A/N aah, finally slash is on the horizon – sorry I took so long getting to it, it didn't seem natural in the story till now! Chapters should be longer from now on, I've been breaking them up far too much

"I have no idea how we're going to do this" said James, rubbing his head with exasperation, bent over yet another book on animagi "None of these books explain it properly! It's like reading one of Remus's Arithmancy books" He growled as he turned another useless page. They had decided to miss the first Hogsmeade weekend to keep Remus company in hospital wing on his birthday. That night it was a full moon, so they took the opportunity of a Remus free night to go to the library and research animagi.

"We'll just have to persevere with it James" said Sirius, just as frustrated as James was

"There's no way I'll manage this, I can't even decide which animal to become" said Peter, rubbing his eyes

"We've been incredibly stupid you know" said James with a look of repulsion on his face

"About what?" said Sirius; who'd thought they were being stupid from day one

"We don't know where he goes; we need to find out where he goes first!" Said James waving his hands and clapping them across his eyes

"Why do we need to know where he goes?" asked Peter

"Well, we need to decide which animals to become before we start trying to become them" said James

"Right..." said Sirius and Peter in unison

"What if they're keeping him somewhere weird, we should specify for the terrain" Sirius had no idea what James was getting at

"I don't get it" James frowned and continued

"Well, if he's in a cave, we'll want to be animals that are good climbers or flyers as well as being powerful, it'd be pointless becoming say – a dog if he was there because they can't climb for shit, but, a mountain lion would fit perfectly! D'you get it now?"

"Yeah, you're right; we need to do our research on Remus before we start with this" said Sirius shaking his head and closing his book

*

Remus awoke late on the evening of his birthday, to find himself with: a shattered knee cap, a dislocated few fingers, 2 broken ribs and a broken collar bone, now it was weak, it would probably break every transformation and this one had clearly been a particularly rough one. He was never usually this badly hurt, nor did he ever sleep this late. He opened his eyes to find Sirius Black bent over him, staring directly into them.

"Happy 14th Birthday sleepy head!" he said smiling, he pulled back, Peter was there with a bag full of sweets from Honeydukes and James with a small chocolate cake with Happy Birthday Remus written across it in red icing and a small golden icing lion drawn on it.

"Wow" he said sleepily "this is really nice"

"We got the house elves to do it last night!" said James excitedly, handing him a small oddly shaped package wrapped in purple paper "I had my Mum get you this" he opened it, it was a small stuffed wolf, which roared and wagged it's tail when you squeezed it and a nice photo frame "The cool thing about the frame is, that it changes from day to night and with the weather, see, the sun is setting on it right now, because the sun is setting outside"

"That's brilliant James, I'd hug you, but my arms are really hurting" while James put his cake on the table next to him, Sirius stepped forward

"I got you a photo of all of us, I wanted to get you something proper, but you know my mum, she would never agree to get you anything from me" The photo was taken last July, Sirius was at the centre grinning and waving, his arms wrapped tight around James and Remus's shoulders. James was smiling broadly and was also waving, Remus was stooped a little as he was taller than Sirius, he looked a little uncomfortable but was laughing and waving too. Peter was standing to the right of the three of them, catching his breath with James's hand on his shoulder; he had set the timer on the camera and had to run to get in the photo.

"It's brilliant Sirius, thank you – is this the photo that got you in trouble at summer?"

"err... Yeah, but it's a different copy, I swear!"

"I believe you, thanks a lot, I needed a photo of everyone" he smiled as reassuringly as possible

"I asked Evans to get you these sweets for me!" beamed Peter; displaying the bag "I found the stash you keep under your bed you so all your favourites are in there" he set them down by the cake "Oh! And Evans asked me to give you this from her" It was a rectangular, suspiciously bookish looking package. Remus opened it to find a copy of The Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkien"She said, she knew you liked muggle books, and she likes this one, so she got it for you" Peter was still smiling

"Wow, thanks for the sweets Peter, tell you the truth my supply has been running low of late" Peter looked very satisfied with himself "If I'm not out today, tell Lily thank you, and that I'm sure I'll love the book"he set it down by James and Sirius's presents "Thanks, thanks so much, you're the best friends I've ever had... you are the only friends I've ever had, so you do win by default, but none the less" Sirius laughed and ruffled his hair

"It was no trouble. Remus, can we ask you a question?"

"Yes, go on"

"Where do you go when you transform?"

"Oh... well you know Whomping Willow they planted a couple of years ago?" everyone nodded "They planted it for me, you see, there's a tunnel beneath the roots that goes to the Shrieking Shack in Hogsmeade"

"But that's the most severely haunted place in Britain!" gawped Peter

"No it isn't" Remus smiled "The screams and roars and howls they hear are me"

"How do you get close enough to the Whomping Willow to get beneath it? It took Davey Gudgeon's eye out last year and all he did was try to touch the trunk!" exclaimed James

"There's a knot at the base of the tree, when you press it, it stops moving, and you just have to levitate a twig or something, I always have to go early if I want to do it by myself" They were interrupted by a tetchy Madam Pomfrey

"What are you 3 doing here!? Remus is very tired he's had a... bad... accident, you need to leave"

"It's okay, we know about his...er... Furry little problem" Sirius said this and winked, Remus, James and Peter giggled

"Mr. Lupin, I'm surprised at you! You were sworn to secrecy! By the Headmaster!"

