Him and I

chapter 20

james parks the car in the driveway of an old looking cottage house. it was beautiful but at this point remus could hardly see through his hazy eyes. sirius quickly gets out of the car, taking remus' arm over his shoulder to help him inside. james rushes to the other side of remus as lily knocks the door.

fleamont answers the door, his smile dropping as soon as he laid eyes on the worried faces of sirius and james.

"is mum there?" james blurts out as lily stands aside.

fleamont quickly opens the door yelling "euphemia! come quick!"

james and sirius rush to help remus inside, fleamont's eyes going wide as he caught a glimpse of remus' back.

footsteps came quickly down the stairs and euphemia rushes over to them.

"oh my boys-" she says before catching glimpse of remus. his eyes were slowly shutting as sirius and james helped to hold up his body weight. "what on earth happened-"

"please- please help him" sirius said quickly, his voice full of worry.

euphemia put a hand on sirius' cheek as a glossy tear fell down it and then urged them to follow her upstairs to sirius' room.

sirius and james rush up the stairs, carrying remus as they do. they enter sirius' room and hurry to lay remus down, as fleamont takes lily and peter to the kitchen to sit down. she begins gathering all the equipment she would need to help heal remus, before turning back round to face james and sirius. sirius doesnt stay standing for long, however. within seconds, sirius is knelt down besides remus, pushing some hair from his face and looking at him as remus' eyes fluttered open and closed.

"what happened to the poor boy?" euphemia asks, mostly aiming the question to james who was paying more attention.

"im not all that sure- we'd arrived there too late for us to tell what caused it but we know his father is responsible for this" james blurts out as he sees remus' eyes  stop opening.

beneath them, at remus' side, sirius was whispering things like "im here love stay awake for me. i promise i wont leave you" ; "no, no moony keep your eyes open love" and "it's okay. mum's going to help you, just please stay awake" only loud enough for remus to hear.

euphemia sets her equipment down, as she moves sirius to stand.

"you two go join your father in the kitchen-"

"but i can't leave him- i promised i wouldn't leave" sirius says, his eyes focused on remus the entire time.

euphemia plants a little kiss to sirius' forehead.

"he'll be okay dear. go sit in the kitchen with your father" she tells him again as james holds an arm around sirius' shoulder.

he helps sirius back down the stairs and out to the kitchen, keeping his arm around him the whole time. james shuts the kitchen door, and helps sirius to, who seemed to be lost in thought, to sit.

lily automatically looks up at james, who walks over to where she was sat, opposite from his father.

"is rem okay?" she asks with a concerned voice, but relaxes almost immediately when james presses a small kiss to her head.

"mum's got him now. he'll be just fine. he lost a lot of blood and the shock probably didn't help, but i think he'll be okay lils" james says to her with a smile as he sees fleamont smile at her too.

he looks over at sirius. he knew he was upset, but also knew it was a smart idea to give sirius some time to breathe before giving him the comfort he needed.

------

some time went by. they all sat in silence. james stood with his arm around lily, who was sat in a seat next to peter. peter was sat with his head in his hands, next to sirius who was staring right at his feet and fleamont was sat opposite james and lily, watching sirius.

fleamont lets out a small huff as he sighs and moves seats to sit next to sirius. he puts a hand on his back and gently rubs circles on it.

"sirius?" fleamont says, causing sirius to look up and clear his throat.

"sorry did i zone out-"

"he's gonna be okay son. he'll be okay"

sirius looks down at his feet. the truth was, fleamont and euphemia didn't actually know that sirius was into guys. most of the worry right now was obviously about whether remus was going to be okay. he'd looked so pale, almost as if he'd been on the edge between life and death, and had lost so much blood on the journey that they weren't able to save. however, most of the worry was also from the fact that sirius hadn't told his parents.

his past family would've never agreed with the fact that he liked guys and he was worried that his parents now would disagreed too.

"you're in love" fleamont says after a moment of silence.

sirius looks up quickly and tries as quick as possible to find the words to defend himself, but is interrupted by a chuckle.

"you think we didn't know?" fleamont says with a big grin on his face. he gently nudges sirius a few times playfully and sirius looks to him confused.

"but- how?"

"we overheard you when you came out to james, son." fleamont smiles and then pauses before speaking up again "liking someone of the same gender is never something you should be afraid to be open about. sirius, you can't help loving who you love and as long as this remus boy makes you happy that's all we'd ever want from you"

sirius looks at him and a smile grows on his face as he hugs his father tightly.

"thank you." he whispers before letting go.

fleamont pauses before laughing again, looking back and forth between james and sirius.

"i didn't think you boys had it in you! i thought you'd both give up on love and die alone in a house together, but it looks like one trip really changed both of your dating lives. sirius got himself a boyfriend and james got himself a girlfriend!" fleamont says, voice full of excitement.

sirius bursts out laughing as soon as he saw how red both james and lily had gone.

james clears his throat.

"we're not-"

"yeah- we're not-" lily says as she looks around awkwardly.

there was an awkward silence, soon broken by euphemia, who was walking towards the kitchen.

everyone's heads dart to look up at her. she looks around at them all, her facial expression slowly dropping to a frown. she lets out a sad sigh and looks up to meet sirius' eyes.

"im so sorry..."

no. it couldn't be. sirius thought to himself as a tear slowly ran down his cheek.
he was gone.