It was summer. Remus laid on his bed in his house with a warm breeze flowing from the open window. He sighed rubbing his face. He felt the relief of living another through full moon and relaxed into the bed completely. His body ached and his stomach felt empty. These were all good signs of sorts. Despite his mother's insistence on his day of rest after the transformation, Remus had agreed to let his stop over.

"Remus," The quiet voice of his mother came from the crack in his bedroom door. "I've got some breakfast for you."

Remus sat up quickly to greet his mother. "I was going to come down and eat with you." She shook her head with a smile as Remus opened the door to let her in. He smiled as he saw her with two plates. She sat at his desk with her plate after handing him his.

"Honey, you should eat where you are comfortable after the wild night you had." She gave a small smile. She tried to use humor to approach most of the uncomfortable subjects. "How are you feeling?"

After sitting down on the floor leaning against his bed Remus nodded a few times. "I can't say I've been worse."

His mother seemed satisfied with the answer as she immediately changed the subject, "So these friends you have coming over, you've known them since…?"

"Since the first day." Remus laughed as he knew where the conversation was going. "They know all about it, mum. It's fine." He paused to fork food into his mouth and eat it. "I think that is why they are so adamant about coming over today. It's the first summer since they've found out that I have been away. I'm sure it's just concern. And they could be under some sort of assumption that you are very ill." Remus tried to brush it off like it was no big deal.

His mother looked worried. "Well I guess I will just have to trust your judgement. But why do they think I am ill?"

Remus shoveled more food into his mouth shrugging his shoulders. "I may have used that as an excuse when I went away… sometimes…" His mother just chuckled as Remus laughed along with her. "I don't understand it but even after explaining they still have concern for your health just as well as mine."

"Maybe you have picked a good bunch to hang out with." Remus enjoyed talks with his mother. He believed himself to be extremely lucky to have his parents as parents. They finished up their breakfast with some talk but when they were finished Mrs. Lupin took the dishes and went down to wash them. Remus laid back down. This time he fell asleep.

Hours later as Remus slept James and Sirius arrived at the train station.

"You ready to go see our little, Moony?" James greeted Sirius with a grin. Sirius gave an uneasy look to James. "Come on, if we go over to see him cheerful we can get him over his usual slump." Sirius nodded and began to speak but James cut him off, "And when we get there we check out his place, I mean, where does a guy like that live? I bet his parent must be something."

Sirius rolled his eyes at James. "Yeah, something. Listen, I don't think we should be snooping around too much with Remus' condition. Don't you think maybe he didn't tell his parents we know?" Sirius explained his concern when they were seated on the train.

James gave a few seconds to the thought. "You might be right. So we play it cool and just be surprised when we see him all tired and beat up?"

"That might be the best bet." Sirius nodded.

After his nap Remus woke up in a sort of a panic. He was panting and covered in sweat. It was already noon. He took a quick bath before heading down stairs to find his mother in the kitchen. "I've made lunch, Remus." She greeted him with a smile. It was easy not to see how much pain he was in now that he was rested. "Maybe you should rest on the couch. Your father fixed the television."

"Oh." Remus was still intrigued by television. A newly common muggle invention. While it did not have color in their house he had heard of some actually having color. "I think I will do that." His mother tended to like to have common things muggles had in their homes for when her family came to visit, if and when they did.

His mother brought in a sandwich and set it on the table near him with a large glass of water. He instantly chugged the water and headed into the kitchen to get more after finding something to watch. Shortly after there was a knock on the door. Mrs. Lupin's face quickly turned to her son's. "Do you want me to get that?" She seemed very nervous.

"I'll get it. It's probably them anyways." He walked to the door after setting his water down. Sure enough when he opened the door he was greeted with two happy faces. "Where's Peter?"

James instantly scoffed. "Oh well it's nice to see you too." Sirius chuckled and gave Remus a hug that instantly made him wince. James lightly pushed him away and whispered angrily, "Don't do that. You know that he hurts."

Sirius glared at James and whispered back, "I know I was trying to make it not seem obvious that we know."

"Well you don't have to hurt him to do that. It's not like his parents know you hug people. It's not like a common thing to hug people, like girls hug people." The whole time during the whispering Remus led them into the house watching them in bewilderment.

Sirius continued. "I want his family to know we are good friends. There's nothing wrong with hugging."

"I'm just saying it's odd. And you hurt him. It was quite obvious. His face went like this." James then exaggerated the face that Remus had previously made.

