Much to everyone's shock – aside from Sirius, James and Peter who all saw what had happened that night in the forest – Remus Lupin and Adriana Finn broke up that day. Adriana had been scared the night before. She had always known what Remus was, but had never truly realized what kinds of effects it would have on her. Remus understood that, he respected that. And when he offered her space and time to let it all sink in he was definitely being sincere. He loved her.

But he had not been expecting space and time to translate into a break up.

And he had definitely not been expecting her to begin dating Marcus Zalphin one month after they broke up.

Now, if anyone asked Remus honestly if he thought that he and Adriana would stay broken up he would've answered with a vehement "Definitely not!" But as the time passed in seventh year, Remus began to doubt his own conviction. Sure, they still talked, but not like they used to. They never talked about personal thing anymore, they only really conversed about school in strained and uncomfortable conversations that he cherished because they were the only contact he had with her any more. When the group all got together they would talk, but it wasn't the same, probably never would be the same.

She seemed to be doing everything to avoid him, and ever since that night she had completely immersed herself in her potions homework. Only he knew it wasn't really homework, the books she was reading weren't even covered in the Hogwarts NEWTs curriculum.

Remus sighed as he watched Adriana read one of her many 'school books' on difficult herbs for potions and their magical properties. She was scribbling away furiously and Remus wished that he could go talk to her. Sure, he could always walk over and try and begin a discussion with her, but that would get him no where. They would politely have a strained conversation about nothing and than she would get all awkward and either leave or someone would come over and join the conversation.

They could never talk like they used to.

Things would probably never go back to the way they used to be.

Hell, Remus would give anything to even go back to the way things were before they started dating. Even when he had always had her complaining to him about her unrequited love for James, at least he had been around her.

Adriana looked up from her potions book and they held eye contact for a moment. A strange expression crossed her face and she forced a polite smile for him. Remus smiled back, praying that he didn't look too much like an idiot. Adriana kept his gaze for a second longer before looking back down and writing away again.

Remus continued to watch her for a while, shifting in his seat so that it looked more like he was gazing at the fire instead of her so that she didn't get uncomfortable under his gaze. Since she had started dating Zalphin she began to alter her appearance. She did little things that went unnoticed by everyone other than Remus who had always been a big advocate on her keeping her natural looks. Her eyes had gotten narrower, her lips a bit thinner. She had also made herself look paler and taken all the ringlets out of her hair so that it hung straight and past her shoulders.

He didn't like it one bit.

But life had gone on. Circe and Sirius had continued to date, and James and Lily had even begun a relationship. It seemed to him - as manic depressive as it sounded - that everyone was happy but him.

"Hey there Moony," Sirius said with a good natured pat on Remus' back as he took the seat next to Remus on the couch. "How's it going?"

Remus shot Sirius a look that told him exactly how horribly everything was going as James and Peter came over and sat on the couch across from Sirius and Remus.

"Don't worry Moony; everything will all work out in the end." James said, knowing that Remus' misery stemmed entirely from his problems with Adriana. Sirius looked over at Adriana and waved, catching her attention. She waved back and than looked pointedly at her watch before packing up her stuff and leaving the common room, presumably for the library.

Remus sighed again, "She hates me."

"She doesn't hate you mate," James replied looking sympathetic. Remus didn't want their sympathy.

"Yeah, she's just confused." Sirius spoke up too.

"She'll come around," Peter spoke up, trying his best to sound comforting.

"Circe said that Adriana has been acting a bit off lately," Sirius leaned forward and lowering his voice as he spoke. If Circe knew about him acting as a double agent she probably would stop voicing her worries about Adriana. But Sirius had been friends with Remus longer than with Circe and he knew Remus needed all the help he could get.

Remus wasted no time in asking, "Off how?"

"Just off, you know. Circe says that she's been spending a lot of time with Zalphin," at this Remus cringed and Sirius glanced apologetically at him, but kept on. He had promised to tell Remus everything that Circe said about Adriana. "But she doesn't seem to be happy. All she ever does is study her potions books. According to Circe Adriana is working on some big project, but it must be for extra credit because none of the other potions students know anything about it."

"She certainly has become obsessed," James said with concern. "Maybe she's making some kind of potion up, to pass time? She does want to be an Auror doesn't she? Maybe she's just trying to get an edge over all the other applicants?"

"Yeah, maybe." Remus leaned back in his chair and brushed the hair out of his eyes. It hurt so much that he had to hear all about Adriana's life from his friends, but there was no real help for it.

Sirius also leaned back in his chair just as the door to the common room opened and Lily and Circe walked in. They hurriedly changed the subject at James' and Sirius' girlfriends walked over and sat with the group.

After only a few minutes of hanging out with his best friends and their girlfriends Remus politely excused himself and left for his dorm room. It was only 9:00 at night, but Remus didn't feel much like being social anymore.

All he wanted was to go to sleep so he could dream of Adriana and how things used to be …

A/N I am REALLY REALLY sorry about the long wait in between chapters! I have said it before and I will say it again, I hate it when other authors take so long with updating, and I wish I wasn't so busy and that I could update more often. This chapter was incredibly hard to write and I have been working on it for the last few months. It's not as good as I would've liked but as my two stories draw to an end it just gets harder and harder. I hope you enjoy it and I shall really really try to update more often.
Grad is in 7 weeks so I should have a lot more time then, and I will make an effort to update before then too!