AN: Wow, its been a while, but I am not giving up on this story. I have so much more that I want to do with it, and I've just started developing Kylie so I won't give up, even if it takes me years. Review! That's what keeps me motivated, really.

The ride to platform 9 and ¾ from Hogwarts was one of hilarity and underlying tension. Kylie joined the Marauders halfway through the ride with her cat, Rumbles, who wanted nothing more than to curl up on Remus's chest and sleep for days. James attempted to teach Kylie a ridiculous 'secret' handshake that involved much jumping and hand smacking, while Kylie laughed and tried to follow along the best she could. It was nice to see the two of them get along, and Peter even got to chat with that girl from the dance before leaving the train. She gave him a hug goodbye and Peter nearly passed out from the sheer shock of it all. Sirius, on the other hand, just lounged in the seat, watching James and Kylie, commenting here and there about how great the Christmas would be. But he wasn't incredibly sincere, especially since Regulus had been the one to walk behind Kylie when she had first arrived in the compartment. But the train stopped and the five of them got off.

Remus hated the cold. It had been something that he had fought with for as long as he remembered. He would much rather be in the sweltering hot heat instead of outside in with the snow getting stuck in his hair. However, under these circumstances, Remus could stand the snow and the icy breeze. Although a little embarrassed at the idea, Remus wanted to see Kylie off as she waited for her parents to pick her up from Kings Cross. Both of them were worried, each for different reasons but over the same general problem. The full moon would be awful for Kylie without anyone else there to keep her calm, and the guilt had made him sick to his stomach for the past couple of days. It would also be the first time she would see her little brother, Cody, since the summer, and he was sure to notice a change. Kylie had shared all of this with Remus during their studying sessions in the library, something that Remus was starting to enjoy more and more, and he was almost positive that Kylie did as well.

So, bundled up in tattered jackets and gloves, Remus walked with her, away from his friends, and towards the other end of the platform where her parents would be waiting. Regulus was going home for the holidays as well, something that Sirius hadn't been invited back for several years now, which made the walk mildly uncomfortable because Remus spotted Sirius's parents greeting their son with smiles (well, his mother, at least), while Sirius stayed back with James's parents on the other end.

"Well," she started when they reached the area that her parents would soon be arriving at, hugging her navy peacoat closer around her body. Her blonde hair splayed out in all directions around the Ravenclaw scarf that made its way out of the top of the coat and snuggled around her neck.

"Here," Remus said, pulling out one of the nicest boxes of assorted Honey Dukes chocolate that he could afford. "For after, you know, it'll help. I know its not much, but, um," he frowned at his stammering as he handed it to her. A large grin bloomed on her face that quickly turned into a laugh as she reached into her own coat pocket.

"I didn't know if we were exchanging little gifts, but I got you this just in case." She giggled again as she pulled out the exact box of chocolates. Remus laughed and felt quite good about himself for being thought of.

"Thanks, its my favorite." The two exchanged identical boxes just as three figures appeared in the distance that must've Kylie's family.

Kylie looked at the train, then back at Remus. The fear was slowly starting to creep into her eyes and Remus was beginning to feel guilty. She tried to be strong, Remus knew that she truly did. But it failed sometimes, and this was one of those moments.

"It'll be ok, Kylie," he muttered, not knowing what else to say to comfort her, although wanting to make everything go back to how it was.

She looked him in the eyes, amber meeting amber, and bit her lip. Remus had learned a lot about Kylie since he bit her, and one thing that stuck out was her ability to be predictably unpredictable. If she was acting a certain way for a while, her mood would change at random to something different. And, as an interesting side note, he learned that she liked to take spoons from muggle restaurants, because it was thrilling and not really stealing. After a long silence, she pulled him into a tight hug. "I'm going to miss you," she whispered. Remus hugged her back, pressing her warm body against his.

"I'll miss you too."

And then she ran off to meet her family and Remus walked back to his dad.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

There was very little event that occurred during the winter holidays. Remus spent the first week at his own silent home with a father who wouldn't hardly look at him. His transformation was terrible, and he woke up feeling awful for Kylie. His father did what little he could, medically, and that was all that was offered of him. Remus was used to this by now, but the silence was starting to drag him into a slight depression. He wouldn't confront his father, no, because Remus was never one to be blunt, but the entire ordeal, or lack thereof, made him frustrated. His father's single letter that year had been a half baked apology and less than fifty words. He cut his dad a lot of slack, but when the time came for him to join the Potters, Remus was more than thrilled to leave his house.

