A/N Ok, let's just accept that it takes me a month to get chapters out and if I keep apologizing for it I will just feel bad that I don't get them up often enough.

Thanks to January Lily whose review honestly just made my day!

Also, thinking of naming the chapters because I'm so tired of them just being called chapter 1, 2, 3 etc. but I'm rubbish at naming things. It took me honestly like a year to even name this fic. So that probably won't happen. But it's my intention to do it.

Not feeling like continuing the discussion of Mary's return the following day, a conversation that had started over breakfast that day, Marlene went to the dorm and grabbed her broom. Marrow had rescheduled today's practice to the afternoon. However, Marlene didn't think some extra practice would hurt. She had done a few practises with the team and although she wasn't as bad as she had expected, she wouldn't be able to win the match against Slytherin which, she had come to realise, was less than a month away.

She stepped out in the sunny but cold morning, the storm of last night having passed and left no trace behind except the thousands of red, yellow and orange leaves spread across the grounds of Hogwarts. She passed the greenhouses when voices from behind them distracted her. Marlene would have liked to tell people she was not one for eavesdropping, but that would have been a lie. Everything, from late homework to boyfriend trouble seemed to catch her ears. Although, she comforted herself, at least you don't go around gossipping about it. Like some others. And her thoughts were back on Mary, excellent. Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, she moved forward slowly. The leaves made loud creaks under her shoes. For once she wasn't wearing heels. Mostly because Mary wasn't there to wear heels, trying to stretch herself taller than Marlene. Truthfully Marlene believed high-heeled shoes were a means of torture, and her legs were transformed to cooked spaghetti every time she put her feet into them. Not that she'd admit this to anyone, least of all Lily who'd been saying just that for years, and Marlene had vehemently disagreed.

"He was impressed with your work this weekend."

Marlene was close enough to hear what was said behind the greenhouses.

"He'd like you to join us."

"Really?" Marlene knew the voice now talking sounded familiar.

"He'll test you, of course, to make sure you're capable."

"I am. I promise."

"We're meeting tonight, I'll get you from the common room."

Marlene realised the conversation was drawing to a close. She was also positive she would not want to still be standing where she was when the people talking would turn the corner. She had a nagging feeling that what they were discussing wasn't a club for gobstone lovers. Quickly, she slid the greenhouse door open and slipped inside, dashing down underneath a table to prevent the bypassers from seeing her, although she hoped to catch a glimpse of them. No more than twenty seconds after she slipped into the greenhouse two people passed by outside. Both were wearing their school uniforms and green ties despite the warm weather. One of them she recognized immediately and it made her stomach twirl; Mulciber. He was followed by a seventh year Slytherin student who Marlene recognized as Avery. Her thoughts were rushing in all directions before she could stop them. He? Meeting at eight? Your work this weekend. She startled and turned quickly when she heard a crash from the other end of the greenhouses. For a moment she thought Mulciber and Avery had seen her spying and had broken a window; then she spotted Frank.

"Oh," she said, crawling out from under the desk. "Hi."

"Hi," Frank replied, picking up the brick he had dropped.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

"Just doing some research for the essay," he said, nodding towards the parchment on the table beside him.

"One feet essay on healing plants." Professor Sprout's words came back to her. How could she have forgotten?

"What are you doing here?"

"I was on my way from the Quidditch pitch and I thought I felt a raindrop," she blurted; it was the first thing that came to mind.

"So, why were you under the table then?"

"I thought I saw the hair band I lost. Turns out I didn't."

"That's bad."

Marlene nodded.

"Well, I should be heading back to the castle," Frank said, grabbing his bag. "Sorry about your hair band."

"I'm going up to the castle too. Do you want company?"

"Sure." Frank shrugged and while he swung the bag over his shoulder, Marlene bent over to pick up her broom where it had been left.

They spent some minutes talking about normal school and homework, then another few about their families. Marlene learned that Frank had two older brothers, both of whom had left Hogwarts, and that his dad had died when he was little. When the conversation still didn't go the way Marlene wanted, she decided to do some meddling.

"So, Frank, what do you think of Alice?"

Frank, who just a minute ago had been quick to answer all her questions, hesitated and Marlene thought she saw a blush spread.

"She's…she's fine I guess."

"You can't seem to get your eyes off her."

Frank bit his bottom lip, and now he definitely blushed. "You notice that?"

