars.

"Remmie, honey, shut up will you? We both know I'm going to fail."

"Well, maybe you should have actually come to the lessons. But still, by no means am I letting you fail in life because you've skipped your exams. You're getting up, and you never know, you might just surprise yourself – that love potion you made was pretty effective and I think it's on the list."

I opened my eyes and stared groggily at his face for a short while, mind still lost in a deadened haze that clouded my vision and numbed my emotions. I was too tired to deal with this shit. Another 5 minutes would have done just fine, but he trudged away and came back with my uniform, giving me a look that was almost too kind to refuse.

"Here you go," he grinned, sitting beside as I stretched myself back into motion and sat up, gazing nervously to the other side of the room.

His hand stroked up my arm and pulled me into a tight hug, forehead resting on my shoulder as he breathed down my chest in tender pushes.

"You worried?"

A displeased groan slithered from between his lips.

"You shouldn't be," I grinned, cradling his face in my hands. "You're amazing."

He sighed and turned aside to gather his cloak. "Get those on, I'll be in the common room."

X

I shuffled down the stairs from dorm, dragging the top half of my body drowsily behind me, scraping it against the wall. Already the common room was filled with the familiar faces of 7th year Gryffindors preparing for their Potions exams with anything the could find, growing stacks of books and parchment littered about the room, making the journey to where Remus was stood quite a dangerous task for me and my one remaining crutch – I'd lost the other in a jousting match with James in which he had 'accidentally' thrown it out of our dorm's window in a losing rage and I had just been too lazy to get it back.

I hobbled up behind him, balancing myself on one foot to massage his arms and shoulders in an attempt to soothe whatever worry was building up within his delicate shell. As much as I wanted to collapse on top of him and give up with school life, I had to hold still and stay confident for him, with him. As of late I'd become less than what he could call a boyfriend, not because I didn't care – I did, I really, really did – but because I could not physically be there for him when he needed it the most and when I had, I had worried him more than anything either of us could handle.

"You hungry?" I said, nuzzling my nose into the back of his hair. "We could send Peter down to the kitchens or get something from your little stash – if only I knew were that was."

He shook his head and looked further down to the flooring. "Not hungry..."

I drew his chin towards me and placed a forceful kiss between his lips, steadying him as he stumbled back. But he pushed away and gave me a harsh stare.

"I am not in the mood, Sirius."

"Well you'd better get in the mood because you, my dearest love, need to calm down and I am going to be the one to make that happen."

"Don't you even thi-"

I cut him off, pressing my lips to his, savouring every slow movement of our mouths, sliding my hands up the back of his shirt and clutching to the warm, pale skin that resided beneath.

"Sirius," He breathed, pulling away a little, but I held him closer. "Sirius, Sirius, Sirius." He wrenched us apart once more, holding a cold look to my eyes, fingers grasping desperately at the surface of my uniform, wild tremors flexing about them. "We have to go."

I let a gentle smile dance about my lips and dragged him after me to the examination hall – I was sure if I didn't force him on his journey there he might have died of anxiety on the way.

He leant up against my side, head resting upon my shoulder and gazing into the horde of Potions students as they chatted amongst themselves and skipped off to their practical exams by the call of their names, clasping ever more ferociously to my hand as each parted from the corridor to the mystery that stood behind the dark wooden doors. I lifted my arm and ran my fingers through the lengths of his hair, tilting my head on top of his and removing the knots with the stretching of my hands.

"You going to be fine," I muttered down to him, pressing my nose to his parting. "Everything's going to be absolutely spiffing."

He shook his head against my collar bone and sighed. "But what if it isn't? What if my who life, all my career options are ruined by this one stupid test?"

"They wont be. Besides, you still have the written paper to go. They'll average it out even if you do a major screw-up on this."

"But what if I do a major screw-up on both! What then?"

I laughed to myself and rubbed my forehead to his. "Then I guess you'll have to marry Snivellus over there and make up for it"

"Don't even joke about that... I'd rather die!"

"Well, technically-"

Though my pep-talk was cut short by the bellow of "Sirius Orion Black" from across the hallway.

"Look, you're a stunning wizard. You'll so splendidly." I smiled, placing a kiss on his cheek and marching to the doors.

If he were to fail, well, I guess that I'd just have had to do twice as badly as I naturally would have done, just to make up for it.