It's a full moon tonight, I remember as we move silently through the shadows. We're following the Marauders, Mattie and I, that is. They've snuck out again, and I need to talk to Sirius. Why haven't I spoken to him yet? Well, it's been two weeks, and yes, I have been trying… it's just that every bloody time I get close to him something happens. Grr.

Mattie points towards the Whomping Willow and my heart beat quickens as I see them disappear into it. Oh Merlin, why did I come out here?

I have a bad feeling about this.

"Mattie." I whisper. "I have a very bad feeling about this."

She whips around to look at me and then she grins. Dun, dun, DUNNNNN. "Relax, Az, I'm sure we'll be fine. They're probably just sneaking out to get on the grog." She says with her Australian accent.

I take a deep breath and nod to her before we begin creeping around again. We reach the Whomping willow and all is quiet. Mattie looks around for any sign of an entrance and finds it, gesturing me over.

It's a tunnel-like entrance and that bad feeling is back.

Before I can protest, Mattie swings her legs through the tunnel and falls through. I squeak my protest before following. Gryffindor, right?

I land on a hard surface after closing my eyes for a split second. "Oof." Is all that comes out.

"You right, Azura?" Mattie asks, amused.

"Yeah," She pulls me up – she's damn strong for such a small person – and we continue through the tunnel until we come to a hatch of some sort.

"We're not going up there, are we?" I say fearfully. Anything could be up there.

She chuckles. "Where's your Gryffindor bravery?" Then before I can retort, she once again takes the lead and goes up through the hatch and pulls herself into a standing position.

"Coming?" She offers her hand for me, the less athletic and more reluctant one.

She pulls me up through the hole and I get to my feet, looking around. Mattie silently signals for me to follow her as she makes her way to the only room with light coming from it.

We sneak up there quietly, making no sound, so we don't alarm them.

As I peek through the crack in the door, the first thing I see is Remus, changing shape. I bite back a gasp, thinking he's an animagus.

Oh, how wrong I am.

He looks to be in pain and I squeak as he lets out a silent scream, his face changing shape, and his skin giving way.

Remus Lupin is a werewolf.

Suddenly, as Mattie lets out her own slightly louder gasp, Remus turns toward the door, spotting us, just as his pupils turn black and widen. He looks terrified and lets out a howl.

My eyes are trained on Remus and his painful transformation, and I think I'm crying. But not for myself, for Remus, because he can't cry; he's in too much pain.

"Azura! Get out of here!" Sirius screams at me. "Now!"

"Leave!" James chimes in, pushing us away.

"Remus!" I yell. Oh Merlin, Remus.

Sirius grabs me, but I'm barely aware of it, as I keep replaying Remus' terrified face as he spots us.

"Azura, leave, now! Please!" He begs and I snap out of it. But before we can move, I hear a blood chilling howl. A howl that comes from Remus.

"Oh, crap." Sirius mutters as Remus in his gigantic werewolf form, comes out into the hall, growling and sneering at us. "RUN!" Sirius and James yell at the same time.

Mattie grabs my hand and we sprint away.

Oh my god. OH MY GOD!

I'm freaking out, and it's not a good thing to do when you're running from a werewolf.

Then I realise it. Remus' werewolf form hadn't followed us.

I look back to where I though he should have been, and along with the werewolf, there's a stag and a large black dog fighting him off, keeping the werewolf from harming us.

I briefly wonder where they came from before Mattie yanks me hard toward the exit. "C'mon, run, Az, we've got to leave!"

We speed up until we're climbing down the hatch and up through the tunnel, coming out to the whomping willow.

We collapse on one of the roots, gasping with relief. "That was so close!" Mattie puffs out.

"Yeah." I agree.

We hear footsteps and spin around to face them. I'm surprised to find Sirius looking very angrily at us.

"What the bloody hell were you thinking?!" He shouted at us both.

We didn't answer, taking in his expression and the way his clothes were slightly obscured, as if he'd been in a fight.

"That was beyond stupid!" Oh the irony! He's lecturing us about stupid. Hah!

"We're sorry." Mattie mutters.

His eyes sweep over to her, and I finally notice that he had mostly been talking to me, yelling at me.

"I bet you are!" He said bitterly. "You tell no one of this, understand?" He said darkly. We both nodded, not wanting to upset him more.

He went to walk away. "Wait, Sirius!" I stopped him. "I wanted to talk to you."

"Not now, Azura." He said before breaking free of my grip on his arm and disappearing into the darkness.

Mattie looks at me. She's scrutinizing me, I can tell.

"What?" I snap.

"Nothing, I was just… never mind."

"No, tell me." We begin walking back to the tower.

"Alright. I was just wondering what it is you see in him. I mean, he seems a little… violent."

I raise an eye brow at her. "Well, I guess he's… I don't know… he's deeper than I thought he was. It's hard to say, but I just feel this thing that's pulling me to him… it's odd I know." She nods slowly.

"I know how you feel…"

Blink, blink. "What? Who?" I ask.

"Well… it's not like he knows… but I, uh, oh god, this is extremely girly of me to say, but I kinda like Lupin."

My eyes widen. Extremely girly? Oh yeah. But REMUS? When did this happen?!

"Wow." I say. I finally notice she's blushing scarlet and this is probably very uncomfortable for her. "Well, Remus is a great guy."

"Yeah, I know." She sighed. "That's exactly the problem."

Wait, wouldn't the problem be something to do with Remus being a werewolf??

"He's a great guy, and would never be interested in me, of all people."

"How do you know that? I bet he likes you too."

She laughs bitterly. "I can't even talk to him! How can he like someone who won't even talk to him?"

"Come on, we'll discuss this in the common room." I suggest as we near Gryffindor tower.

We open the door to the common room and find a quiet corner, away from the still-awake students, who send us a questioning look, wondering why we're coming in after curfew.

"Okay, so why can't you talk to Remus?"

"I don't know." She sighs. "He's just so… kind and smart… and I'm not smart, and I'm a total bitch."

I laugh, but stop. This is meant to be serious. "Okay, one, you are smart. Two, you can be a bitch, but once someone gets to know you, they'll see all your good qualities. Like, how you stick up for people when they're being bullied. Or how you have an open mind. And how you can look past differences or faults and still like a werewolf."

"Oh, right. He's a werewolf." She says flatly.

"Didn't you see the ginormous thing her transformed into?" I ask sarcastically.

"Yeah. But I honestly don't care." She said. "I don't mind at all, I mean, it just makes him so much of a better person in my books. Imagine, having to go through that every month!"

She has a point, and I know it. There's no denying it.

"So, what are you going to do about it?" I raised an eyebrow at her.

"I, uh, I don't know." She muttered, looking away, her cheeks flushing.

"Well, we'll need some help."

Her eyes widened and I felt compelled to laugh, but restrained myself. Just. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, Mattie, we are going to have to call in reinforcements." I smirked. "We need to call in Alice." Dun, dun, DUNNNNNNNN! I could practically see the look of impending doom in her eyes.

(A/N: Hey, OMG another chapter! This one was alright, but I figured I'd put a little more of Mattie in there, even if it's not much showing of her planned personality. I am planning a little companion piece to this, by the way, and it'll be about Mattie/Remus, where you'll actually get a look into Mattie's mind OMG. LOL. Anyways, read and review.)