A/N: GARRR!!! Well, people, welcome to about the 18th attempt at posting this chapter. FF.N's login screen wouldn't show up for about a week (on my computer at least), so I couldn't get in to upload. And even before that difficulty: my policy on posting stories-in-progress is to never post the last chapter I've got finished.... which means chpt. 5 has been done for a long time but it was chpt. 6 that just didn't want to come out. Then Kyriel (*smacks Kyriel*), my conceited alter ego, decided she wanted me to write HER story instead of Let Others Follow; HER story being a 7-book epic! Besides the fact that I've been having to read A Tale of Two Cities for school, and while being a very good book, it also takes a while to translate the convoluted sentences as you read, besides the fact that I have never spoken a word of French in my life except for Eh, toi! Joues-nous du Skynyrd!, a phrase which my Dad taught me for unknown reasons (and yeah, I know what it means, I just don't know why he taught me it), and half the book takes place in Paris and other bits of France.

....in other words, the world conspired against me and it's been a prehistoric age since the last posting, but I HOPE -- I can't promise anything, but I HOPE -- that this won't happen again.

Okay. Done ranting. Signing out,
-Raven, a VERY tired human being who is fast developing an inexplicable crush on Sydney Carton. Don't ask me why. I think I need therapy.
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Chapter Five: Revalium Incantatem

Sirius was not in the Gryffindor common room. Harry checked his dorm, where Sirius sometimes went to plant jokes or simply stare out the window, and, Harry, assumed, reminisce on the past -- but his godfather wasn't there, either. The past was a place Sirius had spent quite long enough in by now, Harry thought to himself in a muddled way.

His thoughts were muddled for all the obvious reasons -- the ring, the mysterious spell of revelation that had produced a spontaneous rift between Sirius and his best friend, and where the hell Ron had learned how to do a release spell that powerful. For starters, anyway. That was just what Harry could come up with when he scraped the surface.

Hermione and Harry walked on in silence, checking in every place Sirius might possibly be. The Great Hall was empty, and the Owlery showed no signs of human life, only large round owl-eyes blinking at them from every direction and a soft hooting filling the air.

Do you know where his room is? asked Hermione after a quarter of an hour of walking and peeking around door-frames.

replied Harry. Now that he thought about it, he didn't. Sirius usually just turned up out of nowhere when he came to visit, and never mentioned a room or seemed to carry any luggage. Harry had almost forgotten that Sirius slept: he always seemed to be up and about at all hours of the night and day, pulling practical jokes on people or talking with Lupin or Dumbledore.

Harry added.

Well, you know where Professor Lupin's room is in the staff quarters, right? she went on briskly.

Well, yeah, but --

We can go there first and get Lupin's copy of the Marauder's Map. That'll save the trouble of scouring the whole castle.

Harry nodded, wishing he'd thought of that. Hermione was always great to have around when you needed some thinking done and your own brain wasn't functioning properly.

They walked to the staff wing, which was a bit more guarded against entry than anywhere else in the castle. Harry muttered a few well-spoken words in the uninterested tone of a long-time expert, and they were inside immediately.

Lupin's suite of rooms was down the second corridor to the left, through the fourth door on the right side of the hall. Harry had memorized it long ago. Lupin's guarding charms were far more complex than anyone else's, and almost impossible to break since he had invented them all himself.

Still, Harry knew what to do. Lupin had told him the code, in case of any emergencies. This had been said with another of Lupin's customary wry smiles, so Harry thought he knew what sort of emergencies; but he hadn't come across much need to go in here before.

It was exactly the same as it had been the last time he'd come in, sometime around Halloween last year. The front room was neat and clean and the mantelpiece held several photos of the four Marauders and Harry's mother when they were students at Hogwarts. Only two new pictures had showed up in the last year: one of Harry, Ron, and Hermione and another of Sirius, both very recent. Sirius smiled and waved and then proceeded to duck as something flew past his head. Harry remembered when Colin Creevey had captured that moment on film. Seamus Finnigan's mother had come along with a great deal of other parents to see her child safe and sound right after the defeat of Voldemort, and for some reason that Harry assumed could be safely attributed to Sirius's past years as a prankster, had begun throwing dishes at him after they had exchanged a few words. Colin had been standing a few feet away with his nervous-looking father and ever-present camera in tow.

