All of her life she has been overshadowed by her elder siblings, no one even really saw why she was because there was always Edgar with his Hufflepuff prefect badge or her sister with her perfect grades. And even though she had never met her oldest brother, he still outshined them all with his important Ministry job.

But with her friends...she was right there in the thick of it. "Alice, what do you think the boys do in that dormitory of theirs? I mean, Remus is a morning person and he always looks awful then so they must be coming up with some sort of scheme all through the night and keeping him awake. Has Frank ever said anything?" Lily nudged her while her eyebrows wiggled comically, grinning that Cheshire smile she loved to show off to make her friends uncomfortable.

"Frank has only said that Remus gets really exhausted once a month and...it was like he was on his period or something." Alice's eyes widened as she realized that maybe their friend was born with ovaries instead of the other stuff and used magic to change his appearance to more fit who he was. "Oh my goodness, it makes so much sense! He's trans and he looks like that because let's be honest, two of us knows that that sucks and the other one is very lucky.."

"You know there is another option that's way less dramatic. He's a werewolf." Venus rolled her eyes as they both gasped, horrified at the thought. "Oh come on, it's not like he was raised in a pack that taught him to eat humans,"

"Why are those our only options? Aren't they both worst case scenario?" Good lord, Alice had almost forgotten Lily was a muggle born and didn't know how different the two worlds were in politics. Where the wizarding world failed in blood purity and prejudice, it excelled in acceptance of those who loved the same sex, loved more than one person at a time or were born in the wrong body.

"Lils, wizards and witches can be whoever they want to. If you want to marry a woman and you are a woman too, great. Earlier on it was only a problem to keep the family line, but now a days there are potions you can take. If someone was born in the wrong body, they take potions to correct it and when they're done growing, they can go to St. Mungo's to officially transition." As someone who's older brother was going through the same thing, Venus was more experienced in it than the other two. "Why do you think that not all of the Pureblood families have died out?"

They fell into giggles as Lily sat there shocked, for the first time since they'd known her the red head was completely speechless.

You two might be right. Lily sent the note to where Venus and Alice were paired for their project, turning her eyes back to where Remus was working on the finishing touches on the essay portion. "How do you know so much about Lunar Phases?"

He jumped slightly at the broken silence, rolling his eyes at her. "My dad researched Werewolves for a while and it was all he could talk about." Even though that was a valid excuse, it sounded way too prepared for her to believe it. Whenever Remus talked about his parents, he tended to get flustered like he was covering something up even though it was just what their names were or where he lived. The only time he was perfectly composed was when he was lying or had prepared what he was going to say and practiced it a million times before hand. "Alright, so I've got how it affects the first few on our list, do you want to switch so I can see what you did for the rest?"

Lily was smart enough to drop it even though she had to quell her anger over Venus's handwritten, I told you so.

The girls had started a mission to prove their theory on what was going on with Remus. Aphrodite had gotten herself involved because she was the most likely to not be questioned if she was found late at night wandering around the castle. Dumbledore had informed the staff that she tended to sleep walk and mutter dreamy prophecies that were likely to never come true. "Slughorn brought me to Madame Pomfrey because I told him that his cats would get sick if he didn't watch his spleen. And then the next day, he added powdered rat spleen to the wrong potion and all of the Gryffindors ended up throwing up because of the smell."

"I remember that! Slughorn gave them all E's to keep them from writing their parents." The girls had to quiet their giggling as the aforementioned victims entered the Great Hall, going back to their Defense books from the library.

"It says here that the week leading up to the full moon is when the wolf starts to wake within the victim, bringing on restless behavior and differing personality traits. These can include arrogance, new found athletic ability, the desire to find a mate," they all gagged when Alice read that line, "and aggression towards anyone who impeedes on his territory or pack."

"Well of course that explains why he gets so protective of Lily around this time, it's the only point he stands up to James because he sees you as a member of his pack." Aphrodite might have appeared to be in thought but her sister could tell that she was thoroughly enjoying the look on the aforementioned girl's face. "Of course he doesn't actually hurt James because he's in the group as well, he's just an annoying adolescent instead of a real threat. I looked up wolves once for a muggle project, they were quite interesting."

They quickly put away their books as they heard a teacher yelling. Meaning that the boys would soon be joining them. Sure enough, Sirius burst through the doors in a full set of dress robes, falling to his knees in front of McGonagall to produce a rose. "Forgive us please, I beg of you."

