Quidditch tryouts were on Sirius' birthday, and Sirius was absolutely livid about it.

"It's my birthday soon," Sirius grumbled to Remus one day while Peter was out watching James fly, "and Prongs is going to be gone all day. Do you remember Valencia?"

Remus nodded.

"She was training him yesterday, since she's such a good Beater. He had Divination and Muggle Studies yesterday, too. And you had tutoring, and then you were in the library working on that dumb werewolf project for Arithmancy. Peter watched James train, and I was all alone."

"You just need to find a couple more friends."

"I can't just find new friends at the drop of a hat, Lupin."

"Maybe you can join a club or something. Staying busy always helps me, anyway. Isn't there something you can do?"

"Prongs left me research to do," said Sirius. He pulled a face. "He knows I can't do research, though. Don't want to sit still for that long."

"Er… why would James leave you research?"

"We're sort of doing our own project, James and me. And Wormtail, but he's not helping much."

"What kind of project?" asked Remus. "Can I help?"

"Er, no." Sirius shook his head very quickly. "No, you can't. It's a three-person project, not a four-person project. Anyway. I don't want to do research. I just don't want to be alone."

"You can help me tutor Miles if you want."

"No. He's related to Giles Rosenblum, did you know?"

"You're related to Orion Black, and I don't hold it against you."

"My dad never killed anyone, Remus. It's different. Giles Rosenblum has done some really awful stuff. Once he cut a bloke in half. In half. While he was still alive!"

"While he was still alive? Surely he didn't survive that. Which direction did he cut—vertically or horizontally? Perhaps if he gave the bloke some sort of potion to keep him alive then it would work… but not for long. He would die as soon as Giles got to his head or heart or lungs or whatever… or even if he managed to cut a major artery. Bloke would just bleed out…."

Remus trailed off when he noticed that Sirius' hands were pressed tightly over his ears. "Stop that," Sirius ordered. "I'm gonna be sick. I know that you're comfortable with the macabre and all that, but I'm not."

"Oh," said Remus. "Sorry. My point is, Miles is no more a murderer than you are a Slytherin."

"Fine. Sheesh. You could've just said that; you didn't need to torture me or anything."

"Sorry."

"Look, I don't hold it against Miles, exactly, because I do know what it's like to be judged on the basis of my family. But he really does look like his brother, and seeing him reminds me of all the awful stuff I've read in the papers, and then I just feel... ill. I don't want to vomit on him is all."

"Fair enough, but I still think your solution is to find a friend. I'll spend every second that I can with you, if that helps. We'll do something fun."

"You don't know what fun is, Remus. We've already established this."

"Perhaps you and James could celebrate your birthday another day."

Sirius sighed and flopped backwards onto his bed. "You know what? I don't even know why I'm asking you about this. You've missed my birthday every single year, did you know? Full moons. You keep missing them. So you really can't talk, mate."

Remus' mouth fell open as he realized that Sirius was actually right. Remus had missed his birthday first year. Remus had missed his birthday second year. And now Remus was going to miss most of it again, because he had tutoring all day. Remus felt terrible. "I'm so sorry," he said.

"Nah, don't be. S'not your fault. It's just annoying."

"Your birthday is on a Saturday. We could go to Hogsmeade when I'm done with tutoring…."

"Don't worry about it. I'll do what you said. Find friends and all that. You'll be gone a week later, anyhow."

Remus felt his insides knot up at the thought. He'd only just got out of the Hospital Wing, and now the next full moon was nearly upon him. He tried not to think about it. "I'll make you a card," he said, "and buy you a present. And I know that James will, too."

Sirius scowled. "I said, don't worry about it."

"But…."

"It's only a birthday. I'll be fourteen, and that's not even really a big one."

"But…."

"Go away, Remus. I want to be alone."

Remus stood up, repositioned Bufo on his shoulder, and walked out of the room very slowly. "All right," he said, and then he dashed to the library to work on his Arithmancy project.

The morning of November third was weird. James was trying to celebrate Sirius' birthday, but he was grumpy and stressed about Quidditch tryouts. He'd already told everyone that he was going to be a Beater, so there was a lot at stake. Sirius was happy that it was his birthday, but he was also sullen because James and Remus would both be away all day. Miles, who was having trouble making friends, had asked Remus to spend most of the day with him, and Remus had agreed. Peter was trying to celebrate both Sirius' birthday and James' impending Quidditch success. He also seemed to be a little afraid of Sirius, who was glaring at everyone and everything.

