Trigger warning: mentions of anxiety, depression, past abuse and non/con. Also one instance of knife throwing. Please read with care.
Lupin felt the heated tension even before he heard the raised voices drifting upwards from the downstairs kitchen. He knew Molly was just being nice—asking Snape over for dinner— and that she wasn't doing it just to spite Sirius for the fight that they had earlier about Harry learning about the Order. Or at least, he hoped that wasn't the case. Lupin knew Snape had been looking for a fight, things hadn't been going well for him at the school with Dumbledore, and he needed to blow off steam. Silently Lupin cursed himself for not keeping a closer eye on Sirius, and for being slightly late to dinner as he quickly threw on his brown woolen sweater and hurried out of his room. He winced again as he heard another bang, and then a shout. He got into the kitchen just in time to dodge an anger induced knife as it embedded itself into the wall three inches away from his face. He stepped away from the knife and turned his focus in on the fight happening in the middle of the kitchen;
Sirius was standing against the counter, rage and fear distorting his face as his hand grasped for another knife to throw at Snape, who was gliding towards him, an ugly sneer on his face.
"Look at me, poor Sirius having nothing to do all day but sit and laze about in this house, while all the rest of us work our asses off out there in the real world." Snape taunted viciously.
"Stop—."
"You are a useless, mangy coward that nobody wants,. I know what happened to you here, and if you don't keep in line I'll tell the whole world why you ran away all those years ago, why you were happy to be locked up in Azk—"
"I'm warning—."
"What are you going to do? Murder me? Like you did James—." at that moment Sirius cried out in rage—or pain— grasping the knife, he hurled himself towards Snape with his teeth bared.
"Sirius! Snape! Stop this at once." Molly tried to interfere, but she took a quick step back as a leg—Lupin wasn't sure whose it was—kicked out at her.
"HEY!" the shouting escalated as both Fred and George appeared into the kitchen, causing Molly to jump back in surprise.
Lupin stepped forward, "Grab them. Make them stop, we cannot have this here." he told them.
Lupin jumped into the rumble, successfully grabbing Snape and pulling him back while Fred and George pulled Sirius off him.
"Stop! Stop! Please. Get off me. Don't touch me—stop!" Sirius shouted as he struggled against the twins holding his arms.
The minute Lupin touched Snape, he had stopped struggling and stood up on his own.
"Get off me, werewolf. I can fight my own battles." he shot angrily, and then shoved passed him, exiting the kitchen through the doorway. Lupin heard a door slam angrily and felt relieved that at least Snape was gone. He turned his attention back to the kitchen, where Fred and George were still fighting to restrain a struggling Sirius.
"Don't touch me. Please. Stop. Stop. Stop." Sirius was pleading now, eyes wild as he fought to escape their grasps.
Lupin then realized; Sirius wasn't fighting them to continue to get at Snape, he was fighting to escape. Lupin stepped forward towards the three of them
Sirius met his eye and struggled to pull his arms from behind his back, eyes pleading.
"Remus, tell them to let me go. Please. I'll be good. I promise. Please? I can't—please Remus…"
"Let him go." Lupin said
"But—."
"Snape is gone. Give him some space. Let him go. Now."
Both of the twins let go of Sirus instantly. Sirius remained still, panting slightly as he crossed him arms in front of him to stop his hands from shaking.
"Sirius, are you with us?" Lupin asked after he calmed some.
Sirius looked around; from Harry to Lupin to Molly to Ron. Hands shaking and eyes glassy, then he turned and bolted up the stairs and out of sight.
The small group stood in silence, and Lupin took this chance to survey the damage that they had done; one knife was embedded into the wall, the kitchen table was overturned, chairs and food a-skewed. Lupin walked over to the knife and used both hands to pry it from the wall. He marveled at Sirius's strength, and aim. He reveled at the fact that if the knife had hit it's intended target, Snape would be dead right now.
Holding the knife in his hand, he turned around the to group.
"What happened? What started them off?" he asked
"Snape started it." Harry said shortly
"Professor Snape."
"Professor Snape started it. We were just about to start eating when he made some stupid remark about Sirius in Azkaban—I don't know—something about how he's had it easy for the past fifteen years—and Sirius went all pale and then flipped the table. They shouted back and forth for a bit, then Sirius started chucking knives at him—that's when you came in." Harry said, pointing to the table.
Lupin nodded. Snape was known to take things too far. He was also starting to worry about Sirius, who had been more withdrawn and sullen than usual. Lupin had begun to notice it—the subtle change in Siriu's behavior—almost a week ago. At first, Sirius had been more than thrilled to be living in his old house again, to be a member of the order again and to finally be around people. But it seemed that the novelty was wearing off on him. now, lupin noticed that he could barely stand to be in a room with three or more people in it, he could barely stand it if someone touched him. He had become quieter, barely speaking at all and mumbling brief one word answers. He seemed to loose himself in the gloom of the house, and Lupin was becoming more and more concerned about his friend.
"I'll go check on him. He'll be fine, I promise." Lupin assured Harry, and then he turned towards the black hallway and started his ascend up the stairs towards his friend.
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This is part one of three. Please review and tell me what you think! This is my first time in the HP fandom, so please go easy on me!
Thanks so much!