Remus and Peter soon followed but with all of the attention on Sirius, only a few noticed their entrance. And only one saw them mutter a quick spell aimed at the floor. After their task was done, both of them nonchalantly plopped themselves down for breakfast. "Morning ladies."

"You two are going to get them expelled if you don't rein them in a bit." Before Lily could berate them further, a broom zipped through the air as James came to follow in his best friends lead, joining their hands. "I swear if you roped some poor girl into crying about how one of them broke her heart for the other, I will make sure you are coughing up furballs for a week."

"Why would we ever do such a thing? Do you have so little faith in us?" Remus might have been convincing if only Peter wasn't stuffing his mouth with food to keep himself calm. "I promise you we didn't rope a single girl into this."

True to his word, it was a Slytherin seventh year, Lucius Malfoy, who burst in after them looking like he was about to demand their deaths. But as soon as he entered the hall, he was also dressed in new robes and begun to cry dramatically. "How dare you Potter steal my true love from me, you know I have been carrying this burdening affliction for so long it has overtaken me." Even through the tears you could see the anger in his eyes.

Venus's head whipped around to find Narcissa who was calmly eating her breakfast without a single care for her betrothed. If one looked closely enough, they might have seen finger prints on her wrists and a triumphant glint in her eyes at the scene. No matter what you could say about Sirius, he always protected those he loved.

Sirius was riding a high all throughout the weeks of his detention with Slughorn cleaning out cauldrons and reorganizing potion ingredients after seventh year review sessions. Being able to take down one of the cruelest blood purists in the school was worth every scratch and raw fingertip, especially after what happened with his cousin. When Severus confronted him in an empty hallway and explained what had been going on in the common room below the lake, there wasn't a single rule he wouldn't have broken to get back at the bastard.

"I still can't believe we pulled it off! That's some tricky spells we did, even with two of us! Of course it wore off after a minute but by then the whole hall was laughing at him. He'll never live it down, I heard one of his friends asked him if he had a thing for family members." Peter was practically bursting at the seams over the exhilaration, even though the howler he had received sent him to Madame Pomfrey for a few hours.

As he rolled his eyes with the most drama he could muster, James flung himself back against the wall like a shakespearean Juliet wannabe. "Oh, how I wish our young love was not forsaken by the fearsist of witches, besmirched by the stupidest of cowards."

"Shut your mouth you git, you're going to get us in trouble. Again." Remus shoved his shoulder lightly and slung an arm over Peter's head, mimicking the way James was on the wall. "I'm a pureblood and woe is me that I can't get away with everything anymore…"

"Come off it, James is just mad that Lily was the one to catch his broom." The three boys laughed while James turned a dark color. "You'll get her someday mate, girls just aren't interested in people who talk through their arse." Peter looked extremely proud of himself even as he dodged the hex thrown his way. "Sh…" Before any of them could protest, Sirius caught the whispers floating down from the other part of the hallway. They shoved each other into a broom closet quickly, shutting the door just enough that it wouldn't lock but it wasn't obvious it was open.

"You are going crazy over this, we've been at this for months and nothing has changed. He's never going to notice." The voice sounded tired as footsteps moved dangerously close to where they were, an oomph being released as whoever she was leaned on the wall. "What next?"

"I don't even know if I want him to notice, I mean he's our friend and I don't know if that would all fall apart." That was definitely Lily. James had slipped her something to give her a cold and any other magical being would have made it go away with magic or a potion. But no, she was too stubborn for that.

That night in the boys dorm was hell for poor Frank and all four of them knew it. "It has to be one of us right, she only just started trusting Severus again and the friend was a guy so unless it's you," Peter glanced at Frank who was barely even listening, "it has to be one of us. I don't know her that well so not me."

"It has to be one of us two because she hates James. She knows Alice has dibs on Frankie so there's no way she would push that." Sirius ducked as a pillow started to attack him, their other roommate not even looking up from his Transfigurations book. "You know it's true! You two are in love and will marry! I bet the betrothal is finalized by the end of third year!" He finally got caught and was suddenly on the floor with his face covered. "Ooo ew mmm ggggggrrrrr!"

"If you four don't go to bed instead of gossiping like first years about who Lily has a crush on, you will all meet his fate." The lights turned out early in the Gryffindor second year dorms.