Moon Set

by Faber Wolffe

Disclaimer: I don't own HP and I'm not after money.

Warning:  This is TERRIBLY depressing.

            "Remus!  Remus!  Goddamnit, Remus, answer me!" Sirius pleaded shaking the form of his friend who was lying motionless, face down on the floor.  Something had gone wrong in the transformation, he had heard it in Remus's scream as the moon set.

            Sirius turned him over, and Remus gave a feeble cough, and opened his eyes.

            His voice shook, but as always was still calm, "Sirius…"

            "Remus, are you okay?"

            Remus tried to smile, even as a few tears began to form in his eyes.

            "Just hold me."

            No… This can't be happening, he thought desperately, but one look at the feeble figure before him, gray haired but barely fifty years old, he knew.  The transformations put so much strain on the body and mind, one would eventually just stop functioning and now... Sirius thought.

            Last night was the last full moon his friend would have to suffer.

            "Remus," Sirius choked, pulling his friend into his arms.  "Please don't do this to me, Remus… Moony…"

            "Sirius… It'll be okay," Remus tried to comfort Sirius who was beginning to shake worse than he was.

            Sirius looked at his eyes and chuckled softly.  "God, I'm supposed to be the one comforting you."

            Remus smiled too.  "It's okay."

            "Are you sure you don't want me to call for a medi-wizard?" Sirius said beginning to get up.

            With a surprisingly strong grip, Remus grabbed Sirius's arm.  "No.  Please, don't leave me alone.  And there's nothing they would be able to do anyway.  No cure for lycanthropy, always fatal," Remus recited.

            "Okay," Sirius said, biting his feelings back.  "I'll be right back, I'm just going to get a blanket."

            Remus stared at him hard.

            "That's all, I swear, Marauder's honor," Sirius stated, and retrieved a blanket faster than one would have believed possible.  He wouldn't have left Remus even then, and just used a summoning charm if he had his wand with him, but on full moons both he and Remus would lock up the wands so that Moony and Padfoot couldn't break them.

            When he came back, Remus wasn't moving and Sirius's heart stopped.

            "Remus?" he called softly.  And approached his friend.  "Remus?"

            His eyes were horribly dilated, almost completely black but he turned his head in Sirius's direction and his voice shook slightly.  "I can't see, Sirius."

            At least he can't see me cry, Sirius thought as a tear leaked out.

            "Did you get the blanket, it's so cold…"

            "Yea… I got it.  I'm right here, Remus."

            Sirius pulled Remus into his lap, rapping up his shivering form in the quilt and taking hold of his thin hands.

            "I don't want you to go," Sirius whispered.

            Remus didn't answer, but a few moments later he began to speak more to himself than anyone.

            "I always thought I'd be afraid or try to fight this, but I just realized, I don't have any regrets, there's nothing that I need to stay behind for and fix."

            "Nothing?"

            Remus shook his head.  "No.  Nothing, I tried my hardest at everything and had the best friends the world could offer.  Nothing else matters."

            A sob escaped Sirius's lips, but Remus's eyes had suddenly focused on something even though Sirius couldn't tell what it was.

            Remus gasped for breath and whispered, "Is that you, James?"

            And in another moment he closed his eyes and was gone.

A/N: AAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUHHHHHHHHH!! SHOOT ME!  I'M EVIL!!!  WHAT IN GOD'S NAME POSSESSED ME TO WRITE THIS?!?!  ::goes into corner and sobs::  *sniffle* don't hate me… I just had to write it and get it out of my head.