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Trouble


James Potter, Lily Evans, Sirius Black, and Remus Lupin sat side-by-side-by-side-by-side across the desk from Gideon Prewett in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Remus had his fingers tangled about Sirius’s at their hips. James stared straight down at his trainers, and Lily stared, pale and nervous, at Gideon.

The door to Gideon’s office opened, burst, really, and there was Mrs. Potter, breathless and frazzled, her eyes red from crying. Remus felt Sirius’s fingers tighten ‘round his at the sight of her, and James sank in his chair… low… low… low… and Lily glanced over at him as he slid down until his chin touched his chest and he sort of resembled a turtle peeking out of his shell.

Dora’s eyes were piercing. “Yes, that’s right, James Charlus Fleamont Potter, you best be looking quite ashamed of yourself!”

She’d four-named him. James turned red. He was in so bloody much trouble. Dora never four-named him. Even when she was just regular angry, he was still only James Charlus. Never, ever did she tack on the Fleamont bit.

This is what it’s like to face certain death, James thought.

“You disappeared from the hospital, didn’t tell your father where you were going, didn’t bother to tell me you were leaving him - all alone, he was! What if something happened?! - and you go off without a trace! Not at the house - Kingsley sent a patronus to check! Nothing! Then I get an emergency owl from the Ministry! An emergency owl from the Ministry for Magic, James Charlus!” Dora’s hands shook, “Do you have any idea, the things I thought! And I find out it’s because you were flying a motorcar! OVER LONDON!”

James kept his eyes down.

“Honestly. A flying motorcar!”

Sirius shifted his weight then, accidentally calling attention to himself.

Dora turned, wagging a finger at him. “AND YOU!” she said, “You! Sirius Orion!”

As upset as he was that she’d turned on him (Sirius’s eyes had gone wide when she did), Sirius still couldn’t help but thrill at the fact that while Dora Potter had used his middle name to yell at him, she had not used his last name. As though she understood what a horrible insult his last name seemed to him. As though she - could it really be? - thought of him as hers, as a Potter more than a Black.

“Sirius Orion! Flying a MOTORBIKE! Those things are dangerous enough on the ground, not to mention you add flying to the mix!”

Sirius flushed, “Well… at least I wore a helmet this time.”

“Yes a helmet will do such a lot of good when you get sucked into an aeroplane’s propellers!” Dora said.

“There weren’t any --” Sirius started to say, but Dora’s expression made him stop.

“Your father is worried sick about both of you!” she said, angry. “As if he -- or I, for that matter! -- needed anything more to worry about - with everything that’s going on! As if we didn’t already have plenty on our minds!!!”

Sirius’s cheeks were quite red.

Lily looked up in concern. There was something horribly sad about the tone of Mrs. Potter’s voice and Lily glanced at James, remembering the owl that had come that day when they were at the sea… ”It’s my dad,” he’d said. The memory made her stomach knot up. She felt guilty for not being there properly for him.

“Could’ve been killed - could’ve crashed! Broken the statute of secrecy! You’re just bleedin’ lucky you’re underage or they’d be sending you to prison, more than like!” Dora yelled. “You can’t do these things anymore James, you turn seventeen this year! Do you think -- I want - for even a second -- to imagine my sons in Azkaban?”

James shook his head timidly.

So did Sirius.

Gideon Prewett cleared his throat, “Mrs. Potter, it’s only a warning this time…”

She didn’t look anymore appeased than she had moments before.

James knew he’d be hearing about it for sometime. She had four-named him after all.

The door opened again and a guard wizard with a Ministry uniform nudged the door opened, “Mr. Prewett? I have a Jolene Evans here for you.”

Lily’s eyes went wide as her mum stepped through the door, wide eyed and looking about in awe and confusion and her heart sank right to her very toes. She’d never expected Gideon Prewett to have gone and contacted her mum. A muggle in the Ministry? Lily covered her face.

Mrs. Evans was running her fingers over her neck nervously as she looked about, the guard wizard letting her in the office before ducking back out himself.

“Mrs. Evans, hullo,” Gideon said, “Thank you for coming to collect your daughter.”

