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’Nooo,’ Alicia tugs on Remus' hand, far too hard, but Remus doesn't care. He's currently collecting all the congratulations he can.
'Mhmm,' he hums affirmatively and wiggles his fingers slightly, trying with all his might not to jump with excitement like Alicia has just started doing.
'That's fucking awesome!’ she exclaims, and quickly covers her mouth with her hands as Remus throws her an admonishing look.
Not that he was paying any particular attention, but some student walking past his classrom was bawling his eyes out in shock, so Remus was forced to do so.
'I can't believe I'm finding out in front of all these gossip-ridden magazines,' the girl whispers and stares at the ring while Remus tries to pull his hand out of her grasp. And it's definitely a beautiful ring, although plain and silver it's still the most beautiful thing in the world.
Remus didn't have favourite students, he treated everyone equally and loved everyone equally. BUT Alicia was a bit of a different sort, and had a slight problem with boundaries. She regularly barged into Remus' classroom during breaks and questioned him about things, no matter how Remus tried to shoo her out. Because, pardon him very much, she didn't ask about things related to school or his lessons at all. After the umpteenth time in a row, Remus gave in and offered her tea.
And so it stayed.
Alicia would come to him, ask about all the gossip she could (of course, not all of it was answered by Remus), drink tea, once even having the audacity to ask about biscuits, and disappear as quickly as she appeared.
And Remus liked her, besides the fact that she was a model student, she also respected Remus' relationship, and as far as he knew she never told anyone what she heard from him. And if she did tell, it was to people who didn't take advantage of it in any way, so Remus didn't care.
She's a bit like Sirius in some ways, Remus thinks it was that ignoring boundaries and not picking up on any hints.
Besides, this was her last year at this school and Remus guesses how devastated she'll be not providing herself with a weekly dose of gossip.
'Will you invite me to the wedding?" she asks, more of a request, making a puppy eyes.
Remus squints at her, he knows that look very well. The last time she'd made one, he'd told her about how he'd met Grant Chapman and if he was that handsome in real life too. (He is, and as Remus realised what he had said, he had threatened Alicia that he would fail her at the end of the year if she told anyone)
'Isn't this the end of break by any chance?’ he asks evasively and she rolls her eyes, settling more comfortably into her chair.
The eighteen year old rolls her eyes at him, Remus has failed as a teacher.
'I have next lesson with you,’ she reminds him.
'What have I done to deserve this,' mumbles Remus.
'Have you chosen a date yet?’ the girl asks, ignoring what he said and takes a sip of her tea.
They've chosen, the 15th of May next year. Remus wonders what are the chances that Alicia will find out where they are having the wedding and sneak into the ceremony by just knowing the date.
'Yes...' he risks, 'May 15th, next year.’
Her eyes light up. 'Oh! May is such a beautiful time of year,’ she says in a dreamy voice.
Finally, the bell rings, signaling the end of the lesson break. The girl sighs heavily and drags her chair back to her desk, taking her cup of tea with her.
The first students start to fill the room. 'Oi, Mr Lupin, can I make myself a cuppa, too?’
Remus raises his head, checking who is speaking to him; Andy Stevens stands in the middle of the room pointing at Alicia who smiles mischievously, lightly rocking her mug.
Remus raises one eyebrow at her unimpressed. 'Sure, Andy, there are also biscuits in the cupboard, you can treat yourself and hand out to the class if anyone else fancies it,’ he replies, at the same time addressing the rest of the class.
'I can't believe it,' squeals Alicia and rushes off the desk, pushing her way into the room at the back of the class.
In the end, five more people wanted tea and everyone wanted biscuits. It took a good half of the class before everyone was seated, but Remus didn't care too much about that. Final exams were coming up and these poor kids had a lot of studying ahead of them. In their lessons, they usually repeated the most important things, or went over topics suggested by the students.
In addition, Remus was not in the mood to teach today. He was still reliving the weekend.
But when silence finally falls for a moment, Remus accepts the idea of doing his teaching duty after all.
