The Black Sheep

by AutumnSkiesAreBlue

Sirius' world is in turmoil. He's being hounded by Voldemort and his followers determined that he will eventually join them. He's betrayed his closest friends in the worst way possible and now his parents think he's returning to them. No, he will not let them force their ideas onto him. Even after the beat him to within an inch of his life. - Willow Incident/Leaving Home Story.

7. Coming Clean

Chapter 7 – Coming Clean

It wasn't long before the platform beyond the train window began to fill with excited children and teary parents. Sirius turned his back on the window, not wanting to see the emotions beyond. Propping his still injured knee up on the chair next to him, Sirius waited impatiently for the train to chug away from the platform and carry him away to the inevitable doom of people staring at his injuries and his former friends avoiding him at every available moment.

~#~

As the train pulled away from the station, Sirius found his eyes fixed on the faces of the parents waiting on the platform, trying to get a last look at their children. Several were crying and many were waving. But soon their image was replaced by that of London and not long after that, with fields.

After thirty minutes of staring at the countryside, Sirius found the gentle rocking of the train was pulling him towards sleep. Nobody had tried to join him in his compartment yet and he reasoned that they would not do so now. Still clutching his new record in his hands, Sirius raised the other leg to rest on the seat beside him and leant his back against the window, feeling the pull of sleep claim him.

For several hours he lay motionless, barely moving as his body caught up with the sleep he had neglected. He didn't even twitch when the trolley lady gently tapped on the door at midday. Yet as the sky began to grow darker, his eyes began to flicker behind his eyelids and his jaw clenched and unclenched.

His eyes filled with green and he had the feeling of ascension. Soon he began to perceive the feel of wood beneath his feet as he shuffled through the door in front of him. The light swiftly changed to sliver as he moved through the door. But the colour was obscured, he was intrigued. Moving closer he saw that something had been pasted over the walls.

Words sprung off the wall at him, making him start. Massacre. Slaughter. Dark Mark. Increasing Followers. Dark Lord. World at War. He knew he had to get away from the onslaught of literature as he tried shaking his head to clear his mind.

Opening his eyes again, he found the silver light clear of any blemishes, there were no more words assaulting his tender eyes. But with the relief he began to notice a rumbling far off in the distance, as though of a man talking.

Shuffling back out the door, Sirius moved down what appeared to be a corridor. As he did so, the noise became louder and distinctly more familiar. It was deep, but not deeper than his own. Try as he might, he could not place the voice but now the words issued were discernible.

'He's got the right idea … I believe in the rights of our race … I'm thinking about joining him … I wish you were gone … I wish you were dead …'

The tone of the voice changed, less accusatory but far more boastful. 'Werewolves are beast, dirty creatures … He's consorting with half-breeds … I have it on good authority …'

There was a new voice, deeper now than his own, vowel sounds were far more clipped and it gave off an air of authority. Familiar yet still just outside the reach of comprehension. Sirius could not move his feet an inch further, could not tear his eyes from the painfully bright green light.

'Study, now! … Worthless … Detestable … Deserve the same painful death … You epitomise disgrace … You are not my son …'

While every word seemed to have been carried over a protracted length, each and every one reverberated around his skull and made him breathless.

Light seemed to crack around him as his ears roared. The pain seemed crippling but he could still clearly hear the words floating over to him.

'I wish you were dead'

He felt himself be knocked backwards off his feet, he tried to brace his fall but he could not move. He kept falling, falling into an unknown abyss.

'Werewolves are beasts'

Light continued to flash before his eyes and every sound that was not a word seemed to roar at him as he fell still further.

'I have it on good authority'

'You are not my son'

His lungs ached with lack of oxygen, he felt as though his chest was going to burst with agony.

'I have it on good authority'

'I wish you were dead'

'I'm thinking about joining him'

'I have it on good authority.'

He kept tumbling into the chasm, head pounding with the assault of words, entirely unable to act.

The train began to slow and Sirius' legs were tipped off the bench as he jolted awake.

