Hello, and happy new year! Hope everyone kept safe, and had a great night!

Now, onto the chapter! I know, I know. I'm a slow updater. Hopefully the wait is worth it, haha. Probably not, but wey hey, whatcha gonna do?

Disclaimer: No HP is mine.

Three weeks had gone by since Remus learned of my secret. My cold had long since passed, and I was feeling fresh; health wise, anyway. Winter approached fast and with full force. It was the nearly the end of November—the twenty-ninth to be exact—and snow covered every inch of the grounds. Speaking of the date, today's my birthday.

Now, before we get ahead of ourselves, I don't like birthdays. Never have, probably never will. Even though the thought of being eighteen excited the dragon dung out of me, I couldn't quite get my joy to shine through. My little cry fest with Remus cast a dark shadow over me wherever I went, sending me into a spiraling downfall of doom and gloom. Happy birthday to me.

Apollo knew what day it was. For an ornery, little devil, he had a concept of time. Better than mine, to say the least. The subtle noise of his pitter-pattering paws on the carpet captured my attention as he hopped onto the bed next to me. In his tiny jaws, a present was wrapped in a leaf. Did I mention he was a genius on top of his flawless time management?

He gently placed the token on my lap for me to open straight away. "Thank you, Lo. It was very sweet of you to get me a gift," I said, petting his ears. "I thought we agreed we wouldn't do presents this year."

His rough tongue on my finger told me he couldn't help himself. I giggled and turned to me gift. Pulling apart the small vine holding the leaf together, I gave a smile to my companion. With his tongue hanging out of his mouth like a dog's, he watched my fingers intensely. A final tug on the leaf revealed a bracelet with a sun pendant charm. Its dark gold color shined unexpectedly onto the canopy of my four-poster.

"Where did you find this?" I asked Lo, truly appalled. "And why does it look so familiar?"

Apollo dashed off the bed and into my open trunk. I could hear him rustling through my things, carelessly disheveling each piece of clothing. After a minute or so, his orange head popped out of the chaos with a necklace hanging from his mouth. He brought it to me and placed it next to the bracelet.

"Oh, yeah! You gave me this when I went to Slughorn's party. It's got the same pendant as the bracelet," I marveled, picking them both up to inspect them. "How peculiar…"

Clearly done with his errand, Apollo raced out of the room. "Wait! Where did you—never mind. Silly codger."

I sighed heavily at the folly of my partner. He had been acting stranger than usual. Oh, well; the gifts were nice, anyway. I put them both on and got up to look at them in the mirror. They laid prettily on my neck and wrist, making my skin appear milky as opposed to translucent. They put a spark in my spirit; I felt the need to dress up to compensate for their loveliness.

Traipsing to my trunk, I pulled out my best skirt and blouse. Even though I had classes that day, I opted to wear something slightly out of dress code. The skirt was navy blue velvet; the blouse a silky cream. Finally, with my tie fastened and my laces tied, I headed off to class.

Transfiguration was first today. My second favorite, behind Charms. And what a perfect day for it, too. We were scheduled to work with the Care of Magical Creatures class to practice transforming creatures into objects. Thus far, we've only worked on animals. Easy, compared to say, a chimera charging at you.

I expected no trouble, as Transfiguration was a breeze for me. My curls bouncing playfully just past my shoulders, I entered the classroom ready to start the lesson. Sadly, my good mood didn't make it past the door as the Gryffindors were the residential Creatures class. And who better to further my misery, but Remus. I thought today would be the day I forgot about our therapy session; oh, how wrong I was.

There would be no forgetting with him around. Every time he's seen me since the ordeal in question, he's babied me beyond compare. Instead of holding an actual conversation, he just asks things like, "How are you feeling?" or, "Do you need to talk?" or my personal favorite, "Keep your chin up."

It was like as soon as he learned about my issue, I became a different person to him. A suddenly frail creature with no means to survive without the constant attention of a boy. However, he was an arsehole for thinking that. Checking in every once in a while, sure. Telling me every so often that he's available if I need to talk, fine. But when it gets to the level of every single word spoken being about him making me feel better, oh, hell no. I'm nobody's pity parade.

Regardless of my inner monologue, I had to have this class with him. I tried to remain as emotionless as possible whilst still trying to not be sad looking. It was difficult, but I think I pulled it off. Oh, Merlin. He was giving me his puppy dog eyes and smiling at me like I was approaching my death bed. Awkwardly, I returned the grin. I could feel the stiffness of my lips stretching over my teeth.

"How are you feeling?" he asked with a voice full of pity.

I internally sighed and replied with an undertone of annoyance, "I'm fine, thanks."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive," I retorted with enough venom to be noticed. "What are we doing?"

Remus gave me a strange look. "We're turning hinkypunks into lampposts."

