AN: ::Arra heaves a huge sigh of relief:: I was so sure I was going to get flamed for that last chapter. I'm surprised so many people liked it. And you people are spoiled. I didn't update for, what, a week and a half? And you thought I'd stopped writing? There are some stories I'm working on that I haven't updated for months! (this isn't going to be one of them though, it'll be a while before this story lets me slack off like that) Not that I didn't love all the reviews asking for me to continue. ^_^ Anyway, many thanks to Mithua for insperation and ideas. And Neets for keeping me on the straight and narrow, grammerically speacking. And to Juncita(?) who sent me the most wonderful comic based on a sceen in chapter 8.
Now on to the fic!

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"Well, take a look and blow my fantasy away
Turn off the lights and shine the spotlight down on you
Well I could never understand a word you'd ever say
And all the people that you ever hurt came down on you
Well I can understand just why you went away"

~ It's All Good, Cold

"I don't have anywhere else to go."

Remus felt himself wince at the hopeless tone in Sirius' usually confident voice. He'd known the other boy was in trouble the moment he'd seen Sirius at the door. Frankly, Sirius had looked much like he himself did after an especially violent full moon. What Remus could see of Sirius' face and arms had been covered in cuts and bruises, and he'd smelled of blood, pain and fear. And Romulus had just stood there and done nothing!

But his twin didn't know Sirius, didn't know that the weak smile and pleading voice were so unlike the usually loud and obnoxious boy. Remus couldn't have not invited him in. It would have been criminal.

And now, Gods, how could his mother think that he would… He'd never hurt anyone. The only fight he'd ever been in was that one with Sirius months ago, and his parents had never even heard about it.

Silivia and Tiberius Lupin exchanged glances above the boys' heads. His mothers eyes flicked toward Remus briefly and his father nodded.

"No," Tiberius said, braking Remus out of his thoughts. 'No!' he though, stunned. Couldn't his dad see what a state Sirius was in?! "I'm sorry, but you can't stay here. Remus is ill and…"

"I am not!" Remus all but yelled. Everyone in the room turned to look at him. "If your going to turn him away when he obviously needs help, don't use my…illness as an excuse," he bit out. His father frowned at him disapprovingly and his mother looked on, vaguely frightened. Remus sighed, sagging a bit in resignation. 'Great going,' he told himself. 'Now they'll never listen to you.'

"Please, it's only for one night. We'll both be gone by tomorrow," he pleaded, making sure his voice was soft and controlled. "And Sirius can stay in my room. You won't even know he's here." He felt like an idiot. He sounded like he had when he was five and had wanted to keep a stray dog as a pet. 'Please mum, he followed me home, can I keep him?'

"Sirius…?" his mother said thoughtfully. "Didn't you say that was the name of the bully that kept bothering you?" she asked. Sirius looked at him in alarm. Apparently he'd never heard himself called a bully before.

"No mum," he said, lying through his teeth. "You're thinking of Severus. He's a Slytherin in my year who likes to tease me." Romulus snorted in amusement. He liked hearing about what a horrible time Remus had at school. Every one was silent for a moment as Remus' parents looked Sirius over, trying to gauge how much trouble he would be and weather it would be more trouble to get rid of him. His parents exchanged another look.

"He's a friend of yours then?" his father asked. Remus nodded in agreement.

"Yes," he said quietly. He'd already lied once, and it was looking more and more like that statement wasn't as false as it used to be.

"And you gave him our address?" Uh-oh, that was something he'd been expressly forbidden to do. Come to think of it, how had Sirius found his house?

"Remus didn't tell me anything," Sirius said quickly, obviously realizing that it would get Remus in trouble if he didn't say something. "He lent me a book over the holiday, and your address was on the inside cover." Remus blinked at Sirius in surprise. So that's where that book had gone. He must have left in on the train and Sirius had picked it up. Remus could see that his mother wanted to ask more questions, probably about what had happened to Sirius and other invasive things like that, but his father, thankfully, cut her off.

"I guess you can stay," he said it as if it were a great concession on his part. "After all, you'll be going back to Hogwarts in the morning." Both Remus and Sirius let out a sigh of relief. And before his mother could ask any more annoying questions or before Romulus could convince their parents that it was a bad idea, Remus grabbed Sirius by the arm and hauled him out of the room.

He paused in the bathroom to get Sirius' things and a few of the healing potions Remus would need to finish treating him before heading down to his room. Once they were safely behind closed doors Remus turned to Sirius and glared at him, arms crossed.

