Disclaimer: I own nothing to do with the Harry Potter series; if I did, we would have seen a lot more gratuitous werewolf nudity. All characters belong to JKR, apart from Officer Winters from Chapter One, and Officer Quentin, who I also seem to have acquired along the way.

Chapter Two - Death Row

The bars of the cell door swung open with a loud crash which startled Remus out of a light doze.

"Oi! Wolf! Visitor! On your feet!" came the harsh bark of Officer Quentin, the Ministry Penitentiary Guard. Quentin was a short, stocky and deeply unpleasant man who appeared to have a great talent for using a silver nightstick. He was also rapidly approaching number one on Remus's "top ten" list of least favourite people.

"Wha's'a?" he said drowsily.

"You," Quentin patronised.

"Yes?"

"Have."

"I see."

"A."

"Understood."

"Visitor."

"Very good." With that, Quentin pulled a pale and shaking Sirius Black into the tiny, filthy cell with him.

"Ten minutes," he sneered, "and any funny business, like trying to escape for example, and..." Instead of informing the pair of the consequences of any attempted absconding, it seemed that he thought a physical demonstration would be far more appropriate. Raising his nightstick into the air and bringing it down onto Remus's left shoulder. Cackling, Quentin left the cell, slamming the door closed, and strode across to the duty desk.

Remus stood up, painfully, and tried not to trip over the trails of silver chain which bound his bare legs together. His eyes darkened, and his face fell into a deep frown.

"You...!" he whispered. He tried to extend his finger so as to point at his guest, but the chains binding his wrists to the wall meant that the furthest he could move his hand was roughly an inch beyond his waist. The dramatic effect of his finger-pointing ruined, he stared hatefully at his companion and said "you...!" again. He looked down at himself, clad only in his underpants; the result of two hours pleading with Quentin for something to cover up his previously naked body. "I'm not exactly attired for visitors at present, so if you could turn around and leave, I would be most grateful."

"Oh God, Remus," Sirius whispered shakily. "They've got you tethered up like an animal-"

"I am an animal, Sirius! In the eyes of the ministry, that's exactly what I am!" Remus snarled, baring his teeth, spittle flying onto Sirius's cheek. "Or perhaps you'd conveniently forgotten all the Laws concerning werewolves? Well, you seemed to remember that I was an animal just fine last week, didn't you?" He swallowed hard, and spoke quietly. "What was it, eh? A big joke at my expense? Because in case you haven't noticed, Sirius, I'm not laughing."

Sirius trembled. He'd seen his friend upset before. And miserable, and lonely, and afraid, beaten, downtrodden and forlorn. He'd seen Remus feeling all of these things, but until that moment he had never in his life seen Remus angry. Mores the point, angry at him.

"Those chains," he said, looking at his feet. "Are they..."

"Silver? Yes. And they're beginning to make me feel quite ill, thank you very much," Remus scoffed. "I mean, did Snape honestly piss you off that badly, Sirius? Fucking Christ! He could have been bloody killed, for fucks sake!"

"I... I didn't think..."

"But that's just it, Sirius!" he shouted. "You didn't think! You never bloody think, do you?! You always have to go that extra mile to go too far, and we're the ones who have o get you out of the proverbial when it hits the fan and splatters all over you aren't we? Well, now I'm the one in the shit, Sirius. I could get death for my part in your little prank, did you know that? Just being there, unaware, and I could bloody hang for it! And I didn't do anything!" Remus laughed. "I'll tell you something for nothing, though."

"What?"

"You're bloody lucky that they've got me all dressed up with nowhere to go," he sneered. "I didn't mean for Snape to almost come across me the that night. I didn't mean to cause him any harm."

"So?"

"So if you were to come within reaching distance of me right now, I might just mean it!" And Remus laughed, baring his teeth again; laughed so hard that tears ran down his cheeks and 

he howled, the sound reverberating around the block of cells so loudly that for the first time since that met, Sirius took a frightened step away from him.

"Oi! Wolf! Quiet in there!" Quentin shouted, heavy footsteps echoing towards the cell.

"Guard!" Remus called as the Officer appeared at the cell, nightstick poised. "It's okay. Just get this arsehole out of here, right now!" Quentin hurled the barred door open and laid a hand roughly on Sirius's shoulder.

"C'mon now, boy, you heard Wolfie – playtime's over."

"Just get him out!" Remus screamed. Quentin looked at him disdainfully.

"Mother of mercy! You feed it, you clothe it, and you give it a nice, comfy cell with a corner to piss in instead of a cage, and it thinks it's fuckin' royalty!"

"It has a name, you know," Sirius said haughtily, glowering at the guard.

"Yeah, and it should've been drowned at birth, but what'cha gonna do, eh?" he replied. Sirius opened his mouth to defend Remus, but his friend interrupted.

"It's true, Sirius, I should have. You should try actually reading the Law some day. You know, I've been arrested, led out of the school at wand-point, and thrown into prison. I may well receive the death penalty for your little prank. Do you have any idea how badly I've been humiliated by all of this? And you haven't even had the decency to apologise to me!"

"Remus, I... I'm sorry..." Quentin led Sirius out of Remus's cell and reached for the door, nodding to his prisoner. Remus nodded back, and the guard began to slide the door shut.

"You're always sorry, Sirius. But now it's high time that you learned that being sorry actually means accepting responsibility for the consequences of your actions." The cell door slammed shut. "And this time, the consequences involve your friend's life."

"C'mon, boy," Quentin urged, tugging Sirius away down the prison corridor. He walked towards the duty desk in a guilty silence, tears of remorse over his own arrogant stupidity covering his cheeks as Remus's final words echoed down the corridor.

"I guess you'll just have to see how it all ends up at my trial. I'm at the mercy of Fate now, Sirius. The dice are in the air – let them fall as they may."

The End