When and If (01)

by lone astronomer

Part one in a very long series, this is obviously the beginning. The past changes the future when something unexpected happens in the time James Potter was at school...

When and If

includes

Chapter I: Encounters

Chapter II: Hogwarts

Chapter III: Snapes and Potions

Chapter IV: Quidditch

Chapter V: Snape Wars

Chapter VI: Everything and More

Chapter VII: Friday

Chapter VIII: Fluff, Flour, and Quidditch

Chapter IX: Confessions

Chapter X: Of Kings and Nobles

Chapter XI: Who Spiked the Punch?

Chapter XII: Musings

Chapter XIII: Snape's Discovery

Chapter XIV: The Marauders

Chapter XV: Something Fishy

Chapter XVI: Recovery

Chapter XVII: Dear Recipient

Chapter XVIII: Merry Christmas

Chapter XIX: Solving the Code

Chapter XX: Red Rosid Gnitae

Chapter XXI: Breaking the Silence

Chapter XXII: Suit of Armor, Suit of Underwear?

Chapter XXIII: The Nights Before and the Days After

Chapter XXIV: Curses: Foiled Again

Chapter XXV: Going Home

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, and I didn't invent them (except, I 'invented' Allya J. Nightrunner, apparently I don't own her though). They belong to J.K. Rowling and her publishing company. I don't own the places mentioned either, and the only thing that's truly original (to my knowledge) is the introduction of "my" character.

CHAPTER ONE: ENCOUNTERS

The Hogwarts Express was rather full that year, and so it came as no real surprise to the four boys when there came a knock at the door. James, being the de facto leader of their little circle, called, "Door's open!" and so the girl came into being.

She was short and thin, but with a glint in her bright eyes that alluded she was up to no good. Blonde hair fell halfway down her back, and she was carrying in one arm a trunk that looked rather heavy. Without wasting any more time, she asked, "Is there room for one more in here? Everywhere else is full."

A boy with rather untidy brown hair moved his feet down from a seat and winked at her. "You can sit with us any time, Sweet Cheeks."

James groaned, knowing that Sirius was the way he was, and that the girl a) wouldn't hang around them for long enough once they reached Hogwarts to actually understand the Marauders, or b) would fawn over Sirius until he wanted to be sick. "Please excuse my friend Sirius for his lack of manners. It's a well-known fact that he did, actually, grow up with his mind in the gutter-"

James' speech ended when Sirius whapped him on the back of the head with the newspaper he'd been "reading." (Really, he'd been trying to figure out how to make those paper pirate hats.)

James, rubbing his head with his left hand, extended his right for her to shake. "James Potter. The goon with the newspaper is my friend, Sirius Black. The quiet ones over there are Remus Lupin-" he gave her a nod, blushing all the while- "-and Peter Pettigrew, but we all call him Wormy."

The girl smiled, letting her face light up, and shook James' hand vigorously. "Allya Nightrunner. I grew up in Canada and only returned to Britain this year, so I might be a little hard to understand."

"Really? What year are you in?"

"Er," said Allya, looking for all the world like she was having a hard time remembering. "I was going into ninth grade- the letter said fifth year?"

"Hey, us too!" said the one called Remus, speaking up for the first time. "Did they tell you what house you'll be in?"

Allya nodded. "Yeah, Gryffindor. I hope I don't lose them too many points."

James smiled dryly to himself (having lost an entire truckload of points) and motioned for her to take a seat. "How would you do that?"

"I've been known to... pull the odd prank from time to time..." She didn't look a bit abashed.

Sirius laughed. "My kind of woman!"

She smiled, finally sitting down. "A prankster called Sirius. Whose idea of a cruel joke was that?"

The door to the compartment opened once again, and this time three boys walked in, two flanking the one in the center. "Well, well, well, if it isn't Potter and his cluster of mixed nuts. I'm surprised to see you still alive after last year, Potter. Did you meet any nice Muggles?" The tall, thin, greasy-haired figure in the doorway turned to acknowledge Allya for the first time. "And who's this? Does Black have yet another girlfriend? He loses them faster than a sieve loses water."

Lupin, in the back, stood up. "At least he's had one, which is more than anyone can say for you, Slimeball..."

Allya stood up, too, as Severus Snape turned to address her. "What is a nice girl like you doing with these goons?"

A self-satisfied half-smile appeared on her face for the briefest of seconds. "Good question. I'll just get my things, if you'll show me to your compartment..." She shouldered her rucksack and followed him out. As she left, she winked conspicuously at Remus, who blushed, and waved a jolly farewell to Sirius, who couldn't believe she was actually going.

"Disgraceful," he muttered, sure he was not going to get along with Allya very well.

James, who was wondering about this new addition to the Gryffindor tower, just sat back to watch the drama unfold.

The car the Slytherins were in was just one over, and because Allya had been so considerate as to leave the door open, James, Sirius, Remus and Peter had a great view of just how good Allya was at lying.

She chatted up Snape, which was definitely not an easy thing to do for a Gryffindor. Of course, she'd told him she was a pureblood Slytherin. As Sirius watched in wonder, she coated her left fingertip with something from that tube she'd brought along. Whatever it was, it was green.

In her right hand, she took her wand, thirteen inches of redwood and phoenix tailfeather, and pointed it at the floor. A small "zap" later, and the train lurched, just enough for her still-standing form to falter a bit. Allya fell forward, reaching with her left hand--

And managed to get some of the goo, which was by now transparent, onto Snape's head.

"Ohmygosh! I'm so sorry, Severus," she said, making her bright eyes sorrowful and batting her eyelashes.

Severus Snape didn't seem to notice that he had goo on his head- by now it had soaked in- and just said, "Never mind, just sit down..."

Allya, looking relieved, said, "Thanks, I think I will," and hightailed it back to the car that James, Remus, Sirius, Peter, and now another girl were sharing. She closed the door behind her, then took out her wand and pointed once more- and suddenly, one could see through it to where the Slytherins were.

"Nice, Ally, real smooth," Sirius said, reaching out a hand for her to shake. Allya, of course, noticed the hand-buzzer he was holding before she took his hand, and just gave him a look until he turned his eyes away, obviously guilty.

"Thank you," she said. "When I heard they don't have Esipret's Goo in Britain, I decided to take along a whole case, for demonstrations and the like..."

James, Sirius, and Remus were suddenly quite interested. "What exactly does it do?" Sirius asked, now examining the Esipret's Goo tube with wonder.

Allya smiled again, answering, "Pretty much anything. It all depends on the nature of the user, that's why I had to hold it on my finger for so long. It was absorbing what I wanted it to do..."

"So what did you do to Snape?" the other girl asked.

James slapped himself on the head. "Me! I've forgotten my manners again! Allya, this is Lily, Lily, Allya."

The two girls shook hands. "My friends call me Ally," she said, looking meaningfully at all of them. "Hopefully you'll all consider me your friend?"

Sirius just laughed, watching Snape. "After what you just did to Slimy?" Severus Snape was in the other compartment, doing a very goofy-looking jig with snot dripping from his nose. He wasn't sure he wanted to know how, but there was a large slit up the side of his robe. "How long does that stuff last, anyway?"

* * *

CHAPTER TWO: HOGWARTS

* * *

All was not quiet on the Hogwarts Express.

In two cars near the back, particularly, it was actually quite noisy. In one, the new student, Allya J Nightrunner, was being filled in on the rules and regulations of Hogwarts (and how best to break them) by two of her new friends, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin, while James flirted shamelessly with Lily. Actually, James and Lily were discussing how to use a peculiar Muggle invention- the telephone- or, as James was calling it, the "fellytone." James had decided (with the encouragement of Lily) to take the Muggle Studies 101 course offered this year for the first time ever.

In the other noisy car near the back, Severus Snape was amusing his Slytherin allies with his strange song-and-dance routine, still under the two-hour spell of the Esipret's goo that Allya had put on him an hour ago.

"Did you know," Allya said, not tired of the rule-breaking conversation quite yet but ready to talk to Lily instead of Sirius and Remus, "That I have always wanted red hair? I think it would go so much better with my personality, don't you?"

Lily just laughed. "But wait until the temper comes along... from what I hear, when Snape came in here and asked you what you were doing with these- what was the word? goons?- I probably would have slapped him."

"And then," Sirius said mournfully, "we'd never have gotten to see the wonderful display Snape's putting on- and wouldn't that be a tragedy!" Sirius broke into very unconvincing sobs, and Remus patted his back reassuringly.

"There, there, Sirius, it'll be all right," he said, holding back 'tears' of his own.

"We've got a new prankster friend, that's all that matters. Maybe she'll even teach us the vanishing door trick!"

Allya smiled. "Oh, that one! It's quite simple, but I can't teach it- just take out your Esipret's books-" She stopped at the blank looks she was getting from her new friends. "Don't tell me you don't know of the best non-Muggle American inventor there ever was!" And she pulled an inch-thick book from her backpack. "Here," she said, handing it to Sirius. "I want this back by the end of the week, mind. As for right now... are we getting rather close to Hogwarts?"

James nodded. "It's coming up any time now... you girls had better get changed." The boys were already dressed in their Hogwarts robes, and had been ever since they'd gotten onto the train.

"James, just because you want to see Lily in her undergarments doesn't make it appropriate-" And Sirius was promptly hit over the head with that same rolled-up newspaper from chapter one.

Allya spent these trivial moments thinking her spell over again, then pointed her wand at herself and muttered a few words. In less than an eye-blink, her long blue robes were black, and the silver and gold trim was gone. Instead, she was dressed in simple black Hogwarts robes, her blue cloak and robes were folded in her trunk, and a different, black cloak was folded on the seat beside her, also with the silver and gold piping along the sleeves, neck and bottom hem. Another flick of the wand and some more muttered words, and her hair was piled up on her head. It took a moment for her to notice that the other five occupants of the car were staring.

"Where did you learn that?" Peter asked in awe.

"What do you mean, where?" Allya asked in return, confused. "That's the first thing we learned at my old school- good old Esipret!" She pointed to a section of the book Sirius was leafing through. "Right there, see? Page thirteen. Easy."

And it was. A few moments later, just after Lily had finished the simple charm, the train stopped at Hogwarts, and the six Gryffindors in car eighteen filed out.

"Wow," Allya muttered under her breath. "That's pretty impressive- we just take a carriage all the way up to the front doors? Then what?"

"We eat," Sirius said, patting his stomach. "Such a shame, isn't it? The first day, totally wasted... just eating!"

"Darn," Remus agreed, obviously being sarcastic. "And I was so hoping to get an early start on Potions this year..."

James, Sirius, and Lily began laughing. Allya said, "I don't see what's so funny. I really, really hate Potions... it's my worst subject by far- unless you count Herbology." She winced. "My last Potions professor hated me more than the Minister of Magic hates Voldemort, I'm sure..." They were staring again. "What?"

Remus said, "One: it's likely that you'll keep hating Potions. The teacher is none other than the head of Slytherin house, and Severus Snape's father. Two: you said his name! Nobody says his name... Well, nobody except James' family and the Headmaster, Professor Dumbledore."

"Not here, too!" Allya cried, obviously dismayed. "Fear of a name increases fear of the person himself. I read that somewhere once. Everybody say 'Voldemort!'"

Reluctantly (but for James, who was dumbstruck), everyone but Peter repeated the girl's words, hopped into a carriage, and arrived in the Great Hall of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

The Great Hall was a buzzing hive of adventure and excitement waiting to happen, Allya decided immediately, and the enchanted ceiling was just one indication of that. The headmaster, Dumbledore, was another- he seemed quite insane and his pleasure at starting another year at Hogwarts tended to rub off on most people. Ally spotted Professor Snape right away without any trouble, for his son was exactly like him in every visible way. Tall, thin, greasy hair- that was the Potions master, all right, there was no doubt about it.

After singing the Hogwarts School Song (which Dumbledore seemed enthusiastic about and the other professors seemed to despise, especially Snape) and filling her stomach with as much of the wonderful food as she possibly could, Allya was escorted to the Gryffindor tower by her cadre of new friends, who told her that this year's first password (for getting past the Fat Lady) was 'Hippogriffs and Gryffindors.' Apparently it had been chosen in honor of an innocent student that had been expelled a few years earlier.

Ally took a few minutes to get changed "the Muggle way," and reappeared in the common room a few minutes later, wearing jeans and a T-shirt. She flopped down on the couch as soon as she got there, attracting strange looks from Remus and Sirius.

"Ready to go on our first pranking run, Al?" Sirius asked.

"Already?" she asked back, yawning. "Yeah, I guess. Just let me get my robes... What?" Sirius and Remus were both looking at her incredulously, jaws somewhere about their knees.

"You mean it?" Remus asked, eyes glowing. "I mean, you're the first girl who's ever risked getting expelled on the first day back to school with us, and..."

"And we were only joking, anyway," Sirius finished. "Even we're not that crazy. I mean, not with Snape after us, looking for a way to get us expelled, every moment of every day... what did he say about you not being in Slytherin, by the way?"

Allya allowed herself a small smile. "Didn't remember a thing. Nice after-effect of the Esipret's Goo. He only knows that I'm a pureblood Gryffindor, so naturally he hates me. Gave me a nasty scowl as he walked by the table this evening. That's all."

"Wanna go steal his trunk?" James asked.

"And leave a note telling him to wash his hair and he'll get it back? Absolutely!"

CHAPTER THREE: SNAPES AND POTIONS

The first prank of the year- stealing Snape's trunk- didn't work, of course, as none of the four Gryffindor delinquents knew the Slytherin password. However, it also didn't fail, as they weren't caught, got no points deducted, and spotted Snape flirting with a fellow Slytherin (a sixth year named Wendelin Bulstrode) in the hallway. This was sure to result in large amounts of teasing from James and Sirius- well, more than what was normal, as they made fun of him a fair amount already.

However, on the way back to the Gryffindor common room, a cat was spotted rather too close for comfort, and Filch came running- it was all the four could do to get back to the common room before he caught them. Allya got there first- "Hippogriffs and Gryffindors," she whispered frantically- and she and her partners in crime slipped into the room, panting.

Lily was there, writing in her diary, and looked up when the four of them dropped into the armchairs by the fire. "James!" she said. "You haven't gotten her into trouble already, have you?"

James grinned. "Me? You know me, Lily, I wouldn't dream of it!"

Lily shook her head and looked over to Allya. "Don't believe a word of what he says. He's a compulsive liar."

"Oh, I don't know about that, Lily," Sirius argued. "Why, just this morning, he was ranting and raving about-" A pillow launched itself from James' wand and ended up in Sirius' face. "Point taken!" Sirius laughed. "Your secret is safe with me, Mr. Potter!"

James glowered at Sirius for a moment, then grinned. "It better be, because I have one about you that's just as bad..."

Sirius suddenly looked extremely pale. "You wouldn't!"

"Oh, but I would."

"Spoilsport," Sirius said, but he looked defeated.

"What are they talking about?" Allya asked Lily. Lily said she didn't know, but Allya thought she had some idea. "G'night boys," she said, stopping to give them all a hug good-night.

Most of them noticed how Remus seemed to hold on a bit longer, but Allya missed it completely. "That's for treating me to a wonderful and action-packed first day. Let's all hope that tomorrow is every bit as much fun, shall we? Good night, Lily," and Lily got a hug, too, before the blonde went up to the girls' dormitory and fell into a deep sleep.

As a matter of fact, Allya J woke up very late the next morning, a result of still having jet-lag. She made it to breakfast just in time to eat a few bites and get her schedule. As it was Friday, they had double potions with the Slytherins first thing.

"Ugh," she said, glancing at the schedule. "That's just wrong, starting out a day like that."

"Tell me about it," Lily replied. "Even the best and brightest of the Gryffindors do poorly in Potions, although that's not really a surprise considering that Snape teaches it."

James laughed. "Lily, being the 'best and brightest' of all of us, could outbrew Snape any day, but seeing as he's the teacher..." James' voice trailed off.

This provoked a halfhearted slap from Lily. "James is being modest," she explained to Allya. "Really, he did better than I did in almost every class last year-" And so the mindless banter continued until they were nearly late for Potions.

Potions started out badly, and quickly got worse. Professor Snape was even crueler than Allya could have imagined, correcting her for using the North American term for abilis instead of the British term, "And five points from Gryffindor for that look, Miss Nightrunner!"

Allya didn't miss the snickers coming from the Slytherin end of the room, particularly from Stink Junior and his pack of goons, and swore revenge for after lunch.

Lunch, however, was not a disaster, and as Ally was finding out, the food at Hogwarts was excellent. Transfiguration, her favorite class, was next, and it wasn't taught by a grouchy Head-of-Slytherin-house professor. Instead, they had a new teacher, Professor McGonagall. They all wondered what she would be like. They had heard at breakfast that she was the head of Gryffindor house, and hoped that she favored them the way that Snape favored the Slytherins.

They were, in fact, quite disappointed. (No favorites here, although she did deduct two points from Hufflepuff when two students showed up late.)

Professor McGonagall was a slightly stern-looking woman with a smile that didn't come too terribly often, squarish glasses, and a mop of dark hair that was pulled back into a severe bun. She began her class by making an impression: turning into a cat and back again, to loud applause. "This semester," McGonagall began, "We are going to be studying Animagi. Heaven knows you were supposed to take this back in third year, but it was skipped over-" McGonagall looked ready to spit nails- "because your teacher at the time couldn't handle the topic. I don't blame him, of course," she said, composing herself. "There are only two ways to become an Animagus, naturally and unnaturally. Both are extremely dangerous, especially the unnatural way. And both require a license for legal operation from the Ministry of Magic. Any questions so far?"

Allya raised her hand, and McGonagall called on her. " Professor? If you don't mind, what's the difference between a natural and an unnatural Animagus?"

McGonagall looked pleased at the question. "Excellent question." She continued, "The difference is one of chemical composition. Only rare bloodtypes support Animagi naturally. To become a natural Animagus, it merely has to be in the bloodline of a witch or wizard. However, this is extremely uncommon, and only about twelve wizards and witches in the entire history of magic have accomplished it. Unnaturally- well, let's just say it requires a lot of potion brewing, a lot of charms work, and a lot of Transfiguration."

Transfiguration flew by, and then there was a half-hour break before Herbology, out at Greenhouse Six. Allya got out her notebook for a moment between class, and Remus, who was looking over her shoulder, saw her write, 'Talk to McGonagall about license.' She closed the book before he could ask her about it, and, not wanting her to know he'd been spying, he remained silent.

"So," she asked him, "which way is Greenhouse Six?"

Remus pointed dramatically with one finger, putting on an Olde English air, and said, "Over yonder."

Allya gave him a strange look, one she normally reserved for such abnormalities as escapees from mental institutes and people who actually wanted to visit Azkaban (which were generally acknowledged as escapees from mental institutes). But then she smiled, and said back in a poor imitation of the same accent, "Well then, good sir, perhaps you would care to escort me?"

They were interrupted momentarily by laughter from behind, where James and Sirius were rolling on the lawn, pounding the earth with their fists. "What's so funny?" Allya asked.

"First," James said, regaining his ability to speak, "it was you two and your Old Courtier routine that caught our attention." He grinned. "But then, we saw Stink Junior over there, with his two goons, and--" another fit of laughter swallowed James' last words, and as Allya turned to see Snape walking away, she noticed the toilet paper trailing from his boot.

"Really, boys," she said, unable to keep the smile from her face, "you need to get a hobby. Good thing Quidditch tryouts are tomorrow."

CHAPTER FOUR: QUIDDITCH

That night, the common room was a hubbub of activity. Four students possessing broomsticks occupied the three armchairs by the fireplace. Three of these were male; James, Captain and Seeker of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, was clipping the misaligned twigs in the tail of his Shooting Star; Sirius, who had started on the team as a Beater the previous year, was assuring himself that Snape hadn't cursed his broom. Remus was reviewing the Quidditch rules, a book in his lap and the broom propped up beside him. If James thought he was good enough- and he *had* been practicing- he would replace the Beater they'd lost that year, Alexis Bramble. He hoped that no Quidditch matches would come on the day of a full moon, but one could never be sure, and James had told him that if he did get the spot, he'd be sure to find someone as a backup player, just in case.

Allya J was the final figurine silhouetted in the firelight, and she didn't seem the slightest bit nervous about tryouts tomorrow. Her role of choice was Chaser, and there was a position open for her this year. She was also more nervous about getting on the team than not making it, which may have seemed unusual, so she didn't tell anyone. Her broomstick- a vintage Silver Arrow, painted the color red for Gryffindor- was propped up beside Remus', and she was sitting on the arm of his chair, reading over his shoulder and making sure she understood the British rules correctly.

"You mean, you can't get kicked out of the game permanently?" she asked, finally breaking the silence. "Even if you knock someone off their broom?"

"No," James answered. "That's a silly idea. We'd be short players in minutes if they let a silly rule like that be passed. Why? Did you play with rules like that in Canada?"

"Actually, yes," Allya said, and went back to reading over Remus' shoulder. "And do you bring your wands when you play, in case someone tries to curse you into falling off of your broom?"

"Uh, no," Remus stuttered, somewhat disconcerted that she was sitting so close. "Don't tell me you played it like that in North America, too?"

Ally laughed. "Well, I started carrying my wand in the third year, when my arch rival, Selinas, tried the leg-locker curse on me while I was flying... Imagine if I had been male, I think that would have been rather uncomfortable!" This brought a few smiles from her company, then she decided to join Lily in peaceful slumber. "I'm going to bed. Big day tomorrow. Good luck on your tryout, Remus." Remus barely acknowledged her, quite absorbed in his reading.

"Good night, Sirius."

"G'night, A.J."

"See you in the morning, James."

"Sleep well, Ally."

"Pleasant dreams, Remus."

No response.

"Remus?" she said again, bending over him. She lifted the book of Quidditch rules from his lap, and he fell forwards with a jerk. Steadying him with one hand, Allya pushed him back in the chair. "Well, I didn't mean right away, but that works just as well. You two will bring him back to the dormitory so he doesn't ruin his back sleeping like that, right?" She got two nods in response. "In that case, I'll just be going now." She brushed Remus' rather scruffy brown hair out of the way and kissed his forehead. "Not a word of that to him when he wakes up, either." And she was gone.

"Some woman," Sirius commented.

"You're telling me."

In the girls' dormitory, Lily was curled up in a chair with her diary. Allya needed neither X-ray vision nor a Diviner's powers to know that she was writing about James. She'd noticed Lily staring at him out of the corners of her eyes for the past two days, and was quite unsurprised.

"James was complaining that you left without giving him a goodnight kiss," she said, doing her best to keep a serious face.

Lily was so startled that she dropped her diary. "He- what?!"

Allya put on her 'I-didn't-say-anything' face, and said as much.

Lily frowned. "I may not be the sharpest crayon in the pencil box, Allya, but even I can tell when someone says something or not."

"Especially if that someone mentions a certain tall, messy-haired, brown-eyed Gryffindor Seeker?"

Lily sighed, not bothering to pick up her book, and flopped onto the bed beside Allya. Luckily, the rest of the dormitory was empty- Miore had gone off to the library to study, taking her sidekick, the mouselike Adrienne Grimsby, with her. The other Gryffindor fifth year girl was in the hospital wing, getting treated for the bite of a Venus flytrap. "Is it that obvious?"

"Only to me," Allya answered, preoccupied. "And I won't tell anyone. But I can't promise that I won't try to set you up."

"As long as you don't tell Sirius," Lily said, feeling better, "or James. If Sirius found out, you know we'd never hear the end of it."

"That's true," Allya said, "but no one ever said that I was going to go easy on you."

Breakfast the next morning didn't start until nine, as it was Saturday and everyone needed their rest before the Quidditch tryouts. Gryffindor had the field from one o'clock until three-thirty, which was fine with them and better with the Slytherins, who, of course, had the field first, from nine-thirty until twelve. None of the Gryffindors really cared, which infuriated the Slytherins, as they'd taken the early timeslot just to annoy James, who was, to Allya's great dismay, fond of early practices. (Thankfully, he had two best friends who were not quite so fond of them to try to talk him out of it.) Before Allya knew it, breakfast was over, and the Gryffindors headed back to their common room to find their marbles, which they'd lost.

Sirius thought in silence, for once, brow furrowed and arms crossed in front of the fireplace. It was a cold day, but not unbearably so, cloudy and windy, but not imperfect for Quidditch tryouts. In fact, the tryouts had little or nothing to do with his sour demeanor. Sirius' attitude was due mostly to James. 'That boy,' Sirius thought in wonder. 'He must think I'm a total dunderhead if he thinks I don't know the way he feels about her. Why hasn't he told me, though? It's not like I'd tease him-' But another part of Sirius' brain cut in. 'That bothersome conscience again! How'd you get in here?'

[I never left, Sirius, my friend. I just thought I'd point something out,] the troublesome creature said.

'Well, get on with it, then,' Sirius thought, tapping his foot impatiently and looking quite stupid. 'I haven't got all day!'

[I'm serious, Sirius-] (or maybe his conscience said 'Sirius, serious,' Sirius couldn't be sure) [How do you figure you wouldn't tease James?]

'Oh, shut up!' Sirius' mood lightened slightly, knowing that at least his conscience had a fine sense of humor, and went up to the boys' dormitory to change into his Quidditch robes, which wouldn't have fit from last year if they hadn't been enchanted to exactly fit the player they were assigned to.

Lunch, too, passed by uneventfully, and before James knew it, it was time for the year's Quidditch tryouts. He was glad that he wouldn't have to hold them again next year- there were no seventh years on the team to lose. As it happened, ten people showed up for tryouts, and four for practice. James the Seeker, Sirius the Beater, and two Chasers, Arika Thompson and Warren Moores, were what was left of the team from last year. It was unusual to lose three players in one year, but at Hogwarts, James was learning, anything was possible. Of the ten witches and wizards hoping to get a place as Keeper, Chaser, or Beater, James knew three: Sirius, Allya, and Cinda- a fourth year who had been trying to get his attention for as long as he could remember her at Hogwarts.

Precisely at one o'clock, James called, "Mount your broomsticks!" and Sirius let the Bludgers out of the box. He tossed the Quaffle up to James, who had left special instructions *not* to let the Snitch out for fear of losing it. James passed the Quaffle to Allya, who easily put it past Cinda, who was trying out for Keeper. Just then something buzzed by one of her ears- was Sirius trying to knock her off of the broom?- but another blur on a broom flew by and batted it straight back at him.

'That's Remus!' Ally thought, unable to hide a smile or a contain a cheer as Sirius and Remus batted the Bludgers back and forth between them.

Practice and tryouts continued, and eventually Allya, Remus, and a third year boy that James hadn't heard much from before- Andy something, he thought, were chosen for the Gryffindor team. The four of them (James, Sirius, Remus, and Allya) plus Lily, who had been 'watching,' traipsed back up to the Gryffindor tower in good spirits.

* * *

CHAPTER FIVE: SNAPE WARS

* * *

The end of September was approaching rapidly, and to tell the honest truth, Remus Lupin was beginning to get a little bit nervous. The full moon would be occurring on the 24th of the month, which meant that it would be the 22nd of October, the 19th of November, the 17th of December, and so on. Luckily they were all Saturdays this year- which meant (sniff sniff) missing one day of double-Potions each time there was a full moon. It also meant that his time for doing homework on the weekend was cut short once a month, but Remus had learned not to mind that too much.

With his friends' renewed efforts to become Animagi- and if he knew James and Sirius, they'd do it by the Easter break- and his spot on the Quidditch team, Remus finally felt like he fit in, something he'd not felt since before he'd been bitten. No, the reason Remus was feeling nervous at the waxing of the moon had to do with being a werewolf, surely- but it wasn't how he'd cover up this time. He knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Allya was smart enough to figure out what he was. He was nervous simply because he didn't know how she would react. Would she be disgusted, as he had figured that James and Sirius would be, when she found out? Or would she take it all in stride, as they had? No doubt she was already suspicious, wondering what that Boggart had turned into when it saw him a week ago (they'd been reviewing the past few years in Defense Against the Dark Arts).

Remus sighed. There were still five days until the moon would begin to take its effect. According to James' Quidditch schedule, none of the games would occur when he was in his hairier state. That was good; Dumbledore had been considerate to plan it that way. The first one would take place on the first of October at three. 'At any rate,' Remus thought, 'it would be a good idea if I got down to breakfast instead of laying here in bed all day.'

Sirius took this moment to hit him over the head with a pillow, saying, "Dammit, Moony, if you don't get up soon, we'll bring Allya in here and have her-- OW!" James had hit Sirius with a pillow, too. Apparently he'd been making Lily comments before Remus had started paying attention.

"I'm up," Remus murmured softly, rubbing sleep out of his eyes and heading for the shower. "Give me five minutes..."

