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fanfictionfansmiction · 3 years

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Hot Chocolate

Here is a cute Remus reader insert. Sorry if there are any mistakes and that it ends a little abruptly. But basically it’s an au where you and Remus went to school together and you bump into each other twice. word count: 2638

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I’ve never been in a relationship. I point blank don’t like vulnerability and not being in control. I never go on dates with people I like. I don’t actually think I’ve ever fancied someone enough to want to know them. Or to get close enough to them to get hurt.

That was until I saw him. All golden and bright. When we first met properly, I remember his ears went pink when I bumped into him. I could not understand why because he steadied me and prevented me from falling on my face. Something I thanked him for with a cup of coffee and a box of chocolates. I knew I recognised him. Which was perhaps why I was so bold in insisting on repaying him. It wasn’t in his face which had become stronger and more defined since last I saw him. It was his kind nature and in the way he spoke. Soft and smooth like a cup of hot chocolate.

“I’m sure I know you.” I said, attempting to be heard in the bustle of the crowded café.

“I feel the same, I’m Remus maybe we went to school together or something.” He said gently placing his mug down but still managing to spill some on the saucer.

“Yes! That’s it we were at secondary school together; I think you were in my English class. You sat with that loud group of boys who really pissed off our teacher.” I said loud and thankful that I wasn’t going insane.

“Oh, good old Minnie, you know Sirius is still in touch with her.” He said giggling.

“In some strange way that makes so much sense.” I said reaching for my cup laughing.

We sat in that small golden café until they closed. Something neither of us had intended to do. Remus asked if he could walk me home because it was getting dark too early for his liking these days. There was something in the way he asked as though he’d been waiting to ask since he stabled me. Or maybe the way he said my name in such a way I felt a blush creeping up my neck. Eyes wide and a smile breaking it’s way onto my face I accepted.

“It’s not too far from here don’t worry I won’t keep you for long.” I said with a look that suggested I wanted to keep him. Ridiculous I know considering we’d spent a few hours together and here I was wishing he’d ask if he could come in. The walk to my small flat above a corner shop wasn’t long enough for my liking. Although the walk was nice, we’d bumped into each other and exchanged small smiles that lit something in me. Like I’d just drank whiskey.

“I suppose this is goodbye for now,” he said followed with my name again, “I hope to see you again soon.” A smile broke out on his face that made its way to mine. Grinning at each other like idiots I kissed his cheek and said I wished the same. He looked at me intensely like all day long he’d been trying to not really see me. Hazel eyes that now I couldn’t make myself look away from even if I tried. But why would I want to look away. So, we stood together in the doorway to my flat taking each other in. The air changed and it felt thick and warm. This closeness, the smell of coffee and chocolate, his entire being. I felt drunk. Until my flatmate opened the door. Walking between us, she kissed my cheek said she was going to meet her girlfriend and just like that the spell was broken.

“I do hope to see you again Remus.” I said touching his elbow. A smile that told me I would see him.

Predictably I dreamt of him. He was golden. A halo ordained by the winter sun. Truly magnificent. I’m not even sure what happened in the dream just that he was there. Standing tall and smiling at me.

Two weeks went by until I saw him next. Completely by accident. This time it was my chance to stop you from falling.

Me and Marlene stopped by the local for a drink. Marlene and her girlfriend were in an argument and history told us this was the way to get her mind off it. Sitting at our usual booth I was on a mission to buy as many of the rounds that night as I could. So far, I had gotten three rounds of cider and I was working on getting the fourth. Before I spotted Remus I saw the boys from my year 9 English class who were no longer boys. James had a mop of curls that flicked around his neck and ears pushed away from his strong face which his glasses took up most of. Sirius almost as tall as Remus but not quite. His hair much longer than before which was pulled back, so his face took centre stage. Much angular than before but his eyes were as piercing as ever. Then Peter, who hadn’t grown much. His blonde hair once straggly and poorly cut now shaved close to his scalp. Still a little chubbier than the rest but now it filled his face well and he seemed surer in himself. All of them laughing. They were always laughing. As I approached the part of the bar, they were stood around Remus began walking backward as though animatedly telling a story. All his friends wide eyed knowing what was about to happen but offering Remus no warning. His foot caught on the carpet that started a few meters away from where his friends were stood. Just as he was about to fall back, I stopped him. Grabbing his arm and stabilising him causing his friends to laugh even harder. James and Sirius doubled over having to hold each other up and Peter threw his head back laughing manically as he did.

This time it wasn’t just his ears that turned pink, but his entire face turned beet red. Stumbling over his words shooting murderous looks at his friends and a soft apologetic look to me. I’m not sure he even recognised me at first. But when he did it seemed like he was confused asking himself: does it being them make it worse or better? The boys answer that question for him when they addressed me by name. Which is funny because I’m not sure they ever learned it in school.

Looking shyly down at me Remus said my name with a smile. Ruffling his hair and shoving his hands into his pocket all fidgeting and nervous. “I think now I owe you a drink.” He said with a lopsided grin.

“How about we call it even.” I say to him feeling a little embarrassed myself though I didn’t know why. I got the attention from the barman and order for me and Marlene completely intending to leave the group alone and return to my booth. But James attempted to drag me into the conversation.

“Remi here was just telling us about his date he had last week.” He said before taking a swig of his drink.

“Yeah apparently Remi here is in love. Though whenever anyone says they’re in love with someone other than me I’m always sceptical.” Sirius joked.

Remus stayed red and stumbled over his words, “I didn’t say I was in love.” He says to me in a way that suggested he thinks that bothers me. Which it does but I won’t tell him that.

“Well do invite me to the wedding Remus. Sorry boys but I have a friend to get back to. Have a nice night.” I say as I sway back to my table simmering with hot vile jealously. I put the drinks down with a little force causing a spill that I mop with my sleeve leaving it sodden and stinking of cider.

“What was that all about?” Marlene ask peering at me over her drink.

“Oh, just some idiots I went to school with. Nothing important.” I say downing my pint.

“Oh, okay I sure do believe that” she says sarcastically then her face changes, “wait, isn’t that the guy who walked you home?” She asked like she already knows the answer. Then she puts the drink down and stares at me like a mother about to scold her child. “Is that why you haven’t brought anyone home these past weeks. Jesus, I thought you were a found again virgin or some shit. Now I know you’re just hung up on some guy I feel a lot better.” I lightly whack her arm.

“I didn’t bring anyone home for two weeks I think born again virgin is a bit of stretch don’t you Mar.” I whack her arm again for good measure. “And he’s not the reason I just haven’t been into anyone recently and the date I went on last week with that weirdo Lucien or whatever his name was, was awful because he was a raging tory not because of some old school friend I ran into.” I say with a little bit too much annoyance because I know that she is a little right but who cares.

“Someone’s a little defensive.”

“Well someone else is being a little- “

“Sorry to interrupt.” I hear him say. Marlene and I snap our heads at him because we love a good drunk argument to get it out of our system. There Remus stands with two ciders in his hands and rosy cheeks, smiling widely at us. Completely unaware of what we were arguing about.

“Don’t apologise,” Marlene says changing her tone, “we were just chatting, talking, you know conversating.” She smiles like she thinks she’s gotten away with something.

“Oh right, um I brought over these because your friend here stopped me from falling on my arse in a very crowded room, so I decided I owed her a drink.” He says placing them down on the table.

“Oh, so this one isn’t for me.” Marlene says pouting as if she hasn’t got half a pint in front of her (that she didn’t even pay for)

“It can be, if you want but I was wondering if um,” he said my name again and it regrettably still made something glow inside me, “you wanted to go and have a bit of a chat.” He looked at me with big soft eyes and an even sloppier smile.

Is this the version of Remus I want to talk to? I ask myself. Is this weirdly jealous and angry version of me who he really wants to talk to? Before I have a chance to answer Marlene decides for me.

“Yeah actually I have to go,” she says hastily grabbing her stuff, “Dorcas just texted me, I have to go now.” She says kissing my head and I see her sly grin as she leaves.

“Well I suppose we don’t have to go anywhere for that chat a seat just opened up.” I smile at him sliding one drink to me and the other to the space next to me. He sits down and shuffles along to sit beside me knocking knees as he does. He gets comfortable in the seat taking off his dark denim jacket and takes a sip of his drink. As he puts it down, he spills a bit and wipes it up with the beige sleeve of his jumper.

“So, did seeing the boys make you realise that we’re even louder than you remember?” He says nervously looking over at them. They were looking back until I too stared and suddenly they were extremely interested in James shoe.

“Yes actually. I am a little shocked they even know who I am. Beside the point though it seems like you’re always having fun which is nice.” I say eyes still trained on them. A girl around my age approaches them, tall and radiant. Her auburn hair twisted up on the top of her head, she looked like she’d just come back from work. She kissed James on the top of his head. He looked up at her with big warm gooey eyes and kissed her cheek. A moment so tender and intimate I want to look away.

“Who’s the lucky girl?” I ask intending to be told who James beautiful girlfriend is.

“There is no lucky girl those gits were just trying to wind me up.” Before I can interrupt he continues, “They knew that the girl I was talking about was you and they knew your name because I used to have the biggest crush on you in school,” he stop momentarily to rehydrate, “So much so they were sick to death of me talking about it which is why they were such a pain in English. I didn’t say I was in love you by the way I just said that I couldn’t stop thinking about you and was beating myself up because I cannot believe I left without asking for your number or without kissing you. I mean I truly am the biggest moron I know. Although sometime in school I probably did say I loved you. I was a little dramatic back then. Evidently not much has changed.” He looks at me with half lidded eyes. We stare at each other for a while because I’m not sure he knows what he’s said. I see him slowly figure it out because his eyes widen and suddenly looks entirely sober. “Oh god.” Is all he says as though he’s about to rest his head in his hands. I intend to show that I feel the same by taking his scarred rough hands in mine, but he’s obviously committed to throwing his head in his hands because his head hits the sticky table.

“Remus.” I say all high pitched and concerned. Then his friends follow it with a chorus of laughter.

“Oh god.” He says again.

“Come with me.” I say taking his coat and his hand. A chorus of high pitched ‘oohs’ follow from his friends.

I lead him to my flat knowing Marlene will be MIA for a few days. I turn on the lamp and Remus looked like he wanted to curl up into a ball and be forgotten by the world hunched over on the patch work sofa. Still dramatic.

“Remus,” I say sitting next to him on the old sofa, “look at me you idiot.” He swings his head up but his eyes are closed and his hands covering most of his face.

“I don’t want to.” He says grumpily.

“Look at me,” I say taking his hands in mine noticing a small cut on his head, “you got to do most of the talking in there and no offence but if I were to declare my feelings for you I’d rather it not be with your friends eavesdropping.” He groans again. “I did have a really nice time with you, and I did feel jealous when your friends made up that girl. I really want to be a hopeless romantic, but we don’t really know each other. I did have fun with you, and I would go out with you again. But next time please ask for my number because this is rather dramatic.” I say smoothing his hair and holding his cheek in my hand.

Remus looks at me with big eyes warm and gooey like James. A smile playing on his lips like I somehow said the right thing. Then he says my name again. Smooth like hot chocolate. “Can I have your number?”

“Of course.” I say and smile playing on my lips. Then he leans in and kisses me softly like a whisper.

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giant-sketches · 4 years

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This is a flashback chapter that focuses on Virgil’s transition from a Dark Side to a Light Side, based on a prompt idea I was given by @sufferingartist17. Currently he is sick in bed with a high fever that is unfortunately causing him to size-shift at random. Normally the sides do not get sick but something inside Virgil’s body is changing.

P.S. I feel someone asked for a chest kiss or suggested it so that’s in here too!

As a side note I have made an Ao3 account where I will be posting all my works here: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Giantsketches If you can’t find a specific chapter for any of my series you can find it all there!

Virgil moaned as his body expanded past his bed frame and his heels touched the carpet. He had no idea what was happening to him, he simply woke up like this. His breathing was shallow and his face flushed from a high fever. Whatever was happening was affecting his core as he couldn’t control his size. The next jump came with his bed collapsing underneath him as his foot kicked the door in. It flew into the wall with a crash, waking up the other occupants of the house.

“What in the world was that?” shouted Roman, hurrying himself into robe and out into the hallway.

Patton had already made his way to where the sound came from and stood in front of the door frame leading to Virgil’s room. Logan followed behind in a panic.

“What was that crashing sound Patton?” Logan called out in worry.

Patton didn’t reply and only stood there at the doorway with a look of terror on his face. He really couldn’t explain what he was seeing as he stepped inside. Virgil was now pressed up against the wall of his room as his body covered any visible space. Needless to say he was extremely uncomfortable and scared.

Patton took a big gulped before speaking, “H-hey kiddo? What’s this all about, is everything okay?”

Patton’s eyes were teary...it wasn’t like he was scared of Virgil specifically, but this series of events was too similar to Remus’s destabilization. The memories of that night didn’t just haunt Roman’s mind, it terrorized them all. Virgil couldn’t be destabilizing could he? He was doing so well before.

Virgil was panting as he looked down hearing Patton’s tiny voice stuttering. “Pat, I don’t know what’s going on...my body feels really hot and my cores going crazy.”

His body was hot? “What do you mean hot Virgil?” No response as the giant groaned in pain. This tight space was taking a toll on his aching joints.

“It would appear he has a fever.”

Surprised at the sudden voice Patton whipped around to see Roman and Logan enter, the best they could, into the room.

“A fever? Lo we don’t get sick. How does Virgil have a fever?”

“I’m only reading out the report my scanner is picking up. I personally have no idea why his body temperature has risen.”

Roman’s face went pale at the sight, “He’s not de-destabilizing is he?”

Obviously, out of all of them Roman was not ready to ever relive that kind of nightmare again. Especially if Virgil grew into a 1000 foot tall raging giant!

“Both of you need to calm down, he’s not destabilizing. However, his body is going through a dramatic change of sorts that I’ve no data on. All we can do is observe and hope for the best outcome.”

It wasn’t everyday Logan of all people found themselves lacking the knowledge to assist someone with. He was frustrated as Virgil’s face winced in pain. What in the world was going on?

“You mean we can’t help him?” Patton whimpered.

“I’m sorry Patton, but that is correct.”

That was the moment the waterworks popped out as Patton started sobbing. Only able to look on as Virgil suffered was just too heartbreaking. Same as not knowing what was happening.

“Pa-tton.” Virgil whined.

He felt so far away from them, of how he wanted to just shrink back down. Instantly, like magic he did just that. The sudden down-sizing was so dramatic he was partially airborne for a moment as he landed hard back onto his broken bed. “Ow.”

“Oh my gosh Virgil! Are you okay?” Patton ran to his now normal sized friend and hugged him. The others following suit in worry.

Virgil sighed with relief, “Not really, but at least I can see you all better.”

He hugged them all back, but he could feel a warm pulse rising up again from his core. He pushed them back as he leaped out of bed.

“I can feel that what’s ever causing my random shifting isn’t going away anytime soon. I need to get out of the house for now, but…” Virgil fell to the floor with a loud thump.

His body wasn’t listening and it felt like it was made of lead. All his strength was gone as he started crawling towards the door. Virgil could tell the next spurt was going to be a lot bigger! Way bigger than his tiny room and maybe even the house. He was desperate to get out to a more open area. That’s when he felt two pairs of arms hoist him up and rested his arms on their shoulders.

“Don’t worry kiddo we got you!”

“Your carriage awaits!”

Carriage? Behind the scenes, Logan had ordered his robots to go clear out the facility and make a makeshift bed inside for their weakened patient. Finally, there was something he could do to help.

“Thanks.” Virgil blushed as he was dragged out into the hall and towards the front door.

Unfortunately, once they had finally stepped outside that’s when another surge hit. Virgil yelped as he tried his best to push his friends away. Roman had made it, but Patton screamed as a massive hand of a 40 foot tall giant slammed into him. He was now pinned to the ground momentarily and thrashing about in pain as Virgil’s vision blurred. The giant's head was spinning as the blood curdling cries of his tiny friends wails reached his ringing ears.

“AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!”

In horror Virgil quickly felt Patton’s tiny form wiggling underneath his palm as he retracted it. No, no, no, no, no! Please, oh God please be alright. Virgil was in a panic as he lowered his head down to make sure Patton was still breathing. He hadn’t broken him right? Luckily, the sight of Patton’s chest rising and falling relieved his heart. Still, that didn’t change the fact that he had hurt someone important to him...someone who trusted him.

Roman had been paralyzed by fear for what felt like hours at the sight of Patton being trapped underneath Virgil’s gigantic. The screams now reaching his ears as he called out,

“PATTON!” he rushed straight to his friend’s side to check on him.

“Oh my gosh Patton! Are you okay? Can you stand?” Of course Patton was not okay, but he was still in one piece as he grabbed onto Roman’s hand and squeezed.

“Still kicking.” he giggled. How could he laugh at a time like this? “Sorry if I scared you kiddo, I’m just a bit winded and….sore.” He winced as he sat himself up. Roman sliding his free hand on the poor guys back to keep him steady.

“What about Virgil?”

At this point the gloomy giant had stood up and walked himself over to the facility. For some reason when he was big he had plenty of energy to move about. Although, his high fever caused him to stumble from time to time shaking the earth beneath him. He growled to himself, haven’t I caused my family enough trouble as is?

Once he reached the shutter doors he realized he was far too big to go inside. Defeated he just stood there thinking about shrinking back down so he could duck inside as soon as possible. I mean it worked last time.

“Virgil?”

Slowly, the sulking giant turned his attention towards Patton who now needed help from Roman just to stand. His heart cried out as the guilt and fear was building inside of him. He had hurt one of people he swore to protect...but who was going to protect them from him? This was too much!

“Hey now Virg, don't make that kind of face. I’m okay see!” Patton motioned to his slumped over body. How was that okay? “Besides I know you didn’t mean it. It was just an accident.”

Virgil shook his head, “No Pat I hurt you, like really hurt you! I need you to stay away from me for a bit while whatever ‘this’ is passes.”

Patton frowned, “I will do no such thing big man! You’re the one who needs our help the most right now and I’ll be healed up in no time!”

“That doesn’t mean you can’t get hurt again. If you haven’t noticed each growth is bigger than the last and it always comes in two’s”

Virgil’s tone was cold as he could feel another surge coming. He backed away from the facility to give himself room. This was miserable, why was this happening to him? These thoughts cluttered his mind as he watched the buildings and people around him grow smaller and smaller. His towering frame rumbling the ground as he now stood at 100 feet. Now he really couldn’t fit inside the facility he huffed desperately wanting to lie down.

Carefully, he shifted his weight to at least get down on his knees to wait for himself to shrink back down. Guess thinking about it wasn’t what caused it to happen last time after all. Logan had returned shocked to see Virgil had grown to bigger heights and that Patton was clinging on to Roman. “What happened here?”

“Oh Lo, it’s nothing!”

Both Roman and Logan shot the sweet boy a look of, really?

With a scowl Logan motioned to Patton’s current posture, “This doesn't look like nothing Patton.”

A sad smile crept up on Patton’s face as he turned back towards Virgil. “It wasn’t his fault, but when we got outside Virgil had another fit and grew instantly.” Patton paused as his chest tightened, “I um….I got caught underneath his hand and pressed down into the ground. I couldn’t help but scream. It hurt so much!”

Finally he spoke his mind as Patton started breaking down in tears. Oh man, he was being a big crybaby today. This whole situation was so stressful. Logan shivered at the thought, but quieted his mind as he looked Patton over again. While his natural healing was taking its time, Patton showed no signs of cracking.

“I suppose Virgil was upset with himself and that’s why he’s now away from you both and mopping?”

“Yeah, the giant storm cloud is waiting patiently for the gates to open.” Logan had no idea what that meant as he sighed, “Once he’s shrunk back down we should head over to him. Whether he likes it or not we’re going to be there for him.”

Roman and Patton both nodded in agreement. Virgil couldn’t get rid of them that easily!

Finally he thought as Virgil felt his core calming down. Quickly, his shrunken body fell to the ground. This time he was ready as he caught himself with his hands as he jumped towards the facility doors in an attempt to hurry inside. I say attempt because he missed completely. “FUCK!”

“Here kiddo, let us get that for you.” Slowly, the door to salvation opened and he was once again lifted up by his helpful friends. “You guys….” Virgil didn’t know what to say to this stubborn bunch anymore. Gingerly, he was placed on the massive mound of blankets and pillows the robots had gathered for him. Right now it felt like he was on a giant cloud as he laid his weary head down. His fever was spiking again as his body pulsed wanting to stretch.

“You all may want to step back a bit. I can feel another surge coming and I couldn’t bear it if I hurt any more of you.”

Understanding Virgil’s pleas, the trio took shelter up stairs on the balcony so they could watch as he expanded violently to 250 feet. The ceiling smacked his face as he placed his hands up against it. “Hope this works,” he mumbled.

Miraculously, the facility too began to enlarge to give him a lot more space. How did he do that, the three wondered? “Virgil! Wha-what was that?”

Panting the giant turned to his tiny companions with a pleased smirk on his face. “Recently I started thinking back to the first time I grew in here and how there was no way I could still fit inside at 1000 feet. So I did some experimenting of my own and found out I can shift non-living objects. That’s why my clothes don’t rip whenever I grow.” A collective ‘Oh’ could be heard from the tiny group. Why had they never questioned that before?

“You guys look so dumb right now.” He laughed, his booming voice softly rattling his surroundings.

“That’s amazing Virgil!” Patton was the first to pipe up with enthusiasm. He’s body had fully healed itself and he was peppy as ever now!

Virgil froze, he still wasn’t sure how to act around Patton. Sure he looked fine, but was he really? He decided to take a chance and reached out towards the little sweetie. To his bewilderment Patton didn’t flinch at all, but instead lept gleefully into his hand. Carefully, Virgil brought Patton to his chest and placed him on top.

“Patton, are you okay?” Virgil large eyes peering down at him with a solemn expression.

He knew Virgil would want a serious answer so Patton took a deep breath, “I am.”

Virgil didn’t look convinced. “Or...I am now. Before I was really scared and it hurt a lot, but you need to know that wasn’t your fault Virg. I know you didn’t mean to hurt me, you’d never do something like that on purpose.”

Lying down Patton could clearly hear Virgil’s heartbeat as his body was lifted up and down to the rhythm of his breathing. This is nice he thought as he kissed the pounding chest. Virgil moaned a bit at the feeling of Patton’s lips pressed against him. The fever was getting to him again as he placed both hands over his little buddy for protection. Per usual he began to grow rapidly, continuing to fill up the space as he stopped at 500 feet.

Virgil groaned as his fever wasn’t going down and his growth wasn’t stopping. “Shit,” he whimpered, continuing to shield Patton in his colossal hands. Spontaneously, the giant shot up all the way to his limit of 1000. His feet pressed against the door begging to bust out of their container and the walls creaked. Virgil was sadly too worn out to expand his surroundings again. The two tinies left on the balcony grew concerned and hopped off, landing on the titan’s shoulder.

They could feel the immense heat radiating from their friend’s enormous body, but their tensions dropped at the sight of Virgil sweating profusely. It would appear his fever had broken as he huffed loudly from exhaustion. He could feel his friends moving about his person and remained still as not to jostle them about. Virgil was relieved to have his family there with him. He could feel his body slowly start to shrink back down.

“It appears his fever’s broken and the worst of this has passed.”

“Yeah, but we still have no idea what ‘this’ even was!” Roman protested.

“Indeed. Once we’ve all reached the ground again I’ll call over one of my scanner bots to take a new reading. It wasn’t able to collect anything during Virgil’s episode due to how random his spurts were.”

Gradually, Virgil down-sized steadily as the others on his chest slide off the sides of his body to continue watching curiously. The shrinking behemoth shivered with each drop in size. Finally he returned to normal completely exhausted on the heap of blankets and pillows beneath him. His limbs stretched out, free from the previous tension of the facility walls. Straight away Patton ran to Virgil and held him in his arms overcome with worry.

“Virgil, oh my gosh kiddo are you okay now?” How do you feel, do you need anything?” he continued to ramble on like this to Virgil’s amusement.

Moving his hand to stroke Patton’s face, he whispered, “I’m doing alright now. The fever is almost gone and my strength is returning. I’m sorry if I scared you earlier, but thanks for sticking by me.”

“Thank goodness!” In the spur of the moment Patton bent down. Virgil’s head was placed on the small sides lap as he planted a kiss on his sweetheart’s lips.

Surprised, Virgil blushed deeply as he let himself be swept up in the moment. Patton was so soft and tasted kind of sweet as they continued to lock lips. Eventually, Patton released his hold on the boy and smiled shyly down at him. That was amazing!

*cough* *cough*

Oh that’s right, there was an audience looking over them! Roman was flushed as he remembered his first same sized kiss with Virgil in his room. Logan on the other hand was not entertained by the show as he adjusted his glasses.

“Patton, please take a step back from Virgil so I may conduct an accurate scan.” Without hesitation Patton scurried backwards. He left the rest of ‘this’ to Logan.

Swiftly, one of Logan’s bots came over to scan Virgil’s body. Using his display pen he pulled from his breast pocket, Logan tapped the air and a hologram screen appeared. From the screen he read the results to himself. However, what he was looking at was groundbreaking!

“I-I can’t believe this...yo-you’ve restablized!”

Restabalized!? At just the mention of that word the others scrambled over to Logan’s side to sneak a peek. Virgil on the other hand was very confused.

“What in the world is restabilizing?”

