Remus fled up the stairs to the dorm, arms full of books and parchment. Having reached the top of the first flight he paused for breath, but looking back it seemed that Sirius hadn't tried to follow after all.

He wanted to go back down, he really did, but it was 'best for everyone' (to quote his parents) if he didn't. Remus knew his parents only wanted what was best for him, but still wished they weren't so extreme about keeping him away from other people. No matter how gentle he tried to be, they still seemed worried that he'd attack someone out of the blue one day. They frowned whenever he got angry, and sent him to his room to 'calm down'. That just made him more furious – Remus wanted to shout at them, to make them understand that he wasn't going to sprout claws and attack them, to make them see that all he wanted was to be – or even pretend to be – just like everyone else. It wouldn't do any good to yell though. He made himself accept their attitude, and consequently spent a lot of time in his room in the basement. It wasn't a bad place. It was larger than any of the other rooms in the house, and filled with bookshelves. The Lupins approved of books; If Remus was reading it meant he was alone. Remus liked to read, so he figured that wasn't too bad. Stories were a bit of an escape; they were windows to worlds full of people who could do everything he couldn't. Instead of resenting the characters in the stories, however, the young werewolf loved them. Experiencing things second-hand was better than not experiencing them at all.

All in all Remus felt that he could have been fairly content… if it hadn't been for his brother, Romulus, who seemed to take Remus' condition as a personal insult. The older boy did everything in his power to annoy his brother and get him into trouble. When they were at home Romulus taunted him mercilessly, attacking with endless insults until Remus snapped and retaliated. Romulus would then go off to inform their parents that Remus was 'acting crazy again'.

He'd hoped it would be easier once he came to Hogwarts, hoped that having other people around would keep Romulus away, but things just got worse. It seemed his brother had been instructed to keep him away from the other students; He did so without fail, and probably more violently than was intended. Without their parents around there was nobody to keep Romulus from doing more than just taunting Remus.

Trying to avoid him didn't work. Remus had tried once; and the plan had seemed a success… until he realised that he'd have to return to the common room eventually. His brother had been waiting for him there, asking in a sugar-sweet voice if Remus would mind coming up to the dorms, to help him look for something he'd lost.

Remus had gotten some funny looks the next day, sporting a large, purple bruise on his temple.

Not wanting another experience like that, Remus had resigned himself to his brother's constant presence and hadn't spoken to a single person in his year.

It was lonely. There were times Remus would have killed to join in the conversations in the dorm… but he knew Romulus would find out somehow, and then he'd really be in for it. 

The creaking of the door at the bottom of the stairs jolted Remus back to reality, and he realised that he'd been standing outside the dorm for almost ten minutes, and that that was probably Sirius coming up the stairs. He pulled the door open, rushed over to his bed, jumped in – still fully clothed – and wrenched the drapes shut.

The door opened slowly a few moments later. Remus heard footsteps cross the room and a mattress creak as someone climbed into bed. He cursed his hitching breath, trying to calm down and not disturb anyone else. Feeling himself shaking, Remus pulled the covers over his head and lay like that until the early hours of the morning, long after everyone else had fallen asleep.

T.B.C

Thanks for all the reviews for the last chapter! They made my week. Hope this chapter lived up to your expectations.

Now, onto another bit from Sirius' point of view…