Chapter Text
Crowds were already gathered around the old battered red telephone box when Sirius appeared, ascending out of the Ministry of Magic’s visitor’s entrance. Sighing Sirius contemplated just apparating out of there while he was still in the box, but dismissed that idea at once, talking to these people was as much a part of what he did as overly long meetings with the head of the department for control of magical creatures were. He stepped out of the phone box to be greeted by camera flashes and a chattering of questions, everyone talking over each other. Sirius flashed them a smile, and half the reporters went weak at the knees, stopping talking enough that Sirius actually heard a question and was able to answer.
“What has been your business at the Ministry today Mr Black, was it with regards to the Chapman case?” Sirius answered the affirmative and went on to say that he hoped Miss Chapman would be released from Askaban soon as it was clear that the hate crime had been made against her and not the other way round. A few questions followed after this on a similar note and Sirius just wished he could apparate back to his flat and crawl into bed, he felt tired and dirty after a long day discussing politics, but then again being the most famous werewolf rights activist came with its drawbacks.
“So you still maintain that Miss Chapman did not in fact claw the arm of an innocent passer-by?” Sirius sighed, he had been over this so many times, Miss Chapman’s lawyer had been over this so many times, but no one seemed to want to listen to the answer.
“Miss Chapman was not in control of her actions because she was in wolf form, she was purposely let out of the confined space she transformed in, in the hope that she would hurt someone, therefore it is whoever let her out’s responsibility, not hers. As I have said before this is a hate crime against Miss Chapman and she should not be blamed, when she is in control of her actions she is a lovely woman who would not hurt a fly.”
“Really, she wouldn't hurt a fly are you sure?” A blonde reporter with acid green talons asked, suddenly pushing her way to the front.
“Yes,” replied Sirius not sure where the reporter was going with this, but sure it could not be going somewhere good, he wondered if he should try and make an escape, but the woman spoke again before he could get his wits together and get out of there.
“Well really, what I'm asking is how can you be sure? You barely know the woman and it has come to my attention that you barely know any werewolf at all,” Sirius spluttered at the accusations, he had met so many werewolves in his lifetime it was unreal and he was just in the process of saying just that when the woman interrupted him with a snake like smile.
“Yes I agree you have met lots of werewolves, but you have not known any of them well enough to actually know what they are truly like, you meet the werewolves and help them fight for their rights and what not, but you do not have any werewolf friends, you have not known any of them over a long period of time, why should we trust your judgement over what they are like? How can you maintain that they are not beasts when you have not spent more than a few weeks with each of them? How can we trust what you are saying about werewolves when you clearly do not trust werewolves enough to be friends with them and maintain a relationship with them?” The woman finished her speech with a smirk of her painted red lips and Sirius had never felt so angry in his whole life. He glanced around and the crowd of reporters stared at him, their quills poised at the ready, waiting for his answer. Sirius shook with anger, this woman had absolutely no idea what she was talking about, she had no clue what some of the werewolves he had met had gone through, she had no idea what they were like, how they were all just people with families and jobs and love lives, until the hate enters their life and everything comes toppling down around them and they have no control over anything anymore all because of something about themselves that they have no control over. How could this woman say that he had no idea what he was talking about? This was complete bullshit, she clearly got off on stirring up trouble where there was none.
“You have absolutely no idea what you are talking about,” Sirius snapped, he was annoyed, ridiculously so, which is probably why the next sentence fell out of his mouth, because otherwise he had no excuse for it, “you don’t know a thing about my private life, for all you know I have been friends with werewolves for years, I just don’t advertise it because they are just people and there is no need to advertise that I am friends with people.”
“So are you then, friends with werewolves?” This question came from a small mousy woman near the back and not the blonde dragon in front of him, although the question did in fact make her grin obnoxiously loudly.
“Yes!” Sirius growled, not caring that it wasn't the truth he just wanted to wipe the smile off the blonde bitch’s face, “and that’s not it, I…..I….” Sirius paused for a second not sure what he was going to say, but then out of the corner of his eye he saw the blood red lips start to smirk once again and he just went for it, if he was going to lie he might as well make it a spectacular lie right? “Yeah that is not it, I am getting married to a werewolf!” There was a moment of utter stillness as the shock radiated through the crowd, then, almost all at once, quills met paper and the scratching sound as they tried desperately to record his confession rung in Sirius’s ears like a hundred rats clawing at his brain.
