When I woke up the next morning, I was sure that Mary would have forgotten the entire thing by now. When I tried to pull her in for a kiss that morning, she pushed herself away, walking out of the portrait hole by herself.

Luckily, there was no one around to see that.

I wasn't supposed to get rejected like that. No girl was ever supposed to push me away. I was supposed to be the one pushing them away.

At breakfast, I tried to sit next to her and make it seem like nothing was wrong. I didn't want anyone thinking that I wasn't Sirius Black – womanizer debonair.

Mary was drumming her fingers on the table – duh-dum, duh-dum, over and over again, the incessant sound thudding in my mind. Finally, she turned to me and said, "Sirius, could you follow me for a second?"

She probably wanted to make up – of course. There was nothing else. And since we were stopping in the middle of the Great Hall, I knew she wanted an audience. She must have known that I loved audiences and public displays of affection. Finally, she understood!

"I want to break up."

Wait – that sounded like...no, she was joking. "What?" I asked, just to make sure that it was all just a joke. She was a bit early for April Fools...and this wasn't that good of a joke anyway. I would have to teach her how to pull the perfect prank.

"I don't want to be your girlfriend anymore, Sirius." The words she said – they didn't make any sense. Were they even supposed to fit together in a sentence like that? I just didn't understand – no girl would ever want to not be my girlfriend.

"But – why?" I managed to say, trying to dig deeper. She just had to be joking.

Her brown eyes stared intensely into mine as she said, clearly, "Well, truthfully, I can't stand being around you right now. So, I think it would be best if we broke up."

She wanted to break up with...me? In front of the whole school? Mary – my girlfriend, the girl I got to spend so much time having fun with me, wanted to just throw me to the side and forget about all that snogging? But we worked so well together! "Um...you're kidding, right?" I asked, blinking.

She scoffed. Right in my face – just scoffed at me. "No, I'm being serious."

What the hell was going on? "But, we were getting along great," I insisted, taking a step forward to touch her. Maybe she had forgotten how great we had gotten along – maybe if I -

But she just shrugged me off. "Don't try anything. Nothing will change my mind, Sirius. I can't even look at you right now, so excuse me, but I have to leave."

No...she couldn't...

I made a reach for her hand, but she withheld it from my grasp, striding out of the hall and disappearing down the corridor.

She didn't just – no...not in front of everyone like that. How could she – my mind went blank and stared off in space, trying to make some sense out of what had just happened. But nothing made sense at all.

"Hey, mate! You're missing breakfast!" Jumping at the sudden shout, I shook my head. No, it didn't matter. Nothing mattered – nothing made sense, so nothing mattered. And putting a smile on my face, I made my way over to the table.

They all stared at me with these sickening sympathetic expressions on their face. They were sorry for me...embarrassed for me. Just because of some girl. But, no, I was above that...

"You know..." I spoke up as the idea came to me. It was perfect – a sure way to get my mind off of everything. "We need a party this weekend. After the Quidditch match." And the phrase "I'll supply the drinks" definitely put a grin on my face.

The first thing I grabbed after entering the common room at the afterparty was a very nice bottle of firewhisky.

Oh, yes, my night was going to be perfect.

Scanning the room quickly between conversations with random people, I judged everything around me. Dancing, talking, snogging, dancing, and...

Oh god, she was here. That Ivy Bennett was just sitting on the couch, wasting her life away by getting that lost sheep look on her face. She really needed to loosen up – have fun at least. Just sitting on the couch between random people and looking lost was not fun.

She wasn't that bad – maybe Remus would get her to have some fun. Oh, what was I saying? Remus plus Ivy equals no fun whatsoever.

"Hey, Padfoot, I got you another!" I heard James say from behind me.

Ah, such good friends. Three best friends and the one in my hand. Who needed girls?

"I got you this..."

The voice swam in and out of my head. "Anothordrink?" I muttered, trying to open my eyes to see the drink in front of me.

"No, it's your hangover potion..." Urgh, why was that voice so annoying? Blindly, I reached out in front of me and managed to clasp a small bottle in my head. Immediately, I brought it up to my lips and tilted back my head. It was...bitter.

Squinting my eyes, I tried to sit up, realizing that I was surrounded by a comfort of some kind – oh, pillows.

Hey, my bed!

Staring incredulously around at my surroundings, my gaze landed on Peter watching me (with very wide eyes) only a few feet away. "Hey, Wormtail!" I greeted him, feeling suddenly very awake.

Peter kept staring at me. "You better get dressed quickly. Breakfast begins soon," he told me, before going back to his own bed.

Breakfast! Food sounded great. Quickly, I dressed and made my way down into the common room in a record time of four minutes. From the staircase, I could hear Remus talking to someone. Peering in, I could see...blonde hair.

