Remus was not in a very good mood the next morning. He was the first awake in his dormitory and had to fight a strong urge to hex his three roommates in their sleep. When Sirius woke up and tentatively said, "Good morning," Remus ignored him and scowled his was out of the room and down to breakfast alone.

Sirius sincerely felt bad about what had happened the previous night. He knew very well that he, James and Peter should not have been spying (but it had been two o'clock in the morning and Remus still hadn't gone to bed… Who wouldn't be curious?), and that they had ruined what would have been a very memorable moment (although he blamed this part more on Peter's clumsiness than on himself or James). So Sirius decided that he would have to make it up to Remus.

He woke James and Peter with a certain amount of grumbling (James growled that next time Sirius needed to wake him up, it would not be necessary to pour cold water on his head and a simple "Oi! Prongs!" would be just fine) and dragged them to an early breakfast. Remus was sitting by himself halfway along the Gryffindor table, staring moodily at a plate of untouched food.

Sirius and James scooted in on either side of him and Peter took the seat across from them. Remus huffed, shoved his plate out of the way and dropped his head onto the table. "Go away."

"Now Moony, we've come to apologize," said James.

"And to tell you we're going to make it up to you," said Sirius.

"By drowning yourselves in the lake?"

There was a little too much hope in that remark for Sirius' liking. He mimed elbowing Remus in the ribs, mouthing, "Git."

James rolled his eyes at Sirius and turned back to Remus. "We haven't completely decided on that part yet. But when we figure it out, we'll let you know." Remus grunted. Then he lifted his head, pushed himself away from the table and left the Hall.

Sirius ran a hand through his shiny, black hair. "That went as well as we could have hoped, I suppose."

"Yeah. He could have hexed us!" Peter said in his mousy tone.

Ophelia walked in a few minutes later with Lily. When she saw the three boys at the table, she scowled, looking exactly the same as Remus had when Sirius had tried to bid him good morning.

"I just want you guys to know, you're my best friends. Remus too, of course. And if it comes down to it, I want you to tell Lily Evans that I love her more than anything," James proclaimed. Sirius gave him a questioning look. James shrugged. "Whenever I've seen Ophelia give someone else a look like that, they've ended up in the Hospital Wing. I think she might murder us. She's got quite a temper, that girl."

However, both Remus and Ophelia found it difficult to stay upset for long, what with James and Sirius giving them puppy dog eyes during classes (which Sirius was surprisingly good at). By lunch, they had forgiven the other Marauders and sat with them in their usual seats. Remus and Ophelia had decided, separately, that there would be other chances and that it was actually kind of funny that Peter had fallen down the stairs.

As the Marauders and Ophelia left the Great Hall after lunch, Slughorn's voice rang out.

"Miss White! Miss White!" They all stopped simultaneously. Slughorn was jogging down the Hall to meet them.

"Probably wants a quick romp in a broom closet before class," Sirius said in Ophelia's ear. She stomped on his foot as Slughorn stopped in front of them.

He held out a gold envelope bearing the name 'Miss Ophelia White' in fine script across the front. "Invitation to my Christmas party. It's the last night of term, so I'm sure you can make it." He smiled widely. "Please excuse me, I've got to find Miss Evans." And Slughorn turned away without another word.

Ophelia didn't get a chance to look at the invitation until after dinner that night. She was in her dormitory, finding her Defence Against the Dark Arts textbook when she remembered it lying on her bed. The red parchment that she pulled out of the envelope told her the date and time of the party, which would be in Slughorn's office, and informed her that she should bring a guest.

She stared at the parchment for a moment, thinking. What a perfect opportunity! To be completely honest, her patience with Remus was wearing thin. She really liked him and knew that he felt the same way about her (she had accidentally used Legilimency on him a few times, not to mention the constant hints James and Sirius dropped). Ophelia thought she could use this Christmas party to take charge and make the first move.

So when she met Remus in the library twenty minutes later, she was reduced to a ball of nerves.

He was sitting at their usual table, open books spread out in front of him. Ophelia sat down across from him and asked, "What are you working on?"

"Transfiguration."

