A/N. You can all thank Meow3594 for the review that I reread and that guilt-tripped me into updating. Longer A/N at the bottom for info about a sequel! Without further ado, welcome to "They Would Wait"-the last chapter of Blue Moon!

The door to the infirmary swung open.

James and Sirius glanced over and stiffened.

It was Professor McGonagall.

"Boys, it's been three days. Classes have started again, and people are wondering where you are."

Sirius scowled at her and opened his mouth, but it was actually James who replied, a thunderous expression plastered firmly on his face. "Yeah, well, they can-"

He looked up at her face and then remembered exactly who he was talking to.

"…ah, go, and…mind their own business. Erm…politely and everything." James slumped a little bit inside. He'd had such a great comeback planned…

The transfiguration professor eyed him skeptically, but then refocused on the student still lying comatose on the bed. She sighed.

" Listen, boys, I understand that you are both worried about him. But the fact remains that you are still enrolled at Hogwarts, and that your grades are plummeting with every class you remain absent from."

Sirius grinned rather bleakly, blatantly ignoring McGonagall's glare. "Well, it's a good thing that we never gave a damn about grades, isn't it?"

The deputy headmistress ignored him. "I can cut you some slack, but there's only so much I can do. The school board goes over the attendance records at the end of every year, and if they see such a huge difference between your attendance and your grades, then there's going to be an investigation, and Remus's condition could come to light."

Sirius's stomach dropped. One glance over at James confirmed it- they hadn't even thought about his condition being discovered, beyond the immediate danger of Peter blabbing to the whole of Gryffindor tower.

McGonagall saw their faces and delivered the death blow.

"Honestly, what would Remus want you to do?"

Yeah, okay, ouch.

Sirius grimaced. "Yeah, well, Remus doesn't have a clue as to what is good for him or not. He should have told us, damnit! We could have-"

McGonagall's hand slammed down on the table next to Remus's bed. "You could have done what, Mr. Black? It is far too dangerous for any human to be near a transformed werewolf. Once they catch the scent of human blood, there is no stopping them!"

She paused and took a closer look at their distraught faces.

And in turn, Sirius looked at her, and he saw a witch who was so very tired, who had so much work to do, who cared just as much as they did about Remus but who didn't have the choice of staying with him, who understood exactly what they were going through because she saw him bloody and broken every single month-

He saw someone who cared.

And perhaps McGonagall saw the exact same thing.

For whatever reason, her face softened, and she exhaled. "Here, how about this? I'll bring you your textbooks and coursework for the classes you've missed so far. Give the completed work to me before the end of the month and I'll work something out."

James and Sirius looked at each other and nodded.

The professor smiled at them, and the two boys nearly fell off their chairs.

Minerva McGonagall didn't smile. She glared, she grimaced, she could maintain a brilliant poker face, but she never smiled.

But somehow, she was.

And as she turned and left with a regal swirl of her emerald cloak, they looked at the spot where she had been standing, and where she had shown them that underneath all the house pride and sternness and Gryffindor courage and eyes that never missed a single thing lay a person who truly cared.

And that was all they needed to know.

Sirius doubled over, grasping at his head. "Merlin's balls, James, remind me why we're doing this again? Because somehow I'm beginning to forget!"

He stared maliciously at the half-completed Potions essay that lay on the table in front of him, and contemplated sending an Incendio at it.

His wand was raised when James swatted at him, successfully diverting his attention. "Because you know exactly how horrified Remus will be when he wakes up and discovers that we're four days behind on coursework, Sirius!"

When he wakes up…

Sirius scowled, grabbed another blank piece of paper, and scorched that one instead simply to release some of the tension. The two boys stared at the flames as they licked across the parchment, finally crumbling it to ashes. James shook himself.

"Come on, Sirius, we're not about to let a measly Potions essay defeat us, are we?"

Another few hours passed in silence, until it was broken by a very, very small voice.

"Wow. Sirius Black and James Potter voluntarily working on coursework. I never thought I'd see the day."

Sirius's head jerked upwards.

Two amber eyes stared back at him.

Sirius blinked.

"Remus."

And it was Remus, intelligent, mischievous, wonderful Remus, who was awake and staring back at him."

There were so many things he wanted to say, but somehow none of them managed to make their way through. Sirius exhaled, but it was a word more than a breath.

"Remus."

And it was a thin, quiet voice that made its way through the storm of emotions in Sirius's head.

"I'm a werewolf."

Sirius opened his mouth, but what he was planning on saying, he wasn't quite sure. James gave a quiet huff of laughter.

"I…yeah. We, uh…we figured."

