Unfortunately, after the night they had, both boys fell asleep before Sirius could make it back to his own bed.

"Are you fucking kidding me?!" James woke the other occupants of the room with his boisterous outrage. "Honestly, Sirius, you've got to let him taint you?" All Sirius could do was hide his face, looking like a kicked dog.

"I'm sorry, Prongs," Sirius mumbled.

"No! Don't be sorry, Padfoot. Don't apologize for who you are. And you, Potter, should be ashamed. You promised us that you'd always be there for us. You were supposed to protect us, not terrorize us. Sirius has already lost a lot. We are all he has left, you've got him scared of losing it!" Remus was yelling by the time he finished, red in the face as he stood toe to toe with James.

"Maybe he should be scared because he doesn't have us anymore. Peter and I are done with you two. You disgust me!" As he turned away, he spat on the floor by Remus' feet.

"Sirius-" But Sirius was up and running from the room. Quickly shaking his shock, Remus sprinted after him, ignoring a concerned look from Peter.

"Sirius, wait!" Using his long legs to his advantage, Remus caught up to his friend, grabbing his shoulder and turning him around. The look of absolute devastation was evident on the handsome face as tears cascaded down like a waterfall.

"Leave me alone, Remus! I told you! I told you I'd lose everything! I don't know what I'm going to do for holidays, now! I was supposed to go skiing with the Potters, and now they hate me, too!" Sirius, who had been yelling, now dropped his voice considerably. "Why does everyone always hate me?" A choked sob echoed through the unusually quiet common room.

"I don't hate you, Sirius! Fuck Potter. He isn't worth it. You are a great guy, and you deserve better family than what you got, and you deserve a better family than James fucking Potter!" Suddenly, Sirius fell to his knees. A surprised Remus did his best to catch him, holding the shaking and broken boy as he sobbed on the floor.

"What's wrong with me, Moony?"

"Nothing, absolutely nothing."

===

Things didn't get better for either one of them. James had made it quite clear to the other students at Hogwarts that Sirius was to be given the same treatment as Remus. Things escalated as the next few weeks pass. 

Remus went looking for Sirius when he failed to show up potions. He finally found him in an abandoned third-floor corridor.

"Holy shit, Sirius, what happened?" Remus dropped to his knees beside a bloody and bruised boy. "We need to get you to the hospital wing."

"NO! I'm fine, just help me up." As he struggled to stand, Remus noticed blood soaking the back of his shirt. Remus led Sirius to the nearby abandoned girl's bathroom, which nearly guaranteed privacy.

"Let me see." It wasn't a question. Sirius just winced as he gingerly removed his shirt. What he saw absolutely outraged him. "Who did this to you, Sirius?"

"No one, I'm fine." The non-answer was all it took to confirm what Remus feared. There was only one person who could do this to Sirius and Sirius would lay down and take it.

"I'm going to kill him. Look what he's done to you! It's not just cuts and bruises. Have you even looked at your back?" Remus was close to screaming, feeling more anger than he ever thought possible.

"It's nothing, just drop it," Sirius whispered as if tears weren't streaming down his face at the slurs carved into his back. Remus just sighed.

"If you won't let me take you to the matron, at least let me clean you up?" Sirius nodded. Once Remus had done all he could for the injuries, he helped Sirius up to the common room. After gently laying Sirius in his bed, he cast a muffling spell around the boy to allow him to sleep undisturbed. Then, he went out in search of James.

"James Potter, you sick, twisted, depraved monster! How could you do that to him?" Remus stalked up to James as he was leaving the Quidditch pitch.

"I don't know what you are talking about," his smirk telling Remus he knew exactly what this conversation was about.

"Fuck you, Potter." Remus punctuated his statement by breaking James' nose before turning on his heel and heading back to look after Sirius.

It took Sirius' body three weeks to heal, having refused to use magic. Sirius, however, changed after that.