“It’s a process I’ve only theorized about till now as a ‘what if’ scenario. It was one of many and the least fleshed at….meaning I had almost no data to go off of when constructing the idea. So to witness it in person is earth shattering!”

Logan’s entire body trembled at the possibilities of this new discovery.

“That doesn’t really answer my question though.” Virgil sighed as he lifted himself up.

His strength had returned enough to keep him upright sitting, but not standing. It was like he was in a completely new body he was learning how to control.

“What that means Virgil is your emotional core is now completely stable. This kind of thing shouldn’t ever happen again!”

“WAIT, is that true!?”

“It is kiddo, but it also means...you’re one of us now...a Light Side.”

A Light Side? Was he really now a Light Side? Is that why his body felt so foreign to him all of a sudden? Sure his outward appearance didn’t change, but inside he felt at peace with himself. This new enlightenment caused him to start sobbing with happiness.

“Oh Virgil!” Patton ran back to him for a warm embrace.

“Ah geez with the waterwork, and you call me a drama queen!” Roman teased as he joined in.

Logan faltered for a moment; he was not a hug guy, but it would appear this time he could make an exception. “Yes, yes congratulations.” He whispered kneeling down to add to the family pile.

There was so much love flowing into him he shifted in size to get a better grasp of everyone. His long arms reaching around all of them easily and pulling them up to his chest gleefully! This was the best kind of feeling he whispered in his heart. Still, there was a lot to figure out, but right now Virgil was in pure bliss.

To be continued.

@crystalk17 @paranoidgurl @gentlegiantdreamer @suckedinfandoms @craz-ewaters @rainbowbowtie @pattonvirglsanders @enby-phoenix @sanders-sides-virgil @just-some-gt-trash @notkolaidoscop @bluegreeninbtwn @lgbtqiaemo @avenirunknown @ncanspeak @maryann-draws @himeperson @perfectly-princely-emo-nightmare @daydreamburritoworld

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malereader-inserts · 4 years

Text

He Always Does

Fandom: Harry Potter Pairing: Remus Lupin & Son!Reader Summary: Remus was the first to arrive, and you were the last. Word Count: 1,307 Request: “ It's another dad!remus fic! The night they have to get Harry from privet drive to the weasleys in the 7th movie, Lupins son is also there, and when Remus arrives at the weasleys, he realizes his son isnt there yet when he should've been. After a while when his son 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 isn't there, Remus starts to get 𝘦𝘹𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘭𝘺 worried. Eventually his son does show up but he's severely injured because he took a spell for someone. Tonks, maybe? (he lives though)” Warning: Blood, description of injury A/n: Y’all be enjoying angsty shit, tbh i take pride in my angst shit - take a look at stuff we did, made me sob whilst i wrote that. y’all be enjoying remus being a father RIGHTLY SO ANYWAY - I HAD A THOUGHT. I DUNNO IF I SHOULD MAKE A SERIES OR A ONE OF ONE SHOT WHERE THE READER IS DATING HARRY AND IS REMUS IS SON BUT ALSO THE DESCENDANT OF MERLIN, IN WHICH HE IS THE NEXT MERLIN - IF THAT MAKE SENSE. ONLY THE GOLDEN TRIO, GINNY AND THE TWINS KNOW ABOUT IT ALONGSIDE DUMBLEDORE AND MCGONAGALL BUT IT IS REVEALED TO THE ORDER - SO WHO WOULD READ THAT?

Remus was getting agitated, he was the second one to arrive and one by one he was watching people return from the mission and yet there was no sight of you yet.

He wanted to rage at Mad-Eye for bringing you without a purpose. However, he couldn’t, you did have a purpose. You were the most skilled in duelling out of the school, since your second year you had excelled in fighting. Advancing further than all your year mates, receiving advanced lessons from Dumbledore, himself, proclaiming to McGonagall that this would serve you purpose and help within the cause.

You were much more talented than Harry, you always led the duelling club and most often not, you were the “boss” battle that no one could ever beat. So, in the fifth year, during the battle of the department of mysteries, you had proven yourself a skilled fighter that you were able to hold and defeat many death eaters that night and leave barely scathed.

It’s why Mad-Eye wanted to bring you along in moving Harry. You were skilled in duelling and if anything was to happen you were there to defend. Kingsley and Hermione was the first to arrive after him, then Bill and Fleur. Remus believes you should be there, you should be arriving soon. Even Harry was getting agitated that only one of his best friends had returned, anticipating for yours and Ron’s arrival.

Tonks arrived with Ron, Hermione diving in to hug him as Tonks engulfed Remus into a tight loving hug. Remus was relieved for a moment, his darling wife had returned safely.

“He deserves that,” Tonks mentions, looking at Hermione and then to her husband, “If it wasn’t for him and (Y/n) I wouldn’t be standing here.”

“Really?” Hermione asked, she could fully believe you but Ron was a different story.

“Always full of surprises.”

“So what kept you? What happened?” Remus asked, wanting the details, distracting him that you weren’t there yet.

"Bellatrix. She wants me quite as much as she wants Harry, Remus, she tried very hard to kill me. I just wish I'd got her, I owe Bellatrix. But we definitely injured Rodolphus...” Tonks explained, also adding that Ron had stunned another death eater whilst she was preoccupied.

Lastly, Fred and Arthur were last to arrive. Whilst they fussed over George for a bit, who was injured with a missing ear - proclaimed himself fine. Bill had announced that they hadn’t seen Mad-Eye return. Remus was getting agitated even more, because where were you? You’re supposed to be there, at the burrow, safe.

Whilst Molly patched up her son. Arthur, Remus, Tonks and Kingsley stayed outside waiting for yours or Mad-Eye’s arrival. The night was cold and still, it sent Remus’ chills. Agitation wore off and was quickly replaced with worry, panic was slowly setting in the pits of his stomach as Tonks held onto his arms, trying to reassure him that you will return.

“He’ll show up, Remus,” Arthur says, loudly for the group of four, offering the man a smile, “He always does.”

Of course, Remus smiles, because you always seem to have a habit of turning up when you least expected to. When it was the Battle of the Department of Mysteries, you had turned up to defend the incapacitated aurors, fending the death eaters as if it was second nature to you.

When you turned up to fight when Hogwarts was infiltrated by Voldemort’s people, casting non-verbal spells as if it was as easy said than done. Your dad cannot fault you for being good as magic, he can’t fault you for being protective.

He’s proud of you, like any father should be.

Mad-Eye was seething with anger.

He doesn’t know if you’re dead, just he’s carrying a limp body back to the burrow. He’s one of the most known aurors who had a reputation and yet he was saved by an eighteen year old kid. Mad-Eye was flying through the skies, concerned with how much blood you were losing. Diffindo, not usually used in battle however, it’s known to tear or rip and object. That object was your torso and Mad-Eye cannot imagine the pain you went through.

“We’re almost there,” Mad-Eye said, reassuring himself, hoping you were awake.

You were conscious when you tackled Mad-Eye to avoid him from getting killed by Voldemort, and managed to keep him on his broom as you flew close to him. Within seconds you were gone, flying ahead, Mad-Eye can recall you defending Tonks as they flew into the portkey. You battled with Bellatrix in the sky, Mad-Eye couldn’t leave you behind, as Bellatrix fled upon Mad-Eye arrival, the pair of you had flown once more around to survey the sky.

One thing after the other, the rays of light of each spell hindering everyone’s sight as Mad-Eye loses you in the cloud of chaos. Mad-Eye just sees you falling from your broom. As he catches you, you were badly injured, but gripping your wand as tight as you could.

From that point, Mad-Eye just wanted to get you medical help, get you to the burrow. As you go in and out of consciousness, Mad-Eye was racing with time. You had not responded to him in ten minutes, he had assumed that you had passed out, and not dead. He dreads to deliver a dead son, a dead friend, a dead companion.

In the nick of time, Mad-Eye goes to the portkey, before it allows anyone else to get through. Travelling via portkey was always unpleasant with unpleasant side effects.

Mad-Eye lands roughly, he’s on his knees as he looks up to see four shocked faces.

“Mad-Eye!” Tonks bellows, indicating to the people indoors that he had arrived.

Mad-Eye surpasses the dizziness as he sees four figures approach him, but his mind is somewhere else - looking behind him, he sees you writhe in pain due to the portkey. He crawls towards you, the moment he had placed a hand upon your arm, you screamed.

“LUPIN!” Mad-Eye had found himself shouting as Remus’ pace picked up.

There, he finds you struggling to breathe, blood everywhere on your clothes, on your skin. Your torso, bloodied, open. Your eyes shut tightly as you fidget, despite every movement in your body was on fire. Remus gets on his knees, he wants to hold his baby boy but he holds his hand shakily as he tries to mutter healing spells upon you.

Molly came running as Arthur wanted to stop anyone from looking at the situation, ushering your best friends away, but cringing when another scream was emitted from you.

“(Y/n)...” Remus says softly as Molly continues to place spells upon you, “I’ve got you, you did so well...”

Remus muttered more spells, watching the blood return to your body, watching the tear and rips of skin repair itself. You were in pain, but the thing you latched on was your dad’s wrist.

“Please,” They hear you whimper, “Please, dad, make it stop.”

Finally, you opened your eyes, tears forming. Remus nods as Molly says it’s okay for you to come inside. Remus picks you up carefully, trying not to cause you more pain, you grip onto his jacket, your dried bloody hand strongly holds against him.

As Mad-Eye gets helped to stand up by Tonks, who gives him his stick, the pair cannot help but feel bad that they were the one to cause you to be in pain. Watching how a father tries to comfort his distressed son, if only they had been more wary of their surroundings, then you wouldn’t be in the position.

“He’ll live,” Harry says to the adults as they watch Molly, Remus and you enter the burrow. Harry looks at his friends and then to the adults with a tight smile.

“He always does.”

#Remus Lupin #remus lupin imagine #remus x reader #remus lupin x male reader #x male reader #platonic #angst

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snowdice · 3 years

Text

Finding the Time to Study Fic 2 [Day 34]

Here is my starting post for today’s study break stories session. See this post for more details and feel free to send me asks to keep me going! It’s been a lot of fun so far! I will reblog this post with the story as I write them today. I’ll be constantly looking for ideas of times and places for Janus to have missions, so feel free to send in any you can think of at any point!

If you are a new follower or just don’t want all of these posts clogging your dash, please feel free to block the tag “study break stories” as all posts and voting about it will go there. You can still see the finished product of the story even if you are blocking that tag as I will not tag the edited chapters with “study break stories” but with the tag “folds in paper.” See edited chapters below. None edited chapters are under the cut.

My Masterpost Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12

I also have a playlist on youtube (because Spotify didn’t have one of the songs I wanted). It’s short, and not really for serious listening, but I had fun with it.

Just going to be casually researching today since I finally have my head above water when it comes to school! Yay!

Chapter 13

The room stopped shaking after a moment. “Ow,” Pat said. He seemed a bit stunned but was still moving at least. He carefully maneuvered himself into a seating position. “Ouch. Owie.” He reached up to poke his own nose. “Ow!” Janus slapped his hand away when he got there. A bit of blood was already trickling from his nose and there was a small cut over his eye, but it wasn’t bleeding too much.

Janus pushed him so he was leaning slightly forward and produced a pack of time appropriate tissues from his pocket. He pulled one out of the package and offered it to him.

He took it and pressed it up against his nose to try to stop the bleeding. He seemed mostly alright though Janus imagined he’d have plenty of bruises down the line. The power in the museum flickered and Janus looked up. Now that he was listening, he could hear people panicking in and out of the museum.

“We should probably get off of the stairs,” he suggested.

“Yeah,” Pat agreed. Janus helped him to his feet, and they climbed back up the steps. Janus looked around and found an employees only sign a few feet away. Usually he��d not risk that as it could get him into trouble he didn’t want to be in, but considering the earthquake that had just happened, he could probably play it off as panic.

He ushered Pat into a small room and found a chair and table. He had Pat sit in the chair and pulled out another one of the tissues to dab at the blood coming from the cut over his eyes. “Here,” he said. “Hold that there. I’m going to go see if there are any bandages about.”

Pat took the tissue with the hand not already holding one to his nose. “Thanks,” he said.

Janus nodded and got to his feet. The lights flickered once again but didn’t stay off for now. He didn’t know how long that would last.

He couldn’t see anything that might hold bandages in this room, but there was a second door. “I’ll be right back,” he told Pat, exiting through it.

The lights flickered once more as the door closed behind him and he cursed. When they came back up Janus’s eyes immediately fell on a man. They both froze.

“Remus!” Janus hissed the second their eyes met. “What are you doing here?”

Remus blinked at him for a moment. “Hi. Janus,” he said. “I… come to France for… tea sometimes?”

“There isn’t any tea back here.”

“So, there isn’t…” he said. There was a moment of silence. “Uh, so I actually cannot talk to you right now.”

“What do you mean?” Janus asked. Remus grimaced in a way Janus had never seen from him before. It immediately set off alarm bells in Janus’s head. “Oh my god,” Janus said. “Oh my god. You’re not from the same time as me.”

“Oh, you have no idea,” Remus mumbled.

“Holy shit, you’re looping?!”

“It’s… not looping if I wasn’t here the first time.”

“Remus, we spend more than 12 hours a day together most of the time. The only thing worse than this is if I looped back to this time myself.”

“…Yeah. Anyway, I need to leave now.”

“Please do.”

He turned to go, but then stopped. “Oh, and,” he reached into his pocket and tossed something at Janus. Janus caught it.

It was Band-Aids.

“Oh, shit,” Janus spat at the clear use of foreknowledge. “I hate this. I hate you. I’m going to kill you the next time you see me.”

“Sure, Jan.”

“Go.”

He did, slipping into the next room while Janus took a deep breath and then turned back to the door behind him. He schooled his face before Pat looked up. “I found some Band-Aids.”

Pat nodded and Janus came over to squat next to him.

Janus opened the box and Pat looked down. His eyes lit up with sudden joy so intense that Janus felt like he’d just gotten a punch to the gut. “Kitty Band-Aids!” he exclaimed. Janus bothered to actually look at the design on the container, only to note the cartoon cats on the front. Pat was almost vibrating off his seat. “Look they’re all so cute!” He grabbed the container from him to inspect the different designs printed on the back with glee even as a bit of blood was still trickling from his nose.

Janus took the box back gently and guided the wad of bloody Kleenexes back to his nose.

“Which would you like?” Janus asked.

“Oh, they are all so cute,” Pat cooed. “Um, how about that one!” he pointed. “Or that one! Or that one!”

“Pat you only have one cut.”

“But they’re all so cute!” Pat said, tongue tucking into his cheek. He contemplated the box again. “Let’s do the black one,” he finally settled on.

Janus selected one of the Band-Aids with a black cat wrapped around a pink ball of yarn and staring back at them with wide green eyes. The think looked like it had partaken in one two many doses of catnip, but Janus didn’t mention that.

Instead, he just carefully unstuck the backing from the Band-Aid and motioned for Pat to remove the tissue from his forehead. He smiled at Janus as he drew back.

Janus cleared his throat. “How’s the nose.”

“It’s slowing down,” Pat replied. “Thanks.”

“No problem,” Janus replied. They met eyes for a second before Pat looked away back at the box of Band-Aids.

“Oh,” Pat said. “There’s a grey one. I didn’t notice.” He pointed to it. “I should have used that one.”

“Do you like grey cats?” Janus asked.

“I like all kitties,” he said, “but one of my roommates loves grey cats. He had one when he was a kid and thinks of them as good omens. Seeing one always brightens up his day.”

“A friend of mine has a grey cat,” Janus said. “She’s much more tolerable than him.”

Pat laughed a bit. “Don’t be mean,” he said.

“Oh, he deserves it, don’t worry.” Janus considered him for a moment. “Here,” he said, pulling out one of the Band-Aids with the grey cat on it. It did, actually, look a lot like Diesel Fuel.

“But I don’t…”

Janus just shrugged and stuck it on his cheek where there was no wound. Pat giggled and touched it with a finger. Janus stood back up.

“Can I have another tissue?” Pat asked.

“Sure.” Janus handed a tissue over to him and he crumpled up the bloody ones in his hand.

“I think I’m good to keep going,” Pat said, putting the new tissue under his nose. “The nose will stop soon.”

Pat got out his iPhone and directed him back out of the room. They checked the second floor and didn’t find anything and so went to the third floor. The second they arrived in the room that Pat’s phone was directing them too, Janus knew that it must be right. There was a strange, distorted whirling sound and the entire room was shaking slightly like they were standing next to a railroad track.

“I’m guessing this is it,” Pat said.

Janus nodded and looked over his shoulder at the screen. They both cautiously walked towards where the little dot was on the phone.

“Is that it?” Pat asked, pointing at a small device on the center column in the room. Janus reached forward to flip the switch on it. The whirling stopped and the room settled. Janus’s time piece vibrated as it came back online. They waited for a few moments. “I assumed… time distortions would be more…”

“They are,” Janus said. “This one is artificial.”

“What does that mean?”

“It’s a simulation,” Janus said. “It causes similar symptoms to a time distortion, but it’s not actually fracturing time at all.”

“That’s good, isn’t it?” Pat asked.

“I don’t know,” Janus said. He took the piece of tech of the wall and carefully stored it in his pocket, “but someone’s trying to get our attention.”

Chapter 14

Janus didn’t feel comfortable leaving France 2027 just yet, still weirded out by the strange turn of events. So, he and Pat ended up sticking around for a couple of hours. They looked through the art museum for a bit, but Janus was having trouble focusing on the pieces, and Pat eventually suggested they get some air. Janus agreed considering the museum would close for the night soon anyway.

They wandered around the downtown for a bit. The people seemed to jump back from the strange weather and earthquake that afternoon rather quickly, and there were plenty still about to blend into.

Pat was snapping photos every so often like a tourist which Janus shook his head at but allowed because even with the outdated phone it almost made them blend in even more. It also might stop any questions about Pat’s weird way of speaking French. They could just say he was an overeager tourist who watched too many old movies.

“Ooo!” Pat said. “We should get crepes.”

“Why?”

“You can’t go to France and not eat crepes.”

“I assure you, you can,” Janus said dryly.

Pat shot a pout at him and the next thing he knew he was in a small crepe shop.

For Janus, choosing something was easy. He just ordered the first thing he found on the menu which seemed to be a standard one with ham and eggs. Pat on the other hand seemed to be struggling greatly, and Janus had to gently push him to the side to let some other customers order first.

“What should I get!?” Pat asked. “They all look so good! I could do strawberry preserves or maple syrup or just sugar!”

“Or you could get one that is actually food,” Janus suggested mildly. “I don’t think you need any more sugar judging by how you are acting.”

Pat rolled his eyes. “You sound like Lo.”

Janus made a note of the name ‘Lo’ even though it surely was a nickname.

“But, since you’re insisting, I’ll get something healthy. I’ll have the strawberry one. That’s a fruit!”

“It comes with a cream cheese filling,” Janus pointed out.

“And it’s fruit!”

Janus shook his head and stepped up to the counter. “One ham and cheese and one strawberry preserve, please,” he said to the cashier as he was not allowing Pat to order in French and accidently say something stupid. He forked over some euros.

“You don’t have to pay for me,” Pat protested when he saw that.

Janus glanced back at him. “I was afraid you’d try to pay in francs,” he said dryly.

It looked like Pat was about to stick his tongue out at him, remembered that Janus had criticized him for that earlier, and then just scrunched up his face in displeasure as though that was any less childish.

They waited for their crepes to be finished and then went to eat them outside near a water fountain.

“I can pay you back for the crepe,” Pat said after they sat down. “I do actually have euros.”

Janus waved him off. “It wasn’t that expensive.”

Pat hummed. “Well, in that case. I insist on paying for a wish for you.” Janus raised an eyebrow. “In the fountain!” Pat clarified.

Pat set aside his crepe to dig in his pocket for a couple of coins. “Here!” he said handing one over.

Janus glanced over at the fountain. “No.”

“Oh, come on,” Pat beseeched. “You have to want something. I’ll even throw it in for you, but you have to make a wish first!”

“No.”

“Please!”

Janus sighed. “Fine.” He popped the rest of his crepe in his mouth. “I wish for a crepe,” he said after swallowing.

“You just had a crepe, silly.”

“But I liked it, so I want another one.”

“We can go back and get you another crepe.”

“Ah, but I’m not hungry anymore.”

Pat crossed his arms. “You’re just being difficult on purpose.”

“Not me,” Janus said putting hand over his heart. “I would never do something like that.”

Pat glared at him, but then snatched the coin out of his hand. “Fine!” he said. “One crepe wish coming right up.” He hopped up with the two coins and darted over to the water fountain. Janus turned to watch him go but then happened to catch sight of something out of the corner of his eyes.

Pat’s phone.

He didn’t pause in his movement, completing the turn, but as he watched Pat close his eyes, presumably to focus on his own wish, Janus snuck a hand out and grabbed the phone without looking. He slipped it into his own pocket.

Pat came back over after throwing both coins in the fountain and didn’t even seem to notice that his phone was missing, picking up his crepe to take another bite. Just to make sure, though Janus decided to distract him. “What do you think of your crepe?” Janus asked.

“I like it! It’s sweet, but not too sweet. There was a crepe place across the street from my apartment in college, but they always put a bit too much sugar in the dough, I think. I’d still eat them, but these are much better.”

Janus nodded and kept up the light conversation until Pat was finished.

21088

“Well,” he said then, getting to his feet. “It seems that nothing else is going to happen regarding the time distortion. I should be getting back.”

Pat hummed. “I should too. It’s movie night!”

“I probably should arrest you,” Janus noted.

“In the middle of all of these people?” Pat asked mildly.

“Touché,” Janus said.

Pat gasped and pointed at him. “Pun!” he said. Janus blinked at him. “Because we’re in France! That’s French!”

“…Goodbye Pat,” Janus said, turning to walk away from him.

“Goodbye… wait I still don’t know your name!”

Janus stopped to look back at him for a moment. “Like I said,” he replied. “Elvis.”

“Fine,” Pat said. “Au revoir, mon chéri.”

“You never stop, do you?” Janus asked.

Pat giggled. “Considering I don’t know what you mean, I imagine I’m just getting started.”

Janus actually left then, walking off towards the alley he’d first arrived in. In some ways, the mission had been a bust, but in others it had gone very well.

He felt for the weight of the phone in his pocket before pulling up the display screen on his timepiece to go back to the TPI.

It had gone very well indeed.

Chapter 15

The first thing Janus had done when he’d returned to the TPI was hand over the timebomb to Khalid who sent it to forensics. Within the hour, forensics got back to them that it was the same timebomb as 2999 and that it had never exploded, but simply been diffused. Which meant, blessings on blessings, everyone got to go home that night.

Not that Janus went home, no, he ended up falling asleep on his desk somewhere between 3 and 4am, but at least he wasn’t sharing his space with anyone. He’d been trying to hack the cell phone all night to see if it had anything he could use, but he honestly had no idea what he was doing. All it seemed he could do was play some annoying song over and over again about never giving someone up. At around 2am, he’d finally broken and sent off an email, though, he’d continued to try to mess with it after that.

He got woken up by Lena coming into the office at 7am, and noticed he already had an email response asking when Janus wanted to come in.

“Now?” he sent back.

“…Do you sleep?” was the immediate response. “And yes.”

His wrist buzzed as an appointment in 5 seconds downloaded to his timepiece. He selected the coordinates and landed at Cultural Outreach. The receptionist blinked up at him and then back down at the screen on his desk. “Oh!” he said. “I didn’t see this appointment. I think Professor Eran is in his office.”

He didn’t stand to escort Janus this time, so Janus went ahead and went down the hall to Virgil’s office himself.

He knocked on the door and while he was waiting for Virgil to open it, the infernal contraption once again started to play the same stupid song.

“I didn’t even touch you!” he spat, getting it out and tapping on the screen.

“Jonas Brothers dude again?” Virgil asked causally upon opening the door.

Janus shoved it at him. “Make it stop.”

Virgil took it and fiddled with it for a few moments before it stopped with the song. “Oh my gosh,” he said scrolling through something on the screen.

“What.”

“What maniac sets a custom alarm for every 30-60 minutes for a week that just plays ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’? Oh, and one ‘It’s Not Unusual’ on Saturday. He’s mixing memes at an alarming rate.”

“Can you. Just. Make it not happen. Anymore?”

Virgil smirked at him. “Maybe.” He turned around to go back into his office.

“Virgil,” Janus growled following him in.

Virgil just laughed. “What do you want to know about it?” he asked. “Just a fair warning… the song means he… likely was aware someone would steal it.”

“Of course, he was,” Janus groaned.

“But I’m sure we can still get something out of it.” Virgil started tapping at the screen again. “Okay, let’s see. It’s an iPhone 5, and someone jailbroke it.”

“What does that mean?”

“Tampered with it so they could install non-company approved software,” Virgil explained.

“Well I figured that since he was using Google Maps to track time distortions,” Janus grumbled.

“I think I have something,” Virgil said to himself while digging through his desk. “Ah ha!” He held up some sort of cord. “This will let me hook it up to my integrator.” He slotted the cord into the bottom of the iPhone and then crawled under his desk to fiddle around with some other things. “There we go,” Virgil said popping back up. “It might take a few minutes. Running the program any faster might overheat the phone.”

Janus nodded and sat back to wait. Virgil grabbed the phone and started to play around with it a bit even as it uploaded all of its information to his computer.

