Dream away (Remus/Sirius; Rated T; 17,5k words)

Chapter 4

Being an Auror is dangerous. Remus had always known that, and he had accepted it long before he had signed up for the job. Sometimes the dangers came in forms of mind dulling paperwork and non-lethal papercuts, but yes, sometimes there were truly sticky situations. Having a quick wit and even quicker reflexes was necessary to survive to see another day.

Auror training had done a great job preparing him for both the physical and magical dangers of the job (there had even been a class on dealing with paper cuts on April 1st during his second year of training), although Remus sincerely believed that having been in the same year as the 'Marauders' at Hogwarts — with three years out of seven as a prefect! — and surviving the experience should have counted as an automatic Outstanding on 'Bombs and Explosives', 'Officer Survival', and 'Organized Crimes Investigation'.

As well as 'Corruption Within Organization', after Potter had been made Head Boy.

Still, Remus was bitter about one glaring lack in the curriculum: nobody had bothered to teach him even the bare basics of how to cope with unresolved sexual tension between him and his so-sexy-that-it-should-be-illegal partner.

It was a terrible oversight in Remus's opinion. He was certain that he couldn't be the only Auror dealing with this particular problem.

Remus couldn't imagine anything worse than having to be rescued like a bloody damsel in distress, especially when it had to be done by his Auror partner/crush/object of dirty fantasies/pain in the ass, who was probably never going to let him forget about this.

'Probably'. Scratch that.

Who was definitely never going to let him forget about this.

"Remus?" bellowed Black from somewhere outside the dark dungeon cell. "Where are you?"

Remus had always sincerely suspected that Black had cheated his way through 'Stealth and Tracking'.

"I'm here," he shouted, despite how much he wanted to just crawl his way through the stone floor and hide from Black. Unfortunately that wouldn't do, since then Black would likely just run around the Manor like a headless chicken, screaming his way through it until he tripped over some Death Eaters and got caught as well.

Actually that might not have been that bad, thought Remus regretfully. At least then Black wouldn't have all the teasing rights afterwards.

It was too late now, though, because Black had heard him and Remus could hear him muttering unlocking charms behind the door. The door banged open and Black rushed inside, his wand lit and lightening up the room.

"Thank fuck I found-", he started, but stopped short when he saw Remus. His eyes widened almost comically. "-you," he finished in almost a whisper.

"Good to see you, Black. My robe and wand, please," said Remus, with all the dignity that he could muster up under the circumstances, and nodded towards the locked chest in the corner. "And if you could help me out of these ropes, I'd be quite grateful."

"Er. Um. Yes." Black snapped his mouth shut and looked mortified, which did slightly help Remus's mood (at least he wasn't the only one here dying from embarrassment), but Black also wasn't moving to help him, which was not ideal since they were both still inside the Manor full of Death Eaters.

"My robe and wand, please."

Black nodded sharply and, thank Merlin, turned away finally and went to open the chest. After few charms, the chest unlocked with a click, and Black reached inside. He pulled out the robe and frowned as he seemed to be looking closely at Remus's Auror badge.