Title: When the Man Comes Around
Rating: PG-13
Words: ~2,700
Warnings: Reference to past sexual abuse
Summary: Remus is on his way to getting some closure, but Sirius makes an unintended confession that opens up a world of possibilites.
Disclaimer: None of the characters in the story (other than Kia) belong to me. No profit of any sort is being made off of this.
A/N: Thank you so very much to everyone who read Chapter One and showed so much interest in the story. I hope you enjoy this chapter!

It's not until late in the afternoon that Madam Pomfrey fells she can declare Remus well enough to venture out into the world that is Hogwarts on his own. As it's a Saturday, he doesn't have classes to go to (and he will have most of the weekend to figure out how to get his wand back) but he is famished – too famished to wait for lunch to finish before sneaking down to the kitchens. And besides that, James came to visit after Sirius and all he had to say was how sorry Sirius is and how horrid he feels. Even though Remus thinks Sirius should feel awful about storming out on him like that, Remus has enough to upset him without holding a grudge against his best friend, and he is eager to see things right. He is wearing a sweater and trousers that James brought to the Hospital Wing for him, and even though he usually wears muggle clothes on the weekends, he finds himself missing his school robes; he feels naked without the lengthy folds of dark fabric ensconcing him. He shakes off a worried Madam Pomfrey at the Hospital Wing's entrance, thinking how much worse his embarrassment might be if she followed him all the way to the Great Hall.

His mind wanders as he meanders through the empty corridors, everyone is at lunch, or studying or engaging in other activities back in their respective common rooms. A few of the paintings on the wall wave at him as he passes by, but otherwise his journey to the Great Hall is nominally uneventfull. As he comes upon the massive doors which mark its entrance, Remus can hear the muttered chatter of hundreds of students, accompanied by the occasional clatter of dishes. He steels himself before entering, takes a deep breath and straightens. As he walks in, the hum of conversation fades from him ears and even though he knows it's not silent in the Great Hall, he can't hear anything. He deliberately faces away from the Slytherin table and hurries to the Marauders' usual spots at the Gryffindor table.

Sirius moves over and Remus falls next to him, wincing at the force with which his lands. Sirius promptly fills a goblet with pumpkin juice and hands it to Remus, a contrite look in his eyes. Remus is sure this is all the apology he is going to get and so he nods, taking the goblet and sipping from it. I forgive you.

James is sitting across from them and Remus is surprised to see that his arm isn't (as the norm) around Lily's shoulders. "We've been trying to think of ways to get your wand back." His eyes darken for a moment and Remus knows that he is leaving something out, but he doesn't have the energy to fish for information. He just nods and begins to place some food on his plate. When he had been thinking about lunch, he had been so hungry, but now – with all of the food in front of him – he finds his appetite ebbing away. He focuses his energy on the food on his plate and forces himself to eat some chicken.

"What are you doing here?" Sirius sneers and Remus snaps his head up to look at the boy. Sirius is gripping his wand tightly on the table and glaring over Remus' shoulder. Remus turns his head slowly and sees that Regulus is standing next to him, so close that his robes brush against Remus' sleeve. "What do you want?" Sirius asks, half rising, preparing for a fight when he doesn't receive and answer to his first question. But then Remus hears something wooden clatter upon the table and looks down, heart hammering with unbidden terror to see Regulus' pale hand pressing his wand to the table. Remus blinks and reaches out, unable to believe that it is his own wand he sees in front of him. But in the middle, he sees some of the tooth marks from when Padfoot stole it for a chew toy. Even if it is his, he has trouble understanding why Regulus would return it. He reaches out and his hand hovers, shaking, over Regulus' smaller, pale one, wondering what will be done to humiliate him now. Regulus still hasn't moved his hand and Remus wonders if he will be made to beg for it, here, in the Great Hall, in front of everyone.

But Regulus lifts his hand and hisses "Don't tell," before stalking away. Remus reaches for his wand but James grips his wrist before his fingers can make contact with the familiar stick of wood.

"Wait," he says, and he still hasn't released Remus, who begins to feel a familiar sense of panic rising in his throat. James says something else, but Remus doesn't hear it over the thrum of panic in his ears and he rips his wrist from James' grasp and attempts to remain calm.

