Author's Note: Well, I hope all of you enjoy this chapter at least a little bit. It was pretty fun, and includes people reactions. I haven't written anything in a while, this is all stuff that I had saved up, but I'll be writing new stuff soon hopefull (crosses fingers) and then hopefully we'll get to some more exciting stuff and fluff. (wink wink)

Love you all lots! Read and Review!

Chapter 26

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It was Sirius's punishment to have to write a letter of apology to Snape, so he decided to get that out of the way right away. He sat down as soon as he got back to the common room. James had offered to help him, but he had merely waved him off, telling him to get some sleep. James looked concernedly at Sirius, but did not argue.

Sirius smiled a little to himself. Dumbledore could punish him as much as he wanted, but he was not going to be sincere in his apology. Stupid Snivelus, it was his own fault. He shouldn't have listened, he shouldn't have been poking around to begin with, and he shouldn't have...been Snivelus. But since he had to write the note he might as well.

Dearest Snivelus, (corssed out and replaced with Severus),

Since Dumbledore deemed it neccessary, I suppose I have to appologize. I'm sorry you listened when I told you where to find Remus, and I'm sorry you felt scared and intimidated by him.

Sirius

Sirius smiled at the letter. He knew that it was mean, and that he should feel remorseful for what he had done, but he had been punished enough. Not having flying priveledges was enough punishment without him having to write some stupid apology letter.

The truth was he did feel bad, but Sirius had never been very good at expressing his emotions, especially not ones that would dammage his pride. And especially not to Snivelus. He knew that James would probablly tell him that he should take this note seriously, which was why he had not asked for his help. Part of Sirius knew it was wrong and hurtful to Severus of him to write this note, but the other, angrier and more resentful part of him blamed the night's events on Severus. He would still be allowed in Hogsmede, not that the restriction would really do anything to stop him, and he would still be allowed to fly if it weren't for stupid Severus. He should have just kept his fat mouth shut.

'That's ridiculous, Sirius, you can't possibly have expected him to keep it to himself that you had tried to kill him. He would have at least blackmailed you,' Sirius told himself reasonably.

'Yes, well then I would still be allowed to fly, wouldn't I?' Sirius replied angrily, shoving the note in an envelope that he found on the floor by the fire and shoving it in his pocket. He would send it the next morning.

Sirius went up to bed and tossed his robes over a chair for the next morning. He pulled his pajamas over his head and crawled into bed. Before twitching the hangings closed, he couldn't help but glance at the empty bed belonging toRemus. He closed the hangings and rolled on his side. He might not care what Snivelus thought, but he deffinately cared about Moony's opinion.

The next morning Sirius was woken by the sound of Peter's whining to James.

"Where were you two last night? I had nothing to do, I was all alone up here. Edgar wasn't even here. I had nothing to do, and last night was when we were supposed to do something exciting. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad I got out of that forbidden forest exploration, but you said we might be able to sneak into Rosie's firewhiskey! Now we'll have to wait an entire month before we can do that," Peter complained.

"Stuff it, Wormy. We had more important things to do, okay? We'll tell you later. It's none of your buisness," James told him. Sirius opened the hangings and rolled out of bed in time to catch Peter's hurt and disappointed look.

"None of my buisness?" he moaned in his squeaky little voice. "You blew me off, I think I have a right to know why. Do you know what I ended up doing last night? I worked on a potions essay. I was that desperate," Peter informed them, turning to Sirius for support. Sirius shrugged, scowling. He pulled his robes over his head and walked out of the room. He heard James telling Peter to ignore it and stop talking about it as he marched sullenly down the stairs to the common room.

Today was a Friday, so at least if things didn't go well with Remus then Sirius would be able to hide out in his bed for the entire weekend and not speak to anyone. Remus was still in the hospital wing recooperating from his previous night as a werewolf, but he would be back in the afternoon or by dinner time at the latest. This morning, however, Sirius would have the great pleasure of watching Severus recieve his letter.

He made his way to the great hall and waited for the post. James and Peter followed him down moments later and took seats on either side of him. They ate in silence, James still looking worried about him. Sirius gave him a half hearted smile of encouragment, trying to convince him that he was all right.

