Chapter 6. This one is a bit scattered, but don't worry, I'm not crazy. I have a plan (I think). Suggestions for an overall plot would be great, or even just small plots. Special thanks to my wonderful readers (you) and reviewers. And, as always, to Rasa!

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. At all. If anything, he owns me. My soul, at least.

Remus didn't talk to Kylie until the two were summoned to Dumbledore's office four days before the next full moon. Remus had suspected what the meeting was about shortly after he returned to the school.

"Are both of you comfortable with the arrangements?" their Headmaster asked after discussing the safety of the two transforming in the Shack together.

"I, um, we won't hurt each other, right?" asked Kylie, who looked paler than usual. Remus noticed several bandages on her hands that weren't there during the trial. She scratched her right forearm occasionally, which always made Remus bite his lip and look away from her.

"Werewolves are almost incapable of hurting those in their pack unless one steps out of line. I assure you that your safety is our priority, Miss Anderson."

Remus understood the truth in Dumbledore's words. Because he bit her, she assumed a place in his pack which explained why they were suddenly, and uncomfortably, happier when around each other.

She tugged at the sleeves of her Ravenclaw robes and looked at the floor. Her blonde bangs fell in front of her face as she nodded.

"And due to, ah, modesty, Madame Pomfrey will provide hospital gowns to change into before your transformations." Remus could have sworn he saw a twinkle in Dumbledore's already bright eyes—he may have never in his life felt this awkward.

Remus could feel his cheeks redden and was genuinely surprised that Dumbledore made things even more uncomfortable than they already were by winking at Remus when Kylie looked away.

"Well," Dumbledore said, standing up with a smile, "I do believe it's lunch time, so I mustn't ignore my rumblies."

Remus and Kylie exchanged their goodbyes with their headmaster and left the office. The two walked in complete silence down the first hallway. Remus had his hands in his shabby pockets while Kylie kept wringing hers. What was he supposed to say to her? He played a short scenario out in his head—it ended up with both of them dead. They reached an intersection and Kylie turned left while Remus knew the fastest way to his common room was right.

He knew they couldn't ignore each other forever so he stopped walking and turned to address her. He opened his mouth as she walked the opposite direction when—

BAM!

Bodies collided, arms and legs tangled together as Remus and another student rolled back down the hallway towards Dumbledore's office. If Remus didn't have his werewolf senses, he would've been sure that the person that ran into him was Sirius. The boy, now pushing himself off the ground to a standing position, had jet black hair that lay in different directions on his head from the fall. His pale skin and straight white teeth had the same haughty good looks effect as Sirius. He even wore Gryffindor robes that were ripped in several places.

"Regulus?" Remus asked, clutching his now pounding head.

"What the bloody hell did Sirius do?" he asked, grinding his teeth and clenching his hands at his sides. He smelled overwhelmingly like a variety of perfumes, and had smudges of pinks and reds on his face.

Remus looked down the hallway but didn't see Kylie. His heart sank but he looked at Sirius's brother with confusion. "What are you talking about?"

The boy, panting, momentarily looked behind himself before turning back to Remus. "I just got attacked by a hoard of girls." His eyes, livid, kept glancing around the corridor.

Remus blinked. "What?"

Regulus groaned and then glared at Remus. "They were chasing your stupid friend but he saw me, minding my own business, transfigured my robes to this garbage, and took off running the other direction. The infatuated flocked me from then on, insisting that I was him!"

Remus frowned, and then chuckled. "His fan club?"

"This isn't funny, Lupin. It was like he was some sort of god. A golden god. And they were his temple harlots."

Remus wasn't particularly interested in the circumstances; rather he was impressed by the complexity of the transfiguration. He raised a brow at the only difference between his emblem and Regulus's: The lion had only three claws on his front paw.

"Well," Regulus said with a huff as he turned to leave, "I'm going back to my dorm before I get physically assaulted again. Tell him to keep me out of his business."

He walked off with his hands rubbing the smudges off of his face.

"I saw your brother today," Remus commented at dinner, interrupting James' spiel about his need for a new broom. The table suddenly became very quiet and Remus realized he had broken one of the rules. He felt like a thief under Hammurabi Code. Never bring up Sirius's family.

