It took a couple of months, but Hazel and Remus started to talk again, thanks in part to Marlene, Emmeline, and Mary, who were all friends with the both of them. Though they never discussed their argument, they managed to be collegial, and eventually somewhat friendly, again. Friendly enough that they would go on patrols together as Prefects, and friendly enough that they would occasionally study together, though usually in a group. Sometimes one of them would leave and burst into tears in the hallway, but with the support of their friends, they were slowly healing, slowly pulling themselves together, and slowly getting back to something like they had been before they started dating.

They had started talking a little more after he'd distanced himself from James following a bad fight with Sirius. It seemed like their relationship was nearly as rocky as his and Hazel's had been. But she'd offered him an olive branch of sorts - a Wiggentree branch in Herbology, actually - when they'd paired up to harvest bark from the tree and fend off the angry Bowtruckles that lived within its leaves.

Hazel and Sev, meanwhile, had gotten even closer, working together almost every day now. They'd hung out in Hogsmeade and she'd tried to get him to see that he could have friends outside of Slytherin by adamantly trying to get him to be friends with her own friend group.

One fateful night Hazel and Remus paired up, taking to the halls to make sure no one was out of bed, when their lives would be upended again. "I'll take Astronomy Tower if you want to check the passageway behind Partheus the Portly," she offered when they came to a stop. They were supposed to stay together as they made their rounds, but none of the Prefects ever did. It was rare that they actually stumbled on anything out of the ordinary, let alone something dangerous.

"Meet you back here in five?"

"Sure." Remus turned down another hall, saying hello to Partheus. Partheus launched into a story, Remus nodding along. He'd heard this story eight times that month. After checking the passage, he returned to the hall, wondering where Hazel had gotten to. She should've been back by now. That's when he heard the yelling.

"You killed her!" Remus sprinted up the steps, bursting into Astronomy Tower just as Sirius launched himself at Snape.

Throwing Sirius aside, Snape dropped to his knees, Hazel reaching out for his hand. She must have wandered into a fight. She was covered in blood, more of it pooling below her as she lay on the ground. "Vulnera Sanentur," he whispered, tracing her wounds with his wand. "I'm so sorry. Vulnera Sanentur. Oh Merlin..." He nearly choked over the spell, trying to keep calm despite the tears in his eyes and the terror in his shaking hands. "Hazel, I - I'm so sorry. Oh Merlin, I'm sorry..."

"Crying? When you did this to your little girlfriend?" It was an automatic response from Sirius, conditioned into him after years of automatically saying something cruel every time he saw Snape.

He only stopped his work to look up at Sirius frantically, panic in his eyes. "Do you have ANY respect? Not for me - for her."

Something about how scared he looked, not for his own life but for hers, made Sirius pause. All of them were afraid, but Snape most of all. It had been his curse that hit her. Even if she was perfectly fine, he would be the one stuck knowing that he'd caused her so much pain. The next thing that happened surprised all of them, though half of them wouldn't ever acknowledge it. Sirius simply shook his head and muttered, "Sorry."

Remus held the other two back as Snape worked, keeping them out of his way. Very slowly, her wounds were starting to close. She would need to go to the Hospital Wing to keep them from scarring and to be sure she hadn't lost too much blood, but it looked like she was going to be alright. "Sev," she mumbled, Snape telling her to be quiet as he worked. "No." She winced, sitting up as he continued to heal her wounds. Everything was spinning, but she had enough strength to direct all of them, focusing on each one by one. "James, Sirius, you two are going to go back… back to the Gryffindor common room. You get to bed and tell no one about this. Twenty points from Gryffindor for bullying. If anyone finds out, it'll be a hell of a lot more." They exchanged a glance. "You heard me. Go!" Remus swallowed hard, deeply concerned about how pale she was. She'd lost a lot of blood. Had Snape attacked her? Why? He wouldn't. He adored her.

They didn't object, taking off as she kept giving instructions. "Sev, twenty points to Slytherin for… good healing magic. Remus, you're going to make sure I don't collapse on the way to the Hospital Wing, and we're going to lie to Madam Pomfrey. I came up here and I don't know who I saw, but I got hit by something, a really bright light. I can only assume it was the Death Eater Squad. The seventh-years. You met me where we were supposed to meet up, and you closed my wounds as best you could, but there was no way you were going to go after them on your own when I was like this." Her words were pointed, even as she was trying not to pass out.

"Let me come with you," Snape said, practically pleading with her as he and Remus helped her to her feet.