Just then the post arrived and although Sirius did not have a letter, he caught sight of his owl. He whistled and his owl seemed to hear, as it flew over to him. Sirius gave him a strip of bacon off of his plate while tying the note to his leg and then sent it off, whispering the name of the recipient. His owl made a high pitched screeching sound and took off, overturning Peter's pumpkin juice, and flew over to the Slytherin table.

Sirius smirked as he saw Severus read the letter and scowl. He saw him crumple it and rip it to shreds and throw amurderous look at Sirius. 'Ha, stupid git, now he wont have anything to show Dumbledore as proof that I did a half assed job at my apology. Well more like a quarter assed job on it...not even,' Sirius thought, smirking.

Sirius tried to act like his normal self for the rest of the day, but he did not think he was doing a very good job. People did not know what had happened the night before, no one was talking about it. Apparently Snape had done his part in not telling the story, because Sirius was sure that if he had told even one person, all of Hogwarts would have known within the hour.

People were, however, still buzzing about the love potion incedent, which had somehow gotten out. James's part in it was not revealed, and no one knew about the death eaters coming to Hogwarts, if they had than pandamonium would have broken out. Dumbledore appeared to be very good at keeping Hogwarts events under wraps, however, because nothing about it occured in the Daily Prophet.

The only story that Sirius was hearing was that Snape had given Lily a love potion, it had worked, and that was why she had been acting like such a fool lately. The general concensus seemed to be that it had worn off over time. Sirius smirked every time he heard this rendition of the story, knowing that he knew the truth along with a few others. He had the wonderful sensation of knowing smething that no one else knew.

James was concerned with Sirius. He seemed to be very disconnected from what was going on around him and was just walking around as if in a daze. James was not, however, concerned enough to miss his opportunity to talk to Lily. They had not had a chance to really talk about the love potion thing, and he did not know what she knew about the previous night's events. He did not know whether or not he should tell her, but he thought that he would. She would want to know, and he could trust her not to tell anyone. Besides, she already knew Remus's secret, so what harm would it do?

He found her, as usual, in the library. She was sitting alone, so he sat down next to her. She frowned slightly, a crease growing apparent between her eyebrows.

"Hello Lily," James said brightly, with all the enthusiasm he could muster.

"Hi James," Lily replied, looking skeptical. Slowly she closed her books and pushed them aside. "What is it that you want?" she asked, obviously still not trusting his motives in regard to being in a library, considering his intentions last time.

James reminded himself that she was probably the only one in Hogwarts who didn't know about his public display of affection for her from last week when he had stood up on the table and professed his love for her. People had stopped talking about it by now, so he doubted very much that anyone had said anything, unless of course it was Cooper. He wondered if they were still friends after the week of her obsession with Snape. Perhaps he should ask...but that was probably not the best thing to do under the circumstances.

"Will you go out with me?" he asked. 'Stupid, stupid, James. Why? I thought that we agreed it was not a good idea. Stupid great prat,' he chided himself mentally.

"No. Is that what you came here for?" Lily asked him.

"No, it's not actually." James told her.

"Did you come here to give me a new and improved love potion so that I could make a fool of myself again to the whole school? The only consolation that I have is my knowledge that you looked like an equally large fool, from what I hear." So she did know. 'Drat it all,' James thought to himself.

"Yes well, you see, about that-" James started to explain, but she cut him off.

"Or did you come to destory some more friendships?" Lily asked him.

"Lily, I don't-" James told her, looking surprised. Was this still about Alice?

"James, I really can't speak to you right now. I'm glad you saved me from the death eaters and all, but honestly, leave me alone," she said, almost begging. Apparently the anger and resentment that she had not been showing during his explanation that night had surfaced, and she was now ready to take it out on him.

"I'm sorry Lily, but I can't do that," James told her, shaking his head slowly. She ran her hands through her hair in a tired and world weary way. "Look, you don't have to talk to me. I'll talk to you. That's why I came here," he told her. She did not reply. "So I don't know if you've heard anything about what happened last night..." he then went on to tell her everything that had happened, up to and including Sirius and his conversation with Dumbledore and the punishmets they had recieved.

"Why are you telling me this?" she asked him when he had finished.

