Regulus stole through the silent dungeon hallways, moving swiftly and keeping his ears open for any sounds. He'd thought he heard laughter a few moments ago, but when he'd peered around the corner, there was no one there. It may have been his imagination playing tricks on him in the darkness, but more likely it was other students who wanted to remain as unnoticed as he did, and he had no desire to search for them when they'd done him the courtesy of hiding while he passed by.

When he reached the stairs, he let out an irritated sigh before beginning the climb. Why Professor Dumbledore had insisted on meeting in the middle of the night was beyond him. He understood the need to take precautions, so the other members of the Voldemort Youth movement didn't discover he was reporting their activities to the Headmaster, but going to such an extreme seemed a little ridiculous to him.

He had to pause multiple times on the climb to the seventh floor, taking refuge in the closest alcove while he waited to regain enough energy to continue. He wasn't out of breath from the exertion; it was a more general feeling of exhaustion. Probably because it was two o'clock in the morning and he was supposed to be sleeping, he thought, intentionally ignoring the fact that he felt just as tired during the day, and also pretending he wasn't keeping hold of the bannister in case he was hit with a random dizzy spell. No, he was just conscious of proper staircase safety, that was all.

'Bonbon,' Regulus said to the Gargoyle statue, stepping onto the moving staircase when the statue slid to the side. Merlin only knows what the hell a bonbon was. Actually, Merlin probably didn't know because it was more than likely another muggle sweet, so Merlin would be just as clueless about them as Regulus was. Somehow, that was a comforting thought.

'Good evening, Mister Black,' Professor Dumbledore said when he pushed the door open. 'Or should that be good morning?'

Regulus fought the urge to roll his eyes. 'Good evening will suffice. I still intend to sleep before morning.'

Professor Dumbledore chuckled. 'As do I. Have a seat and we can get this done quickly so we both may retire.'

'Thank you, sir.' Regulus took his usual seat opposite the Headmaster and clasped his hands in his lap. 'There has been quite a stark change in the message being pushed by the youth movement since we last spoke.'

'I thought there might have been,' Professor Dumbledore said, 'considering the change in Lord Voldemort's reputation.'

'Your doing?'

'Perhaps.' Dumbledore's response was non-committal, but there was a twinkle in his eyes that gave him away.

'It was quite the spectacle from what I've heard.'

'When you want something to make it into the papers, a spectacle is often required.'

Regulus hummed. 'I wouldn't know. My family prefers their activities remain out of the papers.'

'Most people do,' Dumbledore agreed with a chuckle. 'Tell me, is the movement aware of what happened in Hogsmeade a few days ago?'

'I haven't heard anything,' Regulus said. 'What happened?'

'Lord Voldemort attacked the village, hoping to break into the school. His attempt failed and he and his followers were forced to flee.'

'Doesn't seem like the sort of thing he'd want to broadcast,' Regulus said. 'Perhaps he's keeping it quiet.'

'It would seem so. What is the new message being spread among the students?'

Regulus shrugged. 'Pureblood supremacy and muggle-born inferiority. It's not really anything new, but there's more of an energy behind it now. I've heard some of the more vocal students, Mulciber and his friends mostly, bragging about picking on muggleborns during the last few days.'

'Mulciber's father is close to Lord Voldemort. They were friends at school. Well, as close to a friend as Voldemort ever had.'

'You knew Voldemort at school, sir?'

Dumbledore inclined his head. 'I taught him. Of course, he wasn't known as Lord Voldemort back then… but perhaps it's best you don't know his real name.'

'Sir?'

'Lord Voldemort is highly skilled in legilimency and if he were to find his childhood name in your mind, I dread to think how he'd react. Members of your family are involved with him, and it's possible you may find yourself in the same room as him at some point. It's not worth the risk to tell you.'

'What does he have against his name?'

'He was named after his father,' Professor Dumbledore said, 'a muggle.'

Regulus' eyes widened. '… That's… Wow, okay… I don't know what to say. I'm dumbstruck, sir.'

Dumbledore smiled. 'Yes. I imagine it would come as a surprise to learn.'

'I suppose it would be wise for me to learn Occlumency, then. Just in case.'

'I have a few books on the subject. If you're interested?'

'Thank you, sir. That would be helpful.'

With a flick of his hand, Dumbledore summoned three volumes from somewhere beyond the office and they landed neatly stacked on the desk in front of him. 'Once you've read up on the theory, I'd be happy to help you practise. I've dabbled in legilimency myself in the past.'

Picking up the books, Regulus nodded. 'That would be appreciated. Thank you, sir.'

A few hours later, Regulus was tapping his foot on the thick green rug that adorned the floor of the Slytherin common room, staring at the entrance to the girls' dormitories, his jaw tense with irritation. He wasn't annoyed with Netty—it was undoubtedly not her fault she was late—No. He was irritated with Salazar Slytherin, or whoever it was that decided to block boys from entering the girls' rooms. Otherwise, he would be able to go and see what was keeping her, and possibly help speed things up. Instead, he was sitting there, helpless, waiting.

'Finally,' he muttered under his breath, seeing her emerge from the staircase and scan the room for him. As he stood, she spotted him, acknowledging his presence with a small raise of her chin, and making towards him.

'Sorry,' she said when they met in the middle of the room. 'I was unavoidably delayed by a pink toad.'

'Ah,' Regulus said, offering her his arm. 'I thought that was likely the case. And what did our dear Dolores want this time?'

Annette rolled her eyes, taking the proffered arm as they moved towards the exit. 'Assistance with the Potions homework.'

'Again? Didn't you help her with that yesterday?'

'Yes. Honestly, she doesn't understand the most basic concepts. It's infuriating.'

Regulus hummed. 'Amycus is the same. I don't know how either of them made it into Slytherin. What did we do to get cursed with the most ignorant first years as roommates?'

'I'm sure I don't know,' Annette replied, patting his arm. 'But never mind that now. We have plans to make.'

Regulus gave her a smile before composing himself. 'I've been thinking about it, and I believe it would be smart to begin at the top.'

'Because most people will start at the bottom and work up?'

'Exactly.'

'But what about the people that have the same idea as us? Wouldn't it be better to start on the third floor and work up from there?'

Regulus turned his head to look at her, impressed. 'Stay ahead of the masses? Devious, Netty.'

'I'm not just a pretty face, Reg.'

'That I already knew. Alright, I'll cede to your superior intellect. We'll start on the third floor and head up from there.'

Allowing the smallest of smiles to show on her face, Annette inclined her head. She didn't gloat that her idea had been better than his or make a scene celebrating her victory, just mutely accepted his capitulation and moved on. Regulus liked that about her. It was refreshing after a childhood spent with Sirius.

