Lost and Found

by Team Alpha Wolf Squadron

AU. Running away from home, Sirius wasn't meant to be found at the bottom of Remus' garden with a broken arm. Stuck as Padfoot he needs to come up with a way out of Remus' home before term starts again.

"Mum!"

Sirius stirred and cast off the palm that had been stroking his head. Whoever it was that shouted wasn't deterred by Sirius' motion as he, once again, lay his hands on him.

"I think he's hurt."

His vision was having a hard time clearing and his head wasn't making things any easier. The pounding took some working past before he was able to remember what had happened.

He had ran away from home. Last night in fact. The aim was to get to James' within an hour of his escape. The Knight Bus had other plans. One look at his battered face and twisted arm had the conductor urging him to go to Mungo's. The only problem with that was, if he did, there would be no doubt his parents would turn up and make a big show about it. They had just let go of him last night. The time between then and his next term at school was crucial in severing the hold his family had on him. One lapse and they would be sinking their hooks back into him. His mother would silently hate him but if it would save them from having to explain disowning their own son...

So no, he couldn't go to Mungo's and had in fact asked to be let off the bus as soon as he noticed the streets leading to the hospital.

Things got rather blurry after that. He remembered someone giving him a lift. A muggle, if he wasn't mistaken, they too had insisted on a hospital but not as much as the conductor. Eventually they let it go and took Sirius as far as they could to the outskirts of London. Another two lifts from strangers had him as close as he was going to get to James' house that night and he decided to have a small sleep before starting the journey afresh in the morning. His wounds had started becoming a problem at that stage. To lessen the severity of the pain he had transformed into Padfoot. It had started out as a challenge in second year. They had seen McGonagall do it, change into an animal, and when they were told they wouldn't be able to do it until after school and even then it might never happen they decided that they were going to try it. Turning into a cat would be the ideal way to get away with mischief, no one would suspect three schoolboys to be able to perform such magic. As for the stint in Azkaban if they got caught... it hadn't really crossed their minds at the time. So Sirius changed. The dog, while still able to feel pain, a lot of it, was able to push it aside in favour of necessity. Sleep was what Sirius needed so the thoughts of his injuries left his mind as he curled up under a tree. He really should have looked where he was before doing so which was being proved now as the boy ran his hand over Sirius' hurt paw.

A yelp and half hearted nip had the boy pulling away only for him to be replaced with his mother.

"It looks broken," She said and must have made some motion to the boy as he was running off as she finished. The hands left his paw and hesitantly stroked his neck. "Don't you worry, we'll take you to the vet and have you fixed up in no time."

No!

He tried to sit up. He needed to get to James. However the boy had returned almost as fast as he had taken off. His hands were there to push Sirius back down and hold his face still as much stronger arms lifted him up.

"He's going to be alright isn't he?" The boy asked.

"Nothing worse than what we see on you son." The man's deep voice shook Sirius' injured head and made him whine as he jostled his paw.

The vets turned out to be as worse as he thought. The boy was stronger than he looked as he made sure Sirius didn't bite anyone that came close to him. Instead he whispered pleasantries in his ear and held his neck soothingly as the evil man in white twisted his paw this way and that. How Sirius wished he could turn back into a human. The vet wouldn't dare touch him then. But of course if Sirius did that he would be looking at a stint in Azkaban for breaking the Statute of Secrecy and being an illegal, under-age animagus. How the world liked to torture him.

Finally the vet had tired of his paw and moved onto his face. Opening his jaws to look at his teeth and then at his eyes and skin he peeled back through his fur.

"He's definitely took a battering," The vet observed. Like the other's hadn't already come to that conclusion. "We'll have to set that paw right before bandaging it. As for his head... I think he'll be fine once we clean him up. Where about did you find him again? I'm sure his owners would like to know what's going on."

"That's the thing," The mother said. "Remus found him at the edge of our garden this morning. No collar and I'm not sure if he's chipped. Even if he does have owners... it just makes me wonder how they could have let their dog get into such a state."

"He could have ran away," The vet guessed. "It's not uncommon. Have you had anyone move recently near you? Sometimes pets get confused and try to go back to their old homes."

There was an awkward silence for a while before the father answered. "We live at the edge of the village. No neighbours for miles."

"Oh," Something in the vet's tone had Sirius thinking he recognised who was in his surgery. It made him anxious about the people who found him if someone who hadn't had any former contact with them before knew about their reputation. Just like the first years that came to school, they didn't know a thing about Hogwarts but if someone so much as mentioned one of his or his friends names they would be turning as white as a sheet. "Well, I suppose the theory is still sound. He might have stopped walking because of his injuries. In any case I'll see if I can find anything on him before we operate."

Operate?

Sirius struggled and whined pitifully when his escape was, once again, stopped by Remus. The boy's hands were back and pushing him to lie flat on the table as the vet turned back to him.

"Everything's going to be alright," Remus cooed. "The vet just wants to fix you up. You don't want a mangled paw forever do you?"

No, but as soon as he got away from these people he could find Mr and Mrs Potter and have them set it right. No operations needed.

His silent protests went unheeded as the vet injected him with something.

The next time he woke was in some cage. Small and confining Sirius would have cried if dogs could shed tears. As it was he did a good job of whining and whimpering until the vet strolled in and tugged him out.

A brief examination at which Sirius realized he had been violated and operated on without permission before the vet patted him on the head and carried him through the surgery's doors.

With Sirius' blurry vision before he hadn't had a good chance to see his captors. It seemed he would never get a good look at them since the vet had deemed it necessary to put a cone on his head as he dropped him with the family.

He growled as a pale face popped into view, it seemed to have no effect since Remus just grinned at him and smushed his face.

"- much?"

"I know it's a lot and he's not your dog-" Sirius perked up at his mention.

"No, no we'll pay it." Something in the father's tone had Sirius wondering if he should really be this negative against them. They were, after all, paying for a dog they didn't know and had brought him here when they could have just shooed him out of their garden. It seemed Sirius' stint with his family had made him forget that there actually were good people in the world and he was amongst some of them now. Therefore he made a vow to himself that he would pay them back as soon as he escaped to James'.

Remus didn't seem to have the same view about the money issue as the rest of his family did. The wide grin merely dropped before coming back in full force as he asked his dad. "Does this mean we're keeping him?"

A weary sigh. "Remus..." The boy's grin dropped.

The vet found it helpful to interject "He isn't collared. If he does have an owner it'll be hard to get in touch with them."

The happy look was back on Remus' face, "We can at least keep him until we find his owners dad. Hard to get in touch doesn't mean they're not out there. We can put up posters and ring around."

Remus' father popped into Sirius' line of vision. A weary face that looked remarkably like his sons. He looked at Sirius for a while, a look Sirius had learned long ago on the faces of his teachers. It merely said, this is just temporary, it won't be forever. "Just until we find his owners."

Sirius was carried back to the house by Remus' father after a brief, but extremely exciting, trip in a muggle car. Sirius' tail was wagging non-stop as he was put down in Remus' room. Everything he passed in the house was muggle. They even had one of those telovisions that Sirius had learnt about in Muggle Studies.

