Disclaimer – Do I even have to say it? Anyone who reads this and thinks J.K. Rowling wrote it obviously has never picked up a Harry Potter book.

Author's note – Yeah, I decided to continue it. This chapter is really short, I know, but I needed to establish where I want to go with it. That and I won't be able to post for a while because my computer is out of sorts and desperately needs to be fixed. I'll get to the rest of the story though, and in the mean time, here's chapter 2.

Love and Caring and all that Crap

Chapter 2

The staircase had to move at that precise moment. He had willed it not to, had prayed that it wouldn't, but it had betrayed him and now Remus Lupin was alone in a deserted corridor with Sirius Black. He knew, instinctively perhaps, that he was trapped. It was in the way that Sirius leaned ever so casually against the stone wall before him, arms crossed and grey eyes ablaze with accusation, telling him without words that he wouldn't be allowed to pass. It was in the way that everything suddenly felt smaller and the air closer, so that he wished with every fiber of his being that inside could somehow become outside. In the way that he knew his only way back up to Gryffindor Tower was through the boy in front of him. Remus was trapped, and being presently at a loss for words, he silently cursed Hogwarts and its damn magic staircases.

"Well, well," his captor sneered. "Hello Moony, what have you been up to?"

Remus took in a slow, calming breath. Revealing none of his discomfort with the situation, he replied coolly, "Not much. Nothing that you wouldn't already know about of course. Where are James and Peter?" Term had started a week ago and the return of the other two Marauders had thankfully brought back a sense of disruption and distraction to the dorm. Remus should have known better than to think Sirius would latch on to this change of topic, though.

"Around," he said, smoothly brushing the question away like a speck of dirt.

"Around where?"

"Oh stop it, Remus. Stop trying desperately to change the subject. I've had enough of it lately. You've been avoiding me."

"What?" said Remus, attempting to look hurt and confused – even outraged. "I have not b – "

"Just a hint," Sirius interrupted, "when you want to deny that you're avoiding someone, don't first hardly speak to them for two weeks. And don't spend every waking minute in the library when that person knows you finished your homework ages ago. Oh, and it's probably a good idea not to take the long way up to the dormitories every day after dinner just because you know that the other person is too lazy to follow."

This was all true, of course, though Remus was hardly about to admit it. He sighed instead and said, "Now Padfoot, why would I want to avoid you? That's ridiculous."

"Yeah, it does seem pretty ridiculous. That's why I'd like to know why you're doing it."

But Remus obviously couldn't tell him that. He simply couldn't say that ever since the Christmas holidays his already confused thoughts about his friend had gotten even more confusing. He couldn't tell Sirius that, after seeing the boy lick those slender fingers clean, he often fantasized about what other uses that tongue could be put to. He couldn't take that risk – wouldn't. So he tried his best to make something up.

"I'm sorry, Sirius," he said softly, casting his eyes downward in apparent resignation and shame. "You are right, of course. I don't know … it's not just you really. There's been a lot of stuff piling up on me lately, and with the full moon being so close I feel like I just need to be alone – concentrate, wallow, whatever." That's it, play to the melodramatic werewolf thing. The full moon excuse always works.

"Oh yeah, the full moon," Sirius said thoughtfully, seemingly buying into this explanation. "What is that, like five days away?" Remus merely nodded. "Maybe you just need more rest then."

"Yeah," agreed Remus, "you're probably right. In fact," he added, spotting a window of escape, "I think I'll go find Alice and see if she can cover for my prefect duties tonight. She's probably still down in the Great Hall with Frank…."

"Sounds good," Sirius said as Remus edged past him, hardly breathing. Then he grasped the boy's shoulder just as he made to disappear down a short-cut to the lower levels of the castle.

Remus gasped just slightly and Sirius felt him tense beneath his hand. "Yes?" Remus breathed.

"Remember when you told me that my neglectful mother ploy was getting old?"

"Y-yeah," said Remus warily, not sure why Sirius would bring that up now.

"Your card is running out too."

Remus didn't know what to say, but was saved the trouble of figuring it out as Sirius released him and turned to head back to Gryffindor Tower. He watched him round the corner, all the time hating himself for missing the warm weight on his shoulder.

Sirius just didn't get it. Remus had been acting strangely around him for at least two weeks now. Never looking him directly in the eye, slipping away with lame excuse after lame excuse, not even telling him off for bewitching that suit of armor on the fourth floor to grab that first year and tie her up with a string of Christmas baubles…. It just wasn't right, it wasn't normal. Why would Remus avoid him? Why would he lie to him? And how could he not expect that Sirius knew him well enough not to believe that lie for a second?

Maybe Remus knew what happened that night – Sirius' stomach clenched painfully – maybe he really wasn't asleep when he kissed him. "That would certainly explain a lot," he muttered aloud, conversing with his own thoughts. Like, for instance, how tense Remus was when he touched him just now. He seemed almost afraid even….

Sirius stopped suddenly, just before the portrait hole. What if Remus did know what he had done? What if he was disgusted or angry or repulsed? Sirius knew it wasn't like Remus to be judgmental or hateful in any way, but he couldn't blame the boy if he thought he was some sort of freak now.

"Are you going to give me the password, or are you quite content with standing stupidly in the middle of the corridor?" a terse voice broke through his thoughts.

Sirius looked up at the Fat Lady without really seeing her. He had to know what Remus knew, and how he felt. Of course, this was rather difficult to find out when the werewolf wouldn't even speak to him for longer than five minutes at a time. There was only one thing he could do – one way that Remus would be completely honest with him. He didn't know where he would be able to get Veritaserum, though, so he'd have to settle for simply pissing him off instead. Remus always spilled everything when he was angry.

"Glumbumble," Sirius supplied absently, then clambered through the open portrait hole toward James and Peter on the far side of the common room. As he watched Peter get slaughtered in a game of chess, he began to quietly contemplate the best way to make Remus really, really mad.

Author's note – Yeah, so there's the filler chapter. I'll try to make it more interesting in the next one, I promise. Please review, and thanks for reading.