Author's notes: First of all, I'd like to apologize for taking so long to upload this story. I intended it to be completely uploaded a long time ago, but ff.net has been having problems and I've been really busy, so that hasn't happened. I'm going to try to have it completely up within the next two weeks. It's been all finished; the only things left to do are any last minute editing and uploading.

Secondly, I'd like to thank everyone who has reviewed. I appreciate all the feedback and comments. You guys are awesomeJ Way back in one of the first or second year chapters(sorry, I haven't written author's notes in, like, forever!), some of you mentioned that I had used the nicknames Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs when they weren't supposed to get those until fifth year. You're absolutely right! My original plot had them getting their nicknames in first year, and when I changed it later, somehow that chapter got missed—a mistake on my part!

I'm also not certain about James' position on the Quidditch team. I'd originally heard that in an interview, J. K. Rowling said that he was a chaser. Then, in the movie, he had apparently been a seeker. Anyway, he's a chaser in this story.

Well, things certainly haven't been looking so good for the marauders in the last few chapters, huh? No one ever said their lives were perfect, or anything close to it in the case of this story. But don't worry, there are quite a few laughs throughout the next few chapters. There are just ten more to go after this one! So, I'm sure you're sick of my rambling by now, so on to the story! (or, most likely, on to more of my rambling! Hehe)

Chapter 38: Serious Doubt

When we arrived back at the flats, Addi made a brief appearance in our flat with everyone. While neither she or Sirius argued, although I could sense a certain tension between the two of them. It wasn't long before Addi disappeared to the girls flat, accompanied by Lily. Only James, Sirius and I were left in our flat.

"So, Remus, did you see Mari today?" questioned Sirius casually.

"No," I replied.

"The last thing you need is right now is a relationship, Sirius," added James.

"Oh thanks for telling me how to run my life!" snapped Sirius. "For your information, I'm having dinner with Mari tomorrow night, and the only reason I asked if you saw her today is because I thought she might confirm our date!"

"You can't go out with her, Sirius! You need time to heal," said James.

"I am healed! This is me healed!" insisted Sirius pointing his finger towards himself. I groaned, sick of the argument.

"James, just let Sirius do as he wishes. We're not going to be able to stop him," I sighed with exasperation. James looked bewildered and Sirius gave me a look of great thanks. I figured there couldn't be any great harm in Sirius and Mari going out once, as long as it was what they both wanted.

"Sirius, just one thing though," I added, as he headed to his bedroom.

"Yeah?"

"Try not to be too hard on Addi about this. She's taking it pretty rough."

"Don't worry, I won't," Sirius replied, leaving the room. James shook his head in disgust.

"You know, Sirius isn't the only person to blame here," I pointed out, as I had to Addi earlier. "Mari is equally responsible for what's going on."

"You know, you're right," said James thoughtfully.

"What are you thinking?" I demanded.

"Well, I just thought... well, what if we tried to get Mari out of the picture, you know, without making it obvious what we're doing."

"We can't just do that!" I exclaimed. "It's impolite, and disrespectful to Sirius and Mari, and rude..."

"Yeah, you're right," James agreed. "But, what else are we going to do? Sit back and see our best friend get himself hurt? I mean, we know he still misses Erin. He might not show it; he might not admit it, but how could you care about someone that much and lose them, and hardly react at all? I know if I ever lost Lily I'd go insane without her. Who knows how much time I'd need to feel like myself again, let alone love again? I'm not sure I ever could. If you've got any other ideas, I'm all for them, but with Sirius' stubbornness I don't see any other options. And I refuse to sit here and watch my best friend get himself hurt." I thought for a moment.

"You do have a point," I agreed. "There isn't much else we could do."

"Alright then, we'll get started as soon as we see her," said James. And that's exactly what we did.

Marianna arrived at our flat later that evening, accompanied by Addi. I suddenly felt guilty for planning to push Addi's best friend away from our group, but she was not pleased with Mari dating Sirius either, and something had to be done. It wasn't that we didn't like Mari, although we weren't particularly fond of her at the time, but at that point we'd have treated anyone in that situation the same.

James was at the door in a flash.

"Hi Maryanne," he said, flashing a cheesy grin.

"Uh, it's Marianna," she said a bit stiffly. I noticed for the first time, that when frowning, her otherwise pleasant face had a harsh appearance, ice blue eyes, a long pointed nose and thin lips.

"Oh, excuse me, Marianna," replied James curtly. Addi glanced at me, puzzled. I shrugged.

"I'm not sure Sirius is quite ready yet," James continued, rolling his eyes. "You know, he's never on time for anything."

"You know, it's funny. Neither am I," said Mari. "The only reason I'm on time today is because of Addi."

"So, what do you think of Sirius so far?" I asked casually, glancing around to make sure Sirius still hadn't entered the room. Mari gave me an odd glance.

"I don't think it's any of your business!" she snapped, frowning. Addi frowned at me as well. I raised an eyebrow. Just then, Sirius entered the room.

"Hi Mari," he greeted her, then glanced around. "What's with everyone crowding around here? Haven't you ever heard of privacy?"

"Well, you know, Padfoot. We just wanted to see you off on your first date with your new girlfriend," said James innocently.

"I never said I was his girlfriend," hissed Mari.

"James, I don't know what's with you, but knock it off!" snapped Sirius.

