Sirius figured there would be teeth marks permanently imbedded into the Gryffindor table. Remus clearly hadn't learned his lesson the night before.

Sirius had removed Remus's teeth from the table no less than three times in the past ten minutes. Finally, Sirius dug his handkerchief out of his pocket and James handed him his own handkerchief that he'd balled up and James wrapped that one in his own and handed it to Remus to chew on instead of the table.

Remus held it in his fist as he gnawed on it and crawled up into Sirius's lap, resting his head on Sirius's chest.

Sirius brought his arm up to run his hand soothingly up and down Remus's side. He'd already tried to get Remus to eat something. The best he could do was get Remus to nibble on some toast. But even that went mostly uneaten.

That morning had been the first that Sirius had to wake Remus up. Sirius was concerned, to say the least. He immediately assumed it was because of how he was up in the middle of the night from nightmares, but he was sure it had more to it than that. He chalked it up to the moon that would be full that very evening.

It hadn't occurred to him to be worried when he immediately woke up that morning, but as he lay there staring at the ceiling, he realized that Remus hadn't woken him up and that Remus was, in fact, still sleeping beside him.

Sirius figured he'd let him sleep a few minutes and assumed that Remus would wake up on his own in a little while. That proved not to be the case. Sirius was forced to wake Remus up so they could make it in time to breakfast.

And that's where they were now.

When Sirius had decided that he had enough to eat, he pulled Remus closer to him and wrapped his arms around him. Sirius rested his cheek on the top of Remus's head and listened indifferently to the early morning chatter of the Great Hall.

After awhile, Sirius reached up and brushed some of his curls away and rested his hand on Remus's forehead. He frowned.

"You've got a fever, love," he said quietly. Remus didn't answer. Sirius craned his neck to peek at Remus's face and his eyes were closed, his breathing slow and steady. He'd fallen asleep again.

With it being a Sunday, Sirius wasn't sure what to do. There were no classes to go to and there were no pranks to pull. Not with the full moon only hours away. He sort of wished that the sun would set sooner so they could get the moon behind them and Remus could go back to being the energetic five year old he had been for the past week.

Ideally, Sirius thought, maybe he'd be back to being a seventeen year old. If Dumbledore and Slughorn would hurry up with that antidote!

It was right after lunch, on the way up to Gryffindor tower, that Remus woke up in Sirius's arms. He shifted and whimpered in pain, his muscles and bones were tightening up painfully in preparation for the transformation.

Sirius stopped and sat down on a bench outside of McGonagall's office and motioned for the others to keep going. He carefully shifted Remus around to a more comfortable position.

He hated that Remus had to go through all of this every month. He absolutely loathed it. It wasn't fair! What had Remus ever done to deserve this? It had always been hard to see Remus in pain, but somehow it was so much worse seeing how little he was. Older Remus had developed such a high pain tolerance. He was used to pain, so it didn't show as much.

But little Remus didn't have that. And Sirius was secretly terrified for the moon that evening. The thought of this baby Remus in his arms in that much pain made him sick. But he set his own feelings aside and worried about comforting Remus.

As they sat there, Remus's muscles seemed to cramp up tighter and he was soon gripping Sirius's shirt tightly in his fists, crying softly. His tears were soaking Sirius's shirt.

"I want my mummy," Remus cried. Sirius's breath caught. Remus's mother was dead. She had been for about four years now. But if Sirius's theory on how his memory worked the longer he was de-aged, then that would mean Remus didn't remember that detail. After all, she would still be alive in this time-line.

Sirius sighed and kissed Remus's forehead. "Your mummy's not here, Rey. I'm sorry. You're stuck with me."

"Mummy," he gasped, crying harder.

Just then, McGonagall came out of her office, likely after she heard the two of them.

"Oh, Remus dear, are you alright?" McGonagall came to sit next to Sirius on the bench and pushed the light brown curls from Remus forehead. She gazed on in sympathy.

Remus hiccuped through his cries, and maybe it was the tears that were blurring his vision, maybe it was the pain, or maybe he just really didn't remember, because he reached his arms out to Minerva McGonagall.

"Mummy," he said again. McGonagall's face was pained and she looked like she was about to tell Remus that she wasn't his mummy, but she decided against it. Minerva and Sirius shared a look and Sirius smiled sadly, handing Remus over.

Remus had his arms out and Minerva held him close to her, standing up so she could rock him back and forth, shushing his cries softly.

"Shhhhhh. Shhh. Mummy's here," She whispered in his ear. "Mummy's here."

Sirius didn't want to interrupt their moment, but as the afternoon went by, he wanted to get Remus back so they could go get ready for the Shrieking Shack. But of course, once he'd found his mummy, he didn't want to let her go, so it was quite the process of reclaiming the child.

