A/N FANFICTION! Lol, I'm in anime club and someone or three people or something just like sat in Sam's mouth. It was cool. Anyway, Huzzah for a new chapter. Ummm ….. so yeah, enjoy. Review! XOXO

Chapter Six: Stuck

Sirius felt better that next morning, as he walked through the clear, morning air. He had been quick about grabbing his breakfast, avoiding any attention from the fawning first-years, and now he was off into the grounds. As he wandered, he quickly found himself in a courtyard alone with who he recognized instantly as a group of slytherins. predominantly friends of Snape, and, of course, the man himself. Sirius, unwavering in his strut, headed straight toward the bunch.

"Awww!" cooed a sixth year among the bunch in such a way that, despite the fact that she said it no differently than any of the kids had the day before, made Sirius want to harm her in some way; call it animal instinct. The next moment he was hoisted into the air by the wand of a lean fifth year boy with red hair who was now guffawing at the dismayed look on his female counterpart's face.

"Oh, let him down, Princeton," snapped the girl beside Snape, exasperated and patting the distressed girl on the back. "Prick."

Snape breathed a short laugh and continued to immerse himself in a book.

"Grrrrr," rumbled Sirius quietly, as he landed on the ground, sharply and quickly biting at the offender's leg before launching himself at Snape's book, just for fun. He got a hold on it, but Snape tightened his grasps before the aged pages could slip away.

"Oh, go away, you mangy mutt," he muttered grumpily, yanking the book out of Sirius' jaws and rapping him aside the head with it for good measure. Sirius, not amused and somewhat put off, dejectedly trotted away, obeying his foe.

"Why hullo!" came an uncharacteristically cutesy voice from the owner of the feet Sirius suddenly had under his nose. "Aren't you a cute little pup. Why don't you come with me?" continued Lily, with a smirk that told Sirius that she knew a tad more than he would like.

"What do you think Sir's up to?" pondered Peter out loud to James, as he doodled absent-mindedly in his Defense text book.

"Getting fawned over by gorgeous girls, no doubt, the lucky bastard," replied James, and Remus snorted.

Meanwhile, on the grounds of Hogwarts, Sirius and Lily were taking a leisurely stroll.

"Did Remus think I wouldn't notice? Sirius, you still look and act exactly the same, only now you're wearing my jewelry," said Lily, in a scoffing voice. She was generally of the opinion that the Marauder's in general, with the exception of Remus, were a frat club of utter tools, but James was the only one she completely loathed and that was mainly because he was so pushy about her. She hated their being jerks to her friend, but still remained decent friends with Remus, as he was at least civilized about his dislike, and rather fond of Sirius when he could keep his pratishness in check. James just exasperated her and she found Peter rather pitiful. As such, it was with mere disapproval and no actual threat that she said "I could get you expelled, you know." Behind the disapproval there was even a touch of annoyance. "I'm serious," he hated not being able to say it! " you're an unregistered animagus! That's a crime. Why are you even doing this? Vacation? Stunt? Dare? Creepy fetish?" she asked, eyebrows raised.

Sirius gave her what he hoped was an exasperated look, to say that he couldn't answer, and evidentially it was self-explanatory, as a mere moment later she produced a pen and parchment. He had tried this, and it had not gone down well, but he put the pen awkwardly in his mouth and attempted once more to write legibly on the scrap pinned beneath his right paw.

Lily heaved a sigh. "I can't read this."

Sirius rolled his eyes and began to scrape a very crude picture of a stick figure behind bars. After a moment of observing the sketch, Lily said, "I'm sensing trapped, not that your artistic skills helped much. Right?" Nod. "How'd you bloody fools manage that? There is a counter-charm, you know that right?" said Lily, pulling out her wand as she said it. In a split second the dots connected and Sirius leapt at the ginger and snatched the wand from her loose hold, tightening his teeth around it, barely feeling a twinge of guilt as he felt his canines dig slightly into the expensive mahogany. He loosened slightly so as not to do damage. Lily looked absolutely aghast as she reacted quickly and made a wild grab for her precious wand, and when she missed she stood and neatened her robes huffily, looking livid.

"Sirius Orion Black," she said, seemingly pulling his middle name from thin air. "You better have a damn good reason for stealing my wand!" he growled, and gestured with his head to the castle. "Speak!" he did not oblige, but began to trot off, hoping she would follow him and that he could leave the tricky explaining to his fellow marauders. She did, looking all the more angry as she did so.

