Please note that the world of Harry Potter belongs to Rowling, therefore I take no credit in it or the characters I use for this fanfic.
And I'm sorry I haven't updated for a while, I haven't really got an excuse.. But I really am sorry, I just hope this chapter makes up for it!
The next day Remus woke up from the sun burning the delicate skin on his cheek. The bedroom he shared with Sirius seemed to be vibrating and was immensely hot. A bead of sweat rolled down his neck, even though it was already autumn.
As he squinted towards the window he noticed that the bed beside him was empty, Sirius was nowhere around and his cover was halfway down the bed. This was not very unusual, Sirius was quite a morning-person, and as Remus used his wand to check the time he saw that it was only 6 o' clock.
That was when Remus caught the smell of burnt bacon hanging in the air. That wasn't very unusual either, since Sirius was a lousy cook Remus often did all of the cooking, but Sirius seemed to have been impatient this morning.
After lying on the bed for five more minutes, taking in the foul smell, Remus decided he ought to do something about it, so he got up and summoned his morning-robe. Then he wobbily made his way down the many stairs to the kitchen and saw thick, black smoke flowing out from under the door. This was worse than ever before (even that time when Sirius had tried to cook his own fish and chips and the whole stove had exploded, leaving Sirius happily laughing his ass off on the floor and a very grumpy Remus to clean up the mess).
He slammed the door open, his heart beating loudly in his chest, prepared for the worst - and there Sirius was, sitting at the table staring at a crumpled letter he held in his hands, the bacon forgotten in the frying pan, which was the source of the heavy smoke.
"Sirius, what in Merlin's name are you doing?" Remus asked bewondered as he started waving his wand distractedly to clean up the mess.
"Rem? Come and take a look at this, will you?" Sirius said as his brows furrowed in confusion.
Remus moved to stand behind Sirius' chair and leaned in over Sirius' shoulder to read the letter, his cheek lightly brushing against Sirius' soft hair as he did so. "Is it the Ministry of.. Ooooh," and Remus just stared at the parchment with wide eyes. "Oh my, are you sure this is from him?"
"Moony, I've only seen his writing on my detention sheets a couple of million times or so."
"Oh, well, if you say so.. should we reply?"
"I don't know, I'm not the smart one here, but I suppose it would be the polite thing to do," Sirius said, sounding a bit annoyed.
"I'll reply to him later then."
Remus re-read the letter.
17. August 1998
Hello, Sirius. I thought you'd end up here. I'm sorry, but we can't give you a new name,
You're the only one who can do that.
Now don't worry, Sirius dear, all you have to do is to say "I, Sirius, now declare my name is Sirius Luck" and that's it!
Forgive an old man his curiousness, but how did you lose your surname in the first place?
And is Remus with you? And now you may wonder how I know you're a couple?
Well, you've got identical necklaces, and at least Remus wore his the entire time he was a teacher at Hogwarts, and the spark between you has always been plain to see, for those who have bothered to look.
Oh, and I hope you don't mind I gave your owl a few treats, it was so terribly grumpy, you see.
It kept snapping at my hands.
Best wishes,
Albus Dumbledore
(Minister of Magic, Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)
"So he took the post after he passed away.. How curious, I could have sworn he'd never take the post. On the other hand, I don't think there were alot of other options, surely there can't be very many people in this world? And what did he mean, that he thought you'd end up here?" Remus looked more confused than Sirius felt like, so he did what he always did when he wanted to think better; he played with Sirius' lovely, long locks.
"I can't believe he fed my owl! Jamesie's on a diet! And I always thought he would take it though, he's definitely wiser than all the previous ministers together. And in fact, I think there are. Everyone who's.. waiting for someone, they gather here.
He probably just understood that I'd wait for you," Sirius said as he turned around and pulled Remus' face down for a morning kiss.
Remus chuckled, "Speaking of waiting, I'm waiting for breakfast. I'm starving," he then winked and seated himself on the chair across from Sirius'. "What are we having for breakfast? Burnt bacon?" Remus raised his eyebrow and looked suggestively at Sirius, and his glance held just the tiniest bit of anger and worry.
"I'm sorry if I frightened you, Dear. I was just so shocked it was Dumby who replied, and I had to sit down to be able to take it in, really. Therefore I forgot everything remotely related to bacon. I'm sorry for ruining yet another frying pan," he threw on his puppy eyes for extra effect, for he knew that Remus always softened under those eyes.
"You scared the living daylight out of me! Don't you ever dare to even start cooking breakfast without me again! And about that pan, just banish it. It was rubbish anyway, it burns things too easily," a wicked smile played on Remus' lips at that.
Sirius reached his hand across the table and took Remus' hand in his. He raised it to his mouth, palm facing the table, and then he hovered his mouth above it, almost kissing it, but still not, Remus could feel the air between them vibrating, as if filled with electricity.
