Here you go, it wasn't so long a wait this time.

I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters in it.

Chapter Seven: Discussions and Danger

Once I got over the revelation after the Quidditch disaster, which took a while believe me, I went upstairs to bed. To be honest, we had both been exaggerating. I wasn't in love with him; I just really, really liked him. You don't fall in love that fast; it just doesn't happen outside Shakespeare novels, right?

So the extent of it was a major crush, but that was still pretty huge, especially considering the fact that I had never really fallen that hard for a guy. I mean, yeah, I'd had crushes before, but they had never really been that serious, and I had never done anything about it. Heck, I'd never even been kissed before! So, at the time, it didn't really feel like I was exaggerating all that much.

Remus let me go to bed that night without giving him an answer, I think he realized I was in shock, but the very next day he cornered me in the hallway.

"So, have you thought about it?" he asked.

"Thought about what?" I was still kind of hoping he would believe that I didn't like him. He raised an eyebrow at me.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about. Sirius. Have you given anymore thought to what you're going to do about him?" Oh, great. He expected me to do something about it. Brilliant.

"Um, no, I haven't, because there is nothing to think about. I'm not going to do anything." If only he accepted that.

"What do you mean; you're not going to do anything about it. You have to do something! You'll regret it if you don't, trust me. You'll always be wondering what might have been." He looked sad, almost as if he were talking from experience. Apparently he's really good at reading people, because he saw me wondering and added, "My older sister fell in love with this guy, and she never told him. He got married a few years later, and she really regretted it. She's always reminding me to never let that kind of stuff go unsaid."

Oh. I didn't know he had a sister. She kind of has a point…. No. I couldn't. It would put way too much at risk. You can't fall in love with someone when you're trying to save their life. It's dangerous. I was doing the right thing by keeping my mouth shut. I was. I had to be.

"I'm not your sister, Remus. Thanks for caring, but I know what I'm doing. I'm here for a reason, and mooning over some guy is definitely not it." With that I turned and headed to dinner.

I could tell he wasn't really satisfied with my answerer because he kept shooting me these looks, but he couldn't say anything with the others sitting right there. Plus, I knew he wouldn't try again that night because it was a full moon. He was leaving to 'visit his ailing mum' after dinner. Apparently she was sick a lot.

I then made the mistake of letting my guard down. Remus was gone for the afternoon, the other three would soon be with him, it promised to be a peaceful afternoon. I don't know who invented that saying, or who they were talking about, but whoever it was that promised me a peaceful afternoon, don't trust them. They lied.

Just as I was settling in to read a nice book, Lily walked past me and out of the common room. After curfew. Great.

I followed here as far as the front door before I started to panic.

"Lily, what are you doing!" the only benefit of that was that she jumped about a foot in the air.

"I'm going out." She told me, already sounding defensive.

"Now? Where on earth could you possibly be going that constitutes being out after curfew? You're a prefect! You're supposed to follow the rules!" I told her desperately.

"Some things are more important. I learned that from you and the boys." She told me. She was opening the door now.

"But how is this important?" I begged. I had to get her to see reason.

"Because," she informed me, "I used to do this all the time with my sister. We used to spend hours watching the full moon. It's so pretty. And we used to gossip and laugh," she sighed, "I haven't done that since I came to school." Great. We were already out on the grounds now, and there was no way I could convince here to change her mind. Now what?

"Lily, there's a reason for that! It's against the rules, and it's dangerous! Who knows what gets out here at night, particularly on the full moon?"

"Well, it's worth the risk. Besides, people sneak out all the time, and no one ever gets caught or hurt."

"Not true! Last time I snuck out here I was nearly eaten by a giant spider, remember?"

"You snuck into the forest. There's a difference. And anyway, how do you know you didn't just imagine it? There aren't supposed to be acromantulas in the forest."

"I didn't imagine it and unless you want something just as bad to happen you'll listen to me and get-"

"AAAAARRRRROOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUU"

I whipped around and came face to face with a very large werewolf. Because my night just couldn't get any worse, we had to be in the one place where we would run into the only werewolf on the grounds.

"Lily, run. Now." I told her as calmly as I could. She hesitated, and then ran, and I was right behind her. We ran as fast as we could. It wasn't enough though. We would have been caught if it weren't for the big, black dog that happened across our path. He appeared out of nowhere and jumped straight over us at the wolf, making both of us scream.

