It seemed like I'd been lying there for hours, alone, but it was less than a minute before I felt soft hands on me, and a familiar woman's voice crying my name.

The light in the room was too bright. It was making me feel dizzy looking up at it, so I closed my eyes.

"Remus? Remus, can you hear me?" came my father's voice, and he slipped his hand into mine. "Squeeze my hand, Remus."

I squeezed his hand tightly, but the tiny bit of muscle movement that caused made my sides hurt even more and I let out a strangled cry.

"Should we take him to St Mungo's?" I heard my mum asking my dad.

"Yes, let's go," said my dad.

"Can I come?" I heard Sirius's voice ask.

"Honey... I'm sure you really care about... about your friend, but we're going to have to ask you to stay here," said my mother, and as my dad side-on apparated with us, I knew they knew. They knew I was a queer. It was obvious, with Sirius and I both being shirtless, supposedly having been in the same bedroom when I was hurt.

They would hate me now. Having a monster, and murderer as a son was bad enough, but adding gay into the equation just made it even worse. But then again, if they did hate me, why would they be taking me to the hospital? Why not leave me to suffer?

The next few minutes were a blur. Being practically dragged through St Mungo's with my parents because my legs couldn't hold me up let alone walk. I was in the hospital room, and they asked me where it hurt and my voice wasn't working well, and I managed to point to the sides of my waist.

The healers put some sort of cream on it and gave me a needle, then waved their wand at me and the pain went down rapidly, and I took in a long and shaky breath.

"Can we have a minute with him?" Dad asked. The healers nodded, then left the room. "Remus... when you and Sirius were... doing whatever you were doing... what happened to cause you so much pain there? That's where you were bitten, right?"

"Yes," I said, trying to act casual about the fact that it was obvious that Sirius and I had been just about to take things further than we ever had. "He, um... he squeezed the sides, in that spot, and then it really hurt, like, really, really hurt..."

"Do you know anything about this?" my mum asked Dad, and he shook his head. "I don't... I don't usually work with werewolves other than Remus. We should go to werewolf support services, though."

"No," I said quickly. "I don't want to go there, they'll just treat me like crap, they won't help, and it will probably cost a fortune to just see them."

"Remus, it's their job to help werewolves," said Dad, but I shook my head.

"I don't want to. It's fine... I feel fine, now. Can we go?"

Dad sighed. "I'll ask the healers."

He walked out of the hospital room, then came back a few minutes later. "They want to keep you here until tomorrow afternoon... well, this afternoon I suppose."

"What!?" I cried. "But the train leaves at eleven... I'll miss it!"

"We can send an owl to Professor McGonagall and ask her to open up the floo network for you for when it's time to go back," said Dad.

"Why!? I'm feeling perfectly fine," I said.

"They just want to keep you in for observation... to... to make sure you're definitely alright," said Dad.

I groaned and said, "Alright, I'm going to go back to sleep."

"Alright..." said Dad, and the two of them got up.

"We'll be just here if you need us," said Mum, and they both sat down. I turned away from them so they couldn't tell that there were tears forming behind my closed eyelids.

It was stupid, but I was more upset about the fact that I'd just been outed to my parents than the fact that the place where I'd been bitten almost eleven years ago had hurt like hell after being touched.

I couldn't be annoyed at Sirius, though. Getting my parents was the right thing to do, because they knew me better than anyone at that party and would know what to do when I was in that much pain.

But.

I hadn't been ready to tell them. Obviously, I was intending on telling them eventually, maybe when all the stuff that was going on, defending queer people, got so advanced that it was completely normal to be gay, or when I was an adult and if they hate me I'd be living in my own place so they couldn't exactly kick me out of home. But now? When I was sixteen years old, and the queers were still hated by the majority of people? I did not want them to know.

But they did, and there was nothing I could do about it now, other than trying to come up with some stupid excuse as to why Sirius and I had been in the same bedroom as each other, our shirts removed, him gripping the sides of my waist.

Oh well. My parents hadn't brought it up yet, obviously because they thought the fact that I'd been in so much pain that I was in hospital was more important than the fact that I was a queer.

I eventually fell asleep, then woke up late in the morning, with a healer leaning over me.

"Hey, honey," she said. "How are you feeling?"

I felt like telling her I wasn't five years old, but I just told her that I felt fine, then asked what time it was.

