It was nearing sunrise and Hazel couldn't sleep. She'd dozed off in the Gryffindor common room a little after midnight, but it was a restless sleep. Every hour or so she would get up, walk to the window, and survey the forest. Finding nothing out of the ordinary, she would try to go back to sleep.

She'd been sitting up in Ravenclaw Tower for a while, but eventually decided to move some of her books to the Gryffindor common room. There was a better view of the forest there, and Marlene had let her in, so she figured she may as well stay and get some work done. The Marauders would be gone for a few more hours, keeping Remus company during a painful transformation. So she settled in, trying to go back to sleep on one of the sofas. But after much tossing and turning, she got up again, going to watch the sunrise from the window.

A few minutes later she could make out the outlines of four figures - one being supported by two others - slowly limping towards the castle. They'd forgotten James' Invisibility Cloak in the rush to make it to the Hospital Wing before sunset. And now they would be headed back to the Hospital Wing, all of them a bit worse for wear. Remus most of all.

This wait seemed longer than the entire night, Hazel weighted down by the knowledge that they were back in the castle. But Madam Pomfrey could not be rushed. So she waited impatiently, pacing the common room until she heard voices outside. One of them was swearing. The others were telling him to be quiet, but Sirius would not be shushed. "Shut up! Someone might be in the common room. Be careful," James hissed as they came through the portrait hole. "Hazel!" His worry turned into a smile when they spotted her. They knew that she knew - they'd been listening in on the conversation, after all - and had all been incredibly happy for Remus. Their friend had been a mess for a couple of days leading up to the fateful conversation, distracted in classes and constantly asking them if they thought Hazel would give up on him once she knew what he was. Her reaction had been a relief for all of them.

"Hi," Remus smiled weakly, still turning a shade more pink at the sight of her despite his exhaustion.

"Here," she said, moving from her spot on the sofa and directing the others to set him down. "You three go to bed, I'll get him patched up."

"You sure?" Peter asked, looking to see what the others thought. "We usually just carry him upstairs and right to bed."

"If you don't want everyone figuring out what's going on, the four of you can't be falling asleep in class after every full moon," Hazel reasoned as she reached for her wand. "It's bad enough that Remus does it. That's how I started to figure it out, plus all of the scratches he gets covered in." She gingerly sat down on the edge of the sofa, taking his hand. "I'll bring him up soon, but you guys need to get a couple of hours of sleep before breakfast."

James, Peter, and Sirius knew she was right. So they agreed, headed for the boys' dorm. Sirius stopped on the stairs, an exhausted grin on his face. "Better behave yourself, Moony."

"Mhm," Remus managed, waving him away. Sirius laughed as he followed the other two into their rooms.

Hazel sighed, turning her attention back to Remus, who closed his eyes as the others walked away. He'd changed in the Hospital Wing, but she could tell Madam Pomfrey had bandaged up a couple of pretty nasty wounds across his stomach, or so it seemed based on how he winced every time he sat up or turned his body. His face was bruised, and the couple of scratches on his hands betrayed little of what lay beneath his jumper. "Do you want me to take care of these?" she asked, running her fingers over the deep cut that ran up the back of his hand and towards his forearm.

"Do you know how?"

"Yeah. Here, I can do almost all of them, if you want." She helped him sit up, Remus nervously taking his jumper off and trying not to swear in pain.

"You shouldn't have to see me like this. You can just teach me the spell and I can -"

Hazel cut him off with a kiss, laying him back down slowly. "I want to help, Rem. Let me help." Starting with the gash on his arm, she traced her wand over the wound. "Vulnera Sanentur. Vulnera Sanentur… See?"

Sure enough, the wound was closing, his skin knitting itself back together. "Where… where did you learn that?" he asked, watching in slight amazement. "Madam Pomfrey never…"

"Sev came up with it. Isn't it brilliant?" She couldn't help but smile at the genius of the spell. Sev had been working on it for ages, at first trying to heal the wounds James and Sirius so often liked to inflict. It came in handy for testing a lot of spells, and was generally a good spell to know. It wouldn't exactly get rid of scars, but it would do. They were the only two who knew about the spell, at least until now.

