A/N: I uploaded this chapter on time! You have no idea how proud I am about this!

Enjoy XD

Remus didn't know how to act near Emerald after everything she told him. His emotions travelled between wanting to ask her a million questions he knew she couldn't – or wouldn't, more likely – answer, yell at her for not telling him sooner and simply holding her close and keeping her safe so that nothing else could hurt her.

Seeing as none of those options were a legitimate possibility, he decided to start small with making peace between his friends.

"I've got nothing to apologize for," she told him as they sat together in the library, four days after his birthday and her unusual gift. "I didn't do anything wrong."

"In his eyes, you did," he replied. "Come on, Emma – you did lie about quite a lot of things."

Emerald paused for a moment in the middle of writing her essay, before going back to scribbling on the parchment.

"Emma?" she finally asked.

"It's a nickname," he shrugged.

"A nickname?"

"It's a Marauder thing," he said, as if it explained everything.

"In case you've somehow missed it," she said, looking through her book for something to add to the essay, "I'm all but a Marauder."

"You're an honorary Marauder," he waved his hand at her. "You were best friends with Prongs' son, you deserve it." A small smile crossed his lips. "I could always call you Luna."

Something shut down in Emerald's eyes. "I used to have a friend names Luna," she said sadly. "She was brilliant. A bit crazy, but brilliant."

"The best people are a bit crazy," he told her, a little too enthusiastically.

"And now you're just trying to suck up to me," she informed him.

"Is it working?" he asked.

Emerald sighed. "Do I have to do it?" she asked desperately, hoping with all her might that Remus would reply with a negative.

"It's an action to show goodwill," he replied instead.

"I acted on goodwill since the beginning of the year," she huffed. "He's the one who –"

"Please?" Remus pleaded.

Again, Emerald sighed, putting down her quill and looking at her half-done Transfiguration essay, realizing that there was no way she would finish it today.

"He hates me," she finally said, trying not to show how much it bothered her. Sirius was always ever so nice to her, back home, and with him disliking her in this time…

"He doesn't hate you," Remus said. "He was just wary of you, because he didn't know anything about you and he thought that you might be working for You-Know-Who."

"Fear of the name increases the fear of the thing itself," she muttered.

"You're trying to change the subject."

"Is it working?" she asked hopefully.

"No," he sighed, though a smile showed up at the corner of his mouth. "Please? I'll make sure he apologizes, too."

"Sirius Black, apologizing?" Emerald snorted at the mere thought." Good luck with that."

"I'll make sure he'll be civilized?" Remus tried.

Her eyes bore into his, showing for the first time some of the coldness that was possibly the reason the other Marauders were wary of her.

"I won't apologize," she declared.

"Figured that much out," he replied.

"And I'm keeping the right to punch him at any time."

Remus smiled at that. "Deal."

Hermione walked into the Gryffindor Common Room, her mind anything but determined, but Remus following closely behind her and giving her the strength she needed. Hesitantly, she sat down at the couch opposite of Sirius', and cleared her throat to make sure he noticed her.

"Emerald," he said quickly, his eyes darting between her and Remus. "I mean, Hermione. I mean –"

Hermione looked at Remus, who sent her an encouraging smile.

"I realized we started on the wrong foot," she said carefully. "Let's try that again, shall we? I'm Hermione Jean Granger, also known as Emerald Grey. I am really a little over nineteen years old, but I never got the chance to finish my sixth year so Dumbledore agreed I'd start it over."

She took a deep breath to calm herself down. "I spent the last year and a half before Hogwarts on the run. I will not answer questions about it, I will not answer if you try to call me by my birth name and if you try to flirt with me I most certainly will use a hex a friend of mine guaranteed kept her six older brothers in line." She looked at him worryingly. "Your turn."

Sirius looked at Remus questioningly, and the werewolf sent him a harsh glare.

"Sirius Orion Black," he finally said. "From the ancient and most noble house of Black. A bunch of small-minded idiots, if you ask me. I don't trust you," he sighed. "But I do trust Remus, so... I ran away from home last summer and moved in with my best mate, James. I will not answer questions about my family, I will not like it if you say I'm one of them and I most certainly will try to flirt with you." He winked. "Just to find out more about that hex."

"Good luck with that," Remus laughed. "No matter how much I tease her, she won't use it on me."

"Don't worry," Hermione said with a smile. "If he keeps going the way he is now, you'll find out soon enough."

Sirius laughed, and Remus smiled, and for a moment, Hermione felt as if it couldn't be all too bad. That was, until Sirius spoke again.

"If I can't ask you about your life before Hogwarts, can I ask you about now?" he asked.

"Depends," she said carefully. "What do you want to know?"

"Are you and Professor Prewett really dating?"

He said it quietly, barely more than a whisper, but Hermione still looked around to make sure nobody else heard him before replying.

"I knew Gid before he was our professor," she replied, just as quietly as he asked. "And I've known his sister for years."

"How long before he was a professor did you know him?" Sirius questioned.

Hermione felt a blush slowly climbing up her face. "About an hour before he and Fabe signed the contract," she mumbled.

