Fun Fact: Zander loves to read fiction books and his favorite genre is Dystopian.


(Remus POV)

"Happy Birthday!" James, Sirius and Peter said in unison, but I was in way too much shock to utter a word.

They knew!

This was not good.

I was going to be expelled for sure!

I felt ill, like I was going to be sick all over our dormitory carpet. No one was supposed to know I was a werewolf. From the looks of it, it looked as though they had become unregistered animagi so that they could accompany me during the full moon, but I couldn't let them do that, it was far too dangerous. What if killed one of them, or worse… bit one of them.

"This is going to be so much fun!" James said, "think of the adventures!"

"As if we didn't already have enough with the mal and cloak!" Sirius grinned.

"Guys…" I said, my voice strained. They all looked so happy about this as they laughed and chatted, but I didn't find any of this amusing, not in the slightest, but seeing that I clearly wasn't sharing in their enthusiasm, James walked over and put an arm around me.

"Remus." My messy haired friend replied in a mock strained tone. If I didn't know better, I'd say he was making fun of me, but I did know better. I knew he was only trying to get me to hear how ridiculous I sounded, or at least to him.

"We should've told you what we were doing before." Sirius finally admitted and Peter nodded, "but we knew that would mean telling you that we knew about your 'Furry Little Problem' and we didn't want you to get all paranoid on us and start thinking we secretly hated you or some ballocks like that and then distance yourself from us."

I stared from him to James, then looking at Peter, I sighed. He had a point. If I'd known that they knew, especially in second and third year, I'd have flipped out and definitely would've tried to distance myself from them. Now though? I was five years in, too deep, and I loved these three boys like I'd never loved anyone else and I knew that if they'd become animagi for me, it must've taken a long time and loads of hard work. Only those who truly loved someone would go through all of that hard work for a werewolf.

Tears welled in my eyes and I suddenly gasped as I turned and pushed gently away from James to go sit on my bed and by the time I sat down, I was trying to wipe away the tears with very little success. I couldn't believe they actually didn't care. Were they secretly idiots? Did they not care about danger— that seemed the most likely answer, when James and Sirius sat on either side of me, while Peter sat on the bed in front of me and as if he'd read my mind, James set a hand on my back.

"We don't care about what you are, mate. We love you regardless. You're one of us, our fourth piece. Without you, the group would suck. Without Peter the group would suck and the same for Sirius and I." At his words, I only began to cry harder but now I was laughing too— I probably looked psycho. I knew I felt crazy, that's for sure.

"I don't deserve you guys." I gasped.

"No Mate." Peter said, "I think you're mixed up, I'd say it's that we don't deserve you."

"Yeah." Said James

"You're there for us through everything, sometimes I still can't believe we're lucky enough to have someone so cool in our group." Sirius added. "You help us with our homework, you keep us out of too much trouble, you were there for me last year when I really struggled with my parents…"

Looking up at my friends, I was still crying, but I was smiling now and the tears were ever so slowly drying up. How had I gotten so lucky to make friends like these guys? I didn't deserve them, because I was a monster. No matter what happened though, these guys were always here for me.

"I love you guys."

"I love you, too." Sirius said first with the others echoing the sentiment. As for how I was feeling, it was overwhelming, the affection I felt for my friends in that moment, and because of this love, I still worried for their safety. When I voiced my worries though, James grinned.

"We did loads of research on animagi." Sirius said first.

"Yeah, can you believe it? I actually got him to study!" We all laughed before Jamès continued. "Werewolves can't turn animagi and Sirius and I are large animals, so I'm not all too worried about you hurting us."

Now, my curiosity was outweighing my anxiety as I wondered as to what animals they were. Without warning, my friend had moved and in the blink of an eye, they were changing, turning into animals. Sirius was a great black dog— a more beautiful than I'd ever seen, James was a stag, and Peter a rat. Once turned completely, Sirius bounded over to me, jumped on top of me and as I laughed, he licked my face. "Ew! Sirius, get off me!" I laughed.

Once he was off, my friends returned from their animal form and grinned at me. "So?" James said.

"What?" I asked.

"Can we join you on the full moon?"

