"Well… I'll see you later!" I told Remus, who was giving our trunks to the man putting them in the luggage carriage, as I quickly walked away from him. I could hear him yelling for me to stop, but I just waved a bit, still walking. I got onto the red Hogwarts Express, inspecting everything to soak it all in. I, was finally going to Hogwarts.

Our parents had already left; they were both in a hurry, as per usual. Our mother had hugged us both very tightly, and our father had made sure to tell Remus to keep me out of trouble. As much as I loved them, I always wished they'd stop seeing me as the baby of the family; Remus and I were twins, for God's sake.

So far, it was only ten when our family had arrived, so Remus and I were still some of the earliest people to get there. It was so empty that I found an empty compartment in a matter of minutes, which was refreshing. As much as I loved Remus, I didn't need him always around protecting me, making sure I was keeping myself safe.

I sighed a bit, mostly from happiness. Once I'd reach Hogwarts, I'd technically be starting my second year. My father had kept me homeschooled last year, afraid I was much more vulnerable and not so wise when it came to my condition, well, at least not as wise as Remus. Although Remus and I both were werewolves, my parents had always trusted him to stay calm more, especially after my summer before I should have started Hogwarts.

My best friend since I was about five, Leo Smith, had been murdered right before we were supposed to go to Hogwarts, and I'd witnessed it. Remus, my parents, and Leo's parents were the only people who knew about what happened, but they made sure not to talk about it to me. Even if Remus tried to help, it wouldn't work, but that was in the past now.

Eventually, I found myself staring out the window and twirling my locket, so I forced myself to take out a book, to block out the memories. I dug a large fairytale book out of my bag, which contained mostly only essentials. As I read, the train departed, right at eleven on the dot. The story was interesting, but I'd read it before, so it was getting harder and harder to focus.

It must have only been minutes after the train left the station, when I heard the door to my compartment slide open. "Can we sit here? Everywhere else-" a young boy's voice started, but without looking up from my book, I just nodded and waved my hand for them to just sit down.

"I'm taking that as a yes, boys. Thanks," said another boy.

"Yeah, thanks," said the one before.

"Thanks," said another boy, quietly.

"Yes, thank you so much," I heard a familiar voice say and I looked up, seeing a smirking Remus. I almost gasped in surprise, but kept my mouth shut.

"No problem," I said taking my eyes off Remus to not look suspicious. I looked around the compartment, quickly studying the three other boys, who'd apparently not noticed my surprise. Sitting next to me, was a tall boy with light brown hair, glasses, and a proud look in his eye, he was smiling. Across from me, there was an admittedly handsome boy, with shaggy black hair and striking grey eyes, he also carried a bit of a smirk. Next to the boy with glasses, was a short boy, with brown hair; he looked nice enough to me.

There were a few moments of silence, as we all (not counting Remus) summed each other up, but the boy next to me eventually introduced them, "So, I'm James Potter, that one's Sirius Black, that's Peter Pettigrew, and that's Remus Lupin."

"You got a name, love?" asked the one with curly hair, Sirius something I think, while smirking. I was already getting annoyed with him, especially for adding the unnecessary nickname.

"Izzy, or Belle I suppose," I answered, trying to keep my temper down.

"So, your actual name's Isabelle?" James asked, and I nodded, like it was a bit obvious. Again silence.

"So, I'm just going to get back to my book, nice meeting you guys," I said, a bit awkwardly, but I was happy to end the conversation for the most part.

I turned back to my book, but it was taken from me not a minute later. "Oi! What's the big idea?" I yelled at Sirius, who had taken my book, but he just smirked.

"What's the magic word?" Sirius asked like I was a little kid, holding the book back.

I bit my lip again, and then forced out a mumble, "Can I have it back, please?"

Sirius just smirked wider, and then taunted, "Sure thing, but only after you give me a little kiss." I glared at him, but he just puckered his lips and closed his eyes, the smirk on his lips still somehow there. The others were watching, James and Peter with interest, and Remus in an angry way. I, myself, was furious, and didn't even realize what I was doing until, instead of my lips softly reaching his, my fist roughly crashed into his nose.

