A/N: Right. Took me bloody ages to get this one out.
It's inexcusable and like any bad girl, I deserve to be punished. *Bends over*

Have at me

*

As the sun came up and the howls died down, Mrs Lupin – Rhea – took the ward down off the cellar door and undoing the various locks and bolts. She cast a Lumos and stepped daintily onto the rickety staircase, Sirius following closely behind.
"Usually, I heal the cuts and the minor broken bones" she whispered "but if he breaks anything too big or too fiddly or gets too deep a gash, it's straight to St. Mungo's" she sighed and continued down the staircase "You're not squeamish are you... sometimes he looks a bit..."

"I've seen him on the morning after before Mrs- er, Rhea. Don't worry"

"How have you seen him?"

"Oh, erm, we'll usually pick him up and take him to the hospital wing... he doesn't like Madam Pomfrey coming out to get him but... sometimes he beats himself up too badly and... well, we have to take him before he... bleeds to death..." he said nervously, Rhea only squeaking a thanks in response.

They reached the bottom of the long stair case, which, to Sirius's surprise, curled in on itself, leaving only a large wooden cylinder in front of the door.

"Why do you need the wards and the locks if the stairs do that?" Sirius asked

"You can only take the stairs down manually... there's a chance he might work out how to do it" she muttered "All you have to do is press the centre brick on the south wall and they're down again... where is he?" she asked "my eyes aren't what they used to be"

"erm... curled up in the far corner" Sirius said, jogging toward the shivering lump he'd identified as Remus. "You alright mate?" he asked, locating his shoulders and gently turning him. He was answered with a watery cough and a weak "What do you think?" then wheezed and promptly passed out. He was covered with the usual deep scratches on his torso and legs and bites on his arms. The whole right side on his body was badly bruised.

"Is he okay?" Rhea asked bending down beside them and running her fingers through Remus's hair.

"Don't know yet... he's unconscious"

"Move" she said quietly. She pulled out an odd baton-like contraption and ran it around Remus. "It glows red for a break, orange for a fracture and yellow for a dislocation. Blue for a torn muscle or tendon... flashes green for something life threatening" Sirius nodded. Sirius winced as the baton glowed red when Rhea ran it past his nose. They muttered bollocks under their breath. His left arm was fine, his right arm was broken and his shoulder was dislocated. Rhea sighed.

"That's enough to put him in hospital already"

His collar bone was broken again, his right ankle shattered.

"I can't heal any of these" she mumbled "Could you pick him up?" Rhea asked. "Gently" she added, a little unnecessarily. Sirius carefully scooped Remus, careful to support his neck and back. He was wet and sticky with blood. Rhea ran to the far side of the cellar, pressing the centre brick and the stairs unfurled. She trotted up the stairs a head of Sirius, he heard her light the fire and bang around in a few drawers, while Sirius carefully made his way up the stairs, trying not to drop the ton weight in his arms. When He got to the top of the stairs Rhea was already waiting at the fireplace with a hand full of floo powder. Sirius walked ever so carefully over to her and she threw the powder, calling "St. Mungo's, A and E ward" and he followed her into the flames.

Mrs. Potter was waiting for them as they stepped into the ward, quickly flicking her wand, a hospital gown appearing on Remus's bare frame. It was full of young haggard men, looking drawn and bruised and beaten up. Some were lying unconscious on bed, some were slumped, half asleep, against the walls. There weren't many women there, and most of them looked like they were there with someone. Mothers, daughters, sisters, maybe even wives. There was one girl, who couldn't have been older than twenty, lying with her hip bandaged up, six blots of blood soaking through the cotton bandages. There was a distinct green tinge to her skin, her eyes flickering open, out of focus, before healers came to move her. Probably to the Creature Induced Injuries ward.

"Morning Rhea," Mrs. Potter said with a yawn, snapping her fingers, a bed flying toward her as she did. "And Sirius? Nice of you to help dear. You're a good friend" Sirius thanked her and lay Remus down. "Right" Mrs. Potter said, clapping her hands together. "What's he done this time?"

