Okay, chapter two! I wrote this one shortly after finishing chapter one, which is why I'm posting them (and chapter three) all at once. Um, I guess that's everything. Just read and review! PLEASE review!

Chapter Two

Jesse

Remus shoved his blank parchment into his bag along with his quill and swung the sack over his shoulder. Sirius was ready and bouncing, impatient to get out of McGonagall's room. The two waited for Peter, James, and Lily to gather their extensive notes, then set off with their friends toward Defense Against the Dark Arts. They all enjoyed Professor Grae's classes; the young woman was energetic and passionate about her subject, and made it interesting for all the students.

The five took their usual seats in the second row. Sirius, Remus, and Peter sat at one table, Lily and James at another. The people filling in the remaining seats at each table varied, as the seats weren't assigned. Today, the person sitting next to Sirius was none other than the new girl, "Ms. Philbin."

"Hello, there," Sirius said jovially as the girl sat down. She threw him a withering look as she realized who she'd just sat next to. He laughed and extended his hand. "Sorry for the scene in Transfiguration," he said genuinely as she stared at him dubiously. "I was honestly just saving face and trying to avoid detention."

"At my expense," she pointed out, leaving his hand hanging in midair. Sirius' smile faded a bit.

"True, but it's not like I did anything really bad," he explained. "She thought I was looking at you, so I had to make it sound like I had a reason." The girl nodded, not looking very convinced. Sirius felt truly hurt; he'd never been shunned by anyone before-well, not anyone that mattered. He turned to face her all the way.

"Look, we got off on the wrong foot. I'm Sirius Black," he said politely, holding out his hand again. The girl stared at it as if she wasn't sure what it was. "You're Jennifer, right?" he prompted tentatively. She laughed, and Sirius was relieved to see her smile.

"Actually, it's Jessica-but I go by Jesse," she corrected cheerfully, shaking Sirius' hand heartily.

"Oh, sorry." This was most certainly not the way Sirius usually made introductions.

"No problem-at least you tried," she said with another laugh. Sirius grinned back, relieved that she seemed to be loosening up, just as the bell rang.

"Don't think you're going to make a scene in this class, too," Jesse warned him as the professor stood up at the front of the room. "It's my first day at this school, even if it isn't yours, and I'd like to learn something for once." Sirius nodded and assumed a scholarly position, holding his quill thoughtfully to his mouth as he leaned forward and stared at the professor as though enthralled by her greetings.

"Please take out your books-we'll be doing a bit of reading today, much as I hate to assign you such boring work," Professor Grae said apologetically. The class did as they were told with only a few complaints; they knew they were lucky to have a teacher that didn't assign this kind of work every day. "I want you to read the section about vampires in chapter fourteen," she informed them as they opened their books. "Take notes if you like; we'll be discussing the section in class today." The students all flipped to the correct page and commenced reading. Lily, as usual, began scratching away with her quill almost immediately.

Sirius found it hard to concentrate on his reading, however; on his right side, Remus was nervously tapping his quill and clenching and unclenching his jaw. Sirius watched the muscle in his temple throb for about a minute before putting a firm hand on his arm. The quill stopped mid-tap.

"Remus, quit it-you're distracting me!" he hissed.

"Since when do you care about your work?" he growled, but set his quill down on the table.

Half an hour later, the whole class had finished the section. For the remainder of the period, they discussed what they'd read with the professor. She knew quite a lot about the subject and, at the end of the period, told her students why.

"Most of you don't know this, but I used to be a vampire hunter in my youth," she informed them as they began packing up in anticipation of the bell. "I left that profession when I realized that vampires are not to be discriminated against-nor are giants, centaurs, or werewolves." Remus' hand jerked; he covered the twitch by scratching his ear. "I hope, this year, to teach you the difference between dark arts and supposedly 'dark' creatures." The bell rang and the class filed out, Remus still scratching his ear. In the corridor, Sirius caught his friend's wrist.

"You can stop that now, we're out of the classroom," he said, a touch of humor in his voice. Remus nodded and lowered his hand, then began tapping his thigh. Sirius shook his head sadly and turned toward his other friends.

Lily was busy making acquaintances with Jesse, so James was spending a rare moment away from his girlfriend and talking to Peter. They seemed to be discussing a sale on dungbombs.

"And why, exactly, haven't you ordered a whole case yet?" Sirius asked in amazement as he joined the conversation. James rolled his eyes but was interrupted by Lily before he could respond.

