The full-moon went as well as it could considering where he was. Remus had to resort to a nuzzle, a suggestion of Dumbledore's to suppress the howls that were likely to come out of it. He hadn't caused any unwanted attention. The wolf had been quite restrained overall especially considering the livestock a few miles down. He had wondered if there were any werewolves locked in the camp and he had been informed, in fact, there were. But they were not put with the others. They were steel crate confined and the wolf, he felt, had sensed it. How could it not?
Remus was not less inclined to the welfare of them but he was grateful that they had some sort of purpose to be kept alive. He did not like to think of the consequences. He was also grateful that it wasn't noticed that he had been missing and thus nobody had come to look for him. Therefore it was a shock when a day later he was approached by one of the men he had seen in the camp and loitering after the poor women who were subject to him. He had done some grotesque things.

Remus was raw from the after-effects of a particularly potent moon and he had to be quite careful how he carried himself. He felt very naked as the man had found a new way to entertain himself by scrutinising Remus as he limped by as normally as he could. The very least he could be accused is sleeping on the wrong side of the bed. He did not know what the man thought, but he had a bone-chilling feeling that he had become something to intimidate and torment. but he wouldn't worry about it now. He wasn't scared of a tiny man with tiny intelligence and he found comfort in being more powerful than he was given credit for even if it was not in his ethics to do so.

Lily had sent him a blanket. Remus had half a mind to take it to Sirius but a blanket could not go unnoticed. It hurt him, but he could not put him in jeopardy. Not with the regular checks they made on the captives his age. It was almost as if they were the most capable of escape when they hardly knew why or how they were there. But with Sirius, they were right to. He picked as many fights as he could get away with. Remus wasn't happy about it. However, there was nothing he could do to contain him. It was one of Sirius' charms: his integrity.
Remus thought about what it would be like if Sirius could transform into a dog. His dreams were always colourful when Sirius was a dog and he had even gone as far to imagine walking him out and never coming back. Sirius would live with them. James and Lily. They would get along well and his spirit would make him a prodigy to James.

Remus had thought if Sirius was a dog and it was remotely possible to leave with him how it would lessen the blow of leaving his sibling behind to have Harry. Harry liked dogs. Remus remembered what he could remember of Harry.
These dreams made it very hard to live in reality. There had been two exterminations in one week. He didn't know and couldn't guess who were the priority to enter the showers as much as he would have liked to have been able to guess. Muggles or Purebloods. Maybe there was no longer a hierarchy. The first time, and it was behind bars, restricted from the world as a whole. His books had gotten bigger. There was now a substantial amount of observations to leave the walls down the line, on a postman's bike for an owl or two to dive in and take them as if they were never even there.

Remus did not know what Dumbledore or the ministry planned to do with the information. He took every opportunity to implore them to put a stop to what was happening but Dumbledore had often told him "There is no distinguishing a horcrux without informing who it belongs to." and he had been right but Remus had his own wisdom which he had been inclined to share. "Clipping a hippogriff's wing when it has hurt it is a kindness even though that hippogriff is dying. A wing is as important."

Remus walked down the landscape towards Sirius. Sirius could jump on the hippogriff's back and he could fly it if he wanted. He could escape within inches of his life and he would be a light in a tragedy and Remus was going to be more forceful about it.
Sirius watched him arrive. He looked glad to see Remus in one piece and he seemed to slack in relief. His heart that had been thudding with the terror of youth slowed as he joined him. Remus sat. "I wonder if you know that you could make me breathe like that if you did the sensible thing and left this place." Sirius fidgeted uncomfortably. He thought he was in control of the argument. He didn't answer and he looked away angrily in defiance.

Remus wanted to beg. Rather, his body language did,. It ran away without him. Sirius didn't need an adult to fall apart in front of him. Oddly, Sirius looked like he wanted to comfort Remus. In fact, it seemed like he needed it and his small body hummed restlessly and he bit his nails.
Remus unleashed when he had brought to show Sirius. In his possession he had a photography of a photo of himself, James, Lily and Peter. Sirius had asked and he had been all to obliged to match faces to the names. Remus put it down to Sirius wanting to have concrete images for goodness of the world because he believed that there was none and he needed proof. Sirius knew what it was. He motioned for it and Remus gave it to him. Sirius looked at it. In the photography they were stood in a row. An uneven one because of Peter's height but a row nonetheless. Remus had orchestrated order for the photo but it wasn't consistent. It was like trying to control a box full of marbles and he could see that Sirius understand that in his own way as he looked from right to left taking them all in.

