At Sirius's unhesitating answer, something in Remus's chest relaxed; he lowered his hand, then let out a long breath that he had not been aware of holding. Yes, that was precisely what he had said back then, when they were all new students at Hogwarts: the Squid's name is Cuddles, for threefold reasons. The mathematical reason, the zoological reason, and the emotional reason - he'd explained each at length. None of it had made much sense then, and it didn't make any more sense now. But that wasn't the point: the point was that no Death Eater would know about that long-ago interaction between four eleven-year-old boys.

Well, now he was satisfied that Sirius was neither suffering from a brain injury nor acting under the influence of the Imperius Curse. He was intact and unharmed - well, unless you counted the fact that he was here, in a Death Eater's dungeon, in the process of being tortured for information.

"You haven't checked whether I am who you think I am," he pointed out, ignoring Sirius's suggestive comments about his companion for the moment. "Go on, ask me a personal question."

Not that he was about to wait for Sirius to be certain of his identity before invading his personal space. Kneeling down on the cold stone floor before his friend, he reached out to grab hold of one manacled wrist.

"Let me feel your pulse," he said. "What hurts the most right now?"