It was dark. Save for colourful flashes of light, I couldn't see anything. I was relying completely on my senses. Sound, touch, etcetera- although the prevailing sounds consisted of spell incantations and shuffling feet.

I considered myself lucky. I didn't necessarily need a spell to cause damage. I could do just as well with the elements- the joy of being an elemental, I suppose. Every now and then, a metalling clang would sound, followed by a thud and Regulus's cackles; Sirius's sword glinted in the darkness, the only signal of his presence- he was absolutely silent.

A red light shot at me; I dodged and sent a blast of air in the direction from which it had come. A thud and yelp followed quickly, signalling I'd hit my target.

I saw a jolt of colour fly towards Sirius (or where I assumed he was), and intercepted it with a blast of fire, which was quickly followed by: "Oi, Prongs! Watch where you aim that stuff!"

"Sorry, Pads," I said sheepishly, before quickly having to duck a jet of light. Sirius wasn't so lucky; he hit the ground hard after getting hit with a red light.

I cursed under my breath; he was one of our best fighters.

I heard more cackling from Regulus, coupled with: "Argh! Regulus, you aren't supposed to be attacking me!"

The lights came on. I lowered my hands, and everyone still standing lowered their wands. Regulus floated back to the ground. Dad was rubbing his head, good-naturedly glaring at Regulus. At least half the people in the room were stunned.

"That was pretty good," said Dad loudly. "Those of you still standing, congrats."

"What, no reward?" complained a Hufflepuff I didn't recognize. Dad glared at him, and he cowered quickly. "Right, no reward."

"Everyone, help with waking up the others," said Dad, moving forward towards a stunned Ravenclaw. I shrugged, and muttered a quick rennerverate. Sirius shot up like a bullet and looked around.

"Aw, man!" he complained. "I lost."

"No one lost," I told him, rolling my eyes. "But, yeah, you lost."

He pouted. I swiftly woke both Lily and Remus as Severus, a few feet away woke Peter. Lily rubbed her head, looking slightly put out.

"That was a low move," she told me, scowling. "I didn't think you'd stun me!"

"You were on the blue team," I said with a shrug. "As part of the red team, I was supposed to stun you."

"But I'm your girlfriend!"

"But I was on the opposing team."

Lily finally gave up and smiled slightly. "Alright, fine."

I just grinned.

This was the newest club at Hogwarts- Defence Club, formed by my dad. Today had been the first meeting, and we'd practiced fighting in a large group against a large group in near-zero visibility. We'd been put in two separate teams, instructed quickly only to use Stunning spells; then the lights went off and it was a free for all.

I figured I was really going to like this club, especially if we did this every time. Lily, however, looked less than excited at the idea of fighting every single club meeting.

"I hope your father will actually teach us something next meeting," she said, looking slightly cross as we left the room.

"Knowing Dad, he'll have us get up and teach them instead," I snorted. "Relax, Lils. If you really want extra training, I'll ask Tamo is anyone at the Heart can teach you some stuff."

Lily brightened considerably at this. "Really?"

"Course, love," I said, softly kissing her forehead. She smiled warmly at me. Have I ever mentioned how much I love her eyes? They sparkle like jewels, but the colour is the same as the grass in my backyard. I could literally star forever at her eyes-

"Oi, lover boy, we're gonna miss dinner!" called Sirius, breaking me out of my Lily-induced stupor. I turned red and Lily giggled, and we both ran to catch up with the others.

"Way to ruin the moment, Padfoot," I said, shoving him playfully.

He shrugged and gave me a cheeky grin. "That's my job."

Dinner was quite unspectacular. Luckily for the staff and students, we had decided to go easy on them until after the full moon. We all agreed: no more pranks 'till Moony was better (Sirius pouted at this, but agreed anyway).

Speaking of full moons, tonight was this month's. Peter had finally mastered his form over the summer, so he was coming with us tonight. Regulus wanted so badly to come… unfortunately, he had not quite mastered his form.

He did finally have a nickname though; while trying to convince us, he managed to change his arm into that of a fox's. His fur was bright Weasley red.

"That's it!" Sirius had exclaimed.

"What's it?" Peter asked.

"His nickname!" Sirius continued. We all stared at him, and he continued to grin at us as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"His nickname…?" I finally asked after about two minutes.

"Red!" Sirius exclaimed. "His fur is red!"

"Yes, Sirius," said Remus slowly, as if speaking to a young child. "Most foxes are indeed red."

"No, no," said Sirius. "That should be his nickname. Red!"

"Oohh," we all chorused at once.

"I like it!" exclaimed Regulus cheerfully. "So, can I go?"

At that, I had rolled my eyes and quite frankly told him 'no'. Luckily, he was a marginally better listener that Sirius, and I was pretty sure he wouldn't follow us. Tonight.

The three of us camped out at the Shrieking Shack to wait for Remus to arrive, and Sirius had provided entertainment for us. I'd conjured a rubber ball, and Peter and I would take turns throwing it. Padfoot the dog simply could not resist the temptation to chase, fetch, and bring back the ball every single time we threw it.

It was brilliant. Wormtail and I were keeping track of how many times we threw it and he brought it back, just to see how long it would take for Sirius to either grow bored or realise what he was doing and turn human and very red.

