It only took Pandora one single glance at James' miserable face as she entered the Great Hall, to know Sirius was once again not present for mealtime.

Turning on her heels, she bristled in anger as she made her way to the kitchen, aware now would be the perfect time to get food unnoticed and she was right as Sirius looked up startled as she barged into the kitchen unannounced.

"Pandora?"

"I don't know precisely what happened, but I do know you didn't do it and I refuse to let you hide any longer," she crossed her arms and raised her eyebrow at him expectantly, not faltering when he sighed and ignored her to accept the packed beef from the house-elf beside him with a thankful nod.

"I did..."

"No, you are covering for someone else," she cut him off as she was more than sure of that, nothing of the rumours she'd heard made sense to her as she knew the boy sitting before her better than that.

"Look, I made a mistake," he put the beef into his bag and she could see there was more food in there, making her realise he was clearly preparing for a period in exile and she wondered if not showing up at mealtimes wasn't the only way in which he was avoiding his friends.

As he was facing her, he didn't see three house-elves adding several small wrapped packages of food into his bag, shooting her nervous glances but she acted like she didn't see what they were doing and kept her attention on him.

"Maybe with something else, but this so called prank is not of your doing," forcing herself to keep on the subject, she made a mental note to ask him about the bag later.

"Actually, it is."

"Don't lie to me, Siri. I don't need to know the whole truth as I realise that if you are covering for someone, you do so with good reason, but don't lie to me. We both know you're taking the fall for someone else here and so does James."

"What?"

"Remus might be mad at you, but James isn't. It is true that he's been keeping his distance for six days now, but it is clearly not of his choosing. Which makes me believe you've told him to do so and as a result you are both hurting."

"So did what happened, I hurt Remus."

"Yeah? Then look me straight in the eyes and tell me you endangered him in any way," her heart clenched as Sirius looked up to her without hesitation, seeing the pain in his eyes.

"Don't bother. I know you'd lie to me without hesitation if you thought it would protect your friends," she sighed as she cut him off before he could tell his lie, having seen his innocence clearly in his eyes.

"Pan..."

"You love your friends, Siri. If you even remotely think a prank might harm anyone, you break it off. You aim to make people laugh, not hurt them," she paused. "Snape doesn't count; he's a slimy git who targets you guys far worse than you ever do him. And even though Snape was involved and you hate him, you'd still not have let any real harm come to him, not knowingly."

"I would," Sirius argued, finally noticing what the house-elves were doing as they were still steadily adding food to his bag and stopping them with a tiny shake of his head.

"Siri needs to eat well, we's thinks he grows too thin," the little house elf in charge squeaked and Pandora had to bite her lip as the tiny thing carefully pulled Sirius' bag back towards her and added what she was holding; a large piece of what Pandora assumed was wrapped up cake.

It spoke of her friend's bond with the little creatures that they spoke to him so familiar and at ease, no sign of nervousness or the usual grovelling behaviour she'd become used to seeing in the elves as they came closer with all types of food Pandora knew Sirius liked.

"I don't think I'd get a chance to lose any weight with how well you guys always take care of me, Tiffy," Sirius fondly shook his head and relinquished his hold on his bag so the widely smiling elf could fill it as she pleased.

Cheerfully the house-elves began adding food to it again, pulling the bag with them as if they expected Sirius to try and take it from them again.

"You know that isn't true, right?" Pandora called his attention back to her. "About letting harm come to the greasy git. You might target him with harsher and more humiliating pranks in retaliation for what he does, but you never go too far."

"I was in a temper."

Pandora couldn't stop the snort from escaping. "You don't lose your temper, not in anger and you certainly never reveal anything you don't want to."

"I do..."

"Like hell you do, they tried to tortured you and James into releasing that shield two years ago; right in front of us and you kept it together, not giving them what they wanted even though everyone expected you to."

"Pan..."

"Don't Pan me, this situation is hurting all of you. And all because you're protecting someone."

"Remus needs time to come to terms with what I've done," Sirius looked away from her to retrieve a water bottle from the elf he had called Tiffy, sighing as the elf stared at him expectantly.

"Honestly, you are almost as bad as James is," Sirius took a large sip from the bottle, to the little elf's satisfaction.

"Tiffy thinks that is a compliment. Jamsie very good for Siri."

Pandora raised an eyebrow, momentarily distracted as Sirius and Tiffy shared a warm smile.

She had always been aware Sirius was on friendly terms with most of the castle residents, if not all, but she had never been privileged to see just how close they were and she felt honoured to see the house-elves act the way they were now.

