The lurching in Remus' belly only lasted for a moment before Sirius and he were standing up to their calves in a freezing cold bog.

'Not another moor,' Sirius cried, letting go of Remus' arm and twisting this way and that to see where they had landed.

'Sorry, sorry,' Remus said, trying to pull his feet free of the squelching mud. The water was frozen at the edges and already it had seeped into Remus' boots. 'My aim has never been that good.'

The undulating terrain was that of rough grass and weather-beaten rock that stretched out for as far as the eye could see, curving down towards the valley or upwards into towering hills. The air was biting, the sky free of cloud.

In a lunge of movement, Sirius stopped trying to free his feet and grabbed Remus by the arm again. 'Hey, look at that,' he announced, pointing at the hulking mass of the Arenig Fawr mountain that loomed closest to them. There was a light dusting of snow atop the summit, and the morning sunrise had illuminated the tip of the peak with a dazzling peachy colour.

Remus agreed that it really was spectacular, but his focus was concentrated more on the way Sirius was gripping his arm. The auror would not have touched Remus so casually a few hours ago, unless he intended to follow it up with another good kicking. It gave Remus a small glimmer of hope.

Sirius finally let go of Remus and clutched his leather jacket around him with his free hand to protect against the chilled wind. 'At least it's not raining this time.'

Remus hummed, hitching his long coat up around his waist to stop it dangling in the mud.

'Are we anywhere near?' Sirius pressed, his teeth lightly chattering.

'The house is near to the lake somewhere,' Remus said, gesturing to the dark mass of water that was just about visible at the bottom of the valley.

'I should have told you the address in the hotel,' he said, catching Sirius' eye. 'Ok, listening? My father lives in Dwyrenig Cottage, Arenig, Gwynedd, Wales, alright?'

Sirius nodded slowly.

'I'll try to apparate straight into the garden.'

Remus held out his arm again, and Sirius took it at once.

The wind was, in a whirl of compressing light, replaced with still air and the delicate tweeting of birds.

Lyall Lupin's house looked the same as it always had. It was an old stone cottage with a slate roof and a large sloping garden of grass and wild plants that ended in an allotment, followed by a forested stream just beyond the wall, which Remus' father had insisted be included in the Fidelius charm boundaries.

'I don't want to alarm him,' Remus muttered as they began to trudge their way up the hill in their sodden boots. He muttered the Patronus charm, and his wolf burst forth from his wand to scamper up the steps towards the house.

'Wait, wait, your Patronus is a wolf,' Sirius stated with surprise. 'You're a werewolf, your name is Remus Lupin, and your Patronus is a wolf?' He let out a bark of laughter. 'Were you born under a wolf star too? On planet Wolf? In the universe of Wolfidium?' He laughed again.

Remus had noticed the same thing at one point in his life, and it had upset him, but he had fortunately developed a much thicker skin since then.

He shot Sirius a withering look and rolled his eyes. 'Yes, yes. I'm the original wolf-boy. Come on.'

Sirius saw a light flicker on in the house upstairs. They had just reached the patio when there came a fumbling of the latch from inside the house, and a middle-aged man in a grey towel dressing gown, grey pyjamas, and navy slippers burst forth to meet them, his wand raised.

Sirius presumed the man was Remus' father. He was slim, shorter than Remus, and where Remus' hair was long and curly, his father's was straight, grey, and clipped close to his head. Sirius noted with interest that they shared the same golden-brown eyes, but where Remus' were soft and round, his father's were hooded and sharp.

The man remained on his doorstep as he flicked his gaze over his son, before he moved his attention to Sirius, looking him up and down. His expression was stern, like a teacher about to give out a detention, but there was a vulnerable quality in the lift of his brows, and when he gulped, he looked quite uneasy.

'Remus,' he greeted. He had a strong Welsh accent.

Remus seemed to pause strangely in one position for a moment, like a figure in a muggle photograph, but then he smiled brightly and threw both hands up in the air, pulling Sirius' hand along with him. 'Father of mine,' he hailed. 'You look well, I must say.'

Sirius could only think that Remus' father did not look at all well. He looked tense and had dark circles under his eyes.