The Great Hall was already quite full by the time they reached it—students having risen early so they'd be fed and ready to go when the day's event began—but they found seats near one end of the Slytherin table that weren't too overcrowded. The posters advertising the event had called it an Easter Egg Hunt, giving no further information than that. Regulus wasn't sure what Easter was, surmising it must be a muggle celebration of some sort, and he wasn't sure why they'd be hunting eggs of all things, but Annette had wanted to take part, so he was willing to give it a try.

He was halfway through his breakfast of bacon and eggs when a sudden hush fell over the Hall and he glanced up from his plate to see what was happening. Wearing blindingly yellow robes and a wide smile, Professor Dumbledore was standing before the podium in front of the teachers' table looking annoyingly fresh considering he'd been awake and meeting with Regulus at two o'clock that morning. Where did he get his energy? And could he possibly let Regulus have some of it?

'Good morning, students, and Happy Easter,' Dumbledore said, allowing his gaze to sweep the Hall. 'It's been brought to my attention that some of the more enterprising among you have organised an egg hunt to take place today. In light of this event, I am relaxing the no running in the corridors rule for today only, however, the no magic in the corridors rule remains in place. You must capture your eggs with your hands alone. And now that's out of the way, good luck to you all, and have fun.'

'Capture?' Regulus whispered to Annette.

She shrugged. 'Sounds like the eggs are more than just eggs.'

'Wonderful. What have you got us into?'

Annette smirked. 'I can't wait to find out. Are you done?'

Regulus looked between Annette's eager face and his half-eaten plate of food, and sighed, placing his knife and fork neatly on the plate. 'I suppose so. Come on, then. You're a nightmare, honestly.'

'So what happened last night?' Annette asked once they'd left the Great Hall behind and were climbing the stairs to the third floor.

Regulus took a moment to assure himself they were far enough from others to not be heard before he answered. 'I told him what we discussed. Apparently, there was an incident in Hogsmeade a few nights ago, a failed attempt to invade the school.'

'By..?'

'Yes. I've heard nothing about it, though, so it must be being kept quiet.'

'Well, yes. He failed.'

Regulus chuckled. 'Exactly. I also learned he's a halfblood.'

'Dumbledore?'

'No,' Regulus said, giving her a significant look.

'Oh.' Annette's eyes widened just as Regulus' had the night before. 'Really?'

'Yeah, I know. Shocking, isn't it?'

'I'm struggling to believe it. I wonder if anyone knows.'

'Some must. The ones he knew at school. They would have known him by his original name, which was muggle, but I doubt he advertises it. Families like mine would be horrified.'

'Thinking about it,' Annette said. 'There hasn't been any propaganda about halfbloods. I hadn't noticed.'

'I had. It's why my father's been reluctant to donate to the cause.'

'But your cousin's involved?'

'Yes, but she's always been a bit… thirsty for bloodshed.'

Annette raised an eyebrow. 'Always?'

'She used to catch and kill all her father's potion ingredients for him. Everything from beetles to rats. It was her favourite activity as a child.'

Annette gave a delicate shudder. 'That's horrible.'

'Uncle Cygnus was terribly proud about it. Said she showed great promise. Never said what she showed great promise of exactly. Sirius used to say it was great promise of becoming a murderer.'

Annette laughed. 'I think I agree with your brother.'

'On this occasion, so do I.' They turned off the Grand Staircase and onto the third floor, and Regulus waited for a couple of students to pass them and move out of sight before continuing. 'Anyway, along with being a halfblood, I've learned he's an excellent legilimens, so I need to learn occlumency.'

'Is that really necessary?' Annette asked, frowning at him. 'It's not like he's going to come to any of the meetings.'

'No, but he could visit my home, or attend the same parties as me. I doubt he'd ever have reason to delve deeply into my mind, but he might skim the surface in passing. It's best if I at least learn the basics.'

'Maybe I should learn too,' Annette said. 'My family isn't on the same level as yours, but we do get invited to a few of the same events.'

'It might not be a bad idea. I have some books on the subject.'

Annette grinned. 'Wonderful. We can look at them tomorrow. For now, we have some eggs to find.'

Regulus pushed open the closest door and waved her inside. 'After you.'

The backs of Sirius' eyelids were oddly red when he woke up on Easter Sunday. It was disconcerting because normally, with the thick bed curtains, there was no light in his bed, no matter what time of day it was. Choosing to keep them closed for just a little longer, he moved to stretch, but his arm was blocked by something warm in the bed beside him and he froze. For a moment, his mind went blank with panic, and then he remembered.

It was Remus lying beside him, and the bed was lit up because they'd fallen asleep still wrapped up in each other after three long days of not touching. They must have forgotten to close the curtains. Rolling over, Sirius cuddled up to Remus' back and flung an arm around his waist, kissing the back of his neck.

'Morning, Moonbeam.'

Remus hummed and snuggled back against him. 'Morning.'

'We should probably get up.'

'Why?'

'I think we shut James and Peter out of the dorm all night.'

Remus snorted. 'Shit. Did we really?'

'Mhmm. You cast a Locking Charm on the door right before you shoved me onto the bed.'

'I didn't shove you.'

'Oh, you did, Moons,' Sirius said, kissing the back of his neck again, 'but I'm not complaining.'

Remus pulled the quilt over his head and groaned. 'Gods, I was completely out of control, wasn't I?'

Sirius chuckled. Pushing himself up on his elbow, he tugged the quilt back down and leaned over so he could see Remus' (blushing) face. 'You really were. It was brilliant. I should kiss James more often.'

Remus shoved at Sirius' chest, making him fall back onto the mattress, and rolled over, bringing his leg up and over Sirius' to straddle him. 'Don't you dare,' he said, glaring down at him, but the effect was somewhat spoiled by his messy golden curls falling into his eyes.

Reaching up to push them to the side, Sirius chuckled. 'The only person I want to kiss is you.'

'Promise?'

'I solemnly swear.'

Remus smiled and leaned down to kiss him, just once, before sitting back on his heels, his face rapidly turning pink. 'Thank you, by the way.'

'For what?'

Remus rolled his eyes and climbed off the bed, keeping his back to Sirius while he gathered some clean clothes. 'I may have been out of control, but I do remember what happened. I tried to… you know… and you stopped me. I know you want to, so thank you. I'd have regretted that this morning.'

With a valiant effort on his part, Sirius managed to hold back the laughter bubbling in his throat and sat up. 'If you can't even say it, you're definitely not ready to do it.' Remus was still facing away from him and he huffed with annoyance. 'Will you look at me? I don't like talking to your back.'

