To date, there had never been a day when James didn't wake his friends up the moment sunlight past the windowsill. It was annoying how energetic he was, talking a mile a minute, often stumbling over his words because his mouth couldn't keep up with his head, jumping over and onto things, including to Remus's bed. For any other person, James's forceful friendship would have been off-putting, but to Remus it was perfect. It was still annoying but, Remus was not the type of person who could make friends easily. In fact, if it hadn't been for James, he probably would have spent his seven years with only a few passing phrases between his dorm mates. Still, he thought he could do without the daily wake up call; he was a werewolf after all and need to stalk up on energy; he was entitled to a few minutes extra sleep now and then.

You never know what you've got till it's gone. A phrase Remus understood the meaning behind in a clinical sense but had never truly understood until that morning. Nothing was particularly wrong in the sense of an emergency, it was just slightly off. Groggily pulling apart his curtains, he realised what it was.

A near perfect parallelogram of light stretched across his dormitory, nearly reaching James's trunk. Surely, with James's curtain's wide open, the sun was in his eyes. Only the most tired of people would have the ability to sleep through that discomfort, but James, by his steadily rising chest and slackened, drool covered mouth, was sleeping blissfully.

Peter snored, nobody believed that Peter snored because Remus's snoring always overpowered his soft ones. While Sirius didn't snore, he scarcely moved even in evidence of breathing, he mumbled at random and scarce intervals, particularly in times of stress as he did this morning, telling Remus that he was the first to wake. Remus was never the first to wake. Sometimes he told his friends that he was but that was only to cover up a sleepless night.

"Hey, James?"

It was a sharp inhale that brought James into a sitting position.

"What time is it?" he asked, slightly panicked.

"Erm," Remus reached for his watch on his bedside table, bewildered. "7:13"

James threw his blankets off of him with such force they landed audibly in a crumpled mess, his feet hit the floor on the other side, elephantine in sound.

"Wake up you two!" James ordered, pulling his school robes over his pyjamas. "We don't have time for this," was his response to the grumbling. "We have shit to do today. We have to figure out how we're going to do the Mandrakes again. And we have to figure out who the rest of those Slytherins were. And -" James continued to rant about matters of non-pressing nature but seemed to have anxiety around them. It was enough to set Peter into hurried motion but Sirius seemed perfectly at ease as he blearily rubbed his eyes. He looked at Remus as if to say 'what's up with him' and Remus grimaced, saying, 'I have no idea.'

"Sirius get up! Mandrakes, Sirius, Mandrakes!" James yelled. "It was hard enough to get away with the first time, the second time is going to be impossible. McGonagall was suspicious, she'll probably know now. She's an animagus after all."

Sirius, grudgingly, his glare fueled with defiant anger, got up and silently made his way to the bathroom. James didn't notice.

"Remus, why did you let us sleep this late?" James demanded.

"Don't start on me," Remus muttered.

"I'm not starting on anybody," James said, defensively. "I'm just pointing out the fact that we're very, very late and nobody cares!" he shouted at the bathroom door.

"Then stop lecturing Sirius about Mandrakes. He knows how difficult it was, he was there," Remus said, trying to seem nonchalant. "It's a shitty way to wake up."

Peter marched by, muttering to himself inaudibly and angrily in a way that was very much not like Peter.

"Did I miss something?" Remus asked James.

James looked surprised that he would suggest such a thing. "No, why?"

"Everyone's -" Remus stirred his hands in the air, unable to think of the proper word. It was tense and it was a tension he wasn't apart of. Logically, he knew he should have been glad of it; less stress for him was good for his health. But he couldn't help but feel left out and, even worse, lied to. He wasn't an idiot. He knew when James was hiding something, had even been on the receiving end of it not once but twice, well, three times now.

"It was just a shitty way to wake up, right?" James smiled but it wasn't quite there, it was a haunted smile. Remus was, certainly, missing something. They had seemed fine when they had visited him in the hospital wing. Better than fine, all things considered. But now, James was panicky, Sirius didn't reply with snarky, fuck all remarks, Peter was broody. He didn't know what he had until it was gone.

