A/N

Thank you everyone for all the kind and supportive comments y'all gave me this past week, it truly means the world to me thank you

-x-

Somehow, the other Marauders didn't hear about the hand-holding until the next day and they confronted Remus about it before Muggle Studies. Remus, however, was too worried about Aegis to really care. He had tried to talk to Aegis after Arithmancy about what Lily said, and Aegis only shrugged, changing the subject. He seemed distant and a little… lackluster? Beaten down? There was something flat in his voice and dull in his eyes that made Remus worried. The worst part was he knew he had been a crap friend lately to Aegis, not really spending much time with him and not being very present when they did spend time together. Had Remus ruined their friendship? Was Aegis mad at him, or was something else going on?

He had been hoping for another moment or two with Aegis, however he was hauled away by James while Aegis slipped into the Muggle Studies classroom. With a sigh he explained that yes, he and Lily had held hands and no, it didn't mean anything.

"You walk around with your arms around each other all the time," he pointed out to James and Sirius.

"That's different, we're both boys," James replied.

Remus kept his face impassive, inwardly feeling punched. Different. "Yes, well, it's the same for me and Lily. We better get to class." He scurried to the classroom without another word, trying to ignore the three of them staring at him. During Muggle Studies Peter passed him a note, asking him if he was telling the truth or just didn't want to admit to James that Remus liked Lily.

She is my friend, Remus wrote back, and that is ALL. If there was something going on between the two of us I would not be ashamed to admit it, even if James hates her. He tossed the note back to Peter, eyeing him for a reaction. Peter wrinkled his nose but nodded at Remus.

After class ended, Remus grabbed his stuff quickly and ran outside to wait for Aegis. He stood on the tips of his toes, bouncing slightly, feeling impatient. Eventually Aegis drifted out, his blue eyes going wide when he realized Remus was right there waiting. The Marauders were also leaving the classroom but Remus didn't wait for them to drag him off again.

"Can we talk?" he asked Aegis. Since Muggle Studies had let out early, he knew Aegis couldn't use the time as an excuse; there was a good half an hour before his next lesson began.

"I suppose so," Aegis replied stiffly.

He's mad at me, Remus thought miserably as they walked down the hall after Remus promised to meet up with the Marauders in the eastern courtyard as soon as possible. Aegis smelled nervous, which made Remus even more worried. Maybe it wasn't to do with Remus at all…

But when they reached a quiet offshoot of the corridor, Remus still apologized. He explained he knew he hadn't been a very good friend lately, and sure enough Aegis told him he disagreed with that.

"I've been distracted," Remus tried saying.

"I know, and I understand," Aegis answered, not looking at Remus. "It never bothered me, I promise."

"Something's wrong…"

Another shrug. "It has nothing to do with you, Remus, I swear it. I've been bogged down with…" He trailed off, his chin lowering, his hair sweeping across his face to hide his eyes—just like Remus did a lot. "Things."

Things. Now Aegis was sounding like Remus. "Right… erm… if—if you ever need to… t-talk about anything… I'm here for you. I really am."

Finally Aegis looked up, smiling a little bit. "I know. I do know that, and I appreciate that. It is unimportant."

"Is it Malfoy?" Remus asked.

Aegis jerked back, eyes going huge and full of fear which answered the question more than his words did. "N-no, why would you think that?"

Not very subtle, Remus thought, not sure how to press the matter. "If Malfoy is hurting you—"

"No," he said firmly. "No, it isn't—I never said anything like that, you're only assuming."

"Why did you get detention last night?"

He licked his lips, the smell of fear becoming worse. His eyes darted around as if trying to find an escape route. Did Remus look this obvious the previous year, when the Marauders kept asking him questions about his 'disease'? "A fight," he said faintly.

"You got into a fight?"

"It was a misunderstanding." He fiddled with the cuff of his sleeve. "I was as much to blame as the other party. It was an argument."

"Who was the other party?"

"It doesn't matter. Please, Remus, I do not want to talk about this, nor is it important." He gave Remus a pleading look now. "I promise you, none of how I am acting today has to do with you. I am not upset or bothered by the fact you have been distracted, and I know you have not been feeling well." He placed his fingers lightly on Remus's arm. "We are still friends, aren't we?"

