Resolutions

By Neurotica

Thirty-Six

The next few days were rough for the wizarding world. No one slept anymore—everyone was having nightmares. The weather was horrible. Thunderstorms had been happening almost constantly. Streets were flooding from the downpours, and people were growing more agitated, snapping at others for little or no reason. Ministry of Magic employees were showing signs of strain and a few had nervous breakdowns much like the sort students at Hogwarts might have before a big exam. There were only a handful of people who seemed to be immune to the nightmares, and Remus was noticing a pattern. Those who weren't exhibiting signs of loss of sleep were those who were skilled in Occlumency—Dumbledore, Emmeline, and Snape, among others. They'd been able to block their minds so that they could get a good night's sleep.

"Now all we need to do is figure out how to shield the rest of the wizarding world," Sirius said, yawning. "In the meantime, we're running out of Dreamless Sleep Potions, and if I have to go another week with these nightmares, I could very easily go insane."

Remus refrained from making any remarks to this; he didn't really have the energy, anyway. "Even with the potion, I've been having nightmares, so I'm not sure it's going to work much longer."

Sirius sighed. "It's been the same for me. I've tried clearing my mind and all that, like Emmeline told me, but that's not working either."

"Well, neither of us are experts in Occlumency," Remus replied.

Remus made to say something else, but Tonks practically flew down the stairs of the kitchen in Number Twelve. "We've got one of the escaped prisoners!" she gasped.

Sirius stood from his chair so quickly it fell over. "Who?"

"Percy Weasley."

Regardless of his exhaustion, Sirius almost giddily dressed in his work robes and Apparated to the Ministry, heading straight down to the holding cells. Remus and Tonks had been sworn to secrecy about who'd been captured, especially around Molly. Before Sirius told her about her son, he wanted to know what Percy's attitude was towards the Order. The last time he'd spoken with the third oldest Weasley child, he'd shown signs of regret for joining Voldemort. Sirius had never actually seen a Dark Mark on Percy's arm, and he hoped it wasn't there, that Percy had been captured with Death Eaters before Voldemort marked him as one of his minions.

Sighing, Sirius pushed open the door to the interrogation room in the Ministry holding cells. "Hello, Percy," he said evenly to the boy.

Percy turned in his chair and eyed Sirius nervously. "Hello," he said quietly.

Sirius bit back his anger with Percy. He'd been the one to poison and nearly kill Harry. He was brainwashed, Sirius tried to convince himself. Naomi did a lot of things she regretted, and we accepted her back eventually. Why couldn't Percy be in the same situation? Not to mention, Molly would be absolutely thrilled to have her son back...

The Head Auror sat himself across from Percy, and the two wizards watched one another closely. "Tonks says you practically turned yourself in to the Ministry. Why?"

Percy sighed. "I'd like to make a deal with the Order of the Phoenix," he said, adopting his pompous tone again.

Sirius raised an eyebrow. "A deal?" he repeated. "What type of deal?"

"I know Naomi Watts was taken in by the Order, and she gave you information on the Dark Lord. I'd like to do the same."

Sirius' eyebrows rose higher than ever. It took him a minute to get his mouth to work. "Well, Perce, unfortunately I have no authority to arrange that. I could get in touch with Albus Dumbledore—I'm sure he'll want to speak with you..."

Percy nodded. "And if he agrees to allow me into the Order, would I be able to see my mother and siblings?"

Sirius didn't know what to say. "Percy, I honestly don't know. I assume you'd be able to see them, but I can't guarantee anything for you. You've done a lot of things to lose the trust of your family and friends. You tried to kill my godson, for crying out loud! There are a lot of things I'd like to do to you right now, but I'm trying to be as responsible as I can. I'd get sacked if I did what I want to do to you." His matter-of-fact tone seemed to be frightening Percy. Sirius silently gloated. "Tell you what, Percy: I'm going to take you back to your holding cell. When I leave the Ministry in a few hours, I will go straight to Hogwarts and talk to Dumbledore about your situation, and see what he says. In the meantime, don't get your hopes up about anything. I'll do what I can."

"Very well," Percy said a tad haughtily. Sirius ignored his tone. "Before I go back to my cell, I'd like to apologize for what I did to Harry. I highly regret his poisoning, and hope you will eventually forgive me."