Sirius left the dormitory without a word at their expense, only him wrenching open the door and slamming it closed again told them that he had left. He came back, moments later, to very blankly say, "Dumbledore wants you and Eilidh in his office." Sirius didn't give James time to ask questions before he slammed the door again.

"Git." James kicked his trunk closed. "See ya, Pete!" James waited but Peter didn't answer so he left the dormitory in a huff.

"Peter?" Remus called. If anyone was going to give him answers it would be Peter. And now they were alone.

Peter pulled the door open a little irritably, probably expecting James or Sirius. "Oh, hey, Remus."

"Do you want to see if we can make it to breakfast?" Remus smiled, invitingly.

"Go on ahead. I need to get dressed and double check my assignments," Peter said. "Save me some toast if I don't make it, yeah?"

Remus quickly found himself to be sitting with people he had never been around unless James and Sirius were present. They were their friends, not his. He listened to them talk about things he didn't know about nor cared to know about.

Frank was having an affair with Alice Prewett that was increasingly becoming more public the more they tried to keep it a secret. It would be difficult to keep anything secret when Gabe Pevensie, with a knowing air and a booming voice, announced that a "mysterious" voice issuing from a broom closet told him to tell Frank 'geraniums' accompanied by loud snickering from his cohorts and jokes about nonexistent 'extra patrols.' Frank left the table flushed and in a hurry.

Remus glanced at the door, hoping that his friends would miraculously appear at the perfect moment and save him. Gabe Pevensie and his friends had, for some reason, taken it upon themselves to fill the empty bench space surrounding him. They continued on with their conversations, clearly, by their side glances, hoping that Remus would join in like James and Sirius would, as if, by simply associating with them, he had adopted that talent. He felt too out of place to think of anything to say.

He couldn't stop thinking about how odd he must look sitting between a hoard of seventh years. Broad, stocky, athletic Gabe Pevensie on his right, making him look even more like a wiry tangle of limbs. Adrian Longbottom, tall, and smartly dressed in his accessorized school robes making his look even more shabby and second handed. Dirk Cresswell, his reputation for brilliance known even to the fourth years while Remus was up to his elbows in bullshit, made him feel transparent.

"I have to go," was all that Remus could bring himself to say as he shot up, knowing, even as he did it, that he was ridiculous.

"Tell Potter to come find me," Gabe told him. "I might have a girl for him."

The remark didn't sound strange to Remus until he was in the entrance hall. James had a girl. Or at least he had his eyes on a girl. He didn't need Gabe to have a girl for him. Then he saw Peter and his mind went blank.

Peter was bloody. He had streaks of red running down from his nose and his hairline. The puffy flesh around his eye was black, purple, and tender. One white-knuckled fist gripped his wand the other was trembling and an angry vengeful red.

"Sirius," he panted, pointing to the dungeons.

Remus would have cursed but to save time he shot forward without a word. The first corridor echoed with the sound of grunts and whispered spells. The second contained a litter of first years nervously watching around a corner. The third was a tangle of black, green, and red. Three Slytherins, one Gryffindor. Each of their wands waving and jabbing wildly, flashes of red and white lights bounced around. Sirius fought off ropes spewing from Mulciber and Avery's wands while the third made a jab for his chest.

"Crucio!" growled the voice. He was most definitely older than Sirius by his attempt at a moustache and a well-defined jaw. Remus came to recognise him as Antonin Dolohov from the Slytherin Quidditch team.

Sirius cried out in anguish and fell, his head hitting the stone floor with a skin-crawling crack. The ropes vanished, they were only meant to be a distraction. The spell didn't last for longer than a second but still, it was enough to damage to most witches and wizards. But not Sirius. He seemed to be thriving from the pain. His eyes burning with a ferocity Remus had never seen. It chilled him.

