The usual cluttering commenced as the students piled into the classroom, filing into their seats as conversations simmered down naturally and books were sifted out of bags. The windows were dark with the harshness of November now truly under way; enchanted candles kept the room bright as everyone settled down. Two of these students had yet to drop into their seats. A third student glanced nervously between the former two. A fourth sat with his shoulders hunched up at the front of the class, the feather of his quill tapping against the wood of his desk as he mentally registered two pairs of eyes that were boring into the back of his head from the other side of the classroom.

"Mr Potter, Mr Black, if you would take your seats," came the sharp voice of Professor McGonagall as she strode through the desks to reach the front of the class.

James huffed, dragging the legs of the chair as he took his space; Sirius followed with equal vigour, and Peter sighed in relief at the lack of a fuss.

Remus swallowed as he heard the pair sit down without a single comment to go against the Professor. His shoulders eased in tension somewhat: he'd expected more of an outburst (especially from James), knowing their love of the spotlight even after only having known them for a couple of months. He didn't want to cause a fuss. He wanted to learn. He wanted to be educated. He wanted to take the opportunity that was being so generously handed to him.

What he didn't want was to be feeling guilty about it. He didn't want to have broken away from the friendship that had been extended his way. But now he was scared. He was scared because they had heard – they had, heard, him. Howling. They had heard him howling. And they didn't realise and he couldn't tell them and they thought he was off visiting his mother and he'd never really had to lie to anyone before but he was finding it the most difficult task he'd ever had to go through. But it was necessary, which was why Remus was torn. He had choices; he'd never had the prospect of choices before, so last night he'd spent a good deal of his time behind his curtains analysing these choices.

He could stay at Hogwarts. That was the best choice. He was here already after all. For how long, he wasn't to truly know, but he hoped for as long as possible. For as long as they could contain him. For as long as they wanted him. Taking this choice was the only chance for future opportunity.

But this lead to more choices. Were friends an option? His mother had assured him that he would find friends, that he should have friends. Dumbledore heartily agreed with her. But friends involved lying, and – as Remus had so recently discovered – lying was hard. Lying was complicated and deceitful and dangerous and wrong. That was what all the books he liked to read told him. Only the villains lied. Only the monsters lied. Which was funny, because that was what he was. A monster.

He liked James, and Sirius, and Lily, and Peter – truly, he did – but this new experience of liking other people his age came with the want to be honest. He was an honest boy, after all. He didn't want to be their friends if it meant he had to lie to them. The way they took his lie so easily, not because it was a sound lie, but because they trusted him… that had been the moment to spring the bouts of guilt. The guilt that was eating away at him, slowly.

So his choice, then.

He had sat at the front of the class today, in his original seat (before James and Sirius had convinced him to join them at the back). He had walked straight to the front, settled down before everyone else and gotten out his things. He knew that the other three would trundle in last, so he'd had time. He'd had a few precious moments to have gotten up. To change his mind. But, although he was one of an indecisive mind, he'd stayed put; and they'd walked in to see the back of his head over by the front of the room.

"What in Merlin's name is up with Remus," James muttered to Sirius as the lesson began. "He's been acting all… spooked."

"I still think it's because he's scared about the howling we mentioned about," Sirius shrugged.

James screwed up his face in what was clearly disagreement. "I'm pretty sure he's just worried about his mother, what with her being so ill."

"Then why would he be 'spooked'?"

"I don't know," James exclaimed, "but it's the only way I can describe it. Him."

"And anyway," Sirius continued over James, either oblivious or ignorant, "that doesn't explain why he's been acting so weird around us all morning. Either of our theories, I mean. It doesn't explain why he's being so distant."

"That's the word! Distant; yeah," James nodded. He faltered at the lull of quiet of which he'd only just noticed blanket the room; he glanced up to meet the disapproval furrow along the face of an unimpressed Professor McGonagall. He cleared his throat, ducked his head back down and lowered his voice, leaning closer to Sirius so that they could continue conversing. "So let's run through this morning, shall we?" He splayed out one hand and, with the fingers of the other, began to list off everything they'd noticed during the day so far about Remus' odd behaviour. "He went down to breakfast before the rest of us in the dorm."

"But he does do that occasionally," Sirius pointed out, "Because sometimes he likes to sit with Snivellus' friend."

"Evans," James agreed. "That's true. But it still wasn't a good sign to start off the morning. And besides, he didn't sit with her today. He sat by himself."

"Which he does sometimes do," Sirius considered.

"Yes, sometimes," James sighed. "But then he ignored us in Charms."

"Now that was unusual."

"Exactly," James nodded, mildly thankful to be getting through to his friend. "And again in Defence against the Dark Arts: he didn't even listen to our conversation. Didn't even laugh at my joke."

"It wasn't a very good joke," Sirius muttered.

James glared at him. "It was a brilliant joke!"

"Mr Potter, will you keep your voice down," Professor McGonagall snapped, "and pay attention to my lesson?"

At this, half the class swivelled round in their seats to gawk towards James – including the pale face of Remus, all the way at the front. He didn't look amused or curious, though; he looked worried.

"You don't think Remus doesn't want to be friends with us, do you," James whispered, once the class had settled back.

Sirius looked incredibly solemn for a moment. "Maybe your joke was the last straw."

James jabbed Sirius with his elbow; Sirius emitted a stifled squawk.

"Potter and Black!" Professor McGonagall peered down at them over her glasses, her lips tightly pursed. James and Sirius both gave sheepish grins before returning back to the lesson at hand.