He blinked several times, trying to clear the nightmare from his mind but it would not shift. He wiped a hand over his brow and pushed his sweat-heavy hair out of his eyes.

The train had ground to a halt now but Sirius still could not even out his erratic heartbeat. He could hear the clamour of students on the platform beyond his window and he had no desire to join them. Thankfully foresight had put him in his school robes before leaving for the train that morning so he could afford to wait until the platform cleared a little. This, at least gave him time to compose himself and become more presentable.

Forcing himself onto his feet, he carefully placed his mercifully undamaged record into his bag and steadily made his way out into the breezy night in Hogsmeade.

~#~

The unfortunate side effect of avoiding the crowds at the station was that nearly the entire student population was seated when Sirius finally made it to the Great Hall.

Consciously trying to hide his all too prominent limp but keeping his head held high, he made his way to the Gryffindor table.

It was impossible to ignore the stares. Not least because he was one of the ever popular Marauders entering alone, but also the sheer fact that he was the last person in the last carriage and thus the last to enter.

Some of the students would already know what had happened; pureblood society was rife with gossip at the best of times, but the fall of the heir to the most powerful pureblood family was bound to cause a stir. Other students, mostly Slytherins but some Ravenclaws too, would recognise the signs of a beating, many having received a variation themselves. The rest just saw the tall, well-built Gryffindor beater limping conspicuously into the Great Hall, a look of grim determination on his face.

Thankfully, the only teachers that were present were busy catching up with their colleagues. By the time they had noticed the hushed murmurs and poorly concealed chuckles from select Slytherins, Sirius was sat in his seat at the far end of the Gryffindor table, staring resolutely at the stone wall ahead of him and ignoring the stares at his back.

~#~

Further down the same table, sat three other boys previously deep in a whispered conversation.

'I'm telling you,' the sandy haired boy spoke, cautiously looking about to ensure no one was eavesdropping. 'I walked past his compartment on my prefect round. He was fast asleep so he wouldn't have noticed me but you should've seen the cut across his face. He looked like he'd been attack. Merlin, James what if he's been attacked?'

The dark haired boy looked worried. For however hard he'd tried to look like he didn't care on the train, the worry was beginning to settle into his entire demeanour.

'Should we ask him, later back in the dormitory?' The smallest blonde boy asked.

'That's if he even goes back there. I know what he did was terrible but I'd really hoped he would've gone back before the end of term so I could talk to him. He didn't even come back for his stuff.' Remus stated. The boys were starting to get funny looks from the rest of the students, but thankfully most assumed they were just plotting another prank and looked away pretty quickly.

'Yeah, that's probably my fault.' James spoke at last. 'I told him not to come back. We had this big argument in the common room.' Remus gave him a reproachful look. 'I know, I know, I shouldn't have done it. I should've given him a real chance to explain when you were back but I was so angry.'

Peter was no longer listening. He'd always been good at noticing things others tended to miss and he was also good at picking up on what everyone else was doing.

'Guys. Guys look.' He nodded towards the door. The other's eyes followed his direction, absently noting that nearly everyone else was doing the same. When their eyes had finally locked on to the intended target, they widened but none could look away.

Whispers broke out amongst the students as Peter wrenched his eyes away from the limping boy. 'Christ, I know what you mean Remus. He looks half dead.'

'Circe's pigs, you're right.' James spoke absently in a low voice.

'He's limping. Peter, why's he limping?' Both James and Remus were still staring at the door despite the boy in question having now sat down.

Neither of the other boys could formulate an answer to his question and none could even speak another word until their head of house led the new first years into the Great Hall, providing a merciful distraction.

~#~

He had paid little to no attention to the sorting. He felt apart from the festivities and cheer surrounding him. Besides, his stomach had started to rumble about ten minutes in and that was distracting enough. If there was one thing that had been left undamaged after the altercation in the summer, it was Sirius' appetite, even if he did vomit up everything he'd eaten for the first few days.

He stared at the empty spaces on the table all through the headmaster's speech, willing food to appear. When it finally did, it took every ounce of control he could muster to stop himself putting everything in sight onto his plate.

