"Do you still have this old thing?" asked Sirius.
"It's perfectly serviceable, Padfoot," replied Lupin, taking back an old set of robes Sirius had picked up.
Sirius was happy. Earlier in the day, he'd had to work out that it was 'happy' that he was feeling. It wasn't an emotion he'd felt very often in the last, what, fifteen years. There had been fleeting moments, like watching Harry on his broom last year in the quidditch game, or flying away on Buckbeak, but they'd been tempered with sadness. How was Harry? Where the hell should he go, riding a bloody Hippogriff?!
But right now, he was happy. Mooney was coming to stay for at least six months. They'd had a couple of seriously awkward conversations in St. Mungo's. Both had a lot of guilt. Sirius had thought that Mooney had been the spy, when it had all along been the rat, and Mooney had obviously thought the worst of Sirius.
It had taken only a week for them to reconnect. That was when Sirius appreciated the concept of a friend. And now they wanted to cling to that, both of them, like drowned sailors to driftwood. They still had a lot of healing to do.
"We so need to take you shopping," said Sirius.
"I'm not a charity case, Padfoot," in the same tones he always used for this conversation.
"I'm well aware of that, Mooney, you made that perfectly clear when we were in school. But think of this as a reset. We're going to go spend some of the Black fortune, the stuff that has sat in a bank doing nothing for years, the stuff that my pestilential family hate me to have, and we're going to spend it on getting us back on track. That's not charity, that's… a prank?" he suggested with a grin.
Mooney laughed. "Well if you are going to put it like that."
"We can go to Diagon tomorrow. Unless there's anywhere to buy decent clothes here in Hogsmeade, but I suspect not," said Sirius.
"I take it Albus knows I'm here already?" said Remus.
"I assume so, he has ears everywhere," replied Sirius.
The floo flashed to life as if on cue. "'Afternoon, gentlemen, how's the house?"
"Were your ears burning, Albus, we were just debating if you knew I was here," said Remus.
Albus stepped through the floo wearing one of his more garish outfits and carrying a package.
"I'll be honest and say I am keeping an eye on you, Sirius. Purely for your own wellbeing," he added.
"I appreciate that, honestly, Albus, thank you," replied Sirius. "The house is wonderful. Thank you for suggesting it. I couldn't keep Grimmauld, it wasn't where I wanted to be. Too many memories." Sirius shuddered.
"It's not like the Black fortune can't afford it, and an old family home being sold to buy a quaint cottage must be driving Narcissa wild," said Albus with a chuckle.
"Oh, no, Headmaster," said Sirius, reverting to Albus' previous address in admitting his actions, "I didn't sell it, I gifted it to the muggle London housing authority for the sum of one muggle pound on the condition that they demolish it. Demolition by muggle seems much more fitting."
The three men laughed heartily. That was fitting.
"I'm glad you are settling in, both of you. You are welcome to the castle during the holidays, Remus, next week, I'm sure your former colleagues would like to know you are doing well. But please, if you could not visit during term time, I would be grateful."
"Of course, Albus," said Remus sadly. They all knew why.
Albus placed what he was carrying down on the table. "I come bearing a peace offering, Remus. I will leave it with you. Good day, gentlemen." Albus left.
"What is it?" asked Remus.
"I think this is where you have to open it to find out, Mooney," replied Sirius.
Remus opened the package and looked inside. Curious, he picked up one of six vials and inspected it for a label. Not finding one he held it up to the light.
His face contorted, his hand tightened on the bottle and he raised his arm to hurl it at the wall. Sirius caught his wrist.
"What is it?"
"Bastard!" Mooney yelled.
"Mooney?"
"A peace offering. I'll show him a fucking peace offering!" Mooney fought for his hand back and hurled the vial violently against the wall. It smashed into pieces, the contents dripped down onto the floor.
Sirius had the presence of mind to snatch the box from Remus and levitate it into a corner.
"Mooney! What the fuck was that?" snapped Sirius.
Remus' flash of rage had dissipated and had reduced to a solid simmer of anger.
"How dare he? After what he did. What he said!" shouted Mooney, his voice cracking.
"Albus?" asked Sirius, clueless.
"That's Wolfsbane!" he spat.
"Oh, I see," said Sirius as enlightenment dawned.
There was silence for a moment while Remus gathered himself.
"He's… not the same, Mooney," said Sirius, slowly and carefully, keeping a close eye on his friend.
Remus spun to face him. Sirius took a prudent step back.