"Broken nose" Sighed Sirius

"Oh yes, I can see that" she said. Pulling her wand out and resetting Remus's nose, which had been bent toward the left of his face and was now dead centre again, though there was now a small kink in the once dead straight bridge. She healed most of his cuts and bruises instantly, the bigger ones, healing but leaving red, shiny marks that would, with Mrs. Potter's assurances, fade eventually.
"What else is broken?" she asked

"Collar bone, it breaks all the time" Sirius said, yawning.

"No surprises there" Mrs Potter said with a thoughtful frown as she healed it.

"His right ankle's shattered, his right arm's broken and his right shoulder's dislocated as well" Rhea added. Mrs. Potter rubbed her forehead.

"I'll have to take him to somewhere to get sedated before we pop that shoulder back in"

"But he's already knocked out" said Sirius, questioningly

"But he could wake up at anytime... waking up while we're resetting his shoulder would be... well it would be a bit of a shock, to say the least." Mrs. Potter made a face. A face which suggested lots of pain was going to be involved,

"Why?" Sirius demanded. Mrs. Potter relaxed her face again, though her eyebrows did raise.

"Because we'd have to do it the muggle way" she said patiently.

"... pardon? What exactly does the muggle way entail, Dorea?"

"It's probably best not to explain... charms are far quicker but they just aren't as effective as popping the joint back in..." she waved her hands around as she searched for the word "manually"

"Manually? ... Sweet Merlin, I don't even want to know" muttered Rhea, pulling out her cigarettes

"Rhea you can't smoke in here. And may I say, I disapprove of this awful muggle habit. There's not actually any proof that smoking won't affect a witch or wizards health" Rhea shrugged and tugged the cigarettes back in her pocket, hands shaking. Mrs. Potter placed a gentle hand on the tiny woman's shoulder "You're looking a tad faint... you don't look to wonderful either Sirius... go to the visitor's centre. You can smoke there. Sit down, have a cup of tea and I'll come and get you when Remus is all patched up"

"Hang on" Sirius began, eyes passing over the room full of werewolves, clearly in need of some medical attention "are you going to all this trouble because you just would - with any werewolf – or is it just because you know us?" Mrs Potter pursed her lips, suddenly reminding Sirius an awful lot of James.

"Sirius" she said firmly "as a Healer, I am sworn to help everyone as far as I can and to the best of my ability. Remus is my patient. And if you're worried about the others... well... there should be healers helping them... not everyone is as open minded as you or I"

*

"I owled James and Peter... They'll be along soon, if they're not asleep" said Sirius with a forced smile, sitting down beside Rhea, who was on her fourth cigarette in an hour.

"I did leave them a note" she mumbled

"Ah..." a silence befell them. An awkward one, Rhea's snuffling and sniffing the only sound. Sirius decided to break the silence "We won't be here much longer, will we?"

"No... no" she squeaked "... this... this wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Thank you for helping Sirius... for being here"

"No problem." He said, patting her back rather more gawkily than you would expect from a Black "I wanted to be here"

"It is terrible of me though. Putting you through this. Forcing you to deal with a whiny middle aged woman." She snorted a laugh, a few tears rolling down her face "... It's stupid... this is nowhere near the worst he's been hurt... he could have come out without a scratch on him and I'd still have struggled. I couldn't have done this" Her voice cracked on the last word, making it incredibly high pitched and near unintelligible "alone"

*

"I'm back" Remus said, hobbling as he walked, Mrs. Potter following him, wand at the ready, should anything go wrong. "On a scale of one to ten, how rough do I look"

"... you're about an eleven" laughed Sirius. Remus surreptitiously flipped him a middle finger. Mrs Lupin hopped up from her seat and gave Remus a very gentle hug. Sirius laughed as Remus's face twisted in, what he hoped was comedically exaggerated, pain and horror.

"You need a shave Sweetheart" she said, reaching up to pat his stubble covered face.

"I don't know about that..." he said, rubbing his hand on his chin "Don't I look rugged and manly?"

