It only cost Remus two days in the hospital wing before Madame Pomfrey cleared him for release, though, as always, grudgingly. She deduced that something with great force behind it had caused his injuries but what there was in the Shrieking Shack that was capable of this she had no idea. The conclusion was finally drawn that, in his suffering or transformation, he must have thrown himself against a chair or table or another item of furniture and by these means knocked himself unconscious. There had been other injuries like this; this must have been the case. This was her train of thought towards this mystery.

So at precisely nine thirty-two p.m. Remus entered the common room. He had a decidedly different posture now. One shoulder sat slightly further than the other and he walked with a sad limp. His face was still bruised in places where Madame Pomfrey's liberal dabbings of potion obviously hadn't reached, his expression unchangeable from a miserly grimace. The impression created was heroic and meaningful. Sirius knew he was making the most of it, acting on a point.

He had personally asked Madame Pomfrey for any ill-effects from his little 'accident' and she had replied clearly and concisely "No." There was a bit more to it than this but Sirius was quite content with the first syllable than to concern himself with listening to any more. He wanted to laugh at him but with the room as full as this he would surely come across the villain. Over the past two years he had become increasingly concerned with being admired (well at least by the Griffindors). Therefore, he settled instead upon a stretch of sarcastically tainted concern. This plan usually worked for him in a crisis and it wouldn't be at all surprising if a certain number of students recognised him purely by this wit.

"I see your feeling- ahem - better" Sirius coughed. "I don't remember us breaking your leg though!" He stared wisely at Remus' leg which was resting rather tentatively a little off the floor as he positioned all of his weight onto his right.

"Sprained it." He uttered in reply, rotating his head alternately to James who was now grinning wildly at Sirius, implying that he too couldn't remember this incident. Remus was saved the explanation of his obtaining this injury by a fortunate event. Raven was currently weaving her way towards him through the crowd. He saw her and froze. Even if his leg was in perfect condition he didn't think that he could even gain control over a toe now. After many attempts to at least stand up straight he gave up. She had finally reached him.

"Hey!" She greeted him, "er - what happened to you, Remus? Are you O.K?"

He swallowed, his throat felt like sandpaper and he thought that she must notice how hoarse and croaky he sounded as he spoke.

"Yeah. I - I - I got into a bit of a duel." He said trying to rearrange his face to fit his words. He thought that that this would make him sound the best in the short time in which he was given to fabricate it, after all it was partly true, but as soon as it was spoken he regretted it. It would take allot of work to keep this lie up. The sound of Sirius and Peter choking over their pumpkin juice in the background didn't exactly add to the idea that this was a known truth either.

"Really?" Raven asked, her eyes glistening at the concept of Remus getting into a fight, "who with?"

"Er ..." His mind was whirring at an immense speed, searching for a name. James took one look at him in his distress and decided to put him out of his misery.

"It was with Ivan Mannin." He interrupted, "from Hufflepuff. You know him! No? He said something very insulting about Rem's family and so he had to do it, didn't he? Honour and all!" Mannin was the most suitable person he could think of. He was strong but not too strong so as Remus couldn't teach him a lesson. He was also not that well known out of Hufflepuff so the chances that Raven could check up on him were slim, and even if she did some injuries could easily be arranged for him. "You've gotta teach me that hex remember? 'Cos when he-" He burst into a raucous of false laughter and patted Remus heartily on the back, forgetting his injuries.

Remus had never before in his life been so thankful for James' ability to create intricate and speedy lies. He was a life saver in every way. "Yeah ... I have." He said, looking at Raven for a sign of her acceptance of this story or otherwise.

"Well, it doesn't matter anyway ... As long as your alright," she flushed. She was obviously keen to keep up a good impression with Remus because the look of mingled surprise and intrigue on her face more than contradicted her words. She lingered silently for a while around him obviously keen for more conversation but as James had thought his job done and turned away and Remus was once again tongue tied she received nothing. She moved away after smiling a goodbye to him and rejoined her group. She left Remus with a glazed look over his eyes which were focussed in a misty way upon what James discerned as being the corner of a picture frame belonging to a very disgruntled pair of maidens who obviously thought that he was staring directly at them.

After watching this for a while and occasionally trying to wake Remus from this stupor, James left them to go and talk to Lily. Two weeks of regular meetings and chats in corridors and classes meant that when he suddenly decided to impose on Lily's time like this he was now welcomed instead of rebuffed. They could even be said to have become friends. Understandably there was still a long way to go before James could come anywhere close to daring to ask her out again, but progress is progress. He sauntered up behind and tapped her lightly on the shoulder.