He is already grabbing his textbook when someone at the back of the class makes a desperate attempt to prolong doing nothing during the lesson, 'How was your weekend, Mr Lupin?'
Remus smirks indulgently. His students, like everyone else, think they are very clever and manage to distract the teacher during the lesson, which of course was not the case. The secret is that the teachers let them do it, while playing oblivious.
And Remus does exactly that, 'Very well, thank you Angelina.’ he smiles at the girl on the last bench. 'And you guys? Anyone want to share a story?’
Several hands immediately shoot up.
'Any decent, I-am-still-your-teacher stories?' corrects Remus and rolls his eyes as everyone lowers their hand.
He glances around the room, looking to see if maybe any of his quieter students look like they want to share something. Remus doesn't make anyone talk by force, but there are some students who need a little encouragement to open up.
They all look like they are thinking of some story they could actually share in front of the teacher.
Christ, Remus would swear he didn't even know how alcohol smelled at that age. At least that's how he remembered his teenage years. And there's only a small, minimal chance that his mum would disagree.
Remus waits another moment then picks up the textbook again, he's again about to start when again someone interrupts him.
'Oh my god, Professor Lupin. Is that an engagement ring?' Alicia feigns surprise and sighs loudly while pointing her finger at him.
Remus wonders if he can still legally fail her, despite having already given the students their final grades.
The whole class starts talking frantically.
'No way!’ shouts Andy and leaves his seat walking up to Remus. Several other students do the same, circling him like vultures, shouting questions.
Remus sighs and puts his hand forward presenting the ring. It's not an option that he shows as he gets infected with excitement from the teenagers.
Yes, exactly, he got engaged to Sirius Black. While spending the weekend in Italy. As they celebrated the premiere of Sirius' film. Yes, his fiancé is an actor. And he won an Oscar. Also, they live together, and are very much in love.
Oh, and they have a dog.
Remus saves these thoughts for later, he can't wait to tell Sirius all this. Of course, Sirius had been involved in all these situations, but they like to remind each other of things like this from time to time. It's just a shame that he has to wait three more days before Sirius gets home.
’Can’t believe it, is he fucking serious?’ comes a franatical whisper, well, maybe not a whisper. The whisper is subtle, it was more of a shouting whisper. One that draws the attention of the whole class.
Silence falls in the classroom. And Remus has never, in his entire life, heard silence this loud.
'Well...' starts Andy grinning.
'Don't you dare finish that sentence' Remus interrupts him hissing through clenched teeth.
Andy actually doesn't finish the sentence, but continues to grin from ear to ear. The rest of the students are looking everywhere but at Remus, most covering their mouths with their hands, some of them already turning red in the face.
'I- I mean. I meant if you were being-,' Angelina struggles to explain herself.
Remus sighs. 'It's okay...' he wants to reassure her, but the girl interrupts him.
'I swear, it's just so— wow, you know. I asked Alicia if you were being serious, not if you were fuc-'
'OKAY, all clear,' Remus cuts off her attempts. Several students finally burst out laughing.
Remus banishes them with a hand gesture and they escape from him still giggling. ’Go back to your seats, you little shi-'
'Good morning, Mr Lupin,' comes a new voice. Remus turns abruptly and looks directly into Minerva McGonagall's eyes.
The woman stands with her arms folded across her chest and raises one eyebrow. The class doesn't even try to hold back their laughter anymore, they wail out loud.
'Good morning, Minerva,’ Remus automatically straightens up, Sirius always laughs at him when Remus tells him what an intimidating person Minerva can be.
But Sirius likes to play with fire, in his first meeting with Remus's colleagues, he had addressed her as Minnie.
'We just had a lesson on social propriety,' Remus says throwing his class a meaningful look.
'I can see that,' replies Minerva and smiles indulgently. 'Someone tell me what this lesson was about?’
'Professor Lupin proposed,' shouts Andy at which Minerva bawls her eyes out, abandoning her attempts to look like a threatening headmistress.
