Remus stared at the empty bed for a few moments before he moved to grab his potions textbook.
"It's his fault, Moony. You know that."
"I know, Prongs, but that doesn't make it hurt any less."
"We'll get over it. If he wants to go all Slytherin on us that's his fault."
"He said he was sorry." He mumbled half-heartedly.
"but sorry doesn't really make it right, does it."
Remus would never admit it, especially not to Sirius, but he did miss sitting next to Sirius forcing him to finish his homework. He met Sirius's gaze, but his friend looked away.
Remus wasn't entirely sure they knew exactly what had happened. He did know that Sirius had told Snape, the younger, where he went for the full moons, and the elder Snape had nearly died saving her brother. Miraculously, she hadn't been turned.
Remus hadn't said a word to his friend since the incident. Sirius had come to the hospital and apologized, but Remus hadn't said a word. Sirius had either taken the silence the wrong way, or he had understood perfectly.
A small part of him was angry that he had to find out from Regulus that Sirius had been suspended for what had happened, but he couldn't really be that angry at his friend since he suspected how bad his home situation was. He had tried to confront him about it, but Sirius was unbelievably good at avoiding the topic, and his friends if they insisted.
Remus, James and Peter had been the victim of many explosions. They would have thought it was Sirius, but he was always as far as physically possible from them. Remus had tried to talk to him, wanting to know what had happened that night, and if Sirius was okay after his suspension, but Sirius was avoiding them. He was avoiding everyone.
Well, almost everyone. Remus wondered if James and Peter noticed how close he had grown to Ruby Snape.
What they would have expected was for her to put Sirius in the hospital for endangering her twin, much like she had James on numerous occasions. However, it didn't seem as if that was the case.
If they shared a class, they were partnered up, and Sirius seemed to understand the lesson more. He had frequently spotted the two walking in the hallways together. Sirius never sat at the Slytherin table with her and her friends, but that was to be expected. Remus would never tell James, but sometimes he stayed up for hours, hoping to catch Sirius when he came into the dorm to sleep so they could talk. Sirius hadn't set foot inside since the day after his suspension.
Remus opened the trunk, expecting to see his friend's untouched belonging, wondering if maybe there was a way that Sirius was getting his stuff without entering the dorm. The trunk was empty.
There was nothing inside. Remus had watched the map to see where he was staying, and found a classroom. Sirius slept there at night, and left his stuff there the rest of the day. The classroom had become his dorm. He noticed Ruby came to visit sometimes, and he guessed they were studying since the teachers had stopped calling out Sirius for not doing his homework.
He had stood outside that classroom many times, trying to get the courage to knock, but he never did. Sometimes he stood there for hours, invisibility cloak over his head and map in his hands, hoping maybe Sirius would come out and talk to him.
He curse himself for his stupidity. Sirius didn't know how much Remus missed him. Sirius didn't even know when he was outside of the dorm.
James wasn't really sure what had happened. Sirius had always been loyal. He wasn't the kind of person to slip up and blurt out secrets. Now Sirius was gone.
James did his best to ignore him. He wouldn't confront the loss. He'd prank alone, or maybe drag Moony and Wormtail along.
He was good at hiding his pain, or he thought he was anyway. He'd hide that it hurt that Padfoot had betrayed them, just like he hid how much it hurt when Evans yelled at him.
Did he notice Sirius was hanging around Ruby more and more every day? Maybe he saw them out of the corner of his eye, but if he did see, he looked away, so not really.
Did he notice how lonely Sirius would look when James would catch him staring at him from across the classroom? Yes. He noticed. But he did nothing. Sirius had betrayed Remus, and knowing Remus, he would be forgiven soon, if he hadn't already been forgiven. Someone had to make sure Sirius knew what he'd done wasn't okay.
They'd sworn not to tell anyone of their friend's lycanthropy, but Sirius had the audacity to tell Severus Snape of all people.
No matter how many times Ruby told him it wasn't his fault, Sirius couldn't help but blame himself. Ruby insisted she was fine, and she didn't care about the werewolf accident anymore, but he still felt the crushing weight of guilt.
He had made a mistake, and hurt a lot of people. All of his friends had paid for the accident in one way or another. Part of him almost wanted everyone to stay away so it wouldn't happen again. Maybe that was why he never stepped out of the room when he knew Remus was standing outside the door.
Peter was scared. He was the weakest of the four, and Padfoot, who he had always looked up to, was now estranged. What would happen if he slipped up? Padfoot and Prongs were brothers in everything but blood, but now they wouldn't even look at each other. Peter had always thought the bond of the four friends was nearly unbreakable, if not entirely impossible to break. It scared him that it could be shattered so easily.
He discreetly watched Padfoot, noticing how often the boy watched them longingly. Peter wasn't brave. How he'd gotten into Gryffindor was a mystery to him. He supposed that if he was brave, he would have talked to Sirius by now. But he wasn't brave, so he stayed where he was behind Moony and Prongs, secretly watching them and Sirius. He saw when Remus glanced sadly over at the friend who had betrayed him. He saw how often Sirius would watch them, until Ruby would walk up next to him and start talking about something. He saw how James purposely kept his gaze away, focusing resolutely on Lily Evans until she looked about ready to hex him. And he did nothing. He said nothing. He just watched sadly as all four of the Marauders slowly crumbled.
Believe it or not, Ruby knew what was going on. Distracting Sirius from them only lasted for a while. She could see how they all withdrew behind walls of fabricated emotions. She didn't particularly care about any of the other three, but Sirius was important to her now.
