The next day was a Wednesday. And as it turned out, Sirius Black had a detention to serve. He stood in front of James that evening, lecturing his best mate on how to baby sit a five year old Remus. He told him all the things that were okay to do and all the things that weren't.

James of course, thought that this was all unnecessary. He'd been here the entire past week, hadn't he? He'd observed Sirius do most of the work, he had pitched in here and there. He could handle it.

If only he'd known how wrong he was.

"Now, I have two hours with McGonagall and I'll be back not a minute later. Remember, he loves to explore all around the castle, so DO NOT let him out of your sight. James Potter, if you lose this child, I will find out and it will be your neck, got it?"

James knew he had everything under control, but Sirius's threat kind of scared him, he had to admit. He looked over to where Remus was sitting cross-legged on Sirius's bed with fruit pop in his mouth. He was smiling so innocently, his big doe eyes rolled up to give James the impression that everything would go perfectly smoothly.

Again, how wrong that impression was.

As soon as Sirius had left the room, Remus pulled the fruit pop out of his mouth with a pop, his lips stained red. He hopped off the bed and went to stand in front of James, crossing his arms over his chest. This choice position earned him fruit pop in his hair and slowly dripping down the sleeves of his sweater, but he either didn't notice or didn't care.

"So, here's what's gonna happen," Remus told James, sounding quite official if he did say so himself.

"You give me candy and we'll have a nice evening."

James simply laughed, finding this bossy version of Remus hilarious. Giving Remus candy had been on Sirius's strict 'Do Not' list.

"Sorry, kiddo, no candy for you. You've already had a fruit pop."

Remus sighed, shaking his head in disappointment, which puzzled James slightly. Why was this five year old disappointed in him? He was the one in charge here!

Remus took a great big breath and started screaming. He was wailing and crying, summoning tears out of thin air. The longer James stood there, shocked, he dropped to the ground and started kicking and pounding his fists into the floor.

Finally, James was startled out of his stupor. He held his arms out in a 'stop' gesture, eyes flitting around the dorm in a panic. At this rate, the whole tower would hear Remus's crying fit. They'd think that James was murdering the poor tot. He couldn't have anyone reporting this whole situation to Sirius either.

"Alright, alright, stop it. Enough with the tantrum, I'll give you candy!"

Remus ceased crying immediately. He stood and dusted himself off, a calm grin on his face. He reached up and grabbed James's finger, shaking his hand.

"Pleasure doing business," he said, the little shit.

James grumbled something Remus couldn't here and dug around in his pocket for a spare chocolate bar. It was habit for him to carry one with him so he could give it to his friend if he thought he needed it.

Remus smiled cheekily as his little fist closed around the chocolate bar. James crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow. "What do you say, you little turd?"

Remus had to take a few minutes to collect himself, breathing out harshly through his nose. "Thank you," he said.

"You're welcome," James said. "Also, don't tell Sirius."

Remus shrugged like he couldn't be bothered to keep such promises.

James sighed and checked his watch. He still had an hour and fifty minutes left watching Remus by himself. Only ten minutes had passed! James turned to grab his jumper from the desk chair.

Where was Peter? Why didn't Peter have to help him, he thought bitterly.

"Alright, Remus, what do you suggest we—" he said, turning back around to find that Remus was gone.

"Ferfucksakes!" James yelled, pulling at his hair.

=-=-=-=-=-=

Remus happily slipped out of the common room unchallenged. He was so excited to explore the castle all on his own. He'd always dreamed of it, since last week.

He took little bites of his chocolate bar, savoring every little piece and making sure it lasted and melted in his mouth just so.

"I'm eatin' my choc'late, eatin' my choc'late, eatin' my choc'late. I'm eatin' my choc'late all day long," he sang to himself as he clambered down a set of stairs.

He turned down another long hallway, staring at all the moving portraits. He was so enamored with them that he didn't notice he was being followed until he was surrounded.

It was those nasty boys in the robes with green and silver. Remus only knew they were nasty because Sirius said they were and they didn't look very nice to him.

As it turned out, Sirius was right all along when he had said that Remus might be targeted because he was five years old. It was true that the Slytherin boys had seen this potion mishap as a way to get back at Remus for the wrongs his existence had against the school. They'd waited until they knew Sirius was otherwise occupied with detention. They were going to go with some elaborate plan to lure him out of Gryffindor tower, but he'd done all the work for them.

Remus was confused when about six boys gathered around him. He hid his chocolate behind his back, thinking that maybe they wanted to steal it.

One of the boys simply laughed at him, reaching out a hand to shove him in the shoulder. He stumbled back a few steps, frightened and confused. Oh, where was James or Sirius? Why had he wanted so badly to go exploring?

The boys took turns taunting him and saying nasty things. Remus's lip quivered and his eyes welled with tears at their mean gestures and terrible words.

"Aw, look, he's crying!" Laughed another of the boys. "Is ickled little Remus a sad little baby?"

Remus mustered up all the courage he had and he puffed out his chest and clenched his hands into tight little fists.

"I'm not a baby!" He shouted and the portraits around him fell to the ground in a thud and the rug at his feet blew backwards like it was hurrying to get away from. The boys, with their hair blown back, shared a glance. They hadn't accommodated for any accidental magic.

The biggest, baddest boy that had stood in the center the whole time stepped forward with a sneer on his face. He rolled up the sleeves of his robes and grabbed his wand from his pocket.

"Let's get this over with then, shall we?"

Remus didn't know what he meant. "Get what over with?" He asked meekly, still quite upset.

"Only giving you exactly what you deserve, you filthy scum."

