Sirius looked up automatically when the door to the dormitory opened and Remus entered. He felt his chest tighten in anxious concern at his friend's drawn face, the black rings under his eyes and the way he had to grasp the door to stop from swaying, appalled at himself for not foreseeing this days ago. Remus was a good actor and preferred to keep his struggles to himself, something that his three friends usually saw through instantly.
The door closed and Remus' legs gave way from beneath him, his eyes rolling into the back of his head. James and Peter shouted, jumping up, but Sirius was already moving – having been watching the other boy closely – lunging forwards from his bed and catching Remus before he hit his head on the floor. He looked down at him in horror – the werewolf's eyelids were fluttering as though unable to close, only the whites of his eyes visible and his body twitched convulsively.
"Shit. Get Madam Pomfrey." Sirius ordered in a low voice. When neither of the other boys moved and just stared in shock instead, he raised his voice, "GET MADAM POMFREY!"
Peter nodded hurried and rushed from the dormitory as James stood back and watched, as though too stunned to move. Sirius tapped Remus' cheek lightly, repeating his name over and over. Short, rough groans were coming from him now, but the convulsing was starting to die down.
"Remus, come on," Sirius said, hearing his calm voice that so strongly contradicted the panic he was feeling, "Come on, don't let it take over. Concentrate. Look at me."
Remus seemed to respond to his voice and his eyes closed tightly.
"No, look at me, Remus."
Remus' eyes opened slowly and met Sirius', who swallowed thickly. The amber in them was the only colour evident there, the soft brown lost. They were filled with a struggling mixture of pain, panic and anger. Sirius felt Remus' chest starting to rise and fall more calmly under his hand.
"Okay." Sirius whispered breathlessly, "Okay…"
The dormitory door burst open and Madam Pomfrey entered, flushed and breathless. Unlike James and Peter, she didn't stop to stare in shock, but immediately knelt beside Sirius and Remus, busying herself with checking his temperature and pulse, holding his eyes wide to shine wandlight into them and asking questions that Sirius answered, because Remus could only rasp wordlessly and catch his breath at the pain it seemed like it caused.
"You will stay here." Madam Pomfrey instructed the watching boys briskly as she transfigured a stretcher and levitated Remus onto it and cast a wordless that made him go limp.
"What's happening?" Sirius demanded, "Is he going to be okay?"
Pomfrey hesitated uncharacteristically and James stepped forward impatiently, finally breaking out of his trance.
"It's okay, Madam Pomfrey," he said impatiently, "we know he's a werewolf. Is he going to be alright?"
Madam Pomfrey stared between the three of them with something akin to shock and admiration in her eyes, before shaking herself and answering, "Yes, well, I think so. I've read about this kind of full moon. The wolf is trying to get out, but because there is no moon in the sky, it can't. Instead, it is trying to rip it's way out by force. It can't succeed so…" she trailed off, clearing her throat as she looked down at Remus tenderly, like a grandmother looking at her grandchild. "I need to get him to the hospital wing. Thank you for calming him down Sirius, but I don't want any of you visiting until after the transformation."
Sirius watched, feeling helpless, as she started towards the door, the stretcher following. The nurse turned before she disappeared, to smile at them sadly.
"Thank you." She said, and left.
"For what?" Peter asked in confusion, but James waved a hand and rounded on Sirius.
"What's happening to him?" he demanded, "You know what it is, don't you?"
"Yes." Sirius snapped back, lifting his chin in the defiant sham the others had nick named the Son of a Black pose, "He doesn't want anyone else to know."
James stared back for a long moment, before backing off and nodding in defeat.
"Fine. I know how his pride gets in the way of his welfare."
"You can ask him yourself in a couple of days, but it's not my place to say."
They were silent for a while, each considering their own thoughts quietly, until James clapped his hands together and said with false bravado, "Right! Let's go down to the Room of Requirement and open up shop. Moony would never forgive us if we skipped a day of work just for him."
