Disclaimer: Not mine…it isn't mine! Stop asking me that, it isn't mine!

A/N: Well I hope that you enjoy this chapter. I have absolutely nothing to say besides this, but that may be because I'm in a draining history class.

Just to let you know I use the timeline that says the Marauders were in school during the sixties, if this bothers you than just ignore all cultural references to the period. This particular chapter was set in their sixth year obviously.

Becoming Moony: A Deadly Prank

Remus stared out of the Infirmary window, a tear making its way down his cheek. He couldn't believe it, couldn't believe what Sirius had done. What had he done to deserve this? He had thought that Sirius had cared about him, had been a friend. Had Remus just been fooling himself?

What had occurred not twenty-four hours ago was almost unmentionable. Remus couldn't even think about it without a shudder running across his body like tiny mice across linoleum.

Flashback

Moony sniffed the air, cautious for some reason. The air smelt thick, thick with fear and anticipation. As if it was waiting with baited breath for something to happen, something with disastrous consequences.

Moony trembled, scared for once in his life. Where were his pack mates? Why weren't they here with him, to help protect him? Where was Prongs with his infallible loyalty? Where was Wormtail, whose cowardliness brought comedy to the little pack? And where was Padfoot? Why wasn't the most important member here? Why was Padfoot, his mate in every aspect, not here to help protect him?

Moony paused as he heard gravel crunching in the tunnel below his paws. Footsteps, human footsteps, pattered across the rocks that formed the tunnel. Moony crawled forward on his stomach to peer curiously into the opening. He cocked his head to the side, trying to decide whether to explore or not. Without his pack he was not as brave, but the temptation was too much. He lowered himself slowly into the tunnel, his fur catching slightly on the sharp rocks.

He peered around the rock-strewn corner and stared at what he saw before him. A boy, not much older than he was, stood before him. His dark hair shined in the moonlight that managed trickle in through the holes in the wall. His nose was prominent and his eyes wide with wonder. One would think that he had never seen a tunnel before. Humans were such simple creatures and Moony longed to play with them. He wouldn't hurt them, that would be terribly rude, but he wanted to experience the melancholy simplicity that seemed to seep out of them.

As Moony moved forward a small rock got caught under his paw and it skipped down the length of the chamber. It came to rest at the boy's feet, the boy glanced up. Moony perked his ears up and peered further around the corner. The boy froze, his eyes widening to an almost comical proportion.

Moony didn't know why the boy was panicking so badly, he just wanted to play. He wasn't going to hurt him or anything. Moony barked in what he thought was a joyous and playful yip. The boy's panic only seemed to increase.

As the boy stepped backwards he tripped over a protruding rock and fell to the ground. He trembled as Moony took a step forward, his face was milk white. Not that he had much color to begin with, thought Moony with a laugh. The snorting laugh of the wolf seemed to snap the boy out of his fear-induced stupor. He stumbled to his feet, trying to get to the entrance.

Moony's ears drooped, he couldn't leave yet! They hadn't even had a good romp around the woods yet. The sudden pounding of another's feet alerted both the wolf and the boy to another's presence. A familiar smell drifted towards Moony's nose. Prongs approached, but he smelt different. Changed somehow as if he weren't truly animal.

Another black haired boy tore down the tunnel towards the two. Moony glanced at him in confusion, this human smelled like Prongs but he was human. How was that possible?

"Snape! Come on, move your arse. We've go to get out of here!"

The first boy stumbled forward his eyes still pinned on Moony. The second boy shoved Snape headlong down the tunnel and glanced back at Moony.

"Stay there Moony, don't make me hurt you."

Hurt him? He wouldn't hurt anybody. And how did this boy who smelled like Prongs know his name? Wait! Wizards, he had heard of wizards from Padfoot. He had said that wizards could sometimes change shape, which meant--. His pack brothers weren't animals! They were wizard animals. Animagy or something like that.

Moony cowered back towards the entrance to the shack, making whimpering noises at the thought of his brothers lying to him. The wizard pack brother named Prongs glanced sadly at him before following the wizard called Snape.

"I'm going to kill Sirius for this." mumbled human Prongs as he traveled down the corridor; content that Moony wasn't going to attack him.

What was a Sirius? Moony thought, crawling back to his little room at the top of his wooden prison.