“Weird,” Virgil said after a moment.

“What?” Janus asked, sitting up straighter.

“There are exactly two contacts. Fewer than I’d anticipate for a regular phone from the 2010s. More than I would expect from one clearly not being used as a phone.

Virgil glanced to the side, and it must have finished the download because he unhooked it from the computer. “I have a 21st century phone network adapter,” Virgil said. “It transfers call back to whatever date the phone says. Do you want to try calling one?”

“It’s worth a shot,” Janus replied.

Virgil dug back into his desk for a small device that he plugged into the same port he’d plugged the earlier cord. “Okay, which contact do you want to try first?” he asked. “One has ‘Ro’ with a crown, red heart, and a gold star emoji. The other has “Lo” with a book, blue heart, and Milky Way emoji.”

“He mentioned a Lo,” Janus said. “So, try him first.”

Virgil nodded. “I’ll put it on speaker.” He pressed some buttons before setting the phone on the desk between them.

The phone rang three times before with a bit of a crackle, it was answered. “Salutations,” a voice said, voice sounding a bit scratchy as though he had only just gotten up.

Virgil motioned with his head for Janus to speak. “Are you ‘Lo’?” he asked.

The man hummed. “To some people.”

Janus… didn’t quite know what to say to that, or even what questions he should ask.

“I’m assuming you’re the man that stole my associate’s phone.”

“Your associate?” Janus fished.

The man made an amused hum. “I believe you were calling him ‘Pat’ on your last adventure.” Janus could hear something being placed down on the other end of the phone. Before Janus could respond, he heard what sounded like an old keyboard being typed on. “Now,” Lo said. “I have to admit, I am surprised you were willing to oblige me so thoroughly by plugging the phone into your system. Let’s see…”

The screen on Virgil’s lit up bright blue all of a sudden. “…shit,” said Virgil.

“Well,” Lo said, “it seems you were clever enough not to plug it into the TPI system, which is disappointing, but…”

There was more clicking on the other end. “Hmm, interesting music tastes for the 4000s,” he said.

“I’m an anthropologist,” Virgil spoke up.

“Ah, yes, I can see that,” Lo replied. “Virgil Eran, senior professor at Silver Mountain University, a vetted member of the Cultural Outreach program, and searched the phrase ‘How to eat sushi without making a cultural blunder and making everyone hate you and losing your job because what kind of shit anthropologist doesn’t know how to eat raw fish right’ which you then shortened to ‘How to eat sushi’ and proceeded to search 52 times in the last 48 hours.”

Virgil went a bit scarlet around the ears. “Dude, did you really have to out me like that?” he hissed at the phone.

“My apologies,” Lo responded. “From my personal experience, don’t dip the rice parts in soy sauce, and don’t add too much wasabi. Overall, most people will be understanding of mistakes, and you will certainly not be fired or ostracized for handling food incorrectly. As long as you are not acting intentionally disrespectful, and I image you will not be considering your clear anxiety over whatever outing you are planning to attend, you will be fine.”

“Okay,” Virgil said. “Good point, but counterpoint, what if you’re wrong and everyone hates me forever?”

“Is it the lunch meeting today at 11:30am?” Lo asked, “because I can see that a Professor Boris Laden has attended the event multiple years in a row. Considering he is a philosophy instructor, has no Japanese heritage that I can see, and I have found a photo of last year’s event wherein he has placed his chopsticks vertically in his rice, and he has yet to be fired or ostracized, I would postulate that your fears are unfounded.”

“Yeah but… okay, I really don’t have an argument for that one, except maybe I’m a piece of shit and everyone is looking for a reason to hate me.”

“Considering your many impressive accolades in your field, I would argue that ‘a piece of shit’ is not a good descriptor of you. Not to mention the fact that you are often a highly requested member for different committees in your department and outside of it.”

“Oh, but is that because people like me or because I’m an anxious mess and make sure events go off without a hitch?”

“From experience, disorder with people you enjoy the company of is far more tolerable than order with people you do not. Which explains my current living situation and the lack of finished dishes in my sink. Therefore, I would assume the former.”

22735

“A lot of assumptions,” Virgil commented, but he was smiling slightly.

“Assumptions based on data,” Lo argued back lightly.

“You really came in here, hacked into my computer and smacked my anxiety in the face, huh?”

“Glad to have helped.”

“Y-”

“Are the two of you finished?” Janus interrupted, finally getting sick of the two of them.

“Not nearly,” Lo said. “I have gained access to an entire network of a very large university and will be sorting through the data for a long time.”

“Ugh, right,” Virgil groaned, “and you got access through my integrator.”

“I doubt they’ll be able to trace it back to you if you don’t tell them.”

“Nice try,” Virgil said dryly, “but not likely. I’m telling them about you immediately so they can work to kick you out.”

Lo laughed. “Fair enough, but I’ve already gotten plenty of information at this point. Including the fact that you work with the TPI and scheduled an appointment with an Agent Janus Picani this morning set to start a few minutes before this phone call. So, hello Janus.”

“Bastard,” Janus shot back.

“And goodbye Professor Eran. It was a pleasure.” He hung up.

Virgil sighed and ran his hand through his hair. “This is going to be fun to explain to both of our bosses.”

Arc II What We Do to Each Other

Chapter 16:

As it would turn out, Janus and Virgil did not get in trouble for hooking up the old phone to Virgil’s integrator, mostly because it wasn’t really a mistake on their part. The phone cleared all virus checks that the tech people both from the university and the TPI ran on it. The phone should have been clean and should not have caused an issue.

In fact, they were still trying to pin down the code on the general university server. They could tell that something was mucking about on the system but what or how was a mystery. This also meant that there was no telling what information had been compromised and considering how many things Silver Mountain had its hands in, that was… a bit worrying.

Another worrying thing was there was suddenly more activity of late at the TPI. There were more time distortions popping up every day. Usually they would be few and far in between. There had been 3 total recorded the year before, but over 12 in the last week. Some of them were fake like the one Janus had investigated, but some of them were real. It painted a distressing picture and also was a drain on their resources. Khalid was actually looking to advertise positions to hire new recruits which was something she rarely did as she liked to keep appointments to the TPI in house.

They’d even loosed the number of field agents needed for each mission and Janus and Remus had been splitting up just to get everything done. Today, he and Remus had thankfully only two missions scheduled for the day.

“Are we going together or separate today?” Janus asked Remus.

“Think they’ll burn me at the stake for being a witch if I go alone to either of them?” Remus asked.

“I don’t know. Probably. I think we’re getting a bit late into the 1700s for that in Cuba, but I have no idea about Mesopotamia.”

“Let’s just go together. I did not like almost drowning yesterday because I was the only stranger in town when the weather was going wonky.”

“Surely it isn’t because you opened your mouth. Ever.” Janus said dryly.

“How was I supposed to know he was the local clergyman’s son?”

Janus rolled his eyes. “On second thought,” he said, pushing a button on his desk to choose Cuba as he next mission, and standing up. “I don’t want you coming with me.” Yet, he did not protest when Remus also signed up for the Cuba mission and he waited for him by the office door before going to talk to Rhi.

Rhi was a bit frazzled when which meant quite a bit as she was usually incredibly put together. Remus didn’t even seem inclined to tease her today.

“Okay,” she said once they’d closed the door behind them. She flipped through some documents on her desk. “Picani and Clockson. Camaguey Cuba 1755. Do you know Cuba?”

“Uh,” Janus said. “Yeah?”

“Like you’re reading the things, right? I don’t have to babysit you, right? You got it? The Seven Year War was happening, but it won’t affect you much as it hasn’t really hit Cuba. It’s the middle of the Camaguey Carnival. Everyone will be everywhere and there will be chaos so as long as you don’t really fuck up you should be fine. Um…apparent races.” She looked up at them and studied them each for a moment as thought looking at them for the first time despite having known them for years. “It’ll work. Go to costuming.”

“Shouldn’t we…” Janus said, “sign things?”

“…Yep,” she said, fiddling with her desktop and then sending documents over to their side to sign.

Janus and Remus both did before sending them back.

“Great. Good.” She stood and grabbed some things from behind her. “You can go.” She sat back down as they took their things and Janus noticed a message pop up on her desk. She looked up at Remus looking exhausted. “What?” she asked.

“Just open it,” Remus said.

Rhi tapped it and a photo opened.

“I got her a new mouse toy!” Remus said happily as Rhi looked at the picture of Diesel Fuel attacking a cloth mouse.

“That is… appreciated Agent Clockson,” Rhi said. “Now get out.”

They did, leaving to get their costumes on and checked. Costuming was just as busy and frazzled as Rhi had been and they actually had to wait for decon because there’d been a mix up with the agents leaving before them. They landed in Cuba without issue. Janus could already hear the festival in full swing outside the small building they’d were in. Remy was standing there with a very not time appropriate mug of coffee.

“Sue me,” Remy said when Janus raised an eyebrow at it. “Please just… get in and out without causing trouble. Seriously. I don’t want to have to deal with that on top of everything else.”

“We’ll do our best,” Janus assured.

Remy pulled his sunglasses down to look at him. He looked exhausted. “God please do more than your best.”

Janus nodded tightly. “We’ll be in and out,” he said, already glancing at his timepiece. It had been disguised as a golden bracelet which made it a bit harder to actually use, but wrist watches wouldn’t be invented for more than a century, so they’d have to make do. “The time distortion, if that’s what it is, should be in the middle of town. Let’s go.”

He and Remus exited the building onto the packed city street.

Janus was immediately bombarded with all types of sights, sounds, and smells. There were many colorful articles of clothing and costumes as people went every which way along the street talking to other members of their community, playing instruments, and dancing. There was the sound of people speaking Spanish, still mostly almost pure Castilian Spanish with perhaps a bit of influence from Taino as the Haitian revolution had yet to push the Creole language over to Cuba. People must have been hard at work cooking different dishes for the carnival as many different spices wafted through the air. It was sticky hot considering it was the middle of June in the tropics and Janus was immediately sweating despite the temperature appropriate clothing he’d been outfitted with.

He glanced around their immediate area, just scoping out the crowds. His eyes were immediately drawn to one person near them.

“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me,” he said out loud when he saw Pat. Remus looked in the direction Janus was.

Even if Janus didn’t recognize him the moment he laid eyes on him, he probably still would have ended up staring as he was the only person in the area who clearly did not know how to do the dance he was attempting.

Remus snorted and Janus shook his head in secondhand embarrassment. “Well, would you look whose boyfriend’s here,” he said to Janus. Make that firsthand embarrassment. “Has anyone told him the Mambo wasn’t invented until the 1900s and also that’s not how you do it?”

Chapter 17

Pat stopped dancing the moment he saw Janus approaching him, but he still bobbed cheerfully ( and unrhythmically) to the music. “Hi Janus,” he said pleasantly.

“You just have to rub it in, huh?”

There was a flash of confusion across his face, but then he smiled. “Well, I know where in our relationship you are. How was France?”

“You’re a bastard.”

“You stole the phone,” he laughed.

“You stole the bomb,” Janus countered, “and you wanted me to steal the phone. You booby trapped it.”

“No,” Pat correct, putting a finger up. “We have security on my phone because in high school I once forgot it in the school locker room and long story short, the three of us ended up in a lake. So, then Lo made sure I always had some sort of tracker on it. When I started time traveling, he updated it and when I met you we updated it again in case there was ever an opportunity like that. Lo calls it using our weaknesses to our advantage.”

“He’s a bastard too,” Janus growled.

Pat just laughed.

“Is someone talking about me?” Remus asked, stepping over to them. Janus rolled his eyes.

“Oh,” Pat said, blinking at Janus’s partner for a moment. “Remus.” He hesitated slightly. “How are you doing?”

“Me?” Remus asked. “Uh, I’m doing good. A little stressed out with work, but fine.”

“Good,” Pat said with just a little too much heartfulness to it.

“What?” Janus asked, eyes narrowed at Pat. “What is that?”

“What is what?” Pat asked. He met Janus’s eyes briefly and it made panic surge up Janus’s spine because the look Pat was sending him wasn’t one that said he was playing dumb. It was a warning.

Oh, Janus did not like this. That look told Janus Pat had some foreknowledge that he absolutely could not tell Janus about without messing up the timeline spectacularly. This was why this mess the two of them were mixed up in was so bad, but it seemed Janus did not have much of a choice when it came to Pat.

Despite how bad of an idea he knew it was, he still wanted to push, because whatever Pat was hiding could be very, very bad and it had to do with Remus. There were so many reasons Pat could be acting like that around Remus, but the worst ones were definitely the ones on his mind. Death, injury, illness. They were all possible especially in their line of work and especially with how time was being screwed with right now. And Pat knew. He knew exactly what the answer was, and oh did Janus want to push.

Experience knowing what worse things could come out of having foreknowledge made Janus bite his tongue.

“So, what are you two doing here,” Pat asked, and Janus unhappily let him change the subject.

“Oh, like you don’t know,” Janus replied.

“I don’t know,” Pat said innocently.

“There’s another time distortion,” Janus said, “and while you didn’t know what it was the last time I saw you, I’m pretty sure you do now.”

“Oh, I didn’t know there was a time distortion here. I can help you if you like,” he offered sweetly.

“Oh, yeah, sure. Then why are you here?”

“I wanted to see if I could find the Flying Dutchman,” Pat told him.

“And so you went to Camaguey?”

“Uh huh.”

“One of the farthest places from the ocean in Cuba?”

“Is it?”

“I don’t trust you.”

Pat just shrugged. “Well, if you don’t want my help finding the time distortion, I’ll just be on my way then.”

“Wait,” he said when Pat went to turn away. Pat paused. Janus turned to Remus. “Remus, do you think he’s bullshitting me so I let him wander off and do whatever the hell he’s doing, or do you think he’s bullshitting me into letting him come with us.”

“Hmm,” Remus said, looking Pat up and down. Janus could immediately tell he wasn’t going to get any helpful answer. “Well, if we’re going with the how much do I get to see his, admittedly very sexy, ass criteria.” Janus pinched the bridge of his nose. “Letting him leave now means instant gratification and a nice full image when he turns away. However, letting him go with us means many more opportunities to get a glimpse, but they’d probably just be glimpses. So, yeah that’s a tough call.”

“You didn’t even bother to give me an actual hidden suggestion with that bullshit,” Janus groaned. He glanced at Pat only to see him hiding his very red face in his hands. Janus blinked. “Oh,” he said. “You got him, Remus.” Janus was surprised. He’d expected a bit more tenacity for someone with Pat’s personality. Of course, Janus was used to Remus, so that perhaps had some effect. Pat made a muffled distressed sound behind his hands and Janus raised an eyebrow. “You really got him.”

Pat flapped one hand around while still using the other to completely hide his face. “It’s just. His face. Saying that. Is weird.”

Janus could not say that he didn’t feel a slight spark of joy at seeing Pat flustered. After all, Pat’s weapon of choice had often been flirting with Janus in the past. However, he still smacked Remus on the shoulder when it looked like he was about to continue with something likely far more inappropriate. “We are here for a reason,” he reminded. He turned to consider Pat and squinted at him. “You’re coming with us, I’ve decided. I don’t want to let you out of my sights. Don’t,” he said empathically turning to Remus as the man opened his mouth once more.

Pat had mostly recovered, though his cheeks were just a bit pink still. “Yeah,” he said. “I’ll go with you. Where do we start?”

Janus glanced at his timepiece. “It’s not showing up on our trackers yet.”

“It messed with your tracker last time,” Pat pointed out.

“I know,” Janus said. “Which means it could be another fake one or whatever is causing it hasn’t started yet. If things start going wrong, but it still doesn’t show on our radar, it’s almost certainly a fake one, but some of the fake ones haven’t blocked our technology.”

“Here, I can check,” Pat said.

“Please don’t pull out an iPhone,” Janus begged.

Pat stuck out his tongue at him, and then smiled. He reached for the bracelet on his wrist and twisted it back and forth a few times before pressing his palms together. He glanced around them quickly to make sure no one around them was watching and then peeled apart his palms like he was miming reading a book.

“What the fuck is that, and how do I get one?” Remus asked immediately. It was innocuous, whatever it was. If someone from this time caught a glimpse of the display, they’d likely assume it was a trick of the light, but staring right at it, Janus could tell it was a map of the surrounding areas with a softly glowing blue light marking their current location. Janus could see no screen or origin of a hologram. It looked like the image was drawn onto the man’s palms, but as he watched, the image shifted to zoom out.

“There doesn’t seem to be anything major yet,” Pat said wiggling his fingers a bit. The display changed slightly to some sort of colorful overlay Janus did not understand. Pat hummed. “Did you two come from that building recently?” he asked nodding at it.

“Yes,” Janus replied. “How do you know?”

“There’s sometimes a slight temperature change when people time travel,” Pat explained. “I can read it on here.” He tilted his head. “There also seems to be a big enough temperature change in a church a few blocks away that could indicate time travel. Want to check it out?”

“We might as well,” Janus agreed.

“And if it’s nothing, we can get drunk on the communion wine!”

“He’s going to get immediately struck by lightning,” Janus said.

Chapter 18

“If we see anyone,” Janus said as they entered the church. “You keep your mouth shut. Do you understand me? Remus, do you understand me?”

Remus immediately turned to Pat. “You know, I didn’t grow up Catholic,” he said to Pat who looked at him in confusion. “So the first time I ever entered a Catholic church, you can’t blame me for being a little confused about the whole cabinet thing with a wall between them. After all, everyone was singing about glory to god and what not. So I…”

Janus slapped him. “This is why you were almost burned at the stake yesterday.”

“Excuse you,” Remus said, putting his hand over his heart. “I was almost drowned.”

“You were almost drowned?” Pat asked, his voice seeming legitimately distressed.

Remus shrugged a smile on his face that caused a Pavlovian migraine to start up behind Janus’s eyes. “It’s one of the hazards of the jobs, and really it would have all been worth it if I’d actually gotten to drown in that man’s…”

“We’re in a church!” Janus cut him off switching from Spanish to Swahili in the hopes that no random passersby would be able to understand him in this time and place. “Don’t talk about lewd sex things. Don’t talk about sex at all. It’s a Catholic church!”

Remus continued to speak in Spanish with no regard for anything. “But not talking about lewd sex things takes away 3/4ths of my personality,” he pouted.

“More like 9/10th,” Janus grumbled, “and the other 1/10th is just normal stupid.”

“Hey, you shouldn’t be mean,” Pat scolded, in fucking English for some reason, “but Remus, honey, you probably shouldn’t be saying things like that right now.”

“No, no, he has a point,” Remus said switching to English.

“He’s my partner, I have the right to call him stupid,” Janus insisted.

“And I love you too!” Remus said in Greek because he was really, truly, stupid.

Pat looked between the two, but then seemed to accept it, dropping the concerned expression for a slightly amused one. “If you say so.”

“Can I… help you?” A voice asked. All three of them whipped around to see a young boy looking at them and seeming very confused. Which was fair considering that to his ears, they’d just been speaking nonsense.

“We’re here to pray!” Remus claimed, then he turned to wink at Pat and said under his breath in Swahili, “to that ass.” Pat went immediately bright red again, which was doubtlessly Remus’s aim. Janus subtlety stepped on his foot while smiling at the boy.

“Oh,” the boy said. “Okay.” Thankfully, he didn’t seem interested in questioning the random strangers in front of him further. “I’m going to go back to the celebration now.”

Janus smiled at him. “Have fun,” he said. He waited for the boy to leave through the front door before slapping Remus on the back of the head.

“Ow!” he whined sounding far too pained for how hard Janus had actually hit him.

Janus rolled his eyes. “Let’s just start investigating,” he said.

“Sure, sure, you never let me have any fun,” Remus said, pulling up his wrist and spinning the golden bracelets on his arm. “Hmm…” he said.

“What?” asked Pat.

“Either I put on the wrong jewelry this morning… or my timepiece isn’t working.”

“Well, then I’m guessing we’re in the right place,” Janus said. He turned to Pat. “Your stuff still working?”

Pat brought up whatever device was on his hands. “Yeah,” he said, “and it looks like something is just starting.” Just as he said it, there was a violent crash of thunder.

“Well,” Janus said. “We should probably find the source and soon. Which way?”

Patton glanced around himself and then motioned with his wrist. Suddenly there was a 3D display of the church in front of them.

Janus could see immediately where the problem had to originate. There was a swirling mass of some sort of energy centered at the top of the bell tower of the church. As he watched, he saw the picture of the church glitch out a bit. He had a bad feeling about that.

“Is there something wrong with your display?” he asked, or more hoped.

Pat shook his head slowly. “I don’t think so…” The room seemed to shift suddenly underneath their feet. It felt a bit like time travel, but also wrong. The picture on the display flickered harder, part of the building fracturing and dissolving before appearing back in place. The room settled after a moment, but Janus’s stomach did not.

“Whatever is going on,” Janus said, “We need to stop it right now.”

Pat nodded. “The quickest way up would be that way,” Pat said pointing. The display closed as he did.

“Then, let’s go,” Janus said.

The world was eerily calm as they all started off in the direction Patton had pointed out. In fact, it was almost too quiet.

“Where’s the nearest window?” Janus asked when they came out on the second floor.

Pat glanced at his hand. “There should be a couple a few feet that way.” Janus nodded and left them standing there. When he glanced out of the first window he came to, it appeared to be night. Yet, when he walked to the next window, he saw daylight.

26606

“Time is fracturing,” Janus informed them. “We need to be careful.” This time distortion was much more intense than any of the other ones the agency had been tracking down over the last few months. It had also come on much faster. Usually there was some time between when the time distortion began and it started having extreme effects on the environment. He was suddenly very glad that he and Remus had not split up today. He was even glad for Pat’s company, no matter how aggravating he may be sometimes. Not to mention, he was glad for the man’s technology that seemed to circumvent whatever was blocking Janus and Remus’s timepieces.

He backed away from the windows and returned to the others.

“Whatever you do,” Janus said. “Don’t let anyone be in a room alone.”

“I know what time fractures are this time,” Pat promised.

“It was as much for the idiot as it was for you,” Janus said.

“You accidently bring a bubonic plague infested rat to 900BC one time and you never live it down.”

“I’d say I should put a leash on you, but you’d twist it into something disgusting.”

“Probably,” Remus agreed.

“Where next?” Janus asked, ignoring him.

“That way,” Pat said.

They walked together to the door he’d indicated. “Please don’t be bullshit,” Janus prayed. He opened the door and immediately got bowled over by a stream of salt water.

#not writing #study break stories

38 notes · View notes

writing-red · 4 years

Text

Like Father Like Daughter

Father! Remus x Daughter! Reader

Also Reader x Oliver Wood, but lightly, a couple kisses xx

Authors note: I SUCK at time, years, and counting, I do not know what the deal is in 1975 in the HP universe so please please excuse that, merci lovely reader. Also! This was requested over a year ago although, as we know that’s about how long it takes me to write shit.

Request: Remus having a 7th year prefect daughter and not knowing until he teaches her?

Summary: Set during POA

Warnings: ANGST and daddy issues! Death! Bc I like trauma

Word Count: 1.9k

After an incredibly eventful train ride to school, and ensuring that Harry and his friends were okay, Remus hurried up to the headmaster's office. As it was his first year teaching there, and considering all that was going on with Sirius Black Dumbledore scheduled a meeting with the new professor.

“I don’t anticipate it will be an easy year, but no year here is ever easy or simple. Especially since Harry arrived on campus,” Dumbledore said.

“It was nice to see him again, he’s gotten so old, and he looks so much like James,” Remus said, melancholy lacing his voice.

“The boy could use some good positive reinforcement from somebody who knew his parents so personally. Please, do not share information regarding Sirius, I would rather not bring him down. Instead, I would prefer he focuses on his studies. Especially since we have such a talented Defense Against the Dark Arts professor this year,” Dumbledore said.

“Of course, now is that all for now?” Remus asked as he gathered his things, wanting to spend some time on the grounds before the student's arrival.

“Yes, I’m sure you’ll enjoy this year. I believe you’ll be pleasantly surprised by what Hogwarts has to offer.”

“I’m sorry?” He asked, pausing to look at the headmaster, confused by his statement on the school.

“Oh nothing,” Dumbledore said with one of his signature winks.

Remus smiled, unsure how else to respond. “Well, I’ll see you at the feast later tonight.”

“Certainly,” Dumbledore said, seemingly having forgotten about his odd statement, already focusing on something on his desk.

Meanwhile, Y/n went along with her boyfriend, Oliver Wood to the feast.

“I wonder what kind of crazy shit will happen this year,” you said, thinking aloud.

“Maybe we’ll get a somewhat normal year for once,” he proposed, hopefully. “And a good bloody season.”

“At Hogwarts?” You retorted. “Impossible. And of course you’ll have a good season, you’re the best damn quidditch player I’ve ever seen.”

Despite a bit of red flushing his cheeks, Wood brushed off the comment. “I wonder who this years Defense Against the Dark Arts professor is.”

“I haven’t heard anything,” she said with a shrug.

“Well we’ll see,” he said and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “Enjoy your feast with Weasley.”

You smiled back at him, “Oh I will, it’s a promise.” you said before splitting, as you went to go meet with Percy Weasley, and Dumbledore before the feast's official start.

The feast went as normal for Y/n, she was mostly preoccupied with seeing friends she hadn’t seen since the last school year ended, and her head girl duties. Being a Gryffindor she felt that the year would present some challenges, considering the difficulties her house had caused in the past two years. Y/n had nothing against Harry Potter, in fact she was quite fond of him, having tutored him in a couple of subjects. Although, she understood the trouble he and his friends were fond of.

