Read Melancholy first.

Disclaimer: Not mine.


The rest of seventh year had been quite different from the beginning of it. When Melanie returned to Hogwarts, she'd decided firmly that she wasn't going back home again; she wasn't putting up with her father from that point on. Quite quickly, she and Remus grew close again. Their friendship rebloomed into something much larger, and much stronger, than they'd ever had.

She turned it all over in her head as she lay in bed.

Alone.

Of the months that they'd lived together since graduating, full moons were by far the worse time. It was such nights that she suddenly realized how much the sandy haired werewolf had changed her life. She looked at the clock and rolled over yet again; her legs tangling in the sheets.

Why did time travel so slowly?!

An exasperated groan escaped her as she finally threw the blankets off, burying the sound asleep dog at the foot of the bed. She always got there after he'd transformed back. Surely a few minutes wouldn't make a difference.

Regardless, she tried to pace herself, tried to ensure that she wouldn't get there too soon. The wind bit at exposed skin, tangled her cloak around her, and sent her hair flying in near every direction.

Almost a year now, she thought, moving steadily along the path that she surely could have traveled with her eyes closed. She'd taken it so many times now, but still, she was sure, it was because he pulled to her. She could feel him, could feel her feet pick up their speed to get to him quicker.

She hated full moons, hated them with a fiery passion. She hated that she had to leave him alone, had to leave him in such horrid agony.

Hated that there was nothing that she could do, but wait.

Wrapped in her own thoughts, she didn't see the wolf lunge.

Her scream echoed through the forest as teeth sank into her arm and momentum throw them both forward. Pain shot through her for only moments before her head crashed against the dirt and rock ground and the world went black. She didn't see the wolf set to attack again, didn't see the sun's first light wash over them, didn't see the vicious, dirty, and bloody wolf transform painfully back into an exhausted, dirty, and bloody man.

Remus slowly and carefully pushed himself off of the ground. It'd been a rough night as always, but nothing compared to his dream. To that terrible, horrifying dream. He blinked slowly, forcing his vision clean.

The sight before him made a balloon of icy water drop in his stomach. What he saw was far worse than his dream, for it hadn't been a dream at all.

"Melly!" It came out as a hoarse whisper as he scrambled forward. He carefully gathered the small girl in his arms. "Oh, God. Oh, God." This couldn't be happening. Not her.