Chapter Text
Thunder crashed outside and rain pelted the roof and windows with an almost constant low roar. The curtains were closed against the flashes of lightning but it made no difference. Sirius still felt every strike before it happened and huddled under the quilt, clinging to Remus as he laid on the bed. Remus just tried to comfort him while ignoring the splitting headache behind his eyes and the throbbing aches in his joints. Harry wailing across the room because he’d been told that he could under no circumstances chew on his godfather’s wand did nothing to help. What Remus would have given to just sleep away the rest of the lead up to the full moon in two days’ time. Instead, he had to be a parent to an orphaned toddler and a partner to a traumatized young man. Days like this made him wonder just how the hell he was supposed to manage it all.
Harry calmed down on his own before the storm let up and clambered up onto the bed to snuggle. Remus just put his free arm around the little boy and whispered to them both that he loved them. Sirius didn’t seem to notice his godson’s presence at all and the toddler had fallen asleep by the time he came back to himself.
“Moony? You awake?” he whispered some time after the sunlight had started filtering back through the curtains.
“Unfortunately,” Remus responded, cracking his eyes open to peer at Sirius. A fluffy head of black hair lifted from his chest to peer back at him.
“Sorry.”
Remus gave him a tiny smile through the pain. “Don’t be.”
“I interrupted your nap when I should have been dealing with Prongslet…” Sirius reached a hand over to touch the little boy that was fast asleep beside him.
“Cariad, I get it. It’s okay,” Remus answered. It was the first thunderstorm they’d weathered since Sirius had come home and he honestly wasn’t surprised with how Sirius had reacted. Harry had followed him into the room when Sirius rushed in in a panic and had picked up his discarded wand when it dropped on the floor. Remus had noticed it almost immediately and summoned it out of the toddler’s grasp, much to the boy’s displeasure, thus starting the tantrum as Sirius scrambled under the blankets. Other than the addition of their godson, it was how he’d always reacted to thunderstorms, even in their days as students at Hogwarts. Though before seventh year, he’d ended up hiding away from them all rather than actively seeking out comfort. Remus had only learned why some time after they’d left school and it still to this day made his blood boil.
Sirius remained quiet for a while before he looked up at Remus again. “Want me to go?” His voice sounded defeated and Remus just hugged him tighter in response. A faint smile graced his lips before he rested his head again on Remus’s chest. Remus closed his eyes and willed sleep to take him back.
When he awoke, the clock on the nightstand indicated it had been a few hours. Remus was alone in the bedroom and the door was shut once more. He gave serious consideration to trying to go back to sleep again but the thought of leaving Sirius on his own any longer forced him out of bed despite his protesting body. He was grateful for the reprieve he’d gotten from the lunar pull, interrupted as it was, and knew he needed to check on his partner.
“Moony!” Sirius greeted cheerfully when he limped into the kitchen. He turned from what appeared to be a small cauldron on the counter and grinned as Remus sank into one of the dining chairs at the table in the corner. “Want some tea?”
“Please?” Remus responded, resting his head in his hands with his elbows upon the table. A tiny patter of feet approached and then little fingers tugged at his pajama pants. Remus smiled down at Harry and shifted to pull him into his lap. “Sut wyt ti, pwt?”
“Hapus,” the little boy answered, putting his arms around Remus’s chest and cuddling him. Remus cuddled him as he looked up and asked, “Sut wyt ti?”
“Wedi blino.” Harry patted his arm and cuddled him again.
“What are you two going on about in secret?” Sirius asked as he brought a steaming cup of tea to the table for Remus. He winked at the two of them as he sat down across from them.
“Harry’s happy. I’m tired. Nothing secret about it,” Remus replied, smirking at him and curling one hand around the mug. It was warm and though likely too hot to drink still, just holding it did wonders to make him feel better.
“One day, you need to teach me Welsh. Then you lot won’t be able to keep secrets.”
Remus rolled his eyes while Harry giggled. “Maybe next week we can go to the library and get you some books or something,” he suggested. “Been meaning to take Harry anyway.”
Something akin to fear came across Sirius's eyes before he hid it behind a smile. "Yeah, maybe."
"We can take the train or bus," Remus told him, guessing at what was bothering Sirius. He didn't like being in the car for how enclosed it was, something they'd discovered quite by accident a few months ago. The smile relaxed and Sirius nodded.
Across the room, the cauldron started smoking faintly. Sirius was immediately out of his seat and tending to it, leaving Remus wondering just what exactly he was doing. He watched as Sirius adjusted the heat and stirred first one way and then another, adding something else in that Remus couldn't identify from where he sat. He'd never been good with potions but he'd always enjoyed watching Sirius work, having a right laugh whenever he was shooed away with accusations of messing things up when all he'd been doing was investigating. As if Sirius could tell he was being watched, he glanced briefly over his shoulder before putting his attention back on the cauldron.
"It's a pain relief potion. Like the ones I used to make for you. I know the regular strength ones never do shit for you this close to the full moon," he explained.
Remus couldn't help but smile. This was the Sirius he'd fallen in love with. This was the young man who'd become a healer for him. This was the amazing wizard who wanted to do good in the world and make a difference when his own family supported Pureblood Supremacists and had disowned him as a teenager. This was the real Sirius beneath all of the fear and trauma that so often took over his daily life.
