"Men, we have a mission!" Sirius called out as he, Peter and James lounged around the Gryffindor Common Room, Remus and Lily having gone to study to the library only moments ago.

James looked up at him, raising an eyebrow in a rather awkward manner, which almost threw Sirius off his initial mission. Almost.

"Our dear friend, Remus John Lupin – yes his middle name is John, no do not ask me about how I found out by tickling him for half an hour – is hiding something."

"Is he?" James asked, ever the insightful , observant friend.

"Of course he is. Haven't you ever talked to him?" Peter asked, sounding a little incredulous.

"I… Never noticed."

"Anyway, Remus is hiding something – and we have to figure out what it is."

"Sirius, don't you think maybe we should just wait for him to tell us?"

Sirius shook his head at Peter's suggestion with a quiet sigh, "He won't tell us. I tried asking, he just said 'you won't understand'. So we're going to figure out what it is he's hiding."

"I'm not going to investigate a friend," Peter muttered, but James seemed all for the idea.

"We need to find out where he goes. He leaves at least once a month, he has to be doing something," James replied, removing his glasses and cleaning them on his shirt before putting them back on.

"Brilliant, Jamesie boy! So we're agreed, yes? We're going to find out what Remus is hiding?"

"I guess," Peter muttered, glancing over to where James was nodding enthusiastically.

"We'll have to keep watch. Remus usually starts looking antsy when he's about to- oh hello there, Remus, how nice of you to join us. Got sick of studying with Lily?" Sirius cut himself off with a bright smile and a wave as Remus half-fell out of the portrait hole.

"Couldn't concentrate. I think I might just go lie down," Remus muttered, shifting uneasily under Sirius' gaze before climbing up the stairs to the dorms and disappearing.

"Men, mission has begun!"

Sirius woke up encased by a pair of arms he didn't remember being there when he fell asleep. The warm feeling of a chest pressed against his back was another startling realisation for him.

"Remus? Is that you?" Sirius whispered, not wanting to move.

"Remus is unavailable. Please try again later," Remus' voice, thick with sleep, replied, the arms tightening around Sirius' waist.

"Where did you go last night?" Sirius asked as innocently as he could, making Remus let out a muffled, amused sound into Sirius' pillow before he replied.

"I just… My uncle got dragonpox, I had to make sure he was ok."

Sirius knew, for a fact, he had not left Hogwarts grounds. He, James and Peter had followed their bookish friend halfway across the school grounds before losing sight of him and Madam Pomfrey – in the completely wrong direction to go to London.

"You're lying."

"You're nosy."

Sirius found the comment hurt him more than it probably should have. He had been aware from the beginning that Remus was a private person, he should have expected that Remus wouldn't like him trying to figure out his own private business – especially when asking him directly kept ending in disaster. Yet there was a part of him that couldn't help but worry about wherever it was Remus went. He always came back bruised and beaten, with scratches that he covered up carefully with long sleeves and pants – there was something very wrong, and Sirius was very worried about his friend.

"Sorry, I've just had a long night. If you don't mind, I think I'm just going to sleep."

The arms around Sirius' waist disappeared, and he felt the boy behind him move away. Sirius instinctively rolled over to look at Remus and stopped short, his eyes widening as he looked at his face.

Over the night, Remus had somehow obtained a long, deep cut that stretched across the left side of his face. One of his eyes were swollen shut, dark rings under both his eyes, and his nose looked a little crooked as well – he had probably broken it, along with a few other bones if his face was anything to go by – and Remus was clutching at his left shoulder. Sirius reached out and hugged Remus, even as he tried to hide his face under Sirius' blanket.

"Why aren't you in the Hospital Wing?"

"I snuck out. This isn't all that bad, I've had worse."

"Remus-"

"Sirius."

"Rem, stay here. I'll go get us something to eat from the kitchens, and we'll spend the day in bed, yeah? We can talk, or read, or levitate pillows, or something."

"Don't you have classes?"

"I know all that stuff anyway. They're not important."

Sirius was halfway out the room when he heard Remus' quiet thank you, followed by some muttering Sirius couldn't make out.

Sirius was almost at the kitchens when he was cornered by Lily's friend – the one James had taken to calling Snivellus.

