Right. Back with new chapter. I'm trying to stay ahead of myself by having the next chapter completed when I post current chapters, so it takes a little while (especially since for a while I thought that chapter three was lost and that I'd have to start it completely over from scratch, ack). I'm not wholly satisfied with this part (I keep getting this niggling feeling that there are many plot holes and inconsistencies, which is why I should find a beta quickly), but I've combed it over several times, so any grammar/spelling/punctuation issues should be minimal. If you're reading this, and you find something you need to point out, please, PLEASE inform me. Constructive criticism keeps me diligent, and it's always good to have eyes other than your own watching out for mistakes.

Warnings: Language (which I guess you should expect already), mild slash (if you're on chapter two, I assume you know that too), and, er...some OOCness, I suppose. I can never tell if my characterization is anywhere close to what it should be.

Story and chapter titles are taken from the W.B. Yeats poem "The Second Coming". So they're not mine. Nor is anything even remotely to do with Harry Potter.

In the fifteen minutes since Remus had walked out, Sirius had applied ice to the side of his face (he was rubbish at healing himself), attempted to sip at his lukewarm tea, and took twenty-five peeks out the window for signs of his AWOL lover. Checking anywhere outside of the apartment was about useless if Remus decided to Apparate back, but it gave Sirius something to occupy himself with. Otherwise he would be forced to face the considerable tumult of thoughts and feelings roiling around within him in regards to the night's events.

That was a confrontation that the young Auror was not particularly looking forward to, and so he did his best to stave it off for as long as possible.

Sirius was perched nervously on the sofa, tapping his wand against the coffee table impatiently and contemplating actually going out and searching for Remus when the second and third uninvited visitors of the evening appeared in front of him with a crack. Leaping to his feet in surprise, thinking at first that it might be the werewolf, he opened his mouth to let loose the stream of angry/anxious words that had been building up following the other man's abrupt departure.

And promptly shut it again, when he realized that it was not, in fact, Remus.

"Prongs? Lily?" Baffled, Sirius took in the pair. "What're you doing here, and without the little nipper?"

"Sorry to just barge in, Sirius," Lily greeted him apologetically. "But there's something we needed to talk to you about, and it really couldn't wait." James just stared at his best friend.

"Bloody hell, mate. What in blazes happened to your face?"

With a start, Sirius realized that his ice pack was dangling rather uselessly from his left hand, and that the spot that had borne the brunt of Remus' considerable backhand had probably blossomed into a spectacular bruise. Thinking fast, not caring to divulge the details of earlier events until he'd sorted them out himself, he lied.

"Fell," he said airily. "Broke the fall with my face. Not one of my finer moments, let me tell you." Well, that part was true, at least. In other circumstances, James would not have been able to resist this chance to tease Sirius mercilessly. However, he let it slide, indicative of yet another marked change in James since his family had been targeted by Voldemort. Sirius turned to Lily again.

"Where's Harry?"

"Dumbledore said he'd look after him while we were here," Lily answered. "And this shouldn't take too long."

"A good thing, too," grumbled James. "Or else the kid'll be sucking on lemon drops for the rest of his life." Lily rolled her eyes and ignored him.

"We have…" Here, she hesitated. "That is to say, there's a huge favor we'd like to ask of you. Only it goes a fair bit beyond 'favor'. Quite a bit. More of a sacrifice, now that I think about it."

Sirius had no idea what she was talking about, but it didn't sound promising.

"What Lily's trying to say," James cut in, sensing Sirius' confusion, "is that Dumbledore may have found a way to keep Lily, Harry and me safe from Voldemort. An ancient charm-the Fidelius-that would take us out of sight from everybody; Dark Lord and Death Eaters included. Well," he amended, "not exactly everybody. That's where you come in." A pause. "There'd be one person, and one person only-the Secret-Keeper-who would know our location. Nobody would be able to find us unless the Secret-Keeper told them exactly where we were."

"And you," Sirius started thickly, "you want this-this Secret-Keeper to be me?" James nodded in affirmative.

"But we would completely understand if you refused," Lily burst out, "because it's terribly dangerous, and you would become an automatic target if you agreed, and we couldn't bear it if anything awful happened to you because of us. Dumbledore even offered to do it, but James and I thought we ought to at least ask you before any decisions were made." She was breathing very heavily, having said all of this extremely quickly.

