My next patrol was supposed to be the next Saturday, but that was the September full moon, so I spent the entirety of my Saturday trying to figure out how the hell I was going to get out of the patrol.

Sirius suggested I made a big scene at lunch, pretending I'd broken my ankle, but I reminded him that if I actually did break my ankle, Madam Pomfrey would be able to fix it in a heartbeat, and I'd be fine in time for the patrol.

In the afternoon, I decided to just tell Lily I was feeling too ill to go on patrol with her that night.

"Well, Emmeline said to find someone to swap patrols with if you ever can't make a patrol," said Lily. Her tone sounded like she was sad but trying not to show it. "You're supposed to swap with Benjy Fenwick, so if he agrees, he'll patrol with me tonight, and you'll patrol with Emmeline another night."

"Alright," I said. I didn't want to patrol with Emmeline, but it wasn't like I had much of a choice.

I approached Benjy at dinner, feeling awful for asking him so last minute.

"Hey," I said. "Um, would you like to swap patrols with me? I'm meant to be on tonight, but I'm really ill."

"Of course, mate!" Benjy cried, laughing. "Prepare for hell with Emmeline. You're on Monday."

"Thanks," I said, then walked to the Hospital Wing.

"You seem fine now."

"Yeah, I was sick on Saturday. It's now Monday."

"Were you really ill? Or did you just not want to patrol on a Saturday night?"

"Trust me, I would have much preferred to be patrolling on Saturday than have been sick," I said. Emmeline and I were beginning our patrol, and she seemed to not believe that I'd been sick on Saturday night. "Shall we split up?"

"We're not allowed," said Emmeline, crossing her arms. "For safety reasons, prefects are prohibited to split up during a night patrol."

"Oh, OK," I said, and we walked in silence for a few minutes.

"Does your friend Sirius Black have a girlfriend?" Emmeline asked, suddenly.

"What?"

"Sirius Black. Does he have a girlfriend?"

God, I thought. What is it with girls suddenly talking about their love lives to me?

"Yes," I said. "He's taken, and he'd probably appreciate you not asking his friends about that."

"Oh, really?" Emmeline asked, her tone going glum. "Who's he dating?"

"His business," I said.

"Damn, that's a shame," said Emmeline. "He's hot as hell."

I wanted to agree with her aloud, but I managed to keep it in and just nodded to her.

It was an extremely long night, with Emmeline bossing me around, and bossing students who were out of bed around. Unlike Lily, all the students listened to Emmeline. She just had more of a bossy aura about her than Lily did, and students did whatever she told them to do.

She also insisted on staying out all night. During the two patrols I'd done by Lily, we'd agreed on calling it a night after a while and were both in bed by one in the morning, however, Emmeline insisted it was important to patrol for every single second of the night, so in the morning I was exhausted and didn't want to go to class, but of course, I had to.

"How was your patrol?" Lily asked me during the first lesson.

"Oh, yeah, it was good," I said, unable to come up with a better response. "Patrolling with you is definitely better."

"I agree," said Lily. "With Benjy the other night... it wasn't bad, exactly, but you're a lot easier to make conversation with."

"Yeah, you too," I said.

By the time October arrived, I had adjusted well to my patrols being a regular part of my school life, and with them, I had found myself becoming better and better friends with Lily. I often hung out with her outside of the prefect patrols, and the two of us would study in the library together a lot, often talking about anything and everything, and often just reading in silence, but it wasn't awkward at all.

It was weird because I didn't understand girls at all, but now it felt like I had a sister, who would explain whatever I didn't understand to me, patiently and at a pace I could understand.

I also found myself spending a lot more time with Sirius. During the first Hogsmeade visit for the term, in early October, after checking the permission slips of third and fourth years for twenty minutes with the other prefects, Sirius and I spent almost the entire day with just the two of us, because James was trailing after Lily, and Peter was trailing after James.

In the afternoon, Sirius and I were sitting behind Honeydukes, where no one went, sharing a box of chocolates, and kissing with our chocolate-smothered lips, and then we lay down beside each other, munching on chocolate and holding hands.

"We've almost got it," said Sirius, out of the blue.

"What?" I said, turning my head to face him. "Got what?"

"James, Peter, and I have all managed to keep mandrake leaves in our mouths for half a month now," said Sirius. "We've never gotten this far before. I think it will happen soon. Us being Animagus. Please don't 'Sirius' me or something. We've talked about this. You just need to trust us."

I laid there silently for a full minute, before just saying "OK" because I didn't know what else to say. They'd been trying for years, and if I was honest, I didn't think it would work at all. But I would never say that aloud. I'd just let them go along with their plan, praying it didn't work so I wouldn't kill them, but also somewhat selfishly praying it did work so I didn't kill myself.

"I think the easiest way to make classes go by faster is to pay attention in class. Because by just staring out the window, or playing with your quill, that's going to make the time drag on and on, and you gain nothing. But if you pay attention to what's happening – yes, even listening to Professor Binns – it makes class time go faster, and you get extra knowledge, meaning you do better in your exams. And you have less homework by getting it done in class because you're not spending your class time messing around."