"We'll see." I said, though I knew in the end, I would allow them to join me. They'd make my time as a wolf so much more fun and knowing they loved me so much, it made me a little selfish with them.

Smiling at them as we all then decided to go get some dinner, I felt like the luckiest kid in the world.

(James POV)

"You are NOT going to sign up and sing to Lily in front of the entire school!?" Sirius seemed to think my idea was simply hilarious, but I was dead serious as I rolled my eyes at him.

"Why not? Xayla Darken got a hold of Lily's sister and she's the one that gave me the idea."

"Mate, you've never sung a day in your life."

"Well, I've got all year to practice."

Last year, since Hogwarts had an outstanding number of performing Arts kids attending the school, they had petitioned that this year, they be allowed to put on a talent show for kids to sign up for. There wouldn't be any winner or prize or anything, but it would be a way for the kids to show off their creativity and while I hadn't been planning on signing up at first, I'd since changed my mind.

Sirius groaned, "Mate, you're obsessed."

"No, I'm in love."

"Whatever you say, mate."

"I'm still going to sing to Lily."

"So, committing social suicide?"

I shook my head. "I'm going to take lessons from Mrs. Swan." I was sure if I trained all year, I'd be at least half decent at singing a song at the talent show that would make Lily see how much I care about her.

My best friend groaned, "My God, this is it. The end of all ends. Snivellus is going to destroy you, mate."

"Or maybe it'll be another thing he's jealous of." I had confidence that I could pull this off, especially since I had motivation.

"What's going on?" I looked over and grinned at Remus and Peter, who'd come up, but Sirius only groaned again.

"Social Suicide."

"What?"

"I've been trying to think of a really clever way to ask Lily out—"

"Again? Mate, how many rejections will it take?"

"First off, I haven't asked her out in ages and second, we're friends now, and actually, for Third, I'll have all year to just hang out and get to know her even more, so I think it'll be different this time 'round."

"If it's not?"

"Then I guess it's not meant to be."

"Dang, so what are you going to do?"

I pointed at the signup sheet behind me as I continued my story. "Anyway, so I've been trying to think of a way of asking Lily out and Padfoot did some digging with me and we found out she's got two sisters. Her oldest one is married to someone who's got a sister here, so I got her to help me get in contact with her and she said that I should do something big like this. It would prove to her that she's more important than any social status or whatever. We talked for like four hours about it.

"Wow, you really are committing social suicide."

I huffed in annoyance. "You guys have no faith in me, what say you, wormtail? You got faith in me?"

"W-well, James… I mean… wh-what I-if s-sh-she s-says no…"

"URGH!" I threw my hands up and turned away, but laughing, Sirius grabbed me by the wrist.

"Alright! Fine, I'll be supportive, just don't be a little baby when we laugh at you."

"If Lily and I get married, you have to give me ten galleons."

"Better yet, if you two get married. I'll buy you a new broom."

We shook on it as Remus laughed and shook his head at us. "You guys are ridiculous."

"No, Remus." I said. "Boggarts are Riddikulus!"

We all snickered at the dad joke as we turned to head outside, where we would be hanging out for the afternoon. "Prongsie's dad did nothing but tell epic dad jokes this summer." I informed Remus.

"I heard you went to live with the Potters." Peter said and Sirius scowled suddenly.

"Yeah, I left home back in June, but I don't wanna talk about it."

"Okay." Peter said. I nudged my friend and pointed to the squid.

"Let's go play catch with him." Sirius nodded, his bad mood leaving as quick as it had come. I had promised him last summer that not only could he live at our house, because he was literally my brother, but we'd promised never to mention his family ever again if we could avoid it, so whenever the topic came up, I made it my job to make sure that my brothers mind was taken off the topic before he could start spiraling.

As the year went on and the seasons changed, Sirius, Remus, Peter and I went on all sorts of adventures together. I even got to hang out a lot with Lily and every time I made her laugh or smile, every single time I saw those sparkling green eyes look at me, I knew that no matter what, I was going to ask her out in that talent show.

Other fun stuff I did was play Quidditch, prank Snivey, — Lily had no idea of course, though it really wasn't that often — played games and most importantly, I prepared for the talent show, going to meet with Mrs. Swan four times a week, before classes, so that she could help me train and tune my voice.

