Disclaimer: Not mine. The world of Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling

Warnings: This chapter contains abuse that might upset some readers.

SIRIUS:

Friends are the family we choose for ourselves.

(Edna Buchanan)

When the school owl returned with Remus' letter unread and untouched, Sirius knew that something was very wrong. Either Remus had ignored the owl completely – unlikely since they had told the owl to peck Remus until he removed the letter and read it - or it had not been able to reach him.

"What do we do now?" James asked, staring at the unopened letter on the Gryffindor table in front of him.

"Go and tell McGonagall," Sirius said. "See if she can do something. Anything from Anders yet?"

James shook his head. "It's been almost two weeks. Why hasn't he answered?"

Sirius shrugged, defeated. "Let's go see McGonagall after breakfast."

"What'll she be able to do?" Peter asked. "I thought she said she couldn't do anything."

"We have to do something!" Sirius burst out. "He could be in there in pain and we're all just sitting here! It's Christmas in two days. I wanted to give him my present."

"Relax, mate," James said, reaching out to squeeze his shoulder. "We'll go after breakfast, yeah?"

Sirius hadn't felt less hungry in his life. He sat and scowled and fidgeted in his seat until James let out an impatient sigh and stood up. "Let's go then."

Peter let out a muffled noise of protest as he stuffed the rest of his blueberry muffin into his mouth and jumped up to follow them. "I aggen inish gy reakast!" he said around his bulging cheeks.

"Sorry, Pete," James said, stepping out of the way of the showering crumbs with practiced ease. "I don't speak chipmunk. Though Snivellus might be able to give me lessons."

Sirius was too worried even to snigger at the remark. Peter gave him a searching glance before swallowing with difficulty and saying, "I said, I hadn't finished my breakfast."

"Well Sirius was about to explode," James said. "It probably wouldn't have been pretty."

Sirius opened his mouth to protest, but before he could, he turned the corner and crashed directly into someone a fair bit larger than him, rebounding back into James and Peter. The three of them found themselves in a painful tangle of limbs while two worried faces peered at them.

"Sorry, lads," said a familiar voice. "I didn't see you coming."

At the sound of the voice, Sirius sat up very quickly, ignoring the fact that his elbow made contact with Peter's nose in the process. "Professor Anders?"

Their ex-professor stood over them, looking as boyish as usual, though his face held strain that hadn't been there the year before. Beside him stood a woman of about the same age – perhaps in her early thirties. She had white-blonde hair set in rather ridiculous frothy curls on top of her head and wide dark blue eyes.

"Sirius?" Anders looked very relieved to see them. "I got your letter. I was on assignment and it was waiting for me when I got home. We came here as soon as I read it."

Sirius looked suspiciously at the woman. He didn't want Remus' secrets to be spread to an unknown person. "Who's she?"

"Sirius!" Peter hissed, aiming an elbow at his ribs.

Neither Anders or the woman looked particularly upset by his rudeness, though. In fact, Anders smiled a little. "This is my wife, Angela. She knows about Remus."

The three boys scrambled to their feet. "Are you going to go and rescue Remus?" Sirius demanded.

"We're going to do our best. We were just on our way to see Professor McGonagall."

"Us to," said James, taking charge. "You can come along if you like."

"Um…perhaps it would be best if you waited until we'd discussed it?" Anders said, looking a bit alarmed.

"No way." Sirius drew himself up to his full height and glowered.

"He's our friend," Peter said stubbornly. "You wouldn't even be here if we hadn't written you that letter."

Anders looked like he was going to protest again, but Angela placed a calming hand on his arm. "Let them come, love. Maybe they can help."

"They're just boys."

"We are not," Sirius said indignantly. "We're Marauders! And we're going to rescue Remus and we might let you help."

Anders sighed, and Sirius could see him coming to the conclusion that any escape plan they concocted would be a lot safer if it were tempered by adult advice. "Very well. Come with us."

The Marauders smugly trailed Anders and Angela down the corridor and in the direction of McGonagall's office.

Professor McGonagall didn't look very surprised to see Anders and his wife turning up at her door. She did frown in question when she spotted Sirius, James and Remus, though.

"Aren't you boys supposed to be at breakfast?"

"We were coming to talk to you about Remus," Sirius said, radiating his best pure-blood-brat confidence. "We said Professor Anders and his wife could come along."