Mrs. Evans looked at the collection of kids sitting across from the desk and she seemed surprised - she knew these kids, all but the tall scarred one, and she found it surprising that any of them were in trouble (she still thought Sirius and James were just very charming young gentlemen as her experiences had taught her of them). “What happened?” she asked. She’d clearly been given a briefer explanation than Mrs. Potter.

“They’ve been flying cars!” Dora said, mouth a straight line. “OVER LONDON!”

“The Morris Mini was safely returned to the ground, Mrs. Evans,” Gideon assured her.

“The - my car?” Mrs. Evans looked confused.

“It seems,” Gideon said, “That one of the four of them magically modified the vehicle…”

“Lily Jane Evans!” Mrs. Evans cried.

“It was me,” James said quickly, not wanting Lily to get in trouble.

Dora’s face grew stonier while Mrs. Evans looked surprised and Lily stared at her lap.

Then the door opened yet again and this time it was Dorcas Meadowes - her long, long black hair in a messy braid and wearing slacks with a pyjama top half tucked into them, a long trench coat open ‘round her shoulders and a pair of thick purple glasses resting on her nose, “I came as quickly as I could,” she announced.

Sirius looked shocked, “Dorcas!”

Remus looked over, “That’s not a very nice thing to call someone just because they have glasses, Padfoot,” he whispered.

“No, that’s her name! She’s my mediwitch!” Siris explained.

Gideon looked just as shocked to see Dorcas Meadowes as Sirius had. Maybe even more. “Dr. Meadowes… what’re you --?”

“I’m working with Sirius,” she explained.

Gideon stared at her.

“Sirius,” Dorcas said, turning to him, “Are you okay?”

“Yes, darling Dorcas,” Sirius said, “I’m more than okay.” He held up his hand, the one entwined with Remus’s and he said, “This is Remus Lupin.”

Dorcas looked at Remus with surprise, then to Sirius, “I thought he was in Iceland?”

Mrs. Evans stared at their clasped hands.

“Yeah, he was,” Sirius said, “That’s what we’re all in trouble for, isn't it? Flying to Iceland.”

“YOU WERE FLYING TO ICELAND?!” Mrs. Potter, Mrs. Evans, Dorcas, and Gideon all said it at once.

“Are we starting a band?” Sirius asked, grinning. “All together now!” and he waved one of his fingers on his free hand as though he were conducting.

“In - in some of our defense,” James spoke up quietly, “Me, Remus and Lily weren’t flying to Iceland. We were flying to catch up to Sirius to stop him flying to Iceland because Rey had come here and Sirius was going to see Rey and they - they needed to talk.”

“Yes,” Remus said, “It was very important that we spoke so Sirius knew I wasn’t angry with him.”

“I was just trying to say sorry to Remus for… everything,” Sirius said.

Dorcas slapped her forehead, “When I said to apologize for things you’d done wrong, I didn’t mean to go to Iceland on a flying motorbike!” she said, exasperated.

“You’ll learn eventually that it’s the same thing when you’re talking to Sirius, ma’m,” James said.

“Honestly, arent we all overlooking the real problem, too?” Lily demanded, looking about. “I’m sorry, Sirius, you can hate me if you like, but this isn’t a joking matter.” She cleared her throat, “What we did was wrong. Yes. I’m sorry. Please, punish us as you need to, Professor. Mum, I’m sorry that I took the car, but it was an emergency. Remus needed to speak to Sirius because a man took advantage of Sirius, stole his money, and --” she paused. “And some other stuff… after drugging Sirius! And he’s a bad man.”

Sirius sat very still, his eyes quite wide, staring at the desk top, looking a bit gutted. Remus immediately put his arms around Sirius’s shoulder and James whispered, “Evans,” in a low, almost disappointed tone.

She turned to James. “I’m sorry! But it’s very serious what’s happened and this Ace Dante bloke doesn’t deserve to get off for it! He’s bleeding lucky I didn’t march over there and hex him myself!”

James thought of how he’d wanted to do the same thing.

They could’ve gone together to hex Ace Dante.