Seven minutes later, the portrait hole swung closed behind the four friends as they made their way to the Great Hall for breakfast. Sirius took up a spot directly across from Lily, wondering what James would do. James pretended he didn't notice and sat beside Sirius. Remus took out a quill and marked in his daybook: James 1, Sirius 0. If things kept up, it'd be a long day.

"Wake up, Peter!"

The boy, who reminded Allya suspiciously of a rat, jerked his head back from his breakfast, oatmeal stuck to his nose. "Huh? Wha-?"

Allya shook her head. "Nothing."

As if the day needed to be ruined, Snape took this moment to walk by with his bodyguards. "Teaching Pettigrew how to make a facemask, Nightrunner? Perhaps you could make one for your buddy Adrienne, too. She could certainly use it."

Allya stood up purposefully, slipping out from under the four restraining arms with no difficulty whatsoever (it was easy when you were tiny), and lined her eyes up with the bottom of Snape's long chin. "If you think my size is going to stop me from breaking every bone in your body, you've got another thought coming."

Snape laughed in an oily manner- everything about him seemed coated in grease, as a matter of fact. "So you think that after two weeks of school at Hogwarts you're ready to face a fully trained Slytherin? I may only be a fifth year, but my father- you remember the Potions professor that has nearly failed you already?- has been teaching me since I was two. I can take anything you and your pack of-" Snape called the rest of the Gryffindor fifth years something that made even Sirius suck in a sharp breath- "-can throw at me. Bring it on."

Allya moved so quickly that not even Sirius, who had become good at predicting her reactions, had any idea what she was doing. She reached out and slapped Snape so hard, he fell back into his goons. "If you ever bother me, Remus, Lily, or another Gryffindor again, I'll make you sorry you were even born. I don't need magic. I don't need a wand, and I don't need the Esipret's Goo that is even now making you forget this conversation. I don't need any backup, but most of all, I don't need you anywhere near me for the next two hours. Got that?"

A large, purple welt appeared on Snape's cheek, and Allya sat back down again, shaking. The rest of the Gryffindor table looked at her in awe as Snape and his goons walked away, already forgetting the entire ordeal. Sirius spoke first. "Well put, Allya!" And the entire table began to applaud silently. Allya nodded to him and recapped the tube of Esipret's, sliding it into her robes.

Finally, she spoke. "Sirius, you'd better have an idea on how to get back at him, you just better, because I don't think I can stand that pathetic excuse for a human being for another day…"

Allya finished her breakfast in silence and returned to Gryffindor tower without saying another word.

Quidditch practice for the Gryffindors began each Saturday at ten o'clock. Allya's new Quidditch robes- red trimmed with gold- felt comfortable and somehow worn, ready for action on the field. Sirius, Remus, and James were already there when Allya arrived, carrying her broomstick at her side and walking with a confidence that betrayed the way she felt about her position. What if they find out…

She decided right then and there to ask James for the Quidditch schedule, just to make sure. After practice, of course, for her attentions were needed for self-improvement at the moment.

The Gryffindors practiced long and hard that Saturday, and when they finally began making their way back to the castle, it was quarter to twelve. Sweaty despite the miserable weather, they had time enough for another quick shower before lunch. Unfortunately, the two-hour effects of the Esipret's Goo had worn off on Snape, and he and his buddies were paying another visit to the Gryffindor table to torture them.

When Sirius noticed Snape coming up behind him, he said in a mock-concerned voice, "Why, Severus! What happened to your face? Did you run into a door again?"

Snape scowled, rubbing his bruised face unconsciously, and chose to ignore the comment. "What have you four gotten into, Black?" he asked, gesturing to encompass James, Remus, and Allya, who all still had wet hair from their showers. "Did you lose control of your brooms again and fly into the lake?"

Remus responded coolly, "Why is your hair wet, Snape? Oh wait, that's not water-" he pretended to look closer. "Just grease. So sorry, Slime-ball."

Just then, Professor McGonagall walked by, and Snape stormed off in a huff.

Allya snickered. "Good one, Remus."

"I know."

CHAPTER SIX: EVERYTHING AND MORE

Monday morning was boring, as Monday mornings went, and no points had been taken from Gryffindor for the numerous dungbombs set off in the corridors "to relieve stress," the night before so things seemed to be going pretty well. Allya had caught herself numerous times that morning (really early, around 1:00 a.m.) thinking about Remus, and it was annoying her to no end. Was that Boggart what I think it was, or is Remus unusually terrified of green cheese? And did I really overhear Sirius calling him… No… it's just what I want to hear… Only time would tell.

Something fluffy chose this moment to hit her on the head. Allya managed to ground out, "Mm… five more minutes?"

Someone laughed. Someone male. "Nope. Time to get up, Sleepyhead!"

"Ugh." Ally buried her head under her pillow. "Remus, what are you doing in the girls' dormitories? And at this unholy hour? You're not looking for my secret stash of Esipret's Goo, are you?"

Remus' voice turned serious. "No. I want you to get up early, so that I can talk to you. Okay?"

She rolled over, facing him, and he noticed that her normally tied-away hair was quite unruly when she hadn't had time to wash or brush it in the morning. "It can't wait until I'm fully awake?" she asked, checking her watch and finding, "Remus! It's ten after four in the morning! You're sure it can't wait?"

"Yes."

Allya groaned. "If you were anyone else," she said, swinging her feet over the edge of the bed and grabbing her blankets for warmth, "I'd give you a bruise to match Snape's and send you on your merry way. But just for you," she said, looking at him and shaking her head, "I'll break the rules. To the common room?"

"Works for me."

"Damnwell better, at ten after four in the morning." Luckily, the common room was empty, and the ever-present fire was burning away in the fireplace. Allya, too tired to be thinking quite properly yet, seated herself in the chair opposite Remus and regarded him with iris-empty bleary opalescent eyes. "Well?"

Remus squirmed uncomfortably under her gaze. "Er…" He was, to put it bluntly, staring at her bleary eyes.

Ally laughed softly. "Sorry, they reflect my mood. They can be anywhere from near-white and pupil-less to blue to violet… must be a bit confused, and it's no wonder, either. Give me a minute…" She closed her eyes for a few seconds, and when she opened them again, they were a sharp shade of teal blue. "Better?"

Remus nodded. "Yes, thanks," he said, but he still seemed a bit uncomfortable. "Umm…"

The blonde sat forward, staring at Remus intently. "My stars, Remus, we've known each other all of two weeks and you still can't tell me…" She stopped when he started chuckling. "What? You don't think you know me as well as anyone's ever known me? Between us, you, James, Sirius, and Lily are the best friends I've ever had… don't know about that Pettigrew guy, though. I don't trust him. Animal instincts or something, I don't know." Remus gave her a look. "What? Remus, whatever you're going to tell me, just say it!"

"Well, for starters," Remus said, "I never really liked Peter, either. Perhaps the same… animal instincts." Without meaning to, he'd said 'animal instincts' with a very strong accent.

Allya raised her gaze to his. "This little talk wouldn't have anything to do with Sirius' nickname for you, would it, Moony?" There was a dangerous shadow in her eyes. "Or the fact that the Boggart turned into a celestial object when it saw you?"

The breath Remus hadn't realized he'd been holding came out in a rush. "So you know."

"I suspected," Allya said, getting up and gathering her blankets around her. Remus stared into the fireplace, not trusting himself to watch her go with dry eyes.

Lost her before I had her.

And so it was to his utter and complete surprise when she sat down beside him in the huge armchair, draping the covers of her bed over the both of them. "Even with the fire, it's cold in here."

Remus slipped his arm around her, and they snuggled deeper into the armchair. "Not anymore," he whispered.

Allya chuckled softly. "True enough. Actually, I was wondering if you'd ever get the courage to tell me your secret, so that I could tell you mine. And I know that Lily doesn't know, either, so I figured it'd take you longer to tell."

Remus laughed, too. "Sweet, innocent Ally has a secret. Who would've thought." Allya regarded him with now-soft blue eyes, a question written on her face. "What? What did I say?"

"Who has gone on every single pranking run with you, James, and Sirius en lieu de monsieur Pettigrew since the beginning of term?"

"Point taken."

"And, anyway, if you really want the secret, which isn't that big of a deal, I'll tell you. Except there's two of them. So choose: the worse one, or the other one. You'll figure the other one out by the time they sneak you away to wherever they take you for the full moon on Friday anyway."

Moony said, "If you think you're ready to tell me, then do it."

Allya smiled, a true smile that reached her eyes and turned them purple. "It's better than you being a," she lowered her voice, "werewolf, because at least that is legal. At the moment, I'm breaking the law. Remus, I'm a-"

"Natural Animagus," Remus finished for her. "Wizard."

Allya looked confused for a moment. "Okay, how did you know?"

The werewolf beside her smiled. "Well normally, it'd be considered a trade secret of yours truly," he said mysteriously. "But as we seem to be in a secret-telling trend… I uh, saw you write down something about a license and McGonagall when I was admiring you from up close. Right after that first Transfiguration lesson. So what are you, anyway?"

"You have to promise you won't laugh and won't tell," she said, and after Remus promised, she said, "A very, very blonde, very small-" she paused for dramatic effect- "wolf."

Remus seemed to digest this for a moment. "Relatively small put potentially lethal all the same. Too cool."

Allya put her head lower on his chest. "Glad you think so, because there's something else I have to tell you tonight, two more things, actually."

"Uh-huh," Remus said sleepily. "Fire away."

"This may give away my other secret," she said, "but anyway, I was reading up on the subject of- well, that's not important right now- in one of my private books, of course, because they'd never put such a thing anywhere but the Restricted Section of the library. I doubt they even have it; there are only about three copies in existence. Ours is a priceless family heirloom. Anyway… turns out, all werewolves are actually natural Animagi. Something in the saliva from the bite. All it takes is a relatively simple potion-"

Remus cut in, "You're telling me that I could be an Animagus in the timespan of what, two weeks?"

He missed my other point completely. "Basically, yes."

Moony smiled. "James will have my hide."

"Jealousy?" Allya asked.

"Yep… he and Sirius have been trying to become Animagi since they figured out I was a werewolf in second year…" Remus laughed.

Allya laughed, too, but also yawned, and in a few moments the two of them were fast asleep.

CHAPTER SEVEN: IT WAS A MONDAY

Lindsay, the Gryffindor fifth year who'd been bitten by the Venus fly trap, woke up relatively early Monday morning. Naturally, she was the first of her two close friends awake- Miore and Adrienne liked to sleep in. What surprised her was that, at quarter to six in the morning, the decidedly non-morning person of a new girl was not in her bed. Allya was nowhere to be found in the girls' dorm, in fact. Disregarding the fact temporarily, Lindsay showered, brushed her hair and teeth, and magically straightened her robes, all before quarter past. She took the steps down to the common room two at a time, and (very characteristically) nearly fell on her bum halfway down, so she decided to take it slow from there on. But the sight that greeted her in the Gryffindor common room dropped her to her backside anyway, so it really didn't matter in the slightest.

Remus Lupin and the new girl, Allya Nightrunner, were fast asleep in the cozy chair by the fireplace. They must have been comfortable, because it looked like they'd been there for a while. Ally's arm was strewn across Remus' chest, and his head had fallen over onto hers. If there had been a mug in one of their hands, it could've been a commercial advertisement for hot chocolate. Lindsay found herself wishing that she'd borrowed her Muggle friend's camera. I'm such a hopeless romantic, Lindsay thought. Isn't that horrible?

Lindsay figured that the loud noises she'd made going down the staircase must have woken someone up again- thankfully, Sirius could sleep through an earthquake measuring seven on the Richter scale, so it wasn't him. Instead, it was James Potter, the other early-riser of the Gryffindor fifth years (and the only other early riser in Gryffindor, for that matter). James also took the stairs two at a time, but he didn't fall on his rear afterwards. He took one look at the chair by the fireplace, gave one glance in Lindsay's direction, and asked (with a mischievous glint in his eyes), "Should we wake them?"

Lindsay looked horrified at the mere suggestion. "Of course not!"

James turned to go back up the stairs. "Well, if we're not going to wake them up, I'm just going to have to get Sirius down here. He'd be so ashamed of himself for not waking up at the sign of a possible cruel thing to do to Remus- he's been meaning to get him back for stealing his line about the greasy hair-"

"Sounds interesting," Lindsay admitted. "But Sirius isn't the guy I want to face at this hour in the morning, especially if he's in a vengeful mood." She started back up the stairs, throwing back a wink. "Tell you what, though, I'll send Miore down for Sirius and see if I can't wake Lily up…"

James' jaw dropped. "H-how did you know?"

Lindsay just grinned. "Trade secret. Well, not really. It's not my fault if they talk in their sleep…"

Despite his surprise, James had to laugh, but made sure it was quiet enough not to wake the two in the armchair.

The friends learned at breakfast that Peter Pettigrew had gotten a detention for saying nasty things about Snape to his face while the Professor was in earshot. Everyone knew that he was only making fun of Snape to make himself feel better about the oatmeal/facemask incident, and most found this rather ironic, as Peter had never stood up to anyone before, preferring to keep sheltered behind his crowd of popular and talented 'friends.' Sirius teased Remus and Allya so badly it looked as if they had a bad sunburn, until Remus got smart and pushed Sirius' face into his scrambled eggs. Sirius retaliated by dumping his orange juice on Remus' head, and this routine went on for a bit until Lily put a freezing charm on both of them, and Allya used her knowledge of Esipret's theories to clean the mess up. Luckily, Professor Snape had already left the room and the rest of the teachers were having a good laugh over the antics of the two Gryffindor Beaters.

One of the school owls dropped a letter from McGonagall into Peter's bowl. Your detention will be served tonight at 11:00. You're to meet the gamekeeper in his cabin near the Forbidden forest at quarter to. - Professor McGonagall

James, who read the whole thing over Peter's shoulder, grinned. "First detention of the year and it's not Sirius'. This calls for a celebration!"

Allya checked her watch. "No time, James. If we don't hurry, we'll be late for Muggle Studies."

"Oh joy," Sirius muttered. "Muggle Studies."

"Is there any class that you enjoy, Sirius?" Lily asked.

"Yes," Sirius answered without hesitation. "Quidditch."

"Quidditch isn't a class," she argued.

"It is when James is Captain."

"Point conceded."

Muggle Studies 101, easily the most boring class aside from History of Magic (with that dreadfully dull ghost, Professor Binns), took place on the third floor of the castle, in a room that was specially equipped to support electronic 'Muggle stuff.' The class was taught by a Muggle-born wizard by the name of Gander, a man approaching his thirties. He had managed to Muggle-ize his appearance as much as possible; his glasses were completely 'normal' and he wore his robes with the sleeves rolled up. Not only that, but he also had short hair, which was quite uncommon for even a male professor at Hogwarts, and was even handsome by some standards, so most girls in the class paid close attention.

However, the Muggle chairs in the room- Muggles did have good taste in furniture, one had to admit- were so comfortable that Allya, who was already quite tired, found herself being poked awake by Lily on the one side or Lindsay on the other. At the next table over, Remus seemed to be having the same problem. Allya had to admit, he looked pretty adorable with his head drooping over onto his Arithmancy book- apparently he'd been so tired he got out the wrong book. Allya just shook her head and went back to using her Defense Against the Dark Arts text for a pillow.

It was the next day, Tuesday, during breakfast, that they noticed Peter's absence. "Does anybody know where he went last night?" Adrienne asked, mildly concerned.

James nodded. "He got a note saying that he was to meet the gamekeeper in his cabin at quarter to eleven…"

Just then the Headmaster, Dumbledore, stood up, looking very grave indeed. "Students," he called, waving his wand and commanding silence. "I'm afraid that I have some very dire news." The group in the Great Hall became quiet. "Last night, a student was attacked and killed by an animal in the Forbidden Forest, while serving a detention. Our gamekeeper, Rubeus Hagrid, was unable to get to him in time. There will be no classes today, and the Gryffindor fifth years may request home leave. Peter Pettigrew's funeral will be held on Friday at noon. That is all."

The shock that descended on the Gryffindor tower was unlike any James had ever known. Adrienne Grimsby was walking around in a daze, pretty much ignoring everything that went on around her. She went home for a few days around three on Tuesday, promising to return before Friday at noon for the funeral. Even Remus was not his normal cheerful self; he sat around wondering if he really should've taught Peter all of the insults he'd been using against Stink Junior that fateful day.

But as the Gryffindors found out by Thursday, life went on, and always would, even in the face of death. There were tests to study for, Quidditch games to practice for, even more evil things to do to Snape that hadn't even been thought up yet. Life, being what it was, did indeed go on.

The rest of the week passed by extremely quickly. It seemed like barely a day from breakfast on Tuesday morning, to Astronomy on Wednesday at midnight, to sleeping late on Thursday morning to compensate for the Astronomy lesson. The only detail that whole week actually worth noting was that Allya and Remus had begun to brew the potion he'd need to become an Animagus. In fact, Friday morning came so quickly that Remus didn't even have the time to ponder what he'd been doing for the past few days. So there he sat, half-awake in the Gryffindor common room, at two fifteen in the morning (which didn't thrill him), waiting for Madam Pomfrey to arrive and take him away to the Shrieking Shack. He didn't have long to wait, but instead of only one person waiting for him at the portrait hole, there were two. "Remus?" Dumbledore called softly. "We have to talk…"

The office of Professor and Headmaster Dumbledore was strange, to be sure, and cozy. A phoenix- one Remus recalled from the year before as being named Fawkes- was perched on the corner of a bookshelf, surveying everything with a wise, all-knowing air. And sitting in one of the three chairs in front of Dumbledore's desk, looking rather pleased with herself, was Allya J.

"Hello, Remus," she said, purple eyes gleaming with mischief and warmth, standing up to give him a hug. "Fancy meeting you here."

"Ally? What are you-" Something finally hit Remus with the full force with which it had originally been meant. "You have got to be kidding me-" And they sank back down into their chairs.

Dumbledore looked rather amused, listening to the insider dialogue. "I take it you two have met."

"Well, both of us being in the same house, same year, and on the Quidditch team… yeah, we've met."

"And you both know that the other is a- well, I see there's no further need to explain anything, then. Off to the Shrieking Shack with you! Poppy?"

Madam Pomfrey appeared at the doorway once more. "You're both ready? Good, we've got to get a move on. There's only another half an hour until the moon will be taking its effect…"

Fifteen minutes and a Whomping Willow later, Remus and Allya were locked safely away in the confines of the small cottage. A certain number of questions remained to be asked, and Remus figured it'd be best to start at the beginning.

"I guess you're wondering something about when and under what circumstances I was bitten," Ally offered, shaking her left hand, which had begun to tingle nastily. "I can fill in a couple gaps, at least, while we wait for Happy Hour."

Remus shook his head in amazement. "I've never heard it referred to as that before, but by all means, fill in the gaps."

Allya sighed, reclining on a rather tattered magically-repaired Muggle couch (it was a good thing that the Ministry for the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts wasn't allowed in) and started her tale. "I come from a wealthy family, one of the old-fashioned magic families of Britain, and we moved to North America when I was small. The name's been changed over the ages, of course, and the wealth comes mostly from my mother's side… Anyway, they tried all the doctors that they could think of the first time I was bitten. It wasn't that long ago, not really, but it seems like a lifetime. Everything has changed so much since then, it's hard to imagine life before the bite. I was twelve years old at the time, out wandering the grounds of my old school in Canada at midnight, which I shouldn't have been doing in the first place. Kind of like the Forbidden Forest, in a way. When they found me, I was just barely alive. I'll always have the scars- they go all the way from the left side of my neck down to my hip. Ironically, it's shaped exactly like a bubbling cauldron, and if you look at it here-" she pulled her hair off of her neck for a moment- "- under exactly the right light, in a mirror, you can read a list of the ingredients needed for the Animagus potion."

Remus, who had been half-listening and half trying to get the ringing in his ears to stop, nodded. "And your wealthy parents' collection of books supplemented your knowledge, so you knew just how to become an Animagus…"

"Yeah, but transforming into a werewolf… that really hurts, it hurt especially bad the first year. It's getting easier, I admit, but," Ally shivered, an intense expression of pain on her face. "It gives a whole new meaning to 'that time of the month.'"

Remus stopped scratching his ear long enough to clutch at his stomach. "You didn't just make a joke about being a werewolf, did you?" He shook his head in mock-regret. "Sometimes, A.J., you're even worse than Sirius."

"No one is worse than Sirius," Allya retorted, suddenly gasping as pain pushed her from the couch and dropped her to her knees on the floor. "Ow." She braced herself with her hands, trying to ignore the splinters of agony that made their way up her spine and into her neck. "How can you stay so calm?"

"I'm used to it, I guess. I've been a werewolf since I was three." Remus looked concerned. "Is there something I can do to make it easier?"

Allya gritted her teeth. "Yes. You can-" But her words were cut off by a howl that escaped her, and suddenly she had fur, sharp teeth, claws and a tail. The two werewolves screamed out their misery together, giving rise to rumors of hauntings, killings, and betrayals by the people of Hogsmeade.

CHAPTER EIGHT: FLUFF, FLOUR, AND QUIDDITCH

At breakfast on Monday morning, Remus and Allya reappeared. Lily, who wasn't in on the werewolf secret just yet, decided to do a bit of teasing at their expense.

"Remus, Ally," she said, eyes glinting, "I missed you this weekend. Where were you?"

Allya answered before Remus could get his tongue untied, reaching over to grab his hand. "Well," she said, "first, we found a secret passage out of Hogwarts that led to Hogsmeade." Allya began ticking things off on the fingers of her free hand. "We booked a romantic cottage, just for the weekend. It had this great view of the town, you know, very romantic with the full moon- right, hon? -and we spent the whole time-" and she let a blush creep over her cheeks. "Oops. Remus, sugar, I think I've said too much."

James and Sirius couldn't even catch their breath, they were laughing so hard. Sirius fell off of his chair, pounding the floor with his fists. James had tears rolling down his cheeks, and even Lily couldn't help but smile. Remus had gone very red at first, but soon composed himself. He whispered in her ear, "And you managed to do it all without lying. Very good."

Allya just winked at him and gave his hand a squeeze. "It's my specialty," she said.

When the five of them were composed enough to attend Muggle Studies, they did so. James stuck rather close by Lily's side the whole time, hoping Sirius would get the gist (which he did). The (rather handsome) young man went right over to Miore, gave a deep bow, kissed her hand, and asked her to be his partner.

Miore, being, like Lindsay, the hopeless romantic that she was, just about fainted, and could only barely mutter a yes before Professor Gander entered the room. James had just enough time to ask Lily to be his lab partner before Gander started rambling about electric ovens, a wonderful Muggle invention that "revolutionized even the wizard family's way of doing things."

Of the whole class, only Sirius and Allya managed to notice how red Lily went before she accepted, and just shook their heads and vowed to do something. As they were turning their attention back to Professor Gander, they caught each other's eyes, and nodded slightly. Something had to be done, and they would be the two to do it.

But first they had to get through Muggle Studies. Professor Gander was teaching them how to bake cookies. Remus and Allya were having a bit of difficulty with the electric mixer, and ended up covered in flour. Unfortunately, Sirius caught on that this was more than an accident, and a few moments later Miore turned to him and said, "Sirius, there's a big white handprint on my butt, isn't there?"

"Umm, let me check." Sirius got down a bit closer for a better look. "I'd say yes, Miore. There is a big, white handprint on your bum. Would you like me to get it off for you?"

Miore did her best to glare furiously at him, silver eyes boring into his, but it lasted only a second before she broke her gaze and smothered a giggle. "Sirius… don't look at me like that! I can't concentrate!"

Sirius put on his sad puppy-dog face. "Sorry."

"You wouldn't happen to have any idea how that big, white handprint got onto my bum, would you, Sirius?" she asked, black hair falling into her eyes as she craned her neck to get a view of the damage.

"Um, no?" Sirius tried to look innocent. It didn't work. "Oh, fine. I put it there. Just couldn't resist a bum such as yours. Forgive me?"

"No," Miore said. "Now turn around. I don't want to see your face."

Sirius, downcast and feeling a bit rejected, did as he was told, but he didn't anticipate the big, white handprint that Miore placed upon his backside. "Now I forgive you," she said.

When the Gryffindors that had signed up for Divination showed up at the tower, they were covered from head to boot in white flour. Everyone had a big, white handprint on his or her bottom, except Sirius, Remus, Allya and Miore, who had several, and Lily and James, who had none because they were too shy to do it.

Divination was also an incredibly boring class, and the Professor seemed to think that she was somehow all-knowing. She 'predicted' that two of the Gryffindors would 'get together' before the Christmas holidays, but any idiot could have seen that from the looks exchanged between Remus and Allya (who were still not being 'official' with their announcement, although everyone knew that it would only be a matter of time), James and Lily, or even Sirius and Miore.

On the way to lunch after Divination was finished, Allya pulled Sirius aside. "Any idea what we're going to do?" she asked when she was sure nobody else was listening.

"Yeah," Sirius said, and the two of them walked to lunch slowly, talking over the plan as they went. "Talk to me this Saturday, after the Quidditch match but before you run off with Moon- I mean, Remus-"

"Sirius." Allya said, all note of happy pranking and matchmaking gone from her voice.

Sirius stopped dead in his tracks and swallowed hard. "Yeah?"

"I know."

"You- oh. Oh," and Sirius seemed to consider this for a second. "What else do you know about our little band of marauders, A.J.? Far too much, I'm quite sure. And for that matter," he paused, creating a rather uncomfortable silence. "Where were you this weekend?"

Nightrunner and Black continued walking, still far behind the rest of their friends. "What else do I know? Just about everything," Allya admitted, "about your group of 'marauders' as you put it. I know about James and Lily, I know about Remus'… condition, I know that you like Miore- don't look so shocked! It's not my fault Remus talks in his sleep! And it's not like it isn't obvious, either. I know that James has an Invisibility Cloak, and I can't wait for the day I get to try it out. I know that you're trying to become Animagi. Anything else you need to tell me about?"

"Once again, where were you this weekend?" Sirius said, a bit louder.

Allya's head drooped backward as they entered the Great Hall, walking slower than before. "The Shrieking Shack," she barely whispered. "But you can't-"

"Are you insane!?" Sirius practically shouted, but soon gained control of himself. He shook his head in disbelief. "You're either absolutely bonkers, you're an Animagus, or you're a-" He stopped for a moment. "Well, you're not, are you? I mean, you don't have to tell me, but-"

"You're an incredibly intelligent young man, Sirius," she said, nodding. "All of the above, actually. Well done."

"You're a- oh, A.J., I think you, me, James, and my books need to have a little talk."

"You and James? But you're Prefects! Won't you… I don't know… tell McGonagall that I don't have a license?" she asked. "Wait. You've never told her any of those other things we've done, from the botched Snape's trunk stealing bit to the dungbombs in the corridor, to dyeing Mrs. Norris orange- wait, we haven't done that yet!" Allya grinned. "You and your friend James, Sirius, are the laziest excuses for Prefects that I've ever laid eyes on…"

"Remus is a Prefect, too," Sirius objected.

"Mmm," Allya admitted, a far-off look in her opalescent eyes. "But he's not lazy…"

Sirius started laughing again, but stopped when Ally threatened him with a black eye. (A/N: No pun intended.)

"Right. So we'll discuss the potion part in the common room, Saturday after the Quidditch match, all together. No excuses. Be there or don't be an Animagus."

"Thanks, Ally," Sirius said. "I won't forget this."

"You'd better not."

Saturday morning came all too quickly for most people on the Gryffindor team. Seeing as Remus and Allya had only been able to attend one practice, they were far more nervous than any of the others. Still, the game would not be postponed for anything.

Breakfast was eaten in silence at the Gryffindor table. Lily didn't make a single Allya/Remus crack, Sirius didn't make any jokes (truly a miracle), and even his ever-present smile had taken a vacation. Miore noticed this and came over to try to make him eat. None of the others were eating, either, except for Allya and Remus, whose appetites could seemingly not be appeased. When she couldn't coax him to eat anything, she sat in his lap, plugged his nose and force-fed him until he finally decided to feed himself, although they continued to share a fork, much to everyone's complete and utter lack of surprise.

The Gryffindor changing rooms were silent as the players pulled their uniforms on over their robes. James, being the captain, was supposed to make a speech. His pep-talk went a little something like this: "Last year, our team won the Quidditch Cup. This year, we lost three key players, and have their replacements: Allya J, our new Chaser, Remus as a Beater, and Andy as Keeper. You're all superb, and I'll drop my modesty for a moment: I'm a damn good Seeker. Maybe the best." A few people laughed weakly. "I don't know if we've ever had a better team. But Slytherin's been practicing too, and they have some new players. Lucius Malfoy, their new Keeper, is untested against Gryffindor on the Quidditch field. He's a tall, muscular seventh year, and he looks pretty fast- Allya, Warren, Arika- you're going to be hard-pressed to get the Quaffle past him. The Beaters for Slytherin are big, too- all muscle and no brain. We won't be able to beat them with brute strength. Fly straight and fast, aim well. We'll out-fox them. That's all."

