I tried all week to get Sirius alone, but somehow, he always managed to inexplicably slip away. One second he'd be walking down a corridor, alone, and the next he'd just be…gone. I know that we go to a magical school, but you can't apparate within the castle…and Sirius was just disappearing from plain sight. I felt terrible after our fight; it was obvious that his family wasn't something he liked to talk about, and yet I'd pushed him and pushed him. I should have known better – I wasn't in the habit of pressuring people I barely knew into talking about their private lives. I didn't even push Bert or Flor when they didn't want to talk about something. I wasn't nosy by nature – there was just something about Sirius that irked me, and I needed to know why he did the things he did.

Regardless, I needed to say that I was sorry, even if he didn't want to hear it. With that goal in mind, I'd spent the entire evening looking for him. He wasn't down at the Quidditch pitch, he wasn't in the Great Hall, and he wasn't in the kitchens. Just as I was about to give up hope, admit defeat, and head back to my common room, I spotted Remus and Peter turn the corner into the corridor I was walking down.

"Hey!" I called, rushing towards them. Remus looked up and smiled at me, waving enthusiastically.

"Hey, Frankie!" He said brightly.

"Hi Remus. Hi there, Peter, how are you?"

"Hi," Peter squeaked, turning bright red.

"What're you doing?" Remus asked. He came to a stop next to me and dropped his bag onto the ground with a loud thump.

"Actually, I'm looking for Black. Have any idea where he is?" I asked.

Remus and Peter exchanged a glance. When Remus turned back to me, his face was sympathetic. "Did something happen between the two of you?" He asked. "Only, he nearly growled when James brought you up the other day."

"He's been acting weird all week," Peter said. "He's been carrying the –"

"Wormtail," Remus snapped, cutting him off.

"Sorry, Moony," Peter apologized quickly, dropping his gaze.

I looked between the two of them, before shrugging off their weird behavior. "Yeah, we had a slight argument. I asked him about his brother," I admitted. "He freaked out at me. I feel badly about it."

Remus nodded sympathetically. "He really hates talking about Regulus. We don't even ask anymore."

"One time, James asked if Regulus was going home for Christmas and Sirius bit his…" Peter laughed. Remus elbowed him, hard, in the side and Peter yelped in pain.

"Sometimes, talking to you guys is nearly impossible," I said, shaking my head. "I have no desire to know what Sirius was biting of James's, or why he was doing so. I just need to find him so I can apologize."

Remus sighed loudly, running his hand through his sandy hair. "I am definitely going to regret this…he's probably in the library. Muggle Studies section – he likes to look at the motorcycle magazines when he gets bored. I don't think he'll be able to… tell you're coming."

I blinked in surprise. The library was the one place I'd never bothered to look for him; and I certainly wouldn't have thought he'd be hiding in the Muggle Studies section if I had thought to check. "Right…err...thanks!"

I took off down the hallway towards the library, leaving Remus and Peter standing in my wake. I made it to the library in record time, pushed open the large double doors and made my way quietly towards the Muggle Studies section. I crept through the stacks, making sure to stay as quiet as I could; I poked my head around the corner into the Muggle Studies section. Sirius was sitting in a dark corner, as far away from anyone's prying eyes as he possibly could be. Not that it was hard to stay hidden in this section; in my six and a half years or so at Hogwarts, I'd never seen anyone come anywhere near this section. Even the kids who took Muggle Studies barely had to study for it – they were all mainly Muggleborn kids who took it for an easy pass and never needed to study.

I took a deep breath, steeling myself for the conversation that was about to happen. I pushed off the bookcase and swung around it. I dropped into the chair across from Sirius; he was so startled, he actually jumped slightly. When he realized it was just me, he looked back down at the book he was taking notes from, ignoring me completely. I rolled my eyes, reached across the table and yanked the book away from him.

"Oi!" He exclaimed angrily, lunging for the book. I held it up, taunting him with it, with my other hand, I held up one finger in the air.

"One minute. Give me one minute and you can have your book back, I promise."

Sirius glared at me, not saying anything. I raised my eyebrows at him in challenge, and he sighed loudly. "How'd you even know where I was?" He asked angrily. I merely shrugged, and he rolled his eyes in realization. "I'm going to kill Moony later. Fine, you have one minute, since you went to all the trouble of finding me. Go."

