The infirmary was deathly quiet, one could practically cut the tension with a knife. There were only two boys in the room: one in a bed with bandages on his arms and perhaps more, but the rest of him was hidden beneath a sheet, the other on a stool nest to the bed. The boy in the bed stared intensely at his visitor, amber eyes boring into the black haired boy's, searching for an answer. But the black haired boy could not seem to return the other's gaze, and had turned his face away, the other boy's light brown hair only visible form the corner of his eye.
"Just tell me why, Sirius."
The black haired boy couldn't tell if Remus was angry or not, his voice was completely level. Even so, in the end Sirius had most definitely betrayed Remus. Letting out a breath he'd been unconsciously holding, Sirius tried to begin.
"It was because..." Sirius just stopped. Part of him wanted desperately to tell the brown haired boy why he had told Snape how to get after Moony, but the other part of him though the reason was silly and Remus would think he'd been rash over something stupid.
No longer able to avoid the other boy's intense gaze, Sirius turned to his once-friend and gathered his courage about him.
"Snivellus was being his normal greasy self, and he said some shit that really pissed me off."
James had said Moony was extremely mad when he found out what had happened, Sirius had not gone at first: partly because he was in trouble, partially because he was afraid of Remus's reaction.
"But what, exactly, made you so pissed off?"
Sirius had almost been hoping Moony wouldn't ask that question.
He sat and thought about how to answer that for a bit, then turned back to his friend and said, "Well, at first it was just the usual crap, but then he started carping on about well... you, and saying shit about you and saying how he knew stuff about you and I just got so pissed off at his bluffing, so I just told how to get at you 'cause he said he'd seen you and his wining voice drove me nuts and I couldn't take that shit he said about you so I just told and maybe I was a bit rash, well, no was rash, but I'm not sorry I almost got him killed, the git disserved it, but I didn't mean to hurt you. I swear, I didn't mean to hurt you—"
Sirius had to stop for lack of breath, he sometimes got that way: he just needed to get his thoughts out, and one thing lead to another. He couldn't always stop once he started.
Remus was once again looking deeply, but this time with a slightly different undertone. More thoughtful, Sirius decided.
"What exactly did he say..." asked Remus, his tone still ambiguous but more contemplative.
Looking at Remus, then looking away, Sirius said, "I'd rather not repeat it, it was really... bad."
Remus seemed to hesitate, then moved forward, "Was any of it... based in... truth?"
"Hell No!" The vehemence of the reply seemed to surprise both Moony and its speaker, and then a weaker, "er... well, no."
A silence stretched between them, with Remus still staring at Sirius, and Sirius unable to look away. Finally, Remus turned his gaze toward the wall opposite him. It was as if something in the air snapped and Sirius was released from his companion's hold.
The crept by, Sirius nervously fiddling with the hem of his robe, Remus deep in thought.
Then, "I need to think for a while."
Sirius knew that was a dismissal.