The train ride back to Kings Cross station went way too fast for everyone's liking, especially Sirius's. As we got closer and closer to London, I noticed that his mood became worse and worse.

He didn't make it overly obvious, he continued smiling, but as I watched him, I could tell he was scared. Scared to go to his own home, and knowing that made my heart hurt.

As the train pulled into Platform nine and three-quarters that afternoon, everyone stood up, grabbed their trunks, and stepped out of the compartment. Sirius fumbled with the handle of his trunk, and I told everyone else to go ahead.

As soon as we were alone in the compartment, I wrapped my arms around him. He dropped his trunk and hugged me tightly back.

"Can you write?" I asked.

"I'll try," said Sirius.

"We'll aim to send each other a letter every single day," I said.

"OK," he said.

"And if you need help, please reach out," I said.

"OK," he said again.

I kissed him, and then we both walked out of the compartment, and off the train. He walked over to his parents, and I eventually found mine and sped-walked over to them. I would have run, but that was what the first-years were doing, and I didn't want to act like a four-year-old.

"Remus!" my mum cried, embracing me straight away and kissing my head.

"Hey," I said, as she let go of me, and my dad wrapped his arms around me as soon as she'd let go.

"So, how was the term? How were the exams?" Dad asked.

"Yeah, good, I passed everything," I said. "How are you going?"

"Great," said Mum, "The flat's great, we're great... everything's great!" Mum cried.

"That's great," I said, as we all gripped each other's hands, and Dad apparated.

We got to the apartment, and I immediately went to my room to unpack my trunk.

"We were going to get something special for tea tonight since it's your first night back," said Dad, coming into my room and standing next to me. "Any requests?"

"Pizza," I said, smiling at him.

"Alright," he said, then walked out of the room, calling out, "Hope, do you have any muggle cash?"

After I finished unpacking my trunk, I climbed into bed and went straight to sleep. I was extremely tired from having no sleep last night because of the common room party, and I'd have no sleep the next night either, as it was a full moon.

"Can we go to the beach again?" I asked my parents the next morning. "Not this Friday, but the Friday after? July... fourth?"

"For how long?" Dad asked.

"I dunno," I said.

"Well, as long as we're back home before the July full moon, then sure."

"Talking about full moons... that's tonight, isn't it?" Mum asked.

"Yeah," I said.

"Same place as you were in March, yeah?" said Dad.

I nodded. They'd taken me to the cellar of the apartment building, and Dad had put silencing charms over it. It was a very dark room, but it was bigger than the shack, which was nice.

I finished my breakfast, then went to my room to write a letter to Sirius. It felt strange, writing a letter to him, when his parents knew what our relationship was, and given the fact that I'd seen him less than twenty-four hours ago, but I already missed him.

I tried to make the letter subtle just in case his parents read it.

Dear Sirius,

Does 'dear' sound too romantic? I thought, pausing. Should I just write 'to', to avoid suspicion? But I write 'dear' in every letter. I'm overthinking this...

I scribbled out what I'd written, then wrote underneath it.

To Sirius,

How was your first night back? Is everything OK? I already miss you

You can't say that, I thought. Saying you miss someone at all was bad enough when trying to make a letter as platonic as possible, but to say that you already miss them, after only seeing them the previous day was so painfully obviously romantic attraction to the person you're writing to. I grumbled to myself and scribbled it out.

To Sirius,

How was your first night back? Is everything OK? My first night was good, my parents bought pizza, and I slept. Nothing overly exciting. Do you have any plans for the summer? It would be cool if you could come to the beach next Friday. I understand if you can't come. Anyway, I hope you're doing well.

Love From Remus

No, you can't write your actual name, I thought, then scribbled out the entire letter and grabbed a new piece of parchment.

To Sirius,

How was your first night back? Is everything OK? My first night was good, my parents bought pizza. Do you have any plans for the summer? It would be cool if you could come to the beach next Friday. I understand if you can't come. Anyway, I hope you're doing well.

From Moony

I enveloped the parchment after reading it through a billion times, then nodded to myself and wrote Sirius's name on the envelope.

My family didn't have an owl. We used to, but my parents had sold it a few months ago to help pay for the apartment, so, instead of getting to send the letter from home, I had to ask my dad to take me to the closest wizard post office.

Once we were there, I approached the closest owl that looked somewhat trustworthy and put the envelope and a knut in its talon, then it flew off to deliver my letter to Sirius.

Hi Moony,

So far everything seems to be going OK over here. My parents have been ignoring me, which is fine with me. There's been a lot of death eaters here, having meetings about who knows what, so Regulus, Narcissa, Lucius, Bellatrix, Rodolphus, and I have all been staying in Regulus's bedroom together.

My sixteenth birthday is just over four months away, and for some reason, my family seems convinced that I'm going to join the Death Eaters. I thought I'd made it quite clear in the last four years that I'm completely against that idea.