Aha, it was that Ivy Bennett. Even she couldn't ruin my mood. Jumping over the back of the couch, I startled her and I greeted them with a extremely excited, "Hey! What's going on?"

"Feeling better then?" Remus asked me sarcastically. See, he's not really great at that sarcasm stuff. At least he tries though.

So I just grinned. "Hangover potion, dear Moony."

Remus responded with an eye roll. Clever. Turning toward Ivy, I decided that my good mood could be shared with her. "How did you like the party last night?"

"Fine," she answered, refusing to meet my eyes.

I laughed, trying to rack my mind for any memory of last night. Well, I drank a lot. That was a given. "Well, at least you remember it," I told her. Maybe I danced or something. That would be good...

"You don't remember any of it?" She sounded surprised. She obviously had never been drunk in her entire life. I couldn't even imagine her as a drunk.

"Don't remember any of it?" Remus laughed. "I don't think he remembers any of yesterday period."

I was about to say that of course I remembered the Quidditch game, but then Ivy asked, "You don't remember going around singing?"

Singing. Even better than dancing. "Did I? Must have been the best thing you've heard then," I joked, imagining the amazing voice they must have got to enjoy.

I actually got her to laugh (a soft, sort of breathy laugh, but a laugh all the same). She looked extremely relieved as she said, "Well, not exactly..." a smile appearing on her face.

I could definitely tolerate this version of Ivy Bennett. She needed to laugh more often.

February 21st – hell night. Remus's transformation was bloody awful. Nothing seemed to get him to calm down. He was biting and growling, snapping at us with every move, threatening us with his teeth bared.

I circled around him, trying not to surprise him with any rash movements. For some reason, the circling motion caused Remus to pounce – clamping down on my shoulder.

Not giving myself time to react to the pain, I lashed back, bringing my claws down on him. Whimpers filled the room as he retreated to his corner.

Night from hell.

Remus seemed to be thinking the same thing as he looked down at the covers of his bed, letting Madame Pomfrey change the bandage on the side of his face I had clawed into. We waited until she had left to pull up chairs beside his bed.

"You feeling better after the night from hell? Get enough rest?" I questioned him. He had missed a whole day of classes – I wished I could miss a day and just rest and do nothing. Some people had all the luck.

Remus frowned and didn't say anything in response. Something else must have been bugging him too. If it was just the transformation, he would have begun talking about it.

"Something a matter?" James asked. He was definitely thinking the same thing.

Remus began picking at his sheet. "No, it's fine-"

"It was Ivy's birthday today!" Peter piped up. "He bought her a present."

This was just too good to pass up. I couldn't stop the smirk from appearing on my face as I asked him, "You missed your little girlfriend's birthday?"

"I'm hurt and you're still making fun of me?" Remus questioned.

But even James was smiling. "You're avoiding the question."

Remus leaned back in his bed. "Okay, so, I bought her something. It doesn't mean anything-"

But Remus had never bought something for a girl before. "You fancy her," I exclaimed. "Remus Lupin and Ivy Bennett – together forever."

"Stop..." Remus warned us. "You can't make fun of the person who's already lying in bed with half of their face mauled away."

"Sure we can," James grinned.

"He has her present in his bag," Peter suddenly said.

James and I exchanged a look as we both dived for the bag hanging off the bed post. "No, guys, don't!" I could faintly hear Remus saying.

In the bag was a book of parchment, wrapped neatly in a beautiful deep vibrant red ribbon and an absolutely gorgeous ink bottle with 'Ivy' written on top. This. Was. Gold.

"Whoa, Moony, you went all out," James exclaimed, bringing out the presents.

Remus sighed heavily. "What does it matter? I missed her birthday anyway."

The hurt in his voice was heavy – it really was eating him up inside. Suddenly, I didn't feel like joking around anymore – not with Remus feeling so awful.

Peter and James must have felt the same way since an awkward silence fell over the room. Remus looked down at his sheets and continued to pick off imaginary lint. I wouldn't have been surprised if he was holding back tears.

"Listen," I found myself saying. "Maybe I can...I don't know...go get her or something."

Remus started shaking his head. "It's three in the morning, Padfoot. I don't want to just wake her up because-"

He trailed off, noticing the look I was giving him. "I'm sure she would want to see you. If not, she'll want to after she realizes how much you want to see her."

Remus didn't say anything, so I grabbed the Invisibility Cloak from James's hands. "Just wait here," I told him.

"I'm not going anywhere," I heard Remus's fail of a sarcastic response as I put the cloak over my body and left through the hospital wing doors.

As I made my way up the common room, I tried to clear my head of my thoughts. Why was I doing this? How was I going to just sneak up to the dormitories without anyone but Ivy knowing? Of course I knew how to get up the girls' staircase – that wouldn't be a problem – but would getting Ivy out of bed and down to the common room be possible?