Remus squints at him. ’Got engaged,' he corrects.
'Sooo.. Sirius is the one who—’
'Minerva, can I still give him detention?’ Remus interrupts him, addressing the woman still standing by the door.
When she doesn't answer him, Remus shifts a questioning gaze to her.
'Ah, yes... well,' Minerva straightens her back slightly, composing herself, she glances around the students casting them an admonishing glance. On a daily basis they would react to this, calm down a bit, but not in this situation.
The woman turns back to Remus. ’Uh- Congratulations, Mr Lupin…’ she does not finish her sentence, just turns quickly and leaves the classroom. She stops at the threshold so that the students are unable to see her, and makes a feverish gesture with her hand while mouthing silently something like what the hell.
Remus wrinkles his nose and waves her hand lightly. Minerva gives him one last look, this time saying; I'll talk to you later and disappears down the school corridor.
Remus sighs heavily and rubs his fingers together, turning back to the classroom. The general buzz has already quieted down, but everyone is still sitting staring at him excitedly.
Remus casts an accusing glance towards Alici, and she just smiles innocently.
It's going to be a long day.
'For fuck's sake,' Remus curses under his breath as he tries to close the door behind him, while holding his bag under his arm, a mountain of papers in one hand and a thermos held to his neck with his chin. Padfoot wriggling under his feet makes him almost lose his balance.
A helping hand extended towards him takes the bag gently from his shoulder and the bundle of papers from his hand. Remus sighs in relief when the thermos also disappears, allowing him to straighten his neck. He finally closes the door and leans against it closing his eyes.
'Tough day?" comes an amused voice.
'You have no—’
Remus opens his eyes abruptly. Sirius stands before him smiling broadly. He looks gorgeous, as always.
'You— you came back early!’ Remus practically shouts. Sirius is rather well aware that he came back earlier, but Remus felt the overwhelming need to say it out loud anyway.
'I couldn't stand it any longer without my fiancé,' he shrugs and tilts his head slightly. Still smiling, Remus gets the feeling that he loves that smile more and more every day.
He takes two steps up to Sirius and grabs his face, kissing him eagerly. Sirius makes a protesting noise, waving his arms, laden with Remus' things.
'Drop it,' mumbles Remus into his mouth, not even moving away for a moment.
And Sirius drops it.
***
A good few hours later, as they lie in bed Sirius is still reliving the same thing.
’Oh my god, all your students are convinced that you're the one being fucked,' Sirius doesn't even try to hold back his laughter, he presses his face into Remus' neck and curls up at his side, all shaking from his giggles.
Remus rolls his eyes and weaves his hand into his hair, tugging slightly so that they are face to face. Sirius' cheeks redden and his eyes sparkle, he quiets when Remus kisses him on the nose.
'It doesn't worry me if they think I'm the one being fucked. I'm bothered by the general idea that they must have thought about it,’ Remus flinches at the thought, teenagers are awful.
Sirius smiles crookedly. 'Well, they didn't have to imagine me much, I played Achilles convincingly,’ he announces solemnly.
'That's probably why they thought that,' Remus sighs. His gaze escapes to a small display case in the corner of their bedroom, he can't help smiling at the sight of the golden statue. He is filled with pride. 'And yes, you played him very convincingly,' he assures.
'So, I didn't tarnish one of your favourite characters?’ Sirius asks curtly, while making an innocent face.
Remus groans and rolls onto his side, practically covering Sirius with his body. 'I said it once. Once. I didn't know you were the one playing him!' Remus feels Sirius laughing again. 'You'll never let that go, eh?’ he sighs.
Sirius pokes his head out from under his arm. 'If you forgive me for not being able to change the wheel,' he declares.
'That's a whole different situation! You practically built your motorbike yourself. How can you not know how to change a wheel on a car?’
'I don't know if you've noticed, a motorbike and a car are different,’
’They both have wheels,’
’One of them has four!’
'And you only had to change one,'
’If I'd known how to do it, we'd never have met.’ Sirius points out.