Marlene would've liked to say that anyone failing to notice that must be blind, but she just smiled. "Yeah, sorry."

"No, it's okay really. She is just…" he trailed off.

"What?"

"She's just kinda cute…"

"Well, of course she is." Marlene laughed. "Alice is the cutest."

"I guess."

"She likes you too you know." Marlene knew there was no going back now.

"Really?"

"Really." Alice had never really admitted it out loud, but Marlene didn't care. It was so obvious. "I'm going to change, but I'm meeting the girls in the library after that. You wanna join us?"

"Really?" Frank furrowed his brows. "Will they be okay with that?"

"Of course, they all love you, some more than others." She smiled. They had reached the stairs to the dorm. "See you in a minute then."

"It's too late, isn't it?" Peter said, turning off the weather forecast. "The weather will be clear for weeks."

"Well, you never know about those things," Sirius said.

"There hasn't been one in autumn for years." Remus folded his arms around his knees.

"We might be lucky," Sirius pushed.

"Right…" Peter sighed. "because the universe has been on our side in this."

"There have been some mishaps, I admit, but I've got a good feeling about it this time."

"You've always got a good feeling," Peter reminded him.

"Maybe we should just give up," Remus suggested.

"No! Never," Sirius protested.

"Yes, it can take years, remember?" James put in.

"What's the point if it takes years? We'll be out of here by then," Remus sighed.

"Why would that make it worthless?" Peter asked, sitting down on the bed.

"Well, just because…we won't all still be friends then, will we? When school finishes."

"Of course we will, Moony!" James exclaimed. "We're the marauders, we're forever."

Remus smiled.

"Now, I'm starving. Who else wants breakfast?" Sirius asked.

"Still in pyjamas here, Pads." James gestured towards his plaid pyjama pants.

Sirius made an affair of sighing dramatically. "But Prongs! We're dying," he groaned.

"It's half past eleven, breakfast ended an hour ago," James said, glancing at his wristwatch.

"Then let's have lunch, I don't care." Remus stood up.

"Fine." James agreed and his stomach took the chance to growl.

Sirius grinned. "Yeah, you're just 'not that hungry', are you?"

James poked his tongue at him and, on his way to grab a t-shirt, he pushed Sirius onto the bed.

"I'll kill you, Prongs," Sirius exclaimed and, leaping off the bed, set off. James flung the door open and practically flew down the stairs. Losing his balance, he fell face first onto the common room floor.

He recovered quickly and he sprinted away just as Sirius came after him. Laughing hysterically, he ran across the common room and darted out through the Fat Lady's portrait. He continued sprinting down the corridor but Sirius quickly caught up with him and before he knew it James hung upside down. His t-shirt fell down over his face as he struggled to put himself free from the hex, even though he knew it was impossible.

"Let go of me, Padfoot!"

"Nope," Sirius grinned, looking up at his best friend. "You'll just hang there until you starve to death."

James let go of the hem of his t-shirt to grab his glasses, because they were threatening to fall off his nose. Then Sirius burst to action once again. His glasses fell to the floor as Sirius dragged the t-shirt over his head. Suddenly, James hung upside down, shirtless and as good as blind, in the corridor.

"Looking good, James!" Someone called as they passed and James made out Melody Holland and Helen Mills heading by.

"I'll kill you, Padfoot," James hissed.

"Fine, I'll let you down," Sirius announced and lifted the hex from James, who fell, face first, onto the floor.

"Oi, that hurt mate," James mumbled, sitting up and rubbing his nose which had now been the victim of two falls onto the floor in a short period of time.

"Sorry," Sirius said. "Looked like Holland enjoyed the show though."

"Only because she knows I hate it," James pulled his shirt back over his head.

"Whatever the reason, isn't it nice to have birds swooning after you? You've finally got a taste of what it's like being me."

"Our dear Prongs has only got time for one bird on his mind." Peter jumped over the missing step in the staircase.

"That's true," Remus agreed. "Never seen anyone so fixated on someone as Prongs is on Evans."

"It would be Snivellus," James muttered, still brushing dust from his jeans.

"True." Sirius shrugged. "He might actually be able to compete with you on that one."

"The only difference is they're actually friends," Remus pointed out. "And Lily actually likes him."

"As if that makes it more legit. Wouldn't it be more weird if I was obsessed with Padfoot than if that bird in fourth year was?" James pushed the glasses higher on the bridge of his nose.

