Chapter Text
Fifteen Years Later
“You made it!” Sirius called over the mingling guests in the Ministry’s largest ballroom.
Regulus nodded over the crowd, Seph on his arm, looking pretty in a dark pink gown.
“Wouldn’t miss it,” Regulus replied as Sirius reached him.
“And how are my favorite twin nephews doing?” Sirius asked. The boys were seven years old and were a couple of swots already, but the sweetest, gentlest boys in the world.
Seph grinned. “They’re your only twin nephews.”
“I couldn’t insult Harry now, could I?” Sirius said.
“What—is he coming?” Regulus asked, glancing around the crowd.
“Yes, but Effie was sent off to the Weasleys. Don’t think they’ll even notice her. She blends in with all the gingers,” Sirius said, earning a snort from Regulus and a poke from Seph.
“The Weasleys’ youngest deserves to have another girl around that house. I can’t imagine six boys,” Seph said. She scrunched her nose. “Two was plenty.”
Lily and James had also stopped at two. They’d passed off little Effie to her godfather Remus on the day of her birth and said, “Now Uncle Moony has his godchild, Uncle Padfoot has his. That’s enough.”
It wasn’t until Effie was born that James and Lily also finally spoke of what their Other selves had told them that night in the Department of Mysteries. “Tell Harry you love him every day. And give him a sibling if you’d like. He’ll make a great big brother.”
Lily and James didn’t like to think of this other world—other universe?—where they hadn’t been allowed the chance to raise Harry or give him a little sister. Truthfully, the incident with the resurrection stone was something that was rarely spoken of by the survivors of that battle, though that had not stopped some of Sirius’s colleagues from sending out a lengthy survey about it.
Sirius’s thoughts were brought to the present by the arrival of the Potters. Harry waved excitedly at Sirius. Behind him, his father was mimicking him exactly, unbeknownst to Harry. Harry was starting his fifth year at Hogwarts soon. Where had the time gone? He looked so much like his dad, though still a head shorter. Effie was a more balanced mix of Lily and James. Twelve now, she had Lily’s red hair, her father’s eyes—even the bad vision—but was just as gangly as her brother. She was also as mischievous as Harry. Maybe more so, as she was sorted into Slytherin. Regulus had been thrilled at the news.
At least Regulus was the best of Slytherin. Seph got some of the credit, but much of it had to do with Regulus’s own experiences with the Death Eaters. He’d dedicated his life to pushing regulations and laws that protected the minorities of Wizarding Society. From house elves to werewolves, Regulus made a case to his pureblood friends to understand the necessity of it. Equality was a long way off, but the past decade had been more promising than any other.
Somehow he’d become nearly as “radical” as Sirius in his views.
“Padfoot!” Harry ran at him, hugging him briefly. They exchanged greetings, Lily and Seph complimenting one another on their gowns while Regulus and James stayed on the safe topic of quidditch.
Finally, Harry asked, “Okay, so what are we all doing here, anyway? Is it for Uncle Moony?”
“Your Mum and Dad didn’t explain?” Sirius asked evasively. In fact, Sirius hadn’t been able to explain to anyone.
“They said they didn’t know either!”
“Moony is one of the guests of honor, of course,” Sirius said. “And yet he abandoned me at the door to talk to some old friends.” Old friends being some werewolves he’d stayed in touch with since the war.
“That hardly counts. Every werewolf in the country was invited,” Harry pointed out. “This Moondark is a big deal.”
Moondark was a big deal. It was in fact the nearest thing to a cure since Wolfsbane. And unlike Wolfsbane, it didn’t need to be made monthly. It wasn’t a potion at all. And the Ministry, thanks to Regulus’s previously passed laws, was required to provide it to every werewolf who wanted it—for free.
Today marked the official release of Moondark. They’d waited until the supply could meet demand. Any werewolf in attendance would receive theirs today, which was why Remus had dragged Sirius to the party a full thirty minutes before it was fashionable to arrive.
Remus had been following Moondark since the initial call for volunteers for the trial. He’d been devastated when he wasn’t chosen. And that was three years ago. Since then it had been three years of waiting, crossing fingers that the next trial succeeded. And the next. Passing first one test and then another.