As reality returned to Remus and the wolf retreated for another month, the magnitude of what had happened that night hit Remus like a ton of cinder blocks. He pieced together the moments that seemed fuzzy and didn't like the conclusion he came up with. James's sorrowful face as he ascended from the tunnel just added onto the feelings of betrayal and guilt.

End Flashback

Remus sighed once more and turned to go back to his bed. James and Dumbledore had explained what Moony could not, like what had happened to Severus. Severus had sworn to never tell a soul, although Remus didn't believe him. Remus knew that Severus harbored too much resentment against him, he would tell someone someday. Remus also knew who had caused this ruckus, Sirius. Sirius had done this, his best friend and crush had single handedly ruined his life.

Remus sank onto his bed, grateful for its unwavering support. His back hurt much more than it usually would have, he didn't have two furry bodies playing pillow this month. A creaking of the doors brought Remus's attention to it. The doors opened and closed by an invisible force. Somebody had James's Invisibility Cloak, he wondered if James knew about it. The person couldn't possibly be James, he had detention from Dumbledore.

Remus sucked in a breath as Sirius swept the valuable cloak from his shoulders. He had no wish to see Sirius right now and judging by the look on Sirius's face, he knew that Remus didn't want to see him.

Sirius shuffled forward, agony and guilt covered his face. His eyes were red-rimmed as if he had been crying. Good, thought Remus, he deserved to be miserable. Sirius wrung his hands over and over as Remus stared at him, saying nothing. A cough came from Sirius followed by a clearing of his throat. He ran his hands through his hair multiple times, obviously wanting to say something but not knowing how. Sirius ran his hands once more through the black locks, something he did only when he was exceedingly nervous or really had to go to the loo.

"Remus…" started Sirius, only to be abruptly cut off.

"I don't want to talk to you."

"But, Remus-"

"No. Go away."

"But-"

"Sirius, why would I want to talk to you? You could have ruined my life! Do you know what would have happened if I had hurt Severus at all? I would have been put in Azkaban at best and be put down like an animal at worst! How could you even foster the smallest thought that I might want to talk to you? If I never see you again it will be far too soon Sirius Black!"

Sirius stepped backwards as if he had been physically struck. His eyes darted around the room as they welled up with tears. Remus glanced down, feeling slightly guilty. He had never seen Sirius cry nor had he ever heard of Sirius crying. Sirius rubbed the back of his neck and nodded shakily.

"Okay. Okay, I'll leave…Moony…I...I'm so sorry."

Remus glanced down at his lap, hoping that Sirius would leave soon so that he was not tempted to throw himself at the seventeen year old. The stuttering and muttering was beginning to get to him. Sirius's expression was pulling at Remus's heartstrings painfully.

Sirius left after a few more moments of stuttering and Remus pointedly ignoring him. Sirius returned the cloak to his body and swept out of the hospital wing as if the Devil himself was chasing him. Or a werewolf, laughed Remus. He picked at his bandages miserably, what was he going to do? The love of his young life had betrayed him so totally that everything seemed irreparable. Had he lost his best friend? For Sirius was his best friend. James and Peter were great, but Sirius had always been there for him.

Remus started as he felt a tissue being pushed into his hands, he hadn't noticed he had been crying. Remus glanced up into the worried looking face of James. He smiled a watery smile at the boy, who plopped down next to Remus.

"What am I going to do James? I want to forgive him, but I don't know if I can." said Remus, leaning back onto the pillows.

"I don't know Rem. There isn't anything I can do because it isn't my choice. It's yours." James shrugged and slouched down next to him. Remus placed his head onto James's shoulder and sighed. It seemed he was sighing a lot today and it was beginning to make him mad. He didn't want to be such a whinny baby and decide "life wasn't fair". Because life wasn't fair, it really wasn't and there wasn't anyone in the world that could do anything about that.

James slung his arm around Remus's shoulders and hugged the smaller boy to him, he didn't generally like being touchy feely, but Remus seemed to need the comfort. Not that James blamed Remus; anyone would be feeling like shit if one of his or her friends did something like this. James didn't know what to tell Remus, he really didn't. There was no use in spewing out useless condolences; they didn't make anyone feel any better. James just wished that Sirius wasn't such a berk and made an effort to control his temper.