Professor McGonagall raised her eyebrows at Anders who shrugged a little helplessly.

"What's this about Remus, Mr. Black?"

Sirius glanced at the other Marauders, and James stepped forward, holding up the letter they had send to Remus. "It came back. The letter we sent him. It didn't even reach him. We're worried something has happened to him."

McGonagall sighed and stepped away from the door a little, allowing them to enter, and motioning Anders and Angela towards the seats in front of her desk. She waved her wand and transfigured a piece of parchment into a bench for Sirius, James and Peter.

"I'm afraid there's not much I can do," she said, once they were all settled.

"But you haven't done anything!" Sirius said, feeling a flash of anger and helpless frustration.

"Manners Mr. Black, or I will not include you in this discussion."

Sirius slouched down on the bench and glowered at her.

"Contrary to what you seem to believe, Poppy Pomfrey and I went to Mr. Lupin's house a week ago with the excuse that we wanted to check Remus' health seeing as he was very upset when he left."

Sirius sat up and stared at her. "And?"

"Was he okay?" Peter asked.

She sighed and put her hand briefly to her forehead. "He wasn't there."

"WHAT?" That came from all five of them at once.

"We spoke to his father who told us that Remus came through the floo, knocked him unconscious and ran away. He hasn't seen him since."

There was a very long silence as the rest of them tried to come to terms with this new information.

"He was lying," Sirius said, suddenly sure.

"We can't prove that, Mr. Black."

"If Remus had wanted to run away, he could have left from the Shrieking Shack and into Hogsmeade. Why would he go to all the effort of going home first?"

Professor McGonagall was staring mouth actually gaping in shock. "How do you know about that?"

It was Sirius's turn to be confused. "What?"

"The Shrieking Shack."

Sirius felt James stiffen beside him and felt his own heart plummet towards his boots. He was such an idiot sometimes. However, he could see there was no going back now. "We didn't know. Not until that night he ran away. He ran to the Shack and we followed him. He was going on about how he was transforming. We worked out that he's a werewolf, but he ran away before we could tell him we didn't care."

"You saw that room he goes into and you didn't care?" Professor Anders asked, his voice catching oddly in his throat.

"Well, we did care," James amended. "It looked awful. His blood was all over the walls. We promised we would look after him, but we can't can we? Not with that. And not with what his Dad does to him either."

Sirius was aware that all three of the adults were watching them with very strange expressions on their faces. Eventually Professor McGonagall spoke up quietly. "He really is lucky to have you three as friends. Not many people can see pass the prejudices of the wizarding world."

"Er…" Peter put up his hand. "I don't know the prejudices of the wizarding world. But if you tell me what they are I'm sure I'll see past them."

"That's why we have to help him!" Sirius said, ignoring his friend and trying to draw their attention back to the matter at hand. "Because we're his friends."

"What else can we do?" McGonagall asked.

Angela cleared her throat tentatively. Up until now she had not said very much; spending her time closely observing the interaction between the others. "I may have an idea."

She looked rather terrified when she was immediately accosted by three Marauders, all of whom crowded around her chair.

"Are we gonna go his house and blast down the door and tie up his father and torture him until he tells us where Remus really is?" James demanded with savage eagerness.

"Or just kill him in a very painful and messy way and find Remus for ourselves?" Sirius suggested.

"Or torture him for the information and then kill him in a very messy way?" Peter looked proud when Sirius and James gave him approving nods.

Angela looked, on the other hand, greatly disturbed and shot a desperate glance in her husband's direction.

"Come on boys, stop messing around," Anders said tiredly.

"Messing around?" Sirius turned to look at him. "Who's messing around?"

"My idea," Angela said loudly. "Does not have anything to do with messy deaths."

"How about torture?" Sirius asked hopefully.

"Mr. Black, please return to your seat and listen quietly or I really will kick you out of this meeting." McGonagall's scowl had been perfected over decades of teaching adolescents and when it was pointed in their direction, they returned meekly to their bench. "Please continue, Mrs. Anders. And not another word from the three of you unless we give you permission to speak."

"Why don't we get a Ministry warrant to search the house on suspicion of child abuse?" Angela said.

"We can't, love," Anders pointed out. "Remus is an unregistered werewolf. If they find out there will be hell to pay and if he is lucky enough not to get executed, they will definitely not rule in his favour over any child abuse case."

