Altercations

By Neurotica

Sixteen

The sound of voices pulled him out of his sleep that night—voices that were trying to be quiet, but were failing miserably. Remus tried to open his eyes, but his eyelids felt like they weighed a ton. Every inch of his body ached, and it took him a while to figure out why: Tonight had been the full moon. Or was it last night? He wasn't in wolf form anymore, so the moon had to have waned. But then why was it still dark? Usually, sunlight streaming through cracks in the boarded windows of the Shrieking Shack woke him; he obviously wasn't in the shack anymore. Then he was in the hospital wing. That explained it. Had he slept the whole day? He hoped not; he had an exam in Defense that day, for which he'd been studying for the past week and a half.

Great, he thought with an inward groan. More work to make up. And who the hell is making all that noise?

Remus opened his eyes just enough to see two tall figures standing at the foot of his bed. He raised an eyebrow when he recognized the two forms as Sirius and James. The two of them seemed to be arguing about something. James was pointing at Remus, whispering something furiously at Sirius.

"Haven't you caused enough damage?" was the first thing that got through to Remus' brain. "I mean, honestly, Padfoot, how thick can you get?"

"Get off it, Prongs!" Sirius whispered just as furiously. "As if you wouldn't have done it if you'd had the chance."

"What did you do now?" Remus said hoarsely, wincing as he pushed himself into a sitting position. His friends snapped their heads to his bed. James looked relieved, while Sirius looked... nervous?

James quickly pushed past Sirius and went to stand beside Remus' bed. "Moony, you're awake," he said unnecessarily. "We thought for sure you were..." he trailed off. "Well, you're all right, that's all that matters."

"What are you talking about?"

"You've been unconscious for four days, mate..."

"What?" Remus groaned. "Four days? What happened?"

"Madam Pomfrey found you in the tunnel under the Whomping Willow after moonset. You were bleeding from everywhere. She said she's never seen you so torn up," James explained quietly. "If you didn't wake up today, she was going to have you transferred to St. Mungo's."

Remus frowned. "What happened that night? I didn't hurt any of you when we went into the forest, did I?" he asked, searching his friends for signs of damage.

"Actually," James said, looking over to Sirius angrily. "We didn't make it to the forest. Padfoot, Wormtail, and I didn't even make it to the shack."

"I thought you guys were coming right behind me," Remus said. He thought back to the night of the full moon. He'd left James and Peter in the common room—Sirius had been serving a detention with McGonagall for getting into a duel with Snape in the corridor outside the Great Hall just after lunch. Snape claimed Sirius had started it, even though James, who'd seen the whole thing, told McGonagall it was the Slytherin's fault—Snape had been goading Sirius on, making cracks about Remus and his new girlfriend, Naomi, and Sirius had only been sticking up for his friends.

The plan had been for James and Peter to join Remus in the Shack to be with him during his transformation. Then Sirius would join them once he got out of detention, and they would explore the forest—they'd heard a rumor about Acromantulas deep in a forest cave and wanted to see if it was true.

Once Remus had left the common room, James went on his way up to their dorm for the Invisibility Cloak and the Marauder's Map, which they'd perfected just last term. Normally, once Madam Pomfrey safely saw Remus into the Shack, she mobilized the branches of the Whomping Willow and returned to the school, it usually only took his friends ten or fifteen minutes to join him while he waited for moonrise. But there had been... complications that night.

"Why don't you tell him why we weren't there, Padfoot," James said icily.

Sirius looked towards Madam Pomfrey's closed office door. "Er, maybe we should wait until tomorrow. Moony needs his rest, and if Poppy wakes up—" he started to walk out of the hospital wing, but James grabbed his arm and dragged him back to Remus' bedside.

"What's going on?" Remus asked suspiciously, noticing Sirius' odder-than-usual behavior.

"Tell him, Sirius," James said, crossing his arms. Remus raised his eyebrow higher still; James never called his best friend by his given name, not since fifth year, at least.

Sirius looked from James' furious face to Remus' expectant one nervously. "Well, you see, Moony." He laughed slightly. "You're going to laugh when you hear this—"

Remus groaned loudly. Anytime Sirius said those words, it meant at least a week's worth of detention. "What did you do?" he said with the air of wanting to get something over with quickly.

Sirius sighed. "Well, you remember how Snape was messing with you and Naomi the other day?"

"Yeah..." Remus said slowly. What did Snape have to do with his friends not making it to the Shrieking Shack?

"And you know how Snape's been trying to follow you and find out where you go every month?" Remus nodded slowly, a very uncomfortable feeling beginning to gnaw at his guts. "Well, I had this idea, see, and it seemed brilliant at the time, but—"

"Sirius, get to the point," Remus said impatiently.