'This is Sirius Black, Dad, and as you can see, we are in a bit of a predicament.' Remus held up their conjoined arms. '"It is often safer to be in chains than to be free," but I feel like in this case Franz was sorely mistaken.'

Mr Lupin was looking from the handcuffs to Sirius with equal amounts of shock. 'Sirius Black,' he asked, raising both brows.

'The one and only,' Sirius agreed, feeling quite on edge.

'This, Sirius,' Remus drawled, 'is the infamous Papa Werewolf, the one who looks after us all. Or you can call him Lyall, I suppose. Lyall Lupin.'

Remus' voice was positively dripping with confidence and charm. He sounded more like a salesman who had accosted Lyall Lupin on his doorstep than a son greeting his father.

Mr Lupin did not even crack a smile. 'I am not a werewolf,' he sighed, 'but I'm taking it you know that he is?' He gestured towards his son.

Sirius nodded. 'Erm, yeah. I know.'

'And you're… not?' Lyall asked, once again looking him up and down.

Sirius shook his head at once. 'Definitely not.'

'Shh, Dad, we wouldn't want to offend our guest by even suggesting such an egregious thing.' Remus shook his head, pulling Sirius behind him as he walked into the house. 'Imagine being a werewolf these days. That wouldn't be very clever at all.'

'Pleased to meet you, Mr Lupin,' Sirius said, trying to keep his body as unobtrusive as possible as he walked past the man.

'And you, Mr Black. Don't walk through the house in those shoes, Remus.'

'Alright, alright,' Remus dismissed, bending down to undo his laces. He pulled out his wand and muttered a couple of drying and cleaning spells on both his and Sirius' feet, but Sirius had a feeling his best leather boots were already long since ruined. He tried to undo his own laces with one hand, but they were so stiff he ended up simply using his wand.

Lyall Lupin's cottage was beautifully warm compared with the outside. It was furnished modestly, but it was clean and in good repair. There was a rack of shoes by the door, and hanging above it was a cork board pinned with an array of photographs.

The photos were unmoving, so clearly muggle. Most of them pictured a much younger Lyall, a woman with a slight frame and ash blonde hair, and a young boy with curly, golden hair. There was a photo of them building sandcastles at the beach, and another of the two adults standing beside a bright yellow campervan with what was clearly a young Remus sitting on the roof, grinning from ear to ear.

'Come on, Sirius,' Remus muttered beside him.

The ceilings and doorframes of the cottage were low, so much so that Remus had to duck his head as he pulled Sirius through into the kitchen. The was sizeable and had two large windows that looked out onto the lake in the distance.

A side door leading to another room had been left ajar, and Sirius could just about make out several shelves of bottles on the furthest wall, and a wooden bench with a cauldron placed on top.

'Have you had breakfast?' Lyall asked.

Remus said they had, so Lyall set about making them some tea instead.

Remus and Sirius sat down at the wooden dining table at the back of the kitchen. Remus rubbed his face with his hands whilst his father's back was turned.

'He doesn't seem very happy to see us,' Sirius muttered, hoping he would be drowned out by the boiling of the muggle kettle. Remus only shook his head.

In just a few minutes, Lyall brought over a tray of tea and sat down opposite them. He folded his arms on the table in front of him.

'Show me the damage then,' he instructed.

Remus pulled up both his and Sirius' bound hands and placed them on the table.

'Merlin's beard, Remus,' Lyall uttered, reaching forward and picking up his son's wrist, turning it over gently in his hands. It was a twisted mess of cloth and dried blood. In one place the muslin had rolled down and put Remus' wrist back into contact with the silver.

'Remus, you should have said something,' Sirius chided.

Remus shook his head dismissively. 'Have you seen the newspapers, about the new laws?' he asked his father, as Lyall attempted to shimmy the cloth into a better position.

'No,' Lyall mumbled, 'but I flooed Esmerelda yesterday and she told me all about it.' He looked up at Remus from beneath his prominent brows, his forehead wrinkling. 'You're on the run.'

Remus laughed awkwardly, scratching at his neck. 'You don't know the half of it.'

'The Ministry did this to you?' Lyall asked, gesturing at Remus' wrist.

'Yes and no. It's really quite a long story, but to unlock these we need…'

'An imbuing potion,' Lyall finished for him, nodding.

