Aly cried harder than she had ever cried in her life, but, when she stood, she had a plan.

She had a direct course to take. Nothing was going to get in her way. She found her target in the library. How she was so lucky to find him alone was beyond her, but Aly cornered Sirius in between two aisles of books.

She walked straight up to him and continued to walk at him until his back was against a wall. Their noses were touching as he stammered, "Hee-ey." He was clearly uncomfortable with her being so close to him.

She stared hard into his eyes. He squirmed uncomfortably, but managed to ask fairly calmly, "Als, can we talk?"

Aly continued to stare hard into his eyes.

"Look," he started trying to move away from her. She simply moved with him, and before he could say another word, she kissed him.

All the thinking she done on her search through the castle for him and all the calculating she had done once she had found him had not added up to this. She wasn't sure what had made her do it. Apparently her heart was more in control then her brain.

She pulled away angrily, running scenario after scenario through her head as her mouth twisted sourly. It wasn't that she had minded kissing Sirius. It just wasn't the way this was suppose to go.

He was staring at her like she was crazy, which she wasn't all that sure at the moment if she was or not. He finally squinted and said, "I though we broke up."

"We did," Aly snapped, angry at herself about the kiss, not at him for the comment.

"Then what was that?"

Aly ignored his question. Instead she announced loudly, "24 hours."

"Huh?" he asked in confusion. "Til what?"

Aly ignored him again and continued with her announcement, not looking at him, "In 24 hours time, you will meet me right back here. You will have made your decision by then."

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw his eyebrows shot up. "What decision?"

She took a deep breathe and pulled herself up as tall as possible. "About me."

A smile slide across his lips. She resisted the urge to smack it off of his face. "What about you?" he asked slyly, moving one of his eyebrows.

Her frown deepened as she determinedly stared at his feet. "You have to make a final decision. Either you have me or you don't."

"What do you mean by that?" his questioned, his cocky smile sliding off of his face.

"I mean," Aly explained, realizing that this was going to be harder for her than she had anticipated, "That either you're my boyfriend, no other girls in any other way. Flirting included."

He cut her off, "You were the one who said I should --"

"Either that," she cut him off loudly, "Or no me anymore. In any way, shape, or form."

This clearly hit him hard. In a whisper he asked, "Not even friends?"

Aly swallowed hard. "Not even friends."

He looked at her, his eyes hard. "So you're giving me an ultimatum?"

She crossed her arms. "24 hours. You will make your decision. It's all or nothing."

He crossed his arms and stared down at her. "I will not be forced to make a decision."

Aly stared back at him. "If you don't pick, I'm gone."

He summed up her expression and realized that her mind was made up.

She softened her expression and said, "I want you to really think about it, but I'm not going to wait around forever. Tomorrow."

She turned to leave, but turned back on her heel. He was already thinking and looked up with wide eyes as she took two steps toward him. She grasped his face in her hands and kissed him in what she hoped was a sexy kiss. When she pulled away, it was clear on his face that she had succeeded.

With that she left him to think things over, adding a little extra swing to her hips.

XxXxX

For dinner that night, Aly tried to sneak quickly in and out of the Great Hall. She made a grab at a sandwich, and, as she turned to leave, she knock into someone.

"Sorry," she mumbled trying to move past them.

"What is this? A hit and run?"

Aly, who had stuck the sandwich between her teeth, smiled around it. Remus smiled in return.

"Not eating with us?" He was clearly snooping for information, and he was really bad at hiding the fact.

"Sirius has been given an … assignment," Aly told him. "And I can't be around while he does it."

She tried to leave the hall, but Remus followed her. He stopped her at the double doors. "So are you two still fighting?" He apparently really wanted his questions answered since he hadn't been given any sort of explanation.

She didn't want to answer the question so instead she observed the enchanted ceiling. Her brows creased as she looked up at the replica of the outside sky, "Shouldn't you be getting ready?"

"For what?" he asked. He followed her eyesight, and Aly watched the color drain from his face. "What are you talking about?" he choked out.

Aly closed her eyes, realizing what her offhanded comment had revealed, and let out a low hiss of a curse word.

Remus grabbed her by the upper arm and pulled her outside. The cold wind thrashed around them, and Aly wrapped her arms around her for warmth.

"Aly, what are you talking about?" He sounded desperate.

She took a small bite of her sandwich and chewed it slowly.

"Aly," he pressed.

She swallowed and said, "I know."

He waited. He clearly wanted to hear her say it.

"I know what happens to you, every month," with a sigh she added, "At the full moon."

He hung his head.

"Remus, it's not a big deal."

He let out a harsh laugh. "Should've known Sirius couldn't keep his mouth shut. He'll say anything if you ask."

"No," Aly corrected him. "Lily found out about it. And we figured it out from there."

"Lily knows?" he yelped.

Aly rolled her eyes. "We've known since second year."

"Second year?!"

"It's not that big of deal." She went to put her hand on him, but he pulled away. "You're still you!" Aly exclaimed stomping her foot.

He moved away from her, looking out over the twilight lit grounds. Aly felt tears well in her eyes. She needed to make him see that she didn't see him as he saw himself.

She moved up behind him and wrapped her arms around him, tears rolling into his back. Aly could feel his body, which had originally tensed at her attempt to touch him, relax slightly. They stood in silence, the cold taking a hold on them, until he finally said, "Thief."

Aly laughed happily into his back. "See! Nothing is different. Nothing's scary."

He shook his head and turned to face her.

"You, my friend, are the least scariest of all the Marauders."

He pulled up tortured eyes to look at her, trying to sum up the weight of her words.

Aly continued, "It's been five years, Remus. So what? I know. You have a secret. Big deal."