"Of course," Remus said, brow furrowed as he stared at the terrified Slytherin. "I'm glad you're n-not upset with me."

Aegis's shoulders slumped a little as if a weight had been taken off. "Never. You've been a very kind and very good friend to me, Remus; that means a lot."

"You have as well," Remus said faintly, feeling like something was slipping away from him.

He found the Marauders where they said they'd be, James up in the tree with Sirius lounging on the ground against the trunk. Remus sat cross-legged by him, asking where Pete was; James said Peter had something he needed to do and would be there shortly. Remus shrugged and went through his Muggle Studies notes while thinking about Aegis. After a few minutes he set his notes down and looked up.

"Have any of you heard about Aegis getting into a fight?" he asked point-blank.

"I bet it was Malfoy," said James, hanging upside down off a branch.

"Yeah, he was in detention last night for fighting," yawned Sirius. "We had kitchen duty together."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Remus asked then shook his head; it wasn't Sirius's job to inform him of every little thing. "Did he say what happened?"

"Nope." Sirius stretched one leg way out so he could poke at Remus's knee with the toe of his boots. "Didn't talk much at all. The only things he said had to do with washing the dishes and that he had detention for fighting."

Remus thought about that. "Did you talk to him?"

Sirius pressed his lips together before returning to his sketchpad which was a resounding 'no'.

A moment later Peter burst through one of the doorways into the sunlight, jogging across the courtyard. His face was bright pink and he smelled like smoke and… something else Remus couldn't put his finger on. "Sorry that took so long!" he panted, collapsing onto the ground.

"What were you doing?" Remus asked.

"Erm." Peter blinked a few times. "Photography things." He sounded like someone was squeezing him.

Don't do it, Remus told himself then promptly ignored his own brain. "Then how come you smell like you were making a potion?"

Peter gaped like a fish, looking at Sirius. "How can you tell that?" Sirius asked with a fake laugh.

"Because I can smell the smoke from the fire, and there are some earthy scents I'm assuming are ingredients."

James dropped from the branch, landing easily on his feet. "It's the potion for the prank," he said, falling back into Sirius's lap. "The one we'll tell you about later. Peter was checking on it."

"Oh, okay. Erm, you—you can just tell me the truth in situations like this."

Peter flinched. "Sorry, I forgot you knew that much."

"It's okay." He had planned on saying he preferred the honesty, however Peter looked so upset that Remus decided to keep quiet.

Soon Pete was sniffing his sleeves. "Do I really smell like smoke? You can really tell that? Wow."

"What are you doing?" Sirius asked, looking down at James.

James fluttered his eyelashes up at him. "Enjoying such a gorgeous view."

Sirius just laughed and dotted the tip of James's nose with ink. Remus squirmed slightly, not sure how to react. This was… rather normal for the two of them nowadays, the two of them flirting with each other. It was melodramatic and silly, but it never meant anything. Nobody would ever think James Potter or Sirius Black were like that, Remus knew. Nobody would call them poofs or—or anything similar, even if they were all over each other like this.

Remus felt a little jealous. Not over James laying in Sirius's lap, but over the fact that if he ever did somehow find… someone… he could never do anything sweet in public. Not holding hands or laying in his lap. And it didn't feel very fair because James-and-Sirius could because they were just being James-and-Sirius, the wild single entity that did what it pleased and didn't care what anyone thought.

He bowed his head, going back to his Muggle Studies notes, wishing he could talk to his friends about this. Aching because he knew he never could.

-x-

The rest of Thursday and Friday went by agonizingly slow to Remus. It was so much like the days after the Marauders confession the previous year, coupled with the fact he was worried about Aegis. He originally planned on trying to talk to him after Potions Friday morning, however the lesson was difficult for Lily and Remus. She was frantic as she worked on their ruined potion, having him help with the calculations to figure out what to do with the remaining ingredients. It was hard enough figuring out the exact amount of potion remaining, and they worked hard for every second of the lesson. By the time they were done, Lily's curly hair was frizzed out everywhere while Remus's hair stuck out from pulling it so much. All they could do at this point was hope the potion was good enough on Monday morning, and if it wasn't they could scrape together enough talent to save it.

