It was late in the evening and the crickets were chirping loudly in the English countryside. Remus Lupin laid his old battered cloak over a chair with a sigh. It was hard to get work being a werewolf- the work he did get was tough and wore him out- but not for much longer.

He smiled pleasantly at the old Gryffindor banner hanging over the filthy fireplace. Dumbledore had sent him the letter a few weeks ago- he was going to teach at Hogwarts!

He remembered those cold, stone corridors fondly filled with merriment and laughter- such a contrast to his life now- alone in a dingy apartment with barely enough money to sustain himself. Maybe he could catch a hold of some of that old vigor once back at it's birthplace of Hogwarts.

Wearily, he ruffled through the mail the post owl had dropped on his doorstep. No more word from Dumbledore- just bills and the Daily Profit. Good Lord! He clutched the Profit closer to him- he didn't need to it said in bold, huge letters atop the top of the page: Escape From Azkaban! And beneath that a picture of none other than Sirius Black!

Oh, Sirius! Lupin collapsed into a chair, staring at the paper but not really seeing it. His mind was gone to years past. He remembered with a curdling stomach Sirius's smile, his laugh, and his awful behavior. The Marauders had been a team- Sirius had been like a brother to James, Lupin was like their mother, and Peter was the dumpy little brother that no one really paid attention to. Now Peter and James were dead and it was Sirius who had killed them. Lupin's head spun. He tried to put his memory of Sirius's huge wolfish grin to the picture of him in the Profit- his mug shot, the moving picture growled out angrily and shook cuffed fists.

Lupin couldn't do it. How could the Sirius he remembered have gone so wrong? It was so unlike him! When Lupin had first learned of Sirius's betrayal he didn't believe it- it must have been a curse! Maybe Sirius had been put under the Crusiatus Curse and tortured into telling where to find James- then had the Imperius Curse done to force him to kill Peter! But no, Sirius was too tough, too strong to bend to either torture or force. It seemed so long ago that Lupin would have said that Sirius was too loyal to his friends to betray them under torture or force- but the seed of doubt was sown. He suddenly found that his memories were full of Sirius's tiny bits of malice- perhaps they had been a foreshadowing to what was to come?

Lupin shook his head and shook the newspaper, setting it down on the kitchen table. He buried his face in his hands and sighed- it was times like this he wished that he drank.

God, he but he couldn't forget Sirius. He had felt strongly for the cocky bastard. There had been a time when Lupin had wanted to kiss him! He'd lost sleep knowing that Sirius lay in the bed just next to his in their dormitory. He would lie there late at night wondering if Sirius was dreaming- maybe he was masturbating- either way was he thinking of Lupin? Although Lupin made it a point not to masturbate he would be lying if he said that Sirius had never wondered into his dreams (or sexual fantasies). But that was then- Sirius was an escaped convict now. He'd killed James and Peter. He'd killed a bunch of muggles. He was a murderer.

Lupin wiped his eyes. Damn, Sirius was such an idiot.

He stood up suddenly. All right! He was going to make himself a cup of tea, put on his pajamas, and snuggle into bed with tea and a copy of the Defense Against the Dark Arts course book (he had to be prepared for his teaching job you know).

Lupin moved about his dirty kitchen, bringing out a teakettle and filling it with water. Outside the crickets momentarily stopped their chirping. Lupin glanced out the window and saw a large dog snuffling carefully through the overgrown grass outside his house.

'What a monster!' Lupin thought as he watched the giant canine sniff its way right up to the light of the kitchen window. It lifted its shaggy black head and blinked in the light. Lupin looked the dog over and realized it wasn't so much a Hellhound as a Hellish waif. The thing was dirty, its fur hung limply off of its skeletal frame and its eyes seemed sunken. Lupin's heart skipped a beat, 'I know that dog!'

Lupin ran for his cloak and snatched his wand from the shabby pocket. He threw open the front door just as the Animagus had finished his transformation. Light from the house spread across the front path and illumined the ghostly form of Sirius Black.

Lupin was too shocked to even raise his wand- apparently the photo in the profit was from when Sirius had first entered Azkaban- he'd changed a lot since then. Now Sirius's face was covered over with a thick black beard and long ragged hair. His body was completely white and skeletal, the black prisoners uniform of Azkaban hung off his frame like clothes on a line. If Lupin hadn't recognized him, as a dog he would never had known it was his old friend Sirius- in fact, he still wasn't sure. Sirius had been such a bright, spirited person, his mouth was always grinning (or smirking), and his eyes were always laughing and sparkling with life. The black ghost that stood before Lupin was not smiling, and his sunken eyes were dull, lifeless.

"Sirius?" Lupin asked almost hesitantly. The ghost raised his head slightly.

"Lupin?" Even his creaky voice was ghostly. Sirius staggered forward and Lupin was too horrified at the way his boney limbs moved- the fact that this skeleton could still move- to raise his wand in alarm, until Sirius lunged for him. Then Lupin raised his wand to strike, but stopped as he realized that the poor creature was not attacking, but had finally lost the strength to stand and now hung off of the front of his shirt the same way his own clothes hung of his puny body.

Lupin stared down at the creature that hung from him because there was nothing left to keep him upright.

He knew he should raise the alarm, he should notify the ministry, he should turn Sirius in- he should betray Sirius the same way Sirius had betrayed James, Lily, and Peter. Sirius had come for his aid and he should feed him to the wolves (an expression Lupin disliked). But Lupin wasn't Sirius- and although he should have, he couldn't.

Lupin reached down and gathered the black draped waif and carried him with disgusting ease inside to lie on his own bed. To think, there had once been a time in which Lupin would have given anything to have Sirius in his bed.

Hell- what had he just begun?