Remus sat at the kitchen table staring at the wall. He felt as if he’d been living in a daze for the past week. It had been one week since James and Lily were killed. One week since everything had changed. He wasn’t even sure where Harry was or if they had found Peter.
Sirius has spent the week as Padfoot. He’d barely eaten anything and he refused to change back no matter how much Remus begged. Remus felt like he was running out of options. Sirius had no one left but Remus. His parents and Regulus were out of the question and all of the Potters were dead. He didn’t know who to turn to.
In a desperate attempt to get his boyfriend back, he’d decided to write to McGonagall. Although she’d given them more detentions than all of the other professors combined, he knew she really cared about Sirius. She was there for Sirius after he left his family. Sirius has never been open about it but Remus knew they’d written letters back and forth during the summer that Sirius lived with the Potters.
With a sigh, Remus took a drink of tea then immediately spat it back into the mug. He wasn’t sure how long he’d been sitting at the table, but it’d been long enough for his tea to go cold. As he stood up to make a new cup, he heard their owl pecking at the window. Remus rushed to the window to let her in.
Remus had the window half open when she impatiently shoved her way through, nipping his fingers on the way. She dropped the letter on the table, and flew into her opened cage landing with her back to him. “Bloody bird,” he muttered while reaching for the letter.
As soon as he opened it he knew it was from McGonagall.
Remus,
I’m not sure what you mean by he won’t shift back, but if you think me being there could help at all I’m happy to come. I’ll be there around 5 o’clock this evening.
- Minerva
Remus looked at the clock and realized 5 this evening was actually 15 minutes from now. Remus let out a deep sigh and ran his hands through his hair in frustration. The problem was that for McGonagall to help Sirius, Remus had to tell her that he was an animagus. An illegal animagus. She wasn’t known for letting rules slide. No one knew that better than them. Remus just hoped that her soft spot for Sirius would help her overlook the issue for now.
Remus jumped when he heard a knock on the door. Even though he knew it was just McGonagall, the fear still crept in. The war has only been over for a week and he hasn’t quite accepted it yet. Taking one last deep breath and running his hands through his hair in attempt to straighten it out, he opened the door.
“Hello professor, thank you for coming to help I’m getting desperate. Please come in,” Remus said while stepping aside to let her pass through then leading her to their living room.
“Remus, please, I’ve told you to call me Minerva now. And there is no need to thank me. You know how much I care for Sirius. I’m happy to help however I can.”
“Well first there is something I need to tell you. It’s really not my secret to tell, and Sirius is gonna kill me when he realizes I’ve done it, but he’s left me no. I’ve tried everything and he won’t change back.” Remus run his hands through his hair nervously. Seven years of detentions had taught him that she would certainly not be happy about all the broken rules to become an animagus.
“Sirius, James, and Peter are animagi. They taught themselves during school so they could join me during the full moons. They knew how much the wolf hurts me so they thought they could help. Animals aren’t effected by werewolf bites so if something went wrong they wouldn’t be in danger of changing. I would’ve stopped them if I’d known because it was too dangerous, but they surprised me with it one night right before the moon. But honestly, they saved me. The full moon is always rough but with them it was bearable... Anyway, what I mean by change back is change back to human. He shifted into his animagus form, a dog named Padfoot, and he won’t shift back.” Throughout his whole speech Remus refused to look up. Sirius needed help and getting him in trouble wouldn’t be a good way to make that happen.
McGonagall took a few steps forward and put her hand on Remus’ shoulder. “Remus, we’ll talk about this later. I wish you boys weren’t so reckless, but they did it for a good reason. When Sirius is feeling better, we can start the process to get him properly registered.”
Remus smiled slightly and shook his head. “He is gonna have so much to say about that. But yes that sounds reasonable. I’ll make sure he gets registered.”
“So where is he?”
“He’s in his bedroom.” Remus said while pointing at their bedroom door. “He’s actually probably heard all of this if he’s paying attention.”