"You are obsessed with Padfoot," Remus sighed.

"Well, I'm obsessed with Prongs too, so it's fine." Sirius put his arm around James and pulled him closer to him.

"Who is that with Marlene?" Alice asked Lily as Marlene approached them, worked her way past bookshelves and carriages filled with books. She was followed by someone else.

"Don't know," Lily responded. "We'll find out."

Marlene appeared behind the bookshelf on their left side, and following her was Frank Longbottom. Lily glanced at Alice, who nodded her head for Lily to follow her.

"We'll be back in a minute," Lily told Marlene, and dragged Alice with her away from the table.

"What?" Lily whispered as they moved out of earshot of the others.

"What is he doing here!" Alice replied forcefully.

"I don't know, Al, but it's not that bad."

"Not that bad?" Alice breathed. "Have you seen me around him Lily? I can't think a single rational thought, my hands are trembling and I sound like my grandmother whenever I open my mouth."

"You seemed just fine the other week, in the common room. Really, it looked like you didn't want to leave." Lily grinned.

"It was fine-" Alice began. Lily raised her eyebrows. "-okay, I admit, it was nice."

"Exactly."

"That was a one time thing."

"How do you know?"

Alice looked down. "I guess…"

"You don't," Lily offered. Alice nodded carefully.

"And so what if you act crazy? The bloke's mad for you anyways."

"He's not," Alice snorted a laugh. "Really?"

"I said I wouldn't tell you," Lily admitted. "But I kind of talked to Arnold."

"You did what? Lily you had no right to-"

"Calm down, Alice. I didn't tell him anything."

Alice drew a sigh of relief.

"He, however, told me Frank won't stop talking about you. Then he took it back, saying he didn't mean it."

"He does talk a lot," Alice admitted with a laugh. "But really? That's so…not at all the point. Every bloke seems nice and sweet to begin with. I mean, my father must've been charming and sweet once for my mum to ever fall for him."

"Not all guys are tossers you know. My dad isn't," Lily suggested. "Neither is Mary's, or Marlene's."

"I know they're not, but I can't just erase my entire childhood. My mum acting like a house elf whenever my father was around, her cooking for him and taking care of me when all she really wanted was to go back to work." Alice gestured wildly with her hands and Lily wasn't entirely sure what she meant with it. "All that won't just disappear."

Lily didn't know how to reply to this. She wanted to say something but her mind seemed unable to form the words needed for a sensible answer.

"Alice." She grabbed Alice's right wrist to prevent her from making a pile of books fall over. "Can we talk about this later? They'll start to wonder where we went."

Alice nodded and, without another word, the two of them went back to the table where the others were sitting.

Lily sat down next to Dorcas and Alice took the seat right across the table from Frank. While Alice joined in the others' conversation regarding whether the O.W. Ls were as bad as they were said to be, Lily took out last weekend's edition of the daily Prophet and opened it to the crossword page. She had yet to solve a bit of the left corner. She got more and more dragged into the discussion, however, and five minutes later she decided to abandon the attempts to solve number 3 horizontal "full of himself". Realising "James Potter" wouldn't fit into the five letters provided. She folded the paper and put it to the side as Marlene tried to convince the others the whole thing was over-hyped:

"You can't trust anything Will says, it can't be that bad."

"I think it is," Frank said. "My brother was about to collapse from stress when he came home for Christmas."

Well, that's calming," Lily said.

"It's not supposed to be calming," Alice said. "It's supposed to stress us out."

"I don't think that's the purpose." Marlene made circles with her finger on the table surface.

"I don't care," Alice said. "But honestly though. I can't believe you think it's made up. It can't be."

"What do you think, Dorcas?" Lily turned to her. She'd been quiet this whole time.

"I don't know." Dorcas shrugged. "It could be true, I guess."

"There's no way it's true." Marlene repeated herself.

Remus was still feeling warm and cosy inside when they arrived in the Great Hall for lunch. It had been a simple comment made in the moment, but he couldn't get it out of his mind: "Of course we will. We're forever." He had no idea what he'd done to deserve friends like them. They might not think about consequences of actions, nor were they world champions in acting maturely, but he could always count on them to do all in their power to fix whatever problem arose. Whether it was there was no chocolate cake at dinner, or finding out their best friend was a werewolf.

