Chapter 72: Unparalleled
Madam Pomfrey was as thorough as she ever was, seeming to care more about the methods and unforeseen side effects of Sirius's plan than she did about him being there at all. She didn't swoon or stammer in disbelief. She simply got to work checking him for any consequences his actions might have had on his health and well-being.
"Never would have suspected you would try something so foolish," the matron muttered as she shook the mercury down in a thermometer.
"Love makes fools of us all, Poppy," quoted Sirius, opening his mouth wide, "black and white."
"Big and little," the woman corrected, and shoved the thermometer under the boy's tongue.
He shrugged in response and sat back as she prodded and poked at the scars on his chest before moving on to the rest of him.
After three hours, she finally gave up on her search. "There is absolutely nothing wrong with you, Mr Black." She paused. "Is that even your name anymore? Sirius Black is officially dead, and, even if he weren't, you certainly wouldn't want to be him."
Sirius frowned. "Hadn't thought about that bit."
Harry snorted. "You spent a fortnight practicing this spell, making sure you left a double who could pass as the real thing, but you didn't put any thought into what you'd call yourself once you got here? Typical."
"What's in a name?"
"Quite a bit when that name is Sirius Black. Or did you want to spend the rest of your days in Azkaban?"
"Fine. I'll steal a line from your script and call myself a Granger," he smiled. "I'm sure Hermione would love to have a South African cousin hanging about the place." He paused remembering just how fierce and protective the diminutive girl could be. When she was pointing that skill his way, it was terrifying, but he warmed at the thought of the girl wielding that power to protect him. He had never had anyone like that to call family. James, sure, but most of the time they were causing trouble together, not fighting battles of good and evil. He wondered how different life might have been if he had a girl like Hermione for a sister, if his mother could have gotten away with half the indignities and abuse she subjected her sons to. He knew Reg would certainly have benefitted.
"Harry?"
"Hm?"
"What happened to Regulus?"
"He died," Harry said. "He changed his mind about being a Death Eater and was killed for it."
He nodded and muttered, "Lion's Heart."
"What's that?"
"Regulus in Muggle astronomy. It's called Heart of the Lion. Always thought it was a mistake to call Reg that, but apparently I was wrong. Guess that explains why I inherited everything after Mother died." He sighed.
"You okay?"
"Yeah, we hadn't spoken for a year before I left," he admitted. "We'd been close once, but Mother's politics and my general disregard for the family put an end to that. Really, I'm just sorry I wasn't there to help him. He made the right choice in the end, but he was alone. That Sirius I left behind was useless. My fault, really. I didn't want to give that much of me up for someone who was just going to die anyway. Maybe if I'd been willing to sacrifice more of myself, Regulus would be alive still."
Harry put his arm around the boy's shoulder, offering the quiet comfort he needed as they walked along the empty corridor.
"Admittedly, if I'd given up more of me, then that Sirius would have been clever enough not to be tricked by Wormtail and not to die. And wouldn't that just be awkward, getting the shovel talk from yourself?" he commented, earning him a knobby elbow in the ribs.
"Git," Harry laughed.
"And you love it."
"I really do."
"So give us a kiss," Sirius demanded.
Harry obliged, pulling him closer and pressing their lips together. It was brief and chaste, just enough to whet his appetite for more and have him groaning his need. He would have pursued that teasing mouth, but a voice echoing down the corridor drew their attention away. A girl calling out a name they both knew well. "Graaanngggeeer."
The boy beside him cursed and broke from him, running down the hallway in the direction the voice had come. Sirius followed, uncertain why Harry seemed so panicked and angry but determined to do right by the boy in this new life.
The voice grew louder as he ran, loud enough to hear the mocking lilt.
"I saw you making eyes at that sad old werewolf. Are you really that desperate? I mean, I know your blood is filthy as the mud on my shoes, but even you must have standards," the girl laughed, and Sirius put on a burst of speed, rushing past Harry to reach the scene first. He might be new to this decade, but he could tell a snake when he saw one, knew precisely what to do when confronted with a bully such as this one.
