A/N: Alright! I'm happy to publish another chapter! I'll try to keep all chapters between 2-3k words and hopefully we can get some fun things happening ...

Saturdays were supposed to be comfortable, a time to relax and maybe catch up with homework, hang out with friends, sleep in until noon, do something fun. This was not comfortable. It was not fun. It was awful.

Okay, it wasn't awful for Goldie who was preparing for her date ("Not a real date, it's a study date!") with Jake DeLeon and, unfortunately, Big Mouth Bernice. But she was the only one having fun in their friend group. Evelyn was stuck making Polyjuice Potion in the off-limits bathroom with Moaning Myrtle hanging over her shoulder and Catlin was being reprimanded by a flustered and very angry Madam Pomfrey who was still questioning how she got out and where she went. Truly she was thankful Catlin had returned of her own volition, though she commented on how the concussion was still too bad to let her wander off in the castle by herself and she'd be staying over the weekend.

Catlin awoke to the sound of Madam Pomfrey storming over to her bed and shaking her awake, shouting all sorts of things that sounded like gibberish to her still half-asleep brain. The long and the short it was that Catlin was, not totally unexpectedly, in trouble for leaving without being officially released. But Catlin wasn't too worried about possible punishments (what would Madam Pomfrey do? It's not like she'd give her detention since that would require Catlin leaving the hospital wing to do things), because when she looked over she saw a body slumped in one of the beds across the room. It was faced away from her but she could tell by its short hair and broad shoulders it was a boy - probably older than her too, judging from how tall he was. He was wrapped in the sheets up to his neck and a heavy quilt was laid over him. Pomfrey excused herself to check on him and when he stirred, she departed to grab tea and a block of chocolate.

Catlin continued to watch in silence, her mind still swimming with the events of last night. Thankfully she hadn't forgotten anything and she was stuck on the idea of the werewolf running around the grounds. The boy sat up slowly as if his entire body was sore and stiff, and he graciously took the mug of tea from Pomfrey and a large chunk of chocolate.

The nurse saw Catlin staring and wagged her finger at her. "Chocolates don't help concussions! If you really want to get out of here and help your friends then you'll rest. Don't you want to leave? You've been here longer than any of my other patients before. You sure are stubborn." Then she set off at a brisk pace towards her office, block of chocolate in her arms.

Before she could turn away, the boy shifted and looked over at her. She was surprised to see that it was the last person she expected to see in the hospital wing. Or maybe not. The three girls (i.e. Evelyn) had been worried Remus was taken out to the Whomping Willow to be executed and then he'd disappeared when they weren't looking. Perhaps this is exactly where she expected him to be.

"Remus?" she said, her voice sounding distant in the large hospital wing. Remus looked just as surprised, but he blinked a few times and his face softened.

"You must be Catlin, huh?"

"How did you know …?"

"Your friends are worried about you. And they're … I imagine you know by now - they're doing everything they can to help you. And since we haven't met, I'm guessing you know me because they told you?"

Catlin suddenly realized that she hadn't ever met Remus; she'd been in the hospital wing since before her friends met him too. How did she know him? She had recognized him the night before when they were out by the Whomping Willow. She couldn't recall how she knew him, his name was simply in her mind. He must've been right - Goldie or Evelyn must have described him to her, because there was no other way she'd know him. "What are you doing here?"

Remus sipped on his tea and nibbled at the block of chocolate but didn't answer her question. "You should listen to Madam Pomfrey. The sooner you get better, the sooner you can get out of here and back to your friends. I know that's important to you."

Suddenly there came a loud banging sound, the hospital wing doors flew open and Sirius came striding in, holding an armful of treats, heading straight for Remus's bed.

"You wouldn't believe the trouble I had trying to get these," he said, dumping the boxes of candy onto the bed. "I had to wait because no stores were open in Hogsmeade this early -" He stopped and looked over at Catlin, who was watching him curiously. Instead of trying to backtrack, he just smiled and gave a curt bow. "I remember you from last time I came in here. I imagine you're almost better now? Oh, and I'm sure you've met my friends Remus here."

"Let her sleep, Sirius. She probably wants to get out of here. You know how long she's been in the hospital wing."

"What? And miss all the fun of hanging out while you're in here?"

Abruptly, like a shot from a cannon, Madam Pomfrey came barreling out of her office, face red as she shouted at Sirius. "Get out of here! You are not allowed to be in here! How many times do I have to tell you?"

Sirius gave a great slap to Remus's back, who winced in pain, then lobbed half a dozen boxes of chocolate frogs to Catlin's bed and gave her a salute. "Don't stay in here too long, or else your friends will think I'm hexing you to stay sick. I'd love to stay and talk more but I've got to g -" Sirius turned and bolted out of the hospital wing, followed by Madam Pomfrey. Remus shook his head and raised the mug to his lips again.

"Let me know if you want to trade any of your cards. I don't collect them, so you can have any of mine. And you better hide them from Madam Pomfrey, it sounded like she didn't want you eating chocolate."

