Title: Forgiveness

Author: moonbaby97

Disclaimer: all characters belong to Ms. Rowling. I'm jealous.

Forgiveness

/Today is the worst day of my life. And I've had a lot of those. This one tops them all though/ he thought bitterly as he fell asleep. When the young werewolf woke up he was still in pain. Less pain, defiantly, but both the physical and emotional pain were still there. Remus Lupin opened his eyes and immediately closed them against the bright white light of the Hospital Wing. He heard the door open and then close and the familiar steps of none other than James Potter walking towards his bed. /Not now, James/ he thought.

"Moony, I know you're awake, you always wake up so early," James said.

"Go away, James," he replied sleepily.

"I've always wondered how you can constantly wake up so early after going through all that," James kept going. "How are you?" he asked, suddenly concerned.

"I'm not in the mood, Prongs," Remus mumbled.

"We're all really sorry you were alone the other night. All of us, Moony. He feels really bad. He hasn't said a word to anyone science then. Not the teachers, not even me, Remus! he feels terrible, he's cried himself to sleep the past two nights, not that he'd admit it. He even skipped Quidditch practice and I had to make up some excuse for him! He really is sorry," James finished.

"Then he can come over here and tell me himself! I he's not enough of a man to even come say 'Im sorry' then I don't want to talk to him anyway. I don't want you to apologize for him, James, he needs to tell me himself."

"Okay, okay. I have to get to class, but I'll come by again later, alright? Feel better for us." Then he left. Remus couldn't understand why Sirius would do something like that, how any of them could. /Dad always told you to stay guarded, not to trust anyone, that they'd either hate you or wouldn't be able to keep their mouths shut. I guess he was right/ he thought.

The rest of the day passed uneventfully. James did come by again, twice more actually. Once with Peter and the second time with his new girlfriend, Lily Evans. Remus hadn't been sure if they could trust her when James first brought the idea of including her in his little secret, but he had insisted, and Lily took it very well. Remus was quite fond of her, she was smart like him, so they always had something to talk about. /James is gonna marry that girl/ he thought with a smile.

Then for what seemed like the hundredth time that afternoon Madame Pomfrey came to check on him. He was feeling a lot better. "I believe you will be able to get back to your classes for tomorrow. Spend the night here so I can be sure, but you're doing much better. Mr. Potter shouldn't have to bring you any more 'homework'," she said with a smile. She knew James did a lot more talking than bringing homework, but she had a soft spot for the young werewolf. He groaned. "You're going to have to go back sooner or later anyway," she reprimanded him before walking back to her office.

Remus slept poorly that night and morning came all too soon. Sure enough he passed inspection and had to go back to classes. He went to the Great Hall for breakfast early, then timed it perfectly so that he didn't run into Sirius on the way back to the Common Room to grab his books. Unfortunately, they had Herbology together that morning, so he couldn't avoid their confrontation forever. He got to Herbology just on time so there was little time to talk and took a seat next to Peter. He could feel Severus glaring at him and he tried desperately to ignore it. The class passed painfully slow and when it was over Remus left quickly. He went straight to Ancient Ruins, a class Sirius had thought too boring to take. The Marauders ate lunch in silence and again Remus left quickly.

They went on like this for three weeks; Sirius and Remus not only not talking to each other, but to the others as well. Then, the day before the next full moon while Remus was sitting by the lake, Sirius came over and sat next to him. Neither of them said anything for a long time until Remus finally said, "Why'd you do it?" pain evident in his voice. "Did you really want me to kill him? Did you want me to have his blood on my hands? Were you trying to make me a murderer?" He was practically screaming at the other boy. Luckily there was no one else around. Sirius refused to look at him, something Remus noticed. "Goddamn it, Sirius, look at me!" he demanded.

It worked, Sirius did look at him. The dark haired boy looked like he was either going to burst into tears or vomit. "Im so sorry, Remus. You have no idea how incredibly sorry I am, and I don't think I'll ever be able to find a way to tell you. I feel awful. No- worse than awful. I... I just wasn't thinking."

"Sirius, you're never thinking! But this time your actions could have resulted in me killing someone! How could you do that?"

"I was jealous, okay?" Sirius said, raising his voice. "at you were studying with him, helping him with whatever, and you weren't spending any time with us, Remus! Like I said, I wasn't thinking. He wanted to know where you were and when I wouldn't tell him the greasy fit kept bugging me, pushing my buttons. And I snapped. I figured if he needed to know where you were so bad, if he felt like he owned you, then he should at least know the real you. It wasn't until after he left that I realized what I had done. I think I went into shock after that, because all I remember was telling James that he had to save Snivellus and him screaming at me. I was jealous, and stupid, and a really, really bad friend. A bad Marauder. And I'm so sorry, but would completely understand if you didn't forgive me and never spoke to me again," he said, looking sad and defeated.

Remus looked at him. Had he really been spending that much time with Severus before? True, he was helping him with his Defense Agains the Dark Arts project, but... Then Remus realized Sirius was still staring at him, waiting for an answer. "Please say something, Rem," he whispered.

"Sirius Black... Was jealous?" he said, a smile breaking across his face. "Padfoot- you were jealous of Snape?" Remus was trying really hard not to burst out laughing.

"So I take it I'm forgiven?" Sirius said, still unsure, but smiling greater than he had in a while.

"Yes, Padfoot; I've just been waiting for you to say you were sorry, I couldn't stay mad at you." And the two boys hugged each other letting weeks of tension go- reveling in the friendship they shared.

The End.

I don't really like the end... That seems to happen to a lot of my fics.