A/N: This is my absolute first attempt at HP fan fiction. Hopefully it's alright! Should also point out that this was based on a head-cannon post on Tumblr and (technically) still coincides with the books.

Sally Capper sat in a secluded spot near the Black Lake; her book resting on her legs and open to a page that had little to do with her Transfiguration homework. No matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't find anything on the specific methods of Human Transfiguration. She had even been so desperate as to try to use a summoning charm for the information and all that had happened was that the book flew up and hit her in the face. She had caught onto the fact she had broken her nose before it started to bleed and fixed it to the best of her abilities, but it was probably going to be swollen for a while.

She flipped through the book with a lazy flick of her wand, scanning each page hopelessly. Why would McGonagall assign such a ludicrous assignment that one wouldn't be able to find the right information to? Sally was beginning to get frustrated. She didn't want to admit it, but she needed help.

"Oi! Snivellius!"

Not again. Sally looked up from her book, frowning. James Potter and his friends were tormenting Lily's friend…yet again. James and Sirius were pointing their wands at an air-suspended Severus with an eager short boy bobbing between the two. Sally couldn't ever remember his name, simply because it wasn't worth remembering. He hardly ever talked to someone who wasn't in that group. And then there was Remus, on the outskirts of the throng of people watching the boy be tormented.

Then, it hit her.

"Remus!" Sally called, chewing on her bottom lip while she waited. When he didn't reply, she shoved her book off her lap, stood up and went forward about a foot, and called for Remus again. This time, he looked up from his book, and over to Sally. She motioned for him to come closer to her and went back over to where she left her book, picked it up and closed it over her finger as to not lose her place.

"Hi Sally, what do…" said Remus as he approached her, trailing off when he got near enough that they didn't have to yell over the ruckus behind them. "Sally, what happened to you?" he asked in a seemingly concerned, albeit confused voice.

"What're you on about?"

"Your face," he pointed out, "It's covered in blood. Are you okay?" His eyes flicked from Sally's gaze to the lower half of her face, which was coated in a thin layer of half dried blood.

"Oh," she mumbled, color creeping onto her pale face. "I…had a bit of a run-in with a summoning spell," she explained. Her voice had now become quiet and airy and laced with her embarrassment. "I'll just take care of that." She reached into her robes, emblazoned with a badger, and drew her wand. She pointed it at her own face. Remus, however, had his wand out and gave her a small smile.

"I'll do that for you," he told her. "No need to hurt yourself any more than you already have." Sally nodded, dropping her wand arm to her side before putting her wand away. She was embarrassed; he more than likely thought she was completely incompetent, helpless, even, like that other boy he knew. He mumbled a few words, waving his wand ever so slightly as he did. After a couple waves, he nodded and pocketed his wand.

"There you go. Much better." He cleared his throat, looking over his shoulder to where he had came from (Severus was currently on the ground, looking up at a smirking James and a laughing Sirius) and then back to her.

"Why don't you ever do anything about them?" Sally questioned, standing up on her toes to get a better look of what was going on. Transfiguration homework left her mind as she got a full view of why there was so much noise in what used to be a secluded area of the grounds.

"They're good at heart, really," he told her, looking back over, "They just…have an interesting sense of humor."

"But you're a prefect, Remus! You know full well you'd never let anyone else do this," Sally pointed out, "Why do they get leniency? It hardly seems fair." He smiled, shaking his head at her.

"Spoken like a true Hufflepuff," he chuckled, shaking his head once again. "They wouldn't take me seriously, even if I tried." Sally made a face at Remus, who simply shrugged. She shook her head at him, shoving her Transfiguration book into his arms.

"Do you want me to help you with McGona—" he started but she held up a hand and he fell silent.

"If you won't do something, I will," huffed Sally. "It's not fair they just torment that boy." With that, Sally strode passed him and towards the crowd of people only to find someone else had stood up to James.

"Why don't you just leave him alone?" shouted a red head, standing between Sirius, James, and Severus.

"Alright…we'll leave Snivelly alone, Evans…If you'll go out with me," affirmed James, getting a rather smug look on his face. Lily rolled her eyes and scoffed.

"In your dreams," she told him, "Now just leave Severus, and me, for that matter, alone."

"Aww, Evans," crooned James, "Don't you know that Snivellius wouldn't be half the boyfriend I would be?"

"She said leave the both of them alone," snapped Sally as she placed herself next to her friend, "If only your capacity to understand English was half as big as your ego."

In all honesty, Sally didn't care very much for Severus. He was rather rude to her when Lily wasn't around and relished in making her feel dumb. Still, it bothered her that Prefects (especially Remus) never did a single thing to help him. Except the Slytherin Prefects and that was only because James and his friends were Gryffindors. No one deserved the kind of torment they were subjecting him to and Sally wasn't going to sit there idly and let them get away with it.

"Who're you again?" James asked Sally, eying her curiously. When he saw her full outfit, he nodded knowingly and smirked. "Then again, no one really cares, do they? You're just a Hufflepuff."

"And a less than bright one at that!" interjected the other boy who's name Sally couldn't remember. "Always asks Remus for tutoring!"

"Oh, so you're the girl?" sniggered Sirius, eying Sally now as well. "Remind me to tell Moony that he can do better than this." She shifted uncomfortably on her feet, glancing over at Lily, who gave her a reassuring smile.

"Just walk away," Lily said, "This is over."

"Says who?" questioned Sirius.

"Says me," a new voice said. All of the students turned to face the source of the voice to see a severe looking Professor McGonagall; her mouth was the thinnest Sally had ever seen. "Would someone like to tell me what's going on here?" she pressed. Her gaze flicked between the three boys and the two girls and then to random students in the rapidly thinning crowd.

"Nothing, Professor," Lily said, smiling at her, "Sally and I were just having a little chat with Sirius and James. Nothing more." Sally nodded in agreement, giving her a smile as well.

"Well, you'd better make sure that's all it is," Professor McGonagall warned. "I'd hate to have to take points away from my own house."

"Don't worry, Professor, we'll just be leaving now," James informed, giving Lily a wink before walking off walking off with Sirius, the other boy tailing behind them. The other boy, however, stopped and looked around.

"Where's Remus?" he asked.

"Don't worry about it, Peter! Just come on!" Sirius called to him. He nodded, gave a look to Lily and Sally and scurried off. Sally looked around while McGonagall was going on about the importance of the House Cup to Gryffindor (which made no sense as the remaining three were more non-Gryffindors than Gryffindors) and saw that Remus was nowhere to be seen. Her book was sitting on top of her bag a short distance away from her, but there was no Remus Lupin anywhere.

"We promise we won't be any trouble, Professor," Lily said. "Right, Sev?" Severus nodded.

"Very well," McGonagall said shortly. "Move along, then." Lily pulled Severus away, giving Sally a smile and a mouthed "Thank you" as they went. Sally gave the professor a smile and went back over to her stuff. Tucked into the cover of her book was a bit of parchment. On it, in thin, slanted writing was a couple sentences:

I'm still working on McGonagall's homework as well. Find me there after lunch and I'll help with that composition.

-Remus