Remus' room was full to the brim of muggle things. A ball that was chequered in black and white along with books Sirius had never even heard of. Best of all was his music. He had a radio in his room that played all sorts of muggle songs Sirius enjoyed listening to as he settled in.

The boy himself was excited to have Sirius in his room. The first thing he did, even as his father instructed him not to, was take off the wretched cone. His neck free he gave himself a good shake before curling up like a good dog so Remus wouldn't put it back on him. After that Remus had ran out of the room and came back with his arms laden with blankets and cushions he set up into a dog bed. Although shabby it was better than sleeping on the floor so Sirius allowed it to stay.

The rest of the afternoon was spent with Remus alternating his time between his parents and Sirius. Now they had a dog in the house there were things they needed to buy for him. Food for one thing, although Sirius would have been happy with the scraps from their table rather than dog food. Then there was that brief photo-shoot he was subjected to. Pulled and prodded this way and that as Remus' parents sought to find the best position before finally settling on one. Despite the annoyance the picture process took he was rather happy with the end result as Remus let him look at one of the posters they were to hang up.

"... but if we don't find your owners I'm sure you'll have grown on mum and dad enough that they'll let you stay with us."

Poor Remus. If only he knew Sirius was just waiting for him to fall asleep so he could escape.

As the evening turned to night Remus grew steadily wearier until he was almost falling asleep in front of Sirius. His arm drooped as he let off a yawn, the ball Remus had been pushing around Sirius forgotten as his eyes shut for a while. Starting, Remus finally called it a night and went to brush his teeth.

Coming back in it didn't take long for his form to still telling Sirius that now was the time to make his big escape.

Lifting himself onto his newly operated on paw he limped out of the room and down the small hallway to the stairs. The trick to getting down safely, he concluded, was to slowly go down on his front with his behind following a step at a time.

At the bottom he paused as he heard Remus' parents up ahead and sought a way around them. Finding one, he crept along the wall near the stairs only to pause. There was an odd scent coming from the stairs. No, under them. He spotted the door a bit away and reluctantly went closer before careening back with a start. Whatever was down there wasn't friendly. It stank of blood and piss only just masking the smell of a big animal. He listened carefully to see if he could hear whatever down there.

His curiosity cost him as someone patted his head. Looking up he grumbled into the face of Remus' mother. Caught and with nothing to show it had been worth it he reluctantly followed her into the sitting room where she stroked him in front of the fire.

He had to admit that it was nice being here. Remus' parents didn't shout or call him, they practically doted on him and after running away from a family like his it was nice to be wanted for a change. He told himself that was why he fell asleep. It was the cosiness of this house, this family, that tricked him into succumbing to spending the night, and the one after and the one after...

"Don't suppose you know any tricks?" Remus asked him one morning. They were sitting outside as Lyall cooked more meat on the barbecue. He remembered Hope telling them that she would be back later with some distant relative of hers that was staying the night.

"Remus don't taunt him," Lyall warned as Remus held the sausage above Sirius' nose.

"I'm not," Remus argued even if the sausage didn't come down. "I'm just seeing if there's any sign that he's been domesticated." Sirius remained resolute in his seating posture. There was no way he was doing any tricks for Remus, no matter how many sausages he had, nor how long it had been since he had meat. Finally Remus gave up and let Sirius wolf the sausage down. A pat to his neck had him looking up into Remus' kind face. "It's alright that you don't know any tricks. I know I'd hate anyone making me learn any." Sirius wished, not for the first time in four days, that he could grin at Remus. The boy was surprising. He had such weird expectations for Sirius. For example when the Lupins had bought him a collar on his second day with them Remus had taken it off as soon as his parent's backs were turned. Apparently Sirius should only wear one when he was going for a walk which wasn't likely with his paw still in recovery. Sirius honestly hadn't minded the collar. It had been a good make and fit. Better than the one James had bought him in any case. He promised himself that he would take it with him when he left. If he left. Sirius was surprised when he realised he wasn't so bothered about leaving just yet. He knew he had to. He had school, and before that he needed to get his supplies and things from home. But for now he was out of his parent's sight and with a boy that spent all of his free time with Sirius. He was fed as often as he wanted and Remus was always willing to play with him. He didn't really want to leave yet.

Hope's guest arrived soon after Remus slipped him half of his burger. The two of them were lying on the grass watching the clouds go by when Remus let off a sigh and sat up.

"Hello Grandma," He greeted. Sirius started. Remus had better ears than him.

The elderly woman made her way towards Remus with open arms. She kissed him lavishly before turning her attentions to Lyall. Sirius grinned as well as he could as he watched Remus wipe all of his Grandma's kisses from his face and lie back down next to him. He wasn't grinning long as the old woman finally noticed him and set about complaining to Hope. He said complaining, it was more like she was torn between liking him and wanting him booted onto the streets. She complained about his fur but complimented his breed. She complained about his height and then followed that up with a compliment about how well behaved he was.

"But what about Remus," She started as if the boy wasn't three feet away from her. "What if the dog is too rough with him. He's fragile as it is." Sirius heard a snort even as he agreed with the woman that Remus was kind of fragile. If Sirius were any other dog he doubted the boy would be so happy to have him around. There was something wrong with his leg. The second morning Sirius had been with them Remus had taken him on a short walk and grinned that they were two of a pair. Both of them limping almost as badly as the other. Sirius had never seen the boy undressed so he didn't really know what was wrong. All he knew was that he had to be careful when he jostled Remus as they played together.

"He's fine mother," Hope interjected as the woman started again. "And it's only until we find his owners."

"Still..." and the woman went on again. It seemed the Lupins were used to her complaints as they sat through it with a deaf ear. Remus soon tired of even that and took Sirius up to his room on the pretence of summer homework. In reality he played with Sirius for a while before trying to create a castle out of cards.

Remus stayed holed up in his room for the rest of the afternoon. He walked Sirius in the evening so he could, rather embarrassingly the first few times, relieve himself. Saying goodnight to his family Remus ruffled Sirius' fur as he got ready for bed.

Getting comfortable Sirius settled in for the best part of his days here. Sure, spending time with Remus was fun but there was something else that made his stay here all the more interesting. The boy came back in stretching his arms above his head and letting his shirt ride shamelessly up his chest. Sirius didn't blink at the scars on his stomach. After the first time seeing them the shock had worn off. Instead he focused on Remus' smell. It was strongest in the mornings and just starting to peak as Remus climbed into bed. During the day the smell of Remus' shower masked his natural scent and it was only over the hours spent away from the smelly shampoo bottles that Remus' finally smelled interesting. Like the door under the stairs. He didn't smell like blood and piss, nor of the animal that lived down there. At least not fully the animal. It was hard to explain to himself which was why Sirius enjoyed this part of the day. He loved a good mystery and Remus was one unto himself.

