Chapter Twenty-Four: Truce

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A lesson in obedience…..

The words kept echoing through Sirius' mind. It had been one of many threats his mother had written him over the pile of letters she had sent when he had never replied to her first one that had chewed him out for Regulus getting in trouble for being out past dark. It wasn't fair, it really wasn't his fault. It was making Sirius' weekly-ish meetings with his brother a chore rather than the very thing he had fought for at the beginning of the year. It didn't help that Regulus was still on about his crazy idea that the other schools were up to something and had snuck zombies or something like them onto the Hogwarts grounds. Sirius knew being dramatic ran in his family but he had really thought Regulus had avoided that particular Black trait. Sirius should have known better, it was impossible to escape any part of the Black family. It was especially impossible to escape their punishments, their 'lessons in obedience'.

Sirius tossed around in his bed wondering why he couldn't have just slept the whole night. It didn't make any sense since he was still utterly exhausted from staying up all night last night. At least Remus seemed to be sleeping well. Sirius squeezed his eyes shut feeling restless. Why was he particularly bothered about his family now? Severus' comment about Bellatrix's wedding a few weeks back had definitely caught him off guard but Sirius really was trying not to think about anyone in his family. It's not like he cared that he hadn't been invited to his evil cousin's wedding!

It's not like anything he could do or say could prevent him from meeting the dementor over the summer...

Sirius shuddered and tossed around again. Was it the fact that Professor Corbyn had brought in another visitor again that was making him think about his family? Sirius had successfully not been giving two damns about his family more often than not. Of course it 'helped' that he had Remus to make things right with and worry about.

Sirius sat up and stomped into the bathroom. He supposed what really was making him think about his family was stupid Gary and his idiotic question about who Sirius had seen during Corbyn's cruel spell. Sirius angrily turned on the sink and splashed water on his face hoping he had woken up James by being so loud. Sirius didn't like being up all by himself at night since it tended to lead to him thinking about dumb shit that he could not change; like his family, Remus being a werewolf, not getting on the Quidditch team- and when he was really in a mood the war that his family was probably a part of.

Sirius slammed the door to the bathroom 'accidentally' but James was snoring away on his bed and nothing would wake up Peter. Well, Remus had to be awake now! Sirius felt a bit bad knowing if any of them struggled with sleeping more than him it was Remus but it was too late now.

"Remus," he whispered expectantly, standing next to his friend's bed. Sirius figured he had gotten all of two hours of sleep so far, if that. Sirius couldn't even remember having a nightmare. He had just woken up thinking about that one line in that nasty letter that was all but guaranteeing what his summer would be like.

Maybe he would run away to James'? The idea certainly seemed appealing.

"Come on Remus. Godric you're the lightest sleeper in wizardkind. So, stop being a prick and open up," Sirius grumbled wondering why Remus was giving him the cold shoulder. It's not like he and James had teased Remus that relentlessly about Dorcas and they had only interrupted their friend's spread of five books out on his bed for his own good!

"Look, I'm sorry we ripped one of your books. But we fixed it right away," Sirius pointed out grumpily. He was beginning to feel foolish. He was thirteen years old. He should just go down into the common room or better yet sneak out into the passages all by himself. Only…..worrying about the summer was making it really hard not to see dementors everywhere. Sirius just then thought he saw the soulless black of a dementor's cloak and he let out a shriek leaping into Remus' bed.

"You wanker, why didn't you….." Sirius trailed off realizing he had not landed next to or on top of his pouting friend who had been purposely ignoring him. Rather he had landed on an empty bed. Where was Remus?

Sirius crawled back to his bed and checked his watch stored under his pillow, groaning when he realized he had only been asleep for three hours. Still, it was already 3 am which meant there should be no reason for Remus not to be in his bed. Hating that he had to look out the window to be positive it wasn't a full moon Sirius walked down to the common room trying not to freak out.

Clearly, Remus had fallen asleep studying with Lily. The swat was probably passed out on the floor of the girl's dorm room on top of a pile of books or something. How Peter and Remus got to go into the girl's dorm when he and James weren't allowed to really didn't make an ounce of sense to him.

Sirius thought he had calmed down standing in the always crackling fire of the common room while thinking more about Remus than his family. But it didn't stop him jumping into the air when the portrait swung open.

"Remus where the….." Sirius trailed off since it was not Remus, who he could all but see sneaking back in from adding yet another book to his obnoxiously growing collection on topics that made no sense to Sirius. Instead of Remus walking through the doorway it was Marlene looking just as surprised to find Sirius up as he was to find her up and sneaking in from somewhere!

