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Shackles


When Elphinstone Urquart returned to Minerva McGonagall’s office, it was to find the headmistress alone. She was sitting in the chair that Charlus Potter had occupied when Elphinstone arrived, leaning forward, her face buried in her arms upon the desk. The lighting was low, but even in the dim glow of the kerosene lamp and the sunrise coming through the window, he could see her shoulders shaking as she cried.

He went to her, waving his wand to extend the width of the chair, and sat beside her, leaning over her, his arms wrapping about her as he gently guided her crying face from the desk to be buried in his chest. Instead. “Oh Minnie,” he whispered, and he gently stroked her hair - which was in a long braid that hung down her back, not yet knotted up into the usual style she wore during the day. “Minnie, Minnie,” he said consolingly.

She let him hug her, but she didn’t know what to do with her own arms, so she awkwardly left them sitting in her lap as she leaned against him. He smelled like bay rum and spearmint and she remembered the potions class in 1953 when she had learned of Amortentia and she shivered and closed her eyes tightly shut. “The poor boy… the poor boy. It isna fair,” she breathed.

“Precious few things are,” Elphinstone said, shaking his head. “You know this better than any, Min.”

Gingerly, she brought her palm up to lay it against his chest… and slowly, her fingers wrapped around a bit of the fabric of his robes, holding onto him.

It had been decades since Minerva had allowed herself to let down her guarding wall.

Elphinstone looked down and softly kissed her forehead.

Minnie closed her eyes as she felt the touch of his lips on her skin, right at the hairline on her face, and she tightened her fingers as her heart rate quickened. Kisses were something that Minerva McGonagall had not allowed herself in decades either.

The last man that had kissed her had been Dougal McGregor and if she concentrated very hard she could still taste the Drambuie that had soaked his breath that day.

Elphinstone’s fingers brushed her cheek, wiping away tears as he held his lips against her forehead still, his nose breathing in her scent. “I’ve missed you, Minerva,” he whispered.

She opened her eyes.

Minerva McGonagall was about to push away when the door banged open.

“MINNIE… I’ve decided to stage a lie-in -- like John Lennon and Yoko Ono -- only it’ll be me with my Moony -- to protest the sentence against Jasper Odair! I’m letting you know so that you’re prepared when the media comes and they want to interview us so you can show them up to Gryffindor Tower and also do we have any spare shackles laying about? I need some because, well, I haven’t told Rey about this yet, but you know Remus, he’s a goody-two-shoes so I’m not sure how he’ll take the idea of skivving off classes, even in the name of justice and --- ” Sirius Black’s loud voice proceeded him into the room - but he was still moving too fast to allow there to be time for the two adults to pull apart. He came to a full stop before them. Minnie stood up and straightened her robes, turning quickly and wiping her eyes with her sleeves and Professor Urquart looked quite alarmed - his hair appearing messier than usual and he stared at Sirius Black with wide eyes and a trembling lower jaw.

Sirius stared in disbelief.

“Mr. Black,” McGonagall tried to keep her voice steady, but there was nothing doing, she cleared her throat and walked swiftly behind her desk, knocking her teacup over on the papers on her desk as she did and she scrambled to get her wand and siphon it up. “You - you canna be running into people’s offices withou’ a knocker on the door at least!” she scolded, her accent still thick as could be.

Sirius couldn’t get his eyes off Elphinstone Urquart, a strangely protective feeling rising up in his chest. “I’m sorry Minnie,” Sirius said, “It’s just… I didn’t expect there to be any snogging going on in here is all.”

McGonagall flushed, “Sirius Black! There was no snogging going on in here.”

“Right.” Sirius smiled slyly. Then winked at Professor Urquart.

“MR. BLACK!” McGonagall snapped. “Go to your dormitory, please.” She just wanted him out of the room. She could feel her face burning hot.

Sirius said, “Well wait, where’d we land on those spare shackles?”

“Try the dungeons,” she said without thinking about it and she went over and forcibly pushed Sirius from the room. “Or you’re a wizard, are yeh not? Try the spell for it! I know yeh ought to have learnt it by now!! Sixth year and yeh think yeh still need to find a bleedin’ shackle about the castle to incarcerate somebody! The spell is incarcerem.” She slammed the door shut, leaning against it, her cheeks flush and heart racing wildly in her chest.

Elphinstone raised an eyebrow, amused. “You do know what you’ve just done, don’t you Minerva?”

“Bleeding teacups,” she murmured and she turned around, wrenching the door opened again. Sirius was still standing in the hallway, stunned, staring at the door in shock. “MR. BLACK, YOU BEST NOT BE SKIVVING OFF CLASSES! I DON’T CARE WHAT THE CAUSE IS, YOU DO NOT GO SHACKLING ANYONE TO ANYTHING -- ESPECIALLY NOT REMUS LUPIN TO A BED! THAT IS SIMPLY UNACCEPTABLE BEHAVIOR!”

“Shackles speak louder than words, Minnie darling,” said Sirius and he stared at her for several long beats and replied, “Don’t worry, I won’t tell the whole school about you and Professor Urquart snogging in the dark.” And he turned and ran off.

Minerva drew herself back into the office, closed the door, and leaned her head against the frame of it. “Why is it I just know I’ll be missing two boys from my class Monday morning???” she murmured, gently knocking her forehead against the wall.




