Title: Let Go

Author: Lilvior

Rating: PG-13 (possibly lower)

Summary: Lupin can't handle the loss, depression goes a lot deeper than anyone realises. Set directly after OotP.

Warning: Spoilers galore (for OotP, obviously doesn't follow with events in HBP). Character death. Naughty language. I sort of hint at some m/m, but don't worry; nothing actually happens.

Archive: I would be honoured.

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, if I did, Sirius would still be alive. Song belongs to New Found Glory.

Rant: God DAMN JKR that stupid woman. Okay, she evoked a reaction, which is exactly what she was trying to do; so maybe killing the best character in the series wasn't a totally retarded move. But Sirius is – was – a hero! Couldn't he have died a hero's death? Jumping between Harry and Voldemort or something?

Anyway…

Of my hand.

Is it

Time to go?

I'm not ready to

Turn my back on you now.

I'm not gonna let you down.'

New Found Glory

"Come on, you can do better than that!"

The words echoed around Remus' head. Over and over he saw the exact moment Sirius died. At that instant, a rather substantial part of Remus died too. All sound had become muted, his vision had blurred, his mouth had gone dry and his mind seemed to have gone completely blank.

Speaking on automatic, he'd told Harry that Sirius was dead. He'd felt him die. And yet, even as he was trying to convince Harry that the man was gone forever, he couldn't quite believe it.

He wouldn't believe it.

Dumbledore had accompanied the kids back to school, and somehow Remus had found his way back to 12 Grimmauld Place. With a blank face he had stumbled and limped past Molly and Severus, both of whom wanted to know what had happened. But he couldn't even open his mouth. He heard Molly cry out, asking if her children were okay, then if Harry was all right. He felt a small pang of guilt at not telling her they were all fine, he didn't want her to worry, but he couldn't talk right now, he just had to get upstairs. He was saved from guilt by the arrival of Mad-Eye and Kingsley, who explained everything. By the time they'd finished, Remus had stepped into Sirius' room, he could hear Molly crying. He shut the door behind him, and everything was silent. Sirius' silencing charm on the room was still working.

The whole room smelled of Sirius. All his stuff was still there. It seemed an odd thought, but for some reason, Remus had been expecting all of Sirius' clothes and books and junk to be gone. It took a while to get control of his legs, but eventually he had staggered over to Sirius' bed and collapsed on it.

There the scent of his best friend surrounded him and threw him into the reality that he was never going to see, speak to, hug or joke with Sirius Black ever again. He lifted his face from the pillows briefly and cried out as loud as he could manage. The pressure behind his eyes became painful and huge tears rolled down his face. Remus had never cried like this ever before. He was absolutely hysterical; anyone who knew him would have been terrified to behold such a sight. He wasn't so much sobbing, as repeatedly screaming, tears refused to show any sign that they might be coming to an end, his face was screwed up in an emotional pain the likes of which he'd never felt, and without realising it, one of his legs was jerking spasmodically.

With every breath, he was inhaling raw air saturated with memories. His lungs ached with the weight of it. His head pounded from the continuous sobbing, and his cries had been getting slowly quieter as weariness took him over. Six and a half hours after Remus had stepped into the room, he fell into a deep painless sleep, void of dreams, emotions and dead friends.

Nobody woke him, for one thing, they were all very busy, the ministry had finally come to their senses and were asking rather sheepishly what had been going on for the past year. For another thing, they all knew Lupin would need time to come to terms with the tragedy, for him to deal with it in his own way.

None of them would have believed that he wouldn't be able to deal with it.

When Remus awoke, nearly twenty-four hours later, he felt the brief, fleeting hope that it had all been a dream. But brief and fleeting were all it was. In a matter of seconds he could think clearly. Waking in Sirius' bed confirmed it. He was alone. Remus rolled off the bed, tried to stand, and fell to his knees. Alone. The word seemed to be everywhere, as if several people were hidden around the room, whispering it in an attempt to drive him to insanity – an attempt that was veering toward success.

All alone, he crawled on all fours to the small en-suite bathroom.

All alone, he hauled himself up at the sink.

All alone, he stared at his reflection.

Then he retched, over and over until he was bringing up nothing more than bile and blood.

Five hours later someone knocked on the door. Remus was lying curled up on the floor, staring at a half-eaten plate of chips that had been pushed under the bed and left there.

Sirius left those there, Remus thought, probably thought he could clean it up when he got back from the Ministry. He struggled to swallow the lump that was creeping up his throat.