"Is that all you sons of bitches got?" he grunted. Remus shuttered at the cruelty in it. A sheen of sweat covered Sirius's lively face, his hair mussed, his grin broad and menacing, his wand slashing so quickly it was a blur. The Slytherins were thrown against the wall.

"Protego!" Remus waved his wand, creating a barrier between himself and Sirius and the so-called 'sons of bitches' readying their counterattack. He pulled Sirius up and pushed him backwards.

Sirius took a step forward. "Put the wall down, Remus."

Remus didn't respond.

Sirius laughed as Mulciber tried to break down the wall while Dolohov and Avery ducked from the rebounding spells.

"Let's go, Sirius," Remus said, surprised at how strong his voice sounded. Sirius jerked away from Remus's outstretched hand, lingered a moment longer, then turned to leave. He didn't look back nor did he speak, he merely walked out of the dungeon at a casual stroll. His breathing sounded purposefully calm.

James and Peter were sitting on the marble staircase, with James doing his best to tend to Peter's wounds. Eilidh stood over them, bouncing on the balls of her feet, her fists clenching and unclenching at her sides. It only took her a second to realise they were there.

"You short-sighted, little prat," Eilidh hissed, looking every bit as menacing as Sirius had. Her accent seemed to be more prominent when she was angry.

"Nicnevin," said James firmly, kneeling beside Peter who held a wet handkerchief to his bruised eye, all signs of blood now gone. "It had to happen, eventually."

"Not like this. Not on their bloody doorstep. You're lucky this is all that happened," Eilidh pointed at Peter still sitting on the marble staircase, his one good eye flashing from Eilidh to Remus then settled on Sirius.

"I told you to wait," Eilidh growled.

"And we elected to ignore your unwarranted advice," Sirius returned, his face flushed and arms trembling.

"Unwarranted?" Eilidh whispered which was somehow more terrifying than her yelling. Sirius became still and unreadable. "Fine."

"Eilidh." James reached for her halfheartedly, but Eilidh ignored it and continued to stalk into the Great Hall. "Nice one, mate."

Sirius gritted his teeth and looked away from James's disappointed stare.

"Does someone want to tell me what the hell is going on?" Remus asked his mind racing, heart thumping, his hands pulsing. And James told him, keeping things short and to the point, about a fight on the night of the full moon that ended with James in the hospital wing, unresponsive. Remus couldn't help but feel that Eilidh was right. Unfortunately, James didn't seem to feel the same. His only problem seemed to be in Sirius's choice of words.

"She is our friend, Sirius."

"I know."

"You have to apologise."

"I know!"

It was a chilly day metaphorically and physically. James refused to be anything but coldly polite to Sirius until he apologised, Sirius stubbornly refused to say the words I'm sorry, and Eilidh might as well have been a stranger to them.

Except in DADA. Sirius, once again trying to apologise without actually apologising, asked Eilidh to be his partner in their duelling exercise. Eilidh gladly accepted. Sirius smiled at James in an I - told - you - so sort of way and proceeded to get his arse kicked.

"Obviously, I let her win. Her offence might be good but her defence is shit," Sirius defended against their teasing in a low voice, glancing over his shoulder to make sure he wasn't heard.

Sirius didn't try again in Herbology. Remus couldn't help but notice that Eilidh sat alone, a short distance away from her dorm mates, and an even larger distance away from Sirius and therefore the rest of them. She didn't appear to be upset about this, on the contrary, she looked content with the quiet.

By Potions, however, James had had enough.

"Two words, three syllables, and she's yours," James whispered through the steam rising from their cauldron, his frustration almost tangible.

"Why should I?" Sirius nearly yelled. He glanced at Slughorn before adding, "they're just words."

"And sometimes they're necessary. Not everyone gets your stupid-"

"It's not stupid," Sirius argued. James looked flustered for a moment then closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"Go over there and apologise properly," James hissed, his hands gripping the edge of the table, his glasses fogging up as he leaned over the cauldron. Sirius issued a noise that was both a growl and a sigh then stalked off. "If I don't hear the words 'I'm' and 'sorry' don't expect me to talk to you anymore either."

