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Seconds


Sirius was laying across the couch in the Lupin living room, his head hanging over the side of it, staring at the black ink etched into the skin of his arm.

Remus, worried about the effect of having Snuffles among two werewolves in such a small space as the bomb shelter (where there was no hope of Snuffles running away or hiding if he had to) had frightened him too much to allow Sirius to come along for the full moon night and the result was Sirius was worried. Worried for Remus, worried for James…

The fireplace flickered green as somebody arrived via floo - and Sirius sat up, drawing his wand, his eyes narrowing. From the smoldering ashes emerged a shape - and out tumbled James Potter. Sirius hurried to pull down his shirt sleeve - he wanted Remus to be the first to see his tattoo, so he held the left cuff of his jumper in his fingers, concealing it and stared as James dusted himself off.

“SIRIUS!” James yelled, before he’d put his glasses back on, “SIRIUS -- YOU’LL NEVER BELIEVE IT!”

“I’m right here, you daft bat,” Sirius said languidly from the couch.

James shoved his glasses up his nose and hurried over, sitting upon the coffee table before Sirius, “My dad’s healed,” he said in a rushed voice, excitement throbbing through the tone.

“What?”

“My dad’s been healed. The dragon fire is gone from his lungs. He still has the scales, but they’re not coming as fast as they were and the healer said the rate they’re growing at, he could be able to go a week before needing to be scraped.”

Sirius blinked in shock, “What? But just this morning -- positively covered -- within minutes!”

“I know,” James breathed, his hands shaking, “Sirius, I know. But that’s what’s happened and the healer is fucking baffled.”

Sirius stared, stunned. “How - I mean -- what --?”

“They don’t know,” James said. He paused, staring at Sirius for a long moment, hesitating slightly, then -- “I think I might I know, though, Sirius. But you can’t tell anybody.”

Sirius sat forward, crossing his legs underneath him, James’s conspiratorial tone sending a bit of excitement through his veins. “What’re you on about Prongs?”

James leaned forward. “I had a dream the other night.”

“A dream?” Sirius looked slightly less excited now.

“Yes. Don’t look at me like that. I’m not mental!” James scolded him. James took a deep breath, “It started nearly exactly like what really happened - we were in his room and he started coughing and I was telling him to breathe and all and there was loads of smoke… in life, that’s when the Healers came, but in the dream, I - I ran for the door and there was Mopsus.”

Sirius’s eyes went from skeptical to dark and angry. “Fuck Mopsus.”

“Yeah, well. I think Mopsus saved my Dad,” James said.

Sirius stared at him.

“See, I’ve been having these dreams, ever since I went back in t---” James stopped mid-sentence.

Sirius raised his eyebrows. “Ever since you went back in--- in what?”

James said, “I keep dreaming about Mopsus, Sirius, and he keeps telling me he can help my dad but it’ll cost me. He says it’ll cost me seconds. And I kept on waking up before I could answer him until last night. Last night, when I dreamed about my dad dying like that, I ran to him and begged him to take my seconds and fix my dad. And today -- today it really happens except instead of dying, my dad lived. My dad was healed.”

Sirius wasn’t sure how to respond to this so he shifted his weight uneasily and he said, “Surely it was just a dream, though.”

“Dunno,” James said, “Last time Mopsus was about, he spoke to me in dreams, too. Remember? When he called Peter?”

Sirius swallowed nervously. “But… I mean… James, he’s dead.”

“But he stole time, remember? Like Dumbledore told you and Rey about, with the clock and how Lyall Lupin was bound to the clock? What if --” James paused and then something terrifying occurred to him and he sort of paled as he spoke, “What if Lyall Lupin had bartered precious seconds, too? What if he got something that he asked for because he bartered seconds like I’ve done? What if Mopsus does see all and he does have the power to fix things and heal people and that’s how Mopsus has got all that time to stay alive all these years?” His voice rose with each what if he said.

Sirius’s stared at James. “That’s insane.” But even as he said it, he could see it falling into place. Then, “What would Lyall Lupin have bartered for?”

James said, “What about that time Remus almost died after the full moon in second year? And he ended up only having some new scars and a bum knee?”

Sirius said, “But Mopsus’s only been around since our fourth year.”

