A/N: Hmmm well I don't suppose I gave you enough clues really to figure out what Lupin was on about. I'll give you a clue, he and Harry both know what's 'going on' here, as you might say. And what he was talking about had a double meaning, referring both to why Harry couldn't stay and to what was 'going on'. Oh, I'll tell you eventually anyway :P

Thanks so much reviewers! I promise I will clear up all confusion in time :)

CHAPTER 6- MOON

Harry just sat, his head in his arms upon the table, for a long time. He didn't know how long, but it must have been a little over an hour and Remus had not returned. The man's words resounded in his head- just a child. Harry supposed that Remus had left him to do whatever it was he was supposed to do by himself. Get out the house… get some food. Harry was hungry.

He got up slowly from the table and grabbed some food he didn't think Remus would sorely miss. A couple of slices of bread though was perhaps all his stomach could handle.

Chewing absently on his bread, Harry sat again and thought. But thinking hurt. In fact, everything hurt, and not just physically. He found himself wondering where else he could go. The Weasleys would probably have him.

Surprisingly, this thought only made Harry hurt even more. It made no difference who would have him, the one place he wanted to be most in the world was right here. If only Remus would have him.

Harry sighed and got up once again from the table, wincing at the slight pain as he did so. He had already noticed some scars that Remus had neglected to point out- a quite spectacularly large one on his arm, and judging from the pain in his back (not to mention his uncle's favourite target) there were quite a few there. Enough to make Harry wary about letting anyone see them.

He quickly made a makeshift sling for his arm, using one of the less bloodied bandages lying on the table. He then thoughtfully put the rest in the bin beneath the sink and made his way out of the kitchen.

It was at that point the heard a sudden 'whoosh', and a short yet distinct roaring of a fireplace. Harry was sure that Remus had not left, so whomever it was that had undoubtedly just entered by floo, was probably not welcome.

Harry backed slowly into the kitchen again and grabbed a knife from the drawer, which he wielded in front of him using his good arm. He crept back out the kitchen stealthily, and into the hallway then towards the sound he had heard, holding the knife like someone would hold a gun in a muggle spy film. There were more noises, footsteps this time, and Harry could tell for sure that they didn't belong to Remus.

Harry crept towards the door of the room the sounds were coming from, and stopped for a moment. Taking a deep breath, he threw open the door with a bang and jumped through. The sight he was met with made him stop short.

Snape was standing a few steps away from the fireplace in Remus' quaint living room, one eyebrow raised at Harry's battered, shirtless and knife-wielding form.

"Snape!" Harry exclaimed, lowering the knife and suddenly feeling very embarrassed.

"Potter," Snape replied, his eyebrow still arched critically. "I suppose you thought it unnecessary to inform the order of whatever… scrape you managed to get yourself into this time. Or perhaps you just enjoy having everyone rush around after you."

Harry glowered at Snape, but then wondered why he hadn't thought that everyone might worry about him once they discovered he was gone from Privet Drive. Snape must have noticed his change in expression.

"Now get out of my way, I have business to attend to," Snape said unpleasantly.

Harry didn't move. He inhaled deeply, slightly afraid of what he was about to do. He was about to ask Snape a favour.

"Um, could you," Harry gritted his teeth and forced out the offending word. "Please don't tell anyone about…" he motioned to the scars on his body.

For a moment Snape looked slightly taken aback, but then he smirked.

"Believe it or not Potter, I'm not here for you. It is none of my concern what you do with yourself," he sneered. "Though I believe I shall have to inform Dumbledore that you are… safe."

Harry was inwardly thankful and supposed this meant that Snape wouldn't tell anyone. At that point Remus walked through the door, looking a little worse for wear himself. Still beautiful, Harry thought, but averted his gaze before he was caught staring.

"Your potion," Snape sneered, thrusting a bottled potion unceremoniously into Remus' hands.

"Thank you," Replied Remus, ever polite.

The words were barely out the man's mouth before the potions professor had stepped rudely back into the fireplace with a swish of his robes.

A moment of silence passed before Harry looked up at Remus, who avoided his gaze. He would have given anything for Remus to have just looked back, to run into his arms; to have- Harry shook his head roughly, successfully dispelling the thoughts.

"So… where do I have to go?" Harry asked eventually, trying unsuccessfully to keep his voice from hitching.

Remus sighed deeply and sank into one of the living room chairs, almost asleep on his feet.

"You don't have to go anywhere," he said resignedly.

Harry looked back up hopefully. "You mean I can stay?"

"Yes," Remus said, smiling. "I can't send you anywhere else while you're still healing, I know you don't want anyone to find out about," he trailed off. "It might take a while to figure out how things are gonna work but… some things just need time."

Harry smiled the widest smile he had done in a long time. He sat down next to Remus and suddenly he craved for contact, anything would do. He reached out his hand tentatively and laced his fingers into Remus'. This time Remus did not pull back. In fact, after a slight flutter of his own fingers he tightened the grip.

Harry couldn't ignore the fluttering of his heartbeat, but he knew that this was safe territory. Remus was smiling, and Harry was feeling the best he had felt in a very long time, but they were only holding hands. He knew that anything more, or even the slightest movement, and the contact would be broken.

So they sat that way for a while, and some time later Harry noticed that Remus had fallen fast asleep, his pre-moon weariness finally having taken over.

