Remus had found what he needed and was about to leave his office when Harry bounded through the door he had thoughtlessly left open.

"Oh!" Harry stopped short. "Rocks! I'd thought you were joking."

"Good morning, Harry." Well aware that he sounded less than welcoming, he tried to change his tone. "Are you on your way to breakfast?"

"No, I just finished."

Remus rubbed his eyes tiredly. He had told Harry they would catch up. Now just wasn't the time.

"Oh... um... Professor... this broke. Sorry...."

He looked up and saw that Harry had picked up one of the rocks from his desk, and was looking at him guiltily. It had cracked down the center. He tried to pull a smile onto his face. "No, it isn't broken. Look inside."

Harry let the two halves fall open in his hands. His eyes lit up. "That's brilliant! It looks like any old rock on the outside!"

Remus rubbed his eyes again, and he couldn't help the heavy sigh that escaped. "Appearances can be deceiving."

"Professor, are you all right?"

"No, Harry, I slept badly and I'm not feeling well this morning." In truth, he hadn't slept at all. "I'm sorry, but I wouldn't be very good company right now."

Harry nodded, looking like he was trying to hide his disappointment, but not quite succeeding. He set the two rock halves down on the desk. "I hope you feel better soon."

"I'm sure I will. I --"

But he didn't finish, because at that moment a shadow fell across the doorway and Harry leaped to his side, grabbing his arm. "It's here! That's the Grim I've been seeing all summer!"

Remus looked helplessly at the black dog and then back at Harry, whose wide eyes were as large as saucers behind his round glasses. "No, Harry, that's... that's just Padfoot. He's mine, and I thought I locked him in my room."

"No, I'm sure that's what I saw." Harry couldn't take his eyes off the dog. His nails were digging painfully into Remus's flesh. "I'm sure."

There seemed to be no way for the situation to get any worse, but, as often happened, it was just as Remus thought this that the situation took a decisively ugly turn.

Harry let go of his him as if burned, stumbling away until his back hit the wall. "Black." His face paled, making his eyes look that much brighter and larger. He tore his eyes away from the doorway for the first time, and looked up at Remus, his lips thin with tension. "Yours? I guess so. Your friend from school." His voice, though low, was oddly steady. "Snape was right about you."

Remus felt like screaming. He didn't even have time to protest, as Harry turned away from him. His emerald eyes, with the pupils so dilated, now looked entirely black.

"Going to kill me like you killed my parents?"

"I didn't kill your parents," Sirius said flatly. Remus had the sudden urge to strangle him. Or at least shake him quite hard.

Harry's eyes narrowed. "Really? And all those Muggles? I suppose you're going to tell me you didn't kill them, either?"

Remus tried to edge closer to Sirius, but at his first movement Harry's intense gaze turned on him, and he froze.

Sirius shook his head.

"No, you didn't kill them? Or, no, you're not going to even bother denying it?"

"He didn't kill them, Harry," Remus cut in. "He didn't betray your parents. We only --"

"You stalked me all summer." Harry seemed not to have heard Remus at all.

Again, Remus took a step toward Sirius, and again Harry turned to look at him. "Go ahead," he said scathingly. "Go to him."

"Harry," Remus said, trying to put all the conviction he had in him into his voice. "Sirius isn't going to hurt you. I would die before I let anyone do that. I'm going to take him back to my room. I hope you will let me explain later." With his last words he finally reached Sirius's side, seizing him by the upper arm.

His attempt to shove Sirius out the door was met with resistance, however.

"You'll let him leave without explaining?"

"Yes, I will. He isn't going to hear anything we say when he's cornered in my office and it's two against one. How could you be so thoughtless?"

He succeeded, at last, in getting Sirius into the corridor, and in that moment Harry shot through the doorway like an arrow.

"How could you?" Remus repeated, glaring at Sirius, who was staring dully at the corner where Harry had disappeared.

Sirius shrugged half-heartedly. "How was I to know he'd recognize me? I just wanted to get a look at him."

For a few moments Remus didn't reply, but looked at Sirius with a frown. He thought there might be something like the beginning of remorse in Sirius's grey eyes, but it was not enough. "But you transformed. Why did you do that? Why didn't you just go? Didn't you see how terrified he was?"

"Reckoned it was too late, then."

"Or reckoned it didn't matter, since he isn't James's. Is that it, Sirius?"

"He's still Lily's."

Parroting Remus's own words did nothing to make Remus less angry. "She was never your friend."

Sirius shrugged.

"But she was mine. And I doubt Harry is ever going to trust me again, after this."

"You should have stunned me."

"What?"

"Should have stunned me and explained later."

Remus stared at him blankly. Only Sirius's mind worked like this.

"I suppose he ran off to Snape."

"I suppose so," Remus agreed with a sinking feeling. Severus was going to blame him for all of this, and rightly so.

"He really is Snape's."

Remus opened his mouth, before realizing it hadn't been a question.

"His eyes, I think. His face is still like James, but his eyes are Snape's. Only green."

"Maybe," Remus said, reluctantly. "If you're determined to see it."

"I suppose you think I should ignore it?"

Remus considered. Finally he shook his head. "But he doesn't know, Sirius, and if you tell him, or do anything else to hurt him, I'll be the one in Azkaban, because I'm going to kill you."

He wasn't sure his words had any effect, because Sirius's clouded grey eyes only looked at him, or, he thought, maybe through him, without any emotion behind them, and after a few silent moments Sirius turned away with a soft huff.

"Let's go back," Remus said. He hated that his voice now had a rather defeated tone. "Before anyone else sees you."

Without a word, Sirius walked away from him, heading for the door at the end of the corridor, which was left wide open.

Remus inhaled deeply, his chest aching. He was so exhausted that he almost swayed on his feet.

Harry was never going to look at him the same way again. Sirius was an ass... Azkaban couldn't change everything, Remus supposed.

And Severus was going to kill both of them.