Whoever was at the door knocked again.

"Remus, dear," Molly's voice called from behind the door, "are you awake?"

But the voice was coming from another dimension. Remus' stomach gave a horrible twist as he realised Sirius' spell had worn off. Soon this room wouldn't smell of him anymore and Remus would have nothing to remember him by.

The door slowly creaked open, and Mrs Weasley had a clear view of him.

"Oh you poor dear." She said, hurrying over to where he lay, and kneeling down to try to comfort him. "Were you injured?" She asked, then, unsure of whether to take his silence as an affirmative or negative, she tried to hoist him up into a sitting position. Remus let his head flop limply onto her shoulder. Remembering how Remus had comforted her after the incident with the Bogart, she felt she owed him some comfort in return. They sat like that for a while, but eventually Molly let him go, lying him back down on the floor.

"Would you like me to bring up some nice hot soup for you, Remus?" She asked, her concern touched on Remus' mind slightly, and he turned his head to face her.

"Chips." He said, his voice came out rough and scratchily.

"Chips?" Molly asked, concern deepening.

"Chips under his bed." A husky whisper. "He didn't finish them, he'll never finish them."

"Oh." Less concern, more alarm.

Mrs Weasley hadn't noticed she was backing away, until she found herself in the hallway, at which point, she turned and bolted down the stairs, desperate to find someone who could help.

Remus rolled back onto his side and continued staring at the remains of Sirius Black's last meal.

It was about an hour later when there was another knock at the door. This time Remus heard it. But it didn't matter, he was on his own, now and forever, no matter how many people came in the room, he would be alone.

This time, when the door opened, Dumbledore stepped into the room.

"Remus." He said gently.

Remus didn't move.

"Remus, sit up, please."

Again Remus continued to lay still. There was nothing anyone could do to him now; even as the Headmaster touched his hand, there was still a million miles between them.

"Are you hungry?"

"Chips-"

"Yes, Molly's told me about the chips." The old man was starting to get the idea of the situation. "Wouldn't you rather have some soup?"

"Sirius…" Remus' lip began to quiver, and soon he was crying again.

Dumbledore turned and called someone in. Molly and Snape stepped in.

"Molly, would you be a dear and make up some chicken soup, bring up some chocolate as well, we all know what a sweet tooth Remus has." Molly left, she seemed happy to leave this room that felt like death. "Severus, we are going to need a strong anti-depressant potion."

"Strong." Snape repeated. "How strong?"

"Well, we certainly don't want him delirious, but it will take a lot of Estle tree sap to bring him out of this, and please hurry, he will continue to get worse until you have made the potion."

Snape gave a short nod, then turned and left. It wouldn't be the first time he'd stayed up all night brewing a potion for Lupin.

Dumbledore looked back at the shaking body in his arms, it was really no more than an empty shell, all he could do was hope that Remus was still in there somewhere.

Unfortunately, business called Dumbledore away before the food was ready, and Molly found herself staying at the house slightly longer than she'd intended, to feed Remus. She felt embarrassed for the poor man; there was no dignity in being fed like a baby. She'd managed to sit him upright, and, with one hand holding the back of his head, she was spoon-feeding him, talking encouragingly. With a great sadness, she realised the last time she'd done this was when Ginny was a baby.

"A few more mouthfuls, come on, that's a good boy…"

Then she heard a familiar 'crack'.

"What are you up to mum?" Asked Fred.

"You were supposed to be home twenty minutes ago, we want our…" George trailed off, staring shocked at the scene. "What's going on?"

"Please go home boys." Mrs Weasley said, in as steady a voice as she could muster.

"What's wrong with-"

"Go home." She repeated, a little more sternly.

The twins obviously got the idea, both disapparated at the same time, both wearing the same worried expression.

Molly continued feeding her charge,

"I'll tell them not to say anything, they'll understand." She said in a voice that she knew was patronising, but she couldn't help it, "They told me before, they think you were th-the best Defence Against the D-dark Arts t-teacher they've ever h-h-had…" she turned away. She wasn't entirely sure if Remus had any idea what was going on, but she didn't want him to see her cry. After a moment she wiped at her eyes with a tissue, then fed Remus the last of the soup. "Now, could you just eat a little bit of this for me…" she broke off a couple of squares of chocolate and put them in his mouth. His jaw worked mechanically, and Molly decided she'd done all she could. It took surprisingly little effort to lift Remus and lie him down on the bed, he was alarmingly light. His eyes closed as soon as he was lying down.

