The magic we call love

“No.”
That was the answer. Simply, short and very, very cold. It had been the answer for the past few days. Remus Lupin wasn´t going to beg. However, he could sort of stalk his boyfriend´s brother whenever Sirius had detention.
“Regulus you don´t have to do this for me.” He said as they approached the slytherin common room.
Remus had been, for the past few days, following the slytherin boy around the castle nonstop. Even thought he was getting fed up, every time he thought about Sirius. He’d do anything for Sirius. That´s why he had been so insistent on this thing about Regulus. Remus Lupin was not the most romantic. He wasn´t all about grand gestures or that sort of stuff but he knew just the way Sirius looked at his brother from the other side of the Great Hall. He was eighty percent sure this would make him happy.
“Please stop following me” said Regulus; and although he had said please his tone was more of a warning.
“No.”
This time the sharp answer came from the Gryffindor voice. Regulus eyed him in disbelief. He turned around on his heels, mutter the password and entered the common room as if he´d come alone in the first place. Remus was left standing on the middle of the corridor alone with his hands on fists.
However, Saturday morning turned out just fine. He spent some lovely and very warm time with Sirius before everyone woke up. Then the marauders went to their respective places for Lily´s surprise. Sirius patronus came. It was a wolf. Remus always blushed when they cast the patronus charm. They had been explained that it often reflected one´s soul but it the patronus matched it meant the two persons were meant to be. As we had stablished Remus Lupin wasn´t a hopeless romantic but the first time they had cast it and both boys produce a giant wolf, not a dog not a werewolf, Remus couldn´t help but imagine a future with Sirius.
“Moony cast the spell in exactly five minutes okay?” said Sirius´s voice through the wolf. “And I love you!” screamed the voice again.
Remus shook his head in amusement. His boyfriend always surprised him with how raw his emotions came out. And Moony had always admired this thing about Sirius. Always honest, a bit impulsive but with the right intentions, well most of the time. And so, Remus stood there, freezing his balls in front of the stadium, after casting the weather charm.
After that they spent a lovely morning. He and Sirius strolled around the forest for a bit before joining their friends on the stadium to play with the snow. James showed off the presents Lily had got him. Marlene and Dorcas were building a snowman. Then all hell broke loose and they resumed with the snow ball fight. At some point Marlene called timed out. Her nose was bleeding, everyone stopped.
“Marls” called her girlfriend. “You can´t do that every time you are losing in something.”
All of her friends had seen her cast the nose bleeding spell, even though nobody knew how she did it. So Remus knew instantly there was something else going on. “That bloody idiot” thought Moony. “As if I couldn´t notice his absence.” Remus thought it was impossible for someone not to notice Sirius Black, he however had smelt, or rather not smelt his sent, the minute the raven haired boy left the stadium. But Remus suspected it had something to do with Sirius´s present for him, so he let it slide.
His suspicions were confirmed when James ran all the stairs to the common room and Lily tried to make them stay behind with the excuse of tying her shoes. However he was not prepared for the whole show Sirius had put on. A few students, thank Merlin, were dancing around the common room. Even the girls had joined. Remus just sat there with his back as straight as a rules and his hands gripping the sofa tightly. It wasn´t until he saw a leather dragon boots on the stairs that he felt his body relax. Sirius hadn´t even finish climbing down the stairs when their eyes locked. Sirius was wearing a skirt and eyeliner. “You´ll be the death of me” thought Remus as he felt the heat on his face spread downwards to his entire body.
Remus could feel the heat on his face, his neck and his ears. Then, to Remus surprised Sirius started dancing. Remus had never seen Sirius dance. At least not like that. Not like he was trying. He´d seen him on the Gryffindor parties of course. But now his boyfriend was the epitome of grace. His movements were precise. Remus wondered if the Black family took dancing lessons. Very likely. And even thought you could see he had rehearsed the steps his face had a lightness that Remus couldn´t quite name. He looked beautiful and he looked like he was enjoying himself. There was no better view for Remus Lupin than seen his person happy.
The song was about to finish when Sirius stood in front of him offering his hand. Remus just stared for his brain couldn´t do anything else than to admire this creature in front of his. Sirius was glowing and Remus felt that if he stood up right there he´d fall to his knees for sure. He finally took his hand and smiled. He felt like dancing in the middle of a fog and all he could really add up in his brain were the places Sirius´s hand were touching him. Or how the skirt his boyfriend was wearing rose slightly with every twirl.
He felt the heat concentrating on his body. He pulled Sirius close to him and started dancing. He crouched down to the other boy´s ear and simply whispered a “thank you”. Then they heard James´s voice. Remus stood straight and he could perfectly see the messy haired boy behind Sirius with a bouquet.
