Sirius was bleeding. He'd crashed into something so hard there was a sizable cut on his forehead that was already staining half his face in red even as he tried to get back to his feet and go for his wand to get the throbbing feeling to ease up. Remus yelped so loud in surprise the others instantly noticed even before Moony held his sides carefully to get him back upright. Sirius's head was thrumming so hard he didn't at all acknowledge anything as he leaned in to the steady feeling and finally got the wound to seal shut.

Remus fought like a fiend to ignore the presence of someone else hovering, not go for his wand as he held Padfoot closer, waiting patiently and unable to take his eyes off the blood until the gash itself was gone, only the very solid fact he hadn't been the one to hurt him this time had distracted him this long as someone reached out and thumped Sirius on the chest in an age old gesture did he look up with a bite ready on his lips to get them to back off.

He froze, because of course it was James, Prongs was already smiling and laughed at Sirius who stood up completely steady on his feet like nothing had happened now, splashing a bit of water on his face and wiping at it with his baggy sweater, he even smiled in delight to see where they were.

It scared him though, the possessive edge that had been there when he should have wanted James more than anyone if Sirius was hurt! For just a moment he tried to tell himself maybe he was over reacting, but then as Sirius turned away, Prongs gave him a little frown.

Nothing heavy or noticeable, but something in that expression made it clear he'd seen it too.

Averting his eyes finally took in the rest of the room, and it was such a strange place of course only Sirius had a hope of recognizing it.

The view out the window was the Forbidden Forest and a starry night, clearly they were back at school, but then what was all this Muggle junk around? Little bits of Padfoot's blood was still visible on the sharp edge of some car part he had no hope of recognizing. The rest of the room contained scattered objects from his life Mum would bring in and dad would inevitably not like around long, such as a vacuum and a walkman. Sitting proudly on a desk was a whole stack of assignments ready to be graded Frank was going through as well as a telephone as a paperweight for it all.

Letting the two walk off, he started tugging on his sleeve and leaned against the wall as he tried to figure out what the hell that had been while Peter summoned the book.

Something gold flew towards him, the red seven on its spine a blur as it went past. It was so big it looked as likely to take Pete's head off as an actual bar of gold when he caught it. They all silently crossed their fingers and hoped with everything they had this was finally it, the last one.

It did not start pleasantly. They already knew the Dark Lord had ascended to the highest possible position he could, hadn't he? Snape may have been the man to kill Dumbledore and prominent as ever in this chapter, leaving poor Evans looking like an inferi victim herself as she stood white but determined in the room, but at least not shied away from anyone.

His mind hovered on Peter and Regulus while he looked from them back to Padfoot and Prongs. Sirius definitely had some issues there, the over protective fool had spent time trying his best to get both to conform to a certain way and now had finally found some median answer of just letting them be and admitting to the distance always in place.

It had apparently been displaced on him though, he still needed to have a go at Sirius for that lake instance, but he knew himself too, he'd been so jealous of Sirius' other lovers for so long and refused to react on it maybe now it was just coming back ten fold on the most ridiculous of people.

Pushing himself off the wall, he walked over to see both fawning over a sowing machine, the contraption amusing both greatly as they kept trying to prod it with their wands to turn it on despite no such thing would be happening inside Hogwarts.

Sirius was tapping the little foot lever thing and just smiled at him like nothing on Earth was wrong, but then, he was locked in his favorite class. His only regret right now was probably that Burbag wasn't here so he could hound her for every question he hadn't gotten to in lessons yet.

The correlation made no sense, Harry wasn't even coming back to school this year, let alone took this class. Were they being shown what all would be lost if Voldemort won, because they all knew that outcome without the visual.

"Moony," Sirius greeted him with a little wave without releasing his wand. "Your Mum ever owned one of these?"

"I've yet reached the level of thatched clothing," he rolled his eyes, "try Peter's mum, she's a seamstress." As if he didn't know.

"Right, yeah," his enthusiasm dropped at once as he uneasily looked at their friend and went back to nudging the device with his foot, still watching the needle hopefully for it to start activating.

James put his own wand away and looked uneasily between the pair, as he sensed a fight brewing and clearly wondering if he should leave or not.

All three of them winced in tandem as the Muggle Studies teacher was revealed to be in Malfoy Manor, above a table of Death Eater's, rotating for all to see as if each turn were counting down her last moments.

Remus wished he could put this off and pretend nothing would ever bother him again, he was talking to his bloody boyfriend now for crying out loud, but he needed to be honest if this was going to remain that way. "Listen, about back in that cave, I wish you hadn't tried stepping in like that."

"Like what?" Sirius scoffed, now pricking the needle with his finger experimentally. Not hard enough to break skin, just prodding it enough to keep his hands busy. "Stopped you from being an idiot?"