"I just wanted to say that I'm sorry, and I don't know why I insisted on pushing you. You have every right to not want to talk about something, especially with someone you barely know, and I really am sorry for upsetting you. I usually try to mind my own business and I promise to do so in the future," I said quickly, the words spilling from my mouth unceremoniously. Sirius sat back in his seat, crossing his arms petulantly. He looked me up and down for a second before speaking.

"I don't talk about my family – ever. Got it?"

"Fine," I said with a nod. "I won't bring them up again. You have my word on that."

He held my gaze for a moment, eyes narrowed, before his expression softened and he leaned forward, his elbows on the table. "I'll give you a pass on this one, Russo. A sign of good faith – since I've been such a dick to you."

"You haven't been –" I began, but Sirius laughed and cut me off.

"I haven't exactly been pleasant, have I?"

"No, not particularly," I admitted. "But that's part of your charm, or something. Isn't that what drives all of the girls wild?" Sirius laughed again.

"You're not too bad, Russo," he said nonchalantly, crossing his arms behind his head and leaning backwards so that his chair had two legs off the ground. He smirked at me. "Do you know how many girls I've had to find ways to avoid for extended periods of time? Seventeen. Do you know how many of them were following me to apologize? Before you – zero. You're…a complete fucking enigma to me."

I shrugged, throwing his book back at him. He caught it by the tips of his fingers, the book nearly hitting him in the chest. "Guess you've been hanging out with the wrong girls."

Sirius nodded, his eyes never leaving my face. "Yeah," he said slowly. "I guess so."

It took James all of twelve hours to find me; He slipped a note into my Charms book, somehow, telling me to meet them in the Room of Requirement after dinner that night. Bertram came with me to drop off our books before heading to the Great Hall to eat; he was waiting for me by the entrance when I came down from the dorm, rocking back and forth in his polished black leather shoes.

"Ready to go?" He asked cheerfully.

"Ready," I nodded. Bertram led the way out of the common room, and we began our ascent to the Great Hall.

"I figured after dinner we could head to the library and start reviewing for that Transfiguration exam," Bertram said. I pulled open the door to the Great Hall, stepping back to let Bertram go in first. He spotted Flor and waved to her; we made our way to the two open spots she'd saved for us at the table. "I'm still having a lot of trouble getting rid of the fur completely…"

"Oh, um…I'll have to meet you after; emergency Prefect meeting," I lied, avoiding Bertram's eyes.

"Don't you have one tomorrow?" Bertram asked. He looked over his shoulder, eyes stark with confusion.

"Uh…" I started. I made a big production of sitting down, trying to buy time to come up with an excuse. Bertram has always had such a good memory; he knows my schedule better than I do most of the time. I used to love it because he always reminds me when I'm running late for something, but it definitely makes it more difficult to sneak around. "Yeah, we have one tomorrow too. I don't know what's going on – Remus let me know this morning that Lily had called for one, so I have to go. It's rubbish, I really needed tonight to study too. Hopefully it shouldn't take too long."

Bertram seemed to accept this; he nodded his head and began loading his plate with vegetables. I glanced at Flor, but her head was down, shoveling peas into her mouth at a truly alarming rate.

"You okay Flor?" I asked.

Flor picked her head up, mouth stuffed to the gills with food. She made a big production of swallowing her food before smiling widely. "Dom planned something romantic for us tonight. I have to meet him in ten minutes, but I'm absolutely starving."

I stilled, fork halfway to my mouth. Bertram's eyebrows were furrowed as he looked between Flor and me. Fuck. I'd forgotten that Dominic, Flor's boyfriend, was also a prefect.

"Doesn't he have to go the prefect meeting tonight?" Bertram asked.

Flor looked confused. "I mean…he just told me to meet him, so I don't think so?"

Bertram turned to me. "So…where are you going after dinner?"

I floundered, reaching for something, anything, that I could use to explain why I'd lied. If I didn't say something believable, Bert and Flor would hound me for weeks about what I was hiding. I could tell them that I was failing a class and taking remedial lessons…but Flor and I shared our marks obsessively with each other, so she'd know I was lying. I could tell them that I'd taken up gobstones – no one in their right mind would willingly tell someone that unless it was true – but I think Bertram once dated a girl in the club and I couldn't remember for the life of me what day they actually met. Fuck…what was I going to tell them?

"Frankie?" Flor prompted. "What's going on? What are you doing after dinner?"

"I'm…" I started, panicking. I reached, desperately, for something, anything. "Dating Remus?" I finished. It came out sounding more like a question than an announcement, and I froze in shock after the words came out of my mouth, my entire body coming to a stop.

