Among Other Things

Chapter 2

Later That Night…

Remus Lupin, former Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor and known werewolf, sighed as he sank into his favorite armchair with a nice fresh cup of hot tea.

Nothing could really get better than this.

Lately he had been so worn out with work for the Order that he had barely been able to think.

But finally he was done.

He had handed in his resignation a few days ago to Dumbledore and then had put all his efforts into moving into the secret cottage that no one knew about except for himself, Sirius and Harry.

He’d quit the Order upon hearing of Dumbledore’s plan to separate Harry from Sirius in order to give him the complete training that the boy supposedly needed. Remus had thought that it was complete hogwash and had told the old man as much.

Then after gazing at him and truly seeing what he had in store for Harry, he had quit.

Dumbledore, of course, had not lost his unflappable composure, only choosing to twinkle at him, but Remus knew that the man was furious.

That was why he had fled to his hidden estate, using every precaution he could think of to remain undetected.

Within hours, his owl, Archimedes, had been sent off to Sirius to come as quickly as possible.

Remus did not trust Dumbledore as far as he could throw him, as he was not going to take any chances.

The next evening both the owl and the animagus had arrived and Remus began casting the rest of his wards. It had taken some time, but with Sirius’ hastily made potions they had managed to secure the cottage against everything from Devil’s Snare to an invasion of Death Eaters.

It had been difficult work and Remus had been glad for the chance to relax.

But Sirius, well, he was still working on something, and he refused to tell Remus what it was until the experiment was done.

Taking a sip of tea Remus wondered what exactly Dumbledore would choose to tell the Order now that he had finally left.

Would he tell them that he was on a dangerous mission?

One in which he would unfortunately be found dead?

Hmm…That would be the perfect solution if Dumbledore wanted to get rid of him.

All of a sudden, an explosion sounded upstairs, startling Remus out of his chair and knocking his almost empty teacup to the floor.

Cursing, the irate werewolf dashed out of the room to the upstairs lab, wondering what exactly Sirius had done to himself this time.

Unnoticed, the tea dregs, upset by the sudden motion, slowly slid down the inside of the cup, forming the very familiar picture of a Grim.

While known in Remus’ cottage, fondly called Moon’s Paw, as Sirius’ animagus form Padfoot, elsewhere it was the symbol of death.

Throwing the door open to the Potions lab, he burst in, brandishing his wand as he looked for, what he hoped weren’t Sirius’ remains.

Startled, he paused and looked around with wide eyes.

When Sirius had updated the lab on his last visit to the cottage with his money from his Gringotts vault, (Goblins did not believe in freezing accounts-your money was your money) he had changed everything to suit his tastes.

Meaning everything was of the highest quality and the furniture only had a practical purpose.

Now, however, it looked like multicolored paint had exploded everywhere.

Various colored blotches colored the walls, counters, floors, and even the ceiling.

“Sirius,” he called hesitantly, not seeing the other man amidst the mess.

“Sirius, are you alive?”

When no answer came, he frowned and slowly made his way through the disaster area.

“Padfoot?”

“I’m…here…Just…a…sec,” came the half-gasp, half-moan.

Slowly, Sirius’ now pink arm raised itself in the air and moved to grab hold of one of the counters along the back wall.

Sirius, who Remus now noticed had blended in with the mess, in three different colors no less, slowly dragged himself off the floor until he was shakily standing by what looked to be the sourced of the explosion.

Remus walked closer and was relieved to see that he was relatively unharmed.

With black hair, now neon green, blue eyes, and stubborn features, Sirius was almost the opposite of his best friend and secret lover, whose gentle face, brown hair (with honey gold highlights), and amber eyes spoke of knowledge.

Sirius’, however, spoke of nothing but trouble.

“What happened?” he asked, gingerly reaching forward to help Sirius to a nearby stool.

Goodness, he hoped that nothing in this mess was alive.

“I was trying to make a new potion to help with Harry’s visions, but I guessed I missed a step,” he muttered irritably, running a hand through is shoulder length hair.

“I don’t think there’s any guess about it,” Remus wryly stated, as he began to scourgify the mess.

With a sigh and a glare, Sirius took the other side of the room and in no time at the entire lab was spotless.

While Remus pulled up a chair to sit, Sirius retrieved his notes to try to determine his mistake. It took twenty minutes, but after a lot of head scratching and sighing Sirius finally found the answer.

“Ah, ha!” he exclaimed triumphantly.

“I forgot to counteract the addition of the powdered mandrake root!”

“Really?” Remus questioned, blowing on his ever-present cup of tea (he really loved house elves).

“It’s hard to believe that you, of all people, made a mistake that simple.”

Pride stung, Sirius glared and took out a new set of ingredients. “That was not a simple mistake, Moony,” he retorted. “Even Potion Masters make that mistake!”

Smirking, Remus took another sip and watched his friend begin his experiment once more.