"Ow! What the bloody hell?" Sirius yelled while dropping my book and grabbing his nose.

I hadn't actually meant to hit him, well at least not that hard, because I could feel my own hand throbbing in pain. Quickly, I just stood up, getting my book and bag, and left the room, feeling both annoyed and guilty. I mean, he is Remus' friend…

I walked down the train, looking into the compartments until I finally saw two familiar pairs of red heads sitting in one. I slid open the door and they looked up and smiled. "Belle!" the twins exclaimed together.

"Hey guys," I said in reply, sitting down with them. I was looking at Fabian and Gideon Prewett, two Gryffindors, a first year and a third year, whom I had met only a month ago in Diagon Alley.

Remus had left me in a store for a few minutes to meet up with his friends while I walked around the bookshop when something, or apparently, someone tripped me. It was a tall, redheaded boy who was sitting on the floor, looking at some book that had tripped me. Immediately, he apologized, "I'm so sorry, that wasn't intentional. I'm Fabian, I suppose."

I laughed a bit, "it's fine, I'm Isabelle, but don't call me that. Are you looking for Hogwarts books?"

Fabian started to speak when a younger version of him walked up next to me; his name was Gideon and he was going into his first year at Hogwarts.

After our little run-in, I hadn't spoken to them, but we'd quickly bonded. Fabian helped me find books, while I talked to Gideon about how excited we were going to Hogwarts. It was a relief talking to them, like I already had some friends other than my brother.

"Are you okay? You look sort of annoyed," Fabian asked carefully.

"Eh… This guy tried to get me to kiss him, but I kind of lost it, and I think I broke his nose… You know, normal stuff," I responded.

"Who?" Gideon inquired.

"Oh, what was it…Oh yes it was, uh... Sirius Grey, or something, I think? He has long, curly black hair and hangs out with my brother, Remus," I answered thoughtfully.

Fabian laughed a bit, and nodded, "Sirius Black, yeah. He's practically the ladies' man of Gryffindor, even if he is only a second year." I nodded, but something was bothering me.

Guilt, of course.

I groaned a bit and mumbled, "I'll be right back," and walked out into the hall. As I slowly got back to the other compartment, I looked in through the window in the door. Sirius's nose was oozing with blood, and the boys were still laughing a bit, but it seemed at though none of them had told him how to get it to stop bleeding, even though I knew Remus knew exactly how. I sighed and walked back inside grudgingly.

Stupid guilt.

Sirius

"What the bloody hell is wrong with that witch? I think she broke my bloody nose!" I complained to the guys, whom were all laughing at my expense.

As they were all trying to regain their breath Remus broke the silence, "Sorry, my sister has a horrid temper." He added to his thought, "she's particularly violent too."

"Well she didn't have to punch my bloody… Wait… Did you say your sister?" I asked, his words having finally registered in my brain. Peter and James had stopped laughing now, and were starring at Remus, along with me.

He simply nodded, shrugging and said, "Yeah, Izzy is that twin sister I told you about."

"Darn, Remus, we were all hoping she'd be ugly," James said, while snapping his fingers and falling back into his seat dramatically.

"Bloody hell, do you know how to get it to stop bleeding?" I asked looking down at my, now, bloodstained hands.

"I might, " Remus admitted, but he opened his book and starting to read. I opened my mouth to say something when the she-devil, herself, came in. Without a word, Remus' sister took out a handkerchief and pinched my nose with it, forcing me to sit a bit forward. It was awkward and uncomfortable, but I slowly felt the bleeding stop. She pulled her, now bloody, handkerchief away; I pulled my shirt up a bit, cleaning off my face.

"Thanks" I angrily muttered.

"You're welcome," Isabelle replied flatly and turned to Remus and said, "I'll be with Fabian and Gideon."

He looked up from his book and warned, "tell me if they do anything." None of us were particularly fans of the Prewett twins, and the feeling was mutual, but none of us hated each other.

Isabelle rolled her eyes and said, "They won't, but I'd watch him," gesturing to me.

I stood up angrily. "Oh, trust me, sweetheart, I won't try anything. How about we just don't speak at all, Lupin?" I suggested, glaring at her.