Remus finally interjected in a normal voice. "What's going on?"

Mrs. Lupin slowly walked into the room with a curious expression. "Hello," James greeted her loudly. "I'm James Potter and this is our good friend Sirius Black. We just wanted to come by today to see our-your little Remus." He seemed startled by her entrance.

"She knows you know." Remus stated plainly shaking his head at James and Sirius.

With a sigh of relief James relaxed. Sirius nodded to Mrs. Lupin. "It's very nice to meet you, Mrs. Lupin."

"It's very nice to meet the two of you, James, Sirius." She nodded to each other boys as she said their names. "Please, make yourselves at home."

Remus could tell Sirius and James were overly trying to be proper. "Relax, I don't want my mother to think you guys are that strange." After Remus spoke, Sirius gave his sigh of relief.

Mrs. Lupin gave the boys and her son and odd look. "Well there are sandwiches in the kitchen. Remus was just about to eat his lunch and you boys are welcome to it."

James smiled widely. "That is so kind of you. May I ask where Mr. Lupin is?"

"He's away. Working." Remus answered quickly. "He left this morning."

Mrs. Lupin smiled politely. "Well I'll leave you boys to it." She exited the room into the kitchen.

Remus walked to the couch and sat down the other two followed him. "So," James asked watching Remus expectantly. "How are you feeling?"

"Same as always. Hurts. I'm tired. I'm hungry." Remus took a bite out of his sandwich. "But it's nice to be home for a bit." He gave a smile to his friends.

Sirius sat staring at the television in awe. "That's good. We're so relieved to see you up and about." James smiled at his friend and looked to Sirius who was sitting beside Remus on the couch. "Aren't we?"

Remus then looked to Sirius as well. "Have you never seen a T.V. before?" he was partly surprised. Remus smiled and looked to James slightly chuckling. "You have no idea what to think do you?"

James rolled his eyes at Sirius. "We are concerned about our friend." He stated with slight annoyance.

Sirius broke his gaze and pat Remus and the back. "Yes, of course. I'm glad to see your mother is doing well too." Remus broke out into laughter and James gave in and sat down on the couch.

Remus happily boarded the train back to Hogwarts. It had been almost two months since he had seen his friends. As much as he would miss his comforts of home he was excited to see them and continue his studies. After he picked his compartment he relaxed with his head on the window. He knew he would be the first on the train. His third year as starting and always he was nervous about going back. He stood up and grabbed a book from his trunk. He sat down and began to read it getting completely immersed in the book.

Sirius stood outside the compartment door that was completely shut smiling at his friend. He did as a people pushed by. He was extremely happy his friend was looking well and rested since he hadn't looked so well that last time he saw him. Remus heard the commotion and looked up at Sirius with a small chuckle. It was about this time that James reached Sirius in the train's walk way. "What are you doing?" He was completely perplexed by Sirius not walking in. When he looked in he saw Remus shaking his head at Sirius with a smile.

After being startled by James, Sirius instantly entered the compartment sitting down next to his friend after putting his suitcase up. "I was just happy to see Remus doing so well."

"Doing well," Remus chuckled again. "You were being creepy, blocking the hallway and staring."

James put his luggage up as Sirius laughed. "It was not creepy. I was astonished by you, my friend." He jokingly took Remus' hand.

"Look at you poofs. I think I'll need to catch another room." He rolled his eyes at his friend and sat down.

Sirius let go of Remus' hand and leaned into his seat. "Oh, yeah right. Like someone as amazing as me can deprive the women of my lifetime my greatness."

Remus began to chuckle again. "Someone's ego has grown." James laughed with Remus. Peter entered the compartment to the laughter and began to smile.

"Peter, I haven't heard from you all summer, how are you?" Remus spoke as his laughing died out.

Peter put up his luggage with the help of Remus and quickly answered, "I've been pretty well. I just got busy over the summer with family stuff. How have you been, you know with the whole moon thing?" He asked looking at the door to make sure no one was paying attention.

Remus shrugged. "It's weird." He paused but gave a smile small before continuing. "Having you guys know. Every time we talk about it, I still feel surprised at the mention of it." This had everyone's complete attention. "I mean, don't get me wrong." Remus began to worry about how his friends felt about his statement. "It's nice having someone know besides my parents and elders. It's like I can relax and not be so deceiving to everyone. It's nice."