"They don't need to find out," Angela said, turning to look at McGonagall. "Anders can come along on the rescue mission as one of the Aurors required for a house search. And he has an Auror friend whose sister is a werewolf as well. I'm sure he'd be discreet. Then all we need to do is get their testimonies, your testimony as a teacher of the school and a medical report from the school healer with proof of signs of abuse and we will be able to get Remus out and prosecute his father at the same time."

There was a pause as everyone in the room thought it over. Eventually Professor McGonagall cleared her throat. "Remus' father could easily inform the Ministry that Remus is a werewolf if we try to prosecute him."

"There must be a reason he has never told anyone before," Angela pointed out. "He hasn't even registered Remus. I know – I checked our records in the Magical Creatures Department. We just have to make sure that reason holds up, even if he's faced with a sentence in Azkaban."

"It's a good idea," Anders said eventually. "We'll have to discuss it with Dumbledore. He has a lot of influence over the Ministry and will be able to help. The more proof of the abuse that we can get, the better as well. That way, they won't demand that Remus show the jury of Wizengamot his injuries and risk revealing his scars."

Sirius listened to them with awe. This was why it was good to have adults on your side. He had heard some truly horrible stories about Azkaban prison from his parents and he thought that it sounded like the perfect place to put Remus' father. He found himself growing to like the fragile-looking Angela more and more. She had a truly devious mind behind those big blue eyes and ridiculous curls. He could understand why Anders liked her.

When there was a lull in the conversation he tentatively put his hand up.

"What is it, Sirius?" Anders asked.

"I –uh – I could tell them about what I saw at the station," he said. "And about how he fainted from his injuries on the carriage."

"That might actually be a good idea," Anders agreed, looking at the two women. "If Sirius gave a statement under Verituserum it would give our case a lot of weight."

"I cannot allow you to administer Verituserum to one of my students without parental consent," McGonagall said regretfully. "Am I wrong in assuming that your parents wouldn't allow it, Mr. Black?"

Sirius scowled. "They won't."

"No, it's okay," Anders said. "In a child abuse case, you only need to get the consent of the child himself – willing consent, mind you. There are many cases where parents weren't happy with their children being caught up in these cases so they changed the law."

"That's excellent, then," McGonagall said, looking satisfied. "The three of you must leave now, I'm afraid. We need to go have a chat to Professor Dumbledore."

Reluctantly, Sirius, James and Peter got to their feet and walked to the door. Just before they left, James turned around and peered in again. "We will be able to come and get him, won't we?" he asked, worry colouring his voice.

Sirius froze. He hadn't considered that they might not be allowed on the rescue mission.

"I really don't think that it would be appropriate – " McGonagall began, but was interrupted by Angela.

"If Remus is badly abused and traumatised, perhaps he would be more comfortable if his friends were with us when we came to rescue him," she said.

Both Anders and McGonagall looked very uncertain.

"There may be very disturbing scenes there," Anders said. "Things that children shouldn't see."

Sirius opened his mouth to protest that if Remus was experiencing them, the others could cope with only seeing them. He was beaten to it, though, by Angela speaking again.

"They saw the room he transforms in, and coped well enough," she said. "I believe we can trust them not to behave foolishly."

Anders and McGonagall sighed in unison and nodded shortly. The Marauder's grinned at each other, then at Angela, who winked at them when Anders and McGonagall had their backs turned.

"I like her," Sirius announced, as they headed back to their common room.

"You would," Peter said, rolling his eyes. "She's like a grown up girl version of you and James. Very clever and sneaky."

"And marvellously good looking with not-at-all boring hair," James added sagely.

"If she was a boy, twenty years younger and not married to a professor, she could have been a Marauder." Sirius agreed.

Another week passed, and with it, Christmas. Although there were awe-inspiring decorations and celebrations the same as the year before, none of the Marauders felt able to get into the mood when they thought of the fact that Remus should have been with them. None of them could figure out why something as simple as getting a piece of paper from the Ministry saying they could enter someone's house, arrest them, and search for an abused child would take so long.

Eventually, however, almost a month after Remus had run away, the boys found themselves crowding around a portkey in the company of Anders, Angela, McGonagall, Madame Pomfrey and a very young, very tall black Auror by the name of Kinsley Shacklebolt who, they were told, had promised to be discrete about Remus' lycanthropy.