We'd reached throw number 57 when we heard Remus and Madam Pomfrey enter. Sirius started whining rather piteously when we didn't throw the ball again, but he eventual laid down at our feet, pouting (total blackmail material, by the way; I was never going to let him live the last fifteen minutes down).

Finally, Madam Pomfrey left and we started throwing the ball again, much to Padfoot's delight. Remus joined us a few seconds later, and stared bemusedly when Padfoot brought him the rubber ball.

"You taught him fetch, huh?" he asked, laughing as he took the ball and threw it.

"Nah, Padfoot just can't not fetch a red rubber ball," I grinned. "Talk about blackmail."

Peter nodded eagerly in agreement.

A few more minutes passed (we managed to reach 76 in that time) before the full moon rose and Remus's transformation began. Peter and I quickly assumed our Animagus forms, and soon there were no humans left in the Shrieking Shack.

'Ball?' Padfoot asked, nudging the red ball towards me.

'I can't very well throw it, can I?' I asked him. He pouted, and Moony came over and started sniffing at the ball. Padfoot growled at him.

'My ball,' he said irately.

'I want it!' exclaimed Moony.

'My ball,' said Padfoot again. I rolled my eyes, picked up the ball with my teeth, and placed it on the highest place I could reach. Now both of them were pouting.

'Moony, Wormtail's here today,' I said, gesturing with my head towards Wormtail, who was sitting on a cabinet. He waved, a particularly human motion that made both canines tilt their heads in confusion.

'So,' said Wormtail. 'What does everyone want to do?'

'Ball,' said both Moony and Padfoot.

I groaned. This was going to be a long night.

The next morning found the four of us by a creek in an unexplored part of the forest. Judging by the surroundings, I'd say we were somewhere near the Heart. After all, nowhere else I knew had trees with leaves of these particular colours. Reds and oranges and golds that couldn't be achieved by normal trees. Remus and Peter were both asleep at the moment, and Sirius and I were sitting by the pond, our feet in the water and our shoes discarded haphazardly on the bank near us. I was subconsciously kicking my feet, enjoying the feel of the cool water. Sirius was unusually still.

"Don't tell anyone," Sirius began quietly. "But I'm kind of scared."

I looked at him, furrowing my eyebrows.

"This whole prophecy thing," he elaborated. "And a little bit the fact that I might die… really soon…"

"Pads, I promise, I won't let you die," I said quietly. "I'll do everything in my power to prevent that."

"But that's just it!" he exclaimed. "What if you go and try to save me and get killed instead?"

I was silent for a moment. "Sirius… I can't promise we're all going to make it through this. But I swear I'll try to keep us all alive- even myself, okay?"

Sirius nodded, eyes suspiciously bright and a dark shade of blue. "I'm not that scared of dying. I think I'm more worried about leaving everyone behind…"

I started to say something, but he cut me off.

"Did you know I was never supposed to go to Hogwarts?" he said.

"What?" I asked. "What do you mean?"

"I wasn't supposed to live that long," he shrugged. I stared at him. What on earth did he mean by that? "There was something wrong with me. None of the healers could figure it out."

"Then… how did you get better?" I asked, before frowning and backtracking. "You are better, right? You're not gonna up and die on us in a couple of years, are you?"

"No, no," said Sirius, chuckling. "I'm fine now. Thing is, my old parents had no clue how, and neither did any of the healers. It was like a miracle, I guess. Apparently I disappeared one day when I was three or four. They found me, and next time we went to the healer's, I was all better."

"Wow," I said. Then a thought occurred to me. "But… if this happened when you were really little, how come you know about it?"

"My old parents made sure I knew I shouldn't have been alive," he said, smiling wryly.

I scowled at this. Just another reason to hate Walburga and Orion Black, I suppose. We sat in silence for a few more moments, before Sirius finally spoke up.

"Hey, mate," he said. "Why do I remember something about a red rubber ball?"

I let out a barking laugh. "Fetch, my friend. We were playing fetch."

Sirius's face went very, very red.

I just laughed, and ruffled his hair, eliciting an 'oi!' from Sirius.

"Nice way to break the tension, Padfoot," I grinned, although still somewhat disturbed by his revelation. "Say, shouldn't we wake those two and get back to the Shack. Pomfrey'll freak if she gets there and Moony isn't."

"We're probably a bit late," chuckled Sirius. "Besides, won't be the first time."

I snickered. "No thanks to you, Paddy."

Sirius reddened again.

"Fine," he said. "You wake Moony, I'll wake Wormtail."

"Good luck," I snorted, before walking over and shaking Remus. "Hey, Rem. It's morning."

He groaned and sat up, looking around for a moment, before staring at me. "Why do I remember something about a red rubber ball?"

I laughed again, not surprised that he'd said the same thing as Sirius. "Remember, we were playing fetch with Pads? After you turned into the wolf, you wanted to play fetch too. It was funny."

Remus reddened. "Well… that's… embarrassing."

"That's only half of it!" I beamed. "You were chasing your tail for at least a half an hour! Just wait 'till I get that in the Pensieve!"

Remus groaned.

A/N: And done! Yay! I've figured out a whole awesome backstory that explains a lot of things- tiny bit revealed this chapter! Big thanks to my awesome reviewers: Lady Loophole, N.E. Person, Imaginer.012, jeremiah123, Betty.S, and jkawsome! Um… how does virtual (not real) video of Moony chasing his tail sound? XDD Hope you all enjoyed!

I don't own HP.