In another part of the world, across endless miles of vast ocean, a humble, old wizard sat alone in his office, watching the swirling silver contents of the stone basin resting on the desk before him.

He was deeply engrossed in the basin. He wanted no disruption, but sensed that he soon would be; he could feel the angry force of the mind coming up the stairs to his office.

He rose and walked to the heavy wooden door. He pulled it open, and walked slowly back to the desk, sitting down to stare almost absently into the basin again.

Seconds later a man reached the top of the stairs and stood at the threshold. Even in his anger, he still respected the old man and his wishes. He stood in silence, knowing that Dumbledore was the only one welcome to break the silent atmosphere.

Dumbledore didn't have to look up to know who the man who now stood at his doorway was. He recognized the way the thoughts screamed at him; how often he had heard them during the long years he had known the man.

Seconds stretched into minutes, which felt like an eternity to the man waiting patiently at the door. Finally, Dumbledore found his composure and began to speak.

"Memories are fascinating things. Things which we take for granted everyday, don't you think, Remus?"

"There are some that I could do without, Professor." Remus answered.

"I think we all could do without many memories. I cannot imagine losing them all, though." Dumbledore said, consciously directing the conversation the way he wanted it to go, but not quite the way he felt Remus wanted it to go.

For that was why Remus Lupin was there. He wanted to talk about Sirius, his friend who had betrayed them all. He wanted to know if he was suffering. He wanted to know if the rumors that Sirius had pleaded innocent were true. He wanted to know, and he knew that Dumbledore had the answers.

"That's not what I want to talk about, Professor, but it's an entirely riveting line of thought. Shall we discuss it at another time?" Remus said, showing his anger through sarcasm.

"Please, Remus, you are no longer my student, you needn't address me as 'Professor' and more."

Remus gave no answer; he only stood at the door, watching Dumbledore with cold eyes.

"However, what I have said about memory is more related to what you came here to speak about then you know." Dumbledore paused, before inviting Remus into the room. "Please, come in and sit. We can better discuss the matter at hand if we're both comfortable. Especially since I believe that this is going to be a lengthy conversation."

Remus entered the room and sat down across the desk from Dumbledore without saying anything. The door magically swung shut behind him, but neither man paid any attention. After all, how would Hogwarts run without magic?

"Remus, young friend, I know that you've come here to talk about Sirius, to find out why he pleaded innocent to the charges. To find out how he could have betrayed his friends and the Order, to who he'd sworn a Life-or-Death Oath of Secrecy. You want to know why the call of Voldemort was more powerful than that of his life long friends and those he trusted. You want to know if Azkaban makes him suffer. But there's something else, I can see it in your eyes. You want to know if the great Sirius Black cowers before the Dementors, you want to know if he's afraid."

Dumbledore surveyed Remus for a moment, before he added; "You want to know everything, you want answers. You believe that I have these answers, but I don't, Mr. Lupin."

"But you do, Dumbledore! You went to see him that first day! You've spoken to the man, Albus! YOU KNOW WHY!" Remus roared, his anger suddenly evident to those who didn't possess the talent of Occlumency. "You've stared into his treacherous eyes, read his murderous thoughts! Explain to me why he pleaded innocent to killing Peter when there were all those witnesses! I NEED TO KNOW, DUMBLEDORE!"

The Headmaster blinked slowly and put his long, thin fingers together. Staring at Remus under his half moon glasses he sighed. "That's where you're wrong, Remus. I have read his thoughts, yes, but they told me nothing. But Remus, you need to know; there's something about Sirius that you don't understand."

"I must understand why he did it, is all that I need to understand!" Remus roared, causing many of the witches and wizards in the pictures on the wall to murmur in disbelief at the mans rage.

"Remus, will you be honest with me for a moment?"

"I could be, if it all relates." Remus growled.

"It will, I promise." Dumbledore smiled and looked into the basin once again. "Remus, Sirius knew that you were a werewolf, didn't he?"

Remus blinked. Of course Sirius knew that. They had been friends since they met on the first day of school. Even though Remus had wanted to keep his secret hidden from everyone except the teachers who already knew, he found it hard to make up a lie every month about where he went.