Remus on the other hand was unnerved at the announcement of the Head Girls last name, La Rosa. Her being Head Girl meant she was a seventh year, meaning she must have been born in 1976. The math happened in his head faster than Remus would like to admit. Remus absolutely knew a La Rosa in 1975 who managed a disappearing act after a couple of months together, and a small scare of sorts. Although, he brushed off the arithmetic, and Dumbledore’s dubious wink with a large swig of wine, which earned him a judgemental scoff from Snape.

Eventually, of course, the feast ended and the tired first years returned to their rooms while friends and couples reunited, and Filch stalked the halls with Mrs. Norris close behind.

Both Remus and Y/n’s day started off with breakfast in the Great Hall as each had a first period in their schedule. Y/n’s day kicked off with charms, and ended with Defense Against the Dark Arts. She ate breakfast with Oliver and a couple of their friends, yet left early enough so that the two could walk to class together without him being late. They had a couple of classes together but knew that as the year went on their other half would respectively get quite busy.

Y/n was having a fantastic first day, excited for lunch she made her way from the Towers to the Hall, which was abuzz with talk of “Professor Lupin.”

“He let us do actual magic in class!” you heard one third year exclaim with a great deal of excitement.

“I’m just glad he didn’t prattle on about his book deal for the entire period,” some Ravenclaw said to their friend which made Y/n laugh.

“How was Snape?” Wood asked as you sat down next to him, he had sent a couple of letters over summer bragging about how he wouldn’t be taking Potions, and she was.

“The same, angry that he isn’t teaching DADA, now I’m more intrigued by this Professor Lupin,” you responded.

“Merlin, Y/n, it’s the only bloody thing I’ve heard all day!”

“I heard someone earlier say, ‘I’m glad he didn’t brag about his book deal through the whole class.’” You responded with a giggle.

“I can’t believe they ever hired that man,” Wood said with a snort.

With that the two of you started lunch, your friends Ethel and Roberto joining you only a little while into the block.

You had a couple of classes and a free period from the time spanning between lunch and when you finally got to step into Professor Lupin’s class. The buzz about the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. had turned into a roar in just a few hours.

Despite being early you were not the first student in the class. It being a seventh-year course there were only eight of you taking the class, and there were already five of your peers sitting at desks. One of which being your boyfriend who had saved you a seat near the front of the class.

“You are late La Rosa,” he rudely teased as you set your things down and sat next to him.

“You know I can go find another seat, right?” As if on cue the last of your classmates filed in and filled the last couple of seats.

“Can you?” He asked with a goofy smile plastered over his face.

“Well Weasley owes me a favor and I’m sure you’d love to sit next to him for the whole three hour period.” “Oh that’s just cruel sweetheart.” Before you could retort your new professor walked into the room, immeadiatley silencing the class. Oftentimes the last class of the day meant students were groggy, and had shorter attention spans than usual, but this class was on high alert.

“Good afternoon, let’s go ahead and introduce ourselves however you deem fit. My name is Remus Lupin, and I am clearly your Defense Against the Dark Arts instructor this year, any questions?”

In response you along with a couple of your peers shook your head ‘no’.

“Fantastic, let’s go ahead and start with our Head Boy, if you could introduce yourself sir?”

Percy excitedly introduced himself to the class, not failing to make the new professor aware of his many, many achievements, after him a slytherin you had a strong level of distaste for, and on it went until you were left as the last student to introduce herself.

“My name is Y/f/n Y/m/n La Rosa, I want to write spell books once I leave Hogwarts, my favorite Quidditch team is Puddlemere, and my favorite food is milk chocolate although I’ve been told chocolate isn’t a food I disagree.” “I have to take your side Miss. La Rosa, chocolate is in fact a food, and deserves its own damn food group,” Lupin shot you a smile, then looked around at the small class. “I feel like you should all be writing down that your professors favorite food is chocolate for when you have to impress me at the end of the year.”

Remus was genuinely confused by Y/n’s presence. He had decent intuition and something about the seventh year was throwing him off, and it wasn’t bad which honestly only confused him more. He decided it would be better to get ahead of it in order to not let his thoughts ruin his teaching.

“Well that’s it, class is over. Miss La Rosa if you wouldn’t mind staying after class for just a moment?” “Of course professor,” you said.

“Ooh in trouble already?” Oliver said and gave you a peck to which you rolled your eyes. “I’ll see you in the common room later love.” “Don’t forget our meeting tonight Y/n,” Percy said as he sauntered out the room which earned a second eye roll from you.

Even though it didn’t take long, it felt like an eternity for the room to clear. All of a sudden your throat was in your heart, or, something. Whatever it was something was happening.

“I know this is going to come off as odd but I have an important question,” Lupin said, his eyes kind, no sense of a reprimand coming.

“Sure Professor, what is it?”

“What’s your mothers name?”

You figured he noticed your last name, and had maybe worked with your mum.

“Marie Dulcinea La Rosa,” you said. “Why?”

Remus’ mind started racing at a million miles an hour. “Did she attend Ilvermorny?” “Yes, is everything alright?” “I’m sorry dear, just two more questions.”

You responded with a single nod.

“Did your mother ever tell you who your father is, and are you a werewolf?”

A look of shock crossed your face and you clutched your bag. “I’m not supposed to answer that question professor.” “Y/n, I am, I also dated a Marie La Rosa in 1975, that same Marie attended Ilvermorny.”

“Are you trying to insinuate-”

“Yes.”

You walked out of the classroom as fast as your feet could carry you. You weren’t quite sure where you were going but you were crying and you wanted to be as far away from Remus Lupin as possible and your mind was far to occupied to think up a destination. Somehow that destination ended up being Dumbledore’s office, which by some means was open to you.

“You must have known, you know everything.” Not the best choice of words but it seemed to get the point across.

“That Professor Lupin is your father? Yes dear I did happen to know that.”

“And how long have you known that?” “Since the year you were born, Y/n, your mother and father both fought in the war and your mother came to me when she was pregnant with you. She didn’t want your father to know because she wanted him to stay and fight when she couldn’t. She wanted to raise you away from the war but she couldn’t ask him to abandon the cause.” “Does he know that she’s dead?” “No I am afraid that he doesn’t.” “Marie is dead?”

You turned to see Remus Lupin standing in the entrance of the office. He was distressed and had clealry followed you to the headmasters office.

You gave a curt nod to answer his question.

“Y/n, I am so sorry, I didn’t know, I shouldn’t have ever let your mother think that I would value anything over her and you.”

“You have to know how hard it is growing up a werewolf with absoluetly no help. With no one to help you through your first transition, with no one to tell you that everything’s going to be okay. Then on top of that growing up thinking that you were nothing to your father, and losing your mum at 14?”

Remus reached into his pocket and pulled out a mostly intact chocolate bar and held it out, towards his daughter.

“Let me fix it? Please.” It was a plea, and a kind request, an apology, all tied up in a chocolate bar.

#i cried while writing this #accidental angst #Remus Lupin #harry potter fanfiction #oliver wood x reader #werewolf #remus lupin dad

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halothenthehorns · 3 years

Text

TLTNL- HERMIONE'S HELPING HAND

Between The Boy Who Lived, and this chapter title, Ron is once again left out of the gift of getting one explicitly named after him, poor thing. Hell, even the twins and his mum got one.

HPHPHPHP

Remus hesitated, his eyes lingering on the book, his hand brushing where his chapter had ended, but his eyes traveling from Lily, whom he owed the book to, to Harry. James' words lingered in his mind now more than ever, and well, he couldn't think of a better opportunity, while Harry still seemed so pale and unsure, and the topic had just been presented...

"Harry can I talk to you?" He made the snap decision, not letting himself talk himself out of it again.

James and Sirius exchanged a pleased smile when Harry said yes at once, nothing but surprise, and perhaps a hint of guilt as he followed him out of the room up the stairs.

Lily watched them go just as curiously, before turning accusing eyes on the boy's left, "and what's that about?" Easily recalling Remus' foul mood this morning and hoping it was all going to be put away for good when they came back.

"Why should we tell you?" Sirius asked with a slight touch of sulk in his voice. "You won't tell us who the Half-Blood Prince is, though you clearly know."

Lily pursed her lips in answer, preparing to launch a volley of defenses as James turned to her as well, but then shocking both of them, he said, "Dumbledore hasn't been the only thing on Moony's mind of late, the way he's been acting towards Harry in this future, or I should say hasn't been around him at all, it's really been getting to him. I encouraged him to have a chat with Harry about both of those things, I'm glad to see he's finally taken my advice."

"Prongs," Sirius whined. "You've gone soft! Where's my Marauder that would dangle this over her head until she gave something up!"

James just shrugged without answer, and it was Lily's turn to frown at the expression on his face as he turned to Sirius and easily distracted him with a chat about Tonks, offering new solutions to a problem they weren't even sure she had yet. Still, she eagerly jumped into this least anything else surface.

Harry waited patiently for Remus to order his thoughts. He'd known he deserved whatever was coming for ages, and whatever had finally gotten Remus to deliver it he was grateful. He just wasn't sure what to expect. His past experiences only offered what Vernon or McGonagall would have done. He was positive in this instance to lean more towards McGonagall, with a stern lecture about his temper and how Harry should think before he vented what he had on Remus the previous day. He wanted to start with another apology, which Remus truly deserved. He even still had some unanswered questions about their last talk, but held it all in, letting him speak first like he was owed.

"Harry, I just wanted to say before this went on any farther," he couldn't help making an agitated face already, the whole summer had been bad enough, but for him to not have even been heard of that breakfast, "I really do understand why you lashed out at me, I deserved it and can quite easily believe how you grew to resent me over the years. Just please hear me that I'm trying, I won't so blindly follow Dumbledore again-"

"Remus, I never resented you!" Harry finally cut through, hardly able to believe what he was hearing. "The thought never even crossed my mind! I guess, I mean, you could have turned out worse." He felt a little guilty for adding that, but he also seemed determined to speak his mind. "You could have been like Snape."

The thought had been lingering for ages. He often wondered why the idea didn't baffle him a lot more than it should, his mother being friends with someone like Snape. It made him briefly at times consider he'd somehow learned this on his own, though he had not a clue how that was possible, clearly Snape wasn't sharing that information. It still made his point though, "Snape hates me even though he and my mum used to be best friends, and you could have been the same way. You could have blamed it all on me." Remus' scandalized expression simply made Harry nod, thinking that proved his point.

"I'm still ashamed I took that out on you," Harry went on before Remus could pull himself back into speaking, forcing himself to get this all out while he had the chance. "If I can find a way to make that up to you I will-"

"You already are," Remus promised, only hesitating for a moment before reaching out and taking his shoulder. "What you're giving us is a gift we wouldn't have even known to ask for, that's more than we could ever thank you for, so everything in between should just stay in this house, eh?"

Harry grinned at once, completely relaxing and all at ease now just as he was. It was still baffling, how little his proximity seemed to bother Harry. No matter how much he kept seeing to the contrary, he still kept expecting Harry to pull away from him for any number of reasons, but he never did. There was a longing in his eyes, one that didn't quite match what he held for the rest of the family. It was almost regret, or something more, but what Remus was sure of was that Harry wanted to know him. If it really was because they grew closer in this future then he could finally rejoice he'd done something right at least.

The smile dimmed for a moment, but before Remus could even start to worry what crossed his mind, Harry offered, "ah, I feel like I should, I don't know, apologize for everything Dumbledore does as well. I don't know, it's kind of weird since he hasn't done it to you all yet, but I can see how much he means to you. I, get that, for so long he's the only one who," he stopped with a now familiar pained expression, but waved him off, promising he wasn't pushing any farther. "Well, considering how my first lesson with him went, let's just say now they probably won't be going better the rest of this year, but I just, can't, despise him for everything." He finished lamely. He really couldn't wait until he never had to deal with this feeling again, of being incomplete. A piece of his mind that was missing a huge chunk of this conversation, that just like no matter what Snape did, he couldn't hate him with all his being.

Remus surprised him by laughing. "I'm a big boy Harry. I promise I can deal with whatever thoughts I have towards Dumbledore without blaming you."

Harry winced in shame, and Remus realized that wasn't the best choice of words, so he soothed, "we promised you we wouldn't do anything until we heard all you have to say." Not that they had a choice, he couldn't help mentally grumbling with one eye out the window, but his point still stood.

"Thanks Remus," Harry grinned at him. When he looked like he was just going to wave it off, Harry insisted, "I mean it, for everything, then and now."

Remus beamed, and Harry grinned right back. That look never failed to make the premature lines across his youthful face vanish, and Harry wished he'd seen that smile outside this house. He couldn't recall one though, and very much hoped it was somewhere in his future.

He led the way back downstairs, the cheerful mood still pouring off both of them now. The other three noticed at once. The slight tension between the two for the past few days finally leaving almost a physical thing. James and Sirius felt like hugging them, they couldn't stand to see the two fighting, or whatever that passive ignoring each other nonsense had been.

Lily almost happily picked up the book and began at once. Despite the climate Harry was still living in, his sixth year having the same air as all seven years of their school with the way it had started, there was finally something to be smiling at that couldn't be taken away by this book.

As Hermione had predicted, the sixth years' free periods were not the hours of blissful relaxation Ron had anticipated, but times in which to attempt to keep up with the vast amount of homework they were being set. Not only were they studying as though they had exams every day, but the lessons themselves had become more demanding than ever before.

"You're giving me horrible flashbacks," James sighed, rubbing his own forehead with the memory of those first few weeks coming back, all that homework that never seemed to end.

Harry barely understood half of what Professor McGonagall said to them these days; even Hermione had had to ask her to repeat instructions once or twice.

Sirius mock fainted in surprise.

Incredibly, and to Hermione's increasing resentment, Harry's best subject had suddenly become Potions, thanks to the Half-Blood Prince.

Lily began giggling hysterically again like that was still the funniest thing she'd ever heard. James rolled his eyes at her while Remus and Sirius just grinned at Harry, congratulating him on at least finding one class he could have an ease of, they wished they'd had this thing in school.

Nonverbal spells were now expected, not only in Defense Against the Dark Arts, but in Charms and Transfiguration too. Harry frequently looked over at his classmates in the common room or at mealtimes to see them purple in the face and straining as though they had overdosed on U-No-Poo;

Causing at least the four graduates to burst out with further laughter and Harry to huff he was just so glad it was so funny to look back on for them, he certainly hadn't been as amused at the time.

but he knew that they were really struggling to make spells work without saying incantations aloud. It was a relief to get outside into the greenhouses; they were dealing with more dangerous plants than ever in Herbology, but at least they were still allowed to swear loudly if the Venomous Tentacula seized them unexpectedly from behind.

"One of the very few reasons I actually liked that class," Sirius agreed with a crazy grin still in place. "Got to use quite a bit of language in that class, and the one time she ever told me off for it was when it was directed at Snivellus."

"He deserved it," James said fairly when Harry looked like he was trying not to laugh. "I don't know what crawled up his arse that day to decide to drop that thing down Padfoot's pants, but-"

He was cut short by Harry bursting out laughing as hard as they just had. He was honestly a bit relieved, he hadn't been entirely convinced Harry still would laugh at that kind of thing after what he'd seen in Snape's memories.

One result of their enormous workload and the frantic hours of practicing nonverbal spells was that Harry, Ron, and Hermione had so far been unable to find time to go and visit Hagrid. He had stopped coming to meals at the staff table, an ominous sign, and on the few occasions when they had passed him in the corridors or out in the grounds, he had mysteriously failed to notice them or hear their greetings.

"Oh," Lily sighed, she couldn't imagine how much that would sting for the poor dear.

Remus just clucked his tongue. He felt a little bad for Hagrid, but surely a teacher would know not to take it so personally a student wouldn't continue with the class. He had any sympathy at all because this would be his first year with such a sudden drop, especially his three favorite students.

Over breakfast Hermione was looking up at Hagrid's huge empty chair at the staff table that Saturday and insisting to the boys they should explain themselves.

"I'm sure he's just busy," Sirius tried to sooth, as Harry started to look very guilty for this. Neither of them believe it, but Harry appreciate the attempt anyways.

Ron protested they had Quidditch tryouts this morning.

"Whoo!" James hooted at once.

And besides that, how were they supposed to tell him they hated the stupid subject?

"Next time start with the bad and end with the good news of tryouts," James huffed when Lily had kept going, but he was still smiling hopefully for that to come.

Ron told her to speak for herself, if they hadn't dropped that class they'd be teaching Grawp to tie his shoes right now.

"Ehh," Sirius waved his hand vaguely, and Harry wasn't all that reassured no one here really denied Hagrid may have tried to get away with that for an 'advanced' class.

Hermione insisted she hated not talking to him, so Harry assured her they'd go over there after tryouts.

"Priorities," Lily huffed, wishing he'd set his friend first, especially after a full week of not going to see him.

He too was missing Hagrid, although like Ron he thought that they were better off without Grawp in their lives. Still, he reminded her that with as many people had signed up, this was going to take all morning. He had no clue why the team was so popular this year.

"It comes and goes every year," James waved off.

Hermione got impatient with his naivety, telling him it wasn't Quidditch that was popular, it was him. Frankly, he'd never been more fanciable.

Harry suddenly looked quite alarmed at his friends deduction, surely she couldn't be right about this one! It didn't help no one in here looked likely to protest it, they just looked a bit amused. Now that his affection for Cho had been entirely eradicated, they'd actually been really curious who would catch his eye next, so Hermione bringing it up was quite entertaining.

Ron gagged on a large piece of kipper. Hermione spared him one look of disdain before turning back to Harry and explaining now everyone knew he was right, they found him quite brave holding his ground like he had last year. You could still see the marks that evil woman had left on his hand last year.

Harry's hand twitched uneasily at the reminder again, and it didn't help they all adopted the same murderous faces now as they had first hearing of this. Whatever those centaurs had done still didn't feel like good enough retribution for leaving a permanent mark on their boy.

Ron inserted you could still see the marks where those brain had attacked him, even beginning to shake his sleeve back to prove it.

-And it didn't help he'd shot up a few inches, Hermione finished, ignoring him.

"Honestly, if those two dance in anymore circles, they're going to put a moat around Hogwarts," Remus sighed.

Ron inserted he was tall.

Sirius snickered hard for Harry's friends, somehow finding this even more entertaining than Prongs and Evans had been.

The post owls arrived, swooping down through rain-flecked windows, scattering everyone with droplets of water. Most people were receiving more post than usual; anxious parents were keen to hear from their children and to reassure them, in turn, that all was well at home. Harry had received no mail since the start of term; his only regular correspondent was now dead and although he had hoped that Lupin might write occasionally, he had so far been disappointed.

Lily's heart had started to grow heavy at the start of this, the sting always present of being denied this for her child never appreciated when it was pushed to the for-front of her mind. By the end she was trying to stop herself chewing on the inside of her cheek, the unease for Remus squirming so much inside her she thought she was going to be sick. With an uneasy glance up though, she saw both were trying to pretend like they hadn't heard a thing. It was of some relief, at least, that their little chat had soothed what once could have been a very awkward moment, but for now she tried to get past that as fast as she could like the boys clearly wanted.

He was very surprised, therefore, to see the snowy white Hedwig circling amongst all the brown and gray owls. She landed in front of him carrying a large, square package. A moment later, an identical package landed in front of Ron, crushing beneath it his minuscule and exhausted owl, Pigwidgeon.

Harry, unwrapped the parcel to reveal a new copy of Advanced Potion-Making, fresh from Flourish and Blotts.

Remus couldn't help it, even knowing Harry didn't hold that against him, at least now, like he did, he still made a face that a bloody book store sent more mail to him than he did. That could just never be right. It helped that James, sitting right next to him, still just looked miserable like the rest of them rather than resentful like Remus wouldn't have blamed him for.

Hermione was delighted, saying now he could give that graffitied copy back.

"Graffitied," Lily gave a half-hearted giggle to at least try and push the good mood back in.

Harry told her she was mad, and proceeded to mutter 'Definido' over both covers of the books, while Hermione looked scandalized.

"For what you're doing, or ruining a book?" Sirius asked with genuine curiosity, clearly ignoring Moony's moment as much as he could.

"Couldn't tell you, a bit of both probably," Harry answered naturally enough.

He then swapped the covers, tapped each, and said, 'Reparo!'

There sat the Prince's copy, disguised as a new book, and there sat the fresh copy from Flourish and Blotts, looking thoroughly secondhand.

All four of them started chuckling, a pure sound of amusement they all needed. "Clever," Lily couldn't help but congratulate, having never thought for a moment he was going to give it back, now he even had an excuse. The temptation to tell him exactly whose book he was keeping was still on the tip of her tongue, but she restrained herself, they'd just gotten their good mood back, no need ruining it with certain information.

Harry decided he'd give the 'old' copy back to Slughorn, who wouldn't complain, it had cost him nine Galleons.

"And that man has never passed up a bargain," Remus smirked.

Hermione pressed her lips together, looking angry and disapproving, but was distracted by a third owl landing in front of her carrying that day's copy of the Daily Prophet. She unfolded it hastily and scanned the front page.

Ron determinedly asked with a casual tone if anyone they knew was dead this morning, as he had every morning.

Lily sighed, this was honestly the reason she hadn't gotten the paper through much of her youth, it was depressing to turn every page and expect as much.

Hermione did tell of an arrest, and Harry asked with some curiosity who, keeping to himself the hope it was Bellatrix Lestrange.

All five of them scowled for her name being brought back up, Azkaban was almost too good for what they owed her. Almost.

Stan Shunpike, apparently.

"Ouch, didn't see that one coming," Lily muttered, her lower lip pouting in surprise.

She read out the article which gave the details f his arrest as being under Death Eater suspension.

Harry at once said there was no way, while Ron offered he could have been under the Imperius Curse.

"They still shouldn't have arrested him until they knew for sure," Harry seethed.

Sirius just gave his shoulder a reassuring pat, honestly wishing this was more of a surprise to them. They heard all the time of arrests from the last people you would think. Crouch was a good example, but there were others out there doing explicit things you wouldn't think to point a finger at.

Hermione read out the rest, he'd been caught overheard knowing of Death Eater plans, and that didn't seem the kind of thing the Imperius Curse would let you shout about.

"That's even worse!" Harry snapped.

"Calm down Harry, I'm sure it won't last long," Lily tried to placate, though none of them were really any happier about this development, they weren't sure why Harry was in such a temper over it. It was just too common place to them.

"He shouldn't be in there, he doesn't deserve it!" Harry insisted.

Ron instead switched to saying he was probably showing off then, hadn't he been that bloke boasting to a veela at the World Cup about becoming the next Minister of Magic.

"That was also a moment you claimed a broom could reach outer space, so," James trailed off with a pitiful shake of his head.

Harry agreed that was him, and was still aghast anyone could take Stan seriously.

Sirius suddenly flinched, his favorite joke escaping him as they all realized where Harry's ire could be stemming from, and maybe he didn't even realize it except his own choice of words.

Harry couldn't say anything, not looking at any of them. Sirius sighed unhappily, not wanting to say any empty words, but shimmied just a bit closer to him anyways, as much a promise as he could offer they wouldn't let this happen to anyone again.

Hermione explained the Ministry wanted to look as if they were doing something, people were terrified after all. The Patil twins almost hadn't come this year, and Eloise Midgens had just been withdrawn last night by her father.

Harry's misery only grew at this news, that was as depressing as it could get, hearing of more parents like Seamus' mother. It was somehow even more sad to see this didn't surprise anyone around him, this sort of thing must have happened all the time.

Ron was dumbfounded, surely parents knew Hogwarts was the safest place for anyone with Dumbledore here.

Hermione lowered her voice to the barest whisper as she pointed out they may not really have that.

Harry glanced to the staff table in surprise to find he wasn't present. In fact when he cast his mind back, their headmasters seat had been as empty as the Gamekeepers this week.

"That is, unusual," Remus agreed slowly, trying to keep the accusation out of his voice and almost getting there this time.

"I mean, not really, if you think about it," Lily tried. "Maybe the Ministry reinstated all of his titles in the community, plus the Order of the Phoenix, he can't just be sitting around in his office all day."

"We never exactly kept tabs on him at the table, so I couldn't say how often he was there at our time," James agreed slowly.

Hermione kept lowering her voice further as she wondered if he was doing something for the Order? It was all looking very serious.

Sirius was already smirking, and without any preamble this time stated, "I always look Sirius! I hate using anything to change myself otherwise, who would want to deny the brightest star!"

Harry snickered in surprise while his friends rolled their eyes.

Harry and Ron did not answer, but Harry knew that they were all thinking the same thing. There had been a horrible incident the day before, when Hannah Abbott had been taken out of Herbology to be told her mother had been found dead. They had not seen Hannah since.

Harry felt cold chills erupting all along his arms as that memory was given back. He didn't even have to pretend what that news was like, he'd lived it only days ago hearing his parents weren't going to be in this world with him much longer.

When they left the Gryffindor table five minutes later to head down to the Quidditch pitch, they passed Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil. Remembering what Hermione had said about the Patil twins' parents wanting them to leave Hogwarts, Harry was unsurprised to see that the two best friends were whispering together, looking distressed. What did surprise him was that when Ron drew level with them, Parvati suddenly nudged Lavender, who looked around and gave Ron a wide smile. Ron blinked at her, then returned the smile uncertainly. His walk instantly became something more like a strut. Harry resisted the temptation to laugh, remembering that Ron had refrained from doing so after Malfoy had broken Harry's nose; Hermione, however, looked cold and distant all the way down to the stadium through the cool, misty drizzle, and departed to find a place in the stands without wishing Ron good luck.

