Chapter 2

Sirius hadn't believed Remus when the other man had told him that his missions for the Order weren't that exciting or interesting. He had convinced himself that Remus had only said these things to try to make Sirius feel better about being cooped up in Grimmauld Place. After three weeks of shadowing Remus whilst he worked undercover, Sirius not only believed Remus, but had also reached the conclusion that Remus had overstated his missions somewhat.

He was now sitting in a shady looking pub, not even able to have a drink, whilst Remus talked about the recent changes in Ministry policy with two other werewolves.

Sirius wasn't tired, he'd soon found that he no longer needed sleep, but he couldn't stop himself from the habit of yawning with boredom. "Are you done here yet?" he asked, no longer even hoping for an answer.

"Another round?" Remus asked his companions.

"Apparently not," Sirius muttered in answer to his own question. "And you can't afford to keep buying the drinks. No wonder you aren't eating properly."

"We should be heading home," replied the older of the two men Remus was talking with.

Remus looked disappointed but the smile remained on his face, and Sirius knew that he was the only one who could tell it was faked.

-o-xXx-o-

Sirius followed Remus back to the bed and breakfast, and listened to him as he chattered away to no one, or more accurately to him. He knew well enough by now that Remus had no idea that he had company, but it hadn't stopped his friend from talking away as though Sirius were still in the room with him.

More than anything, Sirius wanted to speak to him and be heard. He wasn't sure what he wanted to say, though as he watched Remus pick dejectedly at his supper, he suspected a lecture on taking care of himself was top of his list.

"Full moon soon," Sirius commented to himself. "Got somewhere safe to spend it?"

Remus didn't answer, but turned to look out of the window at the waxing moon.

"Do you have any idea how creepy it is when you do that?" Sirius asked, his chin resting on his hand as he slouched across the bed, hovering several inches above the mattress. "It's like you can hear me, but you're ignoring me. You know how much I hate being ignored."

Remus stood up and picked up his half-eaten sandwich, tossing the same into the garbage. Sirius scowled at the bin, then at his friend. "I should go and find someone else to help me, shouldn't I?" he whispered. "You can't see or hear me, and being here like this with you is torture. Got any ideas on where I should go? Dumbledore couldn't see or hear me, and they don't come more powerful than him. The Ministry doesn't sound like a barrel of laughs either. Maybe after the full moon, after I've checked you're all right, I should move on?"

Remus sat back down on the bed and sighed loudly. "I've really got to move on, haven't I?" he asked the empty room. "It's no use moping around like this. If you could see me now, you'd think me the biggest sort of fool."

"Never, Moony," Sirius whispered.

"I'm such a coward," Remus continued. "Too scared to tell you anything I thought you wouldn't want to hear."

"Is this about Snivellus?" Sirius asked. "For Salazar's sake, forget about it! So what if you didn't tell us off for teaching the little git a lesson? You told us all the important stuff, and that's all that matters."

"…just three little words, and I couldn't bring myself to say them. Now, I'll never get the chance."

"Three little words?" Sirius whispered. It couldn't be, could it? Now he thought about it, when was the last time Remus had been in a relationship with a woman…with anyone? He's always assumed that there had been some nice girl for Moony whilst he had been languishing in Azkaban. He'd been mildly surprised that his friend, certainly the nicest of the marauders, had not settled down and married. Remus had brushed off his questions on the topic with the single word…werewolf. Now, he wondered if there might be another reason for Remus's perpetually single status.

Sirius frowned to himself as he pondered his friend's words. Unbidden, a memory, long forgotten, flitted across his mind.

"Remus? You in here?" Sirius had called, as quietly as he could within the confines of the library of Hogwarts. He knew that Remus was panicking about the upcoming NEWTs the following month, but he had to take some time off sooner or later. And if he didn't, Sirius would see to it that he did.

He had walked down the aisles of books, looking left and right and left again to see where his friend was camped out.

He had finally spotted him sitting with one of the Ravenclaw Chasers, both seemingly engrossed in their books.

Moony had appeared flushed, and more than a little rumpled around the edges. "You need to take some time off, mate," Sirius had told him, pulling the book from his friend's hands and tucking it into his bag.

Remus hadn't argued, although the Ravenclaw had snickered slightly into his own book. Sirius had ignored him and tugged Remus along for a tension-relieving prank.

He didn't know why that memory had chosen to pop into his head at this precise moment. It was one of many times that he'd braved the library to track down one or another of his friends. It wasn't even the only time that he'd tracked down Remus whilst he wasn't alone. But something about that memory now made perfect sense to him.

The way Remus had flushed, the snickering of the Ravenclaw, the slightly askew ties of the two boys, the brief backward glance Remus had given the other boy, it all suddenly made sense.

"Oh, Remus," Sirius sighed. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Even if you'd hated me, it would've been better than this," Remus said. "This…not knowing…wondering…"

"I could never hate you," Sirius told him, his voice rising slightly with conviction. "Never, Moony. You have to believe that. How can you ever think otherwise?"

"There were so many times when I had the chance to tell you how I felt. So many times I could have told you I…"

Sirius looked on helplessly as Remus's voice cracked. He reached out his hand towards the single tear that had leaked from Remus's right eye. It fell, unhindered down the other man's face, through Sirius's finger, before dripping onto Remus's shirt.

