Remus Lupin opened the door to the girl's room with as little sound as possible. Poking his head into the room which was much tidier than the boy's, he looked around for the black bed-head he had seen morning after morning since she was a small child. But she wasn't there. He shut the door just as soundlessly as when he opened it and went up a few flights of stairs. Mrs. Weasley said she caught Danica in the attic a few times when she wanted to get away from everyone. This was good because he needed to talk to her alone.

Remus hated this. In her lifetime, they went through this fighting constantly. Sometimes, she wouldn't speak to him for days. As she got older, she would right more often, more vicious, and for longer. And he hated it.

Lupin stopped at the twin's room to listen for any commotion he might hear that he should be concerned about. It wasn't uncommon for Molly to catch them up to something this early in the morning. He was about to press his ear to the door when Remus noticed that the door was slightly ajar. Curiosity prodding at his mind, he stood there for a long time, debating whether he should enter or not. Their door was always shut. Always. Curiosity won.

The door creaked when it swung open. Sunlight was seeping through the curtains, the darkness dissolving when the sun's rays hit it. George still slept, practically falling off his bed. Remus smiled. But instantly, that smile faded when he looked over at Fred's side of the room. He lay on his side, sleeping, curled around the small frame of Danica.

Anger boiled through his body and his hand curled into fists. The blood rushed to his face where he felt steam come out of his ears. 'Don't yell, you'll wake everyone up.' Remus gritted his teeth as Danica turned over, burying her face in Fred's shirt who tightened his arms around her. He was about to turn around and leave, disapparate, far away from here so he could explode. But then he saw it. The shining glint of sunshine on the silver ring resting gently on her left hand caught his eye. Remus Lupin could no longer contain his anger.

"DANICA RAE LORENZO!" he bellowed at the top of his lungs, the breath leaving and entering his body in long, loud puffs. George fell off his bed, looking dazed as he sat up to see who was standing in the doorway. Fred immediately jumped out of bed, holding his hands in the air, stammering to find an explanation. Lupin, ignoring the mess on the floor and the twins, stormed into their room. Fred quickly moved aside, his hand reaching for his wand. He had never seen Remus like this mad. And to be honest, Fred was scared.

Lupin went over to Danica's side of the bed and almost yanked her out of it by the arm.

"Rem, I can explain!" Danica shouted, trailing behind him as he dragged downstairs by the wrist. The entire house was now awake and poking their heads out their door to see what all the commotion was about. "Remus, nothing happened! Please listen to me!" She tried to get him to stop and let her speak but he wouldn't. The patient, attentive Remus was long gone.

"What is going on in here?" Mrs. Weasley asked, concern on her face once she saw Remus dragging Danica into the living room who literally got thrown out of bed.

"Ask YOUR son," Remus barked, glaring daggers at Fred who was hurriedly climbing down the stairs. Harry came into the room from the kitchen, staring at Danica who was trying to squirm out of Lupin's grip. The cookie in his mouth didn't seem so appealing now. He totally missed something.

"Nothing happened, Remus! Stop jumping to conclusions!" Danica yelled over Mrs. Weasley's shouting at Fred who just started to shout back. Everyone started asking what happened all at once. George jumped into the screaming to defend his twin brother. The clock chimed as it hit 10 and Harry was pounding his fist against the door, trying to get someone's attention.

Remus paced in front of her, lecturing loudly, a look in his eyes that made Danica cringe.

"How could you? After all I've done for you and THIS is how you repay me? Sleeping in the arms of a boy at 15!" This was too much. Way too much.

After learning this behavior from Remus, when things got too loud, too exciting, too chaotic, Danica ran. With no shoes, no socks, or even a jacket, she ran out the front door and into the snow covered plains surrounding the Weasley house. Pain shot up her legs as the ice cold ground gave her no kindness as she ran barefoot across it. She needed to get away from here, get as far away from the Burrow as possible. The brisk morning air stung her face but she didn't care. She just ran.