"Right, should be easy."

"You look different today," he said out of nowhere. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yes, Remus! Drop it, please."

My statement rendered Remus speechless as he peered at his shoes. As if I didn't feel bad enough. Now I had the guilt of Remus over my head. Just as the tension got thicker than treacle, Professors McGonagall and Kettleburn walked in.

"Good morning, class," said McGonagall. I could tell by the look on her face that she was already annoyed at the current situation. "You all know the Care of Magical Creatures teacher, Professor Kettleburn."

"Good morning, professors," we all droned, emotionless. Remus kept glancing at me out of the corner of his eye. I tried to stay focused on the lesson.

"Today, we will be transfiguring hinkypunks into lampposts in pairs. One from my class with one from Professor Kettleburn's. To make it easy, I'll assign them."

The room let out a collective groan. My heart began to race. McGonagall went around the room in slow motion, calling out pairs. She got closer and closer; my palms started to sweat.

Anyone but Remus. Anyone but Remus. Anyone but—

"Miss Wilde, Mr. Lupin, partners."

Why do I even bother?

He gave me yet another puppy dog face. I needed to start a running tally. Sighing and pursing my lips, I turned to him.

"You ready?"

"Yeah."

"Right. Let's get started then," I said. "Do you want to get the hinkypunk, please?"

"Yep," he replied coolly.

I rolled my eyes and muttered under my breath, "This'll be fun."

Remus gave me a double take. Coyly, I smiled to cover up my rudeness. He brought back the creature and placed—well, more like threw—it onto the table. It flopped around in its cage; its lantern shined obnoxiously in my eyes.

Putting up a hand to shield them, I turned to Remus. "Do you want to go, or should I?"

"Ladies first," he said sarcastically, gesturing to the translucent haunt.

"Are we going to do this the whole time, or can we actually get some work done?"

"All I said was you can go first!"

"The way you said it, though. You're mad at me, aren't you?"

"Not as mad as you are at me, apparently," he retorted. His temper was rising, but that's okay, because so was mine. Some pairs around us stopped working to listen. McGonagall and Kettleburn were too busy helping someone who had been grabbed by their hinkypunk and were now getting hit in the head with its lantern.

I stamped my foot, letting out a frustrated groan. "Of course, it's all about you, Remus. Never mind how I feel. Remus Lupin's upset, so everyone has to hear about it!"

"I asked you how you were as soon as you walked in!"

"Yes, you did. And the time before that. And the time before that. And the time before that. Do you see a trend emerging?"

"Excuse me for wanting to check on you."

Everyone officially stopped working to hear us argue. Normally, I would be petrified at all the eyes pointed at me, but I was too furious to pay attention.

"You're suffocating me! Every. Single. Time. You see me. You give me some bullshit, wounded pep talk, and I can't handle it anymore!" I said, reaching the climax of my anger. "It's like you think I'm somehow different now that you know about my boggart! I got on fine before I told you, and I'll get on fine now that you know. I have not changed. You have."

Silence fell across the class, Remus included. His jaw clenched as if he wanted to reply, but the words got caught in his throat. His eyes avoided mine; they shifted to a corner of the room. McGonagall and Kettleburn marched up to us, the student now free from the hinkypunk.

"Miss Wilde, what is this yelling about? And Mr. Lupin, why do you look so shameful?"

"Nothing, Professor. We just had a disagreement, is all."

"I'd say, and a loud one. I hate to do this, but since you've disrupted the whole lesson, I'll have to take points. Ten from Ravenclaw and Gryffindor."

"But Professor—"

"We didn't mean—"

"Silence," she reprimanded. That shut us up. "One more word, and you'll both receive detention." She turned to Remus. "Prefect or not. I do not tolerate disruptions."

"Yes, ma'am," we said as we both looked at our newly interesting shoelaces.

"Good. Now get back to work," she said to the whole class. Remus and I went back to our hinkypunk.

"Oh, Miss Wilde."

"Yes?"

"Happy birthday."

"Thank you, Professor," I blushed. I hurried back to our table to keep Remus from saying anything. Unfortunately, that didn't stop him.

"It's your birthday? Why didn't you tell me?"

"Well, we were kind of preoccupied."

He grinned beside himself. "Happy birthday, and sorry."

"Thank you, and I'm not," I teased with a crude smile.

"Shut up."

"Never."

It started to feel like we were back to normal, but you can never be too sure when I'm involved. My life had a mind of its own, and I couldn't shake the feeling in the pit of my stomach, that things were about to get a lot more interesting.

Oh, snap! (Do people still say that?) Remus and Jordan had a little tiff. Tisk, tisk.

Question time!:

If you were Remus, would you have asked how Jordan was as frequently as he did?

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