My seventeenth birthday crept up on me sooner than I would have liked it to, but there was nothing I could do to stop it. The night before my birthday, Sirius stayed in my bed with me and gripped my hand because he could tell how terrified I was about becoming overly dangerous when I was of age.

I couldn't sleep, though. I kept a crack of the curtain open so I could watch the clock, which was slowly ticking away to my doom.

Maybe I was being ridiculous, thinking it was counting down to my doom. Nothing would probably even change when I became an adult. My transformations would be the same as they were before. Maybe they'd even be better. I needed to just calm down.

When the clock was only fifteen minutes out from midnight, the door to the dormitory cracked open and a line of light seeped through from outside. I jumped at first, pulling the covers closer to me, which caused Sirius to grunt and pull them back toward himself.

"Mr. Lupin?" came a voice. A voice I recognised. What was she doing in our dormitory?

"Professor McGonagall?" I whispered, scrambling out of my four-poster and drawing the curtains of them so she couldn't see Sirius in there, even if it was dark, I wasn't going to risk it.

"Mr. Lupin," she said again. "Sorry for disturbing you in the middle of the night, but would you please come with me to my office?"

"Um, OK," I said, following her out of the dormitory, then out of the common room into the halls of the school. My mind started listing the reasons why she could want me to come to her office in the middle of the night.

- She'd found out about the other marauders becoming Animagus after she'd told them not to and was going to get me in trouble for it

- The teachers who knew what I was had decided that I was too much of a danger to the school and I was going to be kicked out

- She wanted to question me again about the girl who'd died almost a month ago now

What I didn't expect to see when we came into her office was my dad. How much trouble was I in that my father was involved?

"Hey, Remus," my dad said, wrapping his arms around me.

"What's going on?" I asked, looking between my dad and Professor McGonagall.

"We have to register you as a werewolf," said my dad.

"Register me as a werewolf?" I repeated.

"Since you'll be of age in just ten minutes," he said, stepping towards the fireplace in Professor McGonagall's office. "We must go to the Ministry now."

"What happens when I'm registered?" I asked, not moving.

"I'll explain to you on the way," he said, grabbing a pinch of Floo Powder and stepping into the fireplace. "Thank you, Minerva. Ministry of Magic."

"Go on, Remus," said Professor McGonagall. I took in a deep breath, then stepped into the fireplace, taking a pinch of Floo Powder. "Happy birthday."

"Thanks," I said, glancing at the clock on the wall to see that there were just a few minutes left until my birthday. "Ministry of Magic."

A moment of nausea later, I was coming out of one of the fireplaces in the Ministry of Magic, covered in soot. How did all the workers go through the Floo Network in their work clothes and still look fine?

"You alright?" my dad asked me when I came out of the fireplace.

"Yeah, fine," I said.

"Alright, he said, checking his watch. "Come on, we're going to be late."

"Couldn't we have done it, like, not at midnight?" I asked. When I said that, I realised that I was wearing my pyjamas. Bloody hell.

"Firstly, it's a Thursday, and we don't want you to miss out on schoolwork," said Dad. "And we have to do it the moment you turn seventeen anyway. Hence, at midnight."

I rolled my eyes and followed him, having to jog to keep up with his strides. Soon he was jogging too, and I had to properly run to keep up. We arrived at the department of the containment of magical creatures right at midnight, and my stomach did a flip.

"Good evening, Lyall," said the man standing at the front of the room. "Remus. Happy birthday. Please take a seat."

He gestured to a seat that was situated right in the middle of the otherwise empty room. I sat down and was strongly reminded of my trial after Monifa's death.

"So, Remus, you're now officially an adult," said the man. "How do you feel about that?"

"Um, I don't know," I said.

He smiled. "Well, for most witches and wizards, their seventeenth birthday is just like any other birthday, the only different things are that it gives them the right to perform magic outside of school, and of course the right to drink alcoholic beverages in the wizarding world. You, however, are a little... special."

Special? I thought. Seriously?

"When a werewolf turns seventeen, he or she is required to register themself as a werewolf," he said.

"If I'm not registered already, how did you know that I'm a werewolf at all?" I asked.

"Your father does work in this part of the ministry," he said. "We would have known anyway, after what happened back in the summer of 1972, with that girl... Anyway, first I just want to ask you one very important question."

"OK," I said, fidgeting with the drawstrings of my pyjama trousers.

"Are you sexually active?"

"What?" I said, letting go of the drawstrings and looking up at him. "Why?"

"Just answer the question please, Remus."

"No, I'm not," I said.

"That's good. It should remain that way forever," the man said.

"You want me to stay a virgin forever?" I repeated, my heart pounding. "You do realise I'm a male in my late teens?"

"Yes, and I understand that this may be hard for you," he said. "But we can't run the risk of you impregnating any women. The child could be at serious risk. And even if you didn't get her pregnant, if you were to have sex with a woman, that could pose risks to her."

