(A/N): We're back with Elaine, Mia, Remus, and Dahrya.

Elaine

He kept watch. He didn't sleep, because he needed- or felt the need, anyway- to watch over Mia... to watch over her, the same way he'd watched over me, years later, on that swing set in my backyard. I'd asked him why he hadn't slept, and he'd said, 'What if something had happened?' At the time, I know he probably entirely meant someone attacking me, but now, I wonder if somewhere in the back of his mind, he was drawing on the memories of the times he'd struggled to protect Mia. Leo and I were far from siblings, and I wasn't insinuating he ever saw me as such, but considering that I think he most likely hadn't had anyone to protect in such a direct manner between those two events, I can't imagine it didn't stir up familiar emotions for him.

I didn't know what else to say, so I told her that. "He refused to sleep when he was watching over me, as well. I fell asleep with my head on his shoulder, and when I woke up- he looked awful." She nodded, looking vaguely pained.

"He always does- when he doesn't sleep. And I think... I think it gets to him. I think he gets stuck in his head sometimes, and the responsibility he puts on himself gets the better of him. I didn't know back then that he might need help- he was my infallible big brother, how could he need help at all, much less from me?- but looking back on it, I know he needed someone to make sure he didn't go too far. To take care of him." She stared at me purposefully. "Did you?" I knew she was asking whether I'd taken care of him, in the context of making sure he hadn't pushed himself too hard, but considering what had happened immediately after I'd woken up, I couldn't help but flush.

"Erm, well... I told him he didn't need to worry, and then I said I had to go back inside before my brother woke up- and then I tripped." There was silence for a second, and I saw confusion on all of their faces before Remus snorted.

Surprisingly, Mia wasn't far behind him, apparently his realisation had triggered hers, and she gave me a partially knowing look. "Oh, I think Leo told me about this-" He had? "-pray tell, Elaine, where exactly did you land?" I blushed harder, and she arched an eyebrow at me, looking far more confident in her assumption now.

"I- Uh-" Dahrya seemed to enjoy my spluttering, even if she didn't enjoy being the only person out of the loop. "He- Leo told you about that?" Mia beamed at me, which was reassuring, at least.

"Oh, yes. Okay, I might have... inquired, and then extracted it from him, but if he really didn't want to tell me, he wouldn't have." Well, I suppose nothing came easy with Leo, now did it? "I may have gotten a brief rundown on some other things, too, but nothing major." This sounded fairly innocuous, but then she waggled her eyebrows at me, and suddenly I wasn't so sure anymore. "He said he freaked out, which I'm assuming- knowing Leo- is an understatement."

I blinked- had Leo 'freaked out'? I know I had, but if he'd followed suit, either he'd done so out of my view, or I'd been too distracted by my own panic. "I don't know," I told her honestly. "He left pretty quickly, and I was- well, freaking out a bit myself. I know when we talked about it more recently, in passing, he said he was worried that I'd be mad at him, or hate him or something, but... honestly, what else is new for Leo?" Mia nodded, and Dahrya's patience ran out.

"Alright, I give up- what are we talking about?" I wasn't sure what the best way to break it to her would be. I wasn't concerned with preserving her feelings- I doubt she would care at all- but more about how to tell her that wouldn't be incredibly, unbearably embarrassing. Thankfully, Remus took it upon himself to take care of it for me.

"Leo and Elaine's first kiss. She fell on his lips, neither of them pulled away immediately, they both freaked out, and then refused to talk about it for a truly ridiculous amount of time. Is that everything?" This was directed at me, but was less of a question and more of a taunt. Ugh, didn't I take his piss-taking privileges away from him, earlier?

Dahrya eyed my heated cheeks, and I couldn't tell if the hunger in her eyes was for my blood, or my embarrassment. "I'm guessing this was a good while ago, then," She said quietly, which wasn't what I expected from her. "Are you guys... kissing more often, now?" I hadn't thought my blush could get any more intense, but apparently it could.

"I- Yeah, maybe." She tilted her head to the side, as if mildly confused by this answer, but I knew it wouldn't come across as a lie either way- because it was both vague, and true. "Pretty much anything is more than that, but yes, to be more precise, we're kissing a lot more than we used to." I was surprised by her smile- by the automatic, genuine nature of it- and I saw Mia grin as well. Remus wasn't unmoved, either.

