At first, Ophelia thought that she would go back to the common room, but realized that that was the first place Remus would look for her and abruptly changed direction, ducking through a tapestry which concealed a hidden passageway.

The tears Sirius had seen in Ophelia's eyes had not actually fallen and wetted her cheeks, and for this Ophelia was thankful. She thought she probably looked quite horrific with her eyes all red and puffy.

Ophelia came out the end of the hidden passage and did not recognize the corridor she was in. Her sense of direction being as hopeless as it was, Ophelia decided that her safest choice was to simply go straight back through the passage. Unfortunately, a solid wall had replaced the doorway she had just left.

She huffed. This is just what I need, Ophelia thought. I'll get lost in these stupid halls and never be seen again. Perfect.

Sighing, she turned to her right and started walking.

…

After Ophelia had left the Great Hall, Remus had returned to the common room. When he saw that Ophelia wasn't there, he sat in his favourite armchair and waited, certain that she would march through the portrait hole shortly, probably with her fists clenched in anger, and she would probably start yelling at him again as soon as she saw him. And Remus knew that he would probably yell right back, because he stood by his accusations. But no matter what, Remus just wanted this to be done. They could scream and yell and argue until they were blue in the face, but Remus simply did not want to fight with Ophelia any longer.

So he waited. Each time the portrait hole opened he looked around eagerly, but it was never Ophelia. He waited so long that his squashy chair grew to be uncomfortable, and then he moved to the sofa and waited there. James and Peter walked through the common room, up to the dormitories. When they came back down, James was carrying his broomstick and his Quidditch bag.

James said, "Moony, we're going down to the pitch. Do you want to come watch the practice?" Remus shook his head. "What are you doing, then?"

Remus said, "Waiting."

He waited until he literally could wait no longer: about two and a half hours into his vigil, Lily Evans tapped him on the shoulder and reminded him that he had prefect duties.

…

Some time later, Remus was 'patrolling' (more like wandering; he really wasn't paying attention) the corridors on the sixth floor. There were many corridors on the sixth floor that were, for the most part, unused, and in his time as a prefect, Remus had discovered that they were an excellent place to 'patrol' if he wanted to think, and he was still technically performing his duties. Remus sometimes felt guilty about this strategy he had come across to get out of real work, but he consoled himself by knowing that he seldom used it and that he was, after all, a Marauder. This sort of behaviour should be expected of him and his friends.

Remus rounded the corner and began walking down a very narrow corridor. It was his favourite to walk down when he was 'patrolling' (Remus always thought of this kind of patrolling with the sarcastic quotation marks around the word). He had once mentioned the fact that he had a favourite corridor, and James and Sirius had laughed and called him a loon, claiming that all corridors were the same. But Remus thought this one looked really cool. Every inch of the stone walls were covered with portraits and every doorway was slightly different from the next.

Remus walked for a few more minutes until he saw someone sitting on the floor up ahead of him. He put on his best I'm-in-charge-here-and-you-better-have-a-good-reason-for-sitting-in-this-corridor face (also known as his prefect face, as in "Moony, can you put on your prefect face and kick those second years out of our seats?").

"Oi! What's your name and what are you do- Ophelia?" Remus' eyes widened. She had turned her face toward him and the light had fallen softly on her features.

Ophelia saw who was walking toward her and let out a sigh of frustration. She had finally given up on trying to find her way out of this confusing and haphazard maze of corridors and had decided that she would just sit and wait for someone to come along.

"Of course it has to be him," she muttered under her breath. She crossed her arms over her chest and turned away from Remus.

Remus had a fleeting impression of a stubborn child and had to choke back a laugh.

"Why are you sitting in the middle of the corridor?" he asked, eyebrows raised.

"Because I like sitting in the middle of the corridor." Ophelia rolled her eyes. "Go away, Remus."

An idea hatched itself in Remus' mind. "Are you… did you get lost?"

Ophelia scoffed. "Like I would ever get lost."

"You have a terrible sense of direction."

"I could use my wand to point me the right way."

"You could, if your wand wasn't on the table in the common room right now."

"Damn." Ophelia glared at him for a moment. "Fine. I'm lost. I'm waiting for someone to come along and help me."

"I'll help you."

"No, not you. I'm waiting for someone else. You can keep walking."