"Hermione!" he shouted, hurling himself at her and pulling her into a hug so tight he had to be threatening the integrity of her rib cage. "Merlin, I missed you!"
The pug-faced girl at his back was lost for how to react, as was the girl in his arms.
"Sirius?" she squeaked.
"The one and only."
"But how?"
"Do you even need to ask?" he smirked down at her wide, disbelieving eyes.
"You're fucking brilliant," she offered.
He hugged her tighter. "You remember!"
That taunting voice came again, shrill and demanding from behind him, "Who the bloody hell are you?"
"Sirius Granger," he said without even turning to look at the girl. "So, Hermione, you look bloody awful."
Hermione offered a wet laugh. "That's what Harry said."
"And he is absolutely right. Moony not treating you right?"
"He's not treating me at all," she admitted, her already red eyes brimming with fresh tears. "I tried talking to him, but he just won't listen to me."
"That's because you aren't me," Sirius said, manoeuvring the girl toward the Great Hall. "I have a particular knack for dealing with reluctant lovers."
"Is that what you told Peter about Tori? I heard how well that turned out."
"Oi! Shut it. I'm brilliant."
"And anyway, it's no use."
"Just you wait," he said with an assured smile. He strode into the hall, with Hermione still clinging to his side and Harry, presumably, trailing after them. Wherever the snarling girl went, he couldn't be bothered to care so long as she got the news of his arrival spreading.
If the world operated according to the rules of cinema, all the chatter of students taking their lunches would have died as he made his entrance, so shocking was the coming of such a new and handsome lad. Instead, the students kept talking and dining, their cutlery clattering against the plates and laughter ringing out. One person did stop dead with his appearance, a particularly dishevelled man sitting beside Dumbledore at the high table.
"Moony," Sirius muttered and bore into the man with every ounce of disapproval he had to spare.
The man dropped his fork and stood, his chair all but falling backwards in his haste.
"No."
The quiet declaration found its way through the room to Sirius's ear. His response was a single nod and an assured smirk.
The man scrambled down from the dais, running the length of the main aisle until they stood inches from each other. He looked different. Older, certainly, but it was clear that the man before him had been kicked around by more than just time. Life had not been kind to Remus Lupin, but, considering that he thought he'd be dead by now, this slightly scruffier adult version had to be the more favourable alternative.
"Moony," Sirius greeted his old friend.
"Sirius? But how?"
"He's fucking brilliant," Hermione offered from his side.
"That he was, but even he couldn't have managed this," Remus said, hand reaching out to touch his shoulder. "You're real. How is this possible?"
Sirius offered a deep sigh. "Well, Moony, I loved Harry so much I was willing to perform dangerous and deadly magics on myself to make sure we stayed together. As I recall, you insisted you loved Hermione..."
His hand flew away as if Sirius had bit him. "That's different."
"Don't see how. I love Harry. I want to be with Harry. I made it happen. You love Hermione. You wanted to be with her, and – what? – you gave up? The Moony I know wouldn't have let go so easily."
"You think it's easy?" Lupin spat. "I loved her for years. But I moved on."
Sirius paused, considering the man opposite, the defeated curve of his spine, the slump of his shoulders, the way he refused to allow his gaze to drift in Hermione's directions. "Have you now?"
"Yes, it's called growing up. Something you never bothered to attempt, by the way," the man replied.
"I get to try it now. My first act in this new life will be to prove how wrong you are," he declared, drawing his wand.
A murmur rippled through the Great Hall, and he glanced around at all the curious faces pointed their way. Remus's mad dash between the tables had done what his own arrival had not, and now their strange little show was the sole focus of every Hogwarts student.
"Uh, perhaps this is a discussion best held elsewhere," Harry suggested, wrapping his fingers around their arms. "Lily-flower."
Sirius felt Hermione's grip on him tighten as the hook caught behind his navel, ripping them both from the Great Hall and depositing all four of them in the echoey emptiness of the entrance hall. In the moment it took Remus to regain his balance, Sirius struck. It was a cheap trick, practically cheating really, but he knew Moony. As a teenager, he could beat any of the Marauders in a fair duel. If he gave this older version the chance, the man would be more than capable of blocking the spell.
