chapter 1
Sirius always knew he was going to have to get married. He just thought he had more time.
he thought he could maybe - actually fall in love before. It was foolish. but he just wanted - just needed more time.
the time is up. Here he is , sitting in his mothers office, next to her, hearing her saying those exact words.
“It's time for you to find a partner, sirius. You are already 20. we let it go on for long enough. your father and I discussed it, and we decided we will announce a selection.” she looked at him with her icy eyes, daring him to say anything against her decision. daring him to question her.
He was….surprised. He had expected to marry Mary,who was a princess of the country with the most border to Illéa, in order to strengthen ties , but a selection? his parents will not gain anything from it. unless…oh, this is brilliant. unless they will. they will gain the one thing they cant buy with money or threaten someone to give them.
time.
The rebels are growing stronger and stronger with every day that passes, and if he gets married in this stupid competition, he will serve as a smoke screen until they find a solution.
“I'm a distraction, aren't I?” he looked at his mother with a bitter smile.”what are you going to get from marrying me? What, like 3 or 4 months of distraction from the rebels? the people aren't going to suddenly forget their poor situation and just go with it forever just because i got married.” he started to rise up from his chair
“sit.” she said, in her sharp voice, and gave him a resentful look. he set back, crossing his arms. he knew there wasn't a way out of this, and he knew he will have to get married eventually, but not like- not like that. he wanted to do it in his own terms, not his parents’s.
“I don't expect the people to forget everything, but they always love when something happens to our family, and I'm going to take advantage of that. We all have to make sacrifices, Sirius. This is our lifes, so you better get used to it. Rita will announce it in this week's Illéa capital report.” She stopped looking at him and looked back at the documents on her desk. “You may leave now.”
‘You may go dig a hole and die in it’ he thought bitterly and left the room. On his way back, he thought about ideas he can give his mother that will delay the selection. but the more he thought about it, he felt more frustrated. there is no way for him to get out of this. he went straight to his room, stopping next to james, who was guarding the door. he got james as his personal guard 3 years ago, after a really deadly rebels attack, and they clicked in a really short time. he honestly doesn't think he remember any happy memory that james isn't in it. well, maybe a couple with regulus, but… that didn't really happen anymore. Sirius shaked his head as if he's shaking his memories away.
“hey, prongs.”
James looked at him,with a concerned look. ”did anything…happen?” He looked at Sirius's body, trying to see if anything was wrong. any weird movement or a bloodstain on him.
Sirius sighed.”don't worry ,James. nothing happened. well- nothing physical. but I think the situation would have been better if it was just them beating me up once more . Let's go in, I need your help. I don't think you can really help that much with it, but I will still love your opinion. ”
James looked at him for a moment and then opened the door to his room, stepping in.”ok. i can call a maid to get us coffee and you can tell me whatever it is that happend”
Sirius nodded and got inside his room, changing to something more comfortable while James called the maid. He looked at his window, as the Daylight had begun to drain away, then sat at the chair next to his working desk. James closed the door after the maid had given him the coffee, giving one cup to sirius.” Ok, I'm all yours. What happened at the meeting with your mother?”
Sirius took a sip from the tea and sighed again.”Do you remember when I said I was probably going to have to get married to Mary, to keep the peace in our countries?..Yeah, that's not happening, apparently ”
james looked confused.”if not her, who?-”
“my dear mother thought it might be better to hold a selection for me.” he made a face. “ The situation is not good, prongs. The rebels, both sides , are getting angrier,attacking more, and more people are joining them . my selection will be used as a distraction for my parents to find a solution.”
“a selection- didn't you say there are too many uncontrollable factors for them in a selection? like, they can't control the people that come here and they can't decide themselves who are you going to marry?”
“Yes, I did. I think my mother will try to get as much control as she can. she probably will pick them by hand, the prick. ugh- James, how am I supposed to get out of that? I have no idea what to do.”
Sirius was tired. He was mad ever since he was at his mother's office, but now he just felt exhausted. He looked at his bed , wishing he could actually go to sleep. He couldn't go to sleep though, he put his work off for too long and the papers were piling up on his desk.
“well-” James started.”Why not actually go with it?”
sirius frowned.”james-”
James raised his hand.” wait, hear me out on this. you didn't want to marry Mary , or any of the other princes and princesses , and you needed to do this anyways, right? getting married , i mean. the selection- even if it is a ridiculous idea, does seem to work. maybe you should do it , and we can also stop it in the middle. I could kill all of them if you feel like you don’t want it anymore at any given time.” James said, while offering him a smirk.
Sirius chuckled. “ Thanks, james. I'll remember that.” he thought about it a bit more.” Do you think I'm overreacting? i- its just everything she says feels like something i should just run away from.” he played with his signet ring, fidgeting with it over his finger. It was an ugly thing, really, but he growed used to it, and it became a habit for him to fidget with it when he was anxious .
“no, mate, you're right. but- well..you are pretty isolated here, pads. I think seeing other people other than your crazy family and shitty diplomats will do you good. also- i don't think we can really stop her. once she’s set on something.. yeah, might be safer to go with it.”
“lets go back to that murdering you mentioned before, i liked talking about it more.”
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Remus stared at the papers for something that felt like eternity. 2 weeks after the prince announced that he was holding a selection, one day before the registration was closed. If he's honest, he really hopes that time will be up already, and make the choice for him.
he heard the door to his flat opening, with lily getting in. “Remus, you will not belie- are you looking at those papers again? ugh, really, rem, you should fill them up already. your time is up.” She stepped in, hanging her coat next to the door and then going into the kitchen. “I'm making tea, do you want a mug?”