"Ex. Cuse. Me?" hissed Remus.
"The Headmaster forced us to speak to each other," said Sirius softly.
"Speak?" asked Remus, picking the correct word in that sentence to question.
"I cracked two of his ribs if that helps," said Sirius, desperately trying to lighten the mood.
"Just the two?" growled Mooney, "He deserved more."
"It wasn't like that," said Sirius, "Well it was, it really was… but it was useful."
"Useful? An umbrella is useful," snarked Lupin.
"We tried to settle our differences," said Sirius, "But I think we found out we're a bit too alike instead."
"You are not like him," snarled Lupin, "You didn't tell the whole world I'm a werewolf! You have more integrity than him."
"I think he regrets that. Hence the potions."
"No. No, I'm not doing it," snapped Lupin. "Send them back. With the broken vial. I wouldn't want him to think I'd even touched it."
Sirius sighed. "You know this stuff will be top quality, right? I don't like him but I can't fault his skills."
"He can't buy forgiveness, Padfoot."
"I'm not sure he's trying to. He knows he can't."
"Did St. Mungo's discharge you with some Befuddlement Draught?" asked Lupin. "What actually happened when you and Snape….spoke?"
"Apart from between us there being one broken nose, two cracked ribs, a fractured breast bone, four black eyes and a broken toe?"
"In depth discussion was it? I hope you gave as good as you got."
"I gave plenty. We blamed each other, Remus. I blamed him because he didn't give us good enough information to save them, and he blamed me for not knowing which of my friends are my friends. We both fucked up. But mostly we blame ourselves, but it's easier to blame each other."
"Padfoot, there's a damn sight more blame on his side of the scales than yours."
"Is there? What about afterwards? I wallowed in my own guilt. I believed I deserved Azkaban. I didn't demand a trial, clear my name, catch the rat and take in Harry, did I? And it wasn't like you could."
Remus glared at him.
"Facts, Mooney, just the facts."
"But he's Severus! He was the one who created the rift between him and Lily. He's the one that went with the wrong crowd. I mean, while I will take Albus' word that Severus spied for our side, and yes, he gave us information, I can't help but think he was sympathetic to them too."
"Albus talked to me about that. Before I was allowed my wand back."
Remus smirked in spite of his mood, "Albus took your wands off you before he'd let you 'speak' to each other? "
"Yes, but Snape lost his too," said Sirius defensively. "Albus asked if we'd had a productive chat. He knew exactly what we'd done. We'd kicked the shit out of each other to be honest. Til neither of us could get up off the floor. Literally. But it helped. We did a lot of screaming at each other. I blamed him and he blamed me, but we've both done some stuff we had to do or chose to do that we aren't proud of. We realised we blame each other instead of owning it ourselves."
"I did not choose to be a werewolf, Padfoot. And Snape chose to out me."
"I think he chose to out you in the same way he blamed you as well as me for Lily's death."
"And James'."
"Not sure that's the same thing to him. Another thing he's guilty for, I suppose."
"So I can take the vials, go up to the castle and punch him in the face myself, should I?"
"Remus, you've got to admit we were all pretty shitty to him back then. I spent hours chatting up Lily before James realised he fancied her, simply because I knew Snape liked her. Albus made you a prefect to rein us in. That didn't work. Snape is quite simple with blame. We were all Marauders together. He blames all of us for Lily's death. Albus told me things I didn't know. That we didn't know. He explained about how Slytherin house was back then. I mean, factually, I knew, my family and all. That's why I was sorted into the lions, but Snape lived it. Albus was very clear about Snape's lack of options back then."
"You've thought about this, haven't you?" asked Remus.
"I have a one hour conversation with a Healer from St. Mungo's every other day. There's a lot of shit I've got to talk about. Yesterday's conversation with him took all afternoon."
"I'm going to need some time to think about it."
"I'll just put the rest of the vials somewhere safe in the meantime."
It was two days later.
Severus was in his lab investigating a new sleeping draught when Albus came to visit on the first evening of the holidays. Albus waited until Severus had stopped counting to himself. Severus put the stirrer down and turned.
"I'm sorry, Severus, your peace offering wasn't accepted. However, it was Sirius I spoke to. Remus asked him to return the vials. Sirius has not done so. He's passed on the message, but has kept the potions."
"He's a braver man than I am to try to surreptitiously drug a werewolf," said Severus with a sigh of disappointment.
"You'll just have to try something else, Severus. The man is entitled to his resentment."