eating with the enemy
Remus woke up on the 12th of February, one month after he had discovered his vampire’s name and two months after he handed in his paper, to a death threat. Sent as a letter delivered by an owl which woke him up by tapping his bedroom window with its beak until he let it in. Remus had stumbled out of bed several minutes ago but had not stopped rubbing sleep out of his eyes.
“Dorcas!” he called. “Can you come here for a moment?”
“It’s not even 9,” she groaned from the next room.
“It’s important,” he responded. “I might actually be crazy.”
“Might be?” he heard Dorcas’ girlfriend Marlene ask from the other bedroom. He did, however, begin to hear the sounds of Dorcas gradually getting out of bed.
“What do you want?” she asked, opening his door. She didn’t seem to register the large bird for a few seconds.
“Did you steal an owl?” Dorcas asked him in disbelief.
“I did not steal an owl,” Remus answered, sounding offended. “I am glad you can see it though.”
“Is there a reason you have brought an owl into our home?” she asked.
“I didn’t invite him in. He wouldn't stop banging on the window,” Remus responded.
“Maybe let him in?” she said.
“First you’re annoyed at me for letting him in, which I didn’t do. Now you’re annoyed that I haven’t let him in,” he clarified.
“Exactly,” she said, opening the window. The owl flew in and landed right on Remus’ desk chair.
It was then that Remus noticed the letter tied to the poor creature's foot. He slowly approached the owl and untied the envelope. He opened the letter and began to read as Dorcas watched on curiously. He let the letter fall to the floor.
“Remus?” she asked, confused. “What does it say?”
He stayed silent for a few moments before answering.
“It says ‘7 o’clock, St George’s Cathedral. The Blacks’. They’re going to kill me,” Remus began to panic.
“They’re probably not going to kill you,” Dorcas reasoned.
“I have to call Lily. I have to call my mam. Fuck, I have so many calls to make,” he began to pace. “So if it’s 9, that means I have 10 hours to live. Do I pick out an outfit?”
“I will pick out your outfit,” Dorcas cut in.
“Oh that’s good,” he kept going. “At least I’ll look good as a ghost.”
“You’re not going to die,” she assured him. He gave her a look. “Probably. It wouldn't even make sense. People know where you’re going. Lily and I will wait around the corner, it doesn’t say anything about being alone. It’s going to be completely fine.”
“Yeah, totally,” he breathed out. “I’m going to be fine.”
“You still want to make those phone calls, don’t you?” she asked, already knowing the answer.
“I do, yeah,” he said, leaving the room to go find his phone.
~*~
“You sent him what?!?” Sirius shouted.
“I sent him an owl,” Regulus responded, calmly. Sirius’ shouting drew James into the room. He brightened as he saw Regulus sitting at his kitchen table.
“Hey, Reg,” he smiled.
“James,” Regulus acknowledged.
“What’s going on?” James asked the room.
“My idiot of a brother sent an owl to Remus threatening his life,” Sirius said, exasperated.
“I did not threaten his life, that would be stupid,” Regulus corrected.
“My apologies, Reg. Accidentally threatening his life,” Sirius amended.
“Why?” James asked, making tea for himself.
“Because he won’t shut up about him,” Regulus answered. James froze, turning around with a shit-eating grin on his face.
“It’s not even like a ‘Pure Blood’ thing?,” he said excitedly. “It’s because Sirius is obsessed with him? You’re trying to help,aren’t you? He’s a romantic, I’ve always known. You can’t be mad at him, Sirius, he’s trying to help. Look at him, he’s so sad now. Say thank you.”
The brothers both stared at him. A very faint blush covered Regulus’ cheeks, he essentially just looked less dead. James stood at the counter smiling at them as Sirius slowly turned to face his brother who was decidedly not looking at him.
“It’s true, isn’t it?” he asked, leaning closer to Regulus. “This is your way of setting me up”. A slow smile formed on Sirius’ face as Regulus refused to even acknowledge him. The room was silent for several moments before Regulus broke it.
“You’ve been following the guy around London for weeks now and you haven’t spoken to him,” he defended himself.”I thought you could do with a little… push.”
“Isn’t he adorable?” James cut into their conversation.
They both turned around and stared at him with identical judgemental glares.
~*~
At half six, Remus left the tube station and walked five minutes to the Cathedral. At a quarter to, he got a text saying that Lily and Dorcas were waiting on a park bench nearby, should he need them. At ten to, he stopped walking laps around the cathedral. At five to, he was approached by the most gorgeous man he had ever seen.
The man smiled at him. He didn’t think this man could possibly be looking at him until he realised that he was the only one lurking around the Cathedral. Then it dawned on him that this must be Sirius Black.
“Your portraits are no good,” was the first thing that came out of his mouth. Sirius’ face fell. The second thing that came out of his mouth was “Please don’t kill me”. He was beginning to think the third shot of tequila he did to work up the nerve to leave the house was a mistake.
“You’ve seen my portraits?” Sirius decided to ask first.
“You made me realise that there was something going on. I thought that I was just seeing your face everywhere because…” he trailed off, not wanting to tell this stranger that he found him otherworldly before he knew him for more than ten minutes. “I’m crazy,” he finished, cringing at himself. Sirius laughed. “But then I realised that I really was seeing your face everywhere. It’s pretty unforgettable, even if the artists are shit and the paint is decaying.”
“You figured all of this out from my terrible family portraits?” Sirius asked, raising an eyebrow.
“I wasn’t sold on the vampire thing at first, then I found your death certificates and realised that there was a pattern between the Sirius Blacks being born and dying and I figured it must be you needing new ones all the time,” Remus explained.
“How’d you know my name was Sirius? All the public portraits only have the family name Black. There must have been thousands,” he continued his enquiry.
“I narrowed it down to a couple hundred,” Remus answered.
“And how’d you land on Sirius? In the end?”
“Because you look like a star,” it was out of his mouth before he could do anything about it. Sirius’ whole body seemed to relax. He avoided eye contact as though he was the one that was embarrassed. No matter how much Remus wanted to do the same, he couldn’t stop looking at him.
“No one’s going to kill you,” Sirius told him after a minute of listening to the cars drive by. “My brother is just an idiot.”
“Oh,” Remus said, still in shock from his own idiocy. “So why am I here?”
Sirius froze for a second, trying to think of an answer that wasn’t ‘because I am utterly obsessed with you and it was putting a strain on my other relationships’.
“Because I wanted to meet you,” he decided was the best answer. “Have you eaten? We could go get some food?”
“Do you need to eat?” Remus asked, feeling a lot more relaxed now that he knew his life would extend past the next day. Sirius rolled his eyes.
“Yes, vampires need to eat, just not as much as humans. And while we’re on the topic, I don’t drink blood from people unless I really, really have to. Then I steal from a blood bank. But animal blood works fine, most of the time,” he concluded.
“I don’t suppose you like Italian food, what with all the garlic?” Remus joked.
“You’d be right,” he chuckled. “So you don’t mind getting food with me even though I’m…?”
“I’m not vegetarian,” Remus shrugged. “If anything, you just make sure more of the animal is used than normal.”
Sirius shook his head.
“Remus Lupin, you are unbelievable.”