So Sirius sniffed and sorted through the smells that made up Remus. There was the musky smell of books that stained his hands and face. Grass from their earlier liaison. Chocolate that Remus sneaked as often as he could and the natural sweat that came from a healthy sixteen year old. Then there was that smell. Just wafting occasionally from his skin. Animal and dangerous. Sirius sniffed it in as much as he could until he concluded that Remus knew what was down in the cellar.

Grandma Howell didn't stay long the next day. She had lunch before Hope drove her to the train station leaving Sirius free to spend his time with Remus without a running commentary in his ear.

Today they were going for a walk into town. For some reason Remus seemed agitated that day and wouldn't listen to his parents suggesting the pair of them stay indoors. They trailed around the shops until the pair of them had to take a seat to catch their breaths. As Remus kicked his bad foot out to stretch Sirius caught a glimpse of bandages hiding up his trouser.

As if knowing what Sirius had found Remus stroked his head and pointed to his leg. "It's still healing. Dad had to take me to a hospital. It was badly mangled but the doctors wouldn't help us. Dad tried his best after that but it's taken longer than it would have because they wouldn't help us. No doubt it'll be worse in the morning." The bitter tone carried into his laugh and Sirius frowned at the idea of a medical professional not helping someone in need. What had Remus done to deserve that kind of treatment?

Sirius didn't dwell on the fact that Remus said it would be worse in the morning until he was pulled away from his boy and held hostage by Hope in the sitting room. He heard Lyall and Remus talking but couldn't make out most of it over Hope's repeated. "It's going to be alright. He does this every month..."

Finally the puzzle pieces fell into place when he heard a door opening and locking. An hour later howls and screams shook the small house.

The Lupins didn't sleep. Sirius didn't sleep. He had given up trying to rescue Remus when he realized that was Remus down there. Hope wasn't too guarded about discussing Remus' condition when it was howling for their blood.

"What if he tears off another limb. You remember what happened with his foot." Oh Merlin Remus had torn his own foot off!

Sirius whimpered pitifully as Remus demanded his escape. He was sharing a house with a werewolf. He should have left days ago.

"I know and I repaired it. I'll do the same again in the morning."

Sirius' shaking stopped as his doggy mind wandered from the subject of Remus' lycanthropy and over to how they healed him. Remus had said the hospital wouldn't help him. There was no way a muggle could attach a foot like that without professional help and what he knew of Lyall Lupin was that he wasn't a doctor. Sirius had a sinking feeling he was in a house with wizards.

"He's still limping from that. I don't see why we can't just take him to the doctors," Hope argued.

"Because they'll ask questions, they'll take him from us. You don't want that, and Merlin knows I don't. This is the best arrangement we have," Lyall snapped. Sirius knew it wasn't from anger. The man looked too weary to be angry.

"I know but..." Hope clutched to Sirius' fur tighter as she worried over her son. "I can't believe people with abilities like you can just ignore someone like Remus. What's he ever done to anyone? They should be trying to help him!"

Sirius had fifty case studies back in Hogwarts that could tell Hope why people like Remus were ignored. They were dangerous and killed people.

"I know that," Lyall took Hope's hands into his own. Sirius breathed a sigh of relief as he was finally able to sink in front of the fire. He reared up when he realized he could hear the wolf's panting from that low down. "But it's more the mass than the singular. Wizards don't look at Remus and see him for who he is. They see statistics and hysteria from years of bad press. If I could make people change their minds I would. I would make them see our son for a person. Someone who's normal, who's kind and, through no fault of his own, is cursed with this illness he can't control. But I can't."

Sirius scoffed internally at the notion of werewolves being normal until he remembered the past few days. Remus' kind face and playful attitude. Suddenly it was hard to associate that boy with a bloodthirsty beast.

Things only got worse when the moon went down and Lyall returned with a battered body. Remus didn't look alive and for a second Sirius feared he was dead. Upon licking his hand he whined in relief as the fingers closed slightly over the fading warmth.

Following the Lupins to Remus' room he sat guard as Lyall pulled out a wand from Merlin knew where and set to work on Remus' cuts. Finished, he let Hope take over in washing the worst of the blood from his body before leaving Remus to sleep his bad night off.

Sirius walked over. The stench of the wolf was heavy on Remus' skin and warded him off before Sirius remembered Remus had never hurt him. Hopping onto his bed Sirius carefully made his way to the top of the bed and just looked at the boy. The boy that was a werewolf.

An hour later and he was cursing every book he had read about werewolves. What use were they to the wizarding world? They held no real information except to warn wizards about one night out of the month. They said nothing about how normal a werewolf was the rest of the time. How kind they could be. How they were just like anybody else, like Hope said. Or maybe that was just Remus. Perhaps Remus was the exception to the werewolf race because even if those books were right they were wrong about Remus.

Coming to that conclusion Sirius curled up around his wounded charge and napped the day away.

He woke as Remus removed his arm from under him. The boy grinned when he saw Sirius awake and smushed his face like he had the first day they met.

"I thought you might have ran away," Remus hugged him close. "Dad said animals don't like werewolves. Guess you must be fearless, and lucky me to have found you." Sirius licked at a clear patch of skin, happy to hear Remus chuckle into his neck.

Sirius doted on Remus as much as he could the following week as he recovered. If the boy looked ready to fall over he was there to let Remus lean on him. If Remus so much as sneezed Sirius was there with a roll of toilet paper in his mouth. He tried to make it seem like things, such as the toilet paper, were only there because he wanted to chew on them. Just ordinary dog things but Sirius suspected that Remus was starting to gather he wasn't an ordinary dog.

By the end of the week Remus was allowed outside again. Now Sirius was aware Remus' father was in fact a wizard he paid special attention to the family. He listened to Hope and Lyall talk about their jobs and noted that Lyall refused to go into details when he spoke. The man was smart. With all the killings going on lately it would only be too easy for someone to sneak in and overhear that Lyall was laying low with a muggle woman and report back to You-Know-Who. Sirius knew there was no way Hope was a witch. Too familiar with everything muggle for a start and then there was the fact that she often flinched whenever Lyall did take out his wand, even if he was just putting it somewhere safe. Remus on the other hand was a mystery. A Half-Blood without a doubt but so far Sirius hadn't seen any magical maladies. Nothing like what he had done as a child when his magic had presented itself. Then there was the fact that Remus was a werewolf. It was highly possible that his magic gave up on the boy after the bite. That or Remus was exceptionally good at hiding it. Either way Sirius knew that Remus wasn't attending any wizarding school. A root around his room showed no magic books, cauldrons or anything non muggle and Sirius had never seen the boy in Hogwarts.

"You are in so much trouble," Remus said. No hint of malice in his voice as he picked up a fallen book. "I leave you alone for five minutes while I help mum with the cooking and come back to a destroyed room." Sirius had the smarts to look down and whine pitifully. Remus chuckled. "No, I'm mad at you. Don't pull that crap." Sirius whined again and picked up a shirt to bring to Remus. The boy took it off him with another chuckle and a stroke to his head. "You know, I always knew animals were smart but you... it's like you can really understand me. Not that it's a bad thing, I actually quite like it. It makes me feel like I have a friend." Sirius nipped lightly at Remus' hand, the boy scoffing and going back to picking up his clothes when it was apparent that Sirius wasn't taking the conversation as seriously as himself.