Remus turned around, meeting his eyes for barely a second before his gaze turned towards the floor. His face was redder than Sirius had ever seen it. 'Oh, Moons,' he said, no longer able to keep from laughing, but reaching out a hand to him as he did so. 'Come here.'

Sirius decided right there and then that there was nothing cuter in the world than Remus Lupin when he was mortified. He shuffled back to the bed, consenting to lie back down next to him, but point blank refused to meet his eyes. Sirius ran a finger down his Gryffindor red cheek, finding the skin there was warm to the touch, and bit his lip.

'Gods, you are so fucking adorable, Remus,' he said. Wrapping his arms around him, he let Remus hide his face in his chest and buried his own in Remus' curls, just enjoying being able to be close to him again. 'Last night was the first time you let me touch you in three days, and it was because you were jealous of James,' he said quietly. 'And as grateful as I am that you found something to motivate you, I wasn't about to let you… take things further than you would before for such a terrible reason.' Sirius leaned back and used his finger to tilt Remus' chin up to look at him. 'When we… do that, it'll be because we both want to, not because you think you have to if you want to keep me, or whatever insane thing was going through your head last night.'

'I wasn't really thinking anything,' Remus said. 'Just that I needed you to know that you're…' he trailed off, ducking his head again.

'Yours?' Sirius finished for him.

'Yeah,' Remus said. 'God, that sounds so fucked up.'

Sirius nudged his head back up and smirked at him. 'It's only fucked up if I don't want to be yours. And I very much do.' Leaning in, he pressed their lips together, kissing him slowly until they were startled apart by a loud knock on the door.

'That'll be our disgruntled friends,' Sirius said, laughing. 'How much trouble do you think we're in?'

'Depends where they ended up having to sleep.' Remus pushed himself up and glanced around the room before looking back at Sirius. 'Any idea where my wand is?'

Sirius jerked his thumb towards the window. 'You chucked it that way after locking the door, but I have mine here,' he said, leaning off the bed to grab his holster off the floor. Gripping the handle, he tugged it out and pointed it at the door, twirling it anti-clockwise. 'Alohomora.'

There was a dull click as the door, which didn't actually have any kind of lock, magically unstuck itself, and then it was pushed open from the outside and James strolled through, coming to a stop at the end of Sirius' bed with his hands on his hips. 'What do you have to say for yourselves?'

'Don't look at me,' Sirius said. 'This was entirely Moony's fault.'

Remus shoved him, laughing as Peter closed the door, and James hummed. 'Yes, I'm sure you were very vocal in your objections.'

'He wasn't,' Remus said. 'In fact, he didn't even want to let you back in this morning. Said we should keep the dorm for ourselves.'

'Wow,' James said, turning to Peter, who was bent over, digging around in his trunk. 'Did you hear that, Bubbles? We're being evicted.'

Straightening up with a bundle of clothes in his arms, Peter smiled. 'That's all right. The beds in the squib wing are comfortable enough. I'm going to take a shower.'

'You slept in the squib wing?' Remus asked.

'Yeah, Pete's idea. He'd already thought of it when I got back and he told me we'd been thrown out of our own room. Why exactly were we thrown out?'

'Well,' Sirius said, stalling because he wasn't sure he was allowed to say.

'Lily asked me if I was still mad at her for spying on me and Sirius kissing,' Remus said.

James winced. 'Oh shit, we forgot to tell you, didn't we? You must have been so confused. What did you say?'

'I worked out pretty quickly what must have happened, so I don't think I gave anything away.'

James frowned. 'I don't get why that got us thrown out, though. I mean, even if you were mad at me, Peter didn't do anything.'

Remus flushed again. He was doing that a lot this morning. 'I may have got a little jealous and felt the need to…'

Sirius laughed when Remus trailed off and decided to finish the sentence for him. 'He needed to mark his territory.'

'I can see that,' James said, smirking. 'Do you want to borrow my bruise balm?'

'What for?'

'The mouth-sized bruises all over your neck.'

'Wait, really?' Sirius grinned. 'Moony, why didn't you tell me? I need to see this.' He scrambled to leave the bed and cross the room to the bathroom, stopping only when he reached the bathroom mirror where he tilted his head from one side to the other, inspecting Remus' handiwork. 'Bloody hell. I thought I was dating a werewolf, not a vampire. You really connected with your inner animal, didn't you?' he muttered, safe in the knowledge that Remus wouldn't be able to hear him over the sound of Peter's shower running. 'Thank Merlin, Sunshine has bruise balm. I have no idea how I would have hidden this.'

It was difficult to say for sure, but he'd be willing to bet quite a large sum that there was more bruised skin on his neck than there was unbruised if there had been a way to measure such a thing.

'Well,' he said when he returned to the bedroom. 'I think you made your point, Moonbeam.'

'So, you want the balm?' James asked. 'If your brother sees you like that, he's going to have questions.'

'Please. Thanks, Sunshine.'

'No problem. Oh, speaking of Mini-Twinkles, you'll never guess who I saw roaming the halls at two am.'

Sirius raised an eyebrow. 'I'm going to take a wild guess and say Reg?'

'Got it in one. Any ideas what he was up to?' James was searching through his desk and suddenly stopped with an, 'Aha,' turning around and chucking a small pot at Sirius' head with no warning at all.

Unfortunately for James—and for Sirius, come to think of it—he was well used to having objects launched at him for no apparent reason, and he dodged it without a thought. 'How would I know? He doesn't tell me anything,' he said, moving to fetch the balm from under the window where it had landed, and as he bent down, he spotted Remus' wand poking out from beneath a sleeping Cosmo under Peter's bed, and he gently pulled it out, trying not to disturb her. She opened one sleepy eye in reproach but allowed him to take it. 'Found your wand, Moons. Cosmo was guarding it.'

'What was Remus' wand doing over there?' James asked, but when Sirius smirked at him, he waved his hands. 'Never mind. Don't answer that. I don't want to know.'

Once they were all ready to leave, and Sirius' extensive bruising had been healed, they met up with the girls in the common room and headed down to breakfast together, taking up a rather large section at the end of the Gryffindor table. When Dumbledore stood up and announced that he was relaxing the no running in the hallways rule for the day, they all grinned at each other. That was going to make the whole thing so much more fun.

