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Sirius knocks gently on one of the screens. There is no answer. He pushes it aside anyway and sees Remus, wan and pale, lying under the sheets. He is staring at the ceiling; his eyes wide and glassy, and the tears underneath them form an intricate gleaming spider's web upon his cheeks. Sirius notices that he is holding a book in one hand, his thumb bookmarking the right page. The title of the book is Werewolf Legislation. He eases it out of Remus' grasp and opens it curiously. The words "werewolf", "bite", "punishment" and "death" leap out at him before his vision mists and the words blur into one another. The book falls to the floor.

"Oh Moony." He reaches out desperately. Remus flinches away from his touch.

"Go Sirius. Just Go." Remus' voice is flat and dull but his eyes screw up in pain. Sirius goes.

Remus wakes up a few hours later with a nagging sense of wrongness. He knows that something is not right, or more specifically someone. He lights his wand and unfolds the map, ever thankful for James' forgetful nature. He doesn't even need to say the words, as the map was never wiped. He starts off looking in all the obvious places, the Astronomy Tower, the Shrieking Shack, the Forbidden Forest… but Sirius isn't there. A sudden thoughts strikes him as he thinks of the forest, Sirius recently managed to worm the password to the Prefect's Bathroom; "Pine Fresh" from him and sure enough there it is, a dot labelled "Sirius Black". It is very still. Remus ducks under the cloak and runs as quietly as his pounding heart will let him, through his private room and the main hospital ward and out into the corridor. In no time at all he is standing in front of the door, palms on his knees, gasping for breath. As her whispers the password the door swings open and he hears the sound of a shower that has been left on. Except there is something wrong about the sound of the water on the tiles, it is uneven somehow, as if something were blocking its path.

Remus passes by the bathing pool and approaches the cubicle warily, leaning against the side for support as he peers round the curtain. Sirius is lying, half propped against the tile wall, fully clothed and drenched with the icy spray that is raining down on him. His hands and face are tinged with blue and his eyes are closed. Remus reaches for the taps without thinking and turns of the water with sharp twist. The hissing noise doesn't come from the pipes but from between Remus' teeth as the burns blister his fingers. Remus doesn't know quite how he manages to lug Sirius back to the hospital wing without fainting from the combined pain of his burns and moon-inflicted injuries but he manages it and even manages to knock on Madame Pomfrey's door and rouse her out of her slumber before he passes out on the floor, Sirius cradled in his arms.

Sirius awakens, stiff and sore to feel someone clambering into bed beside him. He blinks, groggy and disorientated in the early brightness. There is something familiar and comforting about that smell, it smells like dust books and chocolate and a garden after it's rained. It smells like Remus. Shit, Remus.

"Moony, I'm so sorry, I was an idiot, Snape just said something about you and I-"

"Sirius, I know." Sirius hurries on, desperate to make himself heard,

"I couldn't let him insult you like that and Merlin Moony-"

"Sirius. Sirius, listen. I forgive you."

"I know I'm an idiot and…wait, what?"

"I forgive you," There are only a few inches between their faces and Sirius can count Remus' eyelashes. He shakes his head, trying to remember his train of thought.

"But Moony, Remus. You can't. I don't believe you. You're just doing this to stop me doing something stupid again like trying to drown myself in the shower." Remus sighs. And kisses Sirius. On the lips. Kisses Sirius on the lips.

"Now do you believe me?" Remus' cheeks are flushed and his eyes are warm and golden and yes, Merlin yes Sirius believes him but,

"I think I could do with more convincing." And Remus spends the next half hour convincing him until they are rudely interrupted by a disapproving but not altogether surprised Madame Pomfrey.

Author's note

1)Please give me feedback on the plot, characterisation and grammar.

2)I usually write in the past, what do you think of my use of the present tense?

3)I Will probably do a second chapter with opposite perspectives i.e. the first bit will be from Remus' point of view

4)I know the password here is the same one as in the Goblet of Fire but I reckon that they must reuse old ones every so often; either that or they never change the password because they trust prefect's to be reliable enough not to tell anybody