By the time Slughorn dismissed everyone, Remus was too exhausted to do anything about Aegis besides exchange a few friendly words.

History dragged on, then during free period he and James worked on the sound spell while Sirius and Peter tossed a ball back and forth. Well, Peter tossed it, Sirius kept lobbing it as hard as he could, making Peter dive out of the way.

Remus figured Defense Against the Dark Arts would be a regular day, however when the students went into the classroom, everyone paused to see a very nondescript wizard standing by the desk instead of Professor Charlemagne. It was Professor Bagby, one of the extra teachers who stepped in when someone couldn't make it. Whenever someone asked him about Charlemagne, Bagby would say in his nondescript voice to please sit down.

"Professor Charlemagne is indisposed today," he said, blinking at the students, once everyone had a seat. "It says here he planned on working you through the Beetle Theory which, honestly, I cannot imagine would be much help for this class. Instead you'll be taking a quiz." He pulled out a stack of papers and a box full of Anti-Cheat quills to begin handing them out. There were loads of groans. "Yes?" Bagby asked when Remus raised his hand.

"Did you want us to-to hand in our essays?" Remus asked, fully aware that most of his classmates were shooting him glares, including Sirius and Peter.

"A pointless essay," Bagby said, lips pressed thin. "The pixie-gnome war of 1788 is more suited to History than this. Half of what Professor Charlemagne teaches you doesn't seem to have much to do with defending yourself against the dark arts. This is not a debate class, which he doesn't seem to understand. You can hand it in whenever he returns to teaching."

Remus squirmed in his seat, feeling uncomfortable at Bagby saying things like that about another teacher. Charlemagne did have some unusual teaching methods and yes, a lot of what he pushed seemed to be more like debates or making his students think through something instead of simply teaching them a spell, however there always seemed to be a reason behind it.

The quiz was extremely boring. Most of it was about things they had learned under Professor Prewett, while other questions were nearly childish. If your opponent used X spell, what should you do? The obvious answer was a shielding spell though Remus was half-tempted to write down set them on fire. Hey, it would work.

The next hour ticked slowly by. Remus finished his quiz very quickly and, after triple-checking his answers, sat back. Sirius wasn't working on his at all. He was leaning back in his seat so the front two legs were off the ground, and his arms were behind his back. The Anti-Cheat quill was stuck in his hair like decoration. Remus pulled one of his Defense books out and quietly read for a while. At ten till when class would end, Sirius let his chair drop with a loud thud, and began writing furiously on his quiz. He stuck the quill in his pot of ink and folded his hands on his desk less than a minute before Bagby told them to put their quills down.

"What was that about?" Peter asked after they left the classroom. "Why did he say those things about Charlemagne?"

"No clue, it was really weird," James said.

"Maybe he has a problem with Charlemagne," Sirius suggested.

"Aren't you related to the Bagbys?" Remus asked, remembering the Hufflepuff girl James said was related to him the year before. "Do you know him well?"

James shrugged. "Only some of them, distantly. Not Professor Bagby's side. I don't know him."

"Charlemagne is vastly more interesting than Bagboring," yawned Sirius. "That was so stupid."

"Did you even bother writing the right answers?" Remus inquired.

"I can't remember, it happened so suddenly," Sirius said rather dramatically, flinging an arm across his forehead. James snorted and shoved at him, and Sirius shoved back until they were pushing each other while simultaneously trying to dodge from the other.

"Bagby made me a lil uncomfy," Peter mumbled to Remus. "With those things he said about Charlemagne. It's… it doesn't seem right to say rude things about how another teacher teaches."

"Yes, it was very odd," Remus agreed. "It made me uncomfortable too. Plus the pixie-gnome war is important for Defense Against the Dark Arts; all right it is also something we could learn in History, however the war helped us discover a lot of things about gnomes previous unknown, when the pixies began flinging them around; that's how we learned a more peaceful way to get rid of them than the jarveys was to throw them out of our gardens after making them dizzy. Gnomes might not be particularly dark however they are vicious, sometimes, towards humans and knowing how—"

"You should have taught the class instead," James said, popping out of nowhere. "Professor Lupin."

Remus made a face. Before he could protest Peter said, "Tell us about the Beetle Theory."

