October 18, 1972

Mercifully, no one brought up the howler incident after that. Although, she did catch a few Hufflepuff girls throwing her pitiful glances for a few days afterwards.

Even more mercifully, Dorcas still wanted Carina to study with her and her friends, Lily Evans and Marlene McKinnon. They were soon joined by a girl in Carina's year, Mary MacDonald, the girl with the short brown hair she had shared a boat with on the way to the Sorting.

Right now, only Carina and Dorcas were sitting at a table in the back of the library. Carina was currently working on a particularly difficult Herbology essay and was flipping through her book trying to find out if there were actual uses for Devil's Snare or if it was just a nuisance.

Dorcas let out an exasperated sigh. "Do you know what happens when you combine a Unicorn hair with Fresh Morning Dew?"

Carina shook her head. "No, sorry."

"I can't find the answer anywhere in my book!" Dorcas put her head down on the table. "Slughorn is killing me this year." Carina patted her back sympathetically as a girl approached their table.

"Hi guys!" She greeted as she swept her long, red hair over her shoulder.

"Hi Lily." Carina smiled up at her.

Lily Evans was not only the kindest, but also the smartest person Carina had met so far at Hogwarts. Whenever Carina had a question, there was no doubt that Lily would have the answer. The only time she ever saw Lily get mad was when James tried to talk to her. She never hesitated to throw a Jelly-Legs Jinx at him whenever he interrupted a conversation between her and her best friend, Severus Snape. Why she was friends with Snape, Carina would never understand. All the Slytherin ever was was sullen and rude.

"Have either of you seen Remus?" Lily asked, snapping Carina out of her thoughts. "He borrowed a book from me and I need it back."

"He's sick. He's in the hospital wing." Carina's answer made Dorcas lift her head from the table and look at Lily in concern.

"Again?" Lily matched Dorcas' expression.

Carina furrowed her brow. "What do you mean again?"

"He was sick last month too, wasn't he?" Dorcas asked.

Lily nodded. "And he was sick off and on all last year."

"Oh…" Carina's heart sank. "I hope he's okay."

The other two girls nodded solemnly. Lily bid them goodbye and Dorcas returned to her homework. Carina tried to focus but she couldn't get Remus out of her mind. She wasn't particularly close with him but she couldn't help but be worried. It was only October and he's already been sick twice? She wondered how often he'd been sick last year if it was enough for others to notice. She had to talk to her brother and his friends about this.

Saying goodbye to Dorcas, she packed up her bag and made her way up to the Gryffindor common room. She found the boys sitting in front of the fireplace playing a round of Exploding Snap.

"Hey guys." Carina greeted right as a card exploded in Peter's face. James and Sirius snickered at him as Peter tried to scrub the ash off his face. James looked up and smiled at her. "Have you been in to see Remus?"

"Not yet." James replied. "We'll probably go tomorrow morning."

"Madam Pomfrey never lets us see him at night." Peter was still rubbing at his face even though he'd gotten all of the ash off already.

"Is he alright?" The boys looked up at her, confused. "Lily mentioned that he was sick a lot last year."

"I think so…" Sirius looked away, deep in thought. "But you're right he is sick an awful lot."

Peter looked around with wide eyes. "Do you think we should ask him?"

James shrugged. "I asked him last year and he got all dodgy about it."

"Can I come with you three tomorrow, then?" Carina asked, hopefully.

"Why're you so concerned, Cari?" Sirius narrowed his eyes at her. "Have a crush?"

Carina gaped at him. "No!" She crossed her arms in front of her chest. "I just want to make sure he's okay is all."

Her brother laughed at her. "Yeah you can come. We were planning on going before breakfast tomorrow."

"Okay. I'll meet you lot down here then." She turned on her heel and walked up to the girl's dormitory. Her face felt hot, which she didn't understand since she definitely did not have a crush on Remus. Why couldn't she just be worried for him? Stupid Sirius.

Now that she was up in her dorm, she didn't know what to do. She didn't want to go back downstairs where her brother would definitely keep making fun of her.

In the end, she found herself sitting on her bed and attempting to finish her Herbology essay.

October 19, 1972

The next morning, Carina met the boys in the common room and they set off together to the Hospital Wing. Once they got there, they saw Madam Pomfrey hovering over Remus' bed. There were various empty potion bottles sitting on the bedside table and Madam Pomfrey was unravelling bandages. Wait, bandages? Wasn't he sick?

"There he is!" James exclaimed, seemingly oblivious to the odd scene before them.