"Sirius Black, is it?" Snape asked, a twisted smile on his face that looked more like a grimace.

"Of course he's my dearest cousin," a sneering, high-pitched voice called from the shadows, and out stepped his cousin Bellatrix, a Slytherin seventh year.

"You know, mother says Walburga is in a right state over your choices. You've left the whole family in a very difficult position."

Sirius didn't say a word, only glared with a practiced, haughty, indifferent look.

"Watch yourself, cousin. If you keep this up you'll get blasted off the tapestry."

Bellatrix smiled cruelly at him before sauntering away.

Sirius continued to walk to the kitchens, brushing past Snape on his way. Snape clearly did not like being ignored, because a moment later Sirius was falling, trapped by his Petrificus Totalus. He heard Snape chuckle to himself as he followed Bellatrix, but when Sirius tried to break through the spell and push himself up off the floor, he found his arms were trapped in the position in which they had been frozen, bunched up against his side, his hand curled into a fist.

"Finite!" he heard a few moments later, and a pair of hands were pulling him up to his feet.

He turned to come face to face with another of his cousins, Andromeda. He vaguely remembered liking her the last time he had seen her.

"Sorry, this is all I can do. Watch yourself, Sirius, Bella has been talking about doing much worse if you continue to ruin the family name, and she's managed to get a lot of people in Slytherin to… dislike you. I can't always follow her to make sure she's not hurting anyone."

"You wouldn't have any idea why she's a crazy hag, would you?"

Andromeda didn't react, only shoved him in the direction he had been going with a hurried explanation that they couldn't be seen together. Andromeda turned and left as abruptly as she had arrived, without giving Sirius a chance to respond.

He abandoned the thought of the kitchens completely, storming all the way back to the dorm room and slamming the door behind him, startling Remus awake, who had fallen back asleep while Sirius was out.

"Sirius? You alright?"

"No."

Remus slowly sat up, every one of the clicks of his joints reaching Sirius' ears. Sirius, for his part, ignored everything, letting himself slide down to the floor with his back pressed against the wall, hugging his knees to his chest.

"Did you want to talk about it?"

"No."

Remus swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood up, swearing quietly under his breath with pain. He walked over to Sirius' side, trying to hide how painful every step he took was.

"Did you want me to leave you alone?"

Sirius let out a shaky breath. "No."

Remus, looked at his friend, biting his bottom lip. Sirius had covered his face with his hands now. He wouldn't be moving for a while. Remus started to walk away to get a book, but a hand on his leg stopped him.

"Stay?"

"I'm not going anywhere."

Remus gently removed the hand on his leg and retrieved the book from his bedside table before returning to Sirius' side, sitting cross-legged next to the upset boy. The eldest black leant against his shoulder, closing his eyes as Remus opened his book.

"What are you reading?"

"A Wizard of Earthsea. It's a muggle book."

"Read to me?"

Remus began to flip back to the beginning, but a hand on his stopped him.

"Just read, I don't care if it's not from the beginning."

Remus cleared his throat, looking from the upset boy sleeping on his shoulder to the book open in his lap. He cleared his throat again, and wet his lips, before beginning to read softly the tale of another world, of another time. Sirius let Remus' soft, calming voice wash over him, calming him, putting all thoughts of his family aside as he turned his focus to the present, and to the first person to ever tell him he'd fight his family for him.

After classes James and Peter had managed to coerce both of them to leave the castle. Remus was still healing, and Sirius was still upset, but they had followed the two boys out of the castle anyway. The weather was finally beginning to improve, the snow had begun to thaw and although the grounds were covered in slush, there was a definite cheerfulness to the early spring atmosphere around them. Remus' injuries didn't seem to hurt so much in the delicate warmth of the sun, and Sirius' mood improved with the crisp, fresh air which held the promise of an early end to the winter.

"What did the hippogriff say to the dragon?" James asked as they ambled lazily around the lake, the giant squid a dark, murky shape in the water.

"What did it say?" Peter asked.

"Where are your feathers!" James laughed loudly, clapping Peter on the back, who just sent him a confused look.

"I don't get it."

"No one does, Peter," Remus cut in with a chuckle.

