After being so gracefully shoved into the realization that I fancied not just one boy, but two – that just happen to be twin brothers, mind you – I just could not find it in me to behave normally. My usual confidence basically scattered in every direction, and every ounce of my awkwardness came forth. To put it simply, I felt like an absolute idiot there in the middle of my friends, so I stayed quiet for a while. Almost an hour after everyone had joined Harper and me by the fireplace, the twins had decided that Lee's drunkenness had gone on enough. They eloquently excused themselves with a blunt comment of, "We'll be back after tossing this idiot in his bed for the night." To be honest, I was thrilled at the loss of their presence, even if only for a moment, so that I could attempt to gather what remained of my pride from wherever it had hidden.

Harper had noticed my strange behavior immediately, so once the group slightly dispersed – Ange, Alicia, and Oliver were talking amongst themselves about the match – she moved closer to my side, tossing her hand to the side nonchalantly. I looked at her curiously, wondering what that was about.

"Silence bauble," She informed me then I glanced at the coffee table beside us to see a small, teardrop-shaped bauble lying beside a book. "A more inconspicuous way of silencin', but that's not the point. You are so beyond obvious now, girl!"

I ran a hand through the end of my ponytail, sighing. "I can't help it, Harper, I really can't! I just- I've never been good around people I fancy. I get all stupid."

She snorted at my last comment. "It gets more awkward than 'lil miss sit 'n stare?"

"Yes, actually." I couldn't help but roll my eyes at her. "I think I'm going to go to bed. Are you alright for the night?"

Again, she snorted at me. "Darlin' I got this."

At her word, I stood from the couch and bid the other three goodnight as Harper picked up her bauble. I had used the excuse that the party had just gotten to be too loud for me, which wasn't a false statement, before trying my best not to rush up to my dorm.

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The next few days were actually making my new situation worse. I found myself avoiding the twins at all costs, even avoiding Harper and Ginny at points. It got to a certain point where I just felt so uncomfortable with everyone. My thoughts were a whirlwind of everything going on: awkward and shy every time I even so much as saw the twins, embarrassed and frustrated at my two friends that knew about the situation since they kept teasing me about it – like they thought it was helping or something – thus my avoidance of them, depression from the fact that I still felt that I couldn't even let myself have romantic feelings since I didn't know if I was a creature that could hurt someone else, anxiety over the exams that were steadily looming over me, fear of the whole Sirius Black thing. I ended up finding myself hiding away in Remus' office most days, helping him grade papers. Which is exactly where I happened to be tonight. I knew Remus was suspicious of my behavior, but I couldn't find it in me to care.

The sudden noise of a chair being pushed back across the stone floor brought me back to reality, my eyes snapping up to see Remus sigh while pinching the bridge of his nose, his eyes closed yet bunched up in frustration at the corners. When he finally spoke, it was only what I had been expecting to hear for a few days now.

"Not that I don't enjoy your company, Deliah," He let his hand slide slowly down his tired face, before falling to the armrest of his chair. "but I do have to wonder why you are down here grading papers with me when you are normally somewhere with your friends or studying?"

I sighed, looking back down at the papers. I didn't know how to answer him. I surely couldn't talk about boys with him, so I decided on a partial lie. "I just needed a break from all the studying. I've also had trouble controlling my senses since I've been so busy, so I needed to just be in the quiet." I unconsciously pulled a tiny bit of my bottom lip in between my teeth, nervously but lightly chewing on it.

Remus' gaze remained on me for a moment or two longer, then he nodded. "I understand, but you shouldn't just hole yourself away for the rest of the time before exams. Maybe it would help if you met up with one of your classmates somewhere quieter than the common room, or even away from the library."

"Are you trying to get rid of me, Remus?" I gasped with faked offense, trying to lead the subject away from why I was here.

He chuckled and leaned forwards, propping his arms on the desk in front of him. "I didn't say that Deliah, honestly. You are more than welcome to spend time with boring, old me. I just hate to be part of the reason why you are missing out on time with your friends." He got a far-off look in his eyes suddenly. "You never know how long you'll get with them."

My head quirked to the side a little, then I remembered. My heart instantly hurt for him, knowing all too well what had happened with his friends. I smiled at him sadly. "I'll see about it Remus, I promise, but tonight I plan on helping you finish up with this."

The only response I received was a tired grin before he went back to his work. I sighed, thankful that the investigation on me had been avoided, and got back to grading along with him.

An hour later I found myself on my way back to Gryffindor Tower, shuffling my feet as I went. I needed to at least talk to Ginny and Harper, if only to explain why I had been avoiding them. What I hadn't expected as I shuffled along, was to be suddenly dragged off into a dark alcove along the side of the hall as I neared the portrait of the fat lady.

"Where have you been hiding away at, missy?!"

