Demus Oneshots

Candlelight

Remus sighed as he closed the door behind him. His father's parties were always so loud and... bright. It was really just awful.

A cool breeze moved through the gardens, pushing Remus' fringe away from his forehead and making it look as if the trees were living, breathing things. Remus took a deep breath. It was a welcome change after the stuffiness of the ballroom.

Remus sat down on the banister, swinging his legs over the balcony to dangle over the bushes below. The paths all the way through the gardens were lined with flickering candles. Some poor sod must've spent all day on that. All for just a simple fire-hazard.

"I should get back." Remus thought. He leaned his head on his shoulder. It was a cloudy night and the moon was a hidden haze. Really, it was beautiful in its own odd, spooky way.

Voices passed the door and Remus jumped down, landing in the bushes like a cat.

"I should but I'm not going to." He decided. "Let Ro have his fun." Remus would never understand how his younger brother could be so social.

Remus made to walk through the gardens but as he tried, his coat snagged on something, pulling him back. On closer inspection, he realised his descent into the bushes had caught his coat up in the twigs. Quiet nastily, too.

It would take him forever to untangle his coat and by then, they'd probably realise he was missing. So, Remus left it behind.

Remus brushed his waistcoat down and rolled up his shirt sleeves. He'd had this waistcoat specially tailored, he wasn't about to let it get covered in soil.

He pushed his mask up his face - it kept slipping down slightly - and set off down a path.

"I should take more walks at night." He thought. Night seemed to add something strange to the already very strange feeling of living in a castle. Remus clasped his hands behind his back, absently feeling across the scars on his hand.

Odd to think that only two years ago, he'd never had been able to work in the castle, let alone live in it.

"I have no joy in this meeting tonight." Remus paused at the mutter that seemed to be coming out of the bushes themselves. "It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden, too like the lightning."

He knew that voice. Why did he know that voice?

Remus peaked through the bushes. Someone was sitting on a bench, reading a book. A smile played across their face. They looked up and met Remus' gaze.

Janus.

"Your Highness." The tutor inclined his head slightly and looked back at what he was reading. "Aren't you meant to be up at the feast? I heard there'll be dancing."

Remus felt himself flush slightly. He was horrible at dancing and Janus damn knew it.

"Let Ro have his fun." Remus said with a shrug. "What're you reading?"

"Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet." Janus said, with a slight smile and laugh. He patted the bench beside him. "Sit, since you won't be going back."

Remus barely hesitated before sitting down.

"Where's your coat?" Janus asked. Remus shrugged.

"Got tangled in bushes." He said candidly. Janus laughed and shook his head.

"Probably for the best. Parisian green can kill. Still," Janus undid the clasp of his cape, "you could get cold. Here." Carefully, he slipped the cape around Remus' shoulders.

Remus stared at Janus, who'd already looked away. Sure, he knew he had a crush on the (really damn handsome) tutor but nothing like this. He'd thought it was just something like puppy love, something silly like that!