So I decided that since there isn't much time left in first year, I wanted to show a bit of each character by themselves and being a little more open to each other, showing how their friendships have grown. The first two up are Remus and Ursula having a heart to heart in the Gryffindor common room so I hope this is up to your expectations. If anyone would like to have a certain pair or trio highlighted in chapter, just leave a review with their names in it and I can see what I can do.

I haven't done this in a while so I guess I should remind everyone that I'm not J.K. Rowling and I don't own Harry Potter. I just own the people you don't recognize.

Madame Pomfrey looked down at the girl in front of her. She had just stopped the bleeding on Ursula's head and closed the cut. But there wasn't much she could tell from the actual damage the plate might have done. She seemed alright at the moment, but it was important that she stayed under constant supervision.

Trying to think of a way to keep Ursula, who thought she was fine, under watch Madame Pomfrey turned to look at the six Gryffindors behind her. Sirius was the one that looked most worried; she knew that while he was reckless, he never took chances with his sister.

"Now, Miss Black, you can go back only to your dorms but," She pointed her finger at Ursula who had tried to jump up and run, "you must stay with at least one of your friends for the next twenty-four hours. If you feel light headed or your vision changes you have to come back up here immediately. Do you understand me?"

Ursula sighed impatiently, "Yes I understand. Can I go now?" She asked in a whiny voice.

"Yes. Now I don't want to see you—" Pomfrey began but faltered when Ursula and the rest of her friends went running out of the hospital shouting, "Thanks Poppy!"

"for the rest of the term," she finished weakly after them.

"Are you sure you are alright?" Ben asked her as they all walked down towards Gryffindor Tower. Elyse and Sirius were on both of her sides while James, Peter, and Remus walked behind her if she were to fall back. Ben had to turn around to as he led his friends back to their dorms.

"Yeh took a naswsty 'it to teh hed." Elyse reminded her, putting her hand gently on Ursula's arm.

She shook her head, "I feel fine; you worry warts."

"Oi, Potter, are you coming?" Frank Longbottom stood in jumper that said, "No Free Broom Rides" and jogging pants with his broom swung over his shoulder. He looked down at them, his curly brown hair falling into his eyes a bit.

"Hell yeah! Just have to change and I'll be right back!" James shouted as he ran into Gryffindor Tower ahead of his friends. Frank laughed at him when he almost tripped getting into the common room. Shaking his head, he turned to look at the rest of the friends,

"You know," he began with a smile on his face, "I don't think Ashes would mind the rest of you watching practice. It's not like you are spies for Ravenclaw or something."

"Ashes?" Peter asked, confused.

Frank laughed as if he was remembering a funny joke, which he kind of was, "That's what I call Annabelle. Since her hair is like fire and she has such a dominate personality, all she leaves is ashes in her wake."

"She hates that nickname," Ben laughed, knowing how much Annabelle hated it when Frank called her that.

Frank just laughed louder, "I gave her a choice; it was either Bells or Ashes. She chose ashes. So what do you say, want to watch a how a real Quidditch Team practices."

Ben raised an eyebrow, "I thought Anna said you guys were just going to goof off today?"

"Same difference," Frank replied with a wave of his hand. "Are you game?"

"Def…" Sirius trailed off when he saw Ursula sway slightly on her feet. She grabbed onto Peter for support. He took one look at his twin and decided,

"No. We need to stay with Ursula."

"What! No, go watch the practice, I know you want to," Ursula tried to convince her brother.

"Madame Pomfrey said that you have to go back to the dorms and we needed to stay with you for the next twenty-four hours," Peter tried to reason with her. She turned to glare at him, wanting him to shut up. He got the message.

Now Longbottom looked concerned for her, "How are you? That was a nasty hit at breakfast."

She stomped her foot impatiently, "I'm fine. If would be better if they went to watch the practice."

"Sissy, your health comes before watching a Quidditch practice," Sirius said with finality.