Catlin quickly pushed the boxes under her pillow and smiled innocently at the nurse as she walked past them, giving her a stern look.

"If you stay put for the next two days, I'll make sure I release you in time for classes on Monday along with Remus. Deal?"

Catlin nodded firmly. "Deal."

"Good. Now … I better not hear any talking while I'm in my office. You're both to sleep and that's it. Understood?"

Remus and Catlin nodded firmly. Madam Pomfrey eyed them again before going back to her office. Slowly, the two patients exchanged looks and couldn't help but laugh.

Evelyn was having a worse time being cooped up in a leaky bathroom with Moaning Myrtle. She kept floating around the room, whining about how she didn't get to help more even though, as Evelyn reminded her, they only agreed to let her count how many times Evelyn stirred the cauldron. Nothing more and nothing less. Still, Myrtle was absolutely devastated that she wasn't allowed to put anything into the cauldron.

"You could help by keeping quiet," Evelyn said bitterly as she tried to read over the directions for the umpteenth time. "We can't do anything until the lacewing flies are stewed for twenty-one days. It's only been one day! So there really is nothing for you to do!"

Moaning Myrtle huffed in anger and floated back to her stall. "Fine! I guess it was a waste of time for me to steal your fluxweed. You aren't even doing anything fun."

"Wait - you what?" Evelyn barked, her head snapping towards the translucent girl.

Myrtle turned around and shrugged, giving a heavy sigh and dramatic pout. "I really wanted to be helpful so I stole your fluxweed. You remember yesterday? How it suddenly just disappeared? I took it."

Evelyn crushed the parchment in her hands and strode towards the ghost, shaking the paper at her. "Why would you do that!"

"Because I wanted to help!"

"You almost got us killed! We saw - oh, you're not going to tell anyone because no one comes to visit you. We saw a werewolf last night! We could have been torn to pieces!"

Myrtle shrugged again, sniffling as she balled her hands into fists. "I told you to be careful, that there were monsters out there during the full moon."

"Are you serious! Ooooh my gosh, no wonder you died here alone! You're awful!"

Moaning Myrtle screwed up her face as if she were going to start screaming, but instead she let out a soft, whining sound like a baby about to cry and said, "You're mean. No wonder you only have two friends!" Then she shot into the bathroom stall and down the toilet, sending a spout of water into the air. Evelyn ducked out of the way and returned to the cauldron, smoothing out the paper. "Forget this, I'm going back to breakfast. I don't have to even do anything for three weeks. And, by the way, Myrtle, two friends is better than none!"

Hiding the parchment in the pocket of her jeans, Evelyn slunk out of the bathroom and down the hall, keeping watch for any teachers or other students. If she didn't have to do much for the next twenty days, then she wasn't going to spend her time hiding out in a gross bathroom with an annoying ghost - she could be doing other things, like homework or sleeping or literally anything else. At least this part of the Potion making was easy, considering how complicated the rest of it was.

Evelyn turned a corner to head toward the dining hall and almost collided with Sirius as he ran past her, heading in the same direction.

"Watch where you're -! Oh, it's you."

"Sorry, would love to talk but -" Sirius tossed a chocolate frog box into the air and it hit Evelyn in the face, tumbling down her sweater and to the ground. "You were supposed to catch that!"

"Like I knew you were going to throw it! Why are you running? Come back here - did you steal these?"

Sirius was gone, around another corner. Evelyn grumbled in annoyance, scooped up the box and looked it over.

"This seems unethical. Especially for a vegetarian and future magizoologist like myself." Still, she stuffed the box into her pocket and headed towards the dining hall, hoping her absence hadn't been noticed.

Goldie's hands shook as she placed another bobby pin into her hair. It was hard to keep it under control when she was stressed. Perhaps it was magic flooding through her veins and out into her follicles, but whenever she was under stress, her hair seemed larger - curlier - even more unmanageable than usual. Now really wasn't the time for it to be acting up. She only had fifteen minutes to get to the library to meet Jake for their date.

Study date.

It was a date. He had said so.

Giggling childishly, Goldie forced an extra long bobby pin into her hair and smoothed out the front of her clothes and looked herself over in the full-length mirror propped up against the wall in her dorm room. She thought she looked okay - nice enough for a date, but casual enough since they'd be doing studying. She was wearing high-waisted corduroy trousers and a cable knit sweater. It was very cold in the library and since she figured they'd be spending quite a bit of time there, she wanted to be warm and comfortable.

Happy with how she looked, Goldie grabbed all of her materials and headed out of the Hufflepuff House and towards the library. She continuously went over what to say in her mind - how should she greet Jake? Would Bernice already be there? Would she flake? Maybe she would and then it would just be Goldie and Jake. That'd be nice.

Smiling to herself, Goldie pushed open the library doors and scanned the tables. She quickly spotted Jake sitting alone and gave a silent prayer of thanks that Bernice was nowhere to be seen. Gripping her books tightly, Goldie took a shaky breath to calm herself and strode over to Jake's table. He looked up at her as she approached and gave another soft half-smile.

"Right on time," he said.

