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There were two rows of dragons lined up along either end of the Quidditch pitch. Each graduate was to walk in front of them with an open mind, hoping they’d be chosen to bond. Not everyone would be chosen, but those who were would become part of the elite Wizarding Rider Corps.
Remus squared his shoulders, still skeptical that any dragon would choose him. He was physically weaker due to his lycanthropy and he was often buried in books and academics. Not qualities that would endear him to any of the assembled. He was not as recklessly brave as his friends James and Peter or even a smoothly confident as Sirius Black, the Slytherin king he always watched from a distance. He didn’t really care though, he planned to move back to Wales to run his parents’ bookshop.
A quiet business with a quiet life. That would suit him well.
“ Werewolf, ” he heard in his head and looked up to see large, yellow eyes blinking at him slowly.
“You’re…talking to me?” Remus asked in confusion. “But why?”
“ Because I choose you. ” He recognized the Hungarian Horntail from Care of Magical Creatures, where they studied the different dragon breeds. They were among the biggest and most powerful of dragon breeds.
“Are..are you sure?”
“ Question me again and find out ,” the dragon huffed. Remus knew better than to question the dragon again. He stuck out his leg for Remus. After another moment of uncertainty, Remus climbed up to his back. “ That’s better .”
The dragon launched into the sky. Remus felt the thrill of flight which was much more acute than when he was on a broomstick. Maybe this wouldn’t be as bad as he’d always thought.
“ What is your name? ” Remus asked, testing out their mental bond as he slid around on the dragon’s back. He found his legs lacked the strength to hold him in place. This would take some getting used to.
“ Puer Lunae…but you can call me Moony. ” A dragon with a connection to the moon, Remus thought. How unusual.
The dragon circled the field and came in for a landing, taking a dive for dramatic effect. Remus held on for dear life as Moony touched down lightly back on the field.
He could see James sliding off the back of a Chinese Fireball and Pete getting nudged forward by a Common Welsh Green. James saw him and his jaw dropped. “Look at you, Remus…riding in on the baddest fucker out there.”
Remus blushed. “I keep thinking he’ll realize he’s made a mistake picking me.”
“ Dragons don’t make mistakes .” He’d have to get used to Moony being in his head all the time now.
He could see Sirius Black striding over to the table too. No doubt, Sirius probably hoped he would have bonded with Moony but it was a Norwegian Ridgeback that he rode in on. His crew whooped and hollered as he dismounted.
“Norberta,” Remus heard Sirius tell the recorder before he went to join his group of Slytherins.
He looked over at Remus, raising his eyebrows at him, giving him a little smirk. Remus felt his stomach tighten when they made eye contact. His body did always betray him.
Moony landed next to Norberta and nudged her. She wound her neck around his.
Remus looked back at Sirius, his eyes wide.
Their dragons were mated.
The mating bond between dragons was not to be taken lightly. Remus knew that, and Sirius should too, if he ever paid attention on Prof. Kettleburn’s class. Their lives were interdependent, and that caused the lives of their riders to become entwined as well. Just what Remus needed.
He saw Sirius watching the dragons too, his eyes wide. Then he turned his piercing grey eyes toward Remus and they exchanged a look of recognition before it was Remus’s turn to tell the recorder which dragon had chosen him.
***
“Having trouble keeping your seat up there?” Sirius asked, sidling up to Remus after flight training a couple of weeks later. Everything hurt. He’d fallen off Moony more times than he could count and it was embarrassing. But Moony always caught him.
“You’d like that wouldn’t you?” Remus asked, drily.
“I’m just trying to help you,” Sirius said in a neutral tone.
“You’ve never cared before, why now?” Remus asked, knowing the answer had to do with the dragons rather than being concerned for Remus personally.
“If you cast ‘ immobulus ’ on your legs, you won’t slide off,” Sirius said. Remus blinked. Was Sirius actually trying to help him?
The next day, Remus settled himself on Moony’s back and cast the spell on himself.
He didn’t fall once during training.
When they were finished, he found Sirius in front of Norberta’s foreleg. “It did help, thank you.”
“Are you warming up to me, Remus?” Sirius asked, with a wicked grin.
Heat pooled in Remus’s belly but he’d be damned if he told Sirius that.
***
About a month later, Remus could feel a gnawing need inside him. It wasn’t the same as the full moons, those he could predict. But this? This heated want? He’d never felt anything this powerful before.
He had to get outside before he did something he’d regret. Trudging up to the Astronomy Tower, he tried to focus on the cool night air on his face.
It almost worked, but then he saw Sirius standing up on the tower. Sirius looked ethereal, framed by the crescent moon.
He was leaning over the edge of the tower with a glass bottle dangling from his fingers.
“You feel it too?” he asked, his voice low and gravely as he looked Remus over.
He nodded. “What is happening?”
“It’s the dragons. They’re…” Sirius waved his hand.
The realization dawned on Remus. He felt this way because their dragons were…amorous.
“How do you make it stop?” Remus asked, staring at Sirius with open hunger.
“You learn to block it out, apparently,” Sirius said, watching him. “That’s what my friends said. And they sent me up here.”
But Remus wondered just how much Moony was influencing his feelings toward Sirius because he felt a desperate want simmering in his belly as he took the bottle of firewhiskey from Sirius.
“They sent you here all alone?”
Sirius nodded slowly. Remus crowded into his space. When Sirius didn’t protest, he leaned in, kissing him deeply. It was everything Remus had ever wanted and nothing like he'd expected as their lips parted and slid together.
“Remus, wait…” Sirius said, fingers closing over his wrist. “I don’t want it to happen like this.”
“What?”
“I don’t know if you’re kissing me because of the dragons or because you really want to.”
“Oh,” Remus thought about that for a moment. He knew what his answer was, but he wasn’t sure he could convey that to Sirius while still under the influence of the dragons’ lust.
The next morning, they met in the field, where the dragons were waiting. “It wasn’t the dragons,” Remus said.
“What wasn’t?” Sirius asked.
“It wasn’t them that made me want to kiss you,” Remus responded.
“No?”
“No. In fact, I want to do it again.”