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I
Remus Lupin was knackered. He rubbed his hand over his neck tiredly, rolling his head from side to side. Full moon had only been two nights ago, but he was awfully behind on his work classifying some Uralic masks that had shown up in Africa, of all places. Also, one of his newer cuts was itching and he couldn’t reach to scratch it. He examined each mask carefully, wrote down the magical specifics and sorted them into three categories: 1) all right for Muggle eyes, 2) all right for Muggle eyes only if behind glass and with proper charms in place and 3) not fit for Muggle eyes, ever.
He’d been at the British Museum for ages, or so it seemed, and while he loved his job, he did not love it two nights after the full moon when his everything was achy and stiff and he’d rather be at home sleeping and eating and farting. Remus snorted at himself and levitated the next mask out of the box and scrutinized it. Category two, he wrote and then added, should probably be brandished with a counter-depression charm in addition to the protecting charms; a herd of Muggles hysterically crying in front of this thing would probably not be good for business. Remus sighed and crossed out the last line – it was perhaps a bit too snarky for his boss’ liking.
Thinking of the devil; his boss’ firm footsteps were approaching Remus’ office with terrifying haste and determination. Remus drew in a deep breath, unkinked his neck one more time and tried to look less tired than he really was when his boss stormed – nearly stormed, he was really above such things as storming – into his office.
“Ever been to Greenland, kid?” he thundered. Remus considered for a moment whether he should be surprised, but then decided no. The last time he was met with a similar question, Remus had found himself in Java shortly after. The time before that, Peru.
“Can’t say I have,” Remus replied.
“Today’s your lucky day. You’re getting on a plane in three hours. No time for packing.”
Remus groaned. Oxley gave him a sharp look.
“There is a plane waiting,” he continued, a noticeable edge to his voice, “that will take you to Copenhagen. From there there’s a direct flight to Nuuk, and from Nuuk you’ll go the rest of the way by helicopter. You should be at the destination shortly before midnight.”
“Why do I have to travel the Muggle way?” Remus complained. “Honestly. There’s got to be a portkey...”
“The closest you can get with a portkey is Reykjavík,” Oxley informed him. “Greenland’s about as magical as a brick.”
“Iceland, right? Isn’t that like, right next to Greenland? I can catch a plane from there.”
“It won’t change the fact that you won’t be at the destination until midnight,” Oxley said.
“It changes the fact that I won’t have to fly halfway across Europe in the wrong direction first.”
Oxley glared at him, but then his featured softened. “The helicopter you’re going with is a military supplies thing, that sort of anal shit. Only goes once a week. You miss it and you’re dead, Lupin.”
“All right all right.” Remus waved his hand resignedly. “So, if Greenland’s about as magical as a brick, why am I going there?”
“SSP reported a shipwreck off the north east coast. NSSA was in the neighbourhood and hauled it out of the water. They tipped us off, and off you go.”
“Eh, mind translating the acronyms?” Remus blinked. “And what’s with the shipwreck? That’s not usually our area.”
“Sirius Sledge Patrol. National Shipwreck Salvaging Agency. They say the shipwreck looks Roman, which is more than a little suspicious given the location of it, so you are going to have a look at it before we invite the Muggle archaeologists over for tea.”
“Oh. Okay.” Remus looked at his desk and his papers and the Uralic masks. “Do I still have to classify these when I get back?”
“I’ll put Rolfe on it.”
“Rolfe’s an idiot. Why can’t McFarland do it?”
“McFarland’s got his own project. If you’d rather –”
“Rolfe can do it just fine, I’m sure.”
“I’ll let the Portkey office know. Be there in two hours. Don’t get drunk in Iceland and don’t miss your plane or that goddamn helicopter, and for fuck’s sake, don’t get lost in Greenland.”
“When was the last time –”
Oxley gave him a sharp look and Remus shut up. Well there was the time he’d gotten famously lost somewhere in the bloody Amazon and thereafter almost hadn’t made it out of the Americas alive because bloody Poussin had shut him up in a bloody Mayan pyramid, and no, the Mayan civilization hadn’t been anywhere near the Amazon but that was hardly the point, now, was it, and the fact remained that he was the first to find bloody El Dorado and not bloody Poussin –
“I’m terribly sorry to disturb what I’m sure was a lovely flashback to your Mayan adventure, Lupin, but you’re not listening.”
“I’ll go and pack. Terribly cold up there, is it?”
As it turned out, for September Reykjavík was actually warmer than London, much to Remus’ surprise. Or rather, it wasn’t warmer per se, but the sun was shining brightly and it felt warmer than London usually did at this time of year with all the rain and fog and shit.
He had three hours in the city. After forty five minutes he’d seen all of it. He wielded his Muggle credit card in a few shops, getting anything else but alcohol – Remus was shocked at the price of alcohol in this country – and instead got some weird candy and souvenirs to bring his son. And a postcard; Teddy loved postcards.
In a store named 66°N he found himself astonished at the amount and variety of outdoor clothing. The girl behind the counter approached Remus after a while and said something to him in a weird language he didn’t understand a word of, though he did think one of the words sounded sort of like the English word ‘help’. Sort of.
“Erh, do you speak English?”
“Of course, sir. Can I help you?”
“Oh well...uhm...I’m sort of going to Greenland.”
“Sort of going to Greenland,” she replied amusedly. “Are you going or are you not going?”
“I’m going. Got a plane in a bit. Dunno how long I’m staying, and eh, I don’t know – this might be a bit cold?” he gestured at his trench coat.
“A bit, maybe. Greenland’s a bit colder than here.”
After having the girl show him a variety of coats, he chose a thick winter coat worthy of Arctic expeditions. At least it looked like the stuff the guys on the Discovery Channel wore when they were out somewhere cold. He doubted he’d ever need that coat again, unless he got sent back to Greenland, or to Canada or Alaska or Antarctica or god forbid, Siberia.
Though, knowing his boss and that anything was possible, he paid for the coat and left for the airport.
Greenland was cold. Greenland wasn’t green at all. There was no grass. Just rocks, gravel, sand and ice. And wind.
Remus put his new winter coat on and made his way to the helicopter.
It was a long helicopter flight to wherever the fuck that shipwreck was supposed to be. Remus looked at the paper Oxley had given him; a hastily scribbled note with a fifteen-syllable word with twenty-six consonants and about four vowels. With his eyes going crossed just looking at it, he didn’t want to imagine what would happen to his tongue if he tried to speak it, so he didn’t. Instead, he looked out of the window at the starry sky above him and the vast sheet of ice beneath him.
His limbs felt stiffer than ever when he could finally tumble out of the helicopter. His joints cracked and he had to spend a good few minutes unkinking both his neck and his legs. It was another good few minutes before he realised he saw no sea and therefore couldn’t be quite at journey’s end.
“Remus Lupin?”
“Yes?” Remus turned around to see a guy in full Arctic gear. And a sledge. And a pack of about dozen wolfish dogs with menacing markings on their faces. A stone fell low into his stomach.
“Come with me. I’ll be taking you to the site,” he said. He gestured at the sledge.
“Erh, Sirius Sledge Patrol?” Remus asked dumbly. The man grinned.
“Yes. Come on, I’ll show you how to sit in the sledge. Ever been in a sledge like this?”
“Can’t say I have...”
The man made sure Remus was comfortable in the sledge, covered by seal hides and other stuff Remus couldn’t identify but didn’t really dare ask about. The man talked about this and that and this while getting ready, and the only thing Remus grasped was that the man had a Scandinavian name. Probably Danish.
“We’re a special unit under the Danish army,” the man explained happily. “Best fucking job ever. If I were you I’d pull that hood over my head or I’d get really fucking cold.”
Remus complied and off they went. Twenty minutes later they reached the edge of the ice and the sledge could go no further – but that wasn’t really necessary as there was only a short stretch of rock to the sea, and right there, anchored by the rock, was a ship. It was close enough for a walkway to be fashioned across the gap and Remus shuddered at the thought of having to cross a gap he was sure was several metres deep and ended with very cold sea.
“There we are.”
If possible, Remus felt even stiffer after the sledge ride than the helicopter flight. He almost crawled out of the vehicle, grabbed his suitcase and duty-free bags, said goodbye and thanks for the ride to the enthusiastic sledge driver and went off towards the ship.
The lights were on, so obviously they couldn’t all be sleeping yet, and as Remus drew closer he saw there was indeed someone out on the deck.
“Oi!” Remus yelled when he reached the walkway. The man on the deck turned around and waved back.
“Come on up!”
“Do I dare to?” Remus yelled back and gestured at the walkway. It was made of metal and it did have a barrier to one side, but it was dark and the gap was pitch black and the sound of the sea was nauseating. Facing the walkway with the chilly wind at his back, Remus wished that he’d never gone to Greenland.
“It’s perfectly safe! Hang on, I’ll come down and give you a hand.” The guy wound his way down a steep stairs and crossed the deck. “You’re our man from British Museum, yeah?”
The guy had a very pronounced cockney accent that had Remus secretly sniggering. “Yeah. Remus Lupin,” he said.
“James Potter.” The guy grinned and crossed the walkway as if he’d done nothing else his whole life but cross walkways suspended over black gaps. He threw a cigarette into the black gap and shook hands with Remus.
Remus stared after the cigarette as it fell into the darkness.
“The walkway’s perfectly safe,” James said and grabbed Remus’ suitcase. “This way.” He crossed the walkway again. Remus drew in a deep breath, clutched his duty-free bags and followed him tentatively, one hand firmly clasping the barrier.
As he stepped off the walkway he stepped into a puddle on the deck. “Arse!” he muttered, feeling the cold water soak his toes. James shot a look back and grinned.
“You’re going to need better shoes than that. Brought a spare pair?” Remus shook his head. “Right. I’ve got a some. Shoe size?”
“Er, ten.”
“’Fraid mine are gonna be too big for you. You can have some of Sirius’, he won’t mind. Same size as you and all.”
“Oh. Thanks.” Remus briefly wondered whether this Sirius had anything to do with the Sirius Sledge Patrol and decided he’d ask later. “Oh, uhm I can help you with that –”
“No worries,” James said and hauled the suitcase up the stairs after him. Halfway up he flung it up the rest of the way. “Hope you haven’t got anything fragile in there.”
“Er, no I didn’t.” Remus followed him up and inside the ship. “So, what do you guys do? This isn’t a fishing ship, that much even I can see.”
“We salvage ship wrecks. And other things that get too fond of the bottom of the sea.” James shrugged. “It’s good fun most of the time.”
“Got lots of shipwrecks out here?” Remus asked. “My boss said you’d been in the neighbourhood.”
“Oh, we were. No, no shipwrecks. Oh we did find a trawler that sank during World War Two, but actually we were hired by the Danish government to look for Russian nukes.”
“Russian nukes.”
“Yeah.” James shrugged. “Didn’t find a single one.” He grinned and then leaned closer. “I think they’re a bit ga-ga,” he said in a conspiring tone and rolled his eyes. Remus chuckled.
They went down a flight of stairs and a long corridor, turned innumerable corners and soon Remus had lost any sense of direction he had potentially possessed.
“Here we go. This will be your room while you’re here. Don’t mind the stuff, the guy who usually lives there didn’t clear it out completely when he went home on leave.”
“Thanks.”
The room was small. There wasn’t anything in it but a small table and an even smaller chair, a mirror, a sink and a closet. And a narrow bed flanked by a board, the board there to prevent sleeping people from rolling out of bed in bad weather, Remus realised.
“The toilet and shower’s right across the hall.”
“Could I have one now?”
“Of course. Just don’t, uhm, spend an hour and a half in there or no one’s going to like you in the morning when the hot water’s all gone.”
“I won’t.”
Remus barely spent five minutes in the shower, but the hot water did his joints all sorts of good. He glanced at the moonwatch on his wrist once he’d crawled into bed, exhaustion settling into every fibre of his body. Eight to midnight. Some ten hours prior he’d still been looking at Uralic masks from Africa – though Remus reckoned that the masks had never been in Africa to begin with and that his boss was taking the mickey out of him – and had had no clue he’d be going to Greenland.
Well, now he was in Greenland and in the morning he was going to be looking at a Roman shipwreck. A Roman shipwreck in Greenland. Yeah, that’s about as plausible as Uralic masks in Africa.
*
Remus awoke to someone jumping on top of him and for a brief second he thought he was back at school and was late up for breakfast, or had a Teddy weekend and his son had decided it was time to get up – until reality sunk in and he remembered that he was in a bunk bed in a ship in Greenland and that he probably was late up for breakfast anyway.
“What...?” he blinked and frowned. Someone with a huge grin and a mess of black hair was leaning over him. He was freshly showered, Remus could see – and smell. “Dude, lay off the cologne a bit, you smell like a fucking harem,” Remus groaned. “What do you want? And why are you sitting on me?”
“I’m here to see whether it really was true that a gorgeous piece of man arse walked onto this ship last night,” the man grinned, his accent horribly annoyingly American. “Do you know I’ve been praying to the Greenland gods for three weeks to put me out of my misery and provide me with the man of my dreams? Looks like the gods answered my prayers. But then I was also very persistent. I did pray every day, and some days even twice.”
Remus stared at him. “You are fucking nuts.”
“Well, actually no. I’m sitting on you. And I prefer to fuck arse, by the way, fucking nuts gets a bit cumbersome.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“Yeah. James sent me to wake you up so you wouldn’t be late for breakfast,” the man said, crawling off Remus. “And to tell you that you are to borrow a pair of my boots.”
“Right.”
“I’m Sirius Black, by the way.” The man flashed him another grin. “And I have been praying for good arse for three weeks. Well, actually, I’ve been praying for cock more than arse, but you know. Can’t be picky.” He shrugged.
“I’m Remus Lupin,” Remus said, giving Sirius a scrutinizing look, as if to assert whether he really was a poof and not just toying with him. He decided Sirius was a poof. A good looking one, as a matter of fact, if slightly obnoxious. “Remind me to ask Potter to throw you overboard.”
“I will, but he won’t. He threatens to throw me overboard every day but he’s yet to do it.” Sirius grinned. “See you at breakfast.”
Sirius was gone as abruptly as he’d come and Remus blinked a few more times before he sat up. He shaved, brushed his teeth, checked that his cuts had healed completely and got dressed.
And then got hopelessly lost as he tried to find where breakfast could possibly be served.
The ship had looked big from the outside, but that was nothing compared to the inside. He walked past cabins, most of which seemed uninhabited, and doors marked with ship terms that Remus didn’t dare touch. He eventually decided to ascend a flight of stairs, hoping it was the same one he’d descended the night before.
He’d been wandering the corridors for something that felt like ages, or so his stomach seemed to think, when James rounded a corner.
“Lupin! Been looking for you. Got lost?”
“Could say so,” Remus said wryly. “It’d have been helpful to have some signs, you know.”
“Yeah, sorry ‘bout that. This way.” James gestured back where he came from. “How bothersome was Sirius when he woke you up?”
“Er.”
“That bad?”
“He sat on me and then claimed I was sent from heaven or something.” Remus shrugged. “Said he’d been praying for arse for three weeks.”
“Oh. Sorry ‘bout that.” James grinned as he slipped through an open door. The smell of eggs and coffee was almost overwhelming. “I might’ve let it slip to him that you were good looking.”
“Thanks, I guess.”
“He also might’ve let it slip to me that he thought you were maybe just a little bit gay,” Sirius shouted from across the room. “Admitted, I did press him a bit about that one.” He grinned mischievously. The other guys around the table all rolled their eyes at him.
“I am gay,” Remus replied and took a seat by the table. The majority of the guys whooped and to Remus’ immense satisfaction Sirius looked like he was choking on his coffee.
“Oh dear god,” James groaned. “He’s going to be insufferable now.”
“All the more reason for you to throw him over board,” Remus said. He poured himself coffee. Sirius was grinning, though he did look a lot more flustered than he’d done mere seconds earlier.
“I might just, this time,” James said, throwing Sirius a warning look. Sirius shrugged unconcernedly and grabbed a piece of toast.
“No you won’t. Lily would kill you if you did.” Sirius grinned. “Or at least deny you sex for a week.”
“What, for getting rid of you? She’s going to worship me.” James unconcernedly got himself coffee. “More than she already does, that is.”
Remus ate in silence, every once in a while sending slightly mocking looks in Sirius’ general direction and answering questions about his work. Yes, I’m an archaeologist, couple of years, yeah, no I’ve never been to Texas nor do I want to, no I’ve never dug up a dinosaur bone, that’s not my field of expertise, yeah I’ve been to Egypt, yeah it was great, too warm though, supervised an excavation of an ancient tomb, no, and that’s actually confidential, research still in progress, no, yes, oh, been dating and classifying Uralic masks for a month, yes, no, yes, they’re going to be on exhibition after Christmas...
Once Sirius had grabbed his spare pair of boots for Remus and he had crawled into his Arctic coat, he went out on deck after only two minutes of almost getting lost.
“So, where’s the wreck?” Remus asked, rubbing his palms together. It was cold enough for his breath to form a white fog in front of his face.
“Still in the water,” Sirius chirped.
“What? Why? My boss said you’d already hauled it up? How come it’s in the water?”
“We tried to haul it up but there was a slight, er, accident,” James said. “We were about to get it off the cliffs over there, see, there’s bits of wood clinging to them yet. The wreck came off the cliffs all right, but then our crane broke and the wreck went into the water.” He pointed at the crane. Remus could see nothing wrong with it, but he also didn’t know a thing about cranes.
“How long until that can get fixed?”
“Could be weeks.”
“Weeks!”
“The water’s shallow,” Sirius cut in. “See? You can see the wreck through the water. We can send a frogman down with a camera. That’s all we can do until we can haul it out.”
“And with a frogman, Sirius, you really mean hey I totally want to dress in a diver’s suit so Lupin can adore my arse, or what?” James said.
“Yes,” Sirius replied. “So, I’m going to get my diver’s suit.”
“Are you sure that’s even safe?” Remus asked, doubtful. “The water must be freezing.”
“Actually, the water can’t be freezing or it’d be solid ice.” Sirius grinned at him. “It’s somewhere between zero and two degrees this time of year.”
Remus rolled his eyes. “That’s still cold.”
“Aw, Lupin, are you afraid my balls are going to freeze off? Not going to happen.”
“Wait for it,” James muttered through his teeth.
“Thinking of you is sure going to keep me warm, isn’t it, Lupin?” Sirius added confidently. James groaned.
“Sirius, you need to work on your pick up lines.”
“My suit’s a thermal.” Sirius rolled his eyes. “Come on, isn’t a man allowed to have a bit of fun?”
“Bloody hell, Sirius, just get in that fucking suit and into the water before I throw you over board!” James whacked him over the head.
Sirius fled inside, grinning, James glaring after him.
“Who’s he trying to take the piss out of? You or me?” Remus asked.
“Me. You, he just wants to fuck.” James shrugged. “I’ve known him since we were eleven. He’s always been an intolerable git. Just ignore him.” Remus briefly wondered how they could’ve known each other since the age of eleven when James was clearly from London and Sirius from somewhere in America.
“He’s not going to rape me in my sleep, is he?” Remus asked sarcastically. “What with his arse being cock deprived or what?”
“Nah. Though he’s not going to stop trying to pick you up until you either fuck him or leave.”
“Hm.” Remus shrugged.
Sirius trotted back outside in a full diver’s suit. With James’ assistance they got him ready for the water, safety line attached to his waist and camera in his hand. He attached a variety of items to his waistband whose uses Remus could only guess at, pulled his goggles over his face and went down to a diver’s spot. It was on the side of the ship that was facing the wreck. He plunged backwards into the water and a few seconds later surfaced with a thumbs up.
Remus watched as James steadily gave Sirius more and more line.
“How much oxygen does he have in those tanks?”
“Enough for about two hours,” James answered. “In the unlikely event that you thought Sirius’ arse was sexy in that suit, for god’s sake don’t tell him.”
“I did think it was sexy,” Remus replied. “I’d do him.”
“Ohforfuck’ssake,” James muttered, giving out more line. “He’s going to be insufferable. Bet he really believes the ‘Greenland gods’ listened to his prayers.” James rolled his eyes. “Did he tell you yet about the ‘Iceland gods’?”
Remus shook his head.
“Said he was going to sacrifice lambs to the ‘Iceland gods’ if it would get him buggered. Thank fuck we never set foot in the country or he’d have gone and bloody done it.”
“How come he’s that desperate?”
“He’s been single for a while. We’ve also been stuck at sea for a month without any other company. Go figure.” James shrugged. “Should teach him to get stuck on boats.”
“Suppose so.” Remus chuckled.
He watched Sirius’ lifeline, James’ hands as he handled the line, the monitor that told him whether Sirius was going to die of a heart attack yet or not, and the bubbles surfacing over the wreck once in a while. After what seemed like an endless wait, there were two brief tugs on the line.
“Looks like he’s got enough of the water,” James said and started hauling the line in slowly. Eventually Sirius surfaced and removed his mouthpiece.
“I’ve got gifts for you, Lupin!” he yelled, his grin wide as ever. Remus didn’t know whether he should facepalm or laugh. James facepalmed. Remus laughed.
“Better be good gifts, Black!” Remus yelled back. Sirius splashed water at them, but missed.
He crawled on board, a net full of something looking like bricks covered in moss fastened to his waist. He handed the camera to James, unfastened the net and handed it to Remus. “There you go. I took the liberty of scraping some of the green stuff off and it looks like there’s writing on these. There’s more where they came from.”
“Oh...bloody hell,” Remus muttered, setting the net down carefully. He opened it and soon found the one Sirius had somehow cleared. It was a clay tablet, there was indeed writing on it, and from what he could tell it was Latin. “Oh bloody hell!”
“Is that a good or bad reaction?” Sirius whispered to James. James shrugged.
“Good,” Remus answered. “Very good.” He examined some of the other tablets. They were not all clay, some of them were of very waterlogged wood and seemingly covered in wax, a fact that made Remus’ heart pound a little faster in his chest. Wax is good. Wax is very good.
“I can go back and get some more for you,” Sirius offered. James rolled his eyes.
“Oh please. I’d love you forever, really.” Remus looked up. “Really.” He looked at James, who was still rolling his eyes, but also looking at what the camera had to show. “I need to see that footage too.”
“Yeah, of course.” He turned the camera off. “I’ll fix that up for you. Sirius, if you’re really going to heroically go treasure hunting for Lupin, I’ll ask Ed if he’ll monitor you.”
“Sure thing.” Sirius grinned and winked at Remus. Remus smiled back.
“Is there somewhere I can work on these?” he pointed at the tablets.
“Yeah. I’ll show you.”
“Great. But footage first.” Remus put the tablets carefully back into the net and carried it inside after James.
The footage only showed that the wreck wasn’t Roman at all, but Greek. It was also not as damaged as one would’ve expected after two thousand years of lying on the bottom of Greenland Sea. Nothing about the wreck gave off any hints about its significance, if any, or where exactly it had come from or when or what it was doing in bloody Greenland.
Remus turned the footage off and went to the workspace James had sorted out for him. It looked more like a fish dissection room than anything else, but it was well lit and it would do. He quickly looked around to see if anyone was near, then checked if there were surveillance cameras – none he could see, but he muttered an illusion charm anyway, just in case, wand held low. He then proceeded to magically clean the tablets, the charm taking care of the way it looked - if anyone happened to glance over, all they would see was Remus scraping away green goo with a fancy archaeologist’s tool.
Sirius returned twice with a large load of tablets until James forced him to quit it and have some soup before he got himself pneumonia.
By dinner time, Remus had cleaned, numbered and catalogued all the tablets and went to join the others for food. After dinner, he returned to the workspace and started working on transcribing them, one by one, while silently cursing the fact he was doing it with a Muggle ballpoint pen on white Muggle notepaper. His wand was concealed in his cabin for now as he didn’t dare do more magic than necessary amidst so many Muggles.
When Remus was halfway through the transcribing business, Sirius dropped by.
“How’s the sexy archaeologist doing?”
“Brilliantly,” Remus replied, looking up. “Should be able to start translating these tomorrow and figure out whether there’s anything interesting on them. I have a feeling most of them are inventory lists, but then inventory lists are always interesting; they can tell a lot about –”
“You’re quite possibly the only person I’ve ever met that’s said that inventory lists are interesting.” Sirius grinned. “Came to ask whether you wanted to see my boudoir.”
“You have a boudoir?” Remus raised an eyebrow.
“Yeah. It wants to meet you.”
Remus looked down at the tablet he was transcribing. He was missing only two letters. He copied them onto the paper and put both things away. “Let me see that boudoir, then.”
Sirius grinned. “Great!” Remus indulged him with a smile and followed him down the corridors and down a stair and more corridors. “Right, here we are.” Sirius opened the door to what must be his cabin. It was only slightly larger than Remus’.
The bed was just as narrow, the table and the chair were just as small, but this cabin had an en suite bathroom. Also, while Remus could tell that Sirius must’ve tidied up before taking him there, the room was still messy. It was a sort of organised mess, clothes hanging all over – Remus spotted a black leather jacket hanging off an open closet door – the table was littered in maps and other things and on top of it all resided a laptop.
“Welcome to my boudoir,” Sirius said. “I’d offer you something to drink, but I’m afraid I’ve run out of wine and the chef won’t let me have any from his stash, and the tap water on this ship is horrible.”
“You do realise, Black, that a boudoir is actually a woman’s bedroom?” Remus asked, amusement evident in his voice.
“Oh, as if that matters. The common factor is the bed, isn’t it?” He grinned. Remus snortgiggled.
“You really are insufferable,” he said and pressed his lips to Sirius’ neck. He smelled a lot less of cologne now, though there was still a faint whiff of it left on his skin mixed in with the scent of sea and warm human. Remus parted his lips to nibble and lick, finding that his skin was slightly saltier than was probably normal and that his hair smelled even more of sea.
“James owes me ten quid,” Sirius said. “I plan on spending that on lube.”
“He didn’t think I’d fuck you?”
“Think he just wanted to rile me up about it.” Sirius turned to catch Remus’ lips with his own. “I am riled up about you fucking me.”
“Well, I certainly plan on having you, one way or other.” Remus lifted the hem of Sirius’ t-shirt, fingers scraping over his skin. “I’m not picky,” he said, mimicking Sirius’ earlier statement. “You might also want to close the door.”
Sirius reached backwards to grab the edge of the door. He pushed it shut. “There.”
No later than the door was shut, Remus nimbly undid Sirius’ jeans and pushed them down, pulling out his cock. Sirius gasped as Remus stroked him, bucking his hips into his hand, and pushed Remus’ shirt up. Remus released him in order to get the shirt out of the way, dumping it onto the floor. “Got lube?” Remus murmured, lips hovering close to his ear.
“Of course I’ve got lube.” Sirius lashed himself at Remus’ lips, kissing him fiercely, fingers rubbing over his chest, over his scars. Remus felt Sirius pause slightly, then pull back to look at him. “What on earth happened to you? You look like a wolf tried to tear you apart or something.”
“That’s exactly what happened,” Remus said, relieved to know that his most recent cuts would’ve faded to white by now and look like they’d been there for years. “No big deal.”
“Wow.” Sirius traced his fingers over the massive scarring on his chest. “Wait – is that – a bite mark?”
“Yeah.”
Sirius made an odd little noise in the back of his throat and Remus realised that Sirius was turned on by his scars – not that he was the first one. He suddenly lunged forwards, pushing Remus against his closet, and licked across one of the big scars on Remus’ chest, trailing close to the nipple. Remus shuddered and Sirius closed his mouth over the nipple, sucking hard.
“Fuck, Black,” Remus muttered. “Get that bloody lube out.” Sirius looked up at him with a grin.
“In a second.” Sirius loosened Remus’ trousers and let them fall to the floor. His boxers likewise. “Let’s say a couple of minutes,” Sirius said, his thumbs rubbing over Remus’ hips as he leaned in for a kiss. Remus could feel Sirius’ cock touch to his, causing him to jerk his hips forward with an impatient groan.
Sirius dropped to his knees and took Remus’ cock into his mouth in one swift movement, making Remus gasp in surprise and jerk his hips forward again. His hands slid into Sirius’ mess of hair as he licked and sucked and devoured his cock as if he hadn’t seen one for weeks – which, strictly, he hadn’t, if he was to be believed.
“Black,” Remus groaned and then forgot what he wanted to say as Sirius took his entire length in deep and it was warm and tight and wet and Remus’ fingers curled in Sirius’ hair. “Fuck,” he moaned, thrusting his cock further down his throat. “Going to...bloody...fuck...nuts,” Remus gasped incoherently and Sirius pulled back.
“Fuck my nuts?” he grinned. Remus blinked. Sirius’ lips were red and swollen and glistening and Remus hauled him up from the floor and pulled him in for a hungry kiss.
“Yes,” he said huskily, tugging at Sirius’ bottom lip and working his jeans down all the way. “Where’s the bloody lube?”
“Under my pillow.”
Remus stepped out of the pool of clothes round his ankles, claiming Sirius’ lips again as he pushed him towards the bed. Sirius stumbled backwards onto the bed and Remus pulled his jeans and socks off, then crawled over him.
“Aren’t you going to take your socks off too?” Sirius asked.
“No.” Remus brushed his lips over his neck. Sirius still smelled of sea, but now he also smelled of musky arousal.
“But –”
“No.”
“It’s unsexy!”
“Well, you’re not going to look at them, so you don’t have to care,” Remus said firmly. “Turn around.”
“It’s still unsexy,” Sirius said as he turned onto his stomach and Remus moved over to straddle him. “I can feel them!”
“Black, if you’re more concerned about my socked feet randomly brushing against your legs while I’m using my dick on you, you’ve got a serious problem. Just saying.” Remus leaned over him to search under his pillow for the lube. He found it quickly and sat back up again. “Want a shag or not?”
“Oh screw you, Lupin,” Sirius muttered, raising his arse. Remus grinned and shifted further back, slicking himself up with Sirius’ lube.
“Sit back up?” Remus asked, nudging him. Sirius shuffled and got up, glancing over his shoulder. “Yeah, like that. Just stay on your knees...” Remus shuffled up behind him, his slick cock sliding over Sirius’ lower back. He wrapped an arm around him, his hand smoothing over his chest and pinching a nipple.
“Go on, then,” Sirius moaned, closing his fist around his cock. He attempted to spread his legs, but Remus shoved them close again.
“Oh no. Said I was going to fuck your nuts, didn’t I?” he grinned, deliberately sliding his cock between Sirius’ ass cheeks, rubbing against him slowly.
“You weren’t joking about that?”
“No.” Remus nudged his legs apart just a little, just enough for him to be able to slip his cock in between his legs, rubbing slowly, teasingly. The head of him bumped into Sirius’ sack. “Oh, look what I did...”
“Tease,” Sirius snapped, shuddering. “Seriously no arse fucking?”
“Seriously,” Remus grinned. “And you don’t get to touch yourself either.” He was rubbing himself firmly against Sirius now, breathing heavily into his ear. “I want to suck you off afterwards,” he said before Sirius could protest, earning a hitched moan.
“Bloody hell, Lupin,” Sirius growled, reluctantly letting his cock go and instead reaching behind him to grab Remus’ arse. His other hand went up to cradle Remus’ head, fingers tightening in his hair. “Go on then, fuck yourself on me if that’s what you want...”
“Mmh.” Remus shoved Sirius’ legs together firmly, making it tighter for himself, increasing the friction a bit more. He thrust hard and firm, his cock every once in a while knocking against Sirius’ balls and making him gasp or moan or tighten his fingers in Remus’ hair.
“God you turn me on,” Sirius muttered after a while, breathless and shivery. “Having your cock between my legs like that, fuck that’s hot.”
“Keep talking.” Remus grazed his teeth over Sirius’ neck, panting, one arm secured around Sirius’ chest, the other gripping his hip firmly as he rocked against him, the heat and the friction, Sirius’ scent and the smell of sex nearly overwhelming.
“I want your cock, want to taste it and suck it and lick it, want to wrap my tongue around the head and suck the cum out...I want your big cock in my arse, fucking me so hard it hurts, like there’s no tomorrow,” Sirius moaned and Remus bit into his shoulder, rutting faster. “Fuck, Lupin, I want you to shove that cock down my throat till I choke on it.”
“I’ll have your arse tomorrow,” Remus grunted against his skin, biting down almost desperately as he came, his cum spreading out between Sirius’ legs and dripping down his balls. “Bloody hell, Black, I’m so having your arse tomorrow.”
“Fuckyes,” Sirius gasped, pulling at Remus’ hair to bring him closer to his face, turning to catch his lips in a desperate and frantic kiss. Remus kissed him back breathlessly, his hand locking around Sirius’ still hard cock.
“Get down, Black, or I won’t suck your cock.” Remus nudged him, shifting to allow Sirius to throw himself down on the bed.
Sirius really did make out for a gorgeous sight, skin pale and taut, cheeks flushed and cock red and stiff against his stomach. Remus allowed himself only a second to take in the sight.
“If there ever was a hotter sight,” he murmured, leaning down to lick Sirius’ length, from base to head. He lapped up the precome and closed his mouth over the head, sucking slowly. Sirius moaned and bucked his hips, his fingers curling into the sheets.
“Mmphhfuck, Lupin,” Sirius moaned, fingers tightening as Remus sucked him, hollowing his cheeks every time he pulled back, his fingers working the shaft. “Ohhsshhhii-” Sirius whimpered and Remus let him slip from his mouth, wrapping his fist around him in a firm smooth stroke and bringing him off. He stroked him gently until he’d spilled every drop.
Remus slid up to kiss him, sliding his tongue between Sirius’ parted lips and letting him taste himself. “Got the answer to your prayers?” Remus asked and kissed him again before he could get an answer.
“Yeah,” Sirius eventually replied, sneaking a hand into Remus’ hair, effectively keeping him close. “And you can have my arse as many times as you want...” Sirius sighed contentedly and pulled Remus down for another lazy kiss.
“Sounds good to me.” Remus smiled. “I’m not saying no to a bit of entertainment for as long as I’m staying here.” Sirius grinned and Remus kissed him once more, before sliding off him. “Oi, shove over! I’m nearly falling off over here! ...I’ve got a board poking my arse.”
Sirius shuffled closer to the wall and Remus settled down next to him – rather, half draped over him for lack of space. “When’d that wolf attack you?” Sirius asked, fingers coming up to trace the scars on his shoulder.
“Oh. Years ago. I was a kid. See how most of the scars look stretched? They grew with me as I grew up.”
“A kid? Jesus! How’d you get out of that encounter alive?”
“Well, I almost didn’t. It was a very big, hungry and angry wolf. To be honest I don’t remember much of the attack...” Remus shrugged. “It almost took a chunk out of my arm and my side. I was lucky to not lose any muscle mass or vital internal organs, really.”
“It sure does look scary...and sort of hot. I mean. Anyone who can take on a wolf and come out of it alive...” Sirius smiled wryly. “I’m sorry, I mean, it’s got to be a terrible thing for you and all, but I can’t help thinking it’s sexy.”
Remus chuckled. “You’re not the only one to think so.” He smiled. “Don’t worry about it. I’m long used to guys going feral on me when they see my scars.”
“Oh...all right.” Sirius smiled back. “So I’m not unusual or anything.”
“No, not really.”
“And here I thought I was special.”
“Oh, trust me, you are special. You’re an insufferable git. A sexy one, but an insufferable git.” Remus shrugged carelessly. Sirius elbowed him. “Ow!”
“I’d punch you, but you said I’m sexy so you’ll do with an elbow.”
“You just proved me right, you realise that?”
“Yeah.” Sirius shrugged. “I’m okay with that. It’s true.”
Remus shook his head in amusement and leaned in for a kiss. “Anyway. This bed can hardly hold the two of us, so I’m going to bugger off to my own cabin.”
“A shame that, really...” Sirius gave him one more kiss and then let him go. Remus got into his clothes carelessly. He cracked into a grin as he glanced over at Sirius.
“Look at you. You look completely debauched. Please tell me you’re going to shower?”
“Of course I am.” Sirius grinned back. “And so are you.”
“Yeah...” Remus glanced at the door, realising something. “Uh, where exactly is my cabin?”
“Just the round the corner from here.” Sirius sat up lazily. “Out the door, to the right and round the corner to the right. Your cabin’s the first one on the left hand side.”
“Oh. I didn’t realise.” Remus frowned.
“Think you’ll get lost on the way?”
“Maybe.”
Sirius got up and pulled a pair of pyjama bottoms out of his closet. He spent a total of half a second wiping his stomach and the inside of his legs clean with the t-shirt he’d been wearing before he pulled them on. “I’ll show you the way.”
He followed Remus down the corridor and pointed at Remus’ cabin door. “See. It’s about seven metres from my cabin. We’re practically neighbours.”
“I see.” Remus turned round as if considering something. “Okay, good. I think I can find my way to breakfast from here...”
“So you’re good?”
“Yeah. Thanks.”
“No problem.” Sirius smiled.
“Good night.” Remus smiled back. Sirius nodded and went back to his cabin. Remus looked after him for a bit, realising he’d never told him his arse looked sexy in the diver’s suit, nor had he remembered to ask him about the Sirius Sledge Patrol.
Oh. I’ll do that tomorrow. Suppose I’ll have ample opportunity... He crossed the corridor to his own cabin door and pushed it open.
“Oi, Lupin!”
Remus turned around to see who was talking to him.
“Hey Potter,” he said. James frowned at him and Remus realised he was probably looking at his messy hair and rumpled shirt. “You owe Black ten quid.” James’ eyes widened and Remus tried to suppress a grin as he went inside and left James in the corridor with a sheepish look on his face.
*
Remus tried to find his way to breakfast, but after a while he gave up and went back exactly the way he had come from. He then went to Sirius’ cabin and knocked.
He knocked again when there was no answer.
“Black? Are you there?”
The door flew open. “Lupin! Back for my arse already?” Sirius grinned frothily at him, toothbrush hanging out of his mouth.
“Er, no.” Remus cleared his throat. “I got fabulously lost, once again, trying to make my way to breakfast.”
“And you’re here because you want me to hold your hand and show you the way?” Sirius grabbed the toothbrush and pulled it out of his mouth.
“I’m sure you can show me the way without the hand-holding.”
“Give me a minute.”
Sirius went back to his bathroom. Remus heard him finish brushing his teeth, the sound of running water and a rustle of towels, before he returned.
“I thought you said last night you could find your way?”
“I thought I could.” Remus shrugged and followed Sirius. He tried to pay attention to where they were going. “How do you find your way?”
“It’s simple. There’s two corridors that run the length of the ship – similar to cruise liners, if you’ve been on one?” Remus shook his head in reply. “All right. Anyway, two corridors run the length of the ship, one on starboard side and one on port. Starboard’s right and port’s left,” Sirius added. “There’s two entrances from the outside deck and they enter directly into the corridors. There’s transverse corridors connecting them – my cabin’s located at one of these, while yours is on port.”
Sirius stopped walking and pointed. “We’re in the starboard corridor now, lower deck. The bow is that way and the stern that way. Front and back. With me so far?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Anyway. We’ve got two berth decks, you know, staff quarters and stuff. Below us we’ve got the machinery and cargo holds.”
“Okay...” Remus looked at the floor, imagining huge engines taking up masses of space directly under his feet. “And how is this going to help me to find breakfast?”
Sirius grinned. “Breakfast is on the upper deck, second transverse but on the starboard half of the ship. So – we go up these stairs, which will take us to the door, you know, that area with all our boots and coats and stuff. All the stairs start at the doors and go down to the lower deck from there. If the ship had been larger than it is, we’d have had more stairs, but alas...we only have these two...” He gestured upwards and Remus ascended, Sirius following closely.
“So...” Remus said slowly, looking around. “We’ll go from here towards the bow and then turn left at the second corridor, is that right?”
“You’re a fast learner.” Sirius nudged him.
“And where’s my workspace?”
“Upper deck, first transverse.”
Remus peeked into the first transverse corridor and found the workspace exactly as he’d left it the evening before. “Good. You know, that did actually help a lot...” He smiled at Sirius. “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.”
They joined the rest of the crew for breakfast. Sirius sat down next to James and started picking bacon off his plate.
“I’ve fixed up repairs for the crane,” James informed Remus, swatting Sirius’ hand away without even looking. “The spare parts will be here in two weeks.”
“Oh...” Remus sighed. “All right.”
“Want us to get more stuff from the wreck until then?” Sirius asked. James rolled his eyes at him.
“Maybe. I’ll have a look at the tablets you brought me yesterday and see if there’s something that needs my immediate attention...” he smiled wryly. “I doubt there are extremely important and pressing matters hidden in that ship.”
“And when you’ve run out of tablets to look at?”
“You really want to show me your arse in a diver’s suit again, don’t you?” Remus piled up toast on his plate. Sirius grinned.
“Would you appreciate seeing my ass in a diver’s suit?”
“Dear heavens, Sirius, we’re eating!”
Remus recognised the guy speaking as Ed. Sirius only shrugged, then winked at Remus. “Let me know if you need anything from me.”
“I’m going to need something from you sooner or later,” Remus replied unperturbedly. James choked on his coffee.
Remus didn’t take long to finish transcribing the tablets. He also didn’t take very long to translate the first one. It was an inventory list, but a slightly puzzling one; it referred to items that had no place on a vessel – not even a merchant vessel. He translated a few more tablets without finding anything remotely interesting, and then stumbled upon one that seemed to be part of the same list as the first tablet.
He went to his cabin to retrieve his wand. Back at the workspace he translated the rest of the tablets with the assistance of a neat spell he’d invented back when he started working for Oxley. He prided himself on the fact that it was slightly more intelligent than Google Translate. Wand back up his sleeve, he looked over the translations and compared them with the transcriptions, every once in a while making a correction.
Okay. This is interesting, he thought to himself, looking at the second to last translations. It wasn’t from a clay tablet, but from one of the few wax tablets in the pile. It wasn’t an inventory list.
It was a letter. The only Latin words in it were a date, that Remus knew with the modern Julian calendar would mean roughly 285 BC. The majority of it was Coptic; a language Remus’ spell hadn’t translated because he’d been focusing on Latin-to-English. He knew Coptic as well as Latin. And Greek. Well, Ancient Greek.
Remus translated the letter into modern English as quickly as he could.