"Has everyone met Jesse?" the red-head asked cheerfully, breaking into the circle and dragging the new girl with her. Sirius nodded and grinned, winning an exasperated 'how-did-I-guess' look from Lily. James politely shook hands with her.

"James Potter," he said courteously, careful to be obvious to Lily that he didn't find her attractive in the least.

"Peter Pettigrew." Jesse smiled and shook his hand, then turned to Remus. Sirius had been looking forward to this; after seeing the look in his friend's eyes during Transfiguration and his nervous actions during DADA, he wondered how Remus would act when directly facing the girl.

"Remus Lupin," he muttered, extending a stiff hand and looking just to the left of Jesse. She gave a small smile.

"Of course," she said softly. James and Sirius exchanged a glance; what did she mean by that?

Lily suddenly grabbed James' arm and glanced at her watch.

"C'mon, everyone-we're going to be late!" Sirius laughed out loud.

"Late for lunch?" he teased dubiously. Lily glared at him.

"I wanted to eat quickly so I could get to the library before Double Potions," she retorted, dragging James along toward the Great Hall. Sirius shook his head in disbelief; as if anyone needed less of a relaxing lunch on Double Potions day.



Remus set his jaw and tried not to crush Jesse's hand as he shook it. She gave a small smile and mumbled something he couldn't hear, then turned to Lily, who was, as usual, exclaiming over something. Remus listened with half an ear to the conversation around him, not really hearing any of it. As much as he tried to listen, his mind wouldn't focus. He hadn't heard hardly a word spoken all day, and he doubted this would be helping his scores in Transfiguration and... What had the other class been?

Shaking his head in a vain effort to clear it, Remus followed his friends toward the Great Hall. They were all chatting happily, including Jesse Philbin. She seemed to fit in just perfectly, as she always had... Remus tore his eyes away from her and tried to relax his jaw; he was developing a terrible headache.

The food laid out on the tables in the Great Hall didn't appeal to Remus in the least. He picked at it so his friends wouldn't bother him like they had in the morning and avoided everyone's stares. When Lily left for the library, Remus got up and followed her. At the staircase toward the Gryffindor tower, he parted ways with her and began to climb up the marble steps. He was almost to the landing when he heard hurried footsteps echoing through the entrance hall.

"Remus!" Jesse called from the bottom step. Slowly, reluctantly, he stopped and turned around. The brunette stood at the bottom of the stairs, staring up at him, waiting for him to speak. But he wasn't going to humor her; Remus had decided at breakfast that he'd only speak to Jesse Philbin when absolutely necessary.

After a long moment, Jesse started climbing up the stairs toward him. He closed his eyes and forced himself to relax, calm down, try to appear somewhat normal. She couldn't know that she affected him this much; it was what she wanted, he was sure.

"Remus," she repeated when she was level with him. He nodded once and looked away. Even out of the corner of his eye, he could see how hurt she was by this lack of response. "Why-" she began, but Remus abruptly turned and walked away, toward the Gryffindor tower. He knew what she was going to ask, and he didn't feel like telling her.

From the entrance to the Great Hall, Sirius Black saw the interaction-or lack thereof-between the two. He jogged up the stairs to where Jesse was still standing and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. She looked up at him with misty eyes, but he shook his head.

"I have no idea. He's never done that before," Sirius told her apologetically. She sighed, blinked a few times, and managed a smile.

"I feel really stupid, but-I'm actually looking for the library. Could you tell me where it is?" Sirius grinned and gestured down the stairs.

"It's usually this way, depending on what mood the castle's in," he explained. "C'mon, I'll show you." At the bottom of the stairs, they met James and Peter on their way to find Lily. The four made their way to the library, talking and teasing as if they'd known each other their whole lives.



Remus flopped onto his bed and pulled the curtains closed around him. The blue tinge it gave the enclosed area soothed him; he took a few deep breaths and massaged his temples. His fingers were pleasantly warm and damp with sweat, and he soon felt much better.

Rummaging around on the shelf within his curtained bed area, Remus located by touch the object he was seeking: a small, ivory pocketknife. He brought it down and fingered it for a few moments, rolling it around in his hands. It was smooth and cool and comforting. He opened it, enjoying how smoothly it slid open, and examined the shiny blade. He kept it meticulously clean, and it showed; not a smudge or a scratch marred the metal.

He opened and closed the knife a few times, allowing his mind to drift as he handled the comfort object. By the time lunch had ended, he'd fallen asleep with his fingers curled around the blade.