"Alright," he said. "What is going on? Why are you here? And what the bloody hell happened to you?" Sirius looked a bit taken back by the barrage of questions, as if he had thought that everything was alright and he wouldn't have to explain himself.

"Um…" Sirius said intelligently. "Well, I really did find your house using the address in your book, even if you didn't give it to me. And…" the other boy paused and looked down at the floor. "I really do need a place to stay, and like I said, my dad… got mad at me…" Sirius just let the sentence hang and shrugged.

"That doesn't explain why you're so beat up," Remus said pointedly. He would get to the bottom of this. Even if Sirius was going to be difficult.

"I told you, my dad…" Remus frowned, and then gaped at the other boy in shock. Sirius didn't seem like he could say it out loud, but Remus was starting to get the idea.

"Your dad did that to you?" he asked incredulously. Sirius seemed to curl up on himself, wrapping his long arms around his chest and hunching his shoulders.

"Yeah…" he said weakly, not meeting Remus' eyes. 'I never realized that humans did that to each other,' he though, feeling vaguely sick. He'd read plenty of things about what they did to werewolves and other 'creatures', but he'd always thought that it was because the humans considered them monsters and had wanted to punish them. Not just… because they could.

Remus plopped down on the edge of his bed and stared at the other boy. Hunched over like he was, Sirius didn't look nearly as imposing as Remus remembered. He looked thin and gangly… and lost.

"Come here and sit down, I haven't finished treating you wounds," he said, changing the subject before he had a chance to feel too sorry for Sirius. "And take off your shirt." Remus mentally smacked himself the moment the words left his mouth. Sirius would definitely take that the wrong way.

And indeed, both of Sirius' eyebrows had shot up and he was smirking at Remus. Remus just glared at Sirius for a long moment and the smirk quickly vanished. "Some of the cuts went through your shirt," he said in clarification. Sirius did as Remus requested and sat down on the bed, shirtless. He looked skeptically at the bright green potion Remus was preparing to dab onto a cut on his shoulder.

"You know what your doing, right?" Sirius asked, looking doubtful. "You're not going to poison me or anything?"

"None of these potions have ever poisoned me so I doubt they'll hurt you," Remus said calmly, as he turned one of Sirius' arms over and started applying the potion liberally on the cuts. They sat in silence for a long time, Sirius watching as Remus doctored his injuries. Remus tried to ignore the other boy's stare that lingered even after he'd cleaned the last of Sirius' wounds.

"Are they always like that?" Sirius asked, breaking the awkward lull that had fallen between them. Remus frowned at him in confusion.

"Are who like what?" he asked.

"Your parents and your brother. They were walking on eggshells back there," Sirius said waving his hand toward the door and upstairs.

"They try and protect me…" Remus replied meekly.

"From what?" Sirius asked.

"Myself, I suppose." Sirius snorted, showing his opinion on that.

Apparently, sitting quietly was too much for the taller boy, because he soon stood and began pacing around the room. He looked over the large bookshelf with mild interest before examining Remus' desk. Remus tried to remember if there was anything out that he didn't want Sirius to see. He couldn't think of anything except…oh no. Remus surged to his feet, but Sirius had already found the inconspicuous looking book that had been lying open on Remus' desk.

"Hey, what's this?" Sirius asked, picking it up.

"Give it back!" Remus yelled, making a grab for the book. But Sirius danced back, holding the book above his head and out of reach. Remus glared at Sirius, and he felt a muscle jump as he clenched his teeth.

"Okay, okay, gees," Sirius said, holding the book out in front of him, as if to ward Remus off. Remus took the book and hugged it to his chest, still glaring bayfully at Sirius. The other boy looked almost hurt, like he didn't quite know what he'd done to deserve that cold look.

"Sorry, I just spent a lot of time on this, that's all," Remus mumbled.

"What is it?" he asked.

"A Grimorie."

"You mean one of those things with demon's names in it?" Sirius asked with a frightened yet curiouse look on his face.

"That's a type of grimorie, this one just has interesting spells and notes about werewolves and such." Remus said.

"Can I see? An invisibility potion? Living maps? There's even a spell here how to stick to walls! Where did you find this stuff?" Sirius asked incredulously, eyes wide.

"I got permission to read the books in the restricted section on the pretense of learning more about Lycanthropy, but I looked at some of the other books too. And with a lot of those things I copied them down cause they sounded interesting, but I can't figure out how to make them work." Sirius 'hmmed' at Remus, apparently engrossed in one of the spells he'd found.

"I think I could do this one," he pronounced at length. They soon got into a rather heated argument about the ethics of making all of the Slytherins invisible, if even temporarily. "Just think about it, you'd never have to look at their ugly faces again!" Sirius had said, smiling at the thought. They'd gotten through about half the book when Remus' mother had called down that dinner was ready.