"Danica! Get back here this instant!" she heard Remus shout. He was running after her. And pretty soon, he was going to catch up since he had the advantage of warm clothes and shoes. Danica heard him curse under his breath as his feet pounded into the snow. Running out into frozen liquid ice in sweat pants rolled up and tucked into cuffs at the knee with just an old Gryffindor t-shirt of Remus' was not smart. But she did it anyway.

Remus watched her run, his heart pounding in the cavity of his chest as he began to catch up. How? How could it all come to this? Before his eyes, as if he was looking into the mirror of Erised, he saw a little girl in a pink dress with red ribbons entangled in the long black braided hair that bounced as she rain to him in the spring time, out in the country side where they lived. The small child with the gray eyes came running to him, smiling. Crouching down, Lupin opened his arms, laughing as the girl jumped into his arms and held him close.

But now, she was running from him in the cold, winter air. She wanted to get so far away from him, she didn't even bother to put shoes on. Foolish child. Nearly tackling her into the snow, Remus grabbed her by the arm. She shouted in surprise and tried to break free from his hold.

"Danica enough! Stop this!" He held her in place as she leaned forward, trying to run.

"No!" She screamed, trying to pry his hand away with hers by force.

"I should be the angry one! Not you!"

"Nothing happened!" She looked back and up into his face, her teeth bared in agitation, her eyes cloudy, ready for a storm.

"So you just ended up in Fred's bed, is that it? Did you magically sleep WITH him too?" Lupin couldn't stop himself. He was beyond mad, beyond any point of calmness. And so was she.

"How dare you? I would never! Especially with George in the room! That's just sick, Remus!" Lupin had to act quickly as she managed to escape his grip. As she was about to take off again, he threw an arm around her waist, keeping her close, keeping her secure. He didn't want her to run anymore. She would face him. Whether she wanted to or not.

"He's a teenage boy and you're-" Lupin yelped in pain as Danica bit down onto his hand. "A teenage girl! Do the math, Danica."

"That's not what happened! I couldn't sleep so I went to go hang out with him and I fell asleep there! End. Of. Story." She started kicking, trying her hardest to get him to let go. Nothing was working.

"I don't believe that!"

"You're supposed to believe me!"

"Right, like how I should believe that this ring on your finger-" Remus moved swiftly, putting his hand over the one that was clawing at his sleeve. He took the ring right off her hand. "Isn't an engagement ring?"

"It's a Christmas present!" Danica growled, managing to throw him off. She wanted away from here, right now. Remus was angry, dangerously angry. She wanted to leave. He had no right to treat her like a child.

She reached into her pocket, groping for her wand. Only to end up empty-handed as she realized it's upstairs, in the Burrow, in Ginny's room. She cursed loudly. Danica turned, scratching herself accidentally as she roughly tossed some hair from her face so she could glare at Lupin who was approaching, just as viciously.

"I am not a child, Remus!"

"You're acting like one! Look at you! You're running away from me, in the snow, with no shoes or proper clothing! You forgot your wand too, didn't you? Yes, you're very responsible, Danica." Catching his breath, he watched as Danica flailed her arms in frustration, shrieking.

"Why is this big deal? We fell asleep together, nothing more!" She took a step forward, feeling small under his gaze. But she wasn't going to give in. Not this time.

"You're 15, Danica! You think you're mature enough for this but you're not!" He squeezed the ring in his fist, hoping that just by mere strength, he could shatter it into pieces. Foolish, ignorant child!

"I'm not MATURE enough? Who started to support the both of us at age 11? Who had to make sure there was food in the kitchen week after week because you were too sick to even get out of bed? I DID. I stayed by your bedside hour by hour after each and every transformation to make sure you were still breathing! I kept the house clean, took you to the hospital when you beat yourself to bad, I forced you to eat when you lay in your bed starving! I supported both of us, Remus. And you tell me, to my face, that I'm not mature enough to date?" She huffed, trying to suck in more oxygen to keep shouting. Her stomach flipped, her heart ached in her chest. She wanted him to go, to leave her alone. For once, she wanted to be without him.

Remus stood there in stunned silence. Ungrateful girl. Without him, she wouldn't even be alive. Without him, she wouldn't be one of the greatest witches of her age. Without him, she would've lost her sanity a long time ago.

