A/N: Lady Meriadoc, thank you so much. I added a month in the fifth chapter, but I didn't have anything to happen in it. It's there, but you don't see it. Hope this is good.

VI: Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs

When I got back to the common room, I was still blushing. James, Sirius and Peter were already there, and of course they saw.

"You don't need to bother telling us Remus, we already know," Sirius assured me.

"I'm so glad," I snapped.

"Good for you. You're meeting her in Hogsmeade?" James inquired.

"At noon."

"Uh-huh."

"We should be done this week," Peter whispered. Apparently he wasn't supposed to say that, because Sirius elbowed him hard.

"That's...great. I'm still not quite sure about this, but I guess it's too late."

"Yep, it is." James checked his watch. "I've got Quidditch practice in ten minutes, see you later."

Sirius was still staring at me looking a bit puzzled.

"What?" I asked.

"What do you like about her, Remus?" he asked amiably. Peter stared at him.

"Well, she's smart, she's funny—she's just like you, really." I frowned. I had never noticed it, and that was a little odd. "Why?"

"Oh, just wondering."

Just wondering. Ha.

That Saturday I spent almost fifteen minutes agonizing over clothing, and finally Sirius woke up halfway said, "Just wear normal clothes. 'S what I do." So I did, and I was still all jumpy, and it was only eight in the morning.

We went down to Hogsmeade at ten, and went straight to Zonko's. I will not tell you about the bags and bags of things we bought in case Filch finds this—he still makes me nervous. Then we went to the owl shop, since Peter's owl had died. He got a black owl that was about half as tall as he was and named it Hades. It was a fitting name. Then Sirius remembered that he had forgotten to get some Filibuster's and we went back to Zonko's. Lia was there this time, and she had nearly as large a smorgasbord of chaos as we did. She was with a tall redhead who looked a bit unhappy to be there.

"Man, I'm jealous," Sirius said, looking at Lia's bag. I elbowed him.

Lia saw me and came over. "Hi, everybody."

"We'll just go, shall we?" James said. Lia nodded. "Meet us in the common room around two." He smiled at Redhead who glared.

"Lily, could you pay for this?" Lia said to Redhead, giving her the bag and carefully counting out some money.

"Oh, yes, try to push me off," she grumbled. "Have fun."

When she had gone, we stood next to eachother in awkward silence. I decided to break it. "Do you want to go have lunch?"

"Sure." We went to the Three Broomsticks and got sandwiches. I saw Sirius there, and he gave me the thumbs-up. "Don't let her pay," he mouthed. I rolled my eyes, but paid. After lunch we walked around the streets of the village holding hands and not saying anything.

"My mum told me that there was a path up that mountain," she said when we got to the outskirts of the village. She pointed to a smallish one with a treeless top covered with chalk boulders. "D'you want to go see?"

"Sure." She led the way to the foot of it and looked around, picking a spot next to a little stream to go into the forest. Soon we found an animal track, and followed it. It was winding and slippery, but went to the top after a forty-five minute climb. Seventeen years later, Sirius hid on that mountain. When we got up, there was a sheer rock face maybe ten feet high and flat on top. Lia picked a spot and climbed up like a cat, and I followed less gracefully. It was windy up there, and it drizzled a little, but the view was amazing. We sat there with our arms around each other's shoulders, looking at the school below. I had never fully appreciated how beautiful Hogwarts was until I climbed Bald Mountain.

Lia put her head on my shoulder. "Remus?"

"Mm?" I answered.

"You're a werewolf, aren't you?"

I looked out to the Whomping Willow. Even that looked beautiful. "Yeah." I held her tighter. "How did you know?"

"My brother's a werewolf, too. One can tell. My dad ran away when he was bitten. Dad was a Muggle."

I was utterly bewildered. What does one say to that? "Well....um....Sorry." I knew I had to say something, but that was one dumb thing to say.

She laughed. She did that a lot. I think she lived in a very amusing world. "You're so bad at saying things. But that's all right." She kissed me and I felt like everyone in the world was watching. She saw me blushing and let go of my hair. "Do you love me, Remus?"

"Yes."

"Then what is there to be embarrassed about?" I thought about it. I didn't know. I kissed her tentatively. It started raining harder.

I got back to the common room half an hour late, soaked through, red as a tomato, and smiling so widely that my jaws hurt. When the Fat Lady opened the portrait hole and giggled at me, Sirius, James and Peter burst out laughing. I stopped smiling and sat in the empty chair near them. I put my head on my hands and tried to decide whether I should laugh or scream.

"We were starting to worry, mate!" James wheezed when he had stopped laughing.

"It's not as horribly funny as you seem to think," I snapped.

"Oh, we'll get detention!" Sirius said in falsetto. "I'm so scared! So, where did you go?" Peter tossed me a chocolate frog as though he was bribing me.

"We went for a walk." I bit the frog's head off savagely, and tossed the card into the fire that sputtered as rain came through the chimney.

"A walk," Sirius said with the tone of a mother whose toddler has "made cookies." "You went for a walk."

"Yeah! You got a problem with that?"

"It depends." Now he sounded like Dumbledore when he knows that a punishment is in order, but is not sure how severe it should be. "Where did you go?"

"Up Bald Mountain."

"Really? Didn't know there was a trail."

"She said her mother told her. I didn't know either."

"And you kissed, did you?"

"Oh, shut up." Sirius just laughed and clapped me on the shoulder.

James looked thoughtful. "Does she know about....the thing?"

"Yeah. Her brother is, too, so she can tell." I ate the rest of the frog. I got the sense that they were waiting for something, or knew something I didn't, or had a surprise for me. I looked at them for a few minutes. They all looked like they were trying not to smile. "Is there something you're not telling me?"

James grinned. "Meet us in the seventh floor mirror in five minutes and you'll see. Let's do it." They left, shutting the portrait hole behind them with a smug sort of noise.

Five minutes later I followed. Mrs. Norris saw me and meowed, but I wasn't doing anything wrong. I tapped the skull on the frame of the mirror and it opened. Fog billowed out—Sirius has always had a love for theatrics. I stepped in, and the mirror shut. Then the very last thing I had been expecting happened. I was knocked over by an enormous black dog. At first I thought it was the Grim, then it rolled off and turned into Sirius. A stag stood majestically in front of me with a rat on one antler. The stag had James' hazel eyes that show his every emotion. The rat jumped off and turned into Peter in midair, and the stag became James. I stood there just smiling like a fool. I hugged them, and realized something: we weren't just friends; we were brothers. I almost cried.

A/N: The end makes me so happy!