Carry You Over To A New Morning

There was, all at once, a scurry of activity as Alice and Lily offered quick, thin excuses that conveyed that they were leaving the room. Lily somehow managed to coerce Potter into coming along, although if he had been asked about it later, Remus would not be able to repeat what she said that ultimately got him to move, which Potter had seemed very reluctant to do. What he was aware of, instead, was Sirius's stunning grey eyes, and his black hair, which had been cut shorter, and now curled over the shell of his ears. Remus had not seen him in quite some time, and all he could think of was running his hands over Sirius's skin and kissing him until he had no breath left.

Sirius, however, appeared to harbour no such warm feelings toward him. He had recovered from his shock and had closed his mouth, and now had a look of odd detachment on his face, as he unwound the scarf from around his neck and carefully shrugged off his expensive woollen coat, which he then draped over the sofa. He hadn't returned Remus's greeting.

Remus hesitated, for a moment unsure, but then asked, 'How are you?'

Sirius looked at him directly, then, and there was something in his eyes that had changed, that had become different, from the last time they had seen each other. He seemed eerily calm and collected and his voice, when he addressed Remus, was void of any kind of emotion except politeness. 'I'm fine, thank you.'

He left no room for a response from Remus; it was as if one was simply not welcome. Remus, who was starting to feel a bit confused by the whole thing, nonetheless soldiered on. 'That's good, then. How're things at school? You're in London for Easter break?' he asked.

He wanted to ask many more questions – like ask how Sirius felt about Lily and James, who had obviously become a couple; about how things were with Peter, who didn't appear to be here; about Sirius's flat, which he didn't appear to be currently occupying; and about this house, which was grand and old and smelled, faintly, of cigar smoke. Remus felt, for some reason, that it matched Sirius more than it matched Lily Evans.

After a bit of a pause, Sirius snorted, looking at Remus as he ran a hand through his hair. 'Really?' was all he said in response. His voice was cold, accusing, laced faintly with an emotion that sounded like hurt.

Remus blinked, feeling chastised, although he didn't know what, exactly, for. He was aware, however, of the stark contrast in their voices: his, laced with warmth and affection, and Sirius's, cold, as if it had been steeped in ice water. It left him feeling oddly vulnerable. 'What's wrong?' Remus asked, eventually, softly.

Sirius looked at him as if he was being incredibly stupid on purpose. 'You know what? Just get out of my house, Lupin,' he said, and his voice was low and dark and pureblood and distant.

Remus blanched, surprise filling him. The feeling quickly gave way to anger, which seeped explosively down into his stomach and coiled there, low and dangerous. He looked at Sirius with narrowed eyes and then pulled his wand out of his sleeve, summoning his coat from the hallway. It dutifully zoomed out of the hallway and past Sirius, who had to duck to avoid being hit by Remus's knitted scarf, which had been stuffed into the sleeve and was almost falling out.

Remus shrugged on his coat, put on his scarf, and then turned to face Sirius, fully dressed. Even though all of him was screaming at him not to, he opened his mouth, and said, 'I don't know what's going on that's got you in such a strop, so why don't you come find me when you're done acting like you're two.'

Sirius gave him a smile that would not look out of place on Mrs Black's face, and said, 'I don't think I will, thank you.' His voice made the hairs on Remus's arms stand on end.

He kept quiet, because this was somehow over and he had no idea what had happened, but he'd be damned if he'd let a petulant seventeen-year-old make him feel like this was his fault. But he also knew that his cheeks were burning and that his fists were clenched and that he was starting to feel light-headed, like the breath had been knocked out of him. He knew he didn't look, at all, as much in control as he would've liked to appear. Additionally, the Summoning Charm was the first proper spell he had done since he was out of the hospital, and it had left him feeling drained. The movement had been done too impulsively and the magic had been far too concentrated.

Sirius had stopped paying attention to him entirely, and had sat down on the sofa instead, reading a newspaper, which he had produced seemingly out of nowhere.

Remus, who still had no idea what was going on, felt humiliation wash over him. For just a seventeen-year-old, Sirius was surprisingly adept at making someone like him feel like shit. He hesitated for a small moment, wanting to perhaps say something else, perhaps goodbye, although that would hardly encompass everything they had experienced together, in all those years. At that moment, Sirius turned the page, eating a piece of shortbread and spilling crumbs everywhere, seemingly without a care in the world.