The next morning Mrs Weasley was unable to get to the house and so Dumbledore requested that Snape stay there for the day. Severus couldn't help but turn his nose up slightly at the thought of cooking for and feeding Remus whilst trying to brew this potion, all at the same time as he was trying to spy on Voldemort and teach at Hogwarts. Dumbledore must have thought he had a time-turner or something.

Walking into that room was like falling into an open grave. Remus was asleep on the bed wearing the same clothes he'd put on two days ago. Snape could see why he didn't take them off though – he was wearing clothes that Black had passed down to him, the jumper was too long and the jeans covered in cigarette-burns. He wondered, with slight disgust, if Lupin was wearing Black's old underpants.

No light came in from behind the thick curtains, and there was a rather pungent smell of vomit coming from the en-suite. Remus didn't smell too great either, but Severus decided it was well beyond the call of duty to bath him.

The potion was supposed to be ready by this afternoon anyway, so Lupin could bath himself once he was sane again.

Snape had declined to go into work that day, and the Death-Eaters were all in Azkaban so he didn't really feel like facing the Dark Lord when he was so likely to be in such a shitty mood. The anti-depressant potion simply needed to mature for a few more hours, so there was little he could do to that (maybe add some sugar, everyone knows what a sweet tooth Lupin has), leaving the rest of the morning to watch over the last of his childhood enemies.

In truth, Lupin was never that bad, it had always been Potter and Black that made his life a living hell, and that fat little boy, Pettigrew, who had always cheered them on, Remus had just sat there and done nothing about it. Looking back, Snape didn't know what to feel about James and Sirius dying, it had never felt as good as when he'd wished them dead back at Hogwarts. He felt guilty that he'd never caught Pettigrew as the spy, but he wasn't entirely surprised, he'd never been quite the same as the others.

If Severus had ever had to choose one of the Marauders to be stuck in a room with, it would have been Lupin. Unless he'd been stuck in a room with one of them and several torture implements, in which case it would have been Potter.

Remus was shifting on the bed.

"Do you want to eat?" Severus asked sharply, not moving any closer to the curled up form. For a moment he didn't think he was going to get a reply, he thought maybe Remus was just stirring in his sleep, but eventually he heard a hoarse little voice,

"No." it said, he didn't sound anything like Remus Lupin, and Severus found he was stepping toward the bed against his own judgement, just to see if it really was the man it was supposed to be. "No thank you." Remus croaked again.

"My, you have got yourself into a state, haven't you?" He felt a great deal of guilt, gloating over Lupin's loss, but some sick part of him still wanted revenge for all those years ago, yes, just a few tears, then they'd be even. "Maybe someone should have told you we were fighting a war, then maybe you'd have been prepared for someone as careless as Black to have gotten himself killed."

There was silence, Severus was slightly disappointed that his effort had had no effect, but when he looked, he could see Remus was crying. Silent tear-drops rolled down his cheeks, and a great sadness had turned his eyes a strange grey-gold colour. Suddenly Severus was deeply ashamed at what he'd done. He sat on the bed, and gingerly patted Remus' back twice.

"I'm sorry," He muttered, "I shouldn't have said that."

Remus curled up into an even tighter ball. Snape found his hand inexplicably drawn back to his back, this time he stroked a calming, rhythmic pattern, and found himself almost hypnotised by his own movements. It was strangely comfortable. By adjusting himself slightly on the bed, Severus discovered he could prop himself up against the headboard, with Remus lying to one side, and keep up the calming process. He was careful not to allow himself to fall asleep though, the last thing he needed was for someone to come in and find him sleeping with Lupin.

Remus kept his eyes open, he could feel himself being comforted; there had been no one there to comfort him when James died, when Peter 'died', or when Sirius was locked away. But somehow he hadn't felt as alone as he did right now. He seemed to think he knew who it was that was sitting with him. But that was impossible, he only knew Sirius, and now Sirius was gone. Still, human contact was human contact; he was lucky he got any at all, considering what he was. Suddenly he was hungry. He wondered how he could get this idea across to whoever it was who was looking after him.

He moved his head a little to get his attention, then tried to think of what he'd like to eat; all he could think of was chips.

"Chips." He muttered.

Snape, who had heard Molly's account of what happened earlier yesterday, realised almost straight away that Remus didn't actually want chips, but that his mind was rather jumbled up at the moment, and he probably wanted food.

"What would you like?" He asked, shocked by how compassionate he sounded, even to himself, "Soup again?"

