Chapter Text
“Here you go.” The voice behind the mask sounds suspiciously like Lucius Malfoy. James resists the urge to kick him in the shin. He’s in enough trouble at the moment so maybe later.
The corridor they are in is dimly lit by the torches Maybe-Malfoy and one other Death Eaters in the back are carrying and it smells a bit damp. Looks like a cellar, at least what James can make out through the cracked lenses of his glasses. He’s not entirely sure where the cellar is though. Although if it's really Malfoy who's playing the boss here he has sort of an idea at least.
James is kind of suspicious though. They haven’t done much to him yet since they captured him outside the wards of the estate. Roughened him up a bit, sure, but no Cruciatus. Which James is not complaining about. His ribs hurt on his left side, probably a few of them broken. He doesn’t really need a torture curse right now, thank you very much.
But knowing Malfoy and his lot he might end up in a kinky torture cellar very soon, soundproof and all. Wouldn't want to get any blood on the good carpets, the fancy fucker.
Worth it, tough. James is inside those stupid wards now.
Maybe-Malfoy unlocks and opens a door in front of James and James braces himself for all kinds of medieval torture devices on the over side of it.
But there are none. The light from Malfoy's torch illuminates a small and bare room and a person sitting on the floor on the far end of it, his right hand chained to the wall, the heavy chain pooling around his feet.
A very familiar person.
A grin spreads on James' slit lips. Perfect. Just trust stupid Death Eaters to make his work a lot easier instead of harder.
The person on the floor doesn't seem to share that thought though. Grey eyes go wide as they see James in the middle of his little harem of Death Eaters.
“No,” Sirius breathes softly before his eyes snap to Maybe-Malfoy, grey almost seeming to glow in the dark. He gets up and moves towards them in a blur until the chain pulls tight about halfway to the door. “You absolute fucking asshole!” he growls. Actually growls. “I'm going to end you!”
There is a flash of fangs.
James stares.
Maybe-Malfoy chuckles like the posh asshole that he is. “I think you're going to end this one first.”
Two of the three Death Eaters that were escorting James down into the cellar alongside Maybe-Malfoy give James a shove in the back and he stumbles forward into the room, nearly falling, but Sirius catches him.
One of the torches gets thrown in after him. It lands on the earthen floor, flickering.
“Happy reunion,” Maybe-Malfoy sneers and then the door closes with a snap and locks.
James stares at Sirius, who is staring right back at him. His eyes still glow eerily, like they are lit from within, and James can see a hint of fang poking at his lower lip. James swallows hard. Sirius lets go of him like he got burned, stumbling back a step or two.
“This is bad,” Sirius says after a moment of silence. “Very fucking bad.”
James shrugs and ruffles a hand through his hair. He winces slightly when the movement pulls at his tender ribs. “Could be worse.”
Sirius raises one eyebrow at him, looking unimpressed. James grins and shrugs. Sirius rolls his eyes. “Only you would say 'could be worse' while sitting in a literal death trap.”
“I mean, it could totally be worse,” James says with another little shrug. “I could not have found you at all. That's worse.”
“That would actually be better for you in case you've missed any of the obvious signs,” Sirius snaps, pointing at his face. James once again stares at the tips of the fangs he can see between Sirius' lips.
Sirius narrows his eyes at him. “Stop that.”
James snaps his eyes away, a flush spreading on his face. “Stop what?”
“I can hear your heartbeat speeding up. Which, in case you were wondering, is not a good thing since they don't keep me well fed.”
James looks back at Sirius, really looks at him. He's pale, paler than usual. There are shadows under his eyes. Those strangely glowy eyes. The fangs that are clearly there. There is only one explanation to all this. James doesn't want to ask. If he doesn't hear it, it's not true. “They really... turned you?”
Sirius looks away, lifting his right hand and tugging absentmindedly on the chain that connects to the wall with his left. “Bella thought it would be more.. amusing instead of just letting me die.”
James flinches at the mention of death and Sirius in the same sentence. Although he knows that this is what must have happened. One doesn't turn into a vampire without dying first. But hearing it is something different. It makes it real. Too real.
James is going to kill Bellatrix. Slowly and painfully.