"I'm sensing a triangle forming," James said extra loudly, well aware Harry just couldn't keep a smile in place this time around. Surely even the coming Quidditch tryouts would help with that!

"At least I'm not anywhere in that shape, though I'll still probably be hearing about it," Harry huffed.

As Harry had expected, the trials took most of the morning. Half of Gryffindor House seemed to have turned up, from first years who were nervously clutching a selection of the dreadful old school brooms,

"Poor things, not being Harry Potter and all," Sirius snickered while James puffed up his chest, well aware none of them would be making the house team, breaking his sons record of being the youngest in a century.

to seventh years who towered over the rest, looking coolly intimidating. The latter included a large, wiry-haired boy Harry recognized immediately from the Hogwarts Express.

He came forward with confidence, reintroducing himself as Cormac McLaggen, and explaining he was here for the Keepers tryouts.

Harry asked if he'd tried out last year, thinking the size of him would surely block all the goal hoops without him even needing to move.

Remus snickered in surprise while James mind was already wiring clinically. "Nah, doesn't necessarily mean skill if he can't stay on the broom."

"Or Ron just beat him out," Sirius sniffed.

He explained he hadn't, he'd been in the hospital wing that day. He'd eaten a pound of doxy eggs on a bet.

"Well I can't help but like him just for that," Remus burst out laughing even harder.

"Honestly, I'd probably be rooting for him if Ron weren't trying for the same spot," Lily agreed.

Harry made a face at both of them, he had no good will towards him, even if he couldn't explain the feeling.

Harry dismissed him then to stand with the others, pointing over to the edge of the pitch, close to where Hermione was sitting. He thought he saw a flicker of annoyance pass over McLaggen's face and wondered whether McLaggen expected preferential treatment because they were both 'old Sluggy's' favorites.

"He'll learn fast," James scoffed.

Harry decided to start with a basic test, asking all applicants for the team to divide into groups of ten and fly once around the pitch.

"Not bad at all," James approved, his eyes many miles away back on the pitch himself. "Get a good handle on just how often they're in the air."

Harry couldn't help the shy smile, blushing a bit at the praise he hadn't been expecting. He was only doing what he thought was obvious at the time, to help out his team.

This was a good decision: the first ten was made up of first years, and it could not have been plainer that they had hardly ever flown before. Only one boy managed to remain airborne for more than a few seconds, and he was so surprised he promptly crashed into one of the goal posts.

Causing all five of them to burst out laughing, Harry hardest of all as he'd tried to hold it in at the time.

The second group was comprised of ten of the silliest girls Harry had ever encountered, who, when he blew his whistle, merely fell about giggling and clutching one another. Romilda Vane was amongst them. When he told them to leave the pitch, they did so quite cheerfully and went to sit in the stands to heckle everyone else.

Lily scoffed at that one, they would have made better cheerleaders. She didn't even like the game and couldn't understand why they'd bother if they didn't either.

The third group had a pileup halfway around the pitch. Most of the fourth group had come without broomsticks. The fifth group were Hufflepuffs.

The Marauders laughed extra hard at that one while Harry rolled his eyes, thinking they could go annoy their own tryouts.

Harry was getting seriously annoyed,

"What did I do?" Sirius demanded.

"I'm sure you weren't any help to dad when he was going through this," Harry shrugged without remorse.

"Don't encourage him by responding to that Harry," Remus groaned, when he laughed was bad enough.

"No, Harry was right that time, Sirius was laughing his arse off and I had half a mind to kick him off the field. I was Siriusly annoyed by him too," James couldn't help joining in with a chuckle that time, causing Remus to make a face at him of pure betrayal while the others just laughed harder.

as he shouted that anyone else who wasn't from his house should leave now! There was a pause, then a couple of little Ravenclaws went sprinting off the pitch, snorting with laughter.

"At least someone was enjoying themselves," Harry gave a grudging laugh as well, everyone around him still giggling too much to hold onto that agitation that had been hovering over him at that time.

After two hours, many complaints, and several tantrums, one involving a crashed Comet Two Sixty and several broken teeth, Harry had found himself three Chasers: Katie Bell, returned to the team after an excellent trial; a new find called Demelza Robins, who was particularly good at dodging Bludgers; and Ginny Weasley, who had outflown all the competition and scored seventeen goals to boot.

Harry was beaming at this, he had a really good feeling at least these weren't decisions he'd regret. It was the other positions he wasn't feeling as sure of, and hoped he wouldn't let his dad down with any of the others.

Pleased though he was with his choices, Harry had also shouted himself hoarse at the many complainers and was now enduring a similar battle with the rejected Beaters.

He had to even threaten some away with hexs if they didn't stop badgering him about it.

"Yeah, I'd believe him," Sirius nodded along, having actually done as much to one who had the gall to tell Prongs what a sham he was after all that.

Neither of his chosen Beaters had the old brilliance of Fred and George,

"A shame twins don't come along more often," James sighed, still eyeing Lily hopefully, who was ignoring him.

but he was still reasonably pleased with them: Jimmy Peakes, a short but broad-chested third-year boy who had managed to raise a lump the size of an egg on the back of Harry's head with a ferociously hit Bludger, and Ritchie Coote, who looked weedy but aimed well. They now joined Katie, Demelza, and Ginny in the stands to watch the selection of their last team member.

Harry had deliberately left the trial of the Keepers until last, hoping for an emptier stadium and less pressure on all concerned. Unfortunately, however, all the rejected players and a number of people who had come down to watch after a lengthy breakfast had joined the crowd by now, so that it was larger than ever.

"Ah well, I'm sure Ron's over all that by now anyways. He won the last tournament after all," James smirked.

"This next one both will be playing in it, it's going to be a blast," Sirius already agreed with high energy to get to that!

As each Keeper flew up to the goal hoops, the crowd roared and jeered in equal measure. Harry glanced over at Ron, who had always had a problem with nerves; Harry had hoped that winning their final match last term might have cured it, but apparently not: Ron was a delicate shade of green.

"He could be nervous and still readying himself," Remus pacified, all of them at ease and sure Ron would do fine. He'd lived through the worst of it last year after all.

None of the first five applicants saved more than two goals apiece. To Harry's great disappointment, Cormac McLaggen saved four penalties out of five.

"A tough score to beat," James grudgingly nodded. "I suppose if they tied you'd just have them do it over again?"

"Yeah," Harry sighed with agreement, fingers crossed it wouldn't come to that and Ron would do brilliantly.

On the last one, however, he shot off in completely the wrong direction;

Harry blinked in surprise, rubbing his forehead for why that would cause a stir in his memories.

the crowd laughed and booed and McLaggen returned to the ground grinding his teeth.

Ron looked ready to pass out as he mounted his Cleansweep Eleven.

Someone called a good luck for him.

Harry looked around, expecting to see Hermione, but it was Lavender Brown.

"Ooh, bet Hermione loved that," Sirius rolled his eyes. He already disliked her for her previous tendencies in Trelawney's class and hoped Ron didn't really return the affection. He'd still take Hermione's stubbornness over some giggly girl.

He would have quite liked to have hidden his face in his hands, as she did a moment later, but thought that as the Captain he ought to show slightly more grit, and so turned to watch Ron do his trial.

James gave a sympathetic nod, thinking there had been many times during his captaincy he'd had to show more restraint than he had all previous years of school because of that badge.

Yet he need not have worried: Ron saved one, two, three, four, five penalties in a row. Delighted, and resisting joining in the cheers of the crowd with difficulty, Harry turned to McLaggen to tell him that, most unfortunately, Ron had beaten him, only to find McLaggen's red face inches from his own. He stepped back hastily.

McLaggen began smearing at once, stating his sister hadn't really tried, she'd given him an easy throw.

"Urgh, what a sore loser," Remus wrinkled his nose up in disgust as well as the comparison.

"Honestly, even if they had tied I'd rather Harry give it to Ron now just for that," Sirius agreed.

Harry coldly responded what rubbish that was, Ron had nearly missed that one.

McLaggen took a step nearer Harry, who stood his ground this time.

"That'a boy," James approved, his eyes narrowing and his hand twitching for his wand. Even knowing Harry could handle himself against some pompous seventh year didn't mean he was going to stand for that.

McLaggen demanded another go, but Harry refused. Ron had the better score, he was Keeper. End of discussion, now McLaggen needed to leave.

He thought for a moment that McLaggen might punch him, but he contented himself with an ugly grimace and stormed away, growling what sounded like threats to thin air.

"And good riddance," Lily sniffed, as happy as any of the boys for the way this turned out.

Harry turned around to find his new team beaming at him.

Ron was congratulated on doing brilliantly, and this time it really was Hermione running toward them from the stands; Harry saw Lavender walking off the pitch, arm in arm with Parvati, a rather grumpy expression on her face.

"Wonder if Hermione did something to her, or said something," Sirius snickered.

Ron looked extremely pleased with himself and even taller than usual as he grinned at the team and at Hermione.

After fixing the time of their first full practice for the following Thursday, Harry, Ron, and Hermione bade good-bye to the rest of the team and headed off toward Hagrid's. A watery sun was trying to break through the clouds now and it had stopped drizzling at last. Harry felt extremely hungry; he hoped there would be something to eat at Hagrid's.

"Quick, check he has all his teeth!" James yelped in alarm.

"And all his sense," Lily agreed with a giggle while Harry rolled his eyes at all of them. Not all of Hagrid's cooking was that bad...

Ron was happily running them through his experience, applauding Demelza for what a tricky shot she'd pulled, had a bit of a spin on it.

"I missed Ron doing this!" James laughed.

Hermione looked amused as she again agreed how brilliantly he'd done, and Ron furthered this by laughing at McLaggen going in the completely wrong direction for his last shot! He'd looked like he'd been Confunded, he finished with a laugh.

Harry missed the others laughing around him this time, an idea just on the edge of his mind-

To Harry's surprise, Hermione turned a very deep shade of pink at these words.

and then he nodded to himself, a slight smile in place as he thought it was all but confirmed.

"Oh, she didn't," James said, a look of mingled exasperation and amusement in place.

"I'm thinking she did," Sirius nodded slowly, like he couldn't decide if he should be outraged at such a display of interference in Quidditch or laughing his arse off she'd pulled something like that.

Lily easily decided on laughter, at all of the boys expression for this, for Hermione herself, she was just giggling up a storm for so long they couldn't help but join in. Hermione was very many things, but they couldn't deny she helped her own too.

Ron noticed nothing; he was too busy describing each of his other penalties in loving detail.

The great gray hippogriff, Buckbeak, was tethered in front of Hagrid's cabin. He clicked his razor-sharp beak at their approach and turned his huge head toward them.

Hermione backed up a step with nerves, saying she still found him a bit scary.

Sirius scoffed, he quite liked that beast and was honestly considering getting his own now.

Ron scoffed she'd ridden on his back once!

Harry ignored them both and came forward to bow, waiting until it was returned before going up and stroking him. He whispered for the hippogriff alone if he missed him too?

Lily's voice hitched in her throat, her hands shook across the cover. They'd actually managed to go two whole chapters without that being brought up, and yet somehow it was worse as Harry reminisced with a beast of all things about it.

They were interrupted by an angry shout telling them to get away, he'd take some fingers off! Then Hagrid recognized them. He stood and looked at them all for a split second, then turned and strode into his cabin, slamming the door behind him.

"Oh dear," Lily sighed.

"That could have gone better," James agreed with a wince.

Hermione looked stricken, but Harry grimly said not to worry about it.

"I disagree," Sirius looked a bit wide eyed with alarm. "The last people Hagrid was ticked off with got their heads nearly knocked off."

"I haven't cursed McGonagall lately," Harry half-heartedly defended.

"It's been a week, surely he's just making his point clear they offended him." Remus pacified. "Soon as they get to talking to him he'll come around."

"Wish he would have already," Lily sighed, still wanting to smack him for treating her son that way.

He walked over to the door and knocked loudly, telling Hagrid to open up.

There was no sound from within.

"I'm just picturing him on the other side, arms crossed, pouting," Sirius laughed a bit, though it did nothing to erase Harry's uneasy frown.

Harry threatened if he didn't, he'd blow this door down, even pulling his wand out.

"You've been a bit violent today," James noted.

"Not taking any nonsense with his friends, right after you," Sirius agreed good naturedly.

"You actually pulled it out!" Lily gasped, she honestly couldn't picture it.

"I'd have really done it to," Harry said without too much remorse. He wouldn't just let Hagrid ignore him.

But before he could say anything else, the door flew open again as Harry had known it would, and there stood Hagrid, glowering down at him and looking, despite the flowery apron, positively alarming.

"I, can almost imagine," Remus said slowly. Despite the obvious contrary, he rarely thought of Hagrid as intimidating. It wasn't pleasant picturing that anywhere near directed towards Harry.

Hagrid growled he was a teacher, even calling him Potter to emphasize this.

Lily couldn't help but make a little face at that. It hadn't even registered until this moment Hagrid, as a teacher, had never actually referred to Harry as such and the contrast now was startling.

Harry apologized at once, addressing him as sir.

Hagrid was stunned at this, asking since when did they call him sir?

Harry returned since when did he call him Potter?

"Harry's really got all the teachers on their toes this year with that mouth," Sirius gave an appreciative laugh.

Hagrid was not impressed, calling them ungrateful little things,

"Ungrateful is a little harsh," James frowned in defense. "Honestly Hagrid, would it have been much better if they'd forward you they were dropping the class?"

"Maybe a bit," Remus sighed, he still felt some sympathy for Hagrid despite his attitude about it.

still mumbling darkly, he stood back to let them pass. Hermione scurried in after Harry, looking rather frightened.

All five of them scoffed at that. Honestly, even at his worst they'd never actually be afraid of him, and after what Hermione had just done, they would have thought she'd be more bemused at his behavior like they were.

Fang was happy enough to see them, drooling over their robes at once, while Hagrid demanded what they wanted? Thought he was lonely down here without them?

"Um," Lily muttered, feeling a little bad she'd never really thought about it. The other teachers could all converge in the staff room if they wanted company, but it was a bit depressing to suddenly wonder how many went out to go see Hagrid just for a chat.

Harry at once corrected they'd missed him, and Hagrid snorted in disbelief.

"This is getting offensive," James sighed. "I'm all for the theatrics to prove your point man, but you're holding a bit of a grudge against students not wanting to take a class."

"Hagrid's always been big on gestures, I'm sure this seemed like a significant one to him," Harry sighed, though even looking back he wasn't sure what he could have done differently.

He stomped around, brewing up tea in his enormous copper kettle, muttering all the while. Finally he slammed down three bucket-sized mugs of mahogany-brown tea in front of them and a plate of his rock cakes. Harry was hungry enough even for Hagrid's cooking, and took one at once.

James still had the urge to knock that out of Harry's hand for his health.

Hermione began talking to him timidly, when he joined them at the table and started peeling his potatoes with a brutality that suggested that each tuber had done him a great personal wrong.

"Never pictured your face on a potato before," Sirius snorted, "though I'm sure it's helping Hagrid a bit."

She said they really had wanted to continue with his class. Hagrid gave another great snort. Harry rather thought some bogeys landed on the potatoes, and was inwardly thankful that they were not staying for dinner.

"Thank you, now I'll never eat at Hagrid's again, not that there was much of a chance before," Remus muttered.

Hermione insisted they had, it just wouldn't fit in their schedules.

Harry agreed without belief.

"Oooh," Lily huffed, wishing to make him look at her and really acknowledge what his problem was. She couldn't blame him for being a bit hurt, but now he was starting to make her son look guilty for something he really couldn't help and she wouldn't lightly stand for that.

There was a funny squelching sound and they all looked around: Hermione let out a tiny shriek, and Ron leapt out of his seat and hurried around the table away from the large barrel standing in the corner that they had only just noticed.

They felt some concern start lighting up the room, surely Hagrid hadn't found something even more horrible than Grawp already!

It was full of what looked like foot-long maggots, slimy, white, and writhing.

This was so entirely the opposite of what they'd just been fearing, they all got a good laugh for the harmless things and the overreactions to it.

Harry asked what those were, and Hagrid crisply answered grubs.

Ron uneasily asked what they'd grow up to be, and Hagrid said nothing, they were for Aragog.

"Naww," Remus offered, though he was the only one who bothered, the others got a shifty look in place at the reminder of him.

And without warning, he burst into tears.

"Ooh, that poor dear," Lily said in sympathy at once, suddenly realizing Hagrid's overreaction to the kids may have actually been out of focus for something else.

"Please tell me you're talking about Hagrid," James still had his nose crinkled in disgust, even as it flagged a bit for Hagrid in sympathy.

She ignored him, actually trying to keep going with just the tiniest bit of hope they were misunderstanding this. She never would have thought she'd be hoping for an Acromantulas good health, especially this particular one, but Hagrid had this way of making her care for things she never would have thought she could simply by his own huge heart.

He explained in half broken sobs Aragog was dying, he'd been getting more ill over the summer! He didn't know what to do, they'd been together so long!

Sirius couldn't help but frown for the poor man as well. Aragog had technically been the reason Hagrid was expelled, and yet Hagrid still cared about him so much. It really was sweet, even if he couldn't bring himself to feel the same for something that had once condoned eating Harry.

Hermione patted Hagrid's shoulder, looking at a complete loss for anything to say. Harry knew how she felt. He had known Hagrid to present a vicious baby dragon with a teddy bear,

Sirius still managed a gag for that, he'd somehow prefer the man eating spider to that monster!

seen him croon over giant scorpions with suckers and stingers, attempt to reason with his brutal giant of a half-brother, but this was perhaps the most incomprehensible of all his monster fancies: the gigantic talking spider, Aragog, who dwelled deep in the Forbidden Forest and which he and Ron had only narrowly escaped four years previously.

Hermione offered if there was anything they could do to help, ignoring Ron's look of panic.

"I'm sure Ron would be exempt from this offer," James offered half-heartedly.

"Remind me to grow arachnophobia so I can be as well," Sirius huffed.

Hagrid explained there wasn't, his family had been acting a bit funny lately and it probably wasn't safe for anyone else with how restless they've been.

"Funny?" Remus repeated slowly, wondering if Hagrid was really ignorant of their true nature in this. It didn't seem likely, with as knowledgeable as he was of species in general, but surely Hagrid knew it wasn't common of someone to go in and out of a nest like theirs so freely.

Ron muttered he'd seen that side of them.

Harry was the only one who managed an uneasy laugh, the other still couldn't for that not so friendly reminder.

He thanked them through, it meant a lot they'd offered.

After that, the atmosphere lightened considerably, for although neither Harry nor Ron had shown any inclination to go and feed giant grubs to a murderous, gargantuan spider, Hagrid seemed to take it for granted that they would have liked to have done and became his usual self once more.

"Was that all it took?" James sighed. "Next time I'll bring one along with me!"

"Please don't dear," Lily muttered, not entirely sure if he meant it or not.

He explained he'd known they would probably have to drop his class anyways, they'd have to get a Time-Turner with how busy they already were.

Hermione said it wouldn't work anyways, they'd all been smashed in the Department of Mysteries, she'd seen it in the Prophet a few weeks ago.

Lily shivered, but altogether tried to ignore the goosebumps flying up her and her soul crushing for once again having to remember all that had transpired in there.

He still apologized for the way he'd acted, though the errant thought slipped out if Grubbly-Plank had still been teaching they'd probably-

At which all three of them stated categorically and untruthfully that Professor Grubbly-Plank, who had substituted for Hagrid a few times, was a dreadful teacher, with the result that by the time Hagrid waved them off the premises at dusk, he looked quite cheerful.

"See, lying and flattery really does get you everywhere!" Sirius burst out laughing. Even Lily gave an uneasy chuckle back just to hear him keep saying such things, the constant reminder he may not be able to one day made almost all of his many annoying habits just a bit funnier than usual.

Harry, who had abandoned the rock cake after an ominous cracking noise from one of his back teeth,

"I was joking," James muttered.

was eager to get back to the castle for dinner, especially before he had to endure Snape's detention.

As they came into the castle they spotted Cormac McLaggen entering the Great Hall. It took him two attempts to get through the doors; he ricocheted off the frame on the first attempt.

Lily snorted enthusiastically and Remus couldn't help snickering as well. The two Quidditch zealots still looked more torn than anything, deeply wanting to praise Hermione's clear conniving skill and even the lingering effects the spell had, but she'd interfered in Quidditch!

Ron merely guffawed gloatingly and strode off into the Hall after him, but Harry caught Hermione's arm and held her back.

He flatly asked her if she really had Confunded Mclaggen?

Hermione blushed, but admitted to it, he should have heard the way he was talking about Ron and Ginny.

"Urgh, I'd have done it on principle as well," Remus scowled.

James gave a little huff, but the worst part was he really could picture Moony doing the exact same thing, and he still wasn't sure if he'd laugh or scold him for it either.

He had a nasty temper, there was no way Harry actually wanted him on the team.

"This is true," Sirius sighed. "It's just the principle of the matter, it's like cheating Ron's way onto the team!"

"The one time you don't condone cheating," Lily rolled her eyes.

"Quidditch," James insisted, "is not to be trifled with!"

Harry didn't disagree, but pointed out her prefect status, this was a bit dishonest of her.

"And?" The three Marauders muttered, that really was the least awful part of this, it was quite brilliant under any other circumstances in fact.

She snapped at his smirk to be quiet, while Ron reappeared and looked at the two suspiciously what was keeping them.

"Poor Ron's jealousy might be making a comeback," Sirius chuckled uneasily, hoping Ron didn't get the wrong impression and pick another row with Harry.

Harry just scoffed, it was a ludicrous idea to him what Sirius was implying, but at the same time something uneasy lingered in him for it about Ron getting the wrong idea.

Harry and Hermione together said it was nothing, and they hurried after Ron. The smell of roast beef made Harry's stomach ache with hunger, but they had barely taken three steps toward the Gryffindor table when Professor Slughorn appeared in front of them, blocking their path.

He was enormously pleased to have caught up to him, asking if he'd instead like to spend the evening with his group of classmates from the train again?

"Ugh, and so it begins!" James groaned.

"You're lucky you had so much practice ducking away from Lockhart, you'll be using that on this one as well," Sirius groused.

He'd already invited McLaggen and Zabini again, and Melinda Bobbin would be coming, her family owned a chain of apothecaries,

James was already miming snoring at this point, and Sirius and Remus were shifting restlessly like they would have walked right past him already. Harry honestly wished he'd done the same.

and, of course, he hoped for Miss Grangers company as well.

Lily was ignoring them and smiling fondly at this, having quite the flashbacks to her own years in school again, some of the happier times.

Slughorn made Hermione a little bow as he finished speaking. It was as though Ron was not present; Slughorn did not so much as look at him.

"Ouch," all five of them muttered, Remus most potently as he'd experienced that along with... well every time Slughorn had tried to catch up with James and Sirius.

Harry said he couldn't, he had detention with Professor Snape tonight.

"The fact that you use his title," James scrunched up his face in disgust, even as he weighed in his mind which would be more reprehensible to listen to that night. Both really were coming out equally unappealing.

Slughorn gasped almost comically, saying he couldn't stand for that. He'd speak to Snape and see them both later!

Sirius did get a good laugh out of that, very much wishing Harry could sit in on that conversation.

"I'll bet Slughorn's hoping to use his old status on him to get his way," Lily said fondly.

"Was Snape in this?" Harry asked in disgust, his respect for this stupid club dropping every moment more it was discussed.

"Yes," Lily frowned reproachfully. "We spent so much time debating in class, trying to outdo each other with our potions, he thought we were a riot and invited him along all the time."

Harry tried very hard not to roll his eyes while Lily bit her tongue for a moment to stop herself pointing out Harry should be very grateful to him this year in particular.

Harry hardly waited until Slughorn was out of earshot before scoffing Slughorn had no chance, Dumbledore had been the only one that detention would be postponed for.

"It's honestly a miracle he did it the first time," James agreed.

Hermione wished he would come, she didn't want to go alone! Harry guessed she was thinking about having to spend more time around McLaggen.

"Don't know what she's thinking, I'd take the chance to further Confund him," Sirius' smirk turned into that cruel little twist Harry uneasily recalled getting first hand experience of in a Pensive. He'd seen it several times in here as well when they were speaking of Snape. "Wonder just how many times you can use that spell on someone, think they'll miss their mouth and start shoving food up their-"

"And this is why I never wondered why Slughorn only invited you to his big parties, instead of all his gatherings," Remus rolled his eyes.

"She does know she can just, not go," James snorted.

"Suppose she felt morally obligated or some such, him singling her out like that," Harry shrugged without much concern.

Ron snapped Ginny had probably been invited! He didn't seem to have taken kindly to being ignored by Slughorn.

Remus sighed in pity for Ron while the others seemed happy enough to gloss over this. They obviously couldn't care that much, since his friends blew them off and Lily couldn't find them much of a big deal since she went to so many. He however knew exactly how Ron was feeling, and he hadn't even cared that much for it.

After dinner they made their way back to Gryffindor Tower. The common room was very crowded, as most people had finished dinner by now, but they managed to find a free table and sat down; Ron, who had been in a bad mood ever since the encounter with Slughorn, folded his arms and frowned at the ceiling. Hermione reached out for a copy of the Evening Prophet, which somebody had left abandoned on a chair.

