Lori was woken by a hand gently pushing her shoulder, and as her mind foggily stepped out of her melancholy dream, she slowly focused herself on Sirius's grey eyes in front of her. The woman almost jumped out of her skin, immediately assuming he was waking her for emergency reasons such as an intruder or an attack. She'd halfway reached out for her wand before Sirius began to chuckle and raised a brow at her, pulling a large cup of tea from behind his back and pushing it into her hands. Lori blinked a few times, before realising there wasn't any immediate danger, and she smiled lightly at the man in front of her.

"I thought I made the tea around here, Mr Fugitive man. Your designated job is being a criminal" Lori yawned slowly, as Sirius shook his head at the fact that she'd just woken up and automatically started to bully him. Though they'd become friends due to strenuous and illegal circumstances, Lori and Sirius got along quite well. They both had a similar fondness for showing affection by being an asshole. Thankfully, they never had a sexual inclination towards each other. After all, rule number one of hiding a fugitive in your house is to not have sex with them. They were just good friends, and that was that.

"I thought it best I try and be helpful today. After all my old friend did break your heart" Sirius sighed, giving a pitying half-smile to Lori.

Lori groaned, pulling her badly self-made crochet blanket up across her face, slowly lowering herself to lay back down onto the blue couch. Sirius would've chuckled at her if he didn't know just how hurt she was by all that had recently transpired with Remus. Sirius had woken with a start that particular night as Lori barged into the house sobbing. The poor thing looked like she'd been struck by a stinging jinx, she'd cried that much. Despite the fact that a week had passed since the conversation with Remus had transpired, it hadn't made it any less hard on Lori.

"I'm fine!" she cried abruptly, pulling the blanket down harshly before pushing herself to stand. "I'm absolutely fine, I'm great in fact!" she crookedly grinned. But it didn't reach her eyes at all, in fact they had begun to glass over once again. Lori couldn't even make herself believe herself right now.

Sirius just knitted his brows together, looking up at her as she just stood there, he could tell she was trying so hard just to will herself to move. Lori looked rather pathetic in all honesty, her hair hadn't been dyed in a while and was now nearly back to her natural mousy brown. She was wearing the same grey jumper and holey pants she'd worn yesterday, and the dishes were starting to pile up in the kitchen looking rather like the leaning tower of Pisa. It was a sad sight, and Lori didn't know how to help herself right now. Sirius just sighed slowly. "You're allowed to feel sad, Lori...you love him—-".

"That's what makes me feel the worst, Sirius!" Lori heaved, cutting him off as she slumped back down onto the puffy, blue couch. "It's ridiculous how strongly I feel about him. It's fucking stupid! We kissed once, we danced once, I mean shit we didn't even get the chance to have sex!" she screamed, throwing her head into her hands with a huffing puff. Sirius chuckled lowly, reaching out a hand to pat her on the head.

"Love is a cunt like that..." he comforted, still patting her on the head as best he could while reaching across the coffee table and leaning forward in the mustard-coloured chair. "It doesn't really have a time limit for how long you've known each other, or how much you've touched each other...sometimes you just love someone and there's not always a clear reason why".

Lori peaked her brown eyes up at Sirius through her hands, and he could see her eyes were still shiny and red, but now he could see the cogs turning in her head too.

"...But he doesn't love me back" she whispered. Sirius' chest tightened for a moment and his lips thinned.

"I don't presume to know what Moony is thinking, I wish I could tell you—-" Sirius hesitated, shaking his head and raking a hand through his black curls. He wished so hard he knew what to say, but what could he? He couldn't pretend like he still knew Remus. The last time they'd seen each other, Sirius was being put behind bars. Remus's eyes were full of betrayal, pure and utter pain back then. Sirius couldn't tell him the truth then, and he couldn't help his friends then. Looks like he still couldn't.

Lori patted his hand, squeezing it once, and then she wiped her eyes resolutely. She sat back slowly, sipping from the tea cup as she regarded Sirius. She thought back to how he'd looked when she had taken him in, freshly escaped. His body had filled back out from the starvation, his black curls looked a lot less matted, and he certainly smelled a lot better than he had. He'd even managed to fix his teeth with a few charms and potions. He almost looked completely normal, like a man who had never been to the toughest wizard prison in the world. Like a man who hadn't lost everything in his life.

