Lupin leaned on the worn wooden bar with a weary sigh.

"There you are, dearie," Madam Rosmerta said cheerily. "Missed you last weekend. Your usual?"

"Thanks, Ros," Lupin said gratefully, accepting the cool bottle of butterbeer and levering the lid off. He took a much needed sip and glanced around for an empty seat.

"Been poorly again, love?" Ros said sympathetically as he slipped onto a spare bench by the window. She tugged a cloth from her pocket and swiped some crumbs from the table top. "You need a nice girl to look after you."

"I'm waiting for you to offer," Lupin said soulfully, fluttering his eye lashes.

Ros chuckled and tapped his shoulder smartly on the way past. "Get away with you," she scolded. "I'll make you up a nice plate of lunch."

"Taa." Left alone in the crowded bar Lupin took another pull from his bottle and gazed out the window at the blustery January day. He probably should have stayed inside in such weather, especially so soon after full moon. But after a week spent teaching two rowdy six year olds he felt he needed to get away from the confines of Hogwarts for a few hours.

Lupin smiled a little, eyes seeing not the wind blown inhabitants of Hogsmeade as they struggled past the window, but his two little charges. They were good boys, the pair of them, somehow perfectly matched as a pair to teach. Harry was inclined to inattention and leaned towards laziness in any subject that didn't captivate him, whereas Neville gamefully plodded through every lesson, doing his best regardless of whether he was interested or not.

So Harry, who was cursed with his father's competitive streak, would fight his natural inclinations and struggle to keep up, and Neville, who was nervous of anything new, found himself fired up by Harry's wild bursts of enthusiasm.

Madam Rosmerta laid a plate of roast beef and veg in front of him and Lupin was started out of his introspection.

"Miles away, weren't you?" Ros observed, laying his cutlery and a napkin down beside his plate. "I put an extra Yorkshire pud on for you." She smiled tenderly. "You need feeding up, lad."

"You're a life saver, Ros my love," Lupin said, sniffing the enticing aroma with real pleasure.

"And you're a born charmer, Remus Lupin," she snorted, then clicked away on her gleaming high heels.

Lupin tucked in, enjoying the sheer pleasure of being able to afford a nice meal out, even in such modest surrounds as the Three Broomsticks. It was probably an unnecessary extravagance, but it was his only one, his life at Hogwarts was frugal and quiet all week. Expenses were low but long experience had taught him to hoard any wages that came his way. Jobs were few and far between for someone with his condition.

A frown knit his forehead and his knife and fork stilled as he thought on his most recent past. He didn't need much, which was just as well. But he couldn't deny it was a relief to have such secure employment for a while.

"One day at a time, Remus," he lectured himself under his breath, before tucking back into his meal. It was good advice. And he'd never needed it more than over the last few months. Since Sirius...

He shook his head firmly. He wouldn't think about that today.

888

It was snowing again when he left the village, soft white flakes drifting down and settling gently on the remains of the last fall. Hogsmeade was a picture postcard, but the road back to the school was less attractive, booby trapped as it was with hidden wheel ruts and half frozen horse dung. Remus kept to the shoulder, kicking through the shallow drifts and enjoying himself despite the rugged conditions. He knew he'd regret it tonight though, when his muscles began to stiffen.

'A hot bath,' he mused to himself. 'And a hot toddy. And maybe...'

Nose flaring, Remus stopped in his tracks. Hackles were rising on the back of his neck and his right hand was diving under his cloak for his wand before his mind had even processed the information his senses were sending.

"Sirius," he breathed, swinging around swiftly. Behind him the road stretched away, empty save for his own tracks already being covered by the snow. He swung again, back to his front, and now he could see the road ahead, trackless, white. Empty.

But his senses did not lie.

"Sirius," he said, this time a little louder.

"That was quick," a familiar voice drawled and again Remus spun, to his right this time and the thick grove of trees. "Werewolf senses come in handy sometimes, hey, Moony?"

"Yes," Remus said evenly, eyes still on the trees. Where was the voice coming from? "These things just pay for themselves."

"Ha!" A crack of laughter, so familiar it made his knees weak for a moment. How he had loved to make Sirius laugh like that, how he had practised his own laconic comments for just that reason.

"You haven't changed, old friend," that voice called again, and this time it was further to his right and Remus tracked through the undergrowth with his eyes, straining for some movement, some shadow.

"Don't call me that," Remus said quietly. "You forfeited the right to call me that a long time ago."

The wind whistled a little through the trees, branches rustling, spilling some of their burden of snow with a muffled patter to the ground.

"Yes," Sirius called solemnly. "I know I did."