As they walked out to the field, Remus whispered into Ally's ear, "Do you suppose it'd be okay with James if we out-wolved them instead?"

A whistle sounded, and with much fanfare the fifteen broomsticks lifted into the air. Allya caught sight of signs on both side and other bits of encouragement- or discouragement. The entire Slytherin house had showed up wearing green, but on the other hand, most of the rest was red- and there was a big banner flying in the Gryffindor quarter that looked like it'd had a charm performed on it- it read 'Potter for President' and the color changed every three seconds. Lily's work, undoubtedly.

Three minutes into the game, Warren Moores scored the first goal for Gryffindor. A Slytherin Beater responded, sending one of the Bludgers flying in his direction. Remus blocked it, sending it speeding along towards the Slytherin Seeker, because Sirius had James-sitting duty, making sure that the Bludgers didn't knock the most important player from his broomstick. Allya had just intercepted the Quaffle and was aiming it for just over Lucius Malfoy's left shoulder, switching just after he'd noticed where she was aiming and had moved to block it. The Quaffle soared through the lower-right section of the goal, and the score became 40-10 for Gryffindor. Suddenly, a Beater sent a Bludger screaming towards her left shoulder.

Another Bludger came at her right side. Someone hit the left Bludger back at Slytherin, but couldn't get back to the other in time-

Allya heard a sickening crack and felt something give way in her rib cage- suddenly she was falling, falling, falling- why couldn't she just hit the ground and have it over with?- but no, she was slowing down… there was something strong and soft under her. Soft, strong, and it- no, not it, he- was carrying her to the ground- A guardian angel? she thought dimly, before he set her on the ground. James must have caught the Snitch because the Gryffindor crowd was cheering, but Ally blacked out and didn't remember anything but the angel.

Miore saw, from the stands, the Bludgers' double attack on Allya. She saw Remus trying valiantly to coax a bit more speed from his broomstick to bat the other one away, she saw him fail, she saw Allya fall. She saw James catch the Snitch and she saw Remus dive, dropping his paddle and letting go of the broomstick to get out his wand, and mutter a featherweight spell. She saw him tuck the wand away, reaching out his arms to catch her, and she saw it all in less than a second. The Gryffindors gave both James and Remus mighty cheers, and the fifth years that weren't on the Quidditch team went down to the base of the field to see about A.J.

CHAPTER NINE: CONFESSIONS

There was someone in the hospital wing when Allya woke up with a huge migraine and something wrapped around her ribcage. She opened one eye cautiously, fully expecting to either have a hole through her side or a bone protruding from her skin, but she saw neither, which was good. What she did see- or rather, who she did see-

Was Remus. A very anxious, nearly tearful, guilt-ridden Remus. When he saw that she'd woken up, he called a few others over to the bedside. It looked as if he hadn't moved in hours, though. "Ally?" he sighed with relief. "You're awake. I was so afraid that-" he stopped, looking rather embarrassed.

"No, silly, I'm still sleeping," she said, but not wanting to offend him, added quickly, "Of course I'm awake, Remus. I wouldn't miss being with you for the world."

Remus started again, "It's just that- we were all worried, and-"

Allya raised a hand and pressed a finger to his lips. "Enough. Be quiet or Madam Pomfrey will shoo you all away!" She blushed a little as Remus kissed her palm. "Okay, one thing. Sirius?"

The eternal joker stepped forward. "Whatever you wish, Your Majesty."

"Our little animal talk will have to wait a bit, I'm afraid. There are two of us," Allya began slowly, "in this very room that need to say something to each other, Sirius. They are not, in this case, you and Miore, because you already know that you like each other so that comes later." Sirius and Miore both turned pink. "Would James Potter and Lily Evans please step forward?"

Lily's pulse quickened, and James flinched a bit, as if someone had called him a name. They both stepped a bit awkwardly to the bed on which Allya was lying, quite delirious. She took one of each of their hands in hers- They're so warm, Lily thought- and put them together.

"You people. Keeping your emotions to yourself isn't helping anyone. Can't you see that you were made for each other? Get over yourselves!"

"Actually-" James said, holding Lily's hand tightly, "you see, we haven't been totally honest with you…" he squirmed a bit. "The fact is… uh, that is, Lily and me, we're… um… a little help here?"

Lily supplied, "We got together just after the beginning of term. Not to disappoint you or anything. But you were taking too long." James, who still had a Potions essay to finish, and Miore (who was hoping to copy it) left through a passage that he had discovered last year.

Allya flopped disgustedly back onto her pillows. "How did I miss something like that? Ugh. Sirius, Remus… it's been a slice, really it has, but, I need to talk to my pal Lily here so…"

The boys left too, through the same secret passage.

"Just one question, then a comment," Allya said. "First the question: Why on Earth did you take Muggle Studies?"

Lily grinned. "A certain tall, messy-haired, brown-eyed Gryffindor Seeker conned me into it."

"Ah. Well, I guess I can comment now," she began. "I remember the pain," Allya said distantly. "And the falling. I felt like I would never, ever stop. And all of a sudden I wasn't falling so fast anymore. And there was someone strong under me, holding me up ever-so-gently. My mind was clouded with pain and I couldn't see- but I'm sure it was my guardian angel."

Lily sat down in the chair Remus had occupied seconds before. "I didn't see your angel, Ally," she said gently, checking the girl's temperature. She was burning up. "But I did see someone rather important to you who dropped everything to make sure you weren't hurt, and that analogy of Remus is probably going to make me go crying to James… I'd better leave before Madam Pomfrey finds out that there was no accident in the Great Hall involving Cornish pixies and shrinking solution."

Lily, too, left through the secret passage that everyone else had used, leaving Allya to her very confused thoughts.

When Lily entered the common room, it was obvious that she was exhausted. It was also obvious that she was looking for James.

He sneaked up behind her and wrapped her tightly in his arms. "Guess who?"

Lily pretended to think for a minute. "Umm, Sirius?"

James turned her around, planting a kiss on her forehead. "Guess again." They sat down together on the couch, and Lily leaned her head back and stared at the ceiling. "I missed you," he said.

She couldn't help but smile. "James, I've only been gone for ten minutes!"

"Very true," he replied, "but that doesn't change the fact that I missed you. So, what did Ally say?" James asked curiously, trying to sound like he didn't care and not succeeding.

Lily contemplated giving him 'the look' for a moment, but decided against it. "She got all dreamy-looking and started talking about falling. For some reason, I'm not sure it was all about falling off of broomsticks, though. She thinks Remus is her guardian angel. You're not going to make fun of him, are you?"

"Me? No," James answered. "But I just may talk to him about how lucky we are."

"Do you think she's mad?" Remus asked James at around midnight in the boys' dorm.

"Moony, you are so paranoid. Why would she be angry with you, you only saved her life!" he answered, tired from the Quidditch match and the rest of the day's ordeals. "No, Remus, she isn't mad at you," James sighed. "You're not allowed to let on that you know this but- she thought you were her guardian angel."

Remus pondered that all night, as he couldn't sleep. His heart ached with his desire to see her, to know that she was okay, that she didn't blame him for not being fast enough.

Sirius stirred beside him. "You'd better tell her, Remus," he said, although he could have been talking in his sleep. "If you don't, you could end up losing her forever."

Ally was back to normal by Monday, much to Remus' relief and the Slytherins' disgust. Remus, who hadn't been able to visit her in the infirmary (Madam Pomfrey was so mad about the Cornish pixies!), had been going through what Sirius and James were calling 'significant-other withdrawal'. Remus had retorted that it was, "Easy for you to say, as your significant others aren't in the hospital wing." That shut them up, and Remus had been allowed to mope in peace.

When Allya came back to the dormitory to get a change of clothing early Monday morning, Lily was awake and waiting for her, even though it was only six thirty. "A.J.? That's you, right?" Allya nodded, pressing a finger to her lips so that Lily wouldn't wake anyone else up. "You'd better talk to Remus. He hasn't been quite the same since Saturday." And then she went back to sleep.

Allya went back to the common room to look for him, but there was nobody there. Unbeknownst to her, James and Sirius had warned everyone not to be there until quarter after seven, promising dire consequences if their wishes were disobeyed. They hinted that these dire consequences would include some sort of dungbombs, but as nobody knew for sure, everyone steered clear of the common room- and James and Sirius, of course.

As Remus wasn't there, either, Ally found herself climbing up the stairs to the fifth year boys' dormitories. She found it without much trouble- the one with the sock hanging on the doorknob. Sirius is such a messy pig, she thought, smiling. Now, one of these is supposed to be Remus…

She found him immediately: the one with the drawing papers strewn about on his trunk. She sat on the edge of the bed, touching his shoulder gently. "Remus?"

He opened his eyes slowly, blinking away sleep. "Allya? What are you doing in here?"

Ally blushed in the darkness. "At first I was just planning on watching you sleep, but you looked like you were having a nightmare… Lily said I was supposed to talk to you. We can go to the common room. There's nobody there."

"That's because James and Sirius threatened them. 'You will not use the common room before a quarter after seven tomorrow morning, or you will face the consequences!' Funny though, they never threatened me." Remus got up and grabbed the covers of his bed.

"Just like old times, eh?"

"It wasn't that long ago."

Finally, they were settled in the armchair by the fireplace. "True," Allya admitted, "but it seems like a long time. I feel like I've known you forever."

"That's sweet," Remus murmured, still not quite awake. "Yes, I asked Lily to tell you to talk to me. I guess I'd better start now, before I lose my nerve." He sighed as Allya snuggled in closer under the blanket. "I could really get used to this Monday-morning routine, you know."

"Mm hmm. Whatever you're going to say, Remus, it won't leave this room unless you want it to."

Remus swallowed hard, hoping he was doing the right thing. "Thanks. Well, it all started on the train to Hogwarts… you entered the car, and there was something about you- I felt like I knew you already, almost. And you were- are- so beautiful, that I couldn't help but wonder if you had a bad side at all. You're a prankster, and you weren't afraid of getting into trouble with us, which further intrigued me. You didn't care what Snape thought, and you humiliated him in front of his friends. You agreed to come get into trouble with us after knowing us for about twelve hours. You hit Snape for me- for the Gryffindors. And you weren't afraid of me for being a werewolf. You don't know how much your trust has meant to me." Remus stopped here, afraid to keep going but knowing that he had to continue. "You trusted me with your Animagus secret, which made you one of the first girls that ever really told me anything important. You also trusted me with your life on Saturday." Remus stopped again, and his voice dropped almost an octave in pitch. "And I failed you. You fell- because I wasn't fast enough. I was so scared that I would lose you already, when I'd known you for barely a month. I just- I couldn't-" He found that he could no longer go on, and reached over to take Ally's hand. He couldn't do that, either. Both of her arms were already wrapped around him. Finding his voice once more, he said, "You were unconscious for six hours, while Madam Pomfrey mended your bones. And she couldn't get me to leave for anything. I guess, what I'm trying to say is-"

"Remus?"

"Yeah?"

Allya lifted her head from his shoulder, disentangling her arms from around Remus' muscular body. She sat up straighter, and her eyes- purple once more- bored into his deep blue ones. "Shut up," she said softly, before leaning in closer and kissing him.

Remus, who was particularly shocked at first, didn't react for a second, but only a second. He pulled Allya as close as he possibly could, feeling her arms encircle his shoulders and was quickly lost in his own thoughts. If one thing I've ever done has been right, it's this. For a moment they were the only two in their world, just two werewolves in love-

Until James and Sirius slapped each other five behind the sofa, revealing their position. Allya pulled away rather reluctantly, glaring at it, pulled out her wand, and made it transparent. "Sirius Black, I don't care what Miore says, I'm going to kill you. Remus, you can take care of James for me, okay?"

Remus laughed. "Yeah, right. Me, take on James Potter. I don't think so." He smiled. "They deserve to be punished, though. Give me the wand, go get Miore and Lily." She handed it to him, and ran off up the stairs as fast as she could. She could still hear Sirius' pleas: 'Uh, Moony, buddy… you wouldn't- OUCH! Hey, that singed the hair off of my arm! James, a little help here?'

Allya just laughed, thinking that Sirius would be rather bruised by the time she got back with Miore.

CHAPTER TEN: OF KINGS AND NOBLES

Remus' Animagus potion needed only one more ingredient: powdered dragon's shell. He knew that he couldn't get it in the student supply cupboard, which meant getting it out of Professor Snape's stash. Which meant using James' Invisibility Cloak. James and Sirius' potion needed more ingredients, too, so they would probably get all the ingredients in one go, but put in the ingredients for the more complex potion first. That way, they could be finished at the same time, and there was less risk of getting caught.

The first Hogsmeade trip of the year was scheduled for the 29^th of October, the week after the full moon. Remus and Ally were ushered away to the Shrieking Shack at the usual early hour, but the moon didn't show itself until late on Saturday night, thus the two remained in human form for most of the visit. It was a bit cold in the shack without fur, but they managed to keep warm enough (A/N: I'll leave the 'how' up to your vivid imaginations…).

The next Saturday couldn't come fast enough. Sirius was just itching to show Allya Zonko's- a joke shop with everything (except Esipret's Goo) that a young prankster could ever want. A shop called Honeydukes was reputed to have the best variety of candy in the wizard world, and Allya didn't want to miss that, either. However, the exhibit that attracted the most people was…

The Shrieking Shack. Allya had yet to see it from the outside. The Hogsmeade villagers wouldn't go anywhere near it, but it was common for Hogwarts students to dare each other to knock on the door. No one ever did, of course. The Shrieking Shack was very haunted. At least there would be someplace to go where Snape would be sure not to follow. Of course, Lily and Miore would be too scared to go, too- unless they were told the truth, which Remus and Allya doubted would happen.

It was Friday, after Herbology, that Ally caught Sirius staring blankly off into space, an expression of pain written on his face and anguish in his eyes. "Sirius?" she asked quietly, not wanting to disturb or embarrass him. "Are you quite alright? You don't look so good, my friend."

Sirius looked startled that someone had noticed him, sitting there in the otherwise-empty common room, watching the birds out the window. "No… I mean, yeah, but…"

"Peter?" Allya asked quietly, reaching into her bag and pulling out two books.

"Um, yes," Sirius sighed. "It's my fault he's gone. I told him to start standing up for himself- well, I guess he misunderstood and tried to make himself feel better by insulting Slimy instead, but- what are you doing, by the way?"

Ally was flipping through her Divinations textbook, looking for the section on alternate futures. "The Professor says I have a gifted Inner Eye. I told her that was bullshit. But I have a bad feeling about what would have happened if- well, never mind. Here's the passage I was looking for. Read it. And hold on a minute while I get out Esipret."

Sirius began to read the pages Allya had gestured to. Advanced Divination: Alternate Futures, the title read.

One of the most dangerous and potentially lethal branches of divination, Seeing alternate futures can, in fact, drive a person insane. It requires nearly an hour of preparation, if the ingredients for the necessary potion are not assembled. A person must then ask the orb a question and be prepared to accept the answer; i.e. 'If He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named had never existed, what would the wizarding world be like?' This is not to be tried by inexperienced Seers. One can become so caught up in these alternate futures that they become to him a reality. They are a black hole from which no mere mortal can escape.

Sirius looked up. "Um, Allya?" She was busily mixing ingredients from tubes into a balloon. "Dangerous? Potentially lethal? Black hole? A.J., are you sure about this? I mean, I appreciate the effort, but-"

"Shut up, Sirius," she said, tying off the balloon and inflating it with her wand. She poured something else over it- a DNA typing solution she'd made in Potions, verifying that a true Seer was performing the spell. "This will answer any one question you have. I suggest you think long and hard about what you ask it." She watched from the sofa as Sirius stared at it for a moment, then heard him think, What would have happened if Allya J. Nightrunner had never come to England? The question hurt her, of course. It broke her heart that he thought it was perhaps her fault that Peter had died, and in a way she knew that Peter Pettigrew would remain alive during this vision. But does that make it my fault he's dead?

Before she could think to answer the question, she was pulled into the mysterious portal, knowing Sirius had been sucked in with her. Colors swirled and danced before their eyes, and soon the prophecy took shape.

The last three years at Hogwarts flew by. Graduation day came, and James proposed to Lily. Sirius and Miore stood to one side, watching them and smiling. Remus was in the background- there was joy written across his face, happy for his friend, and yet there was pain- he had no one of his own to be with. Peter Pettigrew was there, too, looking happy but somewhat wary of what was going on around him.

There was a wedding. A photo was snapped of Sirius, James and Lily at the wedding. Sirius was grinning like an idiot- as if he could ever grin any other way. Remus and Peter were there, too, watching as James and Lily danced and as Sirius dragged Miore onto the floor behind him. Peter even got the nerve to ask Adrienne to dance- and Remus watched.

There was a baby born to Lily and James, one named Harry Potter who had a godfather named Sirius Black. There, too, were Remus and Peter- and Peter now looked worse than ever, to be sure. Remus had heavy bags under his eyes; he looked like he might collapse at any second. Voldemort grew in power, and the friends secretly wondered who would be the first of them to die- and it was Miore.

No, he thought. Not her! She's never done anything wrong!

Then, there was no happy couple- a man- was it Peter?- stood before a cloaked and hooded figure- Voldemort?- saying something in a low voice. He sounded quite proud, whispering something about the Potters making him their secret-keeper.

Then, green light. A blinding flash. Sirius knew that in that instant, James and Lily had been killed. A child cried into the night, when out of the sky came-

That's the motorcycle Dad left me! Sirius thought, remembering his father for a moment. Then the child- Harry- will be okay now?

Sirius handed the child to the Hogwarts gamekeeper- surely that wasn't Rubeus Hagrid!?- and surrendered his beloved motorcycle for the giant to bring the child to Dumbledore.

Then there was a street full of people- a Muggle street. Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew stood near one side- Pettigrew was yelling about Sirius betraying James-

I would never! Sirius thought desperately. Never betray James! How could he think that?

The street exploded, and nearly everyone but Sirius and Peter were killed, but Peter ran away. Then, a courtroom. Sirius had been convicted. He was being sent off to Azkaban- Remus would be alone in the world-

But I didn't kill them! Sirius wanted to scream. I'm innocent, I didn't- "No!" He didn't realize that he had yelled the last part out loud.

Allya barely had the strength to stop the vision. She checked the clock on the wall- only ten minutes had gone by. Sirius was now sitting beside her on the sofa, trying valiantly to hold back the tears. Allya wasn't. They were flowing down her cheeks, and her eyes were red from crying already. Looking at her, knowing that her pain was his fault, Sirius felt a teardrop of his own slide down his face.

"Oh, Sirius," she whispered, still crying. "I had no idea that would happen- I'm so sorry- I-"

"I should never have agreed to go along with it," Sirius said, fully ready to take the blame. Just as he had in the alternate future. "I shouldn't spend my time thinking about what could have been. It's not your fault. Don't cry anymore. Please." He swiped angrily at his own tears, unable to stop them. "Come on, you're making it worse for me."

Ally's tears stopped, and she used a spell to erase the evidence that she'd been crying, teaching Sirius to do the same. "Promise me you'll never make me do one of those again," she said quietly, heart still aching. Sirius nodded. "Good. I think you know where I'm going. Why don't you see if you can't find Miore, I'm sure you'll feel a bit better…"

And he did.

The Hogsmeade trip was the next day, and Sirius and Remus showed Allya around Zonko's, just as they promised. Snape and his cadre of followers left the Gryffindor group alone once they reached the Shrieking Shack. Lily and Miore wanted to leave quite desperately, especially after one of the villagers commented on how loud the screams had been the past week, sounding now like two spirits instead of one- and Lily got really quiet after that comment.

After a nice visit on the hill that housed the Shrieking Shack ("It's nicer on the inside," Allya commented to Remus, "but not by much!") James and Sirius went on a short side trip to Dervish and Banges to get some- James coughed- 'supplies.' Everyone else went into the Three Broomsticks for hot butterbeer, as it was a chilly day. Ally was beginning to wonder if there was any other kind in England.

Upon returning to the castle, James and Sirius added the ingredients to their potion under Allya's watchful eye. Remus tended to his just as carefully, knowing that he could be killed if anything went wrong with it, even though it was relatively simple. "Well, that's it," Allya said. "There's no more we can do without the powdered dragon's shell, the unicorn's mane, or the hippogriff blood. We'll have to break into Snape's supply stores soon. The powdered dragon's shell should be added before the fifth."

James and Sirius nodded, scrambling under the Invisibility Cloak. "We'll be back soon," James called, and, "Don't exchange too much saliva while we're gone!" Sirius added, making Allya blush a bright red.

Remus quipped, "How much is too much?" and James and Sirius tripped over their own feet, dropping the cloak and laughing their heads off.

Ally smiled. "You took the words right out of my mouth…" And Sirius and James laughed even harder. "But I didn't mean it that- oh, never mind," she said, just as Remus was about to kiss her. Soon she didn't care about Sirius and James; she was wrapped in Remus' arms and nothing else mattered. The two cleverest boys in the fifth year ducked back under the cloak and left the secret room behind the portrait of Sir Cadogan, laughing like two-year-olds at a potty joke.

Classes on Monday were cancelled because of Halloween. Everyone was getting ready; there was to be a costume ball later on in the day. This would be held in the Great Hall, so everyone had to eat in their common rooms. The Gryffindors had decided to go as medieval knights, kings, and ladies of the court. Everyone had to pick an identity out of a hat without telling anyone who they were, then zap themselves into costume using methods taught to them by good old Esipret.

Our hero, of course, got the lead role. Why me? Remus thought, shaking his head. The chances aren't exactly great that Ally will be crowned Queen, are they?

But he went about his preparations, zapping himself into a very stylish costume, even if it wasn't quite time-appropriate. James, Sirius, and the other occupant of the dormitory were dressed and ready to go- they stood by the door and, striking dramatic poses, used magic to open the door for them. The people in the common room looked up from what they were doing- it was quite a sight down there, too.

The seventh year boys were dressed as knights, as they had the largest frames in general. The seventh year girls wore dresses that placed them somewhere in the upper echelons of society, but not the top. The first, second, and third years were dressed as either slaves, court jesters, or children of the courtiers. There was a scattering of exceptions, of course, but Remus had a feeling that James or Sirius had somehow jinxed the hat so that each person was given a role they felt he or she deserved. Lily and Miore, with their hair exquisitely styled and dressed in a beautiful medieval style, were at the top of the girls' dormitory staircase. James and Sirius leaped over the banister to get to the bottom of the other stairwell in time to take the girls' hands in proper courtier style. They descended- side by side- and stood at the end, James or Sirius on their arm. Remus hadn't spotted Allya yet, she should have been around somewhere-

And, at the top of the staircase, somewhat reluctant to come down, he saw her. She was as beautiful as ever, in a dress made of dark blue silk trimmed in silver and gold. Her hair was only partly up- she had left the rest to fall down her back unimpeded. Her eyes matched the dress. She wore lace gloves, carried a scepter, and on her head was a delicate silver crown.

The commotion in the common room stopped. All of the eyes were suddenly watching her as she began down the stairs one at a time. Remus waited patiently at the bottom, but he needn't have; she jumped down the last four steps and flung herself into his arms (the scepter lay long-forgotten back on the tenth stair from the top). He caught her- it seemed that he was doing a lot of that- and pulled her into a kiss. "Remus, I don't think I can dance in these shoes," she said when they broke for air (and the people in the common room were done applauding).

Remus just laughed. It seemed, as well, that he had laughed more since her arrival than he had in the past year before that. "Do you think I really care? You could be dressed in rags and bleeding from multiple wounds, sick and dying, and you'd still be the most beautiful woman on the planet. Your beauty is not only physical, but spiritual as well- and you're the most alive person I've ever met. I don't need to dance with you in person, because you're so beautiful and full of life that I dance with you every night in my dreams."

More applause. The both of them looked surprised that anyone else was even in the room. Miore was asking Sirius why he never said anything like that to her. Lily sighed happily and put her arms around James. "It's so wonderful to see him so happy," she said. "James… I think I know where they've been going every month at the full moon…"

James only nodded and kissed her cheek. "That's my Lily," he said. "I knew you'd figure it out one day. But," he said in a louder voice, "I hear that the party starts in a matter of moments, so… off we go!"

The Great Hall was as beautiful as anyone had ever seen it. It matched the Gryffindors' costumes, as they had won the House Championship the previous year. The Hufflepuffs were dressed as modern-day Muggles, the Ravenclaws were ghosts, goblins, and ghouls, and the Slytherins were famous wizards and witches through the ages. No one was the slightest bit surprised when Snape showed up as Salazar Slytherin, and nobody really cared.

"Looks like we're the last ones here," James commented as they walked through the archway, with the 'poor' people at the front and the 'rich' at the back. The king and queen were somewhere in the middle of their entourage, arm-in-arm and waving to their public.

Lupin and Nightrunner? everyone but the Gryffindors seemed to be thinking. It's about time! The brighter half of the school had paired them together since the Quidditch match against Slytherin, and the two of them hadn't exactly been public with their announcement- although they'd been far from secretive.

The teachers sat at a high stone table towards one end of the room. The bewitched ceiling was clear, and as Allya looked up she was glad that the moon was only half full. As the last group entered, Dumbledore bade them welcome, conjured some snacks, drinks, and music, and the party was in progress. With a wave of his wand, the Headmaster brought music from the ceiling.

One is the loneliest number that you'll ever do

Some of the Slytherins sneered at the Muggle music, but Remus found himself considering the words for a moment, and the true meaning of the words hit him.

Two can be as bad as one,

It's the loneliest number since the number one

I don't know about that, Remus thought. Two seems like the perfect number to me. He raised an eyebrow at Allya. "Dance with me?"

Lily was going to make a comment ("You can't dance to Three Dog Night!") but decided against it.

Allya said, "Delighted. Just one moment," and pulled off her very uncomfortable shoes. Remus reached out a hand in typical old English style, and Ally accepted, pulling herself to her feet. As it was still only seven thirty in the evening, they pretty much had the whole floor to themselves, although it was unlikely they would have noticed anyone else if anyone else had been dancing. The Slytherins made fun of them, of course, but the Slytherins were generally a nasty bunch and nobody paid them any mind.

"Us, too," decided James. "Let's go, Lily!" He grabbed her around the waist and spun her onto the floor, laughing all the while and ignoring the nasty look the Slytherins were giving him.

Meanwhile, Miore was trying to drag Sirius out on the dance floor, too; she had him by the arm but he was holding onto his chair. "No- Miore, I prank, I eat, I drink, I talk, I socialize- I do not dance."

By this time, though, Miore knew which buttons to push to get her desired results- and there were many, many backup plans in case. "You don't dance?" she asked innocently as he nodded. Her silver eyes narrowed. "Or you can't? Please? Pleeeaaase?" The narrow-eyed look disappeared, and was replaced by the puppy-dog face that Sirius was so good at (she had learned from the master).

Sirius heaved a disgusted sigh. "Fine. Fine, I'll make an idiot out of myself- good thing I brought my wand, I can do a memory charm afterward…"

After an hour, the dance floor was very, very crowded, and the original six Gryffindor dancers returned to their seats, exhausted. They were too exhausted, even, to make fun of Snape, who was doing his utmost to dance with Wendelin Bulstrode, but failing miserably. Allya pulled out her wand and zap- instant clumsiness. Snape couldn't keep himself from stepping on Wendelin's feet- although he'd been stepping on them an awful lot before.

CHAPTER ELEVEN: WHO SPIKED THE PUNCH?

The party lasted another hour before the first big shocker came: one of the Ravenclaw first years who had had way too much punch started puking his guts out all over the Hufflepuff sitting next to him. Sirius Black fell off of his chair and one of the Slytherin seventh years started table-dancing. Allya, who was just back on the dance floor after quenching her thirst, passed out, leaving a very confused Remus to drag her back to the table. Adrienne was flirting shamelessly with Lucius Malfoy, who wasn't making nasty comments about her being in Gryffindor (obviously he, too, had way too much punch). It didn't help that James was walking around asking people if they had seen his glasses, which were on his face and not the cause of his blurry vision.

Dumbledore stood a bit tipsily, and called to everyone, "Students… pleass calm down- hic! It seemss we have a bit of a sitchu-ay-shun here. Professor McGonagall, would you care to explain thiss?"

McGonagall, who had been drinking water all evening, stood and called for attention. "I regret to inform you all that the party will be cut short. Everyone, back to your dorms. Please aid those of your house who don't remember the password or can't move for their level of intoxication. There will be no morning classes tomorrow, as most of you will have nasty hangovers. You're all dismissed."

James and Sirius exchanged glances. "Hangovers?" Sirius repeated. "Intoxicated?" He groaned and hit his head on the table. His voice, muffled by his arms (which he'd pulled around his head), came once more. "Stinking Slytherins. I'll bet one of them spiked the punch!"