Shacklebolt had protested vehemently when he heard that there were three second year boys tagging along on a Ministry-regulated rescue mission, but one stern look from Professor McGonagall had shut him up instantly. Sirius wondered if Shacklebolt had ever been one of her students who had failed to do his Transfiguration homework.

There was a sharp tug just below his navel and the scene around them blurred. When it cleared, Sirius looked around to find himself standing in the garden of a small property set on the edge of a forest. The walls around the garden were very high – much too high for someone to climb over, and the cottage in front of them looked a bit battered and worn – much like everything belonging to Remus. The cream-coloured paint was peeling off the walls where ivy had worked its way into cracks, and the garden looked like it hadn't been tended in a very long time.

The boys trailed after the adults as they approached the door. Shacklebolt knocked sharply and there was a tense silence as they waited for a response. After a while there was the sound of footsteps and the door opened a little to reveal the suspicious face of the heavily-built man that Sirius had seen at the station. He had Remus' eyes, Sirius noted. Very light brown, almost amber. Sirius had assumed the eyes were part of the werewolf curse, but he had obviously been wrong.

"Mr. Lupin," Anders said importantly, "we have come here following reports of child abuse taking place in this home. We have a search warrant from the Ministry of Magic, as well as a warrant for your own arrest." He held up two pieces of thick parchment and Mr. Lupin's eyes widened. He tried to slam the door again, but Kingsley and Anders were already pushing their way in.

"Petrificus Totalus!" Anders said as he passed the violently protesting man and watched with more than a little savage pleasure as John Lupin keeled over and landed with a hard thump on the stone floor of his hall.

The Marauders nervously followed the adults into the house. They were under strict orders to keep out of the way as much as possible, but Sirius couldn't resist giving the frozen John Lupin a subtle kick on the temple as he stepped over him. "Oops," he muttered when Anders noticed and glared at him, making no effort to sound the least bit repentant.

Angela stood in the middle of the scruffy living room's floor and pulled an odd metal instrument out of her robe pocket. It had two tiny silver bells on either end of a slender silver stick that was, in turn, attached to a small, square arch. Angela gave the bells a flick and the slender stick began to swing. Every time one of the bells made contact with the top of the arch, a high, tuneful ringing sound filled the room.

"What's that?" James dared to ask.

"A werewolf detector," she answered absently, tilting her head as she listened to the ringing. "The silver stick spins faster the closer a werewolf is. It's how our Department find unregistered werewolves." She must have noticed their horrified looks because she hastened to assure them. "I'm not going to report him. I just thought this would be a best way to find him if he's hidden in this house." She blinked and turned towards the kitchen. "In there," she added.

They rest of them followed her into the kitchen. It was very clean, but like the rest of the house, all the furniture looked old and worn. Angela walked towards a large dresser that stood at one end of the room. Then she stopped, frowning.

"It says he's around here," she said.

"He's in the dresser?" Peter asked uncertainly. "I don't think even Remus is little enough to fit in there."

For one horrified moment, Sirius had a vision of Remus dead, chopped up into little pieces and hidden in the dresser. Then Angela spoke again. "It seems that he's under us."

"There must be a cellar," Shacklebolt said, stepping forward. He waved his wand, and with a loud scraping sound, the dresser slid across the floor. Sure enough, a wooden trapdoor was set into the floor of the kitchen.

"His bedroom," murmured Madame Pomfrey. "I hope that man rots in Azkaban."

Shacklebolt knelt and tugged open the trapdoor. The others crowded around as he lowered himself down the ladder that led to the floor.

"Great Merlin!" they heard him exclaim, his voice horrified.

Immediately, Anders and Madame Pomfrey followed. "You boys stay up here," McGonagall told them sternly. The three Marauders stared at her incredulously.

"Like that's going to happen," Sirius said.

Before she could protest, he launched himself towards the ladder and scrambled down. The first thing he noticed was the smell. It was the same smell that permeated the bedroom in the shrieking shack – blood and wild animal. The air was thick and heavy, and as his eyes grew used to the gloom, Sirius became aware that they were in a 'bedroom' that seemed even more battered than the one in the shack.

The room contained one wardrobe, a bed, a bedside cabinet and Remus' now very scratched and tattered school trunk. Like the other room, the stone walls here were also splattered with blood – some old and well scrubbed bloodstains, and some looking new and sticky. Sirius felt bile rise in his throat and swallowed rapidly.

