'I have to tell you something,' Remus said quietly.

The compartment was quiet for a moment, the only sound the repetitive chug, chug, chug of the train going over the tracks.

Remus felt the sudden urge to play it cool, pretend he was going to say something else, and Sirius gave him the perfect way out of the conversation when he shot Remus a regretful look.

'Oh, Merlin, did I get it wrong?'

'What?' Remus asked.

Sirius laughed awkwardly. 'I had a friend like that at school, always giving off the wrong signals.' He leant backwards, rubbing his palms on his thighs. 'Or hey, maybe you just don't fancy me.' He shrugged. 'It's cool, you know, I…'

'Oh, no,' Remus said at once. He had no idea what was going on his life, but he did not want Sirius to think for one minute that Remus did not have any interest in him. 'Trust me, I am a full on queer in every sense of the word.' He laughed in spite of himself, purely at how forward he was being. 'And I, erm… yeah, you're not, I mean… I'm not… not interested.'

Sirius blinked, and then laughed, a pleased look dancing in his eyes. 'So, you're busy tonight then?'

'Look, Sirius,' Remus said decisively. He had to go through with it. It was the right thing to do. 'You have a brother called Regulus, right?'

Sirius' expression shifted. The laughter faded away and a wary look began to grow in his eyes. 'Yes.'

Remus took in a quick breath, then leant forwards. 'I knew him.'

Sirius' eyes were searching Remus' face. 'Oh.'

'And before you ask, I'm not nor ever was a Death Eater.'

Sirius sat back in his seat measuredly, and he snaked his hand slowly into his jacket pocket. Remus would have bet all his worldly possessions that it was where he kept his wand.

'I only met Regulus yesterday,' Remus stated. Had it only been yesterday? Less than twenty-four hours had passed, and so much had happened. 'He told me some really worrying stuff.'

Sirius was not taking his eyes off Remus, but he did allow his eyelids to wither slightly. 'Look, I don't know how you know Reg, but he's always getting himself worked up over stupid things. I would just ignore him if I were you.'

Simply hearing Sirius talk about Regulus in the present tense made Remus' blood seem to drop down to his toes. He had to put his head in his hands for fear he might keel over. 'Merlin,' he muttered. 'This is like a bloody nightmare.'

'What is?' Sirius' wariness had been replaced by worry. 'What's wrong? What's happened?'

How could Remus break the news to him? How would Sirius feel? He meets a stranger on a train, has a casual flirt, and then the next thing he knows that same stranger is telling him his brother has been murdered.

Remus wiped his mouth on his sleeve and looked back up at the man across from him. 'I'm really sorry.'

Sirius' eyes were wide, making him look more like Regulus than ever. 'Sorry about what? What the hell is going on?'

'I did not conspire any of this,' Remus said hastily. 'I didn't know you of all people were going to be sat in this carriage, catching this train. If I had known, I would definitely have avoided you, because, well, you see…' He took in a shaking breath. 'I'm on the run from the law, and I realise that you are the law, but you have to listen to me.'

There was a moment of silence in the compartment before Sirius cut out. 'Just tell me what's happened to my brother before I hex you.'

Remus, frozen in his seat, used all his determination to will the words to come out of his mouth. 'This might be a shock, but… your brother was murdered last night.'

Sirius' fixed positioned on the seat mirrored Remus' own. His eyes were flicking quickly between Remus', looking for a lie, but Remus had never been more sincere about anything in his entire life.

Remus was waiting for the whip of a hand, the flash of a curse signalling his own impending doom, but Sirius only straightened up where he sat.

'O-kay…' He was leaning away from Remus as much as he could. 'And you know this because…?'

Remus took a breath, trying to calm himself. 'I found his body this morning. He was on the run from the Death Eaters.'

'Reeeeally?' Sirius cut in, raising an eyebrow. 'The steadfast, reliable, and dare I say most passionate Death Eater in the land was on the run from Death Eaters?' He shook his head and then said in a sarcastic drawl, 'What is happening to the world?'

'Please, Sirius, you need to trust me,' Remus said, holding up both hands placatingly.