The conflicting emotions resulted in a lot of sullen compliments, depressed celebrations, excited anxiety, and happy insults. It was a bundle of contradictions, and Remus did not like it one bit.

Eventually, James left for Quidditch tryouts, Peter left to watch James, and Remus left to meet up with Miles. "Happy birthday," he said to Sirius before he left. "Maybe we'll throw you a party tomorrow or something."

"Don't want one," said Sirius, crossing his arms.

Remus wanted to stay and celebrate with him, but he knew that there was nothing he could do, for James was the one whom Sirius really wanted to spend time with today. So Remus left for his tutoring session, and he was honestly a little bit happy to be leaving Sirius' confusing presence.

Remus honestly couldn't tell who was being the bad friend here—him, James, Sirius, or Peter. Perhaps they all were, a little bit.

He met up with Miles right on time at the owlery. "Remus!" panted Miles, who had obviously ran a long way. "I thought you weren't coming!"

"Pardon?" said Remus. "Why wouldn't I come? And why are you out of breath?"

"I ran… all the way… here." Miles planted his hands on his knees, panting. "I'm so tired. Give me a second."

Remus waited patiently while Miles caught his breath. While he was waiting, he noticed Max, who was in the corner of the tower. "Is Dilley here?" he asked. Dilley's scent wasn't there, so Remus wondered why Max was there without him.

"I… don't see… him," managed Miles, who was still panting.

"Yeah, me neither." Remus kept staring at Max. He seemed to be sniffing the underside of an owl's cage. Suddenly, he turned and stared directly at Remus. Remus hesitantly waved, even though he knew that Max was only a dog and could not wave back… but to his surprise, Max granted him a slight nod before resuming his sniffing. "The dog just nodded at me," said Remus, surprised.

"He's a very clever dog," said Miles. "Okay, I'm feeling a little better now. I ran here because I was running late, that's all. Some people in my dormitory stole my toothbrush, and I wasn't about to come before brushing my teeth."

Remus smiled, but he was slightly disturbed. "Stole your toothbrush? All in good fun, I presume?"

"Probably not," sighed Miles. "You've got to have heard about my brother, right? He left before I was born, and then he died, so I've never met him… but everyone's talking about it, aren't they? You've got to have heard."

"I heard," said Remus slowly. "But it doesn't bother me. It bothers your roommates?"

"Dunno if it really bothers them… but it's an excuse to tease me."

"Ah. I'm sorry."

"S'all right. Thanks for meeting up with me, by the way. I really have been having trouble making friends… I don't want to be clingy or anything, but you're really the only person who's been nice to me recently besides Mum. I just… wanted to be around someone who was nice, you know?"

"Perfectly understandable," said Remus with a slight smile. "I was rather clingy with my friends at first. Still am, sort of. We've only just had a bit of a row about that. They seem to be avoiding me for some reason—say they have some sort of project, but I don't know what it is."

"Oh, that's sad," said Miles. "Well, I have no other friends, so you can feel free to spend time with me whenever you'd like. We should do tutoring before anything else, though. Would you go through the latest chapters that we learned in History of Magic, please? They're ever so much more interesting when you explain them. Binns is so boring."

Remus laughed. "Yeah, I can do that. Do you want to do it here, or do you want to go to another room? I'm afraid I'm not quite up to doing anything outside. It's freezing."

"And so foggy," added Miles. "Here is fine."

Remus and Miles spent the next hour working on History of Magic, and then they switched over to Potions, Herbology, Defense, and Astronomy. Miles had quite the aptitude for Charms, Transfiguration, and Flying, a fact of which Remus was sort of jealous. He'd never been good at flying, and his own Transfiguration skills seemed to be getting worse and worse as the curriculum began to get harder. Just the other day his Baboon to Bubble transfiguration had ended in a very large chicken. McGonagall didn't even know how he'd gotten to that point, herself.

Another two hours passed. Remus glanced over at Max, who was still sniffing an owl cage in the corner. "I wonder what he's doing," said Remus. "Why hasn't he left?"

"Dunno," said Miles. "How is Dilley as a teacher for you? He's kinda boring in my class."

"He's an unremarkable Defense teacher, but he's not bad. I'm also in a sort of club for him. We did a scavenger hunt the first meeting, but now he just lectures us on different types of curses and how to break them."

"That sounds horrible."

"It's not so bad. All my friends are in it—well, everyone but Peter. And Hagrid. He's sort of my friend, too."

"You know Hagrid? The gamekeeper?"

"Yeah."

"Isn't he kind of scary?"