Christmas's at the Lupin household used to be full of holiday spirit and the baking of Christmas cookies and singing carols so loudly that the neighbors would come over and complain. His mom would make egg nog and even let Remus have a sip or too before bed. And then, Remus would rush down on Christmas morning to see what Father Christmas brought, his little feet poking out from his pajamas as he rushed down the staircase and into the living room where the tree sat. It always looked like the biggest tree from his small height, and he'd stare at the bright lights in awe. He'd wake his parents with his childish soprano voice just as the sun rose, and his father would scoop him up in his arms and they'd all take turns opening gifts.

The last Christmas that they'd had a tree was when Remus was six, the year after he had been bitten. It hadn't been the best Christmas, and all the spirit had been stamped out by the stress, but his parents had tried. But his parents quickly split afterwards, and then… Remus didn't like to think about that part.

This Christmas had been no different than the last. There were no exchanging of gifts between he and his father, no special Christmas dinner, no singing of carols and no eggnog before bed. His father just read the paper and muttered a Merry Christmas, and that was probably the longest sentence that Remus had gotten out of him all during break.

After Christmas, the four made plans for their yearly camping trip to the acres of woods that the Potters owned. This time, however, they would be going alone. Usually, the Potters would take the boys out to the woods and build a tent and a fire with them, completely muggle-style. It was to build character, or something like that, and although it was difficult to not just use magic for everything, it was actually entertaining watching Sirius try to strike a match. But this year, the Potters decided that the boys would go off on their own and try to survive a night without magic. It didn't sound particularly difficult, but there was still a mild protest.

Nonetheless, the four found themselves in the middle of the woods at about 4 pm with tent supplies, food, water and fire wood.

"Well lads," James started, taking the leadership role, "We should probably start getting a fire ready and set the tent up."

And so began the misadventures of Sirius Black and the muggle axe.

"Why. Won't. You. Split. In. Half." Sirius grunted as he kept hitting the log with the axe.

"Do you need help?" Remus asked, looking up from the half assembled tent.

"No," came the quick reply as Sirius began to hack away ungracefully again.

Once the logs got properly assembled, the boys attempted to start the fire. It wasn't until Remus snatched the remaining three matches from Sirius's hands that the logs were able to burn. By then, it was getting very dark and immediately food was suggested. The food, fortunately for them, was pre-cooked, so the four just reheated the aluminum foil covered potatoes and beef over the coals. After eating their fill, which didn't take long at all, the least attentive of the group became quite bored and was ready to try something else.

"Hide and seek!" cried Sirius.

"But its dark," replied Peter, looking at the seeming abyss away from the fire.

"Theres two muggle flashlights in the pack, so we can do teams. It'll be easy. Peter, you go with Remus and I'll stay with James. You have three minutes to hide and thirty minutes to get back to base. Ready? Go!"

And because Sirius was the best one at making things happen, Peter and Remus were off into the darkness within seconds, flashlight in Peter's hand. It wasn't until they couldn't see the fire that Remus realized just how dark it was outside. Without the flashlight guiding their way, the two would've been completely lost. However, they jogged quietly out into the cold, the flashlight leading their way.

Remus quickly learned that, as hard as Peter tried to be, Peter wasn't the most comfortable in the dark. The flashlight would dart in different directions whenever a twig snapped or a leaf crunched. Considering how frequent that was, Remus was having a hard time differentiating between where Peter intended on walking and where Peter intended on revealing something potentially dangerous. The two finally settled at a small ditch among the trees. And they sat, waiting for any sign of movement. It wasn't long at all before another person was running towards them, and that was their cue to start running as well. Peter was, inevitably, tagged first, but Remus used his incredible speed to reach base just before Sirius snatched the back of his shirt.

"Not fair," Sirius panted, hands on his knees, "You're too fast." But Remus just grinned, loving the feeling of being out of breath, and waited for another round.

Several rounds later, Peter and Remus were back to hiding. As they walked further away from the base, they looked for more obscure places to hide. Peter's confidence had grown since the first game, and he seemed to becoming more familiar with the area. Just as Peter pointed towards a tree that they could probably climb, a loud cackling was heard from afar. The two boys halted and Peter pointed the flashlight in the direction of the laughing.

"What was that?" he whispered, his voice tight.

Before Remus could reply, a loud boom shook the trees and red sparks could be seen in the black sky.

Another, louder set of cackles erupted from the source.

And then screams. Screams like Remus had never heard before. The booms continued as if an attempt to cease the screams, but it only made them louder.

"Look!" Peter said, his eyes wildly looking at the sky. Remus looked and then suddenly wished that he hadn't. Muggles. Muggles were the booms. At every boom, several more muggles flew into the sky, screaming for help, for mercy. They weren't close enough to hear the thuds of the people hitting the ground, and Remus certainly didn't want to be anywhere near here when they hit. His mind went into survival mode, and the first thing he needed to do was get everyone together.