"While you're in a hospital gown?" laughed Sirius "No... no you don't"

"Shut your face and come here, so I can use you like a human crutch" Remus muttered. Sirius smirked and obliged, getting up to stand by Remus, allowing him to rest his weight on his own shoulders.

"Let's get you home, Sweetheart" said Rhea "Thank you again, Dorea"

"Only doing my job." She smiled "There's a floo point just over there" she said, ushering them all towards it. "See you all at New Year's" she waved, calling after them "Try not to make too much of a spectacle of yourselves, this year!"

*

"Moony really is a terrible host you know. Won't even come flying with us! And I brought a spare broom for him" Tutted James, the Marauders, sans Remus, trudged out into the fields behind the Lupin's house. Sirius smacked him round the back of the head.

"It was the full moon last night, prick!"

"No excuse" James sniggered. Sirius rolled his eyes.

"Prongs? Why must you be such a cock?"

"I'm not a cock. I'm bored."

"You are being a bit of a cock, James" Peter said, gently

"And you're being a bit..." James groped around for insults "...Fat..."

"I'm losing weight!" huffed Peter. Sirius smirked and cocked an eyebrow.

"Are you?"

"Yes! I've lost... I dunno, but my trousers are looser" Sirius and James swapped a smirk and swallowed laughter.

"We might have been practicing engorging charms on them"

"... oh"

"Are we going to play or just go flying for a bit then?" said Sirius, hastily changing the subject.

"We'll play... Piggy in the middle." Said James

"Oh, cool. Wormtail, you're the piggy"

"It's always, bloody me playing piggy"

"Life's a bitch, Pete"

*

"Did you enjoy flying?" Remus asked, pulling himself up in bed, groaning as he did.

"It was fine for the first hour, then it started to snow and bloody James wouldn't let us go back in doors" Sirius huffed. His face was flushed bright red and his hair was soaking, a few strands might have even been tipped with ice. James shrugged and shivered

"I thought it might be fun to play in the snow"

"Yeah? Well, you thought wrong" snapped Sirius. "Where's your mum? I need some warming charms doing"

"She's at another job interview. You'll have to make do with the fire downstairs"

"But there's no Moony downstairs" Sirius whined, pouting.

"You two make me sick" James shuddered

"You're just jealous" laughed Sirius, ruffling Remus's hair and perching himself on the edge of his bed.

"Oh yeah, I'm so jealous of you two, I spend my nights uncontrollably sobbing between wanks" he sniffed. "I've got Cheng now anyway. The only loner here is Peter"

"No! What about Katie!" Peter said defiantly

"That's a good point, how far did you get with her at the ball?" Asked James

"Not very. I was kissing her and we were on our way up to the dorm" He blushed "then I was sick on her and I passed out"

"Smooth" Said Remus, with a smirk.

"Hey... she did like me though... she said so" he tapped his chin thoughtfully "Maybe I should owl her and apologise"

"You haven't apologised already?" snorted James

"Well I did at the time... I think"

"Fucking hell Wormtail... you have no idea how to handle women do you?" James said, patting his head condescendingly. Remus gave a loud Ha!

"Are you kidding me? Wormtail has no idea how to handle women! Jesus Christ in stilettos James! You're far worse than he is!"

"How? I've got Cheng!"

"Yeah, Cheng who you don't actually like that much! Who you only "have" through a combination of her being very tolerant of you and her being evidently quite desperately horny." Remus drawled, wriggling lower in his bed.

"Well..." James began "You're hardly the lady's man, are you?"

"James... I'm gay"

"You're hardly the man's man then"

"I pulled the Slytherin Quidditch captain when I was thirteen, kissed Lily Evans and I'm going out with by the best looking boy in the year, who could have any girl he wants."

"Aww, thanks love" Sirius trilled. Remus gave him a little smile, then continued.

"Compared to you Prongs, I'm Casanova"

"... A bit below the belt bringing up Evans" James said with a haughty look, worthy of the Blacks.

"Sorry... you antagonised me" Remus said quietly, a little blush spreading over his cheeks.

"You're meant to be the mature one though" James frowned. Remus considered arguing but, he found he was just too tired.