"Alright..." Sirius took a deep breath. "On my way back from detention, after Madam Pomfrey took you down to the Shack, I ran into Snape—he'd seen you leave and go in the direction of the willow, but he hadn't seen Pomfrey. He threatened to go to Dumbledore and get you expelled for leaving school grounds, so I... I sort of... told him how to find you in the shack if he wanted to know where you went every month," he said very quickly and in one breath.

Remus blinked a few times, trying to work through what Sirius had said. Or at least what he figured he'd said. "You did what?" he said finally, through gritted teeth. "Please tell me he's kidding," he added pleadingly to James.

James shook his head. "He's not," he said with a sigh. "Snape froze the branches and went down into the tunnel. When this idiot," he gestured to Sirius with a smack to the back of the other boy's head, "got back to the common room, he was grinning and laughing about how he finally got Snape back for everything he'd ever done to us. When I finally got it out of him, I bolted for the tree to try to catch Snape before he got to the Shack."

"Did you?" Remus asked flatly, already knowing the answer.

"Sort of," James replied. "Snape was just going into the tunnel when I got out the castle door. I tried to yell at him to stop, but he wouldn't listen. When I finally caught up with him, he was right at the trapdoor. You were right in the middle of your transformation. He spotted me and said he'd finally caught you, and that you'd be on the train home the next day. He pushed open the door, and you heard him and he... he saw you."

Remus closed his eyes tightly and laid his head back on the headboard. He felt dizzy. "Then what?" he asked, unsure if he really wanted to know.

"You snarled a lot, and Snape screamed like a girl and tried to pull the door shut. But you got your paw under it before he could, and you pulled it open. Snape bolted, ran right past me, and you went after him. I started running too, and then Snape tripped over a tree root and fell." James sighed. "I tried to pull him up, but he wasn't any more than dead weight—I think he fainted actually... Anyway, I transformed and blocked you from Snape, then I pushed you back to the Shack. Once you were inside, and I was sure you would stay there, I transformed back and dragged Snape out of the tunnel. Dumbledore and McGonagall were waiting for us. Sirius and Pete had tried to follow me out, but McGonagall caught them and Pete told her everything."

"Snape knows, then?"

James nodded. "Dumbledore made him swear he wouldn't tell anybody."

Remus looked up at Sirius, who was looking down at his shoes. He threw the blankets covering him and stood from the bed. "How could you do something so stupid?" he whispered harshly. "I could have killed him!"

"He would have deserved it!" Sirius snapped. "Greasy git's been trying to get us all expelled since first year!"

Remus didn't even realize he'd done it until after the fact. His fist had pulled back of its own accord, and then connected hard with Sirius' cheek. Sirius stumbled a bit, holding his face and looking at Remus with wide-eyes. "Do you have any idea what would have happened if Snape had died? Forget them sending me to Azkaban; the Ministry would have had me killed. Is that what you wanted, Sirius? To see them put me down like a dog?"

"No!" Sirius said, rubbing his bruising cheek. "I was trying to help you."

"Help me?" Remus shouted, not caring who he might wake. "You were using me to get back at Snape. How could you do this to me?"

"Remus, calm down," Sirius said.

"I thought you were my friend, Sirius," Remus continued as if Sirius hadn't even spoken. "How bloody irresponsible can you get?" Fighting the strong urge to hit Sirius again, Remus went back to his bed. "Just get out of here, Sirius," he said calmly, his face completely void of all emotion. "I don't want to see you."

"Remus, I'm sorry—"

"Yeah, you are. A sorry excuse for a friend," Remus said, staring straight ahead at the wall. "I'll be asking McGonagall for a dorm transfer tomorrow. I don't want to be anywhere near you. James, please get him out of here before I hit him again."

Remus kept his jaw clenched and his eyes averted as James shoved Sirius roughly out of the hospital wing. James turned back to say he was really sorry, and Remus nodded stiffly. Once the door was closed, Remus blinked a few times and let the tears that had built up in his burning eyes fall, not bothering to wipe them away. He'd trusted his friends with the biggest secret of his life, and Sirius had turned around and used him as a part of a prank that could have gotten both Snape and him killed. When he'd first told his friends about his curse, something he'd been sure he was bound to regret, it only took a few days to realize they really didn't care, and Remus had never second-thought it again. Now, he wished he'd never come to Hogwarts.

That night, he cried himself to sleep—something he hadn't done since he was six, when the kids at his primary school would tease him about how sick he always looked.