Sirius had immediately perked up and had started for the stairs.

"Sirius!" Remus called after him. Sirius turned and frowned as a shirt was thrown in his face. The taller boy looked from the shirt and then down to his bare chest. "Whoops," he said, smiling at Remus as he pulled the too small shirt over his head.

Dinner was thankfully short, mostly because as soon as they had filled their plates, they were allowed to retreat back down the Remus' room.

"Why is your room in the basement?" Sirius asked around a mouthful of food.

"The silencing charms don't need to be as strong since I'm isolated from the rest of the bedrooms by the first floor," Remus said as he played with the food on his plate.

"Silencing charms?" Sirius asked, raising an eyebrow. Remus stared down at his hand.

"I…have nightmares," he muttered. "I hope I don't wake you up."

"I never hear you," Sirius said in confusion. When Remus looked puzzled he elaborated. "At night in our dorm, I never hear you."

"I always cast a weak silencing charm and a laryngitis curse before I fall asleep," Remus explained.

"You make yourself mute?" Sirius said in alarm. He supposed that for someone like Sirius, being mute seemed like a horrible punishment, but sometimes Remus when through the entire day at Hogwarts without realizing he hadn't taken the hex off.

"You three would never get a good night's sleep if I didn't," he said with a shrug. "But I can't do that tonight, underage wizarding laws and all that." Sirius just nodded, eyeing the small bed skeptically.

"So which side are you taking?" he asked.

"What?" Remus asked in surprise.

"Which side of the bed?" Remus sat up straighter and crossed his arms, trying to look stern.

"Who says you get to sleep on the bed?" heasked indignantly. There was no way Remus was going to share a bed with the other boy. The Gods only knew what Sirius'd do to him in his sleep. "The rug should be comfortable," he said finally, throwing a blanket at Sirius.

"Aren't you supposed to be nice to your guests?" Sirius asked rhetorically, even as he grabbed a pillow from Remus' bed and started to make himself comfortable.

"That would imply that I invited you," Remus muttered but regretted it when Sirius winced. They were silent for a while as they both got ready for bed, or in Sirius' case, floor. Remus was just about ready to extinguish the torch that lit the room when Sirius turned to him and smiled.

"Do I at least get a kiss goodnight?" Sirius asked, wagging his brows suggestively. He continued to smiling unrepentantly even when Remus threw a pillow at him.

"No!" Remus huffed indignantly. "And that is why you're sleeping on the floor!" he said, laying down and pulling his blanket over his head.

"Night, Moony," Sirius said, chuckling to himself.

"Night, you arrogant prick," Remus muttered under his breath. He'd meant it to be an insult, but it came out sounding almost like an endearment.

"What?" Sirius asked sleepily.

"Goodnight, Sirius," Remus said, loud enough for the other boy to hear him.

But Remus had been wrong about waking Sirius with his nightmares, for when he did claw his way back to consciousness, howling and panting with fear, the first things he heard outside the pounding of his heart where whimpers that sounded very much like his own. He crawled to the edge of his bed and looked down at Sirius who seemed to be caught up in his own set of nightmares.

He remembered Peter saying something about his parents letting his sleep with them when he had nightmares. Maybe the body heat helped banish the bad dreams. Remus didn't know, his parents had never let him do that, even before he was bitten.

'If you so much as breath on me funny…' he thought silently at Sirius, as he crawled out of bed and onto the floor.

There must have been something to the idea, because when he laid down next to Sirius, the other boy quieted immediately. He also, to Remus' dismay, turned in his sleep and flung an arm over the shorter boy. Remus sighed in defeat, not bothering to extract himself from Sirius' embrace before falling back asleep.

He was, unfortunately, the second one to wake up the next morning. The first sight that greeted his bleary eyes was Sirius' face not three inches from his own. He jumped slightly in surprise, but didn't try to get away. Sirius' gazed pinned him where he was.

"You won't let me sleep in your bed, but you will sneak out of it and come sleep with me on the floor?" Sirius asked at length his eyes never leaving Remus'.

"Sorry," Remus muttered. It didn't seem right, now that he thought about it. And now that the sun was up he couldn't quite remember what had possessed him to fall asleep next to Sirius.

They were both startled out of their staring contest by a loud knock on the bedroom door. One moment Remus was on the floor on his back and the next he was half way across the room, grabbing things and shoving them into his bag.