"No. Pack up your stuff. Get back to the dungeons. We can talk later." It felt like she was going to keel over with every step. She'd lost so much blood it was a wonder that she could think clearly at all.

The words stung in his ears as he watched Remus help her down the stairs, but he obeyed. In time he would come to realize that she hadn't sent him away because she was angry. She had sent him away because if they blamed the soon-to-be-Death Eaters, and he was anywhere near Astronomy Tower at the time, he would be blamed too. It wasn't anger, it was kindness. She had saved him from probably getting expelled.

"What happened back there?" Remus asked as they limped towards the Hospital Wing.

It took her a moment to steady herself, but Hazel told him everything. "I walked in on them all fighting. James and Sirius had tracked him down, I guess. Stop for a sec…" They came to a stop at the top of a staircase, Hazel catching her breath before they continued to walk. "Sev went to curse them, but he hit me instead. I got in the way. I tried to stop them. Please, we can't tell Madam Pomfrey." They stopped in front of the Hospital Wing doors, Hazel staring at him intensely. "Swear you won't tell her or anyone else."

"Okay, okay, I swear, but we need to get you help."

Remus fully expected that to be the end of her friendship or whatever it was with Snape. But he watched in amazement as it went from a "whatever it was" to the two of them holding hands together in Hogsmeade. Then he spotted them together in the bookshop early in their seventh year - his favorite bookshop, where he and Hazel used to go - and then he heard a rumor that Snape had asked her to the winter's ball. He was still amazed when the two of them showed up to a party in Gryffindor Tower holding hands.

Unfortunately that wasn't the end of Hazel's trips to the Hospital Wing that year. Remus didn't see who did it, but no one could miss the girl flying through the air. "Stand aside!" Professor Flitwick commanded, pushing through the Dueling Club members to where Hazel lay. "Merlin, Stebbins, I told you all no spells until it was time to start and I was watching!"

Though everyone was clamoring to see, Remus instinctively pushed his way to the center of the crowd, finding himself standing next to Professor Flitwick. "Is she going to be alright?" he asked, dropping to his knees. "She's breathing… Hazel?"

"Knocked out cold," Flitwick frowned. "If you could help me get her up to Madam Pomfrey, Mr. Lupin… The rest of you are to go back to your houses. Stebbins, I will be talking to Professor Slughorn about your abilities to participate in clubs after this… dear me…"

As Flitwick conjured a stretcher, Remus summoned Hazel's wand from where it had rolled under one of the desks that was pushed to the side for an adequate dueling floor. The two of them headed for the Hospital Wing while everyone else went back to their common rooms. "Talk later?" Sirius raised an eyebrow as he passed.

"Yeah," Remus nodded, his eyes still on Hazel. She still wasn't stirring. Would she be alright? They're going to tell you not to worry so much. And tell you off for still caring about her. How can I not care about her? She's - All thoughts flew from his head as Flitwick began talking to Madam Pomfrey, who had moved Hazel to a real bed. Remus sat down beside her, wanting to listen in but also staring at her, willing her to wake up. He knew he shouldn't, but he couldn't help but hold her hand and whisper, "you're going to be alright" in the same tone she would use when he'd just come back bruised and bloodied from a full moon.

A voice behind his shoulder startled him. "No use in waiting around, Mr. Lupin. She may be out for a while. We need to find out what that boy hit her with before we know too much more."

"Can't you… There's got to be a spell to revive her," Remus objected.

Madam Pomfrey simply frowned at him. "If we let her wake up on her own, we may avoid some lasting damage -"

"Lasting damage?!"

"Yes, Mr. Lupin," she answered calmly. "There can be lasting damage if you wake someone from an unknown spell. I will keep a close eye on her. You, on the other hand, need to go to bed."

"But -"

"No 'but's, no 'please's, none of that. I see you in here enough as it is. Go to bed, and I will make sure she is well looked-after." She swept away to talk to Professor Flitwick again, leaving Remus with Hazel.

He squeezed her hand, sighed, and whispered, "I'll be back as soon as I can." With one last look at her, he left the Hospital Wing, intent on returning to Gryffindor Tower. But as he passed the library, he realized that there was someone else he had to see first.

Sev was facing a looming History of Magic deadline, trying to finish an essay on the Greater Goblin Treaty of 1147 by morning. He'd put it off for a long time, but with a deadline in sight, he had to work. So he'd turned down Hazel's invite to the Dueling Club, even in the face of a very tempting offer of having the chance to hex Potter and his lot with next to no consequences. He had been staring at various books for ages, barely noticing when Madam Pince said goodnight. But he noticed when someone appeared beside him. Expecting Hazel, he looked up in surprise when he saw that it was, "Lupin? What do you want?" Hazel was the only reason they ever said a word to each other. Something must have happened.