Emmeline watched Remus stare miserably out the window of the Black family library over Grimmauld Place. It had been two days since he'd found out about Sirius and Naomi, and the two friends hadn't spoken since. It wasn't for lack of trying on Sirius' part; he tried talking to Remus every chance he got. But no matter if they were in the middle of dinner or just sitting around, Remus would stand and leave the room every time Sirius walked in the room.

It hadn't taken Harry long to realize what was going on—he'd figured out his guardians were fighting at breakfast Christmas morning, when Sirius had come down to the kitchen and sat at the table beside Remus, like he always did. He'd asked his best friend to pass the toast, but instead, Remus had taken his full plate, emptied it into the trash, and went up to lock himself in the library for the day.

Sirius was teaching Harry defense techniques before he went back to school, and Emmeline had tried to get Remus to go help, but Remus flat out refused to be anywhere near Sirius. It was a rather sad and unnatural sight, having the two remaining Marauders' friendship hanging by a thread, and if they didn't talk about this soon, Emmeline couldn't see them getting past this.

"Hey," she said, sitting in front of Remus on the window ledge.

"Hey," he muttered.

"You're miserable," she said matter-of-factly. Remus raised an eyebrow at his reflection, but didn't look down at her. "Why don't you go down and help Sirius with Harry's defense lesson?"

"That would require talking to Sirius and I'm not willing to do that right now," Remus said flatly.

Emmeline rolled her eyes. "How long is this going to go on?"

"Until I think he's suffered enough."

"Remus, this is ridiculous! He's your best friend! The two of you wouldn't know what to do without the other."

"I went five years without him and I was just fine."

"No, you were depressed the whole bloody time. You told me that yourself. Look, I understand you're upset, but please, don't let this break you and Sirius apart. It's just not natural..."

Remus smiled slightly, but it faded quickly. "If he would have just told me..."

"How would you have reacted?"

"I don't know," he admitted quietly. "You know, we went a month without speaking in sixth year after the Snape incident."

"How'd you make up?"

Now Remus did smile. "It was the next full moon," he began. "Madam Pomfrey took me to the Whomping Willow just like every month. When I got to the Shack, Sirius was sitting in one of the busted chairs. I'd been avoiding him, and he knew I couldn't get away from him just before my transformation. I told him to get out, that I had nothing to say to him, but being the stubborn prat he is, he didn't listen. He followed me up to the room I transformed in, and even though I locked him out, he still stayed there all night, telling me what an idiot he'd been and how sorry he was.

"The next afternoon, after my routine visit to the hospital wing, I went back to our dorm for my schoolbag to go to class, and found a bar of Honeyduke's chocolate on my bed. That used to be Sirius' way of apologizing—he never liked to admit he'd done something wrong, and though he'd been apologizing all night, he seemed to think chocolate would make me forgive him quicker. I went to lunch, sat with my friends, and James told some stupid joke about a goblin and a hag in a pub. We all laughed and everything was back to normal."

Emmeline smiled. "So if you and he could get past that, can't you move on from this?"

"Can I just pretend he doesn't exist for a few days?"

"Will that make you feel better?" Remus nodded. Emmeline rolled her eyes. "Just as long as this is over before Harry goes back to school. Let him see that you two are okay so he's not worrying. Honestly, I've never known a kid who worries as much as he does."

"Well, it's not as if he's got no reason," Remus said. "As many times as Sirius and I have escaped death... It's a miracle we've made it this bloody long." He smiled wryly and finally looked at Emmeline. "You're entering a cursed family, Miss Vance."

Emmeline only smiled and stood. "I've told you before, Mr. Lupin, I'll take my chances."

The basement kitchen of Number Twelve had been transformed into a makeshift targeting range. The kitchen table, appliances, and counter had all been vanished temporarily, and the room itself had been expanded a great deal to give the two wizards room to work freely. On one side of the kitchen, Sirius sat on a stool, directly behind Harry, throwing instructions to his godson every so often. On the other side of the room, ten targets moved around randomly at different speeds, throwing spells at Harry as his godfather touched the tip of his wand to his forehead and thought of curses and hexes—nothing too damaging, of course, in case something actually hit Harry—just enough to get the boy frustrated about not shielding himself before the curse got him.

For the first two hours of the lesson, Harry's accuracy had been near perfect, but as Sirius' mind began to drift to his best friend, he paid less attention to what spells he was using, and eventually Harry ended up crouched on the floor with his hands over his head. Sirius, his focus elsewhere altogether, remained safe with a permanent shield charm around him.

"Sirius!" Harry yelled as a stunner flew over his head.

Sirius snapped his head down to his godson and immediately pulled his wand from his temple. "Bloody hell," he said, kneeling next to Harry to make sure he was all right. "Sorry about that, kid..."

