fatal love

chapter 107

A few days after Remus' birthday, he had started wearing a new watch. It had been in the parcel his parents had sent to him, apparently, and used to be his father's, but he had given it to Remus for his seventeenth.

Sirius was starting to get a little worried about him. On the surface, Remus was acting fine, but he wasn't sleeping well, and was walking around with bags under his eyes. When Sirius snuck into his bed at night, he didn't want to mess around or talk, and he was tuning out of conversations and lessons all the time.

Sirius was sure he knew what it was about as well. It was that bloody registry. He didn't know what Remus had decided to do, or if he'd even decided anything yet, and didn't know how to ask him about it.

Eventually, though, he had to bite the bullet and just do it. He waited until the weekend after Remus' birthday, and then subtly suggested to James that he should go and see if Evans wanted to hang out. It barely took a nudge for James to be barrelling out of the dorm in all of the eagerness he always reserved for the girl, and then Sirius sent Peter to go and do his homework somewhere else. Maybe he was a bit shorter with the boy than he should have been, but he figured he'd make it up to him later. Right now, Moony was his priority.

And right now, Moony was still in bed, despite it being past midday. With the dorm finally empty, Sirius opened the bed curtains cautiously. Remus groaned as the light flooded in, rolling over and burying his face in the pillow.

"You've missed lunch," Sirius said.

"Don't care," Remus grunted. "Tired."

Sirius sighed, and yanked the pillow out from under Remus' head.

"Oi!" Remus snapped. "What the fuck?"

"You aren't tired," Sirius said firmly, "you're moody about the registry."

Remus glared at him, saying nothing.

"Moping won't help anything."

"It's you who mopes," Remus muttered.

"Yeah, but then I talk to someone. You have to do that too." Sirius sat down opposite Remus. "Did you sign it?"

"... No." Remus huffed, but reached under his bed, retrieving an envelope that had already been torn open. "Dad sent me the form to sign, on my birthday," he said quietly. "I knew what it would be, that's why I didn't open it."

"That's a shitty birthday present."

"Yup."

"You could just throw it away," Sirius suggested lightly.

"I know." Remus held onto it tighter.

"You could tell him you signed it even if you didn't."

Remus shook his head. "He'd check. He works for the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, he could check in five minutes."

"So then you sign it."

"... I don't want to," Remus said, looking at Sirius helplessly.

Sirius gave him a sad smile. "Then that's your answer," he said gently.

"I don't want to let him down either, though."

"Would it be so important to him?" Sirius asked.

"Yeah," Remus said emphatically. "And... and it's like, what was the point of the last twelve years, showing him I was still a good person, not just a werewolf, if not signing it will undo all of that?"

"He's your dad, Moony. He'll still love you whatever you choose."

Remus snorted sarcastically. "Oh yeah? If I go home and tell him I have a boyfriend and I'm an unregistered werewolf, he'd just be okay with that?"