"I... Sorry"

*

"Happy New year... 's eve" Called Sirius as they stumbled through the fireplace into the Potter's living room.

"Oh Hello boys!" Mrs. Potter said brightly, planting a affectionate kiss on each of their foreheads "You're early"

"I thought we'd be allowed in a little early, considering I do live here and everything" huffed James.

"Oh hush James." Said Mrs. Potter, ruffling her son's already messy hair "Will Rhea be along soon?" she asked

"Yeah, she won't be long." Remus said. James grinned and clapped his hands together

"So, mum. Where's the drink?" he beamed. Mrs. Potter rolled her eyes and walked off without providing her son with an answer, tossing her hair dismissively. "Mum! Come on!" whined James.

"Merlin's Beard Prongs, you call yourself a Marauder" Sirius sighed. James blinked. "You should have just stolen the booze later. Where's the drink... honestly"

"What? I only asked"

"A Marauder never asks, James, they simply take" declared Sirius. James scoffed

"And who decided this?"

"I did." Grinned Sirius. "So, anyone interesting coming to this party?" asked Sirius.

"Frank Longbottom" James smirked. "And I have a cunning plan"

"A cunning plan you say?" Sirius and James swapped equally wicked grins. The kind of grins that made Remus's inner prefect feel very nervous and slightly itchy.

"I say, we get him drunk"

"And..."

"Well... watch him embarrass himself. He might be working at Hogwarts, but it's part of his Auror training. My Dad's still his boss" James cackled.

"James... don't get him into trouble! I mean, he's a bit of a prat but... he's still essentially a good person" Remus sighed "And he's not even really that much of a prat... You just don't like taking instructions from him"

"So... it'll be funny" James shrugged

"It'll be cruel" Remus protested

"Funny!"

"Cruel!"

"Funny!"

"Cruel!"

"Sirius!" James ordered, dramatically pointing at Sirius "Getting Frank drunk so he embarrasses himself: Cruel or funny?" Sirius paused, his grey eyes widening. He looked at James, the back at Remus.

"... Funny in a cruel kind of way?" Sirius said, already shooting an apologetic look at Remus, who rolled his eyes.

"Pete?" Remus said pleadingly

"Just sounds pretty funny, to be honest" Peter said with a shrug.

"See, it's three against one" James grinned smugly "Tonight, we get our Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher hammered!"

"... You know." Sirius said thoughtfully "This has potential. We could accomplish so much more than just embarrassing Frank"

"Such as?" Remus lifted a brow

"We could spike your mum's punch. With a bottle of the strongest Vodka you have" Sirius said in a calculated tone. James rubbed his chin.

"Goblin made or Wizard?"

"Goblin made" Remus said immediately. They turned to him in surprise "What? Goblin made has virtually no flavour."

"How do you know that?" piped Peter

"I thought everyone did!"

*

"Evening Frank" Said Potter with a grin. A very suspicious grin. Frank shuffled and instinctively put his hands in his pockets, gripping his wand.

"Evening Potter... where are your little friends?"

"Little? Sirius is bigger than you"

"You know what I mean."

"They're upstairs. Mum told me to come down and say hello to everyone. So, Hello!"

"... hello"

"Have you tried any of my Mum's punch yet?"

"no?"

"You should try some" Potter nodded, thrusting one of the cups at Frank. Frank removed one hand from his pocket (the one that wasn't holding the wand) and slowly took the cup.
"Well, go on then. Drink it!" Potter urged, grinning in a way which made his inner teacher terrified and quite frankly, very sick.

"What's in it?"

"Fruit juice. Fruit juice and a bit of hot butter beer. It's good. Try it!"

"... alright then. But if anything explodes, Potter, I will not hesitate to cause you serious damage... or tell your dad."

"Bloody hell Frank, I'm only trying to be a good host here. Just take the drink" Said Potter impatiently. Frank felt a little twinge of guilt, perhaps the boy did only want to give him a drink. And, besides, it did smell very nice.

And it tasted nice too. Burnt his throat a little as he drank, but it was sweet and warm and fruity.