Harry snorted when he saw the picture, recalling the interesting mix of hyper children excited about winning the war and hyper parents excited about not being dead who had filled the castle for that week or so last May.

You take the bedroom, I'll take the study, said Harry, used to this sort of methodical behavior when breaking into other people's rooms without permission.

Hermione sighed, then gave up, as she had suggested coming in the first place. She walked off into one of the adjoining rooms and Harry heard a drawer being pulled open on the bedside table.

He went into the study, looked over the top of the desk and found nothing but neatly laid out inkwells and quills. One of the two drawers down the left side of the desk contained nothing but a very large stack of blank parchment. The other, however, was more interesting.

Harry rifled through what seemed like a hundred or more letters and disembodied pages of something that looked like it once may have been in some vague sort of order. Harry was surprised at this one pocket of complete mess, where the rest of the place was perfectly tidy. He shuffled through the top of the pile of pages again, thinking it ought to be somewhere near the top if it was in here, because Lupin had had it with him only yesterday...

Only yesterday! Harry slapped himself mentally. How stupid could he get? Lupin had never come back to his rooms since yesterday, so he must still have the Map with him, or Madam Pomfrey or Dumbledore had confiscated it...

came Hermione's voice from the other room. Harry closed the drawer and met her in the doorway to the bedroom. She was holding a piece of parchment.

Found one, she said. There's a whole stack of them in there -- he must have taken out all the reserve copies when he found them.

Oh, thought Harry. All right then. He felt somewhat deflated.

he said in a semi-enthusiastic tone. Now there's just to find Sirius...

They pored over the Map, Hermione holding it between them so they could both see clearly.

she said suddenly. Look, out here... She pointed to a spot near the edge of the Map, somewhere on the grounds. Harry blinked, surprised, and looked where she indicated.

There, sure enough, was a small dot labeled with minuscule writing: Sirius Black.

What's he doing in the forest? asked Hermione of no one in a perplexed tone.

Let's go, said Harry, starting towards the door.

They spent another fifteen minutes getting out of the staff wing, relocking it with the proper charms, getting down to the first floor and finding their way to the entrance hall. Again Harry found himself wondering why the architects had seen fit to make the place so dratted big. The grounds were easier to navigate, thankfully, but it was not such good fortune that the small black dot that was Sirius kept moving away from them. Eventually they came so far around the castle that it would have been faster to get to him by walking the opposite direction from where they had started.

This is useless, Harry, said Hermione grouchily. Her feet were getting sore and they had been walking for an hour an a half since they had left the hospital wing.

Come on. Wait until we come to the front door again, if we haven't caught up to him. He'll either go round in another circle or we can catch him in the entrance hall.

If he tries going around again, I give up, she muttered. I'm hungry.

Harry had to agree with this sentiment, but he did so silently, and they pressed on.

To their great luck (or not, as they had had to go to so much trouble to get to this point), Sirius slowed down to a meandering stroll a few hundred yards from Hagrid's hut. Harry and Hermione, though slowed slightly by sore feet and empty stomachs, continued at their regular pace and caught up with him eventually.

They were within distant sight of Hagrid's vegetable garden (which was looking, oddly enough, to be in full season, though it was the middle of winter -- Harry suspected some more illegal magic on Hagrid's part) when Hermione caught glimpse of a bit of black fabric hanging from within the higher branches of an old oak tree on the fringes of the Forbidden Forest. Harry looked up and agreed with her thought that it looked suspiciously like the tail corner of a robe.

Harry quietly stepped up under the branches of the tree, which, he noted, started near the ground, making for easy climbing, and looked up. He could make out a human form sitting in the notch where two large branches diverged from the trunk, hidden among the shadows cast by the leaves. Harry only noticed it when a gust of breeze ruffled the branches and a piece of dappled sunlight edged its way through.