If only Remus knew that his last line was making Sirius regret staying here. While Sirius had never seen Remus playing with anyone other than him he had assumed the boy had friends. Looking back at every conversation he had heard he had to agree that he had never heard of any other boy's names being mentioned. He suddenly wished he had left that first night. Remus was going to be heartbroken when Sirius left him now. Especially if he ran away... no, he couldn't do that to Remus. It would make him think that Sirius was abandoning him. Abandoning him just like the rest of the wizarding world was doing.

He spent that night curled protectively over his boy.

In the morning he resolved to make a plan. He needed to get out of here before Remus got too attached.

The answer came with the batting of wings. Perking up at the owl flying closer he looked around the breakfast table to see who the lucky recipient was. The dark look on all of their faces as the owl flew closer showed that none of them had been expecting any letters.

The owl stopped in the middle of their breakfast. It's chest puffed up proud it held its charge carefully in its beak and reluctantly handed it off when Lyall nudged it out.

Sirius had expected a host of different reactions from the Lupin patriarch, all but the sigh of relief as the man held the letter away from him with a relaxed hand. "Wrong house."

"What do you mean?" Remus asked even as his hands were snatching the letter from his father's grasp. "Sirius Black." Sirius felt his blood run cold. "Who's he?"

"I don't know," Lyall answered and took the letter back off his son. "The Black name is infamous... I suppose it could be for one of them."

"Well do they have a son called Sirius?" Remus asked plainly. Lyall's jumping around the topic seeming to tire Remus on this occasion.

"Yes, I think they do. Although Orion doesn't much talk about him. Something to do with bad blood. In any case this letter has been delivered to the wrong address." The man then spent the next couple of minutes trying to get the owl to take back the letter before the thing gave up waiting around for a reply and went to sit in the trees. "Damn."

"If someone sees..." Hope didn't have to finish that sentence.

The rest of the day was spent trying to get the owl from the tree and back into the house. In all that time Sirius couldn't find a way to escape from the Lupins to read his letter. He had caught a glimpse of the scrawl on the back and knew for a fact it was James. He partly wondered what had his friend writing to him since he knew his parents confiscated each and every letter James tried to send him. The other part was just happy to have something from James to read. He loved the boy like a brother and often wished the summer away so he could be back at school with him.

About midday Sirius gave up trying to escape and started helping the Lupins. He barked as he jumped at the tree the owl was seated in. An idea had come to him as Remus fingered the letter in his hands around lunch. If Sirius could get James' bird he could reply to his friend. Tell him all about Remus keeping him hostage and asking him to come fetch his friend from his dognappers. It would save Remus the heartbreak of a runaway dog and allow Sirius to have his freedom restored to him. Not that he really wanted to leave Remus. The boy had grown on him measurably. But he had school in two weeks and needed to get his things together.

By nightfall they hadn't got the owl in. Remus had retreated inside calling Sirius in behind him. Still he had the letter in his hands and pondered aloud what the contents were as he drifted off to sleep. Sirius waited for Remus' breath's to even out before, for the first time in weeks, shifting back. His arm hurt so much when he settled into himself that he considered changing back again.

Getting his breathing under control he glimpsed at Remus to make sure he hadn't woken him, and stopped. As a dog his human emotions were filtered and forgotten sometimes so something like a handsome boy would just look like any other to him. As a human... well, Sirius was in awe of his werewolf. His dog eyes didn't do his hair justice as the colours shifted under the moonlight. Silvery strands peaked golden as they faded into the shadows and draped perfectly over his pale skin. His scars peaked out from his clothes and while they would repulse some Sirius found them fascinating. He recognised some from the moon just passed and while his fingers itched to run over them, and maybe under Remus' shorts too, he forced them to peel back Remus' digits for the letter.

James had heard of his break out. Apparently his family weren't waiting until school started to really relinquish their hooks. Apparently someone had asked after Sirius when they saw his father in Diagon Alley and was met with the reply that Sirius was dead to him. News had spread and James frequently asked in his letter where Sirius was and why he wasn't with him.

It took seconds for him to find a paper and pen in the room he had called home these past weeks and he wrote out his plan carefully before sealing it in the envelope that had carried his own letter. Quickly writing James' name on the back he tip toed out of Remus' room and out into the garden. The owl recognised him immediately and let him put the letter in its beak. It was off without a backwards glance in seconds.

Plan in motion he made to go back into the Lupin house only to be stopped by Remus at the back door. He looked just as shocked as Sirius felt and watched him warily from his spot in the doorway.

"Evening," Sirius tried and was treated to seeing Remus jump and make to go back get his parents. "No, wait! I'm leaving. I just saw the owl and thought I could help get it down. It looked tired."

"Please leave." The words were barely audible but Sirius had been listening for anything sound Remus made and heard it.

"I am," He assured and held his hands up as he walked out of the Lupin's gate.

He ran out of sight of the back door before circling to the front and climbing up the side of the house. Making sure Remus was still out of the room, no doubt notifying his parents of the intruder, he slipped through the always open window and back into comfortable Padfoot. He almost cried in relief as the pain in his arm faded to a numb ache and bounded over to the discarded parchment with James' writing on.

Doing his doggy best to dispose of the evidence of his night he chewed James' scrawl until it was tatters around him. Remus wasn't pleased when he came back into the room. Obviously shaken he snapped at Sirius for making a mess before pulling him up onto his bed for a cuddle.

"I'm sorry," He whispered into Sirius' fur. "There was someone in the garden. I think they might have been in the house. I heard someone in my room... but I guess you would have barked if that had happened so maybe it was just the back garden." Sirius gave Remus' cheek a good lick to show everything was alright even as he cursed his poor sight. Now he knew what Remus really looked like he didn't want to go back to this dull version. "The last time someone appeared like that I was- well, let's just say you and I aren't all that different some nights."

Sirius was surprised he hadn't screamed the house down if that was how he was bitten. Not just an accident that happened miles away but someone purposely coming into the Lupin home, invading their sanctuary, and cursing Remus for the rest of his life. If it were Sirius he would have cursed anyone that came within two feet of him. Sirius supposed that the fact Remus didn't showed how kind he was. Yet another thing those ministry approved books hadn't said werewolves could be.

With the letter sent it was merely a waiting game for Sirius as to when James would come and get him. It meant his time with Remus was limited which made him that much more frustrated during their hours together when he couldn't simply enjoy it. No, his stupid pervert mind kept twisting everything fun they were doing and making Sirius wish that he was either gone from the Lupin home or had come to Remus as a human. If he had they certainly wouldn't be innocently rolling around on the grass right now. He wouldn't be ignoring the shirt crawling up Remus' stomach in favour of getting his belly tickled. He wouldn't be waiting patiently for Remus finishing his shower, as water dripped down his moon touched skin. Sirius promised himself the first thing he was doing when he got his thumbs back was to have a good wank. He needed one after his self restraint.