'Erm, no I don't,' Sirius said, his voice like iron.

Remus felt the desperate need to defend himself, like a drowning man struggling for air. 'I didn't plan any of this, I swear I didn't.'

'What?' Sirius said with a snarl. 'It's all a coincidence, is it?'

A strange humming sound filled the compartment. 'What was that?' Remus asked, twisting his head to listen.

Sirius stood up slowly and backed away, not taking his eyes off Remus. 'What?'

'There's a humming noise,' Remus said, looking around. He realised it was coming from Sirius' pocket. 'You're casting a spell.'

Sirius bristled. 'You really are crazy. You're hearing spells now?'

'Sirius, please, what have you done?'

Sirius pulled his wand out of his pocket, all pretence gone. With his free hand he reached backwards behind him and fumbled for the door of the compartment. He opened it without looking, then slipped backwards through the door to stand in the corridor.

Remus realised at once that Sirius must have somehow called his colleague. It had been some kind of beacon spell. Remus had only seconds.

'Your brother is dead, and they haven't told you yet,' he blurted out in a rush, standing up himself. 'The Death Eaters killed him because he knows some things about You-Know-Who.'

Sirius just shook his head, completely nonplussed.

'He's found out a way to kill You-Know-Who,' Remus said in a hissed whisper. Now he was on Regulus' side of things, there really was no other quick way to describe it. 'Before he died, your brother told me all about it, and now they're trying to kill me too.'

Sirius' eyes were as wide as saucers. 'What the bloody hell are you talking about?'

'I have to get off this train, but I need your help, Sirius. Please. Your brother…'

It was no good. Sirius was putting more and more of his guard up. Remus had to get away.

He went to reach for his own pocket, but Sirius raised his wand menacingly.

'If you pull your wand on me, I have the right to stun you without hesitation.'

Remus raised his hand again to show it was empty. 'Look, if you want to know more, meet me at The Mitre Pub, tonight at eight. It's on the Royal Mile. Please, meet me, and I'll tell you everything. I have to go.'

Remus put his hand on the wand in his pocket, took a breath, and twisted his magic to apparate away. He anticipated the pulling feeling in his gut, the whirl of colour and light around him, but all he got was a fixed view of Sirius Black's grim expression.

'Shit,' Remus cut out. Either Sirius or his colleague had done their job well and had already established anti-apparition wards. Then Remus realised, with his attuned hearing, that he could hear the thud of heavy footsteps making their way down the train.

Sirius chanced a glance down the corridor in the direction of the footsteps, and Remus took his chance.

He whipped out his wand and made a run at the apartment door, yelling an Expelliarmus as he went.

Sirius deflected him easily, but Remus was upon him, and with all his might he pushed Sirius to the side, casting a protego behind him as he ran down the corridor and into the next carriage. He slammed the door shut and locked it with a spell, then sprinted down the train, earning startled looks from several muggles as he passed by.

He ran down each train carriage until he reached a lobby at the end of the train. There was an exit door on either side, and a toilet cubicle tucked away in the corner, accompanied with the unpleasant tang of chemicals in the air. A door straight ahead led to the luggage car, but Remus knew it would be futile if he attempted to hide there.

The running feet were getting closer and closer. Hurrying to the exit door on the left, Remus pressed on the metal doorhandle and threw it open. The door was heavy, but it slammed back against the side of the carriage with the force of the air rushing past. The sound of the train on the tracks and wind rushing past was deafening, and Remus froze, staring out into the pitch-black night.

There was the sound of the door opening behind him. Remus spun around as two stunning spells flew towards him, throwing up a shield charm just in the nick of time. It held, but only just.

Remus recognised with a note of dread the figure of Madeye Moody standing behind Sirius. With his ruthless cunning, tenacity, and impressive magical ability, he was a formidable foe, but Remus was more fearful of his infamous readiness to do whatever it took to get the job done.

'Remus Lupin, is it?' Madeye said with an ugly smile, as he came to stand beside his colleague. 'Interesting look you've got there.' There was a horrible glint in his eye that made Remus want to disappear on the spot. 'Magical scars are quite hard to come by, especially as many as that. Where did you get them?'

