CHARLUS TWISTED HIS WEDDING RING AROUND HIS FINGER, lost in his own world as the day carried on around him. He was stuck between a feeling of uselessness and uncertainty when it came to what his plans were going to be once he was outside of St Mungo's. He was counting on leaving as soon as he possibly could, as soon as Maeve allowed him to, he would be gone. However, it seemed like such a long time away as he wasn't making any progress because he spent so much time trying to learn what had happened after he had fallen.

His main focus above all fell between Harry and Sirius. Charlus needed to free his husband from Azkaban, knowing that Sirius had to be innocent. And there was no telling where Harry had ended up after the events. He hoped his nephew was somewhere safe, somewhere full of love and warmth. Harry deserved that at the very least after everything he had been through. But Charlus couldn't figure out anything or do anything to help if he was trapped in bed all the time.

He needed to focus on Maeve's exercises that he deemed silly so that he could learn to use his muscles again. Magic was helpful in some ways, aiding in him keeping the muscle strong when it hadn't been in use, but it couldn't teach Charlus how to put it to use again. It was a tedious and slow process in the recovery stage, but he knew he had to be thankful for one thing.

At least there was a recovery stage for him.

The best way he could get through it all was pretending that Sirius was there with him, helping him along the way. When he forced himself up to his feet, Charlus imagined that Sirius was beside him, holding onto his arm, just in case he fell over. And every time that Charlus began to whine or complain about feeling stiff, there was Sirius waggling his brow in a perverted manner. It was enough to get him through the tasks, but it wasn't enough for Charlus because he knew very well that it was only his imagination and nothing more.

Sirius wasn't really there, James wasn't there either when he pictured his brother sitting by the window. It was just Charlus' coping method to envision his loved ones around them, but some days it brought him even more pain.

To know what had happened to Alice and Frank Longbottom, he wasn't brave enough to ask what happened to other members of the Order. Even members that he wasn't particularly close to, they had all put in their blood, sweat, and tears into the cause, and many of them didn't get a happy ending. Shaking his head, Charlus tried to dismiss all thoughts surrounding the Order and began to slowly turn himself in his bed to perform his routine exercise to get the blood flowing in his lower half.

However, as he turned to face the doorway, he saw a familiar face standing there patiently as they waited to be acknowledged.

"Remus?"

Remus took a step further into the room, dipping his head in greeting as Charlus glanced him over. The two of them were of little words initially, especially since neither of them really knew what to say to one another. The last time Remus had seen Charlus, it had been after a nasty spat between Remus and Sirius. They had gone back to their usual accusations as yet another secret had been leaked from the Order. Sirius pointed his finger at Remus and Remus pointed it right back, both of them dealing low blows.

It was after the meeting, Charlus approached Remus, telling him that the fighting and accusations needed to come to an end. Usually, the group could suffer through some fights and manage their way back through apologies, but in James' absence, it was as though the Marauders were falling apart without their leader.  He continued to tell Remus that if James were there, he wouldn't want to see his brothers fighting. It was bad enough that the war was taking place, they didn't need to add to it with their own battles.

At the time, Remus was absolutely furious with Sirius taking another dig at his lycanthropy condition, using it as leverage in his argument. He didn't want to hear anything pertaining to forgiveness or anything of the sort. Instead, he had snapped at Charlus just the same, telling him to just take Sirius' side because that was what he was going to do anyways. Everyone was going to take Sirius' side, Remus argued, and they would all come to regret it.

Thinking of where they were all at now, Remus was able to see that back then, he had been right, but it didn't mean he wanted to be.

Sirius was currently serving the rest of his life in Azkaban after betraying James and Lily. He had turned out to be the traitor in the Order, hunting down Peter, and probably would have done worse if he hadn't been caught.

Looking over his shoulder, Remus met the gaze of the kind Healer that had led him to Charlus' room. He politely asked her for some time alone as there was plenty that he and Charlus had to go over in private. Naturally, she agreed with a nod of her head before walking off and Remus turned back to his old friend, lifting his hands up.

His hands touched his chest before facing outward with two thumbs up.

"How are you, Charlus?"