Slipping through the portrait hole, I took a look around the darkened common room. Nothing out of the ordinary except...

For a startled, sleepy Ivy sitting on the couch.

How convenient. Slowly, I walked over to where she was glancing around the room, running a hand through her hair. She had obviously heard me come in. Her eyes were wide with confusion and fright and I knew as soon as I showed myself, she would begin screaming.

I just had to do it.

Grabbing the fabric covering my head, I pulled down quickly and replaced the hand over Ivy's open mouth. She stared back at me, eyes widening even more. "Don't be afraid." I shrugged off the rest of the cloak and said, "Okay, I'm going to move my hand, and you're not going to scream, okay?"

She was practically hyperventilating against my hand. I waited until she nodded and finally took my hand away. "What-how-" she began sputtering nonsense.

"I'll explain it all later, but, for now, come with me..." Pulling her up, I didn't even bother to explain the Invisibility Cloak to her. Instead, I just threw it over us and hoped that she wouldn't begin asking questions.

She tried to speak but I immediately 'shh'ed her. This wasn't the time for chat.

Carefully, we began walking down to the third floor. She held on tight to me, probably afraid of where I was taking her. I couldn't even imagine what was going through her mind. But she wasn't important. Remus was.

Finally, we reached the hospital wing and I lead her through the doors. "He wants to see you," I told her, taking the cloak off of us. "Over there." I vaguely pointed in the right direction as Ivy looked at me with a confused expression. She walked a few steps toward the general direction and took in the sight before her.

Remus had fallen asleep, still in an upright position. Peter and James were sitting in the chairs next to him, eyelids drooping.

Ivy turned back toward me, her eyes widened. Was I supposed to tell her how to do everything? Instead, I just waved her on. She just had to talk to him. How hard could that be?

"Remus?" she whispered, her voice so light I was surprised Remus even sitrred.

"Ivy," he responded, fixating his eyes upon her. Oh, god, it was like a cheesy romance scene. I had half a mind to turn away.

"I'm sorry," she said. Really, she couldn't think of anything better? What was she saying sorry for? That I had caused the injury on his face?

Remus started shaking his head. "No, I'm sorry. I missed your birthday."

I could have sworn Ivy was getting tears in her eyes. Maybe she really fancied Remus in return. "It's okay, I mean, you're hurt – you have an excuse -"

Remus chuckled. "You shouldn't be worried about me. It was your birthday - your day. That reminds me. Happy belated birthday."

He looked over at Ivy's presents on the table and I watched as she followed his gaze and realized that he had bought her a present. Taking the items in her hands, she just stared down at them. "Thank you," she finally said, running her fingers over the ink bottle. "It's amazing, Remus."

To my surprise, she climbed into the bed and tried putting her arms around him. That wasn't really possible with Remus voicing his pain. Ivy immediately started apologizing and I could have gagged watching the two of them.

I had to drag Ivy away after twenty minutes. We walked back in silence. What was I supposed to say to her? Start teasing her about Remus? No, I could do that here – underneath the cloak in the silence of the corridors.

I couldn't believe Remus had bought her that gift. I didn't even know it was her birthday. Probably no one knew. "Why didn't you tell everyone it was your birthday yesterday?" I asked quietly. She had acted like it was a normal day. Normal people didn't do that.

"I don't know."

Really, was she that quiet about things? Maybe she wanted to have a big party for once. "We could throw a party for you tomorrow."

No, I was wrong. She looked horrified as she turned to me and said, "I don't want a party. I don't want everyone to know."

But why? What was the point of no one knowing that it's your special day? "You don't want a party? It's supposed to be your day and you don't want anyone to know?"

She shrugged lightly. "It's okay. You don't have to do anything for me."

How strange. There had to be something seriously wrong with this girl. Maybe – well, just maybe we could do...something.


Chaptah trois! I've decided that chapters are probably going to be posted on Saturday. It's just a day that works for me.

This chapter will also be written (someday) in Remus's POV. I'm also working on a pretty amazing one-shot that I absolutely love but cannot work on when I'm supposed to be working on Suddenly I See.

Oh, what the heck, I'll give a preview:
"You're going to starve," I told her, sitting in a chair next to her.
She only looked up momentarily. "Finishing this was more important," she answered.
Reaching into my bag, I brought out something I knew she couldn't resist. "Guess what I have?" I asked, quickly holding it in front of her and withdrawing.
I knew she saw it when her head snapped up and her eyes fell on the pastry in my hands. "Did you get that for me?"
I shrugged, staring at the mince pie in my hand. "Why? You want it?"

Who are the people talking? THAT'S THE INTERESTING PART!

Anyway...I'm going to run off to homecoming and do...school spirit-y things. You're all amazing.