When the Ministry gave its final stamp of approval on Moondark, Remus had jumped into Sirius’s arms over the breakfast table, tossing the Daily Prophet to the floor. They’d had sex right there in the kitchen. It had been a very good day.
And now everyone was gathered to celebrate the historic moment.
Harry was ready to press for more details when one of the event organizers called for everyone to quiet.
“Oh, where is my husband, anyway?” Sirius asked, making a show of searching for Remus and ignoring Harry’s indignant squawk as he was shoved aside. He sounded exactly like James.
Remus weaved through the crowd, beaming when he caught Sirius’s eye. Remus hadn’t been able to sleep the night before, like a child at Christmas. His eyes were a tad red from lack of sleep but he oozed energy.
“It’s almost time!” Remus said, taking Sirius’s arm and hugging it to his chest.
“It is!” Sirius said, beaming right back. Sirius hadn’t been able to sleep the night before either and was likewise buzzing with excitement. This was going to change Remus’s life. And not just his, but every werewolf who wanted to be free of transformations.
A short witch with vibrant green hair took to the podium that had been setup beside a table loaded with velvet boxes. Each box held a Moondark, an opal gemstone charmed with layer after layer of spells. Each opal had been set into an unbreakable chain—so it would never fall off the wearer—that could be worn as a bracelet or necklace, or whatever the wearer desired. It could be hidden or displayed. That had been an important part of the design.
They would be outrageously expensive if they’d been privately made, but no one would be making money off these. Again, thanks to Regulus, they were a necessary right for werewolves. Totally free. Though Sirius would have paid any price for Remus’s sake.
“Thank you everyone for coming,” the witch began. Remus somehow managed to squeeze Sirius’s arm even tighter in anticipation. “I’m Rudy Oaks, co-founder of the Big Bad Wolf Project. As soon as the first trial for Moondark was announced, those of us at the BBWP watched its progress, crossing our fingers, and spreading the word amongst those of us who live with lycanthropy. It’s common knowledge that once contracted, lycanthropy infuses with the body down to its very soul. The curse cannot be removed. But now, no longer will we have to suffer painful, dangerous transformations.
“I was incredibly lucky to be accepted into the first trial,” Rudy continued. She took a moment then, swallowing back emotion. “For the first time in over a decade, I was able to look up at the full moon with a human mind and body, completely in control of myself. You’d think I would’ve done something more interesting, but I just read a book and went to bed. And for some of you, that might not seem very novel, but for me to spend a full moon doing nothing special at all—” Rudy’s voice cracked. She cleared her throat, regaining her resolve. “It meant everything. And now, at long last, Moondark can be shared with the rest of the world. Which also means the creator of Moondark can also be announced. I am truly honored to be the one to introduce him.” Rudy glanced at Sirius then, giving him a watery smile.
“Moondark wouldn’t be here if not for the passion, brilliance, and determination of this man. He dedicated the last fifteen years of his life, his entire career as an unspeakable so far, to curing lycanthropy. Now please give a round of applause to the inventor of Moondark, Unspeakable Sirius Black.”
The crowd erupted in cheers, and Remus’s grip on his arm went slack.
“What—Sirius?” he asked, his hazel green eyes wide and brimming with tears.
Sirius didn’t answer. He grabbed his husband’s cheeks and bestowed a loving kiss before making his way to the podium. The path was blocked by a cascade of handshakes and hugs, thank-you’s and back slaps. Sirius’s throat was thick with emotion by the time he reached Rudy, who also hugged him.
Rudy had been his very first volunteer for Moondark, and while his identity had been kept from her to maintain the Unspeakable requirements, he had spoken to her many times throughout the process. He’d chatted about his spouse with lycanthropy, and she’d opened up to him about the man who’d helped her accept her lycanthropy after she was bitten by Greyback. She was one of the young people Remus had spoken to for Dumbledore during the war.
Rudy only discovered who she’d been talking to all those months last week when Sirius asked for her to introduce him tonight. Outside of the Ministry, she was the first one to know it was Sirius who had invented Moondark.
Out in the crowd as Sirius stepped onto the podium, he saw Remus between Lily and James. Remus was covering his mouth in shock while Lily held onto him, bouncing on her toes and grinning broadly. James and Harry were taking turns cheering. Regulus wasn’t looking at Sirius, but at Seph—rightfully so. The patent for Moondark, once published for the public, would list Persephone Black as a contributor in developing some of the charm work.