They'd decided it wouldn't really be fair for them to join in with the searching part of the hunt, considering they knew where the eggs had been hidden, so they spent the first few hours just wandering around and watching the chaos unfold. The house-elves had been vague enough that they didn't really know what to expect, and were as surprised as everyone else when the chocolate eggs, on being discovered, transfigured themselves into (extremely fast) tiny bunnies and baby chicks and attempted to escape.

Somewhere around lunchtime, Lily pointed out that most of the eggs had been discovered and they really had no advantage over anyone else with the uncaught ones growing legs to find new places to hide, so they joined in with the other students running after the cute golden animals and attempting to catch them.

Sirius was chasing after a miniature golden bunny on the fifth floor when he rounded a corner and stopped dead, staring. At the end of the corridor he'd turned into, Regulus, along with the girl he was always with, had a golden baby chick cornered and they were giggling madly as it dodged their attempts to grab it. Sirius had never heard Regulus giggle before, not since he was a toddler and the inclination had been punished out of him. He laughed, obviously, usually at Sirius, but this was different. This was the sound of someone who was so overflowing with joy that it couldn't be contained.

'He looks happy,' Remus said, having caught up and come to a stop beside him.

Sirius nodded. 'Yeah. He does. Come on. Let's go back the other way. He'll be embarrassed if he knows I've seen him and I don't want to ruin it for him.'

'Right, I'm off,' James said, the morning after the (very successful) Easter egg hunt. 'Wish me luck.'

Remus, Sirius, and Peter all looked up at his words, but it was Sirius that answered. 'Bad luck, or good luck?'

'Good luck, obviously. Why would you wish me bad luck?'

'Well, you're going out to help Lily work out who Sunshine and the werewolf are. We don't really want you to be successful.'

'I'm going to pretend to help while actually feeding her false information and trying to distract her, so you do actually want me to be successful.'

Sirius tilted his head to the side and nodded. 'Yeah, alright. Fair point. Good luck then.'

'Good luck, mate,' Peter and Remus both said, almost at the same time.

'Thank you,' James replied, turning to the black sheet of parchment by the door. 'Sirius Black needs a haircut.'

You're probably right, but that's not the password.

'Really?' Sirius said, giving James his patented raised eyebrow look.

'Well, you do.'

'Even if that were true, which it's not, it's hardly likely to be the password, is it?'

James shrugged. 'I couldn't think of anything good, so I went with something funny. Kay, bye.' With that, he swept out of the room, closing the door behind him. He made it three stairs down before realising he'd left his wand lying on his bed. Dammit.

'No, your hair is fine, Twinkles,' Remus was saying when he walked back in.

'Fine?' Sirius said. 'Just fine? Hold on.' He turned to James. 'What d'you forget?'

'Wand,' James said, grabbing it. 'Kay bye.'

'Twit,' Sirius said. 'As I was saying, fine?'

'Perfect,' Remus said as James closed the door again. He ran down the stairs, shoving his wand into his holster, and stopped at the bottom, scanning the room for Lily. He found her sitting by one of the windows, waving to get his attention, and he smiled, jogging over.

She was already on her feet when he got to her, and she started towards the exit, forcing him to follow or be left behind. 'So, I was thinking,' she said once they were in the corridor. 'We could sneak into Hogsmeade and take a look at that house. It's only been a few days, so they might not have boarded it back up again yet.'

James very much doubted that. Dumbledore didn't seem the type to drag his heels over something so important, but he wasn't going to say that. 'Sure, that sounds like a good place to start. Lead the way.'

'Who said we were taking my passage?'

'Yours is the only one that doesn't come out inside a shop. We're much less likely to get caught, and I'd much rather not get caught so soon after the last time. McGonagall would probably kill us.'

'True. Fine, but that means the bet's off, so you have to tell me where the Honeydukes passage is.'

'Deal,' James said, knowing it wouldn't do her much good. She was unlikely to be able to sneak out of the cellar without an invisibility cloak. 'It's behind the statue of the one-eyed witch on the third floor. Password is Dissendium.'

'Mine's behind the statue of Gregory the Smarmy on the first floor.'

'Well, in that case, how do you feel about slides? It'll be quicker.'

A few minutes later, Lily stared at the vertical drop behind the statue of a dancing child. 'That's not a slide, James. That's a very slippery wall.'

Resisting the urge to do a happy dance that always came over him when she called him James instead of Potter, he grinned at her. 'Scared?'

'Yes, but that's never stopped me before,' she replied, crouching down to sit on the edge. 'You better not be lying about this.' Without waiting to hear his reply, she pushed off, and James watched her plummet out of sight.

'Huh, she didn't even scream,' he said to the empty corridor as he sat himself down. 'Even I screamed the first time.' Then he pushed off, laughing as he fell, and when he reached the bottom and came to a stop, he grinned up at Lily, who was waiting for him. 'Gods, I love that thing. Best shortcut ever.'

'Where are we?'

'Ground floor. The Grand Staircase is just round the corner.'

She nodded. 'That is definitely faster than using the stairs. Why on earth don't you use it to go to breakfast in the morning?'

'Remus doesn't like it.'

'You add ten minutes to your journey because Remus doesn't like it?'

James blinked at her, confused. What was the alternative, exactly? 'Is there another option?'

'Use the slide and leave him to take the stairs by himself?'

'That idea honestly never occurred to me.'

'Gods, you talk just like Marls when she's angry,' Lily said, laughing. 'How posh are you, exactly?'

James wrinkled his nose. 'I'm not sure what scale one would use to measure poshness.'

'Who's richer, you or Sirius?'

'That's kind of a rude question,' James said, 'but since it's you, I'll let you off. My family is wealthier than Sirius', but his family has been wealthy for longer. So I'd say we're pretty even on the scale of poshness.'

'Sorry, I didn't mean to be rude. I didn't realise that was offensive to ask.'

'It's rude to speak about money at all, really, but especially in comparison to others.'

'Are you sure?' Lily said, looking sceptical. 'My parents talk about money all the time.'

'Weird,' James said, frowning. 'Maybe it's only rude when you have a lot of it? I guess it might seem like you're showing off. But if you don't have a lot, then it doesn't matter so much.' He paused and then realised what he'd said and widened his eyes in horror. 'Not that I'm suggesting you're poor.' Oh gods, that sounded like he thought being poor was something to be ashamed of. 'Not that there's anything wrong with being poor. Fuck, I'm an idiot. Have you noticed there's never a pit of acromantula around when you need one?'

'Don't worry about it,' Lily said, laughing.' You didn't upset me. I am poor… ish. I mean, dad got a job and we have a house now, so that's an improvement.'

'You didn't have a house? Where did you live?'

