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"Remus?"

Remus felt a cool hand on his cheek and thought for a moment that he was back in the shrieking shack with Sirius, and it was Sirius' hand against his cheek. His stomach twisted, but pleasantly this time, and he was surprised at his disappointment when he realised it was James' voice he could hear. He kept his eyes closed and feigned sleep. He must be in the medical room, once his ears had tuned in to the noise around him he recognised the strangely familiar sounds. Someone had just come in with a bad case of bat bogeys, across the room someone had a group of visitors who kept laughing really loudly. Madame Pomfrey seemed to be arguing with someone about chocolate. Remus was brought back to his immediate surroundings by another whispered call.

"Sirius?" There was a pause, "Remus? We know you're awake."

Remus made no move to answer and after a while he heard them leave, pulling aside curtains and stepping outside. The group of visitors at the other bed had left as well and the person with bat bogeys had obviously been dispatched with, so Remus heard every word of the whispered conversation that was taking place just outside his cubicle.

"Madame Pomfrey? Do you know what happened, I mean, when Remus came in did he, did he tell you?"

"No, I'm afraid I don't know anything about what happened before Remus came knocking at my door at about 7 o'clock this morning. He wasn't in much state to talk you know. I'd never seen him this bad before."

"So you have no idea?"

"No, I'm sorry but I can't say I do. Besides, I shouldn't be telling you any of this."

"Can you tell us if Sirius is going to be all right? We are his friends."

Remus held his breath. The memory of Sirius, lying like a broken doll, surrounded by blood, came unbidden into his mind.

"Well, he lost an awful lot of blood. I've given him two glasses of blood replenishing solution already and he's up for his third. The wound has healed up nicely, though he'll have a scar, nothing I can do about that."

Relief swept through him and he let his breath out slowly. Sirius was going to be ok. But a scar, Remus thought, I've scarred him, possibly for life. Guilt writhed inside him. It was his own fault, he told himself feebly, I tried to warn him. I told him not to come. Yes but he's Sirius, you should have known he wouldn't listen to you, you should have known that something like this would happen, you should have controlled yourself

"And Remus? Is he ok?"

Yes, me, am I ok?

"Well, I don't know. There were a lot more cuts on him than could be explained by a mere fight. They were fine scratches, and other bruises too. You boys wouldn't know anything? They were all over his body, covered in them he was."

Remus ran his hands along his now smooth arms, the scabs and scratches were just a faint memory now and he hated it. Over the past three days he had been through so much. And what did he have to show for it? Nothing. He dug his nails in carefully, scraping them along the newly healed skin of him forearm. Outside, he heard his friends say a last good bye and disappear to the Great hall for dinner. At least that was one good thing, he didn't have to have supper with everyone else, have the feeling of being watched by that one particular pair of watery green eyes. He drew his nails along again, drawing fresh lines along his skin.

After a while, he fell into a fresh doze.

He dreamt.

He was carrying Sirius across the grass of the fields outside Hogwarts. Sirius had his eyes closed but Remus knew that he was sleeping, and that once they got to the castle Sirius would wake up again and he could tell him everything. But the castle was getting further and further away and Sirius was becoming heavier and heavier. Remus looked down and he realised that it wasn't Sirius he'd been carrying, it was Branwen, Sirius was dead. And then suddenly, she was on top of him, and she was so heavy and she was pressing down and down, she was burying him. But Remus could see through the ground and he looked up and he saw Sirius crying and then Branwen came and took his hand and said "It's ok, he'll leave a scar" and then both of them walked off towards the castle and Remus was left, buried in the ground, and no one knew. No one knew.

Remus woke up, drenched in sweat, with Madame Pomfrey standing over him with a glass of water in her hand.

"Shhhh, it's ok" she soothed, "it's ok. It's only 5 o'clock in the morning. Drink this and go back to sleep."

Remus grasped the glass gratefully, at the same time realising it was a dreamless sleep potion, and drank it in two gulps.

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Remus slept on and off for the rest of the next day. Every time he awoke, he would sit up and look at the next bed, where Sirius was still sleeping, his brow wrinkled in a little frown, as though he had forgotten something. His black hair was spread out across the pillow, contrasting with the crisp white sheets and Sirius' pale skin. His eyelids flickered and occasionally he would moan, attracting Madame Pomfrey's attention immediately, and sending her scurrying towards their cubicle, to press her hand against his forehead, take his pulse and give him another dose of blood thickening solution. Once Remus had established that Sirius was still asleep, he would turn over and return to dream-filled dozing.

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Remus awoke to the sound of laughter. A chocolate frog landed on his face and he opened his eyes, meeting the gaze of Peter who leant over guiltily and popped the whole frog into his mouth.

"hey!" he said around his mouthful of chocolate "this one's awake too!"

"Moony!" called James happily from the other bed, where, Remus saw as he propped himself up groggily, he was surrounded by packets of sweets, chocolates and wrappers.

"I was wondering when you were going to wake up!"

Sirius grinned at Remus as he chucked him a couple of frogs and winked when he saw Remus' astonished and delighted face.

"Well, don't look so surprised! It's not as if I was going to die and leave you to eat all the sweets!"

Remus sensed a serious note underneath the belying lightness and twisted his mouth into a smile.

"Happy Halloween by the way" called Peter, "Come over and join us!"

"Yeah, we've forsaken the light and merriment of the Halloween feast to be with you two miserable sods, the least you can do is help us eat all the sweets we got for you!"

"Come on, you can share my bed!" Sirius laughed at him, pulling up the cover so that the huge pile of sweets that was nestled on it spilled onto the floor. Remus could see a section of Sirius' thigh, not hidden by his hospital robe.

He imagined getting into bed with Sirius, the warmth of another body, the feel of his leg pressing against Sirius', the weight of the sweets on his lap. Uninvited, images of room 30 came into his head, and ones from the night before and the night before that; Branwen, pressing down on him, her mouth covering his, himself, covered in his own and Sirius' blood, him staggering through the hospital doors and collapsing onto the floor, Sirius in his dream, walking away from him with Branwen.

He closed his eyes.

"No thanks, I actually feel quite ill still." He dug his nails gently into his leg, "I think I'll just go back to sleep." He smiled at the section of wall behind Sirius' head, a false, bright smile to match his false cheery voice "I'm glad you're better."

To the sound of his friends' moans, their entreaties, their laughter, and Sirius' strange silence, Remus turned over and closed his eyes. Behind him, the party continued, Sirius laughing, making jokes and continuing as though he hadn't been lying at deaths door just 48 hours previously.

Remus was still awake when James and Peter left 3 hours later.