Hello all - thanks for the follows and favouriting of this story, I'm so grateful to those of you who have stuck with me! I was going to post this tomorrow but as I'm at a family wedding, now seemed like a better idea!

I don't currently have a beta (as I'm sure some of you will have spotted - silly mistakes slip through), so if anyone is willing, I'd be beyond grateful!

For now - hope you enjoy...

Chapter 11 – 'he needed to watch his Ps and Qs'

"If you're finished with the bedtime stories, could you tell us exactly what happened tonight?" Remus turned to look up at Snape as he berated the poor, clearly anxious boy who had only been trying to help. Why on earth had the prefect sent a first year? The boy stood silently terrified, "Please."

Remus mouth fell open, it had happened. He'd have bet every Galleon, Sickle and Knut he had that Snape would never utter that particular word to a student, yet he had and thank Godric Remus had been there to hear it. Suspicious though he was of a well-mannered Snape, it seemed to have had the desired effect on the small boy who at last seemed to stop shivering and tell them as much information as he had – which wasn't much. Leaving the Great Hall, Remus followed the other Professors as they headed to the Gryffindor Common Room to see if they could make more sense of what was going on. As they neared the last set of stairs which led to the Portrait of the Fat Lady it became difficult to move as students had formed a blockade, leaning on each other and standing on tip-toes to try and get a glimpse at what was happening. Amongst the jostling and murmurs, Remus caught Snape, now a few stairs ahead of him, asking a student to move out of the way "Please." Twice in one night! If something serious wasn't happening Remus might happily feel like it was his birthday or Christmas. He was trying to withhold his mirth for later, when the current situation was over and he was on his own when he heard Peeves say, "Nasty temper he's got, that Sirius Black."

Remus was suddenly glad to be surrounded by so many students, as a wave of dizziness made him swirl slightly on the spot before he regained his composure just in time to see Snape high tailing it down the stairs shouting in his ugly, menacing voice, "Sorry, excuse me, please move!"

Remus didn't know which was more unlikely – that Sirius Black really was loose in the castle or that Snape had suddenly decided he needed to watch his p's and q's. As Dumbledore directed the students to follow McGonagall and the prefects into the Great Hall, Remus was finally able to speak to him. "Do you really think it could be true…" Remus asked barely above a whisper, the hurt, anguish and anger of the last 13 years threatening to cascade out of the carefully locked vault Remus stored it in.

Dumbledore placed a hand on Remus' shoulder and looked down his long, thin nose, over his half-moon spectacles and gave Remus a look that made it impossible to feel anything other than serene. "I have no doubt that he was here, but I don't expect him to have lingered. Still the castle will be searched until we are in no doubt. I suggest, Remus my friend, that you head back to your quarters and pour yourself a nice cup of tea. Camomile always works for me in such situations – once you've checked all is well with the students in the Great Hall if you wouldn't mind. I'll be there myself as soon as possible." The students now all gone, Remus began his descent down the grand staircase before Dumbledore spoke again, "I can assure you Remus, with Nymphadora already on the hunt, if Black is still here, we'll find him."

Nymphadora? When had Tonks arrived? Remus had assumed that she was off duty this weekend as he hadn't seen her in the Great Hall as he'd expected. Come to think of it, for someone who was supposed to be ensuring the safety of Harry, he rarely saw her at all. Sure they passed each other occasionally in the corridor but not enough considering she gave herself very little time off. Remus hadn't really thought about it before, he'd simply taken Dumbledore at his word that Tonks was in fact top of her class at disguise and concealment but he hadn't realised she was so good he wouldn't even notice her!

Remus had stayed longer than he really needed to in the Great Hall, hoping rather foolishly that if he waited long enough he might see Tonks and be able to… what? Say hello, pathetically ignore her whilst constantly wishing that he could spill his guts to her and tell her every single story, secret and wish he'd ever had?

What?

Be able to what?

He really was weak and pathetic and the thought that Sirius Black really had escaped jail and was wondering around Hogwarts was making him even more so. He realised what he wanted more than anything was to be back in that place with Tonks where just for a few evenings he'd felt safe. As though he could be himself.

But he could never truly be himself. Around anyone. Always too engrossed in ensuring his mask didn't slip, that no one saw the anguished, guilt-ridden, cowardly Remus that he tried to hide so much, he never truly allowed himself to relax and enjoy being in the moment.

Until Tonks. The hours he'd spent with her, sharing stories were the realist moments of his life he'd shared with anyone in a really really long time.

And keeping up the pretence, the focus it took to hide himself away, it was exhausting. It was a mixture of that exhaustion and the desire not to get into a passive aggressive discussion about 'helping out old friends' that led Remus, as he saw Snape enter the Great Hall from a door in the corner by the teachers table, to leave and head back to his room.

As he was leaving he heard Snape telling one of the distressed first years to stop snivelling and shut up otherwise he'd hand him to the dementors.

Remus hurried his gait so as not to hear anymore of Snape's attacks of the defenceless first years. He fought against every urge to turn back and say something to Snape about his lack of manners…

His lack of manners…

Remus' brain was whirring so fast he was finding it hard to keep up, it was as though his head had been slowly putting together a puzzle but had decided there was no point informing him until it was sure it was on to something and Snape's manners had just formed a new piece of the puzzle that fitted in perfectly and was making an almost discernible picture… almost.

How could Snape go from saying please and excuse me to threatening dementors onto a 12-year-old boy – serious or not.

Though Remus reached his room long after midnight and knew he should just go to bed, his brain was not willing to let this puzzle go yet. It was so frustrating – like playing a game of Pictionary with Sirius when he'd repeatedly shout, 'come on Remus, you know it, you know this one' whilst drawing something so appalling that Remus couldn't even tell which way up it was supposed to go.

His brain had figured out the puzzle and was just waiting for Remus to articulate it –

ARTICULATE WHAT? He really hated his own head sometimes…

He spent the next hour or so with a book trying to block out the insistence of his brain that he was missing something obvious. He instead tried to concentrate on his book and listen out for Tonks returning to her room. He knew she was his best bet at this time of night of finding out exactly what had gone on – if, after weeks of, not very subtly avoiding her, she didn't just slam the door in his face.

So originally this chapter continued into the next and became a HUGE thing of it's own that had stopped listening to me. I suddenly understood how Dr Frankenstein must have felt! So in an effort to take control once more of this fic, I decided to end this chapter here - that does mean the next chapter is a bit longer than this one... During which I can tell you - Tonks and Remus actually interact... together! I know I'm a terrible person for making you wait this long! More sooon. Please keep commenting! :)