"Hey, Remus," Lily called out as they passed her and Marlene on their way to their usual seats further down the table. "I talked Aubrey into taking your patrol the other night, like you asked me too, so you'll have to go with me tonight."

"Oh…yes, that's fine." Remus was taken aback.

"Great, I'll meet you in the prefects' office at half past six."

"Fine." Remus nodded at her and smiled before being dragged away by the boys who thought someone was heading for "their" places at the table. In truth Remus knew that wasn't so; no one had ever tried to mess with their lunch space after James had made a show of hexing a second year who'd tried.

They'd barely sat down and started eating the chicken pie and potatoes before a knock on Remus' back made him look up. Above him stood Bertram Aubrey.

"Hi, Lupin," he sneered, leaning against the table. "I had to take your patrol last night, hope it was worth it."

Remus' stomach tightened, and he felt that after only one sentence they were already heading into dangerous waters.

"What did you say?" James fixed his eyes on Bertram.

"I said. I hope his little date was worth it."

"He didn't have a date." Sirius raised his voice and a few people around them turned.

"Oh? Really. Then what excuse did he have for not patrolling?"

"He didn't chose not to patrol." James was practically growling now.

"What was he doing then?"

"His mother got really sick, and he had to go home." Peter used the old lie Remus had told them back in first year.

The words seemed to escape Bertram for a moment before he found himself again.

"That's not true." He glared at Remus. "Your mother was sick back in first year, you always used that as an excuse to skip class and stuff?"

Everything happened so fast after that. James heaved himself over the table and grabbed a handful of chicken pie, which he threw on Bertram. Bertram was quick to return by smashing a potato onto James' robes. Sirius turned in his seat and with a simple movement, he poured his pumpkin juice over Bertram's well-arranged, blond hair. A twist with James' wand made Bertram fly backwards and almost knock over a group of first years at the Hufflepuff table. He was soon back on his feet and with his fist in the air he plunged forward and knocked James to the floor.

"What the hell do you think you're doing!" Sirius roared and drew his wand from his pocket. He yelled out a hex and Bertram's head began to swell. By the time Professor Terry reached them it was twice the size it had been less than a minute ago.

"What have you done here boys?" From the tone of her voice, you could've believed she was asking about the time.

"They started it!" Bertram yelped, holding his abnormally large head between his hands.

"No, he did." Sirius bit back.

"You threw pie at me!"

"You were being rude to Remus!"

Remus would've liked to listen to the rest of that conversation but he was getting worried for James, who'd fallen off the bench and lay on the floor with his eyes closed. Without a sound Remus slipped down from the bench and sat down next to James on the floor.

"How're you feeling Prongs?" he asked, stroking a strand of hair away from his face.

"Why's the room spinning?" James squinted his eyes open. "Why am I on the floor?"

"You got hit," Remus shrugged.

"I'm gonna kill that Aubrey. How dare he…?"

"I'm afraid Padfoot took care of that already," Remus nodded towards Aubrey, who was being led from the hall by his friends. "And as for my…little furry problem, don't worry about it."

"But-"

"You've done enough today to last you a lifetime." Remus smiled.

Professor Terry joined them on the floor.

"Are you okay, Potter?"

"My head hurts," James complained.

"Yes. I can see that." Professor Terry bent over him and put her hand over a bump on James' head.

"You'll need to have Madam Pomfrey look at that. Should I go with you?"

"No. Moony's got me, right?"

"Yeah." Remus laughed. "I've got you."

Lily, Marlene and Frank had left ten minutes before. Alice had offered to wait as Dorcas returned some books to Madam Pince.

None of them spoke until the library door closed behind them. Madam Pince might not hate Alice with a burning passion, but she still didn't appreciate people talking.

"How did you get so lucky?" Dorcas asked as they set off towards the Great Hall.

"What?"

"I don't know, it's just…you've got amazing friends." She shrugged. "And a bloke who's obviously mad for you."

"What do you mean?" Alice thought she already knew.

"Mary, Lily and Marlene are all amazing, and anyone who doesn't see Frank fancies you must be blind."

"Everyone keeps saying that," Alice sighed. "You know, you're not even the first person today."

"Maybe that's because it's true," Dorcas suggested, glancing up at her.

Alice shrugged. "It doesn't matter, it'll never happen anyways."

"Why?" Dorcas asked. "Is there some kind of Romeo and Juliet going on?"

