We are the Champions

Sirius woke up listening to his horrified screaming again. He had a cold sweat running down his back and his blanket was bunched around his legs.

He was breathing heavily and closed his eyes. The boggart was haunting his dreams even four days after the final task..

“Souffle, Sirius.” Breath Sirius. Regulus whispered coming out of his bed and into his brothers.

“Cela est arrivé à nouveau.” It happened again. Sirius whimpered, leaning against Regulus.

“You should tell Headmistress Arquette, she’s been worried over you.”

Sirius scoffed, “I’d rather suffer through this than have her tell our parents I’m having nightmares. They’d treat me like I’m fragile.”

“Tu es fragile.” You are fragile.

“Shut your face.” Sirius said in French as Regulus laughed and held his brother tighter.

“You aren’t weak, you’re stronger than any of us.”

“You have to say that out of pity.”

“I don’t have to say anything. We all saw you during the Tournament and it was pure talent. I would have died in the first task and you know it.”

“That’s because I ride a motorbike.”

“Cette moto est une machine de mort.” That motorbike is a death machine.

“And I’m alive so it mustn’t be as dangerous as you think.”

Regulus sighed and smacked Sirius’s shoulder. “Idiot.”

Sirius smirked and pinched his brothers shoulder back. “Idiot vivant.” Alive idiot.

It was silent for a while but Regulus soon broke it.

“Your champion friends asked about you today. I think your Moony noticed something was off.”

“What did you say?” Sirius groaned. But he internally smiled at ‘your Moony’.

“That the third challenge threw you off.”

“As if they didn’t know that already.” Sirius deadpanned.

“Est-ce qu'ils savent? A propos de notre famille?” Do they know? About our family?

Sirius shook his head and Regulus hugged him tighter.

“I’m waiting for Lily to tell them so I don’t have too.”

Regulus laughed humourlessly. “She won’t say anything unless you tell her she can.”

“We’ve talked about families before and I told them that the Blacks are racist, homophobic, intolerant arseholes which speaks for itself. I hoped they got the memo.”

“Jaques-Louis David would be proud.” His younger brother said quietly.

“Jaques qui?” Jaques who?

“He’s an artist in the 18th century who was a politician during the French Revolution, one of his paintings was denied public display in one of the Paris Salons so during the war he voted for this man Lavoisier’s execution. Lavoisier was a tax collector for the Royal Family and he predicted Jaques’s downfall.”

“He has nothing to do with this conversation.”

“It’s the same though, Jaques was told he would fail so he used karma and his enemy ended up dying. If you tell enough people of our families ways then we could bring them down, non?”

“I feel like you’ve thought about this a lot.” Sirius teased.

“Obviously.” Regulus said in the same tone.

“I can’t believe your random facts made me feel better.” Sirius chuckled, Regulus gasped.

“My random facts are brilliant, thank you.”

“Hmmm, name one.”

“Michelangelo first rose to prominence after a failed art fraud.”

“Wait, really?”

“He wasn’t with the times, kind of a rebel like you.”

“Stop comparing us to renaissance artists! Is this why you don’t have any friends?” Sirius laughed loudly while Regulus gasped in offence and pushed him backwards.

“Lily’s my friend.”

“She’s your friend out of obligation.”

“Your my friend.”

“Unfortunately out of obligation too.”

Regulus cocked his head to the side and frowned a bit. Sirius stopped laughing, suddenly feeling bad and started shaking his head.

“Of course we’re your friends, you’re my best friend Reggie. Vous et moi contre le monde.” You and me against the world.

“Toi et moi.” You and me Regulus whispered back, they rested their foreheads together and breathed softly.

“I feel like shit for not winning the Tournament for us, we could have lived anywhere we wanted. Away from Paris and away from that restrictive house.” Sirius muttered sadly.

“Don’t worry, you graduate soon and then you can be free and I’m only a year behind. We’ll get through it, I promise.”

How much of an empty promise was this?

“I promise you too.”

“Padfoot!” James shouted across the Great Hall as Sirius and Regulus walked in the next morning.

Sirius turned to his brother with concern. “You sitting with us or..?”

“My random renaissance facts are more useful at a different table, see you later.” Regulus winked and walked over to the Slytherin table where a boy and two girls greeted him with wide smiles.

Sirius grinned and swaggered to where his best friends were eating breakfast.