Remus grabs him around the waist and rolls them over so that Sirius is now lying over him. 'Then I'll teach you how to do it, so you never meet anyone else that way,' he declares.
Sirius replies nothing, closing the minimal space between them with a kiss.
Remus is stressed. Incredibly stressed. Apart from one event at school, right after the engagement, everything was normal, as normal as it could be. Before that, he had only spent a good half hour called on the carpet to Minerva. Actually, he had hardly been reprimanded, mostly just congratulations, kisses on the cheek (Not from Minerva, but from Poppy. Minerva was pretending not to cry at the time)
And then it was business as usual; Alicia continued to barge into his classroom whenever she felt like it, drinking tea and eating biscuits since she found out where he kept them. Students did their best to distract him from teaching his lessons, Lily came in for her morning coffee before class.
Everything was as it always was until a lesson ago.
Remus bites his lip nervously. 'And what do you think?’
Lily presses her lips together, looking at him seriously. 'I think you've just invited your whole class to your wedding,' her eyes betrays her, glowing in amusement.
Remus groans and lays his head on the desk. He doesn't know how it happened, he has no idea.
He was just teaching his lessons as usual, which is to say, he wasn't doing it at all, just having a chat with his students.
Maybe he let them ask more questions than usual, maybe not. Some question was asked about the date, Remus told them.
Then there was a question about where the wedding would take place, Remus excitedly answered, this is exactly what they had agreed with Sirius last night.
Then a question was asked about the dress code, Remus waved his hand and said that there was no dress code, they wanted every guest to feel comfortable.
He didn't notice the excited hum at the word 'guest'.
Then the question was asked about the gift — preferably wine.
Then whether there would be vegan dishes— of course, it's not medieval.
Then regarding accompanying persons— of course not! There already are too many of you.
Then when the invitations will be handed out— sometime next month, Sirius has to italicise them.
And then just; Goodbye, Mr Lupin, I can’t wait!
To which he replied; good luck in the exams, see you guys.
SEE YOU.
Ok, so maybe he knew how it happened after all but still didn't understand it. The little monsters must have messed with his brain, manipulated him-
'You know you don't have to invite them at all if you don't want to?’ Lily interrupts his musings.
Remus immediately furrows. Why wouldn't he—
Oh, well, yeah.
Little manipulative monsters. Which he adored with all his heart.
'Of course, I know that,' he grunted out, trying to neutralize his facial expression somehow.
Lily laughs. 'Remus, you can invite them too, of course, if you want. You've taught them for many years, you know everyone's favourite colour, you've helped them so many times. It's no wonder you would want your students at such an important time in your life.'
Remus ponders. Lily's right, he's a terrible wimp. He really would want his students to be at his wedding.
'Of course, I know that, too,’
one year later, 15th May.
'I'm totally pretending that all these paparazzi are here for me,' Alicia whispers to Remus in a conspiratorial tone.
Remus can't help himself, he snorts with laughter and pretends not to see the girl's self-satisfied expression.
Not much has changed in a year. Apart from the fact that all of his students got into college. Every single one. Remus was incredibly proud of them. Alicia had gotten into teaching college; next year she would torment Remus again, this time as an intern under his wing.
'Oh shit! Do you see all these people? I feel like I'm a movie star myself, I'm sure a few people took my picture,' Andy Stevens walks over to them, taking a seat next to Alicia, putting his arm around her. Nothing new here, Remus knew this was coming as soon as he saw the two of them arguing with each other in every lesson. A future policeman and teacher, god help him.
'Right? That's what I was talking about,' Alicia replies taking a sip of champagne.
Remus feels incredibly weird about this, he's not their teacher anymore, they've been adults for a long time, but something doesn't feel right to him.
So much so that he takes the glass of champagne from the girl's hand, paying no attention to her protests.
'You'll have to drink in secret so I can't see, like you're sixteen again. Forgive me, my brain doesn't digest the information that you are an adult being,'
Andy snorts with laughter, Remus shifting a warning glance to him.
