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Another chapter will be out sometime tomorrow… (a.k.a. today. :P)

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DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN ANY OF THIS, EXCEPT FOR ANY CHARACTERS YOU DON'T RECOGNIZE. JK ROWLING IS JESUS!

CHAPTER 45

I spent my summer days in constant work, I was at the dance studio eight hours a day with Chantal and Teagan, then I would go home and practice with my mother during my free time, which added an additional four hours. Half the day was spent dancing, the other half was dedicated to sleeping and cello. Hisoka came by every other day for lessons, as I was set to make my professional debut that coming November. Given the recent events, my father wasn't so sure…he was considering revoking his decision about me debuting at fifteen. When he voiced this opinion I could feel my heart constrict…it was the one thing that kept me going throughout the seemingly long summer. It was my opportunity for a getaway.

I had my stage name set for me years prior, and Ayla was the perfect escape. She wasn't depressed, she wasn't abnormal on the outside, she didn't have any problems, and she didn't have a family to grieve for.

Fortune was on my side that day, Hisoka was there to bargain with my father. Just as she was a charming liar, she was a master at bargaining…something I never would have expected. After all, it was Hisoka who had originally bargained with my father to have me debut at fifteen when I could have debuted a year earlier. The only thing my father strictly forbid was entertaining in Russia, or for Russians at all…and that, I did not mind.

To this day, I am not so sure what made him give in…I think it was for my great uncle Ivan. He had been so excited to see me debut, but he would never see.

My father seemed to book more jobs than ever that summer, sometimes his carpentry would take him as far as to the other side of the country. One day in July, I asked my mother if my father would ever come back…he had been gone for three days, and that had never happened before.

"Yes, Audrey…he will come back."

She had said it with such certainty and calmness, something that astonished me greatly at the time. I was very well aware of my mothers seeing eye, but for the longest time I was so naïve about it…until I had realized I inherited it with much force later in my life.

My mother had reasoned that my father took jobs farther away from our home to escape, just as I had taken to spending twelve hours in the dancing every day. I was surprised when my parents didn't object to it, my father was blinded by his own pain as was I. My mother on the other hand, was our rock.

I was not completely 'under a rock' for the summer, I wrote to all of my friends, even Sven, Karl, and Afanasi. Though the letters were scarce to and from Russia, this was a very difficult time and we had no words that wouldn't remind us of what we had lost. During mid-July I had received a frantic letter from Remus telling me that his parents were going away for two weeks during the full moon. They weren't quite sure what to do with him…the Lupins lived in a heavily wooded area, just like our family, Chantal's family, and Teagan's family. It was safer, but that didn't mean that Remus couldn't easily find the human population as a werewolf.

Of course, my mother and I had jumped on the opportunity to have a house guest. My father seemed keen for the first time since he had arrived home, and so Remus spent a week and a half at our house. His parents had dropped him off, they were rather curious about us, harmless, but curious. I think they were shocked by how green my mother was standing next to me.

Audrey helped Remus heave his trunk upstairs and into the guest room of their cottage though he kept refusing.

My father always liked to change our house around, just for the fact that he simply could. It had always been a one floor cottage, but when I came home that summer I found that my room was on another floor, as well as theirs and the guest room.

"Audrey, I'm a werewolf, I can get it myself." Remus insisted, he was far too kind.

"Remus, your our guest I can't just let you heave it upstairs by yourself." Audrey huffed.

"Show off." He joked around, Audrey shot him a glare, her eyes turning red. The two broke off laughing.

"This is it." She said, pushing open the door to the guest room. Remus looked around at the wood paneled walls and at the velvety red curtains and bedding.

"Fancy." He said, Audrey laughed. "My father designed this guest room with my great uncle in mind, Gryffindor colors."

I was slowly gaining the strength to be able to mention my relatives…I suppose my great uncle Ivan was the easiest, he was the oldest, and we never expect our elderly to live long.

Remus nodded, sitting down on the bed, he looked at her. "I think it's wonderful…thank you."