Miore and Lily grabbed their arms, hauling them to their feet. "That'll teach you two to be greedy. You really shouldn't have had so much punch, you know." They left, supporting each other with arms and shoulders.

At the other end of the table, Remus was contemplating how he was going to get Allya, who was still unconscious, back to the Gryffindor common room. Finally giving up on saying the levitation spell in his foggy state of mind, he lifted her into his arms and walked (or perhaps 'staggered' would be more accurate) back to the common room, mumbled, "Fortuna Minor," and stepped inside.

There was no one there; everyone had already gone to bed. Without knocking first, he half-carried Allya into the girls' dorms, but ended up leaving her in the common room after all: James and Sirius were laying cross-ways on her bed, out cold. Both of their heads were hanging over the edge, both pairs of feet were sticking out the opposite side. Whoever put the alcohol in the punch had done an excellent job.

Instead, he put her down in the armchair by the fire, covering her with blankets he'd retrieved from his dorm, curled up beside her, and was fast asleep in moments.

When Ally woke up Tuesday morning, it was with a headache (again) and someone beside her. The common room was cozy and warm, but she and Remus were the only two there. She went upstairs to change and found that not only was it ten after four in the morning (Allya groaned) but Sirius and James were laying on her bed, head-to-foot, the wrong way. Do I want to know? she asked herself. Nope. Allya walked back to the common room in pajamas, figuring she'd claim sickness and get out of the first classes. She had already been unconscious when McGonagall said that they didn't have to go to them.

Allya slipped back under the blankets in the chair, thinking to herself that she really should get around to finishing her Defense Against the Dark Arts homework (ways of blocking curses). But then, she didn't know that she would be missing both classes because the professor and most of the students were battling hangover symptoms while McGonagall roamed around looking for the culprit or culprits.

"It's not even Monday," James commented sleepily a few moments later as he descended the steps from the girls' dorm.

"Quiet," Ally mumbled. "You'll wake him up. And we have to be at breakfast in three hours, or we'll miss Defense Against the Dark Arts. He needs his sleep." She thought a moment. "Hey, about that 'not Monday' comment… Get back here, I'm not finished talking to you, James Potter! James!"

Unfortunately, when she got up to chase him up the stairway, she pulled the blankets off of Remus, who woke up. Sighing and figuring that it was useless anyway, she sat back down in the chair and pulled the blankets around them again. "You know," Remus said sleepily, "it's not even Monday."

Most people made it down to breakfast (which was served late) around nine o'clock. Professor McGonagall was still going around casting truth spells and asking people if they knew who spiked the punch. She stopped asking after she hit the Slytherin sixth years, and walked away with Wendelin Bulstrode trailing after her, head held high.

Snape looked especially pale. Allya, despite her headache, just grinned sardonically and nudged Sirius. "Catch that look Snape's got? Right terrified that McGonagall will expel Miss Bulstrode, I expect."

Sirius sniggered. "I do believe you have a point, Miss Nightrunner. Shall we comment?"

Allya rubbed her hands together expectantly. "Most definitely. You have the honor of starting."

Sirius grinned lazily, stretching and cracking his knuckles. "Excellent. To your right, we see Severus Snape, a Slytherin Prefect and all-around slimeball-"

"Sporting a rather villainous look, as usual, with a bit of fear mixed in for good measure. As we speak, Slimy looks our way, creeping us out and giving us a nasty feeling in general. He's starting our way, his goons following him, and he does not look happy."

"Well, well, well, if it isn't Robin of Huntingham and his band of outlaws," Snape drawled. "It's such a shame that your father's on the run from You-Know-Who, Black. Your family line, I fear, has reached its end. No one as stupid and ugly as you could hope to leave behind an heir."

"If it isn't the evil Sheriff of Nottingham," Sirius shot back in good time, particularly relieved that Snape hadn't found out that his father had, in fact, been dead for several months. "Come to tax our nerves?"

"Better watch yourself, Black. There'll be more than one Dark Wizard soon enough. You'd do better to join their ranks. Least you'll have something to do after graduation." Snape stalked off, still a bit subdued but evidently more confident than he'd been before.

Ally drew in a sharp breath, clenching her fists at her side. "He makes me so mad…" She tried to stand, as if she was going to go after him, but Remus yanked her back down into her chair.

"It's too early and I have too bad of a headache for vengeance. We'll think of something better later, okay?"

Allya frowned. "Yeah," she said, rubbing her eyes with one hand. "Later."

One late owl flew in through an open window. Ally had yet to receive anything by owl post at Hogwarts, and so was quite surprised to find that it was headed straight for her. The owl- she recognized it immediately- was rather odd: he was huge and perfectly gray, with a white star in the middle of his face, stretching over his beak and violet eyes. He belonged to Allya's Aunt Jenna; his name was Thrakk. As she watched, Thrakk fluttered to a halt in front of her, almost dropping the letter into Ally's orange juice.

"Hello, Thrakk," she said affectionately, smoothing the feathers on the back of his head. "What's this?" Ally asked him, opening it with her knife. The letter inside was short and to the point:

Dear Ally: How are you? I regret to inform you that your parents have been given a particularly difficult case in their careers as Aurors. Don't try to contact them. I've been instructed to give this enclosed letter to you. Don't worry too much, and don't forget to study for your exams like last year, don't let the Potions master get to you, and be careful who you trust with your secrets.

Love always,

Aunt Jenna

Curious, Allya opened the second, smaller envelope and read its contents. It, too, was short and to the point.

Dearest daughter,

We're taking on a dangerous new case against… well, it's against Voldemort. Don't worry about us, we're in good hands. He's nothing more than a man with a disturbed mind; we should have him in a few months. In the meantime we'll be out of touch. We may have to pull you out of school without much notice if something goes wrong, be forewarned and prepared to leave. If you need anything, just ask Aunt Jenna. She's agreed to help you out. We love you, if all goes well we'll see you at Easter.

Love,

Mum and Dad

Allya nodded to herself, chewing her lip, and tucked it away in a pocket of her robes. A few pairs of questioning eyes turned toward her as she scribbled a short note back to her aunt, then gave Thrakk a piece of toast and sent him on his way. "From my aunt," she said, but didn't explain further, and then Allya left the table.

Four painkillers and a glass of water later it was lunchtime, but Ally wasn't hungry. She didn't show up for the meal, and only barely made it to classes on time. She said nothing when anyone questioned her, even Remus, and skipped dinner, too. After finishing every bit of her homework, Astrology included, she went to bed early, refusing even to go out into the castle with Sirius and James and dye Mrs. Norris orange. The only people she talked to about the letters were Lily and Miore, who were only told because Ally couldn't get them off of her back. They were sworn to secrecy immediately.

Wednesday morning, Allya was in the Great Hall before the other Gryffindors. She sat among them and talked a bit when they arrived, but didn't say much. When breakfast was over, she took Remus aside for a few moments, then ran off in the general direction of the next class. Remus, watching her go, looked like someone had used the Stun hex on him; he moved slowly and his face was emotionless. After a while he just followed as everyone else did.

Sirius, who had a rather bad feeling about the whole deal, pulled Remus back before they got to the classroom. "What was that all about?" he asked, something dangerous flashing in his dark eyes. "She didn't- uh, oh, never mind, you can tell me later."

As he continued walking, however, Sirius heard his werewolf friend murmur, "But she did, Sirius. If only you knew what she's done."

CHAPTER TWELVE: MUSINGS

It was still early Wednesday evening when Lily and Miore returned to the Gryffindor tower after dinner. There was a cheerful fire lit in the fireplace of the common room, but there was nothing in the least that was happy about the lone person lying facedown on her bed in the fifth year girls' dorm.

Upon entering the dorm, one could see that Ally had been in too much of a stupor to draw her drapes closed over her bed. She was laying there with her head pillowed on her hands, staring into the wall with such a passion that Miore wondered if she could, perhaps, see straight through it. Of course, that was nonsense, Allya could barely even brew a simple Shrinking solution, making a See Through Walls potion was way beyond her capabilities.

Lily approached Allya quietly, laying a hand on the blonde's shoulder. "Ally… you didn't go and do anything rash, did you?" she asked.

Allya just sniffled and buried her face in the bedspread, unwilling to talk about what she had, in fact, done.

"That's fine if you don't want to talk about it, then," Miore said, vowing to leave Ally to her own problems. "See you in the morning, kiddo."

Ally barely heard Lindsay leaving, too, and the especially quiet, "Any luck?" that she asked before shutting the door behind her.

"She said what?!" Lily exclaimed, in the common room once more. Her fiery red hair had never looked more perfectly in place than now, when she was in a flying rage, ready to bite off someone's head if they said the slightest thing wrong. Sirius was backing away from her slowly, hands raised in the air.

"That's right," he said, doing his best to placate the raving bitch lunatic (A/N: someone else made that creative phrase- raving bitch lunatic- up, not me).

"That's bull!" Lily yelled.

"Really?" Sirius shouted back. "I hadn't noticed." He seemed to be getting control of his temper. "The question is… the question is, what are we going to do about it?"

"We have to tell Remus it's nonsense," Lily responded coolly. "We have to get Allya to tell him the truth… right after you finish your little, um, extracurricular potions. Don't look so shocked. It's not my fault that James talks in his sleep… Sirius! Stop laughing, I didn't mean it like that. I know things even you don't know about James, you really shouldn't be surprised." Lily took a moment to stop for breath and to think a little. "Go, go get Remus. I'll get Allya, and I will get the scoop from three different sides, possibly four, after Astronomy."

It was the last day that they needed to work on the potion. The room behind the portrait of Sir Cadogan was rather full of tension for more than one reason. Remus and Allya refused to look at or directly address each other; somehow they managed without.

"Once you take the potion," Allya said into the silence, "you'll be unconscious for an hour. It's eight o'clock now. Make sure you've added all the right ingredients mentally before you go drinking the potion. I made it wrong the first time; a good thing the house-elf was ready with the antidote or I'd be a goner." At a curious sideways glance from James, she continued, "Yes, I have a bottle of the proper antidote here, just in case. Go on then," Allya finished. "Bottoms up. Good luck…"

The thoughts and snippets of voices inside James' mind felt somewhat reminiscent of the Sorting Hat that had placed him in Gryffindor: a wizened old voice speaking at many different times, answered always, at many different times, by a voice that was not unlike James'. Struggling to hold onto one of the threads of conversation between his deepest secrets and the voice, James listened.

"You've a lot of pride for such a young lad, a lot of honor to uphold," the voice said.

"Runs in the family," answered the voice not unlike James' own. "When Dark Wizards got a whiff of Dad's reputation, they just rolled over and died. They knew that that man's ego was only inflated with truths, unlike that of many others."

"Is that so?" the voice responded. "And what would this father of yours think of you becoming an unregistered Animagus?"

James remained unshaken. "He'd be quite proud of me, I think, sir. Because I'm not doing it for myself, but for a friend. That's always honorable."

"Do you always do the honorable thing?"

There was a pause. "When I take the time to think about it," James answered truthfully.

"Then I know just the animal for you, young James," the voice said, and a flash of light brought him back into being.

Blackness descended upon Sirius, blackness like which he had never known.

Inside of him, a hundred thousand conversations waged war against each other for volume. Every one sparked a bit of interest and curiosity in the young man's mind, every one so intrigued him that he had a hard time listening.

"Strong and quick," someone said. "Cunning, aren't you, boy?"

"I've always liked to think so, sir," Sirius answered.

The voice chuckled. "And not without a sense of humor, either. Comes with a temper, though, I see."

"I'm afraid so. Once when I was small I broke all of the dishes in the house with a single word."

"Don't be afraid, Sirius; you never are otherwise. I know just the animal for you- but watch your temper, young man." And, with a flash of light, the voice disappeared.

He couldn't stop himself from falling. He fell until the end of time, and he kept on going. When, finally, he hit the ground, it wasn't quite as solid as he'd expected. A voice having many simultaneous conversations with another voice- one that sounded like he did- filled Remus' thoughts, and finally he was able to understand a bit of it.

"A werewolf, then?" the old voice asked. "Another werewolf just became an Animagus around eighteen months ago… wouldn't know her, would you, Remus?"

Remus' answer left much to the imagination. "How'd you know I was a werewolf?"

"I can see and hear your thoughts, Moony. It's a simple matter, too, to identify the fact that the potion you drank is different from that your friends have taken."

"Are they okay?" Remus asked.

"Concern," the voice whispered to itself. "Compassion. Courage. Loyalty. You are indeed much like your other werewolf friend. Yes… yes, I believe-"

"But are they okay?" Remus persisted.

"Not to be deterred from his goals, either, I see. Yes, they're fine. Your friend is doing an excellent job on the necessary charms and transfiguration spells; I wouldn't let her out of my sight if I were you, Remus. And, as I was about to say before I was so rudely interrupted-" Remus heard the voice smile- "I know the perfect animal for you. More like your fellow werewolf than you know, Remus…" A blinding strike of something like lightning woke Remus from his musings.

Inside the room behind the portrait of Sir Cadogan, the lone girl finished her incantation. Almost instantly, the three prone figures laying in front of her became animated- James' legs were becoming even longer, his head seemed to be deforming, his dark, unruly hair receding and coming back much lighter. Sirius' hair, which had never really been tamed either, was growing all over the place and his dark eyes, now open, widened, his face changed shape. Remus' transformation was, perhaps, the most subtle of all; his muscles bunched further even than when he became a werewolf, his blue eyes swirled into golden pools and his head widened; all of a sudden he really needed a shave and a haircut: fur in many different tones grew from around his face.

"It is finished." There was the muted sound of a wand hitting the floor. Allya's eyes were tired but excited as she, too, let the animal thoughts creep across her mind. The clock read nine o'clock- three hours until Astronomy.

The lion beside her stretched and yawned in a very animal fashion, careful however not to make too much noise. The white stag at the far side of the room climbed gracefully to his feet; the enormous dog that was nearly as tall as the stag flexed his muscle. In another corner, the she-wolf's muscles coiled, anticipating a bloodbath as her natural prey, the stag, took a few nervous steps backward, but the humans within took full control and the animals bowed to each other.

The customary canine sniffing did not take place between Allya and Sirius, although it occurred to both of them, making them laugh inwardly. Easily the smallest of all of them, Allya's wolf-form barely reached Remus' heavily muscled shoulder; his dark coloring- Ally had never seen an ebony lion before- clashed with her silver, white and gray. Blue eyes met golden-brown and, as animals, the two reconciled.

An exchange of short, quiet bark-yelps between Sirius and Allya revealed that they could, in fact, understand each other, but the other two really had no idea what they were saying. Ally revealed the time, and the four of them returned to human beings.

"What a rush," James said, holding his head. "Shall we get rested before Astronomy?"

And so they did.

Mapping the stars, Sirius reflected, was not the best way to pass the wee hours of the morning or the dead of night. Others would argue that it was the only way to pass the wee hours of morning and late of night; it made no difference whatsoever to Sirius, or wouldn't have if he hadn't been named after them.

Sirius, he thought to himself. The dog star. Coincidence? Maybe. He finished mapping it on his star chart, then returned his gaze to the sky. The moon was out, thankfully not in full-force, or Remus and Allya would be gone and the stars would be practically impossible to see. At least it was easy to spot, with or without the constellations constantly shifting places around it.

James, however, was not stargazing at the moment; rather he was Lily-gazing, and she'd already caught him twice. If this bothered him, he was hiding it well, but the Astronomy professor, Sinistra, had other ideas. With the reprimand still fresh in his mind, he went back to his map, forever plotting the routes of the celestial bodies above.

For the first time in many an Astronomy lesson, Remus was focused. His thoughts wandered not, not to Allya nor to Quidditch, nor to the half-moon above nor even to his newly-discovered Animagus self. Wandering thoughts can be painful, he kept reminding himself. Wandering stars aren't hurting anybody, regardless of what the Divinations prof. will tell you.

"Mars is unusually bright tonight," Allya said quietly from across the circular table.

"What's that?" Sirius asked. "You got some centaur blood in you, Al?" He was peering curiously at her through bloodshot dark eyes; it was fairly obvious that he needed his sleep.

Allya didn't laugh, nor did her eyes stray from the open window above. "Just a feeling of foreboding… bad stuff's going to happen, I know it."

"Divinations master's professional opinion?" Sirius inquired, dropping all mannerisms of teasing.

"Nope," she replied, scribbling in some stars. "Just a feeling. And Mars. Not a good combination, though, if you ask me personally, which you didn't."

"And this has nothing to do with the letter you received today?" Miore said, just to clarify. Remus, whether by design or careless accident, didn't look like he was paying too much attention. Sirius and James' full consideration had been captured for the moment; quills lay forgotten on the table. Lily bit her lip nervously, but as she was done her star map it really didn't matter whether she was caught paying something other than the sky attention anyway.

"It might," Allya admitted, then put the finishing touches on her own map. She stood. "Professor? I'm finished my star chart. If you don't mind, I'm feeling rather drained, could I go back down to the common room?"

The professor seemed to recall something mentioned in an earlier conversation with Dumbledore, and responded almost instantaneously. "Of course, of course. The rest of you, if you're finished, are also excused. Go, go. You all look like you've taken Sleeping Draught and are trying to stay awake."

The students- Gryffindors of many different years (Astronomy was the only class that went by house as opposed to by grade, as it was nearly impossible to fit eight different years in each week) [A/N: Astronomy was supposed to be every other week, wasn't it? Oh well, we'll just say that years 1-4 have Astronomy every other week and the other years have it every week.] hurriedly put the finishing touches on their charts and dragged their feet down to the common room. Most made it up to their dormitories, but a group of fifth years was far too excited to sleep.

"Did you do it?" Lily asked, keen for information on this exciting new development.

"Yep," James answered. "Not a hitch in the whole operation."

"Who'd you get to do the charms?"

"Me," Allya said quietly from the armchair by the fire.

"And you did the transfiguration too, I suppose?"

Allya nodded, yawning.

Lily was a bit confused. "But… um, weren't you… you know, jealous? That they got to be Animagi while you did all the work, I mean. I know I'd be rather peeved."

A small smile crept its way across Ally's sleepy face. "Not jealous. They were the jealous ones. I became an Animagus close to two years ago; had my house-elf do the charms while I was out. Had to take the antidote the first time, though. Told you I was lousy at Potions."

A few tired laughs escaped exhausted mouths as the four others pictured Allya's face with a wolf's teeth growing from her nose and a tail sprouting from her ear. Such things were not uncommon in the quest to become Animagi, and it was a real wonder that the four of them, intelligent as they were, had been able to accomplish it.

"I," Remus stated after a long, pregnant pause, "am going to bed. And I plan on sleeping late for the first time in far too long." He glanced forgivingly at Allya, who shook her head and mouthed, 'Later.' "Good night."

CHAPTER THIRTEEN: SNAPE'S DISCOVERY

The week passed by without further incident until Thursday morning. The day that Sirius Black lost his cool, his temper- in a deadly calm, dangerous sort of way.

Breakfast in the morning seemed like it did every other day, with the simple exception that nobody was teasing Remus and Allya. The group of friends even made it halfway through the meal without a nasty remark one way or another. All of this changed when Severus Snape took a walk by the Gryffindor table.

"How's your father, Black?" an oily voice hissed from behind him. Two low voices laughed stupidly.

Sirius remained silent.

"Sorry; I forgot." The unapologetic boy continued. "He's dead, isn't he?"

More idiotic laughing and a twitch from Sirius, but nothing more. So Snape's father had told him, finally. Sirius had prepared himself for this day, and barely even moved, although the pressure was building inside of him.

"And your pathetic excuse for a father, Potter?"

James' dark eyes froze and he gave Severus a stare that would have made many of the Hogwarts girls cry if they'd been on the receiving end.

"Planning on skipping out of Potions again tomorrow, Loopy?"

"You leave him out of it," Sirius growled, finally responding to a jab to defend his friend. "This is between you, me, James and your bodyguards."

Snape sneered. "I disagree. Loopy's included in your little circle of snotty brats."

"You're only jealous of his popularity with the ladies. You know. The Quidditch fans."

Allya bit her tongue, James squirted orange juice out of his nose, and Remus himself was hard pressed to contain his laughter. He merely nodded.

"I hardly consider these ladies," Snape retorted, gesturing to Ally, Lily and Miore.

Sirius, James and Remus were on their feet in seconds, the girls only microseconds after, holding them back. "Not here," Sirius hissed after he saw the glares he was getting from several teachers. "A fair duel. Tomorrow morning at three in front of the Whomping Willow. You, me and James; bring a second if you so choose. Be there or your honor is compromised."

Snape nodded curtly and left the table in peace. James looked at Sirius. "You know you're screwed over now, right?"

"Oh yes," Sirius nodded. "Aren't we all."

Friday, the eighteenth of November came at the same too slowly and far too fast. Although neither Allya or Remus missed Potions much during their time in the shack on the hill in Hogsmeade, each was rather dreading the confrontation that would surely occur in the early morning hours of that day.

At precisely two o'clock in the morning, two sleepy figures pulled on their heavy cloaks and went to the cozy common room to wait. Madam Pomfrey wasted little time; she appeared at the entrance to the Gryffindor common room at a quarter past and ushered them out into the hallway. Their progress was slow, as they had to make sure nobody saw them in the corridors, but they got to the exit of the school by two thirty, when Madam Pomfrey had to leave them (someone's owl had eaten a bad mouse, gotten a bit wild, and scared a student into falling down the stairs). Of course, that student shouldn't have been in the Owlery at two thirty in the morning anyway, so there was a good deal of trouble.

In the fifth-year Gryffindor boys' dorm, two more people were awake. James and Sirius transformed into their Animagi forms, stepped out onto the balcony, and jumped to the ground. Sirius landed on all four feet, nearly catlike, with his muscles bunched and his senses alert. James was a bit clumsier but quickly regained the balance he lost when his prongs got caught on a low tree branch.

The two friends ran to the willow tree, waiting for the moment when their worst enemy would arrive.

Snape was approximately six meters behind the two werewolves, who, in their heavily cloaked forms, might have resembled James and Sirius; although Ally was much shorter than both of them, the hood of her cloak added the illusion of extra height. Being the arrogant arse he was, he did not think that he would need a second to beat the two cleverest students in fifth year. He had come alone.

At a quarter to three, the clouds parted, revealing the moon.

Sirius nudged James and pointed his animal nose at the sky. James saw what Sirius saw, and then some. In bringing his head back down again, he caught sight of the three robed figures, two of which were doubled over in agony and one of which was cowering in terror, hands over his eyes. In an instant, two more humans were standing not far away, dragging Severus back into Hogwarts, into the entrance hall, leaving him unconscious (he'd fainted) near the Great Hall.

Another transformation; Sirius had prodded the knot on the tree and James was ushering two half-human forms into the space in the roots. The unregistered Animagi ran back to one of their discovered entrances to the school and into their common room, scared out of their minds but, for the moment, safe.

The clouds again covered the moon; Remus and Allya returned to their human forms, gasping.

"That was close," Allya said, shaking out her paw until it reverted to a hand. "Just what I needed. Snape knowing. That ass."

Remus nodded, watching the fur recede from his arms. "Sirius lost his temper the other day; he shouldn't have made tonight the meeting place here. But it's a good thing he and James were early enough, or Snape'd be dead or joining us in the shack every full moon."

Allya sighed and flopped back onto the couch. "I wouldn't mind much if he kicked the bucket," she began as Remus chuckled, "but I might feel guilty if it was me that killed him. And I certainly wouldn't want him in here with us."

"Um, me neither, although I suspect that we may have differing reasons…" This was followed by a conspiratorial wink.

Ally flung a pillow at him. "You're psycho," she said, but she was giggling.

"What, you didn't have fun last time we were in here?"

Her purple eyes dropped. "I never said that," she said, no longer laughing. "That's not it at all."

Remus, too, stopped laughing. "A.J., why did you break up with me?" he asked, looking pained to even be asking the question.

Allya said nothing. She pulled a blanket across her shoulders and looked away, into the back of the room. Finally, she spoke. "I don't know," Ally whispered. It was clear that she was not telling the truth.

"Allya," Remus said, moving from the ripped armchair to sit beside her on the sofa. "You can tell me. You know that. I want to know where I went wrong."

One tear ran down her cheek, but she swiped it away before Remus had a chance to see it. "You never did anything," she said. "You were- are- perfect; there's not a thing about you that I would change even if I could." Allya took a long, shuddering breath. "It's not you, Remus. It's me. It's my family. It's our problems, and it's- everything and nothing, all at the same time."

"So you can't tell me," Remus said sullenly. "I understand." He moved again, this time over to a framed picture on the wall.

There was a long pause, and it seemed like neither one of them would break it. In the predawn darkness, the form of the girl on the couch spoke softly. "I never told anyone why my parents were transferred to Britain," she said. "I was always afraid it would attract too much attention. You know of course, that Sirius' father died a few months back. What you don't know- what you couldn't know, because it's classified information- is that he was brutally murdered." Allya paused. "By Voldemort." She spat the name. "My parents were specially requested by the Ministry of Magic here; recalled from their assignment investigating the dark activities in parts of northern Canada, to aid in searches for the Dark Lords.

"A few days ago I got a letter. They've been transferred specifically to the search for Voldemort. I could be pulled out of school at any time if he decides to turn around and go after them. I have to be ready to leave at any minute. No loose ends."

Comprehension finally dawned on Remus' contemplative face. "They're Aurors," he said. "I'm a loose end." It was not a question.

"My parental units would see it that way." Allya was turned away from him, staring off into space, as another wave of transformational pain hit her body. "That doesn't mean that I do."

The pain that wrought havoc with the werewolves' minds subsided when they were fully canine, yet the usual craziness that came with the curse came not. The two wolves needed only each other's company now to keep themselves sane; they seemed to find comfort in each other on some subliminal level that they could control themselves, even seemed to be able to understand each other in their wolven forms.

An incredibly sad-looking black and silver wolf curled up in a corner, grunting softly as if to say, 'I understand.' The white, gray and silver wolf on the opposite side of the room let loose a mournful howl, and he joined her crying until early on Saturday morning.

Friday morning was a trying one for Sirius, James and Severus Snape. Professor Dumbledore himself decided to deal with the problem; he came for them during the first Potions lesson, much to Professor Snape's disgust. ("Those two are already horrible at Potions," he muttered.)

"Please explain this morning's activities," Dumbledore said quietly.

James looked at his feet, ashamed that he had been caught out of bounds, especially by his role model.

"Sir, please allow me." It was Sirius. He explained everything without putting emphasis on Snape's stinging insults, excluding all parts about Animagi: the challenge, spotting Allya and Remus, the full moon, Snape nearby, and getting the two wolves into the passage beneath the Whomping Willow, even though that included admitting that they knew about it.

"It seems as if you three have had quite the morning," Dumbledore commented. "Here is my decision. Severus, for the taunts against your fellow students I am taking fifty points from Slytherin, and another ten for being out of bed and sneaking around at night. James, Sirius, twenty points from Gryffindor for being out of bed. Get back to classes, all of you," Dumbledore finished with a stare. "And Severus," he added as an afterthought, "this werewolf business is to be kept as absolutely confidential information. You are to tell no one."

Severus looked furious. "Yes, professor." The three left without another word.

Dumbledore leaned back in his chair, writing the point deductions down on a slip of paper… but not before modifying the report a bit.

Fifty points from Slytherin for rude and cruel remarks to students in the Gryffindor house.

Ten points from Slytherin: one student out of bed.

Twenty points from Gryffindor: two students out of bed.

Fifty points to Gryffindor: heroic courage in the face of danger, prevention of

damage to another student's life.

Dumbledore shut the record book and smiled to himself. Perhaps it wouldn't be such a bad day after all.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN: THE MARAUDERS

Come Friday evening, Sirius and James had made up for the points they thought that they had lost by being out of bed in Transfiguration and Herbology. They ate dinner in such a rush that passers-by who hadn't seen breakfast or lunch might have thought the boys had been starved.

At half past eleven, they sneaked out of the castle and became animals once more. Sirius, closer than James to the Whomping Willow, leaped up and pressed the knot with his paw, halting the tree's branches. He and James barely managed to squeeze into the space between the roots of the tree, and they reached the shack a few minutes later.

There were no strange, pained noises coming from the Shrieking Shack at the end of the tunnel. In fact, when James and Sirius arrived, the two wolves inside were half-asleep, growling softly to each other in the darkness.

Sirius gave the dog's equivalent of an expression of disbelief. Allya looked up, her facial expression- simple for Sirius to read, as he too was canine- clearly stating, 'It took you long enough!'

James looked a bit confused at first, then seemed to catch on a bit to what the dogs were 'saying' to each other. The four of them left the shack through the secret passage, hurrying out from the Whomping Willow's roots so as not to get walloped by its dangerous branches.