Lily and I kept running, but I had to turn back. It had to be Sirius, and I couldn't just leave him there. I was pretty torn, so I couldn't tell you whether what happened next was good or bad luck. Sirius got hit in the head and turned back into himself. It was probably bad luck.

I ran back and tried to grab him. Unfortunately, the werewolf decided this was a good time to swipe at him, and I instinctually leaned over him. The next second, my back was torn open, and I screamed. Loud. It felt like… I can't even describe it. I guess you wouldn't know unless it happened to you too. Or maybe if you were whipped with the cat o' nine, but I don't think that's legal anymore.

Anyways, I was sure I was toast, but then a stag jumped the werewolf out of nowhere and tackled him. Lily had reached us by this time, and the two of us managed to get Sirius to castle. It only took about five minutes, but it felt much longer. Every second felt like an hour, and I kept thinking I was going to get attacked, but nothing happened.

We got him up to the hospital wing and knocked hard on the door. It took a minute, but then Madame Pomfrey let us in and helped us get Sirius onto one of the beds.

"It's good you got him to me, he might have had a concussion." She told us sternly as she examined him. A second later James burst into the room panting. He looked panicked, and I think he was close to crying when he saw Sirius safe on the bed.

"Will he be alright?" he asked thickly (his voice was thick, not the question).

Madame Pomfrey was now feeding Sirius a potion she had taken out of the cabinet. "Yes, he'll be fine. In fact, he should wake up soon after I give him this." She reassured us. All three of us let out a breath. Peter ran in a second later pulled James to the side, no doubt to tell him something about what had happened. I was really hoping they had gotten the werewolf back into the shrieking shack safely.

The last time Sirius had woken up in the hospital wing, I had started babbling and hugged him. This time, I forced myself to stick with a "thank Merlin" and stayed put. He seemed a bit groggy, but was otherwise fine. After we had established that he was indeed alright, I turned to the matron.

"Do you think you could take a look at my back too?" I asked tentatively. I didn't know how she would react to the scratches. Still, I wasn't prepared for everyone's heads to snap towards me. Madam Pomfrey sat me down and turned me towards the wall, and everyone gasped. I guess in the dark and panic, no one had noticed the scratches before. They were apparently pretty bad though.

"What on earth happened?" she asked faintly. I just shrugged. I couldn't really tell her that I had been trying to save a dog that had suddenly turned into a handsome young man. She pulled the curtains around me, helped me peel off my shirt, cleaned the wounds and bandaged them. Luckily, she had extra shirts down there, so I didn't have to worry about wearing the ruined one.

Once she was finished, she asked again what had happened. I couldn't let everyone find out about the guys, it could be disastrous, and I couldn't blame Lily, it wasn't her fault. There was only one thing to say.

"It was my fault," I told her clearly, "I wanted to go outside, and I didn't know about werewolves. I hadn't learned about them yet. These guys were trying to stop me when the werewolf showed up. It knocked Sirius out before we could get away."

The others were staring at me. They probably thought I was completely mental, but if I claimed it was an accident, and that I hadn't known, maybe we wouldn't get into too much trouble. Little did I know that as a rule the matron didn't report these things, so that students wouldn't try to treat themselves when they were doing something against the rules. Still, I would never regret what I said. It might be different for something illegal.

Madam Pomfrey completely bought it as well. She muttered about poor teaching and reckless children before retreating to her office.

"Why?" James asked.

"It was Remus, wasn't it?" I asked in return, ignoring his question. He nodded, still looking shocked. "That's why. He's my friend, and I'm guessing you three are helping him quite a bit with this. Just don't screw it up and get caught, ok? Poor Remus would never forgive himself, and I don't really want to see you three in Azkaban either."

They nodded again. I don't think they could do much else at the moment. Just then, Madame Pomfrey entered the room again looking for a jar of something. A sudden, terrifying thought entered my head and I turned to her in desperation.

"Please, you can't tell Remus," I begged, "he'll only blame himself and it isn't his fault at all, honest! Who knows what he'll do if he thinks he's hurt me? Just… just please don't tell him, please! It would kill him!" Again, everyone was staring at me in shock. Was I really that weird? Finally, Madame Pomfrey nodded again, promised not to tell, grabbed her jar, and left. I sighed in relief.

"Why?" James asked again. By that point I was pretty sure that the stress had reduced his vocabulary to that single word.

"I told her why. It would only hurt him. Remus is a good person, he doesn't need that." I told him simply.

It was Sirius who broke the silence this time. He shook his head, smiled wearily at me, and said simply, "You are one heck of a witch, Emily."

And all I could do was smile back.