"Never fear the moon." That's what she always told him. Then, he could never understand why anyone would fear it. Now though... now he did fear it. He reveled in the darkness of the room around him. Ever since that night. That horrible night when he had lost nearly everything. His future? Gone. His health? A joke. But worst of all? Her. Remus choked back tears. He still, after so many lonely years, couldn't even think about her without tears. He felt like he was weak, not being able to hold back the tears. Yet... he was tired and lonely. He was hungry and scared. He curled himself even tighter into the corner where he was sitting and let the tears flow.

Sirius Black was thinking. No, thinking was dangerous, especially for a Marauder. He and James only thought when they had already decided on a prank, and only needed to execute it. They had learned their lesson their first week, when they were trying to think of the best prank ever. McGonagall had later told them that if it had actually worked, it could have resulted in severe harm and maybe even death for most of the people involved. They had been horrified. They didn't want to cause any irreversible damage. Since then they just let the pranks come to them and then proceeded to figured out how to accomplish them. What he was actually doing, was wondering what he should do. It was Saturday evening and he had already finished eating; he had already finished his homework (Early! An act of desperation.), and he was bored. He had spent most of the afternoon helping James chase that Evans girl, and he was tired of it. That's where James was right now. Sirius spent a while scouting the fifth floor learning every inch of it searching for a new hidden passageway or something equally entertaining. Finally, finding nothing, he headed back to the common room.

When he got back the room was empty and dark. Everyone was still in the Great Hall. He hadn't wanted to eat with everyone else today, so he'd gone to the kitchens for an early meal. The house elves loved him and gave him everything he wanted. Sirius plopped down on a chair with his head on one arm and his knees hooked over the other. He pulled out a chocolate bar the elves had given him. He started to unwrap it, but stopped suddenly when he thought he heard something. He grabbed his wand and slowly stood up. He listened, pinpointing the sound. Slowly approaching the corner, he wondered what he should do. Suddenly he could make out a vague figure. "Lumos" he whispered. It was one of the boys in his year. He couldn't remember his name, so he went for the surname.

"Lupin?"

Suddenly there was light. Remus kept his face hidden.

"Lupin?" The voice seemed unsure.

Slowly he looked up raising his wand and pointing it at the other boy.

"What do you want?" was all he could choke out before he dissolved into tears again.

This was not how he wanted this boy, who he now recognized as Sirius Black, to see him. He had seen Black running around the castle pranking and teasing people with James Potter and he had used every means possible to avoid becoming a target. To his surprise Black just stepped to the side so that Remus' wand was no longer pointed at him and then sat down next to Remus.

Sirius wasn't sure what to do. He had a wand being pointed at him by a sobbing boy. So he took the logical path and stepped out of the line of fire. Then, against his better judgment, he sat down next to the sobbing boy.

Remus wasn't sure what to do. This boy was one who his only friend had strongly advised him to stay away from, but now he was sitting next to him. To comfort him? To tease him? He didn't know, although he hated the second option and wasn't sure about the first.

"Look at me." Black said with what seemed like an attempt at tenderness.

Remus decided to take a risk. He looked up. Black looked slightly confused and slightly... was that pity? Remus hated pity. But this didn't seem like Poor thing, being poor pity, or his father's You poor thing, you're part beast pity. This looked more like the kind of pity that any decent person would have for someone they found crying in a corner. Remus couldn't blame him for that. He forgave him. Still Lily didn't trust Sirius. Lily was his only friend and he trusted her judgement. Remus decided that it couldn't hurt to just see what happened. He did have his wand after all.

After looking at him for a while, Black handed Remus a chocolate bar that Remus hadn't noticed he was holding. Remus looked at it warily not trusting anything the prankster offered him, not wanting to turn into a canary or worse. Black noticed the hesitation.

"It's O.K. Lu-... Sorry, I can't remember your name."

"Remus. Remus Lupin."

"It's O.K. Remus. This won't hurt you."

"And how do I know you're not just pranking an easy target?"

"Well, first reason, easy targets are boring, and second," Black put his free hand over his heart and lifted his still lighted want into the air above his head, "I solemnly swear on my honor as a Marauder that this is totally normal chocolate and not a prank of any kind."

Remus blinked, then took the chocolate. He bit off a tiny corner and waited. When nothing happened, he turned back to Black and said, "Marauder. Is that what you and Potter call yourselves?"

Black grinned dumbly. "Yup. That's what we are. It's a title of great honor."

Remus rolled his eyes.

"Hey! Don't roll your eyes at me Remus Lupin."

Remus' stomach growled.

"Have you eaten tonight?"

"No Black. Why do you think I'm up here crying instead of down there. I don't want to talk to people." He was getting annoyed with Black's lack of observational skills.

"I'm Sirius."

"I know your serious. I don't see how any of this conversation could be a joke." How long was it going to take this thick-headed prankster to get it into his head that Remus didn't want to see anyone?

"No. I mean my name is Sirius. I want you to call me that. I'm not particularly proud of being a Black." His usual cheerful attitude seemed to have disappeared.

"O.K. Sirius it is. And no I haven't eaten."

Already his cheerful attitude was back. Remus wished he could switch moods that easily. "Are you hungry?"

"Maybe. But I'm not going to the Great Hall and seeing as you're not there, I doubt that you want to be there either." He was getting VERY exasperated. He did NOT want to see anyone. How long was it going to take Sirius to realize that?

Sirius had a mischievous glint in his eyes. Remus didn't know what to expect. "That's not the only place to get food in this castle you know."

Remus barely had time to think 'Where else would we get food?' before he suddenly found himself being pulled up off the floor and then dragged through passageways and down staircases until he was totally and completely lost.