"Sounds perfect to me, Grey," she, again, replied flatly.

"My name is Black!" I snapped at her.

"Hm. Weird, I thought you were actually being serious when you said it was Sirius," she mocked.

"I was!" I replied, annoyed.

"But I thought it was Black now?" she asked, looking at me innocently, and I let out a sigh of frustration. The guys were cracking up now and she smirked at my agitation. I glared at her, and she gave me one last smirk and then finally left.

"Remus no offense, but I hate your sister," I muttered, while slumping back into my seat.

This is going to be a long year.

Isabelle

"Ahhhhh! We're here!," I couldn't help, but shreik to Fabian and Gideon as I looked out the window to the large castle and jumped up and down in my seat. Even though Gideon was a first year, and really excited, I topped it. "Oh it's so beautiful!"

"Yeah it is, now let's go," said Fabian, pulling Gideon and me out of the compartment. We got off the train, and Fabian half-warned, half-taunted, "Don't fall into the Black Lake, you'll be eaten in seconds." He went off to carriages hooked up to very strange, skeleton-looking horses. They made me shiver, but Gideon pulled me along to a very tall, large man, with a very thick beard. He introduced himself as Hagrid, and me along with the young first years followed him to a bunch of small boats. I sat in a boat along with Gideon and a small, blond girl, who he apparently knew. All of us watched the giant castle in front of us, amazed by its beauty. It was huge, black, and you could literally feel the magic aura around it; it already felt like home.

In my opinion, the boat ride was far too short. I hardly got a chance to completely stare at Hogwarts.

While we were getting off the boats, I missed the step, almost falling in, but thankfully, Gideon caught me. "Thanks," I said smiling at him, looking a bit embarrassed. He chuckled and said, "No problem, remember what Fab said."

We walked to a strict, but kind looking lady waiting for the first years. She introduced herself as Professor McGonagall, explaining the four houses, which we were to be sorted in, while walking us to very large doors. I could hear chatter going on inside, and we were sent in. It was a magnificent room, with four long tables, all filled with kids. By the color of the robes, I quickly saw the Gryffindor table, where Remus gave me a thumbs-up, and so did James. It made me smile, as my eyes wandered to the ceiling. It was an exact replica of the night sky, with candle floating; it was my favorite part of the whole room.

We were stopped in front of another long table, only this one was horizontal to us, and had adults whom I could only assume were faculty members. In the middle, there was an old man with a long, white beard, and twinkling blue eyes. It could only be Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster Remus had told me about.

McGonagall put a small stool in the middle between us and the faculty, and then a ratty, old hat on it. We all stared at the hat, wondering what exactly it was supposed to do, when it started to sing. It was utterly amazing; the hat sang a long song, about the founders of Hogwarts, and their beliefs. Remus, of course, had already told me about the houses, and I honestly wasn't sure where I belonged.

After the song was finished, everyone clapped, the first years mostly hesitantly. "Before we begin with the first years, we have a new student this year, going into second year. Isabelle Lupin," Professor McGonagall informed, and then called me. I tried not to shake as I walked up to a stool, carefully sitting down. The hat was put on my head and it started talking to me, in my head, I think.

"Ahh a clever witch I see, with quite a few secrets too." My eyes grew a bit wide, growing more and more nervous. "Don't worry, I'm a hat I won't tell anyone." Thank you, Mister Hat. "You're welcome. Anyway… You're kind, but a bit temperamental, clever, but a bit too rash…Very brave, I see, but also you feel a need to prove you can stand on your own… You could really be in any house!" The hat apparently had said the last part out loud and everyone was staring at me. I bit my lip, getting impatient. The hat kept speaking aloud.

"But where to put you, my dear? Hmmm…."

Okay, you've been at it for five minutes and you just hurry it along please.

"Fine, yes I choose…SLY-GRYFFINDOR!" it finally exclaimed, and I let out a sigh of relief and smiled as the Gryffindor table began cheering. McGonagall took the hat off my head and I quickly, jogged off to the table. I took the seat next to Remus, and much to my dislike, across from Black. Throughout the sorting, first years were placed in all four of the houses. The little blond girl I'd sat with on the boat was named Eliza and was placed in Hufflepuff, and Gideon was placed in Gryffindor, but he said that was pretty normal in his family.