Romantic first date, he thought.

None of the adults seemed sure how to react to this news. Dorcas was the first. She rushed to Sirius and knelt before him, staring up into his eyes. “Is that true?”

A lump had risen up in Sirius’s throat.

Remus pressed his forehead to Sirius’s shoulder. “It’s okay, Padfoot,” he whispered.

Sirius nodded.

Dorcas looked at Gideon Prewett.

Gideon stood up. “Mr. Lupin, I’ll need you to go with Mrs. Potter until your current guardian -- Mr. Veigler -- can be contacted to come and pick you up. Mrs. Potter, Mrs. Evans, thank you for coming. I’ll be issuing the formal warnings by owl once I’ve completed this paperwork. Dr. Meadowes, thank you for coming as well…”

“We’ll talk more about this in a session tomorrow, Sirius,” Dorcas said, “Alright?”

Sirius nodded.

Gideon continued, “If you’ll all excuse me, please... I have some business to attend to.”




Back at the Potter house, after Mrs. Potter had scolded them just a bit more for magically modifying the vehicles and getting in trouble with the Ministry as they’d done, she sent James, Sirius, and Remus to bed.

Before he could go upstairs, though, Dora caught James’s elbow and stopped him on the steps. She informed James that she would be leaving to go to St. Mungo’s to see Charlus and let him know what was the matter. “Please,” she said, “No more getting in trouble. Your father will want to speak to you tomorrow, I am sure. And remember that Kingsley Shacklebolt will be arriving in the morning with Ned Veigler, as Gideon told us.”

“Yes mum,” James nodded.

Dora took his chin in her hand and stared into his eyes. “I’m sorry I shouted, James,” she said lowly, “But I was worried. I could’ve lost you. I never want to lose you. I love you far too much. Do you understand?”

“Yes mum. And I’m sorry.”

She kissed his forehead. “Now off to bed, love.”




Upstairs, Remus snuck into Sirius’s room instead of the spare bedroom that Mrs. Potter had told him to go to, and they lay on the bed, on their sides facing one another. Sirius stared into Remus’s chocolate-brown eyes and Remus stared back into Sirius’s steel eyes. Sirius whispered, “I really am sorry. For everything.”

“I really do forgive you for everything,” whispered Remus.

Sirius asked, “In the sky… way up there… you… you called me your boyfriend.”

Remus nodded, “I did. I meant it, too.”

They lay there for a moment, just staring at one another.

Sirius whispered, “You always amaze me… How you can look at someone like me the way you are right now. I feel so… awful.”

“You’re not awful.”

Sirius’s hand slid over the mattress and he pressed his palm over Remus’s heart.

Remus did the same thing. Sirius flinched just a little at the touch… he could still feel Ace Dante’s fingers sliding over his skin in his mind… and it made him feel dirty all over again. Even if it was Remus that’d done it. He closed his eyes, and brought his hand up to slide it over Remus’s hand on his chest.

Remus shuffled a little closer. “Did Ace touch you there?”

Sirius nodded.

Remus whispered, “Sirius. Look at me.”

Sirius’s eyes opened and met Remus’s again.

“I love you.”

Sirius’s lip trembled.

“I don’t care where he touched you… this body is just a shell. I mean, it’s a really good looking shell, you’re lucky to have such a good one, but Sirius that’s all it is. It’s a case. And inside you - your soul, your fire, your you-essence… That’s what I love, alright?”

Sirius nodded.

“Now… I am a wolf, deep down, and I’m feeling a bit territorial at the moment,” Remus leaned over Sirius, who rolled to lay on his back as Remus leaned… “I’d like to reclaim what’s mine.”

Sirius nodded and closed his eyes as Remus kissed his chest, where Ace had touched him to push him down on the couch and Remus’s hands slid over Sirius’s shoulders… up his arms… bringing their hands together above Sirius’s head and he kissed over Sirius’s collarbone… to his neck… along his jaw… back to his mouth and he whispered, “You’re my star, Sirius.”

“You’re my wolf, Remus,” he answered.

And Remus set to taking Sirius back one kiss at a time.