The Art of Living - R. Black

nine

February 10th, 1996

"How are you and Sirius doing?" I asked.

Remus took a chip from his plate and examined it before setting it back down on his plate.

"We're okay," Remus replied. "Things are tense because of the war, but nowhere near as bad as things were between us fifteen years ago."

During the twelve years that Sirius was in Azkaban, I learned a lot from Remus about what went down between them during the war. This was when we both thought that Sirius was guilty, when the whole world thought he was at fault for the deaths of James and Lily Potter, when I thought he was the other Death Eater that helped kill my family.

"Well, that's a start," I said, taking a bite of my food.

Remus shrugged, "It's difficult, but I guess that's how things have always been between us."

Sirius thought Remus was the spy. Remus was going away from long periods of time during the first war, and couldn't tell anyone where he was going, what he was doing, or when he would be back. So Sirius took this as a sign of betrayal, a sign that Remus was the spy.

They fought a lot.

"Do you still argue all the time like you used to?" I questioned.

Remus shook his head. "Sometimes," He answered, "But not constantly. I don't feel like I'm constantly fighting with him."

"That's good," I said.

When Remus returned from a mission and was told three of his best friends were murdered and the one person he loves most in this world was at fault for it, that's when shit got bad.

"What about you and Regulus?"

I looked up at Remus to see that he had started to eat his food and he was waiting for me to answer him.

"We're good," I replied. "We really only fought about not going on missions together, because of the boys, but I'm just worried about Atlas and Elio."

"How come?" Remus asked.

I shrugged, "I'm scared. That somethings going to happen to them, or that I won't be able to protect them from all of this."

"You can only protect them so much," Remus said. "But it's good to be scared. It means you have something to lose."

"I guess you're right. I can't keep them sheltered forever."

Remus sighed, "Unfortunately not."

We fell into a comfortable silence as we ate the rest of our food. We were out for our weekly lunch at the Leaky Cauldron. The pub was almost empty, probably due to the fact that it's been snowing for the past 72 hours and no one wants to brave the blizzard for a pint and some fish and chips.

Our plates were cleared away, and we were left only with our pints of butterbeer.

"You know, I think Tonks has a thing for you," I stated, slouching back into the booth.

"You think so?" Remus asked, raising an eyebrow.

I nodded, "Yeah, it looks like she's got a bit of a crush."

"Hm, she must not know about me and Sirius then."

"Everyone knows about you and Sirius," I claimed.

Remus sighed, "I guess that's true. She'll have to get in line then."

I stifled a laugh. "She'll be waiting awhile then," I said.

"Eh, I give it six months or so before Sirius and I have a massive fight or he just gets sick and tired of me," Remus joked.