'It was a while ago. I don't really remember it, but we lived with my mum's parents for a bit when I was four. Dad lost his job when the factory he worked at closed, so we couldn't pay the rent anymore.'

'That's awful,' James said. 'The person who owned the house just kicked your parents out? When they had a child too? How could they do that?'

'Two children,' Lily said. 'And they weren't just going to let us live there for free.'

'Why not? If they already own the house, what difference would it make to them?'

Lily laughed again. 'You really are something else, James. We're here.'

James decided to take that weird statement as a compliment and turned towards the statue. 'How do you open it?'

'Just tap this brick here,' she said, pointing with her wand. 'Like this.' When she tapped the brick, a small opening appeared at the bottom of the wall.

'Why are the entrances to these passages always so small? It's like they were designed with children in mind.'

Lily shrugged. 'Who knows? Maybe they were.' She lifted a hand and waved him in. 'After you.'

Managing to bite down on his automatic response of "ladies first,"—she clearly didn't want to crawl into the passage ahead of him—James dropped to his hands and knees and dragged himself painfully through the opening. Painfully, because the uneven stone floor was not designed for contact with delicate knees. Standing back up on the other side, he inspected himself while he waited for Lily. The muggle jeans he was wearing had suffered no damage from the rough treatment, which he was mildly impressed by, but his hands were filthy, and he cast a quick Scouring charm on them. If he got the opportunity to hold Lily's hand, he wanted to be clean.

'So, you have a sibling?' James asked, continuing their previous conversation once Lily had joined him and they were on their way to Hogsmeade.

'Yeah, Petunia. She's three years older than me.'

There was a hint of sadness in her voice, and James zeroed in on it. 'Do you get along?'

'We used to. Until Professor McGonagall came to tell me I'm a witch.'

'Was she upset that you had to go away to school?'

'No,' Lily said. 'That would have been easier. She thinks I'm a freak, and she hates me for having magic.'

'Oh,' James said, his heart breaking for her. 'That must have been so hard. I'm sorry.'

Giving him a sad smile, she shrugged. 'It is what it is. Do you have any siblings?'

He shook his head. 'No. My parents didn't think they could have kids, and they'd given up even trying when mum got pregnant with me. They call me their little miracle.'

Lily chuckled. 'That explains a lot.'

'It does?'

'Well, you do act like…' She trailed off, wrinkling her nose. 'Sorry, I swore I wasn't going to be mean. It's a habit at this point.'

James laughed. 'No, go on. What do I act like? I'm intrigued now.'

She rolled her eyes. 'Well, if you really want to know. You act like you think you're something special.'

'Do I?' James asked, frowning. He hadn't realised he gave off that impression, and he didn't like it at all. 'In what way?'

'Oh God, so many,' Lily said. 'The way you walk, for one. You strut around like you own the castle. And you're always showing off to get a laugh. And you use all these fancy big words like you think you're smarter than everyone else. And you muck about in class like you don't need to try. And you're always messing with your hair like you think it looks cool. And—'

'Alright, I get the point,' James said, staring intently at his own feet. He didn't strut, did he? He just walked fast because walking was boring. 'That's… a lot of reasons.'

'Shit. Did I upset you? I didn't mean to.'

'No, it's okay,' James lied as his chest caved in under the weight of his self-hatred. He was clearly an awful, terrible person. 'I asked.'

'Yeah, but you didn't expect me to go off like that.'

Trying to ignore the raw and gaping emptiness where his heart used to be, James smiled at her. 'It's okay, really.'

Maybe he could find a nice hole to go curl up in once this was over. There were bound to be some in the Forbidden Forest. Then he wouldn't bother anyone with his fancy words and messy hair.

'If it helps, I'm starting to think I was wrong about you.'

'Yeah?'

She hummed. 'There have been a few signs you might be a decent person.'

Something bloomed within the emptiness, a hint of a heartbeat. Maybe the living-in-a-hole plan could wait a little while longer. 'Guess I'll just have to keep trying to prove it to you then, won't I?'

They emerged from the passage a few minutes later, and Lily showed him where to squeeze through the bushes to get out of the cave.

'Why don't you cut them back?' James asked, eyeing the spiky-looking branches.

'If we did that, someone might find the passage.'

James shrugged. 'We can just grow them back again. I know a spell to grow plants quickly.'

'What about the Trace? We're not supposed to do magic outside of school.'

'We're in Hogsmeade. They won't be able to tell ours from anyone else's. You only really need to be careful when you're in muggle places.'

She stared at him for a moment. 'So, let me get this straight. If you have magical parents, you can practise at home during the holidays, but if you don't, you can't?'

'I never thought about it like that. That is really fucking unfair, actually.'

'Yet another disadvantage for muggleborns.'

'Not just muggleborns,' James felt the urge to point out. 'Remus and Peter are halfbloods, but they can't do magic at home, either.'

'Does Peter live with muggles too?'

'No, his mum's a witch, but… Actually, I can't tell you that,' James said, with a rush of pride at stopping himself from blurting out Peter's secrets. He was doing so well. 'You'll have to ask Peter.'

'Alright.' She drew her wand and pointed it at the bushes. 'You're sure about this? I don't want to get expelled.'

'Positive, but I'll do it if you want.'

'No, you can grow them back again. Then, if you're wrong, we can be in trouble together. Diffindo.'

Her magic slashed through the branches, dropping them to the floor and creating an opening big enough for them to pass through easily. Once on the other side, James drew his wand and cast the spell to force the plant's growth rate to rapidly increase, and they watched as the hole closed over. After a minute, it was impossible to tell there had ever been a gap there to begin with.

They decided to skirt around the edge of the village to avoid being spotted, uncertain if the villagers that had been present during the attack would be as willing to ignore them as they used to be, and they'd just reached the edge of the fenced garden when Lily stopped.

'You know, I've just remembered. I promised Marlene I'd get her some books on tailoring magic. She wants to alter her clothes. We should go to Tomes and Scrolls.'

'Alright' James agreed, happily. 'Let's go.'

They were almost halfway through the village before they both stopped and looked at each other, blinking in confusion.

'What the fuck?' Lily asked.

'Dumbledore said he was going to put additional security on it. I guess we just encountered it.'

'Let's try again.'

James didn't see much point, but he wasn't going to argue with her. 'Alright.'

This time when they reached the fence, it was James that stopped, announcing he needed to go back to the school because he had a Quidditch practice he'd forgotten about, and Lily readily agreed to accompany him. This time, they were almost at the statue of Gregory the Smarmy before they came out of it.

James gave a startled laugh when he realised. 'Bloody hell, that's powerful.'