"That's... that's nice" He smiled at the messy haired boy. Perhaps he wasn't that bad after all. "Thank you James"

"No problem Frankie"

"... Frankie... It's Professor Longbottom!"

*

"Hello Professor" Said the Lupin boy, rather begrudgingly at that.

"hello Remus. How are you? You're looking a little... annoyed"

"hmm. Have you tried the punch yet" he said flatly

"yes. It's very nice."

"Hmm. It is" He flared his nostrils outward then muttered "Well... bye Frank" and wandered off. If the music weren't so loud, Frank would've been positive he'd heard Remus shouting "There! That's as far as I'm going!" as he stomped up the stairs.

*

"Frank!" Peter Pettigrew smiled and handed him a cup of punch.

"Pettigrew..."

"You had the punch yet?"

"... yes"

"You should have more. It's really good"

*

"Frank!" Sirius Black bounded toward Frank like an over excited child, forcing a cup of punch into each of his hands. Frank blinked.

"... Black? What's the meaning of this"

"Of what?"

"Of you and your friends continually forcing punch on me?" Frank was concerned at the slur on his voice.

"We feel guilty for behaving badly this year... that's all" Said Black sincerely... fluttering his eyelashes? "We think you're a really good teacher. We're sorry"

"... really?" Asked Frank as he knocked back one of the cups of punch.

"Really Frank"

"Oh... oh wow I... I thought I was doing such a terrible job. I thought you all hated me" Said Frank, feeling, quite honestly, a little choked up.

"Frank don't be ridiculous! We love you!" Black hesitated, then clapped frank on the back. "Now drink up" He grinned and Frank grinned back, tipping the warm punch down his throat. He was feeling quite pleasant after that. Sort of loose and... the room was sort of nice and spinny. How lovely.

"Thanks for that Black... Sirius"

"No problem Frank, my friend"

"Say.. Sirius" Frank began. "You went to the Yule Ball with Alice Prewett didn't you?"

"Yep"

"Just a bit weird 'cause... I assumed you were... you know"

"What?"

"... um... playing beater for the other team?"

"... oh"

"Yeah."

"Hang on. So are you asking me if I'm gay or not"

"... Yeah pretty much"

"... are you hitting on me, sir?"

"No! I was just curious!"

"... Bi curious?"

"Right, sod off Black, forget I asked!"

"Okey dokey sir. Just want to add, nothing's going on between me and Alice!"

"Okay... like I care" Scoffed Frank. Black winked and trotted back up the stairs... Maybe he should have a little more punch. Why would Black feel the need to say that about Alice any way? She was a good student and nothing more. Frank liked her. She had a nice manner and attitude... a nice face... nice hair... And Frank decided, that more punch would be a very bad idea. It was time for coffee. Coffee and a slap round the face.

*

"How's the party going Padfoot?" Said James with a giggle.

"They all look completely hammered"

"Excellent" James said evilly, tenting his fingers. Remus sighed and frowned.

"What, exactly, were you planning on getting out of this?"

"... lots of really drunk people?"

"Lots of really drunk people, messing up your house?" Remus suggested condescendingly

"Oh! Well it's not like you had any better ideas!" James snapped. Remus shrugged.

"No. No I didn't" he sighed. James scowled. Then threw his arms in the air and stomped across the room.

"I hate this!"

"What?" asked Peter

"Being bored all the time! I hate it! One thing I can say for Hogwarts, it's hard work, but it's never boring!" he sighed "For fucks sake! I wish it was full moon or something!"

"... James?" Said Remus.

"What?"

"Please. Please shut the fuck up" Remus sighed "Have a drink. Go nick a cigarette from my mother. Just do something which involves something being in your mouth, causing your silence"

"Well... if you want to put something in his mouth-" Began Sirius with a wry grin.

"Don't even think about it!"

A/N: I'm just glad you made it past that first Author's note... Goodness knows what came over me... (hehe... geddit... came over me!)

Any ways... Thanks for the continuing support of you reader people. I love you. With all being.

And I'd love you even more if you... you know... reviewed