Seeing that this was escalating towards a fight, Remus decided to step in. He walked forward, in between the squabbling siblings.

"How about I stay behind with Ursula and the rest of you go watch the practice."

Everyone was silent after Remus's suggestion. After a beat, Ursula beamed at her friend, "See! This is why we keep him around; he's ruddy brilliant!" She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and gave him a tight squeeze.

The rest of them weren't quite convinced.

"Are you sure, mate?" Ben asked.

Remus nodded just as James ran out of the portrait hole.

"Ready to go." He said with a brilliant smile on his face towards Frank. He seemed to notice that something had just happened and he no idea what it was about. The smile waned on his face. "Is everything alright?" He asked them.

Ursula nodded with a small smile on her face, "Everything is alright. Remus and I are going to stay back while everyone goes and watches the practice."

"Brilliant! Let's go people; we're wasting daylight here!" He shouted. Frank laughed at his enthusiasm before leading the way to the pitch James following right at his heals. Ben and Sirius were quickly trying to add some Quidditch knowledge to Elyse's basic understanding of Quidditch. Peter hesitated a moment before he asked Ursula,

"Do you want me to stay back too? I feel bad just leaving the two of you alone." Peter said.

Ursula shook her head, carefully not to move her head to quickly though, "Nah, Pete. Go ahead. We'll play a game of wizard's chess later okay?"

Peter smiled in response and scurried off to catch up with his friends.

"And then there were two." Remus muttered under his breath as he told the Fat Lady the password.

The next words out of her mouth surprised Remus. "Are you Lombard?" She quipped with a smirk on her face. She paused and then pouted, "Darn, that leaves me as Vera. What a pity."

He stopped to look back at her, blatant surprise written all over his face. Ursula snorted and chuckled as she walked past him into the common room.

"What? I can read."

Remus shook his head and followed her, "I know, but that's a muggle book."

She shrugged as she sat down and stretched out on one of the couches, "I know. They don't speak a different language than us so it's not like I can't read their books."

Remus blushed red as he sat down near her, "I know…I just…your family…." He stuttered over his words as he tried to apologize for his assumption.

Ursula sighed, "I know my family is a bunch of purebloods elitists but that doesn't mean I never got out of the house. I borrowed the book from my neighbor who got it from a muggle school. I read it just to annoy my mom."

"Did it work?" Remus asked out of curiosity.

A downcast expression fell upon her face as she turned to look at the fire, "She never noticed. That was the week Sirius played tag with a group of muggle boys at the park across the street from our house. Mom was furious at him."

"That sucks." Remus said honestly.

Ursula just nodded, "Yup."

Remus paused to think a moment before he asked, "Does Sirius always…?" He didn't know how to word the question without upsetting his friend.

"Overshadow me? Get all the attention? Yeah but it doesn't matter." She finished before him, acting like it was a matter of fact.

That disturbed Remus.

"Yeah it does. Just because he's a boy doesn't mean anything."

Ursula snorted, "It does Remus; you're a half-blood, you can't even imagine how important it is that Sirius is a boy and I'm not. My parents needed someone to pass the family name down and to inherit the estate and that can only go to a son according to old wizard traditions. That's why my parents broke the 'norm' for only having one or two kids; they needed another son in case something happened to Sirius."

"By according to the ministry-"

She cut him off, "Ministry, shministry. My parents honestly don't give a damn. They weren't expecting twins, did Sirius ever tell you? When they went to the healers, they told them they were only having a boy. I was right behind Sirius so they never could see me in any of the fancy spells they do. Mom thought she was just having a really fat baby when she got farther along in her pregnancy. Then when I was born first and a girl, my mom went ballistic. She thought the healers lied to her but then the labor pain started up again and Sirius came into the world. They decided to keep me so they could marry off one day or something like that."

"I can't see you doing that." Remus asked honestly, shock and a tiny bit of pity all over his face. Ursula had always appeared so strong and self-reliant to see her with tears glistening in her eyes was something he never thought he would see.

