Chapter 4
The sun was high in the sky by the time Sirius and Remus arrived at the Potter’s, it having taken some convincing to get Sirius to do side-along apparition. The two boys must have been a sight when Remus knocked on the door of James’ house, an exhausted Sirius hanging onto his shoulder. Euphemia screamed for James the moment she saw them, brushing imaginary dirt off of Remus’ face and absolutely freaking over a barely standing Sirius. James joined her after a moment, wearing a hastily thrown on jumper over black sweatpants.
The two of them brought Sirius inside and sat him on the couch in the living room, Remus trailing behind. As it turned out, they’d all been worried since the morning, when they’d realized Remus was missing. Fleamont had gone out to look for him, but was supposed to be back any minute.
Once situated, Remus began to explain what happened to the other two, his story halted at times as he glanced at Sirius, silently asking his approval to continue. About halfway through the story, James began to pace the room, biting his thumbnail.
After an hour, two cups of lemonade, and several tears, the situation was laid out in its entirety, Remus sinking back into the couch cushions while James and his parents exchanged worried glances.
“Well,” Euphemia began, “It seems that you two have…” She broke off, unable to continue.
Fleamont stood and took his son’s place pacing the floor, “Sirius. We could involve the authorities, file a lawsuit. What they did…”
Sirius shook his head and spoke the first words Remus had heard from him since they’d arrived in a broken voice, “No. The Blacks are some of the most influential wizards in the magical community. That’s just asking for trouble.”
“Sirius…” James sighed from his perch on the arm of his mother’s chair.
“James, I said no.”
Fleamont exchanged a look with his wife, but didn’t push it.
A few moments of silence passed, in which Sirius stared resolutely at the floor and Remus bit his lip and stared at him. Then, Euphemia stood up to get more lemonade, and Fleamont followed her out, obviously leaving only so that they could give the boys a chance to talk.
“Sirius,” Remus started the moment Mr. and Mrs. Potter were out of the room, “Can I touch you?”
Sirius nodded and buried his face in Remus’ chest while he wrapped his arms around him, holding on as if for dear life. James moved to the other side of Sirius and pressed up against him, the two boys creating a barrier against the outside world, giving Sirius the moment of peace it seemed he so desperately needed.
They stayed like that until Sirius sat up again, his eyes red and puffy. The three of them began to discuss normal things then; Sirius and James’ favorite quidditch teams; what book Remus was currently reading and whether it was any good; pranks for the next school year (“Isn’t turning his hair a different color a little second year, Sirius?” “Well… It’s still funny!”), things like that. Little things that held no magnitude.
The potters returned after about half an hour and joined in their conversation, all of them reveling in the moment, seeing Sirius smile and laugh, his mind distracted.
But all good things must come to an end, and eventually the topic was switched back, the atmosphere growing gloomier and Sirius’ smile fading.
“Sirius,” James asked, “Do you… have somewhere to stay?”
Sirius bit his lip and shook his head, his gaze fixed to the floor again.
Grinning, James turned to his mother. “Mum, could Sirius stay here?”
Sirius looked up at that, his face going blank with shock as he looked at James, as if he hadn’t been expecting him to ask.
Euphemia smiled and looked to her husband, who nodded encouragingly, “Of course he can. That is, if you’d like to, Sirius?”
Sirius’ eyes filled with tears at that, and he wiped at them quickly, “You… you’d be alright with that?”
Fleamont smiled softly, “Of course we would, son.”
Sirius nodded very quickly then, “I- if it wouldn’t be too much of a bother, I would like that, y- yeah.”
“Wonderful!” Euphemia said, clapping her hands as she stood up, “does the room upstairs work?”
Sirius surged forwards and wrapped his arms around her. A small smile grew on the woman’s face as she hugged him back, not letting go until Sirius did.
That night, Remus lay awake in his bed, long after everyone else had gone to sleep. He’d debated seeing if Sirius was up, but he’d ended up not, wanting to give Sirius his space.
Remus shut his eyes and turned so that he was facing away from the door, letting the darkness envelope him. Right as he was about to fall asleep though, a weight shift on the bed had him reaching for a wand that wasn’t there.
“Sorry! Didn’t mean to scare you!”
Grumpily, Remus sat up and snapped his fingers, casting a wandless Lumos (the only wandless spell he could do) and watching as it lit up Sirius’s face.
“You didn’t scare me, you… startled me.”
Sirius grinned, “whatever helps you sleep at night.”
Remus glared at him and quickly changed the subject, “what’re you doing here anyway?”
Sirius turned red and looked down, mumbling, “I was a little scared and I was just wondering if maybe I could sleep in here?”
Remus’s expression softened as he looked at his boyfriend, “yeah, ‘course.”
“Thanks,” Sirius sighed.
This wasn’t the first time he’d slept with Remus. They’d had sleepovers at Hogwarts, when Sirius would sneak into Remus’s bed, and the two would stay up for hours talking and playing games, a silencing charm placed on the curtains. Remus always got better sleep with Sirius next to him, and his boyfriend probably agreed.
Sirius lifted the covers and slid under them, pressing close to Remus.
Some of his hair had come out of his small ponytail and Remus brushed the hair behind Sirius’s ear, their faces only inches apart when he leaned in to kiss him, featherlight, like he was made of glass and would break under Remus’ touch at any moment.
Sirius smiled into Remus’s lips as they kissed, one of Remus’s hands coming up to cup Sirius’s face.
They broke apart after a moment, both of them blushing.
As they lay in silence, Remus trailed his fingers up and down Sirius’s arm, his attention wandering, and yet also solely focused on the boy in front of him.
Sirius snuggled closer to him and threw one of his legs over Remus’s, who grinned and wrapped his arms around him, burying his face in his hair.
Just as Remus began to drift off to sleep again, he heard Sirius mumble something into his ear and cracked an eye open.
“What was that?”
“I said ‘I love you’.”
“I love you too.”