"I, Sirius, now declare my name is Sirius Luck," and then he let his lips touch Remus' hand, as gentle as a summer breeze.
The days following that incident, Walburga Black's painting was alot louder and more annoying than ever before. It was almost as if she could sense the change in name of her disinherited heir. After three days, Sirius had finally had enough and got a very wicked idea.
He was trying to cuddle with Remus on the living room sofa, while Remus was trying very hard to ignore the whimpering dog-like noises Sirius kept making while pecking small kisses from his collarbone up to his jawline , when Walburga started screaming obscenities again.
"That is IT! I can't take this anymore! She's waking us up in the middle of the night, disturbing our cuddling sessions and destroying every shread of peace we have!" Sirius almost shouted, as the same time as he sprung up from the sofa and stormed out of the room.
Remus, who was afraid he'd do something stupid, was quick to place the book down and get on his feet and follow him.
His chase lead him to the fifth floor, where Sirius' childhood bedroom lay. As he walked through the corridors in a quick pace after Sirius, he saw old wooden doors thrown of their hinges, the contents of the rooms behind them completely scattered around the floor. Pieces of old books, parchments, paintings, quills, bedsheets and countless other things lay in piles on the floor, and the rooms seemed to have been wrecked by brute force alone. No, no magic had been used here. The corridor smelled of burnt wood and alcohol, and every surface both in the rooms and in the corridor seemed to be covered in a thick layer of grey dust.
Remus gulped audibly, he had rarely set his foot on this floor since he had arrived, mostly because he knew the floor contained many bad memories for Sirius from his childhood days.
As Sirius walked into his old bedroom, he stopped dead in the middle of the floor, just staring at the deep green wall above the four poster bed, where a Gryffindor scarf, countless photographs and a poster of a Muggle motorcycle were permanently stuck to the wall. This room was as destroyed as the other ones.
Remus put a comforting hand on Sirius' shoulder, and with a voice as gentle, loving and caring as he could manage, he asked "Siri, what are you doing?"
"If.. if her painting can be stuck upon the wall, I bet I can stick something else on top of her painting. If I remember it right, I've got another poster of a motorcycle in a drawer somewhere. Could you help me look?"
Remus wanted to tell Sirius that he didn't really think it was a very good idea, but he didn't have the heart to deny his Sirius this. "Sure love, whatever you need."
And so they searched the room together until they found a poster of a black motorcycle with red flames on the sides, it was Remus who found it under the bed.
"AHA! Found it! Should we go and paste it over your mother then?" Remus asked and offered Sirius a reassuring smile.
Sirius smiled back weakly and just took Remus' hand in his as an answer, and started leading him through a trapdoor cleverly concealed as a banner of a big serpent. Sirius hissed sharply at it three times, and it kindly rolled up to reveal an entrance just high enough for Remus to walk through without any problems. Sirius had to bend his head a little, and as the passage was quite narrow, and Sirius still insisted on letting their hands stay woven together, he kept hitting his shoulder in the cold stone wall. The passage smelled slightly damp, and Remus' delicate nose could catch the weak scent of cooking spices.
After a turn the passage ended in a steep staircase, where Sirius insisted he'd go first, for Remus' saftety. "Always such a gentleman," Remus thought. So down they went, and they ended up in a doorway to the main kitchen (for Grimmauld Place had several kitchens, they didn't actually use the main kitchen though), where every surface seemed to be covered in dust, some pots and pans still stacked in the sink.
Behind them the door sealed itself, acting as just a piece of wall. You couldn't see any seams at all.
From the kitchen Sirius led Remus through the main diningroom, the big livingroom and down the grand staircase to the entrance hallway. This had actually been a quicker route than walking through the many winding corridors on the fifth floor to get to the grand staircase.
Walburga didn't have any time to react before Sirius had covered her portrait with the poster, and her angry shouting now sounded like muffled curses.
"Thankyou for everything, mother," Sirius spat, the last word sounding like poison.
Remus looked at Sirius with hurting eyes, he knew just how he felt. His mother hadn't been easy on him for being a werewolf either, though it could of course never compare to all the horrible things this woman had said and done to her son throughout his life.
Now Remus decided that Sirius looked like he clearly needed some comfort, so he embraced him and held him firmly, stroking his hand over Sirius' back reassuringly, as Sirius burrowed his head into the crook of Remus' neck and let out small sobs, that got muffled against Remus' thick, knitted sweater.
Muffled sobs he never would have let anybody else hear, Remus was the only one in the world who could ever hear them, he was the only one he trusted enough, besides James of course.
But James was dead and gone, so he couldn't hear any sobs.
And Sirius hated himself for crying over his mother.
And Remus kept holding Sirius as Sirius kept hating himself, until they both dropped down to the floor after a while to rest, and right there, Sirius fell asleep with his head in Remus' lap, while Remus was tucking stray strands behind his ear. While Remus was running his hands through that ravenblack hair, thinking about how much he truly loved this man.