But first they have to get out of here so James has to pull himself together for now. He can fall apart later when they are somewhere safe. Later he can think about it all, that he was too late, that he didn't find Sirius fast enough after he had disappeared from an Order mission gone wrong. Later he can think about Sirius being essentially dead...
But not now.
“What's with you and that chain?” James asks instead, getting back to business. “Can you get rid of it? Turn into Padfoot and step out of it?”
Sirius lifts his right hand, chain rattling over the earthen floor. “Something in it dampens my magic. I can't shift and it's fucking annoying.”
James frowns and looks at the metal of the chain. The cracks in his lenses get a bit annoying so he quickly takes off his glasses and concentrates while brushing his fingertips over them. The glass knits back together as if it has never been broken at all. The glasses are a little smudged now, but that's far better than seeing everything with cracks running through.
Satisfied with his work James puts his glasses back on. So much better. He takes a step closer to Sirius to get a better look at the chain but Sirius takes a step back immediately to keep their distance the same. “Don't.”
James' frown deepens. “Don't be difficult. I need to get a closer look at that.”
“And I need not to bite a chunk out of your neck, James.”
James pauses, then lifts his eyes back to Sirius'. “How bad is it? How hard is it for you to not jump me right now?”
“A little.”
Which, in Sirius' language, means bloody fucking hard. James curses under his breath and rakes a hand though his hair, pulling at the roots. “Okay. First things first.” Dropping his hand he pushes up the sleeve of his right arm, past the small tracking rune tattoo he used to track down Sirius' matching one. “You need a snack. Then we work on the chain. Then we get the fuck out of here. I have your wand. Hid it with mine in a tree outside of the wards. Didn't want to risk losing them so we have to make do without them until we can pick them back up.”
Sirius stares at him, trying very hard not to look at James' exposed skin. James pauses, his sleeve pushed up to his elbow. “What?”
“What are you doing?”
“What does it look like?” James grins. “Turning myself into a buffet.”
Sirius glares at him, which combined with the glowiness of his grey eyes does look a little spooky. “That's not funny, James.”
James sighs and lets go of his sleeve. “Come on, you know I'm right. If we want to get out of here I need you to be able to think clearly and not have a munchy problem.”
“Munchy problem,” Sirius repeats like he can't believe James just said that.
James shrugs. “Munchy problem. Furry little problem. I collect interesting friends. Now come on, eat up. Well, not up up. I need some blood still in me but.. you know.” James lifts his arm towards Sirius. “Cheers?”
“You are the bane of my existence, Potter.” Sirius grumbles but takes a step closer to James' arm so James sees it as a win. “What if I can't stop?”
James huffs like that was a silly thing to ask. “You're the most stubborn asshole I know. If your mind is set on not draining me, I think we're good.”
Sirius still hesitates.
“Really now,” James murmurs, a soft thing just between the two of them. “We had a whole conversation in here while you're basically starving and you didn't even try to nibble me yet. I know you can do it. I trust you, Sirius.”
Cold fingers close around James' wrist, sending a shiver through him. Sirius looks at him and James can feel his heart stumble in his chest. Of course he's nervous about this, but it's Sirius after all, so he holds Sirius' gaze and nods.
Sirius swallows and lowers his head and then cool lips brush over James' skin just below the rune.
It's a soft distraction, just for a moment, and then there is bright pain and -
It's like floating. Like dipping into warm sunshine. Like flying. Like a warm embrace. A bubble bath. There might be a moan slipping from James' lips, he's not entirely sure.
It's fizzy, it's warm, it's heady. It rushes though James' veins like champaign bubbles -
And then it's over, all of a sudden. James' gasps, his heart pounding in his chest. His eyes had fallen shut somewhen, he hadn't even noticed.
Opening them now he sees everything a little fuzzy, including Sirius who is looking at him, James' arm still cradled in his hands, his eyes glowing, but it's a warm glow now. Not the cold, eery light from before.
Holding James' gaze Sirius licks over the two little punctuation wounds in James' arm, licking away the blood that still seeps from them. James feels hot all over and a little dizzy.
Sirius looks down at the little wound and nods. The breaking of their eye contact makes James able to breathe again. “Well, at least this part is true.”
He lifts James' arm a little so James can see too how his flesh is already knitting back together like magic. Soon there will be no mark left on his skin.
James tries to push down the disappointment that rises in him.
Sirius lets go of James' arm and licks away the remains of James' blood off his fingers. James has to force himself to look away.
