'Come on, Lyd, that's not necessary!' Lily shook her head, as I applied mascara, lipstick, foundation (to hide my spots), eyeshadow and blusher to hide my natural very pale look, putting on my wolf necklace, and wearing my favourite blue-fading-into-aqua-green dress, with leopard print all over it, with my black jacket with a furry inside over it. I had my best high-heels on and my little pink rose shoulder bag, and my date was in fifteen minutes!

'Yes it is, Lily! I need to look my best for my date. You said that earlier!' I protested, snapping my mirror shut, and placing it near the rest of my make-up I'd left in a pile outside the door to the Common Room. I'd take it up to the dorm later, once my date was over.

Lily smiled 'Yes, I know.' She checked her watch 'Oh no! I've got to show the First Years where they go for Astronomy! Sometimes I hate Prefect duty! Ah! And I've got twice as many because I promised Remus that I'd take his so he could go on a date with you! Oh well. I'll lead them into a bush, maybe, so that I can get to Astronomy on time!' She gave me a grin and hurried off. 'Good luck!' she called.

'And to you!' I answered, as she left. I had just under five minutes to sort out my hair, before Alexxie came to check I hadn't fallen asleep, or maybe died. There was a knock at the door. She was early!

'Sorry, just a minute!' I cried, searching for my hair brush. Oh, I'll have to use my wand. I thought, taking it out of my bag and flicking it, so that my hair would stay out of my way all night. I muttered the spell, just as the door opened. 'Ok, I'm here! I'm done!' I jump-turned around. It wasn't Alexxie. It was Remus.

'Sorry, you did say ten, but I couldn't wait that long. I'm sorry, Lyddie.'

'That's fine.' I replied 'I was just coming, but thinking about what I should do with my hair, so in the end, I came up with an Anti-Frizz charm, I hope it's alrigh-'

'Shh.' He smiled gently, placing his finger on my lips. 'Come on.'

He took my hand and we walked down the staircase, and then out into the courtyard, into the grounds. The stars twinkled like the lights of a little boat, sailing in a deep blue sea. Remus watched me daydream. 'What are you thinking about?' he questioned, looking at me with his dark blue eyes, in fascination.

'Oh, you know, thinking up awful metaphors about the stars in the sky. I asked my younger brother about what he thought the night sky looked like - he's only nine - and he said that "It's a big duvet cover with stars on it, and they're all saying: Hello, Luke, I'm Starry Star, do you want to be my best friend? And I'll say, yes, and we can play together on the duvet cover!"' I hesitated, realising that I'd just done a really bad imitation of my little brother. I felt myself going red (seemed like the blusher was unnecessary), but Remus was laughing.

'Oh dear, Lyddie, you're so funny!' He stopped laughing, and was serious for a second 'Do you know what I think the sky looks like? It looks like many wizards, raising their wands and shouting Lumos at the same time, like the start of a war.' He turned away, sadly and I looked at him

'Do you like me? It just seems that James thinks more about me than you do.' Remus looked at me again once I'd said that.

'Yes, I really do like you, Lyddie. James was just trying to get me to ask you on a date! Which reminds me, do you want to go to the Yule Ball with me? I mean, we barely know each other, but I was just wondering - I mean, if you don't, that's fine, bu-' I kissed him on the cheek in the middle of his sentence. I just had to.

'Remus, I'd love to. I mean, it's supposed to be a lovely occasion, but horrible if you've got someone you don't like much to go with! So yes, I'd love to - it would be a pleasure.' He grinned and I kissed him again, on the lips, that is, so he joined in. Once we broke away, we smiled at each other. Wow, it had gone from very mild flirting to actual kissing!

'So what was your life like before you moved here, Lyddie? Does it have to be Lyddie? Or do you like a nickname? Lyd. Lyds. The Lydster. Lyddington. Lyddiepops. Lydumms. Lydia. Di-Di. Ie. So many nicknames!'

I giggled 'I don't mind! Any will do! You want to know my life story? Well, ok…' I sat down on the grass, and he joined me. I then spent ages explaining my moving story, with my struggle of living in Manchester, then my move to London, back to Manchester, and then after finally finding my Hogwarts acceptance letter, starting here. I felt like Remus was really taking in my life story, gasping at when my brother got pneumonia from all the pollution in the part of London, which provoked my move back to Manchester, and then the difficult times, when we felt that we couldn't go on, and I cried every day for a week, because of how awful Luke had been… But I followed that with the funny times when we went to the park in Manchester when I was four, getting three ice-creams, and ending up coming home with a totally white face, and the amazing times - my first glimpse of London - Big Ben, the London Eye, going to Diagon Alley with my parents, seeing all the wizardry for the first time… I was so caught up in my life story that I'd completely forgotten the time. I snuck a look at my watch. 11:54. I blinked at the time, and realised that the clock in the Common Room must be slow, or we'd been out here much longer than I'd thought. I ignored it though, Remus shouldn't have minded if we were out late, he wouldn't know, but when he put his arm around me, he jumped up onto his feet.

'Oh no, it's late, it's very late, I need to go - this has been a lovely night, Lyddie, and I love listening to you, but I don't like being out late, I don't like the moon!' As he was saying that, a beam of moonlight shone down on him, and he doubled over in pain.

'Remus!' I shouted shrilly, crouching down near him. He lightly pushed me away.

'Ok, I knew you were going to find out sooner, rather than later!' He let out a cry of pain, and fell onto the grass 'You had a very sad life when you were younger, but that's nothing like I've had to go through!' He made a whimpering yelp, and tried to push himself upwards 'When. I. Was. Four. Years. Old' he breathed 'I. Got. Bitten. By-' he screamed, and something odd started happening to him. He was getting considerably larger, and fur started growing on his hands and face. I gasped, he was a werewolf! His ears grew larger, and a tail came out between his legs. He exhaled, the transformation was complete. I looked at him, my eyes wide. Fortunately, he had obviously taken the Wolfsbane Potion, so he didn't poise to attack.

'You're not the only one who has a secret, Remus.' I murmured, as I transformed into my Animagus form, feeling the familiar prickling sensation over my clothes, the lengthening of my face, the growing of the tail. I lolloped over to him, and licked his face fondly.

'I'm not the only one who has a secret?' he asked incredulously, blinking in astonishment. Naturally, because I was a wolf, I could understand exactly what he was saying.

'I'm an Animagus.' I replied 'A born one, though, so I couldn't control the form I would take. I was scared you would be prejudiced against me.'

'Well that's ironic, because I thought exactly the same thing about you! We're alright then! Is that why you've got…' he gestured with his paw at my necklace.

I nodded 'My mum got it for me. She thought that she could be upset and distressed by the fact, or just accept it, and joke about it. As you may have guessed, she chose the latter.'

Remus breathed a sigh of relief 'Well I'm just glad that you still like me. Not many people do, but Thomas, Alexxie's brother, made me the Wolfsbane Potion as soon as he found out, and Sirius, James and Peter became illegal Animagi as soon as they did!'

'Well, I like you, Remus, and I reinforce my previous statement about what I said about the Yule Ball. I definitely will go with you, and, tell you what, I'll also wear my furry jacket and wolf necklace, just to make use of the fact. Yeah, that's what we'll do…'

We both laughed at that, and spent the rest of the night curled up together, watching the sun rise, until we went our separate ways in the morning.