“yeah, thanks, daisy. and i know my time is over, but- I really can’t decide if I should fill it in or not. its dumb, i know, because the chances for me to get in are close to zero, but- even filling them feels like-” he looked at them,as she kept talking from kitchen ”like I’m not… respecting him, in some way.betraying him? i don't know..”
She came to the living room where he sat next to the table.”remus- it has been two years. You are not betraying him. You are allowed to be happy. and you know benji would’ve agreed. You don’t need to be alone forever for him .” she looked at him, putting a hand on his shoulder .”Also…what’s better than getting a new love who happens to be a prince?” she added, smirking.
“you know there is probably like 0.0000001 present for me to actually get in, right?”
“I'm a believer, Remus lupin. you should try it. let's go back to those papers, now.”
“ok, let's just fill this up and get this over with.” said Remus, still a little unsure but already feeling better than before. its stupid, he said to himself. you won't even get picked. It's fine. He looked at the papers of the application to the selection and started filling in all of the technical questions , like his district, his age, his name, what he's working at and stuff like that.
Lily looked over his shoulder , looking at the questions. “ Do you think being moody and sleeping too much can be taken as hobbies?”
“har har. very funny.” he made a face, letting her know how exhausting she is to him, offering a little smile after. “what abo-”
a loud noise came from the chitchen , letting them know the water was boiling up.
“Ohh , wait. I'll make us the tea. finish this up, and we’ll go handing them over. after the tea.” lily said, jumping from the couch to the chitchen. Remus chuckled and finished answering the papers.
After a short time, lily came to the living room, with the two matching mugs they had. as she handed him his mug, he thought about the third mug, who laid at his cabinet forgotten. it had belonged to their third friend, James. When he came to live at James's parents' orphanage, James and Lily just adopted him into their friend group, and they have been inseparable ever since. but then they had grown older, and the risk of the military came in. Every year, there is a raffle, and whoever gets picked needs to serve 4 years in any other district other than themselves. He and Lily got lucky, but not james. now that he thinks about it…
“You know, if I get picked, I might be more excited to meet James than the royal family.” he said to lily, taking his mug from her.”thanks.”
“can’t blame you. That boy is way better than any of the royal family members. if they had a daughter, maybe.” she said, wiggling her eyebrows up and down.
James, being James, was good at practically everything, so of course he ended up being at the top of his class, which meant he got sent to the castle. not that Remus was complaining. The castle was way safer than the front line of the war. not that the castle was safe completely, because there were rebels attacks on it, but … better.
He took a sip from his tea.”You put the right amount this time! Thank you for respecting my magnificent taste in food.”
“ Really, Remus, this amount of sugar should be illegal. it probably already took like 20 years of your life. “ she looked at him with a judging face.
“Well, you know, to die young and beautiful, am I right?”
she threw a pillow at him. “ shut up.”
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Sirius took a deep breath. He talked on television all the time, he told himself. no need to be so stressed. In general, yes. but it's the first time he calls out loud the name of possibly the person he's going to marry.
oh, god, it felt so weird to think about marriage. Sirius heard someone yell , to announce that they are going live in 5 minutes, and quickly went up to his seat, next to his mother and reg. Regulus was already there, reading a book.
“reg. reg. reggie. regulus.”
Regulus looked up from his book, annoyed.”What, sirius?”
“help.” he bounced his leg, stressed. he knew his mother wouldn’t approved of him showing his stress to the entire set, but, well… he was so fucking stressed.
“uhm. it will be over soon? i think? if you read the names fast?” regulus tried.
Sirius let out a small laugh .” that was horrible, reggie. but it did cheer me up . huh, strange.also, what are you reading?”
“nothing with drama, sirius, it won't interest you. stop bouncing your leg, mother and father are coming.” regulus quickly closed his book, putting it in a hidden place, where the camera’s can’t reach. sirius, at the sight of their parents, stopped moving.
“were up in 3, 2, 1-”
In the background,Rita, the host of the Illéa capital report, started talking.
“Good night Illéa, and welcome back to the Illéa capital report show! I know we have some really exciting news to hear today, so we won’t delay it much. the queen will go over a few announcements, and then we will get to it - the names of the lucky 35 people who will fight for the heart of our beloved prince, sirius .”
his mother went to the front of the stage, starting to talk, while sirius looked at the pile of envelopes, waiting for him.
“...and now, let me welcome my son, to open up this envelopes and let us all know who will be our next prince or princess!” his mother smiled at him, affectionately.
God, He hated that smile. He never got that smile anywhere other than in front of cameras. when he was a kid, he always wished to have her looking at him that way. not anymore, though, he knew he was asking for too much. He buried this wish a long time ago.
Sirius rose up from his chair, putting on his professional smile, the one he has anytime he goes on stage, actingas the loved son she is talking about. “Thank you, your highness. I think all of us are dying to hear the names already, so let's not waste any time.”
he took a deep breath, as he took the first envelope, opening it. “mark poverly, 3, from Calgary.”
one down, 34 more to go.
“Dorcas meadowes, 2, Angeles.” a famous name. He will look it up later.
“tanya adler, 2,Dakota.”
Sirius opened up the next envelope, and felt a tingle of recognition at the name.
“Remus lupin,6, from Carolina.”