“So”, Sirius says once he's done. “What's your clever plan now for getting out of here?”
A grin spreads on James' face and he bends down to retrieve the knife he had hidden away in his boot before getting himself into trouble with the Death Eaters. The very same penknife that Sirius had given him for his last birthday – designed to open any lock. The knife that the Death Eaters were too dumb to look for once they had realized James had no wand on him.
Sirius laughs at seeing it, the sound sending a giddy rush through James. “Well then, let's wreak havoc on those idiots.”
Chapter 2
Notes:
Since I posted the first chapter of this for Prongsfoot Week 2024, it feels like a full circle moment to post the second one for Prongsfoot Week 2025 😊
I know it took me a bit to get to the conclusion of this story, but I still hope you'll enjoy it!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
The corridor outside their cell is completely dark once they close the door silently behind themselves. They've decided to leave their torch inside the room they were locked up in so they won't draw unwanted attention to the flickering light on their way out of here, but it's disorienting to go from a dimly lit room into total darkness. James blinks and holds his hands out to find the wall to guide him in the pitch-black darkness.
He finds Sirius instead.
“Sorry,” James whispers. He's pretty sure they are alone down here, but you never know with Death Eaters.
“What are you doing?” Sirius whispers back. “We have to go that way.”
“That would be really helpful if I could see where you're pointing.”
There is a bit of silence. “You can't see?”
“No. Nothing that new on my part, though,” James says with a shrug. “Just this time it's not a no glasses but a no light situation.”
“It's bright enough,” Sirius says and James can almost hear his frown. “There are multiple doors and some stairs at the end of the corridor.”
James blinks once again, but the total darkness stays. “I think that's another one of your vampire super powers,” he says and holds out his hand in the direction of Sirius' voice. “So I'll leave it up to you to get us out of this damp cellar.”
Sirius reluctantly takes James' hand into his own and James links their fingers together in a firmer grip. He won't let this new discovery of vampire night vision act as a reminder for Sirius that he's a little different now, which can only lead back to the stupid idea that James shouldn't be close to him.
Right now, close is good and vampire eyes are their guide out of here, so there really shouldn't be any complaints.
Vampire ears are also very good for sneaking out of imprisonment situations, as it turns out. “They are in the front part of the house. Might be the parlour,” Sirius whispers as they sneak their way up the stairs. “Five or six of them. Two more are closer to us. The dining room, I guess.”
“So taking the front door isn't a good idea,” James whispers as he slowly pushes the cellar door open to an empty corridor on the main floor, trying to ignore the throbbing pain of his ribs. Climbing stairs is not good for bruised ribs, noted. “Is there a back door?”
“To the garden.” Sirius points down the corridor the other way.
James blinks at him. “Did they give you a room tour before locking you up?”
“Yeah, and Narcissa had tea and cookies ready for me after we were done.” Sirius rolls his eyes as he follows James out into the corridor and closes the door behind them as silently as possible. “The Malfoys are just not creative. Their pretentious house is done the same way as the houses of most pretentious fuckers.”
And Sirius would know since he grew up around a lot of pretentious fuckers.
They sneak down the corridor undetected and eventually reach a glass door that leads outside into the sprawling gardens. This is where James realizes he might have miscalculated on the timing of their departure out of the house of vampiric horrors.
“Will the sun be a problem?”
Sirius eyes the red evening sun spilling across the immaculately cut lawn. “Let's find out,” he says and pushes the door open before James has any chance to stop him.
“Are you insane?”, James hisses as he follows Sirius quickly out the door and into the evening sunshine where Sirius stands thankfully completely unburned and not transformed into a pile of ash.
“I'm sorry,” Sirius says, not sounding sorry at all. “But I just don't think we have the time to sneak into Malfoy's library and see if he has any good books on vampirism.”
“So you just thought jumping head first into potential incineration is the way to go?”
Sirius shrugs. “It worked, didn't it. Now come on.”
James huffs but follows Sirius anyway. They try to keep to the hedges that run alongside the house so they won't be seen from the windows. It's slow going, hunched over into an awkward position, but it's progress nonetheless.
Until their way is suddenly blocked by a peacock.
“Good birdie,” James says, lifting his hands in a soothing manner, trying to show the bird that they are no threat. The peacock looks at him and spreads his tail. “Pretty birdie. Just let us pass, okay?”