Sirius sat up in the dorm room, feeling like a complete ass. He hoped that Remus never forgave him; he didn't deserve Remus's forgiveness. As the tears dripped down his face he realized that no matter what he did to make his mother mad, he would always be a Black. There was no getting around that and it didn't make Sirius feel any better.

November passed and the Marauders still weren't speaking to Sirius. For Sirius wasn't a Marauder anymore, he couldn't be, he didn't deserve it. The title of Mr. Padfoot was earned, not freely given. Sirius wasn't sure how much longer he could stand the emotional coldness of the dorm. The room froze over with the icy glares of James and, surprisingly, Peter. Remus was still ignoring him, which, in the end, hurt worse than the blatant glares being shot at him every which way.

The entire school could feel the tangible hostility that appeared to surround Sirius. People avoided him at all costs, not even his fan club would speak to him. The teachers had all heard about the incident and went out of their way to make Sirius miserable. If he wasn't in detention he was doing an extra three feet of homework for every class. He was falling behind which made the work worse; most teachers gave extra homework for unfinished work.

It wasn't as if Sirius could get help, James and Remus weren't speaking to him and Lily hated him like no other. The Ravenclaws didn't much care for him either; he had dated and dumped one too many girls from that house. So his schoolwork piled up and detentions doubled. All of this nearly brought Sirius to his knees, even Regulus was worried for him, and that made Sirius more determined to do it all. He wouldn't fail, Sirius Black didn't fail!

Remus was very concerned. Sirius was looking threadbare and terribly thin. Remus wasn't sure when Sirius had actually eaten last. Something had to be done before the silly boy killed himself trying to do everything.

Remus perched on the side of his bed, deciding that this whole mess had gone on for too long. He could forgive, if not forget. Nobody had been hurt, at least not physically, and dragging this disaster around with him was ruining everyone's life. Remus had to do something and soon, but how could he break the ice with Sirius, who had been ignoring Remus as much as he had been ignoring Sirius.

Remus stood and went to find the missing Black, he was a Gryffindor if nothing else, and courage was a must. The library was a good shot nowadays; the poor boy was always in there, trying to get all the schoolwork done. It was terrible that the teachers felt the need to punish Sirius as well. It was uncalled for and not appropriate for the staff to do so.

As Remus stepped into the library, Madam Pince came up to him. He looked at her; she nodded towards the back of the library and whispered to him that 'if he didn't get that boy out of her library within the next ten minutes she was going to throw him out'. Remus laughed quietly and moved towards the back. Madam Pince was apparently the only one who didn't know about their spat.

"Sirius." said Remus, standing behind Sirius, putting his hands on Sirius's thinner shoulders. Sirius tensed and then turned his head to look up at Remus. Remus's heart broke a little more at Sirius's morose expression. His eyes were bloodshot, he had dark circles around his eyes, his face was pale and drawn, to be frank, he looked like death warmed over.

"Sirius, come on. Let's get you out of here." said Remus, lifting Sirius out of his chair. Remus packed up the papers and books on the desk with a flick of his wand and led Sirius out of the musty chamber.

"But, I have to finish…" started Sirius, trying to turn back into the library. Remus shook his head.

"No you don't. At least not right now, I'll help you later." Remus stumbled to a halt as Sirius dug his feet into the stone.

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why would you help me? You don't want to talk to me anymore, remember?" Remus sighed, and shook his head again. This was his fault.

"Sirius, I…I'm not mad anymore. I don't think I ever was. I just felt betrayed. Why did you do it? Why would you?"

"I didn't mean to it just slipped out. Can we not talk about this in the middle of the hallway?"

"Sure. Let's go back to the dorm. You can have a proper shower." said Remus. Sirius really did need a proper shower; he hadn't washed his hair in three weeks. It was beginning to look like Snape's.

Sirius lowered his head, a blush staining his cheeks. Remus led Sirius all the way back to the dorm, which was empty for the moment. James, once again, had detention and Peter was with his "special friend".

Remus dug through the tornado that was Sirius's school bag as the aforementioned boy took a thorough shower. There was a mound of parchment that Remus was sure equaled up to one of the trees in the Forbidden Forest, a stack of books that came up to Remus's knees, and a large handful of quill stubs and loose feathers. It was all in all a very depressing predicament.