For however much Sirius loved his uncle, an emotion heightened by the aid he had received, he had to admit, Alphard couldn't cook to save his life. A week living off stodgy, undercooked or burnt food really did give one a better appreciation of expert cooking.

All too soon however, the feast was over. Sirius stood with the rest of the Gryffindors though paused when he realised he hadn't thought where he was going. Should he go to the common room or make a cowardly retreat back to the Room of Requirement?

Thinking that either route involved going upstairs, Sirius began to move towards the Entrance Hall with the stragglers. As his knee gave a twinge that almost made him collapse, he began to think of just how many stairs he'd have to climb. He'd only managed one storey so far and there was no way he'd be able to jump the trick steps.

All thoughts of stairs were quickly wiped from his mind at the sight of a single straggling Slytherin in the Entrance Hall.

Memories of his last night at home and his nightmare on the train assaulted Sirius once more. Regulus' voice seemed to be screaming in his ears.

Suddenly, he found that two and two went together rather well. There was only one other student in the school who knew for sure that Remus was a werewolf. Only one person who could be Regulus' 'good authority.'

And said Snake was grinning broadly in his direction.

Sirius lunged. All thoughts of a still badly injured knee and poorly healed ribs were wrenched from his mind with the thought that this boy had spread Remus' biggest secret. Had turned his little brother against him, probably introduced Regulus to the active side of the dark arts. He was the reason for all the pain that Sirius was feeling and Snape deserved to know exactly how he felt.

Sirius did not hear the single scream at his movement, all he felt was burning hatred and his fists impacting flesh.

The ruckus had managed to attract the attention of several of the teachers still in the Great Hall. Thus it didn't take long for one shrill voice to burst through Sirius' clouded awareness.

'What on earth is the meaning of this?' Even McGonagall's most disapproving voice could not halt the anger and adrenaline coursing through the boy's veins.

Alongside her, the headmaster had also left his seat to investigate the noise. His usually dancing bright eyes narrowed at the sight. When still Sirius didn't stop, aiming his fists at every inch of Snape that he could reach, Dumbledore threw out a simple knock-back jinx to separate the boys. The spell had never harmed a student before, merely put distance between them.

But right now, Sirius was not the most robust of students.

He did not move from the patch of stonework he had landed on. The gentle impact of the spell had completely winded him as he crippled to the floor – his knee refusing to support him any longer - and he could not hold back the groan of agony when he felt his ribs re-break.

Steadily, he became aware of his front becoming warm and sticky as he lay in the foetal position at the feet of some of the remaining students. Dimly he became aware of a voice above him shout out.

'Professor! He's bleeding!' Soon after, the world blurred out of focus as Sirius clung to consciousness with all his might.

~#~

Minerva spared the Slytherin the briefest of looks as she acknowledged that he had the attention of Albus Dumbledore, before turning to her own student.

At first sight she knew he was hurt. Patches of his school shirt were steadily turning crimson and his right leg was resting in an awkward position.

Hastily conjuring a stretcher and levitating the sixth year onto it, she called out, 'Headmaster, I will be in the Hospital Wing.' And striding away before she could see Severus Snape stand and walk shakily away with his housemates.

~#~

Sirius jumped back into total consciousness as he was placed onto the bed, groaning painfully as the movement jarred his knee and ribs. He heard the sound of scurrying footsteps and the voice of the young matron, Madam Pomfrey, ask McGonagall: 'what happened Minerva?'

'I have no idea Poppy. We came upon him fighting with the Snape boy, Albus used an impediment jinx to get the two of them apart and then Black was sprawled on the floor bleeding. I'm sure he was okay during dinner though.'

'An impediment jinx wouldn't harm anyone though.' She began bustling around her patient, carefully relocating his school uniform and vanishing the blood soaked bandages so as to see his bleeding torso better. She gasped. 'This is certainly not the work of a harmless jinx Minerva.'

The Head of Gryffindor moved from the foot of the bed to get a better look before she too drew in a sharp intake of breath. 'He looks as though he's been cursed Poppy.'