“Could you open to door for me, Remus?”
“Wha-“ Remus cut himself off when he realized he was now talking to a cat, but opened the door for her as he grumbled to himself about this not being what he meant.
Remus watched her jump onto their bed then closed the door. He sat down on the couch and tried to stay calm. He felt better about calling McGonagall now that he’d told her everything and she wasn’t angry. He hoped she could get through to Sirius and he’d change back. He knew Sirius wasn’t in a good place but he couldn’t help him as Padfoot. As nice as Padfoot’s cuddles are, he needs his boyfriend back.
Remus must have fallen asleep because he jumped awake when he heard the door open. He quickly turned around and let out a sigh of relief when he saw Sirius standing behind McGonagall. Remus all but ran to Sirius and wrapped him in his arms despite McGonagall watching. Sirius hugged him back but he was shaking. It felt as if he was depending on Remus to keep him standing.
McGonagall cleared her throat “Well I should be going then. Let me know if you need anything and please, write me more often.”
Sirius stepped back from Remus. “Wait! I’m not sure where Dumbledore has taken Harry, but I want him. James and Lily made me his godfather and I want to take care of him like they wanted.”
McGonagall looked pleased. “Of course, I’ll let Albus know and we will bring him to you. Take a few days to get prepared and owl me when you’re ready. Harry will be safe where he is for awhile longer.”
Sirius rushed toward McGonagall and hugged her. “Thank you so much, Minnie.”
“No need to thank me Sirius. This is what family does.” McGonagall turned towards the door to leave. As she was reaching for the knob she turned back, “Oh and Remus? I couldn’t help but notice you said Sirius was in his bedroom but it’s the only bedroom in this apartment.” She watched as both men blushed and tried to stammer out a nonsense excuse. “I think it’s great. Harry will be lucky to have you as a second parent Remus. You two will do great together.” With one last smile, she opened the door and left.
Remus and Sirius watched as the door closed behind her. Remus pulled Sirius back into his arms and buried his nose in his hair taking a deep breath. “I’m sorry I gave away your secret, but I didn’t know what to do. She was the only person I could think of to help.”
“It’s okay, Rem. It was time for me to shift back, and I needed extra help seeing that. You did what you had to do.” Sirius looked up at Remus and put his hands on his cheeks cradling his face. “I’m sorry, I’ve missed you. I just... I couldn’t handle everything. I needed to be Padfoot so I didn’t have to feel everything. James is ...” Sirius cut himself off as a few tears ran down his face.
“It’s okay you don’t have to explain yourself. I’m just glad you’re back.” Sirius pulled Remus in for a kiss. It felt so good to feel his lips again. They hadn’t kissed for a week, but even before that their had been so much fighting and suspicion that kissing had become a rare thing. Remus pulled away before things could get too heated. “I think you need to eat. It’s been a while. Come on I’ll make you dinner while we figure out what we need to do to get ready for Harry.”
Lacing their fingers together, Remus dragged Sirius to the kitchen. Remus motioned for the chair, but Sirius stayed by his side “I know I’m a disaster in the kitchen, but can I help you please. I don’t want to just sit and think.”
“Of course you can help. You can start tea while I gather the things we need then we can make dinner.” Remus said while pulling various items out of cabinets. On his way to the counter, he bumped Sirius with his hip, “Hey Pads, You wanna hear something funny? You finally got Minnie into your bed.”
Sirius let out a sharp bark of laughter. “Jokes on you Moony. We’ve been lovers for years. I’m sorry you had to find out this way.”
“Oh piss off” Remus laughed as he pulled Sirius in by the collar of his shirt. They rested their foreheads together laughing softly into each other.
“We are gonna be alright right Moony? And Harry? We are doing the right thing and he’s gonna be alright?” Sirius sounded scared and sad again.
Remus pulled away to look him in the eyes, “We are all gonna be okay.”