Little Moonfoot

Sirius

Remus had tried searching for Sirius on the map without much success. He had initially wanted to wait for Sirius to approach him during the full moon but he couldn't wait anymore so, he decided to look for him himself.

There were many paths and trails that they used to follow in the outskirts of Hogsmeade. Remus was mostly in wolf form when they had gone on these adventures but there were some favorite spots that they had favored even in their human forms.

The last time Remus had been in these forests, they were in their seventh year. Padfoot had been racing up and down the hill in excitement and James and Lily had been walking together behind the group, stopping several times to make out. Peter had become tired soon enough and was situated in Remus's pocket.

He walked up the hill to check out the little cave that they used to come to. This was the biggest space that provided shelter around here and this was probably where Sirius stayed if he wanted to stay close to the school.

He was right as he could smell Padfoot the moment he reached near the entrance. He took a deep breath and approached the cave, ready to stun Sirius if he tried running away but the large black dog stayed where it was looking at Remus questioningly.

For a moment, Remus thought if Sirius had forgotten him or that this was some other dog. He looked down at his paw to see the strip of white fur where Sirius's wedding ring would be. His Animagus mark had changed after they got married. Before, it had been the phases of the moon tattoo that Sirius had had on his wrist.

"Padfoot," he said softly.

"Padfoot say something please." The dog slowly morphed back to his human form. His transformation was not as smooth as Remus once remembered. Remus finally got a good look at Sirius. He was severely malnourished, looked like all his flesh had vanished and all that was left was skin and bones. His hair was a matted mess, nothing like the perfect hair Sirius blacks used to have.

"Took you long enough to come by"

"Sirius I—"

"Where were you all this time?" He said angrily. "Where were you when they sent me to Azkaban? Were you co-conspirators with Peter or did you just want to get rid of me?" Remus flinched at his hard words. He hadn't expected Sirius to confront him like this but he should have since Sirius was the one who had spent twelve years in Azkaban.

"You know what moony, I don't care but if you have done something to my daughter, I swear to Merlin I will kill you. What the fuck did you mean by you don't know who our daughter is, did you think I would have forgotten her? Don't even try to pull that crap on me again."

"She is fine, I promise. She is in Hogwarts right now, she and Harry are best friends. Please let me explain Siri."

"Fine."

Remus slowly began recounting the events of that fateful night. He and Sirius got closer to each other with every sentence that he spoke and by the end of it, they were sobbing loudly in each other's arms.

"I'm so sorry, moony. I was so stupid. If I had not gone after Peter that night, we would have all been together, you , Hermione, Harry and me. He faked his death along with killing all those people, that rat."

"Wait, Peter is alive?"

"Yes. He faked his death by cutting off his own finger and running off into the sewers. At first I thought you would come for me and clear things up, but you didn't show up and I started getting worried that something had happened to you. After a few months in Azkaban, I concluded that you also may be dead.

"And this July, the minister came to visit me. He gave me a copy of the prophet and there was an article in it about the Weasleys winning the Ministry lottery and there he was, in plain sight of the whole Wizarding World, on Ronald Weasley's shoulders. After that, I couldn't think about anything else but getting out and getting peter. I transformed and got out of Azkaban and swam halfway across The Pacific Ocean."

Sirius avoided talking about the time he had spent in Azkaban and Remus was grateful for that, there will be enough time to talk about all of that later.

"Well, it makes sense for Peter to hide with the Weasleys, a familiar place within the wizarding community, and eventually come back to Hogwarts, that bastard."

"I have to find and kill him moony. He destroyed our whole family. I know he is still in Hogwarts, he is too much of a coward to live in the forest by himself. No, he is definitely still in the castle where he can get regular meals. You just have to sneak me in somehow."

"No"

"No?"

"No. You are not doing anything. I will find peter. I have the map and he doesn't know that I'm searching for him. I will get him and send you a Patronus and you will meet me in the headmasters office."

"Okay. Did you get the map from finch."

"Well funnily enough, I got it from Harry, and he got it from the Weasley twins. So I guess all our hard work did not go to waste, it helped inspire a new generation of magical mischief makers."

Sirius laughed at this. If Remus closed his eyes, he could imagine that they were back home, twelve years back, having a glass of firewhiskey after putting Hermione to bed on Halloween night. "Where is the map now?"

"In my office. I'm going to go get the bastard now. You keep your head out of trouble for just a few hours."

"Can't promise anything," Sirius said with a grin. Remus leaned in toward him, carefully observing Sirius to see if he was uncomfortable, but Sirius leaned upwards and touched their lips together. Remus felt like he was complete, like his world finally made sense again.

He pulled away from Sirius and handed him some of the tart he had packed for the trip and handed it to Sirius.

"Couldn't you have led with this Moony, I haven't had any real food in only what, twelve years?" Sirius joked.

"Well you can have all the food in the world tonight, after I catch the rat." he said and left the cave.