"Anytime, Remus. Anytime." Audrey laughed for a moment, then took in his appearance. You could tell the full moon was coming, he looked sick. "I just wish you felt better…"

"Very observant, Ru-Audrey." Remus said, he always managed to keep calm. He had refrained from calling Audrey by the Marauders' nickname for her. He was afraid it would upset her, though Sirius and James still called her that.

"You can say Russia, Remus. I am Russian after all…" Audrey said, surprisingly calm.

"I'm sorry…I just…since…" Remus began, awkwardly. Audrey nodded her head and sat next to him.

"I completely understand where you were going with that, don't worry. James and Sirius still address my letters as 'To Russia, from the Brits.'

"They write you together?" Remus laughed, how typical of his two friends.

"Together and separately. All in all, I get three letters."

'But you haven't been responding much.' Remus thought to himself, James and Sirius told him that the previous week. Sirius still suspected that Audrey was depressed and Remus could see why. James on the other hand was in denial.

"Oh and Marlene told me to tell you to be careful." Audrey added, smirking. Remus smacked a palm to his forehead.

"She thinks I'll hurt myself. Werewolves are only a danger to others…"

"Aww, but Remus she just cares so much about you…and that's saying something for Marly." She giggled.

"Yeah, seeing as you're her other half."

"I'm all knowing, Remus." Audrey said grinning, making wavy motions with her arms, he laughed. She then turned to the window and looked outside for a moment, facing away from him. After a few moments of silence he spoke once more.

"Audrey, what have you been doing all summer? How have you been?"

I had no guard in the summer, I had no reason to practice being Ayla unless Hisoka was around. There was no use hiding my emotions from my parents…and I must have not put on that façade when Remus arrived. Not completely at least…

"Why do you ask?" Audrey replied, her voice wavered slightly and it gave her away. Remus wasn't as oblivious as his friends, he picked up on incredibly subtle cues, maybe it was because he was a werewolf.

"Audrey…I cant explain how I know per say, but you look down. You may not be acting that way, but I just know. I see it. It's perfectly normal after what you've been through." Remus replied consolingly.

"I know." Audrey sighed, admitting defeat. "I…I've just been trying to slide it out of my head. I've been dancing twelve hours a day, I play cello for four hours, and the other parts of the day I hang out with Chantal and Teagan outside of the studio."

"So you sleep how long?"

"I don't." Audrey shrugged. "Maybe an hour or a half hour."

"Audrey!" Remus scolded.

"What?"

"Audrey, it's not healthy! I know we're not human but that doesn't mean we don't need rest." Remus replied, looking at her evenly.

"I know, Remus. Trust me, I know. I've been very careful, especially after dancing for so many hours. But I just can't sleep."

"Why?"

Audrey heaved a sigh and hoisted herself onto the windowsill. She put her head in her hands for a moment, Remus was about to get up and approach her when her head snapped up again.

"Audrey, you can tell me anything, you know that…I'm not dumb like James and Sirius…and Peter." He gave her a small smile.

She rested her head against the wall, looking at him. Her eyes were turning from yellow to blue to purple repeatedly.

"Everytime I close my eyes to go to sleep, I see it all, again. I haven't had a good nights sleep since I arrived home, and I don't know why…"

"So you compensate by dancing for long periods of time?" Remus snorted, looking at her. It wasn't healthy for her.

"At first, I figured it would over exhaust me so I'd go into a deeper sleep. It worked for a few weeks but I'd still have the nightmares…plus, we go back to competition this year in the Hogwarts studio. Might as well keep up." Audrey shrugged. "And you do realize that your girlfriend is also dancing twelve hours a day, right?"

"Yes, but don't drag Marly into this. She's human and she spends the other twelve hours sleeping or eating." Remus said crossly.

Audrey shrugged, she figured it was worth a shot.

"Well, Remus. You don't have to worry about me over exerting, I told Darcy I would be out of the studio this entire week and a half that you're here. I'm not over exerting myself."

"Good." Remus sighed. "Audrey, I just don't want to see you fall ill or get hurt."