Remus knew what the man was getting at, and it infuriated him. Moody shot another stunning spell. Remus deflected it with so much strength and precision he was almost impressed with himself, and by the strange look on Sirius' face, so was he.

Feeling a little more confident, Remus replied with derision, 'These old things? You wouldn't believe me if I told you.'

'Oh,' Moody leered at him, and Remus took a step back, 'I'm sure I would.'

Remus could not wait any longer. It was two against one, and sooner or later they would overpower him. With a deep breath like he was jumping into the depths of the sea, Remus cast another shield charm for good measure, then he spun around where he stood and threw himself out of the moving train.

He cast a cushioning charm in front of him and prayed it would take before he hit the ground, whilst hoping to Merlin that there was not any running water, barbed wire, spiked fences, or any number of things that would cause his immediate end and save the Death Eaters a job.

A beautifully soft bubble of air caught him, before slowly laying him to rest on a patch of flat gravel. By the time he had picked himself back up, the train was long gone.

His breaths were coming light and quick as he tried to calm himself down. His mind was reeling, trying to catch up with itself, and he felt this horrible blossoming of sore pain in his throat. Remus paced back and forth, back and forth, clutching at his own hair, then he sank to his knees and cried his eyes out.

It flooded out of him, the panic, the death, the running and the fear and he cried and cried and cried until his throat was hoarse.

'That slippery bastard,' Sirius cried, running forwards, and peering out of the open door as far as he dared. The man was long gone, and the train simply continued to race along in the dark.

Sirius' felt a bitter disappointment settle within him. He had failed at his auror duties by not apprehending a suspicious character, but more than that, a quite frankly mesmerising man had been snatched away from him, just when Sirius had worked up the courage to ask him on a date.

But all that nonsense the man had spouted, well, it had been bordering on the clinically insane. It had been properly misguided, paranoid nonsense. That had certainly killed Sirius' buzz for him, even if it was hard to shake the image of those lovely honey-brown locks of hair curling around his warm brown eyes that looked golden as they caught the light.

Remus Lupin had been beautiful, with the way his mouth had moulded around his cigarette or curved upwards in a smile, but there had been an edge to him too. He was still young, but he looked like he had lived through some shit. He had felt dangerous and soft all at once.

Sirius had already had fanciful notions of the two of them walking together down the street, arm in arm, Remus Lupin with his cool scars and Sirius in his biker jacket and leather boots.

'Talk about being unnecessarily dramatic,' Moody said with a huff.

Sirius was not quite sure if moody was talking about his reaction or the way that Remus had escaped, but he did not much care either way.

The wind was still roaring through the carriage. A muggle chose that moment to stick his head around the door to see what all the noise was about. Madeye turned to tell him some excuse, and Sirius cast a sly spell to shut the exit door again when the man was not looking.

Sirius leant against the wall, spinning his wand between his fingers. Moody sent the muggle back to his seat, most likely with a flash of his fake muggle police badge, and then thudded back towards Sirius with a fierce expression.

Moody opened his mouth to speak, but Sirius cut across him. 'It's all quite odd,' he mused. 'He could have just sat down and answered some questions from us. He didn't have to risk his life jumping out of a moving train.'

Moody huffed from where he stood across from Sirius, leaning on his old walking stick. 'Well, he was guilty, wasn't he? That's why he made a break for it?'

Sirius quirked an eyebrow at his superior. Moody stuck a gnarled hand into one of his pockets and pulled out a photograph and handed it over. It was, of all things, a picture of Remus Lupin. He was standing with his back against a wall. Something behind his eyes had been switched off, making him look dejected and miserable. He was holding a small board with numbers written on it in front of his chest.

'What's this about?'

Moody's magical eye was fixed into the back of his head, no doubt keeping an eye on the muggles, but his normal one was watching Sirius unwaveringly. 'You don't recognise the numbering system, Black? Shame on you.' Moody huffed again. 'Bloody werewolves. We should have rounded them up years ago.'

'What?' Sirius murmured, still studying the photograph. 'You can't be serious.'