Sirius bit his lip and nodded. "Eventually, I think I may be able to forgive you. However, you've still got to get the forgiveness of Remus and Harry and your siblings. Good luck with that." He stood up and motioned for Percy to stand as well. The Head Auror led the prisoner out of the interrogation room and to the holding cells. There were several cells in this room, and most were empty—two were holding drunks who'd been arrested by the DMLE at the Leaky Cauldron the night before. Sirius opened a cell and ushered Percy in. "I'll make sure dinner is delivered in a few hours. Tonks is guarding the holding cells tonight, so if you need anything, ask her and she'll contact me."

"Thank you," Percy said stiffly. "For everything."

Sirius sighed and nodded again. "You're welcome," he said quietly. "I'll do what I can."

Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny were sitting around a table in the Gryffindor common room working on their homework. This was a rather difficult feat since all four of them were exhausted after having nightmares for the last few days. And it wasn't only them who were having trouble sleeping; the entire school seemed to be exhausted. Madam Pomfrey and Professor Snape had been quite busy trying to administer Dreamless Sleep potions for the students and staff.

Harry had received a letter from Remus telling him to use what he'd learned from Emmeline about Occlumency every night. The werewolf had no idea how long the nightmares were going to last—he'd hinted that Voldemort had somehow cast a spell over the entire wizarding world to cause them. The news hadn't really surprised Harry; he'd had a feeling the Dork Lord had had something to do with the nightmares and lack of sleep everyone had been experiencing.

It wasn't only Harry trying to practice Occlumency; after a week of studying the subject, Naomi had announced that Emmeline would be a guest speaker in class the next day to explain Occlumency and teach the students a few techniques. When Harry had gone to tell Naomi how great it would be, she'd seemed rather nervous about Emmeline being there.

"We're not sure if Emmeline being separated from the twins is a good idea. They've been showing signs of having nightmares as well, and Emmeline has been the only one who could calm John, although Remus is the only one who can calm Alex. It's actually a bit odd," Naomi said thoughtfully. "Normally, the mother is the only one who can calm newborns, or at least that's been my experience. Granted, I've only dealt with three newborns—you, Neville Longbottom, and Mira."

Harry was looking forward to the lesson with Emmeline, and was sure that as soon as the school day was over, she would be on her way back to Number Twelve to be with her children.

"Does anyone have any more black ink?" Ron asked the group, looking into his empty inkbottle.

Hermione sighed. "How is it that you never have enough ink?" she asked, sounding a bit irritated. "And why do we always have to give you ours."

Ron furrowed his brow at his girlfriend. "What's got your knickers in a twist?" he asked. "You've been like this all day."

Hermione glared at him.

"She's tired, Ron," Ginny said, not looking up from the essay she was working on. "We all are."

"Here," Harry said, handing Ron a new inkbottle.

"Cheers," Ron muttered, still eyeing Hermione a bit nervously.

Harry turned back to his homework, trying to ignore the tense atmosphere that had appeared between his friends within about a ten second period. To be truthful, Hermione had been somewhat moody all day, but Ginny had had her grumpy day yesterday, when she told Harry to sod off after he'd tried to kiss her. And Ron had thrown his potions book when he was unable to explain why the ingredients in Veritaserum caused the drinker to tell the truth.

Harry sincerely hoped someone figured out the counter-curse to whatever Voldemort did to the wizarding world soon, before people became so sleep deprived and irritable that somebody ended up hurt.

"Are you sure you're up to this?" Naomi asked Emmeline with a hint of skepticism.

Emmeline smiled and rolled her eyes. "You're sounding like Remus. Yes, I am up to this. It's not as though I'm going to be casting a ton of curses. I'm just speaking to them."

Sighing, Naomi nodded. "All right. You do realize, though, that you're starting to look like everyone else who hasn't been getting any sleep, right?"

"Yes, but it's nothing to do with nightmares; the twins and Mira seem to enjoy waking up in the wee hours of the morning." Emmeline yawned. "How've you been sleeping?"

"A little better, with the Dreamless Sleep Potions Poppy has been giving us. St. Mungo's should start giving it out to the general public who aren't good with potions."

The other witch nodded. "They're working on it, supposedly. It's taking a lot of time to produce mass quantities. And people aren't going to want just one batch, so they've got to keep brewing the stuff to keep up with the demand. That isn't exactly easy to do."