Lori looked back up as she put her empty cup onto the glass coffee table, and it suddenly occurred to Lori that Sirius looked like he was dressed to go somewhere, dark trench coat and all, and she frowned deeply. Sirius was leaving again. The last time Sirius had left this house he'd nearly been killed, and Lori wasn't betting he'd learn from his mistakes. Not when so much was riding on him finding Peter Pettigrew. The man seemed to sense her sudden change in mood, and he lowered his head, shifting the stolen twisty wand from his left hand to his right.

Lori opened her mouth to say something, even reaching her hand out to offer her strange, criminal friend some comfort. But her hand slipped through the air, and she watched him apparate away to Merlin knows where. He hadn't even told her where he was going this time. She stared at the space where Sirius had just occupied and found herself starting to worry, like a hungry feeling gnawing away at her insides.

As Lori willed herself to move, she heard the familiar pop of apparation behind her again and she chuckled, relief filling her.

"Forget something, dickhead?" she grinned, brushing the crumbs off of her grey jumper and standing as she yawned into her hand. "You could've at least told me you'd be back so soon".

Then as she turned around she came face to face with Remus Lupin, who looked more hurt than he had when they had their conversation in the forest. Lori would've thought that it was great luck that Sirius had left just as Remus had arrived. But she couldn't really think straight right now. What was Remus doing here?

Lori inhaled sharply, and she suddenly became overwhelmed with the realisation that she looked like utter shit. Heartache aside, she wished she looked at least a bit better right now. This feeling was quickly replaced by anger, as she crossed her arms over her chest.

Remus kept staring at her, not phased by Lori's feeble intimidation tactic. His scarred hands fiddled with the threads of his caramel jumper, and he was practically wearing a hole in the wooden floors with his nervous shuffling. He'd practiced what he wanted to say before he came, but it all floated away as soon as he saw Lori. He noticed the state of her apartment, cups and bowls and plates strewn everywhere. Not only that, she looked as though she hadn't slept in years, and her usually vibrant hair wasn't so vibrant anymore. It didn't matter how she looked right now, she still managed to take his breath away in that moment.

"Were you expecting someone else, Lori?" Remus asked, his sandy, brown hair falling in front of his eyes. His voice lacked conviction, and sounded rather like he was terrified of whatever she would say.

Lori softened then quickly and she realised the true pain that flashed across his face. Then like a song on a breeze, no anger remained as she looked to him. Half of her wanted to be angry at him, it really did. For him breaking her heart, for not giving her an explanation as to why he broke her heart. But she couldn't be angry, and soon all that was left inside of her was how she still felt about him. She'd be angry at him later, right now she only saw that his face was looking even sadder than hers was.

Remus nearly had the wind knocked out of him as he watched Lori jump the couch, and as she bounded over to him he braced himself for a slap in the face. But Lori wrapped her arms around his neck, throwing herself full force at him as she embraced him, as tight as she thought she could. Remus had to scramble backwards, grabbing onto the nearest wooden support beam to stop himself from falling. It didn't take long before he wrapped his arms around her, even tighter than she held him.

They both knew they needed to talk, that they should be talking it out right now. But the need to hold each other was so strong that it made nothing else matter in that moment. Just the thought of holding each other, nothing else was as important as that. Remus peppered kisses along the top of her head, smiling down as he breathed her in. Lori was busy running her hands under his jumper, inhaling as his chocolate and honey scent danced around him and flooded her senses. Goosebumps fell across their skin, and Remus cupped her face in his hands, rubbing a thumb across her freckled cheek. Tears prickled both of their eyes and Remus laughed thickly.

"I'm so sorry, Lori. I'm so sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so fucking sorry, I'm—-" Remus cried, before being very happily cut off as Lori stretched up and kissed him greedily, like she hadn't seen him in a hundred years. But he just as quickly pushed her back down, shaking his head at her confused frown and wounded pout.

"No I need to tell you something first- stop trying to take my jumper off- I need to explain everything" Remus insisted, planting a resolute peck onto her left cheek. Lori steadied herself, snapping her arms to her side, trying desperately to not reach out once again and touch him. She watched with a gentle gaze as Remus's face twitched, his brain trying to scramble for the right words to say. He just had to come out and say it, just be completely honest. Remus trusted Lori, and that was good enough for him.