“For us. He had a shop in Diagon Alley before, though, didn’t he?” James said. “What if he sold clocks and miracles?”

Sirius felt sick. “Well - well… Shit. Prongs, if that’s true then what the fuck have you done?”

James shivered, “Dunno.” Then, “But dad is okay and that’s what matters. He’s better. And honestly, I’ll fucking deal with Mopsus any time rather than lose dad. I can’t imagine my life without him and it would have been so wrong - if he’d died the way he would’ve done today if it hadn’t been for this miracle. Mum wasn’t even there when it happened - you weren’t there - and --” James shook his head, “Let Mopsus do what he wishes with me. I want my loved ones alive more than I want some stupid seconds. What am I going to do with seconds? In the scheme of things, what’s it really matter?”

Sirius shook his head. “I guess not a lot, but… James, bloody hell.”

“I know.” James ran his hand through his hair nervously. “I know. Bloody hell is right.”

Sirius leaned back into the cushions and he rubbed his eyes with his fists.

James stared at his knees for a long moment, then, “Sirius. Dad’s going to be okay.”

Sirius smiled. “Thank Merlin.”

“Thank Mopsus,” James laughed.

Sirius laughed, too, tentatively.




The next morning, Sirius was still asleep, having been up half the night worrying and talking to James well into the wee hours about Mopsus and all the theories they could come up with about Lyall Lupin and what good seconds could be. He was face down in the pillow on Remus’s old bed, the blanket pulled up over his head, sleeping soundly, when the mattress shifted and lips pressed to his ear. “Sirius Black,” came a low voice in his ear. “Wake up.”

Sirius groaned.

Remus leaned over Sirius, pushing his hair off the nape of his neck and kissing the warm skin at the top of his spine, running his palms over the tank-top Sirius had fallen asleep in, over Sirius’s shoulders and along his arms, over his elbows… beneath the pillow to his wrists.

“Ow! Bloody hell!” Sirius woke with a start at the touch on his still sensitive wrist, where the fresh tattoo was. He yanked his arm back into himself and the flash of it going from beneath the pillow to his chest was enough for Remus’s eyes to catch the black ink on Sirius’s skin.

“What’s that?” he asked, grabbing for Sirius’s arm.

“Moony? What’re you doing back to human form so early?”

“Early? It’s nearly noon.” Remus tugged Sirius’s arm out and stared at his wrist, at the black ink that lay across his skin. “What’ve you done?”

Sirius rolled over, letting Remus keep hold of his wrist, but so that he was sitting up before him and they were both staring down at Sirius’s left forearm. “I’ve gotten a tattoo,” Sirius replied. “Do you like it?”

Remus stared. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

“It’s my moon calendar,” he said.

“Yes,” Sirius nodded.

The silhouettes of trees came up in a band around Sirius’s wrist, extending over the veins that showed through his pale skin and all the way around, a forest just as Remus had drawn it, and through a gap in the trees was a circle - a silver-white moon with detailed craters and above it, in the span of skin-colored sky that the moon hung in, was the Canis Major constellation, the star Sirius hanging with his Moon.

“It’s a wizarding tattoo,” Sirius said, “So it will move with the moon cycle. The moon changes every night. Just like your moon calendar.”

Tears filled Remus’s eyes, “Why would you get that? Are you mad?”

“I love it, Rey,” Sirius said, “Look. It’s us. There’s the moon that changes... and here’s me, your Star.” He pointed just above the base of his wrist, where he’d cut out a small silhouette of a wolf from the page, where the black ink had left a wolf-shaped hole in the forest. “And there’s you. My Wolf.”

Remus wiped his eyes, “Sirius.”

“Are you angry with me?” he asked.

“No.”

“Are you sure?”

Remus pulled his arm closer, inspecting it, biting his lips, “I can’t believe you did this.”

“I wanted to cover those old scars,” Sirius explained. “Dorcas thought it would be very good for my healing. And I wanted to make it something meaningful to me, like her morning glories were. And… Remus, I love you. I love your wolfish you and your you-you. You’re my Moony and… this made me think of you and it’s cool, it moves. I can always have you with me. Even when you aren’t with me, now you are. And… and it’s sort of like a watch. I can keep track how close the full moon is, you know? And.. and I know when you need me.”

Remus threw himself forward, wrapping his arms around Sirius.