Remus was silent; he seemed even to have momentarily forgotten the meaning of a shake or nod of the head.

"I'll take that as a no, porridge then?"

"Mmm."

Snape got up to leave, thinking that was the best he was likely to get right now, and was surprised to hear Remus' voice add,

"With lots of syrup."

By the time they'd finished this late breakfast, the potion was ready. Severus was slightly nervous about giving Lupin the potion without first consulting Dumbledore, it was the strongest anti-depressant he'd ever brewed, and coming from someone bullied as much as Snape, that was saying something. He was certain it wasn't strong enough to kill him, but adding lycanthropy to the equation meant they might see some side effects. Snape wanted Dumbledore there to shoulder the blame in case anything were to go wrong. Against his better judgement, Severus decanted some of the purple liquid into a tankard and took it upstairs.

"Drink this." He said simply, holding out the potion for Remus to take.

Remus didn't look as thought he were capable of taking it, his arms rested heavily on his stomach. Snape had propped him up with pillows, so he was almost sitting upright, but it wouldn't be particularly safe to pour the potion down his throat in this position.

With a sigh, Severus placed the tankard on the bedside table and climbed onto the bed. He sat himself behind Remus, and let him rest his head against his shoulder. It would have looked, to anyone entering the room at that point, as if Severus was cradling Lupin, tipping small mouthfuls of the potion into Remus' gormlessly gaping mouth.

"You have to drink it all." He was saying, though whether Remus was listening or not, he didn't know. "You have to drink all of this, then there are two more doses, you must drink one each night for the next two nights…"

"Mmm." Remus murmured.

Looking at the young man's handsome features, Snape found himself wondering how it could have hurt this much to see a friend die. It wasn't true that Severus had had no friends, he had befriended a select few in Hogwarts, all of whom were now dead, it hadn't affected him this much. What he didn't understand, was that those people he had called 'friends' had in fact been no such thing, Snape had been smart enough to make out the condescending remarks they'd thrown at him, he hadn't forgotten they way they'd beat him up to make themselves feel bigger, but he had continually deluded himself that this was how it was supposed to be. One by one they'd been killed by Aurors or the angry Dark Lord himself, and Severus couldn't have cared less.

He'd never enjoyed true friendship, nor suffered its aftermath.

Whereas Remus had been part of the most exclusive group in the history of Hogwarts. That group had met each other on the Hogwarts train, and instantly formed the tightest clique. They spent most every Christmas and summer holiday together, if one was caught up to no good and put in detention, then invariably the others would find some way of getting in trouble so that their pal wouldn't suffer alone.

They'd even managed to find a way to be together whilst Remus was in wolf-form. The four of them were the definition of inseparable.

Snape had been curious about their reactions to Potter's death, he hadn't seen them for a while at that point, he'd heard from Hagrid that Sirius had been beside himself with grief. But he'd probably consoled himself briefly with the fact that his other two friends were alive, before discovering Pettigrew's treachery, attacking him, and getting his arse hauled off to Azkaban. Remus couldn't have had it easy, losing all three friends within a space of two days, especially considering that the Potters' had deemed Pettigrew a more reliable secret-keeper than him. He'd dealt with being alone, being the last Marauder, for fourteen years. Severus couldn't begin to imagine what it would be like to get one of those friends back for nearly two whole years before losing them for good. Maybe this insanity was justified.

In which case, was it really fair on Lupin to hand him a potion and cure it?

Perhaps he needed to feel this loss.

Whatever, it was too late now.

Tension in the body faded away and Remus limply flopped back against Snape's chest. Staring into space, Severus absentmindedly stroked Lupin's hair; it was just as soft as it had always looked. All the jealousy Severus had ever felt towards him grew fainter; as the smartest of the Marauders, Remus was the only one Snape would ever have traded places with. Maybe they could be friends. After all this time it didn't seem like a particularly convincing idea, but they definitely both needed someone.

But looking at Lupin's tired face, lined around the eyes, and his hair that was now quite possibly more silver than gold, he realised it was too late.

They'd never be 'friends'; Severus simply could not allow himself to believe two people who had been rivals for so long could ever truly be friends.

He shifted sideways and let Remus lie down on the bed. When he woke up, the worst of the depression should have lifted, but Severus reminded himself not to let Remus forget to take the rest of the potion. There is always a danger stopping any type of medication half way through the course.

He cast one last glance back at Lupin, who was wheezing slightly in his sleep, and thanked whatever deity it was looking over himself that he had never forged such a strong bond with anyone to warrant such a dramatic grieving process.

