chapter title: "black dog" by led zeppelin

Remus did tell Henry.

He popped over to the Hog's Head the next evening to see him, ordering them both a bottle of butterbeer.

"What's up, Rem?" He asked as he slid into the seat beside Remus in the corner of the pub.

"I need to tell you something." Remus said guiltily. It wasn't like he had cheated on Henry, exactly. They had never been dating or agreed on a second date even. But the guilt was still there inside his stomach as he looked at the older boy beside him, his deep, chocolate brown eyes looking at Remus with a mixture of confusion and concern.

"I really...I really enjoyed seeing you on the weekend." Remus told him, earnestly. But....there's just a slight problem, and I don't think it would be fair to keep anything we had going cause-"

"Because of Sirius?" Henry filled in for him.

"What? How did  you..?" Remus trailed off as Henry smiled simply.

"It's really, painfully obvious." Henry said with a laugh. "The moment I saw the two of you I kinda knew it. You both stare at each other across the stage when you sing like you're in some romance film or something, and the way you talk about him...I don't know. It's really obvious but I thought it hadn't worked out between you when you guys stopped talking." Henry shrugged. "You were totally my type so I thought I'd take my chance."

"Shit, I'm sorry, Henry." Remus said, feeling a little awkward as he stared down at his bottle of butterbeer.

Henry only smiled and put a hand on Remus' shoulder comfortingly. "Honestly I'm glad you guys have patched things up. You look good together."

Remus smiled at Henry, fondly, and they spent the rest of the evening talking about music, as usual, until Aberforth called Henry back over to tend the bar. Remus left this time without a kiss from Henry, but with a satisfaction that put his mind at ease. Being friends with Henry felt better than any romance that they could have pursued.

And when Remus got back to Hogwarts, he crept through the dormitory as James and Peter slept silently, before crawling silently into Sirius' bed and shutting the curtains behind him, muttering a quick silencing charm just as Sirius pulled him in, kissing him softly in the dark and the silence.

***

When  Remus awoke the next morning, it was to the sun filtering softly through the curtains to Sirius' four poster bed, and the sound of James Potter loudly getting ready as he clattered about the room. The next thing he noticed was Sirius. Sirius who lay in bed beside him with his inky curls strewn across the crisp white of the pillow, his breath coming out in long, content waves. 

Remus watched him for a minute, watching as his chest rose and fell in time to his breathing. A momentary fear flitted through his mind for a split second as he had a sudden sense of deja vu, waking up beside Sirius like this and thinking everything would be okay.

But this time it was okay, Remus told himself. This time they knew what they were doing. this time they had actually discussed it, and this time Sirius loved him. And that made all the difference in the world. 

Almost as soon as the fear had arrived in his mind, it quickly dissipated and Remus let himself bask in the enjoyment of watching Sirius sleep. He was rudely awoken not a second later, however, as an almighty crash sounded from outside the bubble of Sirius' bed, followed by James' voice muttering: "shit shit shit OW!"

Remus tried to stifle his laughter so as not to give away his location under Sirius' covers as Sirius rubbed his eyes beside him, before looking up to give Remus a sleepy, quizzical look which Remus just shrugged at.

Sirius quickly got over his confusion however as his mind seemed to register that Remus was in the bed beside him as he pulled Remus back down to lie his head on the pillow beside him, and tucked his head under Remus' chin.

Remus allowed himself to close his eyes as he took in the scent of Sirius' shampoo as his hair curled under his' nose, letting himself wrap his arms around the shorter boy's torso before falling back to sleep.

They re-awoke about an hour or so later as Remus suddenly realised they were late for classes, and he hurriedly shook Sirius awake, somehow the two of them just managing to get to charms class only a couple of minutes late.

Lily raised an eyebrow at Remus as he slid into the seat beside her with a quick grin. "Do I want to know?" She asked, an eyebrow raised as she gestured to a spot just below Remus' ear.

Remus brought his fingers up to the spot Lily had gestured at before quickly realising what she was referring to, remembering the not-so-soft kisses Sirius had given him last night after he had told him how things had gone with Henry.

"You two are unbelievable." Lily rolled her eyes as Remus blushed. He had told Lily everything after James' birthday party. About how Sirius didn't love him and how they weren't talking and how he missed him. And then he had told her everything when Sirius had explained himself in the Room of Requirement. For some reason, the prospect of telling James and Peter was off the table- mostly because Sirius wasn't ready yet, but Remus wondered if it was partly because Sirius enjoyed the thrill of their relationship being a secret. Remus found that a part of him didn't exactly disagree with this...at least for now.

But regardless, Remus had found himself incapable of keeping such secrets from Lily Evans, who seemed to somehow know everything about everyone in the end, so it really was just better to tell her theses things before she found out for herself.

Remus quickly attempted to move the shirt of his collar to cover the mark on his neck before Lily gave a sigh and muttered a quick spell, making the mark disappear with a small flick of her wand.

The rest of the lesson continued as normal, Remus pretending not to notice the obvious looks that Sirius would shoot across the classroom at him, which only seemed to infuriate Sirius as he tried harder to get Remus' attention, even flying a paper plane to land on Remus' desk in front of him, despite the fact that it had nothing written on the inside of it when Remus unfolded it.

When they were finally dismissed from the class however, Sirius immediately grabbed a hold of Remus' hand and dragged him to an empty classroom, quickly locking the door behind them with a quick spell, before he marched across the room towards Remus, pressing his back against a desk in the centre of the room and kissing him full in the mouth.

"What's got you in this mood?" Remus mused, unable to keep the grin from his face as Sirius kissed him feverishly, dancing his lips down the shapes of Remus' scars that disappeared beneath his shirt.

"Just you." Sirius mumbled against Remus' skin. "Sitting there looking so sexy."

Remus laughed as he kissed Sirius back, happily.

"Besides, I know I can have you now, and that makes me even more unable to keep myself away from you." 

Remus couldn't stop the smile on his face as he tried to kiss Sirius back, pulling him closer towards him by grasping hold of his striped Gryffindor tie and pulling his head up to meet his, ducking his face down to meet Sirius' lips, before a sudden noise split them apart hurriedly. Someone was trying to get into the classroom.

"Shit." Remus muttered as he hurried to straighten himself and smooth down his hair as Sirius did the same before the door was unlocked with a mutter of alohamora.

Professor Cooper, the current defence against the dark arts stood in the doorway, raising an eyebrow as she looked at the two boys before waving her hand dismissively at the two of them. "If I find any frogspawn in my desk drawer or any dungbombs in my cupboards I'll be assuming it was the two of you, so don't be surprised if you find yourselves in detention this evening." She said to them with a stern look before calling her class of first years in.

Sirius grinned sweetly at Professor Cooper as he quickly took Remus' hand to lead him out, calling back; "Wouldn't dream of it, professor!"