After the final task, the three boys were treated like royalty. James had been taken to the ministry with his parents to sign some things about the small fortune he won as well as keeping the Triwizard Cup safe. And Sirius spent the following days getting congratulated and showered with fan mail. Some fan mail consisted of female undergarments and long letters about how in love they were with him. He also stopped eating the chocolate he got gifted as one of the Ravenclaw boys ate one and was suddenly in love with a girl named Niamh.

Remus was quiet through it all, the third task at taken a toll on him too it seems. His Durmstrang mates were surrounding him like a caged lion whenever they walked around the grounds, making Sirius cut back on his boyfriend time. They continued to glare and laugh at him whenever Sirius tried to talk to Remus and one buff boy even threatened him. Marlene hadn’t let him or James see Remus after the full moon that month which made the boys feel distanced from the third Champion. Although Remus looked far away most of the time he smiled at Sirius and blew him kisses across the corridors which raised Sirius’s hopes for them after school.

The champion himself, James fucking Potter, was handling fame like he did it every other weekend. He signed photos of himself whenever a student came up to him, he wrote replies to fan mail, walked with more confidence than before (if that’s possible), and even made time to be a good boyfriend to Lily and a brilliant friend. He was superman but with an unstylish school robe and glasses that can’t stay on his nose.

“How’s it going over here this fine morning?” Sirius asked as he sat next to Lily.

“I wish I stayed in bed.” Mary groaned, resting her head on Dorcas’s shoulder.

“Is it that time of the month?” Frank sympathised.

His girlfriend glared at him where she was resting on Dorcas’s other shoulder.

“No shit Sherlock.”

Frank raised his hands in defeat, “sorry loves.”

“Are we attacking Frank again or did ABBA release a new song?” Marlene joked as she and Remus sat at the table.

Remus looked tired but happy as he sat on Sirius’s lap, wrapping an arm around his shoulders and kissing his temple.

“Good morning to you too Moonshine.” Sirius said softly, putting his hands on the taller boys lap and resting his chin on his shoulder.

“Morning, love.” Remus sighed out.

“Keep the love to a minimum please, I’m trying not to cry out of loneliness.” Mary whined.

Dorcas snickered and kissed Marlene on the lips with a smack. Alice winked as she walked over the table and onto Franks lap who then continued to embrace, Lily and James were already sitting together other and whispering sweet nothings into each others ears.

Mary whined some more and pushed herself off Dorcas, Sirius laughed as she and Peter held eye contact with a renouncing expression.

“Why am I friends with you people.” Peter asked into his cereal.

“Because no one else would take you.” Dorcas joked making everyone laugh.

“We have other friends, we can get up and leave whenever we want.” Mary threatened.

James snorted. “As if.”

“Ugh let’s go Pete, we have better things to do than sit and mope about our love lives.”

“I bet they’re going to the library.” Lily said with a smug grin as they watched their single friends walk out.

Alice twirled Franks fringe and smiled, “They’d be friendless without us.”

“I feel kind of bad for them.”

“Prongs, there’s nothing they can do but wait. Attraction doesn’t appear out of thin air.”

“Says you Pads. ‘Oh he’s so hot.’ ‘Do you think he noticed my skirt today?’ ‘I wanna snog his gorgeous mouth off.’ ‘His but-“

Sirius complained and hugged his boyfriend tighter. “Shut up Lillian! No one asked.”

“You’re telling me more later.” Remus winked at Lily.

“Maybe Wormy and Mary should get together.” Frank suggested.

Marlene gasped out a snort, “those two are the least compatible people I know. They’d break up after the first date.”

“Sorry baby, but this is why you aren’t the cupid of this friend group.” Alice sympathised.

They talked some more and while Remus started eating pancakes Sirius drew patterns on his exposed neck. They only had one week left at Hogwarts before they returned to their schools and did end of year exams. Madame Arquette encouraged Beauxbatons to go to the year 7 classes because they were learning the same stuff, just different teachers, and in English. A cold shiver went through him at the idea of Remus being on the other side of Europe, returning on that ship that made him so seasick he vomited three times, wearing thick scarfs and walking around with that heavy staff. Sirius was starting to think he’d get separation anxiety.

“You ok Pads, you’ve been unusually quiet.” Remus asked. Always so reassuring and kind.