"You didn't have to tell me, Moony," he said. "I think, perhaps, I already knew. Deep down I think I knew all along, just like I knew all along how I felt about you. Why else would I come to you for help, knowing that I could at least speak with the Unspeakables at the Ministry? I just wanted any excuse to see you again. I'm sorry I never told you how much you mean to me. I never even told you enough for you to realise that I could never, ever, hate you."

Sirius finished his speech and watched as Remus forcibly pulled himself together and turned back the covers of the bed. Remus didn't sleep for a long while, but Sirius never moved from his side. He knew he couldn't stay with him forever, he'd already made up his mind to leave after the full moon. But, selfish though it may be, he didn't want to leave his side for so much as a minute.

-o-xXx-o-

Although Sirius had wondered briefly whether Remus had made arrangements for the night of the full moon, he didn't expect him to be joining the local werewolves. Somehow, he'd always thought that Remus would find an abandoned building, a secure basement or some other such place to wait for the full moon to pass.

He didn't expect Remus to walk to the local woods, dangerously close to the populated area, and meet up with four of the werewolves he'd been meeting in the last few weeks.

"Moony, what are you doing?" he asked, more than a little frustrated, and fearful for not only the safety of the locals, but the safety of his friend.

"You came?" the eldest of the men in the woods said. He sounded as surprised as Sirius was.

"You invited me," Remus replied with a shrug. "It's not like I had a hot date tonight anyway."

Sirius smiled at Remus's weak joke, and breathed a sigh of relief that it had eased some of the tension between the party.

"It's soon," the youngest member of the party said, fear evident in his voice. "I can feel it."

"Me too," Remus agreed.

Sirius looked up through the trees; the sky had clouded over and he couldn't see a single star. He knew the moon would be similarly hidden when it rose, but he also knew that the werewolves could sense the rise of the moon without needing to see it. He'd once asked Remus how he could tell when the moon was rising, but Remus hadn't been able to explain it, merely saying that he just could.

"Do you have somewhere to keep these safe?" Remus asked, gesturing to his clothes.

"Sure," the oldest werewolf replied, pointing to an innocuous wooden trunk. If anyone stumbled across it during the night, they'd assume it was merely junk. It was as secure a place as any.

Sirius watched as Remus shrugged out of his jacket, then his shirt. For a brief moment he wondered at the lack of shyness in his friend. Then he remembered that the reason for his modesty had always been his self-inflicted scars, and the werewolves he was with no doubt had their own injuries.

All too soon, the moon was rising and the sounds of the men, and one solitary woman, screaming as their bodies spiralled out of their control, echoed through the woods.

Sirius cringed slightly, his heart breaking a little as Remus's cries drowned out the others. Realistically, Sirius knew that Remus was no louder than the rest, he was probably quieter than most of them, but he was all that Sirius could hear.

Finally, the screams stopped, to be replaced by howls.

Sirius looked at the wolves, clustered together…apart from one. Remus stood apart from the rest, proud and alone.

Sirius sensed trouble immediately. It was in the air, in the growls of the wolves, the flash of their teeth. "No, Remus," he whispered. "Don't do this."

Moony crouched low on the ground, not breaking eye contact with the leader of the pack. The rest of the pack backed off, leaving the largest of the wolves, so much larger than Moony, to face the newcomer.

For countless moments they circled each other, testing each other in a purely animalistic manner.

Sirius stayed back, on the edge of the circle, watching the proceedings with fear. Remus was weak, too thin, and far from well. His opponent was fit and healthy and Sirius knew that Remus had more than met his match.

Suddenly the larger wolf sprang forward, knocking Moony across the clearing. Sirius drew in a sharp breath, Moony's pitiful whine of pain tearing at his heart.

Then Moony was giving as good as he got, biting and snarling at the larger wolf, as they tussled in the long grass.

Sirius cringed as the larger wolf bit into Moony's side and pushed him up against a rock. Moony howled in pain, and Sirius could tell that somewhere in the cry he was giving in, admitting defeat, and letting the other wolf know that he was submitting to its power.

The larger wolf pulled back and turned towards the rest of the pack. In the blink of an eye they were gone, leaving Sirius alone with the beaten and bloody Moony.

"You put up a good show," he said as he crouched down on the ground to survey the damage. Moony whined in answer and Sirius shook his head in disappointment. "But you're not as young as you used to be. You should have found a nice basement to spend the night in."

He leaned closer to examine the wound, only to jump back in surprise at the sharp teeth that suddenly snapped at his face.

"There's no need for that, I'm only trying to help," Sirius scolded. The wolf growled back at him again, but it was still another full minute before Sirius realised what was happening.

"You can see me?" he asked quietly, waving his hand in front of the wolf's face, elation bubbling up inside him as he watched the wolf follow his movements. Eventually though, the wolf seemed to become bored with this and closed his eyes.

"Rough night, huh?" Sirius asked as he settled down for the night. "You get your strength back, mate. We've got a lot to talk about in the morning."

A/N: One more chapter to go on this one I think. I know I was estimating six, but I removed a sub plot that seemed to be hindering the plot rather than adding to it, and so this will be a bit shorter than I initially thought.