"I had to tell you. Hazel's in the Hospital Wing." As soon as the words left his mouth, Sev started to pack up. Suddenly he couldn't care less about the Greater Goblin Treaty of 1147 or whether or not his essay got smudged as he stuffed it into his bag. "Someone hit her with a jinx before Flitwick gave the go-ahead and… I've never seen a person fly that far into the air. I don't know what she got hit with, but she's out cold. Flitwick called everything off and brought her right down to Madam Pomfrey." They began walking towards the Hospital Wing, letting the library door swing shut behind them. "According to Madam Pomfrey, she'll be alright, but she wouldn't let me stay."

Sev turned to thank him when they reached the Hospital Wing doors. Remus waved it off, explaining that as soon as he left the Hospital Wing, he knew Sev needed to know too. No matter how much they loathed each other, they still knew that Hazel cared about both of them. Remus left for Gryffindor Tower, Sev walking into the Hospital Wing quietly.

The common room was full of people talking about the Dueling Club incident, but James, Sirius, and Peter were nowhere to be found. So Remus went up to their dorm, and sure enough, all three had been watching him on the map. "You told Snape?" Peter asked from his spot in the window. "I thought he hated the lot of us."

"He does," Remus said as he took his shoes off, "but he needed to know. They're… not quite a thing, but kind of a thing. Fond of each other, is all." He pointedly didn't look at them as he said it, still conflicted about the whole of it.

"And how're you feeling about that, Moony?" Normally there would have been a tinge of humor in James' voice, but this time it was filled with genuine concern.

Remus sat down on his bed, leaning against one of the posts. "I miss her," he said to the floor, keeping his eyes trained on a knothole in the wood instead of looking at any of them. "I didn't really realize how much I'd miss her until the first full moon after… I miss everything she'd do, but I miss her even more, you know?"

He missed her terribly. He missed being able to lay out on the grounds with his head in her lap as they studied. He missed holding her hand in the library, on their walks through Hogsmeade, anywhere and any time he could. He missed finding notes in his pockets and finding that one of his jumpers smelled like her when she finally returned it. He missed being able to fall asleep next to her sometimes. He missed the other stuff too - he missed kissing her, of course, and he missed sleeping with her, but most of all, he missed having her there to take care of him after the full moon. The one right after they broke up had been especially difficult. He came to only to find that he was covered in more cuts and bruises than he had been for ages. The others pretended not to know why, but deep down, he knew. That time he let himself cry at how much the dittany stung. The others had helped him into bed and kept him company, but it wasn't the same.

"Look, Moons, there are plenty of other girls -"

Remus cut Sirius off before he could say anything more. "I don't want to hear it." He took a deep breath, laying back on his bed and now speaking to the ceiling. "And Snape? Of all people, Snape?! I'd get it if it was that stupid little Ravenclaw all of the girls seem to like - what's his name? Lockman? Lockheed? Lockheart? Whatever. But Snape?"

"We can hex him in the morning for you," James offered.

"Don't. Don't hurt him. This isn't… she'll hate me even more if you do that. They spend so much time together, I should've seen it coming."

"No one sees stuff like that coming," Peter offered. "We only knew they were hanging out all the time. I mean - he and Evans hung out all the time before he called her that word, and they were never like that."

He frowned, still staring at the ceiling. "I think I still love her."

"You always will, mate," Sirius said. It wasn't the answer Remus wanted to hear, but he had a point. "Some people just stick with you. Some part of you will always care about her. Doesn't mean you can't move on, but it does mean she's part of your life for good. Especially if you two are still friends."

"Where do you get all this advice from? I don't see you losing sleep over your first girlfriend," Peter scoffed.

"Wise beyond my years, Wormy. That and I have an older brother who, git he is, has one or two good things to say on occasion."

"Hmm." Remus sat up again, rubbing at his eyes. "I think I'm gonna go to bed."

A chorus of 'goodnight's rang through the dorm, but no one else made a move as Remus went to go brush his teeth. "Think he's gonna be alright?" James asked.

"As sure as us hexing Snivellus tomorrow."

"Think he's ever gonna get over her?" Peter wondered.

"That… we'll see."

