Remus Lupin grabbed at his side as he struggled to walk across the water-covered pavement. This storm will never end, the rain was endless, hopeless. His steps sloshed in the empty night, no soul around to spot him as he approached the black door.
He didn’t remember lifting the knocker before he collapsed on the top step. He must have though because the occupant opened the door a few moments later.
"What are you doing here?" Cold words, harshly spoken. No sympathy or compassion to be found.
James's lifeless eyes flash in his mind. Lily's stone-cold skin. Dorcas's limp body. One friend after another, dead and gone from this world.
It probably was a mistake to come here. Every wolf instinct yelled at Remus to run, run, run.
But he’s already lost too much blood to do much more than wheeze out, "I had nowhere else to go. Please… Sirius."
Then the world went black.
–
Pain registered in Remus’s mind before anything else. His head pounded and his side stung and none of it was worse than how his heart felt.
His expression must have given him away, because a cool voice spoke beside him, “I wouldn’t try getting up if I were you. That cut on your side is still stitching itself up.”
Remus blinked his eyes open. He forgot just how much money the Black family had, but the elegance in the room could only house one of the wealthiest wizard families. Furnished to the T, the room put Remus’s shack-of-a-home to shame. Even the sheets of the bed he had been laid in were the softest he’d ever felt.
Sitting next to the bed, Sirius Black sat on a floral loveseat. The look of Sirius Black, in his leather jacket and punk hair, seated in something so opposite was almost laughable.
Almost.
This man was the enemy, despite what Remus asking for help might have appeared like.
“Glad to see my throat wasn’t sliced while I was asleep,” Remus said wryly. God, his throat was dry. How long had he been out? Remus had that disoriented feeling where he could have slept for two hours or two days.
Sirius snorts humorlessly. “I usually prefer my opponent to be able to defend themselves. Besides, it seemed rude to murder a man who asked for help before hearing why.”
Remus froze for a second. “Why what?”
“Why not go to your precious James Potter?”
“He’s dead.” The words are sludge on his tongue.
“What about that mud- muggle-born redhead?”
Remus could only shake his head.
“Didn’t you hang with that short boy? Pettigrew?”
Anger flared in Remus. “He’s the reason they’re dead.”
Sirius was silent for a second. “He always was a little rat.”
Remus took a deep breath. “They’re all dead. What’s the point of this whole war if there’s no one to enjoy it with afterward?”
“Is that why you came to me? I’m part of the opposing army,” Sirius said and gestured to his dark-marked arm. “Are you just suicidal now?”
“I had nowhere to go, and a hunch.”
“A hunch?” Sirius leaned back in his loveseat, the pinnacle of ease. “What hunch?”
“In school, you were… not nice exactly, but less interested in pureblood shit than your cousins and brother.” Sirius’s eyes darkened. Shit, he almost forgot Regulus died in the war effort about four months ago. “Like earlier, you could have called Lily a you-know-what. I am in your house, a known death eater's house. You had no reason to censure yourself.”
Sirius raised a skeptical eyebrow. “So you showed up on my doorstep because I’m kind?”
“Partially. Peter was a double-agent. He tricked all of us, Dumbledoor included. I don’t have anyone else in The Order that I can trust anymore. It seems plausible that if we had double-agents, then He does too.” There’s no need to specify who He refers to.
Sirius’s jaw tensed. “So you came here to accuse me of being a double-agent? You expect me to be part of your side after Reg was murdered-”
“Regulus was one of us.”
Sirius froze, blood draining from his face. “No, he wasn’t.”
“Yes, Regulus was. I figured his beloved brother might share his sympathies.”
Sirius gripped his fist so hard, Remus figured he might fracture his hand. “Reggie wouldn’t. He would have told me.”
Remus simply replied, “The sun shines in the courtyard.” One of The Order’s codes for secret operatives, to signal that the person is safe.
“But the moon lights up the graveyard,” Sirius answered automatically. The answering code.
Remus smiled slightly. “I was right.”
Sirius dragged his hands down his face. “Why wouldn’t Reggie tell me he was… that silly kid.”
“All Reg talked about was protecting you. Said he owed you. He never said what for though.”
All Sirius did was shake his head again. “That silly kid. I would have done anything for him. He never owed me shit.”
Remus nodded, no words left for him to say on the subject. He tried to shift, but pain lashed through his body and caused him to gasp out.
Sirius set a hand on Remus’s arm. “Keep still. Stay as long as you need to recover and we’ll talk about what to do next.”
“But-”
Sirius shushed him. “Sleep. We’ll talk when you wake again.”
“If He finds out I’m here-”
“He won’t. You’ll be safe here. I promise.”
And Remus believed him.