"Because I trust you, and because I know you won't tell anyone, and because I thought you would like to know," James told her. "And because I wanted to prove to you that I'm not always a bad guy. Dumbledore doesn't think so at least," James added. Lily smiled faintly.

"Yes I suppose that's true," she admitted. "Well if that's all you wanted..." Lily said after a long silence.

"It is. Are you sure you wont go out with me?" James asked after standing and walking part way towards the door.

"Positive," Lily told him, although in truth she was not.

For the entire week that she had been under Sirius's spell, she had been ignoring Cooper. He had not known what it meant that she was suddenly infatuated with Severus, but he had not bought her story of a love potion.

Lily told him over and over again that it had all been because of the potion, but he thought that she had been ignoring him because of Potter. He had seen what he had said that day in the great hall. To be sure Lily had run off, but he was still suspicious. Potter had made not only himself and Lily look like fools, but he had made Cooper look like an idiot as well. Everyone in his own house and probably most of the other houses knew that he and Lily had been spending a great amount of time together. There were pools going on how long it would be until Potter attacked and disfigured Cooper. A lot of people had stakes in the next game, saying that without a doubt Potter would knock Cooper off his broom. And then when he had said that in front of the entire school...well you could imagine how that made Cooper look.

Potter had always had a thing for Lily. He was surprised that he had not been threatened or beat up before now. No doubt a confrontation was in the making. But now it would not be neccessary because he and Lily were no longer anywhere close to being an item.

Lily, after James left, went to find Cooper. She missed his company and wanted him to know it. She wanted him to beleive her about the love potion. She liked him, not Severus or James. Well, the not liking James was still up for debate, but she did not want to like him, and that made a great deal more difference, didn't it?

She found him also sitting alone reading. He was a lot like her that way. She sat down across from him and remained motionless until he looked up at her.

"Yes?" he asked a little coldly.

"I miss you," she told him.

"You do? I thought that Snape was much better company," he said jealously.

"Of course he isn't! How many times must I tell you that it was a love potion, not me? When have you ever seen me behave like that before? Never. And that's because he gave me a love potion." She left out the part about James being the one to have administered the potion, she did not know why but she did not want people to know that it had been him to give it to her. Somehow she knew that if she added that part it would make Cooper more mad. "Cooper, please believe me. I really like you, I wasn't going around with Snape because I liked him. I don't even remember anything that happened that week. It's all gone, I don't remember any of it. All I know is from what people have told me. I never would have conciously ignored you or treated you like that, I promise." Lily told him beseachingly. Cooper shrugged reluctantly. "You believe me?" Lily asked eagerly.

"I suppose so. You've never seemed like the kind of person who would make something like that up," Cooper admitted. The truth was he missed Lily too. That and he had been told by countless people that it had been a love potion, and that Lily was telling the truth. It was all the gossip around Hogwarts.

"So we can be friends again?" Lily confirmed.

"Yes," Cooper said. Then, after a moments hesitation he continued. "Lily, I was actually kind of hoping we could be more than friends," Cooper told her. He might as well press his advantage of having her being in the position of apologizing and claiming that she missed him. What would it hurt?

"Really?" Lily asked.

"Yes. What do you think? We could just try it out, see how it feels. There's this new place in Hogsmede, Madam Puddeyfoots, it's supposed to be really cute. We could go there together next Hogsmede weekend," Cooper suggested. Lily smiled, her face brightening.

"That sounds nice," Lily consented.

"Really? Great," Cooper said, beaming. They returned to their work, tehir conversation drifting to other topics.

Lily was happy, but part of her felt a little empty. She did not know what was missing. Perhaps it was just part of the constant lonliness that is being a teenager. But something else felt different too, sort of a deja vu sensation, like she was watching the same film about a girl named Lily who was not herself that she had seen so many times before. And it was getting old.

Sirius made his way to the hospital wing during lunch. He couldn't handle having the thought of telling Remus looming over him for any longer. If he missed a class, so what? He had done worse. He walked into the hospital wing with only a semblance of his usual swaggering self confidence. He was very much more subdued then usual.