Something tightened in Lupin's chest at that calm pronouncement. "Why did you come here?" he yelled, gripping his wand hard. "Why didn't you just stay away? Haven't you done enough?"

"Not yet," Sirius's voice echoed hollowly through the white trees. "I've one more thing to do."

Now it was fear that tightened Lupin's chest. "Kill me?" he whispered. Fear turned to anger. "Well, why not? You finished off all the rest of us, didn't you? James and Lily and Peter?" Remus shook his head as his eyes stung in the bitter cold. "Now it's my turn!" he yelled.

More snow pattered to the ground as his voice rung through the forest.

"I didn't kill Peter, Remus," Sirius said quietly. "That's part of what I came here to tell you. It's why I came."

Somehow having Sirius come right out and deny it was even more painful than before, made him even more angry.

"You didn't kill him?" he seethed, eyes still fiercely scanning the trees and bushes. "And I suppose you didn't kill James and Lily either? I suppose you're not to blame for their deaths?"

"I am to blame," Sirius said, and even as he spoke he was swinging out from behind a tree, his hands raised. "I am to blame for their deaths," he said, as Remus raised his wand and pointed it at him. Sober eyes met his and Lupin stared in amazement at the man he hadn't seen for nearly six years. "But I didn't betray them, Remus," he said clearly, eyes deeply sincere.

Remus dropped back a step but Sirius only stood there, hands raised, snow dusting the shoulders of his ragged robe, his fingers blue with cold.

"I didn't betray them," he said again. "And if you give me just a few minutes to explain, I'll tell you what really happened."

"Why should I?" Remus managed, still shocked by the calm sanity in eyes he had last seen on a wanted poster, looking far from sane. "Why shouldn't I just drop you in your tracks?"

Sirius shrugged. "It's your choice," he said quietly. "But what I have to tell you is important enough for me to come here, unarmed, and give myself up to you. Listening won't cost you more than a few minutes."

"Give yourself up?" Lupin's wand wavered. "That's why you came?"

Eyes on the wand tip pointed at him, Sirius nodded. His tangled mane of hair was almost white with snow now, and he still shivered. But he was unarmed, and his hands were in the air, and Lupin knew he couldn't bear to silence the man now. He was getting this odd feeling, as if he'd been holding his breath for ages and ages and was finally ready to let it out. As if that other shoe were hanging there, ready to drop.

As if this was a conversation he'd been needing for years and years and finally, finally he was going to get answers to questions he'd been screaming to an uncaring night since his world had changed forever.

Mind made up he nodded and gestured with his wand. Just for a moment Sirius's eyes widened with fear and Remus was human enough to enjoy that tiny taste of power.

"Temperatus," he said, and Sirius stiffened and then relaxed into a sigh as he was warmed all over, from his torn boots to his blue fingertips. He flexed his hands and gazed at Lupin in surprise. "You have five minutes," Remus said. "Make them count."

888

Lupin cast the spell twice more before the story was through, once on himself and once more on Sirius. This time the other man hardly seemed to notice, he was lost in the past as he told his tale, eyes darkening with remembered grief and anger. Finally he trailed away, his voice hoarse, his cheeks damp. Remus let a few moments pass by as Sirius rubbed roughly at his face with a filthy sleeve.

"Quite a tale," he said at last.

"It's all right if you don't believe it," Sirius said dully. "I wouldn't blame you a bit."

"I'm just curious as to why it's the first time I'm hearing it," Lupin returned. "Or has it taken you the last five years to come up with it?"

Sirius gave one of his cracks of laughter again, but there was no real mirth in it, only bitter anger.

"It's plain you've never been to Azkaban," he said, voice low. "If you can ask me that. You don't think in there, old pal. You exist. Trapped in the memory of every terrible thing you've ever done, or has been done to you." He shivered, and it was not from the cold. "As you can imagine, I had quite a bit to dwell on."

Remus shook his head, not wanting to dwell on this himself. A handful of times in his life he'd been near Dementors. That had been enough.

"Look, I was half crazed with grief when I went after Wormtail," Sirius said forcefully. "And half dazed with whatever it was he used to kill all those Muggles and knock me out with afterwards. I was in no fit state to tell any tale, and by the time I was, well, no one was listening. No trial, no one to speak for me."

"And no one in there?" Lupin murmured.

"Only them." Sirius's eyes had darkened again. "And when they're around no one makes too much sense. Look, Remus, I was probably going to sit in that cell for the rest of my life muttering quietly to myself just like the rest of them if not for Harry!"

"Harry?" Lupin tightened his hand on his wand again. "What about Harry?"

"I saw him in the paper," Sirius explained. "Fudge used to give it to me when he came on his monthly visits. I liked seeing the old boy's face when I spoke coherently to him, Merlin knows it was hard enough to do. But it gave me a measure of satisfaction and there was little enough of that in that hole, believe me."