Remus raised his eyebrows, smiling softly. "You realize that no one ever uses these corridors, don't you? You'll be waiting days for someone else."

Ophelia sighed and leaned back against the wall. Remus sat down next to her. There was a silence between them for a few moments.

"I'm not apologizing," Ophelia said suddenly.

"Neither am I," Remus replied. Ophelia nodded; she had expected nothing less.

There was a pause again.

"Could you at least be nice to Sirius?" Ophelia said, her pleading tone sounding very foreign to Remus. He opened his mouth to argue and Ophelia continued quickly, "You don't have to apologize to him, or anything. Just be his friend again. You wouldn't know it from how confident he usually is, but he needs you three." She thought for a moment. "Well, he needs you and James. Not so much Peter, but that's not really the point, is it?"

"I could have lost you," Remus began. "I know that Jenna's curse wasn't as strong as it should have been, and that Sirius got you to the Hospital Wing straight away, and Madame Pomfrey is brilliant at what she does. But if any one of those things had happened differently, you wouldn't be sitting next to me right now. I never would have gotten to see you again, or hear your voice…" Remus paused and shook his head. "And all because Sirius Black doesn't have the compassion to realize that 'Hey, maybe it would bother this girl that I'm dating if I took someone else out!'" Ophelia opened her mouth but Remus raised a hand to stop her before she could interrupt. "I understand that Jenna isn't exactly mentally or emotionally sound, and that Sirius couldn't have predicted this, but this whole thing could have been avoided if he had cared enough to ask Jenna if taking you to Slughorn's party was alright."

Ophelia pressed her lips together, realizing that she and Remus would never see eye-to-eye in this situation.

"I think we'll just have to agree to disagree, Rem."

Remus smiled. She may not agree with him, but she had called him 'Rem' and that was definitely a good sign.

"So are we alright?" Remus asked.

"On the condition that you're friends with Sirius again. And that James puts him back on the Quidditch team." She looked at him seriously. "Without him, we really will lose the Cup."

…

Sirius left the library quite late that evening. He hadn't been able to find Ophelia after she had left the Great Hall but had been all but certain that she would turn up in the library sooner or later. She hadn't, and Sirius had spent his time reading an absolutely thrilling book about grass species for Potions and looking up hopefully every time someone walked near his table.

He trudged back to the common room, praying that Ophelia would be there and he would be able to find out if she was alright; he couldn't get the image of her eyes filled with tears out of his head.

Sirius climbed through the portrait hole, then stood frozen in front of it.

Remus and Ophelia were sitting on the sofa by the fireplace, across from James and Peter. They were all smiling, laughing. Ophelia turned and planted a quick kiss on Remus' cheek.

Sirius couldn't help but feel a bit betrayed. Had Remus convinced Ophelia that her injuries had, in fact, been all Sirius' fault? Ophelia had been touting his innocence for a week and a half now, but perhaps Remus had won her over with his stupid cheesiness and intelligence and –

Shut up, Sirius tried to tell his mind. You can't be jealous over Moony's girlfriend. He's your best mate.

But Sirius still felt an urge to punch that smug smile right off Remus' face.

"Sirius!" Ophelia had noticed him and beckoned him over. Sirius supposed that the happy look in her eyes meant that she didn't hate him, so that was good. On the other hand, she was sitting with Remus' arm wrapped tightly around her, and that wasn't so good.

Once he reached the group of them, there was a moment filled with awkward silence. Ophelia was giving Remus a pointed look, but it was James who spoke first, tentatively, as though he thought Sirius might explode if he said the wrong thing.

"Quidditch practice tomorrow, Padfoot. Five o'clock."

There was a pause, then Sirius nodded.

"Right."

An intense feeling of relief spread through James like a sort of fire that ran from the top of his head down. He couldn't resist: he stood and quickly embraced his best friend, who hugged him right back. They heard a high-pitched squeal from Ophelia before she jumped up and threw her arms around them both, laughing.

Then she turned her head, gave Remus a stern look and cleared her throat.

Remus raised himself from the sofa. He opened his mouth to say something, then shut it again and simply nodded to Sirius. Ophelia grabbed his arm and yanked him roughly into their group hug.

A/N: ((: Ahhhh, that's better.

What did you think?