The months passed, and Lily was true to her word. She went back to work and smiled more. James did the same, and Sirius was finally able to have his best friend back. Remus began writing a book amid his second term of University. Sirius delved into the depths of the ministry, particularly with the aurors. Both of them became more involved with the Order. Sirius did not know, but while he was off at the ministry fighting the bad guys and tracking them down, Remus had numerous meetings and training sessions with Dumbledore. It was all to be kept a secret until Remus came back with news for the Order. He was to be one hundred percent involved with his task before Sirius or anyone else in the Order found out. The only other person who knew of Remus' task was Lily, and only because she had posed the possibility of Voldemort turning to the werewolf community for supporters. She had done the research and found several of their underground meeting places. She had found one that Dumbledore had not, and for that he involved her in Remus' mission. But the three of them had agreed to keep it from the others until they knew that Remus could penetrate the thick security the underground werewolf community had erected. Remus had been an outcast from the werewolf community for too long – it was possible that there was no chance for Remus to rejoin them – he may have become too wizardized. But they were willing to give it a shot: to risk Remus' dignity and respect. Remus quit school to give one hundred percent of his energy and time to the tasks.

When Sirius would ask why Remus had not written anything, Remus would tell him he had writer's block, that it took a while to organize his thoughts, that he needed to rethink some things.

Remus never worried about Sirius or his work, although Lily worried about James. Both Sirius and James had moved up the auror chain faster than most with the help of their heredity, Dumbledore, and their talent in the field of "fighting bad guys." Remus didn't worry. Sirius didn't worry about him, and what he was doing was illegal and much more risky than Sirius' job. Sirius had a back up with him when he went out into the field. He sometimes had more than one back up. But when Remus went out to find the werewolves, he went alone. He had no back up. Dumbledore waited at Hogwarts for word from him. Lily attended her patients in St Mungo's, hoping that she had given him the right directions. Hoping that the phase of the moon would benefit him. Remus was always home before Sirius. He usually had some sort of dinner on the table for him. Sirius usually wasn't late. If he was, Remus never noticed. Until one evening, when the crescent moon was high and Lily had called to say James was home, but didn't know anything about Sirius.

When he walked in, Remus was pacing in front of the fireplace, using the poker as a cane (he had bruised his leg quite badly after a werewolf follower of Voldemort's discovered him and Remus had to run for his life).

As the door opened, Remus turned, and Sirius looked between him and the cane oddly.

"Where have you been?" Remus asked, pushing the worry in his voice back.

"What happened to your leg?" Sirius retorted, closing the door and shrugging off his cloak.

"Do you have any idea what time it is?" Remus continued, brandishing the poker like a sword toward the other man.

"I'm later than usual," Sirius apologized, holding his hands up in surrender. "I'm sorry. Something came up at work."

As Remus lowered the poker and leant on it, Sirius turned from him and switched on the light to the kitchen.

"What happened to your leg?" he asked again.

"What happened at work?" Remus asked over top of him, limping into the kitchen after him.

Sirius turned to him, a stern expression on his face. "Tell me what happened to your leg."

"I fell," Remus said truthfully, sitting down. He had fallen – over a table and with another man clamped to his leg, a knife in the other hand.

"At a bar?"

"Excuse me?" Remus choked, looking outraged, even though it was true.

Sirius sat across from him. "What are you doing with the werewolves, Mooney?"

"Why would I have anything to –?"

"Because that's why I'm late."

Remus looked up at him.

"We were called to a bar over a disturbance, and with all the death eater activity lately we have to put werewolves higher on our priority list. It was in uproar. We arrested three werewolves, and two of them had the dark mark. One of them kept going on about a traitor, and I only know one of those," he added with a small smile.

"It wasn't me," Remus breathed.

"I didn't think it would be," Sirius said. "How's your writing?"

---

In April, Sirius discovered the truth, along with the rest of the Order.

"Greyback has joined Voldemort's side," Remus announced at the meeting after Easter. "I would say Voldemort has a fair number of werewolves following him, and now that he's got Greyback, Greyback will do everything in his power to get more on their side. The only problem with this is that Greyback is just as power hungry as Voldemort is. If they come to heads there will be no stopping them, and Voldemort knows this. Greyback knows this."

Silence followed his speech, and Sirius refused to meet Remus' gaze.

"So what do we do?" someone asked.

"Can we do anything?"

"We have to be prepared," Remus carried on. "I'm going to need someone to cover me during the days while I go undercover."

"I think Tonks is the best person for that."

"Even though I'm clumsy as hell?"

"As long as you can save my ass and not get bitten in the meantime, I'll take you," Remus said.

"That sounds fantastic," Sirius piped up.

"Now that that's settled," Dumbledore interjected, "there was more activity in –"

---

"You lied to me?" Sirius demanded as they entered their flat.

"I didn't think it was important for you to know until Dumbledore and I knew it was all going to be worth it."

"You could have told me!"

Remus turned to look at him coldly. "Why? So you could be worried? So you could try and get yourself involved? I didn't need you to know. The rest of the Order didn't know, so I didn't feel telling you would make a difference."

"You think I'm trying to steal your thunder?" Sirius asked indignantly.

"I didn't want you to get involved because I don't want you bitten if any of them find out who you really are and –"

"But you'll take Tonks?"

"She has better disguises –"

"So of course she's better suited for the job! Choose a family member of mine over me! Thanks for that."

"Sirius, would you stop being an idiot?" Remus called after him as Sirius stormed towards their room.

"Why? I'm obviously too much of an idiot to handle covering your ass when you take on the other werewolves."

"You don't understand what they're like!"

"I understand you, don't I? Or at least," he added snidely, "I thought I did."

"I don't want to be responsible for your goddamn death, alright?" Remus called after him angrily. "We've had tons of close calls when I've almost bitten you, and each time I want to kill myself for almost putting you through that. If I put you in any danger regarding my vicious kind, I wouldn't be able to live with myself."

"But you aren't vicious," Sirius said softly.

"They are," Remus intoned. "Please, Sirius, I just wanted you to be safe. I'm the only one suited for the job. And you have enough on your plate with work, never mind the work you do with the Order."

"Don't you have work, too?" Sirius asked, and his voice held suspicion. "What happened to the classes you were taking?"

"I dropped them. I dropped out. I wanted to do this."

"And that's the truth?"

"Do I ever sugar coat the truth?"

Sirius smiled. "I suppose not. But Remus –"

"But nothing. I'm finally of use to someone. Please don't take this away from me, and don't worry."

"I'll try not to."

"Good."

"Would you like to come to bed now?"

Remus looked away. "I – I told Dumbledore I would go there tonight. The full moon is tomorrow night, and –"

"Will I see you in the morning?"

"I don't know," Remus said truthfully.

"Is this going to be the norm?"

Remus sighed. "I don't know. See you later."

"Love you."

"Love you, too," he said, and Sirius watched the door close behind Remus.