Panting, Harry looked up, glaring at his godfather. "What the hell? Are you trying to kill me?"

"Now why would I want to kill my favorite godson?" Sirius grinned, once he was satisfied that Harry was undamaged.

"Only godson," Harry reminded him in a mutter, allowing Sirius to help him up. "So why are you spacing out? Still worried about what happened with Remus?"

Sirius glanced at Harry out of the corner of his eye as he grabbed a couple of butterbeers from the icebox. "How much do you know?" He sighed.

"Well, besides the fact that Remus seems to despise your very existence at the moment, I've got nothing. You guys were fine on Christmas Eve, before Dumbledore showed up. What happened?"

"Remember the discussion you and I had about Naomi?" Sirius asked, passing his godson a butterbeer. Harry nodded. "And remember how I said nothing is worth losing Remus' friendship over? Well, that nothing is up in a guest room and Remus has found out about her."

"I thought I heard Emmeline say something about Naomi the other night," Harry said thoughtfully. "Is she okay?"

Sirius shrugged. "No idea. I really hope so, but..." he trailed off, staring pensively at his butterbeer bottle. "Poppy says she's got some nasty injuries and a concussion worse than anything you've ever had. She could wake up at any minute, or her condition could worsen to the point that we could lose her." He bit his lip and swallowed a lump that had formed in his throat. After a few minutes, Sirius realized Harry was still watching him closely. "But one thing I do know is that my best friend doesn't want to be in the same room with me, let alone have a conversation with me."

"But you'll make up, right? I mean, he can't ignore you forever, can he?"

"No idea," Sirius said again, smiling humorlessly. "Don't worry about it, Harry. We'll sort it out." He turned towards the targets. "Now, let's check how you did... Immobulus," he muttered, pointing his wand at each of the ten targets in turn. He began to laugh loudly as he looked at one in particular: A very close likeness of a certain blond-haired Death Eater. "Old Lucius isn't looking so good, is he?" Sirius said, poking a finger through the burn mark in the cardboard target's eye. "And what did you do to Snivelly?"

Harry grinned. "I thought he could use a hair washing..."

"This does not leave the kitchen," Sirius said sternly.

"You're going to bring this up at the next Order meeting, aren't you?"

"Would I really do that to you?" Sirius asked innocently.

Harry raised an eyebrow in a very Remus-like way. "Yes, you would," he said flatly.

Sirius grinned. "Well, I'd never use your name."

Harry shook his head hopelessly and watched Sirius return the kitchen to its normal state.

A few days later, after a tense breakfast—regardless of what Emmeline said, Remus wasn't letting Sirius off that easily—Remus, Emmeline, and Sirius left for work, leaving Harry alone in Number Twelve. Molly would be coming by later in the morning to check on Naomi, and Harry would return to the Burrow with her for the day. Remus did his best to forget about his problems with Sirius as he sat behind his desk and began working on some reports. He was successful for about an hour until Sirius burst into his office, startling Remus' grindylow.

"Sirius, I'm very busy; I don't have time—" Remus began, not looking up from his paperwork.

"Ron Weasley's missing," Sirius cut him off breathlessly.

This got Remus' attention. He dropped his quill and looked up to Sirius. "You want to run that by me again, please?" he said slowly.

Sirius sighed and closed the door. "Molly went to wake Ron for breakfast. His bed was empty and his bedroom window was wide open," he said.

"Is she sure he didn't go out for an early broom ride?"

"That was her first thought, after what she was going to do to Ron when she found him. His broomstick is in the shed," Sirius said. "And you know that old clock of hers? Ron's hand is on 'mortal peril'."

"Well, that doesn't mean anything," Remus said calmly, hoping this was all a mistake. "Molly told me only last week all the family's hands were on mortal peril. Except Percy's—his is on prison, of course."

Sirius shook his head. "All the hands except Percy's have moved back to home in the middle of the night..."

Remus closed his eyes tightly and rubbed his temples. "Does Harry know?" he asked quietly.

"I don't think so, but if he finds out from someone besides us, he's going to flip."

"You don't think he'll flip, anyway?" Remus said flatly.

"Good point," Sirius said. "I've got to get over to the Burrow, see if we can't find anything. Can you get a hold of Harry?"

"Of course," Remus said. "Let me know what you find."

Sirius nodded. "I will. See you in a bit."

Sirius left as quickly as he'd come. Remus stood, walking from his office to a cubicle on the far end of his department. He cleared his throat and Charlie Weasley looked up, smiling, from the book he was reading. Remus sighed. "Charlie, we need to talk..."