"We were barely speaking by then." When Remus had thought about this moment -- and he had thought about it more times than he dared count, -- when he could see Sirius face to face and tell him how he felt, what his actions had done to all of them...when he could ask him why!...he had thought he would feel more anger. He had thought it would be a repeat of that moment when he found out what Sirius had done to Snape, how he had nearly made Remus into a murderer on a lark. He had sometimes thought he would feel triumphant, getting to put the great Sirius Black in his place and letting him know how far he had fallen.
But, now? Now, when he was seeing Sirius nearly fall apart, could use all of his senses in the way he'd always thought he should have been able to before, when he could have sussed out betrayal, all Remus felt was the great weight of sadness that he'd ignored for so long.
"I thought I knew that, Sirius. Despite it all, you were the last one I would ever have suspected. I think there's part of me that will never truly believe it, no matter how many years pass. But..." Running a hand through his hair, Remus slouched back against the boulder that had been his earlier hiding place. "All the evidence points that way. You were their secret keeper. Voldemort found them within days of the spell being cast. Peter...well, you have to know that he and I would go after you as soon as he heard. Peter, he found you first. The reports...they all say you were laughing maniacally before blowing up the street. A dozen muggles dead. Peter...all that was left was a finger. They locked you up straight after. There is one thing, though..."
It was one piece of the story Remus had never been able to reconcile with the rest, the one that prodded at him in the dark of night. "Dumbledore whisked the baby away before any of the rest of us knew what to think. Hid him away. But, I was able to get Hagrid talking before I left the country. He'd been first one there, followed by you. Said you'd gone half-raving mad, gave him your bike to take the baby away after he refused to let you have it on Dumbledore's orders. Then you went running off half-cocked without another word. The baby was the real target. So, why leave it with Hagrid, when you could have easily taken both of them? It doesn't fit with the betrayal, but then, as the secret keeper, who else could it have been?"
The question had nagged at Remus since the night in the pub with Hagrid. The two stories didn't fit, but no one else seemed bothered by the incongruity and no one was letting Remus anywhere near where he could figure it out himself.