Sirius scowled at him but continued on towards Eilidh's table. He sent Mary Macdonald to replace him as James's partner.

"What'd he say?" James asked before Mary had the chance to sit down.

"He said to switch places with him," Mary said obviously.

"And what did she say?" James continued.

"She didn't say anything." Mary looked questioningly from James to Eilidh then to Peter. James watched over his shoulder as Sirius talked and Eilidh ignored.

"I think we need more…" James's mumble was unintelligible as he practically ran for the storage cupboard.

"We need more of that too," Remus said, sending Peter an apologetic look before following James.

"All right, fine," Sirius was saying, slumping into the barstool next to Eilidh. James was taking his time dragging a scale from the cupboard. "Total honesty."

"Yes, I want you to leave," Eilidh said automatically and defensively, her body going rigid as she side glanced Sirius.

"Do you know what he's-" James whispered.

"Shh!" Remus hissed, using a large knife to watch their reflection.

"I didn't ask -" Sirius started to argue.

"I know. You don't ask about a lot," Eilidh interrupted, her voice suddenly full of venom.

"What's she doing?" James asked.

"Can't see her face but I think she's glaring at him," Remus said.

Sirius, he could see clearly. He looked confused, his eyes scanned her face like he was trying to piece together a puzzle.

"I am sorry," he said finally. Eilidh's shoulders fell either out of shock or relief, her grip on her ladle slackened.

"Okay," she said.

"Okay?" Sirius was utterly perplexed. He clearly wasn't expecting an 'okay.' "Look. Your advice is always appreciated and most of the time it's followed. This time, even though you were completely right, we decided to..." Sirius paused, trying to think of how to word this properly.

"Ignore it?" Eilidh finished for him.

"Not like that," Sirius said quickly.

"Then why'd you say it?" Eilidh challenged.

"Because," Sirius paused, glanced at Remus in his knife, grit his teeth, and somewhat reluctantly admitted, "I was mad. And I'm a stupid, short-sighted, little prat."

"I'm not apologising for that," she said quickly, then more kindly, "I am sorry if I hurt your feelings."

"Nah," Sirius shrugged and cut up her African red pepper.

"This is your game, you know," Eilidh reminded, sounding only a little annoyed.

"Yes. Fine. All right," Sirius grumbled, cutting faster. "But while we're on the subject of apologies, I'd like to apologise on behalf of my rude, annoying, busy-body friends."

Eilidh looked around and met Remus's eye in his knife. James smirked at Remus before spinning around.

"We're not leaving until you two kiss and make up," James declared.

"If I take back my apology will keep your promise and give me the silent treatment?" Sirius asked pointedly.

"A word of caution James," Eilidh said, smiling, "your new partner is rubbish at potions."

James's smile faded slightly as he turned to look back at their table. Black smoke was rising from both of their cauldrons. Mary and Peter were too involved in their own conversation to notice. Remus scurried forward. James sent one last look at Sirius then followed suit.

"Peter, we're supposed to stir it every half of a minute," Remus announced, jogging over to his cauldron. There was no saving their potion, it was completely charred. He wondered, hopelessly, if they had time to start fresh.

"Oh, gross," Mary muttered, pulling James's ladle out and with it a thick strand of goop.

"Ah," James said coming up at the sight.

"Is there -?" Mary started but was interrupted by a sneered; "What is that?"

Snape, with every bit of disdain he could muster, glared from the opposite side of the aisle. Avery, beside him, snickered.

"It's your face cream, Snivellus. Or don't you recognise it?" James grabbed the ladle from Mary and made to hand it to him. Snape recoiled, almost falling out of his chair in his haste.

"Okay, time to pack everything away and clean up. Do not forget to leave a phial of your potion, clearly marked, on my desk," Slughorn announced quickly as he made his way over to the four. He peered into both cauldrons, his nose wrinkling slightly. "Er, you'll have to take zeros for today, I'm afraid."