"Okay, I'll accept that Remus needs time to come to terms with the supposed truth, but that doesn't mean you have to hide," she forced herself on track again.

"He said he didn't want to see me," Sirius calmly said as he finally retrieved the bag and closed it, but Pandora could see right through his indifferent behaviour and see just how much the situation hurt him.

"Why are you taking a bag full of food with you?"

"So I don't have to sneak into the kitchen tomorrow and call attention to myself more than I have to."

"Yeah, about that...it's ridiculous that you are not coming to mealtimes."

"I told you, Remus doesn't want to see me," Sirius shrunk the bag and gingerly slipped it into his pocket, the movement clearly paining him and Pandora wondered if he'd hurt himself somehow.

"That's rubbish, how does he handle things when you're all in your common room or dorm? Please tell me you aren't avoiding the tower altogether!" Pandora growled as Sirius shrugged. "Then where have you been staying?"

"Some place safe. Look, just leave it. I hurt him," he repeated. "The least I can do is stay out of his way as he deals with it."

"This separation is hurting him too; I can tell he's missing you. As is James."

"Don't, Pan," there was a new edge in Sirius' voice that told her he would not change his mind and she sighed, admitting defeat.

"All right, this thing going on is between the four of you. I'll stay out of it, but you are coming with me to the Great Hall."

"I can't..."

"You can and you will. No matter how mad Remus might be, he's got no right to banish you like this."

"He didn't, just said he didn't want to see me so I chose to stay out of his way."

"That ends today. I can't control where you sleep, but I refuse to let you hide away like a criminal to be shunned. We're having dinner at the Ravenclaw table," Pandora didn't think she could convince him to eat at his own table, not while actively trying to avoid Remus, but she could get him to her own.

"We are not supposed to eat at another House table," Sirius pointed out.

"Have we ever cared about that?" holding out her hand, she beckoned him to rise to his feet.

"Pan..."

"Don't make me drag you there and you know I will do so," she threatened as a plan formed in her head.

If he was so hell-bent on hiding the truth, she would respect his wishes. But she could at least make sure he ate properly and if she was not mistaken, maybe even able to end this disaster.

After all, she thought as Sirius finally accepted her hand, James hasn't been the one to look up hopeful when she had entered the Great Hall and then resigned when realising it was just her.

She might just have promised not to interfere, but that did not mean she couldn't nudge things along a little.

Xxxxxx

Taking a deep breath, Remus quickened his step to catch up with Sirius and Pandora as they left the Great Hall. "Could we talk for a moment?"

Pandora gave him a knowing look as Sirius turned to him surprised, not that Remus could blame him as it had been days since he'd last spoken to him.

"I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Yeah, we can go over your defence essay then," Sirius nodded.

"Thank you," Pandora reached out to squeeze his hand with a smile, met Remus' eyes boldly for a moment and left in the other direction.

The gesture left a pang in his chest, realising she had already known the whole situation was a stupid mistake and had given Remus the opportunity to make it right again.

In his heart he knew Sirius would never do anything to hurt or endanger him on purpose, but Remus had been so mad when he found out about it that he hadn't thought about it clearly and had lashed out, pushing Sirius away.

And if he hadn't been hiding within range of the Muffliato Charm when Sirius had cornered Snape the day before, he likely would have remained angry for much longer before finally seeing sense.

It had never crossed his mind that Snape had known exactly what he'd be facing when he opened the secret passageway and travelled through to confront him, despite knowing that.

But Sirius clearly had as he'd cursed him down, threatening him that he would make him pay if he should ever raise a finger into his friend's direction or endanger his life like that again.

Even after all of Remus' angry words; words aimed to hurt, the other was still trying to protect him and that had driven home to him just how much Sirius had done to protect him and keep him safe over the years.

He'd even kept the secret from James, despite him being his best friend, because he believed it wasn't his secret to tell.

So he should have known Sirius would never reveal his secret to a known enemy on purpose and had to have been provoked far enough that he'd let something slip without meaning to.

And Snape had known what he'd be facing when he went to the Shrieking Shack, which had become obvious by that little confrontation; Sirius hadn't actually revealed his secret, just like Sirius had tried to tell him that night but he had not wanted to hear.

From what he'd overheard, Snape himself had revealed that Sirius had only told him how to find him, he had taunted him with how easily their friendship had been broken by that.

But Sirius hadn't risen to the bait, only called him an idiot and a moron for being stupid enough to seek out Remus out when he knew what he'd find.

