Chapter two: Love takes hostages.

"Have you ever been in love?

Horrible isn't it?

It makes you so vulnerable.

It opens your chest and it opens up your heart and it means that someone can get inside you and mess you up.

You build up all these defences, you build up a whole suit of armour, so that nothing can hurt you, then one stupid person, no different from any other stupid person, wanders into your stupid life...

You give them a piece of you.

They didn't ask for it.

They did something dumb one day, like kiss you or smile at you, and then your life isn't your own anymore.

Love takes hostages.

It gets inside you.

It eats you out and leaves you crying in the darkness."

Sirius Black:

My life, up till leaving Hogwarts, had been mainly predictable. At Hogwarts there were lessons, pranks, Quidditch, and the Marauders, which near the end of our seventh year then included the now Mrs Potter (Unofficially, of course.) And Moony. Mustn't forget Moony.

My Moony.

My feelings for him had begun sometime during our fourth year, I had worked out. It wasn't really that big of a deal. I didn't wake up one morning, see my good ol' mate Remus and think, 'MINE!' It took me a while to finally realize that, 'No, my feelings for my lycanthropic friend and fellow prankster weren't quite platonic, and I wouldn't mind awfully if the two of us were to become an item of sorts.' My fans were devastated.

It wasn't even something I thought about. They were just a part of me, my feelings for Remus. My name was Sirius Black, I had five fingers on each hand, I had grey eyes and I was madly, hopelessly in love with one Remus J. Lupin.

But then we left Hogwarts, and everything became a bit less kind.

The war started. We all joined the Order of the Phoenix, together, like we always had done. Me, Remus, James, Peter and Lily.

Then came Harry.

We were all delighted of course. James and Lily made me his Godfather.

And then something shifted. The enemy seemed to be guessing our every move before it was made. Accusations were being made, fingers pointed.

It was clear that whosoever the spy was, they would have to be someone close to the Potters, as it seemed to be they that the Death Eaters were tracking.

I think I hurt Remus, spending so much time searching for the traitor with James. He made himself sick with worry over us, even more so then after the terrible incident in our Fifth year. Since then I had never seen him look at me with as much pain in his eyes as he did on the nights I came home after another day of failure. I knew that I was taking it personally, but I had to know. I had to know who was betraying us.

"I'm scared, Padfoot." He murmured to me one breezy night, as I held him after yet another horrific full moon. "Scared that one day you'll go too far. That you'll never come home again." He sat up, the light of the waning moon illuminating the bandages snaked around his torso. He turned to face me, and stared deep into my eyes. He slowly lifted one fragile hand to my face as I took his other in mine and twined our fingers together. I pressed my forehead against his. "I'll never leave you, Moony. Never." He closed his eyes, and we lay together, side by side holding each other.