The Good, The Bad and The Marauders
Chapter 11: Pack Bonds
A/N: No prompt for this one, I just really wanted some Happy Remus, even if there isn't a whole lot of it here.
xXx
Hermione woke the next morning feeling warm and calm. She was lying in the middle of the bed, no longer in her animagus form but she could still feel Sirius wrapped around her. She sighed contentedly, smiling to herself. She snuggled down into the nest of blankets Sirius had built up around them. She couldn't remember ever feeling so comfortable.
The comfort was interrupted by a pecking at the window and she chuckled as Sirius grumbled and groaned behind her, tightening his arms around her as she tried to wiggle away. The pecking only grew more persistent as Sirius refused to let her go.
"Sirius." Hermione laughed as he buried his face in the back of her neck.
"Noooo." he whined.
"I have to let the owl in." she told him finally breaking free. He made grabby hands at her and she stepped out of his reach and toward the window. She pulled open the window and the little brown owl flew in, perching on the edge of her desk. She walked toward him and offered him a treat then took the letter from his leg and watched as he took off again.
"Who's it from?" Sirius asked sleepily, pulling himself up against the headboard.
"Lily." she said as she returned to the bed. She sat down beside him, leaning into his side as she opened the letter. She read through it smiling. "She did it!" Hermione exclaimed.
"She became animagus?" Sirius asked looking over her shoulder to read the letter himself. "Does it say what her animagus is?"
"Um…" Hermione hummed scanning the letter. "It looks like she's… a doe." she said.
Sirius snorted. "You're kidding right?" he asked. Hermione looked up confused.
"What's wrong with a deer?" she asked.
"Nothing." he replied quickly with a grin. Hermione still looked suspicious.
"What aren't you telling me?" she sat up, turning around to face him. His grin widened.
"You know how we call James 'Prongs'?" he asked. She nodded. "Well, all our Marauders nicknames come from our Animagus forms. That way we can talk about them without anyone knowing."
"Right, which is why they call you Padfoot." she replied. "And Remus is Mooney, because none of you are as clever as you think you are." she continued. Sirius pouted. "But why is James…" Hermione trailed off as she began to think and Sirius watched amused at the exact moment it struck her.
"There it is." he muttered as the proverbial light bulb switched on.
"Merlin, he's a stag isn't he?" she looked up at him wide eyed. He nodded.
"Yes Ma'am." he replied cheekily.
"Oh that's perfect." she continued a little grin slowly forming on her lips. "Lily's going to freak. She's already fighting…" she stopped immediately, looking back up at Sirius again. Sirius looked highly intrigued by what she had almost said.
"Fighting what, kitten?" he asked in that smooth way he did when he was ready to dig in for the long haul. Hermione knew him well enough to know that that tone meant she was screwed. She didn't have a hope in hell of getting him to let it go. Unless of course…
"You can make those sexy bedroom eyes all you want, Hermione Granger. It won't distract me. What is Lily fighting?" he told her smugly.
Hermione leaned closer running a hand up his bare chest, her eyes lidded, a sultry smile on her face. "Are you sure?"
She watched as Sirius took a deep steadying breath, sure in her victory. That is until he gently lifted her hand from his chest, bringing it to his lips. He laid a kiss on her fingers before intertwining them with his own.
"Positive." he finally replied. "But I love this whole sex kitten thing you've got going. It's really working for me."
"Obviously not enough." she sighed, sitting back beside him against the headboard. "You can't say anything okay, she trusted me with this."
"Promise." he replied making a show of crossing his heart with their joined fingers.
"She's starting to realize that she may have a little crush on James. Nothing major and he always seems to make her forget about it when he's goofing off, but whenever he's being particularly thoughtful… and quiet," she added. "She remembers that he's not so bad."
"Yeah, that actually makes a lot of sense. Dorea has been on him about being more humble. He's trying."
"Well, she's noticing, she's just not quite there yet." Hermione replied. "Anyway." she continued picking up the letter again. "It looks like the girls are ready so if you want to owl James and Peter and let them know the plan, maybe we can meet up."
"Yeah, we can meet after the next full moon. Remus will be bedridden all day afterward so we won't have to worry about him thinking we're leaving him out of something." Sirius suggested.
"That's perfect. The next full moon is this coming Wednesday. My parents will still be out of town. We can have them come over and spend the night. Work out all the details."
"Excellent." he said, leaning over to peck her on the head before getting up. "I'll owl Peter and James now. May I?" he asked gesturing to her desk.
"Help yourself."
xXx
"Have I ever told you how much I love muggle fashion?" Sirius said as he approached Hermione, laying back on one of the pool chair, legs stretched out and sunglasses over her eyes. She wore a little red and white pokedot bikini. Hermione turned her head to look at him and smirked.
"What, they don't have bikinis in the wizarding world?" she asked. Sirius snorted.