"Not to mention Dreamless Sleep Potions don't seem to keep the nightmares away completely. It just subdues the worse parts..."

Emmeline raised an eyebrow. "It subdues the worse parts?" she repeated. "So this spell must be worse than we thought."

"Remus hasn't told you anything about the dreams?"

Emmeline shook her head. "No, he doesn't want to talk about them. They must be quite nasty."

"They are," Naomi said. "You're seeing your entire family in different horrible situations every night. You wake up just wanting to see every one of them." She hesitated. "Last night, I had a dream—this is with the Dreamless Sleep potion, mind you—that Sirius had been captured and forced to watch Remus being tortured, then they tortured him to death."

It took a moment for Emmeline's face to change from horrified to troubled. "Okay, I'm teaching everyone Occlumency this weekend. I don't want any of you to have to see those things."

Naomi gave her a half-smile as she checked her watch. "The seventh years should be here soon. Shall we make our way down?"

Emmeline nodded and stood from the sofa in Naomi's office, and followed the other witch out of the office and down the stairs, into the classroom. A few Ravenclaws had already arrived, and they eyed Emmeline thoughtfully. Naomi pulled up another chair behind her desk for Emmeline to sit on. She furrowed her brow and leaned over to Naomi.

"I thought seventh year Gryffindors had Defense with the Slytherins," Emmeline said.

Naomi nodded. "They did, until Theodore Nott was arrested for trying to kill Harry. And fights kept breaking out, because the Slytherins were really quite livid—after Draco Malfoy, they decided it was the last straw. Then Pansy Parkinson hexed Lavender Brown with a hair-losing hex, and Snape and McGonagall decided it wasn't a good idea for them to have any classes together—they went to Dumbledore and rearranged all the classes Slytherins and Gryffindors had together."

Emmeline sighed. "The rivalry between Slytherin and Gryffindor was never that bad when we were in school."

"Nobody ever tried to do Unforgivables on fellow students when we were in school, either," Naomi said dryly.

"True."

The rest of the students began flooding in. Harry, Ron, and Hermione were among the last to arrive, but still got seats at the front of the classroom—they all smiled widely and waved to Emmeline. She winked back and gave them a small wave.

Naomi glanced at her watch and stood from her desk, using her wand to close the classroom door. "Okay, quiet down," she said over the chatting students. "We have a very interesting lesson today. As I told you last class, we have an expert on Occlumency with us today. She's been studying Occlumency since her third year at Hogwarts, and I believe she worked with Headmaster Dumbledore to improve her skills. She is the head of the Department of Magical Transportation at the Ministry, and on a more personal level, she just gave birth to two beautiful boys a few weeks ago—"

Emmeline rolled her eyes at Naomi, but smiled.

"Please welcome Mrs. Emmeline Lupin." Naomi waited for the applause to end (polite from the Ravenclaw end, and from most of the Gryffindors; and loud and rather unnecessary cheering from Ron, Harry, and Hermione). Naomi and Emmeline both laughed. "I expect you all to listen closely and take notes. You will have an assignment related to this lecture." She turned to Emmeline and gestured for her to stand and begin her lecture.

Emmeline smiled at the students. "Good afternoon," she said. "Professor Black has kept me up to date on your work with Occlumency, and we both thought, given the recent events, that it was time you all learned a few techniques to defend your minds against outside interference. I, myself, have been using Occlumency every night since I was in seventh year, and I've rarely had a problem with nightmares. Granted, sometimes, it does make it more difficult to wake me up, because I fall into a very deep sleep, but all in all, I've been quite happy with my ability to sleep all night without nightmares."

Hermione raised her hand. Emmeline pointed at her to ask her question. "Why did you begin learning Occlumency?" she asked.

Naomi stood from her desk before Emmeline could reply. "I don't think that's relevant," she said, knowing exactly why Emmeline started Occlumency.

"No, it's all right, Professor," Emmeline said. Naomi raised a skeptical eyebrow. "I began taking Occlumency lessons, because I saw my father murdered when I was a second year, and afterwards, I had horrible nightmares. My mother went to Headmaster Dumbledore and asked him if there was anything that might help me, and he recommended Occlumency, with private lessons twice a week with him." She carefully left out how her father was murdered—that information really wasn't relevant.

"And you stopped having nightmares after that?" Dean Thomas asked.