Charlus mirrored the gesture with his own thumbs up, before touching his hand to his mouth and bringing it out. "I'm fine, thank you," he replied, " are we going to be this formal with each other?"

Remus offered a small smile. "Well, I wanted to see how rusty my signing became over the years. Surprisingly, it comes back relatively quick."

"Right, but in order for me to read your lips, I still need you to be looking at me," Charlus replied with a chuckle, " haven't figured a way around that yet."

"Sorry," Remus said, lifting his head up so that they were completely facing each other.

An awkward silence loomed over them for a couple of minutes, the greetings over with, leaving them unsure of how to start of the conversation. There was plenty to say, but where to begin?

"You look good," Remus told him finally, regretting it shortly after because to him it sounded weird once it passed through his lips.

Charlus adjusted himself in his bed to sit up, propping his pillows up behind him. "Well, I should hope so. Six years gave me plenty of time to catch up on my beauty sleep, don't you think? At this point, I should be the most handsome man alive. But you know, I guess that's why they've been keeping me in here, wouldn't want to shock the world just yet."

It was good to see that despite all the horrific things that happened to Charlus and knowing what had happened to him, that he was able to keep his humour about him. But through the exchange of laughter, the two knew they were treading around the actual topic they needed to discuss.

"When Dumbledore informed me that you were awake, I couldn't believe it," Remus admitted, " I didn't know what to think. Then they said that you were actually okay in the letter, that you were talking and acting normal. I figured I had to make my way here, I'm sorry that I couldn't come sooner, haven't been in the best state, so I had to gather myself a bit-"

Before Remus could continue, Charlus stopped him by lifting one of his hands up. "Wait, Dumbledore told you I was awake? He wrote to you, but he hasn't come by here to speak with me as I requested?"

"I imagine he's pretty busy with the school term right now-"

"To hell with the school term," Charlus huffed, " McGonagall can very well manage Hogwarts in his absence, granted, if she's still working there. But either way, he could spare me at the very least an hour during the evening. I'm here all the time, he could come on a weekend or the off hour. I have important information to discuss with him pertaining to Sirius."

Instantly, Remus' blood ran cold at the mention of Sirius, knowing that the topic was going to come up one way or another.

"Charlus, a lot happened after you were attacked, especially with Sirius," he tried to explain in a gentle manner, " I hate to be the one to tell you but he betrayed James and Lily. He gave their location away, it was the whole reason they were attacked that night."

"No, he didn't betray them."

His voice was firm, Charlus was willing to argue to death that Sirius was not who he had been portrayed to be within the last five years. He refused to believe that Sirius was a traitor and a murderer of all things. Yes, there were times that Sirius lost his temper, times where he said hurtful things, and even made huge mistakes, but he was not one to go after the innocent.

"I know you have loyalty to him," Remus said, "I know that you loved him, but Charlus, you have to look at the facts. Sirius was their Secret Keeper, Dumbledore noted it himself-"

"That's because Dumbledore was completely unaware of the switch."

Remus' eyes widened for a second at the new information before narrowing in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

Folding his arms across his chest, Charlus leaned back against his pillows. "Exactly what I said. Sirius was the original Secret Keeper, but it was too obvious. We all knew that, if people suspected it, it was either going to be myself and Sirius. It was just too risky, even Bellatrix suspected that I was one, that's why they came after me and didn't kill me right away. It wasn't just a matter of torture, it was torture to get information. But we all came to the decision that it was best to switch the Secret Keeper to someone no one would really suspect."

"Who was it then?"

"Peter."

Charlus was waiting on Remus' reaction, waiting for him to smack his forehead and realise that a huge mistake had been made, but instead, he could only watch as Remus just shook his head in pure disbelief.

"Peter? As in Peter Pettigrew? As in Peter-"

"Look, Remus, I don't know how many Peter Pettigrew's you know, but yes, Peter."

"The one Sirius blew to bits!" Remus finished. " I don't know what to make of this, but something isn't right."

"Of course it's not right, Sirius is innocent and is rotting away in Azkaban as we speak. Now you understand why I need to talk to Dumbledore-"

"No." Charlus was cut off almost instantly. " It doesn't make sense, Charlus, because if Sirius was as innocent as you claimed, why would he go after Peter? Why would he kill him and then kill twelve muggles that were just going about their business."

