Okay, just so you guys know, this chapter being late is not actually my fault! How is that possible, you may ask? I had surgery last week so I've spent the last few days recovering. I'm fine and it's all good. I just had to get three of my wisdom teeth pulled so I've been in a bit of pain the last little while.

Thank you to everyone who has reviewed the last chapter. I was stunned when I saw the number after I was better enough to get on a computer. You are all simply fantastic!

So while the last chapter was kind of a "mushy" lovey-dovey chapter, this one kind of is- kind of isn't. The reason for the last chapter was because I've had people almost dying, actually dying, sort of dying, stressed, and fighting that I decided that they deserved Valentine's day. This chapter is on the same track but very different train compared to the last one. Please enjoy.

As the days of February melted away to March, the castle remained much the same. The snow was gone and instead of blasts of freezing temperatures in the corridors, the weather was much more moderate. The cool breeze was gorgeous compared to the harsh winter, making it hard for the students to focus on their work.

With OWLs and NEWTs rapidly approaching, the library was unofficially reserved for the fifth and seventh years. Day in and day out, there were hundreds of students already frantically studying for the tests that would ultimately influence the rest of their years at Hogwarts.

One Sunday evening, Ben and Remus were helping Peter with Defense while Elyse, Lily, and Alice were going over advanced Charms. Marlene was off to the side, repeating the same spell to transform the box into a rabbit.

"I need to take a break," Lily said as she pushed her book away. "Fifteen minute break everyone?"

Peter sighed in relief. Remus and Ben had been taking turns explaining to him the different types of dark creatures they covered third year and he still wasn't able to remember more than eight of them and all their characteristics.

"Sounds heavenly," Marlene said as she joined the rest back at their table.

"Where's the rest of your rag tag gang?" Alice asked, noticing the three missing Gryffindors.

Remus shrugged as he pulled out a book to read, "They're probably causing trouble somewhere. Best leave them to their own devices sometimes."

Lily shook her head condescendingly, "They should care more about their studies."

"They don't really need to," Ben commented. "As much as we all hate it, James and Sirius don't need to study at all. Ursula reviews every once in a while but none of them are at risk of failing any of their OWLs."

"Ursula wants to be an Auror, right?" Alice asked.

Ben nodded. "We both want to be." He confirmed.

"The Auror program is one of the most difficult to get into," Marlene pointed out. "Hell, I won't even consider it."

"Woot d'yeh want ter do, Marls?" Elyse asked.

Marlene shrugged, "I've considered becoming a healer but I know that I probably won't get accepted. So I've been thinking of running my own Hogsmeade or Diagon Alley shop one day."

"You are usually organized," Lily commented, eyeing Marlene's pile of stuff next to her. It looked like she had turned her bag upside down and kicked it around everywhere.

"Oi! You're no better," Marlene retorted. "Miss I-lost-the-charms book- I'm currently-holding."

Alice snorted and Lily looked at her in fake astonishment. "Et tu Alice?"

Alice nodded, giggling more at the look on Lily's face, "I'm sorry you were hilarious earlier."

"I'm always hilarious," Ursula said as she came around the corner, sitting down on the edge of the table.

They rolled their eyes at her entrance. Peter, however, simply stared at her in awe. Her hair was down from its usual braid so it cascaded down her back in thick black curls. He loved her hair; it was beautiful. He dreamed about running his hands through her dark locks as she curled into his side as they sat in front of the fireplace back in the common room. Her hand would reach up and gently stop his, only to bring it to her lips and caress the top with a soft kiss. He would wrap his arms around her tighter and give her all the love and devotion she deserved.

His thoughts came crashing back to Earth when Ben grabbed Ursula around the waist and pulled her off the top of the table onto his lap, kissing her temple in greeting. Peter's thoughts turned darker, wishing that at that moment, Lord Voldemort himself would show up and avada kedavra Ben on the stop. When Ursula yelped in disapproval and glared at Ben, Peter thought for a second that all his wishes would come true and she would get off Ben's lap, leave Ben in the dust, forget about Ben completely, and come to see that Peter was the one that would never hurt her…the one who would worship her…honor her.

Instead she simply sat down in the chair next to him, all the while holding tightly onto his hand. "Arse." She jokingly glared at him.

Ben smiled cheekily, "Only for you."

Peter nearly gagged the horrible wrongness of it. He didn't deserve her! He only hurt her! Peter would never, ever do that to her.

