Disclaimer- All cannon characters belong to JK Rowling and anyone else belongs to me just like the plot, unless stated otherwise. It will likely be awhile until I can add another chapter or update this story. I've got a lot of other things I'm working on now; school assignments and stuff but this fan fic will be one of my top priorities. Please bear with me-Gadget

Diogenes Pendergast belongs to Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child.

CHAPTER 4

Remus Lupin's POV

The first Hogsmeade weekend had finally arrived and I was supposed to chaperone with Madam Clawsyn and Halo. In a way, I was glad that Severus wouldn't be chaperoning this trip. Halo had complained about his desperate need for "alone time" and in all truth, seeing them together, so in love with each other only made me realize just how lonely I really was. The younger man went out of his way to make me feel welcome and wanted when I was with them but I always felt like a third wheel.

"He treats me like a child," Halo muttered.

"Halo, the things that you and Severus do together, are not the things he would do to a child." I told him crossly; thinking that maybe I was a little jealous of what they had.

Halo turned a brilliant shade of red and looked away. We hadn't had much time to talk since then, the both of us busy with our classes and other teaching duties. I liked teaching, actually I loved it. There were other things I was sure I would enjoy even more, surely there was a wolf pack out there that would be willing to have me join them. But, in all truth, I'm still not completely at ease with the beast inside of me. I try to make it seem like I am but I don't think I ever will be.

"You know that's not what I meant Remus," Halo finally said as we were walking out to the courtyard to wait for the students. "I just meant, well, you've seen how he acts sometimes."

He looked away from me again, gazing at the sky with a longing expression. I hadn't lied when I'd told Severus that Halo was an amazing flier; it seemed like he belonged in the sky. He reminded me of a bird when he flew, it's true that as a referee there isn't as much extravagance as there is when a Quidditch player is flying around. Halo made the simple motions seem like an art form.

"It's gotten to the point where he's setting my clothes out for me. If he starts to cut my meat for me, I'm going to hurt him."

"I thought you were a vegetarian," I said offhandedly.

"That's not the point I'm trying to illustrate." He growled playfully. "It's like he's trying to be apart of every aspect of my life. We eat together, sleep together and... Well... you know." He blushed again. "He... Remus, it just feels like he's trying to control me."

I looked down at Halo, finally coming out of my own head. I lifted his sunglasses and looked into his Sidhe eyes while I cupped his chin in my hands. "Severus loves you," I told him sternly. "After ten very long years Halo, he still loves you. He wants to be apart of your life, even the small moments because he's afraid that something will happen like it did last time."

The younger man stiffened and stepped away from my hands, fixing his glasses back into place. "O'Malley's dead," He said. "The Dark Lord killed him."

"I know that," I said. "And that's not exactly what Severus is afraid will happen." I took a steadying breath. "Severus is afraid that you'll leave him again."

"He told me he loved me then," Halo whispered.

I slung my arm over his shoulder and pulled him against my side. "And you weren't ready for that, not from him."

"So I ran,"

"So you ran," I repeated. "And he let you run."

An unusual smile came across his face. "Because he loves me."

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Diogenes Pendergast recognized the werewolf the moment he caught the other man's scent. He was in a bar in the wizarding town of Hogsmeade sipping on something that posed as weak whiskey while he tried to ignore the itch of his contact lenses. The lenses matched his brother's blue-silver eyes; they would help him blend in a little more than his ginger hair did.

Vertus had told him about the werewolf who hung around with his brother's ex-lover. Diogenes was just lucky that there were a lot of werewolves in Scotland, not in the Wizarding World. He sat at the bar and watched as the exhausted man entered. The full moon was a few weeks away but Diogenes knew that...Lupin was a different breed from him and would likely feel the pull of the moon more strongly than he did. The man's brown hair was streaked through with grey and the pearly scar on one side of his face was very apparent against his sickly paleness.

The man stepped up to the bar, shouldering his way between two much larger wizards and ordered a drink. His voice was hoarse, as if his throat was permanently sore from screaming during the change. Diogenes knew that particular soreness. And though it had been some years since he'd allowed such a scream to escape from him, he still remembered the pain.