"I have to go now, Remus. Mummy loves you," she said softly, handing Remus back to Sirius. Sirius also had tears in his eyes from the beautiful interaction.

"Thank you," he whispered.

Professor McGonagall mussed up Remus's curls one last time. "Good luck out there tonight. Keep him safe."

Sirius gave her a shocked look. Had she just inferred that she knew about what happened on full moon nights?

McGonagall smirked at his expression. "You didn't really think I wouldn't notice, did you?" She asked. She didn't wait for an answer and instead retreated into her office.

Sirius smiled to himself and continued on his way to Gryffindor tower, holding Remus to his chest as the little boy, thoroughly exhausted but in too much pain at this point to fathom falling asleep, laid as still as possible to avoid further pain, whimpering every once in a while.

When Sirius and Remus got up to the boys' dormitory, Lily, James, and Peter were there. Lily and Peter had been playing Wizard Chess and James was pacing, pausing sometimes to look over the open Marauders Map that was spread out on Sirius's bed.

James sighed in relief when he saw them. "I was getting worried," he explained. "When you didn't follow us after awhile. But I saw you were with Minnie, so I figured you were okay."

Sirius nodded in confirmation and sat down on Remus's bed, cradling Remus in his arms. The other three went quiet again when they realized the Remus situation.

"Is there anything I can do?" James asked quietly, coming to stand at Sirius's shoulder.

Remus's wide and watery eyes flitted up to James and then back down and he nuzzled further into Sirius.

"Some water would be good," Sirius suggested and James reached over for a glass of water, handing it to Sirius who held it to Remus's lips, getting him to drink it in sips.

Lily made the final move on her game and came to sit on Sirius's other side. She glanced out the window and saw that the sun would be setting in another hour or two.

"You lot should get going so you have time to get him used to the Shack. My bets are that he won't remember it," Lily said.

James and Sirius shared a look.

"I didn't even think of that," James said. Sirius nodded along, that hadn't occurred to him either.

So James and Peter ran around the dorm and packed a bag for the night.

Sirius stuck a hat on Remus's head and tried his very best to work Remus's arms through the holes of his jacket without disturbing him too much. He also grabbed a blanket and completely covered Remus with it and then they were off, through the castle and across the grounds.

It was cold outside and they had to trudge through snow to get to the Whomping Willow. Peter transformed into a rat and ran ahead to hit the knot on the tree so they could get into the tunnel.

It was a long walk, mostly silent save for Remus's whimpers and cries of pain.

When they got to the Shrieking Shack, Lily was right. It was new and foreign to Remus. Even though he'd been spending the last seven years transforming in this dreadful shack, he didn't remember.

So they tried to explain it to him in a way he'd understand and they had to tell him made up funny stories about the giant scratches in the walls.

It was about a half hour before moon rise when Remus's pain hit a peak. This was what Sirius was afraid of.

Remus was crying, sobbing really, in Sirius's arms. Sirius was holding him, crying himself, and rocking him around. He was hoping his movements were soothing and calming. He didn't know what to do. He had no idea how to ease Remus's pain.

It really put into a better perspective of the true pain Remus went through every month. He was only showing it so much more now because he hadn't had those years of developing a tolerance.

James and Peter were quietly watching. They were very much on edge from this new behavior. They were just eager for the moon to be over with.

And then, finally, moon rise came. It was the worst moon Sirius, James, and Peter had ever been apart of.

Sirius was forced to set Remus down when the transformation started and Remus was moaning and crying in pain.

It was when his bones started cracking and rearranging that he started screaming. It was the worst sound the boys had ever heard. Sirius thought for sure it would haunt his nightmares. It was such a contrast from the giggling, happy boy from two days ago.

And soon the boyish screams turned to little yipping howls. The three boys promptly transformed. Remus's wolf was a tiny little fluff ball of pent up anger.

Sirius cocked his furry head at the pup yipping and hopping around, stumbling over his paws that were a little too big.

The dog and the stag shared a look and Snuffles lay down on the dusty floor of the shack and let Remus burn of some of that energy.

James and Peter lay by themselves most of the night. Every once in awhile, the hyperactive wolf pup would bound over and visit them, but he seemed more content with bothering Sirius.

As the night went on, Remus tried his very hardest to get a reaction out of Sirius. It was simply no fun how the big black dog just laid there with his head on his paws while Remus bounced around, yipping at him, sometimes bouncing off of Sirius. He'd even nibble on the dog's ear and give it a tug for some attention, but the dog's big grey eyes would only roll up to glance at him. The dog wasn't concerned in the slightest. Remus's baby wolf was essentially harmless, specifically to this group of animals.

Even though it didn't start that way, that full moon was quite pleasant for the rest of the night.