I, Werewolf: Part 4 (con't)

[amuly]

Title: I, Werewolf: Part 4
Pairing: Remus/Sirius
Word Count: 6,693/31,252
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Remus and Sirius have been together since third year, but as their fifth year draws to a close, still haven’t had penetrative intercourse. Remus is afraid his condition could cause complications, and the literature on the subject is contradictory or bigoted. Will Sirius and Remus ever get to shag? (Answer: Yes.)
Warnings: none
A/N: Aaaalmost. Something I learned about myself while writing this chapter: As many times as I’ve spelt “perineum”, I’ll still misspell it (like just now). And yet, I can spell tortellini instinctively, without having every spelt it before. I suppose that’s what happens when you’re Italian.

MAKE SURE YOU READ THE FIRST HALF OF THIS PART FIRST.

Previous Parts: I, II, & III

NB: I reference another fic/mini-series of mine in this part. It's not vital to the plot or anything, but I included the link when it shows up.


**

            Later that evening, James and Sirius did their best to show interest in Peter’s vacation stories – or at least not fall asleep. Mrs. Potter was in the kitchen cooking dinner, and Remus had somehow gotten out of listening to Peter by talking to Mrs. Potter quietly, and then joining her in the kitchen as she cooked.

            After dinner, Sirius and Remus feigned exhaustion and slipped away to Remus’ room, though everyone in the house shot them knowing looks before going about their evening activities. Sirius dragged Remus to bed, though he started talking before Remus had the opportunity to lean forward and snog him.

            “What were you doing in the kitchen with Mrs. Potter?”

            Remus leaned back, frowning. “What do you mean? I was helping her with dinner.”

            Sirius rolled his eyes, as if to say: “well, yes, that was obvious”. “No, I mean, why were you in there with her instead of suffering through Wormtail’s boring stories?”

            “I just wanted to help with the cooking, is all.” Remus had a funny sort of expression on his face: like he was embarrassed or hiding something. This didn’t sit well with Sirius.

            Sirius crawled into Remus’ lap, settling comfortably with his legs on either side of Remus’. “Last time you tried to cook, you ended up setting the dorm on fire. And that was s’mores.” He reached down and traced a thumb gently over the back of Remus’ hand. “Why the sudden interest?”

            “I just…”

            “Don’t lie.” Sirius frowned at Remus. He could tell Remus was trying to blow this off, as if it was just some peculiar instance. But Sirius knew that Remus’ sudden interest in the culinary arts was more than that.

            Remus hesitated, eyes flickering back and forth between Sirius’ two. “I…” he sighed, and appeared to deflate suddenly. “I just figured…I wanted to be able to cook for you. In case we live together, after Hogwarts.”

            A grin tugged at the corner of Sirius’ mouth. “Well, I suppose I better start shadowing Mrs. Potter too, then. Wouldn’t want to poison us when you don’t have time to cook.”

            “Actually…” Remus winced, and Sirius realized that there was more to this than just cooking – there was a reason this was upsetting Remus. “I mean…you’ll have a job. As an Auror or curse-breaker or something.”

            Sirius frowned. “And you will, too. Researcher or healer or professor or something.”

            But Remus was shaking his head sadly. “No, I won’t.” His gaze flickered down to their laps, and he kept his eyes resolutely there for the rest of what he had to say. “With the way the laws are, I won’t be able to get a job in the wizarding world or muggle. I might get lucky and get a university scholarship, but after that…” Remus shrugged. “I figured I better get good at being…you know…” his voice dropped to a whisper “…a housewife.”

            Anger flared within Sirius: at Remus, at the Ministry, at Greyback; at everything and everyone that had ever made Remus experience a second’s worth of pain in his life. “Remus!” Sirius grabbed Remus’ chin and jerked his head up, forcing him to look Sirius in the eyes. “You will not be a housewife. You’re going to go on, and get a job at Hogwarts, or inventing new charms, or…” his mind groped for another suggestion. “Or even,” Sirius’ eyes lit up, “even becoming a…an advocate for werewolves! You could get all the laws changed, all the ones that are unfair.”

            Remus shrugged, though Sirius could tell that he wasn’t convinced. “Okay, Sirius. If you say so.”

            Doing his best to quell the anger and fierce protectiveness that flared up within his chest, Sirius pulled Remus into a hug, kissing his head before burying his nose in Remus’ hair. “Whatever you want to do, Remus,” he whispered, “whatever you want, I will make happen. If you want to be my housewife, that’s fine,” Sirius pulled away, a small, lopsided smile tugging at the corner of his mouth, “though you’ll have to become a better cook before I let you make dinner.”

