A/N: Hey guys! Hope you are enjoying this story! Let me know what you think of it. I might do a time jump into fourth year after a few chapters – thoughts?

It was half past seven.

The other girls had been awake for a while, they were just going down to get breakfast. I, on the other hand, hadn't bothered moving from below the sheets, much less getting dressed. Alice and Mary had tried to get me to move for the last fifteen minutes, without success. They were finally leaving.

"Mary... Just tell the guys I'm running late, I'll meet them in class."

She looked at me wearily. "Fine," she said. "If you don't get up soon, you'll be late for class as well!"

When she closed the door, I was finally alone. I pulled out the chain again and stared at the ring.

"'Forever, S'," I murmured.

It seemed so much like the same ring. But that ring didn't have 'S' inscribed on it. Still, it could have been done later.

I then opened the clasp to my heart charm. It was one of my first charms. I'd persuaded my dad to get a miniature copy of the picture I had to put into the charm.

'Mine'. I had picked the charm because I could put the picture and the little note in it. I had promised myself I wouldn't forget the little sandy haired boy I spent the first five years of my life with.

But I had. The charm was forgotten until now, lost under a multitude of others. I'd forgotten him, and failed to recognise him when he was in front of me. And now he wasn't even here to satisfy my undying curiosity – if it was actually him.

I got out of bed after a few minutes, and rushed to get ready for class.

When I got to History of Magic, the rest of the class was already there. James was holding a stack of toast.

"Here," he them over.

"Fanks," I said, already stuffing them into my mouth two at a time. The guys smirked.

"Do you have Remus's chain? He'll kill us if we lose it," Sirius said.

I raised my left hand. It was next to my charm bracelet, wound around my wrist twice.

"I won't lose it."

"Good," James smirked. "Now we're not responsible."

Thankfully the class was History of Magic, because I could barely pay attention for a few seconds at a time.

"What's up, Rosebud?" Sirius asked when we left the class.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you've been acting weird all day," Peter said. "Late for breakfast, not taking notes!"

"Yeah, who do we go to for History of Magic notes now?"

I rolled my eyes. "Get your own notes, James."

"What about Remus? He relies on your notes!"

I hesitated. "I'm sure he won't mind using Lily's notes just this once," I said. "I need them myself, and she won't say no if he asks for them."

This was going to be a very long day.

I threw my bag on the bed. We had Herbology at the end of classes, so the boys and I decided to eat dinner with our bags rather than run up and down again. That, and Peter smelled cheese.

Picking up my pajamas and fuzzy socks, I headed for the bathroom and got dressed, all the while wondering whether Remus would return tonight or the next morning. I didn't think I could take the suspense any longer. Either he would be the little boy from my past, or he wouldn't. And I was pretty sure he was.

Or not.

I opened the door to the bathroom and ran straight into Lily.

"Oops, sorry, I didn't see you there!" Lily said, moving aside.

"You don't need to apologise, Lily, relax," I said, moving toward my bed and dumping my clothes into my wardrobe. Lily came out with her hairbrush and opened hers. A paper fell out, though Lily didn't seem to have noticed.

"You dropped something," I said, picking it up. It was a photograph, of a six or seven year-old redhead with another girl, maybe ten. She was thin, but not unhealthy, and the shape of her face was oddly familiar. They were standing in front of a cottage, laughing.

"Thanks," Lily took it from my hand. She didn't look at it and put it back in the wardrobe.

"Was that your sister?" I asked.

"Yes," she said, after a moment of hesitation. "Petunia."

"Is it odd that we've been living in the same room for almost four months and we don't know the first thing about each other's lives?"

"Not when you consider that you've been hanging out with the boys most of those four months."

"Come on, Lily, that's not fair and you know it. Let's put that behind us. Tell me something about your sister and I'll tell you something about mine."

Lily looked at me for a long time, carefully assessing me. I held my ground. Finally, she let out a long breath. "Like what?"

