Pinky Promise || Wolfstar

Chapter 10

Remus anxiously tapped his foot on the stone floor beneath a silencing charm as his students scribbled on their papers. He'd allowed them to spend the lesson writing essays, rather than assign homework—he had a lesson planned, but didn't think he could properly give it without bursting with nervous energy.

After staying up late waiting for Sirius, he overslept and barely had time to eat his breakfast before arriving at his first class just as the bell rang. He'd managed to put his worries of Sirius out of his mind for most of his first lessons, ready to hurry down to lunch as soon as his seventh–years had left the room.

But then Percy Weasley stayed behind afterwards to ask what, exactly, he should focus on for NEWTs—like he did every lesson, but of course today he seemed particularly interested in quizzing Remus. Normally he didn't mind, but today all he could think of was going to see Sirius. Percy finally let him free halfway through lunch, which would have been fine because he still had half an hour left, but then Professor McGonagall caught him in the corridors, asking him if he was coming to lunch. He couldn't just say 'no, I want to go see if my Animagus husband is in the Shrieking Shack,' so he was forced to go to lunch and engage in polite conversation. He finished his meal as quickly as humanly possible, but it was all for nothing, as Professor McGonagall didn't let him go until five minutes before afternoon lessons. Remus had to go to his lessons, of course, because apparently it 'wasn't professional' for the teacher to skip class to go looking for his husband.

So, Remus taught his lessons, noticeably more jittery than the morning, and by the end of it he'd given up on trying to teach, opting to just assign essays to work on. He looked at his watch again—only five more minutes (and these were second–years, so they wouldn't stay behind) before he could see Sirius.

He looked back at the quizzes he was supposed to be marking, but grimaced and decided to just tidy his desk (actually, he was just shifting papers around, but anyway) for the remaining time.

Finally, he thought, as the bell rang, I can go see Sirius.

He was halfway to the passage when he remembered the lack of food in the Shack. Sure, he'd left a chocolate bar yesterday, but Sirius would need something healthy. He made a quick detour to the kitchens, grabbing some fruit from the kitchens before heading to the Willow and crawling through the passage as quickly as possible.

Remus' heart sank as the scent around the shack told him that Sirius wasn't there, again. He ran up the stairs, cursing his stupidity—he shouldn't have expected Sirius to wait for him. But, if he didn't visit last night, and he didn't wait today...maybe Sirius didn't forgive him. Maybe he'd left, now that he was a free man. Even if he had, Remus didn't blame him, no matter how much it hurt to think about.

Remus went to the bed—that horrid, ratty bed—and blinked in surprise at the note that was folded neatly on the mattress, held in place with the pen. The newspaper and chocolate were gone, meaning Sirius had been by—but he'd left Remus' note. Tears ran down Remus' cheeks as he dropped the fruit on the bed and picked up the note, surprised to find that it was smaller than it had been yesterday, and was ripped along the side.

Heart pounding, Remus turned the note over, and clapped his hand over his mouth, sobbing with relief.

Je t'aime, was written in Sirius' swirling calligraphy. It was a little shaky, the ink blotchy in places, but it was Sirius.

Remus took great gulping breaths, trying to keep his breaths quiet. He almost sat down on the bed to wait for Sirius to come back, but remembered that he'd promised to teach Harry some defence spells. He wiped his face with one hand, tucking the note into a pocket in his robes and leaving the note before going back to the castle.