****
Sirius awoke the next morning by being slapped by a newspaper. He blinked groggily up at his attacker and saw his best friend standing over him, glaring at him through his rectangular glasses.
“What did you do?” He asked, giving Sirius the impression that he knew exactly what he had done, even if, two seconds after waking, Sirius wasn't quite sure what it was.
James thrust the newspaper under Sirius’s nose, and Sirius (after blinking the sleep out of his eyes) was able to read the headline on page 6. Werewolf Wedding (Sirius Black, who is a well-known activist for the rights of werewolves announced yesterday that he is to be wed to his werewolf lover, whose identity is still to be disclosed). Sirius groaned inwardly, there was no way he had thought that what he had said yesterday would be ignored, he had just hoped that no one would make a big thing of it, ah well, at least it wasn't on the front page (an explosion at a Dr Filibusters warehouse had claimed that page).
James was still glaring at him, obviously waiting for Sirius to explain what on earth he had been thinking.
“Okay James, I did say that, but it’s not a big deal, really.” Sirius said giving his friend (what he hoped was) a winning smile. “So they think I'm marrying a werewolf, big deal, it’s not like they follow my private life, they won’t know that I lied.”
James’s hair was starting to stick up at odd angles he had ran his hands through it so many times, he was practically tugging at it by the roots by the time Sirius had finished speaking.
“You have no idea what you have done do you?” He asked, Sirius gave him a blank look in reply. “This only came out a few hours ago,” he said shaking the edge of the newspaper, “and already I have had hundreds, and yes I mean hundreds I am not exaggerating, of owls about it, people want to know who this lover is, werewolves are so happy about it, the haters are angrier than ever, this is the biggest reaction we have had to anything in ages, what do you think is going to happen if everyone finds out that it was all a lie?” Sirius’s eyes widened as he took in what James was saying. James was second in command in Wizards and Witches for Werewolf Rights, (WWWR) and was often the voice of reason, talking Sirius down from his hare-brained schemes with logic and reason, but he had not been there for this particular stunt, it was less than twenty four hours later and he was already suffering the fallout from it.
“Oh crap, I'm sorry I wasn't thinking there was this awful reporter and I just hated her and, I don’t know why I said it crap,” putting his head in his hands Sirius let out a moan of despair, James was right, this was going to end in disaster.
A sudden weight on his bed signified his friend sitting down,
“Don’t worry, we will sort this out,” he said patting Sirius’s knee. “There will be a major fallout though, people might think we aren't taking our campaign seriously, but don’t worry we will come back from it bigger and better than ever, just you see.
Sirius gave a weary nod, wishing, not for the first time, that he had held his tongue and not allowed himself to say something so rash. He and James had put their heart and soul into WWWR and had made some amazing changes over the eight years they had run it. The thought of it taking a step back, when so many witches and wizards were starting to see werewolves for the humans they are because of them was soul destroying. If even one werewolf suffered because of his careless words, Sirius knew it would be on his conscious forever.
“If only it were true,” James said shifting so he was sitting next to Sirius, his head resting on his shoulder.
“What?”
“I said if only it were true. It would be amazing if it was, it would really show that you completely trusted werewolves, it would really make a statement.” Sirius stilled at his friend’s words, he was right, if he really was marrying a werewolf, it could improve their campaign, no one would question why they were doing it and if they really thought that werewolves deserved human status again.
“That’s it!” He cried sitting up straight suddenly, ignoring the yelp that came from James as his head slid unceremoniously from his shoulder.
“What’s it?” James growled rubbing his head?
“We make it real!” James lifted an eyebrow, making it clear that he had no idea what his friend was on about, but Sirius was too excited to care, this was the perfect plan. “I marry a werewolf, it’s as simple as that, we make it real!” James made an attempt to interrupt, but Sirius waved him away with a flail of his hands, “no, no, listen. I know it sounds mad, but this could work, it could save everything we have worked for. We just find a werewolf who is willing to marry me, or pretend marry me or whatever, and no one will be any of the wiser. And before you say no one would ever do that, just think about it, a werewolf who has lived part of their life or even their whole life as a second class citizen, they will do anything to change that right, including pretend to marry some bloke so the werewolf rights movement can take a huge step in the right direction. You know I am right James, this will work!” Sirius grinned ignoring the half-hearted protests that were coming his way, he jumped out of bed with a new spring in his step, he had a plan to concoct, operation find a fake werewolf fiancé was a go.