'I won't know for certain until I've carried out the complete list of diagnostics, but yes, it certainly looks that way.'

Focusing on the voices grounded Sirius to the real world though he could not relax his tense muscles nor even open his eyes. However, when he felt the familiar probe of magic course through him, he could not suppress the groan.

'My dear boy, you're awake. I had not realised. I'm afraid I can't get you anything for the pain until I know what caused it. Just hold on in there.' Pomfrey said, mind only half on her patient, the other half focused on the results of her first diagnostic charm.

Minerva laid her hand gently on Sirius' shoulder, though whether it was to provide comfort or to prevent him moving during the diagnosis, she did not know.

'Deep lacerations to the torso, thirteen broken ribs – dear me – mild burns, partially healed shattered knee and – oh my merlin – restricted lung capacity and damage to the stomach.' She murmured the diagnostic aloud, face growing pale and causing her friend to stare at her aghast.

'Right, Mr Black. I think we should be able to get away with Mabres' pain reliever for now. Stay here while I fetch it.'

Sirius resisted the urge to curl up in a ball, knowing it would only make the pain worse.

When the matron returned she was followed by Dumbledore who began to pull the curtains closed around the bed. Not even he noticed how the curtain seemed to encounter resistance by some invisible force before it had completely concealed Sirius from view.

Sirius gasped as the matron placed her hand firmly behind his back to ease him into a half sitting position so that he could swallow the potion. He felt almost as bad as he did on that first morning at Alphard's. The pain was searing through his chest and he felt as though he couldn't draw breath. The only difference was that now he was conscious enough to feel the way his ribs moved every time he breathed.

As McGonagall and Pomfrey filled the headmaster in on what they knew, Sirius slumped back into his pillows, trying to will the pain reliever to work quicker.

'Mr Black?' Dumbledore called gently, trying to rouse the teenager out of his pain. 'Sirius?' He forced his eyes open. 'Who did this to you?'

Sirius let out an anguished groan in reply as Dumbledore rested himself on the end of the hospital bed, the movement jostling his knee.

'Albus, at least let the pain reliever get to work before questioning him.' Pomfrey said sternly. Her first duty was, as always, to her students not to her employer.

Sirius tried to shoot her a grateful look but he wasn't entirely sure the meaning was properly conveyed.

All three adults remained in silence for several minutes before Sirius finally heaved a tremendous sigh, finally feeling as though he could get enough air into his lungs. Madam Pomfrey nodded to the headmaster when he looked at her questioningly. She moved towards the head of the bed, and gently eased Sirius back into a sitting position, moving the pillows until he looked comfortable.

'Sirius?' The boy raised his eyes until they reached those of an electric blue. He had never heard Professor Dumbledore speak to him in such a soft tone before. 'What caused your injuries?'

Sirius lightly rubbed the fresh bandages across his chest that Pomfrey had carefully begun wrapping around his torso.

'Er. I don't really want to talk about it.' The headmaster's words caught his attention, his mind automatically and unwillingly focused on his answer bringing with it memories of bright lights, clouds of smoke and harsh words.

Both professors had caught the vacant look in his eyes. Minerva moved her hand back so that it rested on Sirius' shoulder once more, unknowingly grounding Sirius back to the present. He focused with all his might on the weight of the hand on his shoulder, willing the memories back into the corner of his mind he had originally forced them into.

'Did it happen over the summer? Whilst you were at home?' Minerva asked, having always had suspicions over Sirius' upbringing.

The boy nodded stiffly.

'Your parents?' She asked again, in the same gentle, searching tone.

Again, he had to force himself to focus on the here and now, on the hand on his shoulder, even the still throbbing pain in his chest and knee. Anything to stop his mind whirling back to that night of the 21st of August.

He nodded slowly.

'Your parents did this to you Sirius?' Dumbledore asked from the foot of the bed. When Sirius nodded again, he asked 'why?'

'I, er… werewolves.' His voice was quiet, but not quiet enough for those present not to hear.