Sirius, overwhelmed by the amount of trust that these two people so close to his heart had given him, almost couldn't find his voice to speak.

"Are you mad?" he croaked. "Course I'll do it. I'd do anything to protect you two and Harry, you know that." Sensing that Lily was uncomfortably close to tears, he swiftly brought up his next point. "But what will we tell Peter and Remus?"

The corners of James' mouth tightened.

"Remus back yet?" he asked almost too-casually. Sirius glanced at him suspiciously.

"Yes," he said slowly. "Just tonight."

"I see." James was still using that unconvincingly nonchalant tone. Lily shot him a glare that Sirius couldn't decipher.

"Where is he?" she inquired of Sirius. "Not out again already, is he?"

"No," Sirius said tensely. "No, he's not." Silence. "He's-well, he's taking a bit of a walk. Dumbledore was here earlier, and his visit made Moony a bit testy, so he decided to get some fresh air. I'm sure he'll be back soon." Sirius had gone for flippancy in his answer, but all he heard was strain.

"Bit dangerous to be going out on his own at night, isn't it?" James questioned.

"I suppose he wouldn't have left if he didn't feel like he could take care of himself," Sirius bit out coolly.

"Or if he didn't feel like he needed to," James retorted.

"I'm not sure I like what you're insinuating, Prongs," Sirius said, trying very carefully to keep the anger out of his voice.

"Tough," James shot back, making no such effort. "Don't you think that all of his long absences are getting a little bit, oh, suspicious?"

"James!" Lily exclaimed. "Please don't, oh, you promised me you wouldn't do this tonight, you swore-"

"No, let him go, Lily," Sirius cut her off sharply. "I'd really like to hear what he comes up with."

Pale, but determined to see this through to the end now that he'd started, James went on.

"Only that it wouldn't be a stretch to say that he hasn't been himself since he started running around with all those different werewolf packs. He's seemed-well, almost savage, if you want the truth of it. And all of Voldemort's promises might start to sound especially tempting after awhile, when you're cut off from all of your family and friends and only surrounded by other, bitter werewolves who don't quite share your outlook."

"Suicide started sounding especially tempting every bloody time that I had to listen to you gush about Lily here during school, but I resisted admirably," Sirius replied acidly.

"That isn't the same thing and you know it," James exclaimed, going a bit red. "When was the last time that Remus was around during a battle-" that we know of, was the unspoken addition, "When was the last time that Remus was around at all?"

"He's been busy!" shouted Sirius back furiously, defending the things that he himself at vented at Remus about earlier in the night. "It's not exactly what you'd call easy, risking your life to try to convince other, more vicious werewolves to join the side of Light. It's not what you'd call quick work, either! We should be thankful that he's at least alive! He could've been mauled by now! Unless of course that's what you were hoping for," he sneered.

"That's enough!" Lily cried out, entering the fray. "Enough! Listen to the both of you! We don't have time for this right now! Sirius, all we wanted was to ask if you would be our Secret-Keeper, obviously you will, we can't thank you enough, now please James, I'd like to-"

"Maybe we should rethink this whole Secret-Keeper thing," James interrupted her, no longer shouting, voice deadly calm. "I-I'm not sure that I'm comfortable with it being Sirius after all."

Sirius laughed hollowly.

"What's wrong? Afraid I might sell you out to my Death Eater lover? Afraid we might just be a pair of spies, here to do the Dark Lord's bidding? Well fuck you, James."

"What in Merlin's name is going on here?" Remus had slipped in through the front door unnoticed at the tail end of the row, but it was clear from his bewildered manner that he hadn't really heard anything that was said. "James, Lily, what on earth are you-?" He stopped short, and stared at Sirius accusingly. "You called them, didn't you?"

All the relief that had welled up in Sirius at the sight of Remus alive and apparently well vanished at these words.

"What?!" he exclaimed, outraged. "You think I-"

"Did James and Lily have to come in to protect you from the big, bad werewolf?" Remus had, to his immense frustration, gained no inner serenity or insight during his impromptu walk. He knew that he was being irrational, but was too full of seething, simmering rage to care. "After all, scary old Moony did hit you, and he's a bloody monster, who knows what he's capable of doing next!"