"He didn't tell us Miss! We worked it out ourselves" said James

"The Headmaster will have to be informed" she said sternly

"Please don't tell Dumbledore about this" Pleaded Remus, using his puppy dog eyes to their fullest "It's my birthday"

"Oh for goodness sake fine, I assume they know how important it is not to tell anyone else" they all nodded, she took out a bottle of Skel-o-grow "You're going to have to take this for the shattered knee, I'll have to keep you in over night for that, and you three are going to have to leave now, I have to heal Mr. Lupin's breakages and cuts" calling happy birthday's and goodbyes they were escorted out by Madam Pomfrey. When they left, she ran over to Remus and smiled warmly "Happy Birthday Remus, don't tell anyone... but considering that you're my favourite patient" she pulled out a handful of galleons and placed them by Remus's things "That's 14 galleons" she beamed

"Wow, Madam Pomfrey, thank you so much... thanks... thank you, thank you" the gratitude and affection he felt for the woman couldn't be expressed properly in words

"You're very welcome"

"I'm really grateful Madam Pomfrey, you know that, how grateful I am"

"I know Remus" she was about to walk away when she added "When it's just us like this... just call me Poppy"

*

"Okay... one of us needs to be something small, so we can press the root" James said in a hushed voice on their way back to library

"I'll do that!" Enthused Peter "Being something smaller'll be easier won't it?"

"Probably" agreed Sirius "So that just leaves me and James to be something big to keep control of him"

"We have to inconspicuous as well... what's big and inconspicuous at the same time?"

"Something that you'd expect to find by a forest... or round the village" Sirius thought a moment, James snapped his fingers

"They have deer in the Dark Forest don't they?"

"Yeah"

"I'm being a stag then"

"Trust you to pick the most arrogant animal you possibly could" Sirius rolled his eyes

"Fine then! You pick a big powerful animal that isn't arrogant! How can animals be arrogant anyway"
"They just can James" he smirked "I'll be a nice big dog, that's not arrogant at all is it? See, it's easy"

"I'm still being a stag" Huffed James "What are you going to do then Pete?"

"I was thinking... maybe... a little bird?"

"If you're going for simplicity a bird would be too difficult, you might get hit by the willow flying towards it anyway – pick something close to the ground and fast- like a rat"

"Can I just be a rat?" Peter asked, Sirius put his arm round Peter and James's shoulders

"This is going to be brilliant... no more unnecessary pain for Rem eh?"

*

They stood in their dorm, knowing they had the rest of the night without Remus they began to practice becoming animals. They had taken every book in the library they could find and had them all strewn across the floor

"Okay so concentrate on becoming the animal... er... really, really concentrate" Said James fluffing up his hair

"OH! Look, my nose has gone all pointy" Exclaimed Peter

"Your nose had always been pointy Peter" groaned Sirius, the boy really was an idiot, Peters smile dropped and he softly muttered an apology under his breath "This is going to be so hard... and we'll only have one night a month to practice... it's impossi... FUCK!" Sirius had raised his hands to his face only to discover he'd grown dog like pads on them. "Look! James, Peter look! Pads! Pads on my hands!"

"Wow! Sirius that's amazing!" said James running his hands through his hair again "hang on" he stopped on his forehead, discovering 2 small bumps sticking out from it "Ha! Prongs! Er... sort of"

"Maybe this'll be easier than we thought" Said Sirius smiling "How do we get rid of them"

"Concentrate on being a person?" suggested Peter

"It's worth a try" James and Sirius screwed up their faces and concentrated as hard as they could

"They're gone!" Called Peter "The sort of prongs... they went back in, and the pads just dissolved"

"Fucking brilliant" Beamed James

*

Sirius beckons me towards him, I follow, we're in a garden, it's night. The moon is full, I try to leave, warning Sirius but he grabs me and tells me nothing bad will happen as long as he is here. I try to explain, but it's no good, Sirius's hand rises to my lips keeping them shut. I decide to remain outdoors, Sirius's fingers pressed upon my mouth. He takes a step forward closer to me, and another. Our noses now touch; he takes his hand down, running his fingers along my chin, down my neck and chest where it remains, his body is pushed against mine, our stomachs touching, our rib cages feel interlocked, our heartbeats synchronise. I have hot shivers running up and down my spine. His hair blows in the soft wind and stokes my face, his eyelashes brush against my cheek. He tilts his head to the left; I tilt mine to the right. His wet lips about to connect with mine, he says

"Rem! Time to wake up!"

No! No he doesn't... he says... something romantic like, I've waited for this for so long, and then he

"Remus Lupin Wake up you lazy bastard! We've got charms in an hour!"