I write to you dearest Thaïs with no hope of seeing you again or returning home. We must have reached the end of the world. It’s cold. There are ice mountains in the sea. Perhaps we were wrong to go this far. Surely it must be the punishment of the Gods? I rest assured that I have fulfilled my duty. He that is
Oh, now there was something interesting.
There was one more wax tablet in Coptic. It wasn’t the next piece in the letter, but Remus was fairly sure it had been written by the same person.
Remus put his wand up his sleeve and went to find Sirius. When he didn’t find him, he went to his cabin but didn’t find him there either. In the kitchen he found the chef in the middle of preparing lunch.
“Know where I can find Black?” he asked.
“Try the captain’s,” he replied gruffly and pointed upwards with his thumb. Remus had no idea how to get up there and paused for a minute, trying to think if Sirius had mentioned something. “Outside and up the stairs.”
“Oh. Thanks.”
A few minutes later Remus was on the control deck. He found Sirius in the control room looking at a screen with green dots on it. Everyone else who was there looked like they were doing something useful.
“Black,” he said. Sirius turned around.
“Lupin. Want to watch whales with me?”
“Whales?”
“Yup.” Sirius pointed at the screen. “They’re getting closer. I’m hoping they’ll actually come into the fjord.”
“I came to ask whether you would put your arse into that diver’s suit,” Remus said. “And to ask whether it’s possible for me to phone London.”
“You can get onto the phone as soon as James is done having phone sex with Lily,” Sirius said cheerfully. “So, diver’s suit?”
“I need more tablets.”
“Got bored?”
“No. But I found – well, I didn’t really find anything. I need to know what the rest of them say, and I’m not going to wait two weeks for it.” Remus shrugged carelessly.
“So you’re bored.”
“I’m certainly not going to sit around and count air molecules.”
“All right. Want to watch whales with me afterwards?”
“Those dots? Rather not.”
Sirius sighed. “All right. I’ll go have a swim. Ed! Want to help me?”
Ed grunted, which Sirius seemed to take as a positive reply.
“Great. So, Lupin. Anything special you want me to look out for?” he asked as he stood up. Remus nodded.
“Yes. I need all the wax tablets you can find – also broken pieces. Anything, really.”
“What’s on the wax tablets you’re so interested in?”
“Letters,” Remus replied with a small smile. “I’m hoping they’ll tell me who was on that ship and what it was doing in Greenland.” He paused. “There is the possibility that the sailors got lost at sea, or even that they died from lack of food or water and that the ship made its own way to Greenland. At any rate, I can just as well try to unravel that mystery while waiting for the wreck to get out of the water, right?”
“Sounds like a plan to me,” Sirius said. “What’ll happen when you get the ship out?”
“We’ll examine the ship and its contents and try to date it. The letters should be a big help in that regard already.” Remus threw a glance out of the window, to where the wreck was lying in the water.
“What’d you need to call London for? Is there going to be a team of archaeologists joining us?”
“No, not yet. I’m just going to let my boss know about proceedings. We won’t send more people up here until the ship’s out. We might not even have to, not if we can get the ship down to London as it is.” Remus turned to face Sirius. “So? Arse in diver’s suit?”
“Oh yeah.”
Remus stayed long enough to actually see Sirius’ arse in the diver’s suit before he went back to his workspace and translated the last couple of clay tablets, unearthing more inventory lists. While Sirius was treasure hunting for him, he got out his laptop and portable scanner and a bag of the funny candy he’d gotten in Iceland. He spent the next long while scanning both the transcriptions and translations to the laptop.
There was no internet access. He tried. He had some of the weird candy and decided it was weird but it was candy and thus could be devoured.
Sirius returned with a small pile of wax tablets sooner than expected.
“That’s all I could find. I searched the entire wreck, and if there ever were more, they’re gone.” He put them down carefully.
“Thank you.” Remus flashed him a smile and pushed the laptop aside. Sirius had pushed his goggles onto his forehead and had thankfully left the flippers outside. “Sexy.” Remus raised an eyebrow in amusement.
“Nah, just my ass.” Sirius grinned and turned round to show him.
“Mh.” Remus nodded. “Want some candy?”
“Is that a euphemism?” Sirius turned round again, grin still plastered to his face.
“No, it’s real candy.” Remus threw Sirius a piece. He caught it and popped it into his mouth.
“Weird. What is it?”
“Something I picked up in Iceland on my way over.”
Sirius kept munching on it. “It’s not bad.”
“Nope.” Remus’ lips curled into a smile. “You going back to the wreck?”
“Is this a case of throw the puppy candy every time he brings you stuff?”
“I’ll save a few pieces for you.”
“What do you want?”
“Tablets. Anything that remotely looks like a tablet or a piece of one. If you find a sealed crock pot, bring it up – there’s probably going to be wine in it, and I recall you having run out.”
“Would the wine even be drinkable?” Sirius asked, astonished.
“Most likely not...and my boss would murder me most atrociously if I so much as dared break the seal.”
“Oh...” Sirius chuckled. “Suppose that would go against regulations...”
“Yes. Thanks for getting these.” Remus gestured at the new wax tablets.
“You’re welcome.” Sirius smiled. “So. I’m gonna go and earn myself another piece of candy. See you in a bit.”
Remus cleaned the wax tablets with magic and set to work transcribing and translating them. By the time Sirius returned with a stash of clay tablets, he had managed to piece together two letters. He also had two bits of other letters that lacked their counterparts and a crude drawing of sorts.
have left the land of barbarians. [...] received as gods. Perhaps we went further than needed, but our duty is done. The journey home is long and perilous. I pray that I will not be likened to Odysseus, Thaïs dearest. Faithfully, Philip.
Thaïs. I fear that we are lost at sea. The currents are strong and carried us far. It is cold. Land was sighted, but we could not reach it. It was green and wonderful to behold, but void of human life. Where we are, I do not know. I pray the Gods will show us the way back. Three weeks we have followed the moods of the Sea and the Wind. We have lost sight of Seirios. This is a bad omen. I keep hope in my heart, Thaïs. Faithfully, Philip.
I write to you dearest Thaïs with no hope of seeing you again or returning home. We must have reached the end of the world. It is cold. There are ice mountains in the sea. Perhaps we were wrong to go this far. Surely it must be the punishment of the Gods? I rest assured that I have fulfilled my duty. He that is held in high esteem has been put to rest in the place that has been prescribed. I ache to see you again. I pray to the Gods every day, but at nightfall the hope grows weak yet again. We saw land yesterday but it was dead. May the Gods preserve us. Faithfully, Philip.
that we might never return. In the bleak hope that our successors will find us, I feel compelled to share the secret of the Place. I dare not, but I fear, that His legacy will be lost. He loved deeply, Thaïs. His [...] rest.
“How’s it going?” Sirius asked as be barged in, arms full of green clay tablets. Remus did not immediately reply. “That well, huh?”
“Yes,” Remus said slowly. “I’ve established that the poor crew on the vessel got lost at sea. I don’t know where they sailed from or where they were going, but...the sea and wind alone took them to Greenland. Can you believe that they have crossed the Atlantic Ocean? The ship was Greek. That much is clear.”
“Anything’s possible.” Sirius put the clay tablets down carefully. “I’ve heard of things crossing oceans before...hey, James is a right geek. He’s the one on this boat that knows stuff about currents and shit. Ask him, he could probably figure out how they ended up here.”
“Yeah...” Remus looked at the letters, gnawing at his fist thoughtfully. There was something about them that bothered him, but he couldn’t quite figure out what. The dating on the two complete letters seemed significant somehow, as if he should know what happened at or around that time. Unfortunately, dates had never been Remus’ strong point.
“You look mighty bothered, if I may say so.”
“I guess I am.” Remus sighed, frowning. “Seirios doesn’t make a lot of sense to you, does it?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Perhaps it does.” Sirius grinned. “It’s a star,” he said importantly. “Nowadays known as Sirius. Seirios is the Ancient Greek for the same thing.”
“Oh...oh!” Remus scribbled a note. “Okay, that does make sense then...I think. It says here they lost sight of Seirios...”
“Yeah, they would. It’s not visible this far north...or maybe only just, over the horizon. A bit further north and it’s gone.”
“And you know this because?”
“Oh please.” Sirius rolled his eyes. “Being named after it has the added benefit that everyone and their mother feeds you with Did you know that Sirius this or Sirius that and in the end you feel you know enough trivia about the dumb thing for a category of its own in Trivial Pursuit.”
Remus laughed. “Fair point.” He picked up the candy bag and offered to Sirius. “You’re not the only one. With a name like mine I get asked all sorts of stupid things. Most often I get the Are you a twin? Is your twin called Romulus?-question.”
Sirius drew out a handful of candy from the bag. “I was actually wondering whether it was a joke name.”
“I’m sure my parents were humouring themselves when they chose to name me Remus.” Remus shrugged.
“Wolf Wolf,” Sirius grinned. “Did they see the irony when that wolf attacked you?”
The corner of Remus’ lip curled up into a little ironic smile. “I think they were too concerned about my survival for that.”
“Obviously.” Sirius chuckled. “Got enough tablets for today? I missed lunch and I’m starving, so if you don’t –”
“Oh bloody hell!” Remus burst out. “I’m so sorry! You could’ve said...I completely lost track of the time...” Remus scratched the back of his neck in embarrassment. “I didn’t mean to...uh...you probably had your own work to see to...”
“Did you eat something?” Sirius interrupted, amused.
“No...don’t think so...” Remus frowned in confusion and looked at the candy bag. His stomach rumbled. “I...er...tend to get caught up...”
To his surprise Sirius laughed heartily. “It’s quite all right. I’ll get out of the suit and then I’ll take you on a lunch date.”
“Er, okay.”
Sirius grinned and left abruptly. Remus flopped down onto his chair. The clock on his laptop told him it was more like tea time than lunch time. He sighed, gaze flickering over the letters. He was still bothered, though he couldn’t put his finger on why.
Remus turned his attention to the new clay tablets and magically cleaned one of them, one eye on the door in case Sirius barged back in. Expecting more Latin and another inventory list, his heart almost stopped when his cleaning spell revealed Ancient Runes of Magic.
*
There were steps nearing, so Remus hastily put his wand back up his sleeve and turned the tablet face down. Sirius appeared in the doorway, now dressed in normal clothes.
“Come on, let’s go get something in our stomachs.”
Remus nodded, glancing back at the pile on the table. He resisted the urge to put a silent protection charm on the room – protection against what? He was on a ship full of Muggles, far away from anything remotely civilized. In fact, this ship and its inhabitants were most likely the only civilized thing within miles.
“Leave work be for a bit?” Sirius said, an amused smile playing on his lips. Remus startled and followed him out, not realising he’d been staring indecisively at the tablets.
“Yeah. Uh, habit of mine,” he explained. “I work a lot.”
“Do you enjoy your work?”
“Yeah.” Remus nodded, then smiled. “In fact, I love it.” He followed Sirius into the dining room. The large dining table was painfully empty, save for the man called Ed, who was eating something looking like lunch leftovers.
“Hiyah, chef!” Sirius shouted through the opening to the kitchen. “Fancy making us late lunch?”
“You can have leftovers, that’s what you can have, if Ed there hasn’t eaten them all,” the chef replied gruffly, but with warmth in his voice.
“Sorry, guys,” Ed said, gesturing at his plate. The chef looked into the dining room.
“Sandwiches fine for you lads?” he asked.
“I’m so hungry I don’t care what you feed me as long as it isn’t dog food,” Sirius replied, poking his head inside. “What’ve you – ohhhh, is that for dinner?”
“Yes, and you’re not having any of it,” the chef said as he shoved him back out. “Get out of my kitchen, Sirius, or you won’t get anything at all.”
“All right.” Sirius went to the coffee machine. “Want some, Lupin?”
“Please.” Remus sat down by the table and was soon joined by Sirius and two mugs of black coffee.
“Why did you become an archaeologist?” Sirius asked as he pushed one mug across to Remus.
“Chance,” Remus replied. “I did Classical Studies, you know, Latin, Ancient Greek, other dead languages and history. Doing archaeology was more of a...an accident – I was headhunted by Oxley, my boss, to work on special projects for the museum.”
“Special projects? Are you what, a VIP archaeologist or what?”
“Sort of.” Remus smiled. “I work with some stuff that not a lot of other people get to see, and sometimes there’s the added benefit that I’m sent on excursions to follow a tip or a trail to some artefact that’s either been reported lost, has magical- well, randomly shown up, or what you know...” he shrugged. “Sometimes I’m sent off to investigate areas that might contain archaeological value to see if there’s anything suggesting it would be worth it to dig up the place.”
“Looking for artefacts, hm?” Sirius grinned. “So you’re like a real life Indiana Jones?”
Remus choked on his coffee. “I am not like Indiana Jones! He’s a rule breaking incompetent grave robber of the worst calibre,” Remus huffed. “Absolutely no respect for proper methods.”
“Aw, Lupin! Indiana Jones is cool!”
“He’s a fictional character,” Remus huffed again.
“You didn’t think, just once in your life, as a boy, perhaps, that he was just an ounce of cool?” Sirius asked. “He knew all sorts of awesome stuff about pyramids and stuff!”
“Well, so do I,” Remus pointed out. “I know how to get out of Mayan pyramids alive after some idiot’s shut you up in one. I’d like to see Jones do the same thing without panicking about snakes.”
“You’ve been shut up in a Mayan pyramid?” Sirius whooped.
“Yes...” Remus admitted reluctantly. “I’m not particularly proud of it, but it was a mistake on my behalf.”
The chef put a plate of sandwiches down in front of them. “There you go, lads,” he rumbled. “Don’t be late for dinner or you’ll have to do without.”
“Thanks, chef!” Sirius said cheerfully. Remus mumbled his agreements and the two men started digging in.
Ed got up from the other end of the table and poured himself a mug of coffee before he left. Remus and Sirius didn’t speak to each other until they’d devoured half their lunch.
“Ohhh, this is so good,” Sirius moaned happily, licking his fingers.
“Mmmh.” Remus nodded, taking a huge bite out of his sandwich.
“So, Indiana,” Sirius continued. “What’s with that pyramid?”
Remus sighed and took his time finishing chewing and swallowing before he answered. “I was looking for El Dorado,” he said. “We’d received a tip that seemed pretty reliable, so I went to investigate. I wasn’t the only one – a twerp I went to university with had apparently gotten the same tip somehow. He’s always been trying to outdo me in everything, and he’s not above stealing victory. Anyhow, I had him on my heels for something like two weeks, and when I thought I’d finally shaken him off, I followed the trail and found, well, El Dorado. Only, he was right behind me, and snatched the statue right out of my hands.”
Remus made a move as if to grab something out of the air in front of him, then snorted.
“I wasn’t going to just let him do that, so I went after him. We ended up in an undiscovered Mayan pyramid that he’d managed to open, and I followed him in. Shouldn’t have done, though, because it was a trap all right, and he left with the statue and shut the pyramid up. He did, of course, spend a good few minutes telling me what a dumb shit I was for walking straight into his trap, and that he’d finally outwitted me once and for all and may I die in peace.”
“Sounds like an asshole all right,” Sirius said. “What happened then?”
“Well...I had light,” Remus said, omitting the mention of his wand providing the light. He contemplated the story for a bit, mentally editing out and reworking the parts that had magic in them. “The insides of the pyramid were full of writing and symbols and stuff, and by studying those I discovered there was a way out. I found the way, managed to push it open, and out I was.”
“That simple?”
“It took a while to translate the symbols. Most of it was guess work as I don’t speak any of those dead American Indian languages.” And then there was working out the spells on those walls, Remus added in his mind.
“Oh...of course.”
“By the time I was out, the twerp had already caught a plane back to Europe, and I was stuck in the Americas for another two days. When I finally returned to London, he was all over the newspapers with El Dorado and there was nothing I could do to prove that he’d stolen the discovery from me.” Remus sighed. “Oxley wasn’t the best pleased with me, but there was nothing we could do.”
“I’m sorry about that,” Sirius said sympathetically.
“So am I.” Remus stared at his sandwich and then took a large bite out of it. Sirius let him eat in peace, having finished his own sandwich while Remus was speaking.
“When did that happen, by the way?”
“Just last year.”
Sirius nodded. “What other cool stuff have you done?”
“Nothing on as grand a scale as the El Dorado.” Remus tried to hide the bitterness in his voice, but Sirius’ eyes looking at him told him that he’d detected it.
“You’ll beat him at something else.”
“Oh, I will.” Remus put the remnants of his sandwich down and had a sip of coffee. “So, what do you do?” he asked, changing the subject.
“I founded the NSSA,” he replied proudly. “My dad’s a, uh, senator, so that helped a bit, but the agency is pretty much my baby.”
“Oh, wow.” Remus looked up at him. “I thought...well, nevermind...”
“That I was just a random horny crew guy on this ship, right?” Sirius grinned.
“Pretty much.”
“In a sense, I am.” Sirius shrugged. “I’ve got the freedom to do whatever I want, since I own this thing and all. This is the main ship – I’ve got three others. One’s currently in the Mediterranean, one’s in the Caribbean and the third is in for maintenance. I’ve got two smaller ones as well, they’re both up here with us looking for Russian nukes.”
“That’s pretty impressive.” Remus meant it. “Oh, by the way... do you have anything to do with the Sirius Sledge Patrol?”
“Nope, they just totally stole my name.” Sirius shrugged with a grin.
“I see.” Remus grinned back. “How did you come up with the NSSA?”
“I was in the navy after school. I like the sea. It’s also a brilliant excuse to get away from the family for long periods at a time. Or other people,” he added.
“And then end up missing civilized company sorely?” Remus raised an eyebrow at him.
“Sometimes civilized company finds you anyway.” Sirius winked. “Most of the time it’s not bad. I enjoy it. And I’ve got James. If I didn’t have him around, I think I’d kill myself out of boredom sooner or later.”
“He’s your best friend, isn’t he?”
“Yup. He founded the agency with me. Been there from the start. I had the money, he had the technology and a fuckload of know-how. We’ve known each other since school, and we were even in the navy together. It’s brilliant.”
“Sounds good.” Remus finished his coffee. “So what do you actually do? Are you the captain, or...?”
“Ah, no. I’m no good at being captain. I’m just, you know, everybody’s boss, indirectly. They don’t all answer to me directly, and there’s not a lot of things that have to be run past me, save for whether we take a job or not. I didn’t really want to take the nukes job, but I figured, hey, it’s three of my ships and I’ve never been this far north, it could be fun and it pays.” He shrugged. “I’m just, I don’t know, a jack of all trades.”
“More freedom,” Remus stated. Sirius smiled.
“Yes. More freedom.”
Remus looked into his mug, realising it was empty. “Can I phone London?”
“Oh, yes of course. Are you finished?” Remus nodded and Sirius got up. “I’ll show you the phone.”
“Do you have internet access?” Remus asked, following him outside and up to the control room. “I might need to send my boss some scans and other information at some point.”
“We’ve got internet via satellite,” Sirius said proudly. “Best idea I’ve had, getting that. Allows me to play poker online.”
“And watch porn,” Remus added under his breath. He didn’t mean for Sirius to hear, but he did anyway.
“Of course.” He showed Remus into a small phone booth-ish room. “There’s the phone. There’s a manual on the wall but if you need help, just ask.”
“Thanks.”
Remus slipped into the booth and closed the door. He didn’t know how much would be audible outside of the booth – he rather doubted Sirius’ earlier statement about James having phone sex in here – so he decided he’d have to show caution. He followed the instructions and not long after, the phone was ringing.
“Oxley.”
“It’s Lupin, look –”
“About bloody time! What took you so long?”
“Well, the shipwreck is still underwater,” Remus explained and told him what had happened. “One of the guys has been salvaging things from the wreck for me. There’s lots of tablets. I’ve reconstructed strange inventory lists, two letters, two fragments of letters and something that looks like a crude map.”
“Very well. And status of things?”
“One of the tablets has Runes on it.”
“Runes? You mean – ”
“Yes, exactly that.”
“What do they say?”
“I don’t know yet. I’ll have a look at it right away, I just thought I’d let you know first. The ship’s Greek and the letters date to 285 BC. It’s all very odd.”
“Have you told anyone about this?”
“Of course not. Everyone here is –” he paused. “Not of my kind or profession.”
“Good. Lupin, if this turns out to be dangerous...”
“I know what to do. I’ve got it under control.”
“Good. I trust you.”
“I’ll call back when I know more.”
*
No one had been inside and everything was untouched. Remus very quietly murmured a few detection charms, but he was the last person to have set foot in the room that he had come to view as his personal workspace.
He let out a little sigh of relief and closed the door. He hadn’t done it previously, but he wanted privacy with this and rather hoped that the closed door would be enough to warrant him some peace.
Just looking at the tablet with the Ancient Runes made Remus’ skin crawl, but he took a deep breath and turned it face up.
“Let’s see what kind of secrets you have in store,” Remus murmured to himself and used magic to copy the Runes onto a piece of paper.
Ancient Runes, particularly of the magical kind, hadn’t changed in thousands of years and could easily be translated to any language in the world. As for these Runes, however, Remus was sure he couldn’t just translate directly to modern English without inaccuracies, and so he examined them to see if he could detect which language he should go for.
He already had three to choose between: Latin, Coptic and Ancient Greek, since all three languages had been so far represented – even if Ancient Greek only by one single word.
Coptic’s pretty much out of the question; that was the language of the commoners...Ancient Greek predates Latin, doesn’t it? Remus asked himself, brow furrowed. I’m not so sure...but given the date on the letters, perhaps... Remus paused and looked at his translations. 285 BC or thereabouts. That was before the Roman Empire, he was sure, he vaguely remembered Julius Caesar having been appointed dictator in something like 40 BC – at least before Jesus was born, that much he was sure of – and it wasn’t until after him, with Romulus Augustus that the Roman Empire was...
Remus stared at the date. Julius Caesar had had an Alexander-complex. Alexander lived in 300 BC. Alexander was the Greatest Wizard in history of mankind, Alexander, whose ghost still roamed Panepistímio Makedonías – Alexander spoke Ancient Greek. It was Alexander’s dialect, Koine, which was spread all over his empire and that later became Medieval Greek, it was Alexander’s language that was the basis for all modern Latin-based spells and charms...
He hesitated briefly and then started translating. Half an hour later he had an incomplete Ancient Greek text. It was a fragment of a spell or a charm – Remus couldn’t discern which it was without the rest of the text. One thing was clear; it was a complicated thing.
And what is a complicated spell doing on a Greek ship in Greenland? Remus sighed. Well. The ship got lost. They were – he looked at the letters – on a mission. “He that is held in high esteem has been put to rest in the place that has been prescribed.” They – Remus froze. He that is held in high esteem?
Surely not Alexander?
His tomb has never been found.
Alexander the Great Wizard...
Remus leaned back in his chair, shell shocked. No, he thought to himself. He was in Alexandria. He was in Alexandria until...ages later when Septimius Severus cut off access to his tomb to the public...Where it is now, no one knows, but he was in Alexandria. He was in Alexandria at the time these letters were written...
...unless he wasn’t. Ptolemy stole the funeral cortege, didn’t he? And his son took it to Alexandria. What if... No. Remus shook his head. No.
He put an illusion charm on the tablet and the translation, making it appear like an inventory list. He then put his wand up his sleeve and went to the control room.
Sirius wasn’t in the control room, but James was.
“Potter!” Remus called out, and James swivelled round on his chair to greet him.
“Lupin! Looking for Sirius?”
“No, looking for internet.”
“Ah, ‘fraid Sirius doesn’t come with internet,” James said cheerfully. “Want to borrow a computer or hook your own up?”
“I’d prefer to hook my own up; I need to access the museum database and I can only do that from my computer,” Remus said. “Is it possible to have it hooked up in my work room?”
“’Fraid not, Lupin. Bring it up here and I’ll hook you up all right. I’ll clear out a little space for you.”
“All right.”
Remus fetched his laptop and notebook and set it down on the space James had cleared out – hardly more than a table, on which some papers had been shoved to one side. James pulled a long cable out from a frightening looking cupboard with lots of cables and lights and labels in it and hooked his laptop up. He spent a few minutes establishing the connection and then they were all set.
“Thank you.” Remus logged into the museum network and the database, then when he was sure no one was looking his way, he logged into a network only he and a few others could access. There he discovered that Rolfe had finished classifying the Uralic masks on his behalf – not that there had been a lot of work left by the time he’d gone to Greenland to begin with.
He opened files and timelines and profiles and scribbled in his notebook. He’d ascertained that according to the information they possessed, Alexander’s tomb had been stolen by Ptolemy I Soter who had taken it to Memphis, from where Ptolemy II Philadelphus had taken it to Alexandria and later Ptolemy IX had replaced the gold sarcophagus with a glass one. It had remained in Alexandria with certainty until ca. 200 AD when Septimius Severus – Remus smiled to himself proudly upon discovering he had remembered the name correctly – had closed it to the public. Ptolemy the first had died in 283 BC. Remus noted with his heart in his mouth that the letters dated 285 BC, two years before his death.
Maybe he, or someone close to him, ordered Alexander’s tomb to be moved...
Remus stretched in his chair, contemplating this possibility.
“Lupin,” James said. “Lupin!”
“Oh...yeah?” Remus replied, shaken out of his thoughts.
“Dinnertime.”
Remus hardly heeded the chatter and joking around him as he ate, and even completely missed most of Sirius’ more suggestive comments. He also didn’t pay his food much attention, having even forgotten Sirius’ enthusiasm about it earlier in the day. Sirius had to stop him from spreading mustard onto his bread three times before he snapped out of it.
“Black,” he said, a deep crease between his eyebrows. “Are there more tablets in the wreck?”
“Might be a few left. Want me to bring them up?”
“Yes, please.” Remus absent-mindedly reached for the mustard again, but Sirius caught his wrist.
“You’re going to spoil your very fine dinner with all that mustard, Lupin,” he said, amused. “Can’t go diving tonight, though. Too dangerous in the dark.”
“Oh...all right.” Remus put the mustard down and picked up the salt instead. “Is it possible for you to bring them up tomorrow?”
“Yeah. Should be.” He grinned. “If it means I can have some of your candy.”
Several of the men around the table, including James, groaned loudly.
Remus smiled innocently. “You can have all the candy you want, Black.”
He brought his laptop down to the work room and closed the door. He cleaned the rest of the tablets with a careful cleaning spell. They were all covered in Ancient Runes, save for two that were more inventory lists in Latin. He carefully translated the content to Ancient Greek, one tablet at a time, and tried to sort them in order if possible.
There were six tablets with a very powerful protecting charm on them; one relying on blood sacrifice and rituals meant to invoke the assistance and blessing of gods, a charm that would cause any trespasser or offender permanent and possibly fatal damage. Remus almost felt sick as he scanned the translation and saved it on his laptop.
The person who created this charm must have been very, very desperate to protect what was under it, or extremely ruthless. Not so much because the charm was dangerous, but because, in order to prevent the charm and the protection from fading, the one casting the charm had to draw blood from themselves until they reached the point of death and allow a part of their spirit to be tied to the charm to keep it strong for eternity.
Remus shuddered at the thought. Someone who split their spirit like this couldn’t die properly. If the body died, the man’s spirit would linger in the charm and could quite possibly become very malevolent and intensify the dangers.
In that very moment Remus hoped that he would never have to face it.
There were five more tablets with Runes that Remus had translated. This was an incomplete counter-charm to the protecting charm; the first part as well as one in the middle seemed to be missing. Remus sighed tiredly, rubbing his temple. He’d been at it all evening and he honestly didn’t know what time it was – it could be three in the morning for all he knew.
He scanned the translations and then took the laptop up to the control room. James and Sirius were the only ones there, looking excitedly at a screen with dots on them. Whales, Remus thought.
“Guys,” Remus said by way of greeting. “I’m coming to borrow your internet again.”
“Should watch whales with us,” Sirius said with a grin. “They’re coming closer. Might be close enough that we can see them in the morning, if they come in all the way.”
“Fascinating,” Remus said. “Look, can I hook my laptop up? I need to send some data to my boss.”
“’Course,” James said as he stood up.
Setting Remus up was a lot less bothersome the second time around. James returned to watch the dots with Sirius, theorising excitedly and pointing here and there at the screen and out the window. Remus hesitated for a moment and then uploaded the inventory lists and letters to his personal database. He left out the Ancient Runes pages for now. From the database Oxley would be able to retrieve the files and do with them as he pleased.
Remus felt a slight chill crawl up his spine as he hit the ‘save’ button. He wrote a quick email to Oxley in which he explained in short what he had discovered and his theories and hit ‘send’. He wasn’t sure if it was the charm that was making him uneasy, but he felt slightly itchy.
He packed up quietly and left without being noticed. It wasn’t until the door closed behind him and Sirius turned his head to see what was up that he discovered that Remus was gone.
A few minutes later, as Remus was sorting through all the sheets of copies and translations, Sirius knocked softly and peeked in through the open door.
Remus looked up. “Hey.” He glanced down at the table and saw to his relief that his wand was currently covered by a spread of sheets. “The whales coming in?”
“I think they’re definitely coming in,” Sirius replied. “If they don’t change course we’ll be able to see them tomorrow.”
“I’ve never seen a live whale in my life,” Remus looked up.
“It’s a fantastic sight.” Sirius gave him a smile. “You look tired.”
“It’s been a long day...my head’s done right in. Do you realise I translated no less than twenty tablets today? Ancient Greek is a bit...” he shrugged.
“Is it important stuff?”
“Yeah...” Remus replied slowly. “I think it might be.” He rubbed his temple in the hopes that the headache he felt looming wouldn’t materialise.
“I think you think too much.” The tone of Sirius’ voice was slightly amused.
“I could do with some distraction from thinking,” Remus admitted. “I don’t really want to think about tablets and translations for what’s left of the evening.”
“Distraction...” Sirius’ face split into a grin as he shifted his position to lean against the door frame. “I could show you my chess pieces.”
Remus contemplated him for a short while, showing no signs of interest. “I believe I told you last night I would have your arse tonight, didn’t I?”
“Yes.”
“I’ve changed my mind.”
Sirius’ face fell slightly, but he was quick to pull it up. “Oh, in that case –”
“I think I’d like someone to fuck my brains out so efficiently I won’t be able to think for a week.”
The look on Sirius’ face was worth it, Remus reckoned, as he let his poker face go and gave him a small, smug smile.
“I’ll tidy up my desk here and be down in two minutes.” He shuffled his copies together into a neat stack, leaving the translations to cover his wand for a little longer.
“Oh, uhm, yes...” Sirius fumbled then shut right up. “Two minutes, then.” He hesitated in the doorway, but when Remus only shoved his stack of copies into a file case, he left.
Remus made sure he had really left before he put an illusion charm over the Ancient Runes tablets. He filed all the papers and made sure everything was neat and nice. With his wand up his sleeve he went first back to his own cabin, concealed his wand, had a sip of water and checked that he was clean.
Will be bloody nice to get back to the wizarding civilization, Remus muttered inwardly. He suddenly grinned. Though I’m not doing half bad with the Muggles.
He went over to Sirius’ cabin and knocked firmly, half expecting Sirius to rip the door open and drag him in by the collar and fuck him senseless.
No such thing happened.
He heard soft steps and then the sharp click of the door handle being pushed down. A moment later Sirius Black was grinning at him, seemingly having regained his composure and confidence.
“So, about those chess pieces,” Remus said casually.
Sirius stepped aside to let him in and closed the door as softly as he’d opened it. “We’ll get to the chess pieces in a minute.” He slid Remus’ blazer off and flung it onto his chair, then put his hands on Remus’ shoulders, rubbing and nudging gently. “I’m first going to make sure you won’t wake up with a splitting headache tomorrow.”
“Oh...” Remus sighed, letting his head fall back. “How could you tell?”
“You weren’t this tense last night...well, the entire day, more like it. You’ve got yourself worked up over something.”
“Yeah.” Remus nodded slowly, all feeling in his shoulder and neck numbing as Sirius’ fingers worked him through his shirt. “Found some pretty weird things on those tablets, trying to figure them out.”
“Mmmhhh...” Sirius mumbled, pulling Remus’ shirt-tails out of his trousers and smoothed his palms over his back.
“Yesterday you were a lot more eager to get into my pants.”
“Yesterday I hadn’t had sex for weeks.” Sirius trailed his hands to the front and pulled Remus’ shirt out. “I want to appreciate the sexy for a bit, if you don’t mind...”
“Sexy? I’m an archaeologist.” Remus sounded amused. “I’m supposed to be dull.”
“Mhh. But you’re smart...clever is sexy.” Sirius grinned and moved his hands upwards to smooth over his chest. Remus’ scars tingled ever so lightly. “How do you say I’m sexy in Latin?”
“Uhm...sum pulcher,” Remus murmured.
“Ut est perficio, quod ego volo te concumbere,” Sirius murmured back. “Want to translate that?”
“You said...that’s perfect, because I’m going to shag you,” Remus replied not caring why Sirius could even speak Latin to begin with. “Ohgod, you speaking Latin’s got to be the sexiest thing ever...”
“Is it?”
“Yeah,” Remus said breathlessly and turned round to claim his lips in a hard kiss, pinning him to the door at the same time. “I want to hear more of it.” His voice was dark and husky against Sirius’ lips, and their crotches were pressing against each other with something akin to urgency lingering between them.
“Uh...fello...fuck,” Sirius exclaimed, bucking his hips forwards as his fingers quickly worked Remus’ shirt buttons open. Remus was sucking on his neck, hips pressing Sirius’ against the door, one hand loosely tangling in Sirius’ long hair while the other was under his shirt, rubbing over a hard nipple. “Can’t speak Latin when,” Sirius gasped, “you do that to me.”
Remus licked at the bruise he’d made on Sirius’ neck. “Let’s go straight to the part where you fuck me, then,” he growled softly and pushed himself off Sirius. Sirius gasped, eyes half lidded, watching Remus as he slid the shirt off and unbuckled his belt. Sirius pushed himself off the door, hastily pulling his clothes off and picking up the lube and condoms.
When he turned around, Remus was on his bed, naked except for the socks on his feet. Sirius noted that today they were brown and stripy, and then instantly shut that thought out of his mind – Remus was naked, his cock hard and dark, the tip touching his stomach.
“Gone speechless over there?” Remus remarked casually, but the strain of lust was evident in his voice. Sirius made a small, pathetic noise in the back of his throat and then lounged forward, pinning Remus down and snogging him fiercely. His hand wrapped around Remus’ cock and Remus bucked his hips with a moan. “I don’t have patience for – that,” he muttered and gently but firmly removed Sirius’ hand and turned around, lying flat on his stomach beneath Sirius.
“Okay, maybe I don’t either,” Sirius muttered and sat back. Remus shuffled a little till he was resting on his knees and hands, arse raised up in front of Sirius. “Uh – how much prep do you need?” Sirius asked unsteadily, placing one hand on Remus’ arse, unable to keep himself from touching.
“A lot,” Remus replied.
“Ohgod...” Sirius whimpered. “Going to make my balls explode?”
“Maybe you should just get going?”
“Oh...yeah...” Sirius uncapped the lube and slicked his fingers. He shifted lightly, then put his fingers against Remus and started prodding and stretching him – realising that he really did need a lot of finger work and gentle persuasion to make Remus open up. “How’s that?” he asked after a while, three fingers in Remus’ arse.
“Think it’s all right,” Remus answered, his voice strained. “Go on.”
“Okay.” Sirius withdrew his fingers and tore the condom wrapper open. He rolled it on and slicked himself up, rising up to position himself. “Ready?”
“Yeah, just go on.”
Sirius pushed in slowly, Remus immediately tensing around him with a loud groan. “Ow!” he muttered, pulling back out.
“Sorry...try again? It’ll get better...” Remus said, shuffling his legs a bit further apart. Sirius pushed in again, just as slow as before, until he was fully sheathed. Remus was breathing heavily, knuckles white in his sheets and Sirius was sure he was making a face.
“You all right?” Sirius asked. “Doesn’t hurt, does it?”
Remus shook his head. “Just a bit sore, that’s all.” He drew in a sharp breath. “You can move now.” Sirius moved his hips tentatively, but when Remus didn’t show any signs of discomfort, he grew bolder and started fucking him in earnest. He tried not to be too rough, but soon Remus was pushing back against him and shifting. When he let out a sharp cry, Sirius knew he’d found the position he was looking for.
He smoothed one hand over Remus’ back, the other gripping his hip tightly as he thrust into him, trying to keep them both steady. They were both shivering and flushed, Remus’ scars standing out white against his glowing skin. He was warm and delicious and tight and Sirius closed his eyes, holding on firmly. Remus was soon reduced to a whimpering mess, dropping down to his elbows with his face pressed into the sheets, sweat pearling down his temple.
Sirius Black had had many men in his life, a lot of awkward as well as mind blowing sex, and he was quite pleased that this piece of gorgeous man arse had walked into his life at this point of unwanted sexual stagnation. Not so much because he was starved for sex, but because this guy was fun and interesting and seemingly had no scruples at all about having his arse fucked into next week in his bed.
A very nice, fit arse at that.
He hitched a breath, pounding into Remus a little faster, a little harder, paying no attention to the hair falling in his face. He was close, all his heat pooling in his groin, tightening urgently. “Lupin,” he gasped and bit his lip. He needed only a few more frantic thrusts before he came, uttering nothing but a short growly moan. He pulled out and disposed of the condom effortlessly. “And now you,” he murmured, reaching round to wrap his hand firmly around Remus’ needy cock, pressing himself against him. Remus didn’t have the mind to reply, just whimpered and tried to raise his head.
Sirius only had to stroke him four times before he spilled over his hand with a strangled groan, all but collapsing against his bed. “Oh...” he panted, shivering. Sirius smiled and eased him down, not caring about his sheets getting dirtied – he’d cast a cleaning spell on them once Remus had left.
“You all right?” Sirius asked as he laid down next to him. He had to lie on his side in order for there to be enough space for both of them, his back pressing against the cold wall.
“Yeah...” Remus answered, not moving. Eventually he raised his head to look at him. “Thanks...that’s just what I needed.”
“Don’t thank me for fucking you,” Sirius replied with a grin. “My pleasure.”
Remus chortled. “Well...” he shrugged and decided to turn around, flopping down onto his back. He draped one arm over his eyes, taking a deep breath. “No headache,” he said after a while.”
“Good.” Sirius smiled. He gazed at Remus’ body as he lay there, long, lean but fit, and strewn over with scars. There was a smear of cum on Remus’ stomach that had his stomach making an excited little jolt. He touched one of the big nasty scars on his chest and traced it down to his side, where there was a mess of scars looking like something with very big and sharp teeth had tried to chew him out several times over. He traced the scar back and discovered that there was a thin scar stretching across his nipple. He winced inwardly, thinking about how painful that must’ve been.
“What day is it tomorrow?” Remus asked, lowering his arm.
“Saturday, I think.”
“Oh...” Remus sighed, frowning. “I should probably call Teddy tomorrow...”
Sirius tensed. Cheater, is he? he thought, glancing at his face. Remus looked pretty unconcerned. “Who’s Teddy?”
“My son.”
Oh. “Oh. You don’t have a wife waiting for you at home, do you?” Sirius asked, unable to help himself. To his surprise Remus chuckled.
“No. I’m very single and very uninterested in women,” he said, grinning. Sirius furrowed his brow.
“But how come...”
“Teddy’s the result of one fumbly night in which I tried to ascertain that I was definitely gay and not just having a life-long weird phase,” Remus explained. “Two things happened: I was convinced that I should stick to guys for the rest of my life, and she fell pregnant.”
“Oh wow. I guess that’s what you call bad luck?” Sirius said hesitantly.
“Sort of. I don’t regret it. The girl’s all right, we’re still friends.” Remus smiled defiantly. “And I love the kid.” He paused. “Want to see him?”
“Oh...sure.”
Sirius was slightly taken aback and not at all sure he wanted to see the son of the man he’d just shagged, but Remus leaned over the edge of the bed and fished his wallet out of his trouser pocket.
He took out two black and white photos and showed Sirius. “That’s him.”
The boy in the photographs didn’t look much older than five or maybe six. He was grinning widely in one, in the other he was lying on the floor looking at a picture book. Sirius smiled when he discovered that his hair was cut in the same way as Remus’, and was probably the same colour too, though he couldn’t tell. He looked a lot like Remus, actually, though his face was rounder.
“He looks like he’d be the same age as James’ kid,” Sirius said. “He’s five. Name’s Harry, he’s brilliant.”
“Teddy’s going to turn six in a couple of months. He’ll start school next year.”
Sirius handed the photos back and Remus tucked them carefully back into his wallet. “So will Harry.” Sirius smiled. “I’m actually his godfather. It’s pretty cool.”
“Teddy’s granddad is his godfather. Sort of had to be, since he was named after him and all...”
“No offence, Lupin, but I think it’s pretty funny your kid’s named Teddy.”
“Theodore,” Remus said. “I wasn’t going to name him something dumb like Beowulf or Wolfgang or Loup or something.”
“Guess you wouldn’t,” Sirius grinned.
“Nope.” Remus grinned back.
They lay there in silence for a while, Sirius going back to look at Remus’ scars. Remus had closed his eyes and was breathing softly, so softly Sirius almost thought he’d fallen asleep.
“I guess I should get going,” Remus said eventually, sighing. “I bet you want your bed back.”
“It’s no problem,” Sirius said, half wishing he could take out his wand and make his bed wider. “You want a shower before you crawl back into your clothes? You can use mine.”
“Can I?”
“Sure.”
“Thanks.” Remus got out of bed slowly and Sirius wondered just how sore the man was. He didn’t make a sound, however, and vanished into the bathroom. Shortly after the shower went on.
Sirius flopped down, stretching a little. Having his arse pressed against the wall wasn’t his favourite thing in the world, and not for the first time he cursed his small cabin bed. Maybe if I make the bed just a little bit wider, he won’t notice, he thought. He shook it off. Remus wasn’t stupid; he’d notice if the bed magically became large enough for both of them.
After several minutes of listening to the shower, he got out of bed and crossed the very short distance between his bed and the door. The door was ajar and steam was seeping out. He pushed it open and stepped inside, wondering if he was intruding.
