Rose drifted slowly out of sleep. She had a strange wet sensation on her nose. She slowly opened her eyes and stared into another pair of eyes, which were green and slitted. A wolf's eyes. It had its nose pressed up against hers and was beginning to growl. Before she could stop her self Rose opened her mouth and screamed. She knew at once this was a mistake. The wolf backed away snarling and bared its razor sharp teeth. Rose scrambled clumsily backwards and fell onto the floor. She shuffled back until she hit the wall. She was cornered. The wolf leapt lightly onto the floor in front of her. It had light brown fur that shined in the moonlight from the window. Realisation dawned,
"Lupin." It started to advance. The door opened. Rose turned to see Sirius standing in the doorway. Rose's scream had not only woken him up, however, as Clara appeared a moment later, her face pale.
The wolf turned its attention to Sirius who took out his wand.
"Don't hurt him!" Said Rose, in a barely audible voice, but before Sirius could do anything the wolf charged towards them. He and Clara jumped out of the way as the wolf tore through the hallway beyond and rammed itself against the front door. Sirius pointed his wand at the door which flew open. Lupin disappeared into the night and the door banged shut behind him.
Mrs Black awoke.
"Oh no." grumbled Sirius as he hurried towards his mother's portrait in the hall. Meanwhile Clara hurried over to Rose who was still in the corner shaking. She helped her up and led her over to the sofa. Mrs Black had woken the other occupants of the house up. They heard Mrs Weasley telling her children to go back to bed and the creaking of floorboards told them she was coming downstairs.
Sirius came back, having silenced the portrait.
"Are you OK?" He said cautiously, "he didn't hurt you or anything?"
"I'm fine," said Rose weakly. Sirius went to sit down beside Clara. At that point Mrs Weasley appeared. It was obvious she had just got out of bed. Her hair looked extremely frizzy and framed her face like a bright orange halo.
"What's going on?" She asked as, she too, joined them on the sofa. Sirius and Clara told her what had happened.
"Oh dear," she sighed, "are you sure you're all right, dear?" She added to Rose, who hadn't said anything since Mrs Weasley had come in. She had stopped shaking but now tears were welling up in her eyes and before she could stop them they spilled out and down her cheeks. Mrs Weasley pulled her into a motherly hug. She made a face at the other two which suggested that perhaps now was a good time to go back to bed. There was no arguing with Mrs Weasley so Sirius and Clara left the room shutting the door behind them.
There was an awkward silence in the hall. Clara coughed,
"Well, erm, I'll just be off to bed then."
"Yeah. me too," They were both looking at the floor. Clara made to climb the stairs.
"Clara?" She turned. Sirius looked uneasy.
"Hmm?"
"Erm. I'm sorry. about earlier when I shouted and. stuff."
Clara was momentarily speechless. This was possibly the first time, save from when they had been introduced to one another, that Sirius had spoken to her in a civil tone of voice.
"Oh." she said eventually, "well. no harm done," she didn't know what else to say. His apologetic, and somewhat caring, mood would probably be gone in the morning, she thought with a hint of bitterness.
"Night then," she added.
"Night." Clara made her way back to her bedroom and fell asleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow.

The atmosphere was tense the next morning in the basement kitchen. Lupin had still not returned. Rose didn't say anything as she sat at the table. Mrs Weasley had had a quiet word with the children when they had come downstairs not to mention Lupin. Rose guessed this as they did not ask any questions and avoided looking at her.
After breakfast, which had passed without anyone saying much, Rose had secluded her self to her and Clara's bedroom. A while later she heard footsteps in the corridor outside the room. Kreacher passed by the doorway muttering loudly to him self. He stopped and stooped down apparently searching for something on the floor.
"Filthy Mudbloods in mistress' house," he was muttering, "mistress wouldn't stand for it if she were around now."
"Push off Kreacher," said Rose loudly but Kreacher ignored her and instead of going away he came into the bedroom and started rummaging around near some old shelves.
". messing up mistress' house! What's the Mudblood telling Kreacher to go away for?" He carried on muttering loudly until Rose had had enough and went back downstairs to get away from him. She came into the kitchen where Clara and the children were cleaning up and sat down in a chair looking extremely irritated.
"Erm, are you.Ok?" Asked Clara tentatively.
"That bloody Kreacher won't leave me alone! He's now messing about with stuff on the shelves in our room." She made a quiet 'hmph' sound and stared moodily at the table. Sirius entered the kitchen and Clara gave him a look of warning but he didn't seem to notice. He sat down at the table.
"I know it seems bad Rose," he said, "Don't worry, he can look after him self." The look Rose gave him suggested, very strongly, that this was not the right thing to say.
"You really don't understand," she said quietly, narrowing her eyes.
"Wha-?"
"I can't stand this anymore. I can't just sit around doing nothing!" She got to her feet. Sirius shrunk back in his chair, "I'm going to look for him, and don't try to stop me!" Rose pushed her chair aside and stormed out of the kitchen making sure the door closed with a loud slam. Once outside, she had the sense not to slam the front door and wake Mrs Black.
"Oh, well done," said Clara bitterly, "she doesn't even know where she'd going!"
"I was only trying to help," retorted Sirius. By this time the children had exited the kitchen and busied them selves cleaning upstairs to keep out of the way.
"Yeah, well, you could have just kept your mouth shut. And I think she already knows Lupin can look after him self"
"Then why did she just storm out?"
"Isn't it obvious?" Clara glared at him. Sirius looked at her blankly.
"For god's sake, she likes him," she shouted. Not wanting yet another argument Sirius got up and made for the kitchen door.
"Oh that's right run away," Clara called after him as the kitchen door was slammed again.

Rose was walking purposefully in a straight line glaring at her surroundings as if they had offended her in some way. After a while she started to calm down and realised that she didn't have a clue where she was or where she should go. He could have gone anywhere last night. Rose looked around her and spotted, in the distance, a small forest. It was worth a try, so she set off towards it. In no time at all she reached the edge of the trees and peered in. It wasn't that big and he might not be in there at all, but she had to start somewhere. The treetops blocked out a lot of the light but there was still enough to see clearly by as she made her way through the trees. A little way in she stopped. Ahead of her she could see a figure knelt down by a tree. It had to be him, and if it wasn't she could at least ask where she was.