It was early morning when Remus came down for breakfast. The sun was still hidden behind the buildings of London, tinting the sapphire sky with dark orange -- however, he was in no mood to sit and admire the majesty of the scene. He was too dejected to do very much on his own. When he was with everyone else here at number twelve he was only short of normal, but when alone... Which is what he was now: Alone... He didn't bother turning the lights on, and shut the drapes of the one window in the kitchen.


Sighing, he decided to examine the ice-box, squinting when the bare lightbulb turned on, illuminating the cool (and nearly barren) inside. Cold and nearly barren... Like me, Remus thought. He took the milk, and headed towards the pantry for the cereal.


Cocoa Puffs or Shredded Wheat? he asked himself, the question bringing a wry smile to his face. He could imagine Sirius's answer just as vividly as he could remember the first time he had asked himself this question. Sirius had looked so shocked and affronted that someone could even consider eating Shredded Wheat over Cocoa Puffs...


He reached for the Shredded Wheat. He wouldn't dare eat Cocoa Puffs again.


Remus had probably taken two bites of his breakfast before the kitchen light flickered on. He looked up to the doorway, and saw Ginny Weasley standing there in a t-shirt that went down past her knees -- Probably belonged to a brother, he thought.


She rubbed her eyes sleepily, and went about getting out her own favorite cereal, a bottle of butterbeer, and a jar of pickles. Then she sat down exactly across from him, tucked her fiery hair behind her ears, and proceeded with preparing her breakfast. He nearly fainted when he saw she had chosen Cocoa Puffs...


"Good morning," he said, as she began slicing a few pickles.


"'Morning," she replied, sounding rather groggy.


For a few moments, Remus just watched her. A little girl in an overlarge shirt slicing pickles and occasionally sipping butterbeer. She was puzzling, to say the least.


"What're you doing up this early?"


She looked up from her task, smiled, and giggled to herself. "I'm stalking you, that's what."


She seemed very amused with her answer, almost as though it were some strange inside joke. His depressed thoughts were momentarily pushed aside as Ginny continued to confuse him. Remus had never enjoyed confusement.


"How's that?" he queried.


"I've been keeping a watch on you," she said cheerfully. "I told Mum I was worried about you, because you seem so ... fine, and she said if I was worried I should do something about it -- without you knowing, of course, because then you might act even more fine when I was checking up on you, so as not to keep me worried. You know how you are," she smiled up at him, and dumped her pickles atop her cereal.


"What're you doing?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "And what do you mean, 'checking up' on me?"


"Pickles are good for you," she said, squaring her shoulders defensively. "Cocoa Puffs aren't. I have to get some nutrition out of breakfast. But anyway," she shrugged. "I've just been watching you, y'know? Because if my best friend died, I certainly wouldn't be handling things as well as you seem to be. Unless I was some wench from a smutty novel and I had killed my best friend because I had secretly been his lover and he was threatening to tell everyone so that I would pay him my life savings, but I don't think you swing that way..." she looked him in the eye and scrunched up her nose. "Do you?"


"No."


"Good. Well, just so you know I wasn't peeking on you in the shower or anything... I stayed awake until you had fallen asleep and I'd tuck you in, and if you got up in the night I'd follow you, but that was just to make sure you weren't about to hang yourself with a bedsheet or something like that." She sighed again, and dug her spoon into her Cocoa Pickle Puffs, taking a rather large bite. "If my best friend died," she said through the strange mix of food. "I'd prolly hang myself. But then again, you are quite a bit stronger than I am, emotionally..."


Remus put his spoon down and pressed the heels of his hands to his eyes, making little stars explode. He wasn't stronger than she was... He was just a bloody liar about everything...


There was a clink (he guessed her spoon had hit the porcelain bown) and in the next minute she was sitting next to him, prying his hands away from his eyes.


"Remus," she said quietly. "you don't need to feel bad. You've been really strong throughout this thing so far, but its not healthy. People need to break down sometimes. So if you need to cry, I'm right here. You might as well use my shoulder as anyone else's."


He buried his face in her shoulder before any tears could come -- although he couldn't avoid letting her hear the sobs, or see how they shook his body. She held him like a little boy and simply let him cry, without attempting to soothe him with meaningless phrases. She just held him. He just bawled.


He wasn't alone anymore.