Harry hesitated, wondering, suddenly, how to go about this. But he didn't wonder for long, because the same bit of light that had illuminated Sirius's face had also given Harry away.

said Sirius, more than a little startled to see him at the foot of the tree. He snatched at the branch above himself to keep from falling.

Hermione heard him and edged up under the tree as well. Harry had already set his foot in the first available notch between branch and trunk and was climbing up without too much trouble. Hermione followed a bit more reluctantly. Sirius watched them without moving. Harry's eyes had grown accustomed to the dimness and he could make out the glint of Sirius's eyes and the gray outline of his face and relaxing form.

Somewhat grudgingly, Harry took the seat nearest him, between a smallish branch and a larger one that looked more like a division of the trunk. Hermione cramped herself into the most uncomfortable of all the available spots, between the heights of Harry and Sirius but on the other side of the trunk. She had to sit facing the trunk rather than away, and lean all the way around it, just in order to see the two of them.

Harry heard her mutter under her breath, being nearer to her than Sirius; Three old crows we'll be up here in the shadows. Oh, I don't like climbing. She settled herself more comfortably, if you could call it that.

How'd you find me? said Sirius resignedly.

Lupin had some more copies of the Map in his room, said Harry, deciding to ignore all formalities and be perfectly blunt.

said Sirius, not sounding at all surprised. Have you come to push your theory' on me or something else?

What is Revalium Incantatem, said Harry deliberately, and it only vaguely sounded like a question. Everything you know. We haven't looked for you for two hours to get turned down.

Sirius nodded in the dark, as if this were expected.

You've got James's curiosity, Remus's stubbornness and my sense of tact, he said, although this did not get a laugh from anyone present. All right, then. From the beginning... it was sixth year, we'd just done advanced Charms, including a milder form of Revalium. Remus was always the bookworm, so he looked up Revalium even though Flitwick told us specifically not to... Remus had to trick a signature out of Professor Marlow, the Potions teacher, to get into the Restricted Section for the book it was in. James was the only one of us who really worried about him -- and Lily, but she worried about all of us constantly... We thought he was doing it on a dare from the Slytherins or something until he actually went out one night, pretty soon after the full moon, and did the spell on the Whomping Willow.

Hermione choked audibly. Harry peered at her through the gloom, which his eyes had accepted as far as they were ever going to, and it seemed to him that she had gone somewhat paler than usual.

But that -- didn't he know what they are? Hermione couldn't help but burst out.

said Sirius, leaning against the trunk.

Exactly what? Harry was not in the mood for more veiled exchanges like these -- if anyone made another veiled exchange today, he would more than likely feel the sudden urge to throttle them.

Harry, Whomping Willows were bred by Dark wizards to plant in woods near villages particularly full of children, said Sirius, in a listen-to-me-now-or-never-and-I-won't-stand-for-any-interruptions' sort of tone. The kids would go out and play in the trees, not knowing any better, and in those days the trees were far more aggressive -- grown to kill without mercy, not just drive people off. Dozens of kids were killed before their parents figured it out and warned them away, and no one could get near to chop down the trees without being maimed or killed themselves. They were some of the most deadly weapons the Dark side had. They were around long before Voldemort -- before Grindelwald, even. We'd tamed them by then. Someone finally figured out the trick of the freezing knot (all the trees had them; the Dark wizards had to have a way to get near the trees when they planted them), and the Department of Magical Agriculture was able to study them. They were all cut down or destroyed, except for a dozen or so of the weakest ones. Since then they've been cross-bred with regular willows, and they're not so dangerous any more. The one right out there on the grounds is one of the strongest left in the world. Dumbledore would have no less when he agreed to take on Remus at school... he wanted the boy to be able to come to Hogwarts, but he also wanted every possible precaution taken...

Sirius shook his head again, shifted his weight and folded his arms. Harry waited.

After several minutes, Sirius spoke up again.