Madam Pomfrey was now carefully moving around her colleagues, casting various additional diagnostic charms and waiting silently for their results. Through her movement, no one heard to small intake of breath from the chair beside the bed.

'What do you mean?' Dumbledore's voice had the same unfamiliar soft tone. 'I understand that you do not want to think about it but we must know so that we can help you.'

Sirius could not halt the snort or derision which, unfortunately, caused him to cough sharply which forced him to roll into the foetal position with his eyes screwed shut in pain. He had forgotten how much normal reactions hurt.

McGonagall's hand shifted sharply from his shoulder the minute he coughed. She did not want to be in the way and inadvertently cause more damage.

Madam Pomfrey, previously stood at the foot of the bed with a medical tome perched on the footboard as she tried to find a way to heal her patient's injuries, snapped her book closed and hurried closer to the bedside.

'Easy there. Try and breathe more slowly.' She gently rubbed the boy's back, trying to ease the pressure in his lungs. Only the two adults present saw the concerned look on her face as spots of red appeared on the formerly pristine bandages.

Eventually, Sirius managed to wheeze: 'you won't be able to help. You don't even care.' Before his breath became too laboured and his throat burned.

When finally the coughing had ceased and Madam Pomfrey deemed him fit enough to talk again (after another dose of pain reliever), Albus Dumbledore leaned forward from his spot perched on the end of the bed.

'I care for all my students Mr Black, and while I may not always be able to make much difference, I will always try.' Sirius still looked a little incredulous. 'Now, can you tell me what happened or would you prefer I left you to talk to Professor McGonagall instead?'

He shrugged gently. Regardless who he spoke to, both teachers would know about it not long afterwards.

'We - Father and I - were at the Ministry. He was talking to someone from the Werewolf registration office… I disagreed with what they were talking about. Father and I came home.' His speech was patchy and disjoined, partly because he was still breathing fairly erratically but also because he was unsure what he should say.

Both professors nodded encouragingly and even Madam Pomfrey had ceased her flicking through the Healing Directory to listen better.

'Then I had a falling out with Regulus-' here Sirius hesitated.

'Over what?' Minerva spoke softly.

'Er, just- just stuff.' He didn't know why he didn't tell them about Regulus' aspirations to join the Dark Lord but the words wouldn't even form in his mind. 'And er, Father brought up werewolves again over dinner. Reg- um Regulus said that he'd heard from someone that there was a werewolf in the school. And well, I knew he was talking about Remus but I didn't really know who'd told him 'til today.'

'Mr Snape?' The headmaster asked.

'Who else?' Sirius retorted sarcastically; he was in pain and he was fed up with being probed.

'And how did you come about your injuries?' Dumbledore asked, choosing to ignore the tone of his student which would normally earn a stern reprimand.

'The argument afterwards. Started off about werewolves and ended up on their dark beliefs. Didn't really end well after that.' Sirius finished with as much of a shrug he could manage.

'And then they cursed you?' Minerva probed.

'Mostly Father I think. I don't really remember.'

'What did you do after that?' Dumbledore asked.

'Not a great deal I could do. When I came round I managed to get out. Didn't want to stay there a great deal longer after that. Went to my Uncle Alphard's in the end. He patched me up best he could.'

Poppy huffed quietly at the end of the bed, thinking of how badly healed the boy's injuries must have been if they could open up again so easily.

'He did the best he could.' Sirius retorted angrily, trying his hardest to defend his favourite uncle after he'd done so much for him. 'I was alright before I got here.'

McGonagall laid a hand warningly on his shoulder again.

'And you are sure that it was Mr Snape that told your brother?' Dumbledore asked in the same gentle but serious tone.

'There was no one else who knew about Remus and Regulus isn't bright enough or sneaky enough to find it out by himself.'

Dumbledore nodded. 'In that case, I will leave you in the hands of your head of house and our healer and wish you all the best.' He rose from the bed, again jostling Sirius' knee. 'Poppy, how would a simple impediment jinx cause his wounds to reopen?' He asked, turning to the healer.

