A/N: On we go. I do not own Harry Potter or the quote (which is owned by Danity Kane). I also don't own anything you recognize from this chapter or the last few, since I may have forgotten to mention that.
This is currently unbetad, however, I felt like posting a chapter for Christmas.
MERRY CHIRSTMAS!!!!!!!!
Chapter Seven: Damaged
You try to gain your trust, talking is not enough; Action speak louder than words, You gotta show me something, my heart is missing some pieces.
Sirius touched his bloody lip again, wining as his fingers glided wetly across the torn skin. His face hurt quite a bit; Snape knew how to hit. He often wondered who had taught the other boy how to beat up on someone so spectacularly; the entire practice was very muggle. Everyone knew purebloods went into Slytherin, so seeing one that knew how to fist fight like a muggle was a tad startling.
He flinched away as Remus slapped a cloth soaked in alcohol across his lower lip, "The fuck, Remus?! That hurts!"
"Yeah, you're bloody merciless, Moony. So mean to us poor sods." James leant against Sirius's back, trying not to cringe every time the mesh across his forehead dripped into the gash on his brow.
"I'm a hell of a lot nicer than Madame Pomphrey would be right now. And you'd better not forget that."
The two injured boys nodded frantically, hoping that Remus wouldn't put any more alcohol on them. They glanced at each other and then back to Remus, who was puttering around the dorm, growling angrily. They weren't quite sure what his problem was; it wasn't as if fighting with Snape was new. Remus seemed much more agitated lately. And since Moony was a growler it was quite worrying.
"What crawled up his ass and died, do you think?" muttered James, trying not to lean too heavily on his side. Stone banisters were not a good thing to get thrown in to.
"Dunno, but I wish it would go away. He's no fun like this." Sirius knew the moment Remus heard him, the straight back went even straighter. Sirius mumbled a quiet 'oops' and waited for the lecture. James hid behind him, knowing the following carnage wouldn't be pretty. The slamming of the door came as a big surprise and both boys stared in shock at the closed door.
"What the hell?!"
James hit Sirius upside the head, frowning at the boy, "What'd you have to go and say that for? You know he's been rather sensitive lately."
Sirius rubbed the newly formed knot, "It wasn't that bad. Honestly, Remus has more PMS than Narcissa."
James raised an eyebrow, "At least your cousin isn't likely to eat you at the next full moon."
"That, my friend, is what you think."
/page break/
"What's the matter, Remmi?"" Sirius crouched next to Remus. A mumbled "nothing" answered him.
"That's not true, Remmi, I know it's not. Come on, tell Padfoot what's wrong."
Remus sighed and unfolded his body from the fetal position he had curled into. Sirius brushed a lock of caramel colored hair behind the slightly pointed ear. He blushed as Remus gave him an odd look.
"It's nothing, Siri."
"Give me a break, Remus."
"Fine. I'm worried."
"About what?"
"You don't want to know, Sirius. Trust me, just leave it alone."
"No. What are you worried about?"
"Severus."
Sirius froze, "Why?"
"Why do you care? You don't like him."
"That's true, I don't. But I care about you."
Remus smiled up at Sirius, tucking one of his hands into Sirius's larger ones.
"Thank you, Siri."
"You're welcome. Now tell me what's got you so worried about Snivellus for."
"He seems so unhappy. You and James are constantly fighting with him, sure, but I don't think he has any real friends at all."
"The Slytherins…."
"Hate him as well. There's some odd reason for it, but, apparently, they don't much like him. The only Slytherin who liked him at all was Lucius Malfoy. I just don't think that him being so alone is a good idea."
Sirius nodded slowly and Remus went on, "With Voldemort gaining so much power, he's going to try to recruit the talented loner's with a grudge. And no matter what you think, Severus is very talented. Plus, he seems to be even more of a loner. Lily caught him looking up Dark curses the other day. "
"So you think that Snape's going to become a Death Eater because James and I pick on him?" Sirius asked slowly, not sure if he was understanding this right.
"Not totally, but yes, I do think that's part of the problem."
"What do you want us to do?"
"Be a little nicer to him, maybe?"