Remus's brow furrowed, as if he was trying to remember something.

"But you touched me."

Sirius blinked. "…Sorry?"

"You touched me. Why?"

Sirius opened his mouth. Closed it. Opened it again. "You, uh…you looked like you could do with a hug."

"But I'm a werewolf."

It was one little sentence, delivered so bluntly and in such a straightforward manner, as if it explained everything. And Sirius realized that, in Remus's mind, so completely devoid of anything resembling self-esteem for who knows how long, it probably did. He could see James beside him, also struggling for something to say.

He opened his mouth, intending to reassure Remus that it didn't matter, that they were still his friends, that oh, for the love of Merlin, you thought that turning into an enormous hairy monster once a month would be enough to dissuade us from being your friends, when you come with a shitload of pranks, of chocolate, of intelligence, of you-

But none of that managed to make its way out.

"You're an idiot, you know that?"

Well, that most definitely wasn't what the doctor ordered.

Remus blinked. "I…I don't…"

But James, wonderful, brilliant James, took the lead. "We don't care, Remus."

Remus stared at them.

Sirius decided a bit of clarification was in order. "We don't care that you're a werewolf, okay?"

Remus was still staring.

And for some reason, his brain decided it was time to release some of the mental maelstrom that it was still working on containing.

"You honestly thought that turning into an enormous, hairy monster once a month would be enough to dissuade us from becoming your friends?" Sirius's lips quirked upwards into a grin. "Clearly, you haven't met us yet."

And then he stuck out his hand.

"Hello, Remus. My name is Sirius Orion Black, and although I come from a dark family, I don't agree with any of their biases, so I'm totally fine with vampires, werewolves, and the like, and I'd really like to be your friend."

Remus's lips turned upwards into a tiny, tiny smile, but it was definitely there. His eyes flickered over to James, though, and anxiety began to creep back into his expression.

James hurriedly stuck his hand out too. "Don't pay attention to him, Remus, he's crazy. My name is James Henry Potter, and I don't give a damn about furry little problems either. You seem like a cool kid, and I'd like to be your friend too."

The tiny smile grew a little bit bigger, although he still looked mildly disbelieving.

Remus stuck out both hands, and shook.

It was late.

Remus was leaning against Sirius's shoulder, fast asleep, his tear-streaked face pressed against Sirius's shirt.

James was leaning on Sirius's other side, absentmindedly doodling plans for the giant robot on a spare piece of parchment.

In a quiet, halting voice, Remus had talked to them.

He had told them about Romulus, his twin brother who had been killed by the same werewolf who had turned him.

He had told them about his father, about silver pokers striking him across the back that left long, whip-like marks in their wake, about fists and smarting pain.

(Sirius's eyes narrow and his knuckles turn white, because he knows, oh, how he knows...)

He had told them about the ever-present fear of abandonment, of his father, of discovery, of death at the hands of unfeeling Ministry workers for whom the murder of a child was just another checkmark on a clipboard.

He had told them about the only happy times of his life, about pranks, about detentions taken with laughter, about chocolate and stolen trips to Hogsmeade, about planning sessions by the fire at 2 in the morning.

They had not told him about Peter, but they saw in his eyes that he knew, when he woke up and Peter was not there with the two of them.

There were tears, and laughter, and truths told and secrets revealed. Friendships were lost, but others were forged even stronger, into unbreakable ties.

It would take a long, long time before Remus would truly believe that they were not going to leave him.

Sirius looked over at James, who met his eyes and grinned. They both looked down at Remus, fast asleep.

But they could wait.

A/N. I AM SO VERY VERY SORRY. I should have an excuse, but I don't, except for the fact that I was suffering from an acute case of real-life-itis, and that I HATE MY CHEMISTRY CLASS.
*Ahem.*
Right. Once again, I am sorry. This was over four months between updates and I am such a crappy person. But…hey, it's over.
Wow.
It's actually over.
I know that this last chapter was essentially an excuse for shameless Remus-whump, but hey, I hope no one was too OOC. Oh, who am I kidding, they all were. My sincere thanks to all my reviewers and to all who followed and/or favorite-I love you! Also, I bow down to meow3594, who reviewed EVERY SINGLE CHAPTER of this monstrosity-I hope you're not too let down. I'm not about to make any promises as to when the sequel will be up, as we all know what happens when I do…
I'm probably gonna make a switch to the Avengers or How To Train Your Dragon fandoms after the sequel for a bit, but I will always return home to HP. Also, one last question for the sequel: Long oneshot but posted later, or multi-chaptered fic but posted sooner?
Happy New Years!