"What?" Bertram exclaimed, at the same time Flor shrieked, "Shut the fuck up!"

"What do you mean you're dating Remus Lupin? You can't date him." Bertram asked, his face reddening. He was holding his fork so tightly that his knuckles were turning white. Flor was glaring at him, and smacked him on the arm angrily.

"Will you unclench?" Flor demanded. "This is so exciting! How did it happen? Was it during a patrol? Oh Merlin, I am so excited! You haven't even talked about a boy since you and Mason broke up, and that was ages ago!"

"It wasn't ages ago, it wasn't even a year ago," I protested.

"Yeah," Flor waved her hand dismissively at me. "But that's like a lifetime in Hogwarts years."

"Can you please explain to me when this happened and why?" Bertram insisted. "I mean, you know what he's friends with. What could you possibly see in him?"

"Bert," Flor hissed. "Remus is lovely! Just because you have a sick and twisted hatred of Potter and Black doesn't mean you have to hate them all."

"I don't have a sick and twisted hatred!" Bertram protested, offended. "They blew up my bloody head, Flor. They're mad!"

"You don't even know if they were aiming for you or not!"

"What does that matter?"

"You've always taken things too personally, Bert."

I rolled my eyes at their bickering, tuning them out as Flor's voice got higher and higher. I couldn't help but feel like I'd just made a huge mess of things; I let my head drop into my hands with a moan. I'd have to figure something out, before Flor and Bertram realized Remus and I weren't actually dating, and I had to tell them that I was helping James Potter with his love life. The thought alone was so ridiculous, that I actually chuckled.

"You know as well as I do that Lupin tries his best to handle Black and Potter. Plus, Frankie has had a crush on his for ages…can't you just be happy for her?" Flor said, smacking her hands down on the table and breaking me out of my thoughts.

Bertram considered for a minute before nodding in agreement. "I suppose...I suppose that Remus isn't as offensive as his friends." The words looked as if they physically pained him coming out of his mouth. "But Frankie, why didn't you just tell us?" He asked accusingly.

I glared at him in disbelief. I know that it wasn't an actual relationship, but if it had been, Bertram would've been the last person I told; his reaction to the fake news was about ten times less dramatic than I would have feared. "Right, Bert, I think the fork that you're strangling may have some thoughts on why I didn't want to tell you."

Bert let the fork drop out of his hand, looking sheepish. "They're all bad guys, Frank. As long as he doesn't hurt you, though …I guess it's okay. I couldn't stand to see you hurt, not again."

"Well, great," I said sarcastically, pushing away from the table. "As long as you're okay with it. I've got to go."

I was offended on behalf of my fake relationship; who was Bertram to give me his blessing on who I did or did not date? He doesn't get to have an opinion. If I wanted to date Severus Snape himself, Bert should have nothing to say about it. Despite what Sirius may think, Bertram wasn't actually my boyfriend and he never would be. The very idea of dating Bert made me shiver in disgust – he was like my brother. And just like a brother, I should have expected that he'd get all protective the next time I decided to date a boy – even if the relationship was fake. He'd been weird when I'd started dating Mason too, but given that Oscar was here – and actually my brother – he'd kept his opinions mostly to himself. I wish he'd continue to keep his opinions to himself, but I knew why he couldn't.

I let myself stew all the way to the Room of Requirement. I continued to get angrier and angrier as I summoned the door, and pushed it open so hard that it slammed against the wall behind it with a loud bang.

The boys were sitting on the couches inside already; all four of them jumped in surprise at my entrance.

"Alright there Frankie?" James asked cautiously. He looked nervous, as though I was going to rip one of their heads off if they said the wrong word. I took a deep breath to calm myself before stomping across the room and slumping down next to Remus. Sirius sat across from me, his grey eyes following me intently as I folded my arms and glared at James.

"You, shut up," I snapped.

"Me?" James said in shock. "What in Merlin did I do?"

"'Oh, please help me Frankie, I really need your help winning over Lily stupid Evans'," I said in a rude imitation of his voice. Peter giggled nervously and Remus adjusted himself so that he was facing me. James's mouth dropped open as he mouthed wordlessly. The only person to not react was Sirius; his eyes never moved from my direction, but he showed no visible reaction to my outburst.

"Frankie…did something happen?" Remus asked cautiously. I made a noise in the back of my throat that he must have taken for affirmation, because he followed with. "What happened? Was it bad?"