"Please don't touch me like that," he says, and it comes out sounding more aggressive than he'd intended it to. He doesn't touch his wand, but draws his hands to his lap, rubbing his wrist as though the skin is raw. "Sorry, it's just-"

"No," James interrupts him quietly. "It's my fault. I wasn't thinking." Nothing else is said for a moment and then James clears his throat. "What I said was, we should take it back to the tower and test it for curses and hexes before you use it." Remus appreciates that he didn't have to request the reiteration and nods dumbly.

"Yeah," Peter says. "Who knows what Snivellus could have done to it?"

James picks the wand up carefully, using a napkin to shield his hand and the four of them make their way up to Gryffindor tower, none of them saying anything until they get to the fat lady and Sirius gives her the password. Once they have clambered in through the portrait hole, Lily is waving at James and calling him over. "Sorry, Lily my dearest," he says, doing a wonderful job of sounding like his usual, love-besotted self, "I've got to do something with my mates. I'll be down in a bit." And without waiting for her response, he leads the other boys upstairs to their dormitory. Remus thinks, now, that it is rather lucky James and Sirius are always concocting pranks against other Hogwarts students, because they know the best ways to curse and hex inanimate objects and so will be able to tell if his wand has been cursed, too. Remus is also very good at revealing hexes – he has to do it a lot for the other three when they receive something that is very likely retaliation for one of their pranks. But Remus doesn't have a wand, so he stands by and watches with Peter while the other two ensure his safety.

It doesn't take more than half an hour for James and Sirius to test the wand to their satisfaction. They gesture for Remus to take it and he tentatively wraps his fingers around the familiar surface. When nothing happens, he snatches it up, grateful to have it back and feeling like maybe he is on the way to getting some closure after the events of the night before. James nods, satisfied that he has done his part to protect his friend, and leaves the room to go and make up with Lily. It shouldn't be too hard, Remus thinks, she is generally pretty understanding these days. Remus rolls his wand in his hands and stares at the floor. Now that he has the wand back, he is unsure of what to do. Up until this point, he was able to focus his mind on the need to retrieve it – but now he has nothing to think on other than thoughts of last night.

"I'm going to go…study," Peter says, which should strike Remus as odd, since Peter rarely studies on his own, but he's not paying much attention to the boy when he scurries out of the room. Sirius drops onto his closed trunk at the end of his bed and kicks out his feet so that his legs are stretched in front of him.

"Glad to have it back?" he asks.

Remus nods and glances at his bed, but suddenly he doesn't want to be there. He doesn't know if the elves washed his bedding last night or where his pyjamas have gone or why that towel is still sitting on his bedside table. There are suddenly too many questions swirling in his head so he walks over to Sirius and settles next to him on the trunk. They barely fit on it, the two of them. They aren't as small as when they were 11 and they would sit atop the trunk in the middle of the night and have whispered conversations because Sirius didn't trust James yet and Remus wasn't too fond of Peter. Sirius jostles Remus with his shoulder and when Remus looks at him, he is offering the werewolf a lopsided, apologetic smile.

"Look, Moony," he starts, but Remus holds up a hand.

"I don't know what was going through your head in the Hospital Wing earlier, but I have a lot on my plate right now." Sirius snorts but Remus doesn't stop to acknowledge it. "If you're just going to give me more to question or worry about, please…just don't say anything. I need…I don't need more, not right now." He knows that he probably hasn't made any sense, but Sirius has always been better at understanding his ramblings than anyone else (which really isn't fair, because most of the time Remus can barely make heads or tails of what Sirius is doing) and if anyone is going to understand him right now, it's going to be the dark haired boy pressing into his side.

"I wanted to apologize," Sirius says quietly. "When I came upstairs last night and James lashed out at me like that…it felt like after the prank." He shifts and draws his knees up so that he can rest his elbows on them. He plants his chin in his hands and Remus wonders if it's so that he can't see the boy's face. "I felt like I was being attacked, again. And then I found out what happened to you." He swallows and shakes his head. "What he did to you. I worked so hard to gain your trust back after the prank." His head dips and he lets out a low groan. "James told me this isn't about me, and I know that. I know it's about you and I don't want to make it about me. But I hate the idea of you not trusting me again. I hate that he used me to…to do that." Remus wonders if Sirius really knows what happened. If he can't say the word, just like Remus hasn't been able to think it.