Emmeline nodded. "It took some time, but yes, I did eventually stop having nightmares."

The students look impressed.

Mandy Brocklehurst from Ravenclaw raised a hand next. "You said 'eventually you stopped having nightmares.' How long was it before the nightmares actually stopped?"

"Well, it's different for everybody on how long it takes. If you're working on your techniques to clear your mind on a very regular basis, it may take only a week or so. Occlumency is very dependent on how a wizard's mind reacts. If you're patient with Occlumency, and your mind is open, you can be quite successful with this technique," Emmeline replied. Mandy seemed pleased with this response.

"Now, I am going to teach you a few techniques to clear your minds."

"If this is like Divination, I'm leaving," Seamus muttered quietly to Dean.

"This is absolutely nothing like Divination," Emmeline said, grinning. "Not even close." Seamus turned red and tried to slide down in his chair. Naomi gave him a warning look. "The first thing I tell anyone I attempt to teach Occlumency is to close your eyes and forget about all of your problems and worries. One of the most important things you need to do is be calm. Do not ever attempt Occlumency when you're angry or upset or emotional. I'd like you all to please clear your desks, put your hands on top, relax, and close your eyes."

The students did as told. Emmeline turned around and smiled as she saw Naomi doing the same. Once every person in the room had their eyes closed, Emmeline began walking around the room to be sure they were relaxed. "Very good... Now I am going to dim the lights—it's much easier to relax when the room you're working in is comfortable and dimly lit," she said in a soft, soothing voice. "Next, I want you to empty your mind of everything—do not think about your lessons, or the upcoming N.E.W.T.s, or your boyfriend or girlfriend, or a fight with your best friend... Think of something, a picture or a scene, that makes you comfortable and relaxed..."

Emmeline waited a few moments for the students and Naomi to do what she'd told them to do. She could tell almost immediately who would be successful in Occlumency and who wouldn't—the bodies of the Gryffindor students were relaxed, and their faces looked peaceful; most of the Ravenclaws had tense bodies and looks of concentration on their faces. Harry seemed to be the only Gryffindor who managed it so quickly. Emmeline was certain that was due to the fact that he'd been working on Occlumency since his fifth year.

"Good," she said softly. "Open your eyes—continue to relax and clear your minds. As you've read in your textbooks, Occlumency is used to defend your mind against outside invasion or interference. I'd like to ask for a volunteer now. Before you all raise your hands," she said as a lot of the students started to volunteer, "let me explain what I want you to do. I am going to attempt to get into your mind. I will not delve in too far to your personal thoughts; my usual technique is finding happy memories, nothing embarrassing if I can help it. There are some people, whose minds contain strong bad memories—" Her eyes darted briefly to Harry; Harry gave her a small smile. "—that they sometimes overpower the happy memories. I will do my best to avoid that.

"Once again, who would like to volunteer?"

There were far less students eager to raise their hands. Hermione was one of the brave ones, as was Harry and a few Ravenclaws. To keep from showing too much favoritism, Emmeline selected Hermione and Michael Corner from Ravenclaw. "Only one of you have to come up to begin with; I'll work with the other in a few moments. Michael, would you like to go first?"

The Ravenclaw boy stood and made his way to the front of the classroom, smiling a little at Emmeline. Emmeline smiled back.

The witch took out her wand. "In order to try to get into a person's mind, you have to be experienced in a related technique to Occlumency called Legilimency. In my opinion, Legilimency is much more difficult than Occlumency, and it's taken me many years to learn the basics." She turned to Michael. "Michael, I'd like you to close your eyes again and relax; do your best not to think about anything."

Michael nodded and did as he was told.

"Good..." she said softly to Michael. "With your permission, Michael, I'd like to perform Legilimency on you. As I said before, I will do my best not to delve in too deeply, but I need you to let your mind be open. Do you agree?"

Michael nodded. "Yes," he said in a soft, strong voice.

"Okay, now open your eyes," Emmeline said, locking eyes with the boy. "On three, then, Michael... One... two... three... Legilimens!"

Flashes of memories began to play for Emmeline like a movie... A young Michael, no more than five or six, playing with three older brothers... His father teaching him to fly... Christmas days, opening presents with his family... Receiving his Hogwarts letter and getting sorted into Ravenclaw... a short-lived relationship with Ginny Weasley—

Michael then forced Emmeline out of his mind, his eyes rather wide. Emmeline stumbled a little, but caught her balance quickly. Emmeline got the idea Harry didn't know about this relationship—it hadn't lasted long, and it was before Harry and Ginny got together—and she and Michael exchanged a glance, and Emmeline sent him a silent message that his secret was safe with her. He nodded thankfully.