"Pads, what are you doing here?" Remus said, sitting up a little in his bed. He was looking pale and his cheeks were hollowed, just as he always looked after a transformation. "What happened last night? I don't remember anything. Usually I remember at least bits a pieces, especially this year, but I don't remember anything from last night. Did you guys come?" Remus asked him, collapsing back into the pillows.

"Well, truth be told, no." Sirius told him, shifting how weight between his feet. He pulled a chair over and sat so that he could be closer to eye level with Remus.

"What happened?" Remus asked him, blissfully unaware of the previous night's occurance. "What's up with you?" Remus asked, scrutinizing Sirius's face.

"Remus, I did something stupid. You're going to hate me after I tell you, and I'll understand and even encourage you never to speak to me again. I took advantage of you, lied to you, was rash and stupid and I apologize. I don't know what I was thinking. I thought that I should be the one to tell you though, before you heard from someone else," Sirius started. He saw Remus give him a puzzled look. He was as unaccustomed as everyone else to this somber Sirius who actually appeared to have thought about his actions and regret them. "What did you do?" Remus asked slowly. "I told Severus how to find you. Let me tell everything and don't interupt," Sirius told him. He then went on to tell everything that had happened the night before, leaving nothing out and telling the entire truth. He did not slant the story to downsize his own part, or to make Severus sound more in the wrong. Remus desserved the truth.

When he had finished Remus just sat there. For a moment Sirius thought that he had perhaps fallen asleep, lulled by Sirius's voice into a slumber with his eyes open.

"Remus?" Sirius asked.

"I didn't hurt anyone, did I?" Remus almost whispered.

"No, James got there in time to prevent that," Sirius told him.

"No one knows?" Remus asked him, still whispering and looking off into the middle distance. He seemed to be worlds away, thinking about something else entirely.

"Only Severus," Sirius told him.

"I think you should go now," Remus told him. He did not yell. He would never yell at Sirius about this. In fact, he would never broach the subject with him again.

"Remus-" Sirius started, about to apologize again.

"I really need to be alone, I need to think, I need especially to be away from you right now. Send James if you get a chance," Remus told him, rolling onto his side. As Sirius left he thought he heard Remus's choked sobs, sobs which he was obviously trying very hard to prevent.

Remus

This had been a rude awakening for Remus. He could really have hurt someone. He could have killed Severus. And what would that have done? How many lives would he have changed forever? Sirius had completely betrayed his trust. But he did not really blame him. He had only been the enzyme in this instance, increasing the speed of the inevitable outcome. Someone had been bound to find out some day. This kind of thing could not be kept secret. He did not know how Dumbledore had ever expected to keep it hidden. It was a miracle that he had kept it hidden for so long. Perhaps Remus should leave Hogwarts forever, so as not to put anyone else at risk.

Remus rolled over on his hospital matress and cried. He cried for all the people he could have hurt, and he cried for all the other werewolves in his position, but most of all he cried for himself.

The Slytherins

"Shut up, you little worm. You are in no position to argue right now. You have no right to even be here after that fiasco with the mudblood. Why on earth didn't you try to stop those nosy Gryffindors from getting into the tower? Never mind. I don't even want to attempt to phathom the workings of your obviously tiny and incompetent mind," Lucious spat at Severus, looking murderous and also revolted. "You are weak, Severus, and the Dark Lord needs powerful allies. You are not worthy of serving him."

There were murmers of agreement at this pronouncement, which was only to be expected of this crowd. Everything Lucious said was met with murmers of agreement and nods.

'They're all a bunch of puppets and he's the puppeteer,' Severus thought darkly as he looked around the circle.

"But to lose your prefects badge for it? How did it get out for God's sake? Why didn't you deny it?" Bella added, joining in on the attack and sneering, as she always did. She would have been quite pretty if she weren't always sneering.

"I told you," Severus muttered, eyes downcast. "Potter snitched on me like the little weasle that he is, I couldn't deny it. Black corroberated his story, Evans too," Severus told them. "There was nothing I could do," he snarled as this pronouncement was met with shaking heads and laughter.

"We've been over this already, many times," Lucious said, waving his hand. It was true, they had been over this many times before. "I still don't understand..." he moaned, massaging his temples.

"Oh, Lucious, I think that I understand. I think that you do too, much as you would like to deny it," Bella told him, casting Severus calculating look.