“Pads” said James softly from behind him. “The flowers”
“Oh.” He said taking the flowers from James. James smiled at them. “Yeah…” he said, turning around to face Remus but looking at them as if he didn't know what they were for. “Moony”
“Yes Pads?”
“I… I hope you liked… there’s also a picnic waiting for us… but right now… you…” he cleared his throat.
Oh, Merlin. Remus loved having this effect on the bad ass, cocky Sirius Black. He arched a brow with a smug smile.
“Are those for me?” asked Remus. Sirius simply nodded as if his brain couldn´t get a sentence out.
Remus extended a hand to take them but Sirius practically shoved the roses onto his face. He laughed taking them from him. He smelled the roses. And pressed a kiss on Sirius´s forehead.
“Wait for me here” Remus commanded. “I´ll put these on a vase okay?”
As Remus was walking away he let a piece of parchment fall from his robes.
“Oi! Moony!” he heard Sirius call. But he pretended he was too far to hear.
As stated before Remus was not the most romantic of them but he knew damn well how to plan a prank, so a scavenger´s hunt couldn´t be that. For the past few weeks he had been talking with students from every house, almost all the professors and sneaking out with the map to hide clues for Sirius. Sirius had a sense of adventure to match James´s, so Moony was sure he´d enjoy the hunt.
Around seven o´clock Remus was reading on his bed. He was nervous. Sirius was taking very long. He looked over to his side. There stood and elegant piece of parchment. He wanted to give it to him that day. What if he was lost or if he didn´t returned for days, just like that other time he went searching for Rowena’s tiara in order to skip studying for a potions exam. He had gone missing like two days and when he returned empty handed he didn´t bother studying. Of course, being Sirius Black he passed with and E. But then the door opened and Sirius threw himself dramatically on Remus´s bed.
“You won’t believe the day I just had” he said positioning himself on top of Remus.
Remus studied him. His hair had a leave on it. His hands had dirt and his socks were a bit wet. “This idiot didn’t took his shoes off to go into the lake” Remus thought. He of course knew the whole adventure Sirius had lived. He had considered doing it as a two people thing but he wanted it to be more mysterious. If Sirius had done the tour right he would have visited first the library. Remus wondered how he´d gone into the restricted section since James was using his cloak to sneak with Lily to the prefect’s bathroom. Then he should have gone to the stadium to search for “a clue in the blue sky”. Then he´d be redirected to Hagrid´s hut. Remus had talked to almost every one of the Hogwarts staff. His boyfriend had to have visited the kitchens, the raven claw common room, the great lake, the charms class, the greenhouses, the owlery, the dueling club and finally McGonagall’s office. Remus knew Sirius would be much more scared of breaking into Mc Gonagall´s office than to break on Dumbledore´s. Of course he had talked to their teacher about this but Sirius didn’t knew so he must have thought he was breaking in. On her office was awaiting the very same record Sirius had carefully put on his bed before jumping on Remus´s. A record containing the newest songs of their favorite singer. On the cover you could see David Bowie´s face.
“Did you enjoyed yourself?” asked Remus, nose still stuck in his book.
“Yes Moony, thank you!” answered Sirius, taking the book away from Remus to kiss him.
Remus kiss him hard. He felt his chest fill with joy. He´d do anything to keep his precious boy smiling. “Thank you” “you look damn good in that skirt” “I really love you git” Remus started whispering in between kisses.
The two boys stayed there for a bit. That was until Sirius announced there was a picnic waiting for them. “This is my chance” Remus thought. He stood up and quickly hid something underneath his cloak hopping Sirius wouldn´t notice, or if he noticed he hoped he wouldn’t ask. Sirius Black, as impatient as only he was rushed Remus to the tower. But once they reach the top of the stairs Remus was glued to the floor. He took a moment to take it all in. No one had ever done something like this before. Not that he´d had many serious relationships.
“Sirius” he whispered hoping to charge the other boy´s name with all the emotion he felt. “This is beautiful”
Remus commanded his feet to move and he started walking around his surprise. But then, as he was examining the picnic beautifully displayed something reflected on the wine glasses. Remus snapped his head back so quickly his neck clicked. He gasped in horror.
“No, fuck! Merlin, it can´t be! For fucks sake, not today please not tonight” he thought. But then his mind jumped quickly to something else. If he transformed there Sirius would have to turn to Padfoot and it was very unlikely that Padfoot could get him out of the castle. But Remus knew Sirius would do everything to protect him. He feared his idiot of a boyfriend would try to make the wolf chase Sirius in his human form as it was more likely for a human to attract the attention of a scared wolf.