During their days at Hogwarts Sirius had been known for his potion making skills. He had been second only to Snape, so it was exceedingly rare for him to make a mistake that resulted in this kind of explosion.

In fact, his skills at Potions were one of the main reasons why they started their infamous feud that lasted from second year until the present.

“So, why are you working on a potion for Harry’s visions? I thought it had been determined that they could not be blocked because of his connection to Voldemort.”

“That’s what I used to think, but after talking to him I believe that it is something more.”

“Like what?” Remus asked, reaching for the plate of biscuits that Mipsy, his house elf, had brought in just a moment ago.

“You remember how Harry said that he had visions all the time?”

“Yes, we had that conversation, what, a few weeks ago?” he asked, watching as Sirius heated a second cauldron.

“Well, I found out that his visions aren’t just of Voldemort. He sees random things; things that he would never be able to find out through gossip or the Daily Prophet.”

“Hmmm…so he’s a Seer then?”

“That’s what I think.”

“So, then he’ll never be able to have control over them,” Remus stated, paling at the implications. “Eventually he won’t be able to live a normal life. He’ll never know when to expect them.”

“Right,” Sirius muttered. “But if I get this potion to work it should be able to control his visions, and maybe make it so that the potions only appear when he is sleeping.”

Smothering a grin as a sudden idea came to him, Remus looked at Sirius, who was gazing at his notes with a frown.

“You know what you could do Padfoot? You could write to Severus and see if he’ll give you any advice.”

“…”

“Sirius, did you hear me?”

“…”

“Siri?”

Remus watched as Sirius muttered a stasis charm before turning to look at him with a wicked gleam in his eye.

“Prepare yourself, Moony.”

And that was all the warning he received before Sirius attacked.

Rolling, punching, and kicking (he’d knocked both their wands out of the way at first contact-a trick he’d learned third year), they fought, yet again, in an effort to gain temporary dominance over the other.

And, of course, bragging rights.

Soon enough, Sirius had him in a headlock, and it was all he could do to not reach for the wand he saw laying a few inches away.

“Give up yet, Moony?” Sirius’ husky voice questioned, causing Remus to go bright red.

Oh the things that man could do with his voice.

“Depends on what I get out of it,” he muttered hoarsely.

“Oh, really?”

One of Sirius’ eyebrows rose an inch as he contemplated that statement.

Grinning wickedly, he leaned forward to propose a very interesting proposition to his lover, only to be interrupted by a sharp peck to his face as an owl landed on his shoulder.

“Bloody hell!”

Cursing he rolled away from Remus to clutch the side of his face.

Now free, Remus stood up and went over to Hedwig to retrieve the letter tied to her leg.

“Hmmm…I wonder what Harry has to say?” he idly wondered, glancing over at Sirius, who was now glaring death at the not-so-innocent owl.

“I know what I’ll have to say to Harry about controlling his bloody owl,” Sirius growled.

“Hush, Sirius.”

Smiling, Remus opened the letter and read the parchment.

Slowly the smile faded to be replaced by a frown.

“Well, I know he was suspicious, but I wasn’t expecting this.”

“What, what did he say?” Sirius asked, bouncing up and down like an overexcited three year old.

“It looks like Harry’s finally seen the truth about Dumbledore. Well, part of the truth, anyways.”

Sirius tensed, wary and alert. “Does Dumbledore know that?”

Shaking his head, Remus handed the letter over. “No, I don’t think so. But I think we need to get him out of the house before Dumbledore suspects.”

“Alright,” Sirius agreed. “When do we go?”

“I am going now. You are staying here,” Remus firmly stated before reaching down to retrieve his wand from the floor.

“But that’s not fair,” the animagus whined, crossing his arms.

“It’s perfectly fair,” he stated affably.

“If you come you will most likely be caught. And if you stay here, you don’t. And I am sure Harry does not want to escape from his relatives only to have to deal with an imprisoned godfather. Again.”

Sirius winced, but did not say another word, a clear sign that he had given up.

With a sigh, Remus left, hoping that he would get there when the Order switched guards.

“Well,” Sirius sighed, once the door had closed. “Might as well finish this potion. Here’s hoping that I don’t blow up the lab again.”

Unfortunately, he only made it a few steps before he suddenly tripped and fell flat on his face.

Eyes blazing Snapish death glares (not that he would ever admit it), Sirius turned to look at the offending culprit, which happened to be his wand.

“Damn thing,” he muttered and leaned over to quickly snatch it off the floor.

“Couldn’t have the decency to stay on the table where I left it.”

And with that, he stalked over to his cauldrons, ignoring the fact that the floor was the last place he had left his wand, during the brief fight to Remus.

Well, at least he won.

For once.

End of Chapter 2!!

Author’s Notes:

Holen-Snape: Definite slash will not develop until later in the story. This will be either 5th or 6th year.

Panther73110: The answer to that will come up within the next couple of chapters.

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