The blade glinted in the moonlight as it slid across the pearly flesh of his inner arm. The ruby drops of blood dripped onto the tiles, contrasting darkly with the green. The man lay back in the bath, closing his eyes and succumbing to the numbness; focusing on the dull pain in his forearms.
The door creaked open and the intruders ears were filled with the steady 'drip, drip' from the tap.
"Remus?" the man in the doorway whispered, "Remus? Can you hear me?"
The man in the bath stirred, sitting up slowly, the swish of water filling the silence between the two. Remus looked down at his wrists; the bloody gashes from the razor blade had already healed over, the only evidence of the harm were the faint pink scars slicing vertically from elbow to wrist and the drying blood. The mans amber eyes were red rimmed and dead inside; they looked up at Sirius blankly, looking straight through him.
"You can't keep doing this to yourself mate. I hate seeing you like this," Sirius whispered, his voice void of his usual cheer. Remus didn't reply; he just stood up out of the water, fixing a towel around his waist. His mind was clouded with images of sorrow, pain, self-blame. He stepped up to the cracked mirror balancing precariously on the shelf. The face that stared back at him looked like a corpse. The eyes were sunken and dead, his hair limp and grey, his bones poked out at all angles and his pallid skin was littered with savage scars.
"Sirius. My Sirius," Remus breathed over the mirror before he collapsed on the floor, his whole body wracking with sobs. Sirius remained by the door, pain evident in his face as he watched his best friend sob heartbreakingly on the floor. The lycanthrope tore at his hair, ripping out chunks of the once tawny locks. He curled up into the fetal position, rocking slightly against the cold tiles.
"Pads, I never told you how much I love you, truly love you. I have since the age of fifteen. Remember when we had that detention together with Slughorn because we mucked about with Snapes Basic Burns Potion?"
Sirius grinned at the memory. Remus rarely played a malicious part in the Marauders pranks against the slimy Slytherin; but on this one occasion, perhaps because of the closeness of the moon, Moony had used his intelligence and stealth by swapping the witch hazel sap with poison ivy extract. The following detention had only involved Sirius because he had stood up for Lupin when Slughorn threatened to lower his otherwise perfect grade for the year. That had been when Remus knew he had loved Sirius; Sirius also realised that day how much he really cared for the werewolf.
"Yes Moony, I do."
"I realised then. But now…now it's just…" Remus couldn't finish his sentence, his throat constricted with sobs and his vision blurred with tears. He stood up shakily, breezing past Sirius as he headed for the bedroom. Sirius followed him, unnoticed by Remus.
The heartbroken man lay down on the bed completely naked except for the towel. He curled back into the fetal position and cried himself to sleep. Sirius slid next to him on the bed, unable to hold Remus, only watch. As he had fallen through the Veil, Remus's heart had shattered. He'd been hurting himself ever since and the ghost of Sirius was doomed to watch his true love bleed over the memories of him.