"Very good, Michael," Emmeline said aloud. "You seem to be a natural at mind-blocking techniques." She turned to the class. "When you become experienced in Occlumency, you will be able to push someone out of your mind. When I found a memory Michael didn't want me to see, he pushed me out of his mind. This shows his mind is very strong, and he's ready to pursue Occlumency seriously. Go ahead and have a seat, Michael, very good job."

The class applauded him.

"Thank you, Mrs. Lupin," Michael muttered, blushing a bit as he went back to sit by Lisa Turpin.

"All right, Hermione, you're next," Emmeline said. Hermione came to stand beside her. "Okay, this will mostly be the same as it was with Michael; I want you to relax and close your eyes, try not to think of anything." Emmeline heard Ron stifle a snicker—everyone knew how difficult it was for Hermione not to think about anything... Hermione glared at him. and Naomi gave another warning look to him. Emmeline bit her lip not to smile.

Hermione shook herself a little, closed her eyes, and attempted to relax. Meanwhile, Emmeline tried to clear her own mind; thoughts of what she would see in the young witch's mind crossed her mind. The last thing she wanted to see in Hermione's mind was her attack by Fenrir Greyback. "That's right..." she said softly to Hermione. She'd relaxed a lot more than she had during the initial relaxation request Emmeline had given the class. "With your permission, Hermione, I'd like to perform Legilimency on you. I will do my best not to delve in too deeply, but I need you to let your mind be open. Do you agree?" she repeated.

"Yes," Hermione said very quietly, and a little hesitantly.

Emmeline nodded and caught Hermione's eyes. "On three, then, Hermione... One… two… three… Legilimens!"

Flashes of Hermione and her parents walking through a park on a sunny day... Hermione getting her Hogwarts letter... the Sorting Hat announcing she was to belong to Gryffindor... meeting Harry and Ron... getting her first point for Gryffindor for answering a question correctly in Defense with Remus as the teacher...

Emmeline began to lose control of her spell...

Finding out her parents had been murdered... walking across Hogwarts grounds late in the evening under the light of the nearly full moon...

Emmeline began to panic a little. She forced herself out of Hermione's mind, looking away at the dragon skeleton that hung above the classroom, panting heavily. She looked at Hermione and found that the young woman had lost her balance, but quickly grabbed onto Naomi's desk to get it back. Her eyes were wide and a little fearful. Naomi quickly stood up and took Hermione to the other side of the room. She and Emmeline had discussed what to do if something like that had happened—Naomi gave Hermione a small block of chocolate, told her to eat it, and conjured a glass of water for Hermione to drink.

Ron got up from his desk and went to her, putting an arm around her shoulders and whispered something to her. Emmeline turned back to the class. "As you can see," she said a little shakily, "Legilimency and Occlumency can make you remember things you'd rather not. There are times when the Legilimens can't control where the subject's mind takes them, but it's usually not too hard to pull out of the mind." She decided not to tell about how difficult it'd been to get out of Harry's mind one or two times when he was learning Occlumency. "Er, I think we're done with volunteers for now."

Hermione was led back to a chair by her boyfriend. Emmeline walked over to her and knelt beside her. "Are you okay?" she asked very quietly.

The younger witch nodded. "I'm fine," she said, attempting a small smile. "And I'm not upset with you for seeing that."

Emmeline smiled back. "Good. We'll talk later, okay?"

"Okay."

Emmeline went back to the front of the class. "I'd like to give you all a few techniques you can practice on your own before you go to bed, or even before you take a test; Occlumency can help you focus more on what you've studied in order to get better grades..."

The bell rang an hour later—it was a double period in Defense—and the class applauded Emmeline for an excellent lesson. Harry, Ron, and Hermione were among the last to leave—they had a free period and decided to stay and talk to Naomi and Emmeline.

Emmeline and Hermione went up to Naomi's office, leaving the two boys with their professor.

"Well, that was an interesting lesson," Ron said flatly.

Naomi smiled. "It was... I think Emmeline pulled away before whatever she was seeing got any further along."