Four animals- three canines and a large stag- crept soundlessly over the Hogwarts grounds, two dark and two light. A keen observer would have seen that two of the canines were not merely hounds but wolves, and by the way their teeth glinted in the light of the full moon and taking into consideration the unusually shaped silver markings that were almost scar-like on the smaller one, they weren't ordinary wolves. What looked on Allya like a normal scar as a human was translated into a shorter, softer patch of silvery fur as a wolf (or werewolf, depending on whether or not there was a full moon at the time). The larger wolf, too, had his share of scars; a long one ran from his left shoulder all the way to his left hip.

The stag, the observer would find, was a quick study on the language of the dogs, for although he certainly could not speak it he could understand it; he knew what they were saying, what they were planning. He and the large dog- not the werewolf- seemed to be leading the other two, who kept up the pace between their less-crazed friends.

However, on this night, deep in the Forbidden Forest, there was neither keen nor casual observer, at least none that were human. The four friends passed three stargazing centaurs and two unicorns, avoided being eaten by three giant spiders, met three other wolves- wild, but not were- and discovered three passageways back into Hogwarts. At around four o'clock Saturday morning, the leaders brought the wolves back to the Shrieking Shack and used one of the passageways to get back to the Gryffindor tower.

Late Sunday afternoon, two very tired but very excited students were released from the Shrieking Shack. They were quiet at dinner- extraordinarily so, even for those two. Snape walked by, both professor and student, scowling deeply, but neither werewolf seemed to notice in the slightest. This probably agitated the Snapes further, but as they were horrible stinking Slytherins anyway, nobody really cared.

After finishing supper, four exhausted but satisfied Animagi retreated to their hiding place behind the portrait of Sir Cadogan. Allya promptly sat herself down on the floor and leaned back against the wall. "I'm so tired I could just die."

"Better not," James advised. "We have a hard enough time getting here unnoticed without having to carry your dead body."

Ally scowled. "You can use the Invisibility Cloak, remember?" She yawned.

"You've got to admit," James said, "we got a lot of scouting done last night. I bet we know more about the castle than Filch by now."

"The man has a point." Sirius nodded thoughtfully. "We really should write this all down somehow…"

Remus pulled a piece of parchment with some sort of plan on it from his backpack. "Got it from Filch's office in fourth year that time we set off dungbombs in the kitchen. It's a blueprint of the castle, not including the secret passageways."

James rubbed his hands together thoughtfully. "You know, this idea has merit…"

Remus pulled something else from his backpack. "And this," he continued, "is a map of the school including the passages we know about. But it isn't finished just yet." He handed it to Sirius, who examined it thoughtfully.

"This could be good… but it has to be special somehow," Sirius said finally. "Maybe it could show the actions on how to open the secret passageways?"

James added, "Or the locations of the teachers. And students," he tacked on, thinking of Severus Snape.

There was a sudden bump from the corner Allya was sitting in. Three curious heads turned to see her slumped against the wall, eyes closed and breathing deeply, fast asleep.

"Wake up," Remus said, prodding her with his toe. "We've just had a brainstorming session."

Allya groaned. "Already?" She opened a blue-white eye, saw the maps, and sat up straight. "Explain."

They did, and Ally grinned. "Maybe we could even put a little of ourselves in it somehow… You know," she clarified, "like we make it invisible unless someone says the correct phrase. Or give it four personalities, one for each of us."

"That could take some complicated charms," Sirius said, "but it's worth it. Let's go for it."

"Count me in," Remus said. "Invisible-visible text and graphic charms are easy anyway. The real trick'll be the moving figures."

"It's perfect," James said. "I'm in. Al?"

"No way am I letting you guys do this without me." She grinned. "Not that you couldn't."

They slept better that night than they had ever slept before.

Until ten after four in the morning.

Allya couldn't sleep in the girl's dormitory, and it had nothing to do with Adrienne Grimsby's snoring, either. She walked dazedly down the steps to the common room, dragging her blanket with her and flopping down into the armchair by the fireplace.

A muffled murmur of protest escaped from beneath Allya's blanket; something reached up and seized her sides, tickling her mercilessly. Finally she got away, dragging herself into the chair opposite the boy she'd sat on.

"You couldn't sleep either, huh?" Remus asked.

"Nope," Ally said, yawning. "Four ten Monday morning. You know the usual routine. No sleeping in the dorm after ten past four on Monday mornings."

"Yep, that's basically it," Remus admitted. "Add that to the fact that we went to bed at around nine thirty…" He glanced unconsciously at the fireplace, then at the spot beside him where Ally used to sit, then yawned.

"Early, I know," Allya said, unable to stop another yawn from taking over her words, and noticing Remus' furtive look. "What the hell. Just for old time's sake." She sat down beside him, and they promptly fell asleep.

No one dared comment on that morning's activities for fear of being decapitated by Remus or Allya. James, Sirius, Lily and Miore were even warning people not to; although neither werewolf knew it, they were trying to get them together again.

Breakfast went by in typical Monday-morning fashion, and then everyone trekked off to their classes, still yawning.

In the specially modified and protected classroom that was Muggle Studies 101, heads were dropping like flies in summer heat. Ally, Remus, James and Sirius were actually the only ones who were awake for the entire lecture on the amazing invention known as the air conditioner, but when Professor Gander tested it out, the class started freezing. It was, after all, the middle of November.

Divination was also a drag; Professor Trelawney was teaching them how to, "Read the signs in every day life, my dears." Even Ally turned out to be miserable at this, and she was an exceptional Divination student. (Perhaps the poor mark Professor Trelawney gave her was partially due to her predicting that Trelawney would fall; five minutes later our dear professor tripped over her ornate rug and pretended that she hadn't heard Ally's prediction.)

There was lunch, lasagna and garlic bread with real Italian ice cream for dessert, and then Charms, with tiny Professor Flitwick.

Ironically enough, Flitwick began the lesson with a talk on representation charms: how to conjure a representation of an object for a report, blueprint, map, etc. These were quite complicated, however, and by the end of the double lesson only Lily had been able to create one that would move.

There was a half hour before dinner; in the Gryffindor common room, Lily was being let in on the plan for the map. Sort of. Mostly, the future marauders were feeding her bits and pieces of information for tips on the representation charms. James figured it'd be good for his strategy talks before Quidditch matches anyway, although the next one was Ravenclaw versus Hufflepuff.

Allya put her wand away, frustrated. "Too bad Esipret hasn't found a replacement for this particular charm," she grumbled. "Esipret. Damn him, anyway."

Sirius looked extremely offended. "No! Never."

Allya shrugged. "Okay, never." She considered for a moment. "But, I am discovering limitations on the Goo stuff…"

"Such as?" James inquired.

Ally began ticking off items on her fingers. "One: the Esipret's Goo won't make the victim do any harm to himself or others. I tried getting Snape to pick a fight with his goons; that didn't work at all. Two: exactly. Two hours. He'll only stay away for two hours, and then I have to apply it all over again! It's so damn frustrating!"

"You mean that it's not as bad as the Imperius curse. That's good, because if it was it'd be illegal anyway," Lily said.

Allya considered. "Well, I guess that makes sense. The dancing and the banishing was good enough for me. Anyway, that's probably why I can't find any in Britain."

"Probably," Remus agreed, successfully making a moving representation. "Excellent. Now all we need to do is figure out how to represent everyone on the Hogwarts grounds…"

CHAPTER FIFTEEN: SOMETHING FISHY

Tuesday morning began with an early breakfast for most people and an early Quidditch practice for the Ravenclaws. James and Sirius walked slowly to breakfast, and if one followed them closely enough it would be possible to overhear bits and pieces of their conversation.

"'Prongs'," Sirius finally said, after a long pause. James looked dubious. "Well, think about it," he continued. "I mean, it fits, right? With the antlers and everything. And that one time in second year Transfiguration when you messed up that rabbit, and it had horns? If anyone overhears someone call you that, we can attribute it to that little incident."

"I like it," James finally said. "Now all I have to do is convince you that 'Padfoot' really isn't so bad after all. It fits you, too, if you think about it. Moony's already got one... what are we going to do about Allya, though?"

"What about me?" she asked, coming up behind them, followed closely by Lily and Miore.

"Moony already has one what?" Lily asked.

"'Moony'?" Miore asked, puzzled. "Oh, you mean Remus..."

James and Sirius looked aghast. "A nickname, but... how did you-"

"The challenge," Lily interrupted. "She decided to watch the whole thing from the balcony of the girls' dorm. Her scream woke me up."

"And you've come to grips with this information, I take it," James said, noting that there seemed to be very little tension between Ally and Miore.

She nodded. "A bit of a shocker, but it explains a lot."

"Good. Now, about the nickname," Sirius continued, reaching the entrance to the Great Hall.

"Oh, yes," the blonde answered, reaching into her bag. "I forgot that I hadn't introduced you to my latest creation..." She pulled out a long, hollow, rectangular piece of wood that contained small blocks with letters on them. "Please meet... the nickname generator."

Sitting down now at the Gryffindor table and waiting for the meal to begin, Sirius looked at her skeptically. "What? You wave your wand, say a name, and it comes up with a proper nickname?"

Allya shook her head. "Nope. You take out the blocks and rearrange them until you find something you like. That's a good idea, though." Seeing the look on Sirius' face, she had to smile. "Okay, okay. It works like you said, and I didn't create it. Credit goes to good old Esipret. And it's his first invention, an unpopular one. I got it for my birthday when I was five. A bit of a good-luck charm."

"How does it work?" Lily asked, examining it carefully.

"Like this." Ally pulled out her wand and tapped the end to the generator. "Tuelo scallame Lily!" she said softly. The silvery letters started to glow and move, and James' eyes followed them closely.

"S," he spelled. "P - A- What? Spank me? Ow!" Lily had hit him. "Just kidding! Um, R - K - Y. 'Sparky'?" he grinned a feral grin. "Ooh. That's a good one..."

Lily's face was as red as her hair. "Sparky?" she said incredulously, ready to throw the NG out the window. "Sparky!? I'll show you Sparky!" She picked it up, aimed it carefully at Snape's head... and sat down again. "You're right, it fits."

"You know," Ally said offhandedly, looking in the direction of the Slytherin table, where Snape was busy making cruel remarks to Hufflepuffs, "you really should have let us kill him..."

Defense Against the Dark Arts, with Professor Lorell, was a rather unpredictable class. One day she would bring in something truly dangerous, like a wraith- a creature that could exist only in shadow, nearly invisible save for its teeth and claws, and also possessed the magic to force its victim to drop off to sleep. The next lesson would be something simple- or seemingly so. The Cornish Pixy incident was truly a disaster.

On this crisp November day, Professor Lorell was sitting behind her large desk- proportional to her size, perhaps; she was well over six feet tall, with broad shoulders and dark, boring eyes. Her hair was a sort of dirty blonde color, and she had a somewhat overlarge nose.

The classroom seemed to have something of a permeating stink to it. Part of this was due to the limp, dead sea creatures that were laid out on each pair of desks.

"Disgusting," Miore exclaimed, holding her nose as everyone sat down. "What is that, anyway?"

The other fifth-year Gryffindors seemed to agree with her. Even Lily was at a loss as to the uses of the rotting fish. When Professor Lorell explained that these were flubberfish, a distant relative of flobberworms, and that their bones could be ground down to a fine powder that would heal any curse-inflicted wounds (excepting Avada Kedavra), the class set to work separating the decomposing flesh from the bones.

This proved to be the longest and easily the most horrendous Defense Against the Dark Arts class that Remus had ever participated in. The first hour and a half was spent de-boning the fish; the second half was basically the exacting procedure of grinding up the remains. The professor then let the students leave early, as they all smelled rather like the flubberfish and needed showers.

Lunch was, by this time, not a very enticing prospect. The Gryffindor fifth-years were not too happy with the selection on the menu, either: grilled salmon. It tended to remind them of flubberfish. There were many filled plates as they trekked off to their next class.

Everyone used History of Magic, with the long-dead Professor Binns, as a sort of sleep-substitute. Nobody managed to actually get sleep, but the bored stupor that came naturally with the professor was the next closest thing. Remus even had a dream- a very odd dream, one involving fish, food poisoning, and a much-hated Professor Snape.

When the bell rang, signaling the end of class, Remus and a few other Gryffindors moved to get their things- and stopped dead in their tracks. The Hufflepuffs in their class were all sloped over their desks, unmoving. "Someone call Madam Pomfrey," Lily shouted nervously, and Lindsay ran out of the room, tripping over her feet as she went.

Lindsay came back alone a few moments later. "Madam Pomfrey's out cold," she said, her hair in disarray and her brown eyes wide with fright. "And I didn't see anyone else in the hallway, even though it's break..."

James, who had been pacing at the front of the classroom, finally looked up. "Anybody remember the levitation charm?"

Lily nodded. "Mobilicorpus," she said, pointing her wand at the nearest Hufflepuff. She picked up three more with the charm, then said, "James, Sirius, Andy: get the rest of them, we're bringing them to the hospital wing. Remus and Allya, you two had better get working on those representation charms." She looked at them meaningfully until Remus' face dawned with understanding, then continued. "Miore, Lindsay, Adrienne, go out into the halls and see if anyone else is still walking around. Bring them to meet us in the hospital wing."

Remus looked at Allya. Allya looked at Remus. They swallowed hard. "I think it's time for desperate measures," she said. "I know we didn't want to be represented on this map, but it's the quickest way."

Remus nodded. "I do solemnly swear that I am up to no good," he said, tapped the map and watched the lines appear.

James and Sirius had taken care of the invisible-visible charm, and a few of the representation charms; all that remained was the personality charm. The thing was, with representation charms, only one person could be represented at once. Unless...

"Represente totalus," the two of them said together, touching the tips of their wands. The Marauder's Map seemed to glow for a second; sparks and sparkles shot from the wand ends to the paper, and after a moment, the box representing the History of Magic classroom was filled with two small dots, labeled Remus Lupin and Allya Nightrunner.

"Potions lab," Remus said. "Great Hall, hospital wing, Muggle Studies room, Divination, Herbology all have moving dots. Let's go. Mischief managed," he added to the map as they set off through the corridors.

They played rock, paper, scissors to see which unfortunate soul got to knock on the door to the Potions lab, as Snape was still unaffected and moving around. Ally lost; she knocked on the door firmly and entered when the professor's voice bade her to do so.

"What do you want, Nightrunner?" he demanded, glowering.

Ally braced herself, doing her best- miserably- to show no fear. "Sir, forgive me for interrupting you, but... half of our History of Magic class passed out during the lesson, and-"

Snape looked concerned for a moment, but then he sneered. "Unsurprising, given that fool Binns' tendency to ramble... is that all?" he asked.

"Sir, when the bell rang, none of the Hufflepuffs in the class got up. Lindsay found Madam Pomfrey unconscious in the hospital wing when she went to get help for them." Ally's fear was beginning to show.

"Very well," Snape growled. "Where are they now?"

"Hospital wing," A.J. replied, sighing in relief. "Except for those of us who are still looking around for... people who weren't affected," she finished lamely.

Snape left in a hurry, and Remus and Allya headed towards the Divination classroom with all the speed they could muster. Professor Trelawney insisted- although it was doubtful- that the Fates had informed her of the crisis and warned her not to eat any of the fish- which did, indeed, seem to be the problem, for Remus knew that Professor Sprout was a vegetarian and Professor Gander was allergic to salmon. After gathering those two and a somewhat ruffled Professor Dumbledore, who had been in the Great Hall for reasons unknown, everyone gathered in the hospital wing.

Professor Dumbledore raised his wand and immediately the unconscious students levitated once more. He sent them back to their common room slowly, then took four antidotal bottles from a cupboard next to the slumped-over form of Madam Pomfrey. "This," he said, "is most certainly not good." He gave a bottle each to Snape, Sprout, and Gander, sending them to place the antidote on all of the students they met. "Food poisoning," he muttered to himself. "What is food poisoning doing here at Hogwarts?"

"Sir?" Lily asked cautiously. "The fourth bottle- couldn't we get to everyone faster if we used it, too?"

"Hmm?" Dumbledore asked. "Oh, yes of course. Lily, did you happen to notice what time everyone started passing out?"

Lily thought a moment. "Just before break, or maybe when the bell rang... Why?"

Dumbledore handed her the bottle. "You're a Prefect, and I trust you," he said. "Some people may have been released early and gotten back to their common rooms. Go to them- Slytherin's password is 'powerlust,' I believe; Ravenclaw has 'simply ducky' and I'm quite sure that Hufflepuff's is 'funky dingbat.' See if anyone's in there, and revive them, if you would."

Lily took a moment to memorize the passwords. "And the Ravenclaw entrance; I don't know where that is-"

"Fourth suit of armor to the left of the picture of fruit; you have to pull on the battle axe. Go!" Sirius said, shooing her away.

Dumbledore looked at Sirius. Sirius did not look at Dumbledore, but Dumbledore waited for an explanation anyway. "Had a Ravenclaw girlfriend last year," he muttered, looking at his toes.

James cracked a smile for the first time since breakfast, and the last one he would smile all day.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN: RECOVERY

The students and teachers at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry were mostly sleeping in on the morning of Wednesday, November the 23rd. They were not sleeping for an ordinary reason, for the day before, most had been poisoned somehow and needed to sleep it off. It was Professor Lorell who found the cause of the illness, once she awoke late Tuesday afternoon. It seemed that, somehow, the flesh of the flubberfish she used in her Defense Against the Dark Arts class with the Gryffindors had somehow managed to be placed, in sparing amounts, on each and every student and teacher's plate. Everyone knew- or rather, every fisherman, adult, and teacher knew, and some students knew- that flubberfish flesh was extremely poisonous and that the only good thing about flubberfish at all was the strange way the bones could heal curse-inflicted wounds. It was a lucky thing that Lily had acted when she did, or most of the school would have died.

That was not what was special about Wednesday, the 23rd of November. Wednesday, the 23rd of November was special for another reason.

It was Sirius Black's birthday, and he, too, was sleeping in.

The eight other fifth-year Gryffindors were not.

Allya and Remus sneaked quietly through the extraordinarily quiet common room- it wasn't a Monday and they hadn't been making out in the armchair by the fireplace; they never made out in the armchair by the fireplace- but they were planning something fun for this morning. Streamers, balloons, banners and other decorations flew every which way from the tips of the two wands- redwood and ash, thirteen and eleven and a quarter inches. When the decorating of the common room was done, the two of them tiptoed quietly upstairs, to Remus' dorm, where others who were in on the secret were making other preparations.

Lily was preparing a spell similar in many ways to one she'd used earlier that week. Sirius floated, still asleep, to the doorway and through where it was being held open by Allya. He floated down through the common room and up through the stairs to the girls' dorm. Lily allowed herself a small smile, then let him drop on the bed two places away from the window. Miore came back in from moving Sirius' gifts to the common room, then Remus hid under Lily's bed, waving the tail from a black and silver lion Halloween costume, winking at Allya as he went. James laid out some black and white feathers on the floor in strategic places, grabbing the rest and pulling the bag under the bed, where he hid next to Remus, who (unbeknownst to Adrienne, Lindsay, and Miore) was already in his Animagus form.

At a point of a wand and the mutter of a word, Sirius' alarmclock flew through the open door, which then clicked shut. The clock rang, and Sirius Black awoke to what he believed was the strangest dream he'd ever had.

The first thing he noticed, even before he opened his eyes, was that he was not alone in his bed. Naturally this caused some mild alarm, looking beside him to find a peacefully dozing Miore. I wonder what I ate last night, he wondered. I didn't have any chocolate... This is a dream, right? Sirius pinched himself, surprised to find that it actually hurt. He had to move his arms to do this, though, and as he did so he was relieved to find that both he and Miore were fully clothed. "I'm dreaming..."

Sirius' eyes fell on the rest of the dormitory as his alarm rose. Four more apparently sleeping forms filled the room- four female forms. "I have a bad feeling about this," he muttered. Then he spotted the tail.

Nothing abnormal registered at first, but then... the tail began to twitch, stirring up the feathers on the floor. There's a lion under Lily's bed! Sirius thought, as a sweat broke out on his forehead. Wait a minute... since when do lions have feathers? A screech came from under the covers, but none of the girls woke up. A gryffin! (sp?) he thought. "Miore... Miore, wake up..."

Miore stirred a bit, moved closer to him and put her arms around his, talking incoherently in her sleep.

"Allya?" Sirius spotted her sleeping form by the window. "Ally... Lily... Lindsay!" he said loudly. "Adrienne! Miore! Wake up!" Sirius jumped off of the bed, making a dash for the door. Just then, the tail retreated under the bed, a loud growl erupted (back under the bed, Remus transformed back into a human)- and launched himself at Sirius, who yelled.

Allya started laughing first, then James dragged himself out from under Lily's bed, hiccoughing furiously. Lily was rolling over on herself, consumed by giggles, pounding her pillow, and she very nearly fell right off of the bed, which set them all off harder. Andy, who had been a spectator for the whole thing, crawled out from under Miore's bed- the one Sirius had just been sleeping in- and the big smile Miore was wearing was well worth the embarrassment, Sirius thought. Lindsay and Adrienne grinned and winked, and Sirius conceded the point.

"You win," he said, raising his hands. "Who organized this one?" he asked.

Remus stepped forwards. "I, Remus the Great," he answered, giving a bow. "Thank you, performances held every hour, on the hour, specializing in rampaging magical creatures..."

A loud 'a-hem!' was shared unanimously throughout the room.

Remus looked a bit sheepish. "Well, James, Lily and Ally helped... everyone else added something to the original plan... You have to admit," he said, looking at Sirius, "we got you pretty good."

"You got me," Sirius agreed. "I've learned my lesson. No more practical jokes-" Lily actually did fall off of her bed- "no more dungbombs in the corridors-" James and Remus stopped smiling- "no more dyeing Mrs. Norris orange, or making fun of Snape Jr. or Sr., and-" Sirius stopped and looked at everyone. Allya looked like she was ready to cry. "I'm only kidding!" he said. "Who wants breakfast?"

Eight students left the fifth-year girls' dorm after Sirius and shouted, "Happy birthday!"

After the giving and receiving of Sirius' gifts, which included a tube of Esipret's from Allya's cherished reserves, a great deal of candy, dungbombs, and Dr Filibuster's Fabulous, No Heat, Wet-Start Fireworks (or whatever they're called), a very interesting book on Animagi, and a good number of gags, the troupe set off for breakfast.

The whole school, it seemed, had recovered by breakfast, and Dumbledore was even at that moment speaking with a representative from the Ministry of Magic, trying to figure out if the incident had, in fact, been accidental or planned. When the fifth-year Gryffindors came in for breakfast, he waved them over, a grim look upon his old- yet somehow youthful- face.

After explaining to Ms. Gefrindger- several times, actually- exactly what they had seen, heard, done, et cetera, et cetera, seemingly without end, and being interrupted a good many times as well, Sirius, Lily, James, Andy, Adrienne, Ally, Remus, Miore and Lindsay were finally free to eat, but they only had five minutes until the next class anyway, so they grabbed toast and ran out through the hallways.

The day passed by in a blinding flash; nightfall came and no one had been blamed, as of that time, for the poisoning of dozens upon dozens of teachers and students. Astronomy was cancelled, as everyone was too tired to go, and most people had fallen asleep during either lunch, dinner, or the class between already, a lingering effect of the food poisoning.

A few of the Gryffindor fifth-years who were not at all tired included Lily, Sirius, Remus, James and Allya. These five cheerfully brought out the Marauder's Map and began working the personality charm. They had everything figured out by eleven o'clock, but there was one matter still to be resolved- aliases.

Quite obviously, Remus, Sirius and James had chosen Moony, Padfoot and Prongs... but there was also the matter of Ally's alter ego to be resolved, plus the addition of Lily (if she wished it).

As the topic of conversation wandered, Remus found that his interest piqued in something rather peculiar- to him, anyway. The nature of Ally's wand.

"Thirteen inches," she said softly, "of redwood and phoenix tailfeather. Why?"

Remus shrugged. "Mostly because I've never seen one quite like it before. I know," he added hastily, "that no two wands are really alike, but... well..." A. J. held out her wand for him to take. Remus turned it over carefully. "Redwood..." he said slowly. (A/N: This is where my nickname comes in... no, I don't think I'm Allya...I'm not really like her in any other way besides the Canadian thing. I'm not having an identity crisis. I just like the names. If you've got a better nickname for Ally I'd be glad to hear it.) "Big ass trees that grow on the coast of California?" Moony asked (sorry Franimal... couldn't resist...).

"One and the same," Allya said. "Why do I have a bad feeling about this and where it's going?"

Moony, Redwood, Padfoot & Prongs suddenly replaced the words that had graced the top of the map moments before- the personalities had made their decision. Moments ago, it had read Moony, A.J, Padfoot & Prongs- it had been decided that 'Padfoot & Prongs' was, in fact, quite catchy.

Allya groaned, but decided to give credit where credit was due. With a wave of the wand that had granted her her nickname, she added, 'Created with the help and encouragement of our dear friend Sparky.' Then, she smiled.

James, who had her wand now, murmured, "Orchideous," and flowers shot out the end; brilliant red with flecks of gold. He tossed them to Lily, who turned that same color, but not before saying thank you. "Is there a story behind this wand?" Prongs asked, looking over the exceptionally long confection of phoenix feather and redwood. It seemed somehow older than Allya, and he wondered if his suspicion would prove true.

"There is," Allya said slowly, preparing to launch into a long monologue. "But to understand it, one must understand the strange line of witches and wizards known as the Jades...

"It was some time ago," the blonde began. "Before my time, before our time, when my mother, my true mother," she added for effect, "was only seventeen years old."

"You're adopted?" Sirius asked in wonder. Ally merely nodded.

"When my birth mother was seventeen years old, she had a friend- a beautiful, brilliant friend, gifted in Divination and Transfiguration. A true Seer. And her name was Allya Jade." A few startled expressions appeared, and Allya let the tale come forwards, flowing as words never had from her before. "Allya- or Blue, as they called her at school- was actually gifted at everything. They sent her off to the finest wizarding university in North America two years earlier than most would go, and she graduated from there a year ahead of schedule."

"Your birth mother was Canadian? I thought you were born in Britain, went to Canada, and returned?"

Ally looked apologetic. "Around here, when it's possible that there's more than one Lucius Malfoy or Severus Snape, you don't go around broadcasting the fact that you're adopted," she explained. "And after that one time... well, you never really asked.

"Anyway... Allya Jade became an Auror. The best one Canada's ever seen, and I wouldn't be surprised if she has more than one namesake. But when she was twenty-five, something happened to her. An unexpected attack. She went more than just slightly insane."

"She couldn't have been an Auror for very long, then," Lily reasoned, still holding her flowers. "I mean... could she? She must have been very good to get so well-known in only a few years."

"As she was a harmless, crazy young witch, with much of her life in front of her, nobody was really surprised when she started a second profession. Many people do when they start their life anew. But what she chose..." Allya looked confused. "Well, anyway. All of Jade's family before her had to have specially crafted wands, wands made of one special wood."

"Redwood," Remus supplied.

"Right," Allya said. "But Blue was different. The profession she chose was wand-making, and the one she crafted for herself after the accident in which she lost her sanity... was made of cedar." None of the others seemed to find this odd. "My mother went to visit her once on one of the days Jade was feeling especially lunatic-y. Ally gave her her old wand- this wand," Allya amended, holding it up, "telling her that, when the time was right, she would know what to do with it. And that was the last time that anyone saw Allya Jade alive.

"I don't remember anything of that, as I wasn't born yet. My mother died during childbirth; my father died before that, even. A note was left with me at the orphanage, to whoever would adopt me. I was so young I don't remember, but the clearest memory I have of my childhood..." Allya shook her head, momentarily stunned that she was actually going to say this. "I was seven years old," she said, "and rooting through one of the drawers in my adopted mother's old wardrobe, the one she kept the useless junk in. I stumbled upon a book- her old diary- and read the entry from the day she adopted me. The part I remember most clearly said, 'I've decided to keep the child's name. It's 'Allya Jade', and it is truly beautiful, especially considering the story behind it.' It also contained my mother's letter, in an envelope thirteen inches long, which is where I learned the whole story from. And one more thing."

"The wand," Sirius said in wonder. "The envelope contained the wand-"

"And that's when my adopted mother came in, and when I learned all about being adopted, although I'd suspected it in the first place. My adopted parents are both redheads, and so's almost every other member of their family."

"You seem to have inherited your namesake's attributes, A.J.," Remus pointed out devilishly.

"Such as?" Ally challenged, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, first there's the lack of lucidity-" Remus was smacked lightly- "and the beautiful part-" another smack was withheld by Lily and Sirius simultaneously- "and the brilliant part, especially Divination and Transfiguration."

"Ha!" Allya snorted. "Is there anyone here that would testify to my brilliance in, say, Potions, Muggle Studies, or Herbology?" No one spoke, and Allya grinned, knowing she'd won for the moment. "Good. I'm going to bed. Coming, Lily, or should I not expect to have someone to talk to tonight?"