The peacock screams.
James stares at the white peacock feathers. “That was uncalled for, just saying.”
The peacock screams again.
The door to the garden opens.
“Run,” Sirius says and James doesn't need to be told twice. They don't wait to see who's coming out. They make their way around the peacock and are off, sprinting across the lawn as shouts erupt behind them.
It doesn't take long for curses to follow.
James grits his teeth and tries to keep running despite the pain in his side. Who would have thought that doing an insane sprint across uneven, grassy ground would not be great when you have cracked ribs? There are curses flying past, too close for comfort, so they give up running in a straight line for the edge of the property and go zigzagging instead.
There are more voices behind them now. Maybe-Malfoy screams in anger and James can't help but grin. He's pretty sure Maybe-Malfoy will be in deep shit when Voldemort hears about them getting away. Serves him right, the twat.
A cutting curse brushes James' shoulder and makes him stumble. Pain stabs through his side as he tries to catch himself, knocking the breath right out of him. The edges of the world go blurry and dark, but then Sirius' hand is back in his own, pulling him along, and James gulps down another breath before he can faint.
Another door crashes open and three more Dearth Eaters spill out. Slowly this is becoming a party and James isn't into it.
“This way,” he pants, tugging Sirius off course and into the bushes. “Side gate.”
He found that one when he tried to find a way onto the property and while the wards kept him from using it for that, they won't hinder them now. Wards are designed to keep things out, not in.
A stupid mistake on the side of the Death Eaters, but James isn't too surprised about that.
Another curse comes flying, but it bounces off of Sirius' wandless shield charm and sets a nearby hedge on fire. It's really time to get out of here.
They reach the little side gate, designed for gardeners to come in and tend to the gardens without having to use the main entrance. James grabs the handle and pulls, but it's stuck.
"Merlin's sweaty balls," James curses. Some of the Death Eaters reach the bushes behind them already while one of them tries to get the fire under control. It won't be long now until they're caught up and James can just make out the tree he hid their wands in through the fence, standing there outside the property line, waving its leaves in the wind like a mockery.
"Let me," Sirius says and pushes James aside. He takes the handle and pulls.
The creaking sound the door makes is louder than a banshee screech, but it slowly opens. James doesn't wait for the door to make it all the way. The minute it's open enough for them to slip through, he worms his way out of Malfoy's gardens and through the wards, his ribs protesting, and runs for the tree. Sirius follows him and pulls the door back shut, buying them just a moment more time.
More curses fly through the fence and over the gate. James reaches the tree and yanks a small backpack out of a hollow on its trunk. He frees their wands, tossing the ebony one towards Sirius while he clutches his fingers around his own mahogany wand. The backpack goes clumsily over the shoulder of his good side before he reaches out and grabs Sirius' arm, holding on tight.
The first Death Eater crashes through the garden gate when James disapparates them.
They appear again in a small woodland area not far from the Malfoy estate. The tight squeeze of apparition is hell on James' ribs, but he tries to breathe the pain away.
He doesn't wait for Sirius to ask where they are before they are off again.
The edge of a lake comes into view when they appear out of thin air. James' grip on Sirius' arm will surely leave bruises.
"Are you okay?" Sirius asks, concerned, but James only nods through gritted teeth. He doesn't dare to speak, worried he will puke his guts out as soon as he opens his mouth. So instead of saying anything, he apparates them again.
It's a neat tactic to apparate multiple times. Magic leaves residue behind that can be tracked. Doing it multiple times in a row without lingering long in one place makes that kind of tracking a lot harder, if not impossible.
So James does it another time before he finally sets his mind on their real destination, another forest, but further north.
Trees appear before their eyes. Touched by the first crisp autumn days, the leaves are slowly turning colour to shades of yellow and red. There is a house hidden in the cluster of trees James has landed them in. It's one of the Order's safe houses, the one he stayed in during his search for Sirius, the last night before he made his way to Malfoy Manor.
He made it. He finally brought them to safety.
“James?” Sirius' asks, his voice soft on the autumn breeze. Soft and a bit blurred, like the colours and the trees.
Before James can answer or even take another step towards the house, the world goes suddenly dark. James falls, but he never hits the forest floor. Strong arms catch him like he knew they would.
