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Saturday evenings had once meant something different to Sirius Black. They had meant games and drinks and big meals and still bigger laughter. They meant packing an extra set of clothes in case he fell asleep on the sofa in his friends’ home. (They meant always falling asleep on the sofa in his friends’ home.) They had once meant nights wasted and time well spent with the Potters.
It had been several years since the car crash. Sirius still kept his Saturday nights open for Lily and James.
He followed the road down the route he always took to visit them. I could probably walk this way backwards with my eyes shut by now, he mused to himself as he started down the most important lane of his journey.
It was important because of the house on the end. The one with all of the flowers. Sirius figured some old, bored, retired botanist must live there because,on spring days like this one, where there really should have been a front lawn, there was instead a garden. A beautiful topiary filled with every flower imaginable in every color in existence. Lily and James’s graves had hardly ever suffered a week without decor and yet Sirius hadn’t paid a florist in three years. As was his custom he admired the flora as he passed and reached down at some predetermined interval to snatch up a handful of blossoms that had snaked out from under the little fence as casually as possible. He paused only a half of a moment to smell them - perfect, as usual - and he was on his way again.
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“You were quite close that time,” Sirius jumped and nearly dropped his bouquet, startled by the call of a stranger. It had come from the doorway of the Garden House.
He turned, eyes closed, caught somewhere between feigning innocence and admitting guilt. Maybe the owner only saw him steal just this once. “I beg pardon?”
“I’ve meant to make it out here in time to catch you for the last few weeks but I’ve been held up each time. Finally I’ve got you.”
Sirius heaved a breath. Well, faking innocence was certainly out of the question. He opened his eyes with an apology on his tongue, but it was lost. The stranger was not - as Sirius had been imagining - an old, bored, retired botanist (he should not have been quite so surprised, the youthful voice should have been a signal). Instead the young man looked no older or younger than Sirius did. He was quite a bit taller, though. With tawny hair and unconventionally attractive features.
“I’m sorry,” Sirius wasted no time before grovelling. “I never even thought you’d noticed. I just- I’m on my way to see- They’re beautiful flowers.” He stumbled through every word.
The other man just smiled. “Where are you going with them?” He asked. He didn’t seem the slightest bit angry.
“Just down the road.” Sirius confessed vaguely.
“Well I’m coming, too.” The taller man let himself out of his own gate.
“Um wh- Oi! I don’t even-”
“Oh, sorry. I’m Remus,” He held out a hand to Sirius, who shook it somewhat dubiously. After a moment’s careful gaze, he continued, “Is your identity a secret, or are you just very bad at casual conversation?”
“Sirius. I’m Sirius. Like the star,” Sirius shook himself out of his own head. “Look I really am sorry about the flowers. I can reimburse you if you give me a figure.”
Remus shook his head. “I won’t hold a single thing against you on one condition.”
“Yes?” Sirius prompted.
“She’d better be worth it.”
He blinked. “Worth it?”
“Whoever the flowers are for - she had better be worth the trouble. That’s why I’m coming with you now. To make sure she’s beautiful enough to warrant the mass theft of my lilies.”
Sirius was momentarily distracted. “Your what - did you say?”
“My lilies. You almost always go for my lilies.” Remus eyed him strangely.
A sad little knot had curled in Sirius’s stomach. “I hadn’t realized.”
“Lead the way then,” Remus instructed, unperturbed.
“Do I get a say?” Sirius huffed at the command.
“Not at all. This is my price.”
“Well, aren’t you cheap?” Sirius murmured under his breath.
“I heard that. And I’m still coming with. After you,” Remus gestured for him to move.
“Okay, but why?” Sirius asked. He was still holding the- well, the lilies. Should he put them back? He shrugged and started walking. Remus quickly took stride next to him, hands in the pockets of faded denim jeans, lost beneath a green cardigan. Lanky legs had no problem keeping up.
“Curiosity,” Remus said without elaboration. “So tell me about her. Or don’t? Maybe don’t. Maybe it’s better if I make all of my own judgments.”
“Don’t let me stop you,” Sirius granted. “Not sure I could if I wanted to.”
This walk had never seemed so brief. Remus turned out to be very personable. He chatted amiably, asking Sirius questions about himself along the way. Sirius countered each question with one of his own and found that he was actually interested in the answers. Remus lived alone; he was a substitute teacher at a local grammar school; he disliked cats; he had moved to London from Wales a few years prior; he’d kill a priest for a decent bar of chocolate; and he still seemed to think that they were on their way to meet a young woman. Nowhere in the conversation could Sirius find a way to slip in that the ‘woman’ they were meeting was six feet underground lying next to her husband.
“Alright, I give up,” Remus conceded after quite a few blocks. “We’ve walked past two coffee-shops, four parks, a shopping center and every fine restaurant I can think of. I have no idea where you’re taking me.”
“I’m not taking you anywhere,” Sirius reminded him, laughing. “You’re along for the walk for some reason I haven’t worked out yet.”
Remus was not laughing. They had finally reached the intricate iron fence that surrounded the cemetery. Without a word he seemed to accept that this was their final destination. Silently he followed Sirius through the gate and and down the familiar twists and turns that led to the Potter plot. He stood somberly while Sirius laid the flowers in front of each of the headstones and touched each of the names with three fingers. Custom. Habit. Still important.
Sirius stayed crouched in the grass for a moment before taking a deep breath and standing up. “Lily, James, this is Remus. You’ve been enjoying his beautiful flowers for… er… a long time now,” He said sheepishly. “Remus, these are my friends: Lily and James.”
In lieu of speech, Remus stepped forward and softly touched each headstone before rejoining Sirius. “Nice to meet you.”
When he realized Remus wasn’t going to lash out or leave, he heaved a sigh of relief and sat himself down in the grass, pulling blades between his fingers and kicking his legs out in front of him comfortably. Remus lowered himself next to Sirius and folded his long legs beneath himself.
They sat in amiable silence until Remus plucked himself up enough to ask: “Will you tell me about them?” And Sirius launched into a series of stories. He talked himself hoarse with occasional input from his companion. The sun set and still they talked.
They found themselves tiring late into the night, sprawled side by side in the grass. “Sirius?”
“Hmm?”
“Do you think if I continued to provide you with flowers that I could come back here with you sometime?”
Sirius smirked up at the stars. “Yeah, that’d be alright.”
“And Sirius?”
“Hmm?”
“Do you think I could maybe take you out for coffee or something, too?”
He closed his eyes, his smirk melting into a genuine smile. “I think that’d be even better.”