I let out a scream, and a huge chunk of cold breath vapour came pouring out of my mouth. Fenrir Greyback didn't do anything, he was just staring at me, smiling.

"Remus!" Sirius burst into the dormitory, closely followed by James, and Peter, who was hiding behind James. They all had their wands drawn. "Are you hurt?"

"No, I just saw…" I looked back at the window, but Greyback was gone. What was he doing there? Was he purposely trying to scare me? Or was I just hallucinating?

"Just saw what?" James asked.

"Nothing," I said. "It's nothing… I-I'm sorry."

"You scared the shit out of us!" Sirius cried, lowering his wand. James and Peter followed suit.

"W-what was the scream about then?" Peter asked, trembling.

"Just… just had a nightmare," I said, shaking my head. "Sorry, it's nothing."

"You have serious sleeping issues," Peter said, looking annoyed.

Sirius gave him a look, then turned back to me. "It's fine, Remus."

At this I felt a smile crawl its way onto my face. Thank god I had such a good friend like Sirius.

November whizzed by, and December came round before we knew it. About halfway through the month, almost everyone was boarding the Hogwarts Express to go home for Christmas.

"Ugh," said Sirius gloomily. He, James, Peter and I were all on in a compartment on the train together, travelling back to London. "I'm going to have to go to the 'therapy' thing, whatever the heck that is."

"Well, therapy is-"

"I know what therapy is!" Sirius snapped. "Sorry — it's just, this is going to try to change me… I don't want to change."

"Send an owl if it gets too bad," James offered. "My parents and I will bail you outta there, I promise."

"Thanks," Sirius smiled.

"I'm excited to see my family," said Peter. "And eat the Christmas pudding!"

"Good for you," Sirius said glumly. "But anyway, let's not talk about this."

"OK, well I have something to tell you all," James grinned. "You know how on the first night, I told you I found someone in our year hot?"

"Yeah?" Sirius and I both said.

"What?" Peter asked, looking at James in confusion. "When did you say that?"

"Well, I'm going to tell you who it is," James said, looking at us dramatically. "It… is…"

"Spit it out!" Sirius yelled.

"Drum roll please! Lily Evans!" James stood up at this and took a bow. "Yes, I think Lily Evans is hot."

"You know she's friends with Severus Snape?" I said. "Your 'sworn enemy'?"

"He's only my sworn enemy because he likes her, too," James said, crossing his arms.

"How do you know that?" Sirius asked.

"It's so obvious, and when you like someone, you can always tell when someone else likes them," James said. "So therefore, I hate Severus Snape."

"OK, then I hate him too," said Sirius, nodding firmly.

"I'm not having anything to do with this!" I said, sinking lower in my seat. Peter remained silent.

The train ride was soon over, and we were arriving at Platform nine and three quarters. I pressed my face against the glass window to see hundreds of parents, the majority of them waving in excitement as the scarlet train pulling up at the station.

"Hey, mind if I get off alone?" Sirius asked. "Just because…"

"Yeah, it's fine," I said told him.

He hugged me tightly. "See you in two weeks."

"Remember my family is more than happy to come get you at any time," James reminded him.

"Thank you," Sirius said, ruffling James's messy hair. "See ya later, bro."

"Bye Sirius!" Peter said, and they pat each other on the back. Sirius saluted to us, and walked out of the compartment.

Peter, James and I walked out a little after Sirius, said goodbye, then went to find our families. I found my parents pretty quickly, as they both ran forward and gave me a huge hug. Embarrassed, I looked around, but thankfully no one was watching, as they were all too caught up in their own parents embarrassing them.

"Remus! Remus! Remus!" Mum yelled out.

"Come on, I got a car from the ministry," Dad said happily.

"A car?" I said. "From… the ministry!?"

"Yes! Come on!" My parents led me through the barrier, and out into the carpark of King's Cross station. It was still cold, but not as cold here as it was back at Hogwarts. There was a fancy red car in one of the spots, which we went in to.

"This is our car?" I asked, my eyes wide.

"Yes!" Mum smiled. "I got promoted! I'm going to perform here in London as the lead role in a musical!"

"So, we're living here in London now," Dad smiled. "And the house sold, because your mother is now famous in the muggle world, so everybody wanted to buy it!"

"What the heck! I missed so much…" I said, in shock. We started driving through the city, and I looked outside the window at the landmarks. Going to King's Cross Station in September had been my first time in London, and I'd gone straight to the station after arriving, so the city was very new to me.