"This isn't just a secret," Remus said downtrodden. "It's my life."

Aly laughed aloud which made the corners of his mouth twitch in what looked like pain. "You've got friends who are worse off then you, dear."

His face showed his skepticism so Aly elaborated. "Headmaster neglected daughter who raised herself. Son of possible death eaters. Hopeless in love with a girl who hates him. Dead mom. Fat camp." She tilted her head and raised her eyebrows at him.

Remus smiled slightly and she proceeded, "See. It could be worse."

"Worse then endangering everyone's lives once a month?"

"I do the same thing! You PMS, Remus, just like 50% of the student population here. In fact, some girls are probably scary then you are," she told him and then added, "Probably hairy too."

"No," he shook his head sadly. "It's not the same."

"I highly doubt you'd ever hurt anyone," Aly informed him putting her hands on her hips.

"Almost!" he shouted in agony.

Aly's eyes went wide as she realized he wasn't joking. "Who?" she asked in a whisper.

Remus turned his head, determined not to answer.

"Tell me," Aly pleaded.

He acted as if he hadn't heard her.

"I have other sources," she informed him. "Ones that can easily be persuaded to tell me."

The look of determination she got from her mother was set on her face. She turned, acting as if she were going to leave, and he grabbed her arm to stop her. "Fine," he said sounded peeved. "It was Snape."

Aly showed no look of surprised as she told him, "Figures. He's always snooping around you guys."

"Well the problem is," he said looking at her dismally, "Sirius led him to me."

Aly's jaw drop. She knew Sirius and Snape didn't get along, but she never figured that Sirius would take advantage of his friend to do harm to Snape.

"You can't tell him you know," Remus told her. "You were the one person he wanted to keep it from. Even your dad agreed not to tell you."

Aly felt bamboozled. Something had managed to slip past her notice.

Remus, who had stood and let her process this, pulled her out of her retrieve, "Aly, tell me the truth. Have you ever looked at me differently?"

She looked into his grey eyes, full of worry, and answered honestly, "Yes." His eyes shut tightly. "For about two days."

"Two days?" She couldn't tell if he was surprised or upset.

"Yeah, until you came back I was concerned. But then you came back, and I saw that you were still the same, old Remus. I haven't thought of you differently since."

His face showed her that he still didn't fully believe her.

"Seriously," she stressed. "No," she corrected, "Honestly. I don't want any of my feelings aligned with anyone of that name."

This seemed to win him over because he laughed. Aly took this as an opportunity to move forward and hug him.

"Thank you, Aly."

"For what?" she asked into his chest, trying to warm her nose.

"For still wanting to be my friend."

"No prob," she said with laugh.

Light streamed over them and Sirius' voice came booming at them, cutting through the cold. Aly instinctually moved away from Remus and turned to face the body the voice came from.

"Sirius," Remus started.

"Dude," Sirius whined, his eyes shifting from Remus to Aly.

"We were just talking," Remus said calmly.

"Didn't look like talking," Sirius said pointedly.

"It was," Remus said putting his hand on Aly's arm.

"Dude," Sirius snapped, point at where Remus' skin was on hers, "Off my kool-aid."

Remus pulled away, and Sirius merely stared at him.

"I'll see you 'round," Aly said quietly to Remus, choosing to walk away before an argument broke out between her and Sirius. However, as she passed him, she whispered to Sirius, "Yours?"

She ate the rest of her frozen sandwich as she walked back to the tower.

XxXxX

The next day Aly returned to class as usual. Lily was with her, her first day back since her mom died, and Aly spent most of the day trying keep her mood up. However, Sirius still managed to slip into her mind.

At lunch, Lily ate with Amos, and Aly reluctantly slide down next to Logan. She sat silently all through the meal, reminding herself that she was there for moral support. She left lunch early to let Amos walk Lily to class alone. She was sitting at her desk when she heard an "Ugh! Fine!" and James appeared in front of her. "Someone wants to know why you ate lunch with the Hufflepuffs."

There was a very loud clearing of a throat, and it told Aly exactly who the someone who wanted to know was.

"Sooorrryyyy! Someone wants to know why you ate lunch with Logan." Aly looked at James and realized what a good friend he was to Sirius.

"Because I can eat lunch with whoever I want," Aly said cooly.

"That's what I said," James exclaimed throwing his hands up and walking away.

Aly smiled to herself, pleased that Sirius had taken notice of who she had sat with at lunch. She put her chin in her hand and let herself slip into a daydream. Amos and Lily appeared in the doorway a few minutes before class started. Aly watch him touch her cheek, say something, and then kiss her softly.

Lily came in and sat down next to Aly and asked, "What's wrong?"

Aly didn't respond but shook her head. Her daydream had been shattered. She didn't know why watching Amos and Lily had affected her so, but she felt like her life had just cracked.

Would she have that? Would someone ever treat her like that? She tried to picture Sirius doing that, but it wouldn't come. She couldn't move their private moments inside the common room outside of that space. Then something occurred to her that she had never thought of. Love. Could Sirius ever really love her? Or more importantly, could she love him? She thought about it. She never really knew love. She had borrowed love from Lily's mom, but that was pretty much it. Maybe she was incapable of love. She knew now that she never loved Logan, just what he had represented: everything she thought she was missing in life. Would it be fair to trail Sirius along if she couldn't ever love him?

She spent the rest of class contemplating this new insight. She paid little attention to anything else the rest of the day. She hardly registered the group of girls surrounding Sirius just 30 minutes before she was to meet him, making a extremely small mental note about it. Her mind was still spinning as she approached him in the library later.

He turned to face her, no smile on his face. He looked solemn as he said, "I've made my decision."