"I'm...I'm a we—"

"You're wet?" Lori snickered, her brows pinching in confusion. Remus shook his head.

"Werewo— I'm a—"

"You're aware? Aware of what? That I'm looking really sexy in these track pants—-"

Remus bit the inside of his cheek, he looked into her eyes, and pressed his lips to her head again. Lori realised she liked the tickle of his facial hair against her skin. She also obviously realised that he was struggling with what he wanted to say. Lori looked right back up at him, slipping both her hands in his and squeezing them tightly.

"Whatever you have to say, Remus, I'm sorry but it's not going to change how much I like you. I'm afraid you're stuck with me. Your fault for turning up here looking so damned hot in your tweed pants" she chuckled, and she grinned a little wider as she saw his posture soften, and the worry written across the lines of his face seemed all of a sudden resolved.

"Werewolf...Lori I'm a werewolf. I have been since I was a kid" Remus finally whispered, much more steadily than he thought he could. He tried to focus his eyes onto Lori, trying his best to gauge any sort of reaction, but his eyes glazed over with fresh tears instead, and he cursed himself. It wasn't until he felt a warm pair of hands wrap around the sides of his face ever so softly, that he was finally able to take a breath again.

"Oh Remus..." Lori sighed, nestling her cheek into Remus's hand. "Do you think that's going to change how much I feel for you? Just a simple thing as that?".

Remus's mind whirled and whizzed, he couldn't really form a single coherent thought over the butterflies in his stomach and the pounding of his heart. All his life he'd never quite stopped hating himself for what he was. His greatest fear was that he was going to be a monster, that all he loved was going to be taken. He'd already lost so much, he was so fucking terrified he would now lose Lori. But he could still feel her hands, and he was still staring into her beautiful and impossibly sweet eyes. That's what he could focus on when he couldn't think, and he hoped he could do that forever, as long as time would allow them. This was going much easier than he had initially envisioned.

SMASH

"Oh for fucks sake"

"What the fuck?!"

Both of them exclaimed and shouted, the gorgeous and romantic moment snapped in two as the telltale blue wisp of a patronus crashed through the house, landing in front of the pair of them. Remus and Lori still latched onto each other as the patronus messenger floated through the air, swirling like a raging cloud, until it settled into the form of a very shaggy dog.

Remus jolted underneath her arms, and she tore her eyes away from the unexpected patronus and looked up into his eyes.

"Padfoot..." Remus muttered anxiously, turning his eyes back to Lori. "Lori I need to tell you something—".

"I've been hiding Sirius Black in my house since he escaped" Lori cried, clapping her hands over her mouth and wincing as she watched Remus's eyes pop out of his skull.

"What?!" he cried.

"I didn't plan it!" Lori groaned, running her hands through her hair, "it just happened! But listen to me he's innocent!".

Remus narrowed his eyes, his mouth slightly agape as he gazed down at her with a befuddled expression.

"How did you know that? I only just figured it out...Peter- our mate back at Hogwarts...I only just found out he was alive still" Remus admitted, still well within his shocked state.

The shaggy dog patronus barked twice at them, shaking its head as if to say "for fucks sake please shutup". The two then turned back to it, and only the image of a decrepit old building appeared like a lightening flash, before the corporeal dog disappeared into the air. The messaged was received.

"The Shrieking Shack!" Remus cried, making Lori snap her head up to him as he gripped her shoulders tightly, bouncing on his feet. "That's where Sirius is! He must be in trouble, surely he's found Peter by now, and that will not be a pretty reunion" he grimaced darkly.

Lori then gasped tightly, gripping him right back.

"It's Buckbeak's execution day!" Lori shouted, "fuck sake, Harry, Ron, and Hermione asked me to go! If Sirius has found Peter, that means he's with them!".

They both paled instantly, before setting about the place with the new mission in mind. Lori threw on her nearest jacket, an oversized periwinkle overcoat, and some black, leather boots. Remus handed her back her wand, which had fallen to the ground sometime during their kisses and embraces.

Sharing one last glance, steeling themselves in one another's eyes, they gripped hands, and apparated away. They weren't going to let Sirius fight this battle on his own. Not while there was so much at stake.