Sirius groaned at the earnest expression on Remus's face. He really wanted James and Sirius to be nicer to Snape. Sirius nodded slowly, "Alright, but I don't think this is going to work."
"I know, Sirius, thank you for trying though." Sirius hugged Remus and sighed, what was he getting himself into?
/page break/
"Look, I'm trying to apologize! What is your problem?"
"My problem, Black, is that you are obviously insincere and are probably only doing this because Lupin batted his big eyes at you!"
Sirius sat stunned for a moment, "Look, Snape, you're right, but for some reason Remus is worried about you. I'm just trying to make him happy."
"You can tell you little whore to keep his nose out of other people's business!"
Sirius stared at Snape, his knuckles bloody once more. He had promised Remus that he wouldn't fight, but he wasn't going to stand around and let Snape bad mouth Remus. He faintly heard footsteps coming towards him, but Sirius kept hitting the face below him.
He head McGonagall's voice telling him to stop and felt meaty hands pull him off of the other boy. As he looked into the faces of Slughorn, McGonagall, and Dumbledore he knew he was in for it.
And he was, Sirius got to spend the next three weeks helping Filch every night. He had to scrape rust off ironwork, clean windows, oil doorframes, and all manners of other disgusting things. Remus was not please with him either, but at least he curbed his anger long enough to scrape Sirius up off the floor each night. James, of course, thought it was bloody brilliant that he had broken Snape' nose in six places, shattered a cheekbone, and dislocated his jaw. Peter said nothing, but that wasn't surprising. Peter and Sirius had never really liked each other that much. Sirius only spoke to him because of Remus.
The only issue Sirius had with his punishment was that he was going to miss a full moon. He hadn't missed a full moon during the school year, not since they became and Animagi! On the good side, James and Peter would both be there. Now he only had to figure out how to get the surly suit of armor on the sixth floor to hold still while he polished it.
/page break/
Sirius stormed toward the dungeons, heading to the Slytherin dorms. He didn't want to think that Snape had a death wish, but the note telling him to be at the dorm entrance at nine p.m. proved otherwise. But he was going to show up and see what the greasy bastard wanted.
He turned the corner and encountered The Git himself, "Snape. What the hell do you want? I was busy."
"Trust me, Black, you want to hear this."
"So talk." Sirius folded his arms and frowned. Snape stood straight and seemed to steel himself before speaking.
"You need to watch out for Regulus. He's heading down a path you'd rather he not take."
"Fuck off, Snape! You don't know anything about my brother."
"Neither do you." The dry tone served to make Sirius even madder, but what Snape said was true. He didn't know Regulus anymore.
"What do you…"
"Shut up and listen! Get him out of that house. Your cousins are going to destroy him. They're planning on getting him Marked him this summer."
Sirius had a brief moment of clarity, "You're a fucking Death Eater, aren't you?"
"I….."
"Aren't you?!"
"I…not yet."
"But you're planning on it."
"Yes…" Snape answered slowly, "And your brother is considering it as well."
"Stop it. My brother isn't like you."
"Isn't he? Well, I suppose not, you don't actually hit Regulus. Then again the verbal abuse seems to be quite the same."
"Shut up!" Sirius grabbed Snape by the front of his robes.
"Going to smack Regulus around the next time he does something you don't like?" Snape laughed.
"No! I would never hurt him."
"Too late, Black. You hurt him the moment you turned your back on him in his first year."
"I would never hit him."
"Not yet, but you don't really censor yourself, do you? I'm surprised you haven't beaten up on Pettigrew yet."
"They're my friends."
"Please, don't you notice how Lupin flinches around you when you're mad? Or how Pettigrew leaves the room? Potter's the only one who isn't afraid of you, but that's because you two are the same."
"Remus isn't scared of me."
"But you don't deny that Pettigrew is? Interesting. And trust me, I knew Remus before you if you've forgotten, he's scared to death of you. You can't help yourself. You're just a big brute."
Sirius shook him, "Shut the hell up."
"I wonder what you do to keep Lupin tame. The way you go on I wouldn't be surprised if….no, that couldn't be right."
"I'm leaving." Sirius dropped Snape to the floor and turned to leave, Remus was already disappointed in him. Sirius didn't want to make it worse by fighting.
