James seemed to get a great deal of satisfaction at watching Sirius go red in the face. Throughout the day, he kept whispering some of the words now carved into Sirius' back. Sirius thought he'd get some peace in the dorm as it was just him and Remus as they sat studying on Remus' bed. The door to the dorm slammed open as James and Peter came in.

"Look at the disgusting poofs, Peter. Might have to burn my eyes out."

Remus got red in the face as Sirius stood so fast, his notes lay scattered across the floor.

"You, Potter, are the real shirt-lifter, aren't you?" Sirius removed his shirt making James look at the scarred words covering his back. "You are the most foul of human beings, worse than my fucked up family. I trusted you, thought you were my brother. If you ever bother Remus or me again, I'll show Lily your true colors. Now, fuck off." The swearing was punctuated by a shove, which sent James flat on the floor. Before Peter or Remus could make sense of what was happening, fists were flying and blood had been drawn. It took some effort to separate the boys, but by the end, Peter sat on James' chest, and Remus was holding Sirius.

"James, you will leave Sirius and me alone until you can stop being a bigoted ponce. And Sirius, I need you to stop being so angry all the time, please? We need at least pretend peace if we are going to all live together." Remus made sure not to let Sirius out of his arms as he spoke.

"How can someone live with me?" With the single question, Sirius felt the anger seep out, replaced by a profound grief. As he extricated himself from Remus, he went and locked himself in the bathroom.

"Goddamn it," swore Remus. "Pete, you might as well get off James' chest before you suffocate him. Or he thinks to disown you, too." With that, Remus walked over to the bathroom for the dorm, knocking on the door.

A muffled "go away" came through the door.

"It's me, Padds, please let me in," pleaded Remus. Sirius unlocked the door and Remus slipped in, but not before James got a look at the red and tear stained face. The expression Sirius wore was one James had seen only once before, the day Sirius had shown up on his doorstep, never to return to his own home. A twinge of guilt was suppressed as James stood up and left for Quidditch practice.

===

"Moony?" Remus grunted in response. "Can I come over there? I had another one and can't sleep." Remus lifted his blanket, inviting Sirius under. Soon, Sirius was falling back to sleep, inhaling Remus' scent.

"Sirius, wake up! Come on, Padds, it's just a dream," Remus tried to shake his friend awake. As the sounds of distress continued, the other boys woke as well, looking on in concern.

"SIRIUS!" Suddenly, the sleeping boy jerked awake and promptly began hysterically sobbing. Remus just took him in his arms and held the boy.

"Is he ok?" James sounded uncertain.

"Obviously not," Remus shot back.

"What's wrong with him?"

"The one person he cared about most beat him, carved terrible words into his skin, and abandoned him, like his abusive family. So he's just a little messed up right now." There was a bite to the words.

"I-I did this to him?"

"You did so much worse, James, so much worse. This happens every night. He no longer shows his torso to people. Today was the first time I've seen him take his shirt off since I cleaned his wounds for him since he now locks himself in the bathroom to change. I'm the only one who can even touch him anymore without him flinching. He jumps when someone comes around the corner. He doesn't talk to anybody but me either. You broke him, James. More than his parents ever could. You did this and so much more." Remus lay down beside Sirius, who had cried themselves to sleep. As the curtains closed around the two boys, James ran to the bathroom to vomit. No one said another word that night. Peter managed to get back to sleep, because he could sleep through a hurricane, Sirius and Remus slept out of pure exhaustion, and James didn't really do much else besides think of what he'd done to his brother and if it was possible to fix it.