'Serious as devil's snare,' Moody said grimly. 'That bloke was a werewolf, and we just let him escape.'

Sirius shook his head, trying to make the pieces mesh together in his mind. 'It can't be him,' he said, completely flummoxed.

'Didn't you see the scars?' Moody growled, sounding impatient. 'Those were magically inflicted. All the werewolves start to look worse for wear the longer they stick around. They scratch themselves up on full moons.'

'But I chatted to him for ages.' Remus Lupin's hair was shorter in the photograph. Something about the black and white colouring made his scars stand out more than ever, the scars that less than ten minutes ago Sirius had thought of as enigmatic. 'I flirted with him.'

Sirius looked up at Moody to see him blink, taken aback, before he let out a bark of laughter. 'Well, that's a galleon Derek Thompson owes me.'

Sirius frowned. 'Huh?'

Moody only shook his head. 'You were flirting with a werewolf, Black.'

Sirius looked back down at the photograph. He turned it over in his hand, half hoping to see April Fools! written on the back, even though it was the middle of December. 'You're sure it's him?'

'You've got eyes, haven't you?' Moody grumbled. 'And I don't know why you're acting so nonplussed. If you weren't already suspicious of him, why the hell did you call me over here?'

'He was acting oddly, freaking me out if I'm honest. I thought…'

'Look, Black,' Moody said, shaking his head, 'it's a pain he got away, but there's actually something else I have to tell you.' He shifted from one foot to the other, his expression grim. 'I had an owl arrive half-way through my lunch, letter tied to its leg, in front of a crowd of muggles.' He shook his head. 'Those imbeciles at head office don't know what they're doing. Had to spin some yarn about being part of a touring circus, didn't I?'

'Hum,' Sirius contributed inanely.

'But I've got some bad news, Black.'

Sirius just nodded, still staring at the photograph. It was really quite an ugly, cold photograph, and did not do Remus Lupin justice at all. It did not show the way his lovely warm eyes had crinkled when he smiled.

Sirius had wanted to get to know him better. Talking to him had felt so effortless, and he had seemed genuinely good natured, but with that edge to him that made Sirius feel weak at the knees.

He could not be a werewolf.

But the evidence was there in his hand. Werewolf no. 0398-244. Sirius felt a hollow feeling in his chest at the idea that all the charm had simply been an act.

'Black, are you listening to me?'

'A werewolf,' Black muttered, shaking his head.

'Have you never seen a werewolf before, Black?'

'Of course I have,' he replied, 'but only when they're in clink, you know? Or reporting to the registry. It's odd to find them sat in front of you on a muggle train.'

'They're the kind of people we're supposed to be looking out for,' Moody admonished. 'Werewolves are sly buggers, always up to something, and now it's official policy that we've got to bring them all in on sight.'

'But he seemed so human.'

Madeye huffed. 'Don't fall into the trap, Black. They're empty inside. They lose their human emotions, all their remorse, and see us only as prey.'

Sirius knew all this, of course. He had learnt it at school, and in auror training. It was just so incredibly sad to think that the man he had fancied did not exist, and sadder still that those creatures walked around living their lives like that.

'Black, forget about that now. I need to speak to you about something. It's a serious matter.'

'No, I'm a Sirius matter,' Sirius said half-heartedly, folding the photo into quarters and shoving it into his breast pocket.

'Black.'

'Alright, alright. What is it?'

Moody sighed and fixed Sirius with both of his eyes. 'It's about your brother.'

Hope you are enjoying so far! Thank you to everyone who has reviewed or commented, you honestly make my day.

With regards to Remus' character, I've tried to make him more confident, even slightly more arrogant than he is usually depicted. I figured that with no Sirius at Hogwarts, James and Remus would have been closer friends, and James would have been more inclined to pull Remus out of his shell. Similarly I imagine James would have been a little less unthinking and callous at school with Remus as his best friend instead of Sirius. Dunno what Peter was doing because let's be honest who cares about that little rat.

I'm also imagining Remus less tired librarian and more heroin chic lol, but of course feel free to take or leave that.