Disclaimer: If they were mine... *evil grin* well you know, lets just say that Jo and me have some creative differences.
A/N: Well as it is AU, I decided just to forget about Voldie.
He sat in their dorm room, curled in on himself with his hands tightly gripping his hair. The boy he loved had been sent to Azkaban for a crime that he had no control over. It had in fact been his fault that Remus had killed Severus Snape.
Snape had been irritating him and James off all that day and in a fit of rage they had told Snape how to get passed the Willow. Unfortunately, however, for the greasy arsehole it was a full moon and Remus was already there.
Moony had leapt at the chance to taste human flesh. Other than mine, Sirius thought bitterly. It’s my fault that he is in Azkaban now. He had betrayed his mate. The door opened and James walked in. The bespectacled boy was also furious at himself.
James went and sat next to his best friend.
“We’ll find a way, we’ll find a way.” Sirius turned to him,
“How? How the fucking hell are we going to break him out of Azkaban?”
“We’ll find a way.” James repeated it again and again like a mantra.
****
Sirius hadn’t believed James all those months ago when he’d said that they would find a way to get Remus out of Azkaban, but he did believe that he had found the way now.
He’d been sent on a shopping trip by his mother and had ended up down Knockturn Alley to get some of the things that she had asked for. While he was there, he’d picked up a book about werewolves. He had no idea why he picked these things up to read. In the end all he ever did was end up screaming at the book for all the biased crap that was in there.
He was, however, glad that he had picked this one up. Inside he had found, what he considered to be, a godsend. He had bought the book along with the other items his mother had asked him to get.
And so now, he was sitting in his bedroom reading what he needed to do. The spell had to be performed the night before the full moon. If all went well then the spirit of the wolf would be transferred to him. There was however a catch. If the spell worked it would cost him his life and he would not live to see the next full moon.
But, it did not matter to him, he was willing to do whatever it took to get Remus out of Azkaban, after all, it was his fault he was in there.
****
The next day Sirius told James of his plan,
“Are you sure that’s what you want to do, mate?” the scruffy haired boy asked.
“It’s what I have to do, I owe it to Remus.” James opened his mouth as if to argue, “No, I don’t want to hear it.”
“But it’s my fault as well Sirius, I have to do something.”
“Help me prepare.” James nodded.
“I’m gonna miss you, Mr. Padfoot.”
And so it was that the two men prepared the spell. Everything was ready on the night before full moon. Sirius offered a sacrifice to the goddess Artemis and then prayed for her to exchange the wolf between him and Remus.
“Are you willing to give up your life?” the goddess of the moon questioned him.
“Yes.”
“Then it is done.” Sirius doubled over in pain as Moony took root in his soul. Many miles away in his lonely cell in the fortress of Azkaban Remus felt him leave.
The next day was an eventful one. An anonymous owl was sent to the Ministry of Magic asking them to keep watch on a Mr. Remus J. Lupin for the night. When they did they were amazed at what they saw. He did not become the wolf. The Ministry officials began to panic at the fact they had the wrong man. Also that night, Sirius realized just how much pain Remus had gone through every month.
It took a few days to get Remus’ release from the fortress. James was waiting to take him home when he got out. Remus looked terrible, his eyes looked sunken and hollow. Before he had gone to Azkaban there hadn’t really been much of him but now he looked like a skeleton.
During the journey back from Azkaban both men were silent. James wanted to ask Remus a million things, wanted to say a million things. Remus, wanted to know what had happened. He was being released from Azkaban; it was something that he had never thought would happen. Another thing that he had never thought would happen was a full moon where he did not become the wolf.
James stopped outside the house,
“Remus, I’m really sorry for what we did.”
“James,” his voice was croaky from disuse, “in truth I forgave you a long time ago.”
“I’m not going to go in with you, Sirius needs to speak with you alone.”
Upon Remus’ nod James Disapparated and went to be with his wife and son. Remus walked into the house and found Sirius waiting for him.
“Remus, I’m really sorry for what happened.”
“Sirius, as I told James, it’s okay I forgave you a while ago.”
They stared at each other for a few minutes; the silence that settled over them was almost a physical divide between them.
“How?” Remus’ question invaded the silence only to be caught by it and forced to hang in it.
It wasn’t that Sirius didn’t know the answer, the answer was simple, a spell. But he feared the questions that would come after. But he supposed he owed Remus the answers to those questions.
“A spell.” Remus looked completely shocked.
“I thought there was no cure, let alone a spell.” He knew that something was wrong when Sirius made no attempt to correct him. “Sirius, what did you do?”
“I told you, it was a spell.”
“What did the spell do?”
And this was the thing he was dreading doing, he didn’t want to tell Remus this. In fact he would have preferred it if Remus hated him.
“It transferred Moony, from one host to another.”
“To another? Sirius, I always told you that I wouldn’t wish this curse on anybody, how could you perform a spell like that?!”
“It was my fault that you were in Azkaban, it was only right that I should free you.”
“Sirius, what, exactly did the spell do?”
“Actually it was more of a prayer and a sacrifice. The Goddess Artemis transferred Moony from your soul to mine.” He stopped, deciding that Remus didn’t need to know the rest of what the spell did. But it seemed that that was not going to happen. Even after their years apart Remus could still tell that he was holding back.
“Sirius, I can tell that that is not all. Please just tell me.”
“The spell will cost me my life. I will not live to see the next full moon.”
There he’d said it. The ball was in Remus’ court now and it was up to him what happened next.
****
James, Lily and Peter were sitting in the church it was Sirius’ funeral and Remus was no were to be seen. They knew that during the time Remus and Sirius had spent together they had rekindled their relationship, not wanting to waste a single day.
The priest had just begun his sermon when Remus arrived. He murmured his apologies and sat next to Peter. And when the minister asked if anyone would like to say a few words he nodded and walked to the pulpit.
“Sirius, you always were far to rash when you made your decisions. Not matter what the choice was you made it in a matter of minutes, sometimes, even seconds. Especially when it came down to protecting those who you loved.
"They say that sorry is the hardest word to say. Well I disagree, goodbye is. And no matter how many times you have to say it, it never gets easier. I’ll miss you. Goodbye.”
FIN