Note: Ok, here's a new chapter. I won't make any timeline promises, but I hope to write more in the coming weeks. Now I know that I put this under Remus/OC and it is in fact Remus/OC, Severus/OC, and Sirius/OC…there wasn't a button for that. (And consider yourself lucky that she didn't take a fancy to Lucius while he was in school.) Anyway, here's the first of what I hope is more to come! Oh and WARNING: This will go until their first year out of school.

Chapter 37

Remus sat thinking in the Room of Requirement. He was surrounded by the cushions the room provided for Avedra's practice room. He was remembering all the times it had been him, not Sirius, holding her hand, brushing an errant curly behind her ear, or sitting in a quiet corner kissing or talking. She'd picked him, in spite of his problem, and he'd ruined it.

He was calmer than he had been in the common room. Without her and Sirius life-sized and in living color, it was easier to be rational. Without the spotlight that seemed zoned on them, Remus found it quite simple to reflect on his time with Avedra. He also took ample opportunity to remind himself why Sirius, and not Remus, was a preferred companion for her affections.

Every time he closed his eyes two pictures warred within him. One was the memory of what she'd looked like after she got out of the hospital the previous year. How thin and worn she'd looked tormented him. The other was a flash of her reaching out to kiss Sirius. This was a new torture, but one he had to get used to, for her sake. He would not, no matter how his heart clenched, put her in danger again. Sirius was the better option, he kept telling himself. It's what he wanted for her.

He was in the middle of his internal chanting of "Sirius is better for her," when Sirius walked in the room. He looked as irritated as Remus had felt when he first walked in the room.

"Oh, it's you." Sirius basically grunted. His fists were clenched at his sides and it took all of his power to not rush Remus and wipe the grim look on his face.

Remus sighed and looked down at his own hands. At hands that he knew would become a monster's at the turning of the moon. Sirius' hands, unlined, not calloused. Hands, in short, that could hold her without fear of harming her. Hands the complete opposite of his own.

"Sirius," Remus started, but Sirius cut in.

"I've watched her for six years, Remus. I've watched her look at different guys with eyes that could light up a room. It was never me. For me, I got the friend look. Do you think, that for one moment, of all those looks I didn't feel horrible?" Sirius was opening up and telling Remus what he never told anyone. "I felt like my chest would rip in two. Then, and I'm not happy it happened, don't think I am, but you hurt her. Not the physical part, no, the part that nearly killed her was you pretending you didn't care anymore. And for once, just once, I could help her. She turned and I was there. Today was one of the first days she's looked at me and not seen you."

Remus swallowed hard. He hadn't really noticed that Sirius looked at her any differently than at any pretty girl. Sirius, who never took anything seriously, was serious about Avedra. In that knowledge, he had his answer. He really was the better choice. He wasn't playing some game with her. This wasn't a horrible prank. Sirius was in love with her.

"Sirius," Remus said quietly. The fact that he wasn't screaming at Sirius, stopping Sirius in his verbal bombardment. "I get it, you're in love with her."

It was Sirius' turn to sigh. "Yeah, for years now."

"Why didn't you tell us? I mean, James, Peter, and me?" Remus asked, shifting on the pillow he was sitting on.

Sirius dropped onto a pillow across from him. "I don't know. I guess because she didn't look at me like that. I didn't want you to know that I was being turned inside out."

"I might not have dated her if I had known." Remus said, looking Sirius in the eye.

"If any of us deserved a chance at dating Avedra, it was you." Sirius replied, without malice. "You deserved a chance at happiness."

"So do you," Remus answered. "It was harder than I thought it would be, seeing her kiss you."

"She didn't do it to hurt you," Sirius said, protectively. "That was one of my ploys to get her, you know, making you jealous. She turned me flat down."

"She'd never try to hurt someone intentionally, for all her silly attacks at you and James." Remus smiled, remembering all the times she'd charmed James and Sirius over the years. Now he knew that Sirius treasured those times for different reasons.

"She still loves you," Sirius offered, with trying for a nonchalant smile. "I know it, even though she tries to hide it from me."

Remus shook his head. "She shouldn't. After everything I did, she should hate me."

"She still doesn't blame you." Sirius said, calm now. "Avedra is the most amazing girl I've ever met."

"That we've ever met. Look, I know that I didn't take the two of you kissing so well." Remus said. "I'm not going to stand in your way, though, you're the better option for her and that's all that matters to me."

Sirius looked down to where his hands had finally unclenched. He thought about what Remus was saying. He had such a skewed view of the situation. Remus was good, through and through, no matter about his condition. Somehow Sirius knew that telling him that wouldn't change his mind about the matter, but he couldn't have one of his best friends not thinking they were good enough.

"You're not a bad choice either, Remus." He said, still staring at his hands. "I want you to be happy, just as happy as I was earlier as I am now, but I don't want to have to give her up for that to happen."

"You're not going to give her up," Remus answered. "You're right for her, regardless. You're what she needs now."

"And later, do you think she'll need me later?" Sirius asked, looking up.

Remus shook his head and shrugged. "Who knows what Avedra might need later?"