“I’m alright, mon amour.” Sirius hugged his boyfriend closer and kissed where he had drawn patterns on his neck.

He kissed along the pale skin, following a red scar and biting down softly where it ended. He sucked on it some more and smiled when Remus sighed happily.

“Ugh, get a room.” He heard James mutter as he and the others left the table. Marlene pushed his head when she past but Sirius didn’t stop smothering Remus’s neck with well deserved kisses.

Remus laughed and put a hand in Sirius’s hair, taking him off his neck and meeting his lips.

“That disappearing room is looking quite inviting.” Remus muttered against his lips.

Sirius could only nod vigorously as Remus grinned and took his hand, leading them down the now well known halls.

---

“Are you a faggot now too, Lupin?” Snape sneered with a group of Durmstrang boys behind him.

Sirius and Remus had just left the disappearing room with rumpled uniforms and puffy lips. Sirius knew he had visible purple hickeys across his neck.

Remus stopped walking and let go of Sirius’s elbow. “What?”

“I said are you a faggot, Lupin?”

“Why do you care Snivellous, are you jealous?” Sirius replied with a smirk, though Remus still looked stiff besides him.

Snape’s nose flared with anger as he took out his wand and pointed it at the boys. Igor came beside the Slytherin and glared at Remus in disgust.

“Have forgotten the agreement or do I need remind you.” Igors Russian accent sounded more prominent, Remus frowned a bit and grabbed Sirius’s arm to push him behind him.

Remus sighed impatiently. “What are you on about, Karkaroff?”

“Arnoldi’s plan. Seduce the French champion, fuck him around, and win the cup. But it seems you forgot the last part.” He grinned evilly, his uneven teeth looking grimier than ever.

“James won the cup, not Sirius so you can leave him alone.” Remus snapped, his hand slowly reaching into his pocket to get out his wand.

“Wet aren’t here for your fuck toy, we’re here for you.” August spoke up.

“Severus, get French boy out, we’re dealing with the wolf.” Igor smirked with power.

Remus stiffened, not leaving his classmates sight. Snape rolled his eyes and gripped Sirius by the blazer, taking him out of the corridor and up some stairs into an empty classroom.

Sirius twisted around, trying to get to his boyfriend. “Get off me you merde gluante!” slimy piece of shit!

“Stop squirming or I’ll hex you.” Snape snapped.

Sirius yelled in frustration and pushed the Slytherin off him, making Snape trip. They both took out their wands and glared.

“What are they going to do to Remus?” Sirius asked slowly.

“None of your business, disgusting queer.”

Sirius darkened and walked closer to the boy on the floor. “Say that again, I fucking dare you.”

“SECTUMSEMPRA!” Snape yelled, his wand did a motion and soon Sirius was the one on the floor in unexplainable pain.

“Oh mon dieu!” oh my god Sirius sobbed out. He watched Snape stand up and look down at him with a smirk.

He kicked him in the stomach, making Sirius curl up and cry, his blood was soaking his blazer and flooding the stone floor. Snape walked around him and put his foot on Sirius’s hand, putting all his weight on the hand until it snapped.

“Qu'est-ce que tu m'as fait?” What have you done to me? Sirius cried out, his dominate hand now bent in the wrong direction.

Snape bent down and gripped Sirius’s hair “You’ll be dead before anyone finds you,” Snape whispered in his ear with a smile. “Just know that Remus Lupin is getting 10 times worse than this.” With one last strong kick in the crotch, Snape walked out of the empty classroom and spelled the door locked.

“Quelqu'un! N'importe qui!” Someone! Anyone! Sirius yelled, his wand was in his back pocket and he didn’t have the strength to get it. There was no way to contact anyone.

Sirius’s brain couldn’t translate to English at the moment but all he could think about was Remus. His Moony, being told his closest friends knew his cursed secret. His Mooneyes, getting punished for a curse that wasn’t his fault. His Moonshine, probably getting outed to the ministry and every Wizarding school in Europe. His Moonlight being unaware that Sirius was screaming on the floor, surrounded by his own blood.

With a pained and frustrated scream, he reached for his wand with the hand that wasn’t broken. It was weak in his hand but Sirius closed his eyes and whispered the patronus charm. It only produced an Incorporeal Patronus but that was better than nothing.