"Romeo and Juliet?" Alice asked, frowning.

"Never mind," Dorcas shrugged the matter off. "But, you know, people won't just be around forever, unless you give them a reason to."

Alice thought Dorcas meant more then she said with that, but they'd reached the Great Hall and Dorcas walked over to the Hufflepuff table while Alice found Lily and Marlene at the end of the Gryffindor table.

"Lily, what in Merlin's name is Romeo and Juliet?" she asked as took some chicken pie from the plate in front of her.

"It's a Muggle story. Romeo and Juliet are in love but their families are in a feud so they can't be together, so they end up killing themselves."

"That's tragic," Marlene said.

"Well, it becomes less tragic when your sister's been watching it on repeat all summer and bawling her eyes out every fricking time." Lily plated up more chicken pie with such force some of it splattered the table next to the plate. "Why do you ask?"

"Oh nothing. Dorcas asked me if there was some 'Romeo and Juliet story' between me and Frank."

"Now why is that?" Marlene asked, leaning forward over the table. Alice wanted to knock herself out there and then. It'd slipped her mind that she hadn't actually told Marlene, or Mary, about how she felt for Frank, although she knew they had known for a long time anyways. When Alice just shrugged as an answer, Lily sighed.

"Oh for Merlin's sake, Al, just tell her."

Alice bit her lip and leaned in closer to Marlene to make sure no one around heard her.

"Okay," she said slowly. "I might, maybe, possibly, have some feelings for Frank."

"As in romantic feelings?" Marlene raised her eyebrows, making it clear she wouldn't give up until Alice said herself that she fancied him.

"No, as in I hate him feelings," Alice sighed. "Yes of course I'm talking about romantic feelings."

Marlene squealed and jumped up from her seat, hugging Alice around the shoulders and singing. "I knew it, I knew it, I knew it" until Alice dragged her down in her seat again.

"So…" Marlene's face bore a kind of excitement she'd never seen before. "What're we doing about it?"

"We're doing nothing about it," Alice said.

"What?" Marlene exclaimed. "How can you not do anything about it?"

"By, I don't know, not kissing him, maybe?"

"So you're thinking about kissing him?" Marlene squealed, louder than was really necessary.

Alice hushed her. "No. I don't know. I'll just sit it out, it's nothing but a silly school girl crush," Alice sighed, not knowing if it was her or the others she was actually trying to convince.

"If this is a silly school girl crush, I'd like to know what you call the feelings every girl in the school has for Sirius," Marlene mumbled, just loud enough for Alice to hear.

"For the most part I think what you're describing is anger," Lily laughed. "I still can't believe you're going to Hogsmeade with him. That's…" unable to find a reasonable comparison Lily just filled in: "mad. It's just mad."

Marlene nodded quickly but seemed more eager to discuss Alice's so called love life than her own. However Lily didn't look like she would let the Sirius matter go just yet. Alice was thankful. She was growing tired of every other discussion being about her and Frank's very much non-existent relationship.

"So…How are you feeling about it?" Lily smiled.

"Okay, I guess." Marlene shrugged. "Listen, Lily, he's nearly as much of a brother to me as James is. We're not getting 'involved' with each other or anything, don't get your hopes up."

"Don't worry, I won't," Lily murmured. "I see them enough as it is. I don't need the two of you sucking faces all the time."

"Woah, you're getting ahead of yourself, like, in another dimension ahead of yourself. We'll drink butterbeer and he'll drag me along to Zonko's. The fact that you're the least interested in this shows you really need a date yourself."

"No I don't," Lily said. "I've got enough on my plate as it is. Between homework and Prefect duties I barely have time to see you guys, much less a boyfriend of any sort."

Marlene seemed to ignore this completely.

"Come on, Lils, you could go up to any guy in this hall and ask him to Hogsmeade and the one person who would be Frank because he is in love with Alice." Marlene turned and looked at Alice.

"Yes, I got that," Alice sighed at the not so subtle change of subject.

"It doesn't matter anyways." Lily said, sounding more relieved than disappointed. "There's just a week left. Also, I told Alice and Dorcas I would go with them.

Alice nodded in agreement and Marlene finally seemed to give up on her self-awarded title as matchmaker.

Remus and Peter had returned to the common room after seeing James and Sirius off when they left the hospital wing for McGonagall's office. Madam Pomfrey had announced there was nothing wrong with James and given him a potion against possible headache.