"Yes, Professor Lupin, tell us about the Beetle Theory," Sirius echoed.

"If any of you call me Professor one more time I'll—I'll—I'll hex you."

"Oooooh!" James giggled. "How very threatening. Professor." He stood there with a grin on his face. "Well? Aren't you going to hex me?"

"Yes," Remus replied sweetly. "I just never said when I'll hex you."

James narrowed his eyes while the other two snickered. "I'm very scared," he sniffled, twirling around to march off.

"Are you going to?" Pete whispered.

"Yes, I'll give him wet socks right before his next Quidditch practice."

"You're evil!"

"Thank you."

-x-

Unfortunately Remus forgot he couldn't hex James right before his next Quidditch practice as it started fifteen minutes after Ancient Runes began. After class ended, Remus spent some time with Aegis—not bringing up his detention or fight or anything, only to hang out a little bit. That's when Remus found out the Study Group was pretty much splintering apart. Lily hadn't shown up on Wednesday (which Remus knew), and Aegis had no intention of going that night. Bones and Pierce hadn't come on Monday and didn't seem interested on Wednesday, and Buckling left early on Wednesday.

"It is Mr. Craft and Miss Twycross," sighed Aegis. "They're both very arrogant and very infuriating." Remus thought it wasn't fair that two people were making it so five others weren't wanting to do something they wanted to, and he said so. "It isn't fair," Aegis agreed. "There isn't much to do about it."

Except apparently there was. When Aegis and Remus went into the Great Hall, Lily approached them both though mostly faced Aegis asking if he was coming to Study Group that night. He admitted he didn't want to, and Lily smiled.

"You should, because I'm tired of those two arses ruining it for the rest of us. I'm doing something about it." She winked at Remus. "A wise friend reminded me that this is something we should have done a long time ago. I've told the others. We'll all be there, and I am going to tell Twycross and Craft that they're on thin ice."

Aegis stared at Lily. "Oh, my," was all he could say to that.

"I-I don't think I'll be coming back to Study Group," Remus confessed. "However I may happen to be in the library after supper." He wasn't going to miss this for the world.

"Just don't tell them," Lily said. "I don't want Potter ruining it."

"I won't," he promised, and told the Marauders he really wanted to finish up one of his essays and he'd meet them at around six-thirty or seven.

"You'll have to meet Pete," James said. "Siri and I have detention till eight."

"What for?" Remus asked.

Sirius grinned proudly. "Terrorizing several Slytherins."

Remus put his head in his hands, wondering just who they terrorized. "What did you do? And when did you do it?"

"Yesterday, while you were helping Monsieur Baguette," Sirius said.

"When we were in detention a few weeks ago, with Charlemagne, we overheard him going over some of his lesson plans," James explained. "He was teaching the first years a little bit about trolls."

"Oh no," Remus moaned.

"So we dressed up like trolls—painted out faces and everything—and jumped out at a bunch of the first year Slytherins, swinging clubs around and threatening to eat their bones," James continued, thumping the table like he had said something wonderful.

"I didn't," Pete said. "I helped them get dressed an' stuff but I wasn't dressed like a troll." He thought for a second then admitted, "I was lookout though."

"Not a very good lookout," grumbled Sirius.

"It's not my fault the Fat Friar walked through the wall!" Peter complained. "I was watching the corridors, not the walls! If you want someone with fifty eyes, get a giant spider to be your lookout."

"Or we could turn you into a giant spider," suggested James.

"You'll be my first prey," Peter grouched right back. "Spin you up in my web and drink all your blood."

Remus pinched the bridge of his nose. "First years? You jumped out at first years?"

"First year Slytherins," James said, putting emphasis on the last word.

"They're still eleven," Remus said. "That's not very nice."

"We couldn't very well do it to the third years, they wouldn't believe it," Sirius said. "Regulus… well, I didn't want to do it to the second years."

"Besides, the first years are still very easily fooled by anything," giggled James.

"You—you shouldn't be doing it at all!" Remus moaned. "They're little kids. That's rather mean."

James's face pinched up while Sirius frowned. "It was only a joke, Remus," he said sternly. "The kids are fine. Even the one that ran into the statue, her nose was fixed up quickly."