Sirius must have shown his surprise, because Remus went on to say, 'Dad used to work in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. I can't be the first werewolf you've seen in shackles, ay, Dad?' He had a tone of forced joviality, but there was something there, some barely concealed bitterness that Sirius was not used to hearing in Remus' voice.

It was certainly very interesting, because anyone who worked in that department was not inclined to be favourable towards dark creatures, mostly owing to the amount of trouble they had to deal with because of them.

'That's a coincidence,' Sirius commented slowly, looking between the two men.

He was met with only silence.

'It should be easy enough to get them off,' Lyall finally stated. 'I can brew the potion for you and have it done by this evening. I suppose that's why you came here.'

For the first time, Remus' expression wavered, and his shoulders sank as he relaxed in his chair. 'Thanks, Dad.' All traces of his previous bravado had disappeared.

Lyall only nodded, then set about pouring them all a cup of tea. Tea was honestly the last thing Sirius wanted. Now he was sat down in a warm house, he realised how tired he still was. He would have happily crawled into any bed he could find and gone back to sleep.

'How did this happen, Remus?' Lyall asked, as he set a cup of tea in front of each of them.

'We can't tell you everything, Dad, but Sirius is an auror and he tried to…'

There was a clatter of crockery as Lyall set down his teacup with surprising force. 'You're an auror?' he cut out, staring at Sirius.

'Well, almost,' Sirius admitted. 'I'm in my third year of training.'

'He arrested me, Dad, would you believe it?' Remus announced. 'Partly for being a werewolf, partly for… other stuff. But some bigger things have come to light, stuff that might help us win the war, and so now we might be working together.' He glanced at Sirius. 'If Sirius can get over the fear that I might suddenly decide I want to eat him.'

Lyall was completely flummoxed. 'And how do you know you can trust him?' he asked, frowning at Sirius.

Sirius went to open his mouth, but before he could answer Remus replied. 'Well, I was kind of forced to, Dad.' He gestured to his wrist.

Lyall's frown deepened.

'The information Remus has… gathered, about the war,' Sirius said carefully, 'is very important. It will be key in the fight against the Dark Lord.'

'And… what?' Lyall asked, fixing a steely glare on Sirius. 'You've decided you want to help him?'

'We haven't actually managed to get around to discussing everything properly yet,' Remus said, in an obvious attempt to pull his dad's attention back to himself, but Lyall's expression was like knives pinning Sirius to his seat.

'I'm not going to hurt your son, if that's what you're worried about,' Sirius stated plainly, feeling the need to defend himself. He was surprised, because if this man had worked in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, he must have known what werewolves were capable of.

Lyall did not soften. 'You're an auror, and he's a werewolf. Isn't it your job to hurt him?'

Sirius was completely taken aback by the accusation.

Remus leant over the table. 'Dad, we've been through all this, trust me. He…'

Lyall held up a hand to Remus. 'I'm asking Mr Black.'

'Yes, well,' Sirius started, clearing his throat, 'perhaps I'm starting to realise that being a werewolf shouldn't matter.'

But Lyall was not buying it. He laughed humourlessly, and Sirius saw a striking familiarity with Remus in the upturn of Lyall's mouth. 'The law now states you must apprehend any werewolf you see,' Lyall stated. 'If you don't do that, you're breaking your vows as an auror to uphold British Magical Law.'

'Well, then I've broken my vows,' Sirius replied peevishly. 'I have my wand. If I wanted to take him to the Ministry I would hardly wait until these handcuffs are off, would I?'

Both the Lupins were watching him now, Lyall with eyes like razorblades, Remus with wary curiosity.

'A big part of the reason I joined the aurors was because I wanted to fight against the Dark Lord. Remus is on the run from Death Eaters, not just aurors,' Sirius felt it was important to mention, 'and now so am I.'

Lyall snapped his gaze to Remus. 'Is he being serious, Remus?'

Sirius felt the impish need to inform all those present that he was indeed always being Sirius, but he held his tongue.

'I don't want him to know about any of it,' Remus directed at Sirius quickly. 'It's dangerous.'

'I know it's bloody dangerous,' Lyall cried, losing his composure for the first time. 'What are you playing at, Remus?' He stood up from his seat. 'You're going to end up getting yourself killed.'