He didn’t have a shower curtain or even a door; all he had was a little wall of sorts between the shower head and the sink, so he had full view of Remus. He was facing the water, head tilted upwards. His scars glowed red and Sirius figured the water must be pretty hot for them to do that. He also figured that he wouldn’t mind getting off with him again – this time in the shower.
“Mind if I join you in there, Lupin?” he asked.
Remus pulled his face out of the water and rubbed his eyes. He blinked at him, then slowly cracked into a grin. “No. Hold on, I’ll turn the temperature down to your usual.”
“How do you know how I like my water?”
“The mixer was fixed on forty degrees,” he said as he turned it down. “There. Should be all right now.”
Sirius stepped under the water, pressing himself lightly against Remus’ back. He let himself soak through, then leaned over his shoulder to get the soap.
“And here I thought you wanted a second round?” Remus asked amusedly. Sirius grinned as he lathered up the soap in his hands and started spreading it over his chest.
“I do. But I also need a wash,” he said, rubbing at his skin. “You want a wash?”
“Already did. Stole some of that stuff of yours.” He shrugged, but he was grinning and Sirius smoothed his hands over his chest, spreading lather everywhere. It leaked off with the water, forming river-like patterns over his skin.
Sirius closed his eyes and stepped under the water properly. He felt first a pair of lips against his own, then an entire body sliding against his as arms wrapped around him. “Mmmhh...” he smiled into the kiss.
They slid and rubbed against each other lazily, kissing and touching and nibbling. They didn’t have a hurry in the world, the water was hot and their bodies seemed to work together seamlessly. They clung to each other, open mouths clashing breathlessly as they reached their climax.
For a while they stood without speaking or moving in the slightest, water streaming over them.
“That was...unexpected,” Remus mumbled after a while. He looked positively exhausted. “Good night, Black.” He kissed him and then slipped out of the shower.
“There’s a clean towel – yes, there,” Sirius said. He leaned back against the shower wall, watching Remus dry himself and then pick his socks up from the floor. Of course. How could I have forgotten those? “Goodnight.”
By the time Sirius had washed his hair, turned the shower off and wrapped a towel round his waist, Remus was gone. He drew his wand out from its hiding place and sorted out the bed. He put a drying charm on himself as well. He didn’t like going to sleep with wet hair.
*
Sirius was trying not to keep an eye on the door. He was also trying not to eat his breakfast too slowly. In addition to the two things he was already trying not to do, he was trying not to glance at the empty seat opposite him which was where Remus usually sat during meals. James saw right through him. So did the majority of his crew mates.
“Sirius,” James grunted, not for the first time that morning. “What’s the matter with you?”
“Nothing.”
James rolled his eyes. “All right. You don’t have to tell me; I already know.” Sirius shot him a dirty look and finished his breakfast.
“I’m gonna go see what’s up.” He stood up and left, James shaking his head at him and muttering something under his breath.
Remus didn’t answer when Sirius knocked. There was no answer the second time either, or the third time, so Sirius quietly pushed the door open. He found that Remus was still asleep and wondered whether he should wake him up or leave him be. He looked like he was still in deep sleep and positively shattered.
He eventually decided on not waking him up and went back to breakfast.
“So?” James asked as Sirius flopped down on the bench next to him.
“He’s still sleeping.”
“Did you wake him up?”
“Nope,” Sirius answered. “He’s knackered.” He picked up his mug and went to get more coffee. James was giving him The Look when he returned to his seat.
“So,” James simply stated. Sirius ignored him. “Knackered, you say.”
“It got pretty late last night,” Sirius said casually.
“Late.”
Sirius shot him a look. “He was still working when I went downstairs.” It wasn’t a lie, technically, as Remus had indeed been working when he had gone downstairs, he just chose to omit any mention of what had happened afterwards.
“I see.”
“Drop it, James. It’s none of your business anyway.”
“But it’s yours?” James pressed on. “I can see what’s happening here, Sirius.”
“Nothing is happening.” Sirius got up, deciding he didn’t want to deal with James, but in the same moment Remus Lupin walked into the room. Sirius promptly sat down again, ignoring James’ looks of Told You So.
“Morning,” Remus mumbled and got himself a mug of coffee. As an afterthought he put some sugar into it.
“Morning,” Sirius said. James was still staring at him, so he elbowed him in the side. Remus joined them by the table, sitting down very carefully.
“Christ,” James mumbled almost inaudibly and shot Sirius a dirty look of I Knew It, that Sirius did his very best to ignore. “I’ll be upstairs,” he said and left, whacking Sirius’ head. Sirius whacked him back.
“You’re late up.”
“Yeah.” Remus nodded, nursing his coffee as if it were his last straw of hope.
“You look like death run over,” Sirius said. “If you don’t mind me saying.”
Remus snorted. “I feel like death ran me over.” He silenced. “Though at least I don’t have a headache,” he said after a while. Sirius couldn’t help a grin.
“Great.”
“Mmmh.”
“I’ll be upstairs if you need me,” Sirius informed him as he refilled his coffee mug. Remus only nodded and sipped his coffee.
Sirius lingered in the door indecisively but then the chef sent him a Look he must’ve learned from James, so he fled the scene. He seated himself in front of the whale screen, cradling his mug. The whales were in the fjord now but a quick glance out the window told Sirius they weren’t near enough to be seen from the ship.
He could get used to Remus being around. He was like a refreshing breath of air, something new and exciting on a ship that had been the same for a month, a new personality to gauge and get to know. The sex was a plus. He could get used to the routine they seemed to be establishing; chats and insinuations during the day, hot sex at night. A good night kiss, a good night’s sleep, and the whole thing would start over. He could definitely get used to that.
James was giving him Looks. Sirius was ignoring them. His coffee was getting cold. James was about to actually say something to Sirius when Remus appeared.
“Can I borrow the phone?”
“Of course,” Sirius said, gesturing at the phone booth. “You know how it works.”
“Thanks.” Remus went inside and dialled a number. “Hello? It’s me, Remus.” He’d forgotten to close the door completely, so his voice drifted through to Sirius and James. “Can I have Teddy on the phone?”
James went over and sat next to Sirius. “He’s calling some Teddy person,” he said in a low voice with an air of Watch Out or it will end in I Told You So.
“His son,” Sirius replied unperturbedly. He sipped his coffee, which was by now lukewarm and not very appetizing. “Harry’s age.”
“You haven’t been lying on the lazy side, I see,” James commented. “You have nicknames for each other yet?”
“...I miss you too. Of course! I think about you aaaall the time...”
“It’s not like that,” Sirius said. “Really. I’m just.” He shrugged. “Getting laid. It’s nice, you know.”
James gave Sirius one of his speculative Looks. Sirius was getting rather tired of those.
“...Greenland is very cold, but there are whales. No I haven’t seen them yet, but I might today...Oh, I’m sorry Teddy, but I left the camera at home. I can get you a postcard with a whale on it, how does that sound?”
“Sirius,” James said and leaned in close, speaking in an extremely low voice. “Last time you got involved with a Muggle guy –”
“Is not something we talk about, James,” Sirius cut him off. “Michel was a bastard, end of story. It’s no big deal anymore, is it.”
James only sighed.
“This is not like the last time anyway,” Sirius continued. “He’s a nice guy, but he’s got a nicer arse, all right, so just leave it be. I’m not going to be heartbroken or anything.”
“...Of course I’ll call again...I love you, Ted. I’ve got to run now, all right? Love you.”
When Remus emerged from the phone booth, he found Sirius looking out the window and at the whale screen in turns. James was standing next to him.
“Whales coming closer?” Remus asked, walking up next to them.
“Yep,” James answered and pointed out. There wasn’t anything much to see, but every once in a while there was a gust of water in the air somewhere far away. “We could try to lure them closer, but I think they’ll come anyway. They’re curious creatures.”
“That’d be brilliant,” Remus said.
“Yes,” Sirius agreed.
“Do you think you could make a trip to the wreck before...well, before the whales come in?”
“Pretty sure I could. There isn’t much left in form of tablets in the wreck anyway, so it should be a quick trip.”
“That would be more than brilliant.”
“More brilliant than the whales?”
“Almost more brilliant than the whales.”
“I’ll go right away. James, wanna help me?” Sirius nudged his friend. James nodded. “Great. You happen to want anything more than tablets from the wreck, Lupin? Once you’ve been through them all you’re going to need more toys to play with.”
“Lucky I have you to provide me with toys, then,” Remus deadpanned. “But to answer your question: No, I don’t want anything else.”
Remus and James got into boots and warm clothing and went outside. There were still occasional gusts of water in the distance. Surprisingly, Sirius didn’t make a big number out of showing off his sexy arse in his diver’s suit before getting into the water. Remus stood next to James, looking at the water and Sirius’ lifeline, and the occasional bubbles coming up from the wreck.
It was cold.
“Sirius tells me you’ve a son,” James eventually said. Remus mumbled something affirmative.
“Teddy. He’ll turn six in a couple of months.”
“Mine’s Harry. He’ll turn six in July.” James smiled. “He’ll start school right after, although Lily’s been teaching him to read already.”
Remus smiled back. “Teddy can’t read yet, but he can set things on fire.” He grinned. “Well, it was only the once.”
“Really?” James chuckled. “Harry once managed to flood the bathroom. It soaked through the entire top floor of the house.” He dug a wallet out of his back pocket and drew a photograph out to show Remus. “That’s him, standing right in the middle of the mess and looking very proud of himself.”
“He looks just like you,” Remus said with a warm smile. “That looks massive, though. Was there a lot of damage?”
“Nah, Lily managed to sort it out.” James smiled fondly and stuck the photo back into his wallet, taking another out to show Remus. This one was a family picture; James and a red-haired woman that must be Lily and baby Harry between them. “That’s Lily.”
“She’s pretty.”
James nodded and put the picture back. “She’s gorgeous.” He drew out another picture. “Oh, you should see this one. That was the time Harry got stuck in the tree in our garden and couldn’t get down again. Didn’t want to either, he said, said he liked it up there all right.”
Remus grinned. “Boys have an unnatural fascination with trees, don’t they? Mine insists on getting a tree house. Only problem is I don’t have a garden and neither does his mum, so he won’t be getting one any time soon.”
“I think it’ll be only a matter of time before Harry starts asking for one,” James chuckled. “Hey, does yours like dinosaurs as well?”
“Ohgod, don’t mention the dinosaurs...I took him to the museum one day. At the time there was a big exhibition on dinosaurs and there was a big skeleton of a...I don’t remember. I think it was a Brontosaurus. Teddy loved it. He refused to leave when it was time to go home.” Remus smiled affectionately and pulled out his wallet. He showed James the photo of Teddy reading a picture book. “I got him that book after. It’s full of dinosaur pictures.”
“He takes after you,” James remarked. “Like father like son, eh?” He grinned.
“That’s what they say, yeah,” Remus grinned back.
There was a tug on the line and James started winding it back slowly. Not long after the head of Sirius Black popped out of the water. He waved enthusiastically and made for the ship.
“I only found four – well, two whole ones and two broken parts. I don’t know if they belong together.” Sirius put the net down carefully. He then pushed the goggles off his face. “So, do I get candy now?”
Remus looked up at him with a frown, but then it dawned on him. “Oh! Of course.” He grinned. James was in the process of doing a very literal facepalm. Remus and Sirius both ignored him.
“Cool. You don’t want anything else from the wreck? Because I’d rather not change only to get into this thing again in half an hour.”
“No, I’m good. Thank you.” Remus picked up the net and brought it inside, leaving James and Sirius to deal with the diving mess.
James looked at Sirius. “Candy?”
“It’s pretty good candy.” Sirius shrugged, then grinned. “It’s real candy, by the way.”
“Says you, the king of bad puns and euphemisms.” James looked up suddenly, brow furrowed.
“What is it?” Sirius turned around to see what he was looking at. “Is that – is that an owl?”
“Bloody hell if that isn’t an owl!” James cursed. “I told Lily she couldn’t owl me out here!”
“Quiet for fuck’s sake, James!” Sirius hissed. “Got your...? Mine’s in my cabin. Can you put an illusion charm on it from here?”
“Mine’s in my cabin too, moron. It’s not like we have a lot of use for those out here, is it?” James snapped back. “Besides, what were you going to put on it? Make it look like a cloud or what? A cloud speeding towards us with flapping wings?”
“Shut up.” Sirius scowled. The owl was coming closer with considerate speed, and soon James was attempting to make it sit on his arm so he could retrieve the letter.
“Stupid bird!” James burst out and the owl bit his finger. “Well then! Fuck off!” he said, glaring at it angrily. The owl dropped the letter quite harshly at Sirius’ head and flew up to sit on the railing, glowering at them.
“This thing’s for me,” Sirius said, having picked up the letter. It was slightly wet, having landed on a wet spot on the deck. “What...” he saw the Ministry seal on the envelope and groaned loudly.
“Some ex harassing you?”
“No, it’s from the Ministry.” Sirius scowled at the letter and then opened it. The envelope was thick and inside there were several documents and letters. He leafed through them, face darkening. “My father decided to snuff it,” he said, irritated. “I’m wanted in London.”
“What for?” James asked. “Couldn’t your brother take care of the matter?”
“Apparently not...” Sirius muttered, leafing through the documents again. “Apparently my brother isn’t mentioned in the will...they need me to get in touch so that I can sign some papers and get all this stuff. You know, Reg can have it all, I don’t care...oh fuck...right, so...” Sirius scowled at the letter again. “I’m not going to go to fucking London and deal with those asshats now. Great fucking timing!”
“Are you going to let him have all of it?”
Sirius shrugged. “Might as well. I have no use for it. I don’t want it.” He shoved the documents back into the envelope. “I’m going to get changed.”
He flung the letter carelessly onto his desk before stripping out of the suit. He didn’t bother with a shower and merely put a light scrubbing and drying spell on himself. Sirius quite liked how the spells left a faint whiff of sea on his skin that the shower would’ve washed off.
The sea was his home, more or less, these days. He liked that whenever he looked out of the window he could see the sea and its vast promises. The Muggle world was his home; a place that didn’t confine him or harbour expectations on his behalf. He wasn’t about to be dragged back into the wizarding world, kicking and screaming obscenities as he was tied down to manage the Black fortunes and estates.
Sirius sighed and picked up the letter. He flung himself onto his bed and started reading it properly, going through every document from the beginning to the end. He quickly realised that his father’s will was a standard Black will, entitling everything to the first born son unconditionally, which meant that his father hadn’t written his own will. Perhaps he hadn’t got around to it. That explains why Reg’s not mentioned in the will, he thought to himself. Bother.
A little card dropped from the little stack of documents and flipped onto his stomach. Sirius didn’t have to look at it to know it was a note from Regulus.
Sirius,
Sorry about bothering you, but the Ministry insisted. I’m trying to sort things out, but I think we can’t fix this unless you come to London.
Take care,
Reg.
P.S. The funeral will be held on Wednesday, should you be interested in attending.
There was a sharp knock on the door and then James popped in. “Hey. Fed the owl and sent it back empty handed. It wasn’t very pleased with me – I think it was meant to wait for a reply from you.” James shrugged. “Sorry about your dad, though.”
“Don’t be,” Sirius replied. “You know I don’t care. Be sorry about the mess I’m in instead.” He sighed and flipped Regulus’ note at James. “Reg says hi. Well not literally, but you know what he’s like.”
James caught the note between his thumb and forefinger and gave it a look. “Are you going to the funeral?”
“No.” Sirius shrugged. “Why should I? I’m perfectly fine up here.”
“Reg wants you to,” James replied simply, handing the note back. Sirius felt a surge of guilt rush through him, realising that James was right. He looked at the note, seeing now the unspoken wish between the lines.
“Well...” he sighed. “He’s upset, I know that...” he trailed off. “More like devastated, I think.”
James didn’t utter a word.
“Bloody hell,” Sirius said regretfully. “Suppose I have to go, after all.” He sighed again.
“I’ll call Tom over on Scavenger and see if he’ll send the ‘copter over?”
“Yeah...” Sirius answered reluctantly.
“Lupin’s not going to run away, Sirius.” James winked. Sirius threw his pillow at him.
“Screw you.”
*
To Remus’ immense relief, the two whole tablets Sirius had brought up constituted the missing parts of the counter-charm. The two broken pieces contained inventory lists. He scanned his transcriptions and translations and filed them away.
He had a strangely empty feeling inside, now that he’d finished work on the tablets. There were no more according to Sirius, and if there were...well, they wouldn’t be found until the wreck was heaved out of the water. He looked at the magical tablets, the empty feeling turning to one of dread.
Remus shook it off and picked up the laptop. He was going to send Oxley the new files before lunch, and perhaps give him a call – maybe he had something to add to his theories. Maybe he even had new orders for him.
James wasn’t in the control room, but Sirius was.
“Hey, Indiana,” Sirius said listlessly. He was flipping a little note card over and over in his hands.
“Hey. Can I use your internet?”
“Of course...I don’t know how to hook you up, though. I’ll call James on the intercom for you.” Sirius stood up, sticking the note into his pocket.
“I’ll just use the phone in the meantime, then...” Remus gave Sirius a speculative look. Was it just his fancy, or had the irritating American drawl dropped from his manner of speech?
“Go ahead.”
Remus put the laptop down on the table and went into the phone booth as Sirius called James on the intercom. It didn’t take long for him to establish a connection with London and Oxley.
“Lupin! About bloody time! Do you have any idea what you’ve got on your hands?”
“Er,” Remus said. “I have my suspicions, yes. They haven’t changed since my email, which I presume you’ve read...”
“Did you look at the inventory lists at all?”
“Not really, no. I’ve been more preoccupied with the other tablets.”
“Well, listen, I put Rolfe and Pettigrew on the inventory lists and –”
“Pettigrew?” Remus asked sharply. “Why him?”
“Because he was available, why else, Lupin?” there was a tone of mock in Oxley’s voice. “We’re undermanned, as you very well know.”
“I don’t trust him.”
“Lupin –”
“I’m serious, Oxley. I don’t trust him. I’m convinced he’s the reason why El Dorado failed – Pettigrew had access to all the information I obtained and I’m sure he leaked every single juicy bit –”
“Lupin, mind yourself!” Oxley said sharply. “You cocked that one up, now get over it and pay attention!”
Remus made a face and swallowed bitterly. “Yes.”
“The lists were inventory lists from the Library of Alexandria,” Oxley informed him. “It’s not a complete listing of the library’s documents; it’s a mumble jumble list of items that we reckon were taken from the library at some point for relocation, most likely in haste. Do you follow me?”
“Yes,” Remus replied, his heart fluttering in his chest. “Do you mean to say that parts of the library were evacuated?”
“Yes. Now listen. The majority of the documents on the list correspond with listing of documents from Alexander’s time – documents that were lost when the library burned. Letters, Alexander’s personal documents, inventory lists, family trees, more letters...what’s perhaps most important are Alexander’s personal documents. The man was a great warrior and tactician, not to mention one of the most powerful wizards in history. Do you understand my implication, Lupin?”
“In these documents there would not only be plans and tactics, but also the means with which to employ them,” Remus stated. “Ohgod. If those resurfaced at the wrong moment, in the hands of the wrong person –”
“Exactly. As it is, Alexander’s dead body in his fancy golden sarcophagus is just a bonus, if that turns up. The documents, however...” Oxley sighed. Remus could tell he was rubbing the bridge of his nose. “They’re dangerous.”
Finding them alone is dangerous, if the protecting charm is anything to go by, Remus thought to himself.
“And you want me to go looking?” Remus asked, half hoping he would be sent off, half hoping he wouldn’t. Sitting on a boat for two weeks twiddling his thumbs seemed much more appealing than going on a dangerous hunt for dangerous documents hidden by a mortally dangerous charm somewhere in the world. Particularly if he was right in his suspicions and Pettigrew was feeding Poussin information – having Poussin on his heels wasn’t going to make it any less stressful.
He was not going to be thwarted by Poussin again.
“...next full moon.”
“What?” Remus asked, silently reproaching himself for having let his mind wander.
“You’ve got until the next full moon, Lupin. It’s going to be difficult to keep this news down, so I’d prefer it if you’d be done with it as quickly as possible.”
“All right.”
“The helicopter will pick you up on Thursday. Same route in reverse. Squeeze as much information out of the wreck as you can before your departure and send it to me.”
“All right,” Remus replied automatically.
“Clear, then?”
“Clear.”
Remus hung up. He stared at the phone. He wasn’t going to update Oxley with anything pertaining to his new mission anymore – not so long as Pettigrew was handling the information. He ran his hand through his hair idly, thinking, wondering whether he’d already ratted out to Poussin and whether he was already horribly behind.
And then he realised that today was Sunday and that if he had to wait for bloody Thursday, he could just as well give up.
“Bloody hell,” Remus muttered to himself irritatedly as he emerged from the booth. Sirius and James looked at him, brows wrinkled in question. “I’ve been called back to London,” Remus explained with an annoyed flicker of his hand. “Urgently. And I’ve got to wait until bloody Thursday for that helicopter to pick me up again...”
James glanced at Sirius pointedly.
“Well...” Sirius started, looking strangely torn and hopeful. “I’m going to London myself...tomorrow. You could hitch a ride with me?”
Remus gave him an incredulous look. “Are you kidding me?”
“No.” Sirius shrugged unconcernedly. “I’ve got a helicopter on one of the smaller ships. It’ll come over either later tonight or early tomorrow. There’s room for one more passenger.”
“Oh...” Remus blinked, then a grin spread on his lips. “In that case, I’ll hitch a ride with you.” The prospect of maybepossibly getting a head start over Poussin was cheering him up immensely.
Sirius smiled. “Great. You can come back with me later if you need to, I’ll be returning here on Thursday at the latest.”
Remus frowned. “Er, I won’t be coming back...I’ve been, uh, sent on a treasure hunt,” he said lamely.
“We heard.” James shrugged carelessly, nodding at the booth. He glanced at Sirius again. “Something about documents and library, was it?”
“Well...yes...” Remus sighed. “I’m not supposed to tell you this, but here goes: The evidence from the wreck suggests that an amount of documents and...artefacts were moved from the Library of Alexandria to some hidden location. The library later burned down.”
“Whoa.” Sirius and James looked at each other and Remus. “Are you supposed to go look for the stuff?”
“Yep.”
“Right, Indiana.” Sirius grinned.
James rolled his eyes at him. “How’d you know where to start looking?”
“Problem is, I don’t...” Remus frowned, thinking back on the letters and the crude drawing. Thinking about it, didn’t the drawing resemble a simple map? “It could be anywhere...well, some places I can eliminate...” He suddenly remembered something Sirius had told him. “Potter, you know stuff about currents and such?”
“’Currents and such’?” James asked, looking at Sirius. “Can’t possibly guess where you got that information from. But yes, I do.”
“Would you be able to figure out the course of a ship?”
“Yes, I would. You mean the wreck?”
“Yes.” Remus marched over to his laptop. He quickly pulled the translations of the letters and the copy of the drawing onto the screen. “This boat – it was probably one of a smaller fleet – sailed from the Mediterranean Sea and somehow ended up here.” Remus pointed out the window. “There are a few clues as to where they could’ve been in these letters...and this map, drawing, could be the location I need, though I really cannot know for sure. Do you think, that with this information, you could map out possible routes?”
James sat down and read the documents, a look of immense concentration on his face. Remus could almost see the cogs in his brain turning. “I think I can. There are a couple of important clues here. Do you mind if I transfer these to my own computer?”
“No,” Remus replied. “How about the drawing? Do you make any sense of it?”
“Well...If it is a map, it should be possible to figure out...how old are these things?” James got up and pulled a few cables out of the terrifying cupboard and soon Remus’ laptop was hooked up to...well, a lot of things, including James’ computer.
“Two thousand years and then some.”
“All right...that does make it more tricky,” James said, twinkle of excitement in his eyes. “I like a good challenge.”
“That he does,” Sirius commented. “It took four years before Lily would date him.”
“Anyway,” James continued, his voice a little bit louder than necessary. “The earth’s changed quite a bit in two thousand years, and...” he trailed off, opening a programme. “I’ve got access to databases that’ll help me work it all out.”
“How soon do you think you’ll have something for me?” Remus asked. James paused to think.
“I can simulate the wreck’s route today...it might run through to tomorrow. Finding a location match to the drawing is trickier. The place may not even exist anymore...provided it does, even if it exists in the same shape as it did back then, it’s like finding a needle in a haystack. Earth’s huge, Lupin. It can take weeks. We might even get several matches.”
Remus sat down, thinking hard. Rolfe and Pettigrew were probably already doing the same thing, except he knew they didn’t have access to the same kind of technology as James had right here. Still, perhaps Poussin did, or knew someone that did...He looked at the computer screen and saw that James had already started a simulation program for the wreck’s route and was typing in factors while consulting the letters. James seemed a decent guy. Suppose he could stay in touch with him about this...
Sirius caught his attention when he walked over to the window, fiddling with the note again. Remus could see the paper getting worn.
“All right,” Remus eventually said. “Potter, I’ll owe you big time if you’ll do me the favour. I’ll give you my mobile number so you can get in touch and let me know how things are proceeding.”
Sirius turned away from the window abruptly. “The whales are right outside,” he said, pocketing the note. He didn’t sound half as enthusiastic about it as he’d done previously.
“Really?” Remus leapt to his feet to look out the window. He grinned in delight when he saw a large whale tail slide into the water with a light flick. He briefly wished he’d thought to bring his camera.
“Let’s go out and have a look,” James said and grabbed the intercom. “Everybody! There’s a bunch of whales showing off for us outside. Free entry, bring your own booze.”
They pulled their coats on and went outside, where they were joined by most of the crew. Remus was enthralled. There was a skeleton of a blue whale in the museum, but it was nothing compared to this – live whales in natural environment, frolicking in the sea and making a lot of noise.
“I’ll be back in a bit,” Sirius said, nudging Remus lightly. “Don’t go anywhere.”
“Won’t,” Remus replied. “What sort of whale are those?” he asked James.
“Bowhead whales, I think...yup, looks like it.” James grinned. “Grand things, aren’t they?”
“Yup.”
Sirius reappeared by his side and handed Remus an old fashioned camera. “You can use this. Just click that button and a picture pops out at the front.”
“How’d you know?” Remus asked, genuinely surprised. Sirius gave him a small smile.
“Overheard you talk to your son on the phone. Go on. I don’t think they’ll stick around forever.” He motioned towards the whales that seemed to like the attention very much. Remus’ face split into a wide smile.
“Thank you.”
Sirius was strangely quiet the rest of the day, and if Remus was honest with himself it unsettled him. He had grown used to Sirius’ innuendos directed towards himself and his banter with James, but he didn’t speak much. When he did speak, he sounded as British as himself, albeit with a clear West London dialect. He didn’t seem to have noticed, and neither had anyone else, which led Remus to think that this was a most normal occurrence.
The helicopter arrived in the middle of dinner and Sirius left the table to sort that business out. He didn’t return to the meal.
“What’s up with Black?” Remus eventually asked James.
“Doesn’t want to go to London.”
“Oh.” Remus frowned. “Why’s he going, then?”
James gave him a speculative look. “Why are you asking?”
“Just...er, curious.”
“Ask him yourself. Maybe he’ll tell you.” James pointed his fork at him. “If I know him right he’ll indulge you.”
Remus went to his work room after dinner. He checked that the illusion charm on the magical tablets was still intact, and made sure that he had all the documents he needed. Remus went back to his cabin with half a mind, intending to pack all his things so that he could get onto the helicopter anytime. He would go find Black afterwards, he’d decided.
He’d just secured his laptop in its case when there was a soft knock on his door. “Come in!”
The door opened quietly. “Hey. The helicopter’s leaving right after breakfast.” Sirius walked in. “Thought you’d like to know.”
“Yeah, thanks.” Remus gave him a small smile. “Thanks again for letting me use your camera.” He nodded towards the desk, atop which sat three Polaroids.
“You’re welcome.” Sirius picked up the photos. “They turned out pretty good.”
“Yeah...” Remus straightened up. “Uhm, if you don’t mind me asking...where did your American accent go?”
Sirius gave him a startled look, then blushed. “Oh...uhm...” He shrugged awkwardly. “I’m not American. I just like people to think I am, sometimes.”
“Yeah?” Remus cocked an eyebrow. “To be honest I thought the American was a turn off. I like you better British.”
Sirius suddenly smiled. “How long are you staying in London before you have to go on your treasure hunt in foreign countries and jungles and stuff?” he asked.
“Er, I don’t know. A couple of days. I’ll have to drop past the museum, I’ve got to look up some things...go see my son before I leave again, that sort of thing.” Remus shrugged. Sirius nodded.
“Well, if you want to hang out for a bit...” he trailed off. “I could do with the distraction.”
“What’s bothering you?”
“It’s a long story.”
“Suppose I have all evening and the night to go with it?” Remus smiled.
“I’ll tell you the short version.” Sirius smiled back tentatively.
“All right.” Remus opened his suitcase and started sorting things into it. “Mind if I pack my stuff while you talk?”
“No.” Sirius shook his head and sat down on Remus’ bed. “Uhm, well...” He thought for a while. “Okay. Well, I come from a rich family. Filthy rich, that sort, you know...as the first born son I was raised to take over the fortune and all that, so I was taught all sorts of things. Nothing wrong with that, really, stuff like that happens all the time.”
He shrugged. Remus glanced at him and then took down the clothes he’d hung on the wardrobe doors and started folding them properly.
“Anyway, I have a brother who’s a bit younger than me. He wasn’t expected to do any of the things I was, and my parents were a lot softer on him than on me, so he was really close to them.” He looked at Remus. He felt tense. “The point here isn’t that I’m bitter and unloved and that crap, because I’m not, and it’s not the point anyway.”
“Okay,” Remus answered. He held Sirius’ gaze for a moment, then rummaged through his toiletries bag until he found what he was looking for. It was a little jar of salve that he usually used on his joints after the full moon; it warmed and made him feel more relaxed. “Take your shirt off.”
Sirius raised an eyebrow at him, but took his shirt off nonetheless and continued talking. “I abandoned that life, pretty much. I went my own way. I don’t want the family fortune – I want to make my own, that sort of thing. I don’t believe you can come by life easily...I don’t want to inherit half the world and do with it as I please.”
Remus sat down on the bed and toed his shoes off. “That’s a pretty good philosophy. You’re the kind of guy who wants to see the world and make of it what you can, according to your abilities and all that, or how does it go?” He crawled up behind Sirius and nudged him to move into the space between his legs.
“Yeah, pretty much. I did have a little personal share to make do with – I invested it all in the first NSSA vessel. I technically couldn’t afford the shirt on my back after that, but you know what? It was great. I was used to getting everything I pointed at, but working for it – it was exhilarating. “ Sirius smiled. Remus rubbed his shoulders.
“What happened then?”
“Well...” Sirius paused, thinking. “Well, then I guess my mother died. It’s some time ago now...and I’m not sorry – well I guess I am a little. I can’t explain it. There wasn’t ever much bad blood between us, we were just...indifferent? And anyway the disappointment of me having run away probably squelched whatever we had.” He rolled his shoulders under Remus’ hands. “That’s nice.”
“Thanks.” Remus paused to open the jar and smooth some salve over his palms before he continued.
“Uhm, anyway, I wasn’t at home – in England I mean – when it happened. My brother was crushed, naturally. He sent me a letter, informing me of what had happened, but I didn’t go see him. I didn’t think much of it at the time and it seemed pointless. When I saw him a couple of weeks later I found out what a big scandal it’d been that I hadn’t been at my own mother’s funeral, and that he’d been pretty devastated,” Sirius sighed.
Remus stayed silent, rubbing the salve into Sirius’ shoulders and up his neck. His neck in particular was tense, and he hoped the salve would let him ease up a little.
“Anyway, when I saw him, I told him he could have it all. Our father had been ill and weak for a long while, so my brother was practically running the family business. He loved doing it. It’s the sort of life that he’s comfortable with leading, you know?” Sirius turned around and Remus nodded. He turned back again. “Well, now our father’s dead and the funeral is on Wednesday, and my brother’s crushed because his dad’s dead, and my first thought was I don’t want to go when what I really should’ve been thinking was how do I get to my brother and make sure he’s all right?”
Sirius looked at his hands and picked at something on one of his thumbs.
“My father never managed to write his will, either, so everything goes to me – everything I’ve been trying to avoid is mine now, and I don’t want it, and that’s what I was thinking about when I got my brother’s letter...I feel like a monster for only thinking about myself while my brother is crushed and trying to sort out the inheritance business on my behalf because he knows I want nothing to do with it! He’s putting himself aside for me yet again – ungrateful me that didn’t want to go to London because the prospect of not having regular sex for a while was off-putting.” Sirius snorted and crossed his arms indignantly.
“So that’s what’s been bothering you all day?” Remus asked in a soft voice.
“That and the fact that if I do go to London I’ll by mobbed by lawyers and I’ll be forced to receive my inheritance – and I’ll be tied down having to manage the business and the estates and the fortune and all that crap.” Sirius sighed. “I’m really such an ungrateful bastard. I have everything. I just, I just don’t want it. I like the simple life, I like being out here, I like having no strings attached to anything, I like being able to do what I want without the press picking up on it, you know...I like my freedom.”
“What’s to say that you can’t let your brother manage it all in your absence?”
“Can’t. It’s a clause in the family law and all. Only the sons of the Head of the family can do it. They’re heirs after all. Siblings are seen as potential threats.” He snorted. “It’s all very paranoid.”
“I see.” Remus rubbed his thumbs over Sirius’ neck.
“Yeah. So...I’ll be returning to here to hide from everyone, provided they don’t manage to get hold on me first.” Sirius sighed. “That stuff you’ve got there is pretty nice. Where’d you get it?”
“My doctor. I’ve got problems with my joints every now and then.” Remus smiled. “Feeling a bit better?”
“Yeah. Thanks.” Sirius stretched under his hands. “So...do you want to hang out in London?”
II
Remus tried not to slam the door behind him as he left. Oxley was more than irritating; despite being a good boss most of the time, he belonged to the group of people that were merciless when they thought they were right or plainly wanted to be right.
It didn’t help that it was a fact that Remus was the most competent worker in the whole department, if not the museum, and that he was also a werewolf. Those two things didn’t fit together in Oxley’s world, and he only grudgingly acknowledged Remus’ proficiency. The fact that he was a werewolf only gave him an excuse not to believe him when he said something that contrasted with Oxley’s beliefs or jeopardized his conception of truthful things, all of which were selective.
Like just now.
Oxley had refused to take Pettigrew off the case – even though there wasn’t much of a case as of yet – just because Remus wanted him to.
Remus spent a few seconds composing himself and calming down. He wasn’t really allowed to get angry, or he would, due to his unfortunate state of being a werewolf, be detained and examined. Remus briefly wondered why they thought that his latent wolf would have anything to do with anger – normal people got angry too, and they weren’t poked and pricked at in an attempt to blame it on murderous tendencies connected to a bestial nature.
The sound of soft steps echoed down the hallway and Remus looked up to the shadow of someone walking past. Someone quite familiar, in fact. Remus frowned and hurried down the hallway, but when he reached the end of it, no one was in sight. Still, that someone had gone down to the left; the direction of his office. Pettigrew’s and Rolfe’s offices lay down to the right.
Remus stood there in conflict with himself, trying not to jump to conclusions and pursue a shadow just because it had a similarity to a certain someone. In the end he sighed and went down to the right and knocked on Rolfe’s office door, since McFarland was still in Asia.
“Come in!”
Rolfe was younger than him, a newly appointed wizard that was extremely eager to prove his worth.
“Rolfe,” Remus said. “I need you to do me a very, very big favour.”
“Uh, sure?” Rolfe looked up from a pile of prints that Remus recognised as his translations.
“All right, now listen.” He leaned over the desk secretively. “Have you heard of El Dorado?”
“The fias- yes?”
“Well, maybe you don’t know that it was a leak from this museum that enabled Poussin to get an advantage over me,” Remus spoke in a low voice. “I suspect Pettigrew. Now, as I’m sure you’re aware of, I’ll be going on a ‘hunt’. Problem is just, if Pettigrew is leaking all our information to Poussin –”
“This is so conspiratorial,” Rolfe said excitedly. “What do you want me to do?”
“I need you to keep an eye on him. I also need you to report to me directly if anything new crops up, and I also need you to keep that information away from Pettigrew. Shouldn’t be too hard, should it?”
“No, not at all!” Rolfe exclaimed eagerly. “Wow!”
Remus sighed. “I need you to be subtle.”
“I can do subtle!”
“If it looks like Pettigrew is doing something suspicious – like contacting someone he shouldn’t – let me know.”
“All right!”
“Good.” Remus straightened himself up. “Thank you.”
“No problem!” Rolfe grinned excitedly. Remus mentally facepalmed. Putting his trust in Rolfe seemed like a ridiculous thing to do, but he was his only ally in the wizarding world. He gave him a friendly smile and left.
Remus found Poussin lounging in the visitor’s chair in his office.
“Get out before I hex your balls off,” Remus said as he strode in and went round his desk. He drew his wand. “I assure you, I have absolutely no scruples in that regard.”
“I quite fancy your chair, Remus. Where did you get it?” Poussin slid his hands over the polished wood on the armrests. “Very comfortable.”
“It’s Lupin to you. Now, what did I say about hexing balls? If you prefer, I could also transform them into something very uncomfortable. I recently learned how to create a good cactus.”
“No need to be hostile, Remus. I dropped by simply to say hello to an old friend.” Poussin smiled innocently. Remus snorted.
“Given the fact that the last time I saw you in person you’d just fired a potentially mortal curse at me as well as trapped me in a highly unstable magical pyramid, I’d say you’re not here for a friendly chat.”
“No, I came here because I’m bored and I haven’t bullied you in far too long,” Poussin replied haughtily. “And of course because I’d heard of your new mission. I wish you good luck.”
“Do you really?” Remus raised an eyebrow at him. “I will have you know that I’ve used up today’s quota of patience for annoying people, so I’ll advise you to leave.”
Poussin got up cheerfully. “Or I’ll find my balls transformed into cactuses? Can’t have that happen. I’ll see you later, Remus. Oh, sorry, Lupin.”
Remus flicked his wand and Poussin was hurled out of the office. The door swung shut after him.
“Well, great,” Remus muttered.
He apparated home and slumped down on his sofa. He’d been back in England for all of two hours – his suitcase was still by the door where he’d left it, still packed – and he had already had a row with Oxley and had a run-in with his nemesis, someone who wasn’t supposed to be in England in the first place.
The only thing left now was for Sirius to cancel on him with regards to the evening, or Tonks to inform him that she’d suddenly gone on holiday to Nepal or something equally ridiculous so he wouldn’t be able to see Teddy. Or both. Anything was possible.
Remus put the coffee maker in the kitchen on with a flick of his wand and summoned the pile of Daily Prophets by his window. He smiled goofily at nothing in particular; every time he’d been in the Muggle world, even for a brief period of time, he felt relieved to use magic again for simple every day things.
He briefly considered the small stack of Prophets and then decided he couldn’t be bothered. He couldn’t imagine anything having happened in the four days he’d been away that deserved his immediate attention.
Remus hadn’t even made it inside his flat before the evening edition of the Daily Prophet was thrown at him indignantly. He looked up to see the owl already gone and then bent down to pick it up.
He choked on his breath – or would, if he were prone to such things – when he saw the headline and the photo beneath it.
BLACK HEIR RETURNS FOR FATHER’S FUNERAL, the headline said, and the photograph showed two dark-haired men hug each other. One was very obviously sobbing while the other was trying to comfort him.
They both looked like Sirius. Well, one was Sirius and the other was a short-haired version of the same man.
Heir to The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black (whose bloodline can be retraced to Edward the Black Prince, ed.) Sirius Black showed up at his father’s funeral, much against expectations as Sirius Black had not deemed it necessary to appear at his mother’s funeral several years prior. It is speculated that he is only in England to retrieve his inheritance before he disappears again; he severed ties with the wizarding society at the age of eighteen, when he joined the Muggle army services. Not officially disowned, Sirius Black is named as sole heir to the Black fortune. Sirius Black’s younger brother, Regulus Black, has practically and unofficially been managing the House of Black during Orion Black’s long-term illness, but it is now uncertain...
Remus’ mobile phone shrilled loudly and he dropped the paper as he fumbled to get it out of his pocket to answer. “Hello?”
“Lupin!” It was Sirius. “Have you eaten yet?”
“No.” Remus eyed the paper lying on his doorstep. “Just came home.”
“Oh, good. I mean, if you have time – I could bring takeaway?”
“Oh, sure.” Remus fished his keys out of his pocket and unlocked the door. “How soon can you be here?”
“Uhm, ten minutes?”
“Ten minutes?!”
“I sort of already got the food and I’m in the neighbourhood and...is it okay?”
“It’s fine. See you in ten minutes.”
“Great!”
Remus hung up and picked up the paper. In the neighbourhood, my arse, he thought. He’s going to bloody apparate over. He smiled to himself and hid the paper with all the other copies of the Prophet and other random magical items he usually had strewn all over his flat but that he had hidden away for Sirius’ first visit. He couldn’t quite explain to himself why he was keeping up the cover but he didn’t have time to linger on it for the time being.
He’d only just put his shoes and coat away when Sirius rang the bell.
“Hey there,” Remus said. “That was pretty fast. Did you materialise out of thin air or something?”
“I’m afraid science hasn’t yet invented a means of transportation that would allow me to do that,” Sirius replied with a cheeky grin. Remus grinned back. Clever, that. Let’s see how long he can sidestep my questions like that.
“Very true. Come in.” Remus took the food off Sirius’ hands and put it down on the coffee table while Sirius got out of his jacket. It was Remus’ philosophy of life that take-away was meant to be ingested on a sofa.
He’d barely turned around to face Sirius when Sirius’ hands slid under Remus’ shirt and their lips met in a kiss. “Can food wait for a bit?”
“Yes,” Remus answered and kissed him again. “You know, this is the third night in a row you’ve come over...”
“Mh?” Sirius was kissing his neck.
“If you wanted a place to kip at, you could’ve just asked.” There was a heavy note of amusement in his voice.
“I have a place,” he huffed. “Only this one’s more interesting.”