I tried to keep a straight face, but on the inside, I was dancing. "Ummm… Isabelle is eight years older than me, but we're really close. We do everything together. She calls me Bunny because apparently she thought I was one when she first saw me," I smiled at the thought.

Lily's eyes widened. "Is she a witch?"

"No… Strange how that happens, isn't it?"

"Yeah… Petunia isn't a witch either. And she hates me for it."

I stared at her. "Of course she doesn't, Lily. How can your own sister hate you?"

"She does." Lily sat down on her bed and wrapped her hands around herself, looking desolate. "She resents me because she isn't a witch. She wanted to be one too, when we found out, and she realised she couldn't, so she decided I was a freak."

I sat down next to her and put an arm around her. "She'll come around, you'll see. When you go back for Christmas, the two of you can sit and talk and everything will be okay."

"I hope so."

I plopped down on the couch next to James. "Couldn't you get better spots?" We were in one of the corners – it was secluded, but really far away from the fireplace.

"The fifth years are having some sort of study marathon. I hope they finish soon," Sirius stared at the fire – and his beloved armchair – wistfully.

"That's highly unlikely," Peter provided. "They have snacks and all their books and they're studying for a Transfiguration exam. It's in two days."

James and Sirius sighed in unison. "Anyway, what's going on with you, Rosebud? You took a while," Sirius said.

"I was talking with Lily, and I waited until Alice and Mary came up to the dorm so she wouldn't be alone."

James, who was just taking a sip of water, almost choked. "You were talking to Lily? And she was talking back?"

"Gee, guys, be more surprised," I said, sarcasm dripping from each word.

"Go on, Rosebud," Peter said, bumping James on the back.

"We just started talking about our life at home… you know, sisters and stuff… and we found that we actually enjoy talking to each other so we made a truce. Raised the metaphorical white flags, one might say."

"What was the truce?" James said, finally putting the bottle down and realising half his essay was covered in water.

"Well, I promised to be more considerate about the fact that Snape is her friend and she promised to be more considerate about the fact that you guys are mine."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Sirius asked, finally opening Standard Book of Spells, Grade I.

"I won't keep telling her what a bad person Snape is, make sure you guys don't attack him; and she stops ignoring on the basis that I spend most of my time with you."

I pulled out the Charms book and started on my essay before they spoke again.

"Err, Rosebud, can you see how that truce is completely one sided?" James asked.

"How so?" I asked, not looking up from my essay.

"Well, it just asks Evans to do something she should have been doing anyway," Sirius explained, "while you have to actively stop badmouthing Snape, even when he's in the wrong."

"So?"

"It's a bit unfair, don't you think?" Peter said, one eyebrow raised.

I stared at the three of them. "Lily spoke to me for the first time in a month. I took what I got, okay?"

"Fine," James said, raising his hands in defeat. "Just remember, if Snape does something bad, we won't be dissuaded from retaliating. We didn't agree to any truce."

Not wanting to get into an argument, I just turned back to the essay, and so did the boys.

"Hey guys."

It was late that night, after curfew. But Peter insisted that Remus was supposed to return today, and so we stayed up, until he did turn up. Remus flopped onto an armchair opposite me. He looked tired.

My stomach did an odd sort of flop at his sight. I looked over him carefully. The eyes were the same, yet different – tired, heavy from carrying secrets from the world. The face was the same, yet older. His entire being looked exhausted, yet eager to join in whatever was going on.

All the nervousness I had since last night evaporated at his sight as I knew, somewhere inside me, that Remus was indeed my Rez. I just had to make him see that the Ayesha in front him was his Shaz.

"How's your mum?" James asked.

"Better," Remus replied. "But they still don't know what exactly is wrong."

There was an odd silence.

"I see you managed to avoid your dog this time," Sirius observed.

Remus smiled. "Yeah, that was probably because Dad kept her outside most of the time."

"Here, Remus," I gave him his chain.

"Thanks," he said, promptly putting it on. Then he looked at James. "Wasn't this supposed to go in my desk?" he asked, raising his eyebrows.

James just smiled. "When do I ever do things that I'm told to?"

