AUTHOR'S NOTE: Thanks for your words of encouragement. You guys are great. So here's another chapter, and I hope you enjoy and keep reviewing.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Harry Potter.


Locating her was no problem. Instead of walking around the castle red-faced and frustrated, she just went to her classroom. She was the first person in the classroom, and easily spotted with her dark brown hair, despite the fact that she was sitting in a dark corner. The Professor was nowhere to be found, of course Trelawney was very absent-minded. This wouldn't be the first time she was late to a class or forgot there was one.

"You don't plan on sitting there, do you?" Remus asked as he approached her. The brunette jumped as she turned to face him. "Are you alright, Brianna?"

"Yeah, fine," she replied.

"Well, you never answered my question. You don't plan on sitting back here, do you?"

Brianna shrugged and looked about the room. The classroom was circular. One the far side of the room, the one opposite the door, the wall was covered in windows. On the side with the door, the desk were in a three level arch split in half by the door. On one side of the arch, there were six two person desks. Eighteen desks, thirty-six people. The same for the other side. In total, there were thirty-six desks and the classroom could hold at most seventy-two people. Clearly the set up for third year Divination. Brianna was sure that nowhere near seventy-two people were going to take this course. So Trelawney would have them sit front and center.

"I suppose not," she replied as she pulled her bag onto her lap.

"I'll help you, if you'd like," Remus commented as he picked a desk in the second row of the arch and just left of center. "With the Arithmancy."

"Thanks," she replied as she moved to the desk that Remus choose. "Seat taken?" she questioned as she nudged the cushion with her shoe.

"Please," he said waving his hand toward the cushion. "I see that things haven't gotten better between you and you sister," Remus tried carefully.

Brianna shrugged and played with the tassel at the corner of the cushion she was sitting on. "She placed second in the Ms. Teen London pageant and in the Wizarding pageant. She hasn't been in the best mood since then. She'd been like that all summer. Well, from what dad said, I spent most of the summer with my grandparents." She shrugged. "But no and I don't think that it's going to get any better, and I'm okay with that."

Remus shrugged and didn't press the matter any further for two reasons. One, because the classroom was starting to fill. Two, because he knew that she was done talking about it. In some ways, Brianna was as secretive as him. Granted, he was positive that she wasn't hiding the fact that she was a werewolf, but she did have her secrets. She had a lot of them.

Trelawney walked into the classroom, twenty minutes late, with an absent smile on her face. "Hello, Seventh years. Welcome to Xylomancy. If you're in the wrong class, this would be your time to leave." Was that Trelawney trying to be funny? It wasn't working. "Well, can anyone tell me what Xylomancy is?" Remus' hand was the first and only one to go up. "Yes, Mr. Lupin?"

"The art and practice of divining the past, present, and future, by interpreting omens from twigs, pieces of wood, or fallen tree branches," Remus recited perfectly.

"Excellent, Mr. Lupin, five points to Gryffindor. "Now, what are characteristic taken into consideration with Xylomancy?" Again, Remus was the only one with the answer. "No, no, Mr. Lupin, someone new." The frizzy haired woman looked about the classroom through her thick lenses. "Ms. Chase?"

"I bed you pardon, Professor?"

"Usual characteristics taken into consideration?" Trelawney repeated.

A piece of parchment slid across the table, inconspicuously. Remus nodded subtly to the paper. "Their shape, color, thickness, size, as well as location, formations, and patterns?" The upward inflection of her voice was subtle, but there.

"Excellent, Ms. Chase, another five point to Gryffindor." The Professor turned away from the class and started towards her desk. Brianna let out a breath that she didn't even know she was holding before turned to Remus, "Thank you," she muttered under her breath as she turned to the first chapter of the textbook.

"What are friends for, Bri?" he questioned rhetorical in return.

Stupid. The word struck her thoughts without warning. He thought she was stupid too, just like the rest of them. He gave her the answer because she was stupid, not because he was her friend. Of course, Brianna knew that that thought was ridiculous. Remus didn't think she was stupid. Well, he'd offered her help in Arithmancy. Also because she was stupid. No, because he wanted to help her. Brianna felt her face burn with frustration from the internal conflict. Rationally, she knew that Remus didn't think that she was stupid. However, when the word stupid popped into her head, the thoughts became irrational. He didn't think she was stupid, he was just trying to help. She didn't know the answer, why was she so upset? He'd kept her from looking stupid, in front of the rest of the class.