'Same goes for you, if I see you at the free bar I'll tell Sergeant Potter to fail you,' he announces.
'What- you- you can't do that!' Andy shouts indignantly.
'I assure you, son, he can. I have no intention of arguing with the groom on his wedding day,' James announces as he walks over to the table, standing by Andy, putting his hand on his shoulder.
The boy immediately straightens up. 'Yes, sir,'
Remus laughs seeing the look on the boy's face’ James gives him a wink and walks away as quickly as he appeared.
He walks over to Harry, who is sitting at the table staring at his mobile phone. In an efficient motion he snatches the phone out of his hand, and pulls on the hand that Harry had put out, trying to get the phone back, dragging him to the dance floor. Harry rolls his eyes but doesn't walk away, he watches as James fools around in front of him until he finally bursts into laughter.
Alicia and Andy also watch the dance floor smiling slightly.
Remus nudges Alicia with his shoulder. 'Go dance, I promise I'll call you when Sirius is done greeting all the guests,' he tells the girl.
The whole class really wanted to meet Sirius, so far they haven't had the opportunity to do so. Immediately after the ceremony, Remus and Sirius rushed in front of the tents to welcome all the guests. When Remus greeted all the guests who wanted to talk to him, he left Sirius to deal with the rest who stayed longer, chatting with him.
In fact, they should have already had dinner, but Remus didn't mind. He could see Sirius' eyes light up as he talked to each of Remus' guests. Sirius hadn't invited many people himself, his contact with his family was limited, apart from his cousin and brother there were only a few more people close to him from work.
'It promises to be a wonderful wedding,'
Remus turns his head towards the voice. Minerva and Poppy walk towards him, taking the seats that Andy and Alicia had just vacated. Poppy leans slightly against her wife.
'The students have seen you two together?' asks Remus raising an eyebrow.
'Oh, yes,' Minerva waves her hand. 'One of them nearly collapsed, Poppy had to use her powers today to revive the poor guy,'
Poppy sighs. 'Yes, you can't even rest for a moment,' she says.
Remus smiles and looks around. Minerva is right, it looks like everyone is having a good time, music is playing softly in the background, the sun is starting to set, casting a golden glow. It is wonderful.
However, his gaze is caught by Sirius, who is standing where Remus left him, but he looks around frantically, combing his hand through his hair.
Oh, Remus knows that look on his face.
He excuses himself to the women and immediately walks towards Sirius, scraping one pint of champagne from a waiter with a tray on the way.
As he approaches, all becomes clear. His grandmother has just oppressed Sirius. Margaret Lupin is deadly dangerous if you don't know how to handle her.
Remus wraps his arm around Sirius' waist and hands him the champagne, feeling Sirius instantly relax. 'What are you talking about?" asks Remus, taking a sip from his glass.
Margaret Lupin smiles at him. 'I asked your new husband when are you planning any children?'
Remus chokes on his champagne, to somehow save face and not splash it all out like a bloody fountain, he spits the alcohol back into his glass.
The woman makes a disgusted face. 'I hope you don't drink that again,' she says.
Remus doesn't have time to take a good breath as he sees Sirius open his mouth.
And the thing with Sirius is that when he's stressed he tells stupid jokes. When he's stressed and after two glasses of champagne, he says even dafter things.
'Don't worry, I'll drink—mhhfp ,' the last part of the sentence turns into a high-pitched squeal. Remus squeezes Sirius hard enough to cut off his oxygen for a moment. He would make it up to him later tonight.
'Sorry Gran, we are so stressed today. We'll come back to the subject another time, okay?'
The woman gives them a suspicious look but nods in the end. 'Well, I was going to go ask the gentleman with the saxophone for his number anyway,' she mumbles and pushes her way between them, heading straight for the band.
Sirius bursts out laughing loudly, if Remus didn't know him better he wouldn't have noticed that he was hysterical.
'Are you alright? Remus asks him, stroking his back.