I blinked a few times, trying to get my eyes to adjust to the dim lighting, only to see Harper giving me a slightly threatening glare, and couldn't help but feel worse about avoiding her. "I…Well, you see…"

She huffed, putting her hands on her hips while leaning forward towards me a bit. "Would ya just spit it out already?"

Rolling my eyes, I decided for the truth, it's always the best option with Harper anyway. "I got bloody tired of you and Ginny teasing me. I do have to say that I think I understand why you two were doing so, but I am not used to handling having any romantic feelings. I'm hardly used to people in general! It's all a lot, and I feel like being made fun of is too much at the moment."

"Oh." Harper's hands slid from her hips only to meet in front of her as she fiddled with her fingers awkwardly. "Why didn't you say somethin'? We would'a stopped."

"I did though, and you two didn't seem to notice." I sighed. "I've said stop, but thinking back now, I guess I should have been more clear with how much it was bothering me, though."

She laughed lightly, pulling a hand through her hair sheepishly. "Well...now I know, and once we get back to the common room, we tell Ginny, and us two bone-heads will stop!" At that, she gathered me up into a massive hug, squeezing me tightly.

All I could do was shake my head at her light-hearted behavior, thankful that things were back to normal. We quickly walked the rest of the way to the portrait, with Harper filling me in on random details over the time I had missed. Explaining my avoidance to Ginny was almost the same scenario as with Harper. She took it wonderfully and agreed to ease on the teasing – though she didn't make any promises that she wouldn't still give me funny looks. I couldn't help but laugh, agreeing that if it was the best she could do, I would tolerate it.

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The next morning felt so wonderfully like normal, and I was loving it. Wake up, get dressed, drag Harper out of bed with bribes of food, then head down for breakfast. It was only as we sat down at the Gryffindor table that my good morning was ruined. Professor McGonagall seemed to materialize from thin air behind us, sliding papers onto the empty space on the table between our plates. These papers could only be one thing.

"Oh, Merlin," I gaped down at the now dreaded paper, my heart hammering in my chest. "I had forgotten that exams start next week!"

The next thing I know, I see Harper's plate being gently shoved forward, then hear a solid thud as her forehead connected with the wooden tabletop. A sputtered laugh escaped my lips as I reached over to pat her back comfortingly.

The entire weekend was almost completely silent through every hall, common room, and even the library. The only sounds that could be heard were quiet mumbling between study groups, the scratching of quill tips as students wrote notes, the fluttering sounds of pages as they were turned, tired sighs that broke the semi-silence here and there, and every now and then one could hear the tinkling of the top being placed back onto a now empty ink bottle so that it could be replaced with a full one. Even mealtime was a quiet affair, as the older students took every opportunity to study for their OWLs or NEWTs. I found myself feeling a bit of empathy for stuffy Percy, as he sat in the common room at night, his curly hair sticking up at odd angles, ink splotches staining both his hands and his face in a few places, while he wrote notes at a furious pace.

At around two in the morning on Sunday – well…technically it was Monday now – Harper decided that it was beyond time for bed.

"That's it!" She bellowed, making our dorm-mates jump, frantically looking around before looking at her. "This is entirely too much! If we keep this up, we won't be awake to even take the damn tests!" I chuckled as I watched her dramatically fall backward onto her pillow.

This time it was Angelina that spoke up, "She's right. We really shouldn't have stayed up this late. Does anyone have Pepper-Up potions for the morning?"

Alicia shook her head. "No, I had one for emergencies, but I used it a few weeks ago."

I hummed thoughtfully, leaning over to look in the cabinet portion of my bedside table. "I have two, but I'm sure that Madame Pomfrey wouldn't mind giving out a couple before breakfast."

"Yeah," Ange nodded as she picked up her papers and books, depositing them in a semi-neat pile beside her bed. "It's likely she'll have a stockpile of them ready for the week." At this we all laughed, knowing she was probably right. Shortly after that, we all fell into a light, restless sleep.

The sun seemed to have risen faster than ever since even Ryker didn't seem to want to wake himself up much less bother us. Angelina and Alicia had agreed that they would head to Madame Pomfrey to get the Pepper-Up potions for themselves, while Harper and I would have the two that I had saved. After swallowing the minty-tasting liquid, I felt as if I had slept for a whole day.

Harper sighed in relief after drinking her potion. "Thanks to whoever invented that stuff. Now, what do we have to deal with today?" She started tossing papers around on her bedside table. Finally, she pulled her schedule from the mess, scanning it for a moment. "We have Charms today, Transfiguration tomorrow, then Herbology and Defense. Friday is free, thank goodness."

Nodding along as she listed classes, I picked up my schedule, looking it over as well. "Then next week will be Potions, Care, Astronomy-"

"Divination as well, for me," Harper added as she pulled her uniform skirt on.