Sirius gently tapped a vial half-full of dark blue powder. A few grains fell into his cauldron, immediately causing its contents to froth and bubble. Careful not to spill any more of the potent powder, Sirius set the vial in its holder and corked it. When the liquid in his cauldron started boiling rapidly, he turned down the heat and added his chopped seahorse tails. They dissolved as his stirred the potion, thickening it and turning it the color of gravy. He added a pinch of something that looked like flour and smelled like dirt, stirred six times counter-clockwise, and turned the heat off under the cauldron.

Next to him, James was already pouring his potion into a flask and corking it. It was a very light tan and had the consistency of molasses. Sirius looked at his own dark, slightly more watery potion with distaste. James had always been better at potions than he.

"You were only supposed to add one grain of powdered unicorn horn," James scolded lightly when he saw Sirius' sludge-colored liquid. The potion seemed to be getting darker as they stared at it.

"I don't see the difference between one and three," Sirius grumbled. James fished around in his school bag.

"Here," he said holding out what looked like a candy cane. Sirius looked at it dubiously.

"Is the Christmas spirit supposed to cheer me up and help me put my failing Potions grade behind me?" he asked, taking the candy. James shook his head, a smile playing around his mouth.

"Of course not. You don't need the Christmas spirit to put your schoolwork behind you. That's to stir your potion with. Sugar might help counter the effects of the extra unicorn horn powder." Sirius raised an eyebrow and stuck the candy cane in his flask. Before he could stir even once, the part of it submerged in the potion had dissolved completely. He watched in awe as the liquid turned a bit lighter in color. Though it remained slightly more watery than James', it at least looked the same.

"Cool, thanks..." Sirius muttered as he corked his flask and carried it up to the professor. He was pleased to note that it looked considerably better than most of the ones already on the desk. He bit off a chunk of candy cane and meandered back to his seat.

Lily had finished her potion, as well, so she and James wandered off to talk alone. Sirius rolled his eyes and looked around the room. Gryffindors usually had Potions with the Slytherins, but for a change of pace, they were now sharing the class with the Ravenclaws. With a smile, he noticed Alyssa Mant in the far corner, pouring her perfect potion into a flask. He looked around to see if Remus was watching her, then remembered that Moony hadn't come to class. His smile faded to a frown as he wondered where his friend was. Class was nearly over, and it had been a double period. It wasn't like Moony to miss class, especially one he couldn't easily make up. Sirius glanced around at the other students, wondering what had gotten into Remus lately. His gaze fell on Jesse and he suddenly remembered the incident on the staircase. Remus had gone up to the Gryffindor common room after that. Could it be that he'd simply stayed up there, rather than gone to class?

Ten minutes later, James wandered back to his desk and started putting his things away. Sirius followed suit and had just packed away the last chemical when the bell rang. The class filed out cheerfully, having received no homework from the professor.

Sirius and the others were just as cheerful: they'd only gotten homework in Transfiguration, plus a short essay for DADA, if that could even be counted as homework. It was simply supposed to be a summary of the traits of a vampire, and what made people think of them as "dark."

James and Peter declared that they were famished after such a long Potions class and opted to go straight to dinner. Lily and Jesse headed to the library, promising to meet the others later. Sirius said he wanted to put his books away before eating, and split off from his friends to head up to the common room. The stairs were clogged with people, and it took an eternity to make his way up them. He was impatient to talk to Remus and see what was up.

The common room was filled with people who weren't ready to go to dinner just yet, or who actually were there to drop off their books. The Quidditch captain was rushing around trying to find her team members and tell them that the next day's practice was moved up an hour; Sirius made a mental note to tell James later.

The fifth-year boys' dorm was quiet when Sirius pushed his way upstairs into it. Of the four beds in the room, only one had its curtains drawn closed. Sirius was pretty sure he'd come to the right place in looking for his friend.

"Morning, sleepyhead," he said loudly, whipping back the curtains and allowing the sun to shine directly on Remus' face. The sleeping teenager groaned and turned over, waving his right hand around as if trying to swat a very slow, stupid fly. Something glinted in the bright sunlight, and Sirius caught Remus' wrist to see it better. A small ivory-handled pocketknife was clutched tightly in Moony's hand. He'd been holding it by the blade, and when Sirius pried open his friend's hand, he was shocked to see that the palm was covered in blood.

"Moony!" he yelled, shaking his friend awake. Remus propped himself up on his free elbow and stared stupidly at Sirius. "Remus, you idiot!" Sirius placed the bloody knife on the bedside table and inspected his friend's hand. There were only a few cuts along the middle of his palm, but the blood had been smeared around, making the injury appear much worse. Sirius dropped Remus' hand with a sigh of relief and glared at his friend.