One week away from term starting Sirius was chewing thoughtfully on one of Remus' socks as the door went. The boy himself paled at the sound and crouched low next to Sirius as they both listened to Lyall opening the front door. Muffled voices were heard before Lyall was calling Remus down.

The hand on his neck tightened and Sirius huffed and puffed his chest out to show Remus he wasn't leaving him so they both started down the stairs. He only made it halfway before he bolted out of Remus' hands and tackled James to the floor.

"Oh for- No! Bad Padfoot! Mum just bought me this shirt." Sirius paid him no mind and continued to assault James as much as he could. Finally James shoved him off and glared as he righted his glasses only to narrow his eyes as he caught sight of the way Sirius was holding himself. "What happened to you?"

"We found him at the edge of our garden," Lyall said. "His paw was broken and there was some blood on his face. I don't know how he got them." It seemed the theory of James abusing him was gone as Lyall held nothing but amusement as he told James a bit about their exploits.

"I'll be more than happy to pay you back," James offered. "Anything he's broken, torn. Name it."

"No, don't worry about it," Lyall waved off.

Still James insisted only to stop short as he realised they were in a muggle village. "I'll come back with my parents with it," He compromised. Turning to Sirius he crouched down and gave him a grin, "Let's get you home Padfoot. Mum and Dad have been going spare ever since they heard you went missing." He didn't doubt it either. Mr and Mrs Potter were too good to him.

"Can I say goodbye?"

Sirius had forgotten about Remus when he saw James and looked back now. It was one of the biggest mistakes he had ever made. The look on Remus' face had him whining low in his throat. He didn't want to leave Remus. The boy was nice and brilliant to be around. But Sirius couldn't stay a dog forever and so he let Remus give him one of the saddest goodbyes he had ever faced. He wondered briefly if this was how he was supposed to feel when he ran away. Like he was leaving a piece of him behind. But at his parents house he had never felt loved. He had never felt needed or accepted and so the only thing he remembered feeling when he left was relief. Relief and the promise of freedom being only a bus ride away.

"I'm gonna miss you."

Sirius butted his head against Remus' chest in goodbye and followed James out.

"Hold still son."

Sirius bit his lip on a number of curses as Mr Potter set his arm right. James was trying not to grin from the other bed over, just like he had since he had brought Sirius in. He had found the idea of Sirius being held captive by a family most amusing and made jokes near constantly when his parents were out of the vicinity.

Usually Sirius would be laughing along with him. The idea was hilarious, that he had been forced to live as a real dog for three weeks but in reality he could only picture Remus' heartbroken face as he left. The collar James had nicked as a souvenir to tell Peter with became almost a prized possession of his. It was something Remus had picked out carefully. Something soft on his neck that was only rarely used because he too knew what it was like to be collared. He had to be collared once a month in the cellar and didn't that thought just make Sirius want to hide for a few days. It was almost a month since that night, no doubt Remus would be preparing to face the moon any day now.

"All done."

Sirius inspected his arm. Moving it this way and that without any fear of pain creeping onto him. His bruises were next to go. Having had fur the cuts were barely noticeable on his face and the bruises non-existent when he was a dog. As a human however they marred his pretty face and gave Mrs Potter something to tut over.

"We'll get your stuff tomorrow if that's alright?" Mrs Potter asked and Sirius answered politely that any day was fine with him.

The remaining week with James, while fun, didn't help distract him from Remus. Things only got worse when he was back at Hogwarts.

Miles away and suffering through month after month without Sirius there to tell him everything was alright. Sharing his woes with James did nothing to alleviate the pain he was feeling. His best friend just pointed out that Remus had a life before Sirius moved in with him and had probably forgotten all about him by now.

"You were just a dog Sirius," He finished.

After James' pep talk he tried to bury himself in his studies. Sixth year was trying from the moment McGonagall handed him his timetable. While he had free periods they were usually divided into helping James create mischief and homework. The idea of mischief increased when non-verbal spells became the expected from every sixth year. James and he usually had the spells down in a matter of hours which, once again meant Sirius was torn between using their new found method of creating magic to get away with more pranks than ever and wallowing in self pity when he had finished miles before anyone else.

Sirius finally snapped in the one place he never thought he would.

Defence Against the Dark Arts had always been his favourite lesson. For starters it taught him spells to protect himself from his family. Then there was the fact it was gruesome in every which way. Finally it was an interesting topic that never ceased to capture his attention. This term they were focusing on curses which was great since they got to practice hexing each other stupid. James never failed to use this lesson to torture Snape and his fellow Slytherins. While the sallow faced boy knew more hexes James was far faster and had perfected the shield charm in his first week after Sirius took to jinxing him when he brought up the topic of Remus.

This lesson however they were taking a break from looking spelling each other and reading the theory behind some of the more advanced curses they were learning. It just so happened that one of the curses had been used to take down a werewolf. The story itself had been written in detail and praised the wizard for taking down such a beast.

The first thing Sirius thought was of Remus. How he had just been through a transformation before and was most likely gearing up for another one again without him there. He wondered what Remus looked like as a werewolf. The pictures he had seen were of a wolf like being, distorted and elongated so it needn't stay on all fours like Padfoot. He wondered if that was what Remus looked like. But what colour would he be? His hair was gold and eyes a pale blue. Was his wolf the same? Or did it have black eyes? Big ones like the kind he had seen in some muggle monster films Remus watched with him. He wondered what Remus did in his cellar. He couldn't chew himself up all night could he? The smells from the cellar indicated that he had marked his territory extensively. A smile came to Sirius' lips as he imagined wasting a whole night painting a room with piss. Perhaps his old room in Grimmauld Place. Getting back to Remus Sirius wondered how long he had been bitten. What was it like the first time he had changed. Had he fell over his paws like Padfoot did, still does, or howled himself hoarse because he had a new set of vocals to try out.

Sirius wanted to know. He wanted to know everything.

Reading further on in his book he came to the end of the wizards tale and scowled at its conclusion.

"Yes Black?"

He raised the book to his professor, indicating the page he was on. "It says here that they executed the werewolf after the wizard had taken it down."

"Yes." The man obviously didn't see anything wrong with that. " I know this is advanced stuff. It's alright to have questions, that's what I'm here for after all. So, what are you confused about?"

"The execution," Sirius said and read out the passage everyone was familiar with by now. "... but the werewolf would have been human when he was killed, and he hadn't even done anything the night the wizard brought him in."

"But he would have Black. You should know from learning about werewolves in third year that they won't hesitate to attack anyone or anything around them if they had the chance." The professor still wasn't getting his problem with the book.

"Yes but this specific werewolf didn't do anything. Why was he executed?"

The professor had adopted one of those simpering looks that someone would give a child. "Well, I think it would have something to do with the fact they're a dangerous species."

