Sirius frowned in his sleep, he felt cold. He groaned and reached for his covers, he couldn't feel any and his bed was unusually hard. He suddenly realised he was on the floor. He groggily opened his eyes and looked around, his eyes met those of Remus, who was looking at him in horror.

"Sirius, I'm so sorry!" Sirius frowned and moved, then felt the pain in his side and realised what Remus meant, he looked down at the scratches.

"Don't worry Remus, it's not a bite."

"I know Padfoot but still..."

"Hey, Remus." Sirius put a hand on his shoulder. "These things can happen, I'm just surprised that you lost control for a minute. Did you take the potion at the wrong time?" Remus swallowed, he knew what had caused him to lose control of Moony.

"I think I was just...to be honest Sirius I was distracted, my mind was on other things when I transformed."

"Distracted? By what?"

"It is the first time I have transformed in a building with such close proximity to another person in two years. It was hard enough at Hogwarts, luckily Dumbledore locked me in the room of requirement the first couple of times I transformed to help me get my werewolf side under control but I haven't had to deal with humans so close for so long I seem to have lost the knack."

"Well don't worry. No one will be here for a while and I think you'll only transform once more before we have to worry. I'll just transform into a dog before nightfall and I can keep you in check until the moon wanes with the dawn. It's fine, a little like old times." He smiled and Remus who smiled back.

"Than you Padfoot."

"No worries Moony." Sirius suddenly realised they were both naked. "I'll go get dressed and put the kettle on Moony, I suggest you also do the former." Sirius quickly left the room.

That morning after Sirius had bandaged his cuts and he and Remus had got over their initial embarrassment of waking up naked together, they cleared out another bedroom and started on what Sirius assumed had been one of his parents' study. They were just sitting down to lunch when a clatter in the hall made Mrs Blacks portrait scream.

"FILTHY HALF BREEDS! FILTHY TRAITORS! HOW DARE YOU DISRESPECT THE NOBLE HOUSE OF BLACK!"

"Shut up you crazy bitch!" Sirius shouted as he ran to close the curtains. Remus moved into the hall to see who had arrived. It turned out to be Moody and a girl Remus had never seen before.

"Hello Remus."

"Hello Alastor. How are you?"

"As well as can be expected. How are you? Last night alright?"

"Nothing special." He shrugged, trying to banish the memories of last night. Moody nodded then gestured to the woman next to him.

"This is Nymphadora."

"Don't call me Nymphadora!"

"She prefers her surname, Tonks."

"So would you if your fool of a mother had called you Nymphadora. Sorry about knocking over the stand and waking up the old bat." Tonks said as she held out her hand to Remus, who shook it.

"Moody, Tonks! I didn't think you were coming today." Sirius smiled as he came back from closing the drapes on his mother.

"Change of plan cousin." Tonks smiled and gave Sirius a hug. "We didn't have anything better to do and Dumbledore said we might as well come here and keep you guys company. We can help sort more rooms before everyone else arrives as well." They all went into the kitchen and Sirius put the kettle on.

"So Tonks." He smiled as they sat down. "What amazing things you've been up to while I've been stuck in here?" Tonks shrugged.

"Not a lot to be honest. Dumbledore's still getting the old crowd together and we're keeping an eye on Harry."

"And how is he?"

"As well as can be expected. He is on his own with those awful muggles but he seems safe." Sirius nodded, Remus put a hand on his shoulder. He knew Sirius would love nothing more than to take Harry out of the Dursley's care and back to his house permanently but Sirius was still a wanted man. Sirius still wasn't going to see Harry for several weeks and Remus knew how hard it was for him. He decided that a change of subject was needed.

"So how long are you two planning on staying and helping us out?"

"Until Dumbledore tells us otherwise I guess." Tonks said shrugging. "So. Do we need to pick a room and clear it or do you have rooms you can give us already?"

"There's a couple upstairs you can have. I'll show you then if you're not too tired you guys can help us clear a study we found this morning." Sirius showed Tonks and Moody the rooms they could use then all four of them cleared out the study. With four people working together it took a lot less time for them to clear the rooms.

After three days Sirius realised there was something wrong with him. It wasn't until he changed his bandages that he noticed the scratches were infected. It had probably been all the dirty rooms he spent the day in. He was reluctant to tell anyone, not wanting Remus to feel guilty, but when he collapsed half way through dinner, Moody discovered the problem.

"What do we do?" Tonks asked as they helped Sirius into bed. We can't exactly take him to St Mungos."

"There's only one thing we can do Tonks." Moody sighed. "And I can guarantee Sirius won't like it. The only person we can trust who has any amount of healer training is Snape." Remus shook his head.

"If we tell him about this Sirius will kill us."

"I know that Remus but if we don't Sirius could die." Moody growled. "I'll let Dumbledore know, he'll know where Snape is, you two stay here and try to keep him comfortable." Sirius had already drifted into a fitful sleep. Moody left to see Dumbledore and Tonks went downstairs to make some tea while Remus sat next to Sirius' bed and watched over him.

"I'm so sorry Padfoot." He whispered. After a few minutes, Tonks came in, managing to spill half the tea on the floor. She sat next to Remus.

"You okay?"

"This is all my fault."

"Don't say that Remus, it wasn't your fault." Tonks put her arms around Remus and he returned her hug, grateful for the comfort. Sirius watched them from half open eyes and felt a stab of some strong emotion, to his confusion it felt strangely like jealousy. So Remus was friends with his cousin so what? He closed his eyes fully again and drifted off to sleep. The next thing he was aware off was burning pain in his side and lots of worried voices shouting instructions at each other as someone did something to his scratches. Then nothing but darkness.