It would be in March when the talent show would happen and by morning of that day, I felt more prepared then I did anything else, even my exams.

"You got this, Prongs." Remus patted my back as I prepared to go on and I nodded, now absolutely wrecked with nerves. How had I been so confident back in September?! I was going to lose any respect I had at the school and what if Wormtail had been right? What if Lily said no? This really was social suicide! I peaked out and cringed back when I saw the faces of everyone watching the current performer.

Great, the whole school had shown up!

The Great Hall had been transformed into a Performing arts center, with all the kids sitting at the house tables and the teachers table having been removed to make room for a stage. Those who would be singing without a band had to submit their songs ages ago, so the instruments could be charmed to play the correct tune.

Applause, then silence suddenly filled the air and I knew that the previous person was done and next was my turn. I took several deep breaths and giving Sirius, Remus and Peter a quick side hug each, they hurried off to go watch me from the crowd.

"Everyone, please welcome James Potter to the stage!"

I ran out from behind the curtain and waved to everyone, that signature grin of mine stuck on my face as the music started. If I just kept smiling, I'd be just fine..? Right!

I looked in the crowd for Lily as I used my wand to magnify my voice and just as I started singing, I found her in the crowd and kept my eyes trained right on her.

"I've never been good with words

Well at least not the sweet kind

Somehow when she's around

It's like I just lose my mind

And I know, I know

I should just leave it alone

But I won't, I won't

I keep getting in my way

And my friends say I'm crazy

A girl like that

Would never go for a guy like me

And I know, I know

That I should listen to them

But I won't, I won't, I won't!"

Lily's beautiful green eyes locked with mine and as I sang to her, I knew I'd made the right decision. In those green eyes, I saw it all. All the possibilities of dating her, of loving her, of marrying her. In her eyes, I saw us growing old together and raising as many children as we wanted together. I loved Lily Evans like I would never love anyone else.

"And uh oh, uh oh I get that feeling

And I don't know, don't know

How she keeps stealing

All the air from my lungs

And leaving all the words

Stuck on my tongue

It's like I'm not even here

Ran me over as she walked by

Dust off my clumsy words

And bad pick up lines

And I know, I know

That I can't leave her alone

And I won't, I won't

I try to work up the nerve

Hope to God I don't stutter

My thrown together letters

Never end up as words

And I know, I know

That I should leave it alone

But I won't, I won't, I won't"

All the students were cheering and screaming and as I heard them, I continued on, my heart swelling with joy, still not taking my eyes off of Lily though, I continued to belt lyrics like I'd been singing my whole life.

"And uh oh, uh oh I get that feeling

And I don't know, don't know

How she keeps stealing

All the air from my lungs

And leaving all the words

Stuck on my tongue

All I can say is uh oh, uh oh

I get that feeling

And I don't know, don't know

How she keeps stealing

All the air from my lungs

And leaving all the words

Stuck on my tongue

And I know that she's

So out of my league

But I just can't stop

I keep thinking,

'Just wait and see

She's gonna notice me.'

Yeah I know that she's

So out of my league

But I just can't stop

I keep thinking,

'Just wait and see

She's gonna notice me.'

And uh oh, uh oh I get that feeling

And I don't know, don't know

How she keeps stealing

All the air from my lungs

And leaving all the words

Stuck on my tongue

All I can say is uh oh, uh oh

I get that feeling

And I don't know, don't know

How she keeps stealing

All the air from my lungs

And leaving all the words

Stuck on my tongue

All I can say is uh oh, uh oh

I get that feeling

And I don't know, don't know

How she keeps stealing

All the air from my lungs

And leaving all the words

Stuck on my tongue

She's stealing all the air from my lungs

And leaving every word stuck on my tongue

I've never been good with words

Well, at least not the sweet kind"

As the song ended, the room was going absolutely mad and Lily, she was staring at me with a look of shock and joy, but there was something else there that made my heart flutter and jump as I turned and walked off the stage to the screams and cheers of my classmates. Sirius had said and I had been fearful that this would be social suicide, but if I was being honest, I think everyone respected me more now.