"I hate to break up your little study group but there's Quidditch practice in twenty minutes."

Ben and Elyse nodded, packing up their stuff. Peter's jealousy nearly bubbled over when Ursula began to help Ben put his books away. Their hands brushed against each other's and they shared a private look. She shouldn't have to clean up his mess, Peter mentally ranted. She deserved to be waited on, not waiting on someone else.

"Hey, Wormy, you alright?" Ursula asked when she saw his face scrunch up.

Peter nearly jumped a foot, dropping the Defense book that had been resting on his lap. "Y-y-yeah. I'm fine?"

Ursula bent over and picked up the book. She placed her free hand on Peter's forehead and he nearly died and went to heaven at that moment. "Are you sure? You look a bit peaky and you're warm."

He flushed at her concern. Her cool hand felt heavenly on his face. He imagined it moving down to cup his cheek, intimately touching his face. He nodded and took the book from her other hand. "I'm s-s-s-sure." He stuttered out.

That didn't seem to appease Ursula at all. Instead, her brow furrowed so perfectly it looked like it belonged on a statue in a museum. "I don't believe you. When was the last time you ate anything?"

Peter shrugged, unable to think properly under her intense gaze. She looked away from him just a moment to look at the rest of the group. Remus shrugged, "We took a lunch break about six hours ago. Ben brought us some snacks about two hours ago. I don't know it Peter had any."

Ursula directed her questioning look back at Peter. He shirked slightly and mumbled something.

"What was that?"

"I d-d-didn't eat any-anything." He admitted in a slightly louder voice.

Ursula sighed and tutted, "Wormy, Wormy, Wormy, what are we going to do with you? Why didn't you eat anything?"

He wasn't about to tell her that he didn't eat anything because they were from her boyfriend, the bloke that took her away from him. Before he could think of a horribly formulate lie, Ursula turned abruptly and hit Ben on the shoulder.

"Oi! What was that for?" He asked, rubbing his shoulder.

Ursula pointed her finger at him, like she was scolding a small child, "That's for not making sure he ate!"

Ben rolled his eyes, "He's a big boy, Urs."

"I don't care!" She immediately responded. "He's probably stressed out enough with the OWLs. Eating isn't the first thing on a lot of people's minds right now. You should have made sure everyone ate."

Ben clearly thought she was over reacting but nodded none the less. He grabbed her hand and pulled Ursula away from Peter to give her a quick hug. "You're right. I'm sorry. I'll make sure Peter eats when he's supposed to. Maybe I'll start carrying blocks of cheese in my bag. How does that sound?"

Ursula laughed and once again hit him on the arm, "You little prick," she said smiling.

He smirked and wrapped his arms around her, "But what a devilishly handsome prick I am?"

"The deviliest."

Ben laughed, "I'm pretty sure that's not a word."

"It so is."

"I don't believe you."

"I can't believe you!"

"I can't believe either one of them," Marlene muttered. She made a gagging motion while Ursula and Ben started to flirt back and forth in a mess of insults and cleverly worded words of affection. Peter's annoyance and hatred doubled for Ben at every moment. He just had to come in and ruin a perfectly perfect moment between him and Ursula. Ben was a menace that needed to be controlled…to be taken care of…

Thankfully, Elyse took matters into her own hands and grabbed the back of both of their robes, pulling them away from each other. "In case yeh've forgotten, we've got practice ter git ter."

Ursula squirmed her way out of Elyse's hold. "Tell Prong's I'll be late for practice. I want to make sure Peter gets some food before he passes out." His face had been growing alarmingly pale the last few minutes. Ursula rested her hand gently on Peter's shoulders, sending his heart into a fluttering frenzy. "Ready to go Peter?" She asked, looking at him worriedly with those kind, soft, gentle, loving eyes that enraptured all who looked into them.

"Pete?" She asked again this time with much more alarm and concern.

He shook himself out of his reverie and nodded, "Yeah."

As he stood up, Ursula kept a hand on his arm to keep his steady. Stealing a glance at Ben, Peter couldn't help but feel a flash of annoyance; he didn't even look bothered Ursula wouching him! Perhaps he didn't view Peter as a threat. Or maybe Ben knew that Peter was better for her?

It didn't matter, seeing as with a final wave, Ben was off walking to the pitch with Elyse. Angered by Ben's nonchalant farewell to Ursula, Peter pursed his lips together. Did he not realize what angel he possessed?

