Promised Eternity by setissma (NC-17)

[musesfool.livejournal.com]

Fandom: HARRY POTTER
Pairing: Remus/Sirius
Author on LJ: setissma
Author Website: Author page at Skyehawke
Why this must be read:

I wanted to leave you with something a little more upbeat as my last rec of the month, since there was a bit of angst, wasn't there? Remus is made for the suffering. Anyway, this is a beautiful story, one I reread whenever I need a good, happy cry.

After the battle at the Department of Mysteries, Remus makes some promises to himself.

This story is quite possibly my favorite Bring Back Black fic. It doesn't really talk about how Sirius came back, and though it gives the veil an intriguing purpose, it's not about that, either, really, so much as it is about Remus and Sirius both learning to take advantage of the second chances they're granted, and the love that's been there all along.

A quote:

The night after the day that Sirius Black fell through the veil, Remus Lupin made a number of promises to himself.

He promised that he would stop seeing Sirius Black in every face he saw, as he had for the past fifteen years. Before, it had been a flash of black in an alleyway in Beijing, a boy's smile in Romania, and now, it was in the corners of Grimmauld Place, in the way Bill Weasley moved, and in Ginny crying on the staircase.

He promised he would stop regretting the things he hadn't said. He had spent thirteen years feeling bitter and full of sorrow for not having told Sirius that he- what, exactly? Loved him? Cared for him? Could not describe the perfect peace he had only ever found when watching him sleep? It could not be labeled as an emotion, it was perhaps simply best said that he felt. He had been sorry, then, before Sirius came back, and Remus realized that he didn't need to tell, that he didn't need more touch in the middle of the night than a hand on his shoulder, that he didn't need declarations of undying love and passion.

It was enough that Sirius existed, and more than that, it was enough that he was lucky enough to have Sirius in his life.

After losing him for thirteen years, Remus hadn't been willing to risk having him back for anything. He promised, however, that if he should ever see Sirius again - and not that he would, because Sirius was dead, but he had to make the promise anyway - he would tell him. Fifteen years of unrequited love was too much, and there were secrets that Remus did not particularly want to take with him to the grave.

Beautiful, heartbreaking, and hopeful, this story makes my chest tight and my eyes tear.

Promised Eternity by setissma