Remus sighed, looking down at his plate, picking at his food. He could tell by the tone in Sirius's voice that if he kept pushing about this then he might make his friends mad, and he didn't want to do that. "As long as it wasn't anything dangerous," he finally said, hating himself for not being able to stand up to them about this.

His friends cheered up immediately and told him all the details he didn't really care to know about. Peter and Remus made plans to meet in the common room at six-forty-ish, then Remus left to get to the library. He was a little early for Study Group so he wandered up and down several aisles, pulling books out, flipping through them, and putting them back. He stayed near where Study Group usually met and soon heard them coming in.

He peeked through a gap in the shelves. Twycross and Craft were chattering quietly while everyone else kept exchanging looks with each other or glancing at Lily. Lily sat in her seat, visibly nervous. Soon Buckling showed up, and that was everyone.

Come on, Lils, Remus mentally cheered when she remained silent.

Right when Twycross started opening a book to begin whatever they were going to work on, Lily rose to her feet. "I have an announcement."

"Can it wait?" Craft asked, sounding irritated.

Lily clenched her teeth. "No, it can't, Craft. It concerns this entire group."

"Is someone else joining us?" Twycross inquired. "Is Lupin coming back?"

"What? No, no, he told me today he's not going to be coming back," Lily said, eyes darting around because she knew Remus was probably watching. She didn't seem to see him, though, and continued. "This is about how Study Group has been going lately."

"Good!" Twycross stood up as well. "I've been wanting to talk about that too—"

"Sit down, please," Lily said firmly. Twycross gaped at her for a few seconds before slowly sitting back down. Remus grinned. "Lately it seems like all we do is argue. That is not what this group is for. We're here to help each other, and help one another… er… grow in their knowledge and—er, yeah, this is supposed to be a unit, not a bunch of students squabbling."

"I agree," Twycross said.

"Good." Lily fixed her stare on Twycross then Craft. "So I want to make it clear that if either of you two start any arguments, I'll be asking you to leave. If you don't, the rest of us will be leaving and continuing on with the Study Group elsewhere, without you."

Remus couldn't see Craft's face but he did see Twycross begin to shake slightly. "Excuse me?" Craft asked. "Are you referring to—"

"You, and Twycross," Lily confirmed. "You are both very smart, however you don't need to rub our noses in it. I'm not pretending nobody else has started any arguments because we all have—except Aegis—but a good seventy percent of our problems are because of you two."

"ExcUSE ME?!" Twycross shrieked, earning a few shhhhhhs from other students dotted around nearby.

Lily kept her head held high. "I've kept a tally of all the times we've gotten into arguments that go beyond a few heated words, and almost every single time it's one of you starting it because you think everyone else is stupid."

"Because you are!" Twycross stood up again, hands planted on the table. "Not you, Evans, but them!" She waved her hand at Bones and Pierce. "Especially him! He doesn't take this seriously—"

"Now, look here—" Bones began but Lily held up a hand. "He takes it more seriously than you do," she said, still looking at Twycross. "I'd rather have someone who cracks jokes and teases rather than you telling me for the millionth time I'm wrong about something when I'm not. I don't want to argue about—about semantics or small details that don't matter just because you want to feel better than the rest of us."

Before anyone else could say anything, Farrow appeared. "I heard someone making a lot of noise," he said, folding his arms and looking down his nose at the two girls. "Is something going on?"

"She is causing trouble," Twycross hissed out, pointing at Lily.

"No, sir," Lily said pleasantly. "I'm sorry, we'll quiet down."

"Hmph, you better. If I hear anything else from over here, you're out for the night."

As soon as Farrow disappeared, Craft stood up. "I don't appreciate you putting the blame on us, it's just as much all of your fault too!"

Lily whipped out a notebook. "On Monday, we had to stop for a full ten minutes because Craft, you got into an argument with Florence about the temperature in which marshills can survive."

"And I was correct!" Craft snapped.

"You were both correct," Lily said flatly. "Which we all said, yet you kept hounding her about it."

"I—"

"Last Friday," Lily continued, "we had to leave because we were kicked out for making too much noise because Craft called Bones a moronic Hufflepuff."