Remus wondered briefly what 'scum' meant. He was just about to ask, when the boy waved his wand at Remus and he was shoved over harshly by the magic. He fell to the ground in just the right way for it to hurt. He'd tried catching himself with his hands, but he'd fallen too fast and hard for that to work.

The air was knocked right out of him as his right wrist cracked on impact with the floor. Tears sprang to his eyes as he struggled to suck in a breath. It seemed to be the hardest thing to do. And then the wailing started. Terrible, pain-filled cries.

And the boys only laughed.

"What's going on here?" A voice called and the Slytherin boys stifled their laughter and turned to the new voice. Remus looked up through his tears and thought for a moment that it was Sirius at his rescue. But it wasn't.

Regulus, upon hearing all sorts of commotion in the halls, had come to investigate. And he was glad he had. He pretended to look upon the young Remus with disdain, though it pulled at his heartstrings to do so.

He sneered. "That's mighty of you lot, picking on a five year old."

For once, the Slytherin boys had nothing to say. Regulus rolled his eyes. "Oh come off it, get out of here."

"You forget who he is," one grumbled angrily, pointing.

"Do enlighten me," Regulus drawled, sounding quite bored with the entire situation.

"He's the half-blood f***** from Gryffindor. Friends with the blood traitors Black and Potter."

Remus didn't understand what any of those words meant.

Regulus's eyes flickered at the mention of his brother. "Oh, sod off, will you? Don't you have somewhere better to be then tormenting a child?"

The Slytherins grumbled and turned to leave, though one looked back at the sobbing Remus with a look of pure disgust it made Remus shiver. He'd recognized the boy then, the one who'd stayed silently to the side, neither helping the Slytherins nor stopping them. It was Severus Snape, the greasy-haired boy that James and Sirius loathed.

Once the boys had left, Regulus dropped the act and hurried over to Remus. "Are you alright?" He asked, though he knew it was a stupid question. Remus shook his head, choking on his sobs, sniffling and whimpering. He hadn't dared move from the exact position he'd landed in, not wanting it to hurt anymore.

Regulus looked back down the hallway to assure they were alone before he reached down and coaxed Remus off his broken wrist. He had Remus under the armpits and helped him sit up, where he cradled his wrist against his chest, snot and tears mixing together as they ran down his face.

Regulus cringed in sympathy and reached into his robes pocket and brought his handkerchief, the corner stitched in elegant caligraphy, R.A.B. He brought it gently across the little boy's face, cleaning away the mingled snot and tears.

As Remus had seemingly lost all ability to walk in this incident, Regulus scooped him up into his arms and set off towards the hospital wing. It could've been a mixture of the facts that Remus was tired, hurt, exhausted, and scared, or that Regulus looked a bit like Sirius, but he laid his head down on Regulus's shoulder as he whimpered quietly to himself.

"Oh, what happened this time?" Poppy Pomphrey gasped as Regulus shouldered through the door, being careful not to jostle Remus.

"He fell," Regulus half-lied. Madam Pomphrey eyed him suspiciously, but led Regulus over to a bed all the same. He gently sat Remus down and Madam Pomphrey coaxed him to let her see his arm and she waved her wand to set his wrist and wrap it up in bandages, turning to fetch a dose of Skele-Gro.

"If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go fetch Sirius," Regulus said, and Pomphrey only nodded. Regulus practically ran up the flights of moving staircases and down hallways to get to Gryffindor tower.

He was mid argument with the Fat Lady about letting him inside when James Potter came running up behind him.

"Regulus! Have you seen Remus?" The poor lad looked close to tears as he pulled at his hair.

Regulus had just opened his mouth to answer when Lily Evans came running from the other direction. "He's not anywhere near the kitchens either," she was saying before she saw Regulus standing there.

"I've just delivered him to the hospital wing, actually," Regulus said matter-of-factly.

"WHAT?" Lily and James both yelped in unison.

Regulus nodded and started walking back towards the hospital wing, James and Lily on either side of him, trying to get more answers out of him.

"Some Slytherins targeted him," Regulus supplied. "He fell and broke his wrist, is all. He'll be fine after a little bit of Skele-Gro."

James looked thoroughly frustrated with himself. "I turned my back for literally not even ten seconds and then this happens," he said.

The hospital wing was in sight and suddenly James stopped walking. Regulus and Lily looked back at him and his face was so very pale.

"What's the matter now?" Lily asked him patiently.

"What'm I gonna tell Sirius?" He asked, gulping in fear.

"The truth, I suppose," Lily suggested, but James shook his head frantically.

"No, no, no, no. I was supposed to watch him. I broke all three rules Sirius set! Don't give him candy, don't let him out of my sight, and don't let him get hurt! I'm so dead." James counted every rule off on his fingers as he said them.

Lily and Regulus really didn't have an answer to that so they just shrugged.

When they entered the hospital ward, Remus was sitting up in the bed, albeit eyes a little droopy, sucking on a lollipop.

James rushed forward, Lily following at a slower pace. "I'm so glad you're okay!" James said, flustered. Remus could only nod, thoroughly tuckered out from that day's events.

And then came a booming voice to disrupt the peace. It was Sirius.

"Why the fuck are you lot in the hospital wing?"

He was waving around the map in the air, having come straight from his detention. James and Lily exchanged a look and Lily inched to the side, leaving James to explain, in turn revealing Remus and his lollipop.

As Sirius went to sit with Remus on the hospital bed and inspected his wrist as James and Regulus told the story, Remus was just happy he got to be in Sirius's presence again.

Remus curled into Sirius's side and fell asleep.