"What else happens when I register?" I asked. "What changes?"

"This is not a choice, Remus," the man said.

"OK," I said. "What happens, though?"

"Well... it will be in your records," the man said. "Whenever you try to get a job in the wizarding world, it will say that you're a werewolf, whenever you buy something in the wizarding world, it will say you're a werewolf. While you're still at school, whenever a teacher takes the role, it will say that you're a werewolf next to your name."

"So... so everyone will know," I said.

"Not everyone," he said. "Your classmates won't know."

That would mean that after school, I wouldn't even be able to get a job at Diagon Alley, the most basic of jobs. I would have no way to make money. All of the teachers would know, and a lot of them would treat me differently. I wouldn't be able to buy anything from Hogsmeade without the shop owners or bartenders bringing up my name on the receipt and seeing what I was. No, no, no...

"I don't want to register," I said.

"As I said, it is not a choice that you get to make," said the man.

I shook my head, feeling a lump form in my throat. "I'm not registering. Don't I have to sign something? You can't force me to do that."

"Remus..." my dad started.

"No." I said shortly, then I stood up. "I don't want to be discriminated against wherever I go. I just want to live the closest thing to a normal life that I can."

"Sit down, Remus," the man said, his voice suddenly cold. "You are not leaving this room without signing the werewolf registration."

He waved his wand, and a parchment, quill, and ink bottle flew down to me. The parchment had a lot of writing about the registration, and an area at the bottom for me to sign.

"I don't want to," I said.

"Remus," he said. "Sign it. Now."

"No." I marched towards the door, but it flew closed and locked itself. "Can you please unlock the door?"

"No."

I pulled out my wand and spun around.

"You'll be expelled if you use that, Remus!" my dad said, rushing over to me.

"No, I won't," I said. "I'm seventeen. Alohomora!"

The door clicked, and I opened it and then ran out into the halls of the ministry. It was completely empty since it was the middle of the night, so I was able to run freely through the large hall, but then I was levitated into the air.

I looked back to see the Ministry man was the one levitating me, pointing his wand straight at me as I was dragged back to the room. What the hell? Why was he so desperate for me to register?

"If you don't register yourself, the Ministry will register for you, and not only will the fact that you're a werewolf be leaked like it would be if you registered yourself, but we will tell everyone, including your peers at school, what you are and what you've done," he said. His voice had turned very cold all of a sudden.

"You can't do that!" my dad roared.

"We won't if Remus signs the registration by his own will," he said, lowering me to the floor. My heart pounding, I took the quill and dipped it into the ink.

"It's not exactly my own will," I said, writing my signature with a trembling hand. "You've forced me into it."

"Thank you for signing that, Remus," the man said, smiling again. "You may go."

I couldn't have left there faster. My dad and I left the room and went into the hall of the empty ministry.

"Remus, I'm sorry that had to happen..." he said.

"It's fine," I said, not looking at him. "I'm going to go back to school, try and get some more sleep before classes start."

"OK, but one more thing before you go," said Dad. He opened his bag, then handed me something small that was wrapped up in paper. "Happy birthday, Remus. Open it at breakfast."

"Thank you," I said. Then we both went into different fireplaces to go to different places.

The gift from my dad was a watch. It was nowhere near as glam as the one Sirius had gotten from James's parents, but it was still nice, the nicest watch that would ever touch my wrist.

Behind the face of the watch, the cool round brass touched my wrist, the words Remus John Lupin were engraved.

The marauders had to make a big show of my birthday, of course, singing to me in the morning and shoving my head into a cake that evening.

I didn't tell any of them about the werewolf registration. That is until Sirius asked about it that night when the two of us lay side by side in his bed.

"Where did you go last night?" he asked me. "I felt you leave around midnight, and I thought you were just going to the bathroom, but you never came back."

"I had to go to the ministry," I told him, even if I didn't want to talk or think about it, ever. "I had to register as a werewolf since I'm no longer underage."

"Oh. OK," said Sirius. "What does that mean?"

"It means every time I try to get a job or buy something in the wizarding world, they'll know I'm a werewolf," I said. "So, I can't get a job or buy anything..."

"Oh, Moony," said Sirius. "That's horrible."

"And, um... remember at New Year's, when we tried to take things a little further?" I asked him, and he nodded. "Well, have you ever thought about trying again?"

"I mean, yeah, a lot of the time when I look at you being so unfairly attractive," said Sirius. "But I don't want you to get hurt. We'd need to be more careful."

"Well, we can't," I said. "I can never do it. Ever. Because apparently, I'll put you at risk for... god knows what. I'm sorry, Padfoot."

He was silent for a second. Then, "It's OK, Moony. Better safe than sorry. And it won't change how much I love you, alright?"

"Alright," I said. "I love you."

"I love you too. Happy birthday, Moony."