"…No…? He's really very nice, actually. Hey, you know what? We're finished doing schoolwork, right?"

Miles grinned and leaned back. "Yeah, I'm all burnt out."

"How about we go to visit Hagrid right now? He always likes visitors, and I haven't been over there in a while."

Now Miles jumped up with excitement. "Yeah! Mum doesn't much like half-breeds, and she keeps talking about how scary Hagrid can be, but if I'm with you, then…"

Remus' mouth fell open. Insulting werewolves was one thing, but insulting Hagrid was something completely different. "She what?" he exclaimed. "No! She can't say that! That's awful!" Remus was aware that he was probably overreacting, but he didn't really care. No one insulted Hagrid in front of Remus, especially for something that he couldn't even control. And no one called Hagrid a "half-breed" like it was nothing—like it wasn't supposed to be a secret. Remus didn't actually know if Hagrid wanted it kept a secret, but he supposed he did: after all, that's what Remus would want if he were in Hagrid's position.

"Did I say something offensive?" asked Miles, now concerned. "You look a little angry. I've never seen you angry before."

Typically, Remus would have taken deep breaths in through his nose and out through his mouth in order to calm himself, but he didn't really want to this time. "I am angry," he said. "Hagrid is perfectly sweet. He's never done anything to merit your mum's hatred. It's not as if he could control being born a little bit bigger than most people."

"A little bit bigger?" said Miles incredulously. "He's about three times my size!"

"He couldn't control it," said Remus stubbornly, "just like you couldn't control the family into which you were born."

Miles fell silent, and Remus winced. He really needed to watch his tongue.

But then Miles began to nod thoughtfully instead of flying into a rage. "Yeah, you're right," he said. "You're right. You're always right. Can we go see him?"

"Sure," said Remus, "but you have to be nice."

"Of course," said Miles eagerly. "Let's go."

So Remus took a deep breath, in through his nose, out through his mouth, and took refuge in the fact that Professor Craff, at least, was not nearly as bad as Professor Pensley had been the year before.

Remus and Miles sat at Hagrid's hut for about an hour, drinking Hagrid's disgusting tea and talking. Miles and Hagrid seemed to get on very well—and,0 sure enough, Hagrid was very happy to have company.

It was only as the visit was coming to a close that Remus remembered a couple of things.

He remembered how angry he had been with James when James had lost his temper at Professor Craff. He remembered how annoyed he'd been when James kept calling him out in the middle of class. He remembered thinking that James was an absolute, utter idiot for getting so angry over something that didn't even matter in the long run.

And then he remembered that he had just done the same thing to Hagrid. He'd gotten angry over something that wasn't his load to carry. He'd forcefully inserted himself into the situation. He'd been so angry at James because he didn't know how to handle it, but maybe Remus didn't know how to handle it, himself. Perhaps Hagrid wouldn't want someone defending him, not when he'd been dealing with prejudice for even longer than Remus had.

Remus suddenly felt very hypocritical, and he also realized that perhaps staying quiet in the face of injustice was a tiny bit harder than he'd originally thought.

"What should we do next?" asked Remus once they had left Hagrid's. "Something indoors, may I suggest?" They hadn't planned on going outdoors, so he was shivering quite violently. Miles seemed to be okay, but Remus was always more affected by the cold than others—his bones tended to get stiff and painful, and then there was the fact that Remus was skinnier than a rail.

"Let's visit my mum," said Miles. "She doesn't like you much, but I'm sure I can convince her otherwise. After all, she was wrong about Hagrid."

"No," said Remus. "No, we're not doing that."

"Yeah, that makes sense," said Miles with a giggle. "She's sometimes unpleasant, but she's really not as bad as she seems, I promise. She's quite nice when you get to know her. Tells the best stories. She sings really beautifully, too."

Remus didn't deign that with an answer. He wasn't sure what to say. "We could play a game," he said. "Do you know how to play chess?"

"Yeah!" said Miles. "Yeah, that'll be fun!"

Remus was a bit surprised by Miles' eagerness—after all, Remus' own friends never wanted to play something quiet and sedentary. "I must warn you that I am very bad at chess," he confessed.

Miles laughed. "Me, too."

"Then this will be a very interesting game indeed," said Remus.

They sat in the Great Hall together, playing wizarding chess, and Remus found that he and Miles were very evenly matched (which was a bit embarrassing, seeing as Miles was two years younger than him, but Remus would let it slide). It was actually rather fun. Next, they went on a walk around the castle, looking for vandalism scratched underneath the benches or onto the walls. Remus read some of it aloud in a funny voice, and Miles nearly died from laughter.