"Divination and Xylomancy are similar in their readings. Things that are closer to the questioner are recent events, things father away are more distant events. Things to the right indicate the future and things to the left indicate the past. So to get started, we will do some tea leaf readings today, just to get you back in the mind set." She waved her wand and two cups of tea appeared on each table. "Once you have recorded your readings you are dismissed."

Brianne took her tea in her hands and sighed as she looked into it. The tea that they had in this class wasn't always the best. No sugar or honey, just the tea. However, she placed the cup to her lips and sipped on it. Not as bad as it had been in past years, but it could have been better.

The cup of tea was small and she was finished within a few moments. Bri pulled out a piece of parchment and a quill and placed it on the table. She scribbled her name at the top of the paper and sighed. She'd never liked tea leave reading. It only told her bad things. The brunette turned her cup's handle towards her and looked into the cup.

A clump of leaves right at the handle and one on the opposite side of the cup. The one towards the handle meant trouble caused by one's self, the other meant trouble caused by others. She knew both of those, they appeared every now and then, but never together. Towards the right of the cup were two wavy lines, Brianna flipped through her textbook to find the meaning. Uncertainty or disappointment. Beside that a small and slightly misshapen heart. Chakra, pleasure, love, trust, compassion. A nurse's symbol, an illness.

Brianna cast her glance up to Remus, who was staring intently at his cup. "Are you ready?" she questioned.

"Give me another moment, Bri," Remus said in his usual calm tone.

Remus had never had a cup this difficult to read. Usually, if it was near a full moon he'd have a needle which meant pain. Other times it would be subtle things about having good friends and being intelligent. However, today was different. Towards the right side and close to the center was a knight in armor, meaning success in love. Behind that, away from the cup, was a circle with the letter 'B' in it. The circle meant a bond of love, protection, acceptance, and strength, then letter meant a closeness to a person with at initial. Not the usual things he saw but he wrote them down anyway. Maybe it was a fluke.

"I'll take it," Brianna said, as held her hand out to Remus for his paper.

Remus flicked his light eyes up to her dark ones and nodded as he handed her his assignment. "Thank you," he said. He watched her walk toward the Professor's desk. They'd only been at school for a day, he'd only been with her for one day, and he knew there was something wrong. Her dark eyes had lost their glow. When she smiled, they didn't dance they way they used to. Her walk didn't have the usual hop. Her voice wasn't bright anymore. Yes, Remus had taken notice to the curves that Brianna had gained over the past seven year of him knowing her. He taken notice to a lot of changes that she'd gone through. He was only a man. Remus found her to be stunning, completely stunning. The way she laughed and the way she bit the tip of her feather quill when she was thinking. The way he found himself entranced watching the sway of her hips, and how he wanted to protect her from everything. But he'd never put her in danger like that. Not with him.

"Hey, Earth to Remus," Brianna said as she waved a hand before his face. "Let's go."

Remus nodded and grabbed his bag and left the classroom with the brunette. She stopped and looked over the railing for the staircase leaving the Divination classroom and sighed deeply. She'd never liked the stupid stairs. "You know, if you walk down them you'll get there faster than trying to teleport," Remus joked as he watched her ponytail fall over her shoulder as she looked at the floor below them. The brunette rolled her eyes and started down the stairs. "Did you pass your Apparition test?" he questioned striking up conversation.

"Yeah," she replied. "Too bad I can't sure it now. Stupid staircase. Did you?" Of course, she knew the answer.

"I did," he responded. "I'm sorry that you don't like the staircase. Talk to Dumbledore, maybe he'll change the rules just for you."

"He won't," she answered with confidence.

"And how do you know that, Brianna?"

"I asked him last year," the brunette Gryffindor girl laughed. "He said no."

"Of course, you did," he teased. "Well it's for your protection, as you well know."

"Yeah, I know, to keep us safe from You-Know-Who and his followers. I know. But I really just want to apparate down the stairs, that's all I want."

"Of course, it is," he teased.

They reached the last stair and Brianna sighed dramatically. She glanced at the halls, and saw that they were still very empty. "What time is it?" she questioned.

"Uh, almost two. We were only in class for thirty-five minutes. So there's still twenty-five minutes left in class."

"I'm going to the kitchens," Brianna said suddenly. She took a step forward and turned towards her friend. "You're welcome to come with me."

After a moment of thought, Remus responded with a one-word answer. "Sure."