advent day 5

[anotherusedpage]

It does not take him long to realise that he’s come at a bad time. Silver moonlight beats down. Jack is never more aware of it than he is in these moments. The wolf does not howl, not as it used to. It’s placid, drugged, sleepy. Still, Jack is wary entering the room. The wolf sniffs him up and down, and for a moment he’s afraid it will not remember him. Then it curls up again to sleep with its head in his lap.
In the morning, Remus is groggy. Jack makes coffee; the machine is black and grimy, and he misses his own sparkling shiny thirty-first century contraption. Remus has never liked the coffee it makes anyway, so Jack struggles with the mundane one, even though it seems determined to send steaming hot coffee jetting up towards the ceiling. Eventually, Remus notices his difficulty, and with a flick of his wand, cleans up the mess. Two cups of coffee appear on the table. Jack sighs; he’s never really gotten used to that.
‘Don’t even understand why you have the machine if you’re going to do it all the easy way.’
Remus shrugs.
‘It was a present. It’s never worked. It makes the place look homely,’ Remus says apologetically.
‘And coffee-stained,’ Jack says. Remus shakes his head.
‘What have you done with your puppy?’ Jack asks, and immediately regrets it. Remus’ face goes dark. Some things are better left unsaid. Jack does not press it.

*

It does not take him long to realise that he’s come at a bad time. He curses, missing the old days when dropping in on Remus meant lazy days spent on the sofa pretending to find Remus’ love of metaphysical poetry amusing. Today, there is no taste of moonlight in the air, but Remus looks as if the wolf is only just behind the surface of his skin, and metaphysical poetry is a thing of another life time.
‘Rough day?’ Jack asks.
‘Something more than a day,’ Remus says.
Sirius is loved again, and Sirius is dead. That is what Jack gathers, though Remus says little.
Jack cleans up the flat as best as he can manage, and gets the groceries in, because someone has to. It occurs to him that this might have been a good time to come after all.


*

There’s joy in the air, the violent joy of victory hard-won. Jack recognises the expressions all too well. Celebration is needed because this is as good as it’s going to get, and the alternative is despair.
Remus’ eyes dance. He flings his arms around Jack’s neck.
‘It’s good to see you,’ he says. Jack is silent, not wanting to say anything. Not wanting to break the mood of fragile celebration.
‘He’s dead. You know who.’ Jack doesn’t, not exactly, although he can guess. Whoever or whatever it is in this time and in this place that people must fight about, for now, it’s been defeated. He guesses that’s as good a cause for celebration as any other. And he sure as hell could use a drink.
‘Sorry,’ he says to Remus. ‘You’ve caught me at a bad time.’
And Remus sweeps him up, into this brief, bitter reminder of the joy of success. And afterwards, he takes him home to a flat that’s still unchanged after all the years.
Jack almost pulls back. Perhaps it’s not the best time; but it’s been a while, with Remus, and a better opportunity hasn’t presented itself in recent visits.
The wolf lies far beneath the surface.
It’s always a bad time, one way or another, Jack reflects, and all times are bad, in their way.
He makes the best of it.

**

Fandom: Harry Potter
Disclaimer: Everything that doesn't belong to Russel T. belongs to JKR.

Comments

[ex-leighwoos982.livejournal.com]

Figured out who you are today. Sends belated Hugs.

[anotherusedpage.livejournal.com]

*grin* I was vaguely wondering if you knew. You must have done when you first friended me.
How's you, anyway?

[ex-leighwoos982.livejournal.com]

Also, have you read the Abhorsen trilogy?

[anotherusedpage.livejournal.com]

Read the first two, never got round to reading the third one. Ought to really, the first two were pretty.

Are you after making a request?

[vampire-kitten.livejournal.com]

Can I make a request?

[anotherusedpage.livejournal.com]

Request away. Here's the thread. http://anotherusedpage.livejournal.com/125424.html?nc=6

[oxfordgirl.livejournal.com]

Wow. What a lovely piece of worlds-colliding.

[oxfordgirl.livejournal.com]

By which I mean that - the fic in general was fantastic (up to your usual, very high standard), but the thing that really struck me as exceptional - even for you - was the way in which you managed to bring across the deep sense of alienation, of "Not My World", in the relationship between the two characters. It's something that's rarely done well in crossover fic and colliding-worlds / world-hopping sci-fi and fantasy (about the only other person I can think of who does it with any degree of skill is Joel Rosenberg, who's in some ways a remarkable fantasist despite some other failings as a writer).

Five stars :).