Lily blushed furiously, then narrowed her brilliantly green eyes at James' wink. He shrank back as if in terror, but she leaned forward and kissed him goodnight. "Coming," she called to Allya, and the five remaining Gryffindors went to bed.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: DEAR RECIPIENT

Christmas was rapidly approaching. Nearly everyone had forgotten about the food poisoning, and nobody had been blamed at all. All was well in Gryffindor, even with the fifth and seventh years, who would take their OWLs and NEWTs come the beginning of June. It was, after all, only December.

Snow fell steadily all day on the thirteenth. By dinner, it was up to the windowsills on the first floor. Prongs said something about a midnight snowball fight, and the plans began...

The Marauders assembled in the Gryffindor common room at around eleven that Tuesday night. Lily had spent several hours after dinner trying to convince James not to go- she was terrified, really, that he'd be expelled, or worse, killed, on one of these missions into the unknown and Forbidden Forest, but for once he did not heed her words. Thus, at quarter past eleven, four animals- a lion, two canines- one nearly as large as a bear- and a stag all fell like snowflakes down into the three-and-a-half feet deep snow.

The stag was in the lead- although he could understand only a bit of the canine language (and the lion spoke "dog" as well, however difficult it may have been to process through a feline's voicebox), he was the de facto leader, a quality he was secretly proud of. The white wolf, though silver- and black-spotted, was difficult to see; she was also the smallest of all the Animagi assembled. Allya hung back a bit, making sure that no one was following, before the lion- Remus- and the dog- Sirius- escorted the James through the opening in the trees.

Something is very wrong here, Sirius sensed, communicating his sentiments through the rough but quiet language.

Wrong here, James understood, but he, Remus and Allya knew what Sirius meant. There was an odd stillness to- everything. It could've been the snow, of course, but... it was creepy. Not a twig stirred, although the wind seemed cold, the snow didn't move either. Remus and Allya were hunched over now, growling, their backs turned to each other and facing outward of the little group.

I don't like this, the she-wolf admitted. I really don't like this...

Remus' black and silver streaked tail twitched nervously. Even if the snow fell today and yesterday... shouldn't there be some sign of life? A pawprint? Bird droppings?

Even the winter birds seemed to be somewhere else.

I'm going back inside, Allya declared. This is way too creepy.

James, Remus and Sirius were extraordinarily relieved that they didn't have to be the one to suggest returning. I've got your back, Remus growled.

Right behind you, Moony, Sirius woofed, and James kept up with their hurried pace (albeit with a bit of difficulty, as it was getting hard to feel his hooves).

When they got back to the castle, it was only a quarter to twelve. They entered through a secret passageway that led from a dead rosebush directly to the Fat Lady, who was awake drinking with her friend, Violet, from downstairs. From there it was straight to bed, and Allya wasn't the only one who woke up in the middle of the night from a bad dream.

By the time Wednesday rolled around, a full-fledged storm was raging outside Hogwarts. At breakfast, the usual flood of owls crowded into the Great Hall. One particularly large owl by the name of Thrakk appeared, looking solemn and ominous, and lit upon Allya's shoulder. She took the parchment from around his leg with only minor difficulty (he was sitting on her wand arm) and fed him a piece of toast, but he didn't leave.

"Who's it from?" Sparky asked curiously.

Allya examined the seal on the roll. "The Ministry of Magic..."

"Uh-oh," Sirius said. "Haven't done anything illegal now, have you?"

"And this one," she continued, pulling another roll of parchment from inside the first, "is from my aunt... Well, first things first, anyway," she said, slitting open the Ministry's letter.

Dear Recipient,

Allya read, not saying anything, silent even when asked what the letter said. Without looking up, she split the seal on the second parchment, not noticing when the letter-opener cut a gash in the flesh from her left middle finger to her palm.

"You look even more scared than you did last night, A.J.," Sirius said, thinking it was for her ears only- someone overheard. "Like you've seen a ghost... whooo!" It was the most immature thing he'd said all year, but that's not what upset her.

Remus looked at her for a moment, and saw something silvery slide down her cheek. Sirius and James never noticed, of course, but that didn't matter to him. Not in the slightest.

Allya got up unseeingly from the table, her eyes the creamy white they could go when she was confused, tired or distressed. Her long blonde hair flew out straight behind her in a curtain as she ran. Remus looked at Sirius, who suddenly appeared to have gone speechless- a small miracle- and then he ran like he never had in his life.

Dear Recipient,

Dear God, Remus thought, let her be alright...

The front doors were wide open still when he got there, because he wasn't too far behind her. He couldn't see her, but through the blinding snowflakes that pestered his face and burned his eyes he saw footprints- pawprints- before they were covered by fresh-falling or relocated snow. It didn't matter that he couldn't see where they were going. He knew.

Dear Recipient...

The Whomping Willow wasn't whomping again yet by the time he got there, soaked by the snow up to his chest and coughing from the dryness of his throat. Later on he would never admit to having run out through the storm and snow four and a half feet deep; the storm usually disappeared in the retelling and the snow level shrank a foot, sometimes more. Just then, however, he would've made up the most outrageous and self-righteous lie just to make sure Allya was okay, modesty or no.

The Whomping Willow got violent once more as Remus dove between the roots, whapping him in the head and causing some damage. Remus didn't stop to ponder the blood dripping to the floor; he wiped it off unconsciously and continued. He found her upstairs in the Shrieking Shack, those same silvery tears cascading down her face.

"Hey," he said, wiping a tear from a cheek and sitting down on the rickety old bed beside her, "Shh, Redwood, why are you crying?"

Allya just cried harder; knowing that he could see the tears was not helping. She didn't like it when people saw her cry, and she was lucky- the bewitched tears were only visible to one person. Ally removed herself from the bed, getting up to go somewhere he wouldn't bother her, like Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, but a strong hand held her back. Finally she allowed herself to be pulled, sobbing, into Remus' arms, seeking the safety only he could offer.

"Tell me," he said. So she did.

Dear Recipient,

This document is testimony to the unfortunate deaths of Catalina and B. Morris Nightrunner. As the sole heir to the Nightrunner estate, Miss Allya Jade Nightrunner shall be placed in the care of an aunt until she is sixteen, at which time she may do as she wishes with the inheritance...

The note blathered on.

Dear Recipient, she heard in her head over and over. Dear Recipient, the only parents you've ever known are dead...

Remus held her tighter when the story was finished. The tears were coming slower now, and the sobs came less frequently, allowing Allya to catch her breath.

Still curled in his arms, leaning back against the bedposts, she managed to say, "Remus... you're hurt..." An innocent white hand moved to brush the messy hair away from the cut, but stopped as it touched the skin. Tearstained cheeks and bloodshot blue eyes met Remus' gaze, still shuddering now and then with a hiccough, sob or renewed flow of tears.

"I'm fine," he insisted, looking slightly upward nervously at her fingertips, which still hadn't moved.

"You have a nice gash," she continued, examining it more closely through the flood of salt water that was rushing down her cheeks in rivers. It was made more difficult by the fact that Allya was still hiccoughing now and then, shaking.

Remus' hand moved of its own accord, grasping hers and pulling it away from his forehead. Trying to inject a lighter mood into the conversation, he said, "You have a nice everything."

Allya hissed and drew back as if she'd been stung. She stood, a fire lit in her suddenly stormy blue eyes. "Damn it, Remus!" she yelled, her hair standing almost on end, as if charged with electricity. "Why do you have to care? Why do you have to say perfect things like that?" Allya spun around the room, as if looking for something to break. "Why-" she turned once more, spontaneously, and ran straight into Remus. Before she had time to continue her train of thought, he kissed her.

The kiss spread like a wildfire through her body, making her blood sing in her ears and stirring desire in the nether regions of her soul. Ally was hurt, vulnerable, and if there was one feeling she did not like it was vulnerability. This she covered with her passion, turning the not-so-innocent kiss into something near sinful. Both of them could feel the delight burning deep inside, and neither made a move to stop it. And so it wasn't long at all before they realised that they were laying on the bed.

Because I was made to care for you. Because those very perfect things are true. Because, Remus thought through the haze. Because I want you. Because I love you. Or is this love? I don't know.

This is so much better than the emptiness... Allya thought in wonder. Passion in the place of emptiness. But how far will we... the thought cut itself off.

"We can't." The two words stopped both of them in their tracks, neither knowing who had spoken.

"It would screw up everything."

"Sirius would have a field day." Although they both knew that Sirius would never touch on that, he'd leave them alone about it, maybe pretend that he didn't know. Until he got sick of it and pretended he didn't know them. Truly, he would be disgusted.

Remus took a deep breath, calming his nerves (and hormones). He looked at his watch and proclaimed, "Do you realize that we missed lunch and all the classes except Astronomy?"

"Did we," she said. It wasn't a question, more of a rhetoric, but at least it was something. An empty something, like she felt.

"We should go back to the castle," said Remus a bit uncertainly, standing. "You've got to be hungry now, I know I am..."

Ally stood slowly, taking the hand he offered. She glanced nervously out the window, where dark winds blew blindingly bright snowflakes in tornadolike whirlwinds and shadows danced like drunken sprites between huge, gnarled trees. That was how she felt... dark, blinded, shadowed, drunken even. Gnarled? She wondered. Can 'gnarled' be used as an adjective for a human? Sure... just take a look at my scars. They made it all the way down the secret passage and hit a knot on the inner root of the Whomping Willow, then stepped out into the bitter cold.

The sky seemed furious. It was black, although it was only four o'clock. The moon made an appearance through the clouds. The arrival of each snowflake on an unprotected cheek was pure agony. A hundred thousand needles stung hands, face, and feet with cold. Remus' scar-to-be felt as if it were on fire, a blazing warmth in the middle of a freeze. His hand in Allya's felt like ice for a moment, the next she couldn't even feel it for the numbness.

Numb. That's how I feel. No... disbelieving... angry... Dim. I feel dim. I feel nothing. Her frozen hand pulled away from Remus'. The human emotions were too much, they were- well, it was more what they weren't.

They weren't what she wanted to feel. They weren't her. They weren't enough, yet they were far too much. And so after her hand shrank from Remus', it was a hand no longer, but a paw, and she ran.

Redwood could feel the wild animal instincts running through her mind, the natural call that told her, run. And she ran.

The initial buzz of the transformation wore off, but still Allya ran. She ran until she reached the edge of the cliff overlooking the ravine, the one that she'd never told anyone about finding for its beauty (although at one time she'd planned on telling Remus). It had been a place of solitude to contemplate the lonely midnights she was awake... and now it was a place for something else.

The scent of imminent death lingered in his nostrils. Her spoor was fresh in the newfallen snow; he followed that scent like no other he'd ever encountered. Yet he followed not like a dog, nose to the ground, but with his head up, running at full tilt, knowing that still he could be too late. When he burst in upon the clearing, she was standing facing the edge, her arms stretched out at her sides and her hair blown back by the wind. It made even the lion's form tremble, but there she stood as if she couldn't feel it. Remus let out a roar that was more howl than roar, and leapt after her just as Allya was ready to jump.

His paws hit her chest and stomach as her feet left the ground, knocking her sideways onto the ground. The wolf appeared beneath the lion again, biting savagely and clawing to get away.

Allya was no match for him, and he knew it. In mere seconds he subdued her without causing any harm at all, changed into a human, pulled his wand out and zapped her back into her sapient form. He managed to get her back to the castle a variety of different ways, first just carrying her Muggle-style, then using 'mobilicorpus', and finally getting her to stay on his back while he was in his Animagus form... that one was the least exhausting, but most difficult.

When he reached the door to the castle, it flung open before him, and Madam Pomfrey ushered him inside. Someone was there to relieve him of the burden of Allya, and they were sent, no questions asked, off to the infirmary to heal.

It must've been the dead of night; she couldn't tell. But there was something that she had to say. Allya wondered if she'd be able to get it out at all. One hand went unconsciously to the back of her neck- fresh scars. Bitemarks... just a few more to add to the collection. She wouldn't tell him about those, though. No sense making him feel bad. But something had to be done, so she lay beside him until he awoke.

"What did you think you were doing?" Hurt, sorrow, caring... those were the emotions that Allya was prepared to hear... not accusal. Not anger. She couldn't deal with that. "Why did you try to do that?" If only she could have read his thoughts, she wouldn't have been scared away. But the damage had been done.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, but she wouldn't look at him. This wasn't what she had planned.

Getting his feelings under control once more, he said, "Ally."

"What?"

There was a sigh, as Remus figured that he could lose her... again. He'd tried to tell her before... she cut him off before he could finish. She was afraid. "My timing is really lousy. I love you."

One more silver tear slipped down onto Remus' pillow, soaking in. "I know." Her voice was suddenly overridden by pain, pain that she could no longer tell him how she felt, pain that he could be so insensitive after all that she'd just gone through. 'How could you... Why...' Why, indeed. "And it hurts so Goddamn bad, doesn't it?!"

He knew he deserved it, so he said nothing. But once Madam Pomfrey had made Ally go back to her own bed, tears that were neither silvery nor enchanted soaked Remus' pillow... but no one ever knew about that, and that was the way Remus liked it.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: MERRY CHRISTMAS

That was the last time Remus saw Allya before Christmas. She left during the middle of that night, right after the suicide attempt, as soon as Madam Pomfrey would release her into her aunt's custody. Jenna Morris Jenkins- Jenkins was Ally's mother's maiden name- and Poppy Pomfrey went way back, back to their own days in Ravenclaw at Hogwarts. Luckily for Allya, perhaps unluckily for Remus, you'll have to decide that for yourself when the story is finished, Poppy trusted Jenna with many things that she was wary about even with Dumbledore. So, at two on Thursday morning, Aunt Jenna and Allya rode their brooms back to a large estate that was a fifteen minute's flight from Hogsmeade.

Aunt Jenna's estate- it was nearly as large as the one that Allya was used to in Britain (what used to be simply a summer home) and two times the size of the house in Canada- which was still close to four times the size of what normal people call a 'house'. It had two swimming pools- indoor and outdoor- a sauna, a forest that opened into a paddock where unicorns were sometimes glimpsed, if one was lucky, fountains, and an abundance of rooms filled with every kind of magical treasure a person could ever want. There was Aunt Jenna's husband, Jordan- a Muggle-born wizard. And on top of all that, there was-

Aylla. No, not 'Allya' and merely misspelled. Aylla was a girl exactly Allya's age, down to the very second. If she dyed her hair and wore contact lenses, and perhaps smiled once in a while, she could have passed for a very tall version of Allya- and that was pretty much where the resemblance ended. Ayl- as her cronies called her- had raven-black hair and eerie orange-to-black eyes that seemed to be portals to the hells of the universe. There was one other way, however, that Ayl resembled Ally-

She was adopted. Born to pureblood wizard parents but abandoned at birth, Aylla had come to live with the Jenkins when she was merely two months old. She was cruel and mean-spirited, and had been expelled from two wizarding schools already- Hogwarts (she lasted all of a week in Slytherin before the expulsion came) and Beauxbatons (she hated the French language with a passion, made much trouble, and was expelled after two days). Thus, Aylla attended Durmstrang, achieved top grades, in fact. And there was one more difference between Ally and Ayl- Aylla did not know that she was adopted.

Allya knew, of course, and she thought of it a great deal on the flight back to the manor. She had obviously never gotten on all that well with Aylla, who was- as her name suggested- a backwards version of herself. Hopefully, Ally thought, she's decided to stay at Durmstrang for Christmas holidays... Heaven knows I'll have a bad enough time of it as it is. An incredible sadness swept over her, but she did not stir on her broom, nor did more of the silvery tears fall. She had wept her heart out to Remus- a little too literally for her tastes- and never again would she cry over the deaths of the parents that weren't really hers.

The manor came into view quickly afterward, and as the two fliers touched down, a house-elf appeared for the briefest of moments to take care of the brooms. Jordan Jenkins was waiting in the hall.

"Hi, Uncle Jordan," Allya said, voice strong but soft, banishing all signs of weakness. "How are you?"

"Pretty good, considering my sister and her husband just died," Uncle Jordan lied. Ally could always tell when her uncle told mistruths. "Glad to see you, kid. How're you holding up?"

Al straightened unconsciously. "I'll survive."

Jordan Jenkins cracked a grin. "That's my girl," he said. Jordan always said that to Ally... never to Ayl. Sometimes Allya wondered if Ayl ever got jealous.

After a bit more of the formality-exchanging, Ally was sent up to bed, where she slept until late the next afternoon.

At the castle, Remus was still in the infirmary. There was a new series of scars laced across his chest and stomach, permanently marring the skin. Lily, Lindsay and Miore were coping with the temporary loss of their friend; Adrienne and Andy had gone home for the Christmas break. James and Sirius were a bit bored until Remus was well enough to see them and tell part of his story, and when they heard it they wished that they hadn't.

At one particularly dull moment during the day before Christmas, Miore began pacing the floor of the girls' dormitory, where she, Lily and Lindsay were flipping through old editions of the Daily Prophet, wondering what in Hades Sirius and James were up to.

"Stop!" Lindsay finally cried. "You're wearing a hole in the floor!"

Miore stopped dead in her tracks, blinked once, and fell backwards onto her bed. She promptly rolled over and buried her face in her pillow, screaming out her frustration. "I'm so bored!"

In reality, that wasn't what Miore was thinking... but it served to vent her frustration anyway. "Go see what James and Sirius are doing," Lily suggested, filling in, 'E-S-I-P-R-E-T' in the crossword space, very satisfied with herself. "It can't be any less interesting than this..."

"I can't talk to Sirius!" Miore exclaimed without realizing just what she was saying. You've known him for five years and you can't talk to him why? Because of a harmless little crush?

Lily and Lindsay picked up on this immediately. "But you can talk to James," Lindsay said with a twinkle in her eye. "Why might that be, Lil?"

"I dunno," Sparky answered, pretending to study a difficult crossword clue. "Maybe because she doesn't have a crush on him."

"It's just a crush, Miore," Lindsay said, admiring the picture of the Ravenclaw, Brady Graves, that she had pinned to her wall. "It's nothing to be embarrassed about, especially around us."

"I'm not embarrassed!" Miore insisted, blushing furiously. Finally, she gave up and sighed in defeat. "Unless I'm around him..."

"Talk to him," Lily said, dipping her quill in the ink and filling in the very last answer to the crossword puzzle. "Go!" With a flick of her wand, Miore was sped out through the door and down into the common room.

Sirius and James sat in a shadowed corner of the common room, magicking something together from an old Muggle game and a wizard photograph. James added the finishing touches, and the two of them stood back to admire their work.

"It's brilliant," Sirius said distractedly when James asked him what he thought of it.

"You don't sound so excited." James smiled a bit. "This wouldn't have anything to do with-"

A loud noise interrupted him as a dark-haired, silver-eyed figure swung into the common room, cheeks rosy red and jaw set in something like anger. Miore looked royally pissed off.

Her? James finished with his eyes by winking at Sirius.

Miore was further infuriated, convinced that perhaps James and Sirius knew already about this so-called 'crush'. She failed to notice that Sirius was every bit as red as she was. "What're you looking at?" she growled, flopping down into an armchair and staring at the fire.

"With any luck," Sirius said, "my Christmas gift to myself." Miore seemed extremely confused, so James changed the subject.

"What d'you think, Miore?" he asked, holding up the dartboard with the moving picture of Snape in the center. He used some sort of soft, magical adhesive to stick it to the wall, then threw a dart. It hit Snape in the nose, and the picture howled in pain. "Thirty points!" James counted.

Miore glowered, and James meekly moved the darts a bit further away. She seized one, aimed- and hit the picture of Snape directly between the eyes from a distance of thirty feet.

"Ah," Sirius said, backing away. "That'd be our cue to leave, Jimbo, if you know what I'm saying..."

Christmas morning at Hogwarts started off boringly enough. Remus (back from the hospital wing) awoke to find gifts at the foot of the bed much earlier than James or Sirius awoke.

Remus opened his packages earlier than the other two, although he was still recovering from the ordeal. There was a box of candies, a copy of The Prankster's Bible, a set of Gobstones from Auntie Emm (who didn't know that he was simply too old to play), and a few other useful magical items. The smallest package lay on top of his trunk, wrapped in plain paper and looking rather forlorn.

What's that? he wondered, then took a peek at the tag.

For Remus- do not open until Christmas morning! Love from Allya

Now that Remus thought about it, it kind of looked more like an envelope. He noticed an open window in the dormitory and a few scattered gray feathers, and figured that Ally had had Thrakk make deliveries. He slit the envelope open to find a small, relatively heavy pewter pendant in the shape of a wolf's paw, with a scar shaped like lightning down the centre.

Found this and thought of you, her writing said on a small note inside the envelope. Merry Christmas.

Without thinking about it, he slipped the pendant into his pocket, then transfigured a chain for it. Sirius and James were awakening, and it was time for Remus to bring his mind back to reality.

Nobody ate breakfast that morning. They all lost their appetites when they saw the trashed Great Hall and the bloody writing on the wall-

'The dark Lord has risen to power. Join him, now, before someone else gets hurt. Merry Christmas.'

CHAPTER NINETEEN: SOLVING THE CODE

"What does that say?!" Sirius asked James loudly. Several others nearby concurred; they, too, wanted to know what the mysterious writing said.

"Better yet," Lily asked from James' other side, "What is that?" She pointed to something small, limp and white next to the writing.

Following her finger, several students and one teacher promptly threw up. Remus looked paler than usual... Sirius clutched at his stomach and fell to the floor.

"That," James said, taking Lily by the arms and turning her around so that she wouldn't have to see the dead hand, "is disgusting."

Lily nodded in agreement. Professor Dumbledore came running in, saw the mess and pulled out his wand. "Everyone back to their common rooms! Chop chop!" he yelled, muttering a few words to clean up the mess. When the brushes and suds began to work on the letters, Lily hissed with vexation and quickly performed a charm that copied them into her daybook.

'The dark Lord has risen to power. Join him, now, before someone else gets hurt. Merry Christmas.'

"Come on, Lil," James insisted, dragging her by the arm. "Time to go... don't you ever go anywhere without that daybook?"

Lily, her task finished, complied, then she, Remus, James, Sirius and the rest of the students rushed out the door.

"I can't believe none of us thought to write that down!" Sirius shouted once they were back in the Gryffindor common room. "I feel like such a prat!"

"Calm down, Sirius," said Lily, who had her daybook open in the chair by the fireplace. "Some of us are more intelligent than others... some of us, like me, for instance. Here," she said, ripping out five pages and handing them to Sirius, James, Miore, Remus and Lindsay. "Solve away."

After a few minutes, James pointed out, "Look at this last one... it's the same as the first. Some kind of quotation mark?"

"Sure," Lily replied, and wrote that in. "Then this one," she said, pointing to the one that looked like two blocks stacked together, "has got to be a period... there it is again, and again."

"I just thought of something bad," Remus said, examining his text. "What if a capital letter is different from the same lower case letter? These last two words could be 'Merry Christmas'."

"I somehow doubt that whoever wrote a bloody message using a hand as a quill would be wishing us a happy holidays, but..." Lily wrote in what Remus had said, filled in a few more letters, and swore. "You guys better come look at this..."

'_he _ar_ __r_ has rise_ t_ ___er. _oi_ him, ___, _e__re s_me_ne e_se _ets h_rt. Merry

Christmas.'

"The first letter is a capital T," Sirius said.

"That one there has to be an O," James added, "because it fits everywhere, so... 'The blank blank has blan-' wait, that has to be 'risen to... power.' That doesn't sound good..."

" 'The dark Lord has risen to power'," Miore filled in. " 'Join him, now, before someone else gets hurt. Merry Christmas'."

"Something tells me we should go see Dumbledore..."

That night, Remus left Hogwarts to spend the rest of the holidays with his family. Dumbledore posted a teacher outside each common room at night, but no further incidents took place, so by the time the holidays were over, there was no longer any cause for alarm.

At the Jenkins residence during the holidays, owls flew frequently in and out- most delivering gifts and letters to Allya, some carting gifts and letters away to Aylla, who was staying at Durmstrang for Christmas.

Ally herself spent long hours curled up in front of the fireplace with a book, tuning out the real world and letting in the characters of her imagination. Christmas came, and the last gift Ally would ever receive from her parents arrived- a prototype broom, the Nimbus 1500a, and a small kit containing the four Quidditch balls. Engraved on the tiny Golden Snitch, both Bludgers, and the Quaffle were the words 'To Redwood with love- B. Morris and Catalina Nightrunner'. How Allya's parents knew her nickname was simple; for the group of marauders was not the first to choose such for her. In fact, the nickname generator had done such a long time ago, when she was very young.

Eventually, it was time for school to begin again. With everything packed in her trunk and bewitched to be feather-light, Ally made the trip back to school riding her silver Nimbus alone.

The students that met her at the doorway to the castle were somber yet happy to see her. James and Remus carried her trunk, Miore, Lily and Lindsay gave her big hugs, and Sirius went with her to the broomshed, carrying her broom and asking ceaseless questions about it.

When they finally arrived there, they were both relatively wet with the snow. "Did you ask Miore out yet?" Ally questioned, stowing her two brooms in her locker and triple-checking the codes. "Because if you didn't you know I'll have to kick your ass."

Sirius slapped himself on the forehead. "Knew there was something I forgot to do-" He stopped at the look he was being given. "Listen, it's not as if I wasn't preoccupied! I had to keep Jim an' Lil in line, and-"

"I really doubt," Ally said frostily, "that James and Lily needed your help staying in line, Sirius."

"Remus was really worried about you, you know," Sirius continued, as if he hadn't heard her. He followed her out the door. "I mean that, he wasn't himself! And I'm supposed to tell you about the weird message that was written on the wall in the Great Hall Christmas morning using the Minister of Magic's hand-"

Allya cut him off with a sharp nod of her head. "Heard all about it in an owl from Lil. I do keep up, you know."

"So you know who did it?" Sirius asked.

"Allya Jade Nightrunner, Divinations extraordinaire."

"In other words...?"

"In other words, Sirius," the blue eyes and red lips bit out, "no."

"I have a headache," Sirius announced in the common room that afternoon.

"Probably has something to do with school starting again," James answered distractedly. "That or you have a hangover. Or you hit your head on something like you're prone to do sometimes."

"Shut up."

"Make me, Dog-Boy!"

Lily pulled out her wand and gagged them both. "It's good to be back," Allya said, stretching languidly and folding her arms behind her head.

"Glad you think so," Remus replied. "I'm hungry... something tells me it's dinner time."

"There go those animal instincts again, Remus. Remember what happened last time they told you something?"

"Yeah," Remus nodded sagely. "Wormy died. But I don't think that dinner is in mortal danger just yet, so..."

Sirius stood up after removing his gag and said, "Just in case... let's spend time with it while we still can."

CHAPTER TWENTY: RED ROSID GNITAE

Once school started again, a trend began to develop for Allya: wake up, Great Hall for breakfast, classes, study at lunch breaks, classes, study, dinner, study, prank, sleep.

Notice how I said 'breakfast, lunch, dinner' but I never actually said 'eat?' Remus did.

He watched her shove her food into a napkin and Banish it to the garbage for the third week running, and decided that Ally needed his help- again.

He caught up with her after dinner that night.

"Ally," he started, but at her guilty look, he covered quickly. He knew she suspected what he was about to confront her about. "Um… we haven't done a lot of transforming lately," he said. "Let's go tonight. I want to practice my sense of smell- I'm supposed to be able to smell what a person ate for their last meal, and I'm quite a ways from my goal…"

"I'm not really in the mood today, Remus," Allya replied vacantly, searching for a way past him without meeting his eyes. "Maybe some other time. Why don't you ask Sirius or James to go with you instead?"

Remus took her hands in his and wrapped them around his waist, using the opportunity to get close to her once more. He still loved her… and her parents wouldn't be uprooting her any time soon (although he'd be the last person to point that out to her)… Remus' hands found their marks just above her hips. He kissed her forehead softly before she could pull away. "You've lost weight, Red," he commented, looking down at her petite (and slowly retreating) form. Allya stopped dead.

"That's none of your business," she snapped, looking more angry than worried.

"It is when my best friend becomes so underweight that I can lift her with my weaker hand," Remus countered, snatching her up under one arm. She squirmed a bit, but couldn't escape. She was too weak. "Come on. We're going to see Madam Pomfrey."

"No," Allya pleaded, and this time she didn't sound angry, just scared. "No, no, not that, please-"

Remus headed toward the Gryffindor tower, muttered the password, plopped her down in their favorite chair, and went over to talk to James.

"If you can lift her with one arm so easily," James said, "something's definitely not right."

"Do me a favor, Prongs," Remus said. "Go down to the kitchens and get as much food as you possibly can… take Sirius with you."

"Right," James acknowledged, glad that someone else was taking charge for a change. He and Sirius left quickly.