Yet, he had warned James immediately of what had happened, just in case, as he'd be spending the full moon with Remus alone, aware it would be a difficult one due to the blue moon.

Looking at his best friend now as he watched Pandora retreat, he realised he should never have let it get to the point where his friend would ever stand across of him stiffly.

The two of them had never been awkward around each other, not even during the time James had been trying to introduce an inexperienced Sirius to friendly affection and the other had bumblingly made his attempts to put those lessons to practice.

"Let's talk somewhere private," turning at Sirius' nod, he lead them to an unused classroom and closed the door behind them, taking note of the small limp in the other's walk as he magically locked the door.

Sirius pulled himself up onto the table, at a clear distance from him, clearly waiting for him to speak as he cast the Muffliato Charm to ensure their privacy.

"What happened...you broke my trust, hurt me. I thought I could trust you, that you would keep my secret," Remus sat down across of him and sighed. "But I hurt you, too."

Sirius stared at him with an unreadable expression and that hurt more than anything that had happened, to know Sirius had pulled away from him, shielding himself from him to see.

"I didn't mean what I said, but I was just so angry."

"Why are you apologising?" It were the first words Sirius had spoken to him directly in six days and the flatness of his tone made Remus swallow as it didn't betray anything of how the other felt.

"I overheard you and Snape and it made me realise that I failed to think things through or listen to what you tried to tell me. I- I know you would never do something like that, not on purpose. And James told me you warned him immediately after it had happened...but why did you not tell me?"

Sirius was quiet for a long moment before he huffed. "Tell you that in an unguarded moment of anger I'd betrayed you by telling someone where to find you on your most vulnerable? Yeah, I can see how well that would have gone just before the full moon."

"Would have been better than hiding it," Remus rubbed a hand over his face.

"I told James immediately after it happened," Sirius shifted uncomfortably, leaning to the side a little. "But I didn't tell you and I am sorry for that and for what happened."

"I know and I'm sorry, too," looking up to his friend, Remus sighed. "The last few days have been weird...unreal even," Remus admitted. "Where have you been staying? Because I know you haven't returned to our dorm since."

"Does it matter where I was?"

"It does to me," knowing he'd deserved the harsh tone, Remus tried to keep his own even.

"Why? You're the one who told me you didn't want to see me; I've just been following your wishes and stayed out of your way as much as I could."

"I would have never thrown you out of our dorm...no matter how angry I was. Is that why you've only been to classes where you knew I wouldn't be? And haven't been at mealtimes until today?"

"Pandora forced me to come," Sirius admitted. "Almost dragged me when I objected. Girl's got a mean side to her you'd not expect in one so petite."

"I'm glad she did. If she hadn't, I don't know when I'd have been able to track you down. I know James has been taking notes for you and brought you clothes, but I haven't seen you more than a few seconds at a time and I didn't dare ask him where you had gone."

"I told him to stay away, but you know James, he refuses to listen when he's got his mind set to something," the irritation on Sirius' face brought a small smile to Remus' lips.

"Stubborn as a bull," Remus agreed. "I'm glad he's been looking after you."

"He's supposed to be mad with me and ignore me, just like you were," Sirius sighed.

"I should never have ignored you the way I did, even if I was angry. How...how are your injuries? I know I hurt you when you stopped me from going after James and Snape."

"They're fine, James treated them after I left Dumbledore's office," though from the way Sirius kept gingerly moving, Remus knew they weren't fully healed yet, even six days later.

"Do you want me to take a look at them?"

"What do you want from me, Remus? Why am I here?"

"Because I don't want to be fighting any more."

"We're not fighting; that would require two parties arguing, which is not true in this case. I made a horrible mistake and am now dealing with the consequences," there was something in Sirius' tone that made him feel there was more to it than the dark-haired boy was saying, but he didn't dare ask when there was this distance between them.

"By pulling yourself away?"

"If that is what you need, then yes," came the simple answer and Remus sighed.

"What if I don't want you to stay away?"

"I think it's become very clear that you can't trust me and I don't know about you, but I don't usually want people I don't trust near me."

"I do trust you and I know something like this will never happen again..."

"I'll make sure of that," Sirius bit out harshly, to Remus' confusion.

"What do you mean?"

"Nothing," Sirius waved him off as he slid down the desk to lean against it instead, clearly unable to get comfortable.

"Please, Sirius...I can see you're in pain," Remus slid down from his own desk, tensing as Sirius shifted away from him.

"I'm fine."

"No, you're not," running a hand through his hair frustrated, he sighed as he stepped further forward. "Damn it, Sirius...you're my friend."