'Yeah,' Lily agreed, shaking her head a little. 'I don't think we're getting anywhere near that house.'

'On the plus side, I don't think anyone will be letting the werewolf out again.'

Lily laughed. 'No. That's true. We'll have to think of a new plan now, though.'

'Any ideas?'

Lily didn't respond until they'd crossed the threshold back into the school. 'If we can't get close to the house, then there must be another way in.'

'Not necessarily,' James said. 'It could be like the magic we used for our trap, with exceptions built in for… you know.'

'True,' she said. 'But it makes more sense, don't you think? They'd want as short a route as possible, especially if the person isn't feeling well on the way there. There's probably a secret passage to it from inside the school.'

'You make a good point,' James said, because she did, and he'd look like an idiot if he said otherwise. Plus, if she was focused on the inside of the school, she wouldn't find the actual passage, anyway.

'The entrance would probably be near the Hospital Wing, don't you think?'

'That would make sense, yeah.' Actually, that really did make sense. Why hadn't they just made a direct passage from Remus' hospital room to the Shrieking Shack? It would have removed any possibility of him being seen. Maybe they hadn't wanted to risk him escaping into the school. At least with the entrance where it was, there was a good chance he'd just run into the Forest if he got out.

It was almost lunchtime by then, so they agreed to meet back up the following morning to search for a potential passageway near the Hospital Wing and James returned to the dorm to make a report to the others on his progress.

'I don't like it,' Sirius said when he had finished telling them everything. 'She's getting too close to the truth with the whole secret passageway to the Shack theory.'

'What we need to do,' Peter said, 'is distract her with something else.'

'Like what, though? What's going to be more interesting than what she's doing?'

'Get her involved in the ship project,' Remus said. 'She loves Charms theory. I think she'd find it fascinating.'

'But that's a Marauder thing,' Sirius objected.

'Yeah, but if it makes her stop looking for Moony,' James said. 'Isn't it worth it?'

Sirius groaned. 'Yeah, of course it is. Anything to keep Remus safe. Suggest it to her after you've failed to find a secret passageway tomorrow.'

'I'll need to get her a pirate outfit,' James mused, immediately drifting off into imagining what she'd look like in the skin-tight trousers, frilly shirt, and boots. The image his mind conjured was nothing short of absolute perfection.

'No,' Remus said. 'Absolutely not.'

'What?'

'I'm not dressing up in front of Lily, and I doubt she'd want to either.'

The beautiful picture floating around in his head disintegrated, scattering like ash in the wind. 'Fine. No pirate outfits. Can we at least sword fight again? That was fun.'

Pretending. Gods, it was hard.

Burying his feelings and putting on a mask of normalcy every day was much more difficult than Peter had made it sound, but it surprisingly did work. A week had passed since their conversation, and with each day, the periods of time where Remus was able to forget and feel some facsimile of happiness grew longer and more frequent. And just like Peter had said, it was easiest when he was engaged in something fun or interesting, which was a large part of the reason he'd suggested distracting Lily by getting her involved in the ship project.

After some discussion, they'd decided it would look weird to only invite Lily, so they'd sent a note to the girls' dorm after James returned from his morning of fruitlessly searching for a secret passage in completely the wrong place.

To our intelligent-and-skilful friends,

We have recently made an exciting discovery and would like to invite you to join us in what should be an interesting and challenging project. If you're interested, meet us in the Entrance Hall tomorrow morning after breakfast.

Your equally-intelligent-and-skilful friends.

Apparently, the cryptic letter had been enough to entice them, because they were waiting for the boys in the Entrance Hall the next morning as instructed, and James took the lead, directing them down the stairs and into the dungeons.

'Prepare yourselves,' he said when they reached the door to the cavern, before pushing the door open and waving them inside.

The gasps were quite entertaining.

'How the hell did that get in here?' Lily asked after gaping up at the enormous vessel for a long moment, prompting Remus to recite the story of the Battle of Hogwarts again.

'We want to restore it,' James said.

'And then improve it,' Sirius added.

Lily looked at him. 'Improve it how?'

'Give it some additional features,' Sirius said. 'Like the ability to sail underwater, for example.'

Lily's eyes lit up, but then she frowned. 'But what's the point in that if it's stuck in here?'

'That's the problem,' Remus said. 'We need to figure out a way to transport it from here, to the Great Lake and then to the ocean when it's ready.'

'That's quite a problem.' Lily put her hands on her hips and gazed up at the ship for several seconds before turning back to them and grinning. 'What have you got so far?'

'Well, as fun as this all sounds,' Dorcas said, interrupting before Remus could respond. 'I don't really want to waste months of my life on something so pointless, so I'm going to pass.'

'Yeah,' Marlene agreed. 'The work-to-fun ratio on this project is a bit unbalanced for me.'

'Well, I'm in,' Mary said. 'I like a good challenge.'

'We'll see you later,' Marlene said, linking arms with Dorcas and heading to the door.

They waved them off and Remus pulled their research out of his bag to show the girls while James transfigured them some cushions to sit on. The discussion that commenced was fascinating and fruitful. Lily and Mary both had sharp minds, but they worked differently from the ways the boys tended to think, and they bounced their different ideas off each other, expanding and altering them as they went back and forth until they had the workings of a rather skeletal plan. A lot of research was needed to flesh it out, and they probably wouldn't be able to do a lot of it until they were much older, but they were all thrilled with the progress they'd made.

'Even if it takes the rest of school,' Lily said as they were leaving to head back for lunch, 'imagine everyone's faces if we reveal it on our last day. What are they going to do? Put us all in detention for our final night at school?'

'That's what McGonagall did to Fab and Gid,' James said. 'Remember the food explosion on the last day of term last year? That was two seventh-years celebrating their final day at school.'

'How did you become friends with seventh-years?'

'Do you remember when we found the birthday cake room?' Sirius asked as he pushed the door open, holding it so everyone could pass through. 'We needed someone who had a birthday soon to open the door. A couple of twins with red hair volunteered? It was them. We're not really friends, though.'

Lily nodded. 'Yeah, I think I remember that. We should try to find that room again. I miss being able to go swimming.'

'Not much point now,' James said. 'There's only a couple of months left of school.'

'Well, yeah, but if we find it now, then we can start unlocking it in September, and have it all of next year.'

James grinned. 'That's true.'

Remus groaned under his breath. As soon as his attention was no longer taken up with Charms theory, his guilt had come rushing back with the force of a tsunami and the last thing he wanted to do was go mindlessly traipsing around the entire school, repeatedly saying "congratulations" in the hopes of finding a hidden door. He couldn't swim with everyone else anyway, so it wasn't even worth it for him.