"My parents don't love me Remus; they just see me as a way to get more power. I can't see myself doing that either but as long as they are my guardians, they can make any decision they want and they can't control it. I have to do what they say until I'm seventeen and I'm petrified." She admitted in a soft voice.

She was shocked to hear this confession tumbling out of her mouth but Remus was someone that wouldn't judge her. Out of all her friends, he was the only person that she thought wouldn't tell her to tell her family to bugger off (James) or start some valiant fight (Ben) or not know what to do (Peter and Elyse) or look at her with pity and end up causing more problems (Sirius). While he wouldn't completely understand the position she was in, he could look at it logically and not give her any advice, because there wasn't any to give. All he could do was listen and that was what mattered.

"You've already gotten out," Remus said, softly after a moment of silence.

She turned to look at him surprised, "What? No I haven't. I'm still going to have to-"

This time it was Remus that cut her off, "You're here, aren't you?" He gestured with his had around the room.

That's when it hit Ursula. If she had listened to her parents, she wouldn't be looking at the rich red of the Gryffindor common room's wall or be resting on the softest sofa known to mankind. The portraits on the wall would not be genially talking to them whenever they were sitting alone there. She would never hear the Fat Lady try to sing a horrendously high note. She would have never become friends with James or Peter or Ben or Elyse or Lily or Remus or Marlene or Alice or anyone else in the Tower for that matter. She would have been stuck in the Slytherin common room associating with people like Snape and the rest of her twisted family.

For the first time in a very long time, Ursula realized that she was free from her family at Hogwarts and subsequently, at home. And it took a wonderful soul named Remus John Lupin for her to realize that.

"Thanks Remus." She said with a soft smile.

Remus reached over and squeezed her hand softly as if to say 'No problem; what are friends for?' before moving back to his original spot.

"You know that you can't get rid of me know," Ursula said with a smile on her face.

"What do you mean?"

She laughed at how worried he looked, "You know my secret. You know too much now."

Ursula tried to keep a serious face but when she saw how concerned he looked, she burst out laughing, "I'm kidding Rem. You'd be my friend either way! Honestly, you need to calm down, you act like we're going to go running away screaming at some point."

She laughed again so she didn't hear him mutter softly under his breath, "You might."

Later that night, Ursula was getting ready for bed when Lily burst into the dorm. Lily looked furious as she flung open the door that hit the wall with a loud bang. Her settled on Ursula.

"Is your head alright?" She asked with her green eyes snapping with anger.

Ursula slowly nodded once before Lily stormed over and shoved her back a few steps,

"HOW DARE YOU AND YOUR FRIENDS DO THAT TO SEVERUS! I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT YOU WOULD DO THAT TO HIM AND I AM DISGUSTED BY ALL OF YOU!"

Ursula instantly went of the defensive, "I have no idea what you talking about! If you don't recall I left right after McGonagall showed up so I don't know what happened!"

Lily poked Ursula's shoulder with her finger, "They had to tell you what Potter did after you left! Plus you were sitting next to him when he levitated the water over to Sev. You know exactly what I am talking about," She accused.

Ursula gently slapped Lily's hand away, "I'm not about to go to McGonagall and say 'Excuse me Professor McGonagall, I thought that you would like to know that my best mate, James Potter, did indeed pour the water on Snape and I want to see James get punished for his actions.' Honestly Lily what do you want me to do?"

"Tell the truth! Aren't Gryffindors supposed to be the honest and the noble? Not a bunch of little liars that are too afraid of their friends to do anything against them?"

Ursula had enough, "You know what Lily? I'm done. I'm not turning my back on my friend. And you know what else? Your little friend Snape is not a saint either. Remember the day we got back from break in potions, when Ben's and James's potion exploded and they were rushed to the hospital wing? Who was smirking the entire class? Think about it a little."

With that she closed the curtain around her bed and hoped that she wasn't closing out Lily permanently.