“I just bet.” Remus pulled Sirius’ t-shirt up and over his head. “Lucky for you, Black, I don’t mind.” He walked them over to the sofa and nudged Sirius down.
Remus really didn’t mind Sirius hanging out at his place. He could get used to it, honestly. Sirius was gorgeous and responsive – like just now, moaning as Remus slid his knee in between Sirius’ legs and rubbed – he was nice, had a weird sense of humour as well as a bottomless well of bad puns and innuendos, and he was apparently a wizard, though Remus didn’t know yet what to think of that.
Too bad we’re both leaving tomorrow, Remus thought. Another of Sirius’ moans snapped him out of it. He latched onto Sirius’ neck, fingers fumbling to undo his jeans.
“Mmh, Lupin, get that shirt off...” Sirius shifted and Remus paused to discard his shirt before he bowed down again. Sirius’ fingers trailed up over his scarred shoulder as Remus got Sirius’ jeans open and his cock out. He spat in his palm and fisted Sirius firmly. He let out a small gasp when Sirius’ fingers dug into his shoulder, his other hand curling tight in his hair and pulling him down for a hot kiss, crashing their mouths together almost desperately.
“God, you’re hot,” Remus murmured, flexing his hand. Sirius arched into his touch.
“Hot enough to fuck me?” he gasped, fighting Remus’ jeans and cursing softly before he got them open.
“I’ll have your arse,” Remus’ eyes fluttered closed, Sirius’ warm fingers having found his cock, “later tonight.”
“Not now?” Sirius squeezed. Remus cursed. Sirius opened his mouth to say something more, but Remus clamped his mouth over his, shutting him up.
They jerked each other off, lips attached to throats, jaws or other soft or scratchy stretches of skin. When Remus shifted to balance himself better over Sirius, Sirius caught both their cocks in his hand. Remus thrust into his hand, against his stomach, his hands firmly planted on the sofa. They were hot and sticky, moaning and growling, and Remus was thinking he could very well get used to this when Sirius tensed under him and suddenly his hand was a lot slicker. Remus bit down on his shoulder as he came, careful not to break the skin but hard enough to leave a mark. He slumped down atop Sirius, breathless and sated.
“Mmmhh,” Sirius sighed. Remus raised his head. “Don’t want to move just yet...”
“But,” Remus said. “Food.”
Sirius laughed. “That’s right.” Remus kissed him and then sat up.
“Why is sex always so messy?” He sighed. “Wouldn’t it be nifty if it could just vanish?” He made a face as he reached for the tissues on the table, glancing at Sirius as he did so. Sirius looked like he wanted to say something, but thought better of it.
“Suppose it would be. Except then you can’t lick it up.” Sirius gave him a wry smile and brought his hand up and darted his tongue out at his sticky fingers. Remus’ stomach made a hot jolt. Good save, he thought.
“Do you dare?” he raised an eyebrow. “You don’t know where I’ve been.”
Sirius closed his mouth. “Caught something nasty then, have you?”
“Nope.” Remus shrugged. “But up until now you’ve been adamant.” He suddenly grinned.” Though I don’t mind the change. It’s hot.”
When Sirius didn’t reply, they finished cleaning up and did their trousers up again. Remus opened the boxes of food Sirius had brought and they leaned back on the sofa, tousled, content and bare-chested as they ate.
“I’ve decided to go on the run,” Sirius said between mouthfuls of Indian. Remus raised an eyebrow.
“On the run?”
“Yeah.” He shrugged. “From the lawyers and reporters and all. I think they’re determined to have my skin or something.”
“What good is that going to do?”
“Well...My brother is pretty sure our father did write a will. The problem is just...” he stabbed a piece of chicken aggravatedly. “He’s probably hidden it somewhere. It could be anywhere. He’s going to look for it...I should probably help him, but...”
“But?”
“I think it’s more fun to go on the run.” He smiled boyishly. “I’ve never really been on the run. I never even ran away from home. It’s the sort of thing that happens in movies or books. It’s going to be great.”
“Really?” Remus chuckled. “It’s not really going on the run if you’re not running away from something like...uhm...a crime or something, or a bad guy who wants to skin you or whatever.”
“Doesn’t matter. It’s going to be an adventure anyway.” He looked at Remus. “At least I hope so.”
“Where are you going to go?”
“It sort of defeats the purpose if I tell you, doesn’t it?” Sirius huffed. Remus laughed. “Anyway, I hoped...”
“Yeah?” Remus scraped the inside of his box in attempt to scoop up the remaining grains of rice.
“Can I come with you?”
“What?” Remus froze, astonished. “Come with me?”
“Yes! I’ve never been on an adventure.” Sirius shrugged, trying to pull it off as unconcerned. “I’ll pay for my own flights and hotel rooms and all that stuff.”
“But...” Remus frowned, trying to come up with an excuse that didn’t involve the words magic and possible mortal peril.
“Have you never had an assistant accompany you? I can be your sidekick.”
“I don’t think Indiana Jones had a sidekick,” Remus pointed out.
“No, but he had a sexy dad...” Sirius said thoughtfully. “You know, Sean Connery.”
“Er.” Remus’ brow knitted. He decided that now would not be a good time to tell Sirius that his dad did have a superficial resemblance to Sean Connery.
“No but really, can I come with you? It’d be perfect. No one would know where I am, you’d have a dazzlingly handsome assistant-slash-sidekick and there’d be lots of gratuitous sex.”
Yes, there’d be sex, Remus admitted. He looked at Sirius, eyebrow raised. “I’m not at all sure how useful you’d be as an assistant, Black. I’m certainly not convinced of your Sean Connery skills.”
“I know how to handle a gun?” He smiled apologetically. “You know, navy and all.”
Remus stared at him. “I don’t think I want to know whether that was a euphemism or not.”
“So, can I come?”
Remus was still staring at him. “Okay, you can come.”
The smile he earned was brilliant.
“Though – you know, this is all confidential and potentially dangerous, and there will be times when I simply can’t take you...so you’ll just have to accept that, all right? Most of this isn’t for civilians.”
“Okay.” Sirius shrugged. “I get that.”
*
Alexandria was scorching hot – especially having come straight from London’s fog and chill, where the temperature never sneaked above 15 degrees in October. Sunshine and 27 degrees in Egypt was a stark contrast.
“Hey look, Indiana Jones has a hat like this!”
Remus didn’t even bother looking. “I’m not Indiana Jones.” He shadowed his eyes with his hand, looking towards the harbour and trying to find the building he was looking for.
“If you wore this hat, you wouldn’t need to do that all the time,” Sirius commented and placed the hat on Remus’ head. “There! Isn’t that better?”
Sirius grinned at him and Remus grudgingly admitted it was better. “I’m still not Indiana Jones.”
“No, you’re sexier.” Sirius paid for the hat. “There you go. No need to thank me.”
Remus didn’t answer. He’d just figured out where he had to go and needed to dispose of Sirius for a while. “Why don’t you go shopping for a bit?”
“Again?” Sirius made a face. “Why can’t I come with you?”
“Because you don’t have a backstage pass.” Remus grinned. “Sorry.”
“You can’t even tell me why you need to go to all these places?”
“Nope. Top secret business.”
“You know, if I didn’t know better one could almost think you’re a drug dealer or something,” Sirius huffed. “We’ve been here for a day and a half and you’ve been to four different places already! Very disconcerting.”
“You’re the one that wanted to come with me,” Remus pointed out. “Look, if you don’t want to go shopping, do something else. Go back to the hotel or go to the beach or whatever.”
“And don’t talk to strangers, don’t accept candy from old men and don’t cross the street at a red light,” Sirius replied in a bored tone.
“Well actually, don’t talk to strangers...” Remus paused, thinking. “Don’t talk to Frenchmen. Or Brits, for the sake of it. But especially not Frenchmen.”
“Is this a bad movie or something, Lupin?” Sirius gave him an incredulous look. Remus sighed.
“If anyone asks about me, you’ve never heard of me, don’t know me, don’t know why I’m here or where I’ve been, which is why I need you to piss off for a bit so I can go do my business without you seeing, all right?” Remus said impatiently. “I don’t give a fuck about my sounding like a mafia boss or something, but what I’m doing is top secret.”
“You know, this whole bad movie thing is sort of hot,” Sirius mused. Remus groaned. “All right, all right! I’ll go shopping. Again.”
“I’ll meet you at the hotel.”
Remus didn’t return to the hotel until very late that evening. He half expected Sirius to be grumpy, perhaps even mad, but he found him asleep. The balcony doors were open and a soft breeze caused the thin curtains to flutter. Sirius was partially covered by a sheet just as thin as the curtains. His cheekbones and nose seemed red and upon closer inspection Remus discovered he’d acquired sunburn, spreading over his neck and shoulders and entire upper body.
Taking out his laptop, Remus sat on the bed with a sigh. There wasn’t much to write a report about; he hadn’t gained any valuable new information since their arrival in Alexandria. Alexander’s tomb in Alexandria was as empty as it had been for the past two thousand years, ever since Septimius Severus had closed it to the public. In fact, there was no proof that Alexander’s sarcophagus had been in Alexandria to begin with, just as there was no certainty about its alleged transfer to Memphis before that.
No, for all Remus knew, Alexander’s remains could’ve been shipped off already from Babylon. He sighed and typed a few paragraphs. He supposed he could go with the theory that Ptolemy II Philadelphus had taken the sarcophagus from Memphis to Alexandria and that it had disappeared from there and perhaps even been replaced with a replica as no one had noticed it missing until after 200 AD, more than three hundred years after the letters on the shipwreck had been written. If Alexander’s body had been shipped off from Babylon, the documents and artefacts from the Library of Alexandria couldn’t have been on the ship.
The problem was just, he couldn’t see who would be interested in removing Alexander’s body and the documents from the empire; by custom in Ancient Macedon, the right to the throne was earned by burying the previous king. No one would be interested in moving Alexander unless they wanted to prevent someone else from gaining access to the throne, such as Ptolemy I had done. After that it was useless to move Alexander as he was no longer the previous king.
Remus finished his report and was about to get undressed when his phone rang. He scrambled to answer it before it woke Sirius.
“Lupin,” he answered tiredly.
“Hi! James Potter here!”
“Oh! Hi. Got any news?”
“Erhm, not really. Maybe. Thought I’d give you an update anyway. We’ve got matches for locations in Australia, South Africa, Siberia and Iceland.”
“Right.”
“Yeah. The location in Iceland might be worth a look, but I doubt it. The routes I calculated all went past Iceland, and judging from the letters, the crew never set foot there...I think. The green and wonderful land was most likely Iceland –”
“Iceland’s not green?”
“No, but two thousand years ago it was. It was covered in birch trees. So anyway, there’s that, but...that’s modern locations. I suppose that’s why we’re not getting anything useful. You might want to give Siberia a look, but I honestly don’t think you should even bother. It’d have been too great a detour and it’d have taken too much time, I think. I’ll send you an email.”
“Thanks, Potter.”
“You’re welcome, but that’s not all,” James said cheerfully. “I rung up a friend and I’ve now a direct contact to a database that’s much better than the one I had, which means that I can run a new scan, this time with the proper land data, so maybe I’ll find something for you later. The map is rather crude, you know, and we don’t know the scale of it, so it’ll take a while, but we’ll get there. It’s incredible how much land has changed in two thousand years, isn’t it?”
“Yeah. That’s great, though, thank you. I’ll owe you big time.” Remus ran a hand through his hair. He wasn’t any closer to getting a lead anywhere, much against his expectations. Starting in Alexandria hadn’t been such a good idea, after all, and James didn’t even have anything for him yet.
“Nonsense. Is Sirius there?”
“Yeah, but he’s asleep.”
“No I’m not,” the sunburnt heap on the bed said. “Not anymore. Is it James?”
“Yes. Want to talk to him?”
“Yeah.” Sirius scrambled up, ow’ing. Remus said his goodbyes to James and handed the phone over. “Thanks.”
Remus ventured into the bathroom while Sirius spoke to James. He brushed his teeth and washed his face, and was pleased to discover that he at least hadn’t gotten sunburnt. Maybe it was down to the dumb hat Sirius had gotten him or maybe it was because he had spent most of his time indoors in various archives or talking to experts...
He left his clothes on the floor, trying not to think about how much he wasn’t getting anywhere. Of course he wasn’t; Alexander the Great Wizard was a topic so well researched that everything had been known for centuries, and now that he had a new, fresh discovery, a secret discovery...well, if it had been secret for more than two thousand years, he wasn’t about to suddenly find anything new about it, was he?
Sirius ended the phone call when Remus walked in from the bathroom. “How did your top secret business go?”
“Not well. I’m going to talk to one more person tomorrow but if that yields no results, we’re going to Makedonia.” Remus crawled into bed and stretched out. “I might have more luck there...there’s someone there I wanted to see anyway, and he might be able to throw some light on the case.”
“Who?”
“Someone.”
“You really are serious about the whole top secret thing, then? I’m not allowed to know anything at all?”
“No, not really,” Remus answered. “Sorry.”
“Why can’t I talk to Frenchmen?” Sirius asked. “Why not...uhm...Russians? Aren’t Russians always the bad guys?”
“Not in this bad movie,” Remus said. “Remember how I told you about El Dorado?”
“Yeah. The baddie is a Frenchie?”
“Yes. The statue’s in the bloody Louvre, you know. I’m not going to have a repeat of that fiasco.”
“And you think there might be spies?” Sirius asked, lips curling up into a smile.
“I don’t think there are spies, I know there are spies.”
Remus shifted as Sirius raised an eyebrow at him.
“The bastard already knows what I’m after and where I am,” Remus muttered. “Came to bloody wish me luck before I left. For all I know he’s probably prowling around and checking out the same places as I am, in the hopes of finding something I didn’t.”
The thought struck Remus that perhaps Poussin hadn’t even bothered coming to Alexandria, but had gone to Makedonia ahead of him – surely he would’ve gone straight to the core of the matter, wouldn’t he?
“Uh...what?” Remus asked, focusing on Sirius as he realised he was nudging him.
“Your mind ran off with you,” Sirius stated humorously.
“Er,” Remus replied, then sighed. “I changed my mind. We’re going to Makedonia first thing tomorrow.”
“Not going to see that top secret someone first?”
“Uhm...” Remus rubbed his face. “Guess I’ll have to. Then we’ll go to Makedonia.”
“All right.” Sirius paused. “Is Makedonia a country?”
Remus woke up early to the sound of barking dogs. He groaned loudly and rolled over, but when the barking continued – the noise carrying effortlessly through the open balcony door – he gave up and got out of bed. He had a quick shower and then ventured downstairs in search of food.
He found Sirius at breakfast. His nose and cheekbones were red as ever, and his shoulders gleamed through the thin shirt he was wearing.
“Why didn’t you shield yourself to prevent that sunburn?” Remus asked as he sat down and started buttering rolls.
“Didn’t fancy walking around with an umbrella,” Sirius answered dismissively. “And sunblock smells funny.”
“Got anything for it?”
“Bought a bottle of aloe in the reception,” Sirius answered. “It’s all purpose, apparently.” Remus raised an eyebrow.
“Interesting.”
“Very.” Sirius sipped his coffee unperturbedly. “It’s a hundred per cent organic, too.”
“Mmmh.”
“Anyway, I would really appreciate some help with my back, for the spots I can’t reach.”
“Sure.”
“We should test it on other areas too, I think. It’s very slick.”
“All right.”
“For the record, the sales clerk was French, or possibly Moroccan, and I told her what a fantastic sexy beast you are.”
“Mmh.”
“Took a bite out of a French meanie as well, this morning.”
“Mhh.”
“You’re not listening to me at all, are you?”
“Hm?”
Sirius whacked Remus over the head, nearly causing him to bite his tongue.
“Ow! What was that for?” Remus glared at him.
“Great, you’re awake.” Sirius finished his coffee. “I’m going upstairs to play with the aloe. I fully expect you and your cock to come and assist me in a few minutes.”
Remus looked at him distractedly as he walked away. He gulped down what was remaining of his breakfast and coffee and then went to find Sirius.
When Remus entered the room he shared with Sirius, he discovered that Sirius was on the bed, his chest and shoulders shiny from the aloe. What was far more intriguing, however, was the fact that Sirius’ fingers were also shiny and slick and moving in and out of his arsehole.
If Remus hadn’t become accustomed to Sirius’ brash behaviour by now, he’d have dropped his jaw. He’d also possibly have come in his pants, but the comical effect of the sunburn and the fact that his head still smarted from where Sirius had hit him put a bit of downer on that – not to mention that he was no sexually frustrated teenager.
As it was, he closed the door behind himself and pulled his shirt off. “Is the aloe doing its job?” he asked as he stooped down to pick up a condom from his bag.
“Ohyes,” Sirius answered, driving his fingers in deeper, face twisting. Remus sat on the edge of the bed, half facing Sirius so he could see what he was doing while taking off his shoes and socks – it being too warm to wear socks to bed in Egypt. Sirius had long stopped complaining about the socks, but he’d been pleasantly surprised the first time Remus took them off. “Come on, Lupin. I’m just waiting for your cock.”
“Suppose you could’ve had a wank this morning,” Remus muttered as he slid out of his trousers and boxers. Sirius gave him a withering look.
“If it’s such hardship to shag me, I will just have a wank, thank you.”
Remus glanced over, noticing that Sirius’ cock was leaking onto his stomach. “Don’t be ridiculous,” he said, shifting up between Sirius’ legs. He couldn’t quite resist licking the underside of Sirius’ cock, moving up to curl his tongue around the head of him for a taste. “You’re just rather...demanding, just so you know.” He gave it another lick.
“Since shagging is the only fun I seem to be allowed to have, I’m going to demand as much of it as I want,” Sirius countered, now completely breathless. He removed his slick fingers from his arse and wrapped them around Remus’ cock, stroking him to full hardness.
“Can’t exactly say I’m complaining...” Remus pushed Sirius’ hand away and rolled the condom on. Sirius put a pillow under his back and then he was guiding his cock in and arching up in response.
“You better not be, Lupin,” Sirius gasped, his fingers finding Remus’ biceps and clenching hard as Remus leaned over him.
“You know, Sirius,” Remus said, moving his hips forwards sharply, “considering the fact that I’ve got my cock buried in your arse – and not for the first time, mind you – I think you can safely call me Remus.”
“Stop talking,” Sirius muttered. Remus chuckled and drove his hips forwards once more, coaxing a rather loud gasp out of Sirius. “Ohgodagain...” He spread his legs wider, angling his hips up until Remus was brushing against his prostate with every thrust.
“That how bad you want me?” Remus murmured huskily, thrusting into Sirius’ hot and tight arse, pleased and incredibly turned on by the little impatient sounds and the erratic counter thrusts Sirius was making. Sirius didn’t deign to answer, only twisted his face again and Remus realised the sunburn grinding into the sheets probably wasn’t making him very comfortable.
“Harder,” Sirius groaned. He was still clutching Remus’ arms for leverage. There were two pearls of sweat on his forehead and as Remus watched, one of them rolled down into his mussed hair. Remus went for harder, faster, head dropping between his shoulders to look, and he saw Sirius’ flushed cock, dripping and hard.
“Go on. I want to see you come,” Remus gasped, pulling him up to latch his mouth over his neck. When he felt one of Sirius’ hands let go of his arm he tore himself away from his skin, looking between them again.
He was unable to take his eyes off Sirius’ cock and his fingers, thumb smearing pre-come over the head, the light squeezes, the red tan line extremely low on his hips and across his lower stomach and finally the pearly white liquid that spilled over his belly, blurring the tan line. Remus groaned, thrusting faster into Sirius’ tightly strung body, pressing his forehead against his collarbone. Sirius’ moans intensified and Remus knew just what he was feeling, knew he was hypersensitive after his orgasm, but he couldn’t slow down, not with the heat pooling in his groin and Sirius’ fingers curling into his hair and tightening, and then he was coming too, breath stuck in his throat and his hips moving on their own as the rode it out.
“Fuck,” he breathed, pulling out and lowering himself carefully onto Sirius. They lay still, their breathing slowly returning to normal. Remus absent-mindedly pulled the condom off and tied it into a knot, thinking he’d better enlighten Sirius about his being a wizard pretty soon so they could stop using the damned things and he could go back to Luscious Lucretius’ Lascivious Lubricant&Protective Potion.
“I love morning sex,” Sirius sighed happily. “You can walk around all day and smell of sex.”
Remus raised his head to look at him. “Are you really going to do that?”
Sirius’ lips curled into a smirk. “Why? Would it drive you mad?”
“It might,” Remus admitted. Sirius grinned.
“All right, then.”
“All right I won’t or all right I will because my favourite pastime these days seems to be driving Remus Lupin mad?”
“The second option.”
Remus shook his head in amusement. “All right then. I’ll brace myself for it.”
He crawled off him and went into the bathroom, slipping under the cold shower for a few minutes to get clean. When he came back out, Sirius had cleaned himself up.
“What are you going to do today?” he asked conversationally as he got dressed again.
“Definitely avoiding the beach,” Sirius replied. “I don’t know. I think I’ve seen everything there is to see in this place.”
“Mh...you could go to the airport? I shouldn’t be long this morning. I’m counting on catching the 12.10 flight to Athens.”
“Maybe I could...” Sirius shrugged and went into the bathroom. Remus could hear the tap running, but not the shower.
“Were you serious?” he called out.
“Yep.” Sirius walked out. “You still need to help me with the aloe. My back burns like all fucking hell.”
*
“Remus...where are we?” Sirius asked, looking around worriedly.
Two plane rides, a train ride, a bus ride and a taxi ride later, they were standing in the middle of what was a small, ordinary village. That wasn’t the problem, Sirius thought. The problem was the huge magical city right next to it. In fact, it was so close that Sirius wasn’t sure what had been there first – the Muggle village or the wizard city; they were so close together that the borders were intangible. It was blatantly obvious, though probably not to the Muggles in this village.
This village that looked dead and completely and utterly useless.
“Are you sure we’re in the right place?”
“We’re in Pella, Makedonia, also known as northern Greece, and yes I’m sure,” Remus answered tiredly. “Come on. I booked us two rooms at the local inn.”
“Two rooms?”
“They’re conservative around here.”
“Okay...” Sirius picked up his bag and followed Remus into the inn across the little square. Remus picked up their keys in not-quite-fluent Greek.
“I thought you knew Greek,” Sirius commented.
“Ancient Greek. I’m no good at the modern language.” He shrugged. “Let’s check out our rooms and go find somewhere to have dinner.”
Sirius’ room was modest, but looked comfy. He was especially pleased with the bed being a double. He put his bag down on the bed, wandering over to look out the window. The wizard city was in full view. Surely that couldn’t have been Remus’ destination?
A knock on the door pulled him away from the window. “Come in!”
“Oh, your room is so much nicer than mine,” Remus said as he stepped in. Sirius smiled.
“You’re welcome to stay here, you know.”
“Mh, I know.” Remus grinned. “Fancy dinner? I don’t know about you but I’m starving after all that travelling.”
“Is there anywhere decent to eat in this village at all?” Sirius asked. “What are we doing here anyway? This place looks dead.”
“Yeah...well...I’ve got one man to speak to, and he lives here.” Remus shrugged.
“And what am I supposed to do in the meantime?” Sirius asked, exasperated. The fact that he was the one that insisted on coming along and that it therefore was his own fault for being shoved aside with no notice and information, wasn’t making him any happier.
“Go sightseeing or something?” Remus suggested, eyeing him strangely. “There’s lots of opportunities here, if you just see them.”
“What are you on about?” Sirius rubbed his temples. Of course he would be off to the magical city to do stuff; it wasn’t like he had any other options – but Remus couldn’t possibly know that. Sirius was tired and grumpy, his sunburn was stinging again and he was on the whole not very happy with his being-on-the-run thing. He felt like picking a fight if for nothing else but to let off some steam.
Remus sighed. “Let’s just go get some food. I refuse to argue with you. Come on.” He turned around and left the room.
Sirius sighed and grabbed his wand, sticking it into the pocket of his trousers before following Remus. He had a nagging feeling something wasn’t quite right. Accompanying the nagging feeling was nagging doubt. What was he really doing, following Remus around like a puppy? He snorted at himself and left the room.
He was not prepared to run into his ex in the hall – in Greece, of all places; what the hell was the fucker doing not being in France, practising xenophobia like all normal Frenchmen?
What he was less prepared for was the fact that Michel was brandishing a wand, and that Remus Lupin was also brandishing a wand and they were pointing them at each other –
“Sirius! How delightful. Unfortunately now is a bad time for reconciliations,” Michel said and if Sirius hadn’t known better, and if the display hadn’t been so ridiculously surreal, he’d almost have thought he was sincere. Almost.
“You know him?” Remus asked, looking at Sirius with disbelief. Sirius snorted.
“Do I know him? Gee, do you?” Sirius drew out his wand and pointed it at Michel’s crotch. Michel blanched. “Michel,” Sirius said sweetly. “Never thought I’d run into you again.”
“How very interesting, Remus,” Michel said nonchalantly, though he didn’t take his eyes off Sirius’ wand. “I wasn’t aware you two were...acquainted.”
“It’s Lupin to you.” Remus lowered his wand so that it was also pointing at Michel’s crotch. “Before I turn your balls into cactuses, you better tell me what the fuck you are doing here.”
“The same as you, of course,” Michel replied in a bored tone. “Though of course I’ve been here for quite a while already. I was beginning to wonder whether you’d show at all...” His eyes darted between Sirius and Remus and their respective wands.
“Been waiting for me, have you?” Remus asked, seething. “Couldn’t dig up a useful piece of information on your own?”
“How crude, Remus,” Michel said loftily, stressing his name once more. Sirius had never hated the man more in his life. “Though I certainly do not blame you for being delayed.” He gave Sirius an appreciative look.
“I’ll have you know I do a mean stinging hex,” Sirius said sharply.
“My my,” Michel said, as if he had only just now noticed that Sirius was pointing a wand at him. “I hadn’t pegged you down for a wizard, Sirius. How embarrassing of me. Now, Remus, pray tell me, what have you found out?”
Remus and Sirius both tightened their holds on their wands. “Cactuses,” Remus said at the same time Sirius said “Stinging hex”.
Michel sighed overbearingly. “Fine. I haven’t found out anything that you haven’t already, Remus. I have of course taken precautions and will be rifling through your stuff – in a less crude manner than a burglar, of course – while you will be dining. Is the password to your laptop still Michel Poussin is a wanker?”
“As if you know how to operate a laptop,” Remus snorted. “You with your elitist wizard ways.”
“Oh, I don’t know.” Michel threw his fringe back coquettishly. “I certainly passed as a Muggle – isn’t that what you British like to call them? – well enough for Sirius here to fall for it. You and me, however, go way back, and I’m sad to admit I can’t fool you as well as I’d like to –”
Sirius’ stinging hex hit him square in the crotch. The yelp that accompanied it would have made any male that was not Sirius and Remus in that moment wince and instantly sympathise.
Remus stepped over him as he made his way to his room and checked that his things were as he had left them. He then performed several advanced locking and guarding spells on the room. Sirius’ eyes shifted between Michel on the floor, clutching his crotch and weeping, he noted with no small satisfaction, and Remus as he was working.
“Dinner?” Remus eventually said, turning towards him and stepping over Michel again.
“Please.” He looked down at Michel, lips curling up in disgust. “Before I lose my appetite completely, that is.”
Remus looked down at Michel. “Did you castrate him?” he asked curiously. “Hm, I see no blood. Hey! You!” He took a step closer. “Do we have to take you to hospital?”
“Your concern is very touching,” Michel spat.
“Oh come on!” Remus let out a frustrated sound. “Just because you are perfectly fine about leaving people in pyramids to face death by dust, doesn’t mean I’m going to do the same, that you know it.”
“Spare me, Lupin. I knew you’d be perfectly capable of getting out of there.” Michel raised his wand at him and muttered some spell Sirius didn’t recognise, but Remus deflected it easily. Sirius reckoned it wasn’t the first time Michel had fired that spell at him.
“I suppose I’ll see you later. Until then, so long.” Remus grabbed Sirius arm and dragged him out of there, leaving Michel on the floor.
They walked in silence until they reached a Muggle restaurant.
“We’re not eating over there?” Sirius asked, motioning towards the magical city and the rather fine looking wizarding establishment in plain sight.
“No,” Remus said shortly. Sirius eyed him warily.
“You know, you don’t really seem all that surprised that I’m a wizard.”
“That’s because I knew you were one,” Remus replied. “Besides, you don’t seem surprised either.”
Sirius shrugged. “Suppose I should’ve known, what with all the allusions to magic you’ve been making since forever. You were winding me up on purpose, weren’t you?”
“I might’ve been.” A smile tugged at Remus’ lips. “So. Michel?” He raised an eyebrow at Sirius. Sirius huffed.
“Ex,” he said. “From what I gathered, I assume he was the idiot that screwed up El Dorado for you?”
“Yeah.” Remus’ jaw was clenched in bitterness.
“Mh.” Sirius nodded. “So, now that I know you’re a wizard and that Michel is a wizard and you know that I’m a wizard and I know you’re investigating Magical Matters, do you still have to keep your mission top secret? I mean.” Sirius shrugged. “I did say I’d be your dazzlingly handsome assistant, you know.”
“Sirius,” Remus said, looking at him pointedly. “Your nose is peeling.”
He cursed and discreetly performed a healing charm on himself before they stepped inside.
*
“No matter how many times you’re going to nag me about it, I’m not going to change my mind!” Remus snapped.
“Then what the fuck is the point of me being here?” Sirius yelled back. Remus glared at him.
“I wasn’t the one to drag you along, in case you’ve forgotten!” he yelled. “You were the one that wanted to go on an adventure!”
“And what a bloody fine adventure it’s been! I’ve seen absolutely nothing, done absolutely nothing and the only remotely interesting thing that’s happened so far is running into Michel and hexing his balls!”
“Listen,” Remus growled, pointing his wand at Sirius’ chest. It stung a little. “You have no right to demand to be let in on my work – my confidential work – nor do you have any claims to me or my person or my time, and there is nothing – absolutely nothing – that prevents me from ditching you on the spot and continuing without you.”
Sirius clenched his fists tight, fingers itching to grab his wand and send a well-aimed stinging hex at Remus’ balls.
“So,” Remus continued, “if you want to stay with me for a while yet, I will hear no complaints.”
“Why did you take me along, then, if you weren’t planning on actually spending time with me or letting me help you out?” Sirius asked through gritted teeth.
“Do I absolutely have to remind you that it was your suggestion to come along – apparently to satisfy both our sexual needs?” Remus asked, irritated. “Sex is all it comes down to, isn’t it?”
Sirius pushed Remus’ wand away and stalked off, only he didn’t get far. The room was small and there was no balcony, and he wasn’t going to go and hang around in the bathroom.
Remus was right, of course, but hell if Sirius was going to admit that.
“That’s not the only reason, is it?” Sirius muttered, turning around to glare at him. “You’re afraid of mucking up again and rather than accept my help you insist on doing everything by your own bloody self.”
“I do not –”
“Oh spare me,” Sirius snapped. “I’m telling you I can help. I have skills we can put to good use, if you’d just stop being stubborn and let me!”
Remus had turned his back on him. He looked angry. He probably had every right to be angry, but Sirius felt he had a right to be angry too. Remus hadn’t treated him any differently after their exposure to each other as wizards – and what on earth did Remus mean, he’d known he was a wizard?
And then there was the fact that Remus had stopped kissing him. He’d given him good night kisses in Greenland and in London, he’d gotten one on the first night in Alexandria, and then...nothing. Sirius’ jaw tightened.
In hindsight, the kisses had vanished around the same time Sirius had started nagging him about his top secret bad movie treasure hunt mission. Bloody fucking hell, Sirius’ inner voice muttered. As if that was necessary!
“What kind of skills?” Remus eventually asked, turning around. He looked sort of defeated and Sirius had to do his very best to not look triumphant. “What exactly can you do that could possibly assist me?”
“I still know how to wield a gun,” Sirius said, one corner of his mouth turning up into a wry smile. “Apart from that, I have great practice in dodging hexes, jinxes and curses. James and I have had some spectacular fights, and there have been some quite interesting duels between the houses back at school...” he trailed off, frowning.
Remus hadn’t been at Hogwarts. He’d have been in his and James’ year, he was certain. But there was no Remus Lupin at Hogwarts. He mentally flicked through the students in his year in his house, but no. He couldn’t remember all the other students, but he was fairly sure Remus hadn’t been among them.
“And?” Remus asked, waiting. “Is that all?”
“No,” Sirius replied, snapping back to reality. “I’m also an Animagus. I turn into a dog. As a matter of fact, I have already been helpful in the form of a dog.”
“What? When?” Remus gave him an incredulous look.
“That last morning in Alexandria,” Sirius said. That morning you fucked me really good and my back hurt for hours because of the stupid sunburn I couldn’t heal because I thought you were a Muggle. Oh and you didn’t kiss me. Wanker. “I went out for a morning run and overheard two French dudes talk about you. I nearly took out a chunk of the leg of one of them.”
Remus frowned. “That was you?” His frown deepened. “I think...yeah, I woke up because a dog was barking...was that you, then?”
Sirius shrugged. “I was sure as hell the only dog barking near that hotel that morning.”
“Show me.” Remus’ voice had an air of defiance in it. Sirius raised an eyebrow but Remus didn’t change his stance.
He transformed into a big black mutt of a dog. He sat down on the floor like a well trained dog – apart from the tongue lolling out of his mouth – and looked up at Remus. He tried to look very indignant. Then he transformed back and brushed dust off his clothes.
“I’m unregistered, mind you, so don’t go about telling everyone and their mother,” Sirius said. “I’ve heard Azkaban’s nice, but I have no urge to see it for myself.”
“So,” Remus said slowly, frowning at Sirius. He then shrugged awkwardly. “Suppose you can come with me to see Alexander tomorrow, then.”
“Alexander?”
“The ghost of Alexander the Great Wizard,” Remus clarified.
Sirius gaped. “What? He’s a ghost? When did that happen?”
“When he died, presumably.” Remus lifted an eyebrow. “Not that he’s much use. I spent hours yesterday trying to pry some sense out of him. He’s mad as a hatter.”
“He’s mad?”
“Being dead for over two thousand years can do funny thing to one’s mind...” Remus sighed. “And then there’s the fact that Hephaistion vanished.”
“Vanished? But... but he died too, didn’t he – and what does it matter, he was just... general or something, wasn’t he?” Sirius frowned. He reckoned that maybe he should’ve paid more attention in History of Magic.
“Hephaistion was Alexander’s lover. He’s also a ghost, but he vanished. No one knows where he went or what happened to him. Some say he’s the first ghost to have actually died, but there’s no proof.”
“Oh,” said Sirius.
“Yeah. Well.” Remus sighed again. “There’s a tiny hope that Alexander actually knows something, which is why I’m going to have to talk to him.”
“Suppose Michel already did that?” Sirius asked.
“No.” Remus gave him a wry, tired smile. “Being the chicken that he is...it’s more his style to conceal himself nearby and listen in on the conversation. He’d rather steal information than find it himself.” Remus made a face. “He used to steal my notes in Latin and Ancient Greek and Ancient Civilizations.”
Sirius couldn’t help it. He giggled.
“It’s not funny!” Remus cried, outraged. “He was – and still is – an insufferable idiotic moronic bastard git.” He huffed.
“Sorry,” said Sirius, still amused.
“How come you dated him anyway?” Remus suddenly asked, turning the tables.
“He was sort of just there.”
Remus gave him a Look that could compare with James’, accompanied with a raised eyebrow.
“Fine!” Sirius huffed. “I had a job off the coast of the French Riviera. Nothing spectacular. Well, the Blacks have a holiday house there, and it turned out there was an excavation nearby and I went to look and he chatted me up, end of story.”
“For how long did he ‘chat you up’?” Remus asked, amused.
“Five months. Maybe four. I dumped him once I found out he’d been seeing other people behind my back and smuggling wine bottles out of my cellar.” Sirius crossed his arms. “Are you going to tell me what awful taste in men I have or something else to humiliate me further?”
“No.” Remus shook his head. “I know what a cunning bastard he is. It’s really easy for him to ensnare people when he’s set his mind on it.”
This time Sirius gave him a Look that could compare with James’, accompanied with a raised eyebrow. He did it better too, having had the best to learn from. “Speaking from experience, are you?”
“No,” Remus said shortly.
“Aha!”
“There is no ‘aha!’.” Remus glared.
Sirius sniggered.
“Black –”
“You dated him!” Sirius said. “No wait! You slept with him!”
The look on Remus’ face was priceless.
“You were drunk and you slept with him!” Sirius grinned, trying to suppress laughter. “Ohgod Remus this is the funniest thing ever.”
“It is not and it was not and I was horny and he drugged me and I’d never have done it had I been in full possession of my senses!”
“But you weren’t,” Sirius giggled. “Ohgod. I’m going to laugh for the next thousand years,” he added dramatically. Remus looked murderous.
Almost. Sirius had noticed the tiny twinkle of amusement in the corner of his eye.
“Remus Lupin, Shagger of French Morons,” he continued, working up to a full theatrical approach to the matter, but Remus lunged at him and knocked him down onto the bed.
Sirius shrieked.
“Ow! Let go of me you – you brute! You made me shriek!” Sirius complained but Remus crashed their mouths together and was snogging him. Very thoroughly. Oh, thought Sirius and melted into the kiss.
“I prefer Remus Lupin, Shagger of Brilliantly Good Looking Idiots,” Remus said and kissed him again. Sirius' hands wound up in Remus' hair, tangling and clutching, keeping him close while he ravished his mouth.
Oh, but Sirius was a sucker for kisses. And lips. And tongue, and teeth and especially all of them at once. He tugged on Remus' bottom lip with his teeth, groaning happily and moving one hand down to Remus' crotch. A short moment later, his jeans were open and Sirius had his hand around his cock.
“I forgot to say,” Sirius breathed against his lips. “I'm really good at non-verbal wandless magic.” Almost as if to demonstrate, he removed his hand from Remus' dick and instead moved it over the buttons on Remus' shirt and they all popped out of their holes.
“Well, so am I,” Remus said and a second later Sirius was naked.
“Hey! Did you vanish my clothes? I liked those!”
“They're on the floor.” Remus kissed him again and Sirius was mollified for a second. Even more so when Remus banished his own clothes to the floor as well and lowered himself over Sirius to rub their cocks together.
“You ruined my show, though,” Sirius eventually muttered and Remus had the nerve to laugh. “Don't laugh at me!”
“I'm not laughing at you...” Remus murmured, jerking his hips and drawing out a gasp from Sirius. “I'm laughing because it's the first time in days you haven't been a moody bitch and I like you much better when you say crazy shit.”
“I'm not – ungh –”
“No?” Remus licked his throat.
“Oh…” Sirius arched, his hands sliding down to grab Remus’ arse and press him closer. “Sorry, too incoherent to talk,” he gasped. He squeezed and Remus groaned, reaching between them to wrap his hands around both their hard cocks.
“If you say so,” he muttered and grazed his teeth over the skin on Sirius’ throat.
Between Remus’ hand on his – their – cocks and his teeth on his neck, he really was too incoherent to talk.
He slid a hand down to help Remus, wanking them fast and furiously, so hard, so close, the air between them thick with musk and sweat and their breaths. Sirius could detect the smell of the beer they’d had with their dinner several hours earlier, but he didn’t much care.
Neither did Remus. Precome smeared out, slicking everything up nicely and Sirius bit his lip, arching again, and Remus groaned, pressing his face against his shoulder. Their hitching breaths mingled with the sound of skin against skin and got tangled up in the heat between them, egging them on.
Sirius heard Remus’ breath get stuck in his throat before he felt him tense, then he felt his come spill over their hands and he gasped involuntarily. His hand on Remus’ ass clutched hard suddenly and then he lost it, arching against Remus once more, a shocked sigh on his lips.
He pulled Remus down over him and nuzzled his face in his hair.
“Admit you’re glad you brought me along,” Sirius eventually said.
Remus grunted. Sirius translated that as oh I’m glad I brought a gorgeous sex fiend with me to make my evenings and mornings so much more excitable.
He eventually raised his head and gave Sirius a thorough kiss, then rolled off him.
“Mmhh,” he said.
“Mhh,” Sirius replied. He contemplated cleaning charms.
The phone rang. Remus’ phone, more specifically. He held out his hand and the phone flew into it from his trouser pocket.
“Lupin,” he said tiredly. Sirius thought maybe the other person on the phone could be Oxley. It was hard to tell through the slight scratchiness of the device. “I’m having sex – oh come off it, it’s past eleven in the night over here. It’s either that or sleeping. What did you expect me to be doing? Certainly not crawling around in ditches, I’ll tell you that – no, but you’ll be pleased to hear that I’ve had another run-in with Poussin today, as I said, and – what? No. I don’t know! I’m trying, you know!”
Sirius was half amused by the tightly controlled anger in Remus’ voice. This wasn’t the first time his boss had called to inquire about proceedings. Really, he thought, after five days he wouldn’t have had much, would he? It was only in movies that the heroes cleared everything up within forty-eight hours.
“-I’ll be seeing him again tomorrow. Yes. I’ve been busy! You honestly can’t expect me to report back to you every two hours – I’m not exaggerating! I’ll call tomorrow. Yes, really. No, I’m not. Oh come on, I was taking the piss! All right. Talk to you later. Night.”
Remus threw the phone at the pile of clothes.
No sooner had it landed than it rang again. Remus cursed. Sirius sniggered.
“You’re popular tonight,” he said as Remus summoned the phone again.
“Lupin,” he said, somewhat crossly. “Oh, hi Rolfe. No really. Yes, I’m aware – I’ve already run into him twice while here. Yeah. Thanks for the heads up anyway. Oh? Hmm...thanks. Yeah, it’s great, I know, thanks. Call me again if there’s anything...talk to you later. Night.” Remus hung up and flung the phone away again. “God, that man is a moron,” he muttered.
Sirius rolled onto his side and lazily stroked his fingers over the scars on Remus’ chest. “Don’t be cross. Think about the fantastic sex we just had. Instant cheer.”
A small smile actually tugged at Remus’ lips. “Maybe I’ll need some more cheering up. I’ve dealt with four morons today. That far exceeds my regular quota, you know.”
