Jill wiped her eyes, too sad to be angry at this display of weakness.

She had been about to walk out of the portrait hole when Anna had dragged her by the elbows over to a chair.

"Come on, Jill." Anna said, her short blonde hair bobbing merrily. It made Jill want to throw up just by looking at it. Jill shook her head, feeling as though it might split in two. Anna had gotten the best seats in the common room, right by the fire.

"I… I can't…" Jill stammered, pale and sweating. She felt a pang of sadness as Anna's expression changed, lines forming over her forehead.

"You never want to sit with me."

Anna reached out to grab Jill's arm, which at the moment was aching as if it was broken.

"Don't!" Jill yelped, wincing and jumping backwards. Anna's eyes filled with tears. "I'm sorry." Jill whispered. "I think I bruised it… I'm going to the Hospital Wing."

Anna's face turned stony, and she seemed to grow taller.

"You think some stupid boy's better than your friend, huh?" Sparks seemed to flash, and Jill took another step backwards.

"Anna! I nev-"

"Yes, you do! You're always making up excuses, being oh so secretive. We know you have a boyfriend. Who is it, then? Or will you not even tell your own friend?"

Jill gaped, dumbfounded.

"I'm going up to the Hospital Wing." She repeated, though her voice was small.

Anna became more furious. "Thought not."

There was the sound of footsteps on the stairs, and Lisa appeared.

"I heard voices-" Lisa's eyes travelled from the usually calm Anna to a horrified Jill.

"I'm sick!" Jill pleaded, though it came out as more of a whine.

"You're sick now? I thought you bruised your arm!" Anna pointed an accusing finger at Jill, looking at a startled Lisa. "She ignores me, she lies, she never wants to talk to me!"

"That's not true!" Jill replied, tears in her eyes now. She too, looked at Lisa, but her other friends face was expressionless.

"I think you need to take care of your friends better." Lisa remarked.

Jill turned and ran out of the common room.

Jill rubbed at a stray tear, trying not to make any noise. Her plan didn't work.

"Jill?" Lupin asked, his voice travelling through the Shrieking Shack's walls. Jill swore softly. "Jill, are you all right?"

The recipient of this question was silent for a long time.

"Lupin…" she was hesitant, it was a rather personal question, "do your friends… Do they know?" Do they know you're a werewolf?

"Ah- Yes, they do. Since last year."

"How did you tell them?"

"I didn't. They found out on their own. I'm not good at excuses, and eventually they realised the pattern between my disappearances and the dates they memorised for astronomy class." He paused, and Jill could almost hear him thinking. "No one else has noticed, though." Jill closed her eyes, tears leaking from them. Lupin changed to a light hearted tone. "I thought you were never scared of anything, remember?"

"Being scared and being sad isn't the same thing."

"Oh." Lupin hesitated. "I didn't have any friends when I was young." Lupin said. He sounded as sad as Jill felt. "Any wizard friends would have told their parents of my being ill and their parents would have figured it out immediately. My parents didn't want me to be friends with muggles, either They were scared I might let something slip."

"Merlin." Jill replied softly.

The two were silent for a long time, both lamenting the terrible circumstances that had led them there.

"I used to like the moon." It was a whisper, but Jill knew Lupin could hear it. "I used to stargaze with my mum. Now it just makes me sad."

Lupin sighed. It was strange, sitting here in the dark and talking to people you couldn't see.

"I didn't really take much notice of the moon when I was young." Lupin said bitterly. "I'll never see a full one now. At least, not as a human.

Jill didn't know what to say to Lupin. They were both stuck in an unfair world with unfair lives with unfairness lumped over their unfair shoulders.

"The moon's coming up." Lupin said.

Anna avoided Jill the moment the latter was let out of the Hospital Wing. Lisa was evidently on Anna's side, and Jill spent her lessons sitting at the back of her class, alone.

When at last transfiguration ended, everyone rushed towards the doors. Jill bowed her head, and was almost at the doors when someone grabbed her sleeve. Lisa hung onto her robes with an angry expression on her face.

"You weren't in the Hospital Wing the day before yesterday." She hissed. Jill frowned.

"Yes I was." She replied, prising Lisa's fingers from the sleeve.

"You weren't. I went there, when you left. You weren't there." Lisa stuck her other hand on the sleeve. "Why are you lying?"

"I'm not. I was sick." Jill pulled out her wand and flicked it at Lisa, producing - Jill knew- a sharp stinging sensation. Lisa let go, her expression darkening even more.

"You monster." Lisa whispered venomously. Jill recoiled, the words stabbing her like shards of glass, and swept out of the room, her mind a rumbled of chaos. You monster.

The words echoed around the corridors. More people were coming out of their classrooms. Jill was on the verge of tears – but she wouldn't go to the Great Hall- there were too many people. No, she would go to the library. She headed off down the halls, clutching her transfiguration books like a shield. Someone called her name but Jill didn't stop. Dimly she was aware of someone grabbing her shoulder, but she shook them off. Jill ran into the library, oblivious to the person behind her. She shoved her books onto a desk, about to collapse into a chair. Someone grabbed her shoulder, stopping her. Someone who wouldn't let go when she tried to shake them off. It was Lupin.

"Jill?" He asked. She looked up at him, angry.

"Let go of me."

"Tell me why you're so angry."

"Let go of me!"

"Tell me why you're so angry!"

"No!"

She glared up at him and he glared back. His eyes were still slightly wolfish from the night before last. Jill shot a stinging jinx at his hand, but Lupin was quicker, grabbing the wand and throwing it down on the floor.

Jill relented.

"Lisa called me a monster." It was said quietly, but with enough hurt. Lupin's eyebrows snapped together. Jill's eyes widened. "No! I didn't mean- She doesn't know- No one has figured out I'm a werew-" Jill stopped. It didn't feel right, saying it out loud, in the bright sunlit library. She huffed, looking at the floor. "It's just- Lisa doesn't like me anymore because she thinks I'm ignoring my friends. Because I'm always disappearing."

"Disappearing?" Lupin asked. Jill glared at him.

"On – you know – full moons."

"Oh."

Lupin had let go of her shoulder, and Jill took the opportunity to sit down in a library chair. Sitting down didn't make her feel any smaller – Lupin was already tall enough for her to feel that way standing up.

"Are you sure Lisa doesn't like you?"

"She called me a monster." Jill repeated.

Lupin was silent for a bit.

"That must've hurt." He replied finally. He dragged a chair from a nearby desk, sitting next to Jill.

"What if she's true?"

Lupin shuddered. He had thought on that for a long time, when he was little. Sometimes he still thought that now, when something bad happened.

"We're not…" he struggled to find the words to describe what he wanted to say. "We're not monsters, not exactly… Think of it like we're owls. Owls aren't monsters. But to mice – mice are terrified of them. To mice owls are monsters. But just to mice, and only to mice. We are like the owls. We're dangerous to humans when it's a full moon, but only to humans, and only on a full moon. It's the wolf's nature, we can't help it."

Jill still looked sombre.

"Do you think I should tell them?" She asked.

"What are their views on werewolves?"

Jill winced, thinking of Halloween.

"Not good." She replied.

"Then no."

The bell rang, signalling the end of lunch.

A/N: Yet another chapter has been posted! Please tell me your thoughts in the reviews!

-Always A Dragon