Remus looked up and a brief look of panic crossed his face. "Oh!" He tried to school his expression. "Hi guys. You're earlier than I expected." His eyes landed on her. "Carina? What are you-?"

Just then, Madam Pomfrey moved to the other side of the bed, letting the group see the state Remus was in.

Carina gasped. "Bloody hell, Remus, what happened to your shoulder?!"

His shoulder, which Madam Pomfrey was currently dabbing Dittany on, was covered in blood. There were four deep gashes running from the top of his shoulder to his collarbone. From the look of the wounds, Remus should have been in a lot of pain. But when Carina looked back up to his face, he looked almost… ashamed.

He refused to meet anyone's eyes. "I, er, got attacked in the forest last night."

"Attacked?" Peter asked with wide eyes.

"By what?" James couldn't seem to tear his eyes away from Remus' shoulder. "Why were you in the forest?"

"Without us!" Sirius exclaimed, looking a little put out.

Remus looked panicked again. "Some sort of animal attacked me. I guess I just thought it would be fun to go alone…" He trailed off. It didn't seem like he believed what he was saying.

Carina couldn't wrap her mind around this. "I thought you were sick."

Remus' wide eyes finally met hers. "I was… and then I felt better and decided to go into the forest…"

She shook her head. "But why would you go in there all alone?"

"I don't know!" He exclaimed, loudly. "I wasn't thinking, okay?"

Carina put up her hands in surrender. "Okay. Whatever you say, Remus."

Madam Pomfrey tutted. "I think visiting time is over. Off you go, down to breakfast. Mr. Lupin will still be here after your morning classes."

Once they were out of the Hospital Wing, the large, double doors swung closed and Carina turned and glared at them. She wanted to march back in there and demand Remus to truthfully answer her questions but something told her that she'd get sent straight to detention if she did that. She looked back at the boys who were all sharing incredulous looks with each other.

Carina tried to sort out her thoughts before finally landing on something to say. "Does that happen a lot?"

James looked at her. "What? Getting kicked out of the Hospital Wing?"

"No. Remus getting injured with seemingly no explanation."

"Honestly?" Sirius furrowed his brow. "Yeah. I've never seen it that bad but he always seems to be either hurt or sick."

"What does this mean?" Peter was worriedly looking between the group and the doors of the Hospital Wing.

"I dunno." James had a determined look on his face. "But I think we should do a better job of keeping an eye on him."

They all nodded in agreement and, although Carina suddenly wasn't hungry, headed down to the Great Hall for breakfast.

December 15, 1972

Carina found herself spending much more time with her brother and his friends - her friends - since they visited the Hospital Wing. While she never talked to him about his injuries since then, she kept a closer eye on Remus and his behavior. He got sick once more so far and right now, he was looking pale and tired, with deep purple bags under his eyes. Whatever was wrong with him, she wouldn't care. She knew the others wouldn't either.

She just didn't like that he was lying about it.

"So," James said, snapping Carina out of her thoughts, "what're you lot doing for Winter Holiday?"

Carina looked down at her hands. She had nearly forgotten that she was banned from her own house for Christmas. As she listened to what Peter and Remus' plans were - going to Germany and staying home, respectively - she couldn't help but feel a little bitter. Why couldn't she and Sirius have loving parents to go home to?

"That sounds exciting, Pete!" James said. "What about you two?"

Carina looked back up and exchanged a look with Sirius.

"We're staying at Hogwarts, actually." Sirius replied.

"What? Why?" Peter seemed blown away by this, as did James.

Carina took a deep breath. "Mum is upset with me so it's better for me to just stay here."

"And I'm not letting her spend Christmas alone."

James shook his head. "No. That's ridiculous. You two can come stay with us."

Carina's mouth fell open. "What?!"

"Really?" Sirius asked at the same time.

"Yeah! I'll owl mum and dad but I'm sure they'll be fine with it. It's always just us for Christmas anyway, so it'll be fun to have friends over too."

She couldn't believe her ears. James was offering them a seemingly perfect Christmas and was just standing there like it wasn't a big deal. Like it wasn't the nicest thing anyone had ever offered them.

Sirius cleared his throat. "That sounds like the best Christmas we've ever had."

"Yeah." Carnia nodded. "Thanks, James."

James ran a hand through his hair and shrugged. "I'm not letting my friends stay at school over Christmas."

Carina didn't trust herself to say anything else so she just smiled softly at him. James, Remus, and Peter easily slipped back into a conversation while her and Sirius listened to them talk. Carina's heart felt… full. She didn't know what she did to deserve such wonderful friends but she certainly didn't plan on letting them go anytime soon.