It took a few years for Sirius to decide on a method of action. Every Unspeakable who had come before him had tried to cure lycanthropy by removing the curse from the witch or wizard entirely. But it was categorized as an immortal curse for a reason.
So Sirius began searching for loopholes.
It came together slowly. Every other time of the month, a werewolf was basically as human as anyone. It was when they were exposed to the full moon that they became a bloodthirsty wolf. And since Sirius couldn’t remove the moon from the sky, he’d have to work around it.
Over the years he compiled ideas and charms. Many were failures. Like moon block—similar to muggle sunblock. But potions of every sort just weren’t enough.
He studied other powerful magical objects. James had let him borrow the invisibility cloak, though he had been very disgruntled about being left out of why Sirius needed it. He visited Seph and let her teach him about time turners, which ended up being the foundation for making the Moondark a charmed object.
If the cloak could hide someone from sight, if a time turner could send an entire body back in time, there had to be something that protected a werewolf from transforming under the full moon.
The last piece that came together was a bezoar. Lily was teaching Harry and Effie an introductory lesson in potions.
“How does the bezoar work?” Harry had asked Sirius, hoping to take a shortcut on his mother’s homework assignment.
“It absorbs the poison,” Sirius had begun to explain, and then he’d leapt out of his seat. He’d run out of the sitting room, leaving Remus and the Potters baffled by his shoddy excuse, “Forgot something at work!”
It still took a few more years to get it right, but Sirius charmed the Moondark to absorb the pull of the moon for the wearer. It had taken painful precision to get it right. He’d needed to use astronomy, physics, time theory, and all sorts of magic to get it right.
Figuring out how to safely test it had been its own hurdle. In the end, he’d broken a rule at work and undid the stasis spell on the werewolf corpse kept in the Immortal Curses chamber. He timed it just right, on the night of a full moon, so that when he placed the Moondark on the body it would transform back into a human before the cursed body knew it was dead.
It had been a bit of an argument with Farraday about whether it was the Moondark or death that had turned the werewolf back into a human corpse, but he’d still received permission for the first trial.
He swallowed back nerves and emotions and whispered, “Sonorus,” before addressing the ballroom.
“Hello, I’m Sirius Black, also known as husband to Remus Lupin.” Sirius grinned over at Remus who was still just holding his hand to his mouth and staring. “The idea of curing lycanthropy was a dream I’d had for years. It had seemed impossible. But for Remus Lupin? Well, I’d do anything for him. Maybe I could’ve tried giving him the moon, as romantics like to say, but he’d have probably preferred I blow it out of the sky. I hope Moondark will suffice instead, love.”
“Now enough speeches! I won’t make you wait any longer. Everyone form a queue to receive your very own Moondark,” Sirius said. He would pass them out personally.
Without Sirius asking, somehow it was arranged that Remus was pushed and bullied to the front of the line. He stood there, sheepish and happy and overwrought. His hands shook as he took the velvet box.
“By the way,” Sirius murmured. “I started working on this before we were dating. Does that give me any bonus points?”
Remus managed a laugh. “You can have the good stuff tonight,” he whispered.
“The good stuff? I get the good stuff for bringing home takeout.”
“Fine. The best stuff. The most phenomenal.”
“Hell, I’ll shag him if it gets me Moondark any faster,” an older werewolf teased from somewhere in the line.
“Right, right! Let’s pick up the pace,” Sirius said. “Maybe you can help pass them out, Moony?”
“I’d be honored.”
Passing out the Moondark to the dozens of werewolves crowded in the ballroom, Sirius was struck by the surreal sensation of fulfilling his destiny. Without his connection to the Veil, he might have made the same mistakes as the Other Sirius had. He wouldn’t have Remus, his friends, his brother, his job—none of it. It had felt like every mistake he’d made in that other life had only taken and taken from those he loved.
But tonight, he felt like he’d given something back to the world. Sure, his motivations had started off personal, focused on helping Remus, but it had grown into something he could never have imagined. When his soul finally left this world for beyond the veil, Sirius would know with certainty he had left it a better place.