"Anyway, how's Hogwarts?" Mum asked as she started driving.

"It's great," I said. "Like I've mentioned in the letters, I've made some friends: Sirius, James and Peter from my dormitory, and Monifa, who's in Slytherin."

"We'd love to meet them," Mum smiled. "How about you invite them all over on Wednesday, so your father and I can meet them?"

"Yes! Yes, I'll do that," I said happily. "I'll send them an owl when we get home."

We soon pulled up to a moderately fancy brick house, with a tinted glass pattern in the middle of the white door.

"Welcome home, Remus," Dad said dramatically, as I stepped out of the car.

"It's… it's beautiful," I said, feeling tears of happiness come to me. After years of hoping we could keep our own home, this was truly magnificent. "I'm so proud of you, Mum."

Mum smiled. "I'm so proud at you! You're learning to do magic! You're making friends!"

The three of us walked inside the house together, and I looked around. It was no mansion, but it was the most beautiful house I'd ever lived in. My parents gave me a quick tour, and then I went to write my letters.

Dear (name of friend),

I hope you enjoy your holidays. My parents have said you can come to my house this Wednesday, as they want to meet you. Hope you can come, Wednesday, 9 o' clock, London.

From Remus.

Short and sweet, the perfect letter. I wrote it out three times, with Peter, James, and Sirius's names (not Monifa because she was staying at Hogwarts for Christmas).

I sent our family owl out with the letters, happy to be home with my parents who I'd missed so much.

"Nana and Pops are coming here for Christmas," Mum told me.

I grinned widely. This was going to be an epic winter holidays.

Wednesday rolled around, and James and Peter had both responded to my email saying they were going to come, but Sirius hadn't responded at all. A pit of worry for him settled in my stomach. I really hoped he was OK…

James arrived ten minutes before the time I had told them to come, side-on apparating with his parents, who were both dressed in colourful robes and pointy hats.

"Good morning, Mr and Mrs Lupin," James's mother said. She had a voice similar to the Queen's, and shook both my parents hands formally.

"Honestly, Lyall and Hope is fine," Dad said, laughing.

James's father had a completely different response, he gave both my parents huge bear hugs, and said, "wassup my bros! My name's Fleamont Potter!"

"And I… am Mrs Euphemia Potter," James's mother said grandly. "We are here to drop off our son, James."

"Alright… bye!" said James, taking off his shoes, then said to me, "Let's go to your room."

I nodded, then the two of us rushed through the hallway to my bedroom.

"So who's coming?" James asked, plopping on my bed.

"You and Peter," I said.

"Not Sirius?" he asked, sitting up.

"He didn't respond," I said quietly.

James let out a long breath. "I've sent him some owls in the past few days, asking how it's going, but I got no response, too."

I let out a long sigh. "It doesn't seem too good. And it's only been a few days."

"I say we bail him out," James said.

"We don't know where he lives, though," I said. "Otherwise, yeah… I don't know what else we can do to help, though."

"Ugh, I feel so helpless and terrible about it," James groaned, flipping through the book that was on my bed.

"So do I," I said. "We need to do something."

"We do," said James. "Let's wait until Peter gets here, then we'll develop a plan."

*line-break*

"We could go travelling around all of Britain until we find his house."

"On our own? No way our parents would let us do that."

"No, with our parents help."

"That wouldn't work."

"Wait!" I cried, standing up. "Monifa! She would know where he lives. What if we send an owl to Hogwarts? Ask her for his address!"

"But how are we going to get there?" Peter asked.

"Like I suggested before, get help from our parents," I explained. "We apparate with them."

"But they're adults… if they get caught breaking into a house, they could go to Azkaban!" James said. "We would just get reprimanded really badly."

"Well you tell us how we'll get there, then," Peter snapped.

"The Knight Bus," James said.

"The… what bus?" I asked.

James rolled his eyes. "The Knight Bus. It's a bus for a stranded witch or wizard. So… we just stand around and it should come."

"OK," said Peter.

"Do you guys want to do this?" I said, my voice shaking.

"Yes," said James. "Come on, let's do it."

"OK — so the first step is to send an owl to Hogwarts," I said, grabbing a piece of parchment and a quill from my cupboard. I wrote:

Dear Monifa,

What is Sirius's address? Will explain when we come back to Hogwarts. Please reply immediately.

Thanks, Remus.