"What's that Trixie?" Lucious asked. Bella sneered again.

"Our dear Severus is in love with the mudblood," she said simply. All eyes were fixated on Severus. He squirmed in his seat. Everyone, it seemed, had stopped breathing just to stare at him and get his reaction.

"That is a lie," he said slowly, forcing the words out one at a time.

"I think not, Sneverus. Perhaps it would be best if you stopped coming to our little meetings, you can't trust someone who is in love with the enemy," Bella suggested mildly. Heads were nodding all around him. "Perhaps this will give you time to decide where your loyalties truely lie. Then maybe we can avoid another instance similar to that which occured in the astronomy tower."

"Yes," Lucious said. There was nothing else that he could really add. Bella had outlined the entire plan of action, leaving nothing for him to say. He did look slightly irritated by that, but he was still smug over the plan. And it was effectively his order which made it happen. Before Crabbe and Goyle could 'escort' him from the gathering, his rose of his own free will and walked away, cloak swirling.

"Now that that has been taken care of, shall we move on?" Bella suggested.

Alice, Holly, Caroline, and Janette were blissfully unaware of everything that had happened. They knew that she had been under a love potion, but they knew nothing of anything else. All they had eben told was that James had given her the potion that night and, while they had ben a little annoyed at him for doing so after agreeing to wait until the next morning, they forgave him. Lily had deffended him, much to their suprise.

But Lily was growing more distant from her friends lately, she had not told them anything of what had happened with the whomping willow, or with the death eaters, or anything. She did, however, tell Hazel. They were sitting in the library three days after it had happened when Lily told her. Lily had been reviewing for a transfiguration test when she suddenly slammed her book shut.

"What's wrong Lily?" Hazel asked with suprise, looking up from her own book.

"I have to tell you something," Lily said simply. Hazel closed her book and waited patiently.

"Okay, I'm listening," she prompted when Lily did not speak. Lily looked around nervously, checking to see if anyone was there. Then she produced her wand and muttered something that glittered faintly for a moment before diappearing. It had looked to Hazel like a sort of wall around their table.

"Don't worry, it's just so that no one can overhear us," Lily explained. Hazel was intrigued now. What could be so secretive? Lily went on to tell her all about what had happened with the love potion, the real story, not just the edited one that she had told her.

She had originally told Hazel the same thing she had told Holly, Janette, Alice, and Caroline, which was that James was trying to be helpful so he gave her the potion the night before. She told Hazel everything, all the way through the whomping willow incedent, not scimping on any of the details. She did not even attempt to downplay Sirius's role.

"Wow," was all Hazel said when the story was over.

"Yeah," Lily agreed.

"So are you still mad at him?" Hazel asked, reffering, Lily assumed, to James.

"Of course I am. He tried to make me fall in love with him, Hazel!" Lily told her. She did not have to worry about being hushed by Madam Pince due to the very handy impenitrable charm.

"Oh," hazel replied. it was obvious that her mind was somewhere else.

"Do you think I should forgive him?" Lily demanded.

"You can't force yourself to forgive someone, so even if I told you to it wouldn't make a difference," Hazel observed.

"Well yes, but you do think I should forgive him?" Lily confirmed.

"I don't know. He was very brave, going into that tree to save Severus. He hates Severus," Hazel told her, still looking into the middle distance.

"Yes, I suppose so," Lily conceeded.

"And he did save you from the death eaters too," Hazel added.

"Well maybe so, but I wouldn't have needed saving if he hadn't given me the potion," Lily told her.

"See, I told you. No matter what I say, you are determined not to forgive him, so it doesn't really matter, does it?" Hazel told her, making to open her book again.

"Well you know, I might forgive him if I had a reason to," Lily grumbled.

"I've just given them to you. And just so you know, I bet Severus would have found some other way to get you to fall in love with him even if James had refused," Hazel told her, flipping through the pages to find her spot.

"Well then he's just stupid," Lily told Hazel. She had really wanted someone to say 'oh yes, that James Potter, what a prat.'

"Or you could take it as a compliment," Hazel suggested. "Look, I have to go, but I'll talk to you later," Hazel told her, shoving the book in her bag distractedly and leaving the library. Lily took down the shield and resumed her studying.