"We don't fall ill…at least, I've never fallen ill, and I've never seen my father fall ill. I don't know if it's a common thing." Audrey replied thoughtfully.

"Well, let's not try and find that out then." Remus said.

"Okay, father."

The two spent the week walking around in the woods, hanging out with Chantal and Teagan, and talking. The full moon hit in the middle of the week, and despite Airleas and Isaac's offers for Remus to stay inside, he refused.

"But we've all destroyed the house at one point or another." Airleas insisted.
"Really, we have." Isaac nodded.
"Yeah, I blew up the den last year by accident." Audrey chimed in.

"How?" Remus cocked his head, amused.

"She stubbed her toe." Isaac snorted, rolling his eyes. Audrey playfully hit him with a rolled up newspaper.

Remus burst into laughter.

"So will you stay inside now?" Airleas asked, Remus shook his head.

"Honestly, it's not the house I'm worried about now that you've said that. But I like to roam the woods when I transform, it clears my head."

"That makes sense." Isaac said, taking a sip of water. "I roam the woods all the time."

"Because you're a nutter." Airleas replied. "Remus at least has a reason to roam the woods. You just do it when you're bored."

Isaac snorted. "I hunt in the woods…and if I recall correctly it was I who found you in the snow in the Koryak mountains. If I hadn't found you, you wouldn't have survived."

"Yes, yes. I know." Airleas waved him off muttering something about him being a hopeless romantic. Audrey and Remus snickered.

When it came time for Remus to transform, he went outside and into the trees. Isaac and Airleas had went to sleep and Audrey went to her room and 'went to sleep' as well.

My parents didn't know that I spent time with Remus while he was a werewolf. They knew werewolves wouldn't be a danger to any of us, but since December, they kept a very close eye on me. Which translated to…don't go in the woods after sun down.

Of course…I went into the woods after sun down.

Audrey opened her window quietly and looked for a rock to summon, when she couldn't find one she decided to just fly down on a wind. It didn't take her long to find Remus, she could smell him. After about two years of going out with Remus during the full moon he always recognized her in his werewolf form.

He let out a high pitched whine and lead Audrey further into the woods. There was an odd pile of leaves stacked together in a rectangular shape. Werewolf Remus pointed his paw at it.

"Remus…what?" Audrey began, but then Remus purposely fell to the ground next to the bed and mimicked sleeping.

"Oh Merlin." She said, slapping her hand to her forehead. His paw latched onto her shirt and pulled her down to the ground. She landed in the leaves face down, Remus breathed heavily which sounded luck a chuckle.

"Jerk." Audrey muttered sarcastically, spitting out some leaves. Remus nudged her.

"Fine, fine!" She held her hands up in surrender. "I'll try!"

Even as a werewolf, Remus could be quite a nag, but he always meant well and for that I was grateful.

I slipped into sleep briefly, only to be woken by yells and flashes of light. It was always the same night, just different parts. I often dreamt about slipping in the blood, running away from Vladimir, and Vladimir slamming my head onto the floor and speaking to me.

Audrey woke with a start, sweating. She nearly jumped when she heard a whine to her left. Remus cocked his head, concerned.

"I told you…" She whispered, her eyes went blue for a moment. "It's been happening every night since I've gotten home."

The werewolf nodded.

What many do not understand, or do not choose to understand, is that werewolves are incredibly intelligent though they are seen as primitive and savage…which some are.

Remus extended his arm and wrapped it around Audrey tightly, pulling her into him. She rested her head on his chest and sighed.

"Another sleepless night for both of us, my friend."

The werewolf grunted in response.

A week after Remus left, I was home alone for the afternoon when I heard a noise. My parents had gone out to a colony two hours north, my mother was teaching a class and my father was repairing some of the cottages he had built for them.

Clunk.

I remember my heart thudding in my chest, I must admit I was quite paranoid.

Audrey crept out of her room and down the hallway quietly. In a split second, she lost her balance, screamed, and a canvas bag slipped over her.