A big thanks to LupinLover99, darknd-wrtr-w/-a-heart-of-gld, and Red Bess Rackham for your wonderful reviews! Here is chapter two, as promised. The third and final chapter should be coming sooner rather than later. I hope you enjoy!

Chapter 2

Remus blinked rapidly as he stared up at the ceiling, wondering how he had ended up in his bed. After a moment of thought, it all came rushing back – seeing Peter off, feeling very tired as they headed back to the dorm, and hearing snatches of speech from Sirius and James before he drifted off completely. Sighing to himself, Remus glanced at the clock. It was only 10 pm, so he couldn't have been asleep more than a couple of hours. Now that he was awake, though, he was freezing cold.

'The common room has a nice, warm fire,' he reasoned to himself. 'Maybe I'll head down there for a little while.' Gathering a blanket around his shoulders, Remus stood shakily and went to seek out some warmth.

It took a few minutes to get down the stairs, but as he felt the coziness of the common room hit him, Remus knew he wouldn't regret his decision. Then again. . .

"What are you doing up?!" came Sirius' indignant voice from across the room. He and James were huddled in a corner with what appeared to be a Transfiguration textbook sitting between them. Remus struggled not to smile – Sirius doing homework? James had to be behind this strange action.

In a flash, Sirius was by Remus' side, guiding him over to the couch directly in front of the fire. Remus studied his friends as he sat. They both seemed, well, excited over something. 'What are they up to now,' he mused silently. He didn't have to wait long to find out.

"Remmie, we've just discovered something great!" Sirius enthused, glancing over at James for confirmation.

"Siri, maybe we should wait until morning to tell him. . . "

"Oh come on, Jamie, I can't wait another second! This is the answer we've been looking for!"

Remus shifted uneasily. He wasn't sure what they were talking about, but he suddenly had a bad feeling.

Unaware of Remus' discomfort, Sirius plowed on ahead with his usual vigor. "You see, we've been trying for ages to think of a way to help you during the full moon. And here it was, all along, in a schoolbook! There is a whole section on animagi – you know, people who can transform themselves into animals. Since werewolves are only dangerous to humans, we thought. . . "

"NO!"

Both Sirius and James were taken aback by Remus' sudden outburst. Their friend was staring at them in horror from where he was now standing after leaping up abruptly. His small frame shook with a mixture of cold, and, it seemed, anger?

Sirius recovered first, jumping to his feet in order to face Remus and looking quite hurt. "You haven't even heard us out, Remus!"

"I've heard enough," Remus said quietly.

James had to lean forward to catch what he had said. 'I warned Sirius this might happen,' he thought glumly. As excited as he was himself, he knew how Remus felt about becoming a werewolf. And now, with the full moon coming the following evening and Remus being ill on top of that, James reasoned this was not the best time for surprises. Sirius, though, had never been one to listen to reason, especially when he came up with a plan to help one of his friends.

"Enough of what? Enough of us trying to be there for you?" Sirius cried out, his hurt now tinged with anger.

Remus' usual response to anger was withdrawal. Not this time, however. With the wolf so near, and his head clouded with fever and fear, he lashed back out at Sirius.

"Why don't you worry about your own problems for a change, Sirius? How can you know what it's like to be there for someone when your own family was never there for you?"

"At least my family doesn't have to keep me locked in the basement!"

As soon as the words left Sirius' mouth, James froze. He half expected Remus to beat Sirius to a pulp, or to flee the room. Remus' reaction, though, was not what anyone could have expected.

"Maybe you should lock me up, too!" Remus cried out, looking more miserable than James had ever seen him. "You talk about helping me, but inside you know that I'm a monster. You all know that my parents are right to treat me as they do. I don't want your nobility or your righteousness, Sirius. I want you to stop pretending that the wolf wouldn't tear you to pieces if given the chance!"

And with a final look of grief, Remus did turn and flee up the stairs. From the beginning of his outburst, Sirius' jaw had dropped open in shock. All of his anger fled and was replaced with a sickening remorse. He hadn't meant to say such an awful thing to Remus, but he was so angry when Remus just dismissed their hopes of helping him. . .

Sirius was halfway to the stairs when a firm hand on his shoulder stopped him. He turned and looked into James' eyes, which seemed to say 'let him go for now.' Sirius hung his head in defeat, but silently vowed to make things right in the morning.

Remus pulled himself off of the tree and continued to plod toward the Whomping Willow as the memory faded. He had managed to avoid Sirius that morning by leaving the dorm early, and had refused to give in to the other boy's pleading looks all day. After their final class in Herbology, he offered to stay and help the professor clean up, leaving Sirius and James no choice but to go back to the castle without him. Now, as the full moon approached, he dragged himself off to his prison hoping only that Sirius would abandon his animagi plan. 'Because if anything happened to him,' Remus thought, 'I could not go on living.'