            That earned him a small answering smile from Remus. He nodded, looking somewhat more placated by Sirius’ proclamations. “I believe you, Sirius. If anyone can make the impossible happen, it’s you.”

            “This is going to sound right soppy,” Sirius warned, “but it’s not me: it’s you. You’re the one who makes the impossible happen. I just stand around and look good.”

            Remus smiled at Sirius, a thin veil of tears filling up his eyes.

            “That’s a perineum?! Sick!”

            Sirius and Remus started, glancing toward the door. James’ voice carried through to them from what sounded like his bedroom. Remus groaned, covering his face in his hands. “Looks like James did some research,” Sirius teased.

            “Great. I’ll never hear the end of it, tomorrow.”

            Sirius kissed Remus on the forehead, before climbing off the bed and rummaging through Remus’ stuff. “D’you have a spare nightshirt I could wear?”

            “Your room is three meters away,” Remus pointed out from the bed.

            Sirius emerged, triumphant, with two nightshirts in hand. “Yeah, but I’d have to walk all the way across the hall…” Sirius complained, stripping quickly. “Plus, I know you think I look all sexy in your clothes.”

            Remus blushed three shades of pink at that. He tried to cover it up by pulling his shirt over his head and getting changed for bed himself, but Sirius saw anyway. Suitably dressed, Sirius climbed into Remus’ bed and kissed him on the nose. “Love your blush.”

            “Hush,” Remus chastised. He turned away from Sirius, facing the wall. Sirius could tell by the set of his back that he wasn’t actually upset, Remus was just trying to rile him up.

            Sirius threw an arm over Remus, pulling him into his body. With a rather melodramatic sigh, Remus turned over and looked up at Sirius. The room had grown dark in the hour since dinner, though the moon was still fat enough in the sky to light up the room. With a sleepy smile, Remus pressed forward and kissed Sirius on the lips. Then he pulled back and Sirius watched as his eyelids fluttered shut as he fell asleep.

            Sirius lay awake for a long time after that, watching the faint moonlight trickle in through their window. Remus was clutching at him in his sleep: both arms wrapped tight around Sirius’ left. Even though Remus seemed to be coping, Sirius wasn’t. He just…he sighed, glancing over at Remus’ sleeping face. Even in sleep, his brow was furrowed: just a tiny, thin line visible between his eyebrows. On impulse, Sirius shifted over and placed gentle kiss to the line. When he pulled away, Remus’ face was smooth, lips twitching into either a smile or subconscious reciprocation of the gesture.

            It must have been approaching midnight when a pecking at the window jolted Sirius out of his reverie. Sliding out of Remus’ grasp as gently as carefully as he could, Sirius padded over to the window and slid it open. A large barn owl was there: a standard school one, by the looks of it. But who would be sending him an owl from school in the middle of the summer?

            The owl hooted softly, dropped the package on the nightstand, and took off. No payment expected, then. Sirius picked up the package and turned it over in his hands. It was wrapped in brown paper, and appeared to be about the size and shape of a book. It was addressed to both him and Remus, though nothing else was written on the package.

            “Si-rus?” Remus was sitting up in the bed, eyes blinking blearily. Sirius felt a sudden rush of love for the young man in front of him. His hair was sleep tussled, sticking up every which way. He was rubbing one eye sleepily, looking for all the world like something Sirius just wanted to wrap up and protect from anything hurtful ever touching him. Some back part of his mind noted that these feelings were growing more and more common with every passing day.

            “Hey, Remus.” He crawled back into bed, sliding under the sheets and tangling his legs with Remus’. “We got a package.”

            Remus managed to haul himself upright, though by the grumbling and complaints that he voiced, Sirius knew he’d much rather have just fallen back to sleep. “For both of us?”

            Sirius handed over the small, brown package. “It’s not from James, or Peter. Looks like it was sent from Hogwarts, but I dunno who’s up there during the summer.”

            The frown line that Sirius had earlier kissed away reappeared between Remus’ eyebrows, more pronounced than before. “No one is. No students, at least. It’s not allowed.”

            “Maybe Pomfrey?”

            But Remus was already shaking his head. “This isn’t Pomfrey’s handwriting. Or McGonagall’s, or Flitwick…this isn’t any of our teachers’ handwriting.”

            Sirius shrugged. “Well, no matter. Open it; maybe there’s a card inside or something.” 

            Remus slotted a finger beneath the brown paper packaging, slitting it open. Sirius shifted and pulled himself a little more upright. One hand came to rest on Remus’ leg as Sirius watched him open the package, running small, concentric circles on the pajama-clad thigh. The packaging came away, revealing a book, titled: I, Werewolf, by Rhea Silva. Sirius shared a glance with Remus. “Open it up; see if there’s a card,” he prompted Remus.

