Ta-da! The Sick and Unwell sequel, please enjoy and review, please. I tried my best to make this story readable so that new people wouldn't have to read the previous story, but I still think it's recommended to do so. The choice is yours, of course.

Chapter One

The Demonic Duo

It's been a year since Sirius Black left the St. Hogsmeade asylum, a year of Remus trying to better himself so that he could be released. His thought of the matter was that if Sirius could do it, may all be damned if Remus, himself, could not. A year of this prison was more than enough for the Lupin boy to handle. If he wasn't released soon... he'd go insane. Imagine that.

Time passed, though. Sure enough, it passed quickly. Months went by with Remus tenatively cooperating with the resident head nurse, Molly. He picked up sign language quite well, bound and determined to get through this with flamboyantly flying colors. The only point of studying that bothered Remus, was that it was in a group of people, all who knew far more than he did, and made a point to remind him of this. He kept his temper in check, and even startled one of the boys in the group when he smiled in return to his taunting. Actually, it wasn't a mere state of being startled, the boy was terrified. So terrified that Remus had to go look into a mirror and experiement with expressions to see what was so wrong. He was still clueless on the matter, but that was fine. If he was lucky, he'd have that effect on more people than just that child. The possibilities made dreams come easier to him at night.

When it was time for his evaluation, Remus never felt more sure of himself. Walking into the small, bleached white room, he stared at the shrink and gave a brilliant smile. The room was in worse shape than any other room Remus went to in this place, with large gashes on the farside wall, and mold that seemed to seep from the various cracks. The young patient pretended to not have noticed the condition of the room, and continued to give the psychiatrist an unwavering stare.

"Hello Remus." The man had murmured, smiling back with gleaming but gaunt, tired eyes. His hair was very long and most certainly white. He looked tired, as if he had seen too much of the darker side of things. Remus didn't doubt that the man probably had. "My name is Albus Dumbledore, please," He motioned to the tiny, orange chair. "...have a seat."

Remus complied, watching the man curiously. His tone seemed amiable, but his looks screamed tired and frail. Albus grabbed his glasses from their dangling position over his chest, placing them on the bridge of his nose and wrinkling his nose to get comfortable.

"Molly tells me that you don't verbally speak, but have ventured in the nature of sign languge, yes?"

Remus nodded slowly, his thin fingers twisting in his lap. The confidence he started out with was waning, and the man seemed to be gaining more energy as the evaluation moved on. Remus's previous visage of pleasant sweetness turned into suspicious concern. He really didn't know what to expect with this man, and he was getting a sickening feeling of deja vu, but not quite. Albus seemed almost as unpredictable as... well. Sirius Black. Inhaling sharply, Remus struggled to keep his temper in check and he squirmed rigidly in his seat, folding his hands as Albus's pale eyes reguarded him calmly.

"So, Remus, how was your stay here?" The older man asked softly, smiling at Remus. Remus's eyes twitched into a mild glare before returning to their regular expression of blankness.

Remus licked his lips, bringing a balled fist up to his chest, his pinking standing high among the curled fingers. I. Next, he brought his index finger to his forehead and made a small circle. Think. He made the letter "I" again with his pinky erect before placing his fingers so that the thumb was between the index and middle finger, making the letter "T." I-T. He swiped his open hand over his right shoulder at a moderate speed, his eyes full of concentration over what he was saying. Was...

Pausing, Remus stared at Albus before smiling very slightly and finally pointing to his nose with his index finger and twisting it very slightly. Boring.

This seemed to amuse Albus as much as it did Remus, and the elder let out a chuckle that caused Remus to relax. Albus, adjusted his glasses and folded his arms over his extremely baggy fushia shirt. Remus stared with interest at the shirt, glancing down at his own outfit with a raised eyebrow. It should be sinful to be so brightly colored in a place like this...

"I think the food needs improving, wouldn't you agree?" And Remus could. Was it his first day, when he found a bug in his meal? Aah, yes, those were the most miserable of days. Instead of spacing out, Remus honed back in on Albus, whom was looking quite eerie again. Remus's visage fell flat again. "You're a fascinating person, Remus. May I call you Remus?" He smiled, continuing without Remus's answer. "I think it's interesting that your expression drops whenever you don't like something."

Remus's lips twitched downward. What was this man going on about? When he didn't like something, he made sure whomever he was displeased with knew it. Albus stood up, extending his hand out to Remus, and Remus's face jerked in surprise.

"I think I'll talk with Molly, now, so it was nice meeting you, Remus." Albus's eyes sparkle, and the man looked to have even more energy. What was it with this guy? It felt like he was sucking the life out of Remus, who felt a lot more cranky and unsure than when he started this evaluation.