"For one night a month," Sirius countered. "I understand why the curse was used to bring the werewolf down. He would have attacked the wizard given the chance but the fact that he was restrained and held captive, without hurting anyone, until morning doesn't answer why the ministry had the werewolf killed."

The professor, still holding onto his patronising look, turned his attentions to the class. "Black has raised a good question. Now everyone, why was the werewolf killed? Come on, don't be shy."

Sirius saw Peter's hand twitch to the side. It was rare the boy knew the answer to anything and it seemed he had gotten lucky with this question. Still, Sirius glared at Peter until his hands were firmly under his desk.

If only that were the side he should have been concentrating on. Traitorous James Potter's hand was firmly in the air as he cast a smirk in Sirius' direction. Glowering at his friend he waited for the useless comment to slide out of his mouth.

"Potter."

"I think Sirius has a valid point," he heard instead. "There's no real evidence in this book that suggests the werewolf should have been executed. If you ask me what happened was inhumane. There's not even mention of a trial, and even if there were the man had no control over his actions. Really the people who prosecuted him should have looked into the manner of which he contains himself every full moon. If someone had let him out, surely they should have been the one facing the consequences rather than the werewolf."

Sirius beamed at his friend.

The professor, not deterred, answered James' queries with some of his own nonsense. "Not all werewolves have containment facilities or people to make sure they stay locked up on a full moon."

"So surely it's the ministry's fault," James said. "They have the means to keep werewolves on a full moon and the equipment to make sure they survive the transformation. It seems to me professor your only real argument is for the wolves that purposefully attack people and those are fewer than the statistics will have you believe."

"Not to mention it still doesn't answer James' point about a trial," Sirius added. "Are all werewolves executed without trial or just this one?"

"Yes and on the subject of a trial-"

"Enough!"

James looked how Sirius felt. Shocked that their professor would even raise his voice that loud they lulled into silence. The tension in the room thickening as the man panted through his rage.

"Both of you go report to your head of house," He ordered.

"But-"

"Now!"

Sharing an exasperated look they gathered their things and headed off to the Transfiguration corridor. Luckily they had that class next so it wasn't like they were going to be missing anything.

McGonagall was angry for all of two minutes upon seeing them. She spent both of those two minutes ranting to herself and them about how they should be mature enough to not pull pranks during lessons. When Sirius finally got a word in and told her it was about his question in Defence she stopped and had them both recount their story.

"What I don't understand professor," James concluded. "Is that we're here to learn everything we can, if a professor is purposefully avoiding a topic then how can we do such a thing."

"Not to mention these books are prejudiced as -"

"Yes! Thank you Black," McGonagall interrupted and told them to wait in her office for her.

Accustomed to being there at least once a month they quickly made themselves at home.

"Thanks," Sirius mumbled after a while.

"What for?"

"Agreeing with me. You didn't have to," He knew half the class didn't.

"Well you had a point," James said. "Not to mention I knew if I disagreed you wouldn't have talked to me for a good month."

Sirius smiled behind his hand. James was too good a friend to him.

"So what do you really think about werewolves?" He approached.

"Dunno." James pondered then looked at Sirius, "What's Remus like?" Sirius felt his mouth gaping like a fish. A smirk, similar to the one in Defence, came onto James' face. "I did pass OWL's. Not to mention you were hopeless at the last full moon and almost had a breakdown ten minutes ago because of a book."

"I wasn't having a breakdown," Sirius defended.

James just hummed and rolled his eyes. "So what are you going to do?"

"Do?"

"About Remus," James clarified. Upon Sirius' blank look he elaborated. "You're worse than I am when I talk about Lily. It's obvious you have a thing for him. I fear it's not going to go away any time soon which begs the question of what you're going to do. Are you going to ask him out? I suppose with him being a werewolf the whole wizard thing wouldn't be quite so surprising."

"I... don't know," he said. "But the whole wizard thing isn't really a problem anyway. His dad's one. I think he works for the ministry."

"He does?" Sirius nodded. "So he's a squib?"

"Dunno," He had never seen Remus do magic. "He may just be really careful. You should have heard them speak. The mum's a muggle but the dad knows all about the war. He has the whole house not speaking a word about magic. I didn't even know he could do any until Remus started howling."

"They might be in hiding," James cottoned on. "I heard one of the third years got pulled out a few days ago. Everyone that's written to her since gets their owls sent back. I suppose a muggle mother and a werewolf son is enough to make any sane person lie low."

"Which makes the concept of me asking him out all the more-"

"Feet off the desk Potter," McGonagall ordered.

Taking her seat she motioned to one of the chairs opposite her and there, like a schoolboy, was their Defence Professor.

Steeling her fingers she turned her sharp gaze on him. "Black and Potter tell me you kicked them out of their lesson because they asked you a question."

"No, Black aimed to cause a stir in my classroom. Even after they left I had students following their lead and spouting all sorts of radical nonsense."

Sirius shared a disbelieving look with James. They had seen that glint in McGonagall's eyes many times over the years. Only this time, it was aimed at their professor and not them.

"Radical nonsense?"

"Well, they knew what they were saying was wrong. It was just to get a rise out of me."

"I see." McGonagall turned to them. "Black, you said a question was what started all of this. Tell me, was it nonsense to you or a genuine concern you had with your syllabus."

"A genuine concern," Sirius kept the smirk threatening to break onto his face at bay. "I simply wanted to know why the ministry executed a werewolf when there was no evidence within my book as to the motive behind it. As far as I knew the werewolf was innocent. The Professor never gave me any background knowledge nor evidence to suggest that my thinking was wrong and sought to publicly shoot me down instead of giving me such evidence."

"Is this true?"

Sirius spotted James sinking low into his seat as he watched their professor turn an interesting shade of red.

"Well yes, but-"

"No buts, it's a simple question, yes or no?" Sirius could hardly believe McGonagall was doing this for them.

"Yes," The Professor bit out.

"Without the attitude please," She snapped and turned back to James and Sirius. "Now Black, you never got your answer did you?"

"No professor. He chucked me out instead," Sirius adopted his best innocent look to further his point.

McGonagall's steely eyes turned to James next. "Now why was Potter brought to my office? No-" She stopped when it looked like the Professor was about to answer. "I want to hear it from him first. This is why you sent them here isn't it? So I could hear from their own mouths their misgivings and punish them accordingly." She motioned for James to start.

"I agreed with Sirius. I also saw a flaw in our text book about the werewolf's execution and brought it up. I know it wasn't what he was teaching us but surely he should have still deemed us with a suitable response?" James was laying it on thick and as such was rewarded when McGonagall turned the question to the Professor.

"Yes," He ground out.

"Black, Potter, you can leave," She dismissed.

They held their laughter in until after they had closed the office door. Just as they did they heard McGonagall start on one of her infamous lectures about responsibility.

"That was amazing," James chortled.

"I know," Sirius agreed. They started up to their classroom. Hoping that the Professor's lecture would take the whole hour so they had one less workload for that night. "Who'd have thought McGonagall would take our side."