"Get your brother out of that house, Black. You're going to lose him. But that's alright, you'll just go and cry to Lupin and he'll whore himself out to you so that you feel better."
Sirius whipped around and opened his mouth, not thinking about what he was going to say, but already regretting it.
/page break/
He sighed and banged his head against the metal goalpost. He wished he could hit the stupid thing harder, but spells prevented him from bashing his brains out. It was quite sad, really. Although, he didn't really deserve such a mercy, did he? Not after what he did to Remus. He was a horrible friend. A good friend would send another person to be offed. A good friend certainly wouldn't tell a rival a secret about another friend. No matter if said rival was an ass wipe.
Which is exactly what he had done when he had opened his mouth to tell Snape where to go on a full moon. He had knowingly placed Snape, and Remus, in very grave danger. Worse, he had practically ruined Remus's life. That was worse than any physical injuries.
Poor Remus, Sirius thought later, as he scrubbed pitifully at the stone. He had really screwed up this time. It was no wonder people weren't talking to him. Even his unofficial fan club, the Girls Love Sirius Black, was now the Girls for Remus Lupin Association! Not that Sirius didn't think that Remus deserved a fan club, because he really did, it was just a bad method of getting it.
Sirius sighed again as he crawled into his lonely bed; he was such a jack ass.
/page break/
He stared at the mound of paper and mountains of books that were piled in front of him. He was never going to get through this, especially since he had two separate detentions that night. Maybe he should just give up. It wasn't like he had anything left to lose. He had no friends, no family, no Quidditch, plus his grades were already in the toilet. What did it matter if he finished? Hell, maybe he should skip detention as well. Nothing mattered anymore.
Sirius slumped against the library desk and tried not to cry at the hopelessness of it all. He faintly heard footsteps come up behind him, but paid no attention, they couldn't possibly want to talk to him.
He flinched when warm, long fingered hands rested on his shoulder. He knew those hands, how could he not? Those hands belonged to the center of his universe.
"Sirius."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sirius marveled at how fast people seemed to get over the fact that they had been shunning him. Girls were greeting him in the halls, guys were grinning and slapping his back, and teachers weren't assigning him excess amounts of homework or detentions; it was nice to have a little normality.
James had taken him back into brotherhood after much consideration, but it was still very tense. Peter was Peter and it seemed like nothing phased him. Remus had fully forgiven him, nobody had gotten hurt he had said. Sirius didn't believe he deserved such forgiveness, but didn't say so out loud.
He had begun to eat again at Remus's demand. The werewolf said that Sirius was skinnier than he was. James said that nobody was skinnier than Remus. Sirius truly hadn't realized that he had been that thin.
It had amazed him that Remus seemed to care so much about him. If he didn't eat, Remus took him to the kitchens. If he didn't shower for a while, Remus locked him in the loo. Remus had also take the time to cut his hair, since Sirius had let it grow so long that he could practically sit on it. Remus had sat him in a chair and painstakingly cut his long hair back to the exact length that Sirius adored; just below his ears so that a little curl showed.
He knew he didn't deserve half of what Remus continually did for him, but didn't know what to do about it. Remus wouldn't listen to his protests. James had said something about making it up to the lycanthrope, but Sirius hadn't the foggiest as to where to start.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"A first edition Brother's Grimm Fairytales! Sirius where did you get this?" Remus turned the fragile book over and over in his hands, studying every little detail.
"My Uncle Alphard's partner is a literature freak, too. He said there's a great vintage bookshop off of Lower St. John street."
"Literature freak?" Remus asked with a smile.
"My Uncle's words, not mine." Sirius grinned back.
"The store's in London though?"
"Yeah. It's called Bernard Quaritch, established in 1847, I think."
"Wow. Thank you, Sirius." Sirius blushed as Remus's big gold eyes blinked up at him with unshed tears.
"Those had better be happy tears." Remus and Sirius turned to where James stood in the doorway, frowning.
"Yeah, Prongs, they're happy tears. Look, Sirius bought me a book." Remus wandered over to the other boy, yammering on about how great it was.
James met Sirius's eyes over the shorter boys head and smiled. Sirius gave a shit eating grin back and thought that things were finally getting back to normal.
A/N: There you have it. * throws confetti *