I rolled my eyes. "I have no clue why you're taking that class, but at least the two exams are at separate times during the day. Back to the schedule: Thursday will be History, and finally Muggle Studies."

"Easy pass!" My lovely best friend sang, dancing around as she tried to pull her sock on, when suddenly she lost her balance, falling to the floor.

I burst out laughing, "You are one of a kind, Harper, honestly."

She grinned at me from where she lay on the floor, finally sliding her sock on. "And you wouldn't have me any other way, darlin'."

After helping Harper off the floor, and finishing getting dressed, we both made our way down through the common room and through the halls to the Great Hall. Ginny greeted us as we neared her, walking alongside the Gryffindor table, then went back to talking with a boy – I believe his name was… Dean or something. I also happened to notice Keegan sitting a few feet away on the other side of the table, looking over at Dean sullenly. I decided to keep this bit of information in mind for later. The two of us sat further down the table, discussing Charms a bit before we were submitted to the exam, when we were suddenly joined by a certain two redhead boys with their dreaded friend between them, seating themselves across from us.

"Well, it seems almost all is right with the world again, mates, Delly has graced us with her presence again!" Lee cheered, piling food onto his plate.

He seemed to be the only one in a cheerful mood, however. The twins immediately served themselves food, then proceeded to ignore the rest of us. Fred seemed to be trying to glare a hole in his plate, stabbing at his food viciously, while George was just pushing his food around his plate, with an equally burning glare. I couldn't help but be confused at this strangeness. The twins were almost always chattering with each other about some prank idea or something similar.

I looked at Harper with confusion but she just shrugged. Next, my gaze met Lee's before glancing at the two on either side of him. He took a deep breath, then sighed. "It's a long, complicated story, Delly. I'm not sure if I'm the right one to tell you about it, either. It's best if you ignore them, though because they'll be like this all day."

"All day?" I couldn't believe the way they were acting. This wasn't them, and I certainly didn't like it. I felt compelled to do something to change this, but what could I do?

The exams filled up literally every second of each day. If we weren't taking the day's exam, then we were studying in the other classes. I honestly felt as if my brain would burst with all the information being crammed into it. With all of the studying going on, I could hardly focus enough on how to fix whatever it was that was going on with George and Fred. Before I knew it, the first week of exams had passed, and we had started on the second week. Potions was stressful, but I was pretty confident with how I did. Care, however, was the most interesting. We were meant to identify a Knarl hidden among a dozen hedgehogs, demonstrate correct handling of a Bowtruckle, feed and clean a Fire Crab without sustaining serious burns, and choose from a wide selection of food the diet one would give a sick Unicorn. Sadly, we ended up only handling bowtruckles, which was easy enough, but Hagrid looked completely defeated. I had tried to cheer him up, but with the hippogriff, Buckbeak, being scheduled for execution in two days, I didn't think there was much that could help his mood. As soon as I had finished the exam in his class, I rushed to Remus's office, leaving him a note that requested some chocolate bars to give to Hagrid, then rushed off to my next class.

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Thursday's History of Magic exam felt as if it lasted the entire length of the day, but once it was finally over late afternoon, I was so ready to just collapse into my bed. Poor Harper didn't look much better off than I did. She shuffled along the corridor beside me, her hands in her pockets, blankly staring ahead as we moved along. Thankfully, dinner was seeming more and more appealing the closer we walked to the Great Hall.

"I know that food sounds good, Dels," Harper mumbled, still looking only half-alive while she shuffled along. "but honestly, I'm just so tired! I think I'll just go up to the dorm an' rest." She looked over at me with a small grin. "Bring me some pumpkin juice and pasties, if you can. I might need a midnight snack."

I grinned at her and nodded, "Alright, alright. Go get some rest, I'll be up after dinner."

On that note, we split, her heading upstairs while I headed straight on into the Great Hall. The first thing I noticed as my eyes wandered over the hall was how absolutely worn-down Remus looked, and that was when I remembered that tonight was a full moon night. 'Damn, I didn't get him any chocolates for this full moon. Maybe I have some in the dorm room. I need to get that to him beforehand because he looks terrible this moon.' I grabbed a few bits of food for myself and Harper, wrapped it up in a napkin, then rushed out of the hall, oblivious of the two pairs of eyes on me.

The Fat Lady seemed a bit surprised by my appearance, but once given the password she opened to let me pass. I practically ran up the stairs and into my room. I quickly noticed that Harper had already made it to bed and was sleeping soundly, so I tried to be quiet with the food, grabbing the little bit of chocolate I had left and rushing back out.

The way towards Remus' office was met with the majority of the students headed back to their own common rooms, which I was thankful to have avoided any tripping accidents as I made my way down, hoping that Remus would be in his office still.