"Why're you lookin' at me like that?" Remus slurred, holding up his recently freed hand to block the sunlight from his eyes. Sirius crossed his arms.

"Because you're a bloody idiot-and I mean that literally." He pointed to the hand Remus was holding up against the light. He flipped it over and stared at it for a moment.

"Huh. Guess I must've fallen asleep with my knife in my hand," he stated, unperturbed. He used some water from the pitcher on the bedside table to wash the dried blood off his hand. There were two short horizontal slits under his fingers and two matching ones on the fingers themselves. Sirius gave a little disbelieving laugh.

"What's gotten into you lately, Moony?" he asked, moving to block the sun from his friend's eyes. "First you act like an ass to that Jesse girl, then you skip Potions to play with your pocketknife-" Remus sat up very straight, very suddenly.

"I skipped Potions?!" he yelled, staring at Sirius incredulously.

"Double Potions, no less," Sirius replied with a nod. Remus slapped his cut hand to his forehead and fell back onto the bed.

"I can't believe I did that...I didn't even know I was falling asleep!" Sirius nodded sympathetically; if he had a sickle for every time he did that...

"C'mon, no big deal. You can just make it up with the kids who did their potions wrong. It was a tough one today, I'll bet there's gonna be plenty of company." Remus nodded, but he didn't look convinced; make-up Potions was always much worse than the regular class. "D'you want some dinner before it's cleared up?" Sirius asked. Remus shook his head.

"No, I should get down to the dungeons to see if I can just make up my Potions today, while I don't have much homework." Sirius eyed him dubiously.

"How much have you eaten today?" he asked slowly. Remus grinned up at him.

"You sound like my mother!"

"I'm serious-"

"That you are."

"Remus, shut up. I mean it-you haven't eaten anything all day. Your first change in a month is tomorrow night. You've gotta have your strength up by then!" Remus hesitated.

"That's true..." he said quietly. Then, with a sigh, "Alright, I'll make up Potions tomorrow. But woe upon thee if we get tons of work tomorrow!" Sirius laughed and led the way out the door.

The common room was much less crowded now that dinner was well under way. The two Marauders made their way through it quickly, but when they got to the portrait hole there was already someone crawling through it into the room. They waited patiently for it to clear; a moment later, Jesse Philbin emerged. She smiled when she saw them.

"Hey Sirius, Remus!" she said cheerfully. Sirius returned the smile and the greeting, but Remus ignored her. The joy faded visibly from her face and she walked away quickly without stopping to talk any longer.

Once they were through the portrait hole, Sirius turned on Remus.

"What was up with that?" he yelled when the Fat Lady had swung shut.

"What?" Remus mumbled, staring at his feet.

"You know what I'm talking about! You had no right to be that rude to Jesse," Sirius scolded, gesturing toward the portrait.

"Get to know her how I know her, and then see what kind of 'rights' I have, Sirius!" Remus hollered back, his face bright red. Sirius watched him storm away, perplexed by what he'd said and how he'd said it. Remus never lost his temper like that. It just wasn't like him.

A few moments later, Sirius began to wander toward the Great Hall. He walked slowly, hoping he wouldn't run into Remus until they were with the others; he didn't want to create another scene in the entrance hall, which was considerably more crowded than the corridor had been.

But when he got to his seat at the Gryffindor table, Remus was nowhere in sight.

"Didn't Moony come in here yet?" Sirius asked his friends as he sat down with them and began to serve himself. They all shook their heads.

"We haven't seen him since lunch," James said, concern on his forehead.

"I just went and talked to him after Potions," Sirius explained. "He was fine until we passed Jesse in the common room. All she said was 'hi,' and he got all pissed off. Then he yelled at me for chewing him out about it." Peter scoffed.

"Don't exaggerate, Padfoot. Remus never yells." Sirius raised an eyebrow.

"Wanna bet? The Fat Lady gave us the evil eye until Remus stalked off." James looked as surprised as Peter.

"What's bothering him, d'you think?" he asked around a mouthful of roast beef. Sirius shrugged and downed a glass of pumpkin juice.

"Isn't it obvious? He always gets touchy around Jesse. I think he must know her from somewhere else-he said something about that when he was screaming at me today." Sirius chewed thoughtfully. "I can't really remember it, but it was pretty obvious that he didn't meet her for the first time today." Lily sighed.