"Who would do this to a child?" Angela whispered. None of the others answered her, too busy staring round the room in disbelief and revulsion.

"Where is he?" Madame Pomfrey asked, her voice tremulous.

"Remus?" Sirius called softly. At the sound of his voice, the tiniest whimper could be heard from under the bed.

"Remus?" Anders said, approaching the bed. There was no answer this time. Anders looked up and beckoned Sirius, James and Peter over.

Sirius knelt beside the bed and peered into the gloom underneath. The smell of blood, sweat and wolf was even stronger and he could just make out a small shape curled up in the corner by the wall.

"Rem?" he reached out his hand to the dark shape. "It's Sirius. We've come to rescue you. James and Peter and I made all the adults help us come and find you."

There was another louder whimper this time but is sounded odd, as though Remus were struggling to form words underneath it.

"What did you say?"

"Sl'er axe."

Sirius froze, remembering what Angela had told him a few days before about the execution of werewolves.

"There's no silver axe," James said, kneeling beside Sirius and talking urgently. "We didn't tell the Ministry what you are, Rem. We don't care. You're still our friend."

"You are Remus," Peter said. "After Anders explained to me what the wizarding world's prejudice is, I looked right past it, I swear."

"Wh'ps?" Came the small voice again.

"No whips either, mate," James said, voice croaking a bit. "We promise. Just us and Anders and McGonagall – whose been doing 'The Glare' all day, mind, so stay out of her way. And Ander's wife who's almost a Marauder, you know. Oh, and Madame Pomfrey who has evil-looking potions as usual so I would stay out of her way too, and this bloke called Shakky-something who has a sister whose a werewolf and he loves her."

There was an odd sound then, like a pained choke. Sirius' heart jumped with fright until he realised it was a very watery giggle. "Y're rambling, J'mes.."

"I see the inner Marauder's still with you, then," Sirius said dryly, almost smiling at James' rather indignant look. "We were missing his inventiveness for pranks."

There was a very long silence while everyone in the room held their breaths. The adults had backed away from the bed so they weren't crowding the boys. Sirius almost jumped when he suddenly felt a small and warm hand slip into the one that he had stretched out under the bed. He gently gripped it back.

"Y'don' hate me?" the hope in that quiet voice was the most heartbreaking thing Sirius had ever heard.

"No, Remus. We really don't. You being a werewolf isn't a good enough reason to break a wish made with blood and moonshadows."

The hand in Sirius' jumped. "You saw?"

"I saw," Sirius replied, speaking quietly and trying to make out Remus' expression. His eyes were growing used to the dark and he could just make out the gleam of amber eyes watching him. "I followed you that night. You didn't need to do it, though. We wanted to be your friends before that. We were just a bit freaked out because we saw you beating up some Slytherins in the dungeon. Don't know why now. It was pretty awesome."

There was another choked noise and another. Sirius felt Remus' hand shaking and this time he realised the other boy was crying.

"Th-th-thought y'hated m-m-me!"

Sirius shared a brief look with James and Peter, then knelt down, extending both arms under the bed. "Come out, mate. We need to get you fixed up."

There was some shuffling noises and then the shape was moving towards him. When Remus emerged from under the bed, Sirius had to fight from crying out in shock. He was a mess; streaked and covered with burns and blood had dyed his pyjamas almost entirely sticky red. It was impossible even to tell what colour his hair was. He was clutching some very battered boxes to his emaciated chest with one hand as he crawled.

"Ah, Rem," Sirius said, unable to think of anything else.

He pulled the unresisting boy gently into his arms and felt the skinny shape slump against him, still sobbing. Remus smelt terrible – a mixture of blood, sickness and infected wounds, but Sirius couldn't bring himself to care. He just held onto him, shaking and watery-eyed.

"Remus?" James whispered, coming closer and taking one of Remus' hands, "We're sorry. We really are."

Peter joined them as well, and reached out to touch the boxes that Remus clutched against his chest. Sirius recognised them immediately. A box of Bertie Bott's every flavour beans, a box of fizzing wizzbees and box of chocolate frogs. One of them still had a scrap of Christmas wrapping paper clinging to it. Sirius felt his heart ache.

"I got you a better present than that this year," he murmured into Remus' ear.