"It's the truth," Craft said haughtily. Bones gave him the middle finger.

"And earlier in the evening we couldn't continue working on Astronomy because Twycross and Kyra got into an argument about the best way to preserve several herbs for Potions—both ways, which by the way, would work well."

"My way is better," Twycross said.

Lily lowered the notebook. "See? This is what I'm talking about! You two insist you know everything, that you're better than us, that—"

"If you're going to insult us, I'm leaving," Craft snapped.

"If we left whenever you insulted us, we'd never be here," Kyra Pierce said.

Craft turned towards her. "It's a well-known fact Hufflepuffs aren't exactly the brightest lumos spell around."

There were a few gasps (Remus included) and then utter silence. Some of the nearby students heard too, including two seventh year Hufflepuffs. Craft went pale, realizing what a mistake he had made when the two older Puffs stood up and began to approach him.

"Joke," he said weakly, backing away. "It—it was a joke—"

"Craft."

Remus jumped at that voice; it was one he knew well, even though he barely knew the owner of the voice. It was Shacklebolt, the Ravenclaw Prefect with the very, very nice voice. He slid out from another aisle, forehead wrinkled as he stared at his fellow Ravenclaw.

"Please tell me I misheard you."

Craft swallowed. "I—it was—"

"Hufflepuffs are the same as any other house in Hogwarts," Shacklebolt admonished. "One's house does not indicate their intelligence. Or kindness, apparently."

"I'm s-s-sorry—"

"Ten points from Ravenclaw," Shacklebolt said, "and you are to come with me to Professor Flitwick."

Craft slumped down, looking utterly defeated. It was strange to see him without the wind in his sails. "Yessir," he mumbled, grabbing his satchel and slouching after Shacklebolt out of the library.

There was a long stretch of silence; slowly Lily and Twycross both sank down in their seats, neither of them saying anything. Buckling sat there with her mouth open while Pierce was grinning from ear to ear. Bones had his eyes bugged out. Aegis was covering his mouth.

"I don't agree with what he said," Twycross finally said, very faintly, to the two Hufflepuffs. "That's not why I don't want you here."

"Then why?" Bones demanded.

Twycross looked down. "You don't seem to take this seriously. You're always joking around."

"I still get good grades," Bones pointed out. "I still do good work. Making jokes doesn't mean I don't take my schoolwork seriously. Merlin, no offense but I couldn't imagine being as stiff and stuck-up as you all day."

"I am not!" Twycross jerked her head back up. "I'm focused. That's all. Plus aren't we supposed to not be mean? All I said was you joke around and you call me stiff and stuck-up."

Before Bones could reply, Pierce spoke up instead. "Twycross, you have to admit you always have to be right and do look down on everyone else, assuming we're stupid."

Twycross was quiet for a moment. "I don't think you're stupid."

"Then you shouldn't act as though you do," Pierce retorted.

More silence. Then Twycross grabbed her satchel and left. She was sniffling, very quietly, and she passed by the aisle Remus was in; he wasn't sure but he thought he saw a glint of tears on her cheeks. He watched her go before turning back to peek at the remainder of the Study Group, all of whom seemed a little stunned about what happened.

Then Lily cleared her throat. "Was that the right thing to do…?"

"Yes," Bones said immediately. "This has overall been a great group but I was considering quitting, because of them. I can study on my own. It's not as fun but…"

"I'm in the same boat," admitted Buckling. "I was thinking about leaving. You did the right thing, Evans."

Lily looked down, chewing at her bottom lip.

"You did the right thing," Aegis echoed, reaching out so a couple of his slender fingers brushed against her sleeve. "Perhaps this will be a wake-up call for them."

"One can only hope," yawned Bones, stretching his arms out. "Now come on, let's get to real work."

Remus retreated once they began working on their homework, feeling guilty he had been spying; though he figured Lily would tell him everything later, or Aegis would. He crept out of the library and on the way back to the Gryffindor tower, he thought he heard crying from one of the girls' bathrooms which he doubted belonged to Myrtle.

-x-

The Marauders usually stayed up very late on Fridays, and that night was no exception; the four of them played Wild Adventures until around one in the morning, then Peter and Remus stayed up playing cards while James and Sirius went out under the invisibility cloak to explore the school. They didn't return until nearly four in the morning. Remus gladly crawled into his bed, falling asleep before he could change into his pajamas.