Anyway, what sort of pizza did you get? I've only had pizza once because it's too "muggley" to have at my house. How are you feeling after last night? Please tell me you didn't get hurt too badly.

And I probably won't be able to come to the beach, sorry.

From Sirius

I didn't see the letter from Sirius until the afternoon the next day, as I'd spent the entire morning in bed after the full moon, and when I finally came out to greet my parents, the envelope was waiting, unopened for me on the kitchen table, and I grabbed it immediately.

"Who's it from?" asked Dad.

"Sirius," I said, after reading the letter.

"How's Sirius doing?" Mum asked.

"Yeah, good..." I said, not taking my eyes up from the letter, and biting down on the sides of my lips so it didn't look like I was uncontrollably smiling over the fact that I'd received a letter from a 'friend'. I immediately began writing back.

Hey Sirius,

That must be super crammed, with all of you in that one room! And especially with Bellatrix... (no offence to her).

I'm sure it will be OK, you still have four months, but surely, they can't force you. If they do, you've always got the marauders on your side.

And we got a pepperoni pizza. It was very nice; we should try to convince the house elves to make pizza more often at school. And I'm feeling fine. You not being able to come to the beach, that's a shame. I may not be able to write to you while I am there, sorry. I'll see you in September.

From Moony

My dad took the letter to the post office for me, as I had a fresh cut across my face, so we'd both agreed it was better for me not to go into a crowded place.

Later that afternoon, I received an extremely short letter from James.

Remus,

Can you go to the closest belly-loan place right now? I need to tell you something really important.

From James

I felt panic hit me like a bus. James had put a telephone number beneath his message. I stood up, holding the letter, then rushed out to the kitchen, and took a muggle coin from my mum's purse. I'd make it up to her later.

Clutching the letter, I rushed out of the apartment room and ran downstairs, and went outside to the telephone box. Breathing heavily, I looked back down at the letter and dialled the number James had given me, and slowly rose the phone to my ear. James picked up in the first ring.

"James?" I said, struggling to hide the nervous tone in my voice.

"Hey... are you OK? You sound worried," said James.

"Well, yeah, what's the matter?" I asked.

"Nothing's the matter!" James cried. "God, I'm so sorry, Remus, did you think something was wrong?"

"What – why did you want me to call you then?" I asked.

"I need to tell you something really, really important," said James.

"What?"

"Well, I sent Evans a letter," said James, "and, well, I didn't think my owl would be able to find her since I don't know her address, but it managed to find her, and she replied!"

"James," I said. "Did you seriously make my heart rate go up to a trillion beats per second so you could tell me you wrote a letter to Lily Evans?"

"Yes," said James, "Anyway, I asked her if she wanted to come to the beach with us."

"And?" I said. "What did she say!?"

"She said yes!" James cried. "Evans is coming to the beach with us!"

"That's great!" I cried.

"Yeah," said James. "But what am I going to do if she... wears a bikini or something?"

"Um, I dunno," I said.

"I don't want to make her feel uncomfortable, but like... I'm probably going to be, like... y'know..."

"Yeah, yeah, OK, I get the picture," I said.

James laughed. "I think Sirius has said that exact thing to me before. You two have been spending too much time together."

"Oh yeah, maybe," I said. "Anyway, my parents are probably wondering where I've gone, I sort of ran off because I thought this was a bloody emergency."

"Oh, yeah, sorry," said James. "I'll let you go. See you at the beach! Be prepared to watch me die!"

I laughed, "Alright, bye."

"Bye."

I hung up the phone, rolling my eyes. A complete waste of a muggle coin.

I met James, Peter, Marlene, Dorcas, Mary, Alice, Frank, Lily, and all their families at the beach at precisely 10 in the morning on Friday, the fourth of July. As soon as my friends and I saw each other, we all cried out and went in for a massive group hug.

We all began to help unpack our stuff into the little beach house, which James's parents had performed many extendable charms on, and Lily and Mary's parents were completely blown away.

"It really is magic isn't it!?" Lily's dad cried.

"Why don't you do spells like this at home, Mary?" Mary's mum asked.

"Because if I do, I'll be expelled," said Mary.

It was nice to meet their families. A few of them had siblings, for example, Marlene had two younger brothers who were six years old and twins; Mary had an older sister who was the same age as the crew that was going into sixth year, as well as three younger siblings; Alice had a younger sister who'd be starting Hogwarts in September; Frank had an older brother who'd left Hogwarts a few years ago, and Lily had an older sister who was almost seventeen.

After unpacking everything, we all changed into our swimsuits and hit the ocean. Being insecure as hell, I wore a long sleeve shirt, but all the other guys were shirtless, and the girls were in bikinis, including Lily, and James was redder than I'd ever seen him.