“Fuck! Sirius, I didn't know” said Remus turning around desperately scratching his brain for a solution. “I must have messed up!” Remus ran to grab Sirius hand and yanked him downstairs “We need to get to the shack right now!"
“Moony!” said Sirius loudly. He was looking apologetically to Remus. Moony on the other hand could barely focus. “I made that”
“You… what?”
’S´not full moon today. I have them all marked down.” He started explaining looking down at his hands. He seem ashamed of himself. “I just thought that you've been a werewolf practically your entire life and even when you don't see the moon you always transformed, so I figured you had never seen a full moon without transforming and well I figured you'd… I think it's beautiful, but if it makes you uncomfortable I can cast it away.
How someone could said something like that? How could anyone thought of something like that? Remus had always know Sirius had a heart of gold but this was the most thoughtful thing someone had ever done for him. Remus in fact didn´t remembered what a full moon looked like. The wolf took possession of him far too rapid for him to remember. He looked at Sirius eyes. On the grey surface a round bright circle was reflected. The moon was beautiful but there was nothing that could match the bright star standing in front o him. Sirius alone, who had brighten every night since their first encounter. Remus felt something blocking his throat a big knot he had only felt a few times since his arrival to Hogwarts. He felt his eyes go watery but he wasn´t sad. In fact he had never felt such joy on his life.
Remus started peppering Sirius face with kisses. A sound needed to scape his throat. He didn´t knew if he was laughing or sobbing. Maybe a bit of both but he didn´t really care. He felt his soul was leaving his body he felt like jumping into the night sky. “Thank you” he whispered again and again for he couldn´t think for a feeling other than gratefulness and love towards the other boy. He connected his gaze with Sirius once again. He had tears streaming down his face but his cheeks hurt from smiling. And soon enough Sirius was crying too. They both laughed softly as they kissed.
“Pads…” said Remus with a shaky, deep voice. He often couldn´t express his feeling but he had experience the miracle of finding someone who understood him with one single look.
“My Moony” whispered back Sirius.
“Sirius…”
“I know Remus.”
They stayed there holding the other one in silence. Kissing in every place their mouth could reach. Both boys bearing big emotion and no way to take it out. But both were trying. They always tried for each other.
“Pads, there´s something else I´d like to give you” Remus voice trembled.
Sirius smiled.
“Oh, is it time for that kind of gift?” he wiggled his eyebrows and Remus couldn´t helped but laughed. It seemed like around Sirius, Remus simply could never helped himself.
Remus reached hesitantly to his pocket. He extract and elegant envelope. From the corner of his eyes he could see Sirius straight himself. “Please Merlin, let this be something good”. Regulus had finally agreed to write Sirius a letter. However he had instructed Remus not to read it. So Remus was worried it might contain something to upset Padfoot. And even though Remus was a man of his word, Regulus had cast a hex on the letter, “just in case” had said the younger boy. So now he was even more nervous. The day had been perfect he couldn’t afford to ruin it.
“This is from Regulus” Of course Sirius knew. Sirius had seen the slythering seal the moment Moony took it out from his clothes. “I know you miss him.”
“You always have to be so thoughtful moony. You are making me look bad” joked Sirius. But both boys could feel the tension on the ambient.
Sirius took the envelope with shaky hands. Remus didn´t knew what kind of hex Regulus had put but as soon as the envelope touched Sirius hand it opened. Sirius extracted the letter from the inside and he silently read. Remus could only do so much but stare at his boyfriend face. He felt his heart beating loudly on his ears until… Sirius let out a small smile. Remus whole body relaxed. He actually sighted out loud in relieve. The Sirius face turned into something like a fond smile. His factions changed once more to a serious face. Remus stood straight again. Then Sirius smiled. It was like a roller coaster and one couldn´t tell who had it worse.
Sirius smiled as his face reached the bottom of the page. A few silent tears ran down his aristocrat features. Remus was dying to know what the letter said. Of course he knew this was something between brothers so he didn´t even ask. Besides, years latter Regulus would read part of it as his wedding toast.
“Who would have thought you´d be so romantic Moony?” Sirius asked whipping away his tears with the back of his hand.
“C´mere” said Moony hugging him tightly.
“You mean the world to me Moony” whispered Sirius hiding his face on Remus´s chest.
Remus took Sirius face on his hand and made him look up. Their eyes connected. If a single looked served Remus to go weak on the knees, right now he didn´t felt his body. They were standing very close. Every inch of their bodies were touching. But Remus felt even closer. More close than the material limits of his body permitted him. He felt deep it deep down, he felt it all around his body. He knew with his entire being he was fucking mental for Sirius Black and there would never be other one. For, what human being could ever compare to this arrogant, annoying, brilliant, loving boy?
“You mean the world to me too, Pads.”