When morning came, he slept in a bit longer than usual. When he woke up, he found a note stuck to his face. It took him several careful tries to get it peeled off, determined to murder his friends if they had used a permanent sticking spell. Thankfully it finally came off and he flipped it over, seeing Sirius's elegant writing.

Fort Dragon at eleven; bring food?

He scowled a little at the note, wishing they had at least asked. He glanced at the clock, dismayed to find it was already nearly eleven and he wouldn't have any time before meeting up with them. Sighing he got out of bed to get a quick shower, throw on clothes, and pack a satchel with some books and homework. As he did, the door to the dorm opened and he turned to see David.

"Oh, good morning," Remus said, turning back to his bag.

"Morning," David replied, sliding into the room. "I was hoping you were awake."

Remus swung the satchel over his shoulder. "Erm, if you needed something I—I don't have much time, I need to—"

"No, no," David said quickly. "I mean, yes, but it won't take long." He rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. "I only had a quick question."

Remus blinked a few times and when David remained silent, he began shifting from foot to foot, trying to decide a good way to prompt him to continue. His movement must have made David realize because the other boy began talking again.

"I heard—er—I mean everyone says that you… that you…"

Remus froze except for a lurching sensation in his stomach. Then his heart began pounding hard, wishing David would continue because… what? What were people saying? That he was a werewolf? That he… liked… er… didn't like girls? Had he and Lily been overheard?

"That you and Lily are a couple," David finally got out. "I—I mean, that—everyone says you were seen holding hands. The other day."

He let out a breath of relief, the numbness beginning to fade already. "Yes—no!" he yelped when David's eyes got huge. "I—n-no! No, and—I—er—what—what I mean is—"

"I just wanted to know," he said a little flatly. "You said the other day you weren't interested, but then the rumors of you two holding hands came around so I was wondering what the truth was."

"The r-r-rumor about us holding hands is—is true," he managed to get out. "But we aren't a-a-a couple. I p-promise."

David stared at him. "Then why were you holding hands?"

For Merlin's sake. "We're friends," he mumbled, resisting the urge to lose his temper. He wanted to. What was so wrong with them holding hands? "I t-told you before, and it's still the truth. Lily's my friend, only my friend, nothing—nothing more." Was that true? He wasn't really sure. Not that they were a couple or anything, but he did wonder if there was something more between them as friends now… now that they knew each other's secrets (well, one of his secrets). It felt like Lily was a special friend.

"But why were you holding hands?"

The wolf stirred inside of him, tired of this. "We both had a-a rough day, that day," he said, trying not to snap. "I promise you, we are only friends." He considered telling David that Lily asked him to the party first and he said no, but he thought that might be going too far. It might make David feel like a second choice. "N-neither of us are interested in—in the other, in that manner."

David studied him for several seconds before slumping a little, rubbing his forehead now. "A'right, yeah, yeah, sorry. I guess I—I—I like her." He looked scared as he said those words, and Remus could tell he was immediately embarrassed.

"I w-won't say anything," Remus said quickly.

"Thank you." David staggered back until he was leaning against the wall. "Sorry I got so jealous. Er, and sorry I kept you from whatever you were doing."

"It's okay." Remus headed to the door then paused, hand on the handle. "Is it… r-really that weird to… t-to hold a friend's hand?"

"I don't know why you'd hold someone's hand if you weren't a couple, honestly," David said.

Hmm. Remus shrugged and left, heading to the kitchens first to get a hamper of food put together before hurrying out to the Forbidden Forest; he had never gone to Fort Dragon on his own and he felt on edge as he wended his way through the trees, heart beating a little fast until he heard his friends shouting. He stumbled into the clearing to see them playing some sort of game where James was standing on top of the dragon rock while Sirius and Peter kept trying to pull him down. When James saw Remus he stopped what he was doing, grinning; Peter grabbed hold of James's sleeve and yanked him off the rock triumphantly. Remus winced when James hit the ground with a thud but his friend seemed fine, only annoyed as Peter scrambled up to pump his fists victoriously in the air.