"Stupid James," she muttered as she picked up where she had left off in her transfiguration notes. Hazel, rather than returning to her common room, made her way in what she knew to be the general direction of the Gryffindor tower. She needed to find Sirius. He was going to be very upset right now. That would explain why he had been moping around the castle lately. It would also explain why Remus was looking so devastated recently. She saw someone walking along the corridor towards her.

"Excuse me, are you in Gryffindor?" she asked of the younger student.

"Yes," the blonde girl said, looking nervous.

"Will you find Sirius Black for me? I'm in Ravenclaw and I can't go into the tower," he explained.

"Are you his girlfriend?" the girl asked curiously.

"No," Hazel told her, blushing.

"Oh, well okay then. I'll go get him for you. What's your name?" the girl asked as she turned around to go back in the direction she had come from.

"Hazel," Hazel replied.

"Oh, I'm Amelia Bones," the girl replied. "I'm a fourth year," she said, sounding somewhat proud of herself. The girl then turned and walked back up the hallway to her house common room. Hazel was suprised. A fourth year? She had not looked older than twelve. But perhaps that was just Hazel. The younger students looked so much younger than she remembered looking when she had been that age. Amelia returned about ten minutes later, a disgruntled and incredulous looking Sirius in her wake. Hazel had just been losing hope of Amelia ever coming back, she thought maybe she had just taken some other route to her destination, shaking her head at the weirdness of the older girl. But here she was, task completed. Sirius stopped still when he saw Hazel standing there.

"Hi," Hazel said.

"Hi," Sirius replied, still looking amazed to see her. Amelia tactfully left. "What are you doing here?" Sirius asked her.

"I came to find you," Hazel told him.

"I gathered. I didn't believe Amelia when she told me that you had come to find me," Sirius told her.

"Why not?" Hazel asked.

"We didn't exactly part on the best of terms last time, if you'll remember," Sirius commented.

"Yes, well, can we not talk about that?" Hazel asked him. She wanted to add 'ever'.

"Okay. What is it that you wanted to talk about?" Sirius asked her, looking puzzled. He brushed his hair out of his eyes, making Hazel smile. Truth be told, she had missed Sirius.

"Well," Hazel started, than she paused. She had not really thought about what it was she wanted to say, which was not very like her. She usually had an entire speach planned out at this point, but this time she had been too occupied with trying to find him at all that she hadn't thought about what she would say when she did find him.

"Well?" Sirius asked her.

"Lily told me," Hazel told him.

"Lily told you what?" Sirius asked her, more confused than ever.

"Everything. She told me about Remus, about the willow, about everything. The potion, everything," Hazel told him.

"Oh," Sirius said, shifting guiltily from one foot to the other. "So I suppose you've come to tell me off then?" Sirius asked.

"Oh Sirius," Hazel said, shaking her head. She walked towards him, closing the gap between them, and wrapped her arms around him. He stood there frozen for a moment. Then he put his arms around her. They stood there like that for a long time. Someone passed them and gave them a funny look, which made Sirius straighten up. He was always very conscience of his public image. He lead her into an empty classroom that was down the hall and sat at a desk across from her.

"Hazel, I don't know why I did it," he confessed. She looked at him with more tenderness and concern than he had ever recieved in his life. He started to cry, tears leaking out of the corners of his eyes no matter how he tried to stem their flow. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "You should tell me off, Hazel," he said at last. "I wish someone would just yell at me. Dumbledore didn't, he just gave me a lecture. Remus didn't, James told me I was an idiot, Severus is the only one who really yelled at me, and even he didn't too bad because Dumbeldore was right there. I wish someone would just give me a good holler and hit me really hard," Sirius told her.

"It's okay Sirius. If you really want me to hit you, I will. But I think that you're beating yourself up more than anyone else could," Hazel told him soothingly, stroking his hair out of his face. She tenderly wiped away the traces of tears lingering on his cheeks. It was as if no time had passed, as if they had never stopped being friends.

"Hazel, he could have died. And Remus could have killed him. He never would have forgiven himself for that. I don't think he'll ever really forgive me for it either." Sirius said, choking up again.