"That's our cue too. Might as well start rounds now," Lily said as she packed up her stuff. She excused them from Alice and Marlene, who both went back to their books, reviewing their herbology notes from two years ago.

"Yippie," Remus said dryly. "Rounds – my favorite thing besides the moon," he muttered the last part to himself so Marlene and Alice didn't hear as he finished packing up his stuff.

"Remus!" Ursula mock chided as they started to walk out of the library. "Are you complaining about the honor Dumbledore has blessed you?"

"Blessed? More like cursed," he retorted.

"What do you mean?" Lily asked. "Being a Prefect isn't a curse."

"It is when the only reason you got the badge was the headmaster's attempt to make you your friends' official babysitters and all your friends see is a get out of jail free card," he gave Peter and Ursula an accusatory look.

Ursula held her hands up in surrender while Peter ducked his head.

"I've only used you once!"

"Ursula!" Lily scolded.

"At least I'm not as bad as my brothers," Ursula tried to defend herself.

Lily sighed in acceptance, knowing that was the truth; no one was as bad as James Potter and Sirius Black, especially when it came to trouble. "Just be careful this time." Lily warned.

Ursula and Peter broke away from the pair and started walking towards the kitchens. "Sounds good!" Ursula shouted back. "See you later, sat 11:00ish? Ben and I might fancy a late night stroll around the castle."

"See what I have to deal with?" They heard Remus lament to Lily.

"Love you too Moony!" Ursula shouted jovially, cupping her hands around her mouth.

Remus simply held up a thumbs up over his head, not even bothering to turn around. Ursula laughed loudly, her beautifully familiar bark like laugh. It brought smiles to all who heard it, Peter especially.

Once they turned away, they walked in silence. Away from the rest of the crowd, Peter studied Ursula's face. The joy that usually danced behind her eyes seemed dimmed and her entire figure was tense. There was one possibility for her behavior…

"Ursula?" Peter asked hesitantly, not wanting to seem clingy or prying.

"What do you need Wormy?" She asked, turning to look at him briefly before looking in front of her.

He cleared his throat, "Is Ben treating you right?"

Ursula actually stopped walking and looked at Peter in astonishment, "Of course he is, why do you ask?"

He shuffled his feet, feeling extremely uncomfortable in the situation he put himself in. "There's something wrong with you and the only time I've seen you look like this when Ben hurt you last year."

She smiled slightly and shook her head before beginning to walk forward again, "No, no, that's not it at all Peter. Ben everything I asked for and more. He's been the perfect gentleman, you don't need to worry about that Wormtail."

Peter nodded, his displeasure growing when he saw the soft look in Ursula's eyes grow as she thought of her boyfriend. She suddenly smirked slightly and chuckled at something. "You know what's funny Peter? You can ask Sirius or any of the girls. I used to tell everyone that I would never date a pureblood because I wanted to marry a muggle, muggleborn, or maybe a halfblood just to infuriate my parents."

A painful tightening burst through Peter's chest as he remembered his own predominately pureblood heritage; his mother was a halfblood and his father pure. So he wasn't technically pureblood. More like three-fourths blood? Even thinking it sounded dumb so he didn't say anything.

"So why are you dating Ben? His family is just as old as yours." He questioned, trying to keep the bitterness out of his voice.

She contemplated that a moment, "I can't tell you Peter. You can't help who you fall in love with."

"Love?" Peter asked horrified. No. This couldn't be. She couldn't love him!

Ursula shook her head, "No, not love. But something pretty damn close. Enough about my life, what about you? Did you ever talk to that girl you fancied?"

With his world crashing around him, Peter tried to smile only to fail pitifully. "I did. She doesn't care for me."

"Aww, Pete." Ursula said as she wrapped her arm around his shoulder in a side hug. "It's her loss. You're one hell of a guy."

"Really?" Peter asked hopefully. Maybe there was still a chance!

Ursula nodded, "Of course I mean it. You're a wonderful friend and a great person." She stopped in front of the portrait of the bowl of fruit and tickled the pear, the door to the kitchens swung open. Ursula stepped in and grabbed Peter's arm and guided him to a table near the roaring fire.

"Mitzi!"

The house elf seemed to apparate to Ursula's side. Peter yelped in shock and nearly fell off the chair.

"Mistress Ursula called Mitzi?"

"Mitzi…" Ursula said sternly.

Mitzi flushed red and shuffled her feet, embarrassed. "Sorry, Ursula. Mitzi doesn't mean offense."

