The weak October sun trickling into the dormitory and across the sleeping faces of four boys in four-poster beds roused one of them from his slumber. Remus Lupin sat up slowly, rubbing the last remnants of sleep from his eyes. It might be Saturday, but the night before last had been a full moon.

Generally Remus kept up with his studies, but spending a night roaming Hogsmeade with the mind and body of a wolf does not do wonders for one's marks. And as he was a prefect, Remus felt he had to conform to fairly high standards. So, even on a Saturday, he woke early to do classwork.

As he was waiting for his body to come fully awake, he cast a glance at the other beds. To his left, Remus saw Peter, the short scrawny tagalong that he shared more attributes with than he liked to admit. Across the room lay James and Sirius, the two people Remus loved and admired more than anyone else. They looked so peaceful when they were asleep, a sharp contrast to their waking hours.

With a contented sigh, Remus swung himself out of bed. He dressed quickly and quietly, not wanting to wake the others. Let them sleep, they deserved it. Loyalty like theirs merited a reward, and while it wasn't as though Sirius and James didn't care about their marks, they didn't need to lose sleep over it.

He tiptoed down the dormitory stairs, carefully avoiding the step that squeaked—though stone, it was temperamental. The Gryffindor common room was empty, the fire down to embers by now. Ariel, Yoni Greenbaum's calico cat, was stretched out before the dying fire, but as Remus entered, the tom's golden eyes snapped open and glared balefully at him.

Remus admired cats, and would have liked to own one himself, but because of his lycanthropy they never seemed to like him in return. Yoni's cat was certainly no exception. With a start, Remus realized if Ariel was up, Yoni must be as well. The enormous tom always slept on Yoni's chest, and always woke when his master got out of bed. Remus hadn't paid much attention to Yoni's bed, and couldn't remember noticing it was empty.

Yoni. Remus sighed. He didn't want to think about Yoni, not this morning. The boy was handsome, too handsome, and openly (if jokingly) flirtatious, and it made him uncomfortable. Not because he thought he might be gay, but because he had a crush on Yoni, and thus he knew he was. He just didn't want to admit it, not to himself, and definitely not to his friends. They would hate him if they knew.

"Morning, Remy. Penny for your thoughts?"

And Yoni was suddenly there, leaning casually against the back of an armchair, as though thinking of him had summoned him. How had he gotten there? Remus thought immediately, then just as quickly abandoned it. It didn't matter how.

"Oh, they're nothing special," he replied vaguely. "Where'd you go? I noticed Ariel's already up and about."

"Library." Yoni held up a couple of slim books as if for proof. "For research on our History of Magic essay."

Remus smiled, suddenly feeling shy. "That's what I was going to work on. Mind if I join you?"

"Course not. Why would I mind the company of such a handsome boychik?" There was that rakish grin Remus secretly melted under. He didn't know whether to laugh or not, so he settled for a small cough and went to fetch his books.

By the time he returned, Yoni had his books and parchments sprawled over a table and was already scribbling away. "Pull up a chair, why don't you?" he said when he saw Remus come in.

They had been working for a few minutes when Remus caught Yoni watching him. It wasn't a shy "I-have-a-crush-on-you" look (nor an obvious one), but rather contemplative. He was tempted to ask "What?" but Yoni glanced away so quickly he decided against it. But when it happened again, he didn't feel like beating around the bush as he usually did. "What is it? Do you need some help? A question?"

"You're the one who needs some help. Just because you're a prefect you think you know it all ... nu, let me tell you something I bet you didn't know, Remmeleh: you're gay. Don't bother denying it, we've got a radar ..."

Remus laughed nervously, staring at the page before him. "Kabbalistic Masters of the 18th and 19th Centuries," it said. Remus tried to concentrate, but the rest of the words slipped away from him like water under a bridge, seeming to whirl before his eyes. "What about Judah ben Bezalel? Do we need to mention him?" He was trying desperately not to think about what Yoni had said.

"Don't dodge the subject ... but if you must, yes. Rabbi Lowe is quite famous even among Muggles. Remy, I really like you, and as your friend I don't want to see you get hurt. If you're gay, it's better to admit it. Maybe not to everybody but at least to your friends. They've got a right to know, and if they don't like it, you need new friends anyway."

Finally Remus forced himself to look at his companion. Yoni was small and dark of hair and eyes, but with a comparatively light complexion. His face was long and leaner than you usually saw on teenagers—rather like Remus's, in fact, except he had a stronger chin and a smaller nose. His eyes were dark, black pupils lost in the surrounding coffee-coloured irises, and right now they were staring intently at Remus. This time Remus met them with his own dark grey pair, and suddenly he found he was leaning closer and closer ...

He had always been frightened of this, his first kiss, and somehow he'd always imagined it would be with a girl. But now it was even more complicated; what if James or Sirius found out? ... But Yoni was right, deception wasn't a good long term plan, as fond as Remus was of using it as one. He'd tried to keep his lycanthropy from his friends, and they'd found out in their third year.

Then, before Remus could worry further, their lips met, and he forgot about thinking rationally; he forgot to think at all. He was aware only of the feeling of warm lips on his, of Yoni's hand coming to rest lightly on his cheek, of the taste of the kiss, like deep, dark, raw earth after a rainstorm ...

A sudden noise behind them brought Remus abruptly and painfully to his senses. Sirius was standing at the foot of the stairs, a cold expression on his face. "Good morning, Remus." And with that, Sirius crossed to the portrait hole and was gone.