“Four?” Sirius frowned, mentally counting, then realised just what Remus was saying and pinched him. “Oi! Not fair! I provide you with sex! Ergo –”
Remus grabbed his hand and pulled him down on top of him and kissed him. “Just what I was saying.”
“Were not!” Sirius replied indignantly, or tried to, and then kissed him more.
The phone rang again.
“Oh bloody hell,” Remus snapped and summoned the thing. “Yes?” he answered crossly and then passed the phone to Sirius. “It’s for you.”
“James!” Sirius cried into the phone. “How dare you! Well what do you think? Ha-ha. Yes. Got anything important to say? What? You’ve got to be kidding me! Oh perfect,” he muttered. “Yeah well. Suppose – oh. Okay. Yeah, let me know. Okay. I’ll talk to you later. Next time you call try not to do it in the middle of – well, that’s just something you should telepathically know, being my friend and all. Whatever. I’ll talk to you later. Goodnight.”
Sirius handed the phone back to Remus who promptly turned it off before flinging it away again.
“James informed me that the wreck has been seized by some shady officials. Said there was nothing he could do, their papers seemed in order, though there was something off about the whole thing...” Sirius grumbled. “He did say they sounded like they were French.”
“Oh,” Remus said, wondering whether there could’ve been anything in the wreck that would’ve been useful to him.
The wreck was supposed to go to London, where Pettigrew would have had full access to it anyway, so it wasn’t like it mattered much. Only...in London, he’d have had access to any new information. If the wreck had been seized by Poussin’s underlings, he didn’t have much hope of ever seeing a shred of the new evidence, if there was any.
Sirius snorted. “The nerve! I can’t believe they just waltzed in and took my wreck! My wreck! On my ship! The bastards!”
“Uhm,” Remus said unhelpfully. Then he smiled. “I’m going to kiss that sulk away now,” he said and did just that.
“It’s going to take more than that,” Sirius huffed. “I’m going to kill Michel. Brutally and violently. And then I’ll castrate him for good measure.”
“Kiss me some more first.”
*
Remus sighed and ducked again as the ghost of Alexander reached out for his hat. He’d already been doused in several cold shocks and they’d only been there for four hours, and it looked like the old ghost had looped back into Inordinate Interest For Modern Objects. Such as the silly Indiana Jones hat that Sirius had gotten him.
“Very curious,” Alexander muttered thoughtfully and narrowed his eyes as he looked at it. “In which brilliantly exotic location did you find this?”
“Alexandria in Egypt,” Remus replied tiredly. “I –”
“Absolutely not!” Alexander raged. “Never have I seen such strange items in my own city! Liar!”
“The world has moved on since you died,” Remus cut off. “It’s a modern thing.”
“You have a curious accent,” Alexander then said, the cue that he was now going into the I Never Believed In England-phase. He gave Remus an appraising look. Remus gritted his teeth.
“I’m from England,” he said, trying to keep himself in check.
“England!” Alexander snorted. “Surely not! A man of your noble standing – if peculiar fashion of dress –” Alexander frowned at the hat before continuing, “– is surely not a barbarian!”
“You’d be surprised,” Remus muttered. “England is irrelevant. I’ve been educated in the finest institution by the finest teachers in Europe; I am a scholar,” Remus said, only to be interrupted again.
“Did you meet Aristotle?”
“No. Alexander, if I may, I’d really like to ask you a few questions –”
“Bah! Barbarian! I never believed in England. East, I say! We need to go east!” Alexander flung out his arm in an easterly direction, while his other hand tugged at his hair maniacally.
Sirius, who was lounging against a nearby wall, sniggered. Remus shot him a deathglare.
“You! Are you a warrior? Do you hold influence?” Alexander thrummed, pointing at Remus.
Remus braced himself for the Crazy Megalomaniac that was about to burst forth. “I’m a scholar,” he explained patiently. “I wish to gather information about –”
“Aha! Spy!” Alexander raved. “Tell me, did Darius send you?” He narrowed his eyes at Remus. “Hmm. Too pale. Traitor! One of my own – the shock! Who are you, boy? To whom do you report? I SHALL HAVE YOU EXECUTED!”
Two students scuttling past threw Remus sympathetic looks. Sirius was still sniggering.
“I report to no one but you, my lord,” Remus said, changing tactics. “I only require knowing whether the plan still stands.”
He thought he sounded smooth. He hoped so.
Alexander eyed him suspiciously. “The plan, you say?” He suddenly lunged forwards and grabbed hold of Remus’ shirt collar – which would have been successful if he hadn’t been a ghost. Remus shuddered, trying to ignore the cold shock of Alexander’s hand in his chest.
“The plan,” Remus agreed and took another chance. “The one concerning your earthly remains, my lord.”
“I have no such plans!” Alexander thundered. “TRAITOR!”
“But –” Remus gritted his teeth again. “Hephaistion sent –”
Alexander instantly stepped back, a wistful look on his face. “He’s there and not there,” he said, tugging at his hair again. He narrowed his eyes at Remus. “What do you plan with him, barbarian?”
Remus took another chance. “I wish to fulfil the plan – move him to a safe place.”
“Hephaistion,” Alexander said, thoughtful. “Hephaistion is in Babylon.”
“He died in Babylon,” Remus said. “But he’s not there, is he?”
“He is in Babylon,” Alexander repeated stubbornly. “He’s there but not there.”
“Where is he then?”
“He is there.”
Remus was on the verge of giving up for the day. Four hours and he had gained nothing new from this madman of a ghost.
Sirius kicked himself off from the wall and wandered up to Remus’ side. “How’s it going?” He gave Alexander’s ghost a curious look over. Alexander immediately turned upon him.
“Is he from England?” He narrowed his eyes. “He speaks a barbarian tongue.”
“I thought you wanted to unite the world,” Remus said casually. “Intercultural marriages, sharing of traditions, all that.”
“Bah!” Alexander flailed. “Much can be learned from the east! But England...I never believed in England! It is a most savage place. To the east, I say!”
“Sure,” Remus said.
“Remus,” Sirius nudged him. “Stop speaking Ancient Greek for a minute, will you? I’m hungry. Can’t we have lunch soon?”
“Shut up,” Remus said and then turned to Alexander, who had been watching them intently. “Sorry. My servant knows no manners.”
“Servant?” Alexander cackled. “Is that what you call it in England?” He leered.
Sirius frowned. “What’s he saying?”
“Nothing,” Remus muttered. “Go find something to eat if you want. I’m not done with the maniac yet.”
Alexander was still leering. “Yes! Servant! Best joke I’ve heard in two thousand years!” he cackled and slapped his thigh. Sirius ignored him.
“Well, I’d like it if you would come with me,” he said, eyeing Alexander. “It’s been entertaining to watch the guy, but really...it’s getting a bit old...”
“Tell me about it.” Remus sighed. “Told you he was mad.”
Another student walked by, but this one leered at Alexander and raised his fist. “TO THE EAST!” he roared in pseudo-Ancient Greek. Alexander instantly straightened his back and gave the boy a pleased smile.
Remus facepalmed. “Not again...”
The boy continued. “CONQUER PERSIA! TAKE INDIA!” He slung his arm around Alexander’s shoulders as best he could and pretended to look over the horizon.
“Indeed, my lad!” Alexander said excitedly. “We shall not make the same mistakes twice!” He reached into his robe and pulled out a piece of parchment with figures on it. It stretched out and hovered in front of him. “Battle plan number two hundred and eighty-five, version fifty-six. See, we must keep the flanks in place, and then –”
“I think you should colour-code your battle plan,” Sirius said helpfully. In English, looking over Alexander’s shoulder.
“SPY!” Alexander roared, pulling out his sword and stabbing it through Sirius’ stomach. Much to Alexander’s surprise, Sirius only shuddered from the cold and did neither drop dead nor bleeding. “WHAT SORCERY IS THIS? SPY! SPY OF MY MOTHER!”
The student grinned and slipped away, leaving Remus to deal with the madly raving ghost. Sirius instantly hid behind him. Remus decided to go for distraction strategies.
“Mylord,” he interrupted. “What are Hephaistion’s opinions of your battle plan?”
“Hephaistion,” Alexander said distractedly. “He loves me blindly.”
“Certainly,” Remus encouraged. “Was it he who arranged for your earthly remains to be moved?”
A dark shadow fell across Alexander’s face and he started muttering. “That fool! Messed with everything!” He vanished the battle plan with a casual wave of his hand and started tugging at his hair again.
“How did he mess up your plans?” Remus asked carefully, ignoring Sirius’ impatient noises behind him.
“Blinded! That’s what he was! Didn’t listen to me at all! Meddlesome idiot!” he ranted and Remus decided he probably wasn’t going to get a single sensible word out of him anymore that day.
“Come,” he said, elbowing Sirius. “Let’s go get something to eat.”
Sirius was lounging on Remus’ bed, reading a Muggle magazine, while Remus was writing a report on the day’s interactions with Alexander.
“Apparently you can get really cheap flights to Dubai this week,” Sirius remarked.
“Mh.” Remus typed up another paragraph. The report was fairly short, not being much different from the previous day’s.
“Is there the slightest chance that we’ll get to go to Dubai?”
“I doubt it,” Remus replied and saved the report. He encrypted it for good measure.
“Are you going to interrogate that ghost again?”
“Not today.” Remus logged onto the British Museum network and from there acquired access to the Makedonian Magical Museum’s network. “I don’t have the energy to deal with him again today. I’ll do some more research now and then try to talk to him again tomorrow.”
“He’s not very bright, is he?” Sirius asked, looking up from his magazine. Remus looked up.
“The man’s a genius.”
“Right.” Sirius rolled his eyes. “He looked like a nut job.”
“Well, they say that the minds of geniuses deteriorate faster than normal minds.” Remus shrugged. “And I’m convinced he went mad faster than normally when Hephaistion vanished, and apparently, screwed something up.”
“He screwed something up?”
“Maybe. I’m trying to find out.”
Remus looked back at the screen and opened the database entry on Alexander. It was much more extensive than the one British Museum possessed, and frankly Remus didn’t care about all of the detail it provided.
He was scrolling over Alexander’s biography when something in the text caught his eye. ...was held in high esteem not only by Alexander, but also... he blinked and scrolled up. Hephaistion.
Held in high esteem? Remus frowned and pulled out the transcriptions of the wax tablets. He that is held in high esteem has been put to rest in the place that has been prescribed. A thought struck him and for a moment he was dumbfounded by how simple it seemed, how incredibly stupidly simple that he should’ve thought of it before.
Remus opened Hephaistion’s own file and started reading.
Hephaistion
Ἡ
φαιστίων c. 356 BC – 324 BC son of Amyntor, was a Makedonian nobleman and a general in the army of Alexander the Great. He was by far the dearest of all the king's friends; he had been brought up with Alexander and shared all his secrets. Their relationship lasted their whole lives (and afterlife, until Hephaistion’s infamous disappearance), and was compared to that of Achilles and Patroclus… He was held in high regard by Alexander, who said of him “he, too, is Alexander.”...Alexander's grief was uncontrollable…he flung himself on the body of his friend and lay there nearly all day long in tears, and refused to be parted from him until he was dragged away by force by his Companions… Alexander himself drove the funeral carriage part of the way back to Babylon, with some of the driving entrusted to Hephaistion's friend…Alexander planned to spend ten thousand talents on the funeral and the tomb...He employed Stasicrates, as this artist was famous for his innovations, which combined an exceptional degree of magnificence, audacity and ostentation, to design the pyre for Hephaistion. The pyre was sixty metres high... the pyre was not burnt; it was actually intended as a lasting memorial and is still on display in Babylon. Hephaistion’s tomb and shrine were never found: it is likely that the shrine was never completed, as there are references to expensive, uncompleted projects at the time of Alexander's own death.
Remus stared at the massive file. Hephaistion’s tomb was never found.
Not Alexander, Hephaistion.
But why would someone go to such lengths to conceal Hephaistion in a safe place so long after Alexander’s own death? Remus sighed and rubbed his eyes. How am I going to find out? We know everything there is to know about the Great Wizard and His Hephaistion; if their tombs haven’t been discovered yet – it must be because they don’t want them to be found.
“Earth to Remus!” Sirius flung a pillow at him. It hit his shoulder before it fell to the floor. Remus blinked. “I’ve been trying to establish some form of contact with your absent mind,” he said and held aloft the magazine. “There’s a brilliant review for this one restaurant here and I think we ought to go there for dinner.”
“Right,” Remus said and blinked. “Come and look at this.”
Sirius stood up and went to look over Remus’ shoulder. Remus highlighted the part about Babylon and Hephaistion’s tomb.
“I think we got it wrong all along –” Remus started, then paused, holding up a hand as if to silence Sirius. He picked up his wand and performed a few spells. The air next to the door shimmered and the form of Michel Poussin was revealed. “I thought so,” Remus stated.
“Want me to throw him out?” Sirius asked casually, grinning at Poussin somewhat maliciously. Poussin glared at them both, lips thin.
“Please,” Remus replied with a smile. He flicked his wand once and the door opened. Sirius grabbed Poussin’s collar and forcefully dragged him out of the room.
Remus couldn’t see what he was doing, but judging from the sounds and curses, he reckoned that Sirius had thrown him against the wall opposite the door. He came back inside with a pleased look on his face and sealed the door behind him. He put up a silencing charm for good measure.
“Now that’s taken care of...” Remus trailed off and beckoned him to look at the screen again. “We’ve been working with the assumption that not only were several important documents and artefacts removed from the Library of Alexandria and escorted to safety, but also the remains of Alexander the Great Wizard,” he explained. “It all made sense, especially when taking the letters on the wax tablets into account.”
He pulled the letters back onto the screen, original copies as well as transcriptions. “However, the letters never say outright that we’re dealing with Alexander’s remains – look, it says here he that is held in high esteem. It hadn’t occurred to me that Hephaistion is normally referred to this way, rather than Alexander, though not exclusively –”
“So that means Hephaistion’s remains were taken to safety rather than Alexander’s?” Sirius asked.
“Well...” Remus paused. “I don’t see why Alexander’s remains weren’t also moved, but that might have been another time, another place. I’m almost certain that – hell, I am certain that we’re looking for Hephaistion.”
“Oh. All right.”
“It makes sense,” Remus said contemplatively. “Well, sort of. It doesn’t explain what the documents and artefacts from the Library of Alexandria would be doing with Hephaistion...but Alexander kept saying that Hephaistion messed with his plans, which I suppose fits with Alexander planning for his body to be moved to a safe place. There is absolutely no reason to think Alexander wouldn’t have moved it, after all. And he did mention...”
“Hm,” Sirius said.
“Oh! He said – he said that Hephaistion is there but not there,” Remus said excitedly. “That could mean that he’s been moved – he said Hephaistion is in Babylon – perhaps his ghost is in Babylon but his remains are elsewhere – in that hiding place – and you know what, Hephaistion might know where!”
“Oh,” Sirius said. “All right.”
“Shush,” Remus said and pulled out his report and started typing furiously.
“So,” Sirius started. “Hephaistion vanished, when was it, oh, two thousand years ago?”
“Mh.”
“And no one knows where he went to?”
“Mh.”
“And you think Alexander knows?”
“Mh.”
“Why didn’t anyone ask Alexander before?”
“Mh.”
“That was a question,” Sirius said and nudged him.
“Sorry?” Remus looked up.
“Why didn’t anyone ask Alexander about Hephaistion’s whereabouts before?”
Remus shrugged. “Suppose no one thought the mad ghost would kn0w.” He continued typing.
“So,” Sirius continued. “How are you going to go about finding a ghost that has been missing for nearly two thousand years?”
“With my mad Indiana Jones skills,” Remus deadpanned.
“Can I make out with you like crazy?”
“In thirty seconds,” Remus replied. “Got to finish this first.”
As soon as he’d typed the last word and hit ‘save’, Sirius ravished his mouth.
*
“I thought Babylon didn’t exist anymore,” Sirius said as he hoisted up his bag and trailed after Remus out of the Portkey arrival room.
“For Muggles it doesn’t,” Remus explained. “The Muggles think the civilization in Babylon died out or left two thousand years ago. What happened was that the wizards didn’t want the Muggles interfering with their society, and so they expelled the Muggles – apparently that was a bloody affair – and placed several protection and Muggle repelling spells in place. Any Muggle that arrives on site will see nothing but a few sand-covered mud bricks and debris.”
“Brilliant.” Sirius grinned excitedly. “So it’s still a magical city?”
“The biggest in the Middle East, actually. Possibly the biggest in the world.” Remus lead them towards the exit, where there was a giant plaque with writing in several different languages, including English. He pointed at it. “Just right.”
Welcome to Babylon - a purely magical city since 275BC.
Outside the Portkey office it became very clear that Babylon was a cultural melting pot. At first glance it looked like any poor eastern city; many women with heavily painted eyes were dressed in niqabs and hijabs, men wearing eastern variants of wizard robes, barefoot and grimy children, beggars on every street corner, vegetable sellers, trinket dealers, artisans and craftsmen, street artists and toothless old witches with wrinkles so deep their faces seemed to have disappeared under folds of skin.
At second glance they also saw western wizards in traditional robes and even in Muggle suits, witches in old fashioned buttoned up dresses, Chinese wizards in silk robes with long, thin moustaches, African witches with gold discs in their ears and rings around their throats and colourful attire, American magicians with their low brows and time-honoured feathers in their black hair and Indian sorceresses with symbols on their foreheads, to name a few.
And then there were all the other races; tall fair-haired light-elves from Scandinavia, hags that were almost interchangeable with old witches, ugly goblins scurrying to and fro, a minotaur with the colouring of a Jersey cow, a swarm of buzzing fairies, beautiful veela women, small Persian peri exuding benevolence and unearthly beauty, sirens with pleasant singsong-voices, satyrs with knobbly goat knees, a single djinn popping out of a tradesman’s lamp, two graceful tiamats with luminous green scales, a small herd of Asian mermen with temporarily transfigured legs and even two centaurs, chatting amicably with each other as they walked down the dusty street.
“Whoa,” said Sirius.
“Never been to Babylon before?” Remus asked, small smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.
“No...” Sirius rolled his eyes. “I didn’t know it existed until now.”
“I’m sure you’ll like it. Be careful – the pickpockets here are extremely talented.” Remus pointed his wand at Sirius and performed an Anti-Invasive charm on his pockets and bag, and then did one on himself. “Better renew that one before we go out again in the morning.”
“Oh...cool, thanks.” Sirius grinned. “Where are we staying?”
“Just round the corner. An old friend from university has a bed and breakfast here. Brilliant food and impeccable privacy charms.”
“Did you go to a wizarding university?” Sirius asked conversationally as he followed him down the street, staring at everything they walked past.
“Yes. I went to the Black School of Franconia,” Remus said with pride. “Went there for secondary too.”
“Really? Holy crap, that’s like, the best ever!” Sirius burst out. Then he registered what Remus had said – he’d gone there for secondary, which explained why he hadn’t been at Hogwarts.
“Yeah, I know.” Remus grinned. “Stop staring at people, Sirius. It’s rude.”
“Oh. Right.” Sirius looked down and then at Remus. “That’s pretty cool, though. Not a lot of people in the UK go to university...one of my cousins did, she went to Carmarthen Academy of Alchemy. Granted, it’s the only university of magic in the UK, but still, that’s pretty neat...and quite renowned and all...”
“Mh, it is. Carmarthen was founded by Merlin, after all.” Remus grinned. “Actually I went there too. I had an exchange period in my third year.”
“Did you? Why?”
“I wanted to.” Remus shrugged. “And they had a pretty ace course on Celtic Civilization that I wanted to take.”
“Mmmh, I just bet.” Sirius shrugged. Remus stopped next to a large wooden door with an ornate sign on it.
“Here it is. The Hanged Head.” He pushed the door open and Sirius followed him inside.
A familiar handsome red-haired wizard with an extremely freckled face sat by the counter. At the sight of Remus, his face lit up with a wide grin. “Remus! Long time no see!”
“Hello, Fabian.” Remus smiled and Fabian went round the counter to wrap Remus up in an enthusiastic hug. “How are things in the Old Pot?”
“Marvellous. And the Emerald Isle?”
“Haven’t been there recently, but I’m holding up all right in London. I like what you did to this place. It’s cosier than before.”
“Brushed up the wood finish.” Fabian shrugged. “I see you aren’t alone this time?” He raised an eyebrow inquiringly.
Remus grinned and stepped aside for Sirius. “Fabian Prewett, Sirius Black.” Sirius realised with a jolt why this guy was familiar – he’d been a year or two above him in Hogwarts.
“Don’t you have a twin?” Sirius blurted out as he shook his hand.
“Gideon,” Fabian answered, laughing. “He’s still ambassador, by the way,” he said to Remus before turning back to Sirius. “I know you. Troublemaker, usually seen hip to hip with James Potter, cost Gryffindor two hundred points in one go at Christmas that one time?”
Sirius grimaced. “Afraid so.”
“So you’re that Black, hm?” Fabian grinned. “Do you realise they’re looking for you? You’ve been reported as missing.” He reached over the counter and pulled out a day-old copy of the Daily Prophet. “Heir to the House of Black reported missing after he failed to respond to any of his owls... Regulus Black reports that he has not been in his London residence over the course of the past seven days...”
“Oh come on,” Sirius snorted. “My brother knows I’m not missing. That’s rubbish. I said – oh.”
“Oh?” Remus asked, amused. “Did you forget to tell him?”
“I suppose I sort of did,” Sirius mumbled. His cheeks were slightly pink. He shrugged awkwardly and Remus laughed.
“Owl him to let him know you’re alive, yeah?” he grinned. Sirius shrugged in reply. “I’ll be owling a stack of postcards to Teddy, so let me know if you want me to take a message down to the owlery.”
“Sure.” Sirius nodded.
“Oi, Remus, I have a new range of postcards.” Fabian pointed at the rack on the wall. “All charmed to appear still before Muggles, of course, so you can safely send them via Muggle Post. Got some with dinosaurs that I think he’d love.”
“Brilliant.” Remus smiled and went over to look, picking out a few to give them a closer look. “Hey, Fab? Do you still serve dinner in this place?”
“Of course. I can have a meal ready for you as soon as you’ve settled in.” He paused, his eyes flicking between the two of them. “Do you guys want a double room?”
“With a large bed,” Sirius replied. “Remus kicks in his sleep.”
“No, you can’t have a huma, Sirius, let it go. That bird goes through coconuts like you wouldn’t believe,” Remus said, hand firmly clasped around Sirius’ left arm, lest he get lost in the streets of Babylon.
“How’d you know?” Sirius put the cage with the bird down. “Ohhh, what’s that?”
“I just know and don’t touch that unless you really want to deal with a djinn, and honestly we don’t have the time –”
“A djinn? Ohh like a genie?” Sirius reached out for the lamp but Remus slapped his hand away.
“Not like a genie. A djinn is a highly dangerous being and it will trick you. Those wishes come with a price.” Remus was growing impatient. “Will you stop getting distracted by shiny things? We have somewhere to be in, oh, eight minutes!”
“All right! I’ll keep my fingers to myself!” Sirius held up his hands in mock exasperation. “I can’t help if it I get distracted. This place is... amazing...” He looked around, utterly fascinated.
Remus grabbed his arm again. “I’ll take you out to look at these things properly later. We’ve really got to be going.”
“Where are we going again?”
“To see a specialist. More walking, less talking.”
“Couldn’t we floo?”
“There’s no fireplaces in this country. This is Babylon, Sirius. They have other means to keep warm in winter.”
“Apparate, then?”
“Not possible. The location is warded against apparition. You ask more questions than a five-year-old.”
“Sorry,” Sirius muttered, but Remus had stopped by a nondescript door in a small side street.
Instead of a keyhole there was a small circular hole in the middle of the door. Remus put the tip of his wand into the hole and after a minute the door shimmered and he pulled both of them through.
The inside was stunning. On the outside the house had looked like any other residence, but it was clearly not. It was magically enlarged and the walls were covered by shelves of parchment rolls and books, stretching up high. Desks were strewn with papers and more scrolls and open books and quills. No one was there and Sirius briefly wondered where exactly they were.
“So, it’s time for you to be useful for once,” Remus said, finally letting go of Sirius’ arm.
“What do you mean, for once?” Sirius crossed his arms indignantly. Remus sighed.
“We don’t have time for this, Sirius. Please. I need you to do your dog thing and stand guard outside the door.”
“My dog thing?” Sirius narrowed his eyes at him. “He’s called Padfoot, that you know it, and he has feelings!”
Remus stared. “All right, get Padfoot out there to guard the building.” He paused. “You know Poussin, so if you catch the smell of him take a huge bite of out of his leg or something. I don’t expect him to have caught up with us yet, but better be on the safe side. Look out for suspicious behaviour, bark if someone tries to get in, that sort of thing.”
Sirius grumbled. “All right,” he conceded, looking up as an old and wizened man appeared through a back door. “Do I get to know about stuff later?”
“Yeah, I’ll fill you in,” Remus said, then nudged him out of the door. Sirius sighed and transformed into Padfoot.
He sat down just outside the door, sniffing the air and whipping his tail against the dusty ground. Not many people ventured down this alley and the few who did eyed the black dog warily. Padfoot growled at them for good measure.
After what felt like several long uneventful hours, Padfoot was getting restless and bored and the urge to take a sprint down a few streets was nearly unbearable. He’d just gotten up to pace in front of the door when Remus shifted through it.
“Padfoot?” he asked, giving the dog a suspicious look. Padfoot snorted in response. “Right, let’s head back.” Remus curled his hand into the fur around his neck and held on tight. “You’ll stay right by my side and not run off.”
Padfoot whined, but followed Remus complacently. Remus didn’t want him to transform back yet, so perhaps he was still wary of something – and if there was anything Padfoot could do, it was look out for dangers. It was part of his canine pride, after all. He snapped at a few ankles as they walked past.
As soon as they were back in their room Sirius transformed back, making faces at all the dust in his hair and on his clothes. “Ugh,” he muttered, attempting to brush it off.
“Have you been in the Muggle world so long that you have forgotten how to perform simple cleaning spells?” Remus asked amusedly, pointing his wand at him. The dust cleared off.
“No, I just...never mind.” Sirius shrugged, threading his fingers through his hair to check that no traces of dust were left. He still felt grimy. “No one came near, by the way.”
“Oh, good.” Remus breathed a sigh in relief. “Perfect.” He took out the laptop and sat down on the bed. “I didn’t get much wiser, though – oh, hang on...” He performed several detection spells without finding anything. “Brilliant.”
Sirius sat next to him on the bed and watched as Remus started his report. “Who did you talk to?”
“A retired professor from Nebuchadnezzar’s Institute of Magic,” Remus replied. “He’s a specialist in the Hellenistic rule of Babylon. In recent years he’s been more occupied with Hephaistion alone and he has several theories on what might’ve happened to him.”
“Oh.” Sirius was quiet while Remus typed. “How did you know who to speak to? I mean, it was the same in Alexandria, right? You were off talking to people and it just looked like you knew everyone and where to go and all.”
Remus smiled. “Several of the people in Alexandria I knew from the Black School, actually. The rest I was referred to via them. As for this guy – I was here one summer once, did some summer courses. He held a seminar about Babylonian History and a few lectures about specific periods. I went to his lecture about the Hellenistic Period...”
“So you know, like, everyone?”
“Sort of.” Remus shrugged. “I was aiming towards an academic career, you know. It was pure chance I ended up doing what I do at British Museum. I worked hard on extending my network... It’s come in handy several times since, though, so it’s all good.” He finished typing up the report.
“Well?”
“Not much new. He’s been looking for Hephaistion’s ghost for the past twenty years. Of course, it might be that Hephaistion simply doesn’t want to be found – this is what I believe – but there are a few locations that he’s more likely to be in than others...and Alexander said he was here, which narrowed it down considerably...” Remus tapped the laptop absent-mindedly. “There’s the university, but I wrote that off. The palace still stands and Alexander’s rooms have been preserved. We could try there. There’s also the funeral pyre – it’s worth a shot, and –”
“Okay,” Sirius interrupted. “So what we’ll do is go to these places and call out come out, come out, wherever you are and hope Hephaistion deigns to show up?”
“Pretty much.”
“I wish I could say that Indiana Jones was smoother than that, but alas...” Sirius grinned and leaned back onto his elbows.
“Well...” Remus shrugged. He saved and encrypted the file. “Want to come looking with me?”
“Right now?”
“Yes, right now.”
“Okay.”
They’d been prowling around the palace for hours, Remus surreptitiously looking around for a ghost that had been missing for two thousand years and therefore wasn’t very likely to just pop out of thin air for a chat, when Sirius decided he’d had enough and would rather be back in their room having fantastic sex.
“Remus, isn’t it enough for today? He’s not here, and if he is, he’s not going to talk to you.”
“I’m going to try in here once more...” Remus disappeared through a large doorway and Sirius sighed, leaning against the wall instead of following him.
He hadn’t waited long when the unmistakeable form of Michel Poussin appeared.
“Well hello there, Sirius,” he said pleasantly. Sirius scowled.
“What do you want?” He glared, wondering if he could send Remus some sort of warning. Michel only smiled and leaned against the wall, mere inches from Sirius, leaning close in a way that would’ve been seductive if Sirius had been a different person.
“Actually I was hoping you would grace me with your presence at dinner tonight. Nine? At Kubaba’s Kitchen?”
“Are you that desperate for someone to throw wine at you?”
“Now, there, there. No need to be hostile, old friend.” Michel put on his best seductive smile. “I merely wish to...rekindle certain aspects of our...friendship.”
Sirius hand shot up and curled around Michel’s throat. He tightened his grip menacingly. “Do you now? How unfortunate that I do not share your sentiments,” he snarled.
Remus chose that moment to show up. “Poussin,” he said stonily. Only the hardness in his eyes betrayed his feelings. “How lovely that you would yet again inflict your presence upon us.”
“But of course,” Michel replied. “I live to please.”
“Yourself?” Remus asked mockingly.
“Don’t be silly, dear Remus. I am perfectly proficient in providing pleasure. I even employ alliteration, solely for your satisfaction.”
“I’m impressed,” Remus said sarcastically and Sirius squeezed Poussin’s throat.
“I would suggest that you kindly take your arse out of this city before I do it for you,” Sirius growled. “Unless you prefer to die of asphyxiation.”
“If you should change your mind...nine, Kubaba’s Kitchen. Remus is of course also invited.” Michel glanced furtively at Remus and then pushed Sirius off him. “I’ll see you later, gentlemen.” He righted his clothes and walked away.
“Twenty-four hours,” Remus said as he looked after Michel. “I was hoping for at least another twelve.”
“I was hoping he’d randomly died.”
To Sirius’ surprise Remus sniggered. “With him that’s always a bit much to hope for.” He grinned and nudged Sirius in the side with his elbow. “I think I’m done for today. How about dinner, some wine, and an early night?”
“Does he know where we’re staying?”
“There’s always a chance he might. Disturbingly well informed, he is...Why?”
Sirius shrugged and stuck his hands in his pockets. “I would like it if he didn’t find out immediately.”
“I’ll ask Fabian to strengthen the wards. He’s a good guy – never asks too many questions.” Remus winked and took hold of Sirius’ arm, leading him towards the exit.
“I went to school with Fabian – well, I suppose you knew that... but how do you know him?”
“That’s a long story,” Remus explained. “The short version is that I met him at Carmarthen. We dated for a while – a year or so, I think. Anyway, he moved here with his brother the summer after we met and I decided to come along, summer school and all. We broke it off not long after I went back to Germany.”
“Oh.”
“Something wrong?”
“No, just – I didn’t know he was gay,” Sirius said regretfully. “No one I knew at school was gay. Had I known I’d probably have asked him out just because he was the only other gay bloke there.”
Remus laughed. “And I thought boarding schools were all gay,” he grinned. “The one I went to had a surprising number of bent boys.”
“Unfair,” Sirius muttered, but brightened right up when they entered the street.
It was late enough that the sun looked like a sharp, orange disc in the sky. The sky itself was growing increasingly pale at the western horizon, while in the east it was turning a deep shade of blue. It was beautiful and the effect on the city was unmistakeable. The ruckus that seemed to dominate the streets by daylight had subdued; tradesmen were packing up their goods and the children had gone.
“Whoa,” said Sirius and Remus smiled indulgently.
“Fabian’s a brilliant cook, but I know a very good restaurant not far from here. The view is astounding.”
He led them round some corners and down some shadowy alleys, and eventually up a stair to a roof terrace. It was one of those nondescript restaurants whose menu contained of a mix of dishes from at least seven different cultures, but the service was impeccable, the view truly astounding, and the waiter put up a very comfortable shielding charm to stave off the looming night chill.
“I think I’m falling in love with Babylon,” Sirius sighed, sipping his wine and looking over the city. The sunset was painting all the mud houses orange, while the large stone buildings of the palace and university and other important buildings were gleaming golden. The river, cutting through the middle of the large city, shone golden and red colours.
“That’s not very difficult,” Remus said. He was smiling peacefully, leaning back in his seat and enjoying his second glass of wine. “I had an amazing time here. The archives here are brilliant. It’s a researcher’s paradise.”
Sirius chuckled. “You do realise I wasn’t thinking about archives or scholarly stuff, right?” He refilled his own wine glass, effectively moving on to his third.
“And so?” Remus shrugged, smiling. “I know what you mean, though. This place literally thrums with magic. You can feel it in your bones.”
“Mh.” Sirius nodded, looking up at Remus. He couldn’t help a soft smile. Remus’ hair was glowing in the sunset and he looked peaceful.
It was all strangely relaxing, as if they’d been taken out of time. They both rationally knew that Michel Poussin was out there in the city, perhaps he’d followed them, perhaps he was trying to gain entry to their room, perhaps he was speaking to the same man Remus had spent the whole morning talking to, perhaps he was looking in the archives or perhaps he was seated in another restaurant, just having a meal.
Sirius found himself wondering whether Remus would want to go on a date with him after all this was over. We’re already on a date, he thought, or what feels like it anyway. Still, there was a lot to be said for a real date, instead of this...well, whatever it was.
“Why so quiet?” Remus asked, nudging Sirius’ leg under the table. “If I know anyone that’s chatty, it’s got to be you.”
“Just thinking,” Sirius replied with a small smile. He sipped his wine.
“About?”
“I’ll tell you once we get back.” Sirius signalled the waiter for the dessert menu.
“Oh, it’s that kind of thinking, is it?” Remus grinned, finishing the last of his wine. He refilled their glasses.
It was two tipsy wizards that almost fell through the door and into The Hanged Head. Sirius had stumbled over the threshold but as he’d been hanging onto Remus’ arm, he was saved the humiliation of falling flat on his face in front of Fabian.
Fabian, who was currently eyeing them amusedly. “Good night out, boys?” he asked.
“Yeah,” Sirius replied with a grin and righted himself. “Come on, Remus. Which way’s our room?”
“That way – wait, wait, I’ve got to talk to Fabian, ‘bout wards.” Remus tugged on Sirius’ arm, who turned around with a grin and pulled Remus close for a kiss. “Mmh – Sirius –”
“Yeah, yeah, I’ll wait right here,” Sirius said and pointed at the doorway. As if to demonstrate, he leaned against it, arms folded over his chest.
Remus just grinned and went over to the reception desk. “Hey Fabian,” Remus said cheerfully. “Still do repelling charms?”
“Sure.” Fabian put down his magazine. “What for?”
“Poussin.” Remus made a face. “He hasn’t come by, has he?”
“I’m pretty sure he hasn’t. When did he get in?”
“Today.” Remus paused. “Well, he accosted us this afternoon, so...”
“All right. I’ll set it up. Do you want your wards reinforced?”
“Please. And set them to just me and Sirius? I don’t want the staff let in either, you never know, though of course I trust you but you never know, and Poussin is one sneaky bastard and –”
“I got it,” Fabian laughed as he took notes. Sirius laughed too and decided he liked tipsy Remus. “So, you and Sirius there,” he continued conversationally. “How long have you been together?”
“Oh, we’re not together,” Remus replied cheerfully. A stone fell into Sirius’ stomach and he frowned. “Sirius is, uhm...” Remus glanced at Sirius, who gave him a tentative smile. “My guard dog,” Remus decided, grinning.
“Is that so.” Fabian’s eyes twinkled with amusement. “Was there anything else?”
“No. Thanks, Fab, you’re brilliant!” Remus smiled and marched up to Sirius, wrapping his arm around his neck. “See you in the morning. Make the coffee extra strong, yeah?”
“G’night, guys.” Fabian waved them off.
“Why’d he ask?” Sirius asked, sneaking one hand under Remus’ shirt, trailing over the scars. “Does he want a go or something?”
“What’re you talking about?” Remus asked, frowning and pulling Sirius closer in front of their door and kissed him. Sirius was hard pressed not to melt immediately and so instead he pulled their key out of Remus’ front pocket.
“Fabian,” Sirius answered and let them into the room. Remus didn’t immediately follow.
“Are you jealous?” he asked, suspicious.
“I was just wondering. Are you going to come in?”
Remus walked in and Sirius closed the door after them. “Are you really jealous?” Remus asked, pulling him in for another kiss, this one with lots of fumbly nuzzling.
“Because Fabian asked how long we’d been dating? That’s hardly a reason to be jealous, is it?” Sirius answered dismissively, regretting having brought up the topic.
“Oh, because if you were –”
“Doesn’t matter,” Sirius cut him off. Then he grinned, an idea popping into his head. “Volo bacillum glycyrrhizae teum lingere,” he said triumphantly, the grin turning smug.
Remus spluttered. His cheeks were red and the fact that his eyes had darkened just a little bit hadn’t passed Sirius by at all. Sirius’ fingers were already fumbling with Remus’ fly.
“I don’t think liquorice stick constitutes cock, you know,” Remus said, but he was grinning breathlessly.
“I do like gladius better, but I thought that sounded pretty morbid.” Sirius shrugged. “Or I could’ve said hasta, cicer, radix, cucumis, falcula, telum, mentula, vomer...and so on. I know pretty much any way to say cock in Latin.” He grinned and pulled Remus in for a hot kiss. “Anyway, now you’ve got to answer me in Latin or it’s not fair.”
Remus shook his head. “You’re mad.”
“Yes.” Sirius grinned again and nudged him, his fingers returning to his fly. This time he got the button undone. “Come on. Say something back to me in Latin. I know you like it.”
“Linge bacillum glycyrrhizae meum,” Remus eventually said, smile tugging at his lips. “Good enough for you?”
He didn’t wait for Sirius answer, instead pressing their mouths together and sneaking his hands down to cup Sirius’ arse. “Good enough,” Sirius breathed, kissing him more.
“Good,” Remus murmured into the kiss. “I hope you don’t mind that I want to suck yours first.”
“Oh, no, not at all...” Sirius pulled Remus’ shirt off and discarded it, his hands instantly returning to his skin, sliding over his torso and shoulders, feeling the scars under his fingertips. He really, really liked those scars. “As long as I get to suck you off in the end.”
“No worries.” Remus pushed him towards the bed, his fingers already undoing Sirius’s trousers. “Lie down?”
Sirius crawled up, kicking off his shoes as he did so, grinning at Remus. Remus grinned back, pulling down Sirius’ trousers and pants, stopping for a second to take his socks off as well. He kicked off his own shoes before crawling over Sirius and claiming his lips.
“You’ve still got your trousers on,” Sirius pointed out after a while, cheeks flushed. Remus only chuckled and Sirius could feel his breath on his neck, and then a soft brush of lips. “Ohhh...” He felt Remus’ lips curl into a smile and he couldn’t help grinning and making a note to definitely ask Remus out after all this – and then Remus curled his hand around his cock and stroked. Sirius let out a very unmanly whimper.
“How’d you want it?” Remus asked, his lips now brushing over a hard nipple.
“Uhh, sucked,” Sirius replied, bucking his hips into Remus’ hand.
“Oh, I’m getting there...” He continued stroking him, soft and slow strokes, while his lips left tingling marks all over. They were now creating a somewhat moist trail down his belly, and Sirius whimpered again.
“Please...?”
Remus stopped stroking him, shuffling backwards a little before he leaned down. “Like this?” He darted his tongue out, barely touching Sirius’ cock. Sirius whimpered. Remus grinned. “All right.”
He licked a broad stripe along the underside of Sirius’ cock up to the head, swirling his tongue around it. He had to press Sirius’ hips down with his hands to prevent him from pushing upwards. Sirius tried not to buck his hips, but it was hard – especially with Remus’ teasing licks and nibbles that did nothing but wind him up more and more, until he was on the verge of snapping.
“Oh...please...” Sirius moaned, giving in to the urge to twist his fingers in Remus’ hair and draw him a bit closer. “Before I explode?”
“Wasn’t that the whole point?” Remus grinned, earning only a groan in reply. He didn’t bother making another comment, rather closed his mouth around Sirius’ cock properly, sucking gently.
“Ohhhyes...” Sirius gasped, bucking, but Remus’ hands kept him firmly pressed down. “That’s so good...” He tightened his fingers in Remus’ hair, his other hand curling in the sheets. Remus’ tongue and mouth were driving him to the edge, fast, and then there were his fingers, curled around his cock and massaging his sack. Heat pooled in his groin and Sirius felt his cock hit the back of Remus’ throat. It undid him completely.
“Some warning would’ve been nice,” Remus coughed, wiping his mouth.
“Sorry,” Sirius breathed. “I was...distracted...” He grinned at his own joke and got up on his elbows to have a proper look at Remus. “I really am sorry, though. Are you all right?”
“Just fine,” Remus replied and wiped his hand on the sheets. Sirius discovered that there was a little wet spot on the impossible bulge in Remus’ trousers.
“Come here.” Sirius scooted backwards until he’d propped himself up against the headboard. “And bring your cock with you.” He beckoned him closer, eyes fixed on the spot of precome that’d leaked through the fabric in Remus’ trousers.
“Merlin, Sirius, if you can’t refrain from making stupid jokes, just shut up!” Remus crawled up to him, each knee firmly planted on each side of Sirius, and caught his lips in a hard kiss.
“I’m going to shut up,” Sirius replied and kissed him once more. “Now, up.” He nudged Remus to straighten up, sliding his arms around his legs and pulling him close for an open mouthed kiss to his stomach. Almost as an afterthought, he followed it with a lick.