"How long have you had that mindset?" I asked. Lily and I were in the library in mid-October, reading through the Potions textbook together.

"Since first year," said Lily. "I think most people have that mindset in first year, but no one else sticks to it. That's why I'm top of the class."

"Reckon I can beat you if I begin paying more attention in class?" I asked.

"I think you could, you're really smart," said Lily. "But if you get better, then I have to get better."

"Then if you get even better, I have to be even better," I said.

"So, you think we should compete for the top of the class?"

"Why not?"

"OK, then," said Lily. "I bet you five galleons I'll get better O.W.L results than you."

"Oh, OK," I said. "This needs to be a formal contract. D'you have a quill?"

"Yeah, and ink, and parchment," said Lily, opening a little bag to reveal everything we needed to write a contract. I read over her shoulder as she wrote:

As of Friday, the 17th of October 1975, Lily Jade Evans, and Remus

"What's your middle name?" Lily asked, pausing.

"John."

As of Friday, the 17th of October 1975, Lily Jade Evans, and Remus John Lupin have agreed to a bet where whoever gets lower O.W.L results in June 1976 will pay the other 5 galleons.

"Now we both sign it," said Lily, adding her signature to the bottom of the parchment, then handed me the quill, and I signed my name next to hers, and we shook hands. "You're on."

"You may as well give me five galleons now," I said.

"Keep dreaming."

"You keep dreaming!" Lily cried. "Anyway, we're late for dinner, let's go."

"Y'know, Hallowe'en is on a Friday night this year."

"James, we have almost two weeks before Hallowe'en."

"Exactly, so we have plenty of time to make a plan for a big party!" James cried, standing up in his bed early the next morning.

"Talking about big parties, my sixteenth is only a few days after Hallowe'en..." said Sirius.

"Oh, don't worry about that, Sirius," said James. "I've got it under control."

"You're planning my sixteenth birthday party?" Sirius asked. "What's the plan?"

"You'll see," said James, smiling. "Anyway. Since Hallowe'en is on a Friday night, we can have a massive party and stay up as late as we want. Full common room party. Spread the word."

And spread the word we did. By the next morning, the entirety of Gryffindor house knew about the Hallowe'en party, as well as half of the school from the other three houses. Some of them were even planning to sneak into the Gryffindor common room for the party.

"They have their own bloody common room to have a party in," said Sirius, rolling his eyes.

James just shrugged. "The more the merrier, I think. As long as no Slytherins come."

"Moony, I'm so sorry. We were doing so well, and it... it's my fault, really... I just... I don't even know, I think I choked on it, then it all went downhill from there, and..."

"Sirius," I said. I was in the Hospital Wing after the full moon, and Sirius was apologising to me because they hadn't managed to keep the mandrake leaves in their mouths again. "It's OK."

"I am really sorry."

"It's fine," I said. I really wanted to go back to sleep, but I thought it would be rude to ask him to leave, but Madam Pomfrey asked him to leave a few minutes later, and I went straight to sleep.

The next night, I had another patrol with Lily, and before I left, James begged me to make sure she was coming to the Hallowe'en party, so I asked her at the beginning of the patrol if she was planning on going.

"I probably will," she said. "If it gets out of hand, I'll pull the prefect card and tell everyone off."

I laughed. "OK, then..."

We spent the night wandering the castle together, exploring places we'd never been to before. In one room, we found a big fancy mirror, that read something in another language: 'erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi'.

"That is a fancy mirror," said Lily, walking up to it. But when she was close enough to see her reflection, she gasped, then looked beside her, then looked back at the mirror.

"What is it?" I said, walking up to her. "What's wrong?"

"I..." she looked at me, then back at the mirror. "Now it's just us... I... I could've sworn I saw... never mind."

I looked around the room. "Saw what?"

"I thought I saw my sister..." said Lily. "I must be going crazy, it's the middle of the night, that's why."

"Your sister?" I said, looking into the mirror. I just saw the two of us. "Isn't she a muggle? How could she be here?"

"She's not..." said Lily. "I dunno. I must have been seeing things. Let's go..."

She walked away from the mirror, and I went to follow her, but before I turned around, I noticed my reflection was changing. I squinted my eyes, wondering if I was going mad, but I wasn't. I was looking at myself without a single scar on my face.

"Lily!" I cried.

"Yeah?" Lily said, walking back beside me. The moment she was standing next to me, my reflection changed back to normal.

"The mirror changed for me as well," I said, then stepped away from the mirror.

"She's back," said Lily. "Petunia, she's back..."

"So, we're both seeing things in this mirror, but only when we're the only one in the reflection," I said.

"'Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi'. What could that mean?" said Lily, reading the text that went over the mirror. "I don't even know what language it is."

"Well, it's not English," I said.

"Alright," said Lily. "Do you want to meet me at the library tomorrow, straight after our last class? We'll try and figure out what this message says, and what's up with this mirror."