Like I said, Remus did Revalium on the Willow. You know how strong Revalium is, from -- from that -- shadow-thing the other day. Revalium releases the nature of a magical object in the deepest core of its being, brings it to life, makes it tangible if it can. The shadow was as tangible as it got on the ring, I suppose. The tree.... well, the tree... it was it's being the strongest of them, I think, that really made it so awful. It had a closer link to its ancestors than most Willows of its lineage. Revalium made it evil again, reverted its nature all the way back down to the Dark wizards' original purpose in creating it; to kill people.

Harry was trying very hard to imagine this and had begun thinking very strongly along the same lines as Sirius and Hermione about Lupin's behavior. How could he have been so stupid as to do that?

But it didn't kill Professor Lupin, Harry said finally, as Sirius was lost in thought again and wasn't speaking.

Hum? Oh, no, it didn't. It wasn't an original, just a tree with the mind of an original. It didn't have the strength to kill a werewolf; that's very hard, you know. It would have turned anyone else into something hardly recognizable as human, I shouldn't wonder. Sirius was only half-listening to himself. It did beat him to a bloody pulp, though, he went on quietly, wrapped up in his own head; Knocked him out, whaled on him a bit. It thought he was dead, so it did the customary thing all the original trees did with bodies, and picked him up and threw him as far as it could. The breeders' thought was probably to make sure that the villagers found the bodies of the children and were able to see them perfectly clearly. They liked that sort of anguish, I think. Make people suffer more... like demen --

He stopped suddenly. Harry's spine was tickling under his skin and his insides felt suddenly rather wobbly and numb. He found himself wishing his feet were flat on the ground. He could hear -- or rather, not hear -- that Hermione was holding her breath.

The momentum was enough to carry Remus to the castle wall. He hit it about six feet above the ground; the impact broke his back, but it was clean, thankfully, and it healed all right. He has some back trouble every now and then, but it's generally fine. The rest of him took longer.

Sirius's sudden revival of the original subject without even seeming to notice that he'd said anything else ought, Harry thought dumbly, to have made him feel better. But somehow it just didn't. His stomach wasn't upside down and backwards anymore, but it was colder than ever, along with the rest of him.

It was about three days after the full moon when all that happened, Sirius went on, looking straight ahead and speaking rhythmically, as though in a trance. If the thought crossed Harry's mind that this was because Sirius was horrified of where he had almost gone, and that his godfather was more self-conscious than he had been during this entire conversation, he took no notice of it.

Pomfrey thought he wasn't going to make it for the next couple of weeks, but then he started coming around... another month or so and she would have had him on his feet, but there's no way of keeping the sun from going round, much less keeping the moon getting full. He wasn't healed enough to handle it well. That first month he didn't beat himself up too much, but the second time he was more healed, more awake... it kept on going around in circles for five months like that. He just stopped talking to anyone after a while. James and I couldn't get him to come around no matter what we did. Wormtail -- he spat the word as usual -- had found him the night it happened; he heard the thump on the wall and went out to investigate... I think he was just afraid to go near Remus. James and Lily and I weren't allowed to see him until a few days after he woke up, that first month, but Wormtail saw him brand-new from the branches... Remus wouldn't say a word after the third transformation after he got hurt, but that may have had to do with the fact that he and James had a huge row right before it over why he did it in the first place. He knew all about the trees' origins, after all, and what Revalium did to things. He did homework like crazy, though, while he was having his temporary vow of silence. Once his hand was out of the cast, anyway. I heard Professor Binns say he'd never known such an exceptional student, and you know what sort of high praise that is... Binns never cared about Remus's little close shave with death, though, it's not like that was unfamiliar territory.

Harry wasn't sure what sort of reaction Sirius was trying to get by that statement. A laugh, or what?

He was fine by summer break, though, added Sirius distantly. Almost back to normal.

There was a long pause.

You're only mad at him because you're worried? said a tiny, trembling voice, finally, out of the gloom on the other side of the tree. Harry started. Hermione had more guts than he did, to speak up now.