Remus noticed a little while later that Max seemed to be following them. No matter where they went, it seemed, Max was always plodding after them with a curious expression on his face.

Remus ignored it.

He returned to the dormitory in high spirits. "Sirius!" he said. "I dropped by Hogsmeade and picked up a present for you. I also brought a couple of Butterbeers—they were hard to carry back, but I managed to levitate them back to the castle without much of an issue."

Sirius was reclining on his bed, a happy expression on his face. "A present?" he said. "Really?"

Remus was a bit suspicious of Sirius' sudden change in attitude, actually, but he didn't let it show. "Mm-hm. Go you this. See, it's a strap for your camera, so that you don't accidentally drop it."

Sirius grinned. "That's great, Moony. Excellent. Absolutely brilliant. I thought you were dirt poor, though."

"I'm not that poor! Besides, Professor Questus left everything to us when he died, so we're a bit more… well-off than we were before."

"Cool," said Sirius. He took the camera strap and threaded it through his fingers, considering. "Yeah, this is great," he said again. "Really perfect. Thanks."

"You're welcome. Er… what have you been up to?"

Sirius grinned again and leaned back into his pillow. "Something amazing, but I shan't tell you until Prongs and Wormtail are back. Why don't you tell me about your little excursion with Miles Rosenblum?"

Remus didn't like the way that Sirius said Miles' name—his face scrunched up slightly in disgust like the name was a Cockroach Cluster that he'd eaten on a dare—but he didn't say anything. After all, it wasn't Remus' load to carry. Miles knew better how to deal with the stigma than Remus did, just as Remus knew better how to deal with his own than James did… right? "It was fun," Remus said. "We played chess. Did homework. Found some funny vandalism on the walls. Visited Hagrid."

"Ah," said Sirius. "What a thrilling afternoon."

"It was, thank you," said Remus, a bit miffed by Sirius' sarcastic tone. "Max kept following me, but I don't know why. That was weird."

"The dog?"

"Yeah."

"Maybe it's because it knows you're a werewolf. You're kind of a dog, too, on the full moon. Maybe it wants to sniff your rump or whatever."

Remus did not like that joke one bit, but he let it slide—after all, Sirius was in a good mood and he didn't want to ruin that. "Or maybe Max just wants to play fetch with me," he said. "Perhaps he's heard about how good I am at fetch from Fang."

"You've never played fetch with Fang."

"Fang always did strike me as the type to tell tall tales."

Sirius laughed. "Yeah, maybe. Hey, how are you feeling? Full moon's in a week."

Remus nearly toppled over in surprise. Sirius? Showing empathy? James was usually the type to coddle, not Sirius. Sirius really was in a good mood. "Erm, fine," Remus said. "Little tired, but I was out and about all day. I'll be okay."

"Don't you think you should write that down? For your project?"

Remus' eyes nearly bugged out of his head at that. "Yes! Wow, thanks, Sirius." Now that he thought about it, the way that he felt in the week leading up was very likely to have an effect on the severity of the full moon. "You're a genius."

"I know."

"Don't get too cocky."

"S'all right. Prongs is cocky enough for the both of us." Sirius yawned. "Wanna tell me about your project? You seem really excited about it."

Remus wasn't often one to be lured into chattiness, but now he did so excitedly. He explained all the possible benefits of succeeding at rapid-fire speed, and Sirius listened intently, even asking intelligent questions every once in a while and nodding his head to show that he was listening.

Remus had been having his doubts about Sirius, but he really was a good friend (when he was in a good mood, at least).

It wasn't until evening that James and Peter entered the common room, shivering, cheeks flushed, and laughing. "Tryouts went really well," said James. "Really, really well. I'd say I'm definitely a Beater next year!"

"Congratulations!" said Remus, and Sirius only grinned.

"Valencia said I did well, even. She was watching, too. And your friend Basil, Remus."

"He's not my friend," said Remus.

James cocked his head. "What do you mean? Of course he is. You two get on marvelously."

"But… I can't have more friends. I got lucky enough with you lot. The more people that I'm close to, the more people who are likely to find out what I am."

"You're close to Rosenblum," said Sirius. "Aren't you?"

"I… he's not my friend, either."

"Seems to me you just don't know what the word friend means," said James, frowning. "Anyway. Saffron was there, too—you know, Basil's sister. She did terribly. Definitely won't make the team this year, I'm afraid, but Basil cheered her on so loudly that he fainted. It's okay," said James, upon noticing Remus' horrified expression, "Valencia caught him."