"We're leaving in ten minutes, you better be ready!" Romulus shouted through the door. Remus wouldn't have been surprised if his brother had been told to get them half an hour ago and had put it off just to get them in trouble. But they both quickly got their belongings together and had made it upstairs with time to spare, much to the annoyance of his twin.

The trip to King's Cross was thankfully uneventful and they were soon sitting in a compartment on the Hogwarts Express, stifling yawns and trying not to fall asleep in their seats.

"Why are you so tired?" Remus asked. 'It's not like Sirius woke up in the middle of the night like I did.'

"You punched me in the stomach about three A.M. and I didn't get back to sleep," Sirius said before yawning again. 'Or maybe he did,' Remus amended silently.

"Sorry," he muttered.

"It's okay…" Sirius mumbled, and within a few moments he'd fallen asleep.

Remus had nearly dozed off himself when he felt something land on his shoulder. Sirius had slipped sideways in his sleep until his head rested against Remus' shoulder. Remus was debating weather or not to push him the other way when the door to the compartment opened and James walked in.

"Hey," James said brightly, smiling in amusement at the picture the two of them must have made. "Did you have a good holiday?" he asked, as if he knew the answer.

"No," Remus said, making James start in surprise at the chill in his voice. "And Sirius' was even worse."

"What happened?" James said, concern flooding his voice as he sat down across from Remus.

"Has Sirius ever told you about his dad?" he asked the bespectacled boy.

"Besides the fact that he's a pig-headed, ignorant, muggle bastard? No, why?" James gasped in surprise as Remus reached up and pushed Sirius' bangs out of his sleeping face, exposing one of the many still healing cuts.

"He has dozens of these all over," he pronounced gravely. "From what I can get out of him, I think his father attacked him with a knife." James stared at him in horror and then flicked his gaze down to the sleeping boy.

"He told me it was bad, but…I thought he meant he was really strict or something. I never thought…" James trailed off looking stricken. "So he's been there this whole time with that monster?" Remus flinched. He didn't like the word 'monster' even when it was referring to someone else.

"It happened some time yesterday, he's been at my house ever since," he said.

"Your house?" James asked, surprise and something Remus couldn't quite identify coloring his voice. He almost sounded smug.

"I don't think he knows where you live, otherwise he probably would have gone to you," Remus said quickly.

"I'm not so sure. He looks awfully comfortable," James observed, staring at the two of them with a raised eyebrow. Remus blushed and turned to look out the window.

"He can't like me. Not really," he said after a long time.

"Why? 'Cause you're a boy?" James asked. Remus shook his head.

"I'm not a boy. I'm not even human," he said bitterly.

"That's not true. All werewolves are born human, aren't they?" a voice said in his ear. Sirius sat up and glared at him reproachfully. "You woke me up." Remus turned to say something to him but the words died in his throat.

Peter was standing in the doorway with eyes the size of dinner plates, looking at the three of them as if they'd all sprouted fangs and fur. His frightened little eyes landed on Remus and he squeaked out "werewolves?" before bolting away down the corridor. Both James and Sirius when right after him. Remus stared at the open compartment door for a moment before curling up on himself and banging his forehead on his knees. 'Stupid, stupid, stupid…'

But there were no shouts of outrage or cries of fear from the other students on the train. And as the Express jerked to start, Sirius and James lead the still shaking Peter back into the compartment before closing and locking the door.

"Peter, calm down," James said sternly to the quivering boy. James sat him down on the opposite bench, farthest from Remus, and tried to get him to stop gibbering like an idiot. Sirius remained standing in front of the door, and he cast an apologetic look at Remus.

"Peter," the round boy jumped when Remus said his name, and he turned to look at Remus with frightened eyes. "It's okay. I don't bite." The three boys stared at him wide-eyed for a moment before Sirius started to chuckle. That set James off, and soon even Peter had mustered a weak laugh. Once they'd stopped laughing, Sirius sat back down next to Remus and clapped a hand on his shoulder.

"Moony, you never told us you had a sense of humor," he said in mock reproach. Remus just rolled his eyes.

"Moony…?" Peter echoed, his brows furrowed in concentration.

"Yes, a horrible nickname for a werewolf don't you think?" Remus asked lightly, watching Peter's reaction. The nervous little boy just smiled a little.

"Definitely something Sirius would come up with," he said conspiratorially, and Remus nearly sagged in relief.

"Promise you won't tell?" he asked hopefully, Peter nodded.

"And we promise not to let anyone else find out either," James put in. The three boys nodded in agreement.

"And not to use it against you…" Sirius whispered, looking at him out of the corner of his eyes. Remus couldn't keep the smile from his face.

"Thank you."