Remus was up again bright and early out of instinct, but he was much more subdued. Sirius feared it was the approaching moon.

Sirius was feeling a bit sour from the night before and he acted that way outwardly. Remus sensed this and stayed away from him that morning, opting to sit with Lily at breakfast instead. Sirius tried to convince himself he was happy about it, but it hurt his feelings. He new it was his own fault for pushing Remus away, but felt like he couldn't help it. 

Since it was a Saturday and they didn't have classes, they figured they'd better find some sort of activity to entertain Remus, so they went outside.

Once again, they were all bundled up in their winter clothes so they wouldn't be too cold.

They started playing tag in the snow, until Remus tripped and fell head first in the snow and started crying from the cold. They decided snowmen would be the better option after that.

After awhile of carefully constructing snowmen for a little over an hour, little Remus was freezing, so they called it quits and went back inside. As soon as they were inside the castle, Remus, in his snow filled boots, waddled over to Sirius and held out his arms.

Sirius's heart warmed and he set aside his bitterness to lift Remus up. Holding Remus on his hip with one hand, he used the other to take off Remus's boots. He used his wand to dry his soaking socks and wrapped his own jacket around Remus's shoulders as he shook with the cold. He snuggled into Sirius, savoring the warmth he found there. 

The five of them walked into the warmth of the Great Hall and ate their lunch, Remus staying put in Sirius's warm arms. 

That afternoon, James and Sirius sat in their dormitory with Remus. They could both tell that Remus was pretty tuckered out from their morning activities and the coming moon tomorrow night.

James had transfigured a toy truck for Remus to play with and Remus sat on the  floor across from them, rolling the truck back and forth in front of him silently. Every so often his head would dip as he nodded off, but he'd catch himself and sit back upright, ever pushing that truck back on forth.

Eventually, Sirius spoke. "Remus, are you tired?"

Remus finally set the truck down and sat back, rubbing his eyes with his fists. "Mhm," he said.

Sirius held out his arms. "Come here, then."

Remus crawled over onto Sirius's lap and curled up there. He fell asleep almost instantly. 

Sirius was afraid to move for the longest time. He sat there on the floor, cradling Remus, for over an hour as James, Peter, and Lily came and went. Finally, Sirius decided that Remus was small enough for Sirius to carry him around easily, and he was tired enough that he probably wouldn't wake up.

So Sirius carefully stood up, with Remus in his arms, and made his way down the stairs to where Lily and James were playing a game of Wizard Chess and Peter was watching, eating a Pumpkin Pasty.

Sirius settled himself on the couch behind them and adjusted the pillow under his arm to support Remus's head better.

Once Lily beat James at chess, she crawled up onto the couch next to Sirius and snuggled into his side. She ran his fingers soothingly through Remus's hair as he slept.

"He's so precious," she said softly. Sirius hummed in agreement, gazing down at Remus's sleeping face. 

They were quiet for a few minutes as Remus shifted in his sleep, his face screwing up.

"He's like this because of the moon tomorrow," Lily said. It wasn't a question.

Sirius nodded. "It's incredible how he's only starting to feel it now. Normally, he'd start to feel the approaching moon almost a week in advance."

"Yeah," Lily agreed. "It's crazy. He's so little. So full of hope. Life hasn't crushed it out of him yet."

Sirius nodded. It was the only way he could think of to answer her.

When it came time for dinner, Remus still hadn't stirred. Sirius moved the blanket wrapped around him to cover his face, hoping to block out the light and perhaps muffle the sounds of the Great Hall.

He sat at the bench of the Gryffindor table with the little boy swaddled in his arms, sleeping still.

"Hey, Black, whatcha got there?" The fifth year boy prefect asked suspiciously from down the  table. He knew by now that he should always suspect the Marauders were up to no good.

Sirius looked incredulous. "Did you forget that Remus is a child? Already?"

The prefect looked embarrassed. "Right. Sorry." He turned away and back to his food, leaving Sirius alone.

As Remus slept through the entirety of dinner, Peter packed him up a box of food in case he was hungry later and the lot of them returned to Gryffindor tower for the evening.