I bounded to his office door, knocking a few times once I noticed it was locked, but received no response on the other side. "Remus, honestly, it's me! I know you're in there!" I called, hoping he would respond.

I heard the lock quietly click, so I slowly opened the door. Peering into the sunset-lit room, I saw my adoptive father slouched in his desk chair, his head in his hands while his elbows rested on his desk. I carefully closed the door, and quietly walked over to his desk. The closer I got to his desk, the deeper my frown stretched. He looked almost lifeless as he sat there, the only sign of life was the smallest shift of his back as he breathed in and out.

Gently, I sat the chocolates on his desk between his elbows. "I know, I normally leave it after, but," I paused, as he shifted a little, his right hand sliding away from his face and his tired eyes meeting my own, "you looked a little worse for wear this time. I thought maybe you'd need some now, and…well, that's all I have."

A soft chuckle sounded in the silent room, as Remus finally sat up. "You always take such good care of me, Deliah."

I shrugged nonchalantly. "If I didn't you would never have enough chocolates."

"Let me get some tea for us since I believe you're going to stay until I have to leave." He sighed with a small smile, waving his wand to accio a couple of teacups. "Still enjoy peppermint tea?"

"Of course." I couldn't help but roll my eyes at him acting like he didn't know what tea I like.

He mumbled an aguamenti, a short incendio long enough to get the water to boil, then added tea bags. When he finished with that, he turned to me with a long sigh, "So, how do you feel you did on your exams?"

I hummed thoughtfully, sinking down into one of the chairs across from him. "I'm really not sure. They were very tough, and I most likely over-loaded my mind while studying, I actually forgot some things due to the amount that I made myself memorize. That aside, I feel decent. Poor Hagrid, though, it was almost like he wasn't even there."

Remus nodded, "Yes, the hippogriff was set for appeal today wasn't it? I do hope things went well, but with Lucious Malfoy being the one that started the issue, I doubt it will go well at all."

I couldn't help but agree. The Malfoy's seemed so self-centered and so very cruel. How could people just be that way? How is blood status even a big fuss anymore? Sighing again, I picked up the tea, taking a test sip. The warm liquid soothed away the stress of the past couple of weeks as it flowed along my throat, so now I took a larger drink.

"You know," I started, then paused thinking about what I was going to say carefully. I could see that I had Remus' attention, so taking a deep breath, I continued. "I've been wondering about my…erm…inheritance, I guess."

Remus tensed, looking away to the window to his left. "What do you mean?"

"Remus, I know you want to avoid this, but in a year or so I'm going to know either way." Taking another sip of my tea to try to calm my nerves, I continued, "I know how difficult life is for people like us. I see it every day with you, and it breaks my heart. I can't go into my seventeenth or eighteenth birthday without a clue. I have to know how I will have to handle myself so that I can have as normal a life as possible. If…well, if I'm dangerous, I need to know so that I won't build any closer relationships than I have at the moment."

I noticed his jaw clench and unclench many times as I spoke, his eyes hardening as he stared out at the area of the grounds beyond his window. After an uncomfortably long silence, Remus finally let out a deep sigh, showing the signs of just how tired he was, not just from his Lycanthropy – though it surely added to his fatigue.

"Deliah, I…" He turned to me, finally tearing his eyes from the darkening window. "I wish that you could wait, at least until you're closer to age." His tired eyes turned to pleading as he gazed into my own. "Can't you do that? If only so you can, as you said, live as normal a life as possible for a little while longer."

I literally could not fight him while he was looking at me like that. The pain carried in those eyes and the fact that he was pleading with me to not ask anymore… I couldn't fight it. I nodded slowly to acknowledge that I would leave it be. The relief that spread across his whole body was clearly visible, that is until he looked out of the window again. He tensed before sighing deeply.

"I'm afraid I have to cut this short, Deliah. It's getting too close to dark, I need to head to the area that Dumbledore has set up for me…away from the school." He looked at me again, tired and broken yet still trying to put on a smile. "Please don't follow me. If you want, since it's late, you can stay here, my room is through the door behind me."

At that, Remus stood and made his way around his desk, pausing to lean over and gently kiss the top of my head, his hand resting on my shoulder. When he moved past me, I couldn't help but notice his untouched tea sitting on the desk, along with the chocolates he hadn't touched either. As he walked out the door, he turned back to me. "For what it's worth, Deliah," I quirked my head to the side while looking back at him as he paused again. "I will always love you, no matter what blood runs in your veins."

Tears welled up in my eyes as I smiled at him. "Same here, Remmy."

.

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**edited**

*This end chapter still means a lot to me, even if it is a bit wonky. My dad had passed a week before I first posted it, and that last moment between Remus and Deliah helped a lot.*