"4 Sickles say McGonagall gives them two hours detention," Peter said.

"Two?" Remus frowned. "This isn't an everyday occasion, they made his head twice its normal size. I'll be surprised if they get any less than three."

Over the years, betting the other two's punishment had become somewhat of a hobby, something they did to make time pass whenever James and Sirius were off somewhere.

"Now, how about we play that game of exploding snap we never got to yesterday?" Peter suggested. "And this time you're coming with me to get the cards because I don't want to lose you to some bird again."

Remus laughed. "You'll never lose me to a bird," he said. "You others will get married and have kids, and I'll be old uncle Moony who comes and goes and disappears once a month."

Peter couldn't decide if Remus was sarcastic or not and simply let the comment go.

"Come on now. Let's get the cards."

Fifteen minutes later Peter had successfully won the first two rounds of the game at the cost of his left eyebrow and a bit of his hair. Before Sirius and James arrived back Remus' tie caught on fire and Peter had needed to put it out with his wand, and more of Peter's hair had fallen victim to the exploding cards.

"That bloody witch!" Sirius exclaimed, plopping into an armchair and declaring he joined the game.

"What did she do?" Peter asked.

"Double detention Saturday night."

Remus slipped four small silver coins from his pocket and into Peter's out stretched hand.

"I've already got detention Friday and now Saturday too? The lady has quite obviously lost her mind."

"How dare you say that about Minnie?" James squealed with much faked upset.

"I'm sorry Prongs, but anyone giving me, the brilliant and beautiful Sirius Black, that many detentions has lost it."

"Anyone calling you brilliant and beautiful has lost it," James said.

"I'm sorry, but who of us has got the most awesome hair?" Sirius made a point of throwing his hair out of his face.

"No Pads, I'm sorry, because that prize belongs to Peter, who decided it was time for a change." James nodded towards Peter's scorched ends. "So what's the score?"

"Two to nothing." Peter smiled proudly.

"I can work with that." James sat down at the table, waiting for Peter to hand him his cards.

"Are you in, Pads?" James asked.

"No, it's a stupid game." Sirius crossed his arms.

As she said goodbye to her parents, Mary found she didn't particularly like the thought of returning. Not because the parting with her friends at St. Mungo's had been less than ideal, but because of the rumours she knew had spread all over Hogwarts. There were always rumours spreading about the silliest things (Mary wasn't exactly proud to admit how many of them she'd been involved in starting), so doubtless speculations would be going around now and they'd be taken for the truth.

"Goodbye sweetie." Her mum kissed her cheek. "We'll see you at Christmas."

"Stay safe," her dad said.

"I'll try." Mary grinned.

"Mary," her mum said pointedly. She'd been reluctant to let Mary return to school.

"Ok, I'll stay safe. Promise."

"Mary, Mary!" Her sister came running down the hall and threw herself into Mary's arms. "I'll miss you this much." She held her arms as far away from each other as possible.

"I'll miss you too." She pulled her sister into another hug before releasing her and turning to the fireplace. Dumbledore had told her their fireplace would be connected to the Floo powder net temporarily, to make sure she got back to the school safely. Reaching forward, she took a handful of Floo powder from the bag Dumbledore had given her, and threw it into the fireplace.

"Mary!" Lily threw her arms around her. "How are you?"

"I'm fine." Mary laughed. "Feeling a bit strangled right now."

"Sorry." Lily let her go.

"What happened?" Alice asked. "The Healer wouldn't tell us."

"Probably because they didn't know, it wasn't a recognisable curse."

"So you mean-"

"It's not registered with the Ministry, and they've never seen it before." Mary nodded.

"Mulciber is nasty, I've always said that," Lily said.

"Where's Marls?" Mary asked, changing the subject. She didn't feel like discussing it.

"She's got Quidditch practice," Alice said. "We're on our way down there to watch."

"Not me," Lily sighed. "I've got patrol."

"But you'll come with us, right?" Alice asked. Mary hesitated, she wasn't sure if Marlene was

who she wanted to see right now.

"Please, Mary," Dorcas begged.

"Okay, okay. I'll come."

Lily went up the stairs from the entrance hall while Alice and Dorcas dragged Mary with them out through the front doors.