'I believe it was the coming into contact with magic, Professor. As the wounds were only barely healed, and poorly at that, any small amount of magic would have caused them to reopen. Curse wounds such as this are particularly resistant to healing, I doubt it would have taken them long to reopen now that he's back at Hogwarts.'

Dumbledore gave her a tight smile before patting Sirius on the foot, jostling his knee still further before sweeping out between the curtains, not hearing Sirius' grunt of agony.

Madam Pomfrey's head snapped round at the sound and her attention was drawn now to her patient's legs as she began to attempt to heal her patient.

'Why did you not tell me how your parents were before now?' Minerva asked, moving towards the foot of the bed in the headmaster's absence.

Sirius shrugged again. 'Didn't think it'd do much good.'

'I think it's time I began healing now Professor.' Pomfrey interrupted.

'Yes of course.' Though she made no attempt to leave.

'It will not be pretty. Unfortunately there's not much use for pain relievers when dark magic is involved.' This last she said to her patient with a pitying look caressing her features.

'Then perhaps I shall stay and provide all the support I can manage.' Minerva replied, though silently she was unsure if this was something she would want to witness.

'In which case, perhaps it would be best if you held Mr Black's shoulders while I try and heal these ribs.'

Sirius looked anxiously between the two adults, not quite being able to comprehend what they were talking about. When his head of house braced his shoulders with her hands with a grim look on her face, it finally clicked.

He gulped and look directly at the witch now raising her wand and pointing it at his torso. He tried not to flinch. 'This doesn't look like it's going to be fun.' He muttered, eyes growing wide.

Why was it, that for however good magical medicine got, there was always the drawback that some healing methods demanded to be felt?

~#~

Only three hours into the new term and Poppy was already dealing with a patient. She had mentally prepared herself over the summer for what was sure to be a busier year for her now that the war was getting worse. She wasn't naïve enough to think that the war would remain outside of Hogwarts' walls.

Three hours in and she had just heard and witnessed the worst case of child abuse she had ever encountered. The poor boy had worse injuries than the poor Lupin boy after a full moon.

Despite her calm demeanour when dealing with her patient, seeing the teenager in this state broke her heart. And it broke it even more to have to increase his pain to try and heal him. But she had to stay calm and steady, if at least for the boy's sake.

A corner of her mind was grateful for the silencing charms on the curtains. She couldn't imagine what would have happened if the boy's friends had come to investigate his disappearance.

Thirty minutes later and she was ready to crawl into her bed and sob herself to sleep.

Slumping against the side of the bed, Poppy finally lowered her wand. The curse wounds were not yet fully healed but they were set on their way.

Black let out a low, pained groan before his eyes fluttered shut and he finally fell into unconsciousness.

Turning to her friend, she said: 'I think that's us done for the day Minerva. There's nothing more we can do just now.'

Minerva McGonagall looked incredibly pale. 'I think I am going to need a drink before I can sleep this off Poppy.'

'That is a sentiment I can agree with. I have a bottle of Firewhiskey in my office.'

Minerva raised her eyebrows. 'What are you doing with alcohol in your office?' She said, trying with all her might to lighten the atmosphere.

'Well, I'm not always treating patients Minerva.' Poppy replied defensively.

She checked her patient one last time before brushing aside a curtain and ushering her older friend through before following her.

~#~

Remus could not believe what he had just witnessed. He, James and Peter had been halfway up the first staircase when they had heard the gasps and screams of the rest of the students in the Entrance Hall. All three were transfixed when Snape and Sirius were thrown apart and Sirius didn't pick himself up off the floor.

When Sirius was lifted onto a stretcher and levitated off to the Hospital Wing, Remus had turned to a wide-eyed James and demanded to be given his invisibility cloak. He didn't think he'd get there in time, but thankfully Remus just managed to get to the bedside chair before the curtains were fully closed.

It was hard to stay quiet through all that he heard. It was harder still to remember that he was meant to be angry with Sirius.

