"What are you doing here, Sirius?" Remus' voice was panicked. "You have to leave! Now!"

"Why?"

"Because… Because…" Remus seemed on the edge of saying something, but didn't want to, was evidently terrified to admit whatever it was, but knew, somehow, that he would have to to get Sirius to leave. The need to remove Sirius eventually seemed to win out. "Because I'm a werewolf, Sirius, that's why. I'm a werewolf and it's the full moon and I'll be transforming any minute and I need you to get out now!"

Sirius heard the torrent of frightened words rushing from Remus, but he only registered a few of them. "Werewolf," "Full moon," and "Any minute" echoed through Sirius' brain as he comprehended the thing that Remus had carried so much trepidation and fear over for so long.

"What?" The other boy's voice was urgent and terrified.

"I am going to leave, but I'm coming back first thing in the morning."

"Fine, yes, whatever makes you happy, just go!" And with that, Sirius swung the cloak back over himself and bolted up the stairs and out between the roots of the tree. He pelted through the corridors, avoiding ghosts, Peeves, and Ms. Norris with some difficulty, and finally gasping out the words "Aconitum vulparia!" To the Fat Lady and scrambling through the portrait hole and up the stairs to the dormitory. Tossing the Cloak back into James' trunk, he collapsed onto his bed and stared at the ceiling, breathing heavily. He lay there for hours, until the moon had set, and the sun began to rise.

Remus had not expected Sirius to remember, let alone uphold, his promise to visit Remus in the morning. And yet, as Remus lay, panting, fresh wounds on his limbs, he heard a soft knock by the door. He grunted in acknowledgement, and saw Sirius cross the floor toward him. The taller boy sat down on the floor, removing food and clothing from the satchel that he slung from his shoulder. Sirius handed Remus shoes and socks, slacks, shirt, and jumper, then turned away while he put them on.

Once decent, Remus at up at accepted a flagon of pumpkin juice, gulping it gratefully. Having drunk his fill, he offered it to Sirius, who traded it for a beef sandwich.

Sirius and Remus sat in silence, eating the things that Sirius had brought. There were sandwiches and pasties and a couple of éclairs.

Now that he was full, Remus noted that the clothes Sirius had brought him fit perfectly, almost as if… "Sirius?"

The other boy was devouring another sandwich. "Hmm?"

"Is this clothing from my trunk?"

Sirius swallowed. "Of course. You wouldn't fit in any of mine, you're taller than me."

"So you went through my things?" One eyebrow went up in incredulity.

"Yeah. Is that a problem? I swear I didn't take anything."

"I'm sure."

"Really!" Sirius looked offended that Remus thought that he would steal from him.

"OK," Remus gave him a little smile, and he felt a tiny flutter in the pit of his stomach when Sirius returned it.

God, Remus was handsome. With dark circles under his eyes, hair disheveled, bruises and cuts visible on most of his bare skin, and a tiny, nervous smile on his lips, he gave Sirius a most frightening feeling. His heart skipped.

"We should probably leave separately," Remus said.

"Yeah. Otherwise they'll probably think that we were down here for Other Reasons."

Remus blushed, then looked worried. "Do… do you have a problem with… er… with people like that?"

Sirius took a deep breath. "No. I… I think I might be one, so it's not really an option for me to have a problem with them."

"I'm certainly one, so…yeah."

"Oh. OK."

They sat in awkward silence for a moment, then Remus stood up."I'm going to head up. You ought to follow in a few minutes."

"OK. It's Saturday. There oughtn't to be people out yet."

"I'll…see you in the dormitory, then."

"Yeah."

Remus turned and walked out the door, a limp dogging his every footstep.

Remus hobbled up the stairs, feeling like an old man. Sirius' revelation and his own response had left him somewhat elated, and though the injuries physically handicapped him, he was in high spirits. He whistled as he limped across campus, and the October sunlight shone on the lake, disturbed only by the occasional giant squid tentacle breaking the lazy surface.

When he arrived back at the dormitory, Remus took to the showers, to remove the sweat and blood inherent in his transformation. Finished, he climbed back into his school clothes, pulling on robes over slacks, shirt, and jumper, and lacing up his shoes before heading back to the common room. He collapsed in a large and squashy armchair by the dead fire. He was soon joined by James, having come up from breakfast. The bespectacled boy sprawled in the chair directly next to Remus, and, taking Remus completely by surprise, he said quietly, "Are you alright?"

"Oh, yeah. I'm just tired is all."

"Where were you last night?"

Oh. "Er… I was taking a walk."

"Cause Sirius woke me up at 11:15, asked to borrow my Cloak, and disappeared without further information. I haven't seen him since. Have you?"

Remus sighed. He liked these boys. He wanted their friendship and not their scorn and fear. But you couldn't form an effective friendship on lies. "Yeah. He came and visited me in the Shrieking Shack."

"What were you doing in the Shack?" James looked inquisitively at Remus. Remus gulped. Telling the truth after years of lies was near impossible, like pulling open a wound. And he'd had plenty of experience with that.

"I… I'm a werewolf. Last night was the full moon."

James' eyebrow ascended slowly to to his perfectly tousled bangs. "Really?"

"Yep. I am a one-hundred-percent, bona fide werewolf. And I promise I didn't eat your friend."

"I never said you did."

"He came down to make sure I was OK this morning. He brought me breakfast and clothes."

"Yup, that's my Padfoot. Always the kind and caring sort."

"Padfoot?"

"OK, time for me to reveal a secret. Sirius and me and Peter, our other friend, who's out with the flu at the moment, are unregistered Animagi."

Remus sat back, impressed. "When did you manage that?"

"Earlier this year," replied James, a note of pride in his voice.

"Really?" Remus was completely poleaxed.

"If I'd known, he could have stayed last night. I'm not a danger to animals. Just humans." Remus gave a wry little smile, the weight of years and years of lies and stigma laying heavy in every line of his face.

"That's a good idea, Remus!"

"What?"

"Having us accompany you while your transformed. Who knows, it might help. At least it will let you out of the Shack for a while. And Sirius and I are big enough animals that we could stop you running away."

"I'm not sure, James. I don't want to betray Dumbledore."

"He won't know. We'll make sure nothing happens. We'll go down under the Cloak."

"What Cloak do you keep referring to?" Even not knowing what it was, Remus could hear the capital letter, adding slight weight to the word.

"My Invisibility Cloak. My dad gave it to me before I left in my first year."

"So that's how you manage all your impossible pranks!" Laughed Remus, astounded. Truly, it had often bothered him how the boys managed such stunts without being seen and apprehended. He marvelled that James accepted him and traded him a secret. James left after a time, and Remus didn't see Sirius for the rest of the day. It worried him, like maybe he had scared Sirius off. It took until that night for him to know why.

"Sh!" Remus glanced at Sirius, extraordinarily excited and just the smallest bit terrified. They crept down the the curving staircase, feet numbed by the cold midnight stone. The Cloak, light on their pyjama-clad shoulders, did little to warm them.

"Sirius?" Remus whined. "What are we doing here? I'm tired and cold and kinda hungry."

"Well, I can solve at least two of those problems. Here we are." They had arrived at an enormous painting of a bowl of fruit. A pear loomed in the half-light, and Sirius reached up and tickled it. The pear giggled, and transformed into a pale green doorknob. Turning it, Sirius said triumphantly, "Welcome, Remus, to the Hogwarts Kitchens