"Good." It was odd- sounded odd- because three voices said the same thing at the same time, all rather firmly, and I raised both eyebrows at them.

Remus was, of course, the first to fold. "Can't we be happy for you?" I stared him down, and he winced. "Elaine, please stop looking at me like that; you know I can't take it." I did, which was why I kept doing it. "Elaine!" It wasn't quite a whine, but it was close. "You're my best friends," He gushed. "I want you happy, and I know that the best way to do that is- together. You may not be 'together' yet, but kissing is... a stepping stone. Snogging is an even bigger stepping stone." He cocked an eyebrow at me, and the flush returned.

"Wow," Dahrya said, sounding the opposite of impressed.

"Way to cave, Lupin," Mia finished for her, and I made sure they could both see me roll my eyes at them.

I patted Remus on the arm comfortingly, though whether that comfort was for me or him, even I couldn't tell. "Don't blame Remus for being the only one here with the self-preservation instincts to know to fear me," I said, and the two younger girls shared a look I couldn't- and probably didn't want to- decipher. "To be fair, he is the only one I've spear-tackled in wolf form, so I guess that's to be expected, for the most part." Dahrya shrugged but looked more than slightly impressed, and Mia frowned heavily.

"You couldn't catch me anyway, dog breath," Dahrya taunted, and I blinked, then had to fight the way the corner of my lips twitched upward in response to this. Even though it was an insult, it was still quite funny, and Remus nudged my shoulder with his.

"She has a bit of a point," He reminded me, and Dahrya preened under the vague praise of his admitting this. "Though if she's anything like Leo, she'll let you maul her outside of a full moon, too." I knew he was referring to when I had attacked Leo the first time I'd transformed, but either Dahrya didn't pick up on it, or she didn't care, because she plowed on anyway with a joke.

"I'd say Leo's the one doing the mauling, but knowing him, I'm sure he'd be willing to take it in turns. I'm not quite so generous." She was talking about Leo biting me- and maybe us snogging? I wasn't sure.

I shook my head in an attempt to distract from my persistent blush. "That's not- I'm sure you're- I'm not even going to dignify that with a response." She merely smirked at me briefly, before her head snapped to the side and she stared at Mia with concern evident on her features.

Mia, for her part, seemed suspiciously blank- Oh. Oh, where had I seen that before? That blank mask Leo used to use a lot more, but still felt the need to rely on, sometimes. When she finally met my eyes, I saw rage simmering deep within them- clearly she wasn't quite as proficient at wiping the slate clean as Leo was. "You're an animagus... aren't you?" She asked extremely pointedly, and hesitantly, I nodded. She echoed the movement, looking more furious than I had ever seen her. "So, Leo lied to me- there is someone else, besides him. He just doesn't want to help me become one."

I- What?

(A/N): So, this SEEMS like it came out of nowhere, but it's only because we didn't see Mia have that conversation with Leo 'off screen'. Oh, and also because this was mostly unplanned, I've just had Mia's animagus form picked out since forever and this was a natural progression (in my mind) to her finding out that Elaine was an animagus.

Also, it's pretty much a staple of the story at this point, but I recently looked it up and technically 'spear tackle' isn't the correct term for what Elaine did to Remus. It's really more of a flying tackle- basically, she ran and threw her entire body at him, taking him to the ground- I just had always heard the term spear tackle and thought that's what it was (it's named for the recipient of the tackle being 'speared' into the ground, rather than the tackler being the spear impacting the recipient, if that makes sense- clearly it didn't to me, at the time). Maybe I'll change it on the rewrite, maybe I won't, but just know that Elaine wanted Remus off of Leo so badly that she didn't consider technique or anything like that, she just threw her body at Remus until he wasn't attacking Leo anymore, then kept attacking Remus until he was unconscious, and she could focus on getting Leo to safety.

I'm on the new computer now, and the road rash is healing well (no longer sticking to the bandaid) but it is itchy as all hell as it scabs up, so that's... fun. I still haven't made any progress on chapter 664, but I HAVE been working on spreadsheets, so... *shrug* at least I'm being productive in one way?