Title: Reasoning

Author: mithborien

Rating: G

Summary: Sirius tries to rationalise things after the prank.

Word count: 413

Notes: One shot. Imagined, written up and edited in under an hour. Go me :)

Disclaimer: This story is based on characters, settings and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.



Remus, Sirius thinks, is logical.

Remus is smart, intelligent and sensible. He doesn’t overreact and he doesn’t exaggerate. Remus is the very personification of a responsible student. Therefore Sirius is confident that Remus will see the situation for what it is.

A mistake. An accident. An error in judgement. A misspoken word. A random comment. A passing slur.

The betrayal of a secret he had sworn he would never reveal.

See Sirius is also smart, in fact, he’s brilliant. Charms flow with ease from his wand and he always manages to be the first to accomplish tasks in Transfiguration. So that means he is perfectly capable of seeing the bigger picture as well; that he betrayed one of his best friends for a petty mission of vengeance. And Sirius is also smart enough to figure out that Remus probably realised this fact before he did.

But Sirius can rationalise his way out of anything, especially concerning his own actions. In fact, that’s what he’s been doing all morning. Thinking things through, weighing out actions and excuses.

Because really, when you think about it, if Snivellus had indeed found his way into the Shack and had consequently gotten hurt, it would not have been Remus’s fault anyway. Remus would never do such a thing. He isn’t like that. It would have been the wolf’s fault and since Remus has no control over the wolf then Remus cannot be held responsible for its actions.

Remus and the wolf are separate entities, Sirius theorises. Remus wasn’t born with it, he was bitten. Lycanthropy is like a disease he caught, a disease that only exerts control during the full moon. After all, Remus is Remus on every other day of the month, all books and studying and trying to pretend that James hasn’t corrupted him to the Marauder Way. The wolf is not Remus. The wolf is only an affliction, something that can’t be helped, like bad eyes or allergies.

Remus is not the wolf.

So when Sirius finally works up the nerve to sneak into the Infirmary and sees Remus lying against the crisp white pillows with his old scars faded against his skin, he pauses.

Because when Remus turns his head and very calmly asks him to please go away, Sirius sees the golden predatory eyes of the wolf glaring back at him and he wonders just how much of the wolf stays with Remus.

Or just how much of the wolf actually is Remus.