When Molly arrived at seven o'clock that evening – the fourth evening since the tragedy – she was pleasantly surprised to see Remus sitting upright, calmly reading that day's issue of the Daily Prophet.

"Good evening, Molly." He said, placing the newspaper to one side. He still looked tired, but then he'd always looked tired, something about being a werewolf.

"Good evening, Remus!" She said excitedly, "How are you feeling?"

"Better." He replied, "A little embarrassed about the whole situation to be honest." He lowered his eyes, looking rather ashamed.

"Oh you have nothing to be embarrassed about!" Molly sat on the bed next to him, and responded to his sceptical glance with a hug. "You suffered a great loss, it's only normal that you should be upset about it." She favoured him with a slightly worried smile, "You should hear what Harry did…"

"Harry, how is he?" Remus asked, he'd completely forgotten about the boy, who was probably feeling really guilty about Sirius' death, "What did he do?"

Molly looked around as if she was about to indulge Remus in top-secret information.

"Well, according to Phineas, he completely trashed Dumbledore's office." She whispered.

Remus grinned. That was exactly what James would have done.

"I should probably talk to him." He said. Suddenly he wasn't alone, he'd had a miniature James at Hogwarts all along. Someone who knew how much pain he was in.

"Oh yes, you must." Molly said, "Tomorrow you must go with Moody, Tonks and Arthur to meet him at Kings Cross."

"Oh." Remus said, rather startled that they expected him to be up and out of bed so soon. He wasn't sure himself if he could handle seeing people yet. "Do you think I'll manage it?" he asked.

"Of course. The potion that Severus made for you has already made you ten times better, if you remember to take tomorrow's dose, you should be fine."

Remus turned his head and stared at the empty tankard by his bed.

There were two more doses downstairs, one for tomorrow afternoon and one for the afternoon after that. When they were all gone, he'd be cured.

Great.

Somehow that wasn't much of a comfort.

"Molly, I…" Remus grabbed her hand, "I just wanted to say thanks."

She smiled.

That evening the Order held a meeting, from which Remus chose to abstain. However, once it had been established that there was no new information, the group decided to dissolve the meeting and spend the evening drinking and playing cards. Dumbledore himself invited Remus along to join them, and the werewolf agreed. As soon as he entered the drawing-room, he was greeted with numerous queries about his mental state, most cleverly disguised as; 'How are you holding up' (Tonks), 'We're all very sorry' (Arthur), and the more brazen; 'Just don't go killing yourself now' (Mad-Eye). Remus smiled politely,

"I'm feeling much better, thanks." He replied a little guiltily, as if he shouldn't be feeling better yet. He looked around the table, taking in the faces.

Snape sat at the end of the table, shuffling two decks of cards together, he was the only one not smiling. Next to him sat Kingsley, Tonks, Mad-Eye and – surprisingly – McGonagall, with a cane propped up against her chair. On the other side were Dumbledore, Molly and Arthur, there was also an empty chair where Remus assumed he should be sitting.

Remus sat down and gratefully accepted Tonks' offer of a drink, though when she dumped the bottle of fire-whiskey down in front of him he was a little taken aback.

"You look like you need it." She explained.

The first few rounds of Black Jack were uneventful, Dumbledore and Mad-Eye were winning alternate hands, until Severus pointed out Moody's eye, and Tonks poked it out and put it in a small lead lined box.

Once he'd loosened up, Remus found himself laughing along with the others in their playful accusations that Dumbledore was cheating. He noticed out of the corner of his eye, that Severus was still stony-faced, and so threw him a questioning look. Snape leaned across the table whilst everyone else was engaged in trying to work out how it was that Dumbledore kept winning,

"I think you should slow down." He said, quietly.

"Slow what down?" But it came out slurred and Remus instantly understood, "Oh."

Remus dealt the next hand, he collected all the cards up then went to take his wand from his pocket to zap-shuffle them.

"Where's my wand?" he asked, confused. Everyone turned and looked at Dumbledore, who removed the wand from the inside of his own robes. There was a moment of awkward silence before Dumbledore explained.

"You were in a terrible state, I was worried you might hurt yourself."

"Deliberately?" Remus asked, curious, he wanted to know who here believed he would have hurt himself.