Sirius quickly undid Remus’ trousers and pushed them down with his underwear, just enough that he could pull out his cock and wrap his fingers around it.
“When I give the signal you can fuck my mouth,” Sirius said, leaning in for another open mouthed kiss, this time grazing his teeth over the skin.
“O-okay.” Remus stared down at him, lips parted in arousal. They were rather red and swollen, Sirius noticed. “You can...do that?”
“Yeah.” Sirius nodded and shifted until he was better positioned. “Keep yourself in check, all right? Until I give the signal.”
Remus only nodded, laying his palms flat against the wall above the bed for support. He drew in a shaky breath as Sirius lapped at the tip of his cock, but stayed still. Sirius’ hands curled around Remus’ hips as he opened his mouth and took his cock in, drawing out a low moan.
Sirius took his time sucking and licking and preparing his throat, taking Remus’ cock in deeper on every go. His hands were gentle but firm on his hips, controlling Remus’ every movement.
“Soon,” Remus moaned, biting his lip. His hair was sticking to his forehead as he looked down at Sirius, desperation and lust evident in his eyes. “Ohh...”
He got no response, but Sirius drew in a deep breath, relaxed his throat, and then loosened his hold on Remus’ hips, nudging him to move. Go on, he seemed to say, and Remus took it as his cue to start moving. He grabbed Sirius’ head with one hand to hold him steady, the other still braced against the wall, and then he thrust, desperate to get off now.
Sirius gazed at Remus, eyes watering from discomfort, seeing how his eyes fluttered shut, how his teeth dug into his lip, felt his fingers tighten in his hair before he saw the look of abandon on his face, and then hot come was spurting down his throat. Remus thrust a few more times, then pulled out and allowed Sirius his breath back.
“Thanks.” Sirius coughed once, then sucked in a breath, wiping the tears off his face. He then grinned happily, incredibly satisfied with himself, and sat up properly. He pulled Remus down to sit astride him.
“Uh-uh,” Remus answered. Only now did he realise his fingers were still clutching a handful of Sirius’ hair. He let go. “That was...”
“Mmh, I know.” Sirius sneaked his hands into Remus’ trousers to touch his arse. Remus leaned in to give him a soft kiss, his hands coming up to cradle his face.
“Mmmh,” he agreed, kissing him some more.
*
Remus readjusted his ridiculous Indiana Jones hat irritably as he dragged Sirius down a deserted corridor in the palace. Hephaistion hadn’t shown his ghostly face yet, but someone else had that day – twice – and Remus was sorely tempted to hex the man into oblivion and send the remains to a poultry factory.
“Remus?”
“Let’s go back to the B&B,” Remus said, glancing backwards. Poussin had, predictably, disappeared.
“But weren’t you going to –”
“Not now.”
Sirius gave him a confused look, but Remus really didn’t feel like explaining anything. Actually, chances were he’d just snap at Sirius and take out all his frustrations on him, which strictly wasn’t very fair.
They headed outside and started off in the direction of the hotel. Both of them kept an eye out for Poussin, but Remus spotted him first.
“Change of plans,” he said abruptly and pulled Sirius into a nearby cafe. “We’ll have lunch here.” He took Sirius to a table in the back and cast a silencing spell that he knew Poussin would have little trouble penetrating.
“Are you going to explain what’s up?” Sirius asked. “Since we already had lunch today.”
“Yeah.” Remus glanced at the door and saw the air shimmer. Poussin had sneaked in, then. “I wanted us out of earshot – thing is, we’re looking in the wrong place,” he said. “Hephaistion’s not in Babylon at all.”
“No?” Sirius now looked thoroughly confused. “What have we been prowling about in Babylon for, then?”
“To lead Poussin to believe we’re on the track. It’s a ruse. We’ll leave in an hour –” Remus glanced at his watch. “Fifty minutes. I booked a portkey while you were in the shower this morning. We’ve got to go before Poussin catches on.”
“Oh. Okay. Where will we be going, then?”
“Antioch,” Remus replied with a small smile. “I stumbled over a lead yesterday. I didn’t tell you before because I wasn’t sure whether he’d bugged our room, you know.”
A slow grin spread over Sirius’ face as he understood. “Of course. What’s the lead in Antioch?”
“The ramparts.” Remus grinned. “It’ll take us a while to search through, but he’s there. I know it.”
“Cool.” Sirius smiled. “Is there time for a tea before we go?” He pointed at the menu card.
“Of course not. Come on, let’s go before Poussin finds out.” Remus got up. This time he refrained from dragging Sirius along as Sirius quite happily hurried alongside him.
Remus spotted the shimmer by the door as they left, but he pretended he hadn’t seen it. Please go, Remus thought.
“Did it work?” Sirius asked once they were back in their room at The Hanged Head.
“There’s hope.” Remus sighed and flung the hat onto the bed. “We should probably go to the Portkey office, though...pretend to leave.”
“Mhyeah. How are we going to do that? I suppose we’ll have to take a portkey somewhere if we have to leave, and that’d be a bit...well...” Sirius shrugged.
Remus fingered the moonwatch on his wrist. “Yes...actually, I have an idea. Let’s go see Fabian.”
Exactly seventeen minutes later, Remus, Sirius and their bags were wrung out of the air in a distinctly brightly coloured room in The Hanged Head. Fabian was already waiting.
“Handy things, those bracelets,” Sirius said, flinging it over to Fabian who caught it. “You get a lot of kids losing their parents?”
“Happens every now and then.” Fabian pocketed the bracelet. “Am I even allowed to ask what you needed it for?” he asked, raising his eyebrow at Remus.
“Just wanted to play someone a little trick,” Remus said. “Thanks for the help.”
“No problem.” Fabian pointed his wand at their bags and they disappeared. “That’s your bags sorted. Anything else I can do for you?”
“I don’t think so.” Remus glanced at Sirius, who shrugged.
“What now?” he asked.
“Now...” Remus looked at his watch, making a face. “We can’t risk going out the rest of the day...”
“Mh.” Sirius smiled. “Suppose there’s some research that could be done...or something. I know I have a magazine I want to finish reading.” He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.
“I thought we’d visit this place much earlier,” Sirius said, climbing over the hill. “Why only now?”
“Because I had to be sure that Poussin had gone to Antioch, and then be sure he was still there, and I did have a couple of things I wanted to rule out for certain,” Remus explained. “I don’t think it’ll be long before Poussin realises he’s been had, so we’re visiting the pyre now before he gets back.”
“Well, he’s been gone for a day and a half –”
“Which is exactly long enough for him find out that we never went to Antioch in the first place,” Remus pointed out. “It’s not the first time I’ve tricked him like this, mind you. I know his way of thinking.”
“Mh.” Sirius stopped next to Remus. “So, this is Hephaistion’s funeral pyre?” he asked, shielding his eyes from the sun with his hand. The pyre stood sixty metres tall in seven complete levels. “Why isn’t it, uhm, a bit more...burned?”
“It was never meant to be burned,” Remus answered, looking up at the monstrous thing.
“But it’s a pyre.”
“One that’s made of gold and silver, ivory and gemstones and other costly materials.”
“Hm, I see why no one would want to burn that.” Sirius stepped closer, absent-mindedly letting his hand hover over the base. He felt a strong tingle of magic under his palm. “Fancy stuff, this thing.”
“Indeed it is,” said a silvery ghost, appearing behind Sirius. “Not quite what I would’ve chosen myself, but Alexander always did have very firm opinions.”
“No? What’d you have chosen?” Sirius asked. “I think it looks mighty fine, although I think it’d have looked a lot more awesome with unicorns instead of centaurs up there.” He pointed at the fourth level. “Though I suppose you do need hands to fight a battle and I doubt unicorns actually fight, but you know.”
“Interesting that you should say so,” said the ghost. “Well, it is very good. And the eagles are quite brilliant, even if they look an awful lot like phoenixes.”
“They do, kind of.” Sirius looked up, then at the ghost again. “I’d shake your hand, but er, you’re a ghost. I’m Sirius Black and –” Sirius cut himself off abruptly at the sight of Remus staring. He looked like he was about to have a heart attack. “That guy who looks like he’s about to have a heart attack is Remus Lupin. Oi, Remus, what’s up?”
“Nothing,” he croaked. The ghost smiled.
“Why, hello Remus Lupin. I hear you’ve been looking for me. I’m Hephaistion, as you’ve no doubt guessed.”
“You’re Hephaistion?” Sirius blurted out. “Sorry, but, uhm.” He frowned. “You speak English.”
“Of course I speak English!” Hephaistion looked affronted. Remus was making frantic shut-up-Sirius-for-the-love-of-Merlin movements behind his back at Sirius. “I am a seeker of knowledge. I watch. I learn. And this language is most interesting, though I imagine Alexander doesn’t care much for it.”
“No – that he doesn’t,” Remus said, voice controlled. “I believe his words were I don’t believe in England.”
Hephaistion chuckled. “Indeed, he never did. He wanted to go east, you know? He wanted to reach the great sea in the east. He wanted to reach the end of the world and conquer it all. Alas, it never was so.”
“Well, no...he sort of died before that could happen.” Remus cleared this throat. “Anyway – if you don’t mind my asking – why did you reveal yourself to us?”
“That, my lad, is a very interesting question. However, I’m afraid that the answer isn’t as intriguing.” Hephaistion seemed pleased with himself. “It is quite simple, actually.”
Remus waited. Sirius yawned and started levitating pebbles off the ground.
“Oh, well, I was bored,” said Hephaistion, rolling his eyes. “That and I liked the look of that one.” He pointed over his back at Sirius, who looked up with a suspicious look in his eyes. “Very handsome. Definitely aristocratic, if slightly...untamed.”
“I’m not untamed!” Sirius burst out, then frowned. “Oh, maybe I am.” Hephaistion chuckled and Sirius’ frown grew deeper.
“That’s...it?” Remus asked incredulously.
“One has to take one’s pleasures where one finds them,” Hephaistion replied loftily. “Although you are of course also very handsome, if not of a different breed.” He cocked his head to the side. “I like your scars. Battle wounds, beautiful one? Oh, do tell me! You are a heroic soldier, one that takes on dragons alongside elephants and monkeys, always -”
“I’m a scholar,” Remus said uncomprehendingly. Sirius was glancing back and forth between Remus and Hephaistion, looking half murderous. “Sirius, what is the matter?”
“Oh dear!” Hephaistion exclaimed. “I am so very sorry! I did not mean to intrude.”
“Uhm, I’m sure,” Remus said. Sirius snorted and Remus raised an eyebrow at him.
“It’s nothing,” he muttered, going back to his previous task of glaring at the ghost.
“You are most fetching when you sulk, Sirius Black,” said Hephaistion genuinely. “Ah, if only you were a ghost! I would have my most wicked way with you.”
Remus choked on his breath. Sirius stopped looking murderous and instead looked slightly terrified. He moved to stand behind Remus, casting suspicious looks at Hephaistion over his shoulder.
“You are most weird.” Hephaistion frowned. “Perhaps my grasp on this barbarian language isn’t as good as I’d like to believe. Though there is Latin in it now, which is quite brilliant. It makes it less barbarian. Oh! Dear lads.” He shook his head. “I talk entirely too much. Now, you did have a purpose in seeing me, did you not?”
“Yes,” Remus replied. “I need to know what you did to Alexander’s earthly remains.”
The ghost paled. This effectively meant that it became more transparent. “Ah, yes,” he said delicately, fiddling with the hem of his skirt – well, technically it wasn’t a skirt as it was part of the battle armour he was wearing. “I don’t suppose I can just go over there and hide for another two thousand years?” He pointed at something and started to walk off, but Remus cut him off.
“No,” he said firmly. “I need to know what you did.”
“Technically, I didn’t do anything...”
“Obviously, you did something.”
“What do I get in exchange for the information?” he asked, giving them a sly look. “A kiss, perhaps?”
“A...kiss?” Remus raised an eyebrow. “You wouldn’t feel it anyway, so what’s the point?”
“Oh not me!” Hephaistion waved his hand impatiently. “You two! Gosh, lads, you two of course. It would be most delightful.”
“That’s a deal,” Sirius said before Remus could protest. “Now spill the beans.”
“Really? Marvellous! You must make it a good kiss.”
“Information first, then kiss.”
The ghost sulked.
“Hephaistion,” Remus said pointedly, “what did you do?”
The ghost sighed dramatically. “Well, I just moved him! And all his things! He wasn’t supposed to get so upset about it, he was moving ME after all even though I thought it was ridiculous but he insisted, so I insisted he be moved with me, but he put up a stupid fuss and I did it anyway, okay, and then we fought about it for three hundred years and then we had the worst fight ever and I went away to sulk.” Hephaistion stopped, as if out of breath. “And I haven’t spoken to him since,” he added, nose turned into the air.
“Wait,” Sirius said gleefully. “You hid yourself from the world for two thousand years because you and Alexander had a lovers’ tiff?”
“It wasn’t a tiff,” Hephaistion sniffed. “It was a discussion that went slightly off course, and anyway I was right.”
“But something went wrong...” Remus frowned. “Alexander became loony after you went off to sul –disappeared.”
“Did he?” Hephaistion fiddled with his skirt – battle armour thing – distractedly. He mumbled something unintelligible to himself.
“Yes. He kept telling me that you’d disrupted everything, but he wouldn’t, or couldn’t, say what or why.”
“Bah!” Hephaistion snorted disdainfully. “I didn’t disrupt anything! My plans were perfect! He went and ruined it all!”
“What happened?” Remus demanded. Hephaistion’s lips thinned. “I need to know.”
“Fine,” he said. “But I want that kiss. And some touching, you’ve got to do some nice touching too.”
“All right.” Remus motioned for him to continue. “I want details, please.”
“For details I want to see skin.” Hephaistion crossed his arms over his chest. Sirius sniggered and Remus elbowed him.
“All right!” Remus sighed. “Get on with it, please?”
“Perfect.” Hephaistion looked pleased. “Alexander was obsessed with me, of course, so he decided that my earthly remains were to be moved to a safe place. He believed that his opponents would soon desecrate them or plunder the tomb, or whatnot. Well, they killed both our wives and children – a shame really, we were planning for his son to marry a daughter of mine, so they could produce a heir of our blood to rule the kingdom after our time, a real shame that – so I could see where he was coming from. What he didn’t see, however, was that his own remains were also endangered. He trusted that fool Ptolemy, but politics were quite bloody and anyway, it was said that the land where Alexander’s body rested would be ‘happy and unvanquishable forever’ or other such rubbish... Then there was also the question of all his documents and weaponry and all. I was loath to think that they’d use his plans – his plans! To...well, never mind. I arranged for his remains and his things – I even made sure his clothing was packed, he had such brilliant clothing...the colours were amazing, and he had this one tunic he’d always wear before he’d come to my chambers,” Hephaistion sighed happily. Remus cleared his throat. “Oh. Yes. Alexander put my sarcophagus and body onto the ship as well. I personally oversaw the loading of the ships while Alexander was moping, because he is an idiot sometimes, and it was all...well, it was supposed to work. But the ships never returned, and...and...it felt wrong. There were charms, you see, and spells, to ensure that everything remained wholesome. We were not to be separated, but I suspect...” Hephaistion trailed off. “You see, us ghosts, we can feel, to some extent, where our remains lie, and I know that...that he was separated from me. He feels it too, of course. Don’t know if that’s what made him mad, but it’s a constant pain! It makes me mad. Well, angry, but I don’t have time to be angry when there are so many fine men to look at...”
“Can you tell us where?”
“I can’t give you an exact location. It’s...so far away. And you know, after two thousand three hundred years or so, there’s bound to have been some decay, even if we did get the best preservation charms that were available at the time. There is also the charm on the tombs, of course. Even then, the link weakens.”
“What happens if your bones turn completely to dust?” Sirius asked. “Do you vanish?”
“No, no.” Hephaistion shrugged. “I don’t think so. It’s not our remains that tie us to this world, lad.”
“What then?”
“Why, pretty boys like you, of course.”
“Do you have no inkling of where?” Remus interrupted. “It’s really important.”
“Well.” Hephaistion pursed his lips. “It’s cold, I can tell you that.”
“Great,” Remus said. “Brilliant. Couldn’t have been anywhere but, oh, like half of the globe.” He rubbed his face.
“Can I have that kiss now?”
“Remus, do you need more information from him?” Sirius asked. Remus shook his head.
“I don’t think so.”
Sirius gave Hephaistion a pointed look, then crashed his mouth against Remus’ in a rough kiss.
“Touching!” Hephaistion yelled. “And skin! Don’t forget the skin!” He loomed closer, much to Sirius’ discomfort.
He pushed up Remus shirt then, stroking his hands over his chest. “Come on, it was part of the deal,” he whispered. “I’m not sure we can break a deal with a ghost and still get out of it alive.”
Remus only nodded in response, kissing him again, sneaking his hands under Sirius’ shirt and making sure there’d be plenty of skin on display.
“Ohhh, that’s good, very good boys,” Hephaistion said, sounding completely elated. “A bit more of that! Ohhyes!”
Sirius sneaked a look and saw that Hephaistion had put his hand under his skirt and was definitely touching himself. He didn’t think he’d ever been more revolted in his life. “Ohgod,” he said, voice strained. “Remus – let’s leave – please,” he whispered, “before I go nuts. Or lose my will to have sex ever again in my life.”
Remus apparated them away.
“Ew, that was disgusting,” Sirius said as he righted himself. “Ew. Ghost sex, ew ew ew.”
“I know.” Remus pulled his shirt down. “On a scientific level I’m curious as to whether a ghost can actually ejaculate. Ghosts don’t need the loo, you know, but I think they can cry, and crying is an emotional thing rather than a practical thing, and if they can cry, I suppose we can assume that they can –”
Sirius was staring at him, mortified.
“Uhm, yeah. I suspect someone else already wrote a dissertation on that subject.” He shrugged and looked out of the alley he’d apparated them into. “Let’s get back. I need to write a report on this, if nothing else, and then try to find out what to do next since dear – RUN!”
Remus flicked up a shield charm, grabbed Sirius’ wrist and ran.
“What –” Sirius pulled his wand out of his pocket even as he stumbled to follow Remus.
“Just – run!”
Hexes and curses sizzled against the Shield charm and disintegrated completely when a heavy curse hit it dead-centre. Remus cursed, pulling Sirius sideways into another alley.
“I’ll bloody push him off a cliff one day,” Remus panted and Sirius looked over his shoulder to see Poussin and three thugs round the corner. They looked big and menacing, the one in the middle more so – he looked like a Viking.
“Bloody hell,” he muttered, putting up another shield charm, not a second too late. Remus was still grasping his wrist tightly as they continued running.
They’d almost reached the end of the alley when Poussin materialised in front of them and they stopped short, panting.
“Poussin,” Remus said icily. Poussin stepped closer, an own shield charm in place. “I see you’ve returned from your little holiday.”
“I am quite sick and tired of you and your antics, Remus,” Poussin snarled, firing off a curse. Sirius winced as it deflected off the shield. “Who do you think you are, tricking me like that –”
“Who do you think you are, trying to steal my work?” Remus shot back. “You’ve never done an honest day’s work in your life, chicken-boy. Don’t you think it’s about time you started?”
Poussin fired off another curse in reply. It shattered sadly against Sirius’ shield. As if on cue, Poussin’s three thugs stepped closer from behind, cutting off their exit and brandishing their wands threateningly.
“We’re outnumbered two to one,” Remus muttered, low enough that only Sirius could hear. “I’ve seen worse. We’ll – distract them, and then apparate and –”
“Sure thing,” Sirius replied, twirling his wand with his fingers lazily. “Oi, Michelle!” he called out. “Is that all you’ve got?”
Poussin and his thugs launched forwards. Sirius threw himself to the side, flicking his wand at a stack of boxes that all spilled to the ground, blocking Poussin’s way. He couldn’t see what Remus was doing, but he heard his voice somewhere off the left.
He picked himself up again, deflecting a hex coming from the left. A box exploded and two of Poussin’s men burst forth. Sirius ducked again and ran, firing stunners over his shoulder. He heard someone fall but kept running - and ran right into the big blond bloke. They both fell over and the guy scrambled to get a hold of Sirius, who was kicking and landing blows where he could. There was an explosion to the right and Sirius got away with one last kick, running off again.
“Remus!” he yelled, sending a stunner sideways, ducking – and there he was, duelling Poussin and a dark-haired guy. Sirius looked around wildly and realised that the blonde one had been stunned, but the third was nowhere to be seen. “Bloody hell,” he muttered as he deflected a curse coming from nowhere.
There was no time to set up another shield charm and he had to get to Remus. He ran across splintered wood and spilled fruit, landing a hard blow in the dark-haired guy’s face. The man fell backwards and toppled over a bucket, but Sirius didn’t stay to watch, only sent a stunner his way and hoped he didn’t miss.
“Sirius!” Remus yelled as Poussin deflected one of Sirius’ spells. Sirius ducked and ran headfirst into Poussin, knocking the air out of him. He scrambled off him as fast he could.
“Run!” Sirius grabbed Remus’ arm and pulled him along into a run. The end of the alley was only a few metres away. They heard Poussin curse violently behind them and yell something at his thugs. They were almost out of the alley when something hit Sirius in the back and he fell flat on his face.
He scrambled, Remus tugging at his arm and telling him to come on, come on, we’ve got to get going, but he couldn’t both haul Sirius to his feet and deflect curses, so he dropped him. “Get up,” he said through clenched teeth and Sirius tried, he really tried, but he couldn’t move very well and then Remus was gone. Sirius couldn’t hear him anymore and then someone else seized him and apparated him away.
Well, that wasn’t supposed to happen, Sirius thought before someone hit him hard on the head and he lost consciousness.
When Sirius came to, the first thing he realised was that he was sitting on a stone floor, hands and feet tied. The second thing he realised was that he was half-slumped against something wooden, and moreover that he was firmly strapped to it. He tried to turn around to have a look, but he was too groggy still, and there was a strange ache in his back. His head throbbed.
“Awake, are we?” a silky voice asked and Sirius’s head snapped up. Ow.
“Go to hell,” he replied.
Poussin crouched in front of him, wand pointing at his face. “Given your current position, I think you should be a bit more polite to me.”
Sirius clenched his jaw.
“Very well then.” Poussin smiled coldly. “I think that, in light of our former friendship, you should do me the favour of telling me everything you know.”
Fury welled up in Sirius and he decided to forget everything about his pure-blood upbringing and general manners, and spat in Poussin’s face. He watched with no small satisfaction as the blob of slime slid down his cheek.
The slap hit him hard and Sirius thought he could feel his neck crack. His cheek stung. Where is my wand? Sirius turned his head to face Poussin again, defiant.
“You sadden me, Sirius,” said Poussin, poking his wand at his cheek. “All this – it is hardly necessary. Why don’t you just tell me what I need to know so we can get this little – inconvenience – over with?”
“I will tell you nothing,” Sirius spat. “Forget about it.”
Poussin curled his lip in disgust and stood up. “Your call.” He kicked Sirius in the side, turned on his heel and left the room.
Sirius tried not to give in to the pain, but it was sharp and he instantly had to think of Muggle crime shows and how he’d once seen an episode in which someone died from internal bleeding because he’d been punched in the gut. “Get a grip,” he told himself, voice hoarse with pain.
The pain eventually subsided to a numb throb and Sirius raised his head, taking in his surroundings. He was in something that looked like a bedroom. Possibly a hotel room. He craned his neck to see what he was tied to, and realised it was the foot end of an ornate bed.
His wand was nowhere to be seen, unless it lay on a table top out of sight, but he doubted it. Surely they wouldn’t have been stupid enough to leave it in the room where there was a possibility he could summon it wandlessly.
He tried anyway, to no avail.
There was no telling how long he’d been knocked out. It didn’t feel like very long, but then again he’d never been knocked out before in his life so it wasn’t like he had any previous experience to draw upon. There were no clocks in the room that he could see, and the windows were of no help when he couldn’t tell what was east or west.
Tough luck, then.
He sighed and turned his attention towards the ropes that tied him down. They were tight and cut off most of his blood circulation. He spent a good long while trying to reach the knot in a vain attempt to get it untied.
Sirius contemplated a series of wandless charms that, theoretically, might have worked – such as the undressing charm – and thought about trying a wandless lubrication charm, despite the fact that the rope cutting off his blood circulation pretty much meant that it was too tight for him to slip through, lube or no lube. The door opened.
“Feeling more inclined to spill your secrets now, dearest?” Poussin said mockingly. A tray of food floated in after him and Sirius realised he was hungry – no, starving.
“Not in the least,” Sirius replied.
Poussin gently set the tray down on the table top. “Are you absolutely sure? I do reward my informants.”
“Where’s Remus?” Sirius suddenly asked. Poussin’s lips thinned in annoyance, but he did not answer. Oh, thank god – that better mean he’s not here, wherever here is. Sirius glared at him.
“Why so angry?” Poussin smiled sweetly. “I have brought food. Smells delicious, doesn’t it?”
Sirius chose not to answer.
“Now, if you only tell me what I need to know, this lovely meal will be all yours.”
“Is this what you do when you get bored?” Sirius challenged. “Is this the sort of stuff do you daydream about? Bet you were thinking up some clandestine scheme to torture some poor fellow even when I was fucking you, hm? Bet you got off on it too, my cock in your arse and your head full of torturing methods –” He was abruptly cut off by another slap to the face.
His cheek now smarted more than ever.
“I’ll advise you to not be smart with me,” Poussin said menacingly. “You think this is a game?”
Sirius didn’t answer, only gave him a filthy look through his hair.
“I have ways of extracting information, and I assure you, none of them are very comfortable.” He sat down in the chair by the table, resting one ankle on his knee and tapping his wand lazily against his boot.
Poussin gazed at Sirius contemplatively, then reached out and picked up a small vial off the food tray.
“I don’t have time to deal with you, however amusing it could prove to be.” He examined the vial with a small and pleased smile. “I believe our version of the vérité potion isn’t quite as conservative as yours,” he said.
Sirius paled.
“The French do it better,” Poussin said maliciously and stood up. Sirius clenched his jaw; he was going to refuse to take as much as a drop of that potion if he could help it. “No need to fight so hard.” Poussin smiled sweetly, but it was an unpleasant smile. “It need not be ingested to take effect, Sirius dearest.”
With those words, he uncorked the vial and quickly spilled a few drops onto Sirius’ lips before he could jerk himself away.
“Marvellous.” He looked at his watch. “Thirty seconds from now and victory will be mine.”
“Go to rotting hell,” Sirius growled. “I’m not telling you anything.”
“But of course you are.” Poussin smiled. “Let’s start with the basics, shall we? What’s your name?”
“Sirius Black,” Sirius found himself replying, the words rolling off his tongue. He grit his teeth.
“Marvellous. Why did you send me to Antioch?”
“To get you out of the way,” Sirius said, hoping fervently the simple answer would be enough. He felt no compulsion to supply more information.
“And why was that?”
Sirius swore inwardly. “So Remus and I could – could research without you snooping around.”
“And where were you researching?”
“The palace,” Sirius said.”
“Interesting. Was it fruitful?”
“No.”
“What a waste of time. Did you gain any new information?”
“Yes.”
“Brilliant. Now tell me, Sirius dearest, did you find the ghost of Hephaistion?”
“Yes.” Sirius grit his teeth.
“Was it he that provided the new information?”
“Yes.” Sirius swore. “You’re not going to get away with this, you know. Remus –”
“Oh, spare me,” Poussin snorted. “As if that werewolf could ever best me in anything.”
Sirius stared. A little belatedly, he spoke up. “He’s not a werewolf and if you think –”
“Oh, you mean to tell me you don’t actually know?” Poussin said gleefully. “Of course he’s a werewolf. What on earth do you think gave him those scars, Sirius dearest?”
“He’s not –” Sirius cut himself off as he realised just what Poussin was saying. Those bloody scars. He did say a wolf – a bloody fucking werewolf –
“I see you’ve caught on.” Poussin tapped his wand against his boot. “I am so very sorry for you,” he said with mock sympathy. “How does it feel to have been led on by a Dark Creature?”
Sirius didn’t know whether the wrenching feeling in his gut was hate towards Poussin or hurt – irrational, unwarranted hurt, as he really had no right – and Remus wasn’t obliged, but fucking hell, a werewolf, and he hadn’t known – Remus had bitten him, sometimes, when they had sex and Sirius closed his eyes, trying to remember whether lycanthropy could be passed on that way.
“As much as I’d like to revel in your pain, I must continue the interview,” Poussin said, tearing Sirius out of his chaos of thoughts. “Did Hephaistion tell you where Alexander the Great lies?”
“No,” Sirius spat.
“Hm. Perhaps I should rephrase. Did he tell Remus where Alexander the Great lies?”
“No.”
“Did he give any location in which Alexander the Great’s remains could be?”
“No.”
“How disappointing.” Poussin thought for a while, seemingly trying to figure out what to ask and how to ask it in order to get the information he wanted.
Information that Sirius most likely didn’t have after all.
Poussin never got to formulate the next question as the door flew off its hinges and crashed to the floor, missing Sirius by mere millimetres. With the crash came a stunner or three, two of which hit Poussin square in the shoulder and caused him to fall out of the chair.
“Sirius?” Remus stepped in through the door, looking around in search for him. “Oh, there you are.” The relief in his voice was evident.
Sirius didn’t answer, his head full of werewolf, you’re a werewolf and you didn’t tell me and you’re a werewolf and what the fuck am I supposed to do about that but then Remus dropped to his knees in front of him, severing his ropes. And then he did something completely incomprehensible; he grabbed Sirius’ face and gave him a hard, almost desperate, kiss.
“What –” Sirius protested, but Remus was hauling him to his feet. He tried to stand up, but the pain in his side returned full force and he doubled over, clutching his side, his previous fear of internal bleeding returning.
“Are you all right? No of course you’re not, bloody hell – we need to leave – here, I found your wand, one of Poussin’s thugs had it,” Remus rambled and pulled Sirius’ wand out of his pocket and thrust into his hand. “Can you walk?”
Sirius took a few unsteady steps and nodded. It felt like he’d been sitting in the same position for hours and everything was strangely stiff and sore.
“Good. As long as we can make it to the street I can apparate us back to the B&B, and then we’re leaving.”
“You’re – you’re a werewolf,” Sirius pressed out, unable to look him in the eye. Remus froze.
Then his shoulders sagged.
“Suppose Poussin told you?” he said tiredly.
“Are you saying it’s true?” Sirius looked up now, finding a sort of panic and a sort of...exhaustion in Remus’ face he hadn’t seen before. It stung him oddly.
“We’ll have this discussion later, all right? I promise to tell you everything. For now we need to get out of here. My stunners are shit and I think they’ll wear off soon.” He motioned towards Poussin, who was still sprawled on the floor. “Please?”
Sirius hesitated. “All right.” He hobbled towards the doorway. “Which way’s out?”
“This way.” Remus took his arm and helped him out, then apparated them to the foyer of The Hanged Head. “Fabian! We’re good to go,” he called out.
Fabian appeared from the back room, levitating their bags in front of him. Remus slung both over his shoulder.
“Did you get the portkey?”
“Yup. Thank the heavens my brother’s the ambassador or you’d have been stuck with three weeks of paperwork for it,” he grinned and threw him a dented metal can.
“I owe you big time,” Remus said. “Any time, you only have to say it.”
“Don’t think about it.” Fabian waved them off. “Bring a bit less trouble with you next time, all right?”
“I’ll try,” Remus said wryly and held out the can so Sirius could touch it too.
“Where are we going?” Sirius asked as he took hold of it.
“London,” Remus replied.
“See you later, guys, safe journey and all,” Fabian said and activated the portkey before Sirius could ask why London.
III
Seconds later, they tumbled to the floor of the London Portkey office, Sirius wincing with pain.
“James called me yesterday,” Remus said, scrambling to his feet. “Right after Poussin kidnapped you.”
“Yesterday? How long was I...oh never mind...Why did James...is he home?” Sirius clutched his side and Remus had to help him to stand. “We need to go there immediately.”
“We’ll take you to St. Mungo’s first thing,” Remus protested.
“No,” Sirius replied, grimacing.
“You need help,” Remus insisted.
“I know,” Sirius snapped. “ Lily’s a Healer – James’ wife, remember – she’ll patch me up...”
Remus gave Sirius a wary look. “Can you apparate us there without splinching us?”
“I could apparate there in my sleep.” Sirius grabbed Remus’ arm. “Hold on tight.” He clenched his jaw and apparated them straight into James’ living room where they fell to the floor again.
Where Lily was reading a book and James was playing with his son.
“Sirius?” James asked in disbelief. “What happened to you?”
“Hi James, nice to see you too. Hi Lily, please get your wand out and fix me?” Sirius didn’t move from where he was sprawled on the floor, though Remus was picking himself up. “Oh and Remus is a wizard, James, think I forgot to tell you. Hi Harry, nice train.”
Harry beamed and then turned his attention back at his toy. His parents stared at the newcomers.
“Lily!” Sirius whined. “I’m dying!”
“Surely you’re not dying,” she said briskly and got up to kneel by his side, running a few diagnosing spells on him followed by a single healing spell. Remus looked on worriedly. “You’re fine. Got some bad bruising, that’s all.”
“Oh.” Sirius sat up. “So I wasn’t dying of internal bleeding or anything?”
She rolled her eyes. “No.” She got to her feet and extended her hand to Remus. “Lily Potter.”
“Remus Lupin.” He shook her hand. “I’m sorry about the way we arrived, but...” he glanced at Sirius, who had crawled over to see what Harry was doing.
“Don’t worry about it,” said James and shook his hand. “Nice to see you again, mate. Look, about that call.”
“Yes, what about the call?” Sirius looked up. “Do you realise I was held hostage while you were chatting with Remus here?” he said accusingly. “It was all very dramatic and potentially deadly.”
James raised an eyebrow at him.
Remus cleared his throat. “Er, it’s true. I should’ve let you know, but I was in a bit of a state. Needed to sort out a few things. Is your house safe? Can we talk freely here?”
“We’re on a super secret mission,” Sirius supplied. “Hence why I was kidnapped and held hostage.”
“I’ll go make some tea,” Lily announced, shaking her head as she disappeared into the kitchen. She took Harry with her.
James spent a few minutes reinforcing the wards on the house.
“Now we can talk. Is this still about the Library of Alexandria? Do I get an explanation or...?”
“Can I tell him? Please?” Sirius pleaded, still on the floor. James and Remus both looked down at him. “What?” he exclaimed. “It’s comfy here.”
“I’m sorry,” Remus said, turning back to James. “It’s for the best if you know as little as possible. No one knows that you’re remotely involved in this and I’d like to keep it that way. You’ll be credited after, I’ll make sure of that.”
“Sure thing.” James shrugged. Then he smiled winningly. “Anyway, back to that call. As I told you yesterday, I got a breakthrough on the location search.” He walked over to the desk and picked up a large folder. He leafed through it and drew out a few printouts of maps and other technical things.
“We’ve got three possible matches,” he explained as he spread out the sheets. Remus looked over his shoulder at the printouts and even Sirius got off the floor to come look. “See here – this is the route calculation I made, including theoretical stops along the coast for food and water. You see how it follows the coast of Norway at this point?”
“Yeah.”
“You also see that the route follows the coast for what seems like a ridiculous amount of time, right? The currents go north all the way up to around here, where they go west, bypass Iceland on the north side and then return south, down the east coast of Greenland.”
“Didn’t you explain this before?” Sirius interrupted.
“To you, countless times, but you never listen. Anyway, Remus, this is the simple explanation. Now see the locations I got – none of them seems to be a perfect match, but...” He drew out three transparent prints and placed on top of the route calculation. “Location A is in the Shetland Islands. It’s plausible as the fleet passed right by the islands, but I’m reluctant to pin it down as the location because it isn’t congruent with the letters.”
James pulled out another set of printouts on which he had highlighted some passages with yellow markers.
“They sailed very far and compared with the rest of the route, they hadn’t gone very far yet,” he reasoned. “So, that brings us to Location B.” He pointed at the blue B marker by Tromsø in northern Norway. “Here. The machine tells me it’s a poor match, but the machine can’t think, only calculate – anyway, this one fits in more than one way. It’s far enough to fit the letters and depending on the time of year, the risk of getting lost at sea when returning home was pretty big. I’m pretty sure they were in Tromsø in the autumn, right around when the sea gets treacherous and the storms pick up.”
“So you think it’s Location B?”
“I’m ninety-nine per cent certain,” James confirmed. “Location C is in Iceland, but they bypassed the country completely. It’s a write-off.”
He removed the A and C sheets and put them back into the folder and drew out other printouts. One was a large modern map of the Tromsø area, another was a reconstructed map showing the area as it could’ve looked around year one, and the third was a transparent copy of the crude map from the tablets.
“You see here that it’s almost a ninety per cent fit.” James put the transparent copy over the reconstructed map. “It’s uncanny. Never mind the differences – the drawing is pretty raw and that thing is reconstructed. Even if it is pretty precise, it’s not like we can go back in time and draw up a perfect map, is it?” He grinned. “Now see.”
James put the transparent copy over the modern map.
“It hardly fits any more, but now we know – well, we assume – it’s the same place, so we know what to look for. The fjord doesn’t cut the land in quite the same way anymore. In fact, it has risen. This entire landmass was covered by a massive chunk of ice in the latest Ice Age and the weight of it pressed the land down, you know,” James said, gesticulating to show the ice’s movements, “and ever since the ice melted the land has been slowly rising –”
“James, I don’t really want another of your geology lectures,” Sirius cut in. “Though I’m sure Remus wouldn’t mind, can we make it another day?” He shot an apologetic look at Remus, who only smiled.
“Please go on, Potter.”
“Oh, just call me James.” James grinned and pointed at the map. “Anyway. These funny shapes on the drawing here I assumed were hills, maybe even mountains, large boulders and so on, so I took the liberty to make some approximate calculations regarding height and size. These two correspond with these two hilltops here. This funny indent here, I didn’t know what it was, but it seems to fit in with the cleft in this huge cliff here – basically, it all fits too well to be true.”
Remus drew in a deep breath. “So it does.” He stared at the maps. “I believe you’ve found it.” He suddenly grinned madly. “Oh, you definitely did. I should’ve just waited for you to finish your scans instead of traipsing about elsewhere looking for clues that lead nowhere. Would’ve saved me a lot of grief...”
“But we had fun,” Sirius interjected. “Well, most of the time.” He wondered whether he was still under the influence of the French Veritaserum. He shrugged. “So, are we going to Norway now?”
“We?” Remus frowned.
Sirius shrugged. “I’m still on the run, you know.”
“Oh. I just didn’t think you’d –” Remus glanced at James, who was watching them curiously. Sirius sent him a two minutes, please, James-look.
“I’ll go help Lily in the kitchen,” James said, giving Sirius a Look before he left.
“Yes, about that,” Sirius said once James had vanished from view. He knew that he’d most likely be eavesdropping at the door, but he didn’t much care. “Don’t you think it’d have been a good idea to tell me about your condition a bit sooner?”
“I couldn’t very well tell you – look, I thought you were a Muggle, you thought I was a Muggle; I wasn’t going to say oh those scars, yeah I’m a werewolf.” Remus flailed exasperatedly. “And anyway I don’t think it’d have been very hard to figure out.”
“But you could still have said something! I had no inkling you were a wizard at all while it turned out you’d known about me for a while, hadn’t you, I don’t know, you could’ve said something about that when you found out, but no, and there was no oh by the way, I happen to suffer from a deadly condition that’s highly contagious and life-threatening to humans during my time of the month!”
“Oh shut up,” Remus snapped. “Maybe that is exactly why I didn’t tell you, did you consider? I’m not having any of your bigoted crap -”
“I’m not bigoted!”
“Oh surely not.” Remus snorted. “Why is my being a werewolf a problem, then?”
Sirius rubbed his face in frustration. “I don’t – it’s...I just didn’t know, okay?” he burst out. “It was a surprise and, I just wonder, what else are you keeping from me?”
Remus sighed. “Nothing,” he said. “I’m afraid that was my deep, dark secret,” he continued sarcastically.
“Oh...all right...” Sirius paused awkwardly, then decided to just get it over with. “I do have one question, though – please don’t hit me or something...uhm...” He reached up to flick hair out of his eyes, glancing at Remus and wondering how to phrase it.
“Is it about the biting thing?” Remus asked after a while, sounding half amused, half...dejected. “It’s not catching, you know. Only during the full moon.”
“It isn’t?” Sirius’ head snapped up and he realised a second too late that he sounded a bit too relieved. “I mean – oh sod it,” he muttered, embarrassed. It occurred to him that he basically hadn’t had much right to be upset with Remus, or even be angry with him about this.
“Was that an apology?”
“I...I suppose it was.” Sirius gave him a small smile.
“In that case I apologise for not telling you sooner.”
“So...can I come along to Norway?”
“Yeah. I suppose you can.” Remus smiled back.
“Brilliant! When are we leaving? Tonight?”
“Oh, no, not tonight. I need to properly plan this, put together a team and all to go with us. If what we’re looking for is there, you and I won’t be able to handle it alone – for security alone we’re going to need a bunch of people –”
“Do you think Poussin will follow us there?” Sirius asked, making a face. “I’ll be all too happy if I never have to lay my eyes on him again.”
“I don’t know. I’m hoping not...it all depends on whether we can keep our information to ourselves or not.”
“Oh. Right.”
“Guys?” James poked his head out of the doorway to the kitchen. “Lily wants to know whether you’ll be staying for dinner or not?”
“That depends, what’s for dinner?” Sirius grinned. James rolled his eyes.
“Roast beef and Yorkshire puddings, she says.”
“I’m in. You?” Sirius elbowed Remus.
“If it’s not too inconvenient –”
“’Course it’s not,” James grinned.
*
Remus shoved the pile of unread Prophets aside, cursing as they spilled all over the place. He caught Sirius’ name several times on the front page, even if Sirius wasn’t usually headline news. The most recent edition seemed to be speculating about whether Sirius’ reluctance to step up and accept his inheritance had anything to do with ‘a secret Muggle mistress’. Remus snorted and shoved the pile into a cupboard – hoping against hope that it functioned as some kind of portal that would get rid of unwanted clutter.
