Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers

October 18

Perhaps the most surprising thing about the predicament Sirius now found himself in was that to him it didn't feel like a predicament at all. If anything, everything seemed even brighter now that he had told Remus how he truly felt and Remus disclosed that he had similar feelings for Sirius. It wasn't perfect, or even close to, but at least now there was something. Sirius had had enough of pushing people away and being miserable, so no matter how dark and stormy the cloud of Orion and Walburga was, it wasn't going to dull Sirius' mood this morning. Because this morning he woke up in Remus's bed.

Remus was already awake and reading the same book he was last night, Catch-22. Muggle fiction was the only connection he did his best to maintain with the muggle world. He didn't follow music like Sirius, art like Peter, or football like James. Remus secretly loved that Muggle literature was his; a little slice of his life that didn't bleed into anyone else's. Peter sometimes asked him for recommendations, but Remus never saw him reading any of the works he proposed. "You hog the bed," Remus said cool-ly without interrupting his reading.

Sirius smiled lazily at the canopy above him, "good morning to you too, Remus. Yes I slept well, yes I'd like to go to breakfast, and no I do not want to talk about Orion or Walburga."

"Well that settles that," Remus teased back, still without loosing his place on the page, "would you like to go to breakfast in," Remus finally looked away from his book to check the time, "10 minutes? James, Lily, and Peter are waiting for us in the common room."

Sirius hauled himself to a sitting position, "sure," he replied quickly before giving Remus a soft kiss on the cheek and getting up to get dressed. He was glad that Walburga and Orion were coming on a weekend because it gave him the perfect opportunity to show off a flashy muggle band shirt, which he knew would only enrage them more than them thinking that Sirius forced their perfect son into playing Quidditch.

"I know you don't want to talk about it, but I would like to know what time your appointment with Slughorn is."

"Two thirty," Sirius replied as he tugged a pair of clean jeans on, "let's go to the common room."

"I was just getting to a good part," Remus held up his book to make a show of his unwillingness to leave his warm bed.

"Come on Moony," Sirius whined, "I know you could use a cup of tea."

Remus smiled softly, "sure, Sirius."

After breakfast, Lily made James and Sirius sit down and do their homework, Remus tried his best to help, but Sirius only started protesting when Remus tried to explain something to them because "Moony, I can't concentrate when you speak," he gave Remus a look that said 'I'd like to snog your face off.' When James commented that Sirius' complaints were abnormal, Lily gave him a pointed look. The glances that Sirius and Remus were sharing made Peter uncomfortable, so he politely excused himself. Long story short, it was an entirely unproductive morning.

Lunchtime rolled around quickly and James was nervously waiting for Sirius to start down a dark path due to his parents' upcoming meeting , it never came.

Sirius was just a touch late for his meeting; it was intentional. He was back to the common room at 3:17 pm, looking chipper.

"Went well?" Remus asked him after Sirius sat down next to him in the common room.

"Think so," Sirius took a biscuit from the tray in front of him.

"No um-" Remus lowered his voice, "no sectumsempra?"

Sirius shook his head, "nope," he took a long drink of pumpkin juice, "some spell, I dunno what, but doesn't matter- didn't work. I mean I wouldn't say I'm great at nonverbal magic, but it seemed to work and all."