The next morning, Lupin woke up with only very dim memories of the night before. What he did know was that he was in a strange room, and that Snape had brought him here for some reason. Getting up from the bed as quietly as he could, he walked over to the door and tried to open it, but found it locked. A surge of fear spiked through him. Why am I locked in?

Hearing footsteps coming down the hall outside, Lupin's momentary distress turned into a full blown panic. Moving against the wall behind the door, he heard the lock click, and the door slowly opened.

Snape stood in the doorway of the dim room, surprised that Lupin wasn't still in bed, and that he was nowhere to be seen. Moving forward, he stepped into the room.

Seizing his chance, Lupin slammed himself into the door, which hit Snape hard, sending him flying backwards. Jumping over Snape as he scrambled to find his wand, Lupin raced down the hall, wildly trying to find a way out. Hearing Snape running after him made him all the more panicky and desperate to escape.

Snape held his side as he ran, silently cursing himself for not being more cautious. Seeing Lupin half run, half fall down the stairs, Snape's concern grew, and he did the only thing he could think to do.

"PETAL! I NEED YOUR HELP!"

There was a loud POP! And the tiny elf appeared next to him, looking at him questioningly.

"Seal the house! Don't let anyone in or out!"

Snape barely gave his instructions before racing after Lupin. He caught sight of Lupin running down the hall into his study. Lupin slammed the door behind him, but Snape was hot on his heels and sent it flying open. Lupin whipped around, a wild, feral look in his wide eyes. He snarled at Snape, before rushing at the window, clearly intending on escaping through it.

There was a bright flash as Petal's magic took effect, just a Lupin hit the window and was thrown back by the force of the full house seal. He landed heavily on his outstretched left hand, and a cracking sound was followed by a yelp of pain.

Snape watched in amazement as Lupin lapsed into a very animalistic state. He was on his hands and knees, his left arm tucked up under his chest. Backing himself into a corner, he whined with pain, and flinched away as Snape drew closer. Carefully, Snape reached out and very gently touched Lupin's head. Lupin drew away from the touch, and whimpered. Crouching, Snape stared at Lupin, confused by the sudden change.

"Lupin?"

Lupin hunched back into the wall, but did not respond.

"Lupin, I need to fix your wrist. I promise I'm not going to hurt you."

There was no reply, but Lupin remained perfectly still as Snape gingerly took hold of his left arm.

"Episky."

Another crack, another yelp, and a brief scramble followed the spell.

Lupin was now back on his feet, his head very low. Snape watched him warily from the other side of the room, wondering if Lupin was going to try to attack him again. After a few minutes, Lupin raised his head a little, and spoke for the first time since Snape had found on the stairs at Hogwarts. His voice was very hoarse, and shook slightly.

"Thanks. Where are we? What happened?"

Snape felt relieved that Lupin was starting to act a little more normal.

"Not at all. Let's talk over breakfast, I'm sure you're hungry."

Entering the kitchen, Snape discovered a full breakfast laid out already, and smiled.

"Thank you, Petal."

Petal curtsied, her eyes glowing with happiness.

"I's happy to be doing it, sir."

As Lupin moved slowly into the kitchen behind Snape, Petal looked at him, surprised.

"Mister Remus! I hasn't been seeing you in a long time! It's good to be seeing you again. Miss Lily was being very sad when Mister James made you go away. Is you going to be helping Master Harry too?"

Lupin stared at Petal, surprise evident on his face. The surprise slowly melted into a brief look of anger, to absolute confusion. He turned to Snape, a question burning in his eyes.

"Come sit. I'll explain everything once we've eaten."

After they ate, Snape spent almost an hour explaining what he had recently learned about Harry. Lupin had gotten up and begun to pace back and forth, anger evident in his stiff posture. But he didn't interrupt until Snape had finished talking. Trying to process the enormity of the situation, Lupin forced himself to sit down again, and tried to form a coherent question.

"Whatarewe…Didyouknowabout…Whothehell…What..Why?"

Snape tried to understand the barrage of half formed and badly garbled questions. His brow knit together, and he struggled to figure out which to answer first. But before he could say anything, Lupin took a deep breath and tried again.

"How are we going to get him? What's the plan?"

Snape was grateful that Lupin seemed ready to help him.

"Well, Petal here is currently keeping me updated on him, and his situation, as I told you, is not a good one. One of the challenges, as I'm sure you realize, will be getting him and keeping him hidden away from Dumbledore and his little group of helpers. But, I think that with the two of us working at it, we should be able to pull it off. I have a safe place in mind, but I'd rather not say where until we have Harry."

Lupin nodded in agreement, his mind racing. His thoughts were interrupted by Snape clearly his throat. Lupin looked at him, eyebrows raised.

Snape ordered his thoughts. Something had been bothering him since last night. He spoke slowly and carefully.

"Last night, when you somehow shared your memories with me, I noticed something very odd. A lot of your memories, especially the ones from your childhood, and some of the ones involving Harry, have been tampered with. With your permission, I would like to try to fix the blocks and remove the false memories. We need to find out what is being kept from you, before we can think about bringing Harry here."

Lupin stood up abruptly as Snape spoke, and noticed the man slip his hand into his pocket, where his wand was. Not wanting to scare Snape into jinxing him, Lupin began pacing again. Stopping as Snape went quiet, Lupin thought for a moment. Looking at Snape, he decided to be honest.

"Madame Pomphrey noticed the same thing. I had been brought to her by Albus after a 'training' session. I was unconscious and pretty beat up, and he had told her that I had been attacked by couple of Death Eaters. She had gone into my mind, to try to figure out why I wasn't waking up. She was worried I might have sustained brain damage from the 'attack'. Once I had woken up, she mentioned to me that something seemed a little off, and that she had sensed residual magic that had all the indicators of Albus's particular style. "

Lupin paused, clearing his throat.

"I want to know what's being kept from me. But I didn't dare do anything about it while I was constantly being watched by Albus. He gets so angry when I question anything, and he gets so strange sometimes. Something's wrong with him."

Snape breathed a sigh of relief at Lupin's admissions. He waited, allowing Lupin to finish.

"You have my permission. Let's get this done so we can help Harry."

My brain is now a little fried from writing chaps 5 and 6 on the fly. I had an idea of what I wanted to write, so it wasn't that hard, but ordering everything correctly took a bit of time. I really hope people aren't too weirded out by this...

"I is liking it so far, Miss."

Thank you, Petal.

"Is we going to be getting Master Harry soon? I is missing him."

Yes, we'll get him soon. Snape and Lupin just have to work a few things out first, ok?

"Ok."