“Reggie, trouvez-moi, s'il vous plaît.” Reggie, find me, please. He pleaded in a weak voice. The Patronus disappeared and his wand went slack in his hand. He hoped Regulus got the message, or anyone for that matter.

“Je suis vraiment désolé.” I’m so sorry. Sirius whispered. Not knowing if that was for Remus, his brother, James, Lily or everyone else.

He closed his eyes as his tears mixed with blood.

——

“Does anyone know where James went?” Lily asked to the group in the common room.

Regulus had sprinted in a few minutes ago with tears down his face, he grabbed James and the boys rushed out. No one had seen Remus or Sirius for the past two hours.

“Maybe Reg saw his brother doing the deed and needs moral support.” Marlene joked. Lily was not convinced, the only time she had seen Regulus in such a state was when Sirius fell 150 meters from his broom during a quidditch match. He hadn’t left his brothers bedside until Sirius woke up.

“I’m going to check the infirmary, I feel like somethings wrong.” Lily said warily. Dorcas nodded with calculating eyes but no one else seems bothered.

She walked down the memorised compass until she heard angry voices speaking in German.

Curiosity got the better of her and Lily went to see what the problem was. Headmaster Arnoldi of Durmstrang’s office was open and Lily saw him standing in front of Remus, all the boys were behind him with differing expressions.

Arnoldi said something that made Remus stand upright, he grabbed the boys staff and bonked it hard on his head. Remus flinched but stood straighter and Arnoldi laughed with ruthless amusement.

Lily thought she heard the word ‘wolf’ and some of the Durmstrang boys gasped, looking at Remus was fear. Arnoldi cackled again and stabbed Remus in the stomach with his staff so fiercely that Remus sputtered and fell onto the floor. Lily put her hand over her mouth to stop from making a noise. She heard the word ‘homosexua’l and the other boys laughed with their headmaster, Remus had his head down and was breathing hard. This was nothing like the brave, bookish boy she knew.

“Gib ihm die Hölle.” Arnoldi growled, his office door slammed shut but not before Lily saw Igors staff bump Remus in the temple with such force he fell unconsciously onto the floor. One of the boys shouted but she was unable to hear nor translate what they were saying. Lily hadn’t noticed she was crying until she removed her hands from her mouth and weeped.

With one last look at the closed office, Lily ran back to the Gryffindor Common Room.

——

“Oh mon dieu, Sirius!”

“What happened to him, is he okay?”

“When I find out who did this to him, I’m going to end them.”

“It’s alright dear, I’ll fix him up.”

“Restez avec moi.” Stay with me.

“Did he send you a message or were you walking by?”

“… so much blood loss.”

“Expulsion is the only suitable punishment for this.”

“C'est bon Siri, nous sommes là. je suis ici.” It's alright Siri, we're here. I'm here.

“… Remus…. It looked bad…. Marlene went…”

“Réveille-toi frère.” Wake up brother.

Sirius’s eyes fluttered as he slowly regained consciousness. Everything hurt when he tried to move and he had the sudden urge to puke. His friends were surrounding him with nervous expressions and red eyes. Everyone but Remus and Marlene.

Lily was sitting on a chair with James’s head on her lap, playing with his hair and talking to Alice and Peter. She turned to look at him and gasped when she noticed he was awake.

“Sirius! You’re awake Thank Merlin!” She cried, jumping out of her chair wrapping him in a soft embrace and sniffling into his neck.

Regulus had is head on Sirius’s pillow but appeared to be asleep, his cheeks had tear streaks running down.

“Shhh, Reggie is sleeping.” Sirius creaked out. Lily pulled back sheepishly and looked over her friends face.

“Are you okay? Gave us a bit of a scare there.” She chuckled but it sounded upset.

Sirius rolled his eyes and pulled Lily back into a hug. “I’ll be fine, just a bit sore.”

He hadn’t noticed Frank and Alice had left until they opened his hospital curtains and walked in with Professor McGonagall and his Headmistress Arquette.

“Oh Zir’us, T’was sworried zick!” Arquette worried, she held his face and had to use her delicate wings to sit on the edge of the bed.

Professor McGonagall smiled softly at him but it quickly turned stern when everyone quieted down.

