The first week back from break was a whirlwind. Classes, homework, patrols, trying to see Remus, and the lack of sleep from my nightmares were making this the longest week of my life. I could tell that Matthew was still concerned about me and Remus was worrying about me as well. And my lack of sleep wasn't exactly making me the nicest person ever.

"YOU IDIOT!" I screeched. My incompetent potions partner shrank away from me. I wanted to hurl everything within reach at him. Our potion had exploded because he added the fly wings to early. I grabbed my bag and stormed out of the classroom. I was muttering under my breath about stupid people and breeding laws that should be implemented when I ran into a solid body.

"Watch where you're going Strauss. You might end up hurting a real human being." Sirius glared down at me as he helped Remus to his feet. I glared and grabbed my things shoving them back in my bag.

"If you were any kind of decent human being Black you would have helped me up as well. But you aren't so move out of my way." I shoved by them both just wanting to be alone. I turned when I heard footsteps follow me.

"Here." Remus said holding out some parchment I had missed when I got my things off the floor. I snatched it from his hand and nodded leaving. My temper carried me all the way to the Slytherin common room before I collapsed on the couch. My head was pounding coming down from my burst anger. I sighed and pulled out a book. Even though I was skipping class I needed to work on some homework. I took the parchment that Remus had handed me so I could start an essay and was surprised to see a note written on what I thought had been blank parchment.

Meet me front doors 9 o'clock tonight.

A small smile spread across my face. I couldn't wait for tonight to fly by.

I tried to keep myself from running to the front doors to meet Remus. One of the first real smiles stretched across my face when I saw him waiting for me. He turned when he heard me approach and smiled back at me holding out a hand for me. I grabbed his hand and pecked his cheek.

"Hey handsome. What are we doing?" He began leading me out the doors into the cold night air.

"We are going to have a date night." I giggled. Usually our 'dates' were patrols. It was really the only time we got to see each other.

"And is this date us freezing our asses off?" I could see my breath in front of my face. He laughed.

"No. Just trust me." He smiled at me and squeezed my hand. My heart fluttered a little. It was strange because I did trust him. I followed him as he led me to a tree by the lake. Spread out was a blanket with a picnic basket. The closer we got to the blanket the warmer it got.

"My my nice use of a warming charm." I smiled at him as I sat down. He sat beside me and pulled out some things from the basket. I laughed when I saw chocolate chip cookies and mugs full of hot chocolate. "Thank you." I took my cup and let the warm liquid warm me even more.

"I just figured we both needed some time together." He pulled me closer and kissed the top of my head. I nuzzled in. This was just what I needed. We sat talking for a little while, Remus slowly rubbing small circles on my back. But of course, even here, the joy couldn't continue.

"Are you ready to talk about what happened over Christmas break?" Remus asked. I instantly went ridged.

"What does it matter? What happened happened and now it's in the past." I said sitting up and putting distance between us.

"I want to help you Evelynn. But I can't help you if I don't know what's wrong." Remus's eyes were pleading with me. I wanted to be able to tell him everything, but I also didn't want to put this burden on his shoulders.

"How can you help fix the past Remus? You can't. So leave it alone." I leaned in and kissed him hoping to distract him from this. But he placed his hands on my shoulders and pushed me back.

"Something happened and you aren't over it. Let me help you."

"I'm fine Remus. Perfectly fine so please drop this."

"You're not fine. You aren't over it. I can see the bags under your eyes. You're short tempered and tired. You don't have to do everything alone." He grabbed my hand begging me to let him in. I stood up and turned to leave.

"I don't know why you have to keep pushing this. But when you realize you can't help, we can talk again." I stormed off. I made it about half-way back to the castle before he caught up to me.

"I'm not going to drop this. I'm here Evelynn. Nothing you tell me could make me like you less or think less of you. I'm not going anywhere. Let me in." I stared at him. He didn't know what he was saying. He couldn't. The absurdity of the situation made me laugh. I tried to stop it but the laughter bubbled up and escaped my lips. I must have looked insane. I felt insane.

"Oh really? Nothing I could say? What if I told you that my parents blame me for how my brother turned out? What if I told you I took EVERY punishment they tried to give him and got plenty of my own? And I don't mean time outs or spankings. I mean hours of the worst pain you can image. You think of spell I've probably experienced it. And I would do it all again to keep Matthew safe. But it's all shot to hell because my insane parents want me to get rid of the problem I created. They want me to end Matthew. Like he's a bad habit and not my brother. So please PLEASE tell me how you are going to fix any of that." At some point my laughter had turned to sobs and I couldn't stop. I wrapped my arms around myself and fell to the ground. It felt like I couldn't catch my breath; like I was holding myself together with threads. "I don't know how to save him anymore. I…I'm so afraid that…that it'll be my fault he gets hurt. I'm not good like him. And…and I've always known that. It's fine. I just want him to be safe and I don't know what to do."

I felt Remus sit beside me and slowly pull me into his lap. I was shaking from the cold or from the tears I don't know. I felt like I could breathe easier with his arms around me but I couldn't stop the tears.

"Shhhhh….it's ok. You don't have to carry this all alone. Matt wouldn't want you to put yourself in danger for him." I glared at him through my tears. "I know you want to save him but he's a big boy. You've done all you can. Maybe what's best for both of you is getting out of that house. But I know that I can't even begin to understand what you've been through. But I'm not going anywhere. It's time someone took care of you for a change." I wanted to believe him. I wanted to believe that Matthew and I could both get away and that maybe now someone would take care of me.

I looked at him. And I mean really looked at him. I saw the most genuine eyes I've ever seen. In that moment, the look on his face told me everything I needed to know about him. He would help me in any way he could. He would fight for me or with me. And he wouldn't judge me for my dark family or anything I did. My heart swelled and I wrapped my arms around him. I slid my hands up and into his hair pulling his face to mine.

I missed the feel of his lips on mine. His taste overwhelmed my senses as I pushed him back onto the grass. His hands slid up my sides pulling me closer to him. I fit perfectly against him. When we broke apart for air I leaned my forehead against his and closed my eyes.

"Thank you." I whispered. What I was thanking him for, I'm not exactly sure. But I know that I'm grateful that Remus Lupin came into my life when he did.

Third Person POV

Standing by a window in one of the towers of the castle, a figure watched as two teenagers stood up and brushed themselves off. The two teens then walked hand in hand back inside and disappeared from the figure's view. A sigh escaped their lips and the figure shook his head. He turned and headed back to his common room to make a plan on how to fix the mess that was going to happen if this relationship continued.