Severus had heard the question even if Remus had asked it out loud. The werewolf could not seem to get it out of his mind. Severus was purple by the time he reached his dorm room. He could only imagine the look on Remus's face right now.

'Oh, the look on my face is quite interesting,' Remus pouted. 'They probably think I fancy one of them.'

'Dare I ask...?' Severus murmured, still avoiding answering Remus's actual question. Had he not already told Remus? It would take the Imperius Curse to get him to repeat it.

'Say it first,' Remus barely whispered.

'No,' Severus stubbornly answered.

'Please .'

'Remus... fine, fine... I bloody fancy you. Now what did you do to make your friends think such a thing?'

Severus could feel that the werewolf was smiling, his own smile tugging at his lips. It did feel good to admit that to Remus. 'I asked the question out loud and they probably thought I was asking one of them,' was Remus's answer.

"So at this moment your friends are sitting around your dorm room and discussing who you fancy out of them?" Severus asked. He looked across the table at Remus. He was freshly washed and scrubbed free of all paint, his skin faintly red from the scrub brush. Why he had not used magic, Severus was not sure.

"Bet Black will think it's him. He's so..." Severus trailed off with a sigh.

Remus looked over at him, the look on his face stopping any further words from coming out of his mouth.

"I don't want them to hate me for something that isn't true." Remus looked distraught, and despite who he was worrying about, Severus could not help wanting to do something to fix things.

"I doubt they'd hate you... Me, they'd hate. You, never." Severus reached over, hesitating for a couple of seconds before he touched Remus's hand.

Remus turned his hand upside down, letting their fingers slowly intertwine. Severus stared into Remus's eyes as if lost in a daze. Remus stared right back, his cheeks turning a shade of pink unlike any Severus had ever seen before.

"They'd never understand," Remus whispered, his gaze darting down to their clasped hands, "this." He tightened his fingers around Severus's, feeling like his heart was going to beat right out of his throat.

"You know them better than I do," Severus whispered back. It was as if talking in a normal voice would shatter the moment. "Do we even understand this?" He murmured. His eyelashes fluttered, as he closed his eyes.

"I don't know," Remus replied, his quiet voice and the nearly silent murmur of his thoughts almost seemed to caress Severus's cheek in a kiss. "I knew I was... into guys before. Did you Severus?"

The Slytherin blushed. "So-so, I guess. I mean..." Quite flustered, he kept his eyes shut. "I might have been fancying you for a while before I admitted it."

"Define a while," the werewolf said. He felt drawn to Severus. It was a feeling like none other. He felt the need to be by his side, protecting and making sure the Slytherin was happy.

"Do I have to?" Severus whined. He opened his eyes, feeling his heart catch in his throat. Remus looked so beautiful. To think a bloke could look like that.

"Someone should paint you," He said. He reached out, brushing a finger over Remus's cheek, trailing it down his chin and over his milky neck.

Reaching up, Remus grabbed Severus's hand and held onto it. Now both their hands were clasped together. "No fair distracting me," Remus scolded. "Please tell me."

Looking very embarrassed, Severus muttered something under his breath. When Remus squeezed his hands and gave him a very sweet smile, Severus sighed and tried again. "Forth year," He said, before breaking eye contact and looking down at the table.

"Three years? How? I mean why? What happened to make you like me in our fourth year?" Remus asked, his eyes wide.

"You were alone without your friends... I was standing with a couple of Slytherin and they started to tease you, but before they could cause any real harm you crumbled to the ground," Severus licked his lips nervously.

"Then I had no idea you were weak because of being a werewolf. It must have been close to a full moon. The guys laughed and told me to leave you, but I didn't feel right about that," Severus went on.

Remus listened with wide eyes.

"So I picked you up and carried you to Madam Pomfry." His cheeks flushed, Severus glanced back up at Remus. "I remember thinking how fragile and cute you seemed. Then when we got to the hospital wing, you woke up and... and you asked me to stay. You didn't know who I was. I stayed and held your hand until Madam Pomfry shooed me out."

"Then after that, you couldn't stop thinking about me?" Remus questioned. "We were fourteen. I was clueless about anything remotely romantic." The werewolf squeezed Severus's hands. "But... then you started to fight with us so much more, why?" Remus asked quietly.

"That was the only way you'd ever notice me," Severus grumbled. "Childish, I know, but like you said, I was fourteen and it just grew from there." He sighed. "To be fair I wasn't the only one doing it. Black and Potter... they always started things with me ever since year one."

"My attention! But I never fought back. Sirius and James were the ones who always traded insults with you."

Severus smirked. "It worked somehow. Look at where we are now. You fancy me, don't you? So you must have noticed me." Severus could not believe he was admitting all his deep dark secrets to the very person they were about. It was a wonder Remus had not figured it out through their mind linking. Somehow he liked it better that he was able to tell Remus the proper way.

Remus could not argue with that. He smiled softly. "You're right, I did notice you. I never liked bullying, you know? But I could never do anything about the way the three of you acted. Even as a Prefect, I couldn't stand up to you guys."

"Don't worry about it, some things don't change, but the things that are meant to change will," Severus said. He was not sure if he was making any sense. He had no experience in being romantic, no idea what to do. The Slytherin pulled his hands away from Remus and stood up. Remus watched him with questioning eyes as he walked around the table so that they were on the same side.

The Slytherin pulled the slightly taller Gryffindor to his feet, the sudden movement making Remus's head spin. "Bear with me okay," Severus whispered, pulling Remus to his chest, whispering in his ear. "I'm figuring this out as I go..." He rubbed a hand up and down Remus's back, frowning at the scars he could feel through his thin clothing.

For a few seconds, Remus did not do anything, before he slowly put his arms around the Slytherin. He felt like he had been searching for something and he finally found it. It felt perfect.

"Why?" Sirius pouted. "It will be just like the last full moon, Moony. You'll hurt yourself again!" The dark-haired Gryffindor crossed his arms. Remus was still acting weird, but he was their friend, so they tried to act normally around him, all still thinking about that day Remus had asked such a strange question.

"You're not coming, none of you are," Remus said firmly. "Please for me Padfoot. I can't betray Dumbledore anymore. I just can't... and there's always the chance you'll lose control of me and I will escape and hurt someone." Remus also had another reason why he did not want his friends coming with him this full moon. It was time to test Severus's wolfsbane potion.

"I don't like this," Sirus said. He turned away from the werewolf. "If you kill yourself I will bring you back as an Inferius and make you do my bidding." The dark-haired Gryffindor sighed. "I hope you know what you're doing." He walked away without a glance back.

Remus watched as Sirius walked away and sighed. "I hope so, too." He trusted Severus potion skills, and the Slytherin had been working so hard on creating it. Remus smiled, feeling overwhelmed with emotions. He never imagined anyone would care enough to try to do something for him like this.

The task seemed impossible. Nobody had been able to create a potion to help werewolves before.

'If anyone can, it's Severus.'