Remus woke up late in the afternoon, his body stiff and muscles sore and he groaned and went to roll over onto his stomach but found he couldn’t and looked up to discover his wrist was in a shackle with a short chain that wrapped about the carving in the headboard and back ‘round to a second shackle that was cuffed about the tattooed wrist of Sirius Black. Remus stared at the iron cuffs. “What the bloody hell is this?”

“Good morning Moonshine-my-love.”

“Sirius. Are you mad?” Remus stammered, “I am in absolutely no shape for this… and besides,” he pointed at the list of rules on the back of the door. “This is directly in violation of Rules Number One.”

Sirius grinned broadly. “While I love your enthusiasm and quick acceptance to my kinky nature, this is not about the having of the sex, Mr. Lupin, this is a strictly political statement. Although we may get bored all shackled up here like this, and rules are made for breaking…”

Remus stared up at him, “What political statement?” he demanded even as Sirius snuggled up next to him.

“Jasper Odair’s been sent to Azkaban,” Sirius said darkly. “We’re staging a lie-in, like John Lennon and Yoko Ono… ...drove from Paris to the Amsterdam Hilton… talking in our beds for a week… the newspapers said… hey what’re you doin’ in bed… I said we’re only trying to get us some peaaaace…

“What?!” Remus reacted as Sirius sang, “They sent him to Azkaban? What?”

But Sirius was on a roll. “Christ you know it ain’t easy… you know how hard it can beeee… the way things are goiiiing… they’re going to crucify meeee!”

“Wait… wait, stop singing. Sirius. They sent Odair to Azkaban?”

Sirius stopped, “Yes.”

Remus rolled, trying to get up, his wrist clanking the chain against the bed and tugging Sirius’s closer to the headboard as he struggled with it, “I gotta go talk to Lily, she must be a wreck she’s --”

“She won’t come out of her room anyway, she’s staging the same lie-in we are, I reckon,” Sirius said, and he tugged his wrist, forcing Remus back toward him. “It’s a school wide thing, mate, we’re not the only ones doing it.”

“Sirius, I’m not - doing - this,” Remus said, and he tried to slide his wrist out of the shackle, but since it was a magical one it was tight enough he couldn’t slip out. “Bloody hell.” He looked at his wand on the nightstand and reached for it.

“Moony, I’m offended at you trying to escape our lie-in for peace and justice! This is a very important political statement we’re making and you’re just trying to escape! It’s not as powerful if I just lie about on the bed all day. Nobody will notice that.”

“Yes you’re notoriously lazy, you’re right,” Remus said as he continued stretching for his wand.

“I prefer to think of it as motivationally declined,” Sirius murmured. “Selective participation, if you will.”

Remus grunted as he realized he’d stretched as far as he could. Then a stroke of genius. He wriggled, trying to get his legs up there to catch up the wand with his toes, but he was still sore enough that it took him too long and Sirius waved his own wand, “Accio wand!” and Remus’s wand flew past him - barely slipping through his fingertips as he grappled for it - and Sirius took it and shoved it into his pants. “Go ahead and get it, Moonpie,” he said with a smirk. “I fucking dare you.”

Remus stared at him.

Sirius grinned.

“Is this how the cockus deletus will end up being invented then?” Remus murmured. “An accidental blast to the crotch?”

Sirius quickly removed the wand from his pants and chucked it to the floor behind him.

Remus sighed. “Sirius.”

“We’re helping. Shh.”

“This isn’t helping anything.”

“The press will be here soon Moony, and when they are I would appreciate enthusiastic participation,” Sirius said.

“What - what press do you think is going to give a damn if two gay teenage boys are chained to a bed in a Hogwarts dormitory? I should think the only person that would care is McGonagall and she’d be more interested in giving us a detention than anything else.”

“McGonagall was onboard, rather,” Sirius said, “She told me the charm for these.” He rattled the shackles.

“She didn’t,” Remus argued.

“SHE DID!” Sirius said. “Right after I caught her canoodling about with Professor Urquart!”

Remus stared at Sirius.

“Snogging like nifflers with gold teeth, they were.”

Remus blinked. “Snogging like nifflers with gold teeth,” he repeated. “WHERE DO YOU COME UP WITH THIS STUFF?! DO YOU JUST LAY ABOUT THINKING OF WEIRD THINGS TO SAY?!”

Sirius grinned, “I just open my mouth and it comes out. I dunno where it comes from. Probably somewhere in my broad intellectual genius.”

Remus sighed.

Sirius grinned at him.

Remus asked, “You better have chocolate within arm’s reach if I’m gonna be chained to you for the next however long you decide to imprison me for.”

Sirius reached under the pillow and produced a bar of honeydukes.

Remus snatched it from his hand and unwrapped the bar hurriedly. He definitely needed to feel better about this.

There were several long minutes while Remus ate the chocolate bar and Sirius lay there humming and murmuring lyrics under his breath - “Made a lightning trip to Vienna, eating chocolate cake in a bag… the newspapers said… she’s gone to his head… they look just like two gurus in drag… Christ you know it ain’t easy… you know how hard it can be… the way things are going… they’re going to crucify me…

When the chocolate was gone, Sirius turned to look at Remus.

“What?” Remus asked, wiping the remains of the candy from his lips.

“I’m bored,” Sirius replied and he rolled over, pressing his mouth to Remus’s face and Remus sighed.

“You lasted all of - what, ten minutes?”

“Shhh,” Sirius murmured.