She was again asked if there was anything of interest in there, and Hermione agreed she'd found Ron's dads name, hurriedly tacking on he was alright as he looked up in alarm.

"That's not how you start a conversation!" Lily squeaked as Harry had nearly startled out of his seat in alarm as well. Considering all these kids had been reading of the paper, not to mention past events, Hermione should start with the end of that sentence!

She read out how his job had been tipped off about the Malfoys house, though nothing had been found.

"Aw, see Harry, he wasn't dismissing you at all," James grinned.

"Pity he didn't find anything," Sirius sighed.

Harry told the two about their conversation back on the platform, and decided Malfoy must have taken whatever this was with him into the school already.

Hermione disagreed he couldn't have done, they'd all been searched upon arrival.

Harry was startled at this news.

"The Boy Who Lived to be the Chosen One is far to special for such a thing!" Sirius dramatically declared while Harry fought back the compulsion to whack him upside the head, he hated both of those titles, let alone them being strung together!

Hermione explained of course he hadn't because he was late, but Filch hadn't let anyone in until they'd been probed, she knew for a fact Crabbe had a shrunken head confiscated.

"Eww, why would he even have that," Lily muttered.

Momentarily stymied, Harry watched Ginny Weasley playing with Arnold the Pygmy Puff for a while before seeing a way around this objection.

Harry got a blissful little smile in place for just such a small moment the others hardly noticed. They hadn't thought about this at least since Malfoy had stamped on Harry's nose, quite the distraction, but now they were back to wondering just what was up with that. Hermione did have a point it should be next to impossible for Malfoy to get anything to horrible into the school, could he possibly be putting this project of his off until next summer?

Harry redirected his mum could have owled it to him.

"Nah, mails probably still being checked," Sirius disagreed.

Harry was painfully wrenched from his little memory of watching Ginny, her hair the same color as the fire behind her surely making her stick out more than she should, and responded with agitation, "thought only Umbridge did that mess!"

"She was much more invasive about it," Lily seethed at the reminder, but more calmly explained, "but it has been known to happen in a more broad sense, just to know the kind of thing getting in, not what it actually says or what it is."

Hermione replied Filch had been bragging that was checked as well.

Really stumped this time, Harry found nothing else to say. There did not seem to be any way Malfoy could have brought a dangerous or Dark object into the school.

"It's a good thing Malfoy doesn't know about the secret entrances into the school," James agreed with a sigh.

He looked hopefully at Ron, who was sitting with his arms folded, staring over at Lavender Brown.

Sirius gave a suggestive smirk, muttering what could possibly be on Ron's mind, while the others ignored him.

He tried to ask his thoughts on the matter, but Ron snapped at him to drop it.

"Well he's not in a fun mood," Remus rolled his eyes.

Harry was riled at once, saying it wasn't his fault Slughorn had ignored him.

Ron didn't want to hear it, announcing he was off to bed considering he didn't have any party invitations.

Remus winced while the others just sighed, honestly feeling a bit bad for Ron but there was no good answer for that problem.

Demelza Robins came in then, and went to Harry with a message from Snape. To quote, he was to come to his detention tonight no matter how many party invitations he'd received.

"Of course he'd rub that in, as if Harry asked for it," James grumbled.

"The one time Slughorn could have done some good," Sirius sighed in agreement.

He should also know he'd be sorting rotten flobberworms, and there was no need to bring gloves.

"He wouldn't have bought gloves anyways!" Remus snipped. "So the warning was just a preinsult."

"That's Snape for ya," Harry agreed.

Harry grimly thanked her for the message.

"I'm finished," Lily told with a shake of her head. That could have been, worse, she supposed. At least overall it wasn't getting into the terrible state it could have been, considering Harry's past track record.

#Harry Potter #fanfiction #reading the books #The Life That Never Lived #Marauders #HP #HBP #James Potter #Remus Lupin #Sirius Black #Lily Potter

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sirrriusblack · 4 years

Note

can you write a oneshot about wolfstar with 1D's They don't know about us??

Oh my, am I about to expose my 2013 one direction phase? Yes, yes I am. I love this song and it fits so perfectly and thank you so much for this prompt @remuslupingivesthebesthug and I’m sorry I took so long to write it my brain is a disaster :)

* * *

People say we shouldn't be together

We're too young to know about forever

* * *

“Moony, we need to talk...” Sirius said, sitting across from Remus. They were alone in the Gryffindor common room, Remus studying for the upcoming OWLs and Sirius... well, Sirius couldn’t get this off his mind. Remus didn’t lift his head, only turned the page of his book.

“Can it wait ‘til tomorrow? I’ve got to finish taking notes from this chapter and I feel like I’m about to pass out,” he said, his eyelids heavy. Sirius linked his hands together. trying not to fidget. When he didn’t say anything, Remus looked up. Sirius looked like a wreck. His eyes were red, like he’d been crying. He was... “shit, Pads, what’s wrong?” Remus asked putting his book down beside him. Sirius bit his lip and looked up at the roof, his eyes flicking between the beams, watching the shadows and trying to build up his voice.

“I can’t do this anymore,” he said. Sirius’ head fell into his hands, his hair falling around him like a curtain, his shoulders shaking and—

“Sirius,” Remus said. He crawled over to him, crouching in front of Sirius’ knees. He carefully placed his hands on Sirius’ arms, ignoring the heat from the fire, focusing only on this boy in front of him. “What? What can’t you do?” He asked quietly, not wanting to startle him. Sirius took a deep breath and looked up, locking eyes with Remus.

“This,” Sirius gestured between him and Remus, gestured to Remus’ hands, only inches away from Sirius’.

“I don’t... I don’t know what you mean,” Remus admitted, confused. Sirius huffed, and Remus wasn’t sure if it was laughter or bitterness.

“I can’t pretend I haven’t wanted to be with you since third year,” Sirius said. Remus didn’t...he...what? “I can’t pretend you’re just my best friend, I can’t pretend I don’t see you differently than I see Peter or James. I can’t do it anymore.” Remus didn’t believe it. This couldn’t be happening. Sirius was dating Marlene. Sirius was straight. Sirius was...in love with Remus? That couldn’t be true. Remus had probably fallen asleep or he was imagining things or... there had to be some sort of explanation. “Remus?” Sirius said quietly, waiting for an answer.

“I...we...can’t...we shouldn’t be together,” Remus said. Sirius’ face fell. Remus... he didn’t know what he was doing. He was in love with Sirius. He wanted nothing more in the world than to be with Sirius. But this was a trick. Surely. And Remus had to be reasonable.

“What?” Sirius whispered, cringing away from Remus. There wasn’t a place in this world where Sirius and Remus could be accepted.

“We shouldn’t be together.” They just shouldn’t. Remus picked his book up again and started reading.

* * *

But I say they don't know what they talk, talk, talkin' about (Talk, talk, talkin' about)

'Cause this love is only getting stronger

* * *

“I—I’m sorry...” The first words Remus said to Sirius after a month of near silence. I’m sorry.

“What?” Sirius whispered. “What for?” he asked, stepping closer. Remus stayed where he was. His head was facing the ground, his curls falling sheepishly to toward his feet. Remus looked up, green eyes shining. Sirius tried with everything in him not to step forward. “Why are you apologising, Remus?” He asked softly. Remus sniffled.

“I...I keep doing this and it’s not fair of me but I keep telling myself you’re lying or you’re pranking me or it doesn’t matter because it’ll never work because—“

“What are you saying, Remus?” Sirius asked, stepping forward again. Remus took a step back and hit the wall behind him. Sirius halted. He didn’t get it. Was Remus trying to get away from him, or—

“I can’t pretend either,” Remus admitted, thinking back to Sirius’ desperate words a month ago. Sirius blinked.

“What?” he prompted. Remus bit his lip, the habit tearing away a small part of the control Sirius was holding himself to. Remus took a deep breath.

“I can’t pretend I don’t want to be with you. I can’t pretend I don’t see you in the halls with Marlene and want to be that person next to you—“

“Marlene and I broke up over a month ago,” Sirius quickly rushed out. Remus’ hands dropped to his side.

“What?”

“She... I came out to her.”

“As gay?” Remus asked, leaning forward. Sirius hesitated, but nodded. The world stopped spinning. Remus’ mouth tilted up at the corner like he couldn’t help but smile.

“So what...what’s happening?” Sirius asked, gesturing between the two of them. Remus bit his lip again, a nervous habit.

“I don’t...we can’t...everyone...”

“We can, Moony,” Sirius said when Remus trailed off. He made to step forward again but held back in order to keep from startling Remus. “Please, Moony, we can be together...” Remus only looked back toward the ground. “Please, Remus, I—“

Sirius was cut off as Remus stepped forward and pulled Sirius back against the wall, closing the gap between them and opening every door that had previously been shut. The walls fell down around them as the two boys smiled against each other’s lips, as their hands somehow became linked together, as they kissed, long and gentle and slow.

* * *

So I don't wanna wait any longer

I just wanna tell the world that you're mine

* * *

“You...when...how long?” Pete asked, glancing between the two of them. Sirius smiled, his hand intertwined with Remus’.

“6 months,” Remus answered, tracing his thumb over Sirius’ hand lightly. Pete sputtered, eyes wide.

“You’ve been dating for 6 months and we didn’t even notice?” he exclaimed, moving his limbs everywhere. Next to him, James was silent and still. He couldn’t...no...he hadn’t said a word. Sirius shifted carefully.

“James?” he said, looking for any kind of reaction from his best friend. That’s when James smiled. He smiled wider than the boys had ever seen him smile.

“Oh Merlin, what is it?” Remus asked cautiously. James grinned wider.

“You see, that remark is incorrect, dear Wormtail,” he said, running a hand through his hair. “They’ve been dating for six months and you didn’t notice. In fact, you refused to notice,” James said, still smiling and not making any sense. The sunlight shining through the window glinted of the lens of his glasses. James held out a hand. “I believe I’m owed something, Peter.” Peter sighed dramatically and handed over a box of chocolate frogs from underneath his mattress. Hands dig in right away.

Sirius stole a glance at Remus, who was watching his friends fondly.

“So you really don’t mind?” Remus asked, his eyes glinting and his hand holding Sirius’ with certainty. James pulled a face at Pete, who was staring longingly at James’ chocolate covered hands. He shrugged.

“It’s not up to us,” Peter said, trinity and grabbing another box of stashed chocolates. Remus wondered how many stashes he had. “But yes, we’re happy for you guys,” he promised, “even if you did lose me a bet.” The boys all laughed.

* * *

Oh, they don't know about the things we do

They don't know about the "I love yous"

But I bet you if they only knew

They would just be jealous of us,

They don't know about the up all nights

They don't know I've waited all my life

Just to find a love that feels this right

Baby they don't know about

They don't know about us (They don't know about us)

* * *

“I don’t know, I still don’t think I’m ready to tell everyone,” Remus said, feeling nauseous. “I...” he looked up at Sirius, eyes red. “I don’t know how we’d get treated, Sirius. I’m...I’m scared,” he admitted. Sirius’ heart broke then and there. He shifted forward and linked his hands with Remus’, taking in his star flecked face.

“Moony, baby, I promise that I will personally beat the shit out of anyone that makes a single comment about us,” he swore, and Remus smiled a little. “But if you want to wait, then we wait. Pete and James know, and right now, that’s all that matters, yeah?” Sirius said, squeezing Remus’ hands. Remus nodded.

“Here’s to hoping Bellatrix makes a nasty comment,” Remus said quietly, a thin smirk on his face. Sirius barked in laughter.

* * *

Just one touch and I was a believer

Every kiss it gets a little sweeter

It's getting better

Keeps getting better all the time

* * *

“Oh come on! Get a room!” James yelled and slammed the door shut.

“This is our room!” Remus yelled back, his words muffled by Sirius’ lips, they were both shirtless on Sirius’ bed, Remus straddling his boyfriend, their lips melting together, fusing them into one. Sirius breathed out a laugh and drew the curtains shut.

* * *

They don't know about the things we do

They don't know about the "I love yous"

But I bet you if they only knew

They would just be jealous of us,

They don't know about the up all nights

They don't know I've waited all my life

Just to find a love that feels this right

Baby, they don't know about (They don't know about us)

* * *

“I love you.” Sirius choked on his orange juice. Remus smiled sheepishly.

“Moony, we’re eating breakfast!” he shouted. Remus only kept smiling.

“I know, I just... thought I ought to let you know,” he said, like those three words hadn’t just meant the entire world to Sirius. He grinned, wider than he’d ever done so before.

“I love you too, Remus,” Sirius said, and he did. He loved Remus with every piece of him. They both stood up at the same time. James looked up.

“What are you doing? You haven’t even finished half your plate,” he pointed out, gesturing to the plates. Remus smirked.

“Other things to eat,” he said. It was Pete’s turn to choke on his orange juice.

* * *

They don't know how special you are

They don't know what you've done to my heart

They can say anything they want 'cause they don't know about us

They don't know what we do best, that's between me and you, our little secret

But I wanna tell 'em

I wanna tell the world that you're mine

* * *

Remus nodded. Sirius grinned and climbed on the dining table, clearing his throat to get the attention of the Great Hall. Professor McGonagall stood to interrupt but Sirius quite literally ‘tsked’ her and she actually sat back down.

“Thank you for your attention. I have an announcement to make.” Remus was bright red, hiding his face in shame, but also unable to keep the smile from his face. The entire room looked confused. Sirius took a deep breath. “I...” he pointed to a group of first year Hufflepuffs. “Drum roll please....” Remus shook his head. “I am...super gay for Remus,” he shouted.

The room was silent, save for a single ‘whoo!’ coming from Marlene a few seats over. Sirius jumped down and bowed. James and Pete were shaking with laughter and Remus was embodying a tomato.

“Thank you and goodnight,” Sirius said, grinning. Remus decided not to tell him it was the middle of the day.

#thanks for the prompt!#asks #prompts #wolfstar #they dont know about us #one direction #remus lupin #sirius black #marauders era #the marauders #marauders era fanfiction #wolfstar fanfiction #my writing #:)#once again #i tried to paragraph but tumblr hates me #songfic

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roman-apples · 4 years

Text

the ballad of me and my brain | roman angst ( wip )

https://archiveofourown.org/works/26308567

this is much less a wip, and more of an unfinished mess. but here it is-

❝ and well, I think I've gone mad. isn't that so sad? ❞

in which the signs of warning can't be visible if there is no one there to notice. and thankfully, there are.

❝ and, what a shame, you've lost a brain that you never had. oh, mum, check the car, it can’t have gone far! ❞

It starts with a bang. Literally.

On the other side of a deep purple door sat a usually darkened room, which belonged to the embodiment of anxiety. Virgil laid on the bed, scrolling through his phone when he heard it. The loud, crash and bang coming from down the hall. He sat up, startled, before deciding to check it out.

He felt worry spark up within his chest as he realised where it had originated from. A rose-red door.

Virgil had took note of how the anxiety levels of the hall increased as he slowly approached the door. It being 4am, he figured the others were asleep, so they wouldn't hear the noise.

He reaches for the door. Though, as he put his hand on the knob, the anxiety is gone. All that is left is pure sorrow.

The knob is turned before he can process he had done it, and looks around the room before him. There stood the exaggeratedly fanciful room he'd been used to. In shambles.

Virgil gasped as he looked around. Paper was cluttered around the floor, all filled in with words of black ink. However, that seemed to be the least of his concerns, as there, kneeling on the floor with his head rested on the bed was Roman. As the anxious side walked closer, he noticed tears staining his rosy-red cheeks. A poor sight to be seen.

He sighed, before putting a blanket on the sleeping man's shoulders. He turns the light off before he leaves.

He'd tell the others later.

❝ I must have left it in a train, or lost in a bar. It’s likely in a sainsbury’s, flirting with the boys and waiting for me. ❞

He didn't tell the others.

And so, it was followed by a silent refusal.

As the resident chef, the embodiment of morality would be tasked with trying to get the other sides to come down to the dining room for a family meal.

It was a few days after the come-in with Virgil, and Roman decided he would skip today's dinner, apparently. Patton looked at the table before him, with everyone except Roman. He raised an eyebrow, before sighing tiredly. He walked up to the creative trait's room.

A knock, "Roman?" He called. He received no reply.

Patton knocked again, "Roman? Are you there?"

He heard nothing except the soft whirl of a ceiling fan. He closes his eyes, before reopening them. Knock, knock, knock.

SIlence. A soft whirl. Silence.

Patton retreated back downstairs with nothing to tell the others.

❝ I jumped on the bus, declared my name, and asked if anyone had seen my brain. ❞

It is accompanied by a withdrawal of voice.

This humanised form of logic was an observant one. It was no shocker, really. He was meant to know most, if not all things. 'The Smart One' was a strong title with a lot to live up to. He managed.

Going back on his observations, Logan began to notice just how much Roman took himself out of their conversations and debates. The princely side used to happily and eagerly throw in his opinion, wanting all eyes on him. He had an ego, and would do anything to fuel it. That was his role.

Though, when it comes to debate, compliments are only thrown around sarcastically. Roman obviously knew this, Logan decided, and had hypnotised that after the courtroom episode with a certain liar that he understood it was a manipulation tactic. However, even days after the trial, Roman wouldn't join in normal small talk, either.

Logan would confront him about it.

"Roman?" The side looked up from the ground, a smile quickly plastered onto his face. And, if Logan hadn't been so observant, he would've shook it off. However, this time, he tipped his head back lightly. The others seemed to be in a conversation of their own with the host, Thomas.

"Why is it that you stay so silent?" He asked, quieter than he normally would, "I am only asking for, I have noticed you don't seem to want to input your own opinions lately."

Roman's eyes flashed a tinge of panic, before going back to normal. A plastic brown. "Why, my dearest nerd, I don't seem to get what you mean?"

"It's just—"

"I believe i'm doing just wonderful, Lo'. Now, if you'd excuse me, I'm going to fetch myself a glass of water. My throat is scarily sore, and a prince's throat must be in tip-top shape in order to sing beautifully!" He declared, before sinking down quickly.

Logan stood there, slightly dumbfounded, which is concealed with the mask of a deadpanned expression.

Roman's throat sounded fine. However, he didn't come back.

❝ I stepped outside, it hurt my eyes. well, what do you expect when you’ve got no mind? ❞

It is trailed closely by an episode of apathy.

Remus was never one for secrets, nor was he ever one for falsifications. He also wasn't one for boring, being intrusive thoughts.

Coming with the role, he'd usually pull tricks on the sides, or sometimes, the creatures Roman created in the imagination. Sometimes as experiments, and sometimes for his own enjoyment. Usually, it was for the dramatic reactions his brother would give him.

However, lately, those reactions would never come.

Before, Remus would try to burn down a farm one of the villagers had owned in Roman's side of the imagination, and Roman would yell at him, laugh, say something witty in return, and change it back.

Now, Remus would try to burn down the castle, and Roman would only watch. He would stare with a blank expression on his face, only moving it to blink.

The normally loud side stood there in confusion and silence, as his brother changed it back to a full castle, before walking away to do something else.

"Ro-Bro?" He followed, "You're silent. Ooh! Did the princess die from starvation in the tower before you could save her? Was she eaten by the rats?"

Roman only looked forward. A shrug.

Remus rolled his eyes, "Ugh, how boring. Do you wanna slay something with me? Like, maybe, a giant kraken!" A large squid appeared in front of them, flopping around, needing a body of water. It smelled horrible.

"I gave it utters!" The side said excitedly. He pointed to the giant cow utter on the sea creature, a drop of white milk spewed out of it.

Roman only looked at It, before sinking off.

Remus huffed, but looked at the space where Roman was standing.

His concern faded away as the kraken let out a loud "moo!"

He giggled, taking out his morning-star and ran towards it happily.

❝ I searched all day, it drove me insane! where would I be if I was my brain? ❞

It continued with a lie.

Being the embodiment of Deceit, Janus knew immediately when it began. He felt it. Like a little sense of alarm, it was a feeling that bloomed whenever someone had lied. Normally, he'd ignore it. But when it came to Roman, whenever the lies became greater, so did the amount of time the feeling stayed in his chest. After a while, it began to hurt.

They all stood in their respective spots. Virgil sat on the stairs, Patton by the window, Logan by the railing, Janus near him, Remus having in the middle of Patton and Roman, who was near the corner.

Thomas seemed to be speaking, but Roman didn't seem to notice. All there was, was a pale look on his face. That was what Janus could see. Though, he knew there was more.

"Roman," He called smoothly. Everyone's attention now was pulled onto the side mentioned, "You've not gone pale. Are you doing alright?"

Roman smiled, "Well, of course I am, Mr. Pants-On-Fire! You're just mistaken, perhaps it's the lighting."

Janus nodded after wincing, "Obviously not because I don't know that you're lying."

Roman huffed, about to shoot something back, before being cut off by Patton.

"Kiddo, you know, it's okay to not feel alright," He said kindly, "Just tell us what's wrong!"

"Nothing's wrong! I can assure you," The creative side looked at the deceitful side's flinch, "Just- Just lay off it."

"Princey, you're not okay, all you have to say is what's causing it. You're panicking." Virgil explained calmly, trying his hardest to tip-toe around the subject, as to not step on a mouse trap and set it off.

"I'm fine! Please, just, let it go." Roman stepped back. All eyes were on him. But he didn't want that, not now, not now, not now, not now—

Oops, the trap closed.

He shook as he felt himself fall to the floor. Wait, he's on the floor? He can't feel it. Why is everything so loud? Why does it feel this way? Why can't he actually hear them?

Oh, god, are they even there? Have they finally realised how bad he was and left him? Oh, god, oh god, oh god, oh god—

Suddenly, everything was silent. And dark.

❝ the nice nurse told me she felt my pain, but she couldn't find a single trace of my brain. ❞

It ended with a truth.

When you were creativity and ego, you had quite the job. You were to create new ideas that wouldn't get denied because they suck and are unrealistic and just "Aren't achievable, Roman." You had to make sure your host's mood was in tip-top shape, which meant your mood had to be in tip-top shape.

You strived off of compliments, practically begged for recognition, and hunted for approval. You wanted to be good.

Because if you weren't good, that meant the work you did isn't. And if the work you do isn't, then what's the point? You might as well disappear.

Oh, with this mindset, Roman might as well sob.

He was laid down on the couch. Or, that's where he was placed, because, he didn't remember then he got there. When he awoke, he let out a groan, "Ow!"

All eyes were on him.

"Roman!" Someone exclaimed. He thinks it's Patton, but everything is just so blurry. He closes his eyes, before opening them once again. Yup, his bones were being broken in by Patton.

"Um, padre, please—"

"Oh! Right, sorry." Roman let out a breath. It felt refreshing. He turned to face the others concerned faces.

"H—"

"Oh, you stupid idiot!" Virgil exclaimed, jumping off of the couch's arm and scolding the tired side. "You should've said something."

"I don't know, it's a bit hard to come clean about my on-going mental breakdowns." Roman joked, trying to get a laugh out of the serious side. He didn't succeed.

"You've been having them?" Virgil stepped back, "What the fuck, Roman?"

"What?" He argued, throwing his arms up. The other sides and Thomas stare at him, before Remus speaks up, "Are we really that oblivious, or—"

"Wait, so, is that why I've been so. . . sad?" Thomas asks, quietly.

Roman looks up, before looking away. His eyes fall to anything other than those around him. Thoughts begin to race as silence eats him alive.

He messed up again, what a surprise.

The side looks up, meeting his host's downplayed eyes. Oh, he messed up. A lot. Thomas was in distress over this, and it was his fault. It's always his fault. Nobody else was to blame. Only cowards would put the blame on others, and that's not a good trait to posses.

"Roman, you can't keep forgetting to breathe."

Inhale, exhale, he sighs. "I'm sorry."

"For?"

Roman closes his eyes, wasn't it obvious? "For messing up? For being an idiotic, narcissistic prick? For making things harder than it already is? For—"

He reopens his eyes they stare back at him, drowning in worry. "You haven't messed up!"

Oh, how he wishes he could believe that.

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manage-mischief · 4 years

Text

Conjunctions

Summary: I wrote this drabble for @blisfvll on tumblr's writing challenge. Thanks for giving me a prompt for inspiration! I've been having a bit of writer's block lately so it was good to get creative. (also the next chapters of Regulus Black and the Darkest Shadows will be up next week, sorry for not posting this week my beta and I have both been insanely busy!)

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

Read on AO3 or FF.net

“Lils.”

“Hold on,” Lily said, holding up a finger. She was deeply engrossed in her Transfiguration textbook, doing some last-minute review before her morning exam.

“Lils.”

“Mhm.”

“Lily!”

The sudden shout shocked her. She dropped her book, exasperated. “What?!” she spat—a bit harsher than intended—at her boyfriend who was sitting across the breakfast table. James’s eye widened.

“You’ve got your elbow in your porridge…”

Lily realized her left elbow did feel a bit wet. She looked down and, sure enough, she had been using her oatmeal as an arm rest. She cursed under her breath before swiftly cleaning herself up with a flick of her wand. Sirius, James’s best mate, snickered.

“Merlin, Evans,” Sirius teased, “Stressed out much?”

Lily rolled her eyes, but stuffed her book in her bag anyways. Sirius did have a point. She’d studied enough. Still, she could feel her leg bouncing wildly with nervous anticipation. This wasn’t just an exam: it was a NEWT. It was one of a series of tests that would determine the rest of her life. Her job, her happiness, her ability to support herself and a family…Lily shook herself out of her spiral of worrying. It wouldn’t do her any good.