"Just past eleven, sweetheart," said the healer. Great. I missed the train.

"Oh, OK," I said. "I feel fine, so when should I leave?"

"You can go at three," said the healer, then she handed me a potion. "Take this back to school with you and drink it if you feel a similar sort of pain, OK? We're not entirely sure why you'd be in so much pain, but you should be alright. Anyway, I'll be back in an hour to check on you, alright?"

"OK," I said, and she left.

"You sure you're feeling a hundred percent OK?" my mum asked me, and I nodded. She looked at my dad, and I felt a lump rise in my throat. I knew what they were going to address now.

"Remus, for a while now your mother and I have had this feeling that maybe... maybe you may have been attracted to one of your male friends," said Dad, and I tried to focus on my breathing. In... out... in... out... "And last night, our suspicions were confirmed..."

"I'm sorry," I said, my voice coming out as barely a whisper.

"You don't have to be sorry, Remus," said Mum. "It's OK. It is... a little strange, but we don't love you any less, alright?"

I looked from her to my dad, and he was nodding at me. I let out a long breath of relief. "OK. OK, thank you."

"So... you and Sirius, huh?" said Dad. "Does he... is he a good partner?"

"Yeah," I said, but I really didn't want to talk about it. It was too soon. So, I just asked if there was any food around because I was starving.

"Yeah, the healers left some porridge here earlier for you," said Dad, grabbing a bowl full of white goop and handing it to me. I took a spoonful in my mouth straight away. It was cold and bland as hell, but it was still food, and it would fill me up.

"Thank you," I said.

That afternoon, there were no answers from the healers as to why I was in so much pain because of what happened (they already knew I was a werewolf since it was in my medical records from when I came after being bitten, and we changed the story to Sirius being a girl and the same thing happening, so they could have as much true information as possible).

My parents were annoyed that they didn't know what happened, but to be honest, I didn't care. I just wanted to go to Hogwarts and make sure Sirius was OK.

Yes, that sounded stupid. Why would Sirius not be OK? I wanted to make sure he wasn't blaming himself. Because if I was in his position, I would be blaming myself and I'd be so mad at myself that I wouldn't be able to think straight.

So, when I came out of the fireplace in Professor McGonagall's office, the first thing I did after thanking her was sprint to the common room. But the marauders weren't in there. I checked the dormitory, and they weren't there either, but thankfully my trunk was, so I grabbed my coat and gloves because I could only think of one other place where the other marauders might be.

God, if they're doing Quidditch practice in this weather I'm literally done with them, I thought, then made my way to the Quidditch pitch. When I got close, I could tell from a distance that one person in scarlet robes was flying round and round, all on their own, and there was one person in the stands, watching the flying person.

The flying person had to be James. Who else would be flying around in January in Northern Scotland? The entire ground was coated thickly with snow, and snow was still falling heavily. I hoped the person sitting there watching him was Sirius, so I made my way toward the stands and stopped when I noticed the dark red hair coming out of a purple beanie.

Did James realise she was watching him? I thought to myself, looking at James, who was slowly getting faster and faster. I decided to leave the two of them be, then went back to the castle to try and find Sirius. Where the hell was he?

I checked the library next, and to my surprise, there was Sirius, staring blankly at an empty piece of parchment, a quill in his hand, hovering above the parchment. I smiled at the sight of him and rushed over to him straight away.

"Padfoot," I said.

He looked up, and a grin split across his face as he stood up to face me. "Moony!"

We both obviously wanted to kiss each other, but there were other students around us, so we didn't. we both just sat back down, right next to each other.

"I'm so sorry," said Sirius. "I didn't mean to hurt you... I promise it was not intentional... are you OK, though? Was the place where I... is that a sensitive area?"

"It was where I was bitten," I said, my voice low so no one else could hear me. Sirius drew his wand and cast a silencing charm around us so no one else could hear us. "But it's OK. Please don't blame yourself. It's not your fault. You didn't know. How would you know? I feel completely fine now, alright?"

"Alright," said Sirius.

"Promise me you won't blame yourself?" I said.

"I promise," said Sirius.

"Thanks," I said, squeezing my own hand, wishing it was his because even though other people couldn't hear us, they could still see us. "I love you."

"I love you too."

Merry Christmas