Marauders - Always - Part One

CLXXXV: The Old Silver Lighter

"....You should care enough to WONDER!"

"I DIDN'T WANT TO HURT YOU BY MAKING YOU RELIVE SHIT YOU PUT IN YOUR PAST!"

"YOU HURT ME BY NOT CARING ENOUGH TO ASK!"

Remus pinched the bridge of his nose. Tears threatened his eyes and he looked down at his feet, taking deep breaths, trying to steady himself. "Sirius," he said when he'd leveled off, "You never ask me this sort of stuff either. You don't know where the Pack House is in Iceland because YOU NEVER ASKED. Not in 1980 and not now. You could've known where to find me ages ago. But you were too busy coming up with convoluted theories and calling me the fucking traitor when all the gods-damned time it was --" Remus stopped mid sentence.

Sirius glared.

Remus glared back.

"It wasn't me. It wasn't me, Remus, it wasn't me. I don't know how many ways I can tell that to you, how many ways I can prove it. I didn't fucking betray you. I'D RATHER DIE THAN BETRAY YOU."

"THEN WHY DIDN'T YOU COME TO ICELAND?"

Sirius scowled, "You didn't want me there then... and I don't believe you want me there now. I'm not --"

A firm knock on the door interrupted him.

"Housekeeping!"

Remus stared at Sirius, several long beats passed, and he swore and spun on the spot, grabbing the door and wrenching it open. Outside in the corridor was a short, roundish woman with dark hair and blue eyes that were wide, terrified-looking, holding two pillows on outstretched arms. She looked a bit lost, like she might've stumbled out of one of the other rooms - wearing sweatpants and a T-shirt with a My Little Pony on it that said Made in the 80s on it, she very well could've been in pyjamas for the state of her.

"What do you want?" Remus asked.

Sirius was frozen, petrified, heart racing. For a moment - for a moment he'd been sure that it was going to be the Ministry at the door, there to capture him and drag him away back to Azkaban. He brought his hands up to his chest, knotting his fingers with nervous energy as he stared in disbelief at the woman that had been at the door, at her ridiculous outfit, at her messy ponytail and bewildered expression.

What if she recognized him and reported him to the Aurors?

Sirius stared down her nose at her - daring her to do it. Go on and alert them, he thought bitterly.

She looked dazed up at him and at Remus and her entire body seemed to tremble.

"What do you want?" Remus repeated, more firmly.

Spencer and Storm would have recognized the tone as his Alpha voice.

The girl seemed to snap out of whatever shock-and-awe had frozen her in the first place. "S-sorry, just offering turn down services - for you - for the um - to turn down - your bed," she stammered.

"Now?" Remus glowered at her and looked at his watch, "Do you realize what time it is?"

The nervous woman glanced back over her shoulder. "Sorry it's late," she said, "Yes, but um, I got... caught up... doing other stuff." She stepped inside, then, carrying the pillows, and went over to the second bed - the none not occupied by Spencer Stewart - and started folding back the blankets and patting out the pillows carefully as Remus, Sirius, Spencer, and Storm stared at her.

Remus saw Sirius's face as he stared at her back and then turned to look at him and mouth the words What the actual fuck? to him.

"Thank you!" Remus said, as the girl made to straighten the blanket for the hundred and eleventy-third time. "Thank you very much. I really appreciate your - the service, but we're - a bit in the middle of something and --"