“You should eat something, Lil,” said James, kindly. “Erm…maybe not that porridge though…”

Lily smiled in spite of herself and plucked James’s bagel out of his hands. “Thanks,” she muttered with a mouth full of warm bread. James feigned indignation.

“Oi, Prongs, that’s the price of dating Lily. She steals your food,” said Sirius, as he proceeded to swipe a sausage from James’s plate.

“A bargain price to pay for Lily’s affection,” said James. “But not for you, you wanker!” James locked Sirius in a playful wrestling match, attempting to retrieve his stolen food from Sirius’s fork. The two boys caused quite the ruckus, drawing the attention of many of the surrounding students, who had suddenly noticed their cutlery dancing across the table as the two boys fought.

“Stop hurting me, or I’ll write your mum!” Sirius wailed, stretching his arm just out of James’s reach. “You know she loves me best!”

“Hey!” said James, “I know it’s true, but hey!”

Remus, who had been quietly observing the scene, struck out with lightning fast reflexes and grabbed the fork from Sirius’s hand, promptly popping the coveted sausage into his mouth with a satisfied grin. James and Sirius looked properly affronted.

Lily chuckled. “Boys,” she muttered. She smiled gratefully at James. He and his friends never failed to cheer her up.

“I had to fight back!” James earnestly explained. “It was a matter of honor!”

“You don’t have to explain yourselves to me,” said Lily. “I know Remus just can’t resist grabbing Sirius’s sausage.”

Remus choked on his pumpkin juice, red as a tomato. James and Sirius laughed heartily.

“Evans! I knew there was a reason we kept you around.” Sirius nodded at her, approvingly.

“Merlin, Lil! See, this is why I love you!” James froze as soon as the words left his mouth. His eyes widened in shock, as did Lily’s. Her face flushed as red as Remus’s had. She was speechless.

Remus cleared his throat. “C’mon, Sirius, we’ve got to get to that…thing.”

Sirius stayed put. “No, I wanna know…Ow!” The table rattled as Remus obviously kicked the other boy in the shin, flashing a warning look.

“Oh,” Sirius stammered, “oh yeah. Right. The thing. Let’s go, Moons.’”

The two boys departed, leaving James and Lily alone at the breakfast table. Neither would meet the other’s eye. Lily tried to force herself to say something, anything, however, her vocal chords stayed obstinately stiff. She was too shocked. After a few seconds silence, James stood. He looked mortified. “You know what,” he said, hastily, “I’d better go help them with the…thing…Good luck on the exam, you’ll ace it I’m sure…I’ll see ya later, yeah?”

“James—” Lily tried to call after him as he rushed from the hall. She felt awful. She hadn’t said it back. She should have. She’d wanted to. But, she had been so surprised and, in the moment, had panicked. And now, James thought she didn’t love him. Before she could ponder her mistake any further, the bell rang. Dammit. It was exam time. This debacle would have to wait.

---

The exam had been a breeze. Lily was relieved. Now, she had a week before her next NEWT. And, this meant she had time to brainstorm how to make it up to James.

She was laying on her bed, making random objects float around her head. She had no idea what to do. James was always the hopeless, dramatic, romantic type. And, frankly, he was usually the one apologizing to her. If their roles had been reversed, he’d have concocted some elaborate scheme to win back Lily’s affections—likely involving plots, dramatics, and the help of his gang of friends…His friends…that was it! Lily shot up from her laying position, invigorated. She was concocting a plan. Yes, yes, Lily now had a grand plan to declare her love for James Potter. She dashed down the stairs, clear on what she had to do next. In order to perform her grand, elaborate gesture, Lily would need the help of James’s best friends.

Luckily enough for Lily, the boys were all lounging in the Common Room—sans James. Lily knew he would be at Quidditch practice for the next hour and a half. Hopefully, this would give her enough time to organize her gesture.

“Remus!” Lily called out from across the room. “Sirius! Peter! I need your help!”

“Well, if it isn’t ‘heartless Lily Evans’ herself?” Sirius teased. He leaned back in his chair dangerously, resting his feet on the small wooden table. Peter chuckled until Lily flashed him a death glare. The runty little boy fell silent.

“I’m serious—I swear if you make a joke I’ll hex your balls off, Black!” Lily warned, just as Sirius had opened his mouth to make a pun about his name. He paled and shut it immediately.

“What do you need, Lily?” Remus asked kindly.

“I…well…you clearly know what happened this morning with James…” Lily looked down, embarrassed. The boys nodded. “I messed up. Royally. I need your help to make it right.”

“Our help?” Sirius asked, raising an eyebrow. “Why do you need our help?”

The three boys leaned forward, curious to hear what she had to say.

Lily grinned cunningly. “Well, I had this idea…”

---

Lily and the boys scrambled around for the next hour, making sure every little detail of their plan was set. Finally, the Gryffindor Common Room was ready for James’s arrival. Lily felt a little guilty abusing her Head Girl authority to throw the rest of the students out, but this was for the greater good.

“Hush, and get into positions!” Lily hissed impatiently at her three companions. They quickly scrambled away, ducking behind the chairs and suits of armor in the Common Room, out of sight.

“Wands at the ready!” She ordered, checking her watch for the thousandth time. James would be arriving soon. He must be close. Her heart began to pound anxiously.

A moment later, Lily heard the Fat Lady’s muffled voice as she conversed with someone else outside the door. It had to be James. But, what if it wasn’t? Lily stupidly hadn’t planned on encountering any of his other Quidditch mates. What if one of them had arrived before James did?

Luckily for Lily, the top of a messy head of hair emerged from the portrait entryway. She breathed a sigh of relief. It was James. This was it.

“Lily?” James asked, raising an eyebrow. She stood alone in the middle of the atrium. Her legs felt like jelly. Perhaps she should have dressed up more. “What are you—”

“James Fleamont Potter,” Lily proclaimed, raising her wand above her head. The signal.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the infinitesimal movements of Remus, Sirius, and Peter, as they began casting their spells. The light in the Common Room turned pale pink. Fireworks began erupting over her head, spreading out around the room as they danced in the air. A flock of songbirds burst from the tip of Remus’s hidden wand flew promptly into a heart formation, chirping merrily. Two cherubs holding harps fluttered near them. Heart shaped bubbled filled the air. The scene was, in Lily’s opinion, utterly sickening with cliché. She hoped James would love it.

“I love you, too.” Lily said, just as the fireworks regrouped in above head, spelling out the same message in flashing lights. Gooey harp sounds echoed through the air. The birds clumped together in a tight formation and flew to James, turning into a bouquet of roses before his eyes.

Lily held her breathe as she watched her boyfriend take in the scene before him. James looked up from the bouquet, grinning madly.

“Well?” Lily asked. “Say something?”

“WOOHOO!” James shouted, rushing to Lily and taking her in his arms. He lifted her off of the ground as he spun her around. Lily laughed as he set her back down.

“I’m sorry I didn’t say it earlier,” she apologized.

“Lily,” said James seriously, “Don’t ever apologize. This way was much better. I feel like the belle of the ball.” He winked.

“Only the best for you, your majesty,” Lily teased back. She was staring into James’s eyes as he held her hands when a chorus of cheers erupted from behind them.

“What the hell?” James jumped back, startled to find his three best friends who had materialized beside them.

“Nice one, Evans,” Sirius clapped her on the back. “I knew Prongs’d fall for this sappy romantic crap, the big softie.”

“Who’re you calling a softie?” James pouted.

“You, idiot. Look, you haven’t even snogged your girlfriend yet. You’ve just gazed lovingly into her eyes. It’s gross!”

Remus and Lily shared a look. “Come on, Sirius, Peter, let’s give these two some privacy.”

As the three boys walked off towards their dormitories, James grabbed Lily by the waist and pulled her close. “Just for that, I’m gonna snog her extra hard now!” He shouted into the distance. Sirius’s laughing reply echoed down the stairs.

Lily shook her head affectionately. “You’re an idiot.”

James smiled back, running a hand through her hair. “But you love me.”

#jily #james potter #lily evans #marauders #sirius black #remus lupin #marauders era #wolfstar #minor wolfstar #jily fluff #fluff #Harry Potter #hp marauders #hp fanfic #harry potter fanfiction #my writing #peter pettigrew #james potter x lily evans #blisfvllswritingchallenge

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queerpsychopomp · 4 years

Text

what’s owed to them?

Prompt: can you please write the last letter marlene wrote to sirius? maybe he finds it a week after her death? or maybe she knew she was dying so she wrote it and gave it to someone to give it to him after her death? WOULD MEAN A LOT TO ME IF YOU DO IT.

So this kind of ran away from me. Hope you like it!

AO3 | Masterlist

---

Dear Sirius

If you find this letter, I’ve died. With everything the way it is, it was bound to happen -

Mar sighed and crumpled up the parchment, tossing it. That didn’t sound right, too much like she was admitting defeat and giving up. That wasn’t her style, and it wasn’t the reason she wanted to write this letter. Sounding like she resigned herself to the war would bring him pain. It needed to provide some comfort, a final goodbye if they didn’t have the chance to say it.

The Daily Prophet sat on the table in her reach. Today’s headline proclaiming a family of four had been killed last night, the accompanying picture showing the dark mark above a cottage. Aurors found Edgar Bones and his entire family slaughtered just last week. Two weeks before, they buried Dorcas Meadows after she was tortured and killed by Voldemort himself. James and Lily were going into hiding, the madman marking Harry as the child of the prophecy. The war was picking up and the Order was struggling to win against the endless tides of death eaters far outnumbering them. Skilled wizards were dying all the time. Every single day Marlene woke up and wondered if today would be the day that she would die. Or Sirius. Or Remus or Peter or another one of their few friends that were still alive.

So Marlene sat at the kitchen table of the small flat she shared with Sirius, trying to write a letter he would only open if she died. It took weeks for her to reach this point. Every time she built up the courage to start, Sirius would walk into the flat, back from a mission or grocery shopping. He would ask what she was doing, Marlene would brush it off as writing a letter to one of her brothers. They’d get distracted, and she would abandon the letter for another time. No distractions this time though; Sirius had gone to visit the Potters one last time before they went into hiding, so he would be gone at least an hour. Marlene had said her goodbyes the day before.

Two more pieces of parchment shared the same fate as the one before. Everything sounded wrong, insincere, fake, hopeless. Not anything like she wanted it to. Marlene saw what happened when Sirius found out Regulus had died and didn’t want a repeat of that. He was inconsolable, many nights of sobbing himself to sleep and days of wandering around the flat in a stupor. Only eating because Marlene was there to remind him. Only going to bed because Marlene would guide him there. It broke her heart seeing him like that. The only reason the grief didn’t consume him for good was that they didn’t let it happen. James, Lily, Remus, Peter, along with herself spent those two weeks caring for him, trying to provide some sort of comfort. Stopping him from letting the abyss of his grief and guilt engulf him.

If Marlene died, she wasn’t sure who would be there. James and Lily had to stay in hiding for Harry’s sake, Peter was around less and less, and Remus… she wasn’t sure what happened but Sirius once confided in her that he didn’t entirely trust him anymore. That maybe he was letting information slip - Marlene told him that was daft and Remus would never sell them out and that was the last they spoke of it. Still, it seemed the bond was broken and neither party attempted to fix it.

This letter needed to somehow provide Sirius the comfort they all had before. It needed to stop him from losing himself because Marlene couldn’t bear the thought of causing him so much pain. It had to remind him of how much she loved him, to alleviate the guilt he was sure to have, no matter how ridiculous it was. They both jumped headfirst into fighting the war, but he wouldn’t remember that. He would blame himself for not doing enough.

“Fuck,” Marlene sighed, scrapping yet another draft. She was putting too much pressure on a piece of parchment, but what was she to do? She wrote for a living, and now the words she desperately needed were out of reach. Just her luck. Pressing the heels of her palms into her eyes, she groaned. At this rate, Sirius would be back before she wrote a single sentence that didn’t make her want to set the parchment on fire. He always joked that she was never happy with ‘just fine,’ always pushing herself for ‘the best.’

“Isn’t this article just about the Harpies match?” Sirius asked, glancing at the piles of parchment around her, all will only a few lines crossed out.

Marlene huffed, her head resting on the table. “It needs to be good.”

“Not good, the best,” he teased a little. Nudging her to raise her head, Sirius set a mug of tea in front of her before sitting in the chair beside her. “I’m sure all of these were good. You just think too much-”

Marlene wrapped her hands around the mug, taking a quick sip. “As opposed to not at all?” she teased, raising an eyebrow and fighting back a grin from spreading on her face.

“Oi- those are fighting words McKinnon!”

“Okay just- don’t think about it,” she mumbled before trying again.

It was like a dam broke. Marlene didn’t know how long she wrote, worrying that if she glanced at the clock, the words would halt and the letter would be abandoned for good. Setting down the quill, she looked it over once, folded it, and put it in an envelope before going to tuck it between the pages of an album. They rarely looked through these pictures anymore, the hopeful faces of their youth too painful to look at. If Sirius found the need to look through it, it would either be because he was feeling nostalgic - unlikely - or wanted to see her or their friends alive. When would he feel the need to seek out their happy faces? In a week? A month? Or years from now to show Harry - or maybe their own kids? - what they looked like during their time at school, tell stories of the trouble they got into.

Marlene hoped that when he found the letter, he could walk down the hall and ask her about it. That she would be there to explain why she wrote it, and that would be the end of the matter. They would go to meet the others for lunch, and the war would be a thing of memory.

The universe owed them that much.

But when do people ever get what’s owed to them?

-----

Marlene was buried on a Tuesday alongside her family. It was a bright, clear June day. It made Sirius want to scream. The world didn’t deserve to be so happy when everything had been taken away from him. His suit itched. Usually Marlene would stand beside him when he wore this suit, the two mourning yet another fallen member of the Order.

But Marlene wasn’t beside him, she was in the coffin being lowered in the ground.

James and Lily, as much as they wanted to attend, couldn’t, not even under the cloak. Remus was there, but stood away from Sirius. Most of the Order was there - whoever was alive anyway. People made speeches about how the world had lost a bright soul. They had no idea. Marlene was the best of them, the best of him. He could feel the eyes on him, pitying, expecting him to break down.

He said nothing.

He was the first to leave, not able to bear any more condolences, though spending time in their his flat was worse. The week he heard the news, he fell into a stupor. If he wasn’t drunk and sobbing, he was in their bed, staring at the ceiling. The absence of her beside him was clearer than ever on the nights he passed out in their bed, there was no one he had to fight for the covers from, no hair in his face, no one mumbling “Budge over.” Every time he walked into the flat, he expected her to be singing along to the radio in the kitchen as she baked. Or lounging on the couch, reading some book that Lily had suggested. Or sitting among a pile of parchment as another deadline loomed above her.

Contrary to what many might have expected, the flat was immaculate. He took off his shoes at the door and placed them to the side. His coat hung properly in the closet. He never destroyed possessions when mourning; no, his upbringing kicked in and while he would destroy himself, everything in the flat went in its place.

It was perfect. It was sterile. It was no longer a home.

There used to be jackets slung over chairs, a mug of tea here, Marlene’s slippers constantly forgotten in different places around the flat. It hadn’t been messy, but it had been theirs. Comfortable. A refuge from the war. No matter how bad things got, everything seemed better once he stepped inside. They would patch each other up after missions, dream about a life after the war, mumble confessions that they would never share with anyone else, all within this flat. Stave away nightmares of the things they did to survive. The war couldn’t touch them here because they were together.

It was a grave now.

Staying here, with the ghosts of their life together haunting his every move was unbearable. Sirius had already told James he was moving, a new flat already chosen. His belongings packed away neatly in boxes. Marlene’s were still sitting there, awaiting their fate. He couldn’t bear to part with them, his last remains of her, but they hurt to look at for the same reason.

After changing out of the funeral suit, he grabbed a box from the top shelf of the closet and sat on the bed, reaching for the half-empty bottle of Firewhiskey on the nightstand. I have to get more later. Popping off the cap, he took a swig before taking things out of it. There were movie tickets from their first date. A newspaper from which they found out Regulus had died. Childhood pictures of Marlene, James making an appearance of many of them after she turned eight. A handful of his own. Some of Marlene’s quidditch medals.

And an album of their school years.

They hadn’t touched the album since they joined the Order; it felt wrong to see them so carefree after constantly being bombarded by the horrors of war. It hurt to see the people they used to be before they were thrown into this mess, who they could have been if they weren’t. Sirius flipped it open and drank more. None of that mattered now. Marlene had just been buried, with her the dreams they shared of life after all this was over. He deserved a glimpse of her alive.

He almost didn’t notice the envelope that slipped out. That was strange. Picking it up, he saw it was addressed to him in Marlene’s measured writing. He wasn’t sure how long he spent just staring at it. Why did she put this in here? Did it even matter anymore? Wasn’t like he could go ask her about it. Snapping out of it, he opened the envelope and took the letter out, taking three sips from the bottle to steel himself before unfolding it.

Sirius,

I really hope you never find this letter. You’re out visiting the Potters now, and I hope you remember to buy that toy broom on your way back. Harry’ll love it, and it’ll freak James out a bit, which’ll be fun for Lily. Can you believe the little bugger’s turning one soon?

Right, I’m getting off topic. Look, if you’re reading this, it probably means I’m dead. I hope to Merlin that I’m wrong and you can go tease me about this-

He let out a watery laugh at that. He’d give anything to do that. But he was alone. No James, no Lily, no Peter, no Remus, no one at all at his side. She left him here alone.

-and I can tell you to bugger off and that times were different. They are different. Everyone’s dropping dead, better wizards than us. I guess that’s what pushed me to write this. It’s been nagging at me for a while now, but — I don’t know, things feel more urgent now.

Right. Well, there’s really only one important thing I have to tell you: whatever happened, it wasn’t your fault. Don’t start thinking you didn’t protect me enough, that you put me in danger, that would be an insult to my memory. I chose to fight this war as much as you did. If it’s anyone’s fault, it’s Voldemort and his lot.

Living in this war feels like I’m living on borrowed time, but that’s fine. I got to spend that time with you, and that is something I’ll never regret. You made me so so happy, even when we fought, even when you were off on a mission and I was up worrying, even when you felt you were becoming more like the Blacks, which is rubbish. You may share similarities with them love, but your heart is what makes you different. You are a good man, no matter what you may think. You choose to be good, and that makes all the difference in the world. We’ve all got a little darkness in us, but that doesn’t make us evil. Remember that. Please.

The tears building in his eyes made it harder to read. Sirius swiped at them, careful to make sure none fell on the letter, messing with the ink. This was his last bit of Marlene, the last gift she gave him, a lifeline. Leave it to her to worry about him when faced with death. Merlin, he loves - loved that woman.

I love you. I’ve said it a thousand times and I hope I’ll get to say it a thousand more. If these are the last years of my life, I’m honoured to have shared them with you. Mourn me as long as you need, but don’t shut the others out. Talk to them, let them help you. Keep some of my things and throw away the rest. I don’t want to be a ghost to you Sirius. I don’t want to be the reason you die either, so don’t let the need for revenge consume you. Let me go when you’re ready and move on. Live through this war and find happiness. You deserve all the happiness in the world. The universe owes you that much.

Have a long, happy life Sirius. Fall in love again. I know you don’t believe in anything after death, but I hope to see you again one day. Make sure you have some good stories to tell, yeah?

I love you.

Marlene.

The universe owed them more time.

But when did people ever get what they were owed?

#blackinnon #sirius black #marlene mckinnon #hp fanfic #marauders era #marauders era oneshot #marlene/sirius #my writing #my stuff #hprarepairnet #hpminorcharnet

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s-riusblck · 4 years

Text

ANGEL EYES II

LIGHTNING ERA - Part 5

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4 / Part 5 / Part 6 / Part 7

SHIP: Sirius Black x Reader

DESCRIPTION: Life in Azkaban. These were the three words that had haunted your life for twelve years, until the day you saw Sirius Black’s face on the front of the daily prophet. He had escaped, but after twelve years in Azkaban, could things ever go back to normal?

NOTES: hey hi hello yes it is actually me back with another chapter of angel eyes!! quarantine really is making crazy things happen lol. I can’t apologise enough for how long this has taken, but i’ve tried my very best to make it worth it. also ps I have had to make some slight changes to the usual timeline, including remus/tonks wedding, and the major one being that the attack on the burrow now happens on harry’s birthday!! thank you so much for sticking with me xx (also apologies for any spelling/grammar errors my inspo kept striking at night when I was very sleepy lol)

Standing out the window of Remus’ London apartment, your hands wrapped tightly around your mug of tea as you stared out at the dense fog that had settled over the city. The sight of it instantly brought a nauseous feeling to your stomach, knowing that it was the growing presence of dementors that was causing it. Your eyes darted down to watch the innocent muggles who were walking by, clearly questioning the unusual fog, completely ignorant to the fact that their world was in grave danger. It all felt uncomfortably familiar, your mind flooding with memories of the First Wizarding War. With a deep sigh, you stepped back from the window and settled down on the sofa, freeing a hand from your mug to pick up The Daily Prophet. “Bridge Collapse: Death Toll Rises” was sprawled across the front page, and your heart sank further as you began to read the details, knowing that the families involved would never get the answers they deserved.

“Devastating, isn’t it?”

You jumped slightly at the sudden voice and looked up, your brows furrowing in confusion as Albus Dumbledore appeared in front of you.

“Extremely.” You said, placing the newspaper back down on the coffee table. Just as you were about to ask what brought him here, Remus appeared at the living room door, a similar look of confusion on his features.

“Good evening, Remus.” Albus greeted, giving Remus a nod as he stepped into the room. “Please excuse me for arriving here unannounced, but I am on a tight schedule.”

“Please, sit down.” Remus insisted, gesturing to the free armchair, as he himself settled down beside you on the sofa beside you.

“You must be wondering what brings me here this evening, and again, I apologize for arriving unannounced, but I wanted to check in on you both. Particularly after your recent mission, Remus.” Albus explained, and you glanced towards Remus knowingly, your eyes tracing over the gashes and bruises that now littered his face.

Much to your dismay, Remus had begun to take on more serious Order missions. It had resulted in many sleepless nights sitting up patching his wounds, and trying to get through to him. You knew his condition led him to extreme insecurities, but you had never quite understood the extent of it until now. Remus Lupin had fallen in love, but he was doing everything in his power to push it away and ignore it. He couldn’t see the same worth in himself that everyone else did, and it broke your heart to witness, but considering your current situation with Sirius, you were in no position to give your opinion.

“I’m recovering very well, sir, thank you.” Remus said, shifting uncomfortably under your intense gaze.

“I’m pleased to hear it.” Albus said, giving Remus a sincere smile, before he averted his attention. “I’ve just come from Grimmauld Place.”

It was your turn now to shift uncomfortablly, clearing your throat as you placed your empty mug down on the table. “How is he?” You asked.

“Extremely remorseful.” Albus said bluntly. Your head shot up to look at him, and Albus stared directly at you, his gaze unfaltering. “Far be it for me to get involved in personal business, but I feel I owe it to both you, and Sirius, in this case.”

“You owe it to us?” You questioned, and Ablus nodded, sitting up straighter in his chair.

“My ignorance came at extreme costs for you both, and still does. I have been engaging with The Ministry to ensure Sirius’ name is cleared, but it shouldn’t have come to this point. You told me he was innocent, and I should have believed you. I should have had more faith in him, especially when considering the fact that he has shown me nothing but loyalty. I let you both down in ways that are incomprehensible, and I hope you both know how deeply apologetic I am for that. One day, I hope you will find it possible to forgive me.” Albus explained, but before you could interject, he continued on. “I’ve known Sirius Black for a long time, and nothing gave me greater joy than watching you fall in love with each other. All Sirius Black has ever wanted, and deserved, was to be loved, and you gave that to him. It’s a truly beautiful thing, (Y/N). I’ve lived a long time, as I’m sure you can appreciate, and I struggle to think of a love comparative to that of you and Sirius. I understand why you felt it necessary to take the time that you have, but you’ve both already lost so much, I would hate to see you lose any more time with each other.”

You sat stunned, your mouth slightly agape as you tried to process everything Albus had said to you. Remus reached out, resting a hand on your shoulder and giving it a reassuring squeeze.

“I understand that that’s a lot to take, and I regret that I have to leave in such a haste, but I hope it may bring some clarity for you, as well as my apology bringing some overdue closure. I must now visit Harry, and bring him to stay with The Weasley’s. He will be much more comfortable there.” Albus explained, standing up from his chair. Remus stood up with him, shaking his hand and thanking him for coming. The sudden movement shook you out of your stunned state, and you stood up hastily, just as he was about to leave.

“I’ve already forgiven you, sir, we both have.” You said, and again, a sincere smile flashed across Albus’ features.

“Take the time you need, (Y/N), but not so much that you may regret it in the future.” He said, before suddenly disapparating, leaving you and Remus staring at an empty space in front of you.

“Why do I get the feeling that he’s tying up loose ends?” Remus suddenly said, and you let out a shaky breath, the nauseous feeling in your stomach returning.