He flicked his wand and sliced downward, focusing all his attention on the man before him.
Moony's scream reverberated against the walls and in his bones and made Sirius feel more than a little guilty that he hadn't given the man at least some small warning that the pain was coming. But, he reasoned, he was used to bone-crunching transformations; this was likely no worse than the average full moon. He hoped.
"Stop it!" Hermione cried, tugging at his arm.
"Nearly done," Sirius assured her. "Trust me, it'd be worse for him if I stopped now."
"What the hell are you doing?" demanded the boy beside him.
"You'll see."
And they did. Slowly, a figure began to pull its way from Remus's chest – head, arms, torso and legs – until standing beside the tattered old man was a considerably younger, considerably more naked Remus Lupin.
"Fucking hell, Padfoot, that hurt!" the young Remus shouted and moved to punch him but staggered to a stop, his clear, blue eyes locked onto the girl beside him. "Hermione."
She breathed his name in reply.
"Merlin, I missed you." He ran the short distance, wrapping her in his arms and taking her mouth with his own.
"What the hell was that?" the hard voice of Lupin demanded.
"My fantastic way of showing what a big, fat liar you are, Moony," Sirius replied and pointed to the naked Remus. "That tells me you still love Hermione. So what's the problem? Why say you don't?"
Lupin growled and pulled a hand through his hair, so much greyer than it had been before Sirius cast his spell. "Yes, I love her. Is that what you want to hear? You want to hear how long I waited, hoping she'd change her mind and find her way back; waiting for the letter inviting me to teach here just so I could see her again; praying that she would fall in love with me the moment she saw me that year? I waited and hoped and prayed for so long."
"So why give up?"
"Because I finally saw her, perfect and full of potential. And I saw what I had become. I refuse to weigh her down with the stigma of a werewolf."
"That's bolloc—"
"You know what people are like," Lupin insisted. "Not everyone is as accepting as you lot were. I've spent twenty years struggling to eat. Why would I subject her to that?"
Sirius scowled. He hadn't quite taken societal ills into consideration, but when it came to love he was a fierce proponent of following one's heart and offering a hearty 'fuck you' to anyone who disapproved. "Did you even bother asking Hermione about all this? She's a smart girl."
"Yes, she's smart, but she's also young," Lupin admitted, glancing at the girl still tangling with his Split-Apart. "But she couldn't fight what her heart is telling her, not even in the face of a well-reasoned argument. Would she really walk away from me if I showed her my empty wallet, the fifty rejection letters I've gotten in reply to job inquiries, the one room flat I let with an empty refrigerator because I can't afford the electricity to run it? I don't think she would, and it would kill me to see her suffer through life like that. Sirius, please, just believe me when I say she can do better than this."
He considered the man and how old he had become in the last few minutes. Everything about him seemed more worn out for the loss of the part of him that loved Hermione. It wasn't just Harry who fell to pieces when he lost his other half. Without that youthful love, Moony would crumble into nothing. He understood why Remus had lived so much longer than he had planned, so much longer than any other werewolf on record.
"I'm sure she could do better than you, and better than that single-minded git over there," he agreed. "But if we put you back together, I think you'll do the job just fine."
He raised his wand, tearing the Split-Apart from Hermione.
"No! Sirius, you fucking twat, don't you dare!" the young Remus shouted, clawing at everything in his reach to keep himself separate. His curses made no difference. The spell was cast, forcing him back where he belonged, merging his body and soul into place inside Moony. He vanished into the fresh red scar on Lupin's chest.
"What the bloody hell was that?" Lupin demanded, sounding far more youthful than he had moments ago.
"My infallible lie detector," Sirius smiled proudly. "I carved out the part of you that still loves Hermione, and, in case you were too busy to notice, it was a rather large bit."