Being ushered into an adjacent room, Remus took a seat on a small yet comfortable sofa and blinked up at Molly as she closed the door. Sighing irritably, he crossed his arms and flopped back moodily. How the hell was that old man to know who he was and all that with just a few minutes conversation? The bloody man, sorry... Albus... had only asked him one question! ONE!

Remus silently seethed, his fingers twisting in his lap out of frustration. He was wondering how this shrink was supposed to be so good if he just stared at you. Remus didn't even get to say much of anything. Seriously, how was this supposed to work for him?

Then again, Albus was also talking to Molly. It was probably about his progress and such events of his stay. He was wondering if the head nurse would mention anything positive about him. Remus admitted he was making progress, but he also knew he caused more trouble than he was worth. He was still a stubborn and angry person who liked to throw his usual fits here and there, but that doesn't mean much of anything, right? It was only when he really, really needed his privacy and people were around and just could bring themselves to leave. Heh.

After an agonizing five minutes, Molly finally opened the door and waved Remus out of the room. He stood up, walking past her and glancing back as she closed the door. Remus skirted the room slightly and was about to lean against the wall, and thought better of it, folding his arms.

"Well, Remus, I think I've come to a conclusion on whether or not I'm willing to let you go into the real world."

Remus waited for him to continue, and raised an eyebrow when Albus didn't. Inhaling slightly, out of nervous impatience, he made the letter "A" with both hands and placed the thumb of his right hand on the thumbnail of his left hand and moved both hands forward. Continue. Albus beamed at him and obliged. Instead of confirming anything, he went straight into the facts.

"The state will be giving you a fixed amoung of money each month, and you will also be assisted in spending the money wisely. You're to use the income for new clothes, items for your apartment and of course, food. Basically, necessities."

Remus stared at him quietly, his brain slowing to comprehend this. Slowly, his face relaxed into an easy smile, and he was the least guarded that day than any other day of his life. Genuine happiness showed on his face and that surprised both Molly and Albus.

"Congratulations, Remus." Molly said, great fat tears welling up in her eyes. She was watching him with such maternal fondness that caused Remus to blink in near sadness at having put her through so much... shit.

"Thank you," He mouthed, grabbing her hands and squeezing before dropping them, still not fond of too much contact.

Molly smiled at him and the tears fell, great heaving sobs escaping her mouth as she bunched up a large paper towel in front of her face. It was an interesting thing to watch, but before he could do anything more than stare, Albus was pushing him out the door.

"Why don't you use that bag there on the floor and pack up, hm?" He smiled and closed the door, no doubt to calm the redheaded nurse. Remus picked up the bag, and read his name on the small, removable tag and carried it towards his room. It all felt like a slow motion shot in the movies. Remus was leaving! Finally, all that work paid off. In your face, Black!

He'd like to have said he just threw the stuff into the bag, but being so obsessive compulsive, he folded every bit of clothing and gently placed everything else into it. He was excited, but from a mere observer, he'd look just like he did any other day.

Glancing up, Remus noticed that three strangers were watching him with rather bland expressions. They were... colorless people, the type you would look over in the middle of a crowd. They were... just... simple. After a second though, Remus remembered that these three people were the same from a year ago. The ones that had escorted Sirius out, to be more precise. He noticed with an odd satisfaction that they were a lot more intimidating from this point of view and in a sense, he wondered how pathetic Sirius felt in his position that time. Remus, however, felt pretty good and even managed a dashing smile at them.

Picking up his bag, he headed towards the door and pushed through them, smirking back at them. He was ready for this, and admittedly he was dead set for this ever since that sickening feeling in the hall as he watched Sirius leave.

Stepping through the doors and into a small white van, Remus felt better than ever. It was his turn, now. Time to get his life back. Slowly, but surely, he was prepared to be human again.

TBC.

Well, this was pretty fun to write. This will be a LITTLE more in-depth into the evaluation as well as the state provided apartment. Remus is a legal adult now, and since the family is the cause he'll be in a new version of a holding cell. Whee. I really hope you enjoyed this and I appologize for the abrupt ending of Sick and Unwell.

I hope you guys didn't mind the american sign language being put in there. I figured it'd be interesting, and I warn you that at times I'll get lazy and just put the signing in bold. Also, I hope I didn't offend anyone somehow by getting a sign wrong or anything like that. I've been back and forth through this entire chapter, dig-dagging my way through it. I also used a book to double check it and such.

Ah, well, I can't think of any other rant to go along with this. So please enjoy, read and review! I love review!

OH! And I'd really like to thank all of those who instant messaged me on AIM to comment on Sick and Unwell. I really enjoyed talking with you all! It made me feel lovededed!