"It's all right, Professor, we'll make it up next class," James said easily. Remus couldn't help but count all of his accumulated zeros. He stuffed his hands in his pockets and kept his mouth tightly shut. James was dazzling his way out of trouble.

"I'm sure you will m'boy. How are you feeling?" Slughorn asked, smiling already.

"Never better, thank you, sir," James grinned back.

"Good, good. And how are your parents?"

"Brilliant as always. They were hoping to run into you while they were here," James leaned lazily against the table.

"Yes, I caught them just as they were leaving. I always knew they would make a great pair," Slughorn chuckled as his eyes glazed over, lost in better days.

"Dad always said you were his favourite teacher," James told him, matching Slughorn's proud smile.

"Did he? Oh, that's very kind of him. He was always one of my favourite students even if he did have a penchant for trouble."

"Like father like son," James shrugged, smirking.

"So it would seem," Slughorn laughed. "Well, I'll let you get to your work dear boy. And, er, Mr Pettigrew, would you see me after class?"

Peter's eyes grew wide as a blush crept up his neck. He nodded and gulped then Professor Slughorn strolled away.

"We're getting an excused, did you say?" James called after him.

"Yes, yes," Slughorn waved.

Remus cocked his brow at James. James's smirk disappeared.

"Piss off," James told him, knocking into his shoulder. Remus laughed.

It turned out that Slughorn had asked both Peter and Sirius to stay after class which could only mean that Eilidh was about to be proved correct.

"Hi," she said, meeting them in the corridor.

"Mrs Black," James nodded.

"Keep your voice down, will you?" Eilidh hissed, glancing around them.

"Well?" James asked.

"Er, I'm sorry for ignoring you today," Eilidh mumbled.

"No, you and Sirius," James said obviously.

"Oh. We're speaking," Eilidh shrugged.

"Speaking?" James questioned. "How are you still mad?"

"It's not just me," Eilidh said defensively. James blinked at her which only irritated her more. "We're working on it."

"Why don't we work on it together? We're all friends, right?" James pressed. Eilidh squinted at him.

"Stay out of it," she said firmly.

"Sounds easy enough," Remus blurted, sensing James's need to interfere. "You should wait with us. Shouldn't be too long now."

"Er, I can't actually. I need to have a long, dramatic, all around horrible chat with my dorm mates. Will you be in your dormitory later? I might need a good laugh," Eilidh asked, looking both hopeful and sad.

"You still haven't told Lily?" James guessed and by Eilidh's defensive and angry stance, Remus assumed he was correct. "Merlin you two!"

"Stay. Out of it!" Eilidh ordered before stomping off.

"They will never last if they don't sort this out," James muttered more to himself than anyone.

"Eilidh's trying to, at least," Remus commented.

"We don't even know what Sirius did. He already apologised for the unwarranted thing, what else is there?" James ranted, throwing his hands in the air.

"I reckon he knows what he did. She's not exactly mouse-y, is she?" Remus said.

"She's different with him. It's weird. And it makes everything more complicated." James crossed his arms over his chest, threw himself against the dungeon wall, and glared at the potions classroom's door. "You up for a bit more mischief today, Moony?"

Remus's head said 'no, absolutely not' but the rest of him was still buzzing in an unsatisfied way from this morning's dose of adrenaline. He opened his mouth to speak, shook his head at himself, and walked out of the dungeon. "Are we really going to continue calling me that?"

"Absolutely," James grinned. "It'll be on your gravestone."

***Son of Whitebeard, thank you. I never understood why the Board of Govoners wasn't used more, even by JK, thank you for noticing :) As for Abbott, every family has a black sheep and war tears people apart. It was either that or I kill someone's twin and goddamn it I'm not JK ;P

Love Fiction 2018, I'm so glad you did :D thanks for the review!***

***I'm not going to be available later in the week so you're getting this early. It'll be updated once it's edited but I don't think much will change.

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed.

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Until next time,

XO******