'So you'll help me look?' Lily asked.

'Sure,' James said. 'How hard can it be? All we really need to do is stand in the middle of each corridor, shout "congratulations" and see if anything opens. Shouldn't take more than a few days.'

Remus let himself relax. He wasn't getting roped in. Thank the gods for that.

The next day, they were leaving the Hall after breakfast with Lily and Mary in tow, intent on returning to the cavern to continue their work, when Professor Tenebris approached.

'Mister Lupin, do you have a few minutes to assist me with something?' she asked.

'Of course, Professor,' Remus said, internally groaning. He knew exactly what this would be about, and he'd had about as many well-meaning lectures as he could take. He waved the others on with a, 'Go on, I'll meet you there,' and followed her to her classroom and up the short staircase to her office.

'How are you doing?' she asked. 'Would you like a drink?'

'I'm alright. And no, thank you.'

She frowned. 'It's only been a week, Remus. You're allowed to not be alright.'

'Did you ever hurt anyone?' It wasn't until the words were out there, hanging in the air, that he realised what a personal question that was. He'd be horrified if someone asked him that out of the blue. 'I'm sorry. You don't have to answer that.'

'No, it's okay.' She turned to look out of the window as she answered and he couldn't see her face, but he could hear the pain in her voice. 'The answer is yes, I've hurt people. Most of them were when I was a very new vampire, and all of them were people who were very dear to me. I won't lie to you, Remus. The guilt never goes away, but it's possible to live with it if you can find a reason to.'

'That's what Peter suggested,' Remus said. 'That I needed to find a reason.'

'He's a smart boy. Did you find one? You don't have to tell me what it is.'

'I did,' He said, nodding. 'But it's still hard. Sirius, James, and Peter keep watching me like I'm going to explode at any moment. Well, it's more Sirius and James than Peter. But still, I feel like I'm just making their lives more difficult than they need to be. Maybe it would be better for them if I stayed out of their way, just until I'm feeling better.'

Turning away from the window, she shook her head at him. 'I can tell you from experience, they won't thank you for doing that.'

'What do you mean?'

She sighed, lifting herself onto the windowsill to sit in her usual fashion. 'One of the last people I hurt, before I got the bloodlust under control, was my little sister. Luckily, our mother heard the commotion and came into the room in time to stun me before I drained her, but it was close.' She looked down at her hands for a moment. 'I was horrified with myself. I packed my stuff and left that night while they were sleeping, and I didn't go back until I was sure I could control myself.' Shaking her head, she huffed a laugh. 'They were so angry with me, for leaving, not for hurting my sister, and they were so happy to have me back. But I'll never get that time with them again that I wasted. It was almost four years. Don't make the same mistake I did, Remus. Your friends love you. Let them.'

Remus swallowed. He couldn't imagine the guilt of hurting someone so close to him. 'I'm sorry that happened. Do you still see them? Your family?'

She smiled. 'Yes, frequently.'

'That's good,' Remus said, smiling at her. 'I should probably go. They're waiting on me.'

'Yes, of course. Tell them I needed your assistance preparing some demonstrations for the first years.'

Remus nodded. 'Thank you, Professor. You didn't need to tell me that, and I appreciate it. I feel… less alone now.'

'You're welcome, Remus. Have a good day.'

When he closed the door behind him, he heard a distinct sniff, and he hurried away quickly. He didn't think she'd want him to listen to her crying.

Marlene threw down her book in disgust, unable to focus on the words to the point that she'd read the same paragraph four times and she still didn't know what it said. It just wasn't holding her interest enough, and her brain was itching to do something. The boredom was so painful that she was beginning to wish she'd gone home for the Easter holidays, and that was saying something because she hated being at home. But with Lily and Mary hanging out with the boys and their stupid ship, she was at a bit of a loose end and Dorcas didn't seem the least bit interested in helping her alleviate said boredom. No matter what she suggested, Dorcas just wanted to read.

'What are you reading, anyway?' she asked in frustration.

Dorcas didn't even look up from the page. 'It's a history of Ancient Runes and what they've been used for. My mum sent it to me.'

Safe in the knowledge that Dorcas was too focused on the page in front of her face to notice, Marlene rolled her eyes. The girl was obsessed with Ancient Runes. That and magical creatures. At least some of those were cute, but she really didn't get the fascination with such an old form of magic that was barely used anymore outside of rituals that no one had found an alternative for.

'Anything interesting?'

'It's all interesting.'

Marlene huffed out a breath. 'Anything I might find interesting?'

Finally, Dorcas looked up at her, and Marlene had to fight to keep her face from breaking out into a ridiculous smile like it always wanted to when she looked at Dorcas. Just being with her made her giddy inside, but when she also had her attention, it was like there was so much joy inside her, she couldn't contain it.

'Yes, actually. Come here.' Dorcas shifted over to make room for Marlene next to her, and Marlene was quick to obey, settling on the mattress beside her and trying to ignore the heat radiating from her body. Dorcas flicked back a few pages and handed her the book. 'Read that.'

'Can't you just tell me?'

'It's easier if you read it,' Dorcas said. 'Just the first couple of paragraphs. You don't need to read all of it.'

Marlene groaned but gave in, reading the short section about a part of a Scottish forest that had been cordoned off using a clever combination of runes to protect something about thirty years ago. It was weird that it didn't say what was being protected, but the book was more about the ways the runes were used than what they were used for.

'I don't get it?' Marlene said when she was done. 'Why is this interesting?'

'I think the forest it's talking about is the Forbidden Forest. It's in the right area and has the right type of trees, and I'm pretty sure I recognise some of the landmarks it mentions from the Creature Hunt.'

Marlene perked up at that. 'You want to go look for it?'

'Yes,' Dorcas said, pulling a face, 'so very much. But don't you think it's a bit dangerous?'

'Why would that stop us?' Marlene asked, jumping to her feet with a grin. 'Come on. It'll be fun.'

It took a little longer to persuade Dorcas to live a little, but she eventually gave in under the condition that they leave Lily and Mary a note saying where they'd gone, just in case. She was such a worrywart.

'How do you know this is the right way?' Marlene asked sometime later once they had made it inside the treeline and Dorcas had set off in a particular direction with determination.

'Don't you remember? This is the way we went last time.'

'How can you possibly remember that?'

Dorcas gave her a look of utter confusion. 'How can you not?'

'Because that's not something people remember?'

Dorcas shrugged. 'I always remember where I've been.'

'That must be so useful.' Marlene struggled to remember what she'd been doing an hour ago at times. Maybe Dorcas had been given Marlene's ability to remember shit along with her own.