He was about to say more, but James, whose eyes went wide behind his glasses, beat him to the chase. He turned to Sirius, sputtering with indignation.

"I-you told me you fell down!" he hissed. "Broke your fall with your face-bollocks! Broke his fist's fall, more like!" Sirius avoided his glare.

Remus stared at his lover uncertainly.

"You didn't tell James what happened?" he asked a bit more harshly than he'd intended.

"I didn't think he needed to know," Sirius answered tiredly. Really, he just wanted to go to bed now. Wanted to crawl between the sheets with Remus, fall asleep and wake up in the morning with the realization that tonight had never happened.

Only right now he wasn't certain that he even wanted to be in the same room as Remus, much less snuggled up under the bedclothes with him.

"Didn't need to know?! Sirius-he hit you! He walloped you across the face, and you're still willing to make shoddy excuses for why he couldn't possibly be-" Ignoring Sirius' mumblings about 'not being a bloody domestic case', James stopped just short of saying it, possibly not wanted to admit what he believed out loud, with Remus so very close by and volatile.

"Be what, James?" Remus asked acerbically. Underneath the irritation, he truly was curious. What could James be accusing him of-?

…Dumbledore's talking…he reckons there's a spy in the Order…

Oh. That.

He supposed that it really shouldn't surprise him.

"Been having a nice little chat about me, have we?" he asked with false pleasantry. "Are you all putting your heads together, then, finding dozens of reasons why I could be the snitch that everyone's looking for?"

"Remus-nobody really believes that you're-" Lily began soothingly, but Lupin paid her no heed.

"Oh, but I don't think that that's true," he said scathingly. "James does, doesn't he? It's all very convenient, yes? Blame your problems on the unpredictable and possibly dangerous werewolf. Did it take you even a little while to come to terms with that theory, Prongs?" He spat the nickname like it was a dirty word that he used as little as possible in his daily life.

"Of course it did," James said through clenched teeth. "I didn't want to THINK about it. But even you have to admit that your absences are getting longer and more frequent, and your behavior is-well, the last few times I've seen you you've been like a caged animal. And the spy has to be someone in our inner circle- no way would anyone else have the kind of information that the Death Eaters have otherwise-Merlin's beard, I don't WANT it to be you, Remus, but if it is…"

"Have you even bothered considering anyone else, James? Or did you convince yourself that it was me and wash your hands of the other possibilities?" Remus asked mutely. "What about Peter? Or…" He trailed off, fists clenched, face bloodless.

The silent allegation hung heavy in the air.

"Thanks, Remus," Sirius sneered. "Your absolute faith in me could move mountains."

"Well if we're going to be absolutely fair about it-"

"Shut up!" Sirius burst out. "Just shut up! I can't believe I was so bloody daft-I defended you-"

"Yeah, fantastic job there! It can't have been all that stirring, James' opinion clearly hasn't changed-"

"For all of your righteous indignation, you haven't actually denied his accusations once, I see-"

"If we're playing that game, then you didn't deny mine either-"

"Being that you didn't have the nerve to make any-"

"I didn't think I had to; after all, Death Eater runs in your family, doesn't it? How old was Regulus when he took the Mark, again?"

Mention of the other man's recently deceased brother had the desired effect; Sirius went white, and took a step back as though he'd been smacked (for the second time that night). He would never, ever show it, but the death of his younger sibling had hurt Sirius far more deeply than he let on, and Remus knew that.

As soon as the werewolf had said it, he had felt considerable remorse, but he couldn't take the words back now. Frankly, he was too angry to even want to apologize for the remark.

"Get out." The words sliced through the air with deadly precision, containing more hatred than Sirius had ever thought it possible to feel towards his lover.

"Excuse me?" Remus declared hotly. "I live here. It's my home too."

"That I pay for." It was a low blow, using against Remus the fact that he couldn't really contribute much financially because of his condition, but Sirius was completely beyond caring. He was seeing everything through a poisonous haze of red. "I don't want you here. I can't stand to even look at you right now. So get out."

"Where exactly to you propose I go?" Remus inquired disbelievingly. He wasn't actually being kicked out…was he?