Remus looked stunned by his father's anguish on the subject. 'I didn't choose to have them chase after me, Dad. I got dragged into this, and so did Sirius. Yes, the aurors are after me, and Sirius is an auror, but now the Death Eaters are after both of us. We had a narrow escape from them just last night, and now we're trying to make the best of it, trying to do what we can to stop You-Know-Who. Would you rather us just give in? Throw in the towel?'

Merlin, Sirius could not believe it had only been last night. How could his world have been turned completely upside down in the space of just a night?

Lyall sat down, leant his elbows on the table, and put his head in his hands.

'Dad,' Remus tried, his tone a lot softer than before. 'Dad, listen for a minute. Sirius isn't going to hurt me, alright? And I am, of course, not going to hurt him. I'm certainly not going to chuck him out so the Death Eaters can pick him up. There's no going back now. We just have to make the best of it.'

Lyall raised his head to look at his son. His face was clenched. 'Why are they after you?'

'Because we know some things we shouldn't, and I will not be telling you anything about it, so don't even ask.'

Lyall shared a look with his son, but then nodded minutely and sat up in his seat. 'Alright, Remus, alright.' He turned to Sirius. 'I will have to trust that my son knows what he's doing. But I warn you,' he said, his expression strangely blank, 'if you harm my son,' and he pointed a long finger at Remus, 'you will live to regret it with every fibre of your being, because when I catch up with you, every fibre of your being will burn with excruciating agony until you are nothing but a heap of singed meat on the floor.'

Sirius tried to play it cool. He had been ready to laugh it all off initially, but by the end of Lyall's speech he felt genuinely unnerved. There was a cold, dead look in the man's eyes that made Sirius want to clutch at the werewolf for protection, of all things.

'Dad,' Remus hissed through his teeth. 'For Merlin's sake.'

'I just want him to know where he stands,' Lyall said in that horrible, lifeless voice. 'And if he hands you over to the Ministry when he has no further use for you, then that constitutes harm as far as I'm concerned. I've seen the way people like you are treated, Remus, before they're even convicted of anything, and that's if they get a trial at all. They'll lock you in silver shackles just like these, put you in a windowless cell, and throw away the key, and that's if they're feeling charitable.'

Even Remus looked scared now. 'I know they will,' he said in a quiet voice. 'I've told him what they'll do to me.'

'He's an auror, Remus. He probably knows it already. That doesn't mean he cares.'

Silence settled over the three of them. Sirius had to admit that the man had a point. At least, from where Lyall was sitting, that was what it might have looked like.

Sirius was not really sure where he stood. Everyone knew that werewolves were dangerous. He had seen bodies mangled by werewolves with his own eyes. Moody had told him horror stories from the past, and that Greyback character, he had deserved everything he had got.

But the longer he thought about it, the idea of Remus being locked up for the rest of his life, just because one day out of twenty-eight he was a potential threat, did not seem right. Not if he was a normal person the rest of the time, with a personality and a conscience and a strong set of values and now, apparently, a family who cared about him enough to threaten Sirius like a butcher swinging a carving knife.

It was Remus who finally broke the silence. 'I didn't mean for any of this to happen, Dad, and I didn't want to bring Sirius here. We didn't have anywhere else to go.'

Lyall stared at Remus for a long moment, then he stood up abruptly and took the empty teapot over to the sink. Not one of them had touched their tea.

'You both look tired,' Lyall said, despite having his back to them. 'Go and lie down. I'll brew your potion for you.'

'We can help,' Sirius suggested, but Lyall cut him off with a hand.

'Too many cooks, Mr Black. I know what I'm doing. Go and rest. You look like you need it.'

They did as Lyall instructed. As they walked back out into the hallway, Sirius spied a living room and a dining room opposite, and it was into the living room that Remus took him, covering his mouth with his sleeve as he stifled a yawn.

The sky outside was growing lighter, the navy blending into a bright, pale blue. Remus flicked on the electric light as he headed over to a minimalist, 70s style sofa. Sirius followed behind him, looking around at the white plastered walls and the large bookcase in the corner. There were more photographs, framed this time, hanging on hooks on every wall. A large window looked out towards the hills. Beneath it, on a low, rounded wooden table, sat a record player, with rows and rows of records stacked underneath.

