A/N: Sorry it took so long. I'm going to give love stories a shot. Thank you, Lady Meriadoc. If this is too corny, or I didn't do something right, or if it just plain stinks, let me know, and I will edit it accordingly. Enjoy! (I hope.)

V: Lia

Third year passed, and spells were written for the process of becoming an animagus. They generally kept their transfiguration business to themselves, but occasionally they would let me know how things were going. Fourth year was quite uneventful, but Sirius managed to dump three girlfriends, and James caught the snitch in two minutes and won Gryffindor the Quidditch Cup.

Towards the end of the summer, I got my usual Hogwarts letter. It seemed oddly lumpy, so I opened it immediately even though it was barely seven in the morning. A letter fell onto my blanket and I opened it. A badge fell out. A badge that was red and gold with a P on it. P is for prefect. I was a prefect? How had that happened? I looked at the letter. We are pleased to inform you that you have become a school prefect. How remarkable. I was probably one of the school's bigger troublemakers. After it had sunk in, I saw what this meant. I would have to try to control my friends, since I appeared to be the only one with a sense of responsibility. How did Dumbledore expect me to exercise any control over the Marauders? I just kept it a secret because I didn't know what to do about it, but I did go down to the prefects' car on the train ride back to school.

"Where've you been?" James asked when I had found them. Then he saw the badge. His mouth fell open. "No way. Dumbledore'd never do that."

"Well, he did." I fell into one of the chairs. "You guys save me anything?"

Peter tossed me a chocolate frog.

"Looks like our troublemaking days are over, dunnit?"

"Oh, shut up. I don't like this any more than you do. Do what you like—just not anything terribly drastic, and don't kill anybody. I'll try to ignore you." I don't know why I said that, to this day. It was one of the less responsible things I've done.

By October, Peter told me, they had written down most of the incantations necessary to becoming an Animagus. I was nervous about that How soon would they be done? Peter said in a few weeks, certainly before Christmas. That was soon. I was even more nervous. The three of them were hiding more often, and they would take the map so I wouldn't be able to find them.

One of those lonely Saturdays, I was going to the library to do some homework when I fell down a flight of stairs. Suddenly someone behind me shouted "Impedimenta!" twice. I stopped dead halfway through a somersault, and I heard somebody shout. It was Snivelly. I heard the person say, "Petrificus totalus," and the shout stopped short. A Ravenclaw girl came down the stairs. She was short, and had dirty blond hair. She wore muggle clothes, and she was barefoot so her feet made no noise.

"Y'all right?" she asked, grabbing my hand to keep me from falling as she removed the Impediment Jinx.

"Fine, thanks." I dropped her hand, though I would have liked to have kept it. "How did you know to come here?"

"I saw Snape sneaking about," she told me, scampering back up the stairs, "and I've seen him enough to be able to tell when he's up to no good." She peered at me. "You're Remus Lupin, aren't you?"

"Yeah. Who're you?"

"Lia Hathaway." She was still looking intently at my face, as if something about it was interesting. It made me rather uncomfortable. She shrugged as if telling herself, "It doesn't matter anyway," and turned toward Snape. "Finite," she whispered. He unfroze and his body relaxed. He raised his wand, but Lia grabbed his wrist. "He's all yours, Remus." I shook my head. She looked my way and whispered something. Snape's hair turned violently pink, and he didn't notice. "I suggest you leave before Mr. Lupin changes his mind." Snape muttered a long string of curses as he left.

"Why did you do that?" I asked.

Lia shrugged. "He deserved it." She picked up her bag and went down to the library. I followed. We set up our things at the same table for no good reason.

"D'you know the things that identify a werewolf?" she asked after she had spent a long time nibbling her quill. "The page on werewolves in my book fell out, and I lost it."

Thinking that this was too odd to be a coincidence, I told her, "Snout's blunter, tail's longer, darker fur, higher howl, and longer jaw."

"Thanks." She scribbled a few things on a page and Spellotaped it in her book, then returned to her essay.

A while later I was stumped on a question on Venomous Tentaculas.

She laughed. "Oh, that's simple. You just slap the yellow spot and they go to sleep. I work in the greenhouses sometimes."

"Why?"

"No reason, really. I just like to. Kitchens, too. I've seen you down there a fair few times," she said, looking sidelong at me.

I turned pink. I was supposed to be a prefect....

"How'd it go?" I asked the others on their return to the common room.

"Fine," James said.

"Who's Lia Hathaway?" Sirius asked, still looking at the map.

"A Ravenclaw girl. Why?"

Sirius smiled. "Oh, no reason."

"Did you guys see Snivelly on your way here?"

"Yeah," Peter answered. "You're going to tell us why he was wearing a balaclava inside in October?"

"Lia turned his hair pink." They all laughed.

"So that's why you were in the library with her," Sirius concluded.

I turned red. "I guess so."

"We were wondering when you'd come around, mate," James teased.

"Oh, shut up. I haven't." Yet, I added to myself.

The two of us would often do homework together while the other Marauders were working on their spells and charms. I wasn't sure why I did it, but I did. Lia was smart, talkative if one said the right thing, and a bit cynic. She was the sort of girl who is worth talking to. I knew she thought there was something different about me, but she never mentioned it.

One of those days in the library, a month or so after the first, I remembered that it was a Hogsmeade weekend. Should I ask her out? Do I really like her that much? It rose in my throat like someone trying to choke me. Finally I decided to ask her. I liked her, and if she didn't like me she would say no.

"Lia," I said a bit hoarsely.

"What?" she answered, not looking up from her diagram of the innards of a Kneazle.

"It's a Hogsmeade weekend...."

She still didn't look up, but I saw her smile. "I know that."

"Would you go with me?"

"What does that imply?" She put down her quill, and I could tell she was trying not to laugh.

"It implies," I said, my voice shaking, "that I would be very happy if you did that, darling." I flamed in the face. Why had I said that?

"Oh, all right," she replied, laughing.

A/N: Well, how was that? It wasn't at all like my first draft, but that's what a first draft is for.