Remus places a nervous hand on Sirius' hunched shoulder and runs it over the fabric of the boy's shirt. "I know, Sirius." And for the first time, he really does understand. Remus wasn't the only one who lost control that night – someone used Sirius' body, and Remus' trust of Sirius' body, to get to Remus and do something that Sirius would never do. Remus understands now that even though he's suffering, Sirius is suffering, too. He leans forward to lay his cheek on Sirius' back. He can feel the warmth of the animagus' skin through his shirt, the beat of his heart – steady and slow – against his cheek bone. "It's okay," he says, because even though it's absolutely not okay, he's not sure what else to say. Sirius takes a large breath and Remus' head moves with his back as it swells and falls with the sigh that is released.

When Sirius speaks again, his voice is barely above a whisper – Remus senses the words more than hears them. "And part of me thinks that he did that in retaliation for the prank. I just…I couldn't live with myself." Remus stiffens but doesn't move his hand or his head, just grips onto Sirius' shirt with long, bent fingers. Remus hadn't honestly thought of that before, and he's not sure why because it really does seem like the best explanation.

The words that he speaks are forced. "If that's why he did it, it's not your fault, Sirius. We all make our own choices." It's not the first time that Remus Lupin says something he doesn't particularly believe.

Remus decides to take a nap later in the day and he sleeps for about an hour before waking, groggy and slightly confused. He's in Sirius' bed – he knows that tonight he'll have to grow up and sleep in his own bed, but when his friend offered he didn't have it in him to refuse – and the curtains are drawn, making the bed mostly dark other than the small amount of sunshine filtering in through the holes that Sirius accidentally burnt in the curtains in second year. Remus moves to stretch and wipe the sleep from his eyes, but then he hears hushed voices. Privacy is more of an ideal than a true concept in the dormitories, but he decides to pretend to be asleep a little longer rather than infringe on a conversation. He tries not to listen, but the words seem to go directly from the speakers' mouths to his ears.

"I'm sorry Kia," Sirius says, hurriedly. "Something came up."

"I was waiting up there for over an hour, Sirius. You told me that you'd be there."

"I was planning on it, I really was. But…I was need elsewhere."

"Somewhere so important that you couldn't tell me?" There is silence for a moment and Remus longs to peek out of one of the holes and see what it happening – but he is trying to ignore the conversation. "Oh. My. God." The words are more of a whisper than anything Kia has previously said. Remus can imagine her squinting her eyes in that rather unattractive manner she has. "It was that Remus Lupin, wasn't it? I knew it. I knew you two were…gay. Every time you get drunk you just go on and on about him." Remus frowns and waits for Sirius to say something to defend his heterosexuality. But Sirius doesn't say anything. "Were you two fucking?" The last word sounds so vulgar to Remus – even though he's heard it more than enough times in his years of being friends with James, Sirius and Peter, the way that she says it makes it sound disturbing, vile. She spits the word and it makes Remus wince.

"No. He's not gay." Sirius says quietly. "We weren't doing anything."

"He's not gay?"

"That's what I said." Sirius doesn't sound apologetic, just like he wants to get the conversation over with as soon as possible.

"Are you kidding me?" Kia spits again. "You're a poofter?" Sirius doesn't say anything for a moment and Remus feels like he's heard more than enough. He lets out a loud and exaggerated yawn to warn them that he's woken.

"Shit, he's awake." Sirius' whisper is urgent and quieter than before. "You've gotta go."

"We're not done talking about this, Sirius." Remus doesn't hear what Sirius says to her before the door shuts – she is presumably outside of it. There are soft footsteps over to Sirius' bed and the curtains are pulled open.

Sirius grins warily down at Remus. "How much did you hear?"

"Er…I woke up around the bit where you were discussing your absence last night." Remus says carefully as he rises, extricating himself from the bedding.

"So you heard…?"

"Yes," Remus nods, stretching and cracking his back. "I won't tell. I promise." Sirius winces and shuffles his feet, shoves his hands deep into his pockets.

"This isn't how I meant for you to find out, Moony."

"It's okay. It doesn't change anything." Although in the back of his mind, Remus was wondering if it did.