"Remus," said Lily, harshly enough to silence the flirty comment rising in James' throat just in time for him to catch it before it past his lips. "A word, if you don't mind?" she said, sharply and scarily, attracting several glances and several people shifted away in their chairs, dragging their plates as well. Remus, nonplussed, obliged.

"Make. Your. Filthy. Mutt. Return. My. Wand!" she said, her shaking hand pointing down at the dog clutching aforementioned object between his teeth just to her left, annunciating each syllable through her own clenched teeth.

"Um…" said Remus, utterly speechless at the scene, eyebrows disappearing beneath blondish brown hair. "Why does he have it?" he asked finally, lacking a better response as he could tell that returning it would be an impossible task at the moment. Lily glared.

"I would hope you could tell me."

"Well did you… use it… on him?" asked Remus, hesitantly. He could tell that stealing a wand was crossing a line and he knew Sirius knew it, which meant he must've been provoked.

"Sir," started Lily defensively, just as a group of first years passed, giving them funny looks. "Sirius told me he was stuck that way and since apparently you and your troop of Neanderthals couldn't figure out the remedy, I figured I'd do him a favor he clearly doesn't deserve!" she hissed in his ear, careful not to let the passers by hear, for which the shocked Remus was grateful.

"You didn't tell anyone, did you!" was his first question, immediately feeling foolish for not realizing the possibility of someone forcibly transforming him.

"No, I didn't, but honestly, there is nothing I can see stopping me from going straight to Dumbledore!" she snapped. Despite herself, she felt her heart churn and an intense desire to hug him as Remus' face suddenly looked so utterly defeated.

"He… something happened…. We can transform him but….. we can't! something… Argh! Bugger! Frick! Something—something bad will happen!" he said, suddenly frantic and running his fingers through his own hair. "I can't tell you! Argh! I can't tell you but no, no please, you can't go to Professor Dumbledore! And whatever you do, do not transform him! Please!" he said, eyes shining. Lily looked shocked at how Remus had lost his composure, and she knew whatever his reasoning was, he could be trusted.

"Fine, just… just don't do anything stupid! I should really report him! But I won't. . . And for Merlin's sake, make that raggedy old thing give me my bloody wand back before he bites through it!"

Remus heaved a sigh of relief, and held out a hand for the wand. He returned it to Lily as soon as he was done wiping the saliva off it on his robes.

Remus closed the book after a page, looking down at the dark figure sprawled across his lap that night. "Sirius, how are you?" he asked, wondering why he asked it so rarely. Sirius looked up and made a high, throaty whining noise. "Was… did…" He didn't want to sound like he was addressing a child when he said it, but it couldn't be avoided. "Did Lily scare you when she almost transformed you?" he asked, eyes sympathetic. Sirius knew the answer. It was yes. Yes, he had been terrified in that instant when the potential lycanthropy became all the more real. When he had first found out about being bitten, he had had fanciful thoughts of running wild in the moonlight with Remus, just the pair of wolves keeping each other in check. He tried to convince himself that the reason he couldn't was just because that wouldn't be true; just because two wild animals couldn't keep each other in check, and that transforming would double the danger for all the students, but he knew that much more than that, his own selfishness prevented him from such a change. He had seen what Remus went through. Remus understood his thoughts. Remus would much prefer it that way, with Sirius as a human. Remus wouldn't even have to forgive him, seeing nothing to forgive, and that Sirius knew. But Sirius didn't want to forgive himself. He didn't know what transforming would accomplish, but he felt disloyal for letting the horrible opportunity pass. He would never again get a chance to relate to Remus on such a deep level; a level no one but a werewolf could comprehend.

He nodded. "Should you stay in tomorrow?" Sirius hastily shook his head 'no.' "How were you feeling today. Pain?" Sirius shrugged as best he could. The twinges had been the least of his worries that day, and had been nothing to the day before. "Come find me, even in class, if you start to hurt, okay?" asked Remus. "or wait outside the class, or go up to the common room. Though I don't suppose the Fat Lady will let you in… Just… I dunno, be careful. Today worried me too. I," and he realized he had been about to say it. He changed course. "I just don't ever want to see you—or… or James or Peter.. have to go through any of what I do…. It's all my fault…"

Sirius licked him gently on the hand, nuzzling closer as he did so. The pair cuddled somewhat awkwardly for a while, and eventually fell asleep in silence, still clinging to each other for support.