Remus took a careful breath through his nose and resisted rolling his eyes with the very greatest of effort. "Padfoot, hear my words. If you hadn't snatched that goblet away, the potion would have been gone, we could have finished the chapter down to the last word before those things showed up." He gave a guilty look at Prongs who visibly flinched, Sirius needed no such reminder as his skin turned as gray as his eyes and he looked up at Remus now. "If we come across a real Horcrux, you can't just jump in worrying about me every time."

"I wasn't going to just let you-"

"Let me?" Remus snapped. "Listen to yourself, you don't get to let me do anything! That's my point!"

"And mine is you didn't try any other bleeding way first," Sirius scowled right back with no remorse. "The first answer should not have been to drink the shit because I'm a werewolf and I'll be fine!"

James was watching the two like a ping-pong match, opening and closing his mouth several times and clearly unsure if he was supposed to be stepping in here. The fact that he hadn't said anything left the two to mostly ignore his presence as Remus forced himself to stop scowling and smooth out his face, making an effort to say calmly, "I see your point."

He waited, Sirius was still scowling unrepentantly. "Sirius! You don't see just a little bit of an issue with thinking you get to boss me around and decide what I do! Never bloody asked yourself why the hell you've been driving Peter and your own brother nuts! I won't put up with that shit!"

Sirius finally looked at least put off anger, but unsure how exactly to respond to that as he glanced guiltily at the pair, and then at James.

James took a step back and raised his hands. "I'm not touching this with a ten foot broom." Not until Sirius actually asked for his opinion, and frankly he agreed with Padfoot, Remus was far too dismissive of his own actions in that and he really hoped he wasn't on some worrisome tripe about being disposable. That would only get him on Moony's shit list too he was sure, and he didn't want to be told to go away enough to actually say it so long as Sirius held his ground.

Padfoot finally turned back to him with a very forced dry statement. "No, I did not ever ask myself that, thank you so much for the revelation I'm turning into my parents!"

Remus flinched, James couldn't stop a splutter of denial, but Sirius waved them both off and just slumped against the wall, kicking it in agitation and still watching Remus intently. "Don't change the subject though, when you brought it up. Answer me, point blank, what was going through your effing head during that."

"That I could be useful for that," he said honestly, watching in exhaustion as this seemed exactly the wrong answer to the pair. "That I really thought I was helping, trust me, I won't make that mistake again." He rubbed at his shoulder and still very much wished to never sleep again lest anymore bleeding nightmares came back.

"And that doesn't sound the least bit like you're having some self-esteem issues Remus?" Sirius tried at a gentle, cajoling reasoning now at least. "That you should have tried some other way first instead of just downing that mess because you have just a slight, occasional advantage over us on some things?"

"Point conceded," he huffed, feeling Sirius had missed his own far too much, but at least hadn't denied it either.

"You're usually the one scolding us mate," James patiently put back in now that the fight was mostly over. "You go off the rails if we don't think things through enough, don't ever do that shit again," he finished in a genuinely threatning kind of voice.

He nodded solemnly and promised, "trust me, the last thing I ever want is to start acting like other werewolves." He grimaced with distaste for his odd moment again of trying to keep Prongs away while Sirius had been bleeding, that just didn't feel natural and he was really hoping he was over thinking things now instead of the opposite.

James fully relaxed, as much as he could as they continued to hear of Voldemort's plan to ambush Harry and Snape's constant involvement, but Sirius was still frowning at him with worry.

"You really don't believe me?" He asked, trying not to feel too hurt, he'd been lying to Sirius for their entire friendship after all and apparently hadn't earned back any goodwill with his new status as boyfriend for it.

"I do," he instantly corrected, but was still frowning and watching him closely. "I just hope you believe yourself." Remus had utterly lost his shit at the news of Greyback being the one to turn him and hadn't once mentioned it since, but the face he'd been making upon the news of his betrothal to Tonks and the joke of pups had been very similar to out in that garden as he begged of him and the universe not to get sent back to the world they knew. He didn't at all like the idea Remus still harbored himself in such low regards he had no real desire to go back.

Remus opened, then closed his mouth as he took in Sirius' meaning, and forcefully pulled his hand away from the bite as he told him, "I've got you to believe in, don't I?" Smiling and reaching for his hand instead. Sirius had always put up with the worst of him, for reasons beyond him.

Sirius, of all people, looked a little shy all of a sudden, maybe even flustered as he took his hand and called him a sentimentalist. "Holidays with you are going to be the worst," he even muttered, before an odd smile lit him and he laughed.

He didn't get a chance to ask what was so funny as they flinched and held tighter to each other at Professor Burbag's death before being torn away.