A/N: I don't own any of the characters, sadly.

Sirius couldn't believe it. In a few short hours he would make his way down to the Great Hall for the last time. Then he would pack up his trunk the next day, board the train for the last time, and wave goodbye to Hogwarts forever. Right now, however, he was simply enjoying time with his friends. Or rather, enjoying time with his friend, since James and Peter hadn't joined him and Remus yet.

"I can't believe our last full moon at Hogwarts was last week." Remus said, staring at the Whomping Willow. "Our last time to escape the Shrieking Shack and wander around Hogsmeade, Hogwarts, and the Forbidden Forest."

"Yeah, but not our last full moon." Sirius said. "Face it, you're still stuck with us. We're going to have to find a new forest for the wolf to play in, but that's no problem."

Remus grinned. "It's still hard to believe that I won't have to change in the Shack anymore. I spent the last seven years transforming in that house."

"Not to mention completely tearing it apart." Sirius added. "Honestly though, do you think anyone's going to miss the "violent spirits"?"

Remus laughed. "I know I won't." He said. "I tore myself up in that place too many times for me to be sad to leave it behind."

"Hey guys!" James said as he and Peter ran over to them. "Sorry we're late, we ran into a bit of trouble with Snivellus."

"He's something else I am not going to miss." Remus remarked idly. "How bad did you jinx him this time?"

Peter pointed across the lawn at Snape, who seemed to be under the leg-locking jinx and one that was making him dance. The result was him falling over a lot and twitching while on the ground. The Marauders laughed at the sight. "Where did you put his wand?" Sirius managed to gasp out.

James pointed to a small speck hovering about thirty feet away from Snape. "If he gets within ten feet of it it'll move farther away." James chuckled. "It'll be awhile before he gets out of this one."

XXXXX

The Gryffindors had an end of the year party following the feast. It didn't take long for Sirius to realize that Remus wasn't there with everyone else. So Sirius slipped away from the party and went up to their dormitory. When he opened the door the first thing he realized was that there was an odd tapping sound on the roof. The second thing he noticed was that Remus wasn't there, but a window was open. It didn't take long for Sirius to put two and two together and within a minute of entering the room he left it, this time through the window.

"I wouldn't climb up if I were you." Remus' voice drifted down from the roof. Sirius ignored the subtle hint about his safety and lack of climbing ability and scrambled up anyway.

Remus was lying on the roof, his feet tapping a random pattern on it "It was too loud and crowded in the Common Room and I am not going back to the party." He said.

Sirius settled down next to his friend. "Then I'll stay out here."

"Sirius!" Remus rolled his eyes, but didn't sound too annoyed. They sat there on the roof in silence for a few minutes before Remus spoke up again. "Sirius, will you howl at the moon for me when I'm gone?" He asked softly.

Sirius turned and stared at him friend. "Has the thought of leaving Hogwarts made you morbid or something?" He asked. "You aren't going to be dying anytime soon."

"How do you know that?" Remus asked. "When I leave Hogwarts I'm going to need to get a house and a job. If anyone were to see the room I would have to have for transforming in or if someone where I work found out I was a werewolf I would have to move or risk having people trying to "get rid of me". Keeping a job will be hard, since I'll be missing a few days every month, besides the fact that no one will want to hire a werewolf if they knew I was one. I'll spend my entire life poor, always wondering if I will be able to have a place to live and enough to eat."

Sirius didn't know what to say. He had never heard Remus talk that way. He sounded bitter and tired, but there was something more than that. He sounded weary and old, older than any seventeen year old should ever have to sound.

"If I don't have a house then I won't have a safe place to transform." Remus continued. "I could easily attack someone and then either be execu-"

"No!" Sirius said. He grabbed his friend's shoulders. "That will not happen! Your friends will be there for you Remus, we won't let that happen. Besides," he continued, a grin slowly spreading across his face. "I'm the reckless one; I'll probably do some stupid stunt and break my neck. So I'll make you a deal. I'll howl for you on the off chance you kick the bucket first, but you howl for me when I die before you. Deal?"

Remus grinned. "Deal." He said, shaking Sirius' hand to seal it. "You know, the next time we howl at the moon we won't be here."

"What are you talking about?" Sirius said. "We could easily howl at it now if we wanted to." As if to prove his point Sirius raised his heard towards the moon and began to howl, ignoring Remus, who had started to chuckle. "I'll change to Padfoot if you don't want to have to listen to my horrible human-howling." He offered.

Remus shook his head. "Your howling is fine Sirius." He sighed, but couldn't suppress a small smile.

"Then come on Moony." Sirius draped his arm around Remus' shoulders. "Howl with me." He began howling again and, after only a second's pause, Moony joined as well. Their howls echoed in the night, reverberating off the towers and walls.

"Don't you guys have anything better to do?" Remus and Sirius stopped howling and leaned over the edge of the roof. James had stuck his head out of the window and was glaring at them. "It's not like you don't do that enough at the full moon."

Sirius and Remus started chuckling at the last statement, but the sad thing was, it was true. Whenever they ran around during the full moon, Moony would start howling and Sirius, being the only other one in their group that could howl, would always join him.

"Oh come on Prongs, don't you like our howling?" Sirius asked. He threw his head back and proceeded to howl in a loud, exaggerated way. "Arooooooo!"

James shook his head. "Canines." He mumbled as he pulled his head back inside their dormitory.

Sirius and Remus went from chuckling to laughing hysterically. It was awhile before either of them had calmed down enough to form a coherent sentence.

"Shall we rejoin our fellow Gryffindors and grace them with our presence?" Sirius said with mock, well, seriousness.

Remus snorted. "Well, I'm not sure if either of us is quite capable of "gracing people with our presence", but we might as well go in."

Though by that point it had been a little while since they had made their deal, neither of them would forget it. Both of them would howl separately at the moon, and both would have someone howl for them.

And both of them would howl together once more.