Sirius immediately snorted. "Is it nice or is it weird?"

"Shut up." Remus rolled his eyes and shoved Sirius playfully. "You know what I meant.

James watched his two friends and laughed along with them as did Peter. The rest of the ride was full of catching up and antics. They joked about each other's summer activities and explained how they spent the summer.

It wasn't until the night that anything strange had happened. Remus woke again in a panic in the middle of the night. Sirius had just snuck in from the common room. "Hey," He crept back to Remus' bed with concern. "You okay?"

Remus nodded while trying to slow his breathing. "It's just a bad dream. I keep having this dream of him. I don't even see him or remember him really. I just know it's him." Sirius gave Remus and odd look.

"Who scares you this much?" Sirius quickly put on a comical macho pose and deepened his voice slightly. "'Cause you know, I can rough 'em up for you."

Remus shook his head with a breathy laugh. "It's not like that." He got more serious and looked down at his interlaced fingers in his lap. "It's nothing serious. Nobody you know. Just a bad dream I have from time to time. I was just so panicked by the dream I started blurting things out."

Sirius sat down on the bed. "It's cool if you want to talk about it. I understand. Sometimes if you can talk about stuff you're not so intimidated by it."

"What?" Remus looked to Sirius and was surprised by his sincerity. "You'd just want to talk it out? My fear of the one who…?"

Sirius made a confused noise. "What?" It got quiet. Sirius put it together quickly. "I get it. It must have been pretty traumatic. You want to go play the symbols game? We can talk about it or get your mind off it."

Remus nodded. "It'd be nice to get my mind into a better place before going to sleep again." Remus followed Sirius downstairs to the now empty common room. "What were you doing down here?"

"I was just catching up with some of the other people in Gryffindor." Sirius sat down at a table and Remus took the other seat. He grabbed a copy of the Daily Prophet and they began to take turn naming and drawing in the symbols they knew. "You should really not even give him a thought you know." Sirius paused to write down a name. "He doesn't deserve your thoughts, a guy like that."

Remus smiled as he received the newspaper and filled out a few that he knew. "I know. I just worry that one day, he'll come back. My parents don't like to talk about it. Hell with my dad's job, I'm surprised he ever accepted it."

"What does your dad do?" Sirius asked looking curiously at Remus.

"He works for the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. It's kind of ironic. That he would get this kind of a son. I'm surprised I haven't ruined that for him."

"Ruined it? You've probably made him better at his job." Sirius shook his head in disbelief. "I mean containing you and keeping you safe at the same time is an amazing feat." Sirius watching his friend fill out more answers. "I'm amazed by you sometimes, you know." Remus gave Sirius a puzzled look. "You know, after everything you've been through, are going through…" Sirius exhaled with wide-eyes. "Will go through. You're here. You're getting on with your life and dealing. I couldn't imagine being in your situation."

Remus rubbed his face. "Well thanks." He said sarcastically. "I'm glad I awe and inspire you." He rolled his eyes.

Sirius laugh quietly. "I'm serious."

"Ha, ha, I know you are."

"No, really. You can probably never understand how amazing you are. Fighting through it every time, living without speaking of it to others all these years."

Remus sighed in frustration. "It's not like I have a choice."

Sirius smiled. "It's not like that. You're happy." Remus shrugged. "You have people who love you regardless of what happens. You could have grown up and done anything with this problem and yet, you sacrifice yourself every time in order to protect others." Remus once again looked puzzled. Sirius sighed and thought for a few seconds. "I bet there are hundreds, maybe thousands, of people like you out there that purposely use their condition to hurt or turn people."

"I could imagine." Remus agreed. "I couldn't live with myself if I learned I had hurt someone or killed someone." Remus looked down at the floor in disgust. "Or turned someone."

After sitting in silence for a few seconds Sirius smiled. "Well cheer up, Mate. If I know you that will never happen." He pushed the newspaper away since neither of them were paying it any attention. "I know that every year that goes by you'll be more careful and smarter about it."

"I don't even want to think about it." Remus felt hopeless in the matter sometimes and talking about tended to bring up his worst fears about the future. About his future. "Let's just go to bed. I just want to get this night over with." Remus stood up and headed back to the room leaving Sirius to trail slowly behind him.

Sirius laid awake thinking about a way even if only temporarily he could help Remus with his problem. Sirius knows that James was already on the case as soon as they found out. He just felt like there may be something more immediate he could do.