The man sighed, hand sliding through his hair once again, and Sirius saw how much of it was back to that tawny colour somewhere between brown and blond. "Okay, fine. Yes, I love her, but I'm still too old and poor for her."
"Horseshit."
They blinked down at the girl who had spoken.
"What was that?"
"You heard me," Hermione said, stomping over to him and stabbing a finger into his chest. "That is the laziest excuse I have ever heard. You love me."
"But I'm—"
"And I love you," she barrelled over his protest. "I knew what I would be coming back to. I knew about your being a werewolf, about prejudice against your kind. I knew you had trouble finding work and making rent. I knew how old you would be. I knew it all, but I fell for you anyway because I knew how wonderful a man you became. Apparently, you're a bit of a coward, which is disappointing, but I want all of you. I have wanted all of you for some time now."
Lupin swallowed thickly as red crept up his chest and neck. "But, Hermione, I'm so poor..."
"Ah, well, you see, I happen to be the cleverest witch of my age," she reminded him. "Now, if you were as clever a witch as me living some twenty years in the past with a knowledge of the Muggle world and a pocketful of gold, what would you have done?" She smiled and pulled an envelope from her bag.
"What is this?"
"Are your eyes too old to function now?" she mocked, tearing the letter open and reading it aloud for him.
'Hardwick & Ashton Solicitors
42 Broad Street
London
'Dear Ms Granger,
'In regards to the account opened in your name on 4 January 1977, we are pleased to inform you that at the time this letter was written your estate holdings have grown to £1,343,709.46, including, per your instructions, the house at number 19 Egerton Crescent, Chelsae and shares in the following corporations—'
"What?" Lupin snatched the letter from her hands and read through it. "You've a million pound? How did you get a million pounds?"
"And a house in Chelsea," she pointed out.
"How did you get a million pounds," he said again, mouth agape.
"I tutored some students and was paid for my services," she smiled. "I had Tildy convert it to Muggle money, and the rest was done through letters. I happen to know of a few businesses worth investing in and certain trends to be avoided, so I was able to give strict instructions on when and where to invest. I left Tildy with directions to keep an eye on it all until we returned. When I graduate, I should be able to set us up quite comfortably. So... do you still care how poor you are?"
In the face of such unparalleled genius, any man would crumble. Remus Lupin as no exception. "Fuck it."
He threw the letter aside and wrapped the girl in his arms, taking her mouth with as much enthusiasm as his Split-Apart had.
"So happy endings all around?" Sirius smiled. "I think I earned myself a kiss with that one, don't you?"
"You certainly kept me from having to break his legs. I didn't fancy having to spend the rest of my time here in detention. Bad enough I still have to scrub algae for what I did to Alfie."
"Worth it," Sirius declared. "Now where's my kiss?"
"HARRY!"
Sirius turned and glared at the boy running down the corridor toward them. It was the freckled Seamus holding a steaming red envelope in front of him as he ran. "Harry, open it quick!"
Faster than he imagined possible, the boy grabbed the letter and tore into it.
He'd gotten plenty of Howlers from his mother, knew the kind of things that generally came shrieking from those horrifying envelopes. He covered his ears in anticipation of the vile shouts, but the voice that filled the entrance hall was not the hissing, venom-spitting sort he had come to expect. It was a bouncy, exuberant chirp. It was Tildy.
"Harry! I thought a Howler would get your attention. Was I right? I was right! So I've been a super good girl keeping quiet, but I know you're back and demand you come see me. Remus knows the address. Come see me! Like now! Or maybe on Christmas holiday, but now would be so much better. Tell Hermione 'Hullo' for me!"
With that final cheerful demand, the envelope tore itself to shreds leaving the five of them blinking as the silence rang in their ears.
"Well, that was certainly different," Seamus observed. "Harry, you got a secret girlfriend?"
"Like he'd need one," Sirius scoffed.
"Tell me nothing else of your bedroom exploits," the boy insisted.
"Well, how about I tell you about my plan to turn every Slytherin's hair acid green instead."
The boy eyed him as a smile broke out across his face. "Keep that up and I might start fancying you myself."