"Not me."

They wasted no time telling Peter about the miracle that had transpired. Their friend had been worried for them, although now he wished he were there with them as the Professor was taken down a peg.

It seemed that whilst the Professor hadn't handled what happened all that well he was right about one thing, that being that they weren't the only one to raise a complaint about the werewolf's execution after they left.

The light of James' life stopped them in the corridors just as they were about to walk into the great hall. Red hair streaming our behind her like a banner she faced them head on and, ignoring James, congratulated Sirius on his words in class.

"It seems at least one of you have grown up over the summer," She finished.

"I protested too," James pointed out.

Lily just glared at him.

"So you don't think I was being radical?" Then again, Lily was a muggle-born. She hadn't grown up with the prejudices James and he had.

"I think you were being right," She said and promptly walked over to her friends.

"Does Lily have your approval now Padfoot?" James asked.

Sirius rolled his eyes and sat next to Peter, not deeming James worthy of a response.

Later that night when Peter and Frank had long gone to sleep James slipped through his curtains and with a whispered 'Lumos' continued their conversation from McGonagall's office.

"I think you should owl him," James proposed. "Tell him your a secret admirer. Or, better yet, I'll owl him and tell him I want to thank him by setting him up with you."

Sirius stopped the stream of ideas pouring out of James' mouth. "Firstly, if you owled him to set him up he'd probably tell you to piss off. What person thanks someone else by setting them up on a date." Sirius cut off James' no doubt stupid response. "Secondly, I don't think I can ask him out."

"Why not?"

"He saw me."

Sirius recounted what happened the night he sent James' letter. How Remus had seen him, how scared he had been to have a stranger in his garden. He left out the reason for that. Remus had told him what happened in confidence and Sirius didn't want to break that now, even if James was his best friend.

Instead of being put off by Sirius' revelation James seemed more determined with his secret admirer idea. "You could say you were passing through the village and saw the owl detour to the Lupin's house. Tell Remus you're an alright bloke and then let your good looks and charm do the rest."

"I had a broken arm and bruises all over my face when he saw me. The only conclusion he would draw from all that was that I was in the village for some nefarious purpose."

James just shrugged after that. Out of ideas the two spent the rest of the night lamenting about their love life.

September made way for October. The month distracted Sirius from his woes with the promise of Halloween. The biggest night of the year for him, James and Peter which meant there was little time to spend thinking about Remus. Yet October inevitably had to end and November was gone in a matter of weeks for December. Each one another moon away from Remus.

"Mum wants to know if you're coming home for Christmas?" James asked one morning. They had two free periods and was spending it pouring over their homework so they would have none for over the holidays.

"What are you doing?" Sirius saw James' eyes shifting to Lily chatting with her friends in the far corner. "She's going home. I didn't see her name on the sheet."

"In that case I'm going home."

"Me too." There was no way he was spending Christmas alone at Hogwarts. Peter had been raving madly about meeting up with a muggle girl he had met over the summer. His trunk had been packed days ago.

"In that case we're going to Hogsmeade tonight," James announced and flounced off before Sirius could ask why.

It turned out they were shopping. Sirius thought James had gotten his parents gifts ages ago but apparently hew as wrong. Lending some gold to Sirius he told him to buy himself something nice while he looked around the shops.

By the time they got back to their dorm James had a basket laden with sweets and a new scarf with stars on it. Sirius on the other hand hadn't spent anything. Despite how lenient James was with his gold it seemed wrong for Sirius to be spending it now he had nothing to his name. James knew him too well to insist upon Sirius holding onto the gold in case he fancied something to eat on the train back and let him slide it onto James' drawers.

Mr and Mrs Potter were delighted with their presents come Christmas morning. Sirius pretended he was too but really he was looking for the basket and scarf he had seen James buy. It didn't make an appearance all the way through Christmas dinner nor boxing day when James' other relatives dropped by.

The day after he was surprised to find it in James' arms with the scarf carefully laid on top and the boy in question badgering his dad to take him somewhere. Noticing Sirius was up he sent a wink he way and followed his father into the kitchen to continue his argument.

At midday Sirius was forced into a shower and clothes before told to 'hold on tight' as he disapparated. Appearing in a familiar village James had only just touched the ground before Sirius was on him.

"What are you playing at?"

"What do you mean 'what are you playing at?' I thought you would have been pleased." Righting himself James explained. "I've thought of the perfect cover. You're my friend who was searching for Padfoot and we're here today because you felt so guilty about scaring him that you wanted to say sorry," He held up the basket laden with goodies as proof and shoved them into Sirius' arms as he walked the familiar way to the Lupin house.

The car was gone from the drive meaning that Hope was out of the house. Sirius hoped at least Lyall was there so Remus wouldn't be meeting strangers alone.

His prayers were answered when the man opened the door. Sirius was taken back for a moment as he realised Lyall looked different to how he remembered him. But then he realised the last time he had seen the man he had been a dog.

"Hello Mr Lupin," James greeted. "We've come to drop off some Christmas gifts for Remus."

The man looked about ready to slam the door in their faces before recognizing James. "You're the boy who took the dog."

"Yep, and now I'm here with Christmas cheer." Never mind Lyall slamming the door in James' face, he'd do it himself if he had the chance. "It's honestly just a little thank you for looking after Padfoot so well."

Sirius pretended not to cringe as James slapped him on the back whilst mentioning the dog. His friend had the worst sense of humour.

Still, it opened the Lupin's door for them and had them warming by the fire as Lyall told them Hope had taken Remus into town today. Left to their own devices as Mr Potter took over adult conversation with Lyall Sirius spent his time trying to explain how some of the muggle devices work in the house.

"If nothing else, you're definitely getting top marks in muggle studies," James remarked.

The door opened some time later to let in Hope and Remus, the latter recognised James immediately and rushed over.

"What- is everything alright? You haven't lost him again have you?"

Sirius saw Remus' eyes darting around eagerly for the dog before stopping as he also recognised Sirius.

Taking this as his chance to introduce himself he held his hand out. "Sirius Black, it's nice to meet you again."

Dispelling the awkwardness James told Remus all about their lie, how Sirius had been sent by James to look for Padfoot.

The lie seemed to work since Remus immediately blushed and tentatively shook his hand.

"I'm sorry about snapping at you. Oh God, if I hadn't been so rude you'd have had your dog back sooner."

Sirius shot James a glare for making Remus even more upset and ignored the rolled eyes sent back.

"Don't worry about it," James waved off and held the presents out for Remus. "Here, bought these for you."

Taking the presents from James he seemed to be seeking some kind of permission from his watching parents before opening them. It was as the every flavoured beans spilled to the floor that Sirius realised their mistake. They weren't supposed to know Lyall was a wizard. James had bought magic sweets. It seemed the same realisation came to Lyall as he pulled his wand on Mr Potter.

"Dad!"

Sirius didn't honestly know who had said that as he watched horror come over both James and Remus at the stand off.

"How do you know about us? Who are you people?"