"Thank you," Remus told him softly. He was rewarded with a bright smile over Sirius's shoulder. He loved seeing Sirius smile.
Harry slid down out of Remus's lap to go and play once he'd had enough cuddles. Remus watched as he wandered out of the room and was about to follow him when Bonnie meowed and chased the giggling toddler back into the room. The cat hopped up onto the table, her eyes on Harry as he sat down in the middle of the floor to play with a box of blocks he'd retrieved from somewhere out of the room. Remus reached over to pet her and she trilled at him while still watching the little boy. Every time Harry left the room, Bonnie followed him and ushered him back. It was kind of funny that she'd taken it upon herself to babysit him and keep him close to Sirius and Remus. Harry just giggled and allowed it.
Once Sirius was done with the potion, he'd bottled it and given some to Remus, which did wonders in comparison to the remedies he otherwise relied upon. They'd then spent the rest of the afternoon playing with Harry and Bonnie, moving into the living room for sake of comfier seating. At some point, Remus had fallen asleep on the sofa and Sirius had already put Harry to bed by the time he woke up again. It was well after dark when they were joined by his tad, which, in hindsight, really should have caused some alarm when he didn't come home from work at the Ministry on time.
"I didn't mean to worry you," Lyall said in lieu of greeting them as he came in the front door.
Remus just looked at him and called, "Croeso."
Lyall ran his fingers through Remus's hair as he walked past him into the kitchen, drawing a tired smile from his son. When he came back with a cup of coffee in hand, he sank into the armchair he always favored and pulled a roll of parchment from his robes. "I meant to send an owl to let you know I had picked up some extra hours to work on a case."
"We were alright," Sirius told him. "I might have made a bit of a mess in the kitchen while you were gone, though." He grinned at Lyall when the older man rolled his eyes at him. Their relationship had grown into comfortable trust in the months since Sirius had suddenly entered their lives again. Remus was truly amazed at just how well his family had settled with everything going on. Things had been blessedly quiet since November.
"So long as you clean it up," Lyall told him before leaning across to hand Remus the rolled parchment. "Raywood in Beast Division gave that to me right as I was leaving."
Remus raised his eyebrows at his tad as he took it and shook it open with one hand. Lyall worked in Spirit Division in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. Remus had always had a rather strained relationship with that particular department, particularly with Beast Division. He'd been registered with the department as a werewolf since he was a child, an unfortunate consequence of having needed emergency medical attention to save his life when he'd been bitten. Nothing they ever had to say was good, in his experience, and most of it he completely ignored since it was bigoted and inaccurate more often than not.
NOTICE OF NEW POTION TRIAL PERIOD
The Office of Potions Registration within the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Spells, Rituals and Recipes is pleased to announce a new trial period for a medicinal potion prior to its release to the general public.
Invented by Damocles Belby and so dubbed the Wolfsbane Potion, this trial is targeted at individuals suffering with lycanthropy. The potion claims to ease the ill effects of the condition and will allow those who take it according to exacting instructions to no longer be a danger to themselves or those around them when they transform into beasts.
To apply for participation in the trial, please report in person to the Werewolf Registry within the Beast Division of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. Participants will be required to present themselves for regular examination and observation at Saint Mungo’s Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries throughout the trial process. More information will be provided upon successful registration.
The deadline for application is 25 March. The trial will begin 11 April and continue for six months.
Sirius took the parchment from Remus’s hand when Remus gave no response upon reading it. This was a lot to take in and Remus didn’t know what to make of it. He had plenty of reservations about dealing with the Ministry and if he was to do anything about this, he’d be entirely at their mercy. There were risks involved with that. A lot of them. But at the same time, the potential benefits were astronomical.
“This is big,” Sirius commented beside him after a moment.
“Very much so,” Lyall agreed.
Remus still said nothing.
Sirius leaned closer and nudged his shoulder against Remus’s. It got his attention and he turned to look at the man beside him. Instead of the smile he expected, Sirius had a calm, solemn look about him. He took Remus’s hand before he spoke.
“This is the sort of thing we only dreamed of as kids. But I know it’s a lot. You can try to join this trial or wait and see what comes of it afterwards. That decision is yours and yours alone to make, though,” he told him. Then came the smile as Sirius kissed his cheek. “I’ll be with you every step of the way, no matter what you decide.”
Remus smiled faintly in response and nodded. He couldn’t make a rash decision about this. Too much was riding on it to just jump right in or outright dismiss it. The pack, for one, needed to know about this before he made any decisions and he highly doubted the Ministry was making any sort of effort to actually distribute the invitation. He’d have received it via Owl Post if they were rather than his tad handing it to him because a coworker had sheepishly passed it along.
“We can talk to the others tomorrow. See what they say,” Remus finally answered. Both Lyall and Sirius agreed that was a good idea and left the conversation at that. With how tired he was for the impending moon, Remus called it an early night and retired to bed. Sirius followed him shortly and snuggled in close. His dreams that night were torn between the imaginings of a better place in the world for werewolves and the potential horrors of what an experimental potion would do to him.