            Sure enough, as they opened up the cover of the book, a small card slipped out.

            Dear Remus (and Sirius, as I’m sure he is reading this over your shoulder),

            While perusing a little-known bookstore the other day, I stumbled across this text. I found it most informative on many of the misunderstood issues of lycanthropy, and thought you might want to have a look – for medical reasons, of course.

            -Albus Dumbledore

            Remus slid his eyes slowly over to Sirius’. “Do you think…he…”

            Sirius’ eyes widened. “You think he knows? About…” he waved between the two of them. Remus’ face was slowly turning more and more red. “Oh, gross! How did he find out?”

            Remus shot Sirius a look. “Well, we do have rule six fourteen…”

            Sirius opened and shut his mouth rapidly, before grinning. “Oh. Right. And there was that time McGonagall caught us. And Pomfrey knows…” he cut off, glancing over at Remus. “Does everyone know?”

            Remus bit his lip and frowned. “I…I think so.” His face turned red. “Oh, Merlin. Do you figure we’re the poster-boys for homosexuality at Hogwarts?”

            Sirius snorted. “Well, we would be sexy on a poster. Oh!” Sirius bounced on the bed in mock-excitement. “Do you think we could do a whole calendar and sell it? 1976: Going to the Dogs.”

            Remus shoved at Sirius, moving to turn the page in the book. “We are not making a calendar.” He shivered. “I don’t like the thought of Lucius or someone wanking over pictures of us.”

            Sirius guffawed at that. “I dunno, he’s a bit of alright, even if he’s completely evil. What would be worse would be someone not as fit. Like McGonagall!”

            Both boys groaned loudly at the thought, screwing up their noses in disgust. “Ew! Sirius! I could have lived my entire life happy without thinking about McGonagall…” he waved his hand, “Doing…stuff.”

            “How d’you reckon girls do it, anyway? Do they shove their fingers up there? Is there a girl prostate?”

            Remus slapped Sirius on the arm. “We are not talking about girl bits. In case you hadn’t noticed, I have absolutely zero interest in girl bits.” He gestured at the book. “Now if we could focus for a moment, we could get back on the subject of our bits, and what sorts of fun things we might do with them in the near future.”

            Sirius bent his head studiously over the novel. “Right. Excellent idea. Reading the book.”

Introduction by the Author:

            I’m not going to bother writing this in third person, because I’m not going to keep up the pretense that anyone in the publishing industry approves of me or my book. My name is Rhea Silva, and I am a werewolf. I was infected as a teenager, when I was attacked one night. I was with my boyfriend at the time, and we had snuck out to have a stroll. He died, I lived.

            I’m writing this book based on my own life experiences, which are now considerable at my current age of 52. I’ve gathered as many facts as I can from outside sources, although the majority are contradictory at best, downright bigoted and hateful at worst. My only hope is that this book helps out other werewolves in their lives, and dispels so many of the myths and fears about our kind.

            “Remus,” Sirius whispered. “Look at the dedication.” He had flipped the page while Remus was still reading the preface, holding it up and reading as best he could under it. It was a common practice among the two of them: Sirius was the speed-reader, who could skim for content with skill. Remus preferred to take his time reading, setting a more leisurely pace.

            He obediently flipped the page, reading aloud the dedication. “To my wonderful husband and daughter, who have supported me and my condition for so many years…” His eyes shot up to meet Sirius’ – he could see tears welling in Remus’ eyes. “She…she could get pregnant. And the child…”

            “It doesn’t sound like she’s infected.” Sirius’ grin was broadening by the second. “Remus, it can’t be sexually transmitted: not if her daughter doesn’t have it!”

            Remus laughed. Sirius’ heart was pounding furiously. He watched as the tears in Remus’ eyes threatened to spill over. He was still laughing, but it was starting to sound more like shaking sobs. Sirius pulled Remus into a tight hug, breathing in his scent and kissing his neck. “We can, Remus. It’s safe. She has a husband, and a daughter. She’s published a book, even. Remus,” Sirius pulled back, and saw that the tears had breached their walls, and were tracking lines down Remus’ face. “Remus, love, we can live a normal life.”

            A bubble of half-laughter, half-sob burst its way out of Remus. “As normal as a gay Black in Gryffindor with a werewolf partner can be.”

            Sirius waved his hand dismissively. “By ‘normal’ I meant ‘fantastically extraordinary with loads of shagging’.”

            Remus nodded. “Of course. I forgot about the fifth alternative definition of ‘normal’.”

