"GO GO GRYFFINDOR!" The common room was incredibly loud when Hazel, Pandora, and Xeno walked in, and for good reason. Gryffindor had thoroughly flattened Hufflepuff in the afternoon's Quidditch match. Hufflepuff didn't have much of a chance after their Seeker took a bad fall, but everyone was ready to celebrate no matter how they'd won. About half of Ravenclaw was already there, and a couple of Slytherins were amongst the crowd. The Gryffindor win gave them an edge over Hufflepuff and a chance against Ravenclaw, after all.

"So if Slytherin beats Hufflepuff by at least sixty points, and Ravenclaw loses to Hufflepuff and maybe Slytherin, that would be our best bet if they lost to Slytherin too - no offense," James said, nodding as Hazel walked in and turning from his conversation with half of the Gryffindor Quidditch team to say hello, "Oi, Moony! Over here!"

Remus wove his way through the crowd, taking Hazel's hand and smiling a quiet hello. Marlene trailed in his wake, hugging her friends as soon as she reached them. "Did you SEE that save? And how Bletchly crashed into the professors' box?" she asked excitedly. "I don't know how she didn't get knocked out right there."

"Is she still in the Hospital Wing?" Pandora looked between all of them for an answer. "That was a nasty crash." It had been quite the sight. Even Dumbledore stood from his seat, looking down over the edge of the professors' box as Madam Pomfrey raced onto the field.

"Yeah, she'll be there overnight," Marlene said, shaking her head. "Madam Pomfrey says she'll be fine. She just wants to keep an eye on her. Brenna's taken harder hits in practice. She took a Bludger to the head at the beginning of fourth year, remember? Madam Pomfrey patched her right up. She was back in class on Monday morning."

Eventually Hazel and Remus drifted over to one of the armchairs that had been shoved out of the way so the party could have a proper dance floor. While Hazel perched on the arm, Remus wove his own arm around her, leaning his head into her side. He smiled to himself, noticing she was still wearing the Gryffindor jumper she'd borrowed for the match. "How are you feeling?" Hazel whispered, absentmindedly stroking his hair as they watched everyone else. It had been a long week of playing catch-up and trying to get some decent sleep. Remus always felt like he was behind on sleep and in class, even though he was probably the most well-prepared and most caffeinated of them all.

"Tired," he sighed, watching as James carried in a case of firewhiskey. "Really tired. And headache-y. Not sure if it's from the party or the lack of sleep."

Hazel had an idea. "Do you want to go to bed?"

"It's only what? Ten? A little after?"

"So?" she shrugged, hopping to her feet and giving him her hand. "We don't have to stay here. And we could both use some rest."

No one noticed them disappear upstairs. There was far too much going on and far too many people crammed into the common room for anyone to notice two people vanish. Hazel dropped into bed first, Remus shutting the door behind them and shutting out some of the noise. He soon sat down beside her, handing her a chocolate frog from the seemingly never-ending stash of them he had hidden in the bedside table. "Want one?"

"Sure," she smiled, flipping the card over in her hand. "Hey look, I've got Rowena Ravenclaw!"

"How fitting." Remus smiled a bit, but Hazel could tell he was turning something over in his mind. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but there was a tiny change in his expression that she only got to see when he had something important to tell her. Sure enough, the next words out of his mouth were, "Can I tell you something?"

"Of course. Anything. What's up, Rem?"

He bit into a chocolate frog before starting his story. "When I was little - when I was first bitten - I'd just learned you shouldn't give chocolate to dogs. I thought… Back then I thought if I ate enough of it, I wouldn't transform. It's stupid, I know, but I was only four." Her heart broke as he kept talking, telling her how he'd desperately hoped all of the chocolate would kill the wolf inside of him, and how every month, he was disappointed that it hadn't worked. "It started a habit, that terrible sweet tooth I can't seem to shake. And now Mum sends me loads of it. She doesn't mind much, since I burn it all off in a night or two, but I thought you should know... that's why." He shrugged, gesturing with the remaining half of the chocolate frog. "Like I said, it's stupid. But it's not a terribly bad habit, in the grand scheme of things, right?"

Hazel smiled a bit, poking him in the stomach. "Well I'm very glad you share."

"Only with you," he said as he laid back in bed. "The guys have to get their own."

"Either way… I'm sorry, Rem."

"It's nothing." He waved it all away, saying, "Just something silly I thought would work as a kid. Obviously it didn't."

"Mmm, well maybe it's the reason you're so sweet," she smiled, leaning in to kiss him.

Remus couldn't help but smile, deepening the kiss a little as he pulled her down on top of him. "Now you taste like chocolate," he laughed.

"So do you."