"Or by accident." Dumbledore replied, he passed the wand across the table and smiled as Remus took it from him. After a quick look at it though, he decided to shuffle the muggle way; one of the many tricks Sirius had taught him, it felt good to put a dead man's knowledge to use. Without any more fuss, he dealt the hand, and everyone groaned as they saw their cards. Remus noticed he had the queen of hearts; she looked up at him alluringly and tossed her blonde hair over her shoulder. Remus smiled. His next card was the jack of spades. Only it wasn't.

It was Sirius.

He looked up, wearing a mischievous half-smile, and winked.

Remus cried out in shock.

"That bad a hand, Rem?" Tonks asked, grinning. Remus nodded, he didn't want them thinking he'd gone mad, it was probably only a hallucination… And sure enough, when he next looked down at the jack, it was wearing a stern face, and barely glanced back up at Remus. He looked at the bottle of fire-whiskey and decided, seeing as how he'd drunk half of it already, that he'd leave the rest for another night.

They finished up at around two in the morning, everyone but Dumbledore feeling glad they hadn't played for real galleons. As they stood, Remus noticed a small movement out of the corner of his eye.

Not another hallucination he thought, but it wasn't, they had all noticed Kreacher enter the room.

Remus was frozen to the spot, he faintly heard Dumbledore ask what the house-elf was there for, considering he no longer had a master living there.

"Kreacher has come for his pictures." It proclaimed, merrily, "The pictures of his mistress."

Before anyone could stop him, Remus had pulled out his wand and yelled a curse at the elf.

"You treacherous, murdering, BASTARD!" He screamed, willing all his hatred into the small piece of wood he held before him.

Kreacher dropped dead then and there.

"Think you're gonna get your head on that wall?" Remus cried, lifting his foot above the dead elf's head, "Well, you're wrong." He stamped on the small skull, smashing it on impact, sending blood and brains squelching all over the carpet.

No one stepped forward to stop him, so Remus continued to smash the body into the carpet. Eventually he backed away until his back hit the wall, and he stood there observing what he had just done. If he had known how Dumbledore had been standing up for the elf in front of Harry just a couple of days ago, he probably would have tried to squash the old man as well.

Surprisingly, it was Snape who stepped forward and put a hand on Remus' shoulder.

"I think maybe you should go to bed now." He said, in as gentle a voice as he had ever used, he didn't want to risk getting anyone else hurt, and he could tell that right now Lupin was a man on the edge; the alcohol obviously hadn't mixed very well with the potion. "I'll walk you up there, and I'll come wake you up when it's time for your medication." It wasn't gentle after all – it was just patronising. Severus must have been getting such a kick out of humiliating him in front of what remained of the people who knew him. Remus looked up, fully aware of all the eyes on him, they were staring at him as if staring at a stranger. However, he was too tired and more than a little shocked at what he'd just done, to argue, so he let Snape help him up the stairs.

Once in the room, Remus did something else very strange that he would have liked to have accredited to the potion; he hugged Severus. More than that, he draped his arms around the man and hung there. Severus, of course, had no idea what he was supposed to do. Cautiously, he wrapped his own arms around Lupin's shoulders. He instantly decided he didn't like the feeling, Remus was too thin, so he used the position to lift Remus up and lie him on the bed. Remus didn't seem too keen on the idea of letting go though.

"Please stay." He whimpered, "Please don't leave me on my own."

"I have to go downstairs and tidy up your mess." Severus stated, matter-of-factly. But Remus still wasn't letting go. "I think I'll take this back as well." He plucked the wand from Lupin's tight grip, and tucked it away under his robes. He sighed, looking at Remus' big golden eyes, he couldn't help but feel a bit bad. "Don't worry about it. The elf was a traitor, the Ministry would have wanted him put down anyway." He got up and left Remus on the bed. "I'll see you in the afternoon to make sure you remember your potion." Then he left the room, closing the door behind him.

Remus probably would have fallen straight asleep, he was definitely tired enough. But as he settled down, he heard a short laugh. His eyes flew open and his heart almost stopped. Even in the wizarding world where people apparated and disapparated all over the place, it was scary as hell when you thought you were alone and it turns out you're not.

"Bloody hell, how long have I been gone?" Sirius said, "Were you really hugging Snape?"

Even in the wizarding world, where pictures talk to you, and ghosts hang around old buildings, hearing the voice of a dead friend was scary as hell.

Remus screamed.

End of Chapter One.

A/N: I originally tried to load Chapters One and Two up together as just one chapter, but apparently it was too long; this seemed as good a place as any to cut it in half.

In Chapter Two, beware of alarming alarms! Increasing Remus/Severus friendship (no slash, I'm so very sorry)! And the corniest ending in the world!