"When McGonagall tells you to do your homework?" I said.

"When McGonagall tells you you've got detention?" Remus added.

"When McGona - "

"Alright! I get it! McGonagall is a scary woman, okay?"

"You never told us the story of the ring, Remus," Sirius smirked, in an attempt to save James from his misery.

"Or 'S', whoever that is," James grinned, recovering quickly.

I observed Remus carefully. He had turned red and was avoiding everyone's eyes.

"Well..."

"Oh tell us, we won't laugh," Peter encouraged.

"Speak for yourself," James muttered front next to me. I jabbed his ribs.

"Fine," Remus said, taking a deep breath. "I had a friend - a best friend."

"We kinda figured that out," Sirius pointed out. "Muggle, witch, wizard...?"

"Muggle," he said. Okay, that was true at age five. "We were neighbours. Our mums were best friends, and we did everything together - eating, playing, everything. But when I was four, I moved away. She was on vacation then, and I never saw her again, but Dad went back to collect a few things and close the Floo network. She'd given him the ring to give to me."

The others oooohed. I remained silent. The story was the same, till now.

"So what's her name?"

"I'll only tell you her name, Sirius," Remus was rolling his eyes. "because you won't ever find her, even if you try looking for her. I don't remember her real name."

"Huh?"

"We were kids!" Remus said. "We had nicknames... I never called her by her real name."

"But then... Her real name doesn't even start with S?"

"No. I don't think so."

"What did you call her?" Peter asked.

"Shaz."

I gasped quietly. No one noticed.

This was it. I was right. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

"And what did she call you?" Sirius asked, leaning in like Remus was telling him how Hagrid had grown such gigantic pumpkins for Halloween.

Before Remus opened his mouth, the answer fell out of my mouth.

"Rez."

The four boys turned to look at me, looks of confusion, surprise and incredulity on them.

"How... how do you know that?" Remus asked me.

I looked into his eyes. "I didn't. Even when I saw the ring. But..."

He was standing, and so was I. I looked down, opening the clasp to the heart charm once again.

"Tell me that isn't you, Rez," I whispered, holding up my wrist so that the picture faced him.

He reached for my wrist, still looking at me, eyes wide. Looking at the picture, his eyes got possibly even wider. He looked up at me again.

"Shaz?" his voice was trembling.

I nodded.

"It really is you," he whispered.

"I can't believe it either," I said.

He pulled me into a hug, and I hugged him back like there was no tomorrow. We were laughing and crying at the same time.

"Ahem..."

Oh, Merlin!

We pulled back, looking around. Sirius and James were smirking, and Peter was looking confused.

"If one of you would be kind enough to explain," Sirius said.

"We would love to leave the two of you alone after that," James finished.

Remus and I looked at each other. Nothing could spoil our mood, not even their lame jokes. We laughed again, causing more confusion.

"Oh, come on!" Sirius moaned.

"Okay, okay!" I said, giggling as I sat down. Remus didn't go back to his armchair, instead he pushed James off the couch to sit next to me. He kept a hold on my hand.

"That was unnecessary," James grumbled from the floor, jumping up to sit on the armchair. "But tell us what's going on!"

"Honestly, for someone so bright, I can't believe you didn't figure it out!" Remus said, causing me to go into another round of laughs.

"I'm the girl Rez has been talking about," I said, once I controlled myself.

"Rez?"

"Yep. Nicknames, y'know."

"But didn't you just say that girl was a muggle?" Peter asked Remus.

"I didn't know I was a witch then, did I?" I answered.

"But why didn't you recognise each other when we first got here?" James asked.

"We were four when we last saw each other," Remus pointed out. "And the names didn't strike us either."

"So that's why you've been acting weird since you saw the ring?" Sirius asked.

Boy, was he observative when he wanted to be.

"You figured it out last night?" Remus turned to me.

"I didn't," I said. "The ring felt familiar, but I couldn't place it. When I fell asleep, I dreamt about you, and I remembered. But," I added. "The ring I gave your dad, it had only 'Forever' written on it. No 'S'..."