Finally, he accepted them as true friends, and praying that they would understand, he had told them what he was.

Remus nodded at Dumbledore. "Yes, Professor, he knew."

"And I suspect that he understood that, and gave you time to talk about it?" Dumbledore questioned.

"Of course he did. We wouldn't have remained friends after that, if he hadn't." Remus practically spat.

"Then you will now give me a chance to explain about Sirius, and allow yourself to understand what I'm about to tell you?"

Remus nodded slowly. Finally, after a month, he was going to get some answers about his old friends actions.

"Remus," Dumbledore began, "I assure you, Sirius is receiving the worst punishment possible while he is wasting away in the depths of Azkaban."

Remus smiled. Good, he thought to himself, he deserves whatever punishment he gets. The bastard deserves every single thing that happens to him.

Dumbledore sighed, before continuing. "Remus, I can't tell you why he did it, I can't tell you why he killed Peter, and I can't tell you why he found Voldemort so compelling. I can't tell you how he could possibly turn over his best friend's hiding spot to him, and I can't even begin to understand how he thought you were deserting sides and sneaking to Voldemort behind all of ours backs."

Remus stared at the old Headmaster in disbelief. "He thought I... WHY IN THE HELL WOULD HE THINK THAT? I WOULD NEVER BETRAY EVERYONE I LOVE. I AM NOT A MURDERER LIKE HIM, I'M NOT A DESERTER LIKE HIM. I WOULD NEVER RESORT TO MINGLING WITH THE LIKES OF HE-WHO-SHALL-NOT-BE-NAMED!" Remus erupted.

Dumbledore sat calmly, waiting for the man in front of him to end his rant. There is so much he needs to work out for himself before he can truly understand everything. But, I'm afraid if I don't give him any answers, he will do something he will regret. He did, after all, just lose his three best friends, and desperate men will do anything to make sense of a situation.

Dumbledore surfaced from his thoughts and realized that Remus was standing, seething in anger in the middle of a pile of books and broken knick-knacks.

Ah. Physical anger. I cannot let this man leave here without any answers. He would surely hurt something, or someone.

"Remus, please sit down, and stop breaking my things. Although mostly inexpensive, I am quite fond of everything in this office. Even you, Remus, young friend."

Remus settled himself back into his chair, but Dumbledore knew it wouldn't be long before the werewolf would erupt again.

"Now, Remus, please listen to me. On my most recent visit to Azkaban, Sirius confided in me that he told James that you were going to betray everyone; that you had joined Voldemort." Dumbledore stopped, with high hopes that Remus' reply would be calm.

"Why would he think that about me, Albus?" Remus said through gritted teeth, using obvious effort to keep himself from yelling again.

"I do not know, and he couldn't tell me why."

"No, he wouldn't tell you why." Remus barked.

"No, he couldn't tell me why. Remus, please listen."

"Just tell me already, Dumbledore, or I will start breaking things again."

Dumbledore smiled. It was good to see Remus expressing emotion finally. Ever since Peter had died, Remus had been so emotionless. Dumbledore had expected the werewolf's anger long before this.

"My young friend, Sirius doesn't remember anything."

"What?"

"His memory is gone, Remus. He remembers nothing before waking up in Azkaban the first night he was there."

Remus stared at Dumbledore in extreme disbelief. Does he think I'm stupid? The werewolf growled to himself, does he honestly think that a lie like that will make me forget my anger? Why does he lie for the backstabber? Why won't he just tell me the truth?

It was then that he felt the familiar twinge that he knew so well, the feeling that someone was looking into his brain. He glared in Dumbledore's direction and snarled.

Get out of my mind, old man.

Dumbledore looked shocked, but not at Remus' rudeness, but at the comment which was familiar to him; old man.

"Sirius called me that when I last saw him." Dumbledore muttered.

"What?" Remus asked.

"Sirius..." Dumbledore began only to be cut off by the werewolf.

"I heard what you said, but I don't understand it. You said 'when you last saw him' and a few minutes ago you said 'on your most recent visit to Azkaban.' Am I to understand that you've been to see Black more than once?"