Remus had had enough. He calmly walked past the sofa, taking care to knock into Sirius's legs, hard, as he made his way to the door. He heard a muffled yelp behind him, but he ignored it, wrenching open the painted front door.

Sirius shouted something after him, but Remus couldn't exactly hear. He paused for a breath, to see if Sirius would add something, but the stupidly large house remained oddly quiet, so Remus instead slammed the door shut behind him with such brutish, magical force, one of the glass panes shattered. Without a moment's hesitation, he stormed into a nearby alleyway, and Disapparated.

Alice and Marlene at the apartment when he Apparated directly into the living room. They were sitting comfortably on the sofa, covered by a knitted grey blanket of Alice's own making, sipping mugs of steaming hot coffee. The conversation they had been engaged in stopped immediately, and they both turned to look at him, Alice's face hopeful. She took one look at his appearance, however, and her face fell.

'Are you all right?' Alice asked, setting her mug down on the coffee table in front of her.

'Perfect,' Remus said, shrugging off his coat and tossing it towards the coat rack in the corner with very little aim. It landed on the floor. 'I'm absolutely perfect.'

'You look it,' said Marlene, who had followed the progression of his coat, and was now looking at him, one eyebrow raised. Alice, meanwhile, had gone into the kitchen and had now returned, bearing a full mug of tea, which Remus always preferred to coffee.

Remus ran a hand through his hair, falling down into one of the armchairs by the fire, and taking Alice's proffered mug. 'Thanks,' he said.

'Remus,' she said softly, sitting down on the arm of the chair. 'I'm very sorry, I thought that –'

'That's all right,' Remus interrupted, somehow managing a smile as he patting her knee. 'Thank you. I really don't want to talk about it, though.'

'Fair enough,' said Marlene. 'I'll tell you about my break-up with Martin, instead.'

Remus stared.

'I caught her shagging Rodgers,' Marlene said airily. 'So I hexed her. And then him.'

'Sorry,' Remus said, still a bit shocked.

'Don't be,' Marlene said, grinning. 'You know how good my hexes are.'

Remus laughed. 'Yeah, they are.'

Weeks passed, and Remus slowly recovered, and eventually went back to work in early April. He thought of Sirius, about how the way things had ended, more than he wanted to. He was still surprised at how their last meeting had gone, and could still not think of a reason Sirius would be so incredibly upset with him, but he never allowed himself to dwell on it for too long. Sirius, for some reason, wanted absolutely nothing to do with him, so who was he to protest? If he wanted absolutely nothing to do with Remus, then Remus wanted absolutely nothing to do with him. It was that simple.

It was a strange ability he had always had, ever since he was a child: he was able to shut someone out completely, if they had hurt him. One of his grandfather's favourite stories about Remus had been that time he had ignored a fellow wizard's persistent invites to a birthday party, after he had overheard the boy saying that Remus's mother was "common-looking". The boy had been distraught, and had to cancel his party, because Remus had been the main reason why many of his pureblood friends were coming. Looking back, it perhaps hadn't been Remus's proudest moment, but his grandfather had told him then that this meant that he had character, and was worth more than his ridiculous father.

And now, Remus was doing the same thing to Sirius as he had done to Evan Rosier back when he was little: he was shutting him out. Not that Sirius seemed to care, or notice much. He had not attempted to contact Remus since that night, and Remus had seen neither hide nor hair of him or his Gryffindor friends. Alice had apologised to him multiple times, but, as Remus explained to her, she had helped him: she had helped him see that Sirius Black was an utter waste of his time. Alice had seemed unimpressed by his statement, but Remus was unrelenting. 'Really,' he told her, ruffling her hair, 'I should focus on my career for now.'

And he did just that. While his personal life was non-existent, his professional life was flourishing. He had been offered a grant by the Ministry of Magic to continue his studies on Containment Charms on their premises, so twice each week, he travelled to the Ministry of Magic's Charms Department, and worked there alongside the Head of the Department, a beautiful girl called Sabrina Li, who liked him a lot. Alongside his research for the Ministry, Remus fulfilled his duties as a Healer, volunteering for shifts that no one else wanted, which often kept him at the hospital for seventy-two hour stretches.

He slept little, and his skin had taken on an ashy tone. But it mattered little: he never felt more alive.

On a cold, wintry day at the end of November, two years later, his wand vibrated in his pocket. He was in the middle of a conversation with Sabrina, who had suggested he incorporate runes into the experimental Containment Charm he had been working on. Making his apologies to Sabrina, he took it out, and it announced, in a clear voice, 'Presence of Head Healer Lupin required on Ground Floor, Artefact Accidents.'