*

Several hours later, it was almost time for the moon to rise. In that time Remus had woken up and taken his wolfsbane potion and had instructed Harry in what to do while he had transformed.

"Stay inside Harry, don't come outside for whatever reason. This potion may give me my mind during transformation but don't let that fool you into thinking it's safe. A wolf's instincts are almost impossible to ignore."

Harry nodded, making a silent promise to heed Remus' words. Remus smiled at Harry and then quickly and unexpectedly enveloped him in a huge hug. Harry hugged back.

Then they parted and Remus began to leave. Harry wanted to stop him, to yell 'don't go!', but he didn't.

"Get some sleep, I'll see you tomorrow," said Remus as he walked out, and Harry nodded again, not trusting himself to speak.

Of course Harry didn't get a wink of sleep that night. He sat in the living room not long later, his eyes stinging as he heard Remus' screams. He blocked his ears, trying to block out the sound of the man's pain that reached him from all the way outside. The screaming soon stopped as the wolf probably took over, but Harry was still haunted by the sound, and knew he wouldn't be able to get to sleep. Instead he tried to distract himself by taking in his surroundings.

He was sitting in the living room, a comfy room with a faded burgundy sofa and chair, both worn down looking yet cosy and comfortable. A fireplace dominated one wall and the crackling fire within brought the room to life with flickering warmth. Harry brushed his fingers over a large foe-glass looking object sitting beside the sofa on a mahogany table. On the wall was an impressive painting of the moors with the initials 'RJL' in the corner. Quite impressive indeed, Harry thought. But his attention was grabbed by a clock which hung on the wall, much like the family clock the Weasley's had hung on their own wall, but this clock had only one hand.

The hand was settled in a segment marked 'home' and bore a single word across its length- 'Harry'.

Harry's breath caught in his chest and he felt emotions welling up inside him. Here was evidence that Remus cared about Harry and where he was at any one time- something that Harry had never known before from anyone.

Harry remembered then what had happened when he first arrived here; Remus had come to the door without possibly having heard him. Was it possible that he had just looked at the clock? For Harry had certainly been beaten by his relatives before, but this time was probably the one time he had been in 'mortal peril' from it. Mostly his uncle just aimed to hurt him, break bones, teach him a lesson. But this time he had undoubtedly aimed to kill… Harry shivered and looked for something else to distract his attention.

Besides a couple of candles on the walls, the only thing left in the room Harry had not yet examined was a large mahogany bookcase filled completely with books of all sorts. He recognised a lot of the books from Hermione's own remarkable book collection, but there seemed to be many more. He read the spines and saw titles such as 'The Philosophy of Magic', 'Hogsmeade, a History' and 'Advanced Arithmancy Volume VII'. Harry smirked. Remus Lupin was definitely a scholar.

As Harry looked along the spines, reading the titles of the books, he found one book where he couldn't make out the title. The spine was bent and frayed as though it had been read a hundred times over, and it seemed to have been given pride of place- the very middle of the middle bookshelf, also the most accessible.

Harry, overwhelmed by his curiosity, carefully pulled the book off the shelf. He had to be careful because it looked like it would fall off its seams if he were any rougher with it. It was an old-looking book, bound in brown weaves of fabric. He looked at the title on the front and was instantly puzzled. 'History of Magic Homework' it read. What was so exciting about that? Harry didn't know Remus was a history of magic enthusiast.

Still curious, Harry opened the book as if looking for answers. He happened to find the answer on the very first page. There was handwriting on the inside, and the true title of the book; 'How to Become an Animagus'. Harry recognised some of the handwriting from his godfather's letters, and could guess at who the other examples of handwriting must belong to. It read- 'Dear Moony, happy birthday! Here you go, the very beginning of the marauders. Have fond memories, love Padfoot, Prongs and Wormtail.'

Harry scowled at the last name but felt a constriction in his throat as he read the note over and over. He flicked through the pages of the book and found it was filled with notes. All the margins, the gaps between the paragraphs, everything was noted on with the same handwriting as on the front page. Harry wiped his eyes and ran his fingers over the pages in awe.

Then he had an idea. If they could do it then why couldn't he? It was at that moment that a seed of an idea was planted in his mind that would only keep growing. He had the reason, he had the will, and here he had the instructions right in front of him.

As the idea grew in Harry's mind, he found himself wishing he could join Remus at that very moment. He wished he could be running outside with him, and wished that Remus never had to be alone again for even a single moment of his life.

Harry started to do calculations in his head. It had taken them just under a year to finish their animagus studying and become animagi. But perhaps since there were three of them they were three times more distracted? And surely they weren't half as determined as Harry was. Of course he would need to allow himself time to study the procedures, but then again he wouldn't need to make any notes or amendments to the text either since that had already been done for him. Plus, the marauders had had to have lessons also at the time, which would afford them less time to study to become animagi.

Harry eventually came up with a rough answer. Taking into consideration all the factors, and following the notes and advice of the marauders as well as the text within the book, he could possibly finish studying to become an animagi in just under two months- just in time for the full moon after next, just before the end of the holidays.

Harry smiled.

Harry sat and studied for the rest of the night, the only sounds permeating the otherwise silence being the occasional howl of a wolf at the full moon.

A/N: Yikes! Big long chapter! Hmm not much of Harry and Remus together but there will be next chapter I promise. So what do you think? Oh and I would also appreciate any help with Harry's animal, so it's not too clichéd or anything. REVIEW PLEASE!!