"Huh?"

"You're right on time. Unlike …" He motioned to the empty seats around him. "I don't think she'll show."

Good, Goldie thought, then I'll get you all to myself. "O-Oh. Right. That's a shame. I really thought we could help her."

"Yeah. You want to sit down?"

"Yes." Goldie plopped down in the seat across from Jake and mentally cursed herself for not sitting next to him. She set her stack of parchment, quills, and her few textbooks on the table. "Did you hear? Professor Binns finally came back so Professor Uggeri is gone. Maybe - uh, maybe Bernice figured since Uggeri is the one who suggested she join us, she doesn't have to do it."

"Maybe. I guess if she shows, then she shows. If not, then it'll just be us. Did you want to get started?"

"Sure!" Goldie spread out her items and drummed her fingers on the table. "What did you want to start with?"

Jake's eyes flickered past Goldie and his eyebrow twitched upwards for a brief moment. "Here comes trouble."

"What?"

Goldie turned around expecting, dreading, to see Bernice, but was even more horrified to see Sirius Black walking towards them. No! Don't you dare!

Sirius spotted Goldie, smiled and rushed to the table, taking the seat right beside her. "Hello, Goldie. How long as it been?"

"Not l-"

"Too long, definitely. You know, I just ran into both of your friends - Cat and Evie?"

"It's Catlin and Evelyn to you," Goldie said quickly, feeling heat rise to her face. "And how did you see Catlin? She's in the hospital wing."

"I know! It's really awful, but she should be feeling better soon. I got her a little gift."

"I don't think she wants any gift you have to give her. Unless it's a … chocolate wand."

Sirius slapped his chest with his palm and gasped, "Not want my gift? Why not?" He dug through a pocket and dropped another small handful of chocolate frog boxes onto the table, then he noticed Jake. "Oh, I'm sorry. Did I interrupt you two? Are you on a date?"

Goldie, as nonchalantly as she could, stomped on Sirius's foot. To her surprise, Sirius merely bit the inside of his cheek and gave a closed-mouth smile.

"Would you look at the time? I should be going. Goldie, I believe you're helping me with my homework later, right?"

"I've already -" Goldie glanced at Jake who was watching them in silence. "I'll meet you back here before dinner, if you want. We can go over … the material."

"Perfect! It's a date - sorry, not a date. Don't worry - what's your name?"

"Jake."

"Jake! Wonderful." Sirius stuck out his hand and Jake took it, shaking it. "You don't have to worry about me, I'm not going to try to steal her from you. Not my type -"

"Hey -!"

"You kids have fun." Sirius pushed away from the table and hurried to another section of the library; Goldie couldn't imagine why he was there at all, since he didn't need to study or do research for homework. Maybe he was just there to antagonize her.

"Goldie?"

She turned back to Jake and flushed red when she realized he had been staring at her. "Y-Yeah?"

"You seem distracted. Did you want to resc -"

"No! No - this is fine! I'm fine! I just wasn't expecting to see … him. But I'm totally ready to study now." Goldie slapped the cover of one of her textbooks and smiled. "Let's get started, huh?"

Jake glanced over the table, his expression unchanging. "Actually …"

Uh oh. Now what? Does he not like me? Did Sirius ruin this? I'll kill him if he did!

"I don't really feel like studying right now. It's too nice of a day to spend it inside."

Great. He's going to cancel on me. This is so embarrassing. I'll have to walk back to Hufflepuff House carrying all this stuff. At least I'll be right next to the kitchen. I'm going to have to binge eat my emotions if he leaves.

"Do you want to go for a walk around the lake?"

Suddenly Goldie wished she hadn't worn a sweater because her blush was creating more than enough heat to keep her warm. She grabbed at the corners of one of the large textbooks and stared at him with huge eyes. "W-Walk?"

"Yes. Outside?" He took note of her clothes. "Are you cold? We can stay in here if you want -"

"No! I'm fine! We can definitely go for a walk! I'd much rather do that than study any day of the week."

"Okay, then. Let's go." Jake stood from the table and Goldie mimicked him, bringing one of the books up along with her. "You can leave those."

"Shouldn't I take them back to my House?"

Jake shrugged, "It's Saturday and the weather is nice. There isn't going to be anyone else in the library, if you're worried about it being taken. Well except for …" Jake motioned behind Goldie and she turned to see Sirius was peeking out from behind a shelf of books, watching them. Once he was spotted, he hurriedly grabbed a random book, threw it open and nodded vigorously and muttered to himself, as if he'd been reading it the entire time. "I don't think he's going to steal these books."

"Yeah, it's not like he does his own homework anyway."

"Hm?"

"Oh - no-nothing!" Goldie laughed nervously and set the book back down on the table. "Did you want to go out to the lake now?"

Jake nodded and the two met at the end of the table so they could walk out of the library together. Before the doors closed, Goldie threw another glance towards Sirius who still held the large book in one hand. With his free hand, he gave an eager thumbs up and she felt her cheeks burn red again.

What an idiot. How did HE manage to blackmail us?