'Noted,' he told it, and then smiled up at her. 'Excuse me.'

'I'll see you next week, Lupin,' she said, running a hand up his arm.

He grinned at her, mischievously, and then turned on his heel and left, leaving her standing there in the middle of the corridor, staring hopelessly after him, a fact he had purposefully failed to notice for over a year now. He exited the Ministry building, looking up at the clouds. It always made him feel slightly claustrophobic, how winter took the light from the sky and disoriented them all, making the early afternoon feel like ten in the evening. He hummed cheerfully under his breath as he made his way to the hospital, pushing past eager, early Christmas shoppers and scarcely noticing the beautifully decorated winter shop displays.

The two years that had passed since he'd last seen Sirius had been a whirlwind of emotions. He heard from Marlene that James and Lily got married straight out of Hogwarts, and were now living close to Potter's ailing parents in Godric's Hollow. Alice had had a child, an adorable boy she had called Neville, and who showed amazing signs of early magic. Remus loved him like his own, bringing him presents from his travels, reading to him, and once, even disastrously baking with him. While Alice's sturdy Aga had barely survived the onslaught, Neville had loved it, and Remus had, too. Valerie had gotten married and had had a child, and was living with her husband – a rich Spanish wizard, whose family held several stocks in the company that owned the Daily Prophet – in Portugal. She and Remus exchanged Christmas cards each year.

Marlene had found a girlfriend in a stubborn, fiery young girl called Dorcas Meadows, whom she had met when the latter had shown up at St Mungo's with second and third-degree burns. The burns had obviously been given to her by a dragon, but she had refused to elaborate on how she exactly came about them, and Marlene had been intrigued and a little jealous. They had become good friends, and after just sixth months of dating, Marlene had moved into Dorcas's flat, which had only one room and running water only on occasion, but neither seemed to mind very much.

Remus never asked Marlene about Sirius, and she never told him anything purposely, somehow understanding that he wasn't interested in learning much about him. However, Remus did know some things about Sirius, even if most of them had been gleaned wholly by accident. Once, Marlene had shared that Sirius had started training to be a Cursebreaker, something he had appeared remarkably skilled at, much to Marlene's annoyance. Then, in passing, she had mentioned that Sirius had publically broken up with a boy called Something-or-Other Fawley, which had seemed to cause quite a scandal amongst the pureblood community, and had led to Sirius being formally disowned by his family. Finally, Remus knew that his flat in London had become a popular place for parties in the wizarding community; Sirius, and his parties, were frequently in the news.

The cold was bitter, almost, and Remus hunched his shoulders in his winter coat. Within minutes, he had reached the hospital, passing by a brilliant black motorbike parked against a nearby wall. When he stepped through the glass window, he noticed that it was busier than usual, for a normal night. A handful of reporters from the Prophet were gathered near the reception, and were pestering the receptionist with rapid questions. Remus met her eyes, questioningly, but she shook her head imperceptively, and motioned her head towards the hallway to the left of her.

Remus shrugged off his coat, revealing his mauve coloured Head Healer robes, and pushed it, alongside his scarf, into the hands of one his current assistant Healer, who was waiting for him at the top of the stairs and hurried away to stow the coat in Remus's office. His wand lit up when he passed the correct room, and he pushed open the door of one of the most expensive private, out-care patient rooms the hospital had.

Immediately, a roll of parchment appeared, and his second-assistant Healer – who had reappeared at his side – plucked it out of the air, and read it out loud to him.

'Unknown life threatening injuries, suspected Dark magic, twenty-year-old male,' his voice had a keening sound to it, a rush that all second-assistant Healers carried, having just come from training, dying to experience the real world of Healing for themselves. Remus nodded to him, and then turned around to face the bed.

The man's head was leant back against the wall, his white face deathly pale. His cheek was marked by a huge gash, which was bleeding profusely, splattering on his black leather jacket. Something incredibly uncomfortable lurched in Remus's stomach when beautiful grey eyes turned towards him, and met his gaze.

'Should've known,' Sirius said, a cold yet charming smile playing about his lips. 'It's been a while, Lupin.'

Author's Note: This chapter was a long time coming. I had originally planned to end the story in this chapter, but when I wrote it, the ending felt wrong and unfulfilling. So, instead, I tweaked my original idea slightly, and came out with this chapter, which has my heart, in many ways.

Thank you for your lovely words and your continuous support.