"Oh, darn-I was getting to like her, too," she lamented. Sirius frowned at her.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well, think about it-Remus has pretty good instincts about people. Whenever he doesn't like someone, it's for a reason. And if you really aren't exaggerating about his behavior-"

"Why does everyone always think I'm going to blow things up?!" Sirius yelled. James grinned.

"Because you usually do."

"-then there must be something about Jesse that rubs him the wrong way," Lily continued, ignoring the two boys. Peter nodded.

"Yeah, maybe she's a real bitch, and is just really good at hiding it," he suggested. Sirius rolled his eyes; Peter had taken to cursing a lot for no good reason-it made him feel cool, according to Sirius. More like one of the guys.

"I honestly don't think she's that bad, despite what Moony says," Sirius countered. "True, we don't know her real well, but she seems nice enough so far. I think Remus is just being a prick." Lily shot him a look.

"Remus doesn't just act like a prick for no reason, Padfoot," she said, emphasizing the curse word to show Sirius what a hypocrite he was. "Whether we've noticed it or not, there can very well be something about Jesse that doesn't fit with her sweet exterior." She looked around the group meaningfully. "I think we should all keep on our toes until we've talked to Remus about her."



Remus leaned his elbows on the window pane and stared up at the sky. His last night before the full moon... Even now, he could feel the lunar pull: his senses were stronger than ever, his emotions were running haywire even without talking to people. The smells of the three boys sleeping in the room were infuriating to him-he had an intense yearning to take one of their necks in his jaws and bite down on the pulsing jugular veins...

He shook his head vigorously. He didn't have jaws in a carnivorous sense, didn't want to kill his friends, didn't feel bloodlust at the smell of human flesh... He was human. Completely human.

For now.

Quietly, carefully, Remus tiptoed across the room and pulled open the door. He slipped out of the room and crept downstairs into the common room. The fire was still crackling merrily in the grate, as it wasn't long past eleven. The common room was blissfully empty; the smells of the people who'd been in there earlier were strong, but the absence of actual living, breathing humans made the animal urges much easier to bear. Remus settled on a couch facing the fire and let his thoughts be engulfed by the flames.

A soft sound, a padded footfall, woke Remus from his reverie. He heard the person approaching, smelled her familiar scent as she came ever closer. Remus settled back against the couch dejectedly, having determined who it was. Sure enough, Jesse herself sat down on the couch next to him not a moment later. She was far enough away that two people could easily have fit between them, but that was too close for Remus. After a few agonizing seconds, he couldn't restrain himself from hopping off the couch and crossing the room to the window.

The firelit couch and its lonely occupant were reflected twice in the double-paned glass. Remus rested his forehead against the cool window and watched Jesse watching him from across the room. Her features were too blurred for him to tell what expression was on her face, but Remus thought he could guess. Sighing, he shifted his body just enough so that his shadow blocked out the reflection.

The moon was bright, so bright. Remus couldn't look away from its beauty, its mystery. It instilled a kind of terror in him that he couldn't shake, no matter how many times he tried. He feared its brightness; its face, leering at him; its dark side that never showed itself...

"Remus?" came a small voice from the couch. He closed his eyes against the glare of the moon, losing his train of thought. If I ignore her, she'll go away, he told himself. But her voice echoed in his brain and he found he couldn't be quite that cruel.

"Yes?" he whispered, turning to face her. Relief was plain on her face now that he was talking to her again.

"Why-" She stopped remembering what had happened the last time she'd tried to ask this question. "Come sit down," she pleaded, pointing to an armchair as far from her as it could get while still staying within the warmth of the fire. Remus hesitated, then walked over and leaned on the back of the chair. "Good enough," she said with a ghost of a smile.

The minutes stretched on, the silence grew louder. Remus was focused on the crackling flames, trying to lose himself in them again. But her scent was intoxicating; perhaps it was the moon's pull, but he felt the intense need to get up close and breathe her smell, bathe in it. He tried to shake the feelings off, thinking they were bordering too close on amorous, but then he felt the familiar bloodlust. This was a normal reaction to a human, any human. He felt it stronger because she was a girl, and the wolf craved female company.

"Do you hate me?" Jesse asked suddenly. Remus' eyes snapped up and met her own, and she gasped suddenly. "Remus!" she breathed, then turned away. He stared at her, confused, but before he could ask anything she was running up the stairs to the girls' dorms.

Glad to be rid of her company and her unsettling questions, Remus sank into the armchair and lost himself in the fire again. When James, Sirius, and Peter came down the next morning, he was still sitting there, watching the dying embers and the glowing coals.