_____

The air was cool as you sat on the porch of The Burrow, a small breeze nipping at your skin. Glancing back through the front door, your lips quirked up into a small smile as you saw Harry laughing with his friends, a sight you would never grow tired of seeing. Throughout all the chaos, and all the panic, Harry’s 16th birthday had come around. Knowing how heavy the war was weighing on his mind, you had decided alongside Molly Weasley to put together a small celebration for him, hoping it might take his mind off the excruciating pressure he was facing everyday for at least a couple of hours, and so far, it seemed to be paying off.

Turning your attention back outside, you admired how clear the sky was, running your hands up and down your arms to try and retain some heat. Hearing footsteps coming towards you, and a jacket wrapping around your shoulders, you immediately recognised the intoxicating scent of Sirius enveloping you. Closing your eyes for a moment, as he settled down on the porch beside you, you took a minute to appreciate the feeling of having him so close. The closest he had been in weeks.

“Can we talk?” He asked, and you opened your eyes slowly, turning your head to meet his eyes.

Albus’ words when he visited had left you with a lot to think about. His words stuck with you, and brought you to a point where you weren’t quite sure anymore whether you were more angry with Sirius, or yourself. From the moment you met Sirius Black, you had known what you were getting yourself into. He had always been reckless, and stubborn, and much like everyone else, he came with his own flaws, but despite this, despite the flaws that you brought to the table, he continued to love you so deeply that the price had always been worth the payoff. Sirius loved you in a way that you could have never expected anyone to. He made you feel as if you were the only girl in the world, and Merlin, you couldn’t have been more in love with him either. How could you ever throw something like that away? He loved you so unapologetically, how could you deprive him of the same when you knew he would have never done what he did with the intent of hurting you?

“I’m sorry, Sirius…” You began, but were quickly cut off as a trail of black smoke appeared in the sky. You both stood up, slipping your arms into Sirius’ jacket as your eyes squinted in an attempt to see through the darkness. Before you could react, a circle of flames surrounded the house, and Sirius reached out to shield you behind him. You both quickly drew your wands as the guests of Harry’s birthday party came flooding out into the garden, and Bellatrix Lestrange appeared in front of you all, laughing maniacally. She disappeared just as quickly as she had appeared, and before you knew it, Harry and Ginny were running past you and Sirius, following her into the flames.

“Harry!” You cried out, your body immediately kicking into gear as you and Sirius both followed after, Remus and Arthur not far behind. The tall grass stung as it hit against your skin, your heart pounding in your chest as your feet moved you as quickly as they could. “Harry!” You called out again, your footsteps coming to a sudden halt as you found him and Ginny fighting off curses coming from multiple directions. You immediately joined them, alongside Remus, Sirius and Arthur, but the curses soon died out, and the silence was almost deafening as you all stood in a circle, listening out for any sudden movement and anticipating a second attack. It couldn’t be that easy.

Suddenly, the black smoke appeared in the sky again, and Sirius quickly pulled you into his side, his arm wrapping around your shoulders as your free hand gripped onto his shirt. You watched, stunned, as the dark smoke danced around the The Burrow, and the house erupted in flames. Your mouth dropped open, your grip tightening on Sirius’ shirt as Arthur called out for Molly, making a burst back towards the house. “Tonks.” Remus suddenly breathed out, before following quickly after Arthur.

As you all arrived back at the house, you could hardly comprehend the scene in front of you, your heart shattering into a million pieces as you saw the house The Weasley’s, and Harry, all called home, falling to the ground. The war had always felt personal, and unpredictable, but this just reinstated how truly unsafe, even the safest of places were. As you all helplessly watched the flames, your body automatically found Sirius’. You wrapped your arms around his waist, your head resting on his chest, as you held on as tight as possible to the feeling of safety he brought to you. His arms wrapped around your shoulders, and he pressed a kiss to the top of your head before you looked up at him.

“Let’s go home.”

_____

Knowing The Burrow would take some time to be liveable again, and that the memories were still fresh, you and Sirius had insisted on The Weasley’s and Harry coming back to stay in Grimmauld Place for as long as they needed. Remus had decided he would go home with Tonks, both seeking comfort after what they had just witnessed, so you said your goodbyes and asked that he update you in the morning to let you know how they both were. When you returned home, you quickly fell back into the familiar routine of hosting in Grimmauld Place, and hurried around to make sure everyone had a bed, blankets, and were as comfortable as they could be for the night.

Once everyone was settled, you said your goodnights and made your way back to Sirius’ bedroom, stepping in and closing the door behind you. Once shut, you leaned back against it, your head falling back as you let out a shaky breath. Hearing the door close, Sirius appeared out from the bathroom. You lifted your head to look at him as he walked towards you, reaching his hand out for you to take.

You placed your hand in his, following after him as he guided you to the bathroom, the steam from the shower already beginning to fog up the room. You both quickly rid of your clothes and stepped into the shower, letting out a long sigh of relief as the warm water washed over your body.

Your eyes met Sirius’, his hand reaching out to gently trace his fingers along your jaw. You soaked in every second of his touch, your hands running up his chest and around his neck, tangling into the hair at the nape of his neck. Taking a step closer to him, you closed any space that was left between your bodies, your foreheads meeting in the middle as he leaned his against yours.

“I’m so, so sorry, love.” He muttered and you shook your head, biting down on your lip gently as he let one hand rest on the side of your neck, his other moving to press against your lower back.

“I love you.” You breathed out, and with those three words, his lips found yours, an indescribable heat erupting throughout every inch of your body as your hands tightened their grip on his hair, unable to get enough of him. Backing you up against the wall, the water cascaded down both of your bodies, and the world outside the bathroom slowly slipped away as you forgave each other in arguably the best way possible.

Time passed, and you soon found yourself tangled up in both Sirius and the sheets on the bed. You lay partially on top of him, your legs intertwined with his as you ran your fingers through his hair, his hand drawing patterns on the small of your back. Tracing your fingers along the chiselled line of his jaw, you leaned down, pressing a short kiss to his lips.

“I’m sorry I ran.”

“I’m sorry I made you feel as if you had no other option.” He replied, turning his head slightly to place a kiss on the palm of your hand.

“I guess we aren’t as perfect as we thought we were, huh?” You smirked, and Sirius laughed softly. “No more running.” You told him sincerely.

“You come first, (Y/N/N), always.”

_____

“You know, we should really be looking for my ring, love. Maybe I could have left it Remus’ the other evening after the wedding? I’m pretty sure I must have taken it off to wash the dishes… Can you believe Remus is married now? I’m so happy for them both. They really make such a lovely couple… Where are you taking me, Sirius?”

Sirius chuckled as he guided you along, his hands covering your eyes.

“I told you, it’s a surprise.” He replied, eliciting an impatient groan from you. After a hectic day working with The Order, Sirius had whisked you off to an unknown location, giving you absolutely no reasoning why. Despite your impatient tendencies, and the fact you were mentally and physically drained, it came as an extremely welcome surprise. In the months following the attack on The Burrow, Voldemort had made it known that not only was he back, but he was back with a vengeance. The situation was escalating everyday, but amidst all the chaos, it was moments like this you spent alone with Sirius, rediscovering each other and repairing aspects of your relationship that were broken that kept you going. He was your light in what seemed like never ending darkness, and the determination you felt to finally live the life you had always dreamed of with him motivated you to keep fighting.

“Are we there yet?” You asked suddenly, and Sirius rolled his eyes in amusement, before suddenly slowing down the pace and coming to a complete stop.

“We’re here.” He told you, before removing his hands from your eyes. A small gasp escaped your lips as you saw where you were, and the scene in front of you. Just like the night of your engagement, Sirius had brought you back to the lake at Hogwarts, setting up a small picnic for just the two of you.

“Sirius! It’s beautiful.” You smiled, leaning back into his chest as you admired the scene in front of you.

“Worth the wait?” He mumbled, running his hands down your arms and pressing a kiss to the top of your head.

“So worth it.” You replied easily, tilting your head to the side and bringing your hand up to guide his lips to yours. “Can you believe how long it’s been since that night you first proposed to me? So much has changed since then. I certainly didn’t expect we still wouldn’t have made it to the wedding at this stage.” You chuckled as you broke apart, taking a few steps towards the picnic blanket to see what he had laid out.

“Well… That’s why I wanted to bring you here tonight.” Sirius began, and you turned back to face him, an even louder gasp escaping your lips this time as you found him down on one knee. “Your ring isn’t lost, (Y/N/N), it’s at home, but I took it because… I wanted to give you this.” He said, pulling out a small box out of his pocket to reveal a beautiful diamond ring.

“Oh Sirius…” You sighed, completely in awe of what was in front of you.

“I can’t even begin to comprehend how I got so lucky with you, (Y/N). You are… breathtakingly beautiful, and easily the best sex I’ve ever had,” He joked, and you chuckled softly, reaching up to wipe the stray tears that were beginning to slip down your cheeks. “But you’re so much more than that. Throughout everything, you’ve loved me more than I ever thought was possible, and I can’t thank you enough for that. You’ve really opened my eyes up to what love is, and how beautiful it can be, and Merlin (Y/N/N), I love you so much. Every day, every second, I fall more and more in love with you. You said it yourself, a lot has changed since the first time I proposed to you. We’ve changed as people, the world around us has changed, our relationship has changed, gotten stronger, and I wanted to give you this as a promise that this time around, we’re going to get our wedding. We’re going to get married, buy a house, have kids… Everything we’ve always dreamed of. So, will you marry me?”

A wide smile spread across your lips as you nodded furiously. “Of course I’ll marry you!” You said, watching as he slipped the ring onto your finger. Sirius barely had the time to stand up and you were in his arms, your hands tangling into his hair as you pulled him in for a kiss. “I love you so much.”

_____

In stark contrast to the last time you had been on the ground of Hogwarts, an excruciating heaviness lay in the air as you and Sirius walked hand in hand through the castle. A number of emotions were coursing through your body, a mixture of anger, fear, uncertainty, grief, but most of all, extreme despair and heartache. The War in the Wizarding World had inevitably continued to intensify in the months following your engagement, tragedy upon tragedy being reported everyday. It was painful to admit it had gotten to a point where you had grown accustomed to the grief, learning to expect it, but what you hadn’t expected, what you could have never expected, was for Albus Dumbledore to be murdered. Arriving at Hogwarts on the night of his death, feet pounding heavily against the pavement as The Order tried to reach the castle as quickly as possible, the last thing you could have ever prepared for was to see him falling freely from the astronomy tower. Still to this day, as you made your way towards the Black Lake for his funeral ceremony, you couldn’t wrap your mind around it. You couldn’t believe he was gone.

Similar to most, Albus Dumbledore had played a crucial role in your life. From the moment you arrived in Hogwarts, a transfer from Ilvermorny, he had taken you in and welcomed you with open arms. Despite your differences in recent years, you knew that Albus had only your best intentions at heart, and that he strived above everything else to keep you, and the ones around him, safe. In addition to this, you knew the role he played in Harry’s life. You knew how important he was to Harry, and it only added to the overwhelming sense of grief to know what a toll the loss would take on him.

Reaching the door of the castle that would lead you to the Black Lake, you felt Sirius’ grip tighten on your hand, as he stopped in his tracks and took a deep breath. Turning to face him, you used your free hand to reach up to his cheek, turning his head slightly to face you. “You made him proud, Sirius. All he wanted for you was to see you loved, and you made that possible by not letting your past, and your family, change who you are. You are so loved, and he was so proud.” You told him, and Sirius smiled sadly, as you leaned up and pressed a gentle kiss to his cheek. “Ready?”

“Ready.” Sirius nodded, and you gave him a reassuring smile, before heading out towards the Black Lake.

Approaching the ceremony, the sound of soft sobs and people talking quietly amongst themselves took over. You greeted those you knew as you walked past, thanking the ones who expressed how wonderful it was to see Sirius out in the open again due to Albus’ efforts with The Ministry to clear his name. You soon spotted Remus and Tonks, quickly approaching them and pulling them both in for long hugs. As the hug broke, your heart once again shattered into a million paces as your eyes met Harry’s, the pain and anger evident. Upon seeing you and Sirius, a flicker of relief flashed through his eyes, and you quickly approached him, wrapping your arms around him in a hug. Rubbing his back soothingly, you bit down on your bottom lip to hold back your own tears, using everything that you had to convey in that one hug how loved, and appreciated he was. You wanted him more than anything to know that he wasn’t alone.

“They can’t get away with this. Voldemort, Snape, Bellatrix… They can’t get away with this.” He told you, and you nodded in agreement.

“Nobody is getting away with this, Harry. We’ll make sure of it.”

#sirius black x reader #sirius black #harry potter #the marauders #marauders

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xpouii · 5 years

Text

Tentacletober Day 13

HELLO! This is slightly less late! It’s time for the sequel to DAY 6! You heard me right, It’s Intrulogical time once again! Gather round and read of my wares!

Prompt: In The Kitchen

Fandom: Sanders Sides

Characters: Logan, Deceit, Patton, Remus

Warnings/Tags: NSFW, SEQUEL TO DAY 6, Intrulogical, light D/s, subspace, aftercare, mild violence, slapping, swearing, full nsfw tags under the cut! Sympathetic Remus

Do not ignore my Warnings. These are the trigger warnings, and I do not take any responsibility if you ignore my warnings and see something you don’t want to.

NSFW Tags: Biting, dirty talk, spanking, rough anal sex, fingering, choking, drooling, hair pulling, scratching, bondage, not the best communication between D and s as it starts out. Full consent is given just not verbally until later into the scene.

Logan stood in the kitchen, an open book in one hand and a mug in the other, waiting for the coffee to finish brewing. He leaned against the counter and checked his watch with a sound of annoyance. Patton would be in shortly, and Logan would humor him by having breakfast—although he’d rather rush right off to his room and deal with scheduling. Honestly, Thomas had a day of theatrics, and Logan had very little interest in anything but the dates and logistics he’d have to deal with as a result. He was pondering future deadlines when Deceit swept into the kitchen, “Logan!”

Logan turned around, startled, “Yes?”

Deceit marched up to him and stared him down; it would have been intimidating, but Logan wasn’t much on cowering. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done? I have a side out of commission. Remus is useless—more so than usual!”

Logan raised an eyebrow, “I haven’t even spoken to Remus for days, Deceit. It’s been… three days, eighteen hours and-“

“I don’t give a shit how many seconds, calculator watch!” Deceit spat. “It’s my responsibility to make sure the sides in my care function properly, and thanks to you, we have a stunted Creativity! If Roman is the only one functioning, how do you expect Thomas to nail his rehearsal this afternoon? It’s for a villain role!”

Logan’s expression didn’t move, but he was unfathomably puzzled, “Deceit, I have no idea what that could possibly have to do with me. I have been doing my job perfectly.”

“You hurt him!” Deceit hissed.

“Who?”

Deceit’s face was unreadable, but Logan relaxed a bit when he looked down, fiddling with his glove; he pulled it off slowly, calmly, and then he slapped Logan across the face, hard and fast. Logan stumbled to the side, catching himself on the counter. He spun around, pressing his hand to the burning red patch on his cheek. His eyes wide in surprise, “Did you just slap me?”

“No,” Deceit said through clenched teeth. “Now, get your shit together or I will. You will find Remus and you will fix this.”

Deceit turned with a small flourish and marched out of the kitchen, putting his glove on as Patton passed him, heading into the kitchen, “Morning, Logan!”

Logan looked dumbfounded at Patton, searching for his words for a moment, “Good… morning, Patton.”

Patton walked to the fridge, “Feel like a big breakfast?”

“Actually, no,” Logan said, pouring his cup of coffee. “I’ll be busy today. Please try to keep things calm and in order.”

“Oh, of course,” Patton said with a frown. “That’s alright. Roman’s always eager to eat my pancakes.”

“Mhm,” Logan muttered noncommittally as he left the kitchen.

Remus jumped when there was a brisk knock on his door, certainly not the way Deceit knocked, and nobody else tended to come to his room on purpose. He walked to the door and opened it, stumbling back when Logan barged in, “Remus, I had a… confrontation with Deceit in the kitchen this morning.”

Remus folded his arms, “I didn’t say you could come in.”

Logan turned around, putting his coffee cup on Remus’ messy desk and adjusting his glasses. “You’re… angry with me as well?”

Remus rolled his eyes, “I don’t get angry. I’m far too whimsical. What do you want, Logan?”

“I was hoping you could tell me why Deceit assaulted me, and why he seemed convinced that I’d wronged you in some way. If it was my following you around, you didn’t seem angry about that afterward. I’m not a good judge of emotions but I’m fairly certain-“

“You’re so stupid,” Remus said. “I just want to… strangle you.”

Logan straightened, “We could-“

“NO!” Remus shouted, and covered his mouth, looking almost sheepish for a moment. “No. I don’t want to fool around with you anymore.”

“Really?” Logan asked, genuinely confused. “But isn’t that your whole… modus operandi? Fooling around? Casual copulation? Demented debauchery?”

“That’s enough of the alliteration,” Remus said, shuddering. “You know what it does to me. That isn’t fair. You don’t play by the rules!”

“Rules! I always play by the rules!” Logan countered. “It’s my modus operandi, rules and order and-“

“You didn’t with me,” Remus said, turning away to hide the complex emotions on his face. “You didn’t follow the rules.”

Logan was shocked, and he thought back to their time together; he’d followed orders fairly well, but then he remembered, “Aftercare… wait really? That is what got me slapped?”

“I thought you said he assaulted you,” Remus said.

“Slapping is assault,” Logan said. “Remus I have no interest in emotional complications. If that’s what you wanted-“

“It isn’t emotional,” Remus said. “It’s common courtesy. It wasn’t just for you, you know. I needed the aftercare too! You were selfish and I’m not going to play with you anymore, so get out of here before I find my Morningstar.”

Logan glanced at the door, then took off his glasses. This was very much a now or never moment, and he knew it. He needed to decide exactly what he wanted out of this relationship, and now he knew what he owed Remus in return. “I’m not leaving, Remus. You don’t have the power to make me.”

Remus was surprised, and it was true, he had a hard time getting angry and an even harder time staying that way, but Logan had stirred something dark and heated in him, and he grit his teeth. “Get out!”

Logan leaned against the desk and crossed his arms, picking up his coffee and taking a casual sip, “No.”

Remus stalked forward and slapped the coffee cup sideways; Logan hissed lightly as a few errant drops hit his arm, and his cock twitched in his pants. Remus stared him down, “I’m not the side you should mess with, Logan.” He said, “Object permanence or not, this is my room, and I can make you feel anything I want for as long as I want.”

Logan gave a haughty little smirk, “Prove it.”

Remus grabbed him by the throat and slammed him into the desk, knocking the wind out of him. Logan arched up and moaned as Remus squeezed, his hands moving to grip Remus’ wrist. He wasn’t trying to escape, though. He was holding Remus in place. “Is this what you wanted?” the creative side growled. “You wanted to make me angry? You wanted me to prove what I can do?”

Logan’s eyes closed and he licked his lips, squirming on the desk. Remus hauled him to his feet and he saw stars when he was spun and bent roughly over the desk, the edge digging into his ribs. He grunted and moved his hands to adjust his position, but Remus grabbed them, pulling them behind his back and securing them with his tentacles. Logan moaned at the feeling of their slick on his skin, and the stab of sweet humiliation as Remus ripped his clothes away, leaving him exposed. Remus’ hand was cool on his hot skin, and Logan took in a hissing breath as the other side ran his fingertips over the slope of Logan’s ass, then reached between his legs and grabbed his hard cock, “You really do want this, don’t you?”

Logan moaned against the desk, but another tentacle wrapped around his throat and squeezed; Logan choked softly, and his head spun. Remus held onto Logan’s hips, digging his nails into the soft skin, “Don’t move,” he growled.

Logan gave a little nod, and Remus’ hands withdrew, although the tentacles did not. When they returned, Remus’ fingertips teased at Logan’s hole. He whimpered and tried to look over his shoulder, but Remus’ free hand slammed him back down against the desk and held him there, grabbing a handful of his hair. Logan closed his eyes and let himself relax, listening to the loud thrumming of his own heartbeat. Once he’d settled, Remus pressed a slick finger into him, and Logan groaned as he was breached. It was different than the tentacles, more solid and inflexible, and while one finger wasn’t much, the second one added noticeable pressure. Logan bit his bottom lip and pushed himself back, impatient.

Remus’ fingers withdrew and a brutal slap landed on Logan’s ass, causing the man to crumple against the desk. The slap to his face suddenly paled in comparison, and Remus spoke again, “Don’t. Fucking. Move. You follow my rules, or you leave.”

Logan whined, “Y-yes… I won’t move. I’m-“

“Shut up,” Remus said. But his fingers pushed back into Logan, and he stroked his free hand down Logan’s back.

Logan went quiet again, letting Remus prep him without further input, although he did whimper when Remus pulled his fingers away again. Mercifully the loss was quickly remedied by a new feeling as the head of his cock lined up with Logan’s entrance. Logan squeezed his eyes shut, trying to be patient, trying to still the unmitigated pounding of his heart, but when Remus pressed into him, his mouth fell open in a shameless moan that shocked them both.

Remus smirked, “Slut.”

Logan opened his mouth to say something, but Remus bottomed out, pressing him into the desk and his words fell from his mouth as another unintelligible sound. Remus had found Logan’s off button, and he smiled at the thought, pulling out to slam into him again, setting a rough pace right away. Logan mewled and muttered and when the tentacle around his throat squeezed off his words he drooled and squirmed, standing up on his toes to try and open himself up more. Remus laughed and released his throat, letting him cough and gag as the tentacle retreated, and Remus reached up to scratch deep marks into Logan’s back, claiming him, reveling in their decadent self-indulgence.

Logan’s shoulders were sore and his wrists were tingling from the tentacles’ merciless restraint, and everytime Remus thrust forward the air left him in a loud shouting moan that became steadily more high-pitched as Logan sank into the sensation. The rough collision of their bodies, the delicious assault on his prostate, the way Remus marked his back. Logan lost himself in it, his head spinning despite his lungs’ full access to oxygen. He was too out of it to push back into Remus’ thrusts, but he did hold his position carefully, his hot breath and drool sticking his face to torn vellum sketches of weaponry and gore. Remus leaned over and growled in Logan’s ear, “Having fun, Moonbeam?”

“Yes,” Logan panted. “Please, please more.”

Remus chuckled, but his voice was set on edge as well, tinged with pleasure and effort. “So polite, so greedy. You really are a slut for me aren’t you Logan?”

Logan whimpered, “Yes, fuck, yes I’m a… I’m your slut, Remus… please.”

“Please what, Moonbeam?”

“F-fuck me harder,” Logan panted. “It’s… it’s not enough.”

“We haven’t quieted down that noisy brain of yours yet, have we?” Remus said. “Don’t worry. I’m going to melt it for you.”

Logan opened his mouth to reply but Remus grabbed him by the hair and pulled him up, making him arch up. He slammed into Logan harder, the sound of their connection louder than Remus’ own shaky breathing. Logan gasped, “Ohhhh fuck yes yes yes please! Yes please!” His words devolved into babbling as Remus moved one hand around to touch his cock, teasing it with his fingertips.

“That’s right,” Remus purred. “Let go, little robot. Let go for me.”

Logan sobbed as his mind did just that, spiraling out into a white haze that quieted him, although he still breathed, still writhed under Remus’ attention, and his cock was begging for more contact. His eyes were dull and unfocused and Remus let him drop back to the desk as he chased his own pleasure, leaning in and biting into Logan’s shoulder, drawing both blood and the logical side’s orgasm out with his sharp teeth. Logan let out another sob, and his body clenched around Remus, but he didn’t try to speak beyond that, sank into something like subspace again, the same mindbending depths that he’d reached before, but this time he wasn’t fighting it away. Remus’s mouth fell open in a low, indulgent moan as he came, holding himself deep inside of Logan as the sensation slowly faded. He released his tentacles’ hold on Logan’s arms and stroked his dark hair. Logan reached back, but this time instead of interrupting, he laced their fingers together with a faraway, faded sound of pleasure.

Remus smiled and pulled out of Logan, shushing the other side when he murmured a complaint, “I’m here.” He picked up Logan and carried him to the bed, standing back to look over the beautiful mess he’d made—again. Logan reached out and Remus crawled into bed beside him, “Bath or magic, Moonbeam?”

Logan buried his face in Remus’ neck, “Not moving.”

Remus chuckled and cleaned them up with magic, wrapping his arms—and tentacles around Logan. The logical side murmured affection against Remus’ neck, but none of it was real words, and Remus hummed, “I should tell on you more often.”

Logan smiled, but that was all he could muster as he floated in the unbelievably comfortable subspace Remus had put him in. Aftercare wasn’t so bad after all, and he was far too out of it to worry about deciphering any emotions.

“Oh, hi Deceit. Pancakes?”

The snake looked over at Patton and raised an eyebrow, “All alone this morning, Patton?”

Patton gave a smile that was a little sad and shrugged, “Thomas had a rehearsal today so Roman and Virgil are pretty busy. Logan said he’d be busy all day too, probably with logistics and schedules. So um… yeah, it’s just me. But! You’re welcome to join me. I’m not like… having a me day or anything.”

“Perish the thought,” Deceit said, sitting at the kitchen table. “I’d love some pancakes, Patton.

“Great!” Patton said, fussing at the stove. “I was a little lonely. What do you have planned for the day?”

Deceit smiled to himself, “Actually, Patton, I believe I’ve already finished my work for the day.”

#tentacletober #not safe for sanders #intrulogical #logan sanders #sympathetic remus sanders #deceit sanders #fanfiction #sequel to day 6!

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