"I finished that yesterday. Now all I have is Charms, Potions, Defence and Astronomy," Ophelia counted off on her fingers. She sighed. She was a bright girl, but she could be lazier than Sirius Black sometimes.

Remus smiled. "Look at it this way: Once you get that finished, you'll have two whole weeks with no school for the holidays."

Ophelia saw this as an opening. "Speaking of Christmas," she began, nerves kicking in. "For Slughorn's party, we're, erm, supposed to bring guests and, erm, I was, well, I was wondering if you would want to… to go with me?"

Remus blinked. "Oh… well, I would… I mean, I, uh –"

"If you don't want to, it's fine," Ophelia said quickly. Although she was more nervous than she could've imagined, she had been expecting an immediate 'yes'.

Remus shook his head. "No, it's just… The party is next Friday, right?" Ophelia nodded. "Well, next Friday –"

Ophelia sighed in relief. "Full moon! I thought –"

"That I didn't want to go with you?" Remus laughed. "Trust me, I'd love to. Only I don't think Slughorn would appreciate it if you brought a werewolf to his party, no matter how much he loves you."

Ophelia smiled thoughtfully. "Actually, he would probably say that I had brought a very unique guest and give twenty points to Gryffindor."

"Until he realizes that I'm bloodthirsty and attacking the other partygoers." Remus was smiling but there was a hard edge to his voice. Hurting someone else while he was transformed was one of his biggest fears.

"I guess I'll have to find someone else…" Ophelia looked worried. Even though he wasn't officially her boyfriend, the two of them were sort of together. It would be really weird to go with someone else.

Sirius flopped into the chair on Ophelia's right. "Find someone else for what, love?" he asked, munching an apple.

"Slughorn's Christmas party."

Sirius raised his eyebrows. "Moony turn you down? Do you want me to punch him for you? Do you need a shoulder to cry on? I'm here for you, love," he said dramatically, placing an arm around her shoulders.

"The party's on a full moon, so he can't go," Ophelia explained. Remus was watching them, frowning.

"Oh." Sirius thought for a minute. "But you can't bring anyone else, can you? You and Moony are sort of a couple, aren't you?"

Both Remus and Ophelia flushed. "Actually, I had an idea," said Remus. "Maybe you could go with her, Sirius. That way…" That way no one tries for a snog, Remus wanted to say. "If you don't mind, Ophelia. Just an idea."

"Well, I suppose that would work," Ophelia said, then nodded. Sirius Black was better than getting stuck with someone like Jon Archer.

Sirius was frowning. "But I'll be with you, won't I, Moony?"

"Wormtail and Prongs will be there." Remus shook his head. "That'll be fine." He thought Sirius' company was a fair trade for making sure that he and Ophelia remained 'sort of a couple', to borrow Sirius' words.

"If you're sure," Sirius said. Remus nodded. "Alright then. Looks like you've got yourself a date, darling." He winked at Ophelia, then saw Remus fixing him with a threatening look. "A very friendly, casual date. As friends," he corrected sheepishly.

…

The night before the party found Ophelia and Remus once more talking in the common room into the small hours of the morning. They were the only people in the common room, sitting together on the sofa in front of the fireplace.

The pair eventually lapsed into silence, but it wasn't awkward. Remus thought that he must be the luckiest person in the entire world to have this beautiful, intelligent, charming girl for whom he cared very much next to him (he wouldn't say that he love her yet; love was a strong and slightly terrifying word). Ophelia placed her head on his shoulder and thought that there likely wasn't a more comforting sound than Remus breathing next to her.

It was a while before Remus realized that Ophelia had fallen asleep. He ran through his options.

He could leave her to sleep there in the common room. Remus didn't like this one.

He could wake her and she could go up to her dormitory. Remus didn't like this one either. He didn't want to wake her.

He couldn't carry her up to her dormitory without the stairs turning into a slide and dumping him off, possibly on his face.

He could bring her up to his own dormitory. She could have his bed and he could sleep on the floor. Remus chose this option.