Sirius snapped.

"It doesn't matter!" He shouted. "I don't give a fuck where you end up! Go stay with your werewolf mates, for all I care! Just get out of my sight! Did you hear me?! LEAVE!"

"Sirius…" came a weak voice. It was Lily. She and James had stood in stunned silence as they watched the two men rip each other apart, but now she interceded. "Really, Sirius," she continued, gaining strength, "please, just think about this. You can't-" she faltered a bit "-you can't just send Remus out into the night. It's not safe for him. For anyone."

"It's all right, Lily," Remus said, contemptuously eyeing Sirius. "I don't know that I particularly feel like staying here a minute longer, anyways. I'd ask if I could kip on your sofa-" he smiled humorlessly, "-but I'm not sure James would appreciate that particular imposition."

The spectacled man remained stonily silent, but didn't break from Remus' gaze.

"Right, then," the werewolf said slowly, after a fashion. "Peter's it is." Stealing one last, indecipherable glance at Sirius, he Apparated out with a very loud, very final crack.

The quiet that fell over the room in the wake of his departure was nothing short of empty and depressing. Something had broken tonight; something was irrevocably damaged in a way that could never be completely mended.

Tense and shaken, Lily couldn't find it within herself to speak for several uncomfortable minutes.

"I hope you're both very pleased with yourselves," she said, voice quavering and several octaves higher than normal. "Because I think that-"

A slight, soft sound stilled her oncoming diatribe. Flummoxed as to what it was, she searched the room several times over for the source before she realized that it was the sound one makes-that hitch of breath-before they're about to burst into tears.

Her eyes were drawn to Sirius, who had sunk onto the couch without her noticing. He was now staring sightlessly at a point near Lily's feet, eyes glittering suspiciously. A single, crystalline drop escaped the lashes on one side, to wander aimlessly down his just-turned black and blue cheek before splashing into his lap.

Any ire that Lily had felt vanished in the face of this sad portrait. Stepping forward to offer whatever comfort that she thought she could, she was beaten to the chase by James, who had decided to stop impersonating a statue and strode up to the man he so often referred to as his brother. Stopping short, he gently lowered himself to the sofa and set a tentative arm around Sirius' shoulders.

The dam broke, along with the ice; Sirius all but dove into the James' comforting embrace, the vicious words between them forgotten as he clung to his best friend and cried out over two weeks and ten days' worth of emotional buildup. His body trembled and heaved with the force of the sobs. James held him tighter and mumbled soothing nonsense into his hair.

Lily was at a loss. She knew that her husband was capable of infinite tenderness; she witnessed it every time he cradled their baby son. And though she was aware that his brotherly affection for Sirius went deeper than any blood link could, the endurance of their bond had not fully struck her until now. Now, when she felt more like an intruder than she had when she'd first started dating James and met the reluctance of his three very close friends to accept her as a part of the group.

She had no idea what she could do; no clue as to how to contribute when it seemed that her contribution was unneeded.

Her discomfiture was not for long; Sirius seemed to gain a hold over himself after a short amount of time, soon drawing away from James, sniffing and swiping away the salty remnants of the last few minutes.

"Sorry," he said, voice husky with unshed tears.

"Don't apologize," Lily said with a fierceness even she couldn't have predicted. Startled, Sirius stared at her. "It's just-you haven't got any reason to," she continued in a much softer tone.

He offered her a tiny smile, then: a pale imitation of the million-wattage grin that could charm a goblin out of its treasure, but it was real, which gave Lily more satisfaction than she thought quite normal.

"Right then," James began awkwardly, "We should probably get going; I expect that by now Dumbledore has had long enough to get Harry addicted to as many sucking candies as he can think of, and I don't even want to think about what he'll start on next. The man enjoys Cockroach Clusters, for Merlin's sake."

"Listen, mate," Sirius said anxiously. "About this whole Secret-Keeper thing…"

James blanched.

"You can't think that I was serious about not making you ours; I was being thick, I don't really think that you're the spy!"

Sirius forced a reassuring smile.

"I know that, I do. It doesn't mean that you should make me your Secret-Keeper, though."