Sirius stopped chewing his steak for a moment with a scowl, but then resumed, through gnashed chomps. "What did the git want?"

Hannah, a second year Ravenclaw who had the balls (or lack thereof…ovarian fortitude?) to sit across from Sirius at the Gryffindor table rather than her own, giggled. She did this whenever Sirius chewed food or spoke words or gulped pumpkin juice. Since he did these things so often, Remus wondered how she was managing to breathe.

"He said you had been chased by a bunch of girls, and that you saw him and made said girls believe that he was you," Remus explained as he sliced his bloodied meat into cleanly cut, symmetrical pieces.

Sirius put on a cocky grin and shook his head, "Preposterous, Moony: my overwhelmingly good looks are impossible to match. Although I do remember running from a mob of girls, so I assume that your words are true."

Hannah giggled.

James choked on his pumpkin juice. "You were what? Why? My dear friend, you couldn't have possibly upset more than four girls at once, at least not enough for them to chase after you."

Sirius's cocky grin widened. "Quite the contrary. They weren't upset in the slightest. Actually, they were just trying to express their undying love for me, but I really didn't have the time to handle ten girls at once."

Remus, who already had a suspicion at what Sirius had actually done, just raised his brow and continued to eat.

Hannah giggled.

"I'm not sure I believe you," James said with a skeptical look.

Sirius leaned over and whispered into James's ear. "I put a few drops of a love potion in some chocolates and gave them to a group to share. Fantastic outcome, don't you think?"

Hannah giggled.

James looked momentarily surprised, and then rolled his eyes. He clapped his friend on the shoulder and feigned disappointment. "What a pity that the only positive attention you get from girls is fabricated at your own hand. If only you were more attractive such as one like myself…"

With his suspicion confirmed, Remus tuned out of the conversation and turned his attention to Hannah, who was getting on Peter's nerves. When she initially sat down, the three of them acknowledged her politely and went back to what they were doing. Now Peter was scooting farther and farther away from her (and farther and farther into a nervous looking first year) after each giggle.

"So, um, Hannah," Remus started as politely as possible, "What brings you to our table?"

Remus reasoned that she might have answered if she wasn't too busy doing something of increasing importance: staring at Sirius as if he was an entire motion picture, in and of himself. Surely that wasn't a bit of drool on the corner of her mouth?

Remus failed his first test on the day of the full moon. His friends weren't very surprised, as the material was solely on the topics covered during Remus's absence. Nonetheless, Remus spent the remainder of his Transfiguration class frowning and glaring at the low marks on the parchment. He kept going over the answers in his head, realizing that he had made very tiny mistakes throughout. A misspelled spell there, a wrong colour there. If he hadn't been distracted with tonight… Professor McGonagall asked him to stay after class for a word.

"This isn't like you," she said after the rest of his classmates left. No doubt his friends were listening at the door.

He felt the pain of disappointment press against his chest as he bit his lip and stared at the ground. He wasn't like James and Peter, who tried to make up excuses for why they performed poorly. He took the responsibility as maturely as possible and just agreed to everything she had to say.

"I am aware, however, of the…" she searched for the correct words, "Unusual circumstances that you've been presented with this past month, and your upcoming visit to your mother. This will be taken into consideration."

"No, Professor," he said immediately, "That wouldn't be fair to the other students."

She almost looked surprised at his interjection. "You can retake the test next Monday and the scores will be averaged together for a final grade."

"But,"

"Good day, Mr. Lupin. You are dismissed."

Remus left the classroom with his head down and his teeth clenched.

"I don't see why you're so upset," Sirius said when Remus entered the corridor. "You're getting a chance to fix your grade. I assumed you'd be excited."

"Probably just the PMS, right Moons?" James asked, attempting to keep the mood light.

Remus didn't say anything, but inside he felt like he'd been personally insulted by a teacher. He didn't want special treatment. He didn't want to be pitied. But he just shrugged as he walked back to the dorms with his friends. "Yeah, just PMS."

Next chapter is the Full Moon! I'm not sure when it'll be up, but hopefully you won't have to wait for several months like before. Thanks for reading!