Sirius stepped out of the bathroom with a towel around his hips and a small smile on his face. Remus was sure his face was turning twelve shades of red, but he smiled back. It was so good to see a smile on Sirius's face. The grin, small as it was, lit up his face and brought life back into his stormy grey eyes.

"I didn't mean to do that to you Remy, I care too much about you for that." Remus blushed harder still, but smiled up at Sirius.

"I know Sirius, but what caused you to do it?"

"Snape provoked me this time, I swear it. That little snot faced shit."

"Sirius! That is not the point."

"Yes it is. What he said was the reason I told. I just felt so…enraged, like the anger had consumed me and just spilled over." Sirius shook his head as he pulled his pajama bottoms on; Remus was pointedly ignoring the process.

"What could he possibly have said that made you that angry?" asked Remus, scooting back so that Sirius could lounge next to him on the bed.

"He wouldn't shut up. He said some really nasty things about you. And I just wanted him to be quiet. I thought maybe he would chicken out at the last minute."

"He obviously didn't. What was he saying about…me?" Remus turned his head to look at Sirius, still shuffling the parchment tree. Sirius shook his head vehemently.

"No. It's not worth repeating and I'm not going to. Not to your face, it was pretty harmful Rem."

"It's probably not anything I haven't heard before."

"That's the problem! You're so calm about it. You never worry about yourself, and your self esteem is so low I'm pretty sure that nobody short of a flobberworm could limbo under it." shouted Sirius, throwing his arms up into the air, nearly hitting Remus in the face.

Remus burst into startled laughter, "Where in Merlin's name did you learn about the limbo?"

Sirius blushed, "It was in a book a read, for muggle studies you know."

Remus had forgotten that Sirius had switched Divination for Muggle Studies. He had said something about Professor Hipswitch being a kooky old crackpot. Sirius had probably also switched because it made his mother mad. Which may not have been the best idea in Remus's opinion. You did not want to make an enemy of Walburga Black.

Remus struggled to stop laughing as Sirius was beginning to look put out. It was funny that, for all of Sirius's pureblooded-ness, he was essentially a muggle. He loved anything muggle. If it looked muggle, smelled muggle, and felt muggle Sirius was all over it. It made for some pretty embarrassing moments. Sirius already had dreams of grandeur that he would move into a muggle flat, own a muggle car, and wear muggle fashion. Not that he didn't wear muggle clothing already, where he got them Remus didn't know.

"I'm sorry Sirius, that was too funny. And my self esteem isn't that low." The sad thing was, however, was that his self-esteem was that low. He didn't really care much for himself; too many years thinking he was a monster had remedied any sort of positive thoughts.

"Yes it is Remus, don't lie again. You can't lie for peanuts." said Sirius, taking a risk to throw his arm around Remus and hugging him.

Remus smiled into Sirius's shoulder. Sirius knew him far too well.

"It's alright Padfoot. I forgive you. Now, lets get started on this mountain of work, hmm?" said Remus, plopping a stack of the parchment onto Sirius's flannel covered lap.

"Great." said Sirius, sarcasm dripping from his voice like honey on a fresh from the oven roll. Remus laughed again and patted Sirius's arm, they would get through this all right. The pain would fade eventually and until then Remus could bury it under a rock in the back of his mind.

Things went mostly back to normal for the small group. James had obviously missed his brother in all but blood and had welcomed him back with open arms. It may have also been because Remus wasn't all that great at coming up with pranks. The one that had gained Remus their friendship had been a one in a million, he had quickly fallen into the researcher position in the group.

Peter took a bit more persuasion but eventually convinced him that everything was fine. Sirius didn't take his refusal too personally, he never did. Sirius had also gotten his spirit back and, with the return of Remus, many of his fans.

Moony was the only one who took more than a little convincing. He still hadn't gotten over the fact that his best, and only, friends weren't what they claimed to be. Moony eventually got over it, the pain of not having anyone with him on the full moons got to be too much and actively went out to find his friends one night. He found them waiting just outside the Willow, waiting for him to come and play. He soon forgot all about the strange and somewhat terrible night that nearly tore his friends apart. Remus would never forget, but he forgave and gave up trying to bury it. It was a testament to his and Sirius's friendship that they were able to keep it alive after so much turmoil.