"Where were you?" he asked, baffled as Marlene stood taller, putting her hands on her hips, looking quite put off to be caught in her nightgown. Sirius would have laughed at the childish garment, light blue and covered in little bunnies, if he hadn't been so surprised.

"Not that it is any of your business but I was getting medicine for my cramps, you know menstrual cramps," she stated bluntly emphasizing the reason so that Sirius swore she did it just to make him feel as uncomfortable as she was feeling. Sirius blushed and screwed up his face in disgust.

"Good Godric, Marlene I didn't need to know that!"

"Hmph! No, you didn't. But that's what you get for asking," she huffed, crossing her arms around herself as if trying to hide her dressing gown from him. "Now what are you doing up you pervert!"

Pervert?

"Bloody hell Marlene! What is wrong with you? I just was coming to see if Remus was out here," Sirius snapped, finding he preferred Marlene being all annoyingly friendly to her current disposition. Only at the mention of Remus missing she perked right up. Girls were very bizarre, or maybe it was just Marlene…

"Oh, well maybe he's with Lily," she giggled.

"Well yeah, I figured they were studying together," he said flatly, wishing she would just go get Remus. Hell, he figured he'd rather put up with Lily than Marlene and that really was saying something!

"They probably are. Those two are so cute together!" Marlene gushed, then thankfully darted upstairs. Sirius wondered if he should wait downstairs or just go up to bed. But there was no way he wasn't teasing Remus about sneaking off with a girl twice in one night! Sirius had no idea how the stupid git managed to do it. But Remus had insisted his friendships with the girls were strictly platonic so many times that Sirius was beginning to believe him.

After a few minutes, Marlene returned with just Lily, the two of them in casual muggle clothes that looked much more mature than Marlene's bunny nightgown, though Sirius had no idea how they had changed so fast, especially because Lily seemed half asleep.

"What's going on? Why did you say I have to dress up?" Lily asked tiredly, rubbing her eyes as Marlene elbowed her sharply. "Mmm Marls stop it. I just wanna know…" Lily yawned, not seeming to realize Sirius was in the same room. In fact, he doubted she knew she wasn't in her bedroom at all.

"Where's Remus?" Sirius asked irritatedly. Where on earth would his friend be if not with Lily?

"What?" Lily peered at Sirius as if she couldn't make him out properly.

"Reeeemuuus," Sirius stressed, trying not to come up with a host of bad case scenarios to explain why his friend was gone.

"I imagine he's in bed. What's the meaning of this Black?" Lily asked suspiciously, beginning to wake up more.

"He's not in bed!" Sirius shouted upset.

Lily frowned but her gaze was clearer now.

"Well he wasn't in the hospital wing," Marlene added unhelpfully, looking worried herself. "Should we get a professor?"

"No!" Sirius and Lily both replied sharply at once and Marlene pouted.

"I was only trying to help," Marlene pointed out, sounding hurt.

"I'm sorry Marls. You did help, you can go to sleep now." Lily replied kindly to the angry girl who tossed her long hair in a similar way that Narcissa used to. Sirius shook his head tiredly, he wasn't thinking about his family now. He had to figure out where Remus went!

"And miss this drama, not likely," Marlene scoffed.

"If you leave now. I'll tell you what I saw with that st….with that magazine of yours. But you have to go to sleep," Lily bargained, sounding none too happy about whatever agreement she was trying to make.

"You've got yourself a deal! Goodnight Sirius, goodnight LillLills," she called, grinning at Lily who ignored whatever taunt Marlene was trying to make. Instead Lily rounded on Sirius as soon as Marlene disappeared upstairs.

"What did you do?" Lily asked in an accusatory tone.

"Why are you blaming me? It's not my fault." Sirius retorted bristling at the accusation.

"It is almost certainly your fault Black. What did you say to him? Why do you have to bother him so much," Lily snapped. Sirius threw up his hands in frustration wishing he only had Marlene and her insanity to deal with again.

"I didn't do anything to bother him, I swear!"

Lily scrutinized him closely as if she somehow believed she would actually be able to tell he was lying.

"You better not have," she said decidedly after a few moments.

"I didn't."

"Well good."

They stood there in awkward silence for a long time neither wanting to be the first to break the silence, the first to ask the inevitable question.

"What do we do?" Lily asked finally, her voice small with worry and Sirius felt some of his typical defensiveness around her fade.

"I haven't the foggiest idea," he admitted worriedly.

"We should get a Professor. I know that McGonagall knows but perhaps Corbyn would be a better option?" Lily questioned hesitantly.

"We can't tell one of the professors. Even Corbyn would have to give Remus detention and then his dad might find out." Sirius pointed out far too tired to deal with this right now.