Sirius had visited several muggle homes throughout his auror training, and Lyall's cottage was not dissimilar to them, but there were a few items here and there that made it clear they were in the home of a magic user. It made sense when Sirius remembered that Remus' mother had been a muggle, but it was still odd, seeing a pot of fanged geranium standing right next to a va-koom cleaner propped up against the wall.

'Well, you've met the werewolf patriarch,' Remus said, staring at his hand where it rested atop his knee. He looked withered all of a sudden, and his voice was quiet. 'What do you think?'

Sirius really did not know what to make of the pair of them. He considered for a moment, his eyes falling on an orange oval lampshade stood in the corner that had tassels all around the edge. Finally he said, 'Your dad is scary.'

Remus did not react much, only swivelled his eyes sideways to give Sirius a dull look. 'You think?' he asked.

Sirius shrugged. The older man certainly had a lot less natural charm than his son, but Sirius was not about to say that. 'He's a lot scarier than you, actually.'

Remus let out a tired sigh as he began pulling at a loose thread hanging from the hem of his coat. 'Well, I had to learn my evil werewolf ways from someone,' he commented. It was like a faint echo of the playful tone he had used the night before, but this time it felt like his heart was not really in it.

'He seems a lot more concerned about me hurting you than you hurting me.'

Lyall's worry about Sirius harming his son made Sirius' fears about his own health and well-being around Remus feel rather silly, but there were still a couple of things he wanted to know.

'So, have you ever actually, erm… bitten anyone then?'

Something twitched in Remus' eyebrow. 'What?' he asked, his gaze still focussed on his lap.

'How many people have you bitten?'

Remus leant forward and rubbed at his face with his free hand. 'Oh, only one hundred people a month for the last few years, not that many.'

'No, honestly, how many?' Sirius pressed.

Remus turned his head to shoot Sirius a disdainful look.

'You know,' Sirius continued. 'How many people have you turned into a…?' he gestured at Remus with his hand.

Remus shook his head, tsking under his breath. 'What do you take me for?' His golden-brown eyes were half covered by the hair hanging in his face. 'I've never turned a single person in my entire life.'

'Not one?'

'Not one.'

It was, of course, the established narrative that werewolves went around biting anyone they could, but this statement did fit more with what Sirius already knew about Remus' character.

'So you don't go around biting people then?'

'Of course not,' Remus said with incredulity.

'Alright, alright,' Sirius said, putting his hands up placatingly. 'You just make a habit of threatening to do so then?'

'What?' Remus asked, frowning and shaking his head.

'You threatened to bite me back there at the hotel,' Sirius pointed out, unsure if he had already been played for a fool, or if it was currently happening.

Remus stayed frowning at Sirius for far too long, but then he blinked and made an "oh" shape with his lips.

'What?' Sirius pressed.

'Yeah, erm, that wouldn't work. My bite will only transfer the curse in my transformed state. As in, when I'm big and hairy and all that.'

Sirius felt heat rising in his cheeks. Oh, he really had been taken for a fool. 'You're kidding?'

'Not kidding.' Remus slumped back onto the sofa cushions. 'Did you really think me just sinking my teeth into you now would turn you? With these pathetic human things?' He pointed at his teeth to emphasise the point.

'But you're a werewolf. You…' His voice trailed out when he saw a glint come into Remus' eyes.

'Honestly, I would have thought an auror would know that.'

'They told us,' Sirius insisted, 'in auror training, that any bite from a werewolf has the potential to pass on the curse, especially if the bite pierces an artery, or…'

But Remus was shaking his head. 'They were sorely mistaken, I'm afraid.'

Sirius did feel a little embarrassed, but he was really surprised more than anything. 'You had no problems threatening me with it,' he said, and immediately regretted the sulking note in his voice.

'It was a life-or-death situation, Black. What would you have done?'

'How do you know for sure? Bitten people a lot as a human, have you?'

Remus only sighed, his eyelids fluttering half closed. 'My parents would both be a werewolf multiple times over if the myths were true.'

Sirius scrunched his nose up bemusedly. 'You've bitten your parents multiple times?'