"Surely not," Sirius answered several moments later to James' worry. "He was enjoying his time with us before."

"But there has to be something that's bothering him," James reasoned. "Or he wouldn't be sat all the way over there."

"Maybe it's the pranking."

James and Sirius started, turning to the third voice in surprise. Peter, who was sat beside James, looked over to them, his lower lip trembling.

"What?"

"The pranking, he doesn't like it," Peter continued quietly.

James and Sirius shared a sideward glance. "Well, he's never wanted to help us with it," James nodded thoughtfully.

"And he's told us why not to do certain pranks," Sirius added. His brow furrowed. "But that doesn't mean he doesn't like that we prank. I mean, he hasn't said anything to us."

"Maybe he doesn't want to tell you directly," Peter mumbled.

"Well, that doesn't make any sense," James countered. "Why would he do that for?"

"Why don't we just ask him," Sirius muttered.

But as the class rounded to a close, Remus had bolted out of the classroom before James or Sirius had had the chance to stand up. It wasn't until Potions that they next caught sight of him, stood by a table in wait for the lesson to start. They made to stand with him – when the red haired girl, Lily, got to him first. Remus flinched at her approach, but after a hushed discussion between the pair, Remus reluctantly allowed for Lily to be next to him.

"Why does she get to sit with him," James whined.

Of course, with Lily beside him, Snivellus wasn't far away. Thus, James and Sirius opted for the table behind Remus.

"Talking to him was a really good plan of yours," James muttered as they gathered their ingredients.

"I didn't know he was going to disappear out of the room quicker than a house elf," Sirius retorted, sprinkling a handful of lionfish spines into his mortar.

James shrugged. "If he's been avoiding us all day so far, he wasn't exactly going to wait for us after class, was he?"

The class was soon to be filled with the grating grind of pestles against mortars. Sirius was doing a rather spectacular job in smashing the pestle adamantly onto the lionfish spines, as his mind delved into what to do about Remus. He didn't even notice when James leaned over and added a 'helping hand', by attacking the practically demolished spines with his own pestle. It wasn't until James was leaning close enough to be lying across Sirius' portion of the desk that Sirius finally came to his senses, and shoved James off.

"I've got it," Sirius exclaimed, as he measured out some herbs to pour into the mortar, but managed to throw most of the measured amount onto James in the midst of his enlightenment. He dived down to his bag, and pulled out a quill and some spare parchment. James, who had been busy brushing himself down, looked up to see Sirius scribble down on some parchment, give it a moment to dry, then crumple it up into a ball. He put down his quill and, picking up the crumpled ball of parchment, chucked it over in Remus' direction.

It missed completely.

James sniggered. "Look, let me do it," he suggested. "What did you write?"

With the second note made and sufficiently crumpled, James aimed his target and threw the ball – where it tapped Remus at the shoulder. The boy started in surprise; he glanced to Lily, then to the class as a whole, looking wary. He then caught sight of the balled up piece of parchment at his feet. James and Sirius watched in anticipation as Remus eyed the parchment for quite some time – to then return back to his work.

"What?!" James groaned.

"Aw, come on, he just doesn't know it's from us," Sirius pointed out. A third note-making later, James chucked the parchment over at Remus, and it bounced along the desk before coming to a stop by Remus' right. The boy was so concentrated upon adding the crushed powder within his mortar to his cauldron, that he was oblivious to the parchment. That or he was ignorant of it.

"Urgh, James: if you had just gotten it a little closer," Sirius sighed.

James snorted. "You do it then, if you're so brilliant at parchment throwing."

Sirius took considerable time on this fourth note. After crumpling it most carefully, he brought up his arm and narrowed his eyes towards Remus, focusing on where exactly he wanted it to land. "Just… about…" he threw the parchment, "there…"

The parchment sailed through the air, and fell – not near Remus – but directly into Lily's cauldron. Sirius froze; James' breath hitched.

Her cauldron started to sputter and choke, as it rattled where it sat. Lily turned to it in concern, glancing worriedly from it to her book, to see if she'd done something wrong. The cauldron continued to shake, until it was a blur of motion, potion slopping out over the ridges. Lily yelped, stumbling back with splatters of the liquid stained across her robes. She stared down in disdain, for the cauldron to topple from the table and crack against the stone floor. Potion dribbled along the floor and over Lily's shoes, inching towards those in her vicinity. Snape frowned and dragged Lily out of the way; Remus was a state of panic. He ran a hand through his hair and darted forward to right the cauldron, for it to roll under the table. Snape glared at Remus as if it was he who had caused this, before storming off to get the Professor's attention. Remus drew back up from where he'd crawled under the table, his robes also stained and the cauldron shivering in his hands. He dropped it onto the table with a clatter, and groaned when he saw the state of his robes. He looked up, to see Lily shoot him a grateful smile.

James burst into laughter. Sirius hit him on the arm, in an attempt to silence him – but Remus and Lily had already turned towards the sound. Immediately, bouts of suspicion plagued both expressions; Lily turned her nose up at James and Sirius, while Remus looked appalled. Sirius frowned at the latter: even James sobered considerably at the look.

At the return of Snape and the bumbling presence of Professor Slughorn, Lily and Remus were sent out to get cleaned up whilst he sorted out the damage.

"He thought we were purposefully pranking her," Sirius muttered as they watched Remus shuffle out of the class.

"This went exactly the way we did not want this to go," James agreed, downcast. After a moment, he brightened. "Although, it was funny. Potential prank to keep for the future, perhaps?"