Ruby marched resolutely to the classroom Sirius used both for a dorm and for tutoring. She saw a small ripple where nothing should have been and reached to grab whatever it was. The fabric came off the person, and Ruby saw that her hand seemed to disappear when she held it. This was the invisibility cloak.
She looked up at the startled boy. It was Remus Lupin. Perfect.
"Hello."
"Uh, h-hi." He stuttered.
"You're going to fix your friendship right now. You're here, obviously waiting to do it, so go in there and apologize for ignoring him."
"but-"
"He deserves an apology at least." Ruby said, furiously. "I don't care what it's doing to you, but it's tearing him apart, and I will not let that happen without trying my hardest to keep it from happening." He nodded mutely and turned to the door. Ruby didn't understand why he looked rather afraid, but she wasn't going to let his fear keep him from fixing his friendship with Sirius.
She waited all of three seconds before she got annoyed and knocked on the door. It swung open and Sirius stood there. Remus just gaped at him.
Sirius wasn't looking that well. There were dark bags under his eyes and his hair, which he had always taken such pride in its perfection, was a knotted and tangled. There was a yellowish bruise on his nose from where he had fallen and hit his head on a desk. She had grown a little used to his disheveled appeared, as it had been gradual, but she guessed Remus hadn't expected everything to affect him so badly.
"Hey, Ruby. Ready to get started on Char-" He froze, staring wide-eyed at his friend.
"Yes, Theus, but first, there's someone who needs to tell you something." She said, ending her statement with an icy glare in the werewolf's direction.
"Really, Ruby, you don't need to force them to talk to me. I'm fine-"
"She didn't force me to come talk to you. She found me in the hallway second guessing myself." Remus admitted shamefully.
"What?" Sirius seemed shocked.
"I'm really really sorry." Remus began. "I shouldn't have been ignoring you like that. I don't really know what happened. I don't think I heard everything, but I just ignored you anyway instead of asking you what happened, and you're not okay. I can see that. I'm really glad you made another friend, but it's killing me that you're not around anymore, and I understand if you don't want to talk to me after the way I treated you, and I'm really sorry-" He rambled quickly until Sirius cut him off with a tight hug. Ruby grinned happily.
She could see how happy Sirius was. She knew he would start apologizing over and over as soon as he let go, but she knew that he was happy. His friend didn't hate him like he thought he had.
Sirius was so happy. Despite Ruby's numerous reassurances he had been certain that they would hate him. Well, Prongs probably still did, but at least Moony didn't, even after the accident that had affect him most out of the three marauders. He had started to doubt they would ever forgive him, and had even thought about moving to the Slytherin table with Ruby. Tears pricked in his eyes as he held his friend tightly as if afraid he would disappear if he let go.
"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to tell him. I promise I didn't. I was just so scared and then it was out and-"
"It's okay, Sirius. It's okay." Remus said comfortingly as tears rolled down his friend's face.
"It's okay, Theus. It wasn't your fault." Ruby said soothingly from where she sat on a desk, not bothering with the chair. She sent a wave of calming magic to him. She knew he wouldn't want to let it all out now. He's rather wait until he was alone.
"I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry." He repeated over and over as he clutched his friend tightly.
Remus knew he was lucky that Sirius's arms weren't around his neck as he wouldn't be able to breath if they had been. As it was, he had trouble breathing with Sirius hugging him so tightly.
Sirius finally calmed and let go, wiping the few escaped tears away so Remus hopefully wouldn't notice. If Remus did notice, which he probably did, he didn't say anything.
"I'll see you at breakfast tomorrow, okay, Sirius?" Sirius nodded quickly. "Great!" Remus grinned. "It's good to have you back. And I'm sure the other two won't be long in coming around."
"Thanks." Sirius said quietly as Remus left. Remus smiled back at him as he left. "Oh, I'm so glad." Sirius smiled, flopping back onto his bed with a happy sigh. "Thanks, Ruby, for getting him to come." He said as he sat up.
"I'm just glad you're okay now." She smiled. "I do care about how you feel. And I'm not going to let you break without trying to stop it." She sat next to him on the bed and began scratching behind his ears. She had accidentally done it once when he was in human form, but it turned out it didn't matter what form he was in. He liked it either way.
"Thanks." He leaned into her touch unconsciously. "It's kind of surprising that anyone cares. I mean I know there's the rest of the marauders, but they don't actually know what happens when I'm home on breaks."
"Well, now you've got me. And you're not going back anymore, so it doesn't matter."
"Where will I go this summer?" He asked suddenly.
"I'll talk to Sev and convince him to let you stay over." Ruby shrugged. "I mean it'll be kind of important that the two of you make up, since you'll be spending a lot of time together."
"I'll work with you." He said immediately.
"You'll still be around him at nights." She reminded. "but I think if you two get over your differences you'll get along just fine."
"What if Prongs forgives me?"
"It depends on if you want him to know you've been disowned." She said, slowly working the knots out of his hair with her fingers. He shook his head immediately.
"No. He doesn't need to know. If he finds out I've been disowned he'll find out about the other things too." Ruby nodded in agreement.
"Alright, then. You'll stay with Sev and I this summer."
"I should tell him I'm sorry." Sirius mumbled, his eyelids drooping.
"Yeah. That would help." Ruby agreed.
"Yeah. Night, Ruby." He said as he fell asleep.
"Night, Theus." She moved him so he was laying down on the bed, and pulled the covers over him. She walked to the Gryffindor common room and fell asleep by the open window just like she always did.
A/N Thank you so much for reading. Please comment.