Sirius focused on Remus in the photo. It was at the point where he had lost it and his smile was effortless and defeated by James stoic and ridiculous place in the photography and broad grin encompassing them all. Sirius looked at James. He seemed to drink him in. It was almost adoration. Impossible for someone who didn't know him but Sirius looked like he was in on a secret that James had just told and they seemed to smile together.
Remus watched. He could feel his heart fine-tuning to the fluid smile that Sirius wore and the brightness of his eyes that were so strong in a gaze he expected to ignite it. It was not normal to feel so at home sharing ground of a field that blood had spilled on but he felt it. He felt at home with Sirius who was piecing together all of the attributes all of the people in the photograph shared. "You wear cardigans when you're not here." he spoke with all seriousness."I do."

"They fit you better."
"Thank you."
"And James?"
"No. He's more vest."
"Is that his girlfriend?"
"His wife."
"No?" Sirius exclaimed in disbelief.
"Oh yes."
"Who would think it?"
Who indeed, Remus thought, who indeed.

Remus had let Sirius keep the photograph. He had formed a bond with it and as much as Remus needed it, Sirius was in more need of it than he was. He had left him. Curled up in a ball. Remus had never seen him sleep although his words did sometimes make Sirius want to. He had left, and he prayed to Merlin that nobody would find the photograph on his person. Then again, it would be very hard to find it if Sirius had anything to do with it.
He returned half a fortnight later. Remus' pockets were piled high with sweetened goods. If he knew anything about children he knew that their sweet tooth had to be adequately brushed.

Remus found Sirius clinging to the barbed wire. It was a miracle Remus had never been seen yet, and merciful that he had managed it once again. It was a task for Remus to see through the black smoke that billowed from the tubes to the north-east. Remus had to wait for Sirius to outsmart the eyes that were watching him. He was aware of them all even if he could not seem every single one directly.
Remus' heart rippled, always wary, always weary for worst outcome. That Sirius would not reach him safely. He held a ball of clay and rolled it with quivering fingers. Now he could see Sirius. Sirius was missing a finger. Nausea rained over Remus and he found it very difficult not to drop. Sirius looked barbarous as he ever was and it occurred to him that Remus hadn't even stopped to cry.

Sirius saw him looking and how it had made him mute and a flash of denial passed through Sirius' irises. He pointed his chin bravely. "I'm OK, Moony. I was being a little too out of line with them. They had enough."
Remus listened but he was too far gone. He grabbed Sirius arm despite the barbed wire cutting his hand and he yanked Sirius close to him. "You are going to leave. Today. Now." with every word he felt his body sob and the need to pass out.
"Moony-"
"Stop."
"You're hurting me."
"GET OUT OF THERE."
Sirius stepped back and he let Remus slide to the ground like a broken rag-doll and he let his fist fall against the earth. "Sirius, you can't be there anymore. This isn't a game. They will kill you."
"I'd like to see them-"
Remus unhinged. "Padfoot."
They both stiffened. Remus had never used that name before and it was his turn to be a stranger to his own body. What was even more disconcerting was that Sirius seemed to recognise it. Was he losing his memory?

They stood in silence and Remus made the exchange with the sweets that Sirius took with a ravenous vigour. They both looked apologetic. Sirius even more so because his age was designed for it. Remus asked several times to be permitted to look at his hand but Sirius wouldn't allow it. He had simply told him that it had saved someone from the same fate. Remus couldn't think why. Sirius had told him that it hurt but what was left had lost feeling but he doesn't know if he has only blotted it out.

Sirius looked at it a lot. Remus assumed that it was fascinating for a young boy and exhilarating to lose something and to find yourself untarnished by it. Anybody would. It was the person that it had happened to was the problem. It was a punishment saved for people who trait and Sirius had never done a thing to betray anyone. He was a boy. However he felt like a hypocrite for being able to resent the same boy because he would not leave when he could so easily. Was it the same? perhaps it was.

Remus always believed that life was always on top and there was nothing better than to live. Was forcing Sirius to live because he was a young boy such a supported decision as he once thought? There was no differing from it. It was true. There is nothing he opposed more than death.
Remus swapped Sirius' photograph he had kept for a more recent one but he didn't look to see the new person that had formed next to him.