Remus-8
**TRIGGER WARNING** Homophobia and biphobia
(Remus’s texts are in italics Sirius’s are in bold)
Hey
Hi
Are you okay?
Yeah. You?
Yep. Umm I was wondering....
Yeah?
Are you free later today? Like, at 3.45ish?
I guess
Cool. Can we like...... Talk and.... yeah
Sure. Come to the art studio? I’m there till 4.
Yeah. Where is it?
You know where Honeydukes is?
Yep
Well next to them is a blue door covered in flowers press the buzzer then wait a few moments and I will let you in. Okay?
Gotchya. See you then :)
See you.
***
*Buzz buzz*
Remus stood back after he pressed the buzzer, fiddling with his fingers. He was nervous. Oh, God why was he nervous? All he was doing, was talking to Sirius... Not that big a deal... Right?... Oh, who was he kidding. OF COURSE, it’s a big deal. He was just going to talk to Sirius Black (aka the crush of Remus Lupin) to try and make amends. This. Better. Work.
He jumped when he heard the door open and a voice called to him.
“Remus. Hi. Come in,” Sirius said. Oh, hell no. He looked so cute! How could Remus do this?
Seriously. He had his hair up in a low ponytail, loose strands tucked away by a yellow headband, a paintbrush behind his ear, that was getting close to dripping purple paint down Sirius’s clothes, a pallet in his hand. But, due to the realisation Remus had had after the fight, he noticed things about Sirius that he hadn’t noticed before. There was a scar along his right cheek, one through his forehead, and one peeking out of the top of his collar. Remus supressed a shudder as he wondered what – or rather who - had caused those scars.
Sirius gave Remus a tight smile and stood aside to let Remus into the studio. Wow it was a cool room. It wasn’t too big, not too small either. Just the right size. Remus guessed that it had originally been painted white, but was now covered in an assortment of different colours splattered haphazardly across the walls in various patterns, and there was a beautiful mural coving one wall; it was of the view overlooking the lake by Hogwarts. There were art supplies all around the room, a storage cupboard, paintings and drawings were covering one wall and there was an easel in the middle of the room, a speaker next to it.
“Welcome to the studio,” Sirius said, closing the door and stepping in next to Remus.
“Wow. This place is cool. Is it yours?” Remus asked.
“Yeah. Used to be Alya’s ‘till she took over the Leaky, so I decided to use it as my art studio,” Sirius smiled hesitantly, “There’s a stool somewhere over there if you want to sit down,” He waved his hand in the direction of the cupboard, and sure enough, a messy, paint splattered stool was next to it. Remus grabbed it and pulled it closer to the easel, where Sirius was now stood, adding some more detail to whatever it was he was painting, “You alright?”
“Yeah. Overloaded on schoolwork. You?”
“I’m fine. Same as you, I guess. Overwhelmed in schoolwork. I get so much work. It’s deathly,” Sirius laughed weakly and set down his paintbrush and pallet, “So...”
“Sirius, I... Fuck... I know sorry isn’t enough. And I know we were arseholes. And I know I can’t do much to make up for what we did, but I want to, as do the rest of us and I miss you. I miss you a lot and I want our friendship back... If you want it back, that is... But I am sorry. Extremely sorry and I will do anything, well... almost anything to prove to you that I am sorry and that I want our friendship back,” Remus ran his hand through his messy curls, his blood tingling with nerves.
“I....” Sirius bit his lip and hesitated, before continuing, “You’re right. Sorry isn’t enough. And it’s not me you should be apologising to. It’s Alice. If she will speak to you and your group of jerks. And I want our friendship back too. I really do but I couldn’t bring myself to speak to you. I know that sounds harsh, but I have my reasons, I’m sorry.”
“You shouldn’t be apologising,” Remus interrupted, and Sirius smiled slightly.
“Yeah, I know,” He said, “But I feel kinda bad for not approaching you. If you and your friends apologise to Alice, then I am willing to give our friendship another go.”
Remus grinned, “I will talk to them, but can you talk to Mandip please? Since she hates us right now.”