The rest of the day was uneventful, but painful. Sirius was fidgety in the rest of his classes as he waited for the moon to rise and got reprimanded by teachers more than once. It was down an empty corridor at ten pm that evening and on his way back from writing lines for Professor Awarey, their Defence Against the Dark Arts professor this year, that Sirius encountered Snape.
Hardly in the mood to deal with the slimy Slytherin, Sirius made to simply ignore the other boy as he passed him in the corridor, but Snape apparently wanted to get hexed, as he called after him: "Where's your lover at, Black?"
Sirius stopped, his shoulders tensing, and turned to meet the greasy haired boy's smirk with a stony expression, "And to whom are you referring, Snape?" he asked coldly.
"Lupin, of course." Snape drawled, "The one you were embracing so closely at the lake yesterday night? Half the school witnessed your sickening display, Black."
There was no point in explaining, so Sirius just said, "Go fuck yourself, Snivellus," and spat on the floor at Snape's feet and turned to walk away. He had to meet James and Peter in the common room so they could make their way outside under the invisibility cloak. They always arrived in the shack before Madam Pomfrey and Remus did, to wait with him when she had gone until the moon rose. Then they would transform into their animal counterparts and let the full moon commence. He was close to running late and this snake wasn't helping anything.
"You don't get to disrespect me, bloodtraitor." Snape hissed vehemently. Sirius spun just in time to see Snape lifting his wand and cast a hasty disarming spell, quickly discarding magic soon after and stalking forwards to pin the Slytherin against a wall with his forearm pressing threateningly into his throat.
"I didn't realise being called a bloodtraitor would bother you so much." Snape sneered, trying to sound amused, but choking slightly instead when Sirius pressed his arm forwards into his throat. Sirius laughed a chilling, humourless laugh.
"Oh, believe me, Snivellus, it doesn't." he spat, "Unfortunately, though, you've caught me on a bad day. I'm rather more interested in why you find me and Remus so intriguing."
"I know what he is." Snape whispered. Sirius released him quickly and stepped back.
"What do you mean—"
"Don't act dumb, Black," Snape smirked, stepping forwards, "He disappears one night every month, he—"
"Shut up." Sirius clenched his fists and leant towards Snape, a twisted smile cricking his sharp features, "If you know so much, why haven't you gone running to Dumbledore?"
"Once I get evidence, I will."
Sirius' smile widened and he stepped forward, making Snape back up against the wall, "You want evidence? He transforms under the Whomping Willow. Press the knot on the base of the tree to get past."
Leaving that morsel of information, Sirius turned and left Snape staring after him in surprise for a moment, before he heard running footsteps in the opposite direction. Sirius allowed himself a small smirk and continued on to the Tower. He didn't get very far, however, as James and Peter ran into him in the entrance hall.
"Where the hell have you been? It's almost time!" James scolded, "We were going to go down without you, even though we couldn't exactly control a bloody werewolf without Padfoot."
"Ran into Snivellus," Sirius muttered distractedly as he followed them out of the castle doors, "He was getting unnecessarily nosy about where Remus disappears to every month, so I gave him a hint of how to find what he's looking for."
"What?" James asked dumbly, stopped in his tracks and making Sirius walk into him. Even Peter looked shocked. "You sent Snape to the Shrieking Shack? Where Remus is about to transform any minute?"
"Serves him right for bothering—"
"No, Black, you idiot!" James gasped, staring through the darkness towards the Whomping Willow, desperately wringing his hands. He turned to Sirius furiously, "What the fuck did you think would fucking happen? That Snape would get a scratch and a little scare and be on his way? He'll get bitten—no, no, he'll be killed. And do you know what that would make your friend, Remus? A murderer."
"James," Peter said urgently, pointing through the dark. James and Sirius looked around and saw Snape at the Willow, using a long branch that Pomfrey must have left to poke at the base. They watched in horror, Sirius feeling his heart race and his palms grow slick – what had he done?
"Oh gods," James muttered, before setting off at a dead sprint towards the Willow without a backwards look, Peter hurriedly transforming into a rat and following to let James into the secret passage under the tree. Sirius watched them disappear and sank to his knees with a helpless sob.