Remus went to check on Hazel between classes, but he never ran into Snape, though Madam Pomfrey said he'd been there all the time. It was on the third night, when the entire group followed him, that they ran into Snape in his newfound hideout. "What are you doing here?" James asked, Snape looking up from his Arithmancy textbook.

"Visiting, same as you," he replied, looking back down at the book.

"How's she doing?" Remus tried to ask, but Sirius spoke over him.

"Really, Snivellus? Keeping your little girlfriend company? Feeling guilty that it was one of your lot who did it? Or hiding out from us?"

Snape reached for his wand just as Sirius drew his. "Don't," Remus warned with a backwards glance towards Madam Pomfrey's desk.

"You'd all better go. Got a full moon to prepare for tomorrow night, don't you? Twenty-four hours to pick out a new target," Snape hissed, his eyes trained on Sirius and his voice dripping with poison.

"Gentlemen!" Madam Pomfrey frowned, suddenly appearing in front of them. "Wands away! Potter, Black, Pettigrew, the three of you out of here right now! Mr. Lupin, say your goodnight and go get some rest. I will see you tomorrow evening," she instructed them sternly.

"If we have to go, you should make him go too!" Sirius protested.

Madam Pomfrey crossed her arms. "Mr. Black, I have seen the results of your ill-conceived 'prank' firsthand. I have seen the results of your friend's condition firsthand. And I have seen all of you in here far too many times. This time Mr. Snape has not done anything. As he is not actively disturbing my patients, he may stay for the time being. If you stay here one moment longer, you will be cleaning bedpans - without magic - for a week."

The four of them exchanged glances before silently leaving. Remus wanted to linger to say goodbye, but it was awkward with Snape there, so he followed the others. Madam Pomfrey walked them out, Sev going back to his Arithmancy book. "Using the works compiled by Bridget Wenlock in the thirteenth century, Duncan Helpert began his groundbreaking work on the number fourteen in 1414, a year he considered highly auspicious," Sev began to read. He kept his voice low, but steadily forged his way through the chapter. "By 1428, he had discovered little in the way of the future he was seeking, but his contributions paved the way for further study by Cosette Chaldea in 1442 - I think there was another goblin rebellion then… you would know, you know all of this stuff - which proved substantially more fruitful. Her contributions -"

"Sev." Hazel's voice was weak but clear. Casting the book aside, he moved closer as she slowly opened her eyes. She recognized him, which was a good sign. "Are you trying to keep me asleep? Arithmancy isn't the most… riveting thing to read."

"Hey," he smiled, squeezing her hand. "You've been out for a bit. I figured you could use the rest, but…"

That made her laugh a little, which immediately brought on a splitting headache. "Oh Merlin... How long have I been out?"

"Three days."

"Three days?!"

"Yeah, I think you set a new record, between the two of us, anyway. I'll be right back, okay? I've got to let Madam Pomfrey know you're awake."

Remus was a lot less amazed when he'd heard about their inevitable dramatic breakup. He, James, Sirius, and Peter had all been betting on when Snape would officially join You-Know-Who. They weren't entirely sure when it happened, but after the ball they all knew that Hazel and Sev saw a lot less of each other. She didn't exactly tell him what had happened, but he pieced it all together. It was fairly simple: Somehow he'd let it slip about what he was, and she'd told him that there was no way they could continue on like that. She would be going into the Auror Office. There was no way an Auror and a Death Eater could be together.

Luckily N.E.W.T. season was approaching, so she wouldn't have seen much of anyone anyway. Hazel locked herself in the library for hours on end. Sometimes Remus would sit next to her, the two of them saying very little. But they managed to get along fine. They had each other to lean on when they snapped in the middle of the night, nearly crying in their textbooks over everything they had to memorize and perfect.

Remus was a little more surprised when, on the very last night of seventh year, he spotted her at the party the Slytherins were throwing. Since Slytherin won the Quidditch Cup, they were in charge of throwing the end-of-the-year party. The Marauders all went, hoping for some good fun. It was only when Peter elbowed him, tearing his attention away from Sirius and James trying to start a drinking game, that he noticed her.

She was standing awfully close to Snape. And then one of the Slytherins - Muciber? Rosier? Avery? He hardly knew their names - shoved past them with a case of firewhiskey on his shoulder. Remus watched in shock as Snape pulled her to him, the two of them starting to kiss in the middle of the party. "Damn, he's latched onto her worse than the Venomous Tentacula got Ericsson," Peter laughed, turning back to the others. Remus stared at them for a second longer, trying to shake the image from his head.

"Sorry, what are we playing?"