A/N: Okay, so I realize that I've been seriously neglecting all of the wonderful reviewers I've had so far, so I'm sort of going to thank you all at once and hope that makes up for it =D

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Thank you, thank you, thank you! And now, without further ado, I give you what you came for!

Quite predictably, breakfast was fairly awkward, what with Angel's frequent glares in Remus' direction when she thought Sirius wasn't looking, Sirius' and Rose's attempts to avoid looking at one another, James' feeble attempt to keep a conversation going with Peter, and Remus' desire to blend in with the table. Everyone stared at the plate of food in front of them after a while, making no attempt to eat. The awkward silence was, thankfully, interrupted by the morning mail. A letter was dropped into Remus' lap. He picked it up, looking confused.

"I'm leaving in half an hour…what could she possibly need to tell me?"

"Who, Lucy?" asked Rose, referring to Remus' older sister.

"Who else?" asked Remus, tearing open the letter.

With nothing better to do, the others watched Remus scan the contents of his letter with no real interest. Rose grew concerned, however, when his hands started to shake.

"Remus…" she asked gently, "Is there something wrong?"

"I…er…it's not…not from Lucy."

"Well, who's it from?" asked James, attempting to snatch the letter from Remus' hand.

Remus swiftly pulled it out of James' reach, crumpled it up, and stuffed it into his bag, then got out of his seat.

"I…I'm going upstairs. I'll see you…in a minute, okay?" he said, his voice cracking several times.

"But we're leaving in twenty minutes," said Peter slowly, his eyebrows raised, "Shouldn't you be getting ready?"

"I-I'm not going home after all…I'll talk you later, alright?" Remus replied a bit desperately.

Then he ran out of the Great Hall in the direction of Gryffindor Tower.

"Should someone follow him?" Rose asked, her forehead creased with worry.

"No…" said Sirius slowly, "Looks like he wants to be alone for a while…"

"Oh can we please stop discussing the filthy half-blood?" asked Angel with an ugly scowl on her face.

"Shut up!" shouted Sirius, getting up out of his chair, and glaring wildly at his fiancée, "Don't you dare call him filthy again! There's nothing filthy about him! I don't care who the hell your parents are who you think you are; Remus worth a thousand of you!"

Angel seemed close to tears and struggled to keep her composure, "Well," she said in an attempt to sound above being offended, "I would have suspected better of you, Sirius. I believe I'll be going to unpack now, then. You may come to see me when you've come to your senses."

"Are you bloody joking? If I had my way, you'd be back in France and safely away from me!"

"You don't mean that," Angel whispered, her voice losing its conceited tone as tears began to fill her throat.

"You want to bet?" asked Sirius, glaring at her ferociously,

With as much dignity as she could muster through the tears that were now sliding down her face, Angel stood up and headed in the same direction that Remus had.

"Hold on," said James looking shocked, "You're in Gryffindor? How the-"

But she was already gone. James turned back to the others, shaking his head. Checking his watch, he leapt out of his chair, pulling Peter with him.

"We've got to go guys. Send us an owl as soon as you figure out what's going on with Moony, okay?"

"Yeah, sure," said Sirius, a bit miserably, "Happy Christmas, guys."

"Happy Christmas!" Peter called over his shoulder as James began tugging him out of the Great Hall.

After another moment of silence Rose looked up at Sirius. There were deep bags under his eyes, and he clearly hadn't slept for a decently long time. Rose hated to see him like this. Why couldn't anything be simple anymore?

"Sirius?" she asked slowly, afraid that some of his anger would be taken out on her.

"Yeah?" asked Sirius, not sounding angry at all, but completely drained.

"I know…that this is hard for you to deal with, but you need to start sleeping…and have you eaten anything at all this week?" Rose inquired, observing Sirius' skeletal figure.

"I don't know. Rose, where the hell did it all go wrong? Remember our first year, when all we had to worry about was whether we'd get detention for falling asleep in Binns' class? Or even second year, when the biggest thing we had to deal with was Remus' werewolf issues? Now look at us. We're falling apart, Wing, and I don't think we can pull back together again."

"Maybe not," said Rose sadly, "But if we can't fix ourselves, at least we can be broken together. I don't know how I'd handle this mess without you guys. It'll all turn out right in the end, Sirius."

"No it won't, and you ruddy well know it. I mean really, look at us! Look what's happened to all of us in just a couple of months! We've got me with my lousy Death Eater family and that demon of a fiancée…Merlin I'm bloody engaged. How the hell did I let that happen? And then we've got you with your completely mental family, and your brothers killed by your father and all. Now we've got Remus and whatever the hell's wrong with him. And what's happening with Peter lately?"

"What about Peter? He's fine, isn't he?"

"Sure he's fine, but do you notice how he barely talks anymore? And then he's disappearing all the time; yesterday I caught him talking to Lucius Malfoy after Potions. I barely know the kid anymore!"

"I don't know, Sirius," said Rose shaking her head with pity, "Do you think you might be exaggerating just a bit? Peter's never been that talkative anyway, and they could have been talking about the homework assignment or something."

"Well, anyway, you know what I mean," Sirius retorted a bit more harshly than he'd intended, "We're all getting so messed up, you know? It's like James is the only one of us left who's still right in the head."

"Yeah, yeah, I get your point," said Rose resting her chin on her hand, suddenly exhausted, "I just don't want to look at things like that. I'm so sick of being depressed!"

"That's the way things are, Rose, you can't ignore it."

Rose breathed a heavy sigh, "I know."

There was a long pause before Sirius said, "I think Remus has had enough alone time. I say we go upstairs and make sure he's alright."

A/N: Ugh! I wanted so much to keep writing this chapter, but again, I unfortunately have to leave before I can write down everything I want to. I know this is a bit of a strange spot to stop, but I want to get something up tonight for you guys because I haven't posted in a while. Sorry! Another chapter tomorrow, most likely. Reviews would be greatly appreciated! Bye!