Lily came down from the girls' dorm (presumably to borrow Remus' study notes from Potions that day)- and stopped on the third stair. "The eating disorder?" she asked Remus.

Remus nodded stiffly.

"It's not a disorder!" Allya cried, getting up. Remus pushed her right back down again. "I just… haven't been hungry. That's all. I swear, that's it!"

"I was going to do the same thing," Lily responded to Remus, ignoring Allya. "I gave her a warning yesterday and told her she'd better be eating again by tomorrow."

Both of them ignored Allya's denials.

James and Sirius reentered the tower, then left discreetly with a reluctant Lily in tow.

"What do you think you're doing?" Remus said coldly, emotionlessly. The fear and anger grew in his next few sentences. "How could you do this- again? Again, damn it, Ally!" He slammed his fist down on the table. "I trusted you." He was now in a (very scary) towering rage.

Redwood's eyes narrowed and she gave him a look filled with pure hatred. "I guess that was your mistake, wasn't it, Remus." The cruel, accusatory statement was far from a question.

"Perhaps," he answered, not unnerved by the vicious tone. "But I did not abuse my trust, like you did."

"Oh you didn't?" Allya asked in a voice that was now sickly-sweet. "Who entrusted themselves with my safety, Remus? Certainly not a werewolf I would know."

"Shut up!" The sudden outburst silenced her. "It's not my fault that your parents are dead!" Remus continued. "It's time that you accepted that it isn't yours, either!"

Regaining her voice, although it was a quiet, deadly one, Ally countered, "Who are you to judge me?" Although she started out softly, her voice was growing steadily louder. "Who made you my friend?"

"Shut up!" Remus yelled again. "Just shut the f*** up and eat!" His wand pointed itself at her involuntarily, and she ate slowly… agonizingly… every bit of food that had been brought from the kitchens.

And she cried.

And, once she finished eating, he left her there to cry alone.

* * *

* * *

As it was Saturday, there were no classes that dreary morning. But there was breakfast, at which Ally ate and Remus didn't; each pointedly ignoring the other.

Unfortunately for some, there was also Quidditch practice.

James assembled the team together, everyone on the ground of the Quidditch pitch. They were a freezing huddle of players, but they were doing what they loved. They were happy- well, most of them.

"The big game, Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw, is only three months away," James stated, looking everyone in the eye- from third year Andy Spinnet down to Sirius Black. "Now, more than ever, we need teamwork. If there's bad blood between any of you, clear it now."

All eyes looked from Ally to Remus expectantly.

"No bad blood here," he said.

"I'm fine with everyone," Ally stated plainly, giving each player (except Remus) a penetrating dark green stare that dared anyone to challenge her statement.

James worked hard to hide his frustration. "Excellent. Then let's get this show on the road." He clapped his hands together to warm them and began giving instructions.

* * *

Just before lunch, the Gryffindor team flew back up to the castle to shower. Ally and Remus didn't even look at each other the whole practice, unless it was Remus watching Allya to hit a Bludger in her direction (defense against offense, the best way to practice), or Allya swerving around the Bludger and tracing its path to see who had hit it.

James threw his hands up in despair. It seemed, for once, that there was nothing he could do to fix his friend's problem.

* * *

It was Sirius' idea to go out that night to cheer Remus up a bit. "Lord knows he needs it," James agreed. It was the general opinion that Remus was not his usual, cynical, though somehow cheerful self lately. He hadn't cracked a joke at Snape's expense in days.

So that Saturday night, three animals leaped from the balcony of the fifth year Gryffindor boys' dormitory and landed softly in the snow. The lion seemed particularly agitated- his tail twitched restlessly, his silver mane seemed to stand on end, and his deep golden eyes probed the darkness that was the Forbidden Forest, daring it to take its best shot.

Inside the forest, concealed by its depths, Remus felt that he fit in- after all, wasn't it said that many creatures, werewolves such as himself, even, lived in the Forbidden Forest? There were others, too, of course- ogres, dragons, vampires, centaurs-

Unicorns. Just like the one that was laying dead in front of him.

Remus growled softly, summoning his friends. Both looked shocked at the sight of the thing- as far as he could read their herbivorous/canine expressions, anyway. The unicorn had obviously not died of natural causes- there were charred bits of its skin strewn about, and silvery blood lay in quick-drying puddles all around.

The kill is fresh, Sirius grunted. He sniffed around. Whoever it was… they Apparated to somewhere else. He couldn't put his nose on it, but the scent was distinctly familiar.

James' hoof touched something that crinkled under his foot. He bent his head down to see it better. A spell?

Better go, Remus decided… And we can't tell Dumbledore.

James and Sirius understood. If they told Dumbledore, their secret would be revealed- and they would be in some amazingly deep shit. Let's go.

* * *

Sunday afternoon, while Remus and Allya did their Herbology homework in their separate dorms (they were still not speaking to each other), Lily, James, and a few other fifth years congregated in the common room.

"They're still not speaking?" Miore asked, agitated. "What's her problem, anyway?" she growled exasperatedly.

"Remus isn't helping either," James added sourly. "He could be a bit more sensitive- her foster parents did just die…"

Lily took charge of the meeting from her slightly clueless boyfriend. "What're we going to do about it?"

"It's not exactly trustworthy of us to plot to get them together," Sirius pointed out.

"You didn't seem to have a problem with it when it was me an' Sparky," James pointed out.

"True," Sirius said, "but you two were exceptionally hopeless."

"If you'll recall, we were actually together the whole time, and you just didn't notice."

Sirius made a noise of extreme aggravation, frustration and exasperation.

"But we have to try to get them back together!" Lily insisted. "If not for any other reason that we can say 'I told you so' when they finally do get back together-"

Sirius snorted. "Yeah, Lil. When and if."

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: BREAKING THE SILENCE

After another week of senseless bickering…

No. There was no bickering, because Ally and Remus weren't speaking. So after another week of having the two friends not speaking to each other, everyone was definitely on edge.

Not the least of all, Remus and Allya themselves.

Potions was hell. The Slytherins seemed to have picked up on the tension between Remus and Ally, and were using it to their advantage. Mealtimes were worse. Remus, more than a little upset that Allya wasn't speaking him (but not about to apologize, either) ate almost as little as Ally did after Christmas break. The Slytherins dropped by at least once per meal to make one taunt or another. The two feuding friends sat at opposite ends of the table, which meant that one of them was usually alone to bear the front of the verbal assault.

It was a Thursday- the second of February- after a rather trying Care of Magical Creatures class on phoenixes, that Remus snapped.

"Heard your bitch filed for divorce," said one particularly nasty Slytherin boy who had the unfortunate disadvantage of being the only guy behind Remus when he said it. The girl standing with him admonished him for his cruelty, but it was too late- Remus was standing up, his chair clattered to the floor.

"Heard your bottom jaw and your top jaw are about to go through separation anxiety," Remus said, pulling his arm back and snagging the boy by the front of his robes. But then- there was a strange, relieving pressure on his elbow, and he relaxed the arm that had been holding the small Slytherin three inches off the floor.

Beside him was the Slytherin girl. "If you hit him, you'll be in more trouble than he's worth," she pointed out, looking straight into his eyes with her own, which were a dark purple. She had chin-length auburn hair that was (surprisingly, for a Slytherin) not greasy.

Remus growled, and it was quite apparent, for a moment, what he was. "Get lost," he said, giving the boy a slight shove. He turned to thank the girl, but she was gone.

"Did you see-?" he asked James, slightly confused.

James shook his head, "Who were you talking to, Remus?"

Remus rubbed his head in sympathy with the pounding inside it. "I was actually hoping you knew. Probably just the waxing of the moon… again…"

James gave him a curious look, almost as if he didn't believe his friend. "Do you need to go see Madam Pomfrey, maybe…?" Remus shook his head. "Okay then… Maybe you should eat something…"

That night, in the Gryffindor common room, the fifth years were studying for their OWLS and the seventh years for their NEWTS, a couple of first years were playing Exploding Snap, and two very immature second years were chasing each other around, wand tips sparking. (A/N: That is a very long and annoying sentence, which I am sure you noticed.) Remus and Ally had worked their way up to being in the same room together, but neither would speak to anyone in that particular room if the other was present. This proved to be a particularly annoying pain in the rear for the rest of their friends, who had given up trying to patch things up after only an hour.

Out of the blue, Allya slammed shut her Transfiguration textbook, making everyone jump. "No," she said finally, when all eyes were on her, even the two second years who were frozen, wand tips sparking, one halfway over a couch and the other in the middle of a dive-roll off the next chair. "I'm sorry. This is so stupid. Remus, I'm sorry for the way that I've been acting," Ally managed to say without the slightest bit of awkwardness, even after all that time. "Just tell me what I've got to do to make it up to you. I'm absolutely sick of the silence, and I'm sure I'm not the only one."

"Certainly not," Remus agreed.

"So how do I make it up to you?"

Remus smiled. "Read my mind."

Her grin was uniquely wide, and an almost evil glint filtered through her indigo eyes. "You have no idea how badly I was wishing for that to be your answer." Allya jumped out of her chair and walked a few paces until she was directly in front of Remus, staring into his eyes. "So that's it," she mused, eyes twinkling. "Why didn't you say so?" In nearly the same way that Remus had drawn her arms around him (after which she'd gotten incredibly angry with him), she pulled his arms around her, wrapped her own around his neck, stood on tiptoes-

The kiss was so fantastically and universally unexpected that the catcalls in the common room didn't start for a good three seconds, an amazingly long time to wait when you're kissing someone and you don't know how they'll respond. Remus, in particular, was mortified, but that was okay because Allya was mortified, too. In the long run they didn't give a damn anyway. "Remus Lupin," she said softly when the kiss was done and most of the red was faded from his cheeks, "would you consider being my valentine?"

Remus didn't normally like being put on the spot… everyone was watching him and waiting for his answer. "Of course," he replied, trying to sound normal. A universal breath was let out in the common room and a few people applauded, glad the silence was finally broken.

"Well," Lily said, "I hate to say it, but-"

"I told you so," the entire common room chorused. James, Sirius and Mioré tried not to laugh, but were unsuccessful.

Lily 'harumphed' in a very forced tone. "If anybody needs me, I'll be in the dormitory," she said, but not before grinning and suppressing the urge to giggle along with the others.

The tenth of February- almost as important a date as the fourteenth- sprung upon Ally and Remus in a very sudden way. At two thirty in the common room, just like every full moon, Madam Pomfrey collected them and ushered them into the Shrieking Shack, where they collapsed like the tired teens that they were on the magically-repaired couches.

"You know, I'm getting a weird sort of attachment to this place," Allya commented, gazing around at the ruined furniture and torn walls.

Remus blinked slowly, looking as if he needed a few seconds to process the information she'd just giving him. "You're not getting all sentimental on me, are you?" She smiled wistfully. "Must be that time of the month," Remus started before he realized what he was saying. Both of them started cracking up.

"Come on, Remus, how old is that one?" Redwood asked, holding her aching sides. "Why is it still funny?"

Remus tried to answer, but couldn't, as he was laughing too hard. When he calmed down a bit, he gasped out, "I…don't…know!"

And they started all over again.

Moments later, when they were done laughing, they helped each other to their feet. "This is so much better than not speaking," Allya said after a moment in Remus' arms. "In fact, fighting is worse than the silence… Did I ever tell you my deepest, darkest secret?" she asked, suddenly serious. Her blue eyes wandered into his, and he shook his head almost imperceptibly.

"Tell me," he whispered. They rearranged themselves on the sofa- facing each other and holding hands.

Allya sighed. "Well- I told you about the night I got bitten. When I was wandering around at midnight." Remus nodded. "This scar," she continued, pulling her long, blonde hair away from the left side of her neck, "is partial evidence. When the werewolf got me-" there was a pause, and Ally swallowed hard, "I almost lost my hearing. I couldn't hear anything at all for an entire month. I almost failed that school year for it. Things had to be written down for me until I could read lips well enough. You try reading an invisible professor's lips." She looked down, as if to examine the fabric of the couch. "Ever since then I've been afraid of silence. I know, it sounds silly- heck, I am a little crazy-"

"No," Remus said, putting a finger to her lips. "It sounds perfectly reasonable to me. And," he added after some thought, "even if you're crazy, you're still perfect, too."

When Allya was done blushing, she grinned. "You just want me to kiss you again!"

Remus gave her the puppy-dog look. "Am I that transparent?"

"Only to me, hon." She winked at him. "Aww… I hate this part…" Her words were swallowed with a growl. Fingers curled into paws and faces lengthened, tails and fur grew and soon enough there were no longer any humans in the Shrieking Shack.

Y'know, this gets really boring… Think James and Sirius'll visit tomorrow? Remus growled, restlessly searching the cabin for a way out.

I dunno. The smaller, lighter wolf found something in a corner. Well, that's odd… how are we supposed to play Exploding Snap if we don't have fingers? She nudged it across the floor to where Remus was desperately trying to open the window- by howling at it. Can you open this?

After a few seconds of chewing and clawing, the contents of the package lay strewn about the floor. Bugger. What I wouldn't give for an opposable thumb about now. They ran across the floor for a few moments, trying to pick up the Exploding Snap cards with teeth or paws, to no avail. Finally, they gave up, jumped onto the furniture, and relaxed.

After a few moments, werewolf-Ally opened her eyes. Wow. Don't think we've ever trashed the place quite like this, have we? she asked, sniffing gingerly at the broken glass and splintered wood on the floor, damage resulting from the wild card-chase of a few hours before.

Remus observed the casualties nonchalantly. Not quite like this, he agreed, counting the abused pieces of furniture. Two toppled wooden chairs, each with a leg or two missing, cluttered the area above the trapdoor. The coffee table was cracked straight down the middle, as if someone (or something, he reminded himself) had jumped off the banister above straight on top of it- which, he reflected contentedly, was probably what had happened to it. Heaven knew how the cards got upstairs, but there they were.

On the other end of the couch, Allya stretched languidly. Glad there's no rules here about animals on the furniture, she thought to herself. For some reason this statement brought to mind another era in her development- school in Canada, and her first few months there. If she had been in her human form, she would have grinned. Where's the bathroom? she asked her nose. Where's your common sense? the wolf shot back. You're an animal! Go on the floor! Allya ignored the wolf and followed her nose.

When she emerged, Remus' wolf-self was still on the couch, breathing deeply, eyes closed. Allya grabbed the toilet roll in her mouth and tossed it at him.

Direct hit! Remus awoke with a jolt and a strangely amused look on his canine features. What was that for? Another loo-roll hit him in the stomach. All right, you asked for it… The roll was sent back over the couch, only to be hit by a nose and sent flying into Remus' face again.

A black nose appeared from under the trapdoor, unable to push it up the rest of the way. Um, Remus? A little help here would be good… Allya yelped and jumped off of the top, dragging one of the chair-pieces with her. Remus nudged the other one off, and Sirius' full Animagus head appeared. Wow, he grunted. Been decorating for a party? He leapt up the rest of the way, tackling the larger wolf and ending up underneath two of them for his trouble. Damn it. Outnumbered again.

A whitish stag poked his head up from the secret passageway under the Whomping Willow. Been picking on smaller mammals again, Padfoot? he gave an ungulate's approximation of a grin. They beat you, too.

I'm outnumbered, the huge dog defended, getting up once Allya and Remus had removed themselves from his stomach. Anyway- as I was asking- what happened in here?

James turned his head in order to take in the small room. Amazing- you guys throw some party!

Loo paper was strewn everywhere- hanging from the chandelier, twisted 'round Remus and Allya themselves, all over the floor, draped across picture frames, wound about the banister, blanketing the couch and the broken table.

James, it turned out, wasn't quite small enough anymore to fit through the trapdoor in his entirety, so he stayed there, just his head, for a few moments while Sirius, Remus and Allya had another loo-roll fight. Padfoot, being as he was, decided that James (though quite stationary) had to join the fun, and launched himself from the couch trailing a long tail of white paper, which he quickly wound about James' antlers.

James was not amused.

Everyone else thought it was a hoot. You… look… like a Christmas tree! A.J. exclaimed, laying in a quivering mass on the floor.

Remus calmed down first. So, he said, where're we going?

Follow me, James replied, pulling his head back down again-

Quite uselessly. His antlers were caught on something.

Great one, Prongs, Sirius grumbled, clawing up the wood to free his friend. Okay- here we go.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: SUIT OF ARMOR, SUIT OF… UNDERWEAR?

Dawn on February fourteenth was extraordinarily beautiful, especially for February. The sky was tinted a light coral color, and the sunlight reflecting off of the snow made for a spectacular effect. On a balcony that appeared on no other day that branched off of the East end of the Gryffindor tower, two figures sat wrapped in a blanket.

"Y'know," James said, yawning, "if Sirius saw me out here like this, he'd think I was going soft."

Lily relaxed and laid her head upon his shoulder. "That's 'cause you are. I still can't figure out how you got me out here so early."

"It's just 'cause you love me," James said, slipping his arm around Lily and grinning. "Either that or it's the flowers."

Lily thought fondly of the dozen red roses that were sitting in a vase on her night stand. "Somehow I don't think it was the flowers," she said, smiling. "Or the teddy bear," Lily added as an after thought. "Or the bracelet… nope, definitely because I love you."

James laughed, more because he was enjoying himself than because of anything amusing that Lily had said. "If I could freeze one moment in time, this would be it," he decided aloud. Lily kissed him softly, and James was silent for another second. "Well, maybe that moment, then," he grinned.

The sun finally peeked all the way over the distant horizon, showering them in a golden glow. As though by magic (and, Lily reminded herself, it probably was, with Dumbledore being such a hopeless romantic) all of the snow on the grounds melted at once. The dark puddles around the castle dried. Twisted green shoots sprung from the ground, twisted up the walls, and burst into colorful bloom- climbing rose bushes in every color magically possible.

Lily gasped. When she'd regained her voice, she exclaimed, "Well. That was unusual."

James only nodded. "Show's over," he observed. "Shall we go in?"

Still awestruck, Lily could barely stand. They helped each other to their feet, Transfigured the blanket back into Unfogging the Future, and prepared to head in.

"We're not going to be disturbing Ally and Remus in there, are we?" Lily asked, a small smile playing across her delicate features.

"Nah," James said. "First, it's Tuesday, not Monday. Second, even if they were in there, they'd be sleeping. That's what they do. Third-"

Lily opened the door to move back in, expecting to find the common room empty. Instead of the sigh of relief she expected to release, she turned to James and elbowed him in the ribs. "You were saying?"

James shrugged. "Third, I am obviously wrong."

The two of them went down to breakfast, leaving Allya and Remus in peace.

The Great Hall was extremely offensive to the eye. Everything was either pink or red, a rather disgusting combination in anyone's book. Streamers and floating hearts decorated the entire room, and the teachers were wearing offensive colors- Flitwick in fuchsia, Trelawney in hot pink, Dumbledore in cherry red. The only two who weren't decked out in some way were Snape and Lorell, who wore black like they did every other day.

Remus and Allya showed up only five minutes late for breakfast, holding hands. An audible sigh of relief could be heard over everything, and the mysterious Slytherin girl smiled… then disappeared. No one noticed. Not even Remus.

She appeared again in what had once been her common room, but nobody could see her. She supposed it had something to do with the fact that she was no longer living… but then, how could that werewolf boy see her?

Claryssa shuddered. She'd always been able to tell a werewolf when she saw one… and for nearly a year she'd been seeing two on a regular basis. This time it was different. This time, they saw her, too.

No one had seen her since the accident… and that was ten years ago, by her count, possibly more. Her birthday, on the night of a full moon- and ever since then she'd had visions… the Alpha male and his female were to be respected, they were meant for each other and it was apparent, but they had relationship problems the likes of which Claryssa had never seen. Not since a long, long time before the accident.

She'd been killed, of course- few survived werewolf attacks, and hers had been especially savage. Claryssa wasn't a ghost… but she didn't know what she was. She supposed it didn't matter. The Alpha pair were to be protected at all costs, and they could see her. It was all that mattered…

James had the team out on the Quidditch pitch the Saturday after Valentine's day, as there was no snow and the weather was actually quite nice. Sirius and Remus were having quite the Beater-duel - Sirius would aim a Bludger for Allya, Allya would dodge, Remus would aim for Sirius, and Sirius would hit it back at Allya again, in a vicious circle. As a result, Ally only got the Quaffle twice, although both made it past the Keeper.

When James blew the whistle to end the practice, it was plain to see that he had a smile on his face. "I don't see how we can lose with a team like this," he exclaimed, and the seven Gryffindors headed up to the castle on the hill.

On the way, Sirius nudged James in the ribs. "Heard about the balcony on Valentine's day… couldn't've shared, I don't suppose, eh, Sunny Jim?"

James turned a bright red, but maintained his composure. "Sirius, you didn't even have a valentine."

Sirius shrugged. "Sure, but I might've asked somebody if I'd known about the balcony."

"If I'm not mistaken," James said, "Allya will now kill me. She's been waiting for you to ask Mioré out since the beginning of the year."

"Alas," Allya said, coming up behind him and Sirius. "I could not kill either of you, as much as I'd like to do so, because then I would have two angry women and Remus after me. Something I most definitely do not need." Remus snickered.

"I'll say," a voice to one side of her said. The auburn-haired girl from the Great Hall stood there, waiting expectantly.

Allya turned to make an excuse to James, Sirius and Remus- but they were already gone. She stepped into the bushes where the Slytherin had been hiding from the only other person that could see her- Remus. "Who are you?" Ally asked cautiously.

The girl smiled mysteriously. "My name is Claryssa."

Allya squinted. "That doesn't tell me a lot about who you are… how come nobody else can see you?"

"I'm not quite sure," Claryssa conceded. "I think it has something to do with how I died."

"You're dead?" Ally exclaimed, shuddering. "Anyway, so how'd you die?"

Claryssa smirked. "Werewolf attack."

Allya froze, watching the girl with new eyes. She didn't see any scars, really- but why should Claryssa have scars if she was dead? "Erm- and when was that?" She and Remus hadn't given James and Sirius the slip lately- had they?

"Oh, I've been dead for a good ten years, I think," Claryssa said. "Nothing for you to worry about, Ally."

"How'd you know my name?" Things were getting decidedly weird.

"Everything by scent, Allya," Claryssa answered. "Think- I died in a werewolf attack. Which means it was at the full moon. Which, logically, means-"

"You died as a werewolf," Allya realized finally. "Any idea why non-werewolves can't see you?"

"No."

There was an uncomfortable silence, in which Ally did a lot of thinking. "Why exactly are we having this conversation? It wouldn't have anything to do with the strange things going on at Hogwarts, would it?"

"No again." Claryssa stopped for a moment. "Remus' birthday is coming up," she said. "There's something you have to give him… you'll need to go back to your mansion- damn it. Can't stay longer… gotta run!" Allya sensed a bit of a pulling, and Claryssa was gone.

"My house is not a mansion," she muttered into the empty space. Still, she knew what she had to get.

"I'm bored," James announced one night in March. His posse, as he was beginning to think of it, was gathered around the fire in the Gryffindor common room, waiting to make some mischief. "Any ideas, Sirius?"

Padfoot thought for a moment. "Nope, everything I can think of is done."

Remus pretended to faint. "Sirius is out of ideas… this is bad…"

"Yes it is."

"Allya?" James asked. She shook her head. "Remus?" He only shrugged. " Mioré?"

"Sorry Jim," Mioré said, flopping into an armchair. "I'm drawing a blank."

Prongs groaned loudly. "A little help here, Lils?" he asked his girlfriend, who was sitting on the couch and feigning disinterest.

"Oh, I might have an idea or two," she admitted, still not looking up.

"Excellent!" James crowed. "Always knew you had to be a Marauder at heart, Ms. Future-Head-Girl…"

Before she even stopped to think about it, Allya muttered, "More like the 'Future Mrs. Potter.'" Allya considered for a moment once all eyes in the room turned to her. "No," she decided, "Head Girl-dom first, Mrs. Potter-dom later."

"That your professional Divinations-expert opinion?" Sirius asked curiously.

"That's my professional Marauder opinion, actually," Allya admitted. "My Diviner's talents aren't giving me anything on that particular subject just yet. But back to the subject. What exactly is your devious idea, Mrs. P?"

Lily grinned. "I'll give you a hint: it involves some, er, compromising material handed to me by a Slytherin confidante, a suit of armor Transfigured from a toy soldier, and the Great Hall at breakfast time…"

The Marauders (and Mioré) leaned in closer, transfixed. "Tell me more…"

"I still can't believe my innocent Lily thought that up," James said with reverence when the official Prank team- he, Sirius and Remus, who had the most experience, finally returned to their dormitory.

"Yeah," Sirius said in admiration. "You sure you're in love with her? 'Cause I'll take her off your hands if she ever gets too much for- OW!" James had smacked his friend upside the head for his remarks.

"'Course I'm in love with her, you git. She's Lily, for Christ's sake!"

Sirius smiled ruefully. "Just checking…" But when James and Remus were asleep, he picked up the Invisibility Cloak once more and left the common room.

The next morning, everyone was in expectedly high spirits. James would start laughing at random points during his shower, and more than once he nearly choked, due to the fact that he kept getting water up his nose. That would set him off all over again. Allya and Remus walked around with neutral expressions on their faces, but by their eyes you could tell that they were absolutely enchanted by this new and extremely horrifying (for someone) experimental prank. Mioré had gone all wide-eyed, as if she couldn't believe how extraordinarily creative her best friend was, and told her so.

Sirius was nowhere to be found. They didn't see him until they saw the Great Hall.

The five of them sat down inconspicuously, regarding Sirius out of the corners of their eyes. He just grinned at them, which for obvious reasons didn't reassure them very much. A growing uneasiness settled in the pit of Lily's stomach. Something most definitely was not right.

When eight o'clock came, the Marauders plus two looked up expectantly. A loud popping sound in the center of the Great Hall attracted the attention of many.

It was far better than even Sirius had imagined. At exactly eight, when the most people were in the hall, the toy soldier Transfigured into the armor (it was a time-locked charm). It wore green Slytherin boxer shorts, embroidered with the words Gryffindor for the House Cup, and held a flagpole with an incredible portrayal of the Gryffindor lion… and it also had Lily's face on it. Three tables out of four, not including various amused expressions at the Head table, were having a field day.

James was confused. Allya was rolling on the floor, laughing hysterically, and could not be calmed. Mioré looked like she wanted to laugh, but was afraid of being slapped. Remus glanced from Lily, to Sirius, and back to Lily again, then decided not to say anything.

Lily was not amused.

Sirius was extremely pleased with himself.

Remus, still convinced that one aspect of the original plan hadn't been changed, excused himself from the table. Walking up to the figure amidst confused looks from all sides, even the raging Slytherins. Gesturing for Ally to join him, he moved his hand to the helmet. "Shall we unmask the traitor?" he asked, suppressing a grin.

"Oh, but I already know who the traitor is, don't you, Mr. Lupin?" Allya asked, winking.

"Why, yes I do, Mrs. Lupin," Remus answered quietly before he realized what he was saying.

"What was that, Moony?" Ally asked sweetly, laughing.

Remus grumbled. "Not in front of the whole school… okay, on three we pull off the helmet. One… two…"

"Three!" the entire room shouted. The helmet came off, and Remus and Allya came face to face with…

Who else but Severus Snape.

More laughter from the room. Professor Snape looked ready to spit nails… if he ever found out who'd done it, that person wouldn't have a snowball's chance in hell of a week without detentions for the rest of their life… but Professor Snape didn't have to know.

"Did you see his face?" Allya asked, cracking up that night. "I mean, it was there the whole day- looked like someone had dumped red paint on him…"

Lily was not laughing. "Sirius," she said, "I think I'm going to kill you."

Sirius grinned. "Well, you have to admit, he did have a crush on you last year- I think perhaps James scared him off-"

"He did not have a crush on me!" Lily exclaimed, completely aghast.

"Did too."

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"He did not!" Lily roared, and, unbidden, all the pillows in the common room rose to smack Sirius in the face.

"Oomph." Padfoot laid on the floor, stunned, for a few moments. "Okay," he managed. "You win."

Lily had already left the room.

"Did too."

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE: THE NIGHTS BEFORE AND THE DAYS AFTER

I'm losing my mind," Allya groaned the last day before the Quidditch match against Ravenclaw. "OWLS are in a week, the big game's tomorrow, and I am so damn tense that-"

"Shut up, Ally," Lily grouched from the bed beside her. "We're all getting up early and need our rest… don't know what they're on to, pulling us out of bed before ten on a Saturday to watch the Quidditch match…"

"But I gotta vent to someone!" she moaned in her semi-Canadian, semi-British accent.

Lily fumbled for her wand on the bedside table and muttered, "Lumos." A blue light filled the room and Lily checked the clock. "It's quarter past twelve, go to sleep," she murmured. "Vent to… the picture of Remus on the night stand…" Sparky was already getting less sparky and falling asleep. "Nox," she whispered, and drifted into unconsciousness.

