Scars

Sirius sighed as he watched Remus walk out of the Gryffindor common room. The boy moved stiffly, like he was in pain, like he was scared, and it hurt Sirius's heart to think that one of his best friends was suffering. Something niggled in the back of his mind though. Sirius knew abuse. Merlin, he'd been abused for as long as he could remember (although he'd only found out last year, when, with a shocked voice, James had told him that 'no, Sirius, it wasn't normal for your parents to use crucio on you, no matter what you'd done.') Was it possible that... no, it couldn't be, he'd met the Lupin's, and they seemed like wonderful people. Then again, sometimes the nicest people could do the wickedest of things.

"You alright mate?" James asked, looking concerned and snapping Sirius out of his line of thought.

"Yeah, course." Sirius replied, though he sounded unsure.

"What's up?" James asked, turning his attention away from the book he was studying from.

"It's just... well, Rem looks so scared every time he has to go see his family, and he's got all those scars, and I'm just wondering if- if he's being like..." Sirius trailed off and rubbed his hands wearily over his face.

"If he's being what?" James pressed Sirius for an answer.

"If he's being, well, you know, if he's being abused." Sirius looked down on the last word, feeling slightly embarrassed. He knew James and Peter associated the word with him and his family, but now he wasn't so sure who Remus associated it with.

"Bloody hell mate." Peter joined the conversation. "That's heavy."

"But it makes sense, though." James said.

"And it explains the scars. The only other person I've seen with nearly as many scars as that is you." Peter winced sympathetically as he made that observation. Sirius took a deep breath, trying to fight the tight feeling in his chest and throat. If Remus was being abused, they had to help him. "But we've met Hope and Lyall. They're nothing like your mum and dad. They're really nice."

"I know. But come on man, he isn't just magically gaining scars. Something's got to be causing them." Sirius pointed out.

"Ok, we need a plan. We need to try and find out what's going on. But be subtle about it." Peter suggested.

"Good idea." James said. "He'll be back tomorrow morning. Let's see how he is and go from there."

None of the boys slept much that night. They lay awake in their beds, thinking things over, worrying for their best friend. James, fiercely protective James, was already thinking about how to ask his mum and dad if they could adopt yet another marauder (once he'd realised what was going on with Sirius, James had immediately taken action, informing Sirius that he could use the floo network to come to his house if things got too bad. Sirius spent a lot of his time with the Potters.)

Sirius lay awake thinking about how awful living with his family was, and how lucky he was to be able to escape to the Potter household at any given moment. He had a support system. Did Remus? Did he know how much he was loved? Did he know that he didn't have to put up with the pain, especially not all on his own? Remus didn't deserve to be hurt. To Sirius, Remus deserved the world. He was a gentle soul, but he had a wicked sense of humour and was great at pranks and Sirius loved him for that. Sirius Black loved Remus Lupin with all his heart, perhaps more than he loved James Potter.

Peter felt an overwhelming sense of anger that kind, gentle Remus could be being hurt. It had been Remus who'd approached him, who'd invited him into the Marauders group. And ever since then, he'd felt eternally grateful. Peter hadn't felt like he belonged in Gryffindor when he was sorted. He thought he would have been better suited to Hufflepuff. He considered himself fiercely loyal, he wasn't afraid to admit that. He didn't, however, consider himself to be all that brave, or all that reckless, but Remus had helped change that. And Peter would be eternally grateful for all the opportunities he'd had since Remus had welcomed him, and introduced him to Sirius and James, who he wouldn't have even dreamed of approaching all on his own. If someone was hurting Remus, they needed to pay.