Eventually, Remus blinked awake as the five of them sat on the couches around the fire. Sirius blamed it on the noise of the younger students who were studying at various tables or else playing Wizard Chess or Exploding Snap. 

Remus's immediate reaction to being awoken was to curl further into Sirius's side. Sirius held Remus tighter to his chest and pressed a soft kiss to his forehead. The warmness of his forehead gave away the slight fever the boy had.

Remus wiggled his way out of Sirius's hold and sat on his lap, facing the others, rubbing his eyes tiredly. He grinned at the way his sweater sleeves went past his hands and he bunched them up, grabbing the ends and curling them up so his hands were covered.

"Hey, look, I've got sweater paws!" He said, giggling. That statement caused the rest of them to start laughing, too, and soon their sides hurt from the laughter. 

Peter offered Remus the box of food he'd gathered and Remus happily scarfed it all down. 

Sirius, James, Lily, and Peter got distracted, having a conversation about that year's Defense Against the Dark Arts professor and the homework he'd assigned them earlier that week. It was awhile later that Sirius turned his head to see that Remus was gnawing on the arm of the chair.

"Hey, stop," he said, waving his hand by Remus's face in a shooing gesture and the boy scowled and removed his teeth.

Sirius noticed that without the furniture in his mouth, he was grinding his teeth, which was both not good for his teeth, and extremely annoying to listen to. And despite sleeping all day, he was still tired.

Sirius stood and hoisted Remus up onto his hip, where he laid his head down to rest on Sirius's shoulder. The others all looked at him.

"I'm taking Remus up to the dorm," he said, then, "Ow! What're you doing?"

Remus had tried to bite his shoulder.

Remus whimpered in pain, burying his face in Sirius's neck instead, bringing his hand up to his mouth and biting down on that instead.

Sirius frowned in sympathy and rocked Remus around. "Teeth hurt, Moons?"

Remus nodded into Sirius's neck, biting down harder on his fist.

Sirius sighed and turned for the stairs. 

It was a few minutes later when the other four heard a loud thump coming from the boys' dormitories. They quickly stood and ran for the stairs.

When they opened the door, Sirius stood there, holding Remus by the feet and trying to pull him away from where he had his jaw clamped on the leg of one of the wooden desk chairs. Remus was not touching the floor. 

The sound they'd heard was the chair thumping and dragging along the floor as Sirius tried to pull Remus off of it by his feet.

Lily ran forward, "Sirius!" She slid to the floor next to Remus and demanded Sirius set him down.

"Remus, baby, why are you trying to eat the desk chair?"

Remus couldn't answer as his teeth were deeply embedded in the wood.

"You're stuck, aren't you?" Lily asked.

"Mhm," he mumbled.

So Lily gently got to work with trying to pry Remus's teeth from the chair leg. Meanwhile, James magicked a chunk of ice that he wrapped a cloth around in preparation. 

Remus was crying softly by the time Lily got his jaw unhooked and teeth out of the wood. He sat on her lap and James handed Lily the ice and she held it to Remus's mouth and he bit into that cautiously.

After that whole incident, Lily left for the night and again, Remus crawled into his own bed and curled into a ball. He fell asleep relatively quickly, chewing on the corner of his blanket. 

It was hours later, the almost full moon shining brightly through the dorm's window, when little hands shook Sirius awake.

He groaned groggily and blinked awake. It took his eyes several seconds to adjust to the darkness of the room and the little face in front of him. Remus had tears streaming down his face, little whimpers and gasps the only sounds in the dorm.

Sirius sat up and beckoned Remus closer. Remus crawled up into Sirius bed and laid down next to him as Sirius wrapped him up in a hug, eyes closing again.

"Nightmares?" Sirius whispered in the dark.

"Uh huh," Remus answered, tearful.

"You've nothing to be afraid of, love," Sirius assured, voice heavy with sleep. "Not as long as I'm here."

Remus was quiet a minute as he shifted around, getting comfortable in Sirius's arms.

"I know," he said finally. "You're the bestest friend. Goodnight, Siwius."

"Goodnight, Remus," Sirius said, finally able to fall asleep in peace now that Remus was back in his arms.