"Wonder what it was..."

"Could have been anything," Harry said. "Hermione's been through a lot in the past few years. And Emmeline's a very good Legilimens as well as an Occlumens; she can get around the bad stuff to the good stuff—"

"So why didn't she do that with Hermione?" Ron asked irritably.

Naomi sighed. "She probably did, but like she said, there are some things that get in the way..."

"That happened when she was teaching me Occlumency," Harry said. "I started remembering things from my kidnapping, and from when I lived with the Dursleys."

"Please don't blame Emmeline, Ron, these are difficult skills that even the best witch or wizard can't control sometimes," Naomi said. "But I do expect both of you to practice what you learned today. Harry, I know, has already been doing it for a few years, but please keep it up. It's not only to keep you from having nightmares, but to keep someone from getting into your mind. You're both at Headquarters a lot, and we don't need a Death Eater seeing into your mind and finding out what's going on and who's involved."

Both wizards nodded as Hermione and Emmeline came out of the office. "I think Hermione is feeling better," Emmeline said cheerfully. Indeed, Hermione was smiling. "The two of you should take her to the kitchens and get something in her stomach, if Naomi will give you permission, of course."

"Not a problem." Naomi bent over her desk and started scribbling a note for the three Gryffindors to take with them.

The next group of students started entering the room, so the two witches said bye to the three students, who left the room and started down to the kitchens.

Sirius was patrolling Diagon Alley to keep an eye on the shoppers who'd bravely ventured out, even with the Azkaban prisoners on the loose. There'd still been no attacks, but Sirius' experience told him it couldn't possibly be much longer. The coming weekend was the full moon. Sirius was bracing his team for attacks. And when he wasn't bracing his team, he was bracing Remus for what the werewolf had decided to do.

The suggestion had come up in a recent Order meeting. Due to the shock, Sirius couldn't even remember who'd brought it up—maybe Mad-Eye. But either way, the suggestion was out there, and it involved Remus leaving Number Twelve and figuring out a way to get the werewolves from the Underground in the same place. He'd once explained to the Marauders that a werewolf's howl could travel miles, and werewolves as far as Italy could hear the message with their excellent hearing. It would be a message from the alpha male of the pack, and those under his power would be forced to obey.

It was one of those things about werewolves Sirius never really understood. But it really seemed to make Remus nervous. When Sirius offered to go along as Padfoot in case Remus got in trouble, the werewolf went almost hysterical. He asked Sirius when he'd gotten so stupid, that werewolves would be able to smell him. Sirius reminded him about the Aurors going into the Underground to arrest the werewolves, when their scents were undetectable, but Remus was still highly opposed of the very thought.

This weekend's full moon would be just like it was when Remus had run off after Greyback: no one would hear from him until the next day. They would have to wait and worry about whether he would be coming back. Emmeline wasn't currently speaking to her husband, and Naomi called him a prat every chance she got. So Sirius had to keep his approval for what Remus was doing, no matter how slight it was, secret from anyone but Remus. That was the way Remus preferred it, anyway. The majority of the Order didn't know he was doing this; only those in Number Twelve, who'd heard the loud, one-way argument between the Lupins when Remus had told Emmeline what he was planning. Then she'd come after Sirius, blaming him for the stupid thing her husband was setting off to do. And Naomi was no help; she'd agreed with Emmeline.

The Marauders were hiding out on their own these days, trying to sleep, while also trying to avoid the wrath of their wives.

But if Sirius really thought on it, he didn't want Remus to do this either. He told Remus jokingly it was about time he'd taken charge of something, and how great it was Remus was finally doing something with his life (he'd gotten hit with a boil hex in a place he really didn't want to think about; he winced and put his hand on the spot he'd been hexed). So much could go wrong, though; those werewolves were wild, Remus was more civilized than Harry and Sirius put together. They could tear Remus apart without thinking twice about how to do it.

Sirius had offered to send along some Aurors—that was a big, fat no in Remus' opinion. He wanted nobody following him, no one that was on Voldemort's opposing side. If a Death Eater followed, and they got their throat ripped out, Remus said he wouldn't be all that miffed about that.

Whatever would happen on the full moon, Sirius only hoped his best friend was fully prepared. The last thing Sirius wanted was to face Emmeline if her husband died, regardless of Sirius' view on Remus' sanity.