Ursula placed her hand on the crown of Mitzi's brown mess of hair, rubbing it much like a mother would do to her daughter's. "I know Mitzi. I was wondering if you could do a favor for me."

Mitzi's eyes lit up and nodded excitedly, "Of course Mitzi can! Mitzi would be honored!"

"Make sure Peter here gets a full meal of whatever was for dinner plus desert. Don't let him out of here until he finishes everything, alright?"

"I'll make sure Master Peter gets the best food we have, Mitzi will see to it! Trust Mitzi!" With that, she scattered off into a part of the kitchen none of them had ever been into.

"I trust you'll be fine now. I have to get to practice. Ben probably thinks I got kidnapped by Slytherins by now." With that, she turned and left, leaving Peter to his dark thoughts regarding his 'friend'.

Later that night after eating his weight in food, when he was soundly sleeping, Peter was violently thrown off his bed. "Look alive, Wormy!" James shouted.

"Wha—!" Peter shouted as he tried to disentangle himself from his blankets. "Wha's goin on?" He sleepily slurred.

"We wormed – no pun intended – the password for the Slytherin Common Room out of Remus. He's got late night rounds and King and Muse decided to be all coupley and go on a walk together. We can't get Lucky because of those bloody stairs so you're our last hope."

"What do you need me for?"

James and Sirius exchanged sinister glances at each other before James grabbed the map from his pocket and slammed it on top of the table. "We have a mission to find a…let's call it missing…potions book. One that Snivelly has been using as a diary."

"I'm in," Peter immediately responded.

Sirius smirked and thumped James on the shoulder, "Told you he would."

James reciprocated the smirk before leaning in close to Peter and whispered conspiratorially, "Here's your mission…"

The next morning was much more somber. For some reason, the entire Great Hall seemed hushed. Peter rubbed the sleep from his eyes as she plopped down in his usual spot. "Why's everyone acting like someone died?"

"Someone did, you idiot," Sirius snarled.

Instantly, Peter's attention was on the entire group. No one had tears in their eyes but they were all very tense. "Who?"

"Fifty-six people in the last week, almost two hundred in the last two." Remus explained as he passed Peter a copy of the Daily Prophet. "This is the first time certain details have been released in regards to the murders."

"What details?"

James rolled his eyes, annoyed at Peter's incessant questions. "They're using the bodies after funerals to go kill other family members. No one's ever used Inferi on this scale before. It's scaring the crap out of everyone."

"O' course it is," Elyse said. "Imagine seein' yer loved one's corpse killin' yeh o yeh's other family. It's horrible."

"The worst part is that he is making the corpses look alive – they don't look dead." James said, flicking a picture in the Prophet making Peter look at the image of what looked like perfectly humans humans.

"So far in the last month, twenty-five people have been killed by family members who had mistaken them as inferi in disguise." Ben said. "Dad doesn't know what to do. You warn people against inferi and they attack family. Warn people that they might not actually be dead and people put their guard down. No matter what, people are still going to die."

"They're calling him He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named. Slightly better than Dark Lord but still a rubbish title if you ask me." Sirius said.

"Merlin, those are worse than Lord Voldemort," Ursula scrunched up her nose in disgust. Both names were horrible names in her opinion.

Their critique of his names ended when the rest of the morning post was delivered. A letter landed in front of James and he quickly read it, his face turning more and more solemn as he read more of the letter. He sighed and handed it off to Sirius, who in turn had a similar reaction before giving it to his sister. Her face remained impassive as she read it, though her hand moved to tightly squeeze Ben's. He wrapped his free arm around her shoulder. She rested her head against his shoulder and he whispered something into her ear. She shook her head, her eyes filling with tears and kissed his cheek before she stood, quickly grabbing her stuff and leaving.

"What's going on?" Peter asked the remaining three as they shared a knowing look. He felt like an outsider.

Elyse was the one to answer, "Mr. Potter's gotten sick again. They don't think he's gonna make it much longer."

"He's been sick for a while but when he went to the healers to get some help, it's just too much on his body. They think he has about two years left, three tops, four would be a miracle." Remus continued to explain.

"Can't they just…banish the illness from him?" Peter asked, his heart filling with sorrow for his beloved. The pain she must be in…

Ben shook his head, "Mrs. Potter is possibly one of the best healers alive and she's done everything she can do. She's called in every favor, any debt anyone owed her ever. None of it is working. Magic can only work so well for so long. His body's just…stopping."

