Disclaimer: I still own nothing. I'll start in JK's moral rights RIGHT NOW. While I'm at it, I'll form that lynch mob that Daniel Radcliffe seems to be expecting at Warner Bros. Anyone in?
1993 -He's glad that the lesson on Boggarts was near a full moon. Glad that it didn't show what he feared most days: Sirius Black, intermittently laughing and screaming, a gaping hole in what used to be a street, the news reports that seemed to go on for weeks, the letters from Dumbledore, the blur that was the first year after the deaths of Lily and James and Peter.
He's glad that Harry didn't see it. But mostly he's glad that he got rid of that damn Pensieve. Because he knows, he just knows, that if anyone ever found it, he would be done for. There would be nothing for it but to run like hell to farthest corner of the planet and wallow in his misery and loneliness.
He's not glad that Sirius is escaped. Not glad that every time he reads the Prophet that he remembers The Day.
1981 -It's been a week since Lily and James have died. A week since he realized that there wasn't much hope left for him, even if Voldemort was gone. He's walking in town, and suddenly there are yell and it's Sirius and Peter. And Muggles. At least a dozen Muggles and this is not going to end well. Accusations are thrown, and he's not sure who's more broken; is it Sirius, who betrayed his own best friend, or Peter, always left out, feeling guilty about his lack of knowledge?
It can't matter to Sirius either way, because suddenly the argument is over and there's a light and a noise and then nothing.
He wakes to the sound of Sirius's voice, his name, and maybe this was all just a really horrible dream. Then he opens his eyes. What was once a street is now a crater in the middle of the town. Bodies are everywhere and Sirius is currently being restrained by at least three wizards. But that's not the worst part. It's not away that Sirius is trying to get, strictly speaking. It's away to him. And that's not the worst part either. The worst part of the whole thing is that he almost wants the wizards to lose their grip on Sirius so that he can see him, tell him it's all right (even if it isn't), hold him, comfort him.
He dares to look up again and their eyes meet. Sirius's eyes are pleading, begging for salvation. He does nothing except avert his gaze.
1993 - Later, he discovers that it apparently took twelve Hit Wizards to restrain Sirius - no, Black, now - and that a kindly lady from St. Mungo's had taken care of him for about a fortnight afterwards. And that he had barely been coherent.
Remus Lupin is glad that he got rid of the Pensieve when he did.
A/N: This is not a particularly cheery piece, but I'm trying my hand at slash, and I'm more comfortable with darker, more introspective stuff. It'll get cheerier once I get more into the groove of writing slash. In the meantime, press the button that says "Review" to tell me how I did. You MAY receive your very own stuffed wolf! (Or I might keep them all.)