Although she didn't really appreciate being interrupted mid-conversation she still smiled broadly at James.

"So; how are you?" He asked, searching for a topic as he had come over completely unprepared and with no real reason but to see her.

"Perfectly healthy!" She smiled. "You?"

"Good." This was getting to be one of those awkward kind of chats and both wanted out of it to ease the humiliation. However, neither consented to its end. "Had a good day?" He continued, still searching.

"It was O.K I suppose, not really exciting though is it, listening to Slughorn drone on about the wonderful influence he had over the head of the Misuse of Magic Department and continually telling me that I should have joined Slytherin!" She said brushing her fiery red hair away from her face in exhaustion.

"Yeah I love his little talks!" James winked. "I'm sure if I were there I would have made it more interesting for you !" He tested.

"Maybe so!" She giggled, looking into his eyes. "You never can tell what will make something interesting!" They continued to look at each other for a moment and then James opened his mouth to ask her something.

"Lily-"

"How were the Quiddich trials?" She cut across him. He felt sure that she knew what he was going to say. She obviously didn't want it to be - yet.

"Oh - they were great." He said as he recovered. "We managed to get a good team this year. There's Lucas, Ratch and Hedgely for chasers; Reise and Calaughal for beaters (despite Moony's hatred)-"

"He hates Calaughal?" Lily asked in amazement.

"Yeah but he has his reasons. Why are you so shocked?" He questioned curiously. He didn't like the sound of her voice when she had asked that.

"I've never known Remus to hate anyone!" She continued in the same tone of voice. James was relieved and sat back comfortably into his chair. "He's capable of it!" He smiled. We've got Segedun as keeper and oh- me as seeker, obviously," he concluded. He was keen to keep up the conversation and was even more eager because it was about something that he could talk about for hours.

"Segedun's good but his reactions are sometimes a bit slow." Lily commented.

"I didn't think you knew anything about Quiddich!"

"Oh the things you don't know about!" She teased "I know about a lot of things that you don't think I do."

"I believe it! His reaction's aren't that bad after all! The fact that he can fly let him beat the others. They were hopeless!"

They talked for at least an hour about all of the things that James didn't know about. At first, Lily's friend, Imogen Hayes looked only slightly upset that she was interrupted by James' visit. After half an hour of being ignored however, without a word to either of them, she actually got up and left. Soon after this Lily's attention was commanded by a needy friend and her Defence Against the Dark Arts essay and James was forced to leave her. He returned to his previous corner of the room. When he got there his attention was immediately grabbed by two people who were standing by the wall. He was surprised that they could stand at all from the fury of their kissing. He had to admit that Sirius was really going for it this time and Imogen wasn't any the less crazy.

James sat down next to Remus and they both stared at the unusual couple in astonishment.

"How long have they-?" James asked.

"Couple of minutes." Remus shrugged "I didn't know he knew her ..."

"Me neither. I think he must now her fairly well by now - her mouth at least!" James laughed, finally turning away from the scene and to Remus. "He can't keep doing this - one girl after the other."

"You did it." Remus uttered quietly.

"I did, but now I know that it's pointless."

"Yeah 'cos you've got a chance with Lily now; but he doesn't care about anyone so he's stayed exactly the same."

"It isn't that bad I suppose. It's not like he's on Firewhiskey every night. It's just kissing." James said, reversing his point.

"I suppose" said Remus, once again looking at Sirius and Imogen. He watched Sirius sit down and then Imogen sit on his lap. "But it won't be good if one day all these girls catch up with him."

After more kissing on their part and discussion on their friends, Imogen left for bed. By this time James, Remus and Peter would not have been at all surprised if Sirius hadn't followed her. Instead he went and sat down at a small table near them, wiping his black locks out of his face and to one side. He looked as if all he had done for the past half an hour was read a book. He looked bored.

"You were very enthusiastic." James said with the air of commenting on someone's flying at a Quiddich match.

"Yeah well, it's been a couple of weeks," he replied monotonously.

James laughed, a bellowing laugh which made Sirius smile from under his heavy black eyebrows. He leant back on his chair in a marvellous display of balance, resting his hands behind his neck. Apparently he was pleased at this sort of appraisal that James had shown him. Wormtail joined in but Remus' brows narrowed and he stared cautiously at Sirius, darting him a look of warning. He was sure that one day he would find himself in immense trouble because of his behaviour. Sirius didn't care, trouble was easily evaded.