No such luck.
He turned on his laptop, got out his folders and spent the next hour updating his information and sorting it out as well as trying to come up with a convincing speech. Well, he hoped it would be convincing, because chances were that Oxley was not happy with him.
He checked the calendar and thought to himself that no, he wouldn’t – he’d blatantly ignored every incoming call and text message and email from Oxley for the past ten days or so. Remus was certain that he was seething.
After encrypting the entirety of his Alexander files, Remus packed up and apparated to the museum.
“Hey boss!” Rolfe greeted him enthusiastically. “Back already?”
“Don’t call me that, Rolfe.” Remus made a face. “I’m not your boss.”
“Lupin.”
Remus sent a silent prayer to whichever deity was on duty that morning and turned around. “Oxley.” He smiled amicably.
“My office, Lupin.” Oxley was furious. Remus sent another prayer.
“Of course. I have a few things we need to discuss,” Remus said as he passed him and made towards his office. He saw Pettigrew poke his head out of his own office and Remus sent a silent stinging hex his way.
Oxley closed the office door and went round to stand behind his desk, resting his fingers menacingly on the desktop.
“What on earth do you think you are doing, Lupin? Not a word – a single word – from you in ten days. You’re excused only in case of death and even then I want a goddamned written notice! Do you think this is a holiday?”
“No, sir.”
“I want an explanation and it better be good.”
“There’s a leak,” Remus began but Oxley cut him off.
“Don’t start with this nonsense again, Lupin.”
“There is a leak,” Remus repeated, looking him firmly in the eye. “The information from the ship reached Poussin somehow. Are you aware that the French have seized the ship?”
“We have lawyers working on it,” Oxley said tightly. “That has nothing to do with –”
“It has everything to do with Poussin,” Remus said, keeping his calm. “And I know for a fact that he will resort to anything to steal this from us. He’s been stalking me and my assistant since Makedonia in an attempt to hamper our progress and steal our information. In Babylon he succeeded in kidnapping my assistant and attempted to use a French version of Veritaserum to pry information out of him – luckily he possessed no information of value.” Remus paused. “You see that I have been pressed to keep as quiet as possible about the case in order to prevent Poussin or others gaining access to this information.”
Oxley didn’t comment on this.
“I need a team.”
“What for?”
“I believe I’ve found it.”
“Am I supposed to grant you a full team just like that?”
“You know I wouldn’t ask if I weren’t sure,” Remus pointed out. “And I can’t handle this alone. The tablets with Ancient Runes on them described a pretty heavy protection charm and complicated counter-charm. I need our best curse-breaker, I need security staff and one or two people to help me with the findings.”
Oxley looked sour. “I’m your boss and as such I require to know –”
“Your office could be bugged.”
“You’re saying you want me to trust you on this?”
“Yes.”
“This isn’t a hunch?”
“No.” Remus waited for Oxley to say something but when he didn’t, he continued. “I don’t need the team immediately. I’ll need to find it first and then I can send for them. I just need to have them at the ready so that they can be on the spot as quickly as possible.”
Oxley grunted.
“My assistant will come with me – I assure you that he does not figure in the budget at all – and will assist as a scout and preliminary guard dog.”
“Who is this assistant?”
“The owner of the NSSA.” Remus smiled. “He’s a wizard, though you mightn’t have guessed.”
“Hm.” Oxley grumbled. “Are you absolutely certain?”
“Yes.”
“There are seven days till the full moon, kid.”
“I’m aware of that. I’m also sure I’ll be able to follow through with this before the moon.”
“Very well, then.” Oxley waved him off dismissively.
Remus sent a silent thank you to the deity on duty as he left the office.
“Tonks,” Remus sighed. “Please don’t do this now.”
“You haven’t seen your son in two weeks!” Tonks pointed out. “You have barely called and now you tell me you’re leaving again?”
“I sent him postcards!”
“That he’s plastered all over his wall,” she huffed. Remus couldn’t help smiling.
“I’m here now, aren’t I?” he said. “And I’d really like to see my son, so please let me in?”
Tonks sighed. “I suppose you wouldn’t have gone unless it was really important?” She stepped aside to let him in.
“You have no idea just how great this is.” Remus grinned and kissed her cheek. “I’ll tell you all about it as soon as I can.”
“All right.” She relented. “Teddy! Your dad’s here!” she yelled. There was a brief moment of silence, then a series of thundering footsteps could be heard as Teddy ran from his room and through the flat to greet his father.
“Dad!”
“Well hello there, little one,” Remus grinned and picked his son up as he flung himself at him. He noticed that Teddy’s features were shifting already, modelling themselves after his father. Remus hugged him tight. “Did you get my postcards?”
“Yes! I put them on the wall, come and see them! The dinosaur one was the coolest one and the photo of the whale – it doesn’t even move! I showed it to my friends at playschool and they all think it’s so cool.”
Remus briefly wondered whether James’ kid went to the same playschool as Teddy. He probably did.
“Can we go to the park tomorrow?” Teddy asked excitedly. Remus’ face fell.
“I can’t, not tomorrow. I’ll be going away for work again,” he explained, putting Teddy down. “But I can take you there now if your mother doesn’t mind...” he looked up at Tonks, who nodded.
“Okay,” Teddy said. “We can go now.” He got dressed and walked hand in hand with his father to the park silently.
“Hey, little one,” Remus said, squeezing his hand. “I’ll send you another postcard.”
“Are you going far away?”
Remus stopped and looked down at his son, who was gazing up at him with troubled eyes. He looked like himself in that moment; his hair soft brown like Remus’ own and his features a beautiful childlike mix of his and Tonks’ and something that was uniquely Teddy.
“Yes,” Remus replied, crouching down to face him. “I’m going to a country far away from here where the people speak a different language and they’re blond and blue-eyed and eat a lot of fish.” He smiled. “There’ll be snow so it’ll be a bit cold, but it’s also going to be beautiful. I’ll pick the most beautiful postcard to send to you, all right?”
Teddy smiled at that. “When will you come back?”
“Hopefully soon. I don’t know how long it’ll take, Teddy. It might be two days or it might be eight.”
“Okay.”
“I’ll tell you all about it when I come back. And then I’m not going away for months.”
“Promise?” Teddy held out his fist.
“Promise.” Remus bumped his fist against Teddy’s solemnly. “As for now, little one, you and I are going to have fun.” He stood up again and clasped his son’s hand in his own as they continued towards the park. “And afterwards we’re going to the bakery to pick a dessert for dinner.”
“Can we have raspberry cake?”
“Oh, I don’t know.” Remus smiled. “I’m afraid it’s not the season for raspberries right now.”
After Tonks had banished both Remus and Teddy to the bathroom to get all the mud off before they showed their faces at the dinner table, Remus discovered the evening edition of the Prophet had been delivered.
He picked it up for a brief look over and immediately saw Sirius’ face on the front page. It was just a small picture, shoved to the side to make space for the evening headline which was something utterly uninteresting about Quidditch. Sirius in the picture looked very uncomfortable and tried to escape out of the picture frame, only to be held in place by someone who must be his brother. The headline just under the picture read Orion Black’s Last Will Found: Firstborn Son Disinherited.
“Remus!” Tonks called out rather loudly and Remus looked up in confusion. “Earth to Remus. I don’t know what’s so interesting in that paper that you didn’t hear me when I said dinner the first time,” she said amusedly.
“Oh...nothing, I was just...” Remus shrugged and gave her a mollifying smile as he put the paper away and sat down by the dinner table, trying to ignore the fact that he hadn’t seen Sirius since he left the Potters the evening before, much less heard from him. He’d been expecting Sirius to call him for a shag at the very least, but there hadn’t been a word.
“Dad, mum said we’re visiting grandma and grandpa tomorrow!” Teddy said excitedly. Remus smiled at his son, cursing inwardly as he realised his parents hadn’t heard from him since the last full moon. He made a mental note to call them soon.
“Really?” he asked. “That’s going to be loads of fun, hm?”
Remus was distracted during the entire meal, so while Tonks was washing Teddy’s hands and face, he stole a look at the paper again. Recent revision of Orion Black’s personal files at the hands of his second son Regulus Black and his lawyers revealed the deceased Lord Black's Last Will in which he disinherited his firstborn son, Sirius Black, and devised the property to Regulus. Regulus Black refused to comment on the case but Sirius Black is said to have muttered “good riddance” as he signed the papers acknowledging the Will. He didn’t stay to talk to reporters but insisted he had important business elsewhere and left the premises. Regulus Black is now lawfully Head of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black.
It struck Remus that Sirius had no excuse to come with him to Norway, since he no longer needed to be on the run. He made a face and threw the paper onto the coffee table and went to see if Teddy wanted a good night story before he went home.
He found Teddy and his mother in the middle of a face-making contest, involving every single Metamorphmagus ability they both possessed. He smiled, Sirius momentarily forgotten, and summoned the camera from the living room.
*
A loud and insistent ringing noise forced Remus out of the soft arms of sleep. He grabbed the phone clumsily off the bedside table and brought it to his ear.
“M’ello...”
“Remus?” Sirius said cheerfully. “Uhm, whoops, did I wake you up?”
Remus rubbed his eyes, unable to open them. “I think I’m still asleep, actually.”
“Oh. Sorry. I, uhm, we’re going to Norway today, right?”
“Yeah...” Remus sighed, draping his arm over his eyes. It was dark out and the gods only knew what time it actually was. This is it, then, he thought. He’s not coming now he doesn’t have to. No reason to hang around the werewolf any longer...
“When’re we leaving?”
“What?”
“It’s just, uhm, last time we had to get up really early and all and since I didn’t know when we’d be leaving this time I thought I’d better catch you early so I wouldn’t miss it, or something, so...”
“Oh.” Remus struggled to understand just what Sirius had said. “Uh, Sirius, what is the time?”
“Four thirty-two,” Sirius replied. Remus could hear how sheepish he sounded. He amused himself briefly by imagining the corresponding look on Sirius’ face.
“For future reference,” Remus said, “if you want a sensible conversation with me, don’t wake me up at such a godforsaken hour. And coffee, I need coffee...”
“Sorry! I can hang up now –”
“Just be at the Portkey office at twelve if you’re still coming.”
“Oh, okay then, I’ll see you later then...”
“What are you doing up at this hour?” Remus suddenly asked.
“I wanted to be sure you wouldn’t leave without me,” Sirius replied.
“Hum.” Remus removed his arm from his eyes and blinked. “Just be there at twelve?”
“Sure! And uhm, I’ll make it up to you, that I woke you up and all, I promise!”
“All right. See you later.” Remus hung up. Merlin, he grumbled. I’d have called him in the bloody morning.
Remus sighed and sat up in his bed, rubbing his face. He was too awake to go back to sleep now, so he got out of bed and into the shower. Maybe he’d pack all his things right away and then go and see Teddy before Tonks took him to playschool. Yeah. I’ll do that.
“So, where do we start?” Sirius asked the moment they stepped outside the tiny Portkey office in Tromsø, and then, “it’s not as cold as I’d expected.”
Remus, who’d put on the coat he’d bought for Greenland, frowned. “No, you’re right.” He smiled then. “Not that I’m complaining.”
Sirius surveyed the area. “It’s beautiful, though.”
“Mh.” Remus hoisted his bag up properly. “Check in first, then I’ll tell you what next.” He walked up to the taxi waiting at the kerb. “Get in.”
“Taxi? Mixed town, then?”
“Yep.”
They got their luggage and themselves shoved into the taxi and Remus gave the driver the address of the hotel.
“There’s no district,” he explained. “Just a few secret places, but we’ll be staying out of those.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t expect we’ll be left in peace forever,” Remus said. “And Poussin will be expecting us to stay in that kind of establishment.”
“How’d you know?”
“I’ve known him since I was eighteen. He’s so predictable, it’s a joke.”
“Mh...” Sirius looked out the window of the taxi. “You probably think I’m the biggest idiot in the world for having dated him.”
“Well...” Remus shrugged. Sirius turned to face him. “He’s only human, right? And so’re you. Just because he’s a scumbag doesn’t mean...I mean...he is capable of being nice. Back in second year of uni he had this boyfriend, you see, and they were...it was almost sickening to watch them, they were so...” Remus made a face. “There’s no rules for attraction.”
“It’s so weird to hear you tell me he’s got a heart.”
“Well, he has. Even though it seems he’s misplaced it as of late.”
Sirius snorted.
“And anyway, he’s not really capable of hurting anyone. It’s his weakness, really. He gets other people to do the dirty work for him if he needs it done.”
“...he was the one who left you to die in a pyramid?”
“Yeah, but as he said, he knew I would be able to get out. And I could, but it was just...” Remus grimaced. “A blow to my pride, as well as he got a head start. By the time I’d made it out, I couldn’t catch up with him any more. He never meant to kill me.”
“And now? Do you think he would? He seemed pretty intent on it back in Babylon.”
“No, I don’t think he would. He barely hurt you, right? It was his thugs that I was worried about.” Remus shrugged. “No, I’m not scared of him. I’m scared he’ll manage to hoodwink me again and steal my victory.”
“So this isn’t even about the documents?”
“Oh, it’s about the documents too. I don’t want to know what’d happen if he sold them to the wrong people – I just have to make sure I get there first.”
Sirius smiled. “All right. We’ll get there first.” The taxi halted.
The room was on the smaller side while the bed was big enough for three people. Remus warded the room heavily against intrusion and even went so far as to put a Muggle repellent charm on it to make the staff forget about its existence.
“That should keep him out if he manages to get on our tail,” Remus said and threw himself onto the bed. “I dare hope he doesn’t even know we’re here. I didn’t tell anyone where we’d be going...you don’t think James would tell?”
“He wouldn’t. Not that he’d have anyone to tell.” Sirius shrugged and crawled into bed to sit cross-legged by Remus’ side. “There’s no big red cross that says ‘dig here’ on that map, is there, so now what?”
“I don’t know,” Remus mumbled. “I make this stuff up as I go.”
“Oh, Remus, that was an almost verbatim Indiana Jones quote,” Sirius sighed happily.
“I left the hat at home, just so you know,” Remus said. Sirius looked scandalized. “Well, it’s not like I’ll have any use for it here! We’re in northern Norway, a place where the sun doesn’t rise in winter.”
Sirius looked out the window. “I don’t know, but it looks pretty sunny out there to me.”
“Not the point.” Remus sat up. “I’ve a plan, of sorts.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. Well, we’ll do the Muggle thing. I figured we could wear glamours to throw off Poussin if he shows up anyway. He’ll be looking for us, so if we’re invisible...and no magic. There are ways to track that. We can do magic in here, but outside this room it’s a no go.”
“That sounds pretty extensive...” Sirius frowned. “No magic at all? Not even wandless?”
“I’m not sure, but better be on the safe side. And anyway...” Remus grinned. “I thought your wandless magic was limited to getting people out of their clothes?” He raised an eyebrow.
“Oh...well...yeah...” Sirius blushed and looked away. “What’s the rest of the plan?”
“I don’t know. Thought we’d find a Muggle guide, though, have someone show us around and stuff.”
“What help is that going to be?”
“Well, Muggles have an uncanny talent for preserving magical tales as myths and legends and you never know...there might be a small grain left that could point us in the right direction.”
“...wonderful wooden houses, the oldest one is from seventeen-eighty...eight...nine! Though of course the area has been inhabited for a longer period of time, Norse settlers arrived as early as...er...early medieval...anyway, the first church was built in twelve-fifty-eight...no, fifty-two...yeah, fifty-two and it was situated right over here, you see...”
“Is it just me or is that guide completely useless?” Sirius whispered.
“Shh, I’m listening.”
Sirius huffed and Remus elbowed him. The guide frowned at them but Remus smiled encouragingly and she continued her speech. “And then there is of course Skansen, if you follow me this way...”
“I’m hungry,” Sirius said.
Remus looked at his watch. “The tour will be over in half an hour.”
“Oh, okay. Can we have dinner then?”
“There is a very fine Norwegian restaurant just nearby,” said the guide. “I can lead you back after we’ve seen Skansen?”
“Sure, why not?” Remus smiled sweetly. “But please, do continue. What is this Skansen thing?”
“Oh! Of course. Skansen is a fortress from the thirteenth or fourteenth century, built to withstand Russian and Carelian invasions...”
They pretended to listen with great interest – or rather, Sirius did, as Remus was actually absorbing information – until they made it to the restaurant the guide had recommended.
“Thank you for the tour!” Remus told the guide, smiling warmly and putting on every inch of charm he possessed. “It was very informative. There’s one thing I’m curious about, though, if you don’t mind me asking...”
“Of course not!” she shrilled, very pleased. “Ask away!”
“You mentioned that the Norse settlers arrived in the early middle ages, right?” he asked. She nodded. “Brilliant. I was just wondering, was there any other kind of settlement before that? Someone told me something about barbarians once...”
“Oh! Of course, there’s been people living here since the Ice Age, actually...flint tools have been found in the region, these are of course on display –”
“How fascinating!” Remus’ eyes lit right up. Sirius tried not to snort.
“I suppose it is,” the guide said. “And then there’s of course the Sámi people, though I don’t know if it’s the same people...probably...” She smiled awkwardly. “I don’t know so much about it, but if you’re interested in hearing more, you should contact my colleague –” She opened her purse and rummaged through it until she found a small business card, handing it over to Remus. “He knows everything there is to know about Sámi history in Norway.”
“Does he do guided tours?”
“Yes!” She smiled broadly. Remus returned the smile, shook her hand – and held it a bit longer than strictly necessary, Sirius noted – and gave her a tip. By the time she left them, she seemed thoroughly charmed and somewhat confused.
“Are we going to listen to Sámi stuff tomorrow, then?” Sirius asked as they entered the restaurant.
“Yup.” Remus smiled at him. “See, told you it’d be cool.”
“I’m not sure I’d say cool...” Sirius made a face. “I think I can honestly say I don’t care much for the history of this place...honestly, wooden houses and city rights and fishing and trade and boring boring boring...”
Remus laughed. “Oh, yeah. Still, we had to start somewhere, right?”
“I suppose so. Why didn’t we start with this Sámi stuff?”
“Maybe because I wasn’t really aware of it?” Remus raised an eyebrow at him in amusement. “I didn’t know where to start anyway...I’m not omniscient, you know. I know next to nothing about Norway.”
“Mh, sure. You’re only a walking encyclopaedia in everything else.”
Remus was prevented from answering right away as they were seated and handed menus. “I’m not, not really...We just, well, so far we’ve been in places that were covered quite extensively in my degree and all, and I’ve lived in Babylon, even if it was only for two months,” Remus pointed out. “You’ve been seeing me from my good side so far.”
Sirius hummed non-committally in response. He made a confused face at something on the menu and Remus decided to actually pay attention to his own.
“Disappointed?” Remus eventually asked, long after the waitress had taken their orders.
“That’s a weird question.”
“Still, I wonder.” Remus nudged his leg under the table. Sirius squirmed uncomfortably.
“I don’t think disappointment figures here, really...” he shrugged. “I didn’t know what I was getting into, did I? I’ve just had to go with whatever I’ve had thrown at me.”
“You sound awfully blasé about it?”
Sirius made a face. “I’ve had a few shocks, but it’s not like I can do anything about anything at all, is there?”
Remus smiled, amused. “I suppose not.”
The waiter brought their drinks and appetizers.
“What’s been the biggest surprise, or shock, if you will?” Remus asked. Sirius was quiet for a while.
“I’m not sure. I’m leaning towards...all things Michel, I think. I mean, I knew the man was a bastard when I cut ties with him, but all the rest...it’s not like he was still on my mind or anything, I was just – surprised.” Sirius frowned. “Suppose I can’t be mad about the – you know.” He made a quick wand move with his hand. “Since I was keeping quiet about that as well...”
“Mh.” Remus sipped his water and Sirius looked at his plate with a small frown. Remus opened his mouth to say something, then thought better of it and closed it again. Sirius hadn’t noticed.
Anyway, he thought, now probably isn’t the time to call him out on why he’s here. Remus steered the conversation towards safer topics, such as the Russians’ interest in Tromsø in the thirteenth century and whether Norwegians really did eat a lot of fish or not. Judging from the amount of fish on the menu, they did, but given the tastiness of their dishes, this was very understandable.
It wasn’t very late when they walked back to the hotel. They walked in silence and Remus found himself wondering whether the silence was awkward or whether it was nice. He couldn’t quite tell, not with Sirius seemingly in deep thought and the distracting ache in his feet from all the walking.
He slid an arm around Sirius and leaned in to speak into his ear. “A knut for your thoughts,” he said in a low voice.
Sirius pushed his arm away. “Wait till we’re inside.”
Remus bit his tongue in order to not snap; though he felt rejected, he didn’t really want an argument. He walked alongside him, now in definitely awkward silence, and tried not to think about what it could’ve meant, tried not to over-analyse the whole thing like some...some sensitive schoolgirl, or something.
It was just that Sirius didn’t really make sense to him at the moment.
So he had had his not-inheritance settled and therefore had no reason to hide from lawyers anymore, but had still come along – but he’d pushed him away at the first touch in days. Not really a touch, even, and he hadn’t been implying anything – or so he told himself, repeatedly – but nothing made sense.
It was the werewolf-thing, or had to be. Remus saw no other reason; Sirius hadn’t even dared to mention it at the dinner table.
“We’re here – Remus?” Sirius’ arm shot out to stop him. “We’re here. Pay some attention?” The corner of his mouth twitched in amusement.
“Oh.” Remus shook his head and followed Sirius inside, fishing their key out of his pocket.
“You’re funny.” Sirius grinned and Remus had to smile back.
“Why’d you say wait?” Remus asked in the elevator. Sirius gave him a look that seemed to be saying ‘are you fucking kidding me’.
“I wasn’t going to let you ravish me in the street,” he simply said.
“I wasn’t going to ravish you in the street,” Remus protested. “Although now you’ve said it, it sounds like a great idea.”
Sirius snorted and walked past Remus out of the elevator. “What was it then?”
“I was trying to make conversation, that’s all.” Remus unlocked the door even though he realised it was sort of silly that they kept it locked the Muggle way when the wards would effectively keep anything out that wasn’t themselves.
He locked the door behind them anyway.
“It was just weird,” Sirius said and dropped the glamour he’d been wearing. He rolled his shoulders and head, working non-existent kinks out. “Even though I knew it was you, it was just...the glamour, you know.”
Remus dropped his own. “I looked all right though.” He shrugged.
“You looked like Sean Connery,” Sirius pointed out.
“My dad, not Sean Connery,” said Remus.
“...your dad looks like Sean Connery?”
“No,” Remus said hurriedly. “Just, uh, forget I said that.”
“I can’t believe this – really?”
Remus made a face. “Can we not talk about my dad or Sean Connery or obscure references to Indiana Jones?”
Sirius laughed and pulled Remus closer. “Oh, of course, Indiana Lupin,” he said teasingly and kissed him before he could protest.
When Sirius’ hands slid under his shirt it became much more interesting to get Sirius out of his clothes than protesting, so Remus promptly forgot all about it.
“Stop whining, Padfoot,” Remus said, nudging the dog. The guide looked at him curiously. “He’s a bit disgruntled about the lead,” Remus explained, petting the dog’s head.
“If you like, I know a park where you can let him run loose for a bit?” the guide suggested. The disdainful look on Padfoot’s face nearly made Remus laugh out loud.
“Thank you, I’m sure he’ll appreciate it.” He smiled amusedly. “He hasn’t had much of a chance to stretch his legs, you see, we only got into the city the day before yesterday, you see, and I’m still fairly unfamiliar with the place as such...”
“Cool.” The guide smiled. “Are you here on holiday or are you moving here permanently...?”
“Holiday,” Remus replied. “I’m very interested in ethnic minorities, you see, and their history, and I was told that Tromsø was the most obvious place to visit in that context.” He gesticulated, managing to point in the general direction of the three siedis the guide had shown him earlier and looking like an eccentric fool of a middle-aged man all the same. “Very interesting.”
Padfoot snorted.
“You’ve come to the right man, in that case!” the guide exclaimed cheerfully. “I have a few more places to show you in the city, in addition to the ones we saw yesterday – I’ve never met tourists as interested in these things as you, actually, well except for some of the university students we get, but even they get bored after a while and don’t care much about details,” he huffed.
“I love details!” Remus smiled broadly. Padfoot got up and started walking in circles around Remus, who suddenly had to try to stay untangled from the lead and pay attention to the guide at the same time. “Padfoot!” he scolded. “I’m trying to pay attention to this man!”
“You talk to him like he understands you,” the guide remarked, waiting patiently for Remus to get his dog under control.
“I can assure you he does,” Remus said, glaring at the dog. “You were saying? Which way are we going now?”
“Oh, this way.” The guide pointed and Remus glared at Padfoot once more before following the man, listening to his stories attentively.
Remus was quite astounded by the knowledge the man possessed about everything Sámi, but he was yet to stumble over one little piece of information that could possibly have anything to do with Alexander or Hephaistion or the library, or all three.
Truthfully, he was half bored and half excited about getting to know all sorts of things. In the three days he and Sirius had been in Tromsø he had learned more about the Sámi people than he thought possible, and yet the guide claimed he had barely gotten started.
“And these old stone carvings here are really fascinating; the bear cult is one of the oldest religious or pre-religious cults, practised by indigenous people of North America as well as Northern Europe and even Asia, there’s a people in Japan that believe the bear was a god. See, these are marvellous, and very well preserved too.” The guide stroked the stone carvings affectionately, and prattled on about what the point of the bear cult was for another twenty minutes.
Remus searched desperately for any analogy at all to Alexander in his tale, without finding any.
“It’s getting late, so I’ll walk you to the dog park,” the guide said, smiling at the dog. He made to pat him on the head, but Padfoot growled and took a step back.
“I apologise for his behaviour,” Remus said, pulling on the lead. “He’s usually not so...touchy. I’m sure a good run will do him good.” He glared pointedly at the dog, who glared back defiantly.
“It’s all right!” The guide smiled at Padfoot the way some people smile at little children. “This way, to the park, and I can take you past the biggest siedi in town. There’s a curious story connected to it, actually, and I should know, being the self-proclaimed expert on the matter,” he chuckled to himself. “You see, I’ve studied the Sámi people and its history in all four countries, this meaning Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia, and it’s simply fascinating to observe the similarities in language and customs and of course the differences too...”
“I’m sure,” Remus encouraged. “What’s so special about this siedi?” he asked, seeing the large rock before them. It was very large, larger than any of the others, and remarkably unspectacular. Siedis were just large rocks, after all.
“You see, as I explained before, siedis are cultural images of a sort, holy places or however you would prefer to refer to them. People make offers to the siedi in exchange for luck on hunts and fishing trips and therefore the siedis are pretty strategically placed in relation to hunting grounds or good fishing spots. That’s all well and true, but this siedi is special because our records indicate that there have rarely been offerings made for this one, and it’s placed oddly, too,” the guide explained, stopping before it and pointing in the air. “This hasn’t been a good hunting place and we’re certain that the fishing in this spot can’t have been too good either as the siedi is simply too far from the sea.”
He pointed first east, then south.
“What I think is interesting, and this is my personal theory, mind you, no one agrees with me, is that this siedi must’ve been visible from afar as historically it was placed on rather high ground. The city has risen up around it, of course, but let’s say –”
“Wait – did you say placed?” Remus asked as a thought struck him. “I thought you said earlier today that siedis aren’t placed, but rather found?”
“Ah, yes.” The guide nodded enthusiastically. “The siedis aren’t placed anywhere, instead the shamans picked out large rocks that had a good position and designated them as siedis, so in that way you can say they’re placed, even if it’s incorrect,” he explained. “But this siedi was actually moved from somewhere and placed here –”
“Really? By whom?” Remus asked, gazing at the rock. Even Padfoot had gone still and seemed to be listening. “And how do you know it’s been moved?”
“We don’t know who moved it, but we can tell because of its highly unusual position. There are no large cliffs nearby that it could’ve broken free from, it doesn’t appear to have been carried by Ice Age melt water and so on, but what really does it, is the fact that archaeological tests on the ground underneath it showed traces of wooden beams, as if it had been rolled in place.”
Remus stared at the ground as if the beams would materialise before his eyes. “Whoa,” he said, remembering his role. “How strange. Why do you think it’s been moved? Who moved it?”
“I don’t know who, though the technique with the wooden beams is rather advanced and not usually associated – well, let’s just say my colleagues think it’s not plausible and that the tests were faulty or something,” he snorted. “I on the other hand have a theory that it was placed here as a marker to guide someone towards something. I don’t know what, but the visibility from the sea,” the guide said excitedly, point south again, “makes it a pretty likely theory. It’s possible it was put there to mark the home of some tribe, although it seems excessive to go through trouble of putting this siedi – well, marker – there, just for that.”
“Surely it does,” Remus agreed. “Is it pointing in some direction, do you think, or is it marking this location?”
“I don’t know,” the guide admitted.
“Hm. Are there other markers like this in the area?” Remus then asked. “I’d be very interested in seeing them.”
“Really?” The guide smiled, pleased. “There is one other, possibly two, though I’m not sure about the second.”
“Yes? Do tell me.” Remus smiled encouragingly.
“The first one is in Balsnes and the second one is in Balsfjord, which is a bit of way from here – about thirty kilometres out of town. Balsnes isn’t as far and it fits in with my theory about markers. The one in Balsfjord I’m not so sure about, mostly because it’s so out of the way compared to the other two, and it doesn’t seem to be pointing towards anything, but of course, if you’re interested, I can take you there.”
“We would be delighted to,” Remus said, trying not to grin too obviously. It was the first lead in two days and what was more, it just felt right. “Me and Padfoot, of course.”
“Great!” The guide smiled happily. “I’ll be available again tomorrow, but not the day after and not at the weekend either –”
“Tomorrow?” Remus asked. “It would suit me perfectly.”
“Tomorrow then! Drop by my office at the bureau after ten,” the guide said, motioning for them to continue walking. “I’ll check my notes over before then. The dog park is right here, by the way.”
They stopped at the entrance and the guide looked expectantly at Remus and Padfoot. Remus suppressed a grin and unfastened the lead on the dog collar. “There you go, Padfoot. Go have a good run.”
Padfoot glared at him and snapped at his ankle, then broke off in a run into the park.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, then,” Remus said, shaking the guide’s hand. “Thank you for a most informative and interesting tour yet again! It’s been a pleasure.”
“Ah, the pleasure is all mine,” the guide replied, delighted. He walked off, humming to himself and Remus shook his head in amusement. He went into the park to look for Padfoot, hoping he wasn’t too miffed about the leash. He hadn’t been the day before, but this time he’d been in a bit of a strop all day.
Remus found him rolling around in mud with a couple of other dogs and he wondered whether Animagi did these things of their own free will or because their animal instincts forced them to. He decided he wouldn’t risk Sirius’ wrath by asking.
*
“The map doesn’t cover that area,” Sirius said, holding it up for Remus to see. “So I don’t get why we have to go all the way to Balls-thingie.”
“Just because it’s not on the map it doesn’t mean it’s not worth looking at,” Remus argued. “There might have been other maps or maybe it wasn’t mapped at all and this map was for other purposes – maybe they had a camp, maybe it just points to the first marker, or any other reason I could come up with.”
Sirius huffed. “Do I have to go as Padfoot again?”
“Yes. I’m sorry, but it’s going to be suspicious if I leave Padfoot at home today when he’s been along the other two days,” Remus said. “Besides, it’s a nice decoy.”
“But Poussin isn’t even here!” Sirius threw the map down on the unmade bed. After a moment’s pause, he threw himself onto the bed as well. “We haven’t seen so much as his shadow, so what’s the point?”
“I don’t really want to have this discussion right now,” Remus sighed, checking his watch. “I’m hoping we’ll find something there, anything to point us in the right direction – it’s four days till the full moon, but the moon’s rising tomorrow –”
“What does the moon have to do with it?” Sirius frowned.
“I’ve only got until the full moon to find this – well, it’s not like I wouldn’t get an extension, it’s just...it’d delay me so much that if Poussin’s after us, he could...well, he could waltz in and take whatever,” Remus huffed. “Which is why it’s important we keep our heads down because if he does show up, I’d rather he think we’re not here and then fuck off again...” He rubbed his face.
“Oh.” Sirius looked at him. “What’s that got to do with the moon rising tomorrow? The moon rises every day, you know, like the sun.”
Remus couldn’t help but smile. “Not up here. Here, the moon rises and doesn’t set for days and also doesn’t rise for days. So...when it rises tomorrow, it’s not going to set until the twenty-eighth. That’s eight days of moonshine – the full moon is on the twenty-third, but...”
“But?” Sirius prompted.
“It’s a long and complicated explanation,” Remus sighed. “The short version is: without the earth blocking the moon, it becomes more powerful and it gets more difficult for me to stay human. Even if the full moon isn’t until the twenty-third,” Remus consulted his watch, “it’ll be ninety-eight point five per cent full already on the twenty-first. The day after tomorrow.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah...so basically, if I were in London it wouldn’t matter much because the moon sets and rises, but up here it doesn’t set at all next week...”
“What happens if the moon doesn’t rise and the full moon happens to be during that kind of period?” Sirius asked, frowning.
“Well, I wouldn’t transform, but I’d be unstable. It’s far more painful and stressful than actually transforming, so just to let you know – I’m not moving to Tromsø or any other northern location anytime soon.”
“Okay. But, so, then you’re saying that you want to find documents and the coffins and all within the next two days?”
“Yeah.”
“After they’ve been hidden for over two thousand years?”
“Yes.” Remus shrugged.
“You’re insane,” Sirius declared, then grinned. “Okay, I’m in.” He got to his feet. “Er, do I have to wear the lead again?”
“I can take it off you as soon as we’re out of the city,” Remus promised.
“I must say, that dog is remarkably well behaved,” the guide commented as he drove out of the city. Remus didn’t even bother suppressing his grin.
“He is. He’s been trained well,” he said. “You know, sometimes I even think he’s human.”
“It’s funny, isn’t it, how people sometimes project human feelings and competences onto animals,” the guide chuckled. “I have a cousin who insists that her cats actually speak to her.”
“Oh, Padfoot can’t speak, but he can certainly make his feelings or intentions known.” Remus grinned, knowing he was probably going to get shit for it later, but it was too tempting to tease Sirius in this way. I’ll make it up to him, he thought.
“I like him. He certainly seems to have a sense of humour.”
“I suppose so, if you count candy pick up lines and an obsession with Indiana Jones as a sense of humour,” Remus replied, only to have Padfoot stick his head between the two front seats and glare at Remus balefully. “Clearly, he disagrees with me.”
“He’s a funny dog all right.” The guide stopped the car next to a large rock. “Here we are, the Balsnes marker,” he said and stepped out. Remus made sure to let Padfoot out as well, and removed the lead.
“Don’t stray too far,” he told Padfoot, more for the guide’s sake than because he had to admonish him.
“You’re sure he won’t run away?” the guide asked worriedly.
“Absolutely,” Remus said. “Now, tell me about this one. It’s a funny shape.”
“Funny you should mention it,” the guide said, launching himself into lecturing mode. “It appears to have been cut out of a rock, though tests haven’t shown any traces of work on it. Even if weathered down, there would still have been minimal traces, anything – but there aren’t any.”
No, there wouldn’t be, Remus thought, if it was carved out with magic. “One of nature’s peculiarities, then?” he suggested cheerfully. “But it’s a marker? Why would it be?”
“The visibility from the water,” the guide explained. “And from land. It’s like a landmark of a kind. It can be seen from west, north and east, and even south-east, though I imagine more so when it was erected.”
“Oh! Would you know when it was erected? And the other markers?”
“Not with certainty. The one in the city has been dated to around a hundred years before Christ, plus or minus. These ones...we don’t know.” The guide cleared his throat. “Well, actually, they haven’t been dated at all. There was no interest and therefore no funding for tests.”
“A shame,” Remus conceded. He touched the rock, but felt nothing. It was just a rock. “And the second one?”
“It’s further down the fjord. We can go now, if you like. There is really not much to say about this marker, but the trip down the fjord is beautiful.”
“Sure, let’s go. Padfoot! Good boy,” Remus scratched his head. “Get in the car.”
He could’ve sworn that the dog had rolled his eyes at him. Well, appearances had to be kept.
“There’s a story about this fjord,” the guide started, after a few minutes of driving. “Perhaps you recall that I told you about Waralden Olmai, the superior deity of Sámi religion. I did mention that he’s a passive god and often talked about as the sleeping god,” he said.
“I remember.” Remus nodded, encouraging him to continue.
“The story is pretty interesting, because it’s the only story about the sleeping god that actually puts him in a place,” the guide said. “The story goes that Thjathjeolmai – the man of the water – brought the sleeping god to the mountain. He hid there and slept, letting the world go on without him. He no longer had an interest in the world after creating it and so he slept.”
Remus nodded, barely daring to breathe – mind racing, wondering whether it could possibly be...Padfoot wruffed and pawed at his shoulder, but Remus shushed him. “Sit,” he said, trying to sound stern. Padfoot whined.
“Think he wants out?” the guide asked, oblivious to the drama unfolding in Remus’ head.
“He’ll be fine. Sit!” Remus turned to glare at the dog, who sat down. He looked at Remus reproachfully. “I know,” Remus said. “We’ll get out of the car soon.”
“He’s not going to be car sick, is he?”
“No.” Remus shook his head. “He’s just being himself. Does the story say which mountain?”
“Yup. This one.” The guide pointed out of the window at the mountain to their right.
Two minutes later he parked the car next to a large rock, its back against the mountain.
“This is the last one. I think it’s a marker because it stands there like an observation post or even a guard dog.”
“Mh, I can certainly see what you mean,” Remus said, letting Padfoot out of the car. He was noticing something else, too, a feeling of sorts. He took a few steps towards the rock, but the feeling went away, so instead he turned around, getting closer to the mountain.
“Looking for the sleeping god?” The guide chuckled distractedly as he followed Remus. Padfoot leaped ahead, running in circles and sniffing things. “Uh, he shouldn’t run like that here, he could get lost...”
Remus raised an eyebrow at the guide and followed Padfoot. He recognised the feeling now; it was warding magic. It was weak, but it was definitely there.
“Wasn’t there something we were supposed to do?” the guide asked uncertainly, looking around. “I think I was telling you about the siedi over there...”
“Padfoot!” Remus called. “We’re going back!”
Padfoot stopped and looked at him, then bolted down the slope. Remus turned and walked back to the car with the guide, who seemed less and less distracted the further away from the mountain they got. Muggle repellent charm, Remus thought, or maybe not quite, but perhaps a forerunner...
He got Padfoot into the car despite the dog’s whining and insistence. The drive back to the city was relatively quiet; the guide was somewhat puzzled and Remus was fitting all the pieces together in his head over and over again.
He and Padfoot both hurried into the hotel, Padfoot transforming back into Sirius the moment they made it inside the room, while Remus didn’t even bother dropping his glamour and went straight for the phone.
“I need that team!” he said into the phone as soon as Oxley had picked it up. Sirius was sniffing himself and spelling grass and dust off his clothes. “I definitely found it!”
“I’m having a shower,” Sirius declared. Remus ignored him. Sirius rolled his eyes and disappeared into the bathroom.
“Yeah. I’m sure.”
“I’ll alert them, then,” Oxley said. “They’ll be with you tomorrow. I’ll let you know the particulars as soon as I’ve sorted out a Portkey.”
“Brilliant.” Remus grinned. “This is it, then. This is definitely it.”
“I’ll believe it when I see it,” Oxley grunted.
“I believe it,” Remus grinned, unable to stop himself. “Who’re you sending over?”
“Rolfe, McFarland and Griffiths. I’ll get Campbell from the curse-breakers, he’s a good lad, and then Stuart and Toulson,” he said. “Toulson’s new, former Auror. I know him personally.”
“All right.” Remus nodded, mentally running through the list in his head. Toulson was the only one he didn’t know, but if Oxley vouched for him, he was probably trustworthy. “Brilliant. I’ll appoint McFarland to oversee in case – you know about the moon up here, don’t you?”
“I’ve heard of it. You do have your emergency Portkey with you?”
“Of course – you know I never go anywhere without it. I hope it won’t be necessary, though.”
“I’m counting on that,” Oxley rumbled. “I want you to be there.”
“Better cross your fingers that we’ll be done quickly, then,” Remus responded, feeling incredibly giddy. This was better than El Dorado, so much better.
“Hmpf,” said Oxley. “One more thing, kid.”
“Yeah?”
“Where exactly are you?”
“Oh.” Remus made a sheepish face. “Uh, Tromsø, North-Norway.”
“Have I ever...” Oxley trailed off and Remus could hear him shake his head. “All right, kid. I’ll send them up.”
“Thank you. See you soon, boss.”
Remus hung up. He spent a few moments grinning stupidly, then dropped the glamour and went to see what Sirius was doing in the shower. They spent the next two hours de-fleaing Sirius and the hotel room, all the while Sirius claimed he had no idea where Padfoot had gotten those fleas from and it wasn’t his fault anyway if he was a tasty dog.
The contents of Remus’ briefcase were spread over the bed, which had been made with the minimum amount of effort required that morning. Remus himself was sitting in the middle of the mess, perusing the papers and the notes and reports, presumably making calculations and Good Points about Things, and Sirius was watching the whole thing in fascination.
“Don’t we need to include the local authorities?” Sirius asked eventually, getting bored with his Remus And His Mess-gazing.
“I don’t know.” Remus shrugged. “Not my job anyway.”
“Mh.” Sirius transfigured his watch into a dog collar, then back into a watch, then back again. “What’re you doing?”
“Sorting things out – I need to give the team a little briefing when they get here. And I need to prepare a few papers for the curse-breaker about the protection charm and the counter-charm...”
“What charms?”
“They were on the tablets in the ship.” Remus copied something onto a blank piece of paper. “Written with Ancient Runes and everything.”
“Cool.”
“Except it’s most likely deadly if you try to cross it,” Remus stated. “So I’ll advise you to refrain from trying.”
“I’ll keep it in mind. When’s the team coming?”
“Soon. I don’t know, what time is it?” Remus looked up then and Sirius transfigured the dog collar back into a watch. “Ten to twelve.”