With one last kiss, he broke apart, saying, "This is great, but I don't really feel like doing anything… more than this. Not tonight."

"Me either," Hazel said, giving him a quick peck before laying down next to him, letting Remus pull her into his arms.

By the time the party tapered off and the others came upstairs, the two of them were fast asleep, still in their clothes from the game. "Hey, look at that," Peter whispered, cocking his head in the direction of Remus' bed.

"Aww, doesn't Moony make the cutest big spoon ever?" James crooned as he threw his shoes aside.

"Unless it's the full moon. Isn't he always the little one then? Where's the infamous photo?" Sirius laughed, checking one of the photos Remus had stuck to the wall by his bed with Spellotape. Peter had taken it when they stumbled on the two of them napping one afternoon after a full moon. "Yep, looks like it."

"Shut up," Hazel mumbled in her sleep.

Sirius snickered as he fell into bed.

But now Hazel was awake, at least for a little while. She wondered if it bothered him, all of the constant reminders that he was a werewolf, that he was destined to spend his life largely as an outcast, either waiting to transform or recovering from a transformation. The nicknames, the wolf jokes, the fact that he was the "werewolf friend" first and foremost. Even the jokes about him always being tired - sleep was something he craved, and he didn't get a lot of it near the full moon. And afterwards it was always painful.

Hazel couldn't sleep during full moons anymore either. When she was little she would wait up, wondering if this was the full moon when her dad would come home. Or the next. Or the next. But deep down she knew that he never would, not after the werewolf attack. Now she sat up in the Ravenclaw common room or Gryffindor Tower, restlessly pacing or trying to sleep on the sofas. Sleep would elude her, so she watched the forest.

One particularly restless full moon, she walked down to the Hospital Wing, narrowly avoiding Filch and Mrs. Norris as they patrolled the corridors, lurking in corners and trying to spot any unruly students. She had no idea when Filch slept, but it couldn't have been very often. Madam Pomfrey looked up at her from where she sat at the desk as soon as the Hospital Wing door swung open, saying, "You know, I'm surprised you haven't been waiting here more often."

With an hour until sunrise, Madam Pomfrey put her to work counting vials of Wiggenweld Potion and Healing Solutions. She left for the grounds as the sun rose, meeting the boys out in front of the Whomping Willow. Peter, Sirius, and James pretended that they'd just gone to find their friend, but they all looked exhausted when they came into the Hospital Wing. Hazel suspected that Madam Pomfrey knew everything but didn't ask too many questions.

Peter and James were on either side of Remus, carrying him over to the nearest empty bed. Sirius was quickly following behind, magically cleaning up the trail of blood that dripped along in their wake. None of them said a word as Hazel materialized by the bedside and Madam Pomfrey went to gather a couple of healing potions and bottles of dittany. "Hazel?" Remus asked softly, smiling up at her. "Why are you here?"

"I couldn't sleep," she answered honestly. "I was tired of pacing around the tower, and I want to help however I can. I wanted to make sure you were okay. Well, relatively." Normally the boys would've made some sort of joke, but they were too worn out and too busy patching up their own couple of scrapes.

Madam Pomfrey returned, shooing the boys out of her way. She allowed Hazel stay, though, letting her hold his hand while she started to patch him up. She started with the worst of the wounds, Remus biting his lip as the matron scrubbed a gash on his chest clean. He did his best not to cry out as she kept working, Madam Pomfrey paying no mind to how much pain he was in. "You'll be fine, dear," she said, pouring a decent amount of dittany onto a cloth. "Just relax, deep breath."

"She's right," Hazel nodded as she brushed the hair out of his eyes. "You're going to be okay."

"You shouldn't have to see this," he answered through clenched teeth.

Hazel leaned in to whisper while Madam Pomfrey covered his right leg in dittany. "I need to know how to do all of this. You know, in case I'm the one doing it in the future." He whimpered as the dittany began to smoke slightly. "Just think, in a few days you'll be rested up and we can go to that bookshop we like in Hogsmeade, the one with the little cafe next door..."

"I'm just ready to fall asleep next to you."

And fall asleep next to her he did. It took a while, a bunch of time spent in the Hospital Wing and the careful journey under the Invisibility Cloak back to Gryffindor Tower. But they made it. Like she would every month, Hazel helped him into bed before gingerly sitting down beside him. She was too wound up to sleep just yet, so she started to run her fingers through his hair. "Hazel -"

"Close your eyes, Rem. We can talk later. You need some rest."

He obeyed, closing his eyes and drifting off to sleep almost instantly. Hazel eventually laid down, gently draping her arm over his stomach and pressing a kiss into his shoulder blade. She was fast asleep when Peter woke up, spotted them, and reached for his camera.