Sirius has never let him fall after all.
**
James wakes to bird song and a soft autumn breeze coming in through the slightly open window. He's lying on a soft bed. His ribs still hurt, but his shoulder feels much better, already healed up beneath the new t-shirt he's wearing.
If he doesn't move much he's almost comfortable.
"You're awake."
"Define awake," James mumbles and blinks his heavy eyes open. The room is blurry without his glasses, but he can make out Sirius sitting next to him on the bed.
"The opposite of asleep."
"Smart-arse," James grumbles and struggles to sit up without pulling his ribs too much.
"Sorry," Sirius says, helping James to steady himself. "I would have tried to fix your ribs but my magic is a little bit… erratic at the moment." He lifts his hand and flicks his fingers, like he usually does to light the end of his cigarette, but instead of the small, controlled flame, there is a fireball erupting out of them, which he quickly extinguishes to not set the safe house on fire.
James stares at Sirius' fingers. "Yeah, that might be a problem. How did you fix my shoulder?"
"Same way I fixed your bite," Sirius says with a little shrug, but a slight bit of colour rises to his cheeks.
James looks at him, a slow grin spreading on his lips as he remembers how Sirius' tongue brushed over the bite wound he left on James' arm in Malfoy's dungeon after he took a sip of James' blood. "So your first instinct was to lick me."
Sirius glares at him, his eyes less glowy in the daylight but still a little eery to look at. "My first instinct was to not let you bleed out or to be too tempted to bite you again. You're welcome."
"All I'm hearing is that I'm an irresistible temptation," James grins and carefully reaches over to the nightstand, where he picks up his wand and glasses.
"You're an irritating nuisance," Sirius says, but James can hear the fondness in his voice along with the worry. "And a reckless fool for coming after me without backup."
"Ah, we're going into this now, are we?" James slips his glasses onto his nose.
“Yes, because I would like to know what the fucking hell you were thinking, coming after me alone.”
James sighs and brushes the tip of his wand along his bruised side, concentrating on the areas that hurt the most. Warmth spreads slowly along his side. There is a sharp pain that makes him grunt, followed by an icy feeling and cool relief.
As soon as the iciness fades, breathing works a lot easier. James drops his wand onto the bed and turns to Sirius. “What do you want me to say? That I wasn't thinking properly? Because yes, that's true, I wasn't. You were gone.”
“And you couldn't have waited a second to get some backup?” Sirius gets up from the bed so he can pace back and forth in the small bedroom. “Anyone from the Order? Remus? Peter? Anyone who would have helped you when you didn't even know what you'd be waking into.”
“I did ask them,” James says, leaning back against the headboard of the bed, watching Sirius' pacing. “But they were all taking too long. There was talk about how to do it and when to strike and what route to take, or if we should do nothing at all because it might just be a trap.”
“Which is a valid argument,” Sirius interjects. James narrows his eyes at him.
“Valid, huh?” he says, pushing away from the headboard to sit up straight as he feels anger rise in him. The same anger he felt when he was trying to get the Order to move but no one would listen to him. When there was argument after argument without any real plans. When Peter was wringing his hands and didn't offer any solutions. When Remus just looked at him with pity in his eyes.
“It is. They could have used me as bait,” Sirius insists, sounding just like Moody. “Fucking Merlin, they kind of did just that. They were so sure I would finish you off.”
“I don't care,” James growls. “It was worth the bloody risk!”
“No, James, it wasn't!”
“You really think that?” James' heart is hammering in his chest. He wants to get up and shake Sirius. “Then look me in the eye and tell me you would have waited for the Order to make a decision, play it all safe and maybe not come to a rescue mission at all, if the Death Eaters would have gotten to me.”
Sirius falters in his pacing.
“Come on,” James taunts, knowing what he does is unfair, but so is Sirius criticising him. “Do it. Look at me and tell me you wouldn't have taken the first opportunity to follow me when you had a perfectly good way to track me down, for exactly that reason.” James taps his fingertips against the small tracking rune on his arm, a matching set to the one that is tattooed onto Sirius' skin. “Tell me you wouldn't have come for me as soon as possible.”
“You know I can't.” Sirius looks at him, his shoulders dropping, all the fight leaving him at once. “You know I would have done the same if they would have taken you.”