Remus shot Sirius a glance. 'Don't look at me like that. When I was little, I mean. You know, tantrums and the like. I went through a biting phase. I even tried to bite my cat once.' He paused, his tone lightening for a moment. 'Imagine if I'd been able to make a werewolf cat.'

Sirius could not tell if Remus was enthralled or appalled by the idea, but his mind was on other things. 'What… tantrums?' and then his mind seemed to freeze. 'Wait, how old were you when you were bitten?'

Remus grew tense at once. 'Dammit,' he muttered, looking away.

'Were you a child?' Sirius asked in horror.

'Ok, please, please, don't give me the pitying looks. I can't stand it.'

'How old were you?!'

'Four, alright, but…'

'Four?!'

'Well, almost five, really. When I first transformed, I was five. The best birthday present I've ever had.'

Sirius could not believe someone would do that to a child, and yet… he could not help his thoughts spinning back to what he and Regulus had been through when they were that age.

There were things he wanted to say, but he was not sure if Remus would welcome them. He might laugh at Sirius, call him pathetic for even thinking they could compare.

Remus spoke up, and the moment was gone. 'If I did bite someone in my transformed state, even by accident, I'd probably kill myself,' he stated, like it was a completely normal thing to say.

'Nah,' Sirius said immediately, shaking his head. He had always thought of suicide as a coward's way out, but then his thoughts flew back to what his brother had written in the little black book. I wish I was dead.

'I mean it.'

'Wait, so you would never bite someone on purpose?'

'Of course not.'

'But you'd still kill yourself, even if it was an accident?'

'I wouldn't be able to stand it.'

Sirius considered this. 'If it was an accident then no one could really blame you.'

'You wouldn't be saying that if it was you that I had bitten,' Remus said darkly. 'And isn't that why everyone hates werewolves, because they're afraid they or someone they love will get bitten?'

'Not everyone hates werewolves.'

'You certainly do,' Remus cut out.

Sirius looked down at the brown, swirl-patterned of the carpet. 'I don't hate you. It's not your fault you're a werewolf.'

It felt odd, saying that about a werewolf, to a werewolf, but when he said the words, it felt like he was telling the truth.

Sirius' brother had died a werewolf, and Sirius could not help but wonder if it had changed him at all. Remus had mentioned that Regulus had seemed crazed, but Reg had always had a one-track mind. His brazen passion for whatever was consuming him had been frightening at times.

Sirius remembered going home for the summer after his fifth year when the casual comments about blood purity and status that had been instilled in Reg since birth had become passionate tirades about "the natural order" and "retribution" and "fighting for the cause", and Reg had barely been fourteen years old.

But in the end, he had given his life in an attempt to stop it. He had changed for the better, and that change had gone hand in hand with him becoming a werewolf.

'If you hate werewolves, then you hate me,' Remus said quietly. He sounded more downtrodden than ever.

Sirius was still frowning down at the carpet. In contrast to Reg, and as a direct consequence of his upbringing, Sirius had always tried to be someone who looked at the facts presented to him and not the bullshit people spouted to convince themselves of lies they had been told by other people.

How many times had Sirius been told things about these dark creatures, heard reports in the news, vitriolic orations from his parents, or sneering jibes from his friends? And how many times had he actually met a werewolf, sat down, and talked to one?

'You don't seem all that bad.'

'I'm not the one good one, the exception to the rule,' Remus stated, his tone quite monotonous, 'and you don't have to put up with me if you don't want to.'

Sirius tried to relax his expression. He turned to Remus, tossing his hair away from his face so he could look at him properly. 'What, you mean…?'

'It's not like you've signed a binding contract. In a few hours we'll be free of each other,' Remus said, holding up their conjoined wrists. 'All we would have to decide is who gets custody of this.' He took the black dragonhide book out of his coat pocket and chucked it onto the carpet. 'If you promise to leave me alone, then you can go on your merry way, and we never have to see each other again.'

Sirius slumped backwards on the sofa to stare at the swirled pattern on the ceiling instead.

Remus was right, Sirius could leave, but simply put, he did not want to.

Because Remus was, at the end of the day, thrilling to be around. Sirius had never had his world turned upside down more times in the space of twenty-four hours. Even if it was for the wrong reasons, and without knowing the destination, Sirius did not want to get off the train just yet.