Sirius roused himself into a more conscious state of mind and said, Oh, no, I'm not angry with him really. Anymore. Just worried. For being one of the smartest people I know, he can be really stupid sometimes.

Harry nodded and thought vaguely of Hermione. And Ron doing that release spell.

Speaking of spells...

You said something about a spell of mistrust'? Harry asked suddenly, unable to stop himself.

Sirius nodded, his face less blank now, and a hint of his usual smile coming back. Yeah, that was a bit of a nasty trick from the Slytherins; Snape and his friends, I think. Malfoy never stooped quite so far, he just watched us and let Snape do all the petty-House-enemies stuff, and then he'd pull a big one on us every six months or a year or so... Anyway. Snape put a spreading mistrust spell on our dormitory -- James', Remus', Wormtail's and mine. Remus and I were in the room when he cast the spell from across the castle, so we were affected worst. Everyone else got some too... I think it was fourth year, I'm not sure, but in any case. A spreading spell is one that is cast on a place, not a person, you know that, right? And then it creeps out and infiltrates everything around it --

Harry was nodding already. Charms, last semester. Flitwick made us do spreading Cheering Charms starting in the middle of the floor to see if it would go out far enough to get the people on the edge of the room --

Yeah, that's what we had to do, too, said Sirius. Well, James got it off us all eventually. It was more entertaining than harmful in retrospect, although Remus and I had it out quite a bit. He gave me a black eye once or twice; like I said, werewolves are a lot stronger than most people...

Sirius was far more cheerful now, and Harry's guts were thawing out, although he still didn't feel up to laughing.

No laughing, he added thoughtfully as his stomach gave a loud growl, but definitely some dinner. And soon. The sun was already setting...

The branches on the other side of the tree were already rustling. We've got problems all over again, said Hermione from a good way down the trunk; But we're not going to solve anything on empty stomachs. I missed lunch. Are you coming?

Harry looked at Sirius, whose almost-normal smile was lost in the deepening gloom. Harry swung his foot around until he found the branch underneath him that he wanted. Climbing trees in the dark is just as hard as it sounds, if not harder.

As they trudged across the castle grounds and through the entrance hall, Harry heard (among the noises of protest from his own body) Sirius's stomach sounding just as empty as Hermione's. But rather than walk down to the Great Hall with them, he turned off towards the hospital wing. Harry watched him go wordlessly. He was off to reconcile with Lupin, Harry was pretty sure, but there was still the matter of Sirius not believing Harry's theory to deal with... and that of the ring itself...

–––––––––––
I don't think that I could take another empty moment;
I don't think that I could fake another hollow smile.
It's not enough just to be lonely...
I don't think that I could take another talk about it.

Don't want to be the one who turns the whole thing over;
Don't want to be somewhere I just don't belong...
Where it's not enough just to be sorry.
--from Bed of Lies by matchbox TWENTY
*******

Harry didn't go to Dumbledore, did he? asked Lupin without looking up as the hospital wing door opened.



Lupin nodded. He was lying down again, facing away from the door. He always recognized Sirius. It was inevitable -- James had once accused them of telepathy.

I'm not angry, you know. There was the sound of a chair creaking slightly under a heavy weight.

Lupin was really surprised this time. He turned over and looked at Sirius. Faint shadows were growing under the mild brown eyes, and Lupin's expression was that of someone who has been unintentionally awake for a long time and would really like go to sleep. But now, with Sirius's remark, they had developed a hint of question and the brewing relief of someone who hopes they're about to be forgiven.

Sirius shook his head. I'm sorry for reacting like I did in front of Harry. It was something of a shock. And you have to admit that it really was incredibly stupid of you, I'm not going to let you off on that.

Lupin smiled, the relief fully formed on his gray face.

Thank you, Padfoot.

'Just because you're a ravaging, insane monster once a month doesn't mean I don't want to be friends with you.' It was something Sirius had said to Remus late in their first year, right after James had figured out what Remus was. (And, obviously, before Sirius had developed any talent at all for hiding his severe lack of tact...) We've had somewhat of a rough-and-tumble friendship, but I mean what I say. He paused. Even if you do try and kill yourself on a regular basis.