"Correct." Dumbledore bemused, knowing that Remus would erupt again.

"YOU KNEW I WANTED TO GO, DUMBLEDORE! YOU KNEW I WANTED TO GO, AND YET YOU WENT ALONE, AGAIN! WHY WON'T YOU JUST LET ME SEE THE MAN WHO KILLED THOSE WHO HE LOVED?"

"REMUS LUPIN!" Dumbledore stood up and bellowed to get the attention of the raving man before him. "I knew if you went you would only get angry as you have done here. Sirius does not need that right now." He finished firmly.

"So now you care more about the feelings of that scoundrel than you do for the feelings of THE ONE WHO IS STILL LOYAL TO YOU?"

"That is not how it is at all, Remus. I simply meant that it would do you no good to go and spread your anger onto the man who is suffering the worst punishment possible, and you would get no benefit from it. The man does not remember ANYTHING, Remus, he wouldn't have the sweetest clue as to why you were tearing a strip out of his flesh."

"STOP SAYING THAT HE DOESN'T REMEMBER! HOW DO YOU FORGET KILLING SOMEONE, AND BETRAYING YOUR BEST FRIENDS SO THAT THEY WOULD DIE TOO? HOW DO YOU FORGET EVERYTHING?"

What a small-minded being Remus turned out to be. I understand his anger, but I had hoped that he would more easily have understood this. Why can't he just accept that Sirius remembers nothing?

"I can't stop saying what's not true." Dumbledore admitted.

Remus stared at the Headmaster, very baffled. Is he telling the truth? Does Sirius forget everything? No, Sirius is above that, he wouldn't let himself forget everything.

Or would he?

"Remus?" Dumbledore asked, apprehensively.

"Yes, Professor?"

"You understand why you can't go to him?"

"No." Remus said, and Dumbledore saw that behind the anger there was another emotion that Remus had outstandingly hidden up until that point.

He saw the tears in Remus' eyes, and knew that even though he hated Sirius, Remus had not yet thrown away the years of friendship that the two had shared.

"You don't only want to see him because you're angry, do you?" Dumbledore asked, but Remus did no answer.

"I will not permit you to visit him, Remus, and here's why. You are too angry with him. For a man who remembers nothing, their first memory of an old friend should not be one where there is an immense anger. Sirius doesn't need his first memory of you being you trying to mangle him, Remus. I know that you believe me that he remembers nothing, or else you wouldn't be near tears now. You want to believe that because he forgets, you can readily convince him to desert Voldemort, as he once did us. You want to hold on to the hope that there is still some good inside of him.

"I can't permit you to do that, Remus. You can't go see him, because you will create something in him that he needs to discover on his own. Memories, Remus, you would give him back many memories, memories that have to be remembered on his own time. You cannot go see him until he remembers everything." Dumbledore explained slowly, letting the werewolf who was near tears hear everything.

Remus said nothing, but sat blinking back the tears. It was true he did feel pity for Sirius. Even if he had killed Peter, and betrayed Lily and James, Remus still believed that Sirius had some good left in him. He believed that the old Sirius Black was hidden away in the body of the convict somewhere, and that he could bring him back.

"Remus, promise me you will not go to see him." Dumbledore ordered strictly.

"That's a promise that I can't make, Professor." Remus uttered quietly, as he stood from the desk to leave the room.

"Remus, please come back!" Dumbledore flailed after the werewolf, but to no avail. He sighed, and looked back into the basin. He had failed.

By keeping Remus away from Sirius, he was saving Remus much more heartache than he needed, but Remus wouldn't, no, Remus couldn't stay away. In his heart, he wanted the comfort that Sirius had provided to him many times over the years before.

He didn't realize that in his present state, Sirius would only hurt him even more.

Worse yet, Sirius would believe that Remus had forgiven him.

The worst, however, was the realization that Remus could let slip at any moment the knowledge that Sirius so hungrily ached for – the knowledge of whom he had killed.

Dumbledore stole one last glance into the stone basin, and watched the memory playing out before his eyes, before he tore from the room trying to catch Remus and dissuade him from going to Azkaban, for the good of himself, and Sirius.