Harry Potter and the New Bloom (A Marauders AU)

Meddling

Remus was hunkered over the desk in the room they had made into a study in the flat in East London, reading student papers from the class he taught at the college. Currently, he was wading through several pages on the simple genius of the brush strokes used by Van Gogh in Starry Night - a diatribe written with flourished prose but little technical vocabulary so that he got the impression the student was better perhaps at writing than they were at explaining the artistic form used in the painting. Pad the answer and they'll forget you never answered - advice he'd once read and used frequently when doing the lads' homework back in their Hogwarts days.

Sirius hovered in the doorway.

Remus held up a hand, signifying one moment, finishing up the sentence, circling an incorrect use of a term with a red quill, and turned to Sirius, removing his reading glasses and letting them rest against his chest from a chain that hung about his neck. He wore a nice cashmere cardigan with patches on the elbows in a delicious butter-yellow color that made his chocolate eyes really stand out. He looked like he could be a hundred years old and seated in an ornate old Russell Group university library rather than a mere 31 year old in a home office in a flat over a pub.

Sirius smiled.

"These kids are going to actually be the death of me," Remus murmured, shaking his head and running his hand through his thinning curls. He sighed and leaned back into the chair he was perched upon.

"Not the little geniuses that you were at their age?" Sirius teased.

Remus said, "I'm not asking for genius, but some competence would be nice."

"You're feisty tonight," Sirius laughed.

Remus sighed, "I'm just so ready for this term to be ended. I've got so much I need to do. And then this bloody model quitting on me. Now I have to go through all these headshots and try to find somebody short notice to take his place."

Sirius reached over and grabbed the envelope of headshots, opening it up and pulling out the glossy photos. He leafed through them, grinning. "Yes because looking at all these good looking men is such a torture. Oh bleeding hell. Please hire this one." He held up a particular headshot in which a blonde haird adonis stared back with bright blue eyes that seemed to come off the page.

"Give me that," Remus said. He took the envelope and the headshots from Sirius, though he did pause to look at the adonis. He stared and tilted his head.

"Right?" Sirius said.

Remus drew a deep breath, then shook his head and pushed the shots back into the envelope. "Unfortunately I need somenoe with some more interesting features."

"More interesting features than that guy?" Sirius said, gesturing at the envelope.

"He's too perfect."

"And?"

"And the model I need has to have some distinguishing features, something that's a challenge to draw. Perfectly metered beauty is not a challenge - it's not realistic, anyway." He threw the envelope of headshots onto the table. "It's portraits class not an anatomical figures class. It's all about the face." Remus waved his palm at his face.

"That's why they can't do your face, isn't it, Moony? Because it's too perfect?" Sirius slid to his knees beside Remus's chair, grinning up at his husband.

"God help me it crossed my mind to have them do it," Remus sighed, "The scars would be interesting and a challenge at least but I don't know if I can handle the idea of them all staring at me and then be objective on their grades for it."

"You'll figure something out."

"Before Monday?"

"Sure. It's only Thursday."