"Depends on who you ask," I said in a falsely calm voice. "If you ask me, I made the idiotic mistake of agreeing to work with my best friend's arch nemesis and Karma is catching up to me. If you ask Flor, she's just happy that I'm finally getting over my brother's best friend and dating again. And if you ask Bert…I may as well have declared that I was going to marry Voldemort himself."

Sirius's eyes hardened subtly at the word "dating". He clenched his jaw tightly and sat back against the couch, crossing his arms. Nobody said anything for a moment, until Remus cleared his throat and asked, "who are you dating?"

I laughed. "You, apparently."

Remus's eyes widened comically. "Me?" He croaked, his cheeks beginning to blush.

James leaned forward with his elbows on his knees. "Can you explain what's going? When did you two start dating?"

"We're not!" Remus insisted, looking panicked.

"Well," I said. "As of today we are…at least we're pretending to be. I told Bert and Flor I had a prefect meeting tonight, as an excuse for coming here. I forgot that Flor's boyfriend is a Ravenclaw prefect, and she had plans with him so they knew I was lying. I may have…accidentally blurted out that I was dating Remus and meeting him tonight."

"You sly dog!" James said with a whoop, reaching across the coffee table to slap Remus on the shoulder. "Getting yourself a girlfriend without even trying."

Remus looked like he wanted to run away and never come back. "But, but…Frankie…how are we going…I can't…I've never…"

"Look, it'll be no big deal, okay?" I said with a sigh. "My friends know that I hate PDA – I really don't enjoy being touched that much. When I was with Mason, we barely did more than hold hands between classes in public. They won't think it's weird if we have very minimal interaction."

"I can't…" Remus protested immediately in a panicked voice.

"Well, we have to," I snapped, cutting him off. "I can't tell Bert that I'm actually helping James, and this is what I came up with to get his to stop asking me questions every time I tell him I can't study with him. So either we do this, or I stop helping James. And I'm sorry, Remus, to throw you into this, but I don't think I'm so disgusting that it'll cause you irreparable damage to walk me to a couple of classes and hold my hand."

"WHAT," Remus spluttered. "Of course you're not disgusting… I didn't mean…I would never…very attrac…Merlin…."

"Moony, take a breath," Sirius said. He was wearing a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "Frankie was just teasing you."

"Huh," Remus said, looking up at me with eyes wide.

I smiled and shrugged. "You made yourself an easy target."

Remus took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. "Okay. So we just have to pretend for a little while that we're dating so that you can use me as an excuse to come meet us."

"And technically, when I tell them I'm coming to meet you, it won't be a lie," I said, shrugging again. "Once James gets Lily to agree to a date, we can break up and go back to the way things were before."

"No we can't," James said, his eyebrows furrowed.

"Why not?" I asked, confused.

"Because now you're our friend," Peter said simply. I felt my heart stir at his words, and I smiled sadly. I could never be their friend, not really. Not if I wanted to keep the friends I already had. But I would miss them, when our time of scheming was over.

I decided to change the topic, rather than give away what I was thinking. "Speaking of…how did things go with Lily since we last talked?"

James took off on a long-winded story, describing how he'd put together the patrol schedule and given it to Lily days before it was due, and how she'd actually thanked him with a smile when he handed it to her. I nodded encouragingly as he told me that she'd passed him toast the next morning without an insult, and allowed him to carry her books to Potions; the entire time James was talking, though, I felt that Sirius never took his eyes off of me.

After we'd spent some time planning James's next move, Sirius insisted on walking me back to my dormitory. Although I protested – I didn't want Bertram to see us together – Sirius insisted. We walked in silence, coming to a stop outside our entrance hole in the basement. I turned to thank him for walking me, to find that he was staring at me once again. The castle was quiet – too quiet. It was just ten minutes to curfew, and most everyone had been tucked into their common rooms for ages by now. The intensity of Sirius's stare made me nervous, so I looked down and shuffled my feet anxiously.

"Do you ever get tired of it?" He asked suddenly, breaking the silence.

I looked up. "Tired of what?"

"Letting Aubrey boss you around…like you're his property or something?"

"Bert doesn't…" I protested.

"Yes, he does," Sirius said heatedly, taking a step closer to me. "Do this, Frankie. Come here after lunch, Frankie. Study three hours a day, Frankie. Don't talk to Potter or Black, Frankie. Don't do anything without asking me first, Frankie," he said in a nasty, pitched imitation of Bertram.