"And just think," Allya muttered to herself. "They almost cancelled the match because of the dark goings-on Dumbledore's been hiding… I almost wish they had cancelled it." Ally seemed to realize what she'd just said. "Yuck. What have I been eating? Maybe it's the lack of sleep."

This lack of sleep referred to the previous night, when she'd flown her broomstick out over Hogsmeade to her parent's old house, looking for the object Claryssa had described. She'd found it quite easily- it stood out like a sore thumb. She'd given the ring to Remus that very day, in fact, for his birthday.

James got everybody up at the crack the next morning. Possibly the least impressed were Ally and Sirius, who had been a bit restless the night before. Being awoken at quarter to six was not their cup of tea. Sirius tripped over the leg of a chair while walking out the portrait hole to breakfast.

Breakfast was served early for the two Quidditch teams, who looked warily at each other across the tables. James and the Ravenclaw Captain shook hands before walking out to the field.

Nobody else was there yet; the match wouldn't start for another hour. Everyone was very nervous, as the Quidditch Cup was at stake- and, quite possibly, the House cup. Once everyone was dressed in their Quidditch robes, James began what he apparently thought was a good pep-talk. "Ravenclaw's a tough team," he said, pacing. "They demonstrated that when they flattened Hufflepuff- not that Hufflepuff's an especially difficult team to beat. However, I do have an incentive for you, if you'll listen for a moment." Everyone looked up from what they were doing- Allya and Remus stopped laughing at Sirius' comical James impression, which was being performed behind James' back, Sirius stopped the impressionism, Andy and the Chasers looked up from their game of Exploding Snap. "If you win, I'll buy you butterbeers," James coerced.

"The mighty Potter, resorting to bribery?" How Snape had gotten into the Gryffindor change room was beyond the Quidditch players.

"Go away," Arika said, tossing her hair over her shoulders and going back to Exploding Snap.

"If you lose," Potter said, "I'll still buy you butterbeers!" The team ran out onto the pitch, one of the members slowing just enough to give Snape a good kick in the shins as he walked past.

The whistle blew before Remus even knew it. All fifteen broomsticks rose, the Golden Snitch and the Bludgers were released, the coach tossed the Quaffle, and the game began.

Warren scored quickly, giving Gryffindor an early lead. One of the Ravenclaws shot it right back past Andy, though, and the score was tied once more. It was soon apparent that the Ravenclaw team was Gryffindor's match equally, and that the winning team would be whoever caught the Snitch first.

Suddenly, James took a dive. Ravenclaw's Seeker saw it and went after him… and nearly got a nosefull of dirt as James pulled up, a perfect Wronski Feint. Lily breathed a sigh of relief and sat back down again. When James was above the field again, he stopped, reached out his hand, and-

The applause nearly knocked him out of the air, and all of the Gryffindor Quidditch team raced around in a circle around Madam Hooch, who held the Quidditch Cup, smiling.

The party in the Gryffindor Tower went well into the night, until two-thirty, in fact, when Professor McGonagall came in and told them all off for staying up so late and making, "Such a racket! And just after we get away from the mysterious goings-on, too."

When she was gone, several fifth years crept out of their dormitories again.

"That was…" Allya began, but was silenced by a yawn.

Remus looked at her sideways, which was hard, as they were sitting so closely. "Go to sleep," he commanded gently, but her eyes were already closed. "Oh, it figures. She falls asleep on my chest so I can't get up."

"I seem to have the same problem," Lily commented. James was fast asleep- on her right arm. "Damn… James… wake up… A little help here, Sirius?"

Sirius didn't answer- he was sprawled sideways on one of the overstuffed chairs, fast asleep.

"How sweet," Lily muttered. "Or at least it would be if I could feel my arm!" She thought for a moment. "Maybe we should introduce them to coffee… what do you think, Remus?"

"Coffee's disgusting," he said, making himself a bit more comfortable. He summoned a nearby pouf (sort of a footrest thingy) for his feet and the blanket from the top of the chair Sirius was spread-eagled on. Remus yawned. "G'night, Lily."

"Good night, Remus- wait- aren't you going to help me-" Lily made a noise of exasperation- Remus was already asleep. "Drat."

Sunday morning, Mioré, Adrienne, and Lindsay bounded down the steps from the girls' dormitory, intent on doing a little more studying before breakfast.

Lindsay tripped and stumbled down three steps before catching herself on a railing, where she surveyed the disaster in the common room. "Would you look at that," she breathed, taking in the tremendous mess. "I don't think we can study here."

Wrappers from about forty bags of Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans littered the floor. The bowls they'd been poured into were tipped at various degrees on the floor, their remaining contents spilling onto it. Empty flasks of butterbeer also littered the floor, along with three incomplete sets of wizard chess pieces and two Exploding Snap decks. As a joke, someone had bewitched one of the decks- instead of reading 'Exploding Snap' on one side they now read 'Exploding Snape.' The figures on the other side all looked like Snape, too, except greasier and meaner (if that was possible). Everyone knew it was Sirius' doing, but nobody actually accused him out loud- to do so would be to incur the legendary Black wrath. Or, if Padfoot wasn't in a particularly vengeful mood, he'd just laugh and ask how he or she figured it out.

"Which hurricane went through here?" Mioré wondered out loud. Spying the five figures by the fireplace, she went over to Lily, who was just waking up. "Have a good night, Lils?"

Lily groaned, and James finally shifted off of her arm, although he still wasn't awake. "I can't feel my fingers… or the rest of my arm."

Mioré grinned. "That a yes or a no?"

Lily chose not to dignify that with a proper response (normally, that a simple slap would suffice). James finally opened his eyes, surveying the damage. "Amazing," he breathed, enraptured by the filthy common room. "Judging by the damage, this was our best party yet!"

"Indeed," Lily muttered under her breath. "I can see they're not making him Head Boy…"

"Lils, why on Earth would I want to be Head Boy?"

Lily shrugged. "Dunno."

Mioré changed the subject. "What happened to Sirius?" she asked, walking over to him and rolling him halfway out of the chair before he even twitched. "All of a sudden he's non-responsive."

"Oh, he's just had too much butterbeer," James said, getting up and stretching. Remus and Ally, too, were soon awake, and as there was no more time before breakfast, they left the common room to eat.

The nights the next week and a half were chock-full of study books, study groups, study snacks (usually conjured by Sirius or James, or pilfered from the kitchens), midnight study sessions, and other study stuff. Everyone was pretty much studied out by the time the OWLS finished, and on the Friday that they finished, our favorite Gryffindor students met on the shore of the lake, watching the giant squid (or, if we're referring to Sirius, loosing the leg-locker curse on the giant squid, just to see what would happen).

Thankfully an purposely, the OWLS had fallen into a time frame that was surrounded on neither end by a full moon. That left everyone free to do something Friday night (or early Saturday morning). Nobody figured on any harm- the dark messages and goings-on and such had pretty much tapered off.

James, Sirius, Remus and Allya left the castle at half past eleven that night and headed directly for the Forbidden Forest.

I'm going to miss it here, Allya declared, giving Sirius a strange look as he paused to, er, bookmark a certain bush on the grounds. Whatever will I do over the holidays without you guys?

Dunno. Sirius did a bit more sniffing. Mmm… love the smell of trouble. This way, then! He began a sprint that directed the group at the section of the Forbidden Forest behind the gamekeeper's cabin.

Something doesn't smell right, Allya announced unexpectedly. Again, she added.

James stomped a hoof in agitation. Hope we don't find anything like we did last time…

Allya's animal instincts already had her on alert. Last time?

Oops.

A dead unicorn, Remus explained, the dog-like growls sounding strangely mangled coming from his feline throat.

Wonderful, Allya grouched. Could've told me before… I would've done a reading or a gazing for you.

Sirius barked softly with laughter, and James snorted. Allya knew James didn't hold with her 'Divination nonsense', and she also knew that Sirius did. By laughing, they were making themselves feel more secure, possibly while berating themselves mentally for not thinking of that sooner.

Never mind. It's too late now, anyway.

Yeah, Remus agreed, following Padfoot and Prongs into the wood. And it's not as if we can- uh oh.

James and Sirius' animal forms were stopped in their tracks, and both of their heads were bent to the ground, looking at something. Allya moved forwards, sniffling. The hair on her back rose- this was not good, this was definitely not good.

Damn it.

What do we do? Padfoot asked, looking at all of his companions in turn.

What can we do? the she-wolf asked, growling softly. We're going in further. She took the lead, the three males at her back. Nose to the ground, she followed the trail, occasionally picking up familiar scents that she couldn't quite place. What is that? she barked, indicating the scent. Remus and Sirius both tried, but couldn't place it.

It's familiar, but… Padfoot was drawing a blank.

I know I've smelled that before, Moony concurred.

Save it, James advised, and silence descended as they followed A.J. on her scent-quest through the forest.

At one point, they swore they were surrounded by giant spiders- long, spindly legs seemed to move everywhere around them. Remus and Allya both growled, and the spiders were seen no more.

A mournful howl was heard- it was close, too, wherever it came from. Redwood put on her happy-wolf face and went loping off ahead of everyone, loosing her signature howl and letting the other wolves of the pack greet her. There was a quick exchange of barks, one no one else understood, and the apparent leader of the pack dispatched two of his pack-mates to aid Allya.

They say something sinister's going on, Allya explained after a moment, and that we'll need all the help we can get if we want to see the bottom of this.

James snorted. That's refreshing. At least they're not trying to eat me.

Oh, Allya replied, don't worry James, they've promised your safety this time… and if we find what the Dark forces in the forest are up to, they say they'll grant you immunity forever.

James was a bit surprised. You got all that from such a short exchange?

The she-wolf appeared to grin. Nope. I've been corresponding with this particular pack for a couple of months already.

Well, that's good.

Moony agreed. Most definitely.

In front of them, Allya and her wolf escorts stopped so abruptly that Remus, Sirius and James almost ran right into their rear ends. The tails had stopped wagging, and their postures suggested that they were, in fact, very, very tense.

This is not good, James groaned, able to see over the tops of their heads. This is very, very bad, very bad, oh shit, what're we going to do?

Their Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher was laying in the middle of a clearing, covered in blood and some mysterious silver goo, unmoving.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR: CURSES: FOILED AGAIN?

Allya looked back and forth between the two other wolves, not making a sound. Finally, she growled, Lorell's still alive… what're we going to do? The professor was unconscious between pools of silver and red, the red being her own blood and the silver unknown. Her wand was stuck into the pocket of her robes, only half-in, as if she'd been drawing it when whatever happened, happened. Blotches of red and silver came from one direction, but only the silver left the clearing again.

James pawed the ground nervously with a hoof. Gotta get her back up to the castle, he announced.

Besides the obvious, you brainless git, Remus murmured.

One of us has to change back, Sirius stated. Remus? Prongs?

It has to be me, Ally cut in. I'll say I've been sleepwalking again- it's on my record already.

Prongs stamped a foot in agitation. Who'll keep the honor guard in line? he asked.

After another brief exchange, Redwood informed them that the two wolves would cooperate- they would be investigating the trail of silver stuff. They left, and Ally transformed. "I'll be back with help soon if I can get it," she said, magicking up some smelling salts and holding them before Lorell's nose. "Professor Lorell? We need to go inside now, can you stand?"

Lorell stirred. "Where-?"

"Let's go," Ally interrupted, helping the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor to her feet. "There are evil things lurking in this place tonight." She had a very, very bad feeling about this whole business, in fact. The sooner she got back up to the castle to confront the Fates about it, the better.

"Tell me about it," the professor replied, and the two of them started towards the castle. "How did you come to find me? You're not supposed to be out of the castle at this hour, Miss Nightrunner."

"Sleepwalker," Allya answered. "What's your reason for being out there this late?"

"Stargazing," Lorell said immediately. "I think I must've fallen out of the tree… punctured my shoulder on something when I fell, I suspect." A.J. turned her eyes on the left shoulder of her DADA professor, surprised to find a sizeable (although very clean) hole that went nearly all the way through.

Allya gazed upward, suspicion rising. "Ouch."

Sirius, Remus, James, and the two wolves found almost nothing by following the path that was both red and silver. Something was increasingly familiar about the smell, but none could place it- it was simply something they recognized from the faint traces they caught in human form, but couldn't quite handle the translation of.

The two extras decided to investigate the trail of silver that left the clearing again, while James looked around for signs of other predators and Sirius and Remus sniffled around the spot where Lorell had been found. Spot and Fluffers- that's what Sirius was privately calling them, anyway- returned quickly, tails wagging, growling frantically. Sirius managed to catch a phrase or two of the too-quick wolf dialect and bounded after them. Remus and James followed at a more leisurely pace, lacking Sirius' enthusiasm for anything that would get him expelled.

This is not good, James declared, gazing at the dead unicorn in disgust. Another one. Well, great. We've got an insane serial unicorn killer on the loose. Wonderful.

Stabbed, Remus observed, in his typical detached way. Think the murder weapon's around here somewhere?

I just thought of something, Sirius grunted softly. The red was Lorell's blood, and the silver is the unicorn's, right? His companions, at least, the ones that understood, nodded. And Lorell had a hole through her shoulder. A hole approximately the size of a unicorn's horn, right? More nods, and significantly more apprehensive looks upon their visages. And that, Sirius added finally, stopping to sniff something near the dead animal.

A knife blade, the kind used for de-boning large, magical fish.

Allya's in trouble, Remus declared.

"That must be painful," Ally commented, gazing at the wound and shuddering, wondering what had really made it. Her suspicion mounted with every passing second.

"It is," the professor assured her. "Mind if I borrow your wand to mend it?"

"Erm- Professor," Nightrunner began, "your wand is in your pocket."

Professor Lorell could have hissed in vexation. "It's no good for healing wounds," she said. "Give me your wand, please."

Allya reached, very hesitantly, for the redwood wand in the left sleeve of her robe- the professor was on her right, and drew it out slowly. Just when it seemed as if she were about to hand it over-

"EXPELLIARMUS!"

"EXPELLIARMUS!" Even from a distance, the volume at which the disarming charm was said carried it on.

"This is not good," Remus said, human once more. "We gotta go, we gotta go- Padfoot, Prongs, get Dumbledore. Heaven knows we're going to need him." Remus grabbed his own wand out of his robes and turned around, ready to go face-to-face with the woman who had poisoned hundreds of wizards and witches.

"Remus!" Sirius called. Remus turned. "What are you going to do?"

Remus shrugged. "I seem to recall beating both of you in Defense Against the Dark Arts every year since the beginning of time. I'll think of something."

Allya's wand flew out of her hand and landed somewhere on the grass behind her former professor. The professor's wand flew out of her hand and landed in the Forbidden Forest. "Looks like it's just you and me, Lorell," Ally challenged. "If that's your real name."

"That's my real name," Lorell assured her. She clapped her hands twice- and the wand that had nearly poked Remus in the eye upon entering the Forbidden Forest flew back to her hands.

"Oh, shit." As Lorell pointed her wand towards Allya, lazily reciting the words of the Cruciatus Curse, Remus was just coming out of the forest.

Damn, this hurts, Allya thought, but said nothing. Okay, you can stop now. Hello? Enough! Quit it! STOP. Cease and desist. Let me go, already! Still, she refused to scream, or even beg for mercy audibly. "That the best you can do?" she managed, biting her tongue as the waves of pain came anew. That was a stupid thing to say.

"Expelliarmus," someone nearby whispered. Lorell lost her wand once again, to the ground behind her this time.

"Remus-" Ally gasped, "the wand- she'll get it back- get down!"

Lorell already had her wand back. "Avada Ke-"

A wolf launched herself at the Dark witch, clamping teeth around the wand and the hand that held it. The professor yelped and dropped the wand. Allya chewed it in half, spitting out the unicorn hair with distaste.

It almost didn't matter- in a stunning display of acrobatic talent, Lorell had leaped backward and retrieved Allya's fallen wand. "You'll pay for that one, sweet," she said, pointing the wand at Remus' and disarming him. Using Remus' ash wand, she forced Ally to return human and began shooting curses that would injure at both of them- and the three others arriving in the vicinity didn't seem happy about it.

"Bumblebee," A. J. said, using the Marauder's code-name for the Headmaster of Hogwarts. Remus nodded, understanding her message about keeping the hope.

James and Sirius made it into Hogwarts in record time, even for them. Panting and sweating and cursing a blue streak, Sirius reached the gargoyle entrance to Dumbledore's office just ahead of James. "Crap!" he said, smacking himself on the head. "Ever since Ally came, we get caught less! I don't know the password!"

"The map!" James said, "The map will help! Accio map!"

Sirius activated it and studied it for a moment. Dumbledore was indeed in his office and not his bed. "Prongs, your girlfriend's the Muggle-born- what on earth is a 'Mo-Jo'?" The gargoyle opened. "Not a term from the wizard world, if I had to make a guess. But I suppose it doesn't matter. Professor Dumbledore, sir?"

A very grave and very tired old man sat behind his desk, quietly awaiting their explanation. He raised his eyebrows in an unspoken question.

"Mischief managed," James muttered under his breath. "Er- Professor- Professor Lorell is outside on the grounds with Allya Nightrunner and Remus Lupin, sir- and- and she's just killed another unicorn, but it gored her pretty badly before it died, and I think-" an inhuman scream was heard through the window. James winced. "I think she's using the Cruciatus Curse or something, sir-"

Dumbledore was already halfway out the door. "Stay somewhere safe!" he told James and Sirius.

So of course they followed Dumbledore.

"Don't you hurt him!" Allya was shouting as Dumbledore came around behind Lorell. "He's done nothing! It's me you want- it's my parents that caught-" She stopped being distracted by Remus' cries of agony for a moment. "It was my parents that caught your fiancé, wasn't it? And sent him to Azkaban," she added, the beginnings of an evil glow on her face. She had multiple cuts and bruises, and a few broken bones to boot.

"How did you know that, little girl?" Lorell asked, sneering. Obviously she thought 'little' was quite a, er, belittling word to use.

"Allya Jade, Divinations master," she grunted under her breath, battling the Imperius Curse.

It was at this moment that Lorell diverted her attention to Dumbledore and his sidekicks, stopping the curses on Allya and Remus. "Avada Kedavra!"

The white wolf appeared again, this time knocking over the professor completely. The green light missed Dumbledore completely but was headed straight for Sirius- he dove out of the way, but hit his head hard on something and was out for the rest of the fight- which, incidentally, wasn't long. James managed to break his leg while dodging 'Crucio' and had to be sent back up to the castle on a stretcher by Dumbledore. At the end of the multi-parted battle, Dumbledore was the only conscious one.

There was far too much light in the hospital wing as Allya was coming to. There seemed to be other people in the room- Probably Remus, James, or Sirius, etc, etc, she thought.

"Well, good morning, Sunshine!" Sirius called cheerfully from the next bed over.

Allya pulled her pillow around her head. "They stuck me in here with you?" she groaned. "I'll never sleep again…"

"Relax, Sweet Cheeks, it's only temporary. But while you're awake, you might as well examine your OWL results- they're on the table beside you."

"They're- oh." Allya found the envelope that was referred to, and picked it up. "Sirius, they're already opened."

Sirius shrugged. "I had to see how you'd compare, didn't I?" he asked.

Allya stuck her tongue out at him. "How long have you been awake, anyway, dog-boy?"

"Long enough to hear you talking in your sleep," Sirius answered, suddenly- well, serious. "Lorell really tortured you, didn't she?"

Ally looked away, swiping at an invisible tear. "She would have killed Remus, just to see the daughter of her fiancé's catchers writhe in agony."

Sirius shuddered. "Oh."

"Yeah," she answered absently, reviewing her OWLS. "How many'd you get?"

"Huh?" Sirius asked. "Oh- OWLS. I got eleven. One for each course, although I barely made Potions."

She nodded, thinking that her ten were enough. "I missed Herbology, not that it matters much. I'm such a devoted carnivore," she said, smirking. "And I got an extra one in Advanced Divination- coming from Trelawney, that's an insult. So, eleven for me, too, but only ten are official."

"James got eleven, too, and Remus got ten- missed Potions." The new voice was Lily's; it came from the door to the hospital wing. "And I got eleven, Mioré and Linds got nine apiece, and Adrienne scraped by. Don't know about Andy, haven't asked yet. Rumor has it Snape missed Transfiguration." She smiled. "And now, I'm going to see James, if Madam Pomfrey will let me in…"

Mioré and Linds entered, settling down and chattering to Sirius merrily. They would have talked to Allya, too- but she was already fast asleep again, dreaming of the times to come.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE: GOING HOME

It was early on the last day of school that the companions were released from the hospital wing. Scars and scabs had healed, smiles replaced frowns and grimaces, and yet, deep down, everyone was sad to be leaving.

"I'm going to miss this," Ally said fondly that day, out wandering around the lake and grounds. "I'm almost going to miss Snape. Almost."

Sirius nearly cracked a grin, but couldn't quite bring himself to do it. "So what's everybody doing over the holidays?" he asked.

"I'm going to Italy," Lily announced glumly. "Petunia's bringing her boyfriend along. We're going to see Rome, oh great joy."

Remus wrinkled his nose at the name. "Never really wanted to go there myself. Cruel joke on my name. Unfair."

Allya and Sirius, arguably the most knowledgeable about Greek and Roman legends, nodded understandingly.

James sighed. "If you really don't want to go, you can come with me this summer- we're visiting relatives in Poland. Even more fun than getting your butt kicked by the wild traffic around the coliseum."

Lily shook her head. "I have to meet Vernon. Mum and Dad insist. If I know Petunia's taste in men- and I do- he'll be some insufferable, overstuffed, spoiled rich kid just waiting to inherit a major corporation. Sounds like fun, eh?"

"Make sure to bring plenty of Pepper Imps and don't forget the Esipret's Goo," Allya said absent-mindedly. "Can't let them have too much fun."

"As for me, I'm not planning anything," Remus said. "Looking forward to the blue moon on the twenty-eighth of July, though."

Everyone was a bit confused- especially Allya. "What's so special about the blue moon?" she asked. "Unless I miss my guess, a full moon is a full moon, and we'll both be, um, rather furry."

"Then you miss your guess," Remus said. "Blue moons are important- they don't affect a werewolf at all. Just a normal night, almost as if the moon was a quarter or a half. Only, we actually get to see it for once in our human forms. Once in a long-time chance."

"The twenty-eighth of July, you say?" Allya smiled, noting the irony. "That's the day after my sixteenth birthday. I'll be moved into my parent's house by then. I suppose I'll have a party to celebrate. You all will come, right?"

Everyone nodded, including Lily and James. "I don't leave till the third of August," Lily explained, "And James doesn't leave until the tenth, so we're game."

"I ought to be back from America by then," Mioré said. "I'll be there."

"I'm taking the entire summer to tour around England on my bike," Sirius announced, "But I'll take time out of my busy schedule to visit my very good friend on the occasion of her sixteenth birthday, I think."

"Wouldn't miss it," Remus added.

"Excellent," Allya exclaimed, flopping back onto the grass. "I can't wait until next year. I think I'll spend my summer thinking of nasty things to do to Mrs. Norris." Ally's hatred for the wretched feline was well-known- she'd even transformed into the wolf in the hallway and gone hunting after her one day, and nearly got caught for all her trouble.

A bell rang inside the school. "Time for the feast," Sirius announced, getting up and rubbing his stomach. "And the announcement of the winner of the House Cup."

"Great," Lily said, a tad unenthusiastically. "That means we have to leave soon. I don't want to go home. I don't want to deal with Petunia and- what was his name again? Vernon? Horrible Muggle name, if you ask me." Everyone turned disbelieving eyes on Lily. "Did I just say that? Must've had a bad chocolate frog. Let's go!"

To everyone's complete and utter lack of surprise, the Great Hall was decked out in bright streamers and hangings of red and gold. Dumbledore started his speech like he usually did, with the 'the end of another year' bit, but gradually, he worked his way to a more important bit.

"The fact that Gryffindor won the House Cup can be largely attributed to the actions of four brave young students. Professor Lorell has been officially charged with the deaths of two unicorns, the use of the Unforgivable Curses, and the murder of the Minister of Magic. Nobody would have ever known if it was not for these students. James, Sirius, Remus, Allya- would you please stand up?"

The four Marauders looked at each other. They stood up, a bit shakily at first, and looked at Dumbledore. "We present to these four students the award for special services to the school."

Dumbledore began to applaud. Sirius looked dumbstruck, like he was about to die. He'd never been in the spotlight before- James' shadow was, he felt, where he belonged. Where he felt comfortable. Allya, unused to the attention, smiled nervously. James turned a brilliant shade of red. Remus seemed like he was about to pass out. Finally, the applause died down (there had never been any at the Slytherin table). The four students sat down again.

"Also," Professor McGonagall took over, "due to the remarkable scholastic achievements of a Gryffindor student in the subject of Transfiguration-" McGonagall droned on and on.

Sirius turned to Allya. "You registered? You… you goody-goody!"

Allya turned red. "I had to!" she whispered harshly. "Dumbledore saw me transform that night…"

The feast was wonderful, as it always was. Everyone was tired, however, and they went to bed early, dreading the day to come.

"ALLY! Wake up, we're going to be late for the train!" A soft, fluffy pillow hit Allya on the back of the head.

"Oomph." One bright blue eye opened halfway. "Already?"

Lily nodded, already dressed, showered, and packed up. "Yes, already, sleepyhead! Get up, unless you want to stay here all summer."

Allya didn't move an inch.

"And without any of us, either."

Allya jumped out of bed. "What'm I waiting for? Let's go!"

It took A. J. an entire ten minutes to get ready and head down for breakfast. There was almost no one in the Great Hall when she rushed in to grab some toast (YAY TOAST!) and hightailed it back to the common room in record time.

The Hogwarts Express was as full of students leaving the school as it had been with students coming in the beginning of the year, except for one. Peter Pettigrew being dead, and no one being really sorrowful, life went on, as it always did.

"The end to another glorious year," James reflected, looking out the window at the scenery speeding by over the top of Lily's head. "And we only had four detentions."

Sirius looked up. "We will have to correct this problem next year. Someone's going to steal our record if we're not careful!"

"I seriously doubt your reputation is in any danger," Allya mumbled softly from across the car. Heads turned, people being curious as to what was muffling her voice- well, Remus was, and that's all there was to it. "Our reputation, I mean," she clarified, settling back down again. "Not like we have any competition. Nobody wants to hold the record number of detentions in a year."

"We do," James argued.

"You would," Lily countered.

Mioré just looked on and laughed. The pleasant sound filled the car and soon everyone was in good spirits in spite of themselves.

The scenery sped on, and a bright red train wound about the hills and through the countryside, unobserved by many and carefully marked by others. Somewhere up high, Catalina and B. Morris Nightrunner looked down upon the earth and saw that all was well, that their daughter was growing up with the friends she deserved. Sirius' father, too, smiled appreciatively down at Sirius and his best friend. He was much saddened when he recalled the trials he knew would lay ahead for them, but for now all was right in their world.

Just outside platform nine and three-quarters, families waited- the Lupins, the Potters, the Blacks (what was left of them), the Evans, the Lancasters, the Jenkins, and many more.

Remus emerged first from the barrier, unable to hide his somewhat sad smile as he brought Allya over to meet his parents.

"Mum, Dad, this is Allya," he announced.

Remus' parents positively beamed. "So this is the girl we've heard so much about, hey?" Remus' father boomed.

Allya wanted to disappear. She turned an extremely flattering shade of pink. "Hi," she managed. "Nice to meet you."

James and Lily emerged next. Sparky practically dragged Prongs over to her own parents (to her great relief, Petunia and the lump of lard she was dating were not present).

"Is that the trouble-maker we've heard so much of, dear?" the woman James assumed was Lily's Mum asked. "Well, he's certainly changed a lot since the last time we saw him… that was back in second-year, wasn't it?"

James nodded meekly.

"Sublime!" Lily's dad crowed. To James' horror and Lily's absolute bafflement, her father actually winked at James. "Much nicer than that walking bathtub Petunia's been dating. Now, let's have a go over the rules of dating an Evans daughter, shall we?"

James looked like he wanted to crawl into a hole and die. Across the street, Sirius was collapsed in a heap on one side of his cart, Mioré on the other, and both of them were too winded to talk from laughing so hard.

Once again, Catalina and B. Morris Nightrunner, along with Mr. Black, looked down upon the world in which their children were to grow up.

All is as it should be, Catalina observed. For how long remains to be seen.

For now, her husband reminded her. For now, dear, let them enjoy what they have. Things will get complicated soon enough. Let them enjoy it while they can.

Such a tragic world in which they grow, Mr. Black said ominously. Such trials they will face. Trials like we have never known.

I fear for them, Catalina whispered.

As do I, Catalina, a short, blonde woman Catalina didn't know murmured. As do we all.

End