One of the squid's tentacles suddenly rose out of the water, and Sirius ducked behind Remus with a squeak, followed by Peter and James, who had tried to hide behind each other before ducking behind the now laughing Remus.

"Seriously?"

"I am always serious," Sirius replied, stepping away from Remus and walking with a certain amount of practiced arrogance.

"You're never serious, you should have been called 'kidding', or better yet, 'drama queen'."

"You injure me, Remus," Sirius called, clutching at his chest.

"The squid has demanded a sacrifice. I vote Peter," James interrupted, glancing over to where the squid's tentacle had been just moments before.

"Seconded," Sirius said immediately.

"You can't throw me into the lake!"

"Remus?"

"Don't look at me, I'm a neutral party here."

"Peter! Looks like your lucky day! You're getting thrown into the lake!" James crowed, and together James and Sirius grabbed hold of either one of Peter's arms.

"REMUS HELP ME!"

"Be brave, soldier, your time has come," Remus replied, saluting him.

"PLEASE DON'T THROW ME INTO THE LAKE!"

"POTTER! BLACK! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING TO PETTIGREW?" Professor McGonagall was storming towards them, greying hair escaping the bun in which it had been placed.

Remus quickly stepped forwards to stand just in front of his friends, deciding that damage control was probably needed.

"Professor, we were just trying to convince Peter to get into the lake. We definitely weren't going to throw anyone into the lake, or force anyone to do anything against their will," Remus sent a warning look to James and Sirius.

"Everything's fine, McGonnie," James said, sending her a cocky grin.

"I hope you are telling the truth, Lupin," the professor replied, glaring strictly at James before moving away.

"You know, we could do a lot with this newfound ability of yours, Rem," James said thoughtfully.

"Oi, that's my nickname," Sirius interjected before Remus could reply.

"What ability?"

"To talk your way out of trouble. You could be like our… Coveruperer!"

"That's not even a word."

"It is now!" James declared.

Sirius and James exchanged a look before turning to look over to Peter, who had been silent since McGonagall arrived.

"Get him."

"Men, report!"

"Sirius, it's too late for this."

"I said report!"

James sighed, running a hand through his messy black hair – or artfully tussled, as he preferred.

"Remus disappears once every month. Yesterday was one of those days. I don't think it's the same day of the week or the same date, because today is Sunday and on the first day he disappeared it was a Wednesday. We have no idea where he goes, or what he does, he just comes back injured," James recited.

"Good. Peter?"

"I don't know. He always seems grumpy before he disappears. I try not to talk to him, he's a little scary when he's grumpy."

"Good. So we have – one, 11 year old boy, gets grumpy once a month, disappears for a night, and comes back injured. Wait, girls have that thing once a month, don't they? Maybe he's secretly a girl!"

"Come off it, Sirius. Remus? A girl? Really?" James scoffed.

"Wait, what do girls have once a month?" Peter asked, confused.

"You really need to read that Witch's Weekly magazine I gave you," Sirius replied.

"Incredibly insightful, that magazine," James added.

"That is, if you're a witch looking for a wizard," Sirius supplied, and the two boys exchanged a glance before dissolving into fits of laughter.

"I thought we were here to discuss Remus!" Peter complained, and Sirius instantly stopped laughing, punching James' shoulder when James didn't stop quickly enough.

"Indeed we were. Well, I have more information on him than all of you. Have you noticed he always grabs his left shoulder when he's talking about anything to do with what happened? Also, he has nightmares almost every night, he never gets changed with anyone in the room, and he's got some massive scars which magical healing obviously can't fix, or they wouldn't be there."

"So… Traumatic accident?" Peter speculated.

"Obviously. But what could be so bad they left scars which couldn't be healed?" Sirius sounded a touch defeated.

"Well, men, I think we have to hit the books to find out more. Sirius, do you think Pomfrey'd talk to you about scars that don't heal?"

"Of course, no one can resist my charm," Sirius flashed James a grin.

"Good. Anyway, in the meantime Peter and I will look things up in the library. How do you intend to talk to Madam Pomfrey?"

Sirius frowned, but then his face brightened considerably as an incredibly mischievous look crossed his face.

"How do you feel about getting into a fight with my cousin, and then being heroically saved by yours truly as he throws said cousin and himself off the stairway?"

"Brilliant."