'I think I'm changing my mind about werewolves.'

He was changing his mind, right? It felt the same as it had before, with the blood purity nonsense, or the Black superiority complex, as well as a myriad of other things he had been taught growing up.

Sirius had no issues with being proved wrong. In fact, he found it elating. It meant that there was something better waiting for him over the horizon.

'People don't change their minds that quickly,' Remus said bitterly.

'Well, maybe I do.'

'I don't believe you.'

'Huh,' Sirius let out with a laugh. 'You don't believe me?' That was certainly a way to turn things on their head.

Remus narrowed his eyes at Sirius. 'This is exactly what I'm talking about.'

Sirius huffed. 'Give me a chance, would you?'

Remus was watching him fixedly with those enchanting eyes of his. Perhaps Sirius did not trust werewolves at all and had only been bewitched, but either way, Remus was much nicer to look at when his eyes were not scrunched up in a frown like that.

'What?' Remus asked after they had both been silent for a long moment. He tilted his head to the side quizzically.

Sirius blinked. 'What?'

'You're looking at me strangely.'

Sirius shrugged. Remus still looked wary as he went back to pulling at the thread of his coat.

'Maybe it's fate,' Sirius commented, as the thought popped into his head.

Remus did not reply, only glanced at him to show he had heard.

'Well, what were the chances of us meeting on the train like that?' Sirius pondered. 'I think fate wanted us to work together.'

Instead of looking enamoured by the notion, Remus' face twisted into disbelief. 'Don't tell me you actually believe that?'

Sirius cracked a smile. 'I believe there are things about the universe that we don't understand.'

Remus shook his head incredulously. 'Life's a struggle, and then you die. There's no such thing as fate.'

'A huge chunk of your life is controlled by the moon, and you don't believe in celestial powers?'

Remus laughed humourlessly. 'I suppose someone who's named after a star would like to believe that kind of rubbish,' he said, his eyes fixed on Sirius again, 'if only to inflate their own self-importance.'

Something electric zipped in Sirius' stomach as their eyes met. He smirked at Remus. 'I'm the brightest star in the sky, I'll have you know. No inflation needed.'

Finally, Remus cracked a smile. The werewolf opened his mouth to reply, his eyes dancing, before the sound of someone clearing their throat filled the room.

They both spun around on the sofa to see Lyall standing in the doorway.

'I've checked the recipe. If I start it now the potion should be complete in seven to eight hours.'

Sirius spied the clock on the mantelpiece. It was coming up to eight a.m.

'You should both be free by supper time,' Lyall informed them, 'unless the potion doesn't work, and we have to try again tomorrow.'

Remus looked away from both of them, muttering a quick, 'Thanks, Dad.' His smile had vanished.

Lyall nodded back, then without another word left them to it.

The silence that followed felt static, like there were a thousand more things to talk about and also a thousand things left waiting to sink in.

'Like I said before, once we're free, you can leave whenever you like,' Remus stated. 'I won't stop you. I'm pretty confident you won't use what you know to help You-Know-Who.'

'I won't,' Sirius said at once.

'That's alright then.' Remus was frowning again, his voice tense. 'I'm going to do what I can to use this information against You-Know-Who, even if I'm not really sure how I'm going to do that.'

It was a daunting task, but if they worked together, Sirius was certain they could handle it.

He had known for a while now that he was meant for more. Being an auror would have meant slowly moving up the ranks until he grew grey, like a foot soldier for the corrupt elite. It was a slow, painful way to die.

What had he been thinking? Had he still been looking to please his parents, even after he had rejected them from his life? Had he wanted to be suave and successful, so that when his friends from school got in touch, he had something impressive to talk about?

The future was unknown now, and it was exhilarating. Better to risk it all and go out in a blink of dazzling action.

Sirius tilted his head and offered Remus a grin. 'Sounds like you need some help.'

I did consider at one point doing a whole thing with Regulus having a ticket already bought for the train knowing Sirius was going to be on it, wanting to orchestrate a meeting, but it felt too contrived, so I figured, ah prophecy is already a thing in Harry Potter, so Remus and Sirius' meeting on the train could be fate right? Cosmic coincidence? And also this is a story lol.