They traipsed through the Forest for close to an hour before Dorcas stopped, bending down to examine a large boulder that seemed rather out of place. Marlene couldn't see anything nearby that it might have come from.

'We're almost there,' Dorcas said, smiling at her in a way that made her whole face light up with excitement.

'Is it weird that we haven't encountered any creatures while we've been in here?' Marlene asked. She had been clutching her wand tightly the whole time they'd been walking—they both had—but they hadn't had cause to use them even once.

'Yeah,' Dorcas said, glancing around with suspicion. 'Now you mention it, that is weird.'

A noise came from the nearby bushes then. A kind of laugh that turned into a cough and they both turned their heads in that direction.

'I suppose there's no point in remaining hidden,' a voice said before a palomino, blonde-haired centaur moved into sight. 'My apologies for unnerving you.'

Marlene frowned. 'Firenze, right?'

Firenze bowed his head. 'That is correct, Marlene McKinnon.'

'Why were you following us?' Dorcas asked.

'I saw you enter the Forest and recognised you from the Creature Hunt. I know you are friends with… the Marauders, and I did not want any harm to come to you.'

'We're not friends with the Marauders,' Dorcas said, and Marlene elbowed her. 'Ow.'

Firenze chuckled. 'No matter. I am here now. I may as well continue to escort you. Are you going anywhere in particular?'

Dorcas nodded. 'Yes, we're looking for an area that's protected with Runes. I saw mention of it in a book.'

'Ah, the wolf compound. Yes. You're almost there. It's just through here.'

'Wolves?' Marlene asked, following Firenze into the trees. 'Why would anyone have set up protection for wolves?'

'They're not normal wolves,' Firenze said, coming to a stop suddenly. 'Hush.' He pointed through the trees. 'Look.'

Marlene followed the direction of his finger and saw three enormous wolves several meters away. One was lying down with its eyes closed, looking fast asleep, but the other two were rolling around together in a fight that looked more playful than aggressive.

'They're werewolves,' Dorcas whispered, sounding thrilled by the discovery.

'What?' Marlene looked at her, startled. 'They can't be. It's daytime.'

'Look at them. The snouts, and those tails. They're werewolves. I'm sure of it, or, no… Oh my gods. They must be mooncubs! Holy shit.'

'What in the ever-loving shit is a mooncub?' Marlene asked. Okay, so maybe that was over-the-top, but Dorcas was insisting they were mere feet away from three murderous beasts with only an adolescent centaur and two useless wands to protect them, so really everyone needed to cut her some slack.

'Wolf cubs conceived by two werewolves during a full moon,' Dorcas said. 'They're extremely rare.'

'You mean the two werewolves have to… while they're wolves? That's disgusting.'

Dorcas shrugged. 'Not if they're both wolves.'

'We should get out of here. Before they notice us.'

'Oh, they're not dangerous,' Dorcas said. 'Mooncubs aren't aggressive.'

'Still, I think I'd like to go. It's making me feel sick, looking at them.'

Dorcas looked taken aback. 'Why? They're gorgeous.'

'Just knowing what they came from. It's gross.'

'I really don't see what's gross about it.'

'Werewolves are disgusting. Just thinking about them doing… that. It creeps me out.'

Dorcas glared at her. 'I'm really disappointed in you, Marls. I thought you were better than mindless prejudice. Didn't you listen to Professor Hawthorne last year?'

'If you're going to have an argument,' Firenze interrupted quietly, 'we should probably move away. We don't want to disturb them.'

'I want to look at the runes first. That's why we came here. Do you know where they are?'

Firenze inclined his head. 'Of course. Follow me.'

He led them away from the wolves, much to Marlene's relief, but Dorcas kept shooting her disappointed looks, and it hurt. She didn't understand it. Everyone knew werewolves were scum, and yeah, okay, she knew Dorcas was head-over-heels for magical creatures, but surely that didn't include werewolves?

Finally, she was finished admiring the rune work protecting the vile creatures within—or was it protecting the rest of the forest from them? That would make more sense—and they started back towards the castle.

'So?' Dorcas asked, breaking the silence that had fallen between them.

'So what?'

'Did you ever listen to Professor Hawthorne?'

'About what?'

Dorcas rolled her eyes. 'Werewolves, obviously.'

Marlene searched her memory for something that might be relevant. She didn't recall anything being mentioned about werewolves, but she had a vague image of Emhio shifting into a wolf. It wasn't very clear because the focus was on Dorcas sitting beside her. She'd been looking particularly pretty that day.

'I think I was daydreaming?'

Dorcas made an irritated noise. 'Werewolves are just people, Marlene.' Marlene winced at the use of her full name. Dorcas must be really pissed. 'They have a disease that makes them turn into wolves on a full moon and the wolf tries to infect other people because that's what viruses do. But the infected human is innocent, as long as they take precautions to keep the wolf contained. And most do take precautions. You're hating an entire group of people for being sick. And if you ask me, that's disgusting.' With that, Dorcas stomped on ahead, forcing Marlene to break into a jog or be left behind.

'I'm sorry,' she said when she caught up with her. 'I just know what I was taught. It's not just me, you know? Everyone in the magical world hates werewolves. I'd never thought anything of it.'

'The magical world is extremely prejudiced,' Dorcas said. 'They look down on anyone who's different from them. Werewolves, vampires, hags, veela, squibs. They think all of them are lesser just because they're different. Tell me, Marlene, do you agree with them?'

Something told her she needed to be extremely careful about how she answered this question. She wasn't sure why, but it seemed like this was personal to Dorcas. Was she a werewolf? No. Impossible. She'd definitely seen her on full moon nights. Maybe she was a vampire. 'I used to,' she said slowly, watching Dorcas' eyes narrow even further, 'but if you say I'm wrong, then I believe you.'

Dorcas huffed. 'You believe me? You think that's enough?'

'I'm not sure what else you want me to do?'

'You need to actively work to change your opinions,' Dorcas said. 'Talk to some of the beings you think are worth less than you. Get to know them.'

'You want me to talk to vampires and werewolves?' Marlene asked. The idea made her nervous, but she trusted Dorcas, and if she said it was safe, then she believed her. 'Okay, I can do that. But where would I even find them?'

'I'll help you,' Dorcas said, smiling at her now. 'I'll ask my mum if you can come stay for a week in the summer.'

'You said you couldn't have friends over.'

'Yeah, because I didn't want anyone to meet my mum until I was sure I could trust them.'

'Why not?'

Dorcas looked at her with raised eyebrows. 'She's a squib.'