Sirius had never mentioned that his parents were abusive. They all knew that Sirius didn't get on with his family but his friend had just said that all they ever did was argue. Whenever the holidays were mentioned, Sirius would just say that he stayed out of the way and that it was nothing special. None of them ever knew what was really going on.

Part of Remus' brain tried to refuse the information in front of him, but he'd never heard Sirius' voice so flat or dead, not even when he'd come to see him last summer after the incident. Besides, his eyes could not tear away from the bloody sheet and the strained look on the matron's face. There was no way he could logically refute what he'd heard, no matter how much he didn't want to believe it.

Even when Professor McGonagall and Madam Pomfrey had left, Remus couldn't move from the bedside. Whatever was left of his anger dissipated at the sight in front of him. Sirius was out cold but his pale face still looked pained. His bandaged chest was still visible and there was a sizeable lump in the region of his friend's knee where it had had to be splinted and braced before bandaging.

Remus didn't know how long he sat there. He didn't even notice when the invisibility cloak slipped off his face and pooled into his lap.

~#~

Several hours later, Sirius groaned and his eyes fluttered open eventually fixing on the boy in the chair beside the bed.

''Emus?' He groaned. He wasn't entirely sure whether or not he was hallucinating. There was no way Remus would be near him but then, when he'd been hallucinating before, he'd only seen his parents and Regulus.

'Sirius?' Remus jumped forward in his seat. 'Are you alright? No that's a stupid question, of course you're not. How do you feel?'

'I'm so sorry Remus, I never meant to do it.' Sirius said, not breaking eye contact with the blonde-haired boy.

'Eh? What are you on about? I can't imagine you meant to end up like this.' He gestured to the bandages sticking out from under the sheets.

Sirius' head was steadily becoming clearer as he forced aside the pain. It was important that Remus knew everything, he was the one person he'd hurt the most, everything else was secondary.

'No, about what happened last summer. I didn't mean to do it. I never explained properly. I was so angry, with Mother, with Dumbledore, and then Snape turned up and kept running his mouth and I just snapped. I know it's no excuse but you've got to understand I didn't want to kill him and I didn't want to hurt or use you. I am so sorry Remus.' All his words came out in a loud rush.

'Shh, Sirius it's alright.' Remus frowned, he'd managed to forget about the Willow incident with everything he'd witnessed tonight. His brain steadily kicked back into gear.

He never had gotten the full story from Sirius, apparently even James and Peter hadn't really been told. All James had said was that Sirius couldn't provide a good enough excuse. Peter, on the other hand, had said that Sirius looked too cut up to even talk properly. At the time, Remus didn't know if Peter had only said that to make him feel better but now he thought there was some truth in it.

'Can you tell me what happened Sirius? From the beginning?'

Sirius nodded as he tried to prop himself up on his elbows before gasping in pain and slumping back down. Remus rushed forward and carefully placed his hand on his friend's back and gently lifted him into a sitting position and piled some pillows behind him to keep him upright, unknowingly providing the same care his friends were used to giving him after a full moon.

'I'd got back from Hogsmeade about an hour and a half before the moon came up. Got collared by McGonagall on the fourth floor and she hauled me off her office. She said she'd been looking for me, seems I'd missed a detention, but the headmaster wanted to see me, said he'd got my mother in.

'So when we'd got there she was all angry, Mother that is, and she kept going on about how I was such a disgrace; hexing my betters and cavorting with mudbloods and all the rest of that bullshit. You know how that sort of stuff gets to me? Well, we started arguing and then I thought she was going to curse me there and then-'

'Where were Professor Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall?' Remus interjected.

'Mother made them leave but they came back after that. Dumbledore acted like nothing had happened.

'So then I was told to leave. I'd gotten down to the second floor when I'd bumped into Snape, quite literally mind you. That's when he started running his mouth, insinuating what he knew about you and I was so wound up that I jinxed him. I honestly don't remember the exact words I said to him after that. Something about how he was too thick to find the knot on the tree. I knocked him unconscious then, and I expected him to go back to the dungeons when he woke up.