Oh for God's sake, never mind "I'm awake, you twat" mumbled Remus grumpily

"Aww Remus, usually you're so cheerful when you wake up" Sirius was leaning right over him again, staring into his eyes

"I was having an interesting dream; I wanted to see how it would pan out... don't suppose I'll know now"

"Sorry mate, I hate it when that happens" he smiled apologetically

"Where are James and Peter?"

"Breakfast, you know what Peter's like with his food" Sirius curled his lip

"Oh okay, well I'm going to the bathroom to put some clothes on... ugh, I hate the hospital wing toilet"

As Remus changed out of his pyjamas he contemplated his dream about Sirius. He really wanted to know what that kiss would've felt like, even if it was just a dream. But he shouldn't dream about Sirius again, he should stamp this out before a fleeting attraction turned into a fully fledged crush... or worse. He left the bathroom fully clothed in dark jeans and a shirt.

"We'll need to run up to the dorm before breakfast, I need my robes"

"You fucked up the buttons on your shirt"

"Did I?" Remus looked down

"Yeah, you've put all of them in the hole below the one they're supposed to be in"

"Ah, so I have" feeling strangely self conscious, Remus un-buttoned his shirt and re-buttoned it, Sirius was staring at his torso "Enjoying yourself Sirius?"

"What? Oh..." he blushed and laughed shyly "Sorry, I was looking at your scars"

"Oh, right" Remus thought he'd been looking at his body for a moment; he quickly reminded himself that his scars were far more interesting than his bare chest and stomach.

"Do you get used to it?"

"What?"

"The pain, every month, does it get like... routine?" Sirius was only curious, so Remus was surprised by the harsh tone his reply took

"Never"

*

Sirius followed Remus up into their dorm. He hoped Remus believed his lie because he wasn't just looking at his scars. He hadn't been staring at his body in a gay way, no; it was just out of curiosity that's all, he had wondered for a while how someone as skinny as Remus could have all of this werewolfish strength he was so terrified of using. Sirius was just looking for secret deposits of muscle Remus might have tucked away, but he didn't. He was just skinny, with the lightest trace of a six pack poking through his skin, below his ribs and collar bone which jutted sharply outwards. Sirius found it interesting that though most people looked stronger than a rather skeletal Remus, he could probably kill someone with his bare hands. He could kill Sirius right now, if he wanted to. The thought made Sirius more than a little bit uneasy.

They reached their dorm and Remus quickly put on his tie and pulled on his robes

"You're looking a bit pink Sirius, have you got a fever or something?"

"Am I?" he felt his face, his cheeks were still burning red with embarrassment after Remus caught him staring in the Hospital Wing

"Yeah" Remus stepped forward and placed his hand on Sirius's cheek "Seriously, you're burning up"

"I am?"

"Maybe you should go back down to the hospital wing?"

"No, it's fine, I'll just splash some cold water on my face... it's fine, I'll be fine" He pulled out his wand and pointed the tip over his head

"Aguamenti!" water splashed down his face, into his hair and down the front of his robes

"That was stupid" Remus laughed, "you're soaking"

"I'm not hot any more though" Remus felt his face again

"Nope, you're fine; I suppose you weren't running a fever, hang on" Remus pulled out his wand and cast a hot air charm, drying Sirius quickly

"Thanks"

"No problem"

Sirius noted an awkwardness between them, a certain kind of awkwardness one usually experiences when they're alone with someone, perhaps a friend, that they've never been alone with before. Shy smiles and forced laughter, wishing someone else was there. It was strange, Sirius and Remus had been alone many times before, Sirius couldn't even remember the last time the two of them seemed this uncomfortable together

"Should we go down to breakfast?" asked Remus

"Na, no point, there's only about ten minutes left before charms and the Great Hall is further away from the class room any way, we'd just be wasting time"

"Oh, okay"

"Remus, can I ask you a question?"

"Okay"

"What were you dreaming about that made you so pissy when you woke up?"

"Nothing"

"But you said it was interesting" Sirius was aware that chronic curiosity was both one of his most endearing and most annoying features

"It's hard to explain" Remus chewed his lip

"Think of it as a book; just give me a rough plot outline!"

"Oh alright, I was in a garden, the moon was full, but I was fine. I was about to kiss someone, then you woke me up"

"Who were you about to kiss?"

"You wouldn't want to know Sirius"

"Oh Remus, now you've made it sound scandalous, who was it?"

"No Sirius"

"It wasn't Cunningham was it?"

"No way"

"Was it Malfoy?"

"Ugh, fuck no"

"Was it..."

"Stop trying to guess Sirius, you won't get it"

"Oh my God! Was it" Sirius lowered his voice to a hush "James"

"No! Sirius you're disgusting, that's practically incest!"

"So it wasn't Peter then" Sirius grinned roguishly

"Eww" Remus curled his lip at the thought

"Oh Remus, it wasn't me was it?" His grin even wider, Remus paused before opening his mouth, only to be interrupted by an out of breath James bursting through the door

"Forgot... charms book... late, come on!" James lazily threw his arm in the air to beckon them, he jogged casually out of the door, Sirius and Remus exchanged a contemptuous glance and followed him.