Remus smiled a bit too, watching as she slowly knit together a well-bandaged wound on his stomach. "Yeah it is… Hey, speaking of Severus, I'm sorry James and Sirius keep -"

"Not now, Rem. Just relax. I'm almost done." She didn't want to think about how his best friends kept hurting one of her best friends. Not now, at least. Having patched up the last of the massive gashes, she put a hand to his face and leaned in for one more kiss. "Ready to go to bed?"

"I'm good falling asleep right here," he yawned, but threw his arm over her shoulders and allowed her to help him up. "But yeah, we better get going before anyone else comes down here." Together the two of them took to the stairs, moving very slowly. Remus tried not to audibly wince as he walked, but they had to stop halfway up the stairs so he could catch his breath. It was a relief to be in a warm bed again. He expected Hazel to go - she had to get back to Ravenclaw Tower and change for breakfast, after all - but she sat down next to him, hovering on the edge of the four-poster. "You have class, you don't have to stay…"

"Shh, I'm just going to stay for a bit," she promised, starting to run her hand through his hair as he closed his eyes, the shadow of a smile painted on his pained face. "Just until you can get to sleep, my strong, handsome wolf." Someone snorted from one of the other beds, trying not to chime in with a witty comment. Hazel rolled her eyes, but Remus clearly paid them no mind. He was obviously used to them by now.

A smile was still toying at his lips as he asked if she could come back the next day. There was another night of the full moon, after all. "Just in the morning? Please? You don't have to stay here all night, but… this is nice," he admitted, halfway speaking into his pillow.

"Of course." She kissed his forehead, offering a comforting smile.

Remus fell asleep still smiling, incredibly grateful for her company, for the sleep she was willing to sacrifice, for the fact that she did her best to make him feel normal, and most of all, for the fact that she wasn't afraid of him.

When she was sure he was asleep, that his breath had evened out into what she hoped would be a peaceful dream, Hazel got up carefully, closing the curtains around his bed. As she turned to leave, she found Sirius staring at her from the next bed over. "Thank you for doing that for him." It was a moment of genuineness from a man who was so often coming up with jokes and trying to make light of even the most grave situations. "He - he was so afraid to tell you, and even after, he thought you'd avoid him during the full moon."

"Hey, thank you - and James and Peter - for keeping him company when no one else can. I can't imagine what it was like back when he didn't have you guys," she sighed, pausing in the doorway. "Now get some rest before all of Gryffindor wakes up."

Hazel made her way back to Ravenclaw Tower, where she changed and got ready for breakfast. It was going to be a long day, but at least Remus was resting comfortably in the castle and was safe for another day.

"Now, as a bit of an overlap with Care of Magical Creatures…" Hazel yawned, glancing over at what Sev was doodling on the side of his parchment. They'd been on the Defense Against the Dark Arts O.W.L. review for hours now. Everyone was getting restless. O.W.L. reviews ate up most of their weekends and evenings now. When she wasn't reviewing, she was studying on her own or with a couple of others, usually just Remus and Sev, since everyone else thought O.W.L.s were too far in the future to bother worrying about, despite what their professors said.

Sev was drawing some sort of bird, not quite an eagle. The beginning of a griffin, possibly. But her attention was brought back to the lesson as she barely caught the next question. "Who can tell me how to kill a werewolf?"

Several things happened at once. James, Sirius, and Peter, who were all zoning out or dozing off, sat up a little more and started to whisper. Remus inhaled sharply. Even Sev perked up a bit when he realized they were finally moving away from Shield Charms and getting to something interesting. Hazel reached for his hand under the table, Remus giving her a grateful half-smile.

"Silver," someone in the front row suggested.

"Wrong," Sev mumbled under his breath.

"No, contrary to Muggle belief, werewolves cannot be killed by silver bullets or things like that. The most common way to take care of them is the Killing Curse, though the Ministry occasionally uses… harsher means. Alright, vampires?"

The most common way to take care of them? Like they're household pests? Hazel frowned, sharing a knowing look with Remus as the lesson continued.