He carefully picked her up. He walked up the stairs gently and, seeing that someone had not shut the dormitory door properly, pushed it open with his foot. Remus set Ophelia on his bed, took off her shoes, and pulled the sheets over her. Then he began his search for the extra pillows out of which he would create a makeshift mattress. He did this as quietly as possible as James, Sirius and Peter were already sleeping.

He had just laid down on what looked like a giant marshmallow on the floor next to his bed when he noticed that Ophelia was turned on her side, awake and giving him an odd look.

"You know Ophelia, I don't think I'll be able to fall asleep with you staring at me like that," Remus said, his voice thick with mock seriousness. "I must say, it's a bit creepy."

Ophelia laughed. "You're really sweet."

"Sweet as they come."

"You didn't have to do this. You could have shoved me to the floor and told me to get to bed."

"I was being a gentleman. A gentleman never wakes a lady."

"Is that so?"

"If said gentleman's name is Remus Lupin and said lady's name is Ophelia White, then yes, it is so."

Ophelia just shook her head, smiling. It was moments like this that made her dangerously close to falling in love with a boy who wouldn't even ask her to be his girlfriend. "Gentlemanly as your actions were, I should probably go sleep in my dorm," she said, eyeing his pillow mattress.

Remus frowned. "I'm alright down here, you know. Really. It's quite comfortable."

"It's not that, although I do doubt the comfort level of sleeping on a pillow on top of a cold, stone floor." Ophelia looked sort of embarrassed. "It's just, sometimes… well, pretty often, I have these nightmares…" She trailed off. "I can scream pretty loudly. I don't want to bother anyone."

Remus saw a hole in her logic. "Wouldn't that bother the girls in your dormitory just as much as it would bother anyone here?"

"I normally pull the curtains around my bed and do a Silencing Charm." Ophelia shrugged.

Then she disappeared from the edge of the bed and Remus heard the sheets rustling. "You don't have to go, really. If –"

"I'm not going anywhere." Ophelia's voice came from the far side of the bed. "I'm moving over. Now come here."

Remus' eyebrows rose until they were no longer visible beneath his fringe. "Is… erm, are you sure? I mean..."

"Get up here, Lupin," Ophelia said forcefully. She laughed at the look on Remus' face as he obeyed. "I promise I'll keep my hands to myself. Now pull the curtain." Once he'd done so, she cast a Silencing Charm and put her wand on the night stand.

"Are you going to tell me what these nightmares are about?" Remus asked.

"If I knew, I would," Ophelia sighed. "I've been having them my entire life but I can never remember them."

"And you wake up screaming?"

"Sometimes. Other times I can't breathe properly or I'm crying." Ophelia felt nervous. She had never really discussed her nightmares with anyone.

Remus turned on his side and wrapped his arms around her. "But you can't remember anything?"

Ophelia shook her head. "I just get this really horrible feeling, like…" She paused, not sure if she should continue.

"Go on," Remus encouraged.

"Like I'm… Oh, I don't know how to describe it, exactly." Ophelia thought for a moment. "It's as if I'm in a room with everyone and everything I care about, but it's dark and I can't find anyone. So I'm trying to find a wand or a light or something so I can see everyone." At this point Ophelia's breath quickened and her eyes filled with tears, which Remus wiped away as they fell down her cheeks. "But there is no light, there's nothing. Everyone is there, but I can't reach them, I can't see them, because it's dark and I'm… I'm isolated."

Remus held her for a few minutes while her breathing returned to normal. Then a small smile crossed his lips before he could stop it.

Ophelia chuckled softly. "Is my fear and suffering amusing to you?"

Remus looked offended. "Of course not! I only just thought of something really cheesy to say."

"You are just the master of cheesy, aren't you?" Ophelia rolled her eyes.

"I prefer the term 'King of the Cheese', actually."

"Fine, your Highness," Ophelia said sarcastically. "What did your royal and wise brain come up with this time?"

Remus smiled and moved so that his mouth was next to Ophelia's ear. "I'll always be there to turn on the light."

Ophelia laughed gently and nodded. "You're right, Moony. You are the King of Cheese."

A/N: I thought this last part was pretty cute (: Thanks everyone for alerting and reviewing and reading!