⚯͛ Unfortunate - Remus Lupin ⚯͛

61.

"Shit, why does it hurt so much?"

"Don't complain to me about painful tattoos, mate," Maeve laughed, pinning Sirius' arm down onto the desk, "Don't move."

"Okay," Sirius tried to breathe a calming breath.

"It looks badass," Maeve smirked.

She was tattooing a lion on his bicep, one that could roar and run around him, similar to Maeve's tattoo of Sofia.

"You know, you're really good at this, Maeve," Sirius told her.

"I'm getting there," She nodded.

"You'd be amazing doing it as a job, out there, I know I'd pay you," Sirius shrugged.

"Cheers, mate," She grinned at him, "I'm nearly done.

"Hey, guess what," Sirius said.

"What?" She asked, quirking an eyebrow up at him.

"I may or may not have recently gotten a lot of inheritance money from my Uncle...and I brought a flat...and a motorbike."

"You're kidding!" She shrieked.

"Which part are you excited about?" He laughed.

"The motorbike! I've always wanted to ride one, they're so cool," She gushed, finishing up the tattoo, "Also, the whole money and the flat thing is also awesome. I'm happy for you."

"Thanks," He smiled, peering down at the tattoo, "Hey, how about we give it a spin after you've finished the tattoo?"

"You're joking."

"Nope."

"I love you," She said happily, laughing, "Let me just finish this. I want it to look good. Then we're going on that motorbike and we're gonna look fucking cool."

"Hell yeah," He smirked.

She bit her lip to concentrate, finishing off the final bit of the mane outline. She wiped it clean, and looked at it in admiration for a moment.

"There you go," She breathed.

"Wow," Sirius lifted his hand and stroked the tattoo with the back of his finger, the lion (instead of remaining statuary) nuzzled into the finger and began to purr, "That's incredible."

"You're welcome," She grinned.

"Come with me, the bike's outside."

Getting up, they both pulled on their near identical leather jackets and grinned at each other. Their friendship was so fucking meant to be.

They ran down the stairs like excited children at Christmas. Remus was baking in the kitchen, and Maeve kissed him for a moment, told him what was going on, before following Sirius outside.

"Here she is," Sirius gestured to the gleaming new bike at the front of the house.

"She's beautiful, does she have a name?" Maeve asked.

"Not yet, you should help me name her though," Sirius said.

He handed her a helmet, before pulling his own one on, and climbed onto the bike. She climbed on behind him, and - exhaling in anticipation - she wrapped her arms around his leather clad waist.

He revved the engine, and before she knew it the wind was rushing past her ears and they were dashing down the road.

She cheered, pulling herself closer to him just in the fear of falling off the machine. But, the fear caused a thrill, adrenalin, similar to that of watching a scary movie or performing in a play in front of loads of people.

They zoomed round the streets, too fast for anyone to really take notice of.

Nothing could beat the feeling of the harsh wind against her, the rush of joy she got as they turned a sharp corner, the incredibly thrilling nature of the fear she felt. It was all just very brilliant, and she really didn't wish it to end.

But it did. Before she knew it, they were back in front of the Lupin household again.

"That was brilliant!" Maeve exclaimed as she climbed off the bike and pulled off the helmet, "Thank you."

She jumped on him in an excited hug, making him grunt slightly at the impact. He chuckled after a moment and hugged her back.

"Of course, it felt pretty badass with my new tat as well," He said, holding out his arm to show his lion running around, stopping to roar at them.

The roar was adorable, very quiet, as if a little baby had made a little cry...but Maeve and Sirius tried desperately not to laugh, not wanting to hurt the poor little lion's feelings.

"We're back!" Maeve called, still breathless with excitement.

"How was it?" Remus asked as she kissed him on the cheek.

"Oh man, it was amazing," Maeve said, before giggling, "You have flour on your nose."

"Damn," He said, going to reach up with his wand to wipe it off, but she got there before him and brushed it away.

"What are you baking, anyway?" Maeve asked.

"It's Mum's old brownie recipe," He said, his cheeks going slightly pink, "I don't think I'll do it as well as she could, but I'm giving my best go. No magic, of course."

"Of course," She nodded, looking at the mixture he was stirring, "Well it looks and smells amazing."

"Thanks, love," He grinned, before handing her the spoon, "Here, you keep stirring and I'll put the kettle on. Sirius, do you want tea?"

"Yeah sure, mate," Sirius nodded, flicking through the daily prophet on the kitchen counter, "Oh God."

"What?" Maeve asked, stirring the brownie mix.

"14 muggle households murdered this week, and the dark mark was projected above every single one," Sirius said quietly, reading the article.

"Oh," Maeve turned back to bowl, swallowing, "How many muggles were murdered?"

"It doesn't say...but 14 households implies a lot of people," Sirius said, flicking over the page to read the rest of the article.

Maeve blinked back the tears as she tried to concentrate on stirring the brownie mix, trying to block out the thoughts that this was her fault, she had been a part of that, she could have done more.

Remus noticed.

"Put that away, Sirius," He said quietly, handing a cup of tea to Maeve, "We don't read the articles out loud in this house."

"Oh, okay, sorry," He said, looking guilty when he saw how dramatically Maeve's body language had changed.

Remus handed a mugful of tea to Sirius, nodding understandingly, trying to say it was fine and not his fault without actually talking.

"Are you okay, Maeve?" Sirius asked.

"Yeah," Maeve turned, giving him a small smile, "It's just hard, dealing with the guilt of it all sometimes."

"It's okay, we understand, we're here for you," Remus put his hand on her back comfortingly.

"And you have to know that none of this is your fault, right?" Sirius said, warming his cold hands on the mug of tea, "You had nothing to do with this."

"Yeah, I know," Maeve looked down, "But I used to...Merlin...did I ever tell you that I was the one who suggested the capture of those Aurors last year?"

"You never told me that," Remus said.

"I didn't want to suggest an idea, but he asked me and I had to make something up to save my own head...oh God," Maeve started crying.

"Shh, it's okay," Remus pulled her into a hug, stroking her hair.

"I'm sorry," She cried softly into his chest.

Sirius stood up from his seat, and came to put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"We're here for you. And I promise, we're not going anywhere."