“Oh. Okay. They should be at the Portkey office at one.” Remus looked back at his mess and sighed. “You know that feeling you get when you’ve looked at something so often it’s as if it completely loses all sense and meaning?”
“Sometimes. James’d use to say ‘hey, look at this word, isn’t it weird?’ and he’d repeat it over and over and over again until I’d have to whack him over the head to make him stop.” Sirius shrugged. “Why’re you asking anyway? Getting second thoughts?”
“Just wondering whether I’m actually right about this. I mean, what are the chances? And what if I’ve read the information wrong?”
“Suppose there’s only one way to find out.” Sirius grinned. “Come on. Let’s go have some lunch before we have to pick up the team.”
“All right.” Remus quickly sorted his papers into order before sliding off the bed. “I have to warn you, though,” he said nonchalantly. “They all read the Daily Prophet.”
“Should I be worried?” Sirius frowned.
Remus had to tell Rolfe three times during the briefing to stop staring at Sirius and pay attention. By the end of the meeting, Sirius had grown wary of the strange and speculative looks that the men were throwing at him and Remus. The Toulson bloke seemed to be the only one that was unaffected by the staring disease.
“That’s it,” Remus concluded, taking down the last slide.
He’d borrowed one of the hotel’s small conference rooms for the meeting, but he’d warded it and used magic to project his slides onto the white screen because the default projector didn’t work, or hadn’t been compatible with Remus’ laptop or something, Sirius didn’t know what.
“So it’s time for treasure digging,” he chirped in with a grin, leaning back in his chair. It was balancing precariously on two legs and Remus was half tempted to nudge him to see if he’d fall.
“You do realise we’re not going to go at it with shovels and rubber ducks?” Remus pointed out in amusement. “Anyhow, we better get started right away. Sirius, if you’ll take Stuart, Campbell and Toulson for side-along, I’ll take the others.”
Within two minutes the group was standing next to the siedi – marker – in Balsfjord, either dusting themselves off or gazing at the white landscape around them.
They formed a wide chain with Campbell and Remus in the middle and started the search for the centre of the warding charms.
“It can’t be too high up,” Remus reasoned, holding his wand flat in his palm, watching it swing to and fro as it attempted to detect the source; the strongest point. “The slopes are getting too steep now for it to be plausible...”
“You don’t think they’d have attempted levitation charms?” Campbell asked and McFarland wandered over to join in on the conversation.
“Given what they were dealing with, I doubt it,” he said. “Lupin, didn’t you say the marker in town had been rolled in place with wooden beams? That’s a Muggle technique. They didn’t dare levitating the rock, obviously, so I don’t think they’d have tried it with Old Alex.”
“Maybe there weren’t enough of them to levitate the rock,” Campbell pointed out. “Granite is heavy. You know it’s risky to attempt to levitate something that’s heavier than yourself.”
“I don’t think that’s an issue,” Remus cut in. “We may have found only one ship, but given what they actually carried with them I think it’s safe to assume they were a small fleet of five to seven ships, if only for security reasons. There would’ve been enough people.” He paused. “No, I think McFarland’s right. They wouldn’t have risked it.”
All three of them looked up at the mountain thoughtfully. The other five looked over curiously, as if awaiting orders.
“It’s strange though,” McFarland spoke up. “My detection spells don’t really point to anything. We can’t go up, but it’s not pointing up – it’s as if it’s pointing in.” He nodded at the wall of rock not far off. “I was expecting, I don’t know, a sealed cave or something – but what if they went deeper than that?”
Remus rubbed his jaw, taking a few steps back to survey the scene. He felt a chill creep up his back and when he turned around he saw what he’d already suspected – the moon was rising over the horizon. It was pale against the blue sky. At ninety-five point three per cent it wasn’t full – not even close – but it chilled him all the same. He shuddered.
“We’ll have to try to determine where they went in,” he said, turning back to face the others, trying to shake off the creepy feeling. “It’ll be dark in two hours and I’d really like to set up camp before then. I hate putting up tents in the dark,” he added with a wry grin.
Campbell and McFarland went back to their positions, letting the others know of the slight change of plans and resumed the search.
An hour later their half circle had become smaller and Remus was getting excited fuzzies in his gut.
“Oi!” Campbell called out. “Think it’s over here, guys.” He was standing before a gap in the rock surface. It was a smooth, grassy slope, albeit covered with a thin layer of snow. The wand on his palm pointed straight into the slope. Everybody else’s wands did the same.
“That settles it,” Remus said, smiling broadly. Rolfe looked as excited as a kid in a candy store. “Well done. Let’s get the tent up and started.”
Rolfe and Griffith unpacked the equipment and with help from Campbell, McFarland and Remus, the tent was up in no time. Sirius watched in fascination as the poles and canvas went up and attached themselves seamlessly, the strings pulling taut as the hooks buried themselves into the ground. McFarland cast a climate charm on the tent to keep the cold out.
The two Sirius knew as the security buffs, Toulson and Stuart, warded the tent and set up alarms while Rolfe and Griffith removed the turf and got started on carefully cutting an opening into the mountain, little by little.
“Campbell, I need you to look at this,” Remus said, waving him over to a small table he’d set up inside the tent. “I only glossed over it at the briefing, but there’s more. This is all I’ve got on the protection charm and the counter-charm,” he said, spreading out copies of the tablets and translations. “You’ll know what to do with this, I hope?”
“You bet,” Campbell grinned and conjured up a chair for himself.
“Brilliant.” Remus clapped him on the shoulder and left him to peruse the papers. He looked over at where Rolfe, Griffith and McFarland were levitating earth and stones out of the way, a roll of parchment hovering in the air over their heads. A charting quill was marking down every little detail of their work as it happened.
Not far off the earth was being sifted through floating mesh frames after which it vanished. Another roll of parchment and quill were at the ready next to the frames.
Remus allowed himself a smile and for the fuzzies in his stomach to unfold properly. Everything, absolutely everything was just right. He stepped outside, checked up on the security measures with Toulson and Stuart and then left them to their guard duty.
The sun was about to set and the pink colour of the sky was reflected off the snow covered mountains across the fjord. The moon was higher, almost invisible, but Remus could tell exactly where it was. He tried not to think about it, but the pull was definitely there.
“Hey,” Sirius said softly, coming out of the tent to stand beside him. “Is there anything I can do? I don’t know, I feel a bit superfluous...” He smiled sheepishly. “These people are all professionals and I’m just, well, I’m just here.”
“Well...” Remus nudged him with his elbow. “You could go get us all some takeaway. We’ll be here all evening.”
“I suppose so.” Sirius made a face and then shrugged. “It’s not like I have anything better to do.”
“What about the NSSA?” Remus asked, looking sideways. “As far as I know you haven’t been very much in touch with them. Shouldn’t you...I mean, I don’t want to be rude, but aren’t you supposed to do your job?”
“I – well, yes. James is taking care of it. There’s not much to do at the moment anyway...The nukes job finished yesterday, James texted me about it. There weren’t any.” Sirius shrugged. “It’s low season anyway. I always have half my ships docked this time of year.”
“Hmm.”
“I thought I’d have a sort of holiday anyway, what with hiding from lawyers and all. Haven’t had one since last summer.” Sirius grinned. “Keeps me from having to do my taxes.”
Remus chuckled. “Fair enough.” He was again tempted to ask why exactly Sirius was there; procrastinating taxes and hiding from lawyers was just...well, probably plausible enough, given Sirius’ temper, but he didn’t think it was quite enough. Especially because he knew that there were no lawyers to hide from anymore.
“What sort of take away should I get us anyway?”
“I don’t know. Pizza? Whatever you find. McFarland’s a vegetarian, though.”
“You know him well?”
“He’s my colleague.” Remus shrugged. “Oh, and don’t get anything alcoholic to go with it. Any sort of soft drink or water is fine.”
“No drinking on the job?” Sirius raised an eyebrow.
“Yup.” Remus handed him his Museum credit card. “Put it on this.”
Sirius pocketed the card and disapparated. Remus threw a glance at the moon and then went back inside to oversee the excavation.
“Hey, McFarland,” he called out. “A word, please?”
“Sure thing.” He dropped his trowel and got up. Rolfe looked up interestedly. “What’s up?”
“The full moon is in a couple of days. I’m putting you in charge if we’re not done here before then.”
“Oh, cool. It shouldn’t be necessary, though. We’ll be done in no time. Had we been Muggles we’d have been stuck here for months,” he grinned. “Jump in, we could use your help.” He pointed over his shoulder at the large tunnel-like hole they’d made.
Remus grinned back. “All right.” He took his winter coat off and rolled his sleeves up.
“Where’d Black disappear off to?” McFarland handed him a trowel.
“Getting us food. He’ll be back.” Remus set to work next to Griffith. McFarland joined him.
“What’s he here for?”
“Sexual favours,” Remus deadpanned. McFarland stared at him for a while but when Remus didn’t elaborate, decided he must’ve been joking.
“No really.”
“He knows how to handle a gun.” Remus shrugged. McFarland raised an eyebrow but Remus ignored him in favour of the task at hand. McFarland didn’t press the matter.
Sirius returned soon with a high stack of pizza boxes and a couple of large bottles of coke.
“Dinner,” he said, setting the stack down on a spot on the table that wasn’t covered in papers and parchment. “The top one is a veggie one. Dig in. Remus, a word?”
Remus, who’d managed to smear mud on his forehead, looked up to meet Sirius’ worried gaze. He quickly stepped out of the hole and pulled Sirius aside. “What is it?”
“I think Poussin is in town,” Sirius said in a low voice. “I’m not completely sure, but I think I saw him.”
“Did he see you?”
“No. He just walked past the pizza place. Didn’t even look in. Look, I’m not even sure it was him, it was just a quick glance – I didn’t want to run out after him to check. Just thought I’d, you know, let you know that he might be here.”
Remus cursed, looking in the direction of the city. “Let’s hope you’re wrong.”
Sirius gave him a small smile. “I hope so too.” He nudged Remus. “It’ll be all right. You’ve got top notch security on this thing and all.”
“I – yes, I have.” Remus sighed, then looked at him. “Right, food. What’d you get us?”
“All sorts of different ones.” He turned towards the pizza boxes, then cried in outrage. “Hey! All the bacon pizza’s gone!”
“Sorry, mate,” Campbell mumbled, mouth full of food. Sirius huffed and picked a slice of something else.
They worked late into night, managing to deepen the tunnel several metres. Rolfe found a belt buckle, confirming that they were definitely on the right track, and they had even had to pause when a ward blocked their way. After Campbell had taken it down, they came upon a hollowed-out stone tunnel, full of earth. They’d all gotten so worked up over that that Remus had to force them – and himself – to stop once they reached midnight so they could get some rest.
“Get some sleep,” he said, running his fingers through his hair. It was caked with mud by now, but he didn’t seem to notice. “Well done everyone, we’ve made fantastic progress already.”
“Hear, hear!” McFarland cheered, grinning from ear to ear. “Be here at nine tomorrow?”
“Eight,” Remus said. “Seven, preferably, but even I won’t make it out of bed that early, so you’re exempted.”
Sirius smiled and shook his head. There was some chatter as everyone started packing and putting on coats and disapparating one by one. Remus had a few words with the security buffs and it was agreed that Toulson would cover the night shift. Eventually Sirius could push Remus into leaving the site as well and going back.
“You need a shower,” Sirius said the moment they materialised in their hotel room.
“Mh,” Remus responded distractedly. “You can go first, I need to write a report anyway...”
“Are you sure?”
Remus waved him off and Sirius disappeared into the bathroom. He was quick; he wasn’t nearly as muddy as Remus or any of the other guys had been even if he’d been made to lend a hand.
The sight that met him when he stepped out of the bathroom, toothbrush hanging out of his mouth, was of one muddy Remus Lupin, fast asleep on top of the covers and the laptop having slid off his lap. The moon shone brightly through the window, its rays falling across Remus’ face. He looked mildly troubled and Sirius shuddered as he pulled the curtains shut, cutting off the moon’s rays.
He decided he wasn’t going to wake Remus, so he put the laptop away for him and performed a careful cleaning spell on him to get the worst of the mud off. A few moments later he was also undressed and under the covers.
“Good night then,” Sirius said and turned off the light.
*
Remus slept fitfully and when Sirius shook him awake in the morning, he was disgruntled and irritable. Sirius did his best to avoid him, lest he turn into a snarling beast or something worse. He cast a glance out the window while Remus was in the shower, looking for the moon. Definitely not full, but it was fuller than it’d been the day before.
And what had Remus said? Something about percentages. Sirius wasn’t sure what.
“Hey, Remus?” he asked when he heard the door to the bathroom open behind him. “Can one transform while asleep?”
“Yes,” Remus answered curtly, looking for clean clothes. Sirius’ insides froze and he turned to look at Remus. “I wouldn’t have done tonight, though, so don’t look at me like that.”
“How do you know for sure?”
“I – I just do.” Remus pulled on a clean pair of trousers and a sweater. “Really. You had nothing to worry about.”
“And what about tonight?” Sirius pointed out the window.
“Tonight I’ll most likely be in my werewolf cell in St. Mungo’s.” Remus put his socks and shoes on. His still wet hair fell into his eyes. “Are you ready to go?”
“Don’t you want breakfast first?” Sirius pointed at the tray he’d brought up earlier.
“Not hungry.” Remus stood and picked up his laptop. “I want to finish this before nightfall,” he said. “Are you with me or not?”
“Suppose I’m with you.” Sirius sighed.
McFarland was already at the site when they arrived. He was testing the tunnel they’d excavated and was putting strengthening charms onto the walls and roof to be on the safe side.
“Morning guys,” he said cheerfully. Remus only grunted in reply. “Rough night, mate? Saw the moon, looked nasty.”
“Yeah,” Remus said gloomily.
Rolfe and Campbell popped in and a few minutes later, so did Griffith and Stuart. Remus ordered them all to work while he sat down and typed up the report he hadn’t finished the night before.
By lunch time Campbell had had to take down three more wards, the tunnel had deepened by about thirty metres and everyone was muddy.
Remus looked positively ill when Sirius brought sandwiches in for lunch and resolutely refused to eat anything.
“Shouldn’t you eat something?” Sirius asked.
“I don’t want to.” He made a face, eyeing the sandwich in Sirius’ hand. “Please take that away from me.”
Sirius threw it back into the sandwich bag. “Are you sure? You don’t look well.”
“I don’t look well because I’m not well,” Remus snapped. “I’m trying to keep myself together, all right?”
“...okay.” Sirius looked down, sticking his hands into his pockets glumly. Remus sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.
“Sorry. I’m just...I’m a bit stressed, all right?”
“I understand.” Sirius shrugged, not really understanding, but he wasn’t going to acknowledge that. This Remus scared him, but that wasn’t something he was going to admit, ever.
“Lupin?” Campbell looked worried. “I need a word.”
Remus spared Sirius an apologetic glance and then left him to deal with the sandwich wrappers that were piling up on the table.
“What is it?” he asked.
“I don’t like the look of that protecting charm, or the counter-charm,” Campbell started and Remus snorted.
“I know it’s nasty,” he said. “What’s the problem?”
“Well, we’re getting closer to it, for one – there’s a solid wall of stone about half a metre in. I asked them to stop digging because my tests tell me it’s enough for them to just touch the stone wall to get hurt, and when I say hurt I mean in the most painful and potentially deadly way possible,” Campbell said. “So there’s that...”
“But the counter-charm?” Remus asked. Campbell looked sorry.
“The counter-charm is going to take days to perform. I was hoping for something quicker, but the design of this is really fascinating; whoever made it didn’t allow for any loopholes...there’s...well...”
“Well?”
“We could dissolve the charm faster with blood sacrifice,” Campbell said. “Which, well, is out of the question as far as I’m concerned.”
“Blood sacrifice?” Remus frowned. “I thought the charm was kept strong via blood sacrifice? If I understood it correctly.”
“Well, yes. Someone drew enough blood from themselves to nearly die,” Campbell explained. “Blood equals life force. The aim was to tie a part of the spirit to the charm to keep it alive and strong. Every time someone tries to cross it, they’ll die and their blood – life force, or spirit, more accurately, will be sucked into the charm and strengthen it. The charm can be dissolved with another blood sacrifice like the first, because once one is so drained of life that they’re nearly dead, the spirit trapped in the charm can take hold in the victim’s body. The charm dies, to put it that way.”
Remus cursed.
“My words exactly. The counter-charm describes an unwinding of the charm, but it’s complicated and time-consuming. I calculated it at about thirteen days.”
“And there’s no way past the charm? We couldn’t just blast our own tunnel around it?” Remus asked, though he knew it was a stupid question.
“No. It’s spherical.” Campbell glanced at the tunnel. “It’s weak, though. There’s been nothing to feed it more power since it was cast. Not even a rabbit.”
“Bloody fucking hell,” Remus said vehemently. “Is there nothing you can do?”
“I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve, but I’m afraid they won’t make much of a difference.”
“Just...do whatever you can.”
“I’ll do my best,” Campbell promised.
Remus traipsed after him back into the tunnel. So did everyone else who’d been near enough to hear the conversation. Remus removed the remaining dirt that was covering the stone wall and Rolfe sent it back to the mesh frames.
In front of them was an elaborately carved stone door with a hole where there once must have been a handle of sorts.
“No one touches this,” Remus said firmly. “Campbell?”
“Unless you want to die a violent death,” he said jokingly. “I think we might be able to open the door, though, as long as we don’t physically cross the barrier.” He waved his wand in a wide circle, muttering incantations. After a short while, the air shimmered and clear lines criss-crossed the stone door, continuing into the floor, ceiling and walls. They looked flimsy and weak, but the colour alone made them all take several steps back.
“Clear?” Rolfe whispered. “That’s bad.”
“Are you sure we can open the door?” Remus asked, desperately wanting to get a glimpse of what was behind it.
“Yes. It doesn’t appear to be bound by the charm...if we pull it out, we can put it against the wall so that we can get past it once I’ve dismantled the charm.” He gesticulated. “If you two take the left side,” he pointed at Remus and Griffith, “and if I and McFarland take the other, we should be able to wedge it out.”
“All right. Let’s try. Everyone be careful and the rest of you step back.” Remus rolled up his sleeves properly and raised his wand.
Between the four of them, they nearly took the roof down. Almost. Dust and lumps of earth rained down.
“Hold!”
Dust fell down from the edges of the stone door, but the roof didn’t budge. McFarland put up a stabilizing charm nevertheless. Remus and Griffith pulled carefully at their side of the door, wands raised high and sweat pearling on their brows, and inch by inch it moved sideways until there was a small gap. Campbell and McFarland gave the door a small push from their side to widen the gap enough that they could look in.
It was pitch black, but a whispered lumos revealed a large, empty chamber with a few open doorways. Nothing else.
“That didn’t do anything for my curiosity,” Remus muttered. “All right, let’s move this thing out of the way.”
The day became afternoon and the men were getting restless in the face of the resilient charm but no-one was as worked up as Remus.
“Are you all right?” Sirius asked in a low voice. Remus didn’t look up. He knew he was trembling and he’d just spent a good five minutes retching air, but he wanted to pretend it wasn’t real. “Can I get you something? Some water?”
“Water would be okay,” he replied hoarsely. Sirius summoned a water bottle and uncapped it for him.
“Drink,” he said. Remus lifted his head from his hands and took one mouthful. He was pale and there was a thin sheen of sweat on his skin. “You really don’t look good. Maybe you should go somewhere.” He paused. “It’ll be dark in half an hour,” he added helpfully.
Remus laughed humourlessly. “Makes no difference. You’ve seen too many Muggle horror films. If there’s a full moon during the day, we transform anyway, we don’t fucking wait around for it to be dark...” he drew in a shallow breath and closed his eyes. “I’m fine.”
He stood up abruptly and went into the tunnel, Sirius following him helplessly.
“Any progress at all?” Remus asked Campbell, who was glaring at the flimsy net across the tunnel as if it had personally offended him.
“No,” he growled. “It won’t budge.” He turned around frustratedly. “I’m sorry, Lupin, but I don’t think there’s anything for it but to do the counter-charm. I’m not getting anywhere with it this way.”
“Give it another hour?” Remus pleaded. “You can get started on the counter-charm tomorrow if nothing else works...”
Campbell sighed. “I’ll try, but I’m telling you, it’s no use.”
“The man’s right,” someone behind them said. The three men spun around.
“Hephaistion?!” Sirius burst out. Remus stared. “What are you doing here?”
“Oh, I followed you. See, I brought a friend!” he reached into the wall he was pretend-leaning against and dragged out the ghost of Alexander. “Say hi to my friends, Alex. Oh don’t give me that look, I know you speak English.”
“I can’t fucking believe this,” Remus muttered. “What exactly are you doing here?”
“Well, I wanted to see if you’d find our stuff, of course.” He peered over Remus’ shoulder. “I must say, I’m not quite convinced. There seems to be a distinct lack of gold and decoration in that chamber to be suitable for our standards, even if it is just an entry chamber.”
Alexander sulked.
“Hey, can you get past the charm?” Sirius suddenly asked. “You could like, go and check.”
“And have my ectoplasm melt?” Hephaistion sighed dramatically. “I think not. I must look good. Right, Alex?” He elbowed Alex, who was eyeing Hephaistion’s bare thighs. When Hephaistion nudged him again, he glared. “He’s such a drama queen, my Alexander.”
“Last time I checked you were the drama queen,” Sirius muttered under his breath. Hephaistion gave him a haughty look.
“It was completely justified!” he said, crossing his arms. Alexander rolled his eyes.
“No it wasn’t,” he said, in perfectly clear English. “And you’re ridiculous for bringing us here.”
“Wait. I thought you were mad?” Remus asked. “What happened to Loony Alexander?”
Alexander shrugged. “It kills the time.”
“I take that back, you are loony,” Remus stated dryly. “You came here to observe the fun or what? Sorry to say, but there’s not much fun.”
“Oh, I don’t know about that,” Hephaistion said nonchalantly. “I thought you might want to know that your guys are currently duelling with a bunch of French dudes.” He pointed over his shoulder with a grin.
“Oh for the love of...” Remus pinched the bridge of his nose. “Right. Let’s go.” He clutched his wand determinedly and set off towards the tent.
Campbell looked at Sirius, bewildered. “Long story,” Sirius said. “Aim for the annoying one.” And then he ran after Remus, wand at the ready and Campbell at his heels, muttering something about the world going to the dogs.
Hephaistion and Alexander cheered behind them.
The tent was chaotic. Remus quickly counted six strangers and even more voices could be heard outside. None of them was Poussin.
“Fuck off, frog-eaters!” Sirius yelled and threw himself into battle with a loud cry. Two hexes immediately came for Remus, who ducked and sent stunners in the direction the hexes had come from.
Someone cried out to his right and a red light flew past his head. Campbell roared and smacked his fist into a dark-haired man’s face. He went down. Remus deflected a curse coming his way and lunged forwards, trying to get a better aim but Sirius crashed into him sideways and they both fell to the ground.
Half of the tent was ripped off. Remus threw a jinx at the stranger standing in what used to be the door. He rolled away, not waiting to see if he’d hit the target, just as a purple hex flew past his right ear. There were loud cries outside. A blonde guy he recognised as the Viking from Babylon stepped forwards, wand raised.
“Stupefy!” Remus yelled, hitting him square in the chest. He jumped to his feet, frantic, and stunned another Frenchie as he came round the flapping edge of the tent.
He scanned the tent wildly. Campbell was down and Sirius was cornered against the rock by a large bloke. Remus stunned him and he fell over. Sirius pushed him away. “All right there?” he panted, stepping over the guy. It was quiet in the tent.
Suddenly the cries on the other side of the tent, the one that was still standing, quieted. Remus noticed now that Griffith and McFarland were among the ones lying on the floor, along with seven Frenchies. He held his hand up to signal Sirius to be quiet, nodding to the other side of the tent, where voices could be heard.
Remus held his wand at the ready and Sirius tried to tiptoe over to his side quietly. A loud crunch as he stepped on a paper bag hushed the voices immediately. A quick order in French was yelled and a man came round to look. Sirius took him down with a well-aimed stunner.
“I know you’re there, Michelle!” Sirius yelled. Remus would’ve facepalmed if he hadn’t been too busy trying to come up with a plan. “Why don’t you show your ugly face?”
“Why, is that Sirius Black?” Poussin yelled back. “Colour me surprised. You’re still hanging out with the werewolf, then?”
Remus quickly crouched down next to Campbell and whispered a rennervate. He put his hand over his mouth as he woke. “Shh,” he whispered. “I think we’re outnumbered.”
“You’re outnumbered, Sirius dearest,” Poussin said, his voice drawing closer. “Why don’t you spare me the trouble of hexing you when you can just surrender yourself?”
Sirius glanced back, grinning when he saw that Campbell was awake. “Maybe I like playing games with you, frog-eater.” He sent a curse in the vague direction of Poussin, aiming to miss. The curse burned a hole in the tent.
“Try to find Toulson and Stuart,” Remus whispered urgently to Campbell, who nodded and got to his feet. “We don’t have time for the others.”
Campbell wandered quietly over to the other side of the tent and crouched by the ground, peering under the edge.
“You amuse me, Sirius, but you tire me also,” Poussin said. “Don’t make me come in after you.”
“You’re personally coming to get me? What an honour,” Sirius replied sarcastically. “Have you run out of minions?”
Poussin yelled something in French and a thundering of footsteps neared. Remus heard Campbell whisper a few rennervates and prayed that whatever he was thinking of would work. He took a deep breath and cast hexes as soon as he saw the first person come round.
Outnumbered wasn’t the word. There were eight and even if Sirius had managed to stun two and Remus one that was still five against two, three if you counted Campbell but Remus couldn’t hear him. He trembled as he deflected curses and sweat pearled on his forehead. He knew he wasn’t stable, but there wasn’t anything for it. Next to him Sirius wasn’t much better off, neither of them managing to fire off a single spell in return or set up shield charms.
He registered Poussin walking backwards into the tent, duelling someone that looked like a very bloodied Toulson. Campbell was still nowhere to be seen and Remus clenched his fist hard around his wand in desperation. One more on the enemy line went down. Remus suddenly lunged forward at the dark-haired man right opposite, landing a hard blow in his face and they both toppled over. Two curses flew over his head, then another and then Sirius was hauling him to his feet.
“Drop it, Michelle!” he yelled, wand aimed at Poussin. “You’re the one outnumbered now!”
Remus staggered to his feet and saw now that Poussin was bleeding heavily from a gash in his stomach and shoulder. His wand was aimed at Toulson, who looked furious. With Campbell getting to his feet behind Remus, Poussin had four wands aimed at him.
“You’ve got yourself a vicious pack,” Poussin spat, clutching his stomach.
“Give it up, Michel,” Remus said calmly. He felt anything but calm. The moon was tearing at him and he knew it was only a matter of time. “The game’s over.”
“It certainly is not,” he protested.
“You’re alone. All your men are down,” Remus continued. “Drop your wand. It’s over.”
“I think not.” Poussin straightened up, not without difficulties. “I made it here, didn’t I? I think I deserve to see what remains of Alexander the Great!”
Remus snorted. “Oh no you don’t.” He noticed that Hephaistion and Alexander were nowhere to be seen.
“You’ve found the chamber, haven’t you?” Poussin jerked his head towards the opening in the mountain.
“You can’t see it.”
“We’ll see about that,” Poussin retorted. He stunned Toulson silently and ran towards the opening.
“Don’t –” Remus ran after him. “Don’t do this! Michel! It’s dangerous!”
Poussin cackled and kept running. “I will see it!”
“You’ll die – bloody hell – just listen to me for once, you idiot!” Remus yelled. He sent a stunner after him, but Poussin ducked and laughed and kept running – right into the flimsy mesh that was the protecting charm.
Remus stopped in horror. The mesh tangled itself around Poussin’s wrists and legs. He wasn’t laughing anymore, in fact he wasn’t saying anything at all, but appeared to have lost consciousness, if not – no, he wasn’t dead. The flimsy lines were coiling around him and it looked like they were...sapping him of strength.
“Campbell!” Remus roared, turning around wildly only to see Campbell and Sirius were already there, running forwards.
Campbell’s wand was aimed at Poussin and he was muttering an incantation of some sort. The lines thickened and tightened around Poussin and then they seemed to flow into him. Campbell muttered something and the lines vanished. He lowered his wand and Remus took it as a signal that it was safe, and dropped to Poussin’s side to check his vitals. “You idiot!” he snarled as soon as he realised he was alive, if unconscious. “I should kill you, I really should fucking kill you!”
“Uh, Remus,” Sirius said, stepping forwards. “Let’s get him out of here, and uh, maybe call the local Aurors and Healers.”
“Yes.” Campbell nodded. “We’ve got unconscious Frenchmen strewn all over the place and I think our men are pretty badly off as well.”
Remus stood up, nodding tiredly. “I – yes, of course...” He looked down at Poussin with distaste. “Bloody fucking idiot.”
Campbell conjured up a stretcher and levitated him onto it. “He’s lucky to be alive. But the charm is broken. I made it go into him rather than kill him.”
“What’s that mean?” Sirius asked as they walked out, Remus bringing up the rear.
“I don’t know. He’s alive, but, uh...he’s got a bit of a spirit from the guy who made the charm as well as a bunch of ancient magic inside him now. He’ll probably wake up thinking he’s Napoleon or something.”
“Napoleon wasn’t born until the 1760s,” Remus said.
He didn’t understand why that made Campbell and Sirius laugh so hard.
“My, that was fun,” Hephaistion said as he floated out of the wall. “Alexander owes me ten talents. He didn’t think you’d make it.”
“How reassuring,” Remus replied dryly and then promptly collapsed. He groaned and tried to get back onto his feet. Hephaistion looked on with mild interest.
“Remus?” Sirius stopped, signalling for Campbell to wait, and helped Remus to his feet. “Are you all right?”
“No,” Remus drew in a few deep breaths. “Let’s go.” He swallowed convulsively, nausea almost overwhelming him. “I need to...” he reached for his wristwatch, but found it gone. “Shit, where’s my moonwatch? I need it!”
He looked at the ground wildly, lighting with his wand. It was nowhere to be seen.
“I don’t know...did you take it off before your shower this morning?” Sirius asked uncertainly. “Uhm, you can get a new one?”
“No – I need it,” Remus stopped looking. “It’s not here. Shit. Must’ve lost it in the tent.” He started running, panic driving him. Sirius hesitated, but ran after him anyway.
“What’s –”
“It’s my emergency portkey,” Remus said, rudely pushing Campbell and the stretcher with Poussin on it out of the way as he ran. He stopped at the mouth of the tunnel, looking in despair at the mess in the tent and the bodies covering it. “Accio moonwatch!”
Something silvery flew out from beneath a blonde Frenchman and right into Remus’ outstretched hand.
“Emergency portkey?” Sirius asked as Remus fastened it to his wrist. “Oh...for...?”
“Takes me right to my werewolf cell,” Remus said, glancing at the moon. It was ice cold, the climate charm having been disrupted with the tent, something they only noticed now.
“Oh,” Sirius said. Remus only nodded, looking around and finally locating McFarland on the floor. He quickly crouched down and whispered a rennervate, hoping he wasn’t dead.
“Bloody hell,” McFarland muttered. “My head feels like shit.”
“Listen,” Remus said urgently. “I’ve got to go – I don’t think – shit, I –” Remus wiped his brow. McFarland sat up instantly.
“Shit, Lupin, already? The full moon’s not –”
“I know, but it doesn’t matter now. Make sure things run smoothly, yeah?” Remus stood up, panic written all over his face. He was trembling hard. “Contact me after the full moon.”
“Of course –” McFarland started, but Remus shook his head. He glanced at Sirius and then he tapped the watch with his wand. The portkey activated and Remus stumbled into his werewolf cell in London, allowing himself to finally fall apart.
IV
Oxley was sitting by Remus’ bedside when he woke up.
“Good heavens,” he said. “We were starting to think you’d never wake up.”
“I wish I hadn’t,” Remus replied hoarsely, as pain seared through him. He winced. “I feel like hell run over twice.” He reopened his eyes, gazing around the small room. The only one there was Oxley.
He swallowed bitterly. Why had he expected Sirius to be there anyway?
“So, boss...why’re you here? Finally firing me?” he asked, but his lame attempt of a joke didn’t even bring out a smile.
“Drink this.” Oxley held a glass to his lips. Water. Remus drank it all. “I thought I’d first inform you that you’ve been out cold for twenty-six hours.”
Remus winced.
“You gave the Healers quite a fright when you showed up two days ahead of schedule. On the other hand you are now the record-holder of the longest werewolf transformation in history. Fifty-six hours, kid, and I’m amazed that you’re not dead.”
“Supposed to be dead,” Remus muttered. Oxley allowed himself a smile.
“Now. McFarland oversaw the excavation in your absence. It was all there. The remains of Alexander the Great Wizard, Hephaistion, surprisingly, an entire chamber full of scrolls and letters and another chamber with a few valuable artefacts,” Oxley said. “For some reason the ghosts of Alexander and Hephaistion were there too, bemoaning the fact that their sarcophagi had been placed in two different chambers.”
Remus smiled weakly. “I can imagine.”
“Hum. We haven’t yet let the Muggles know about the find, but the British Museum and your name have been plastered all over the Daily Prophet.”
“My name?”
“Of course your name,” Oxley grunted. “I made sure.”
“Oh.” Remus sighed. Somehow the victory didn’t sit very well with him. “What about the others?” He suddenly remembered the fight, the ripped tent and the bodies on the floor and – the charm, and Poussin. “Are they okay?”
“No one died,” Oxley replied. “Rolfe was knocked out for a few hours and Toulson had a few serious injuries, but no one suffered any lasting damage.”
“Oh,” Remus sighed in relief. “What about – Poussin and his team?”
“You were right about the leak. I fired Pettigrew as soon as I found out.” Oxley cleared his throat. “He came clean when he heard what happened.”
“Bastard,” Remus muttered. “And Poussin?”
“Michel Poussin has been charged with attempted murder, theft, sabotage and a number of other things I don’t remember and don’t care much for.” Oxley paused.
“But?”
“His lawyers pledged insanity on his behalf. Apparently he woke up thinking he was Napoleon.”
Remus laughed so hard it hurt until he started coughing and nearly choked and Oxley had to call a Healer.
“Sorry,” Remus said after the Healer had left. “That wasn’t very funny.”
“I wouldn’t know.”
“Where’s Sirius?” Remus asked.
“Sirius who?” Oxley looked confused. “The Black bloke?”
“Never mind.” Remus tried to swallow the bitterness. “Do you know where my things are? The ones I left in Norway?”
“McFarland brought them to your office.” Oxley stood up. “You’re on sick leave. I’m not allowing you to come back for a full week.”
“But –”
“A week,” Oxley repeated. “And stay away from Norway, for Merlin’s sake. Their moon is vile.”
Remus smiled and refrained from telling him that the moon in Norway was the same one as in England. It didn’t matter.
“See you in a week, Lupin.”
“Yeah. A week,” Remus replied and then Oxley was gone. He waited a few minutes and then called a Healer, demanding to be allowed to go home.
The Healer didn’t relent until he’d been stocked up with blood-replenishing potions, pain-relieving potions and salve for his joints and injuries, and had someone to escort him home. Not until then did Remus discover that his entire chest and both his arms were bandaged. His left arm was in a sling as well.
The escort helped Remus through the floo and onto his sofa. Not until she’d made tea and forced a dose of pain-relieving potion down his throat did she leave and Remus had peace.
In order to not think about Sirius, he summoned his phone and called Tonks.
“It’s me,” he said gruffly.
“Remus! The Healers at St. Mungo’s said – are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” he said. “I was wondering, do you have time to come over later today? Bring Teddy?”
“Oh, of course! He’s been asking for you. We’ve both been so worried when we heard...although Teddy’s been telling all his playschool mates about how you’re the coolest daddy in the world because you found Alexander the Great Wizard,” she said amusedly. “I read him the articles.”
Remus’ throat contracted. “I miss him.”
“We’ll come by as soon as I’ve picked him up from play school, is that all right?”
“It’s brilliant,” Remus replied. “I look forward to it. Oh, eh Tonks? Warn him that I’m not quite...I won’t be up and running just yet.”
“Just how badly are you hurt?”
“I don’t know.” Remus shrugged even though she couldn’t see it. “Got my entire chest in bandages and I think I lost the use of my left arm for the time being...”
“You idiot,” Tonks said, not unkindly. “Call your parents, by the way. They’re out of their mind with worry.”
“I will.” Remus sighed. “Look, I’ll...go take a nap or something. Just wake me up when you get here if I’m still asleep.”
“Sure. I’ll see you later.”
“Laters.”
Remus hung up and pulled a blanket over himself off the sofa. He felt incredibly tired despite having slept for twenty-six hours, and didn’t much feel like calling his parents. He’d do it later.
He was woken up some time later by the loud buzz of his doorbell. He groaned and rubbed his face, trying to sit up. His entire body ached.
“Hang on!” Remus called, surprised by the roughness of his voice. “I’ll be right there!” He swung his legs stiffly over the edge of the sofa and sat up gingerly, making a face. He pushed the blanket aside and managed to stand up and take a few steps towards the entrance hall.
That was when he discovered he was still wearing white hospital pyjama bottoms and nothing else – unless you counted the bandages on his chest and arms. He decided he probably wouldn’t be able to change clothes in less than ten minutes, so he gave it up and answered the door.
“Hi,” Sirius said, staring in horror at the bandages. “I, uh, they said at St. Mungo’s that you’d gone home, so...”
Remus stepped aside wordlessly, unable to fathom what on earth Sirius was doing on his doorstep. “Come in,” he eventually said.
“Thanks but – I’ve got to...I actually didn’t come for tea, I mean...” he trailed off. “I, uh, I came to ask you out on a date.”
“A date,” Remus repeated stupidly. He didn’t think he could really be awake. Maybe he wasn’t. “What?”
Sirius’ face fell. “I...I understand if you don’t want to, I just, I thought I’d ask.”
“But I thought...” Remus let go of the door to rub his eyes. “You want to go on a date? With me?”
“Yeah...” Sirius shrugged awkwardly. He looked hopeful now. “If you want to, that is.”
“Oh.” Remus shook his head in disbelief. “Okay. Yes. I want to.”
“Really?” Sirius’ face split into a wide grin.
“Yes,” Remus confirmed, smiling back.
“Can I kiss you?”
Remus stared. “I can’t believe you’re even asking.”
Sirius blushed. “Well it’s different now,” he argued. “We’re dating now, and anyway you look sort of fragile.” He nodded pointedly at all the bandages.
“Oh. Well, you can,” Remus said. Sirius grinned stupidly and closed the distance between them, touching his lips softly to Remus’.
His hand came to rest on the small of Remus’ back as their kiss deepened and soon Remus had forgotten all about bitterness, because Sirius was right there.
“What kind of date are we going on?” Remus asked against his lips.
“I don’t know,” Sirius admitted. “We can do anything you like.” He kissed him again.
“Mmhhh. I like that.” Another kiss.
“Daddy!” Something small and blue cried as it flung itself at Remus’ legs. Only Sirius’ quick reflexes prevented him from falling over.
“Ow – hey, little one,” Remus said. “Ow, careful, careful...” He leaned down carefully to give his son an awkward half hug.
“Sorry,” Tonks said, coming round the corner. “He ran from me – Sirius?” She gaped. So did Sirius.
“Tonks?”
“Daddy!”
“You know each other?” Remus blurted out.
“He’s my cousin!” Tonks said at the same time as Sirius said “she’s my cousin!”
“Oh,” Remus said dumbly.
“Daddy!” Teddy repeated, louder this time. “Look at what I made in playschool today!” He held up a drawing in bold colours. “It’s you and me and a dinosaur and Alexander!”
“It’s very cool,” Remus said. “I’ll put it on my fridge.”
Teddy ran inside the apartment with the drawing, presumably to put it there himself.
“You’re related?” He asked Tonks and Sirius.
“My mum was a Black,” Tonks said. Sirius was looking at them both in confusion.
“Wait,” he blurted out, looking at Remus. “You are the bum who knocked up my cousin?”
“I need tea,” Remus declared and turned to go inside, just to have his son run into him again. “Oof. Careful - daddy’s hurt,” he said, pained.
“Sorry,” Teddy said, downcast, then lit up. “I put it on the fridge, right next to the other drawings!” Remus nodded and went inside, his son’s hand in his, half listening to his chatter. Behind him he could hear Tonks and Sirius argue.
“How could you not know Remus was his dad? Teddy’s last name is Lupin for crying out loud!”
“How was I supposed to know that? I wasn’t at the christening! I’ve met the kid maybe twice in my life! Three times now!”
Remus glanced at them, exasperated. “Tea?” He said hopelessly.
“Yes please,” Tonks said.
“You sit down and don’t move,” Sirius said. “I’ll make it.” He went into the kitchen, muttering something about people never telling him anything.
Remus eased himself down onto the sofa, wincing at the pain in his arm. He was wondering just how badly he’d torn it up when Tonks sat next to him, giving him an amused look.
“So, you and Sirius, hm?” she asked.
“Hm?” Remus rubbed his shoulder.
“I didn’t know you were seeing someone.”
“I wasn’t,” Remus replied and reached out for a pain-relieving potion. “Until now.” He downed a dose.
“Obviously.” She clearly didn’t believe him. Remus sighed.
“Why, do you mind?” he asked.
“No, not at all,” she said just as Sirius returned from the kitchen with two mugs of steaming tea, handing one to Tonks.
“I can’t stay,” he said, handing Remus the other mug. “I’m meeting James and Harry, we’re going to the park or something. I’ll call you?”
“Okay. Oh, uhm, what’re you doing tonight? Come over with some takeaway and we’ll watch Indiana Jones or something?” Remus asked, hopeful. Teddy was gazing at Sirius, his face and hair shifting until he’d turned into a small replica of him.
Sirius grinned. “All right.” His eyes darted at Tonks, but he decided to ignore her presence and leaned down for a quick kiss. “See you tonight then. See you later, Tonks.” He ruffled Teddy’s hair and left.
“Dad, was that man your boyfriend?” Teddy asked.
“Yes it was,” Remus answered, smile on his face. “Did you get my postcard from Norway?”