"Oh," said Remus dumbly.

"Yeah. But it was fun!"

"Prongs did brilliantly!" said Peter, clapping his hands. "Oh, it was so amazing! You should have been there!"

"Rather glad I wasn't," drawled Sirius. "I bet I had a more successful afternoon than any of you."

"Oh, really?" said James.

"But of course, my dear Prongs. I… am no longer a bachelor."

There was a long silence.

"I don't think we have the same definition of that word," said Remus.

"What?"

"I define bachelor as someone who's never been married."

"You're married?" gasped James. He leaped forward and started ruffling Sirius' hair. "Why didn't you tell us, mate? We would have come to the wedding! Well, I s'pose I wouldn't have missed Quidditch for your wedding… but any other day!"

"What a feat," said Remus, wanting to join in, "Sirius Black, married at age fourteen. I can still hear the wedding bells."

"Kids on the way?" quipped Peter, and James dissolved into laughter.

"I don't think that you'll enjoy being a father, Padfoot," said Remus seriously. "Changing nappies and all that. I do hope you're prepared."

"What if your kid's in Slytherin?" asked James. "What will you do?"

"Kick him out?" said Remus. He tutted. "Really, Sirius. I expect you to be more tolerant."

"Kill him?" gasped James. "Sirius! That's illegal! No mind, I'll visit you in Azkaban…"

"But you must understand that you can't run from the law."

"And when you die after being killed by the Dementors…"

"We'll arrange your funeral…"

"And release a hundred balloons into the sky…"

"Which is honestly very hazardous to the environment."

"And then we'll bring you back to life through some Dark ritual!"

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Now that you've finished planning out the rest of my life, you dolts," he said, and the other Marauders sniggered, "I'll amend my previous statement. I s'pose I'm still a bachelor, but I'm not single."

"Gasp!" said James. He did not gasp, no; he actually said the word gasp. Typical James behavior. "Who is it?"

"Girl in Gryffindor—as if she could be in any other House! She's really cool."

"What's her name?" asked James.

"Charlotte."

There was a long moment of silence. James crossed his arms. "Charlotte…?"

"Yep, that's her name."

"No, I mean her surname."

"Oh." Sirius frowned. "I seem to have forgotten. We didn't talk for too long. I think… er, yeah. I think it's Davis."

"So is she Muggle-born?"

"No, of course not," said Sirius quickly. "Pureblood. Not Sacred Twenty-Eight, but more or less Pureblood."

"With a name like that? Nah, she's Muggle-born."

"Says James Potter, Pureblood extraordinaire. Pureblood kids can have mundane, Muggle names, too."

James yawned. "Sure. Yeah, sure. I bet she's not even that pretty."

"Oi, don't you dare say anything about my girlfriend," said Sirius.

Throughout the bickering, Remus sat there, stunned.

Sirius was in a relationship? Remus couldn't believe it; it was such an odd feeling. It felt like they were still little kids! Sirius was fourteen, so he supposed that he was certainly old enough for a girlfriend… but still! He was only a kid. They all were.

Remus suddenly realized that they were growing up—slowly but surely. In fact, he was nearly halfway done with Hogwarts.

He was nearly halfway done with Hogwarts?!

Where would he go? What would he do? Things were so uncertain after Hogwarts. He'd never see Madam Pomfrey or Professor Dumbledore or Professor McGonagall ever again. He'd already lost Professor Questus, and now he was about to lose everybody—everyone!—and, even if his friends did stick around to help him after full moons (which Remus still wasn't entirely sure he wanted), then things would be different. There would be no more adventures, or schoolwork with Peter or the Hogwarts library, or tutoring Miles, or watching James play Quidditch… unless he played professionally, in which case Remus would come to all his games….

No, he wouldn't, actually. Remus wouldn't come to James' games, because Remus was going to be a homeless, destitute werewolf. How could he ever hold down a job for more than a few months? He'd probably die at a young age, too. Remus' whole life could be already mostly over. That didn't even bother him as much as it should have—after all, it wasn't like there was anything to look forward to. Not after Hogwarts.

"You're getting that look in your eyes again, Remus," groaned Sirius. "You're getting all self-pitying again."

"I'm not!" Remus protested. "That's great, Sirius. Honestly. As long as you're happy."

"Oh, I am," said Sirius. He grinned. "Looks like I have someone new to spend all my time with, Prongs," he said, and James hit him with a pillow.

AN: Sorry this chapter is a bit late—I was busy last night!