"Perhaps you two should be going now," Addi suggested awkwardly to Mari and Sirius. They nodded in agreement and headed out the door. Addi closed it behind them.

"What the hell are you thinking!" she hissed.

"What?" asked James.

"Don't taunt them like that! Especially Mari! Don't you think she's been through enough already? This goes for you too, Remus!"

"Do you want to see Sirius get himself hurt again?" asked James.

"Of course not," said Addi. "But you know how he is. He's going to do what he wants anyway. There's no use trying to chase Mari off. Trust me, she's just as stubborn as he is."

"Give me two weeks," said James. "I'll guarantee you she's gone."

"We'll see," Addi agreed. "But I'm warning you two, you have no idea what she's like."

As it turned out, Addi was right. We spent the next two weeks questioning Mari about she and Sirius' relationship, which seemed to be getting pretty involved. They'd gone out five times. We teased them, taunted them, made them both angry with us, but nothing worked. Once when Mari was staying for dinner, James even put worms in her soup, certain it would scare her off for sure. Mari, being unpredictable as she was, took one look at the worm on her spoon, and burst into laughter. She complemented James on his sense of humor. Addi shot me an I told you so glance. Lily, who happened to be getting along with Mari very well, got extremely angry with James, and shouted at him for three hours straight after Mari had left. Addi, who was simply annoyed, went back to the girls' flat without a word, and Sirius had become quite grouchy and went to bed, though I doubted he could be sleeping over Lily's shrill shouting. I sat up with James, willing to take my share of Lily's blame for what we had done. That did not mean, however, that we had given up on splitting up Mari and Sirius.

We did back off of the situation for a while, mostly because there were too many other things occupying our time. We'd been through our Order of the Phoenix training with Arthur, and shortly after the two weeks was up, came the first attack we had to deal with.

We were called out at two a.m. on a Monday night in late June for a Muggle attack. James and Sirius were sent out with a group of aurors, including the famous Madeye Moody, said to be the best auror the Order of the Phoenix had ever seen. No one doubted that there would be at least one more Death Eater in Azkaban with him on the job.

Lily and I worked with Arthur, examining large, detailed maps, much like the Marauders Map, showing where our aurors were, as well as the Death Eaters. We gave instructions on safe apparating places, and tracked the safety of our men and women who were on the site of the attack. Lily was a genius when it came to our job. Even Arthur was fascinated at the strategies she could plan for arriving at the scene, efficiently, safely, and effectively. That night, three Death Eaters were captured and brought in, and the family was safe and sound with a few memory charms. James and Sirius had received a nasty attack with the crucious curse by a Death Eater, so when they arrived back at Hogwarts, Madam Pomfrey insisted they stay the night in the infirmary. "Just like old days," moaned James.

We saw more and more of Mari as the summer went on, and it became more and more apparent that she and Sirius weren't going to split up. Unintentionally, since our plan had gone into action, I'd taken a disliking to her. We had convinced ourselves that she was nothing but an unwanted outcast, that she wasn't and could never be one of us. Not only was she snippy, selfish, stubborn, and annoying, but I swear she was trying to win Sirius over with gifts and food. Sirius seemed so completely in love with her, that he couldn't see past it. There was something different about the way he gazed into her eyes; unlike any of the girls he'd dated in the last few months, and as I thought about it, unlike he'd ever looked at Erin either. What I'd been dreading had come true, I was almost certain. Sirius was in love with Marianna.

Ever since Sirius had started dating her, we'd been sworn to secrecy about magic. We weren't allowed to let Mari know anything. Of course, there had been the occasional slip-up, such as the time James couldn't remember how to work the Muggle TV. Luckily for us, Mari was gullible enough to think it a joke.

Addi seemed to have accepted the fact that Sirius and Mari were dating. In fact, it seemed to bother her less than it bothered the rest of us. Her main concern was now back to our relationship.

One evening, we were sitting home alone; Mari and Sirius and James and Lily had all went out, and we couldn't be certain where Peter had gone. We sat on the sofa, the TV turned to a muggle movie that Addi had insisted we watch. It was some sappy, romantic love story, and I had nearly dozed off to the flickering of the screen when I heard the sound of Addi sobbing.

"Sad part of the movie?" I asked sleepily. She shook her head and rested it on my shoulder.

"We need to talk."

"About what?"

"About us."

"Oh, Addi, not this again," I sighed. "Haven't we been through this enough?"

"Remus, I need an answer. What is it that keeps you from making any long term decisions about our relationship? Honestly?" I looked into her eyes. Why wasn't I certain about our future? I opened my mouth, forcing myself to be as honest as possible.

"Addi, it has nothing to do with you," I assured her. "It has to do with me. I want you to think about something, very carefully. Do you want to spend the rest of your life with someone like me—a werewolf? I won't be able to be there for you when you need me. I doubt I'll even be able to find work to support you... you certainly deserve better than that..."

"No, Remus. Don't say that; don't ever say that." She pulled her arms around my neck. "I understand the situation perfectly, and I want nothing more than to spend the rest of my life with you. I just can't take this not knowing. I need a plan for my life; I can't wait forever."

"You're sure you don't mind?"

"Three years ago when you told me, I didn't mind. What should make now any different?"

And so I made my decision, once and for all. I would do what both of us wanted. The very next day, I headed straight for a jewelry store and found the most beautiful ring they had. The price was a bit much, but nothing more than I was willing to spend for Addi.