I sealed the letter in an envelope, and rushed out into the kitchen to where our owl was sitting.

"Hogwarts," I muttered to it, and the owl was off.

"So, how are we doing to get out of the house in the first place?" Peter asked.

"There's a sweet shop down the road," I told them. "We'll tell my parents we're going there."

"So now we wait, I guess," said James.

We didn't have to wait long — the owl came back with Monifa's response about fifteen minutes later.

"That was quick, thank you Frank," I said.

"Your owl is called Frank?" said Peter, raising his eyebrows.

"I chose it when I was five, shut up," I said, opening the envelope.

12 Grimmauld Place, and you better explain what this is about.

"12 Grimmauld Place," I repeated. "Where's that?"

"I dunno, but I've been on the Knight Bus before, you just tell them the address and they take you there," said James.

"Brilliant, let's go," I said. I grabbed my mum's coat and put it on, and we all walked out to the living room where my parents were sitting. "Hey, Mum, Dad, could I take James and Peter to the sweet shop down the road?"

"Yes, of course!" Mum said.

"Do you have muggle money?" Dad asked.

"Yep," I said quickly. "Alright, see you soon."

My parents waved to us and the three of us walked out the door onto the street.

"You know, I don't know if this is such a good idea…" said Peter nervously.

"Come on, we need to help our friend," I said, feeling slightly annoyed.

"Yes, but… we could die," said Peter.

"You can die crossing the road!" James cried. "There's risk in everything!"

"I don't think I can do it," said Peter.

"Peter!" I hissed. "Don't chicken out now!"

Peter looked angry. "Well, I don't know about you suicidal maniacs, but I'm not going to go on some huge expedition just to die! I'm going to the sweets shop and waiting there!"

"PETER!" James roared. "HOW COULD YOU!?"

"Guys, don't fight!" I said, though I desperately wanted to back James up. "Please!"

"Fine, go wait in the sweets shop then," James said in a low voice. "Like a coward."

"Fine," Peter squeaked, sounding like a rodent. "I will."

He spun around and walked down the street into the shop.

"Fucking coward," James muttered, sitting on the edge of the path.

"Please don't cause a rift in our group, though," I said, sitting next to him.

"I won't, but still," James rolled his eyes. "It's annoying."

Suddenly, there was a skidding of tires, and a tall, purple bus loomed in front of us, and a teenage boy emerged. I recognised him immediately, but couldn't remember where from.

"Yello, welcome to the Knight Bus, the name's Monty Shunpike… GET ON THE BUS!" the guy said. Monty. He was holding a bottle of Firewhiskey, just like he was when I'd first encountered him in the bathroom back in September. I froze as James was climbing onto the bus, then he turned back and looked at me.

"Ugh, not you too, Remus," he said, and grabbed my arm, dragging me onto the bus.

"Can we go to the top level?" I asked. James nodded, told Monty where we were going, and then we walked up the stairs to the highest point on the triple-decker bus, and sat down. The bus started moving with a jolt, and we were off. I looked back at the stairs to make sure no one else was coming up, then said, "James… that guy, he's sketchy."

"Who, the conductor… whatever his name is?"

"Monty Shunpike," I said, then told him about what happened in the bathroom, how he'd grabbed onto the hood of my robes, and had tried to get me drink his Firewhiskey.

"Well, good thing you got out," James said. "Who knows what he would have done if you hadn't."

"Yeah, don't want to think about it," I said.

As if on cue, Monty came up to the top level.

"So, the trip is eleven sickles, but thirteen if you want a hot chocolate, fifteen if you wanna hot water bottle and toothbrush," he said, taking a huge gulp of his Firewhiskey.

"We'll just take the trip," I said, handing over twenty-two sickles. Monty took the money, grinned, and walked down the stairs, swaying slightly.

"At least we have an extra eleven sickles left over now, because of Peter," said James angrily.

The trip didn't take long, we were pulling up at a dark street with huge houses on it within a few minutes. James and I walked down the stairs to the bottom level.

"You guys want some Firewhiskey?" Monty asked drunkenly.

I shook my head firmly, and James and I rushed off the bus quickly, and it zoomed off the second our feet touched the ground. We ran across the street to the houses.

"Ten… eleven… thirteen…" James said under his breath, looking at the numbers of the houses. "Where's number twelve?"

"There," I said, pointing at a small gaping between numbers eleven and thirteen. If I squinted, I could make out a door.

James saw it, too. He nodded nervously, and said, "Let's go."