            Sirius’ breath hitched as he watched the tears slowly abate their flow until they finally stopped. Swiftly he leaned forward and lapped at the tears, kissing them away until there was no trace of them. If only he could fix all of Remus’ problems that way – make it so that no trace of their ephemeral existence remained.

            Beneath him, Remus’ breath hitched, though Sirius could tell he wasn’t starting to cry again. No, this was a good hitch, the sort that made Sirius bite back a groan as his blood rushed southward to fill his cock. “Remus,” he whispered, letting his lips trail across Remus’ face until they found his lips, then pressing against them passionately. Remus whimpered, then moaned as he opened his mouth to Sirius and sucked on his lower lip.

            Sirius’ hand snaked its way beneath the sheets, first palming Remus’ obvious arousal through his pajama bottoms, then moving to roughly strip them away. 

            “Wait, wait, Sirius. We have to make sure…” Sirius groaned, pulling away.

            “Make sure what?”

            Remus shot him a desperate, hungry look, and in that instant Sirius knew he was as eager as himself to get on with this – he just needed to make sure. “I still want to check about aggression during sex, about that whole alpha problem.”

            Sirius surged forward and kissed Remus soundly. It was with great reluctance that he pulled away, resting his forehead against Remus’. “Alright, love. Read it to your heart’s content. I’m here.” He opened his eyes to see tears brimming again in Remus’. Gently he pressed his lips to Remus’ eyelids; stroked a hand down his face.

            As they parted Sirius glanced at the book. “I suppose you’ll want to read all of it?” he asked, surveying the thickness of the volume with distaste.

             A hungry smile crept across Remus’ face. “Yeah. But as soon as I’m done…”

            Sirius sighed, flopping back onto the pillow. “Yeah, but you won’t be done within the next half hour, will you?”

            He watched as Remus turned the book sideways and examined its thickness for himself. “Even you couldn’t read this in half an hour.” Remus shrugged, reaching over Sirius to set the book on the little nightstand next to the bed. “I guess we’ll just have to be patient.” He curled around Sirius, pressing himself to his side and throwing an arm over Sirius’ chest.

            “I guess…”

            “But,” Remus’ breath was hot on Sirius’ ear, “I should be able to finish it tomorrow, if you let me alone all day. Which means…”

            Sirius’ cock twitched and he shifted, grumbling. “Tomorrow night, then?”

            “If everything’s safe.”

            Pressing a kiss to Remus’ soft hair, Sirius breathed deep, and finally fell asleep.


Continue on to Part V and the Epilogue here.

Comments

[purpleyedemon.livejournal.com]

*whimper* *wibble* Awwwwwwwwwwwwwww *is incoherent again*

I really should sleep more, lol.

[amuly.livejournal.com]

Hehehehe.

[amuly.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[lotrwariorgodss.livejournal.com]

You tease. ;)

Still really enjoying this - they're adorable together!

[amuly.livejournal.com]

Hey, that was 6k words! I wasn't going to pile *that scene* on top of all that, too! It's just good *pacing*. :P

[(Anonymous)]

Great story very well written I relly love it so far :)
But I still don't get who's going to be on top,remus or sirius?

[amuly.livejournal.com]

The two of them don't even know yet.
...
*I* know...hehehe

[little-werewolf.livejournal.com]

Awwww.. can't wait for the next part. :D

[amuly.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Glad you like!

[ladyannikaa.livejournal.com]

I've fallen in love with this!!! Squeee!

[amuly.livejournal.com]

Awwww thank you!

[charcharberry.livejournal.com]

loved your reference to I, Claudius. (with I, Werewolf.) Can't wait to read them have sex! eeep!

[amuly.livejournal.com]

It's actually a double-reference: I, Claudius and I, Robot. B/c that's what happens when you mix a Classics minor with a sci-fi nutter :P

Glad you're enjoying the series ^.^

[liljajune]

uuuuhh, exciting :D

[amuly.livejournal.com]

The boys agree with you ~.^

[whatawaste4u.livejournal.com]

hahaha! as soon as I saw the link "That's a perineum? Sick!" I knew I'd love this chapter! haha. and I really did. all of that stuff was hilarious. the boy banter was great. Mr. Potter fussing over James's sexuality was so funny! And I sqeed loudly when I saw rule six fourteen. i remember that excellent excellent rule without even clicking on the link :-)
and oh p.s. I would buy that calendar in a heartbeat.
YAY! they're going to have sex soon!!!
I'm of course voting for Remus to be on top because that's what I love but I'm just excited no matter what goes down! or who..!
:-D

[amuly.livejournal.com]

Well you only have to wait...an hour and a half to find out ~.^

So glad you liked this installment, and my past work, too!

PS: I totally would buy the calendar, too.