Sirius looked at her disbelievingly for a moment before throwing his head back, howling his bark-like laughter. Merlin, did she miss this laughter.

"I honestly didn't see that one coming," he said once he calmed down enough to speak again.

"I'm full of surprises," she told him, before standing up and going to her room.

"I'm starting to understand what you see in her," Sirius told Remus.

"Back off," Remus growled, almost involuntarily.

"Yeah, she's yours, I know."

"She isn't mine," Remus said, bitterness slipping into his voice despite his best attempts. "She's dating Gid."

"I get it," Sirius said with a smile. "Werewolf jealousy?"

"Don't talk about it here!" Remus hissed, looking around with panic.

"Alright, alright," Sirius said with a smile. "But you know what they say about boyfriends."

"What do they say about boyfriends?" Remus asked, confused.

"Um…" Sirius rubbed his head, embarrassed. "I hoped you knew."

After making her peace with Sirius – and, by extant, the other Marauders – things moved swiftly for Hermione. Between Potions class with Severus, study time with Lily and Remus and spending the rest of the time with Gideon, the next month passed in a haze.

Soon, they were nearing another full moon and everything that was accompanied to it. Including, apparently, a surprising message Remus received from home.

"So after all those years you kept lying about your mum being sick during the full moon, your mum is actually sick on the full moon?" Sirius asked.

He was sitting with James, Remus and Hermione in the library while Peter was in detention and Hermione and Remus tried, unsuccessfully, to ignore the closeness of the moon and do their homework.

"Let's not talk about it," Remus muttered, rubbing his temples to relieve some of his pre-moon pains.

"Let's not talk at all," Hermione agreed, resting her head on the table and trying to decide if Madam Pince would kill her if she fell asleep in the library.

"When are you due to leave?" James asked with unmistaken concern.

"Tomorrow morning," Remus replied. "I don't know how long it would be, but I will spend the full moon and the recovery at home."

Hermione's head shot up, but she immediately regretted it as the world started spinning around her.

"You're going to miss the full moon?" she asked.

"Yeah," Remus said. "Why?"

"Nothing," Hermione said quickly, grabbing her bag and leaving quickly.

"What is it with her?" Sirius asked.

James looked at the both of them as if he was about to smack their heads.

"Remus got the full moon as an excuse to be an idiot," he told Sirius. "What's yours?"

"Oi!" Sirius called. "I'm not an idiot!"

"Really?" James asked. "So answer me this – When was Emerald bitten?"

"Right before the school year begun," Sirius replied proudly.

"Oh, no," Remus groaned. "Merlin, I didn't even think about it."

"Didn't think about what?"

"If Emerald was bitten right before the school year begun," James said slowly, as if he's explaining something to a child, "and she spent the full moon over Christmas with us…"

Sirius' eyes widened in understanding. "She never had a full moon alone," he muttered.

The three Marauders rose to their feet – Remus doing so more cautiously than his friends – and walked to Gryffindor tower where they saw Lily waiting at the bottom of the steps.

"Have you seen Emerald?" Sirius asked quickly.

"She came in and ran up to our room," Lily replied, before eyeing them suspiciously. "Why? What did you do?"

"We didn't do anything," James said. "Really!" he added in response to her disbelieving stare.

"I need to talk to her," Remus said, trying to come up with an excuse. "I need to tell her that I won't join her on the Knight Bus when she's visiting her sister because I'm leaving early this month."

"I'll tell her," Lily said, squinting her eyes. "Odd, isn't it? How the two of you always go to visit your families on the same days."

"Never mind that, Evans," Sirius said quickly, noting the way his friend visibly paled. "We need to talk to Emerald."

"I already said I'll pass along the message," Lily insisted.

"Remus need to tell her himself," James said.

"And I suppose the two of you just have to be there, as well?" she questioned warily. "I think not."

"Lily," Remus said desperately. "Please?"

Lily sighed. "Fine," she finally said. "But if she tells me she doesn't want to talk to you, I'll hex you myself."

"Completely understood," Sirius said, and the three teenagers watched Lily climb up the stairs and into her room. Her head popped out not even a minute later.

"She's not here," she said.

"What?" James asked.

"Listen, Lily," Sirius started, "I know you think she's mad at us –"

"I told you already," Lily said, irritated. "If she said she didn't want to see you, I would have hexed you already. She's really not here."

Confusion rose on Remus' face and he quickly ran upstairs to the boys' dorm room, looking through the mess until he found the Marauder's Map. The three boys looked through it, looking out for the name until James gasped, pointing at the Prewetts' room.

"Wow," Sirius said, unsure of what to think.

"Did that ever…" James started, not knowing how to continue his question.

"Not that I saw."

"Just how often do you spy on her, using the map?"

"More than is probably healthy," Remus replied, just as Peter walked into the room.

As he saw his three friends around the Marauder's Map, he frowned. "What did I miss?" he asked.

Wordlessly, James passed him the map, pointing at the room where the two points labeled Hermione Granger and Gideon Prewett were covering one another, only disturbed by small movements that revealed parts of the words.

"Gross," Peter said, and Remus found himself unable to disagree.