A/N: Rewrote this scene over and over, but the typical 'oh my god, Sirius, why would you do that? I'm going to hate you for ages and loathe myself unnecessarily before forgiving you because I'm actually in love with you' - not knocking that line, I've used it myself, but it just didn't fit this version of Remus. Hope you find this feasible :)

Remus sat in the Shrieking Shack under the thin blanket, folding his clothes and trying to stay calm. It was ridiculous, really, how scared he was. They would come. They would come. Sure, they were usually at least half hour early before the moon rose and they were really pushing now, with only a few minutes – he could feel it coming – but who was he to know why they were late? Oh, Merlin, maybe they got caught trying to sneak out. No, they wouldn't be so stupid as to get caught, not with this.

He looked down at his body, eyes tracing over the scars across his arms, torso and legs, feeling them burning and itching. He could feel it coming. It was coming. This one was going to be a bad one – the wolf was taunting him, excited to be out on a night so much connected to the large bite mark on his left thigh, connected to the night he was bitten as a scared six year old boy.

Remus breathed in deeply and out slowly, trying to stop the shuddering shakes starting to wrack his body. Fear was imaginary. Pain was useless unless given in to. He repeated the mantra in his head over and over again, closing his eyes and trying to be patient, trying to pretend to himself that he wasn't scared by the fact that the wolf had stopped trying to hurt him – to escape – and was patiently waiting for the moon, waiting for the chance to hurt him.

A sudden twinge at the base of him spine made his eyes fly open. Remus stared through the window at the bright, white orb hanging in the sky ominously, spitefully. He had a moment to panic and think desperately, why aren't they here? Sirius knows, he knows…Sirius…

A crack as his vertebrae snapped and reshaped itself and he was gone.

Moony. Moony. Moony. Moony.

Remus shifted slightly and instantly regretted it. He felt like he had been trampled on by a dozen Hungarian Horntails and his head protested at the light that filtered through his eyelids.

Moony. Moony. Moony.

He had to wake up just to tell whoever was repeated his name over and over to shut the hell up and let him die in peace. Remus opened his eyes slowly, blinking rapidly at the bright light shining mockingly through the windows of the hospital wing. Slowly, he lifted his head to check his injuries and winced inwardly at the sight of the bandages wrapped around his torso. The rest was the usual scratches, if a little deeper and longer, and Pomfrey had probably healed a mass of broken bones already; he could feel the ache of recently knitted bones everywhere.

"Moony…"

Remus' head snapped around – which he instantly regretted – to see Sirius in a chair beside his bed, slumped over on the bed with his head in his arms, sleeping fitfully and murmuring his name.

"Ah, Remus!"

Remus turned, slowly this time, to see Madam Pomfrey bustling through the curtains around his bed and smiling warmly at him.

"If you hadn't woken by now, I was going to revive you myself."

"How…" Remus' voice was hoarse from disuse. He cleared his throat and wet his lips and tried again, "How long have I been here?"

"A week, dear." She answered softly, checking the basics and touching his bandages lightly, before handing him a goblet containing something orange. "Drink it. It'll make you feel better."

Remus drank it, having to let Pomfrey feed it to him – since he had been out cold for a week, he wasn't surprised that he had little use of his arms and legs. He pulled and face when he'd finished and commented on the taste. Pomfrey laughed, but looked like she wanted to cry, which startled him.

"What happened, Madam Pomfrey?" he asked warily, already starting to feel a little brighter by the second. The use of his limbs was coming back, he could feel it when he wiggled his fingers, but whatever was underneath the bandages felt…deep. It still throbbed relentlessly and made it uncomfortable to breathe. Madam Pomfrey shook her head and brushed his hair from his eyes gently, nodding her head towards Sirius beside him.

"Don't be too hard on him. He's come here every free minute he's had." she said softly and left his curtained area quickly, dabbing at her eyes. Remus frowned and glanced around at Sirius, who – he was vaguely surprised too see – had his eyes open and was watching Remus with red eyes, dark rings to match his own under them.