Everyone would know the balls it would take to get up on stage and sing to a girl who'd done nothing but reject you over and over again, but now, as I joined my classmates and passed Lily, she stopped me, took my hand, and pulled me down to meet her lips as she kissed me.

(Sirius POV)

Just over three weeks had passed since James managed to do the impossible and not only avoid Social Suicide, but also win Lily over. During this time, they'd spend so many hours together, that I often teased James that he was replacing me, even though I knew that was impossible.

Today though, while Lily and James were in a meeting with the Prefects, I wandered the school halls and waited, so James and I could go out and have some fun later this evening. Despite it being the full moon, Remus had been really sick lately, so he'd told us that he'd probably just spend tonight in the shack and sleep, so with no adventures in the forbidden forest, James and I had decided we'd go have some fun in Hogsmeade.

I passed by the Hospital wing and smiled a little when I saw Madam Pomfrey taking Remus outside. She often took care of him the afternoon before a transformation, then went and retrieved him afterwards. It was when I saw something move around a corner nearby that my smile dropped and I pulled out my wand.

"Come on Snivellus, when are you going to learn that spying gets you nowhere you little creep." I casually waved my wand to try and flip him, but he was too fast and pulling out his own wand, blocked my spell, then pointed it at my chest.

"Why's Lupin always going off with Madam Pomfrey."

"Oh, it's a very spicy affair." I winked at him, "Didn't ya know, ole Poppy and him, they go way back." I laughed as Snape looked at me with utmost disgust on his face.

"I'll find out what it is eventually and when I do, you four will be out of here."

"Why? So you can continue to stalk and obsess over poor Lily? News flash, she hates you Snivey, go stalk some other—" I blocked as he threw a spell at me and I laughed, though his face was red with rage.

"Okay, fine. You wanna know what it is?"

"How can I believe you?"

I grinned, an evil grin, "You'll just have to trust me Sweet Summer Child, Snivellus Slytherus." He glared daggers at me, so I continued on, "okay, so if you wait about an hour, then go down and use a stick, you can press the knot at the base of the tree. It will stop moving and you'll be able to get to the trunk, we're there's a passageway."

Snape looked very skeptical. "What's it lead to?"

I smirked, "Guess you'll have to find out for yourself." Turning, I acted like I was going to walk away, then turning quickly, I threw a spell that threw Snivellus off his feet, then turning away I left, saying as I went, "Sorry, had to watch my back."

I made my way back to Gryffindor tower and waited for a bit, until eventually, James showed up and sitting next to me, he told me all about the meeting and some of the prefects were making sex jokes and then I congratulated him, when he said that he and Lily had been picked for Head Boy and Head Girl next year.

When he was finally done, I laughed as I said, "I've got something funnier."

"Oh yeah?" He grinned, but as I laughed and told him about my encounter with Snape, his grin slowly faded into a look of absolute horror. "Sirius! What the BLOODY HELL!" He was on his feet and heading for the door before I could say a word.

"What?!" I followed after him, confused and alarmed by his reaction.

"ARE YOU FREAKING MENTAL!?" We were standing just inside the common room now. "YOU COULD GET HIM KILLED OR TURNED AND WHAT OF REMUS, HUH? HE COULD GET EXPELLED!" My heart sank as James angry words sank in and before I could say anything, James was out the portrait hole and running as fast as he could toward the front doors.

I followed after him, but James beat me to the willow by about three minutes and just as I arrived, I saw James entering, screaming for someone— presumably Snape, to stop. When he didn't though, James went down after him in human form. I wanted to go in, but not wanting to clog up the narrow passageway, I waited as Snape was dragged out, screaming by James, who was also screaming.

After that night, James told Remus what happened and neither of them spoke to me for an entire month, even when we stood in Dumbledore's office and he swore Snape to secrecy, James didn't even look at me and it hurt more than anything.

From that moment on, I promised myself that if my friends forgave me, I would never, ever do anything that would ever hurt or put any of them in any sort of jeopardy ever again. From that moment, I wasn't perfect, but by far, I had begun striving to grow and be a better person from that experience.