"And you're mine," Sirius looked at the hand Remus had automatically placed on his, shifting as if to move out of his reach again.

But Remus wouldn't have any of that any longer and tightened his hold. "I won't let things stay like this any longer. I hate this distance between us, that you're pulling away and I'm letting you. You made a mistake, we both did and we both clearly regret it..."

"So where does that leave us now?"

It was only then that Remus realised there were tears in Sirius' eyes, tear streaks visible on his cheeks and without thinking Remus reached out to pull his friend into his arms, heart breaking when the other tensed at the contact as if he expected to be hurt.

"I'm sorry. I knew it had all been a mistake and you would never intentionally hurt me," he whispered, tears welling up in his own eyes as well now as Sirius' breathing hitched. Because although deep in his heart, Remus had always known Sirius would never intentionally hurt him, he himself had done so. Choosing his words with that exact intent and had hurt his dearest friend with them where he could. "I should have known you would punish yourself much more severely than I ever would and I'm sorry I let it get this far."

"I'm sorry for what happened," Sirius choked out as he finally relaxed in Remus' embrace and wrapped his arms around him in return as he seemed to realise Remus wasn't going to lash out all of a sudden.

"You're coming with me back to our dorm and you're staying there and we'll get through this, together. Because that's what family does," Remus eventually pulled back enough to lift the tag on Sirius' collar. "We're family and I'm not letting this destroy that. But no more lies or secrets..."

"Rem..." the clear hesitation in Sirius' voice made him frown.

"Siri? Is there something else?" lifting his friend's face up so he'd look at him, he could see Sirius' red trimmed grey eyes were torn in indecision before he shook his head.

"N-no...I...I'm not sure I should come back to the dorm so soon."

It was clearly not what was bothering him, but Remus didn't think he was in the right place to call him on it right now, perhaps later.

"You're mad if you think I'm letting you stay elsewhere for a moment longer. You're coming back to where you belong, as a matter of fact, we're getting your stuff the moment we've composed ourselves and then I'm going to berate James for not dragging you back sooner."

"He tried to get me to return repeatedly," Sirius admitted.

"Yeah, he should have just forced you. Peter's been in a real state since it all happened so you might have to excuse him if he's even more nervous than normal," Remus frowned when Sirius' expression tightened.

"Did something happen between you and Peter?"

"Yes, there was an issue between us, but it's nothing you need to concern yourself with."

"James has been fairly cross with Pete too..." Remus hinted, though he already knew Sirius wouldn't tell him more and was not let down by his friend's guilty words.

"That's not for me to say."

"All right, I'll let you two handle that. So, where have you been staying?"

"The Room of Requirement. But I have all my stuff with me, didn't dare leave them behind in there as I don't know who else knows about the room."

"Good, then we'll just make our way back to our dorm after I've had a look at your injuries."

"I told you, they are fine. James took care of them."

"Clearly not well enough as you're still limping and clearly sore."

"I ran into a couple of Slytherins the day before yesterday. Didn't take too much trouble to fight them off, but they did get some hexes in return," Sirius admitted quietly.

"I'm willing to bet James doesn't know about those or I'd have heard about some Slytherins being admitted to the hospital wing," the downward gaze was more than enough to tell Remus he was right and he tugged on Sirius' robes. "Are you going to pull them off, or am I going to have to wrestle you out of them?"

It still took a raised eyebrow and tapping his foot impatiently for Sirius to gingerly pull off his robe and under-shirt, revealing several light marks that were familiar to Remus.

"Turn the rune off," he ordered as he couldn't see anything that would explain his friend's discomfort among the faint scars.

"That really isn't..." not letting Sirius finished, Remus picked up his hand and deactivated the rune himself, eyes widening as he took in the multiple bruises now littering the skin, altering between yellow-brown and deep bluish-purple.

"You look like you've been mauled!" Remus reached out to touch a particularly large bruise on Sirius' side, pausing just above it as his eyes caught the true extent of mostly healed wounds covering his best friend's pale skin, forcing himself to focus on the discolouration and ignore the other injuries for now. "Are those all made by that bridge collapsing on you?"

"Most," Sirius shifted uncomfortable as Remus' fingers ghosted over his skin to assess the bruises.

"Sorry, and the cuts are from the last full moon? Did I do this to you?" Remus eventually asked as he finally focused on the healed cuts and abrasions.

They had all clearly been treated with Dittany, but were still very much present on Sirius' body and Remus wondered just how bad they had been before James had taken care of them.