He had tried his best, worked through sickness and pain to give her all that he could. No she couldn't have the nicest stuff growing up. Because of the opportunities that were available to a werewolf, hardly any, and his health, he always had a hard time with money. But she never cared. She was just happy with having him close, having him try. What happened to his Danica? This was all recent, this change in her. And he wanted to know what it was.

"I forbid you from dating Fred Weasley. No, I forbid you from dating in general." He narrowed his eyes, showcasing his authority to the girl who stared at him in open-mouthed shock. And as if he couldn't control his actions, as if he lost all rational thought over his consciousness over the fact that the teenager standing in front of him was no ordinary teenage girl, but practically his daughter. Remus drew his arm back and hurled the silver ring into the horizon where he watched it disappear into the snow, unable to be seen any longer.

He wouldn't have regretted it. But he did. He deeply, with all his being, wished he had never thrown that ring into the winter wonderland. His heart broke, cracked into pieces inside where it dropped into his stomach, crushed under the two ton presence of guilt sitting there. All the anger drained from him like the blood did from his face as he watched Danica choke back tears as she saw the ring vanish into the eternity of white. The sky suddenly seemed grayer and even though the full moon was merely three days ago, Remus felt as if it was going to be in just a few hours. He felt sick.

Trudging through the snow, she closed the distance between them and pushed Remus. He almost fell over. Not from her physical force. But from the words she spat into his face.

"I HATE YOU!" Her voice cracked in angry, desperate hurt. She continued to scream it, over and over again, her voice raising and breaking even more each time. When the tears started flowing, she kept pushing him, making him step back with each shove. "I hate you! How could you? I HATE YOU!"

Soon everyone was rushing out to them, trying to reach Danica and Remus before things got even uglier. Harry ran the fastest, sprinting ahead of everyone else. Danica was losing it, stepping into madness. Harry could see that in the way she kept pushing Professor Lupin, screaming in his face. The physical fight between them was nothing to Remus, Harry knew. The words she was spitting, shouting as her crazed eyes bore into his, was scarring him. Harry could tell from the way his body went rigid, his feet stepped back weakly with each shove as if they couldn't support him. And worst of all, Harry saw the blank expression slapped onto his face.

"HIT ME! Hit me, Remus! So you'll never have to see me again! So you can take off and leave me again!" Danica looked up into his apathetic face, the anger still ripping through her body, exploding from her mouth in words. "HIT ME!"

"Danica, enough!" Harry shouted, wrapping his arms around her, swinging her around like a rag doll away from Remus as she prepared to sock Lupin in the jaw who just watched, all light gone from his eyes.

"You're not even my father!"

"Danica, shut up!" Harry tried to calm her, to make her stop stabbing Remus with her words. But she couldn't stop. She let the words go, set them free and wild to trample over Lupin's already destroyed heart. This was not just a fight over Fred and a ring. This was going much deeper, travelling back in time, years and years ago. All her anger, all her pain was spilling out in this moment. And she couldn't stop it.

"I wish you never found me, Remus J. Lupin!"

And before anybody could see, before anyone's eyes could register the blur of red hair, flaring gold eyes and a floral apron, Danica's head whipped to the side as Mrs. Weasley slapped her across the face.

At first, Danica stared at Molly, ready to let the beast loose again once more. But with Harry's arms wrapped around her and the hurt look in a kind mother's eyes, Danica came back to her senses. The storm finally retreated into the blackest part of her mind where she locked it away. And just like that, in a split second, in a quick moment, Danica gave up and went limp in Harry's embrace.

"She's freezing. Let's get her inside."

Picking her up and off her feet, Harry slowly carried Danica back to the Burrow. Her head hung over his arm, her waterfall of black hair caked with snowflakes. And before she blacked out, before she succumbed to the void of her dreams, she looked back to where she was standing, hoping to see him there smiling as if none of this happened, as if it was all a dream.

But Remus Lupin was long gone, the traces of his disapparation shimmering in the air.

Then, everything went black.