"So?" Lily asked carefully.

Sirius ignored her pointed question and sat himself down in one of the armchairs, back to Lily.

"So?" she asked again, coming over and sitting diagonally from him, curling herself up on the big couch, her eyes looking at Sirius pleadingly. "What's wrong with Remus' dad?"

"I can't tell you," Sirius replied, only a bit happy Lily clearly didn't know everything there was to know about Remus.

"Why not?" Lily huffed.

"Because I don't know what you know!" Sirius stated with exasperation.

"Well I don't know what you know," Lily shot back primly. Sirius let out a laugh that the infuriating girl visibly bristled at, like Elvis when James accidentally stepped on him. "What's so funny?" she demanded.

"You don't know half of what I know," Sirius gloated.

"What makes you say that?" Lily protested, her eyes cold.

"Because, I'm his best friend," Sirius replied like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Lily opened up her mouth to argue then deflated some looking away from Sirius and sniffing.

"Oh..perhaps you're right. He really doesn't tell me much." Lily cried.

Sirius felt bad at how disheartened she seemed. Sirius had always believed he was in somewhat of a competition with Lily over who Remus had told the most to. But the sad truth was Remus didn't really open up to either of them.

"Well, don't feel too bad he doesn't tell me much either," Sirius admitted reluctantly. Lily glanced at him confused.

"He really doesn't? You always act like he tells you everything in the world," she protested gently, sounding as if she thought he was just now trying to make her feel better.

"Well…..I mean it can't surprise you that much. You found out his biggest secret first…" At least Sirius hoped it was his biggest secret. Bringing up Remus' lycanthropy however was not a smart thing to do.

"Why did you pretend not to care when I confronted you? If you were actually going to make up with him, why act like you didn't care about him at all?" Lily asked with more patience than Sirius knew he deserved.

"I think if he doesn't come back in an hour we should tell someone," Sirius decided as if that was what they had been discussing all along.

"You're as bad as he is," Lily tsked.

"No, I'm not. Remus is your friend and I'm not," Sirius retorted angrily. He knew he had his secrets too but he was by no means as bad as Remus 'I have secrets' Lupin!

Lily was quiet for a long while and Sirius glared at the flickering fire letting his anger be directed at his stupid friend who couldn't just let him in. Only he had told Sirius he had been four when was bitten and deep down Sirius wished he didn't know that. What was he supposed to do with that information? How was he supposed to help!

"That doesn't mean I don't care, you know. We are...acquaintances and you can care enough about your acquaintances to want to know when something is up. Besides, I really think you owe me an explanation. It's hard to understand you, Sirius," Lily spoke hesitantly, her tone kind.

"I wanted someone to be as mad at me as I was with myself," Sirius grumbled.

"Well that was incredibly dumb," Lily sighed.

"Gee thanks. So glad I talked to you," he shot back sarcastically. But he knew Lily was right, it had been dumb. If he had been honest with Lily then maybe she wouldn't have helped Remus avoid him for as long as Remus had been able to when he got back. Then Sirius wouldn't have had to send Remus that howler that caused whispers of a whole new sort about the Black heir to crop up.

"Sorry. I guess I just don't understand," Lily amended politely.

"That makes two of us…" Sirius sighed heavily, slouching down even further in the chair as Lily sent him a curious look as if she didn't quite believe there wasn't somehow more to that explanation. Sirius wasn't sure how to break the silence. He was confused why Lily even tried to care about him, acquaintances or not. Sirius wondered if that was how Remus felt about all of them caring about him, but that thought made him too sad.

"Truce?" he offered Lily weakly, not entirely sure what she and he needed a truce about but not knowing how else to sum up all the confusing things he was feeling.

"Truce. We are on the same side after all," she sighed, sounding resigned.

"Remus' side," Sirius stated firmly.

"Remus' side," she agreed just as the portrait door swung open. "Oh Remus, where have you been?" she cried partly upset though sounding mostly relieved. Sirius thought about showing himself but knew he needed to try to calm down first so he didn't end up saying something that would hurt Remus' feelings…..yet again.

"Out with the Marauders," Remus replied wearily but convincingly even though there was no way he had been expecting to be caught up this late. Sirius' anger that he had been trying to reign in for Remus' sake exploded and he stood up from his slumped-over position rounding on Remus who had gone very pale at Sirius' timely appearance.

"Try again," he said flatly, wishing Remus Lupin was not such a good liar. Maybe then it would be easier to get Remus to open up. Maybe then Sirius wouldn't have any doubts of trusting him as completely as he did James.