"I'm trying to believe you, Sirius, but you're making no sense. What about Harry?"

"He was on the front page." Sirius shook his head. "I couldn't believe it. Standing there as large as life with Severus Snape of all people! The paper was filled with this gibberish about him being Harry's father, that the boy was living at Hogwarts, I could barely make head nor tail at it. But there was Harry, looking out at me with James's face and Lily's eyes..." Sirius trailed away and lifted a shaking hand to his face. "It woke me up, Remus. It stirred me out of that living death the Dementors had me in."

"So you escaped and came here."

"I was still half crazy," Sirius confessed. Then he shrugged ruefully. "Maybe three quarters crazy," he amended. "I didn't mean to frighten the boy, but when I saw him flying so close to me, looking so young, so vulnerable..."

"Sirius, you fool." Remus kept his wand up while he rubbed tired eyes with his free hand. "Why do you have to do everything the hard way? Why have you come here to me with this? What I am supposed to do? Even if I believe you, there's no proof of what you say. What am I to do?"

"Take me to Dumbledore," Sirius said promptly. "I've spent the last few months since I left here trying to regain some clarity of thought. Trying to figure out what I can do in this state to keep the promise I made to James all those years ago and protect his son. And this is all I could come up with."

"Turning yourself in to Dumbledore?"

"I know he'll have to turn me over to the Ministry. He has no choice. But he's a fair man, if I can get him to listen to what I have to say, to believe me..." Sirius broke off, thin chest heaving. "Then I don't care what happens to me after that."

"No? Even if I told you what lies in wait for you?"

Sirius paled. "What?"

"After your little stunt with Harry, Fudge made a decree." Remus swallowed hard. "It's the Kiss, Sirius. He's ordered that you be given the Kiss."

Closing his eyes, Sirius swayed a little on the spot and Remus fought the urge to move towards him, to take his arm, to hold him up. No matter what his private feelings on the matter he could not let his guard down now. Nothing had been proven yet.

And he owed it to Harry to do what was right this time, not just what was right for him. He'd made a promise and chosen a side.

Harry's side.

"Well," Sirius said hoarsely. "I suppose it was to be expected." He took a deep breath and straightened his shoulders. "It doesn't change anything," he said firmly. "I have to do this. Harry's out in the world now, exposed, vulnerable. And so is Peter. Dumbledore has to know this, he has to believe it. He can look inside my head or give me Veritaserum if he wishes. Whatever it takes." He turned his sober gaze on Remus. "Well? Will you take me to him?"

"Yes."

888

Remus took him to the Shrieking Shack and sent a message to Dumbledore, unwilling to help Sirius onto the grounds of Hogwarts. He knew the secret passage to the Whomping Willow was now warded, so he sent his message that way, to warn the headmaster as well as inform him.

Then he stood by the door of the very room Sirius had left Harry in, months before, and watched his oldest surviving friend drop onto the edge of the dusty old bed.

Sirius's words still rang in his head and he played them over and over again, testing their facts against the memories in his head.

"You thought I was the traitor," he realised out loud. He gazed at Sirius who gazed stolidly back at him. "That's why you made Peter your Secret-Keeper."

"Yes," he admitted.

Lupin couldn't help the throb of pain in his chest at this confirmation. "You and James?" he asked quietly.

Sirius sighed, closing his eyes and rubbing his face with one scratched hand. "I'm more sorry than I can say, Remus," he said heavily. "But you have to remember what it was like back then. Brother against brother, friend turned to foe..."

"Oh, I remember," Remus shot back bitterly. "I've lived it for the last five years. Of course, I had good reason to believe you a traitor and even then Dumbledore had to shake it into my head. I trusted you," he finished harshly.

"You distanced yourself from me!" Sirius defended hotly. He lifted his chin in a pugnacious gesture all too familiar to Remus. "When the fighting started and the Order was working, we never saw you! You hardly came near James and Lily, even when Harry was born!"

"Does that sound like the actions of a spy?" Remus bellowed back. "A spy would have been getting closer to you, not backing away! Worming his way into your confidence, hanging around no matter how bad things got! He would have..." Remus broke off, recent revelations vying with the memories crowding in now.

Sirius met his wide eyed glance with a knowing nod. "Like Peter?" he said laconically.

Remus bit his lip and turned away from those knowing eyes. "I wasn't pulling away," he muttered. "Things were just different, that's all." He broke off, not wanting to say any more, to reveal any more. Sirius had never been the type to reveal ones feelings to, not unless you were prepared to have them thrown back at you later, or slyly mocked in front of others. Certainly he would never hear from Lupin why everything had changed between them all those years ago.