That was around the time that Peter decided he wanted the opposite. Peter tried to be brave for maybe three seconds before fleeing from the scene. With the flashlight. Thank goodness for Remus's ability to see more clearly in the dark than the rest of the group.

"Peter, wait!" Remus shouted, and then immediately realized his mistake because the booms stopped at his voice.

"Seems like somebody else is heeeere," said a sickly playful shout along with the cackle. The voice was... familiar? Familiar in a way that Remus really, really didn't like. Adrenaline was really starting to kick in as he turned to follow Peter. Three steps in the crunchy grass and -snap- a hooded, giggling figure appeared in front of him. Remus thought his heart would burst out of his chest right then.

"Going somewhere?" she asked, circling him with what most definitely sounded like a grin. Remus felt completely naked without his wand. He only had his strength and intelligence, neither which would hold up very well against an armed witch.

What little hope Remus had of sprinting away was crushed when two more sets of footsteps crunched behind him.

"Aww," the voice was a male's, "Did we interrupt your trip in the woods?"

"What? Are we wasting our time on a frightened little school boy. C'mon," the third voice urged, "We can have a lot more fun at the muggle town down the road."

"Don't be such a spoil sport," giggled the girl, "This is one of the blood traitor's friends. I recognize him from school."

Remus swallowed hard, his eyes searching for an opening as the three circled closer and closer.

But then everything began happening very quickly. The giggling girl shot a curse at him, which he ducked out of the way, the top of it singeing his hair. The girl, stupid, hadn't anticipated Remus's swiftness so it was a shock when the curse hit the wizard behind him. Remus took that chance to sprint off in the other direction, his legs moving much more quickly than they had in quite some time.

He hadn't realized how far he and Peter had travelled into the woods, so far that they had crossed out of the Potter's land and almost to the nearby town where the muggles inevitably had come from. A string of flashing red flew past his ear, urging him to run more quickly. He tried his best to formulate an escape plan, but without the four of them together, it would be cruel to leave them behind. Fortunately for him, he could run extremely quickly, and the curses became more and more off target. They came to a stop all together, but Remus didn't let himself stop running. He made his way back to the camp where James and Sirius were standing, looking confused.

"Whats the matter? Where did all that wandfire come from?" James asked, stepping towards Remus, "And where's Peter?"

It was as if on cue. A shrill scream could be heard from a ways away. Without saying anything, the boys hastily rushed towards the source of the screams.

"We need wands!" James exclaimed as they ran, "Or some sort of way out of this."

But Remus didn't have an answer. The screams continued and soon the three could see a figure being held above the trees, squirming and in obvious pain. Bellatrix was shouting a string of words at Peter that Remus couldn't hear from there.

"Stop!" Cried Sirius. But then Sirius himself came to a halt when he saw who was behind the wand. "You bitch!" he shouted at his cousin, Bellatrix.

"Aw, whats the matter Siri? We're just having a bit of fun." She giggled and moved her wand about happily, as if toying with Peter.

That's when the wolf took over. Before anyone had time to react, Remus tackled Bellatrix to the ground, clawing her skin and forcing the wand out of her hand. Peter promptly fell with a thud. He continued to hold her down for the seconds it took for the other perpentrators to react and for James to run over to Peter. Then suddenly, just as Remus was hexed off of Bellatrix, James and Peter were gone with a pop! And only seconds later, James's father appeared, grabbed Sirius and Remus, and they were back in the Potter house.

Remus took a moment to comprehend what had just happened. The relief that fell over him quickly disappeared when he looked at James and Peter, both of whom had splinched during the amateur apparition. Peter was missing part of his calf and James had a large lump of his shoulder taken out. Both were unconscious, probably from the pain. Mr. Potter was already on his hands and knees, examining the wounds with a grimace on his face. Mrs. Potter was already packing up a few things for St. Mungos, rushing about the kitchen and bedrooms for extra clothes for the boys. Remus didn't hear anyone talk, but it was like the two of them were completely on the same page.

And then, just like that, they were at the wizarding hospital, Mr. Potter carrying his son and Mrs. Potter carrying Peter. Remus somehow wound up with a bag of things in his hands. His head was starting to spin, and Sirius put his hand on his shoulder, although it was evident that he was having trouble comprehending the last three minutes as well.

But it was clear that James and Peter were going to be ok. Everyone was safe. They were all ok. He just needed to sit down. He slumped into a chair in the waiting area as Mediwitches and wizards took Peter and James from the Potters, both parents following along. The familiar smells and tiled floors added to Remus's discomfort, but he kept repeating his mantra over and over in his head. James and Peter were ok. Everyone was safe. James and Peter were ok. Everyone was safe.

What did you think? This was originally longer (There are two other pages but I cut it off and am starting the next chapter there, so that's why the ending is a bit abrupt) but I wanted to get this out right now! Hope you enjoyed.