Diogenes didn't see his brother's ex around anywhere and he decided that the time was right to put his and Vertus' plan into action. "Excuse me," He said and planted himself on the seat next to the werewolf, allowing his own preternatural scent to permeate his skin.

Lupin turned dark green eyes on him, the pupils widening as he caught Diogenes' scent. "Can I help you with something?" He asked.

Diogenes flashed him a charming smile. "Remus Lupin? You knew my brother some years ago, Aloysius Pendergast. I'm Diogenes," He said.

The other man's eyes shined with recognition, shifting from Diogenes' eyes to the bone structure of his face and his towering height. Lupin offered a boney hand and Diogenes shook it. "It's a pleasure to meet you," He said.

Diogenes stretched out the part of him that was his wolf and commanded it to wrap around Lupin. Again the man's eyes grew wider; he licked his lower lip as his breath came in little huffs.

"What are you doing?" He asked lowly.

Diogenes' could smell the effect his wolf was having on Lupin's other form. It was a heady smell, hot and thick, spicy and sweet. The smell was arousing to both of them and it only confirmed Diogenes' suspicions about the man and his brother's ex. He'd seen it the first moment he'd noticed the wolf looking at Halo Spencer. There was an attraction there, on Lupin's side of their friendship. The wolf had a crush on Halo but he was so in his own head, in his own fantasies that he hadn't even attempted to pursue the younger man. It was pathetic and now Halo was someone else's lover and Lupin, the stupid wolf, was all alone. It made things so much easier.

"After all my brother told me of you, I've been thinking about being with you." He drawled. "About our wolves being together for a night or two."

Lupin's eyebrows shot up. "Seriously?" He asked. "You want to... to...have sex with me? With the wolf in me?"

Diogenes offered up that smile again, leaning closer in his chair and slipping his arm across Lupin's too thin shoulders. "Sure, it would be fun." He put his mouth against Lupin's ear, letting his tongue slip out to touch the shell of his ear as he spoke. "I can smell that you're interested Remus and I'm sure you can smell how interested I am. So, what do you say? Want to go somewhere more private?"

The man was silent for a moment and then he slid from under Diogenes' arm and stood up. He offered his hand back and the redhead linked their fingers eagerly.

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Anita Clawson's POV

Halo Spencer was pacing back and forth, looking at his watch every few seconds. I heard him grumbling to himself. "Shit-fire Remus, where are you?"

I watched him pace while keeping an eye on the kids I was supposed to be chaperoning. Lupin had wandered off a few minutes after we had arrived in Hogsmeade, telling us he'd be back in a little over an hour. Three hours later, no one had seen the graying professor and the other chaperones were getting frustrated. Snape's lover was the most frustrated, pacing up and down the path back to Hogwarts.

"Son of a bitch Remus," The young professor growled. "Pick up the fucking pace."

I rolled my eyes; Halo was so impatient with anything that didn't somehow connect to flying. I had seen him pick his own fruit and vegetables from Professor Sprout's garden and at one point I even saw him helping a House Elf with its duties. He liked things done quickly and correctly and I wondered if he'd learned the behavior from Snape in the first years they had known each other.

Finally, Lupin stepped onto the path, hanging his head with his hands in the pockets of his old robe.

"Remus!" Halo yelled as he started to walk toward the haggard looking man.

One of the students near me gasped as Lupin suddenly collapsed. Halo attempted to catch him but the other professor was so much bigger that they were both taken to the ground. I dashed toward them, kneeling in the dirt to look at the greying man cradled in Halo's arms.

"What's happened Halo?" I demanded, making a barrier with my body to keep the students from looking.

"I...I don't know." He said, frantically checking Lupin's vitals in the Muggle manner. "Shit, his heart is too slow and he's burning up. I'm going to Apparate him to Saint Mungo's."

"Why Saint Mungo's?" I asked. "Surely the castle is closer,"

"It is," He told me. "But under the circumstances..." He didn't say another word, just grabbed onto Lupin's arm and vanished with a loud POP.

I turned to the gathered students, unsure of what to say.

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More soon, hopefully. Gadget.