"I asked my dad to put it there," Remus smiled. "It was easy, with a wand."

"You knew you were a wizard," I accused.

"You know I couldn't tell you!" Remus looked appalled.

"You kept a secret from me," I shook my head in mock anger, barely keeping my smile in check.

"Shaz! The Statute of Secrecy! I couldn't - "

"Remus," Sirius cut off his hurried explanations. "Can't you see she's laughing her head off?"

Remus looked back at me. When I saw his face, I couldn't help myself. I laughed out loud, clutching my sides, and fell off the couch.

"I'm sorry," I breathed when I got a hold on myself. "Couldn't help myself."

Remus was still staring at me, mouth wide. He suddenly shut his mouth and narrowed his eyes.

"What?" I said. He looked away and crossed his arms. "It was a joke!"

He still didn't look my way. I sat up. "Rez? I'll give you my chocolate!"

He looked at me then. He was laughing.

"You fell for your own prank!" Sirius yelled, pointing at me. "And you lost chocolate in the process!"

Remus and I looked at him, then at each other, and then burst into laughs once again.

"Now what?" James said. By the sound of his voice, I could tell he was annoyed.

"Shaz never loses chocolate," Remus chuckled.

"I always managed to get his chocolate at the end of the day," I said, sitting on the couch again. "I was determined, since he had the best... Hang on... You used to give me chocolate frogs!"

"After getting the charm removed!"

"They're not as yummy," I pouted.

"I know."

Remus Lupin

Turning off the shower, I quickly dried off and put on a pair of pajama pants and a shirt, just in case Sirius decided to barge in. Again. The scar on my rib cage would be much harder to explain this time.

I opened the door leading in to the dorm – and just in time, apparently – Sirius rushed past me as soon as I was clear of the doorway. James, who had a letter in his hand, looked up and groaned.

"Sirius! You can't beat me forever!"

"I bet he can," I smirked.

"Shut up, Remmy." James threw a rolled-up parchment at my head, which I caught with ease. "You see, you'd be the best chaser in the world – only if you learnt how to fly," he sighed.

"If I was inclined towards sports, James, I'd play cricket."

"Cricket? The insect?"

"Can you guys keep it down?" Johnathan called from his bed, sounding annoyed.

"Never mind," I said, sitting on my bed carefully to avoid applying pressure on my sore back. I pulled out a quill, some ink and parchment from my bedside desk to write home.

Mum, Dad,

I'm okay. Not too much pain tonight.

I paused, not really feeling like writing much else. I set the letter aside and pulled the curtains around the bed.

"I'm calling it a night, guys," I said to no one in particular. "Too long a journey."

A few 'good night's were murmured around and I fell back on to my pillows, finally letting myself think about the day's events.

The one which occupied my foremost thoughts: Ayesha.

How I didn't recognise her, I will never know. Probably because it was the last place I expected her to be. I always dreamt of finding her someday and reminding her of the good times we had. But those dreams would always be marred by one thing: I didn't know what she thought of me because I never said goodbye.

But now she was here, and I couldn't be happier about it. I hadn't known she was a Metamorphmagus then, but knowing what had happened, it made sense.

Now I'd have to find a new excuse for full moons – surely Mum and Dad would meet Ayesha's parents and old friendships would be rekindled. Ayesha would know Mum wasn't sick all the time… in fact… she'd want to know why we left in such a hurry… and the answer would have to convince Mr. and Mrs. Cooper as well… I was pretty certain I was the reason we left, but we couldn't really say that.

We'd agreed to surprise our parents with the news, but some things, I decided, as I reached for the letter again, were best not left to chance.

Something happened today, unrelated to my condition, and you need to be prepared to answer some questions. About why we moved from Surrey when I was four. The answers should convince anyone – even someone who knew us back then. I'm going to avoid the questions by saying I don't know why we moved, but I'll need to know at some point. I'm not going to say much more – but you're free to guess why we need these answers.

I smiled as I wrote the last line. After all, what was life without just a bit of chance?