'Yes, yes. Everything's great,' Sirius chokes out, not stopping to laugh.
'Love...'
'No- no! Everything is excellent, I haven't felt better in a long time-' Sirius' words are muffled by Remus' arm, who embraced him and pulled Sirius tightly to himself.
'You have every right to be nervous, relax, we have plenty of time to make other important decisions,’ Remus mumbles in his ear, placing a kiss on his temple.
Sirius relaxes and rests his head on his shoulder. 'It's not like that, she surprised me. I dream of raising a bunch of children with you,' he says and presses his nose into the fabric of Remus' jacket.
Remus smiles. He steps back and gently takes Sirius by the chin, looking him straight in the eyes.
'A bunch you say?’ he asks raising an eyebrow.
Sirius nods eagerly at which Remus bursts out laughing. He doesn't have time to answer anything because Sirius' lips are on his in the next second, he can feel Sirius smiling too.
The flash makes them pull away from each other confused.
'We got it!'
Remus looks over at a delighted Angelina and Alicia, who are currently high-fiving each other. Angelina has a camera around her neck.
'Oh, you guys seem a lot more friendly than the paparazzi. Can I see the photo?" asks Sirius as he walks up to the girls.
They immediately calm down and make big eyes. Sirius doesn't seem to notice this, he takes the camera from Angelina's neck and asks her to show him the picture.
'Oh, honey,' Sirius speaks up after a moment. 'This will be your favourite photo,' he says turning back to Remus.
Remus smiles at the girls, who still have shocked faces, and walks closer. 'You think so?’
'Definitely, not only did your beloved students take it, but on top of that we look sexy,' Sirius confirms.
'Beloved students?' asks Alicia, the shock from her face gone replaced by a smug smile.
Remus opens his mouth to reply but Sirius overtakes him. 'Well, I tell you. He talks about you guys all the time. Did you know Alicia is going to be a teacher? Did you know Angelina got a sports scholarship?" teases Sirius in a mocking tone.
The girls immediately throw him a surprised look. 'Do you know what our names are?" asks Angelina, looking like she's about to faint.
'Of course, I do. After all, I said Remus keeps talking about you guys,' Sirius replies with a twinkle in his eye. 'Nice to finally officially meet you, I'm Sirius,' he says and extends his hand to them.
Aneglina shakes Sirius' hand and Alicia throws Remus a look. She looks like she's about to cry.
Remus sighs when he sees her chin start to tremble, he spreads his arms invitingly. The girl doesn't wait a sec longer, she throws herself at Remus knocking the air out of his lungs.
'I've always known we were your favourite class,' she mumbles.
Remus doesn't even try to deny it. He smiles at the camera as Sirius takes the picture.
***
'Everyone's attention, please,' Sirius rises from his seat and taps his knife against a glass, drawing the eyes of all the guests.
As the conversations and general noise quiets down, Sirius continues. 'First of all, thank you to everyone who has come out today to celebrate this very special day with us,' several cheers ring out at these words, mainly from Remus students.
'Before we move on to the best man's speech, I would like to make just one thing clear. Harry please cover your ears,' Sirius says and casts a glance towards a confused Harry. James and Lily don't even bother to ask, they cover his ears; James on one side, Lily on the other.
Remus wrinkles his brow confused before it dawns on him what Sirius is planning to say. He is unable to stop it though, when he tries to get up Sirius puts a hand on his shoulder, holding him down in his chair.
Remus casts a franatic glance around the guests. No one realises what is about to happen. No one except Alicia, who tries to cover a disbelieving smile with her hand.
Remus also covers his own mouth, by no means smiling. He hopes that by covering his own mouth he will somehow stop Sirius' next words.
'For the record, it is not Remus who is being...'
Remus expected everything. Anything, really, but not Margaret Lupin rising from her seat and applauding excitedly upon hearing the end of a sentence spoken by Sirius, making him bend in a dramatic bow.
However, he wasn't surprised to see Andy pressing twenty pounds into Alicia's waiting hand.