"They're trying to buy him time," Remus added. "James is especially adamant that there is a cure out there. I don't think he ever realized that his father would die so soon."

"There isn't a boy out there who does think his father's a super hero," Ben said. "They're invincible in our eyes. The realization that they aren't…"

"It's rough," Elyse finished Ben's thought.

"It is. And for Sirius and Ursula, it's almost worst because for the first time in their lives, they actually have a father who they love and loves them in return. Now he's dying."

Ben stood up, "We should probably fine them. It's not a good idea to leave those three to their own devices."

They had barely taken ten steps before they heard a loud cheer and laughter. Ben gave the other three a look that clearly said 'see? What did I tell you?'

Turning the corner, they found James pointing his wand at a third year who was currently dangling from his foot, desperately trying to keep his robes from falling.

"James!" Elyse yelled in shock, horror, and a slight sense of awe.

James turned and smirked at the four, "'Ello Lucky. Welcome to the show."

"What are you doing!?" Remus shouted as he tried the universal counter spell on James's victim, only to find that it didn't work.

James shrugged, "He was walking a bit too slowly for my taste so I gave him a little…lift shall we say?"

"James!" Remus yelled, properly angry at this point. Dying father or not, the boy's face was turning an alarming shade of red.

"Fine." James rolled his eyes and with a twist of his wand and an utterance of Libericorpus, the boy flew painfully on top of Remus, who was standing right below him. The crowd howled with laughter while a few rushed forward to the two fallen boys up.

"Detention," Remus growled at James who was basking in the attention he was receiving. James jumped and stared at Remus, his eyes wide.

"What!" He yelped.

Remus glared at him and sneered, "You heard me. I'm a Prefect and I have the right to give detention to those in my House. Considering I've happened to live in the same room as you for the past five years, I thought you'd've figured it out by now!" Remus snapped, shoving past James and practically stormed to their first class.

"Good jobs, Prongs, you've managed to piss off the beast." Sirius said as he slung his arm around a still stunned James's shoulders.

"The same goes for you too Sirius!" Remus shouted back.

Now it was Sirius's turn to shout out in shock, "What! I didn't do anything!"

Remus turned around and looked at the two of them. He pointed a finger at himself, "You expect me to think that you," he now pointed at Sirius, "had nothing to do with his prank?" He finished by pointing at James.

Sirius looked at James, both of them realizing the truth in Remus's statement. "Eh, it was worth a try."

Ben chuckled and cuffed Sirius on the back of his head. His other hand was holding onto Ursula's, both of them had smiles on their face. "You're an idiot, Padfoot."

"Takes one to know one," Sirius shot back.

"Well, my idiots, we have to get to class. I don't think that Minnie will take too kindly to us showing up late again." Ursula said as she jumped ahead of them, the other's following.

All seven of them (Remus waited for them at the end of the corridor) walked together towards the transfiguration classroom. Seeing him standing alone, Elyse felt a quick flash of...well of something.

It was like there was a thin transparency over her eyes. She could see Remus in front of her but there was also an older Remus standing in front of him. He was taller, much more than he already was. His face was full of scars, old and new. His clothes were tattered and tears were streaming down his face as someone she didn't recognize place a hand on his shoulder.

"No," the future Remus said, his voice echoing hauntingly like a ghost's.

"I'm sorry," the other voice responded just as faintly. "They were found a few hours ago."

"No!" Remus wailed, falling to his knees, sobbing heartrendingly into his hands. His shoulders shook violently and it seemed that he had no control over his body.

"Sir!" The other wizard panicked as he tried to console the tortured soul falling apart in front of him. "Sir, you need to calm down!"

"Calm down?!" Remus roared. "HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN WHO YOU'RE TALKING TO!? EVERYONE I'VE LOST! I'M THE LAST! HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN THEM!?"

And just as quickly as the apparitions appeared, they were gone. The six others were ahead of Elyse now, all of them walking around Remus. James and Sirius were making a bunch of innocent little jokes to try to get back on Remus's good side, not knowing that they could never truly be on his bad side.

Elyse jogged to catch up with them, still stunned. What had just happened.

She didn't know. It was something else she could add to her "didn't know list' that was growing longer and longer with every day. Why did nothing make sense anymore? None of it seemed to matter much when she realized something. Someone had been forgotten; someone or many someones near and dear to Remus. Who?