Lupin was silent, and did not smile.

That's what it was, wasn't it?

There was a long silence.

Finally, Remus spoke: I thought perhaps the Willow could do the job, if it were encouraged. I made it look like my own folly in not researching the trees' origins deep enough.

Sirius didn't look at Remus, and neither did the werewolf look at his friend.

So. I was the only one who suspected. The others wouldn't have ever imagined you'd really try it.

Lupin was quiet.

Why'd you do it on the ring? asked Sirius suddenly. Did you know it would -- you know... be degenerative and all that?

said Remus, his voice as pale as his features. I had no idea. I only tried twice. After you were imprisoned and my life had fallen down around me I tried a poison, but it wasn't strong enough. You know I've never been any good at making potions.

Why the Willow? I thought... Sirius swallowed dryly. You once said nothing better could ever have happened to you except us and Hogwarts.

Lupin shook his head, fiddling with the sheets and not looking at Sirius. I mean what I say, he repeated quietly. But you had just had your joke' with Snape. Don't you remember? My greatest fear has always been that I would hurt another human being, but when I saw Severus in the tunnel the wolf's only thought was to kill. And I really wanted to. It felt... perfect. Natural. Without you or James around to control me... And I never wanted to feel that way again, once I was in my right mind.

Sirius opened his mouth, shut it, paled considerably and swallowed again. The only thing he could think, and it was truly selfish to think it, he knew, was how he was glad he hadn't known he had caused one of his friends to attempt suicide when he had been with the dementors. That one extra anguish would have prevented him from ever regaining the strength of will it took to escape.

I'm sorry, was all he could finally manage.

It's not all your fault, Padfoot. Werewolves' life spans are longer than regular humans'. I did not want to face the prospect of outliving all of the only people who had dared to be my friends... no one wants to die alone.

Sirius felt the ominous prickling in his eyes signaling tears, and tried to stop himself.

Why --

Neither does anyone want to know the answer to why,' my dear Padfoot.

Sirius nodded. Telepathy again. He really didn't need to hear any more today. He rather felt he'd like to go and have a good cry in his old dorm room, which, of course, was out of the question...

I'm sorry, he repeated, as he stood up. You must be tired. I'll just get out of your fur... It was an old Marauders' joke to refer to Moony' as if he were a wolf.

Goodnight, and pray don't let the fleas bite.

Excuse me, Padfoot never has fleas. Sirius smiled, his eyes particularly bright. They were just whistling in the dark, of course, but at least it brought back more of the fond memories from before everything had come crashing down around them.

Before he could stop himself, Sirius had knelt beside Remus's bedside and gathered the other man into a tight embrace, as he'd often done after the full moon when Remus rested, recovering, in this same hospital bed. Neither of them ever said anything. Sirius had always just had a bit more empathy for Remus, since his own family had taught him (as so few families were ever likely to do anymore) that werewolves were people, too, and shouldn't ever be looked on as anything else. Sirius closed his eyes just as the first tear leaked out and fell in Remus's still static-shocked hair.

Finally Sirius pulled back. I think Lily said something like, Friendship isn't affected by distance, only by lack of communication. When we graduated and moved apart, that was her way of saying goodbye. Remus nodded; he remembered.

No more secrets? Sirius held out his hand.

Remus smiled, the first true smile Sirius had seen from him in a couple of months -- since Voldemort's defeat, in fact -- and shook Sirius's hand. No more secrets.

Sirius also smiled, and as he stood he slapped Remus on the shoulder. Go to sleep, you mangy-furred chicken thief.

May your tail fall off and your pads rub raw, replied Remus through a yawn.

Good night, old friend.
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Extra A/N: If you know the rest of the words to Bed of Lies, ignore them. There was a reason I only chose these two verses: they were the only ones that fit. Everything else is wrong for the context; they'd be slashy, and I'm not writing slash here. Thanks, and keep reading!