It was dark when Remus felt consciousness reclaim him, and it took no time at all to see what had pulled him from his sleep. The figure still clutched to his chest like a stuffed animal had started shaking and convulsing as he slept, so violently that it had awoken Remus. Remus was fully awake in an instant and sitting upright, in shock, trying to remember what to do.

"James! James, Pete! Wake up! W-wake up! Help me!" he cried shakily, staring at Sirius having apparently a lycanthrope-induced seizure. For a split second the form of Sirius seemed to grow and morph, and his fur looked to be receding into his skin. "NO!" cried Remus, desperately, flinging himself on his friend and attempting to physically hold him in the form of a dog. During this struggle, his two startled roommates had appeared behind him and were grabbing his shoulders to pull him away so as to give Sirius some air. Remus felt a twinge of relief when he saw that his friend remained a dog, but the panic persisted when he saw that the flailing had yet to cease.

Remus was shoved out of the way as Peter reappeared, disheveled, holding a box that Remus recognized as their mostly-stolen first-aid kit, containing some recent additions of the more specified medicine Madame Pomfrey herself had supplied him with just incase Sirius started having bad symptoms. Peter passed James a syringe hastily, knowing that he was too much of a klutz to do it himself. James, eyes wide and sweat appearing fast on his brow, almost hidden by his messy nest of hair, reached down as quickly as his shocked state would allow him and pushed the dog's neck back and injected him with less than half of the sedative in his hand. All of it was enough to sedate a werewolf, and would have caused severe damage to a dog. Sirius yelped and promptly fainted, still shivering as he went limp.

Remus started to cry silently and collapsed on the dog, pressing kisses to its head through the mangy fur as he clung like his life depended on it.

"Move," said James, harshly, emphasizing his point by grabbing Remus and gently but quickly pulling him off the black mass. He pried open the dog's mouth and set a few pills inside, letting them slide down the dog's throat and dissolve. He didn't say what they were, and Remus didn't know, but he recognized it as having come from one of the vials he had been given for taking care of the dog.

"Fix up his bandages," said James, tiredly, gesturing at the dirty bandages that had been dislodged during the seizure. "Or have Pete do it. I'm tired. See you in the morning," he finished, promptly returning to his bed with a thump as he collapsed upon it, no doubt already asleep.

Remus did as he was told, distractedly, as Peter told him that he would be going back to sleep as well. Remus felt faint for an instant as he saw the mutilation that still lay beneath where the bandages had been. There was still fur missing, and a great chunk of flesh was gone or shredded, likely never to fully heal. He continued to cry silently onto Sirius. He fussed over neatening the bandages far longer than necessary, but he was in no mood for sleep, and unable to think of something to do other than watch his secret love sleep. He notice neither the light turn on in a distant corner of the room that seemed miles away, nor the creak of the four-poster bed as James rose.

"Hey," said the skinny boy flatly.

"H-hey…" replied Remus, first moving his head in James' direction and then reluctantly tearing his eyes away from Sirius as well.

"Sorry I was so… ugh. Just… you can't freeze up like that! I almost couldn't get to him cause you were clinging and sobbing all over him!" said James irritably. "I'm sorry, but Peter got out the medicine before you. And I'm totally fine with you're unbelievably obvious crush on him, but who the hell kisses someone when they're having a bloody seizure!?" asked James, angrily, oblivious to Remus' tears. "I'm sorry I'm pissed, but we have no idea what we're doing, and call me crazy, but I don't want to see my best friend die!" he finished, finally, taking a deep breath, and finally calming down.

"I…." said Remus, groping around for something to say. "I don't have a c-crush on him…" he finally decided on.

"Oh bugger this! Screw you both, you morons!" finished James, rising from where he had just taken a seat. "It's too bloody early for this! Have fun gazing at him. I'm going to sleep!" And at that he left, leaving Remus to do just that, getting little sleep that night.

A/N So yeah. Sorry this chapter took so long! I wrote the first half and then had NO idea what else to write, so it took a while. Sorry. Anyway, I hope you liked it. BTW, I hope you don't judge James harshly on what I see as a half-reasonable/half-tired and grumpy and stressed response. Anyway, REVIEW! I will update SOON! XOXO, Kyou Fangirl