Silence seemed to ring in my ears for at least an hour as my friend Monifa stared at me, her huge brown eyes wide and full of fear. She seemed to be frozen to the spot, shaking slightly. She gave me the feeling that I was wrong in thinking that she knew that secret. How could I of been that stupid?

"I'm… so… sorry," I said slowly. "That's not what you meant is it?" I stepped toward her, but she took a step back.

"I-I trusted you!" she cried, shaking.

"I'm sorry," I said quietly.

"You're a danger to everyone at Hogwarts…" she whispered.

"I know," I said.

"Why are you even here?" she asked. "How were you even let in?"

"Because… because Dumbledore made some arrangements so that whenever I transform, I go there to make sure I don't hurt anyone," I said. "I don't want to hurt anyone, I promise!"

"Y-you're a monster," she whispered. Her words seemed to rip through my heart. This was the most painful thing in the world, not transforming into a werewolf, not being bitten by a werewolf… this hurt more than anything I'd felt in my entire life. I wanted to tell her I would never hurt her, that I was still just her nerdy friend Remus, but I couldn't. Only one thing seemed to come out of my mouth.

"I know."

"Can… can you control it?" she asked. "Like, when it's the full moon or whatever? Can you control what you do?"

I shook my head. My mouth felt dry, and I desperately wanted to run into the forbidden forest and never come back.

"So… that's what all the scratches are from?" she said. She was taking deep breaths and seemed to have calmed down a little from when I had first let it slip.

"Yes," I said, feeling like the world may as well have ended.

"I'm so sorry," she said, pulling me in for a hug. Feeling slightly awkward, I hugged her back. "I'm so so sorry you have to deal with that. I'll keep it to myself I promise, and treat you exactly the same. I don't want to make it any worse for you."

"Thank you," I breathed. "Thank you so much. What… what were you going to say, anyway?"

"Oh," she laughed, pulling away from me. "I know you're into Sirius."

"I do not like Sirius," I said, crossing my arms. "Well, I like him… because he's my friend, obviously, but I don't like him like that."

"Really?" she said, crossing her arms right back at me. "I know the smile from a mile away. And when you two were walking over to the table just before, you had the smile!"

"No I did not!" I said grumpily. "I don't like anyone like that!"

But she wasn't listening, she was just laughing at me. "You're a terrible liar. Come on, let's go inside."

"A WEEK OF NO CLASSES?! LET'S GOOOOOO!"

The Gryffindor first-years all ran out of our last exam of the year, cheering and throwing our textbooks in the air.

"Only six more years of studying then we're out to the real world!" Sirius shouted. We'd all been given a glass of pumpkin juice as soon as the last exam was over. Sirius was on James's shoulders, and lifted up his juice in toast, then shouted, "TO US!"

"To us!" the rest of us cheered, then took a huge gulp of our own pumpkin juice. Sirius and James then led us outside onto the school grounds, and we all played a huge game of tag.

"Let's enjoy this week," said Milly. "Because then we won't see each other for two whole months!"

The entire school seemed to be out on the grounds, students from all the different houses and all the different year levels. Some of the school was still in a dark mood about Jessica's death a few months ago, but it had mostly returned back to normal, except for the fact that Kaiden had quit commentating, much to the disbelief of all the Quidditch fans.

Monifa rushed up to Sirius, James and I, smiling widely.

"I can't wait to spend another six years with you four," she said happily.

"Plus this week," said Peter.

"Then we can see our results from our exams," I said nervously. "I'm not sure if I studied enough…"

Sirius rolled his eyes. "You'll get top of the year."

"I don't know…" I said. "I don't know if I did well enough…"

"Relax," said James. "We have a whole week off before you see if you passed or failed."

"How am I meant to relax?" I said. "An entire week of waiting… that's like the least relaxing thing in the whole world!"

In fact, I hadn't relaxed at all since I'd accidentally told Monifa my secret. I kept thinking she would bring it up, or say I was a monster again (I was OK with that now, as she had every right to be scared in that situation). Thankfully, she'd stayed true to her word in not judging me and treating me the exact same way, and I was ever so grateful for that.

The week of 'relaxing' soon ended, thankfully, and the Leaving Feast came around on the last weekend of June. Professor McGonagall handed out our results to our exams, and I looked at mine quickly. At the top of the parchment, it said: 98.7% — pass.

I let out a long sigh of relief, and saw that James and Sirius had both passed with 82% and 84.6%, and Peter had just scraped through with a 51.3%. The four of us laughed in joy together, and I felt happier than I'd ever felt in my entire life.

Gryffindor came third in the house cup, and although some people were disappointed, I couldn't have possibly been happier. I'd made four amazing friends, passed first-year at Hogwarts, and was going to spend the next six years with my friends… it seemed impossible that I would ever be able to feel sad again.

I sat on the Hogwarts Express with my four best friends, and Monifa announced that she had gotten 92% in her exams, and was going to be coming into second-year with us. James, Peter, Monifa and I were all smiling and laughing, but then I noticed Sirius had gone silent.

"You alright, Sirius?" I asked.

"Yeah," he said. "Just… I don't want to go back to my family."

"Like I said, you're more than welcome to come and stay with my family. You can be like my brother!"

"I'd love to," said Sirius. "But I cant avoid them forever. It'll be OK."

"Will you guys write?" Peter asked.

"Of course," said Monifa. "Oh, I'm going to miss you guys so much!"

"Well, let's make this trip last as long as possible," said James.

Sirius laid down on his seat. "I wish we could stay here forever — just the five of us, chatting forever."

I smiled. "Same."

Unfortunately, we did not sit on the train forever, and that afternoon the train slowed to a halt at platform nine and three-quarters. Sirius smiled at us nervously.

"Send an owl if needed," I said, nodding encouragingly. He took in a huge breath, then left, followed by Monifa.

I walked off the train with James and Peter, then, with one last goodbye, rushed up to my parents who hugged me tightly, then led me to the car. I looked back at the Hogwarts express, and whispered to myself, "see you in two months, Sirius…"