Mr Potter sent a promising look James' way before explaining that he was only here to chaperone his boys.

Sirius didn't know what to do. They couldn't tell the Lupins they knew they were wizards because Sirius was Padfoot but there was also no way they could connect them to the wirarding world through James' brief visit. There was only one other way they could get out of this situation without anyone going to Azkaban and it was one Sirius knew would put him in Remus' bad books.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know you were in hiding," Sirius appealed. "I came looking for Padfoot on a full moon, heard the howls. After that, and seeing Remus, it wasn't hard putting two and two together. Please, we don't mean any harm."

"You heard-" Lyall's shock was understandable, as was Remus' mortification.

Sirius could see tears threatening to breach his pale blue eyes before he turned and ran out of the house.

Lyall's wand left Mr Potter's neck as the door slammed but quickly trained itself onto something else. Namely the presents they had bought Remus.

"So you know about him, what did you think? That you would come here and poison him?"

"We would never!" Sirius defended, aching to go after Remus.

Lyall wasn't listening to them. He ordered them out of his house and Sirius knew that within the month the Lupins would no longer live there.

James seemed to sense this as well as he ignored his father's calls to placate him.

"I didn't think it would go like this."

"I know."

They walked the path back to the apparation point in silence.

Just as they were nearing the edge of the trees Sirius stopped. His Padfoot sense kicked in, and ordering James to go on ahead he darted into the trees.

Remus wasn't that far in. He had been watching them leave and stood, ready to run, as Sirius trudged up in front of him.

"I just wanted to see you again," Sirius confessed.

"I wasn't happy the first time I saw you, what made you think a second time would make a difference?"

Sirius shrugged.

"I can't believe you know about..."

"We did pass OWL's," Sirius said remembering how James had said the exact same thing to him. "I didn't mean to bring it up. I just couldn't see a way of explaining how we knew you were wizards without someone getting hurt."

Remus scoffed. "Good job there."

Taking a leap Sirius said, "Those presents really were just that, presents. If you don't like them then I guess that's okay, they were really just an excuse to come see you again."

"Why?"

Sirius shrugged again. "I like you."

"We don't know each other," Remus pointed out.

"Well I'd like to."

"What makes you think I want to get to know you?" Remus asked.

Sirius considered himself a patient man. He could wait behind a tapestry for hours so long as his prank went off without a hitch. But when it came to things like emotions there was only so little patience he could adopt before doing something drastic. It was how he had been disowned in the first place, one wrong word said and he was being tossed around like a doll.

Right now he had reached past the point where his patience ended and did the only thing he could think of to get Remus to give him a chance.

"Okay, I'm going to make us even. I know your secret so I'm going to show you one of mine. But you have to promise, and I mean promise not to tell anyone. Not your teachers, your friends, not even your parents."

"And this secret's going to make me trust you?" Remus looked more intrigued than sceptical as he watched Sirius.

"I hope so."

With that said he changed into Padfoot.

So many emotions flitted across Remus' face. Shock, delight, anger, betrayal until it rested on amazement.

"You're an animagus."

His hand was creeping forward to touch the fur that had ran under his hands months ago. Sirius let him, he had missed Remus' touch. Sitting still, he let Remus make his evaluation before changing back.

"For someone who doesn't have a wand you know a fair bit about magic."

Remus shrugged continuing his examination on Sirius' human self. "My Dad tries to teach me what he can. Animagi were covered when I asked if anything else could turn into an animal like me."

"Then you know that it's illegal for me to be one," Sirius pointed out. "Which is why you can't tell."

Remus considered him. "Alright."

"Alright?"

"Sure," He shrugged. "It's a big secret. Bigger than mine actually. Not to mention it explains a lot. I always thought you were a smart dog. There's also the fact that I've probably put you through hell, it must have been horrid not being able to turn into a human in those vets."

"If it wasn't one of my paws I would have bit you and ran," Sirius joked and watched a smile come onto Remus' face.

Shaking his head in disbelief Remus asked him. "Why did you come back? You were free of me. I would have kept you forever you know."

"Oh I do," Sirius confirmed. "But I came back because... I like you. I missed you."

"You like me," Remus repeated.

Sirius nodded.

"I wanted to see you again. I just didn't expect," He indicated back towards the Lupin's house.

Remus frowned in the direction Sirius waved at.

"My Dad's going to have us move."

"I figured."

"You have to leave," Remus pointed out.

"Yeah," Hogwarts was going to be even more trying this term.

"Don't suppose you have an owl?"

The question came as a surprise. Hope blossomed in his heart as he told Remus James did. After some brief technicalities explained Remus was inviting him to write to him over the year.

Promising to Sirius let Remus lead the way out of the trees. About to part as somewhat friends Sirius couldn't help but clarify.

"This means we're friends, right?"

Remus smirked at him. "No. At least not yet. I have to work through the fact you've seen me naked first."

"If it helps, you really have nothing to be ashamed about."

A small blush came onto Remus' cheeks.

"It doesn't."

"Well, even if you never consider me a friend I at least hope you don't think I was being insincere when I stayed with you. I really enjoyed myself. You have a nice family and what happened to you," Here Remus flinched. "It's disgusting more people don't see how much your kind needs help. Not in a bad way, but I overheard what happened with the healer at Mungo's and my Professor's much the same back at school. They're too prejudiced to see that it's the individual that matters and not some illness that was thrust upon you. I hope you know I don't think like they do."

"I'm starting to get that." Remus moved closer to him. "You really meant you liked me didn't you?" Sirius nodded and watched the corners of Remus' mouth lift.

It was a really mesmerising mouth.

"I should probably go," It was more breathed than spoken.

Remus heard anyway. "Write to me?"

Sirius met up with James in high spirits that had nothing to do with the little wave Remus gave him as he walked off. His good mood lasted him through the lecture Mr Potter put both of them through as well as the fact his parents sent around Kreature with the rest of his things later that day.

It lasted him all the way through his first few weeks back at Hogwarts until Remus' first letter came to him. In it, he had told Sirius about little things that had happened to him. The move namely and how he missed his old room. Remus joked that he had gotten Padfoot and new collar and if those lines followed him behind his curtains later that night it was really Remus' fault for phrasing it that way.

They continued back and forth until Remus' letters became the best part of his month. By the end of the year he was skipping to the train, eager to meet up with Remus who had scouted a few things to do when Sirius sneaked over.

Throwing pebbles at Remus' window he quickly changed into Padfoot and waited in the Lupin's garden. Remus wasn't long and had more self restraint than Sirius since he towed him to the nearby field before hugging him.

Changing back he clutched Remus to him, feeling the new scars that littered his back and cursing the fact he hadn't been there.

Pulling away he was surprised when Remus leant back in and kissed him. His hands quickly found purchase on Remus' hips as he kissed the boy back.

"Call it canine instinct but I've been wanting to mark you as mine since February."

Sirius grinned. "February? Try August last year."

"Pervy mutt," Remus snorted and let Sirius hug him again.

"Yeah, but I'm your pervy mutt."