Remus opened the door to the prefect office at twenty minutes over six. He was early, but James and Sirius had gone for practice and Peter had tagged along, leaving Remus alone either way. The room felt homely, with portraits of previous Head Boys and Girls covering the walls and a small sofa in the middle of the room. On one wall, there was a cork board displaying the patrolling shifts and the names of the people covering them. 22nd September was lit up and in neat letters was written: Remus Lupin, Lily Evans and on the note underneath that: Hestia Jones, Jacob Cooper.

He proceeded to look at the photographs of Head Boys and Girls on the wall opposite. Some of them were business-like, sitting or standing with straight backs and stern faces, looking into the camera with polished badges pinned on their chests. Others were goofy, with the newly appointed Head Boy and Girl doing silly poses and laughing together. One photo close to the end of the row caught his eye and he moved closer to read the engraved letters on the board underneath it. Celine Black, Thomas Myers. 1902. Thomas' arm was around Celine's shoulders and while Remus looked Celine slipped her arm behind him and did bunny ears behind his head, causing them both to break out laughing.

The door creaked behind him and he turned to see Lily enter the room.

"Sorry I'm late," she apologized. "Mary came back."

"It's fine, I was entertained."

"By the photos?" Lily asked, amused.

"They're actually interesting," Remus told her. "Look at this one." He pointed to the photo of Cecilia and Thomas. Lily went over.

"She was a Slytherin, a Black." Lily noted. "And he-"

"Was a Gryffindor, " Remus finished. "And muggleborn, judging by the last name."

"They look happy," Lily said.

"They do." Remus agreed, but his thoughts were elsewhere, on Celine's family. She had been a

Black, like Sirius, and she seemed quite different too.

"You know, we should really start our shift," Lily noted, glancing at her wristwatch. "It's nearly fifteen to seven."

Nodding, Remus followed her out of the office.

"I've talked to Hestia Jones," Lily said as they walked up the stairs. "We'll take floor three

through seven and she and Jacob will cover the rest."

Remus nodded again.

They had walked for another ten minutes, covering the left wing of the third floor, when Lily

took a deep breath as if preparing to say something.

"I know why you missed patrols the other night."

Everything seemed to freeze. The candles stopped flickering, the trees outside the window no

longer swayed in the wind, he thought the entire earth might have stopped spinning.

"You…you do?" he managed to say.

"Yes, and I'm sorry, really."

"You….you….you won't tell anyone, right?"

"Do I come across like the kind of person who'd go around and gossip?" Lily frowned. "I might

need to reconsider my entire existence."

"No!" Remus exclaimed. "No, I'm just…a bit paranoid."

"Does anybody else know about it?" she asked.

"The boys do, and the teachers of course. But no one else."

"That makes me feel quite clever," Lily smiled.

"You should have known since before you're clever, you're top of our class."

"Not Transfiguration, bloody Potter and his bloody talent. No offence," she added with a smile.

"None taken." Remus laughed. For some reason it was hard to take her seriously. "How did you

figure it out?"

"Well, you never miss school. Even that time you had a cold you went, and you started an epidemic."

"That makes me feel better," Remus mumbled, not meaning to sound as unpleasant as the words came out.

"I'm sorry."

"It's fine."

"But every time, you missed classes the day after the full moon. Every time. Then you asked me to reschedule your patrol on the night of the full moon because you were feeling 'under the weather'."

Remus begged to every higher power there was that no one else would be as thoughtful as Lily. He could trust she wouldn't tell, but the next person to make the connection might not be as kind hearted as the girl walking calmly beside him right now, like she hadn't just found out he was a monster.

"Aren't you going to run from me?" he asked.

"Why would I?" Lily frowned at him "We're friends, this doesn't change anything."

"But…I'm a monster."

"You're not a monster, Remus. You are a kind, funny and smart person who just happens to transform to a werewolf once a month. It's really not scarier than an Animagus. Personally, I've never seen anyone run screaming when McGonagall says she can transform to a cat." She shrugged. "They might be running screaming from her for other reasons though, she's pretty scary when she feels like it," She added as an afterthought.

"I have no control when I transform," Remus tried. "I could hurt anyone."

"I will make sure to keep away then," Lily smiled. It sounded so simple when she put it that way, but she didn't know. Not really. You had to see it firsthand to understand what a monster he really was.

A/N: That's it for now. A bit shorter then usual, but next chapter is a really long one so look forward to that.

As usual, reviews make me smile!