"Moony was a little more aggressive than normal," Sirius shifted again as he clearly read Remus' self-loathing on his face and reached out to touch his biceps. "It's not your fault. I knew what I signed up for when I became an Animagus."

"To be used as a chewing toy, darn it Siri...I- I can't even imagine how much these hurt even now," he tried really hard to keep the disgust of what he'd done to his friend out of his voice, but knew he'd failed when the pressure on his arm tightened.

"Stop blaming yourself for something we willingly signed up for."

"At least tell me you've been taking pain-relieving potions...of course not. And James didn't force any upon you?" Remus sighed, unshrinking it.

"He tried and even succeeded a few times," Sirius shook his head as Remus held out a potion to him he retrieved from his own bag.

"Don't you dare give me the whole 'you deserve this' nonsense because it's a lie and I might just have to throttle you. Drink."

"James said the same thing," a small smile momentarily crossed Sirius' lips before it fell again and he looked down at his hands.

"He should have forced you harder," Remus grumbled as he felt around the cuts and clearest bruises to see if there were no lingering problems James might have missed, stopping at Sirius' hip as the other hissed.

"All right, trousers off."

"I'm not undressing in a classroom," Sirius protested, pulling away.

"Yes, you are. The door is locked magically and it are only your trousers. You can put your shirt back on again if it'll make you feel better."

"If I do this, then you have to promise you won't overreact," grumbling as Remus nodded, Sirius pulled his shirt back on before gingerly taking off his trousers.

"What did I do to that?" ignoring the new hisses coming from the dark-haired boy, Remus inspected the large dark-purple bruises covering the entire left hip, curling around his back and disappearing into his pants.

"Moony might have thrown me into a wall a couple of times," Sirius replied stoically.

"And why hasn't James used the bruise removal cream on these?"

"He did, twice actually, but it didn't really help. Oi," Sirius pulled away from him as Remus tried to shift his pants down to see the rest of the bruising and how deep they were as they crossed down to his leg.

"Honestly, you'd think I was some kind of pervert with how prudish you are," Remus rolled his eyes but pulled back. "I think we've seen each other naked often enough over the years, don't you?"

"That is in the privacy of our dorm, not in some unused classroom that you magically locked and anyone could unlock," Sirius pulled on his trousers again despite Remus' protest. "It'll heal on its own. Nothing is broken and no muscles are damaged."

"Meaning they were healed, because bruises that deeply aren't formed by a collision with a wall," Remus raised his eyebrow again when Sirius didn't answer. "Am I going to have to ask James, Sirius?"

"The hip was broken in two places and you tore a couple of muscles. It was nothing we couldn't fix in a few moments so stop feeling guilty."

"Yet the bruises are very much present and you're limping even though a week has almost passed. Of course I'm feeling guilty, I did this to you!"

"Only because of what I did," Sirius bit out as he pulled his robe on again and Remus' breathing stocked as he realised just how Sirius had received those bruises.

"You got those when you were getting between me and the door," vague memories of that night came back to him, a rage at the dark animal that had kicked the hatch closed and stood between him and his prey, coming back to him and he had to take several deep breaths to shake off the images of a limp form being tossed around.

"Remus?" he became aware of a hand softly rubbing his back and looked up into concerned grey eyes.

"First thing tomorrow, we're going to the prefects' bathroom and you're going to have a very long soak in hot water. And afterwards I am going to have a proper look at all of your injuries," he made sure his tone left no room for argument.

He knew the other wouldn't accept an apology for what he'd done, but it only made him loath himself more that he was the reason the other had remained in pain for so long because he believed he'd deserved it.

And that knowledge hurt him more than the supposed betrayal, to know his anger had kept him from doing the right thing while he knew how little self-preservation Sirius had.

Vowing to himself that he would never let his anger get in the way of doing the right thing again, he pulled Sirius back in an embrace, being mindful of the injuries.

"I'm sorry, about everything," Sirius' murmured into his shoulder as he leaned against him.

"So am I."

They remained like that for a long moment before Remus pulled back and shrunk his bag again, slipping it into his pocket.

"Come, we'll stop by the kitchen on our way back," holding out his hand, Remus swallowed thickly as a smaller one slipped in his after a small hesitation and everything seemed to fall back into place as he felt that familiar warm pressure in his hand, where it belonged.

"The house elves filled my bag with food, it's where Pandora cornered me," Sirius admitted. "I'm fairly sure Tiffy packed some chocolate cake, too."

"Then we'll eat that in our dorm and maybe we should give James a piece, too," squeezing Sirius' hand as warm grey eyes met his with a small smile, one he readily answered. "Let's go home."