"Bert doesn't do that!" I snapped, my face heating.

"Yes, he does. It's not normal for someone to know what you're doing every minute of the day; but that kid follows you around as though he's your father. Don't you realize that he's in love with you?"

"You don't know what you're talking about," I said angrily, taking a step back.

Sirius took another step forward so that our chests were nearly touching, and he was cornering me against the wall at my back. "The way he follows you around sometimes…it makes me sick. Do you really not see it, or are you just leading him on?"

"He's just protective," I insisted, my breaths starting to come painfully, my chest heaving with the effort to push down the incoming panic attack. Sirius was too close, the space I was in was too small, and there wasn't enough air between us for me to breath.

"The fact that you have to lie to him about where you're going isn't right. He doesn't own you, and yet you let him walk all over you. You know why I was so surprised when you told James to stop letting Lily treat him like garbage? Because you let Aubrey treat you like garbage."

His words sparked an anger in me that I couldn't control; I threw all my strength against him, pushing him off of me. "You don't know what the fuck you're talking about. You want to know why Bert is so protective of me?" I snapped furiously, taking a step forward so aggressively that Sirius stumbled back.

I didn't wait for him to answer. "I was assaulted in the fifth year. Bertram left me alone in the library one night to head to bed early, and some seventh year creep pulled me into an alcove on my way back to the dormitory and…"

Sirius's eyes had widened, and he reached his hand out. I flinched, instinctively, and Sirius let his hand linger in the air for a moment before it fell to his side.

"Bert blamed himself, said he shouldn't have left me. That's bullshit, I know. It wasn't his fault – it was no one's fault but the guy who did it. But still, he's gotten into the habit of knowing where I am all the time; he tries to make sure he's with me as often as he can be. He feels guilty, so he tries his best to make things easier for me – even though it can be overbearing sometimes. I was in a rough place for a long time. I couldn't bear to have anyone touch me for months after that. I still hate it when people touch me casually, even Bert. Mason's the only guy I…well, it doesn't matter."

"Frankie, I'm so…" Sirius said in the same tone that all of the nurses had used at St. Mungo's when I went to be checked out after the incident.

"Don't. Don't you dare say you're sorry," I hissed. "I'm not some pity case who needs everyone to walk on eggshells around her. It was a long time ago, and I've grown since then. I just…want you guys to go easier on Bert. He's a good guy, and he really does try his best. Besides, you have no right to be angry at him – you hexed him, not the other way around."

"Right…" Sirius said slowly, not meeting my eye.

"What is it?"

"Well, you see…the entire reason James and I hexed him to begin with was because we thought he was harassing you. Remus had told us that Bert insisted on coming on a patrol one night when you were partnered with him, and that he was being really bossy and kept trying to make Remus switch with Berta. We thought he was being a controlling wanker…so we decided that since he had such a big head to think he could control you like that…he might as well actually have a big head," Sirius explained sheepishly.

I nodded my head as I remembered that night. It was the first patrol I had after the attack, and Bert had been nervous that I'd be alone with a boy; he'd insisted on coming along with me. "He was just trying to protect me. I told him he had nothing to worry about, since I'd already tried to make a move on Remus and he'd been completely oblivious to it, but it took Bert some time to adjust after…" I trailed off.

"Well…we obviously misjudged him," Sirius said awkwardly, running a hand through his hair. "And I'm sorry for that."

"I think we're all guilty of that, at some point or another," I said, thinking about how different all of the Marauders were from what I thought they were. Never in a million years did I think Sirius Black would be concerned that my best friend might be taking advantage of me; nor that James Potter would actually be genuine and kind. "You can't tell anyone, Sirius."

Sirius nodded silently in agreement. "Well…I should probably get to bed, then," I said awkwardly, pointing my thumb over my shoulder at the entrance to the common room.

"Right," Sirius said dumbly. "Goodnight, Frankie."

"Goodnight, Sirius."

I entered the common room, and leaned against the doorway for a moment, thinking about what had just happened. I'd told Sirius Black my biggest secret – something that only a handful of people knew. Bertram, Florence, Professor Dumbledore, and my brother were the only people who knew. My own parents didn't know, because I'd been worried they would pull me out of Hogwarts if I'd told them. Instead of feeling nervous, like Sirius might tell someone, I felt nothing but calm. I realized with a jolt…that I trusted Sirius. I trusted him to keep my secret, even from his own friends. And that – well, that was the only thing that made me nervous.