It didn't matter any more anyway.

Boards creaked on the stairs and Sirius stiffened and looked fearfully at the door.

"Dumbledore's here."

888

"You see, don't you?" Sirius said, his voice hoarse and his skin paler than ever. Going through the whole story a second time seemed to have worn him out, he drooped in the torn and dusty chair he was slumped in.

"I do," Dumbledore said thoughtfully, his fingers stroking his beard. "I do see."

"I had to warn you about Peter," Sirius slurred. "If I know Harry is here, you can bet that treacherous rat does too."

Lupin frowned as dark rimmed eyes closed and Sirius sighed and slumped even further into his chair. Even as Remus watched the other man slipped into slumber.

"What did you do to him?"

Dumbledore hadn't taken his eyes from the ragged wizard seated before him. "Hmm? Oh, just a small suggestion while I was studying his mind. He certainly needs the rest."

Lupin felt some of the tension leave his body and he sat back on the old bed behind him. "He looks terrible."

"On the outside, yes," Dumbledore returned quietly. "But there's a calm mind inside that ravaged form. Calmer and clearer than I expected."

"Do you believe him?"

"I'm inclined to."

Lupin waited, eyes narrowed as he studied the older wizard. He still sat, all his attention fixed upon Sirius. "But?"

"But I can only see what exists in Sirius's mind. I can only testify as to what he himself believes. If his years in Azkaban have driven him mad, then it may be in his madness he has vindicated himself. It may be that he truly believes in his own innocence."

"Then what are we to do?" Lupin said in despair.

Dumbledore finally looked up at him, and smiled. "Calm down, dear chap, calm down. I've said I believe him, and I do. I just can't categorically tell anyone else that what he's saying is the truth."

Lupin frowned, puzzling it out. "Why do you believe him them?"

"Partly what I've seen in his mind. Partly what I knew about him before this all began. Even partly what I knew about Peter Pettigrew." Dumbledore stood up and paced to the bed, where he pointed his wand at a moth eaten blanket. Dust flew up and settled on the floor, then the blanket swiftly flew to Sirius and covered him from chin to feet.

Lupin felt the creeping cold in the room and shivered a little himself.

"But mostly it's because of what happened here last year. If Sirius had truly been what we believed, he would not have foolishly taken Harry. And if he had been mad, he would not have let him go unharmed."

"But what if that in itself was a trap?"

Now Dumbledore smiled kindly at him. "Don't over-think yourself, Remus. It could drive you crazy!"

Remus smiled weakly back at him. "Sirius was right about that, at any rate. I remember what it was like to see enemies behind every door. To read meaning into every small word."

"Yes," Dumbledore said soberly. "Absolute proof is not always at hand. Sirius does not have it to offer now. All I can go on is what my instinct tells me. And I believe him."

"Then he wasn't the traitor?" Remus said, unable to take it all in. "He didn't betray James and Lily to their deaths?" One emotion was catching up with him now, seeping through his numbed joy. "Then he was innocent," he breathed in horror. "And we let him go to that prison, that place-"

"What did I say about not over-thinking it?" Dumbledore warned him, putting a warm comforting hand on his shoulder. "There'll be all the time in the world for recriminations later. For now we have greater worries."

Remus took a deep breath, and then another. "The Ministry," he managed.

"I can't turn an innocent man over to the Dementors," Dumbledore said simply. "And Fudge has proved himself untrustworthy in my eyes over this business with Harry. Which means I am going to have to do something I was rather hoping I could put off for a while yet."

He met Lupin's curious gaze with a rueful shrug.

"Set myself against the Ministry, of course."

888

They discussed the problems and made plans as the afternoon wore into the winter darkness of early evening. Dumbledore conjured up a meal and they ate, watching as Sirius's nose twitched at the enticing aroma of hot tomato soup and crusty bread.

"He'll be waking up soon." Dumbledore lifted his bowl and blew teasingly at the warm vapour, setting Sirius's nose twitching again. "A good warm meal inside him and we can tell him what we've decided."

"Will you tell Snape?"

"How can I not? He must be warned about Pettigrew, and he has the right to know where the warning has come from."

Remus looked at Sirius as he stirred and snuffled in his cosy chair. "Sirius doesn't know Snape is actually Harry's father," he said lowly.

"Yes," Dumbledore looked sympathetic. "I don't envy you that conversation."

Lupin dropped his bread roll. "Me!"

Sirius started awake. "What?" he said, scrambling to his feet, warm blanket dropping to the floor. He blinked and focused on the other two wizards in the room. "What?" he repeated dazedly.

Lupin smiled weakly and picked his bread roll up. He proffered it. "Hungry?"