"Of course he will. We all make mistakes, Sirius. Just forget it. Well don't forget it, learn from it. Don't do it again. Think about the things you're doing, Sirius. You're so impulsive, I don't know how you've managed as long as you have without getting someone killed. Or almost getting someone killed. You're friends will forgive you, Sirius, don't worry. I know they will," Hazel told him. He nodded, then shook his head.

"If I were my friend, I wouldn't firgive me," he told her.

"Well your other friends will. You may not forgive yourself for a while, but that might be a good thing. Maybe you'll stop picking on other students," Hazel told him, smiling.

"Will you forgive me?" Sirius asked.

"I'm not mad at you," Hazel told him.

"Will Lily forgive me?"

"I'm sure that she will," Hazel said with confidence.

"More importantly, I suppose, will Lily forgive James?" Sirius asked her, smiling a little himself.

"I think that she will," Hazel said, thinking about it for a moment. "I don't know when, but I think she will."

"And you won't tell anyone about Remus?" Sirius asked her.

"Of course not! I would never tell," Hazel told him.

"And," Sirius started, about to ask the thing that had been on his mind for some time. "And will we be friends again?" he asked her.

"Do you want to be?" Hazel asked.

"Yes," Sirius said at once.

"Then yes," Hazel said, smiling.

Remus still had not forgiven himself for the incedent with Severus. He knew it wasn't his fault, but he could have really hurt him. He needed to leave Hogwarts. He could not continue putting others at risk like this.

He was walking down the hallway to Dumbledore's office while he thought this. He had been to Dumbeldore's office before to talk about his condition. He tapped on tha statue of the gargoyle and softly called for Dumbledore.

"Ah, Mr. Lupin, I had expected you to come by soon," Dumbledore said as he opened the door.

"Yes," Remus confirmed. He follwed Dumbledore up the moving spiral staircase and entered Dumbledore's office with him. "Professor, I've just come to tell you that I'm leaving Hogwarts," Remus told him, not sitting down.

"What?" Professor Dumbledore asked, obviously caught off guard.

"I can't keep putting the other students at risk like this. It isn't fair to them," Remus said, turning to go. "I just thought I should tell you."

"Sit down, Mr. Lupin," Dumbledore instructed. Remus reluctantly sat down in a seat opposite Dumbledore. "That is a very noble thing to want to do, Mr. Lupin," Dumbledore said.

"It's not that noble. I never should have been allowed to come here to begin with. What happened the other night was proof of that."

"You'll forgive me for saying so, but I think you're wrong," Dumbledore said mildly.

"Professor, I could have killed someone," Remus told him. "How long did you really think we would be able to keep this a secret? Even if Sirius hadn't told, it would have gotten out sooner or later."

"Mr. Lupin, if you give up your schooling you will never be able to survive out there, you will never be able to get a job, to make a living for yourself,"
Dumbledore told him.

"Honestly professor, how many people do you think want to hire a werewolf anyway, even an educated one?" Remus asked reasonably. "Stop kidding yourself, I'm not going to be able to make anything of myself, so I may as well leave and let the people who have a chance out there survive long enough to do just that."

"More than who want to hire an uneducated one, that's for sure. And if you don't mind my saying so, who knows how many jobs there will even be soon. You know about the death eaters and the Voldemort, I presume?" Remus nodded. "You will need an education if only to deffend yourself, Mr. Lupin. Please listen to me when
I tell you to stay at Hogwarts. It is the safest place for you and for anyone else," Professor Dumbledore told him. Remus nodded. "So you'll give up these notions of leaving school?" Dumbledore asked.

"Yes sir," Remus told him.

"Very well then, I suggest you run along to dinner," Dumbedlore told him. Remus left, silently cursing himself for not being able to argue.

Author's Note: Okay, so I hope you all enjoyed that to some extent. I rather did I think...Poor Remus, I love him. Poor James, I love hime too...I had to get Hazel back into Sirius's life because it was just getting too sad to write really. I like writing about the Slytherins, actually. And ppor James! Lily and Cooper...shivvers. I had to get Hazel and Sirius together so that I would be able to hold out a little longer on James and Lily's burgeoning relationship...too bad really. Review!