"Remus," he whispered, before clearing his throat and straightening up to stare at Remus, "You're awake."

"I am." Remus nodded.

"It's been a week."

"So I've heard."

Sirius blinked a few times before nodding in the direction the Madam Pomfrey had left, "Seems to have a soft spot for you, getting all teary eyed."

"She's always been like that with me." Remus shrugged, "Sirius, what happened last ni—last week? Why didn't you show up?"

Sirius visibly broke, his shoulders slumping, hands shaking as they grasped his robes tightly, eyes darting around Remus' face desperately.

"Remus, they—it's all my fault…I…you had to have a specialist healer brought in from St Mungos…you had a—hic—tear in your—hic—lung and you nearly—hic—died!"

Remus watched, startled, as Sirius dissolved into hiccups and sobs, collapsing on the bed again.

"Um, I…Sirius, calm down. It's not my fault I almost tore my own insides out."

Sirius calmed down immediately and lifted his head, eyes wide, "Yes it is. I told Snape where to find you. James had to stop him from getting too far down the tunnel and then Dumbledore came and brought us up to the office and made Snape swear not to tell, so we couldn't come down to stop you doing…doing this to yourself."

Remus had to concentrate to catch every word and make sense of it and when Sirius stopped, he laughed softly. Sirius stared at him, thinking he'd gone mad.

"Didn't you hear what I said?" he asked fearfully.

"Yes," Remus smiled, "Honestly, Pads, it's not that big a big deal. Yeah, I'm pissed that you forced Prongs to put his own life in danger and that you weren't there. Last night was the worst transformation to date, Pads, and you let me down."

Sirius hung his head, ashamed, the calmness of Remus' voice making the scolding worse.

"You knew – I told you that that night was different." Remus went on, his voice becoming distant as he remembered, "I kept telling myself, Sirius knows, he'll come, but you didn't."

"Moony, please, stop." Sirius rasped. Remus looked down at him, having forgotten momentarily who he was talking to in the midst of the pain filled memory.

"I'm sorry. I'm not saying this to hurt you."

"No, you should. I deserve it – don't you understand what I did?"

"Of course." Remus answered placidly, "You tried to kill Snape."

"By using you!" Sirius cried, desperate to be punished now.

"But nothing happened."

"But I—"

"No, Pads. Like I said, I'm pissed about Prongs and that you weren't there, but what's done is done. Nothing happened, I didn't hurt anyone but myself, which happens all the time anyway. Do you regret trying to kill Snape? If it hadn't have involved me, would you stand by your actions?"

A dangerous, dark look flitted across Sirius' face that surprised Remus. The other boy considered it and then nodded solemnly.

"Yes. He deserves it. He was trying to get you thrown out of Hogwarts, Moony. I'll bet anything that he knew what that would have meant for you – no qualifications to offer an employer who might've taken you on, despite your furry little problem."

Remus burst out laughing and Sirius looked at him funny.

"Sorry," he chuckled, "But saying 'furry little problem' in such a serious conversation…sorry. Honestly, if you think what you did was right, then why apologise? No, forget that it was going to be me who hurt him – that didn't happen, so it doesn't matter. It's a moot point, I guess. Just leave it."

Sirius nodded reluctantly, "You're hurt because of me." He mumbled instead.

Remus nodded too, "Yes, maybe. But honestly? I think I would've gotten badly injured anyway – this full was different, remember? Maybe it was for the best. I could've hurt you, too."

"You're too good to me, Moony." Sirius sighed, his head resting back on his arms on the bed. Remus' hand automatically started to stroke his hair, letting the black strands flow softly between his fingers.

"I know." He murmured.

"Prongs and Wormtail are angry with me." Sirius said, his voice muffled, "And Dumbledore. And McGonagall."

"I'll bet they are."

Sirius didn't answer and Remus suspected he had fallen asleep and he wasn't far behind.