"I don't know about the muggles, but he had to be going after Peter, right? If someone betrayed James' and Lily's location, it had to be the Secret Keeper, which was Peter!"

Charlus was starting to feel like a broken record as he was just repeating the same thing over and over. And yet, each time he tried to reiterate that Sirius was innocent, it was like Remus was having none of it. He kept trying to make it sound like Charlus had all his facts wrong and Charlus didn't like the feeling of doubt washing over him.

"Were you there when Peter was made the Secret Keeper?" Remus asked him after a moment. "Were you physically present when Sirius passed it over to him?"

"What are you trying to say, Remus?"

"Answer the question."

"No," Charlus said through gritted teeth. "I wasn't there because while Sirius was off making Peter the Secret Keeper, I was spending quality time with Bellatrix Lestrange under the Cruciatus Curse. I was home, waiting for Sirius to come back when it was all done, but they showed up first."

"Seems convenient, doesn't it?"

For a moment, Charlus was speechless, not even out of anger, but just confused by the direction Remus was trying to guide him. "What are you talking about? What's convenient?"

"Sirius leaves to supposedly make Peter the Secret Keeper, and you're attacked by Death Eaters while he's gone. It sounds like he left you as an open target, Charlus."

The last thing Remus expected was for Charlus to swing at him when he made the theory that Sirius had been in on Bellatrix's plan. He dodged back, leaving Charlus off balance, who fell to the floor. He was shocked that he had nearly been hit, but chose to ignore it to help Charlus up, however, every time he attempted to do so, there was another fist ready to knock him upside of the head.

"Get away from me!" Charlus yelled at him. "Get the fuck away from me!"

"Charlus, I'm just trying to help you-"

"No, you're not! You're not!" Charlus tried to push himself up to at least push himself away from Remus' outstretched arms. "You know, fuck you, Remus! You, Dumbledore, Fudge, you can all go to hell and burn there. Letting an innocent man just rot away because you don't want to listen otherwise. All of you want to forget what he did for you.. You, of all people, know what Sirius did for you, my brother did the same. Are you just going to forget that now? Pretend that he wasn't the one committed to the ones he loved the most? That's fine, you do that!  But I'm going to prove it! You'll see, I'll prove it and I'll be the one to set him free, I promise you that."

"How are you going to do that, Charlus? Haven't you heard a word of what I've been saying to you? The only one who could vouch for you is Peter and he's dead! He's been dead for years! I know this isn't easy for you but you need to wake up."

"WHAT IS GOING ON IN HERE?!"

Maeve had plans of going home before but with Remus' arrival, she figured she would linger around a bit. It was nice to see Charlus have some company and she hoped it would be enough to brighten the man's spirits. Everything had been going so smoothly that she decided to just wander around the hospital for a bit, only to return to a complete yelling match that had everyone near the room concerned.

When she entered, she found Charlus on the floor, only holding up the upper half of his body, while his legs remained limp at his side. He was yelling for Remus to get away from him, sobbing onto the floor. Remus was reaching for him, only to have his hands smacked away each time. She honestly had no other choice but to intervene.

Placing her body between the two, Maeve cut off Remus' attempts to grab at Charlus, telling him to back away, while she helped Charlus up and back into bed.

"GET OUT!" Charlus yelled at Remus. "GET OUT OF HERE! BOTH OF YOU! GET OUT!"

Maeve was stunned, remaining still in place for a moment at the way Charlus yelled at her, but she knew better than to argue. Some days, Charlus appeared strong, but he was still in a fragile state. Remus looked ready to argue hat he wasn't going to leave, but she quickly started guiding him to the door.

"I'm sorry, Mr Lupin, but I don't think he's ready for company right now," she said in a soft voice, " he needs more time."

The two looked back into the room before Maeve closed the door over, only to see that Charlus was slumped over in his bed, sobbing violently as he smashed his fists onto his bed. He yelled out for James, for Sirius, and even for his parents.

An image and sound that would Remus into the upcoming full moon, making it one of the worst transformations to date.