“Sure. I can do that. Just, talk to her before you talk to me again, please,” Sirius said, starting to pack up his art stuff.
“Yeah. Okay.”
“Cool. Anyway. I’m done here so, I’m gunna head home. See you, I guess,” Sirius had finished packing up and grabbed his bag, heading to the door, Remus following right behind. They had just passed Tomes and Scrolls when they heard a shout behind them.
“Oi! Black! Or do you truly deserve that name?”
Sirius stiffened, clutching his sketchbook closer to his chest. Remus looked around, and saw two people walking towards them, Severus Snape and Barty Crouch Jr. They were looking at Sirius, smiling nastily.
“Sod off,” Sirius mumbled.
“Ooohh look at this Sev,” Barty sneered, “A queer telling us what to do. We don’t take orders from queers, Black.”
“What kind of a queer even are you?” Severus said, “Bisexual? What even is that?”
“Hey, fuck off will ya?” Remus said.
“What’s it to you Lupin?” Barty looked at Remus, his arms folded.
“Leave him out of this Crouch,” Sirius snarled, facing Barty.
“Do you not listen Black? We. Don’t. Take. Orders. From. Queers. Especially not your kind of queer,” Severus stepped forward, closer to Sirius.
“What’s wrong with bisexuals?”
“Urr... Everything? You’re disgusting and what... Greedy! You want everyone. Jesus. You only get one person, not everyone!” Barty spat.
“Just pick a fucking gender! If you are a girl, you like boys and if you are a boy, you like girls. No in between,” Severus was getting annoyed now, and Remus could see Sirius losing his fight.
“Look,” Sirius sighed, “I’m bisexual, get over it, and there is nothing wrong with that, or any other kind of LGBTQ person. Just leave me alone and stop hating on the community. It’s not fair and we haven’t done anything to you.”
“How dare you,” Barty started, “So, you think it’s okay to disrespect your family name, be gay, or whatever it is you call yourself, abandon your family, and your younger brother-”
“Shut up!” Sirius cried, “Do not talk about that.”
“Why not?” Severus taunted.
Sirius stole a sideways glance at Remus before continuing, “Just... Just don’t... Please.”
“What? You don’t want your crush to find out about you and your fucked-up past?” Barty advanced forwards but Remus stepped in between him and Sirius.
“Shut. The. Fuck. Up,” He snarled, “You have no right to a) hate on the LGBT community, b) talk about Sirius’s past when he clearly doesn’t want to, and c) bully Sirius for his sexuality. Why don’t you just fuck off and leave him alone? Stop hating and get on with your own lives. Leave Sirius out of them if all you are going to do is hate on him. C’mon Sirius,” Remus glared at Severus and Barty, before turning on his heal, grabbing Sirius’s arm and pulling him away from the two boys.
“Thanks Remus,” Sirius said, shaking Remus’s hand off his arm.
“No problem. People like that are dicks. There is nothing wrong with who you love,” Remus looked down at Sirius and bit his lip, “So... Bisexual, huh?”
“Yep. No big deal. I just like girls and boys,” Sirius said, and Remus was just about to reply, when Sirius phone rang.
Remus sighed. So, Sirius was bisexual, maybe they had a chance? If he apologised to Alice and built up his friendship with Sirius again. He had realised that his feelings for Sirius had grown since he had the realisation about Sirius’s family, and since the two of them had not been speaking. He hoped that Sirius would tell him about his family sometime. Remus wanted to hunt them down for hurting Sirius. It wasn’t fair that a person as amazing as Sirius had the shittiest family ever.
“Hey, Remus?” Sirius broke Remus from his thoughts and tucked his phone away in his pocket, “I have to go. Thanks again for that, and please talk to Alice before you speak to me again. I’ll talk to her first and text you when she’s ready, but then... Yeah... I’ll... See you ‘round... I guess.”
“Yeah. See you,” Remus smiled at Sirius and the smaller boy walked back towards the college. He groaned and rubbed the back of his neck.
‘Jesus Christ,’ He thought, before he turned and walked back towards the Hog’s Head, where his friends were waiting, ‘This will be hard.’