salixbabylon | Fic: Moon to Moon (24/30)

Title: Moon to Moon
Author:

salixbabylon
Fandom: Harry Potter
Pairing: Remus/Severus, Remus/Sirius, Remus/Charlie
Rating: NC-17 eventually
Word Count: 831 for this part, ~17,300 overall
Disclaimer: Characters and places in this story, which appear in the Harry Potter novels, belong to JK Rowling, Bloomsbury, Warner Bros. and Scholastic. I don't make, or intend to make money out of them. They're just so much fun to play with!

Summary: Thirty days in the life of a randy werewolf.

Author's Note: Set in some nebulous AU where Sirius is alive, Harry and the rest of the kids are 16, and everyone is staying at Grimmauld Place in the summer of August 1996. Credits to

pervy_werewolf for firmly planting the structural idea in my brain. Props to

sirkayem for betaing!

Previous Entries

Moon To Moon

September 6th, 1996: Day 24

Today was one of the most gigantic cock-ups of my life.

Yesterday, Thursday night, was spent alone. Well, mostly – Sirius came looking for me in the evening and wanted company for another round of drinking and reminiscing. More drinking, as he doesn't have much to say about the missing decade-plus, and Morgana knows I don't want to talk about what I was doing with my life during that time.

As usual, we talked about how great life was at school and for the four years post-graduation, skipping the bits where we all suspected each other of betrayal while our friends were killed off one by one (or two by two).

While I understand and sympathize with Sirius' need to talk about the Good Old Days and even do some mourning for the Bad Old Days, I am finished with that. Mostly, I drink and try to keep him from getting too depressed. Or too drunk, which amounts to the same thing.

Suffice to say that I woke up this morning with the mother of all hangovers and Sirius had already consumed the last dose of Uncle Grogg's Morning-After Remedy. (The thoughtless bastard hadn't even chucked the bottle in the bin; he just put it back in the cabinet, empty. Once I'd apparated to and from Slug and Jiggers, though, I transfigured all of the robes in his wardrobe into the purple and green chevrons on the bottle's logo. I do hope he'll take the hint.)

What this all amounts to is that I began today hung over, grouchy, and with a taxing errand to Diagon Alley. (Not only do I loathe apparating when I'm not fully awake – I'm always afraid I'll get splinched – but the garish labels of the products lining shelves in the apothecary shop feel like an assault aimed at any wizard who might have over-indulged the night before. Uncle Grogg's being the particular case in point today, although the Bombay Fire brand of Pepperup, with its incessantly flickering red flames, is also an offender.) By the time I returned, it was almost gone noon. I had a quick bite and then lost myself in the library for several hours (Albus has me researching inferi, for some reason).

I made my way to the kitchen in the late afternoon, contemplating supper. (I don't miss living with Molly and her constant nagging, but I do miss her cooking. And her brow-beating of Sirius like he was one of her wayward children, of course – I enjoy that a great deal.) And speaking of Molly's children, who did I find in the kitchen but Charlie, perusing the cupboards hungrily.

We made and ate supper together (unsurprisingly, all of the Weasley boys cook fairly well – or at least compared to Sirius' variations on beans and toast and my tinned soup and eggs fifteen ways). Sirius joined us to eat and then did his usual disappearing trick once it was time to tidy up.

Charlie and I had things fairly well under control until a stray pot smashed into a plate and suddenly there were suds and shards of china everywhere. Before I could get my wand out, Charlie scooped up a handful of suds and started a water fight, which quickly turned from playful wrestling to lustful groping. I'd just gotten his shirt pulled off and was tossing it across the room while he nibbled at my neck, when who should suddenly floo in through the kitchen fire?

Yes indeed - Severus.

He turned tail and ran, stepping back into the floo before I could do much more than push Charlie away. He was... Well, now that I think about it, Severus' expression seemed more shocked and hurt than angry. Hmmm...

I suppose that since it's Friday, it was reasonable to assume that he might pop by some time, now that classes are finished for the week. But he never replied to my owl, so... And I do lose track of the days here in this mausoleum...

Well. Either he was coming by just to check about the potion or he wasn't. Either way, finding me in a clinch with Charlie must have been a surprise, although of course I do rather hope that his feelings were hurt, not in a vindictive way, but because that means he is still interested in me.

Unfortunately, if that's true, then it follows that now I face the boundless joy of groveling for his forgiveness, and I have known Severus to forgive about easily as he apologizes. Which is to say that it has happened, once or twice perhaps, but rarely.

Oh, and I sent Charlie packing, to finish up that thread of the story. I was too shaken up, and despite my urge to follow after Severus immediately, I know he'll need the night to cool off.

Charlie's not all that tempting anyway. Not much.

Some perhaps.

But not compared to Severus.

Some days it's just not worth the trouble of getting out of bed.

Day 25