'I went off to calm down a bit 'cause at this point I was raging.' Remus didn't comment on the phrase Sirius had picked up in their first year from a Cumbrian third year despite still finding it funny. 'And you know, when you transform you're overly sensitive to emotions and I wasn't taking that chance again.'

'What do you mean: "again"?' Remus asked, voice low and worried.

Sirius caught the offhand shrug just in time. 'It was nothing really. The third full moon with you was after I got into an argument with Regulus. You went for me a bit. James pushed you back then me and Pete left you with James for the rest of the night. Apparently you were alright with James afterwards. It's no big deal.'

'I didn't hurt any of you did I?' Remus was aghast. It was his worst nightmare to hurt someone, especially one of his friends who'd been so accepting of him.

'Of course not.' Sirius did not want to mention the long scar across his ribs that he'd acquired from that very incident. 'Anyway, I was explaining myself. Where was I? Oh, yeah. Hiding in a broom cupboard.

'After I'd calmed down a bit I made it onto the grounds. The moon was already up and James was wondering where I'd been. Then Pete ran up to us and said that Snape had gone down the Willow.'

Remus stiffened. It was hard to hear this, yet at the same time it was a relief to finally hear the truth.

'James ran off while I stood there useless and Pete ran off to get a teacher. McGonagall got there just as James got back with Snape. They were both unharmed, if a little shaken.

'I'm so sorry Remus. I never even meant to tell him anything. I know you always said any reaction was just confirming his thoughts but he just really winds me up. That and I think he knew anyway. Honestly Remus, I never meant to hurt or betray you. Or Snape.'

Sirius' eyes were pleading. There was nothing in the world he wanted more than for his friend to understand that he didn't mean what he did. For however hard it had been to write Remus a letter over the summer, when face to face, the words poured out of him like water through a sieve.

Remus nodded. 'I believe you.' Sirius let out a breath he didn't realise he had been holding. 'I don't think I ever really believed it, I certainly never wanted to.' The boys shared a bittersweet smile. It was as if all the pain of the summer had never happened. 'Anyway, what caused all this?' Remus gestured to Sirius' bandaged ribs and bulging knee. 'You said something about werewolves. You didn't get into trouble over me did you?'

Mood considerably lightened, Sirius barely felt the restriction of his ribs or the shooting pain from his knee as he recounted the events of his summer.

~#~

When Poppy forced herself out of her bed at two o'clock that morning to check on her patient and try and give him some potions, the last thing she expected to find was her long-term patient sat in the chair next to Mr Black, head slumped to the side in sleep.

If she didn't know of the falling out last year she probably wouldn't have been half as surprised to see Remus there.

When she set the tray down on the overbed table with a gentle 'thunk', both boys began to stir. Black groaned and she rushed forward with a dose of Mabres' and a soothing voice.

When he was settled she began recasting diagnostics while Remus looked on worriedly.

'You shouldn't be here Remus. You know the rules better than anyone: no visitors out of designated hours.' She looked at him sternly. There was a reason those rules were in place, not least because it kept students from getting in the way of her healing, either physically or simply by keeping her patients awake.

'But… Madam Pomfrey please.' The boy looked at her wide-eyed. She could see the desperation in his eyes. If it wasn't because she had seen Remus after a full moon for the last five years and if she hadn't had to heal every self-inflicted wound then she might not have been so lenient.

Privately, she didn't think she would have been so lenient if it had been any other patient either. Especially with a case as severe as this, nobody deserved to see their friend in such pain. But there was a soft spot in Poppy's heart where the blonde-haired, amber-eyed boy was concerned.

'Okay, but you must stay out of the way and not wake Mr Black while he is sleeping. But I can't have the other two in here at all hours too, do you hear me? You, and only you, can stay the night but you must go to breakfast in the morning.'

'Thank you Madam Pomfrey.' The boy replied softly as she turned back to her diagnostics.

~#~

Oooh, we're nearly there now. Perhaps only a single chapter to go.

I'm overly impressed with this chapter and I'm really happy with the way it turned out. Let me know what you think, it means the world to me.