"Pureblood women don't wear bathing suits at all. I'm surprised woman in the wizarding world are even allowed to go outside." Sirius joked, taking the seat beside her. He was wearing a bathing suit himself, a pair of bright red swim trunks she'd found in one of the spare bedrooms. He waved a couple of envelopes at her.
"Are those from the boys?" she questioned. Sirius nodded.
"They've both agreed to come back here with me on Thursday morning after we see Remus to bed. I didn't tell them what it was about though, just that you girls were planning something for Remus."
"Perfect." she said leaning over and pecking him on the lips. Sirius grinned, cutting his eyes to the pool.
"Care for a swim?" he asked. Hermione grinned slyly.
"Alright." she replied and without hesitating, Hermione shifted into her animagus form and took a running dive into the deep end.
Sirius smiled ruefully. "Not exactly what I meant." he looked to the water watching as Hermione splashed around. He chuckled, shifting into Padfoot and leaping into the water.
xXx
"Hermione, your house is incredible." James said as Sirius led he and Peter onto the back patio around the pool. Hermione smiled.
"How's he doing?" Tonks asked as the both joined her, Lily and Hermione where they had been sitting since the girls arrived after breakfast.
"Tired." Sirius explained. "But compared to some of the others, it was pretty easy night." he continued.
"So, what did you girls want to talk about?" James asked. Hermione shared a look with Tonks before she replied.
"You're all aware of how much easier Remus' transformations are with all of you around, correct?"
"Yeah," Peter replied. "I think we're considered his pack aren't we?"
Hermione nodded. "Exactly. Well, you see, the girls and I were talking and we think it would be best for Remus if his pack was bigger."
"What do you mean?" James asked.
"To put it bluntly, Potter," Tonks began. "I've been feelin' a little weird around Remus and Hermione's looked into it for me. It turns out, I'm his mate." she finished.
"His mate?" James asked wide eyed.
Lily who had been quietly observing since the conversation began, seemed to notice the panic that crossed Peter's face. "Peter what's wrong?" she asked and all eyes turned on the small boy.
"Nothing." he replied a little too quickly. All he got in reply were incredulous stares.
"Peter, if something's wrong you can talk to us." Sirius told him.
"I know." he answered quietly. "I just…" he hesitated looking around the group. He sighed. "Remus said something about you being his mate to me a few weeks after you got together." he told them.
"So he does know then?" Hermione asked. Peter nodded.
"He was afraid of scaring you away." he told Tonks. "I don't think it matters how many people tell him they love him and accept his for who he is. He spent years thinking he's a monster and no amount of good cheer and jokes about being furry once a month are going to change the way he feels."
"Why didn't he talk to us about this?" James asked clearly hurt by Remus' supposed lack of faith in them.
"Probably because you're always pushing him to do things he's not comfortable doing." Lily cut in. "I understand wanting him to face his fears and step outside his comfort zone, but there's a limit to how much people can with someone who has the kind of self image issues that Remus has."
"I just want him to be happy." James spoke softly.
"We all do, Prongs." Sirius replied patting his best friend on the shoulder. Lily looked a little guilty at having upset James but she shook it off as Tonks spoke up.
"Which is why we're doing this. He needs to know I'm not going anywhere, ever." she said adamantly. He needs to know that we're family."
Nobody replied but there was obvious silent agreement among the group.
"So how do we want to do this?" Peter broke the silence.
"Well, we definitely shouldn't wait until it's closer to the full moon. His emotions will be running high we don't want him to react badly." Lily replied. Hermione nodded.
"Tonks should definitely talk to him first. Let him know that they're on the same page." Hermione began. "Then, Tonks you can send us a signal that you've spoken and we'll all meet up with you two and tell him about the pack idea."
"Sounds perfect. And I think we should do it as soon as possible." Tonks said. "I planned on going to check on him tonight or tomorrow, I can talk to him then and then we can come here if that's okay."
Hermione nodded.
xXx
"How did he take it?" Hermione asked, pulling Tonks out of earshot of the rest of the group.
"At first he was little panic-y but that was my fault, I didn't really start out very well."
"And now?"
"Now, he seems… relieved. Like a weight's off his shoulders." Tonks smiled looking out at Remus where he was sitting in the living room laughing with his closest friends.
"Good. let's see how well he takes the rest of what we have to tell him." she smiled as Tonks laughed.
Two hours later, after they'd all put their two cents in on the issue at hand and Remus had gainfully held back tears. Hermione introduced them to the wonders of home entertainment, setting a movie up on the television before cuddling up to Sirius on one of the recliners.
And as Remus laid there with Tonks at his side, his arms around her and her's around him he looked around the room at his friends, his family, his pack and realized that he'd never imagined his life would turn out like this. He'd believed early on that he would spend his life on the outer fringes, alone and penniless and longing for happiness not usually afforded to people like him. And yet here he was, surrounded by the people he never thought he'd be lucky enough to know.
His only wish in that moment was simply this;
"Please, let me keep them forever."