"What?! Sirius, we trust you-"

"But I don't trust myself," Sirius interrupted. "Look, I can't even begin to tell you what it means to me, having you both ask me to do it, but it wouldn't be a good idea. I'm not-" he grimaced "-I'm not in the greatest place right now, and I think that you need someone a little more stable at the moment. Anyways, I've got a different strategy. We set up a decoy system. Make it seem like I'm the Secret-Keeper, while actually using someone else. It'll throw Voldemort off your trail for at least a little while, and then maybe we can come up with a real plan."

"That's mad! Completely loony!" James exclaimed, waving his arms about.

"He's right, Sirius," Lily stated worriedly. "You'd be practically inviting danger to your front doorstep without even needing to."

"As opposed to it just lurking harmlessly in the streets?" Sirius asked wryly. "I'm in danger either way. At least with my idea, if the Death Eaters do capture me, I won't have to worry about letting slip information that could damn the both of you and Harry. I'd rather that be the case, in fact."

"It's just daft enough to work," James said helplessly. "But are you really sure that you want to do this, Sirius? And who would we use as the real Secret-Keeper? Peter?"

"No!" Sirius said with unexpected vehemence. James' eyes widened. "No," he repeated firmly. "If we're not trusting Remus, then we're not trusting Peter either."

"But-come on, Padfoot, d'you really think that Peter has…well…the nerve to double-cross us?" the bespectacled man asked incredulously.

"Do you think he'd have the nerve to resist double-crossing us if the Death Eaters came knocking?" Sirius countered. "Even if he didn't have what it took, James, could you really see Peter being able to keep that sort of information quiet under torture if the truth about who the Secret-Keeper really was ever came out?"

Lily had to admit that Sirius had a point. Peter possessed a well-intentioned heart, but he wasn't the most resilient of creatures. Evidently James had to concede as well, because he asked,

"If not Peter or you, then who?" Sirius raised an eyebrow.

"The safest, most trustworthy person we know. The person who offered to do it first."

James' eyes lit up with understanding.

"Ah. Dumbledore."

He would make an excellent Secret-Keeper, Lily knew. Storing important information with Albus would be like storing treasure in one of the locked vaults of Gringotts. And he was powerful enough that he would be more than able to take care of himself if their ruse was ever discovered.

"I think it could work, James," she offered softly. This seemed to be the affirmation James needed, for he nodded in agreement.

"It's decided, then. I'm not crazy about you putting yourself out there as a standing target, mate, but if you think you can handle it…" He trailed off. "I trust your judgment."

Sirius cleared his throat, and looked sheepishly down.

"Thank you." James stretched.

"All right, we'd best be off," he declared, yawning. Lily kissed Sirius on the cheek and hugged him.

"You have no idea what this means to us," she said sincerely. "Are you sure you're going to be okay tonight?"

"Of course," Sirius assured her, sounding anything but sure. The redhead smiled sympathetically, and gently touched his cheek.

"Take care." He smiled wanly.

"You too."

"If I see evidence of so much as one Cockroach Cluster in my house, I'm calling off this whole Secret-Keeper thing," James said threateningly as he and Lily Apparated out.

Alone at long last, Sirius dropped any and all bravado, collapsing once again onto the sofa in exhaustion and curling protectively around himself.

He couldn't even bear to face the big, empty bed tonight, knowing that Remus wasn't there-knowing that he was the reason Remus wasn't there, and hating himself and his now ex-lover for what they'd done to each other.

He just wanted to rewind to right after Remus had come home, to the moment immediately preceding when Dumbledore had popped in and unwittingly set into motion events that would tear the werewolf and the Animagus asunder only hours later. In his mind he would tell the headmaster to shove off and bother somebody else about the bloody war, if just for the night.

In his heart, however, he knew he wasn't being fair. None of this was truly Dumbledore's fault; he and Remus had been falling apart before tonight in far more subtle and damaging ways. If it hadn't been now it would've been some other time, very likely soon; they had been a splinch waiting to happen.

Distantly, Sirius was aware of his bruised cheek throbbing dully. He touched his hand to it, and stared miserably up at the ceiling, wondering if Remus had made it alright to Peter's, or, if he had (Sirius thought with some shame) found some Death Eater comrades willing to put him up indefinitely.

It was going to be a damn long night.