“Mr Black, you are a victim of a spell that no one should perform on a student, or anyone for that matter.” Everyone nodded and Sirius shuffled uncomfortably under their glances. “When you’re ready, tell us their name and I’ll have them expelled.”

“Where’s Remus?” He asked James, everybody gasped and Lily started crying.

McGonagall looked shocked. “Was it Mr Lupin who spelled you? I assumed he wa-“

“Of course it wasn’t Remus, he doesn’t have a mean bone in his body.”

Arquette sighed sadly and put some loose hair behind his ears.

“Ben tell uz oo did do ‘it.”

“It was Sniv- Severus Snape. He dragged me into a classroom and and-“

“Snape that grimy, greasy, scum!” James shouted with his hands in fists.

“Mr Potter!” McGonagall scolded. “Leave this to the adults. I will speak with Professor Slughorn and Headmaster Dumbledore and we will discuss Mr Snape’s expulsion. For now, don’t give Madame Pompfrey a hard time and comfort your friend.” With that she smiled at Sirius one last time before walking out with the tiny fairy behind her.

“She will always be my favourite teacher.” James gushed.

Regulus finally stirred and started crying.

“Quel est le problème Reg?” What’s the matter Reg? Sirius hushed, Regulus cried more and hugged him tightly.

“Je pensais que vous étiez mort!” I though you were dead!

Sirius patted his brothers hair and eased his tight hold. “But I’m not, I’m alright because you saved me. You saved my life Reggie.”

“I was so worried, they contacted our parents and they’re coming here tonight.”

“What? Dis-leur de revenir.” Tell them to go back. Sirius shot, he looked at Lily who shrugged.

Mary raised her hand. “Hey, in English please. Not all of us can speak the language of love.”

Regulus rolled his eyes, “our parents are coming here tonight to see Sirius and Sirius is mad about it.”

“I’m not mad, I’d just rather they don’t come.” He crossed his arms and pouted.

Everyone besides James and Lily looked confused. “Wouldn’t that be good to see your parents? They didn’t come to any of the tasks.” Peter asked.

“Shut it Pettigrew.” Dorcas snapped. “Not everyone has supportive parents.”

“That’s besides the point,” Sirius interrupted. “Where’s Moony?”

No one talked but they all looked sad. Lily’s eyes began watering again and James put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

“Where is he?” Sirius pleaded.

Lily shook her head and even Mary looked emotional- she was never emotional.

“What happened to him? Tell me?!” His voice broke.

“Sirius,” Regulus started, looking teary eyed too. “Il n'est pas ici.” He’s not here.

“What do you mean, where is he?” Sirius yelled.

James took his hand and smiled a little as if it were comforting. “Remus got injured, like really injured, to the point of St Margo’s.”

“He- He’s in St Margos! And no one thought to tell me?” Sirius yelled, angry tears spilling his eyes.

“No one wanted to mention it,” Alice whispered, “Arnoldi told us he was a werewolf and needed to be away from the students in case he turned them.”

Sirius’s eyes widened. “He got outed?”

“It was pretty bad. Some students even screamed and most of the Slytherins wanted the benches Remus sat at to be burned.” James shrugged sadly.

“The minister came in and yelled at all the Headmasters for letting a dark creature be a champion in the tournament.”

“He’s not a dark creature, and whenever he does turn it is in a safe location!” Sirius defended.

Mary smiled dolefully, “no one knows tha-“

“If you’re all going to be rude about my boyfriend then I unkindly ask you to leave.”

No one left until Madame Pomphrey threw them out in time for dinner. Sirius stared at his steaming bowl of beef and veggie stew, feeling pain worse than his wound. Snape had said Remus would get worse than him, and Sirius had merely ended in the schools infirmary, what could be worse than this?

He recounted every time Remus had shown signs of doing anything wolfish. And except being a beast in bed, Sirius couldn’t think of anytime he thought he was in danger.

The whole student body was aware that him and Remus were in a relationship. They didn’t hide it nor did they intend too, but most of them thought it was fake for Arnoldi’s master plan on winning the cup, which they didn’t. Why did everything have to make this so complicated? It wasn’t even Remus’s fault any of this was happening, if it wasn’t for Headmaster Arnoldi, none of this would’ve happened. None of the students had even suspected Remus of being half human, not even Sirius had and he spent every waking moment with the boy.

This Tournament had gotten out of hand and all Sirius wanted to do now was cry.