“Then come down from your high hippogryph and stop judging me for what I did,” James huffs.
“But you could have gotten hurt, James.”
“And you could have died!” The words are out before James can hold them back. He closes his eyes and swallows hard. “Died more permanently.”
Sirius takes a step closer to the bed but stops himself from touching James. James opens his eyes again and looks up at him. “You have no idea how it felt when Peter came back from that patrol to tell us you were gone. You have no idea,” James pushes on before Sirius can interrupt him, “And I'm glad for that. I don't want you to know how it feels when a part of you is ripped away. I don't want you to know that kind of panic.”
“James.” Sirius says his name like it's punched right out of him, but James only shakes his head, needing to get it out. All of it.
“I wasn't thinking straight or clear or logical, I admit that, but I did know what to do. What I had to do. There was nothing that could have stopped me from following you into whatever hell they dragged you to.” He looks at Sirius, into those strangely glowing eyes. “I'd rather die than leave you to your fate.”
Sirius stares at him and James wonders if he said too much after all. If he spilled a little too much of his heart. Maybe Sirius doesn't understand what James is really trying to say here, doesn't understand or chooses to ignore it, like they both did with all those feelings blooming between them over the years.
Maybe he shouldn't have...
Before James has even a moment more to think, Sirius is moving, crossing the last few steps over to the bed. His knees hit the mattress next to James and his cool fingers cup James' face, pulling him into a fierce kiss that steals the breath from his lungs and any thought from his mind.
It takes a moment for them to come back online, for James to really register what is happening. What is finally happening.
He sighs into the kiss and deepens it as best as he can with that angle, unwilling to even part for a moment to find a better one. He has waited for this, hoping for this for a while now, but he wasn't sure if he could ever have it. Now that Sirius is finally kissing him, James is unwilling to ever let him go again.
After all, it only took a near death experience and an insane rescue mission to get them there.
James' fingers find the front of Sirius' shirt and pull him even closer, but this turns out to be a miscalculation on their balance. They topple over, falling onto the bed in a tangle of limbs. James' glasses are digging into his cheek, but he doesn't care. All he cares about is kissing Sirius, feeling him close. The cool brush of his lips, the slow heartbeat that speeds up beneath his hands.
The touch of fang that starts to sneak into the kiss.
James finally pulls back a little, taking the opportunity to gulp down a much needed breath of air. His eyes flick down to Sirius' lips, confirming the slight poke of the tips of fangs he can see there, pressing against Sirius' lower lip. “Are you hungry?”
“As we have established, you're an irresistible temptation.” Sirius sounds utterly breathless, his eyes glowing even more than they did before.
A shiver runs down James' spine. He tips his head back, just a little, to expose his neck just a bit more. Sirius' eyes follow the movement, seemingly unable to resist. It sends another shiver down James' spine as he feels that gaze like a touch. “What are you waiting for then?”
Sirius pulls his eyes away from James' neck. James can see him swallow hard as the tips of his fangs get even more visible. “Are you sure?”
James nods, his fingers sliding into Sirius' dark hair. “I have some blood-replenishing potions in my backpack. I promise to be a good boy and take some after.”
The look Sirius is giving him is full of heat and longing, like those feelings have always been there but now Sirius lets James finally see them. They steal James' breath away.
He tugs at Sirius' hair, guiding him towards his neck.
The bite that follows feels just as good and sweet as the first.
A small bit of pain and then – sunshine and champagne bubbles. The thrill of flying, of soaring. Warmth and euphoria.
It's almost better than the first bite, the one in Malfoy's cellar. James' eyes are closed, his fingers tangled in Sirius' hair, an anchor that keeps him from floating away.
Coming back down is better too. Sirius extracts his fangs much slower, licking over to punctuation marks to help them heal right away. It softens the fall out of that bubble of warmth, making it far less abrupt and leaving James boneless.
"Are you okay?” Sirius asks, concern clear in his voice.
“Yeah.” James blinks his eyes open. He feels a little floaty, a little warm, and a lot happy. He smiles up at Sirius, knowing he probably looks a little loopy, but he doesn't care. "Now come back down here and kiss me again before I have to take that disgusting potion."
Sirius laughs and does just that.
James absolutely can get used to this, fangs and all.
Notes:
Come find me on tumblr for more fun stories and snippets :)