Once the sorting finished, Dumbledore stood up to speak to us, welcoming us new students, and telling us which places were off-limits. I could hear James whisper to Sirius, "new places for our list," grinning, and then the feast began. The food was absolutely delicious, and even though I was sitting across from Sirius Black, Remus told me all about the castle, so nothing could ruin my mood. It was a lovely first night at Hogwarts.

"Hey James!" I yelled in his ear when I saw his sitting in the common room. James jumped from surprise, knocking over his inkbottle all over his parchment.

"Ah! No! I dropped ink all over my potions homework!" James started freaking out as his whole essay turned dark blue. I rolled my eyes a bit, getting out my wand and sucking out the excess ink from his paper.

"D'you want some help? I finished mine last night." I offered. James nodded a bit timidly, and I laughed a little, sitting down with him. Even though he was Sirius' best mate, James and I got along surprisingly well. He was less arrogant and annoyed than I'd originally thought, and through my couple months at Hogwarts, turned out to be a good friend.

We were working on his essay until I heard a sneering voice a few feet away from us say, "Wow, nice flirting there, Lupin."

I looked up and glared, "shut up, Black. I'm not flirting, but what's it to you, anyway? Jealous?"

"As if, I just don't want one of my best mates being harassed by some pushy girl like you- or are you even a girl?" Sirius asked, mockingly.

"Still mad about your nose Black?" I asked with gritted teeth, getting angrier. It was the full moon tonight, was I was already more on edge than usual, and Sirius was always trying to get on my back, so he was on my last nerve.

"Yeah, but it barely hurt, you can't even punch," he taunted me, and I couldn't help myself, I jumped onto him. My attack took everyone around us by surprise, including Sirius as I hit him, still sitting on him.

"How's that for not being able to punch?" I demanded, and Sirius got over his shock. He started blocking my punches, and the two of us rolled, each trying to gain the upper hand.

Normally, if any girl, or even most guys our age had tried to fight Sirius, they'd be sent to the infirmary in a matter of seconds. Sirius was strong, and tall for his age, but I had a bit of my werewolf instincts from the moon, and it gave me some more strength. I knew my head would start pounding soon, but I kept fighting.

Most people were just watching the fight, forming a bit of a circle around us, but I felt three pairs of hands grabbing me and pulling me back. Remus, James, and Peter were all holding me back as kicked at them, but Remus took my arms, James took one leg, and Peter took the other leg as they picked me up off the ground.

From across the room, it looked like Sirius was trying to get back to the fight too; two prefects were holding him back. His nose was bleeding and his lip was cut, and I only imagined how I looked.

"Stop! Detention, both of you!" yelled a seventh year prefect, looking furious.

"Make it separated," suggested Remus, not letting me go.

Sirius and I were still kicking at the people holding us so the head girl, exclaimed, "Okay, that's it!" She said two spells and made Sirius and me frozen. I couldn't move and the guys put me down. Remus started to clean blood off my face while James and Peter took Sirius to their room and came back down without him.

James looked at me, concerned and asked, "You okay? You have blood everywhere." I couldn't move to nod, or say anything. "Okay, Iz, I'm going to take off the spell, but please don't move. We still have to visit Mum tonight..." That was our code for the full moon. It was a bad lie, but people bought it anyway.

Remus took the spell off me and I sat down, taking a big breath. "Will you just clean up my face? I feel like it's covered in blood."

"Probably 'cause it is covered in blood," James added as Remus went to finished cleaning blood off my face. Some older students did the best they could with fixing up some cuts, and Madame Pomfrey came in to "take us to see our mother". I could tell she noticed my obviously new bruises and scratches, but she didn't push any questions.

Madame Pomfrey walked us to the Whomping Willow and stunned it, then left. Remus jumped through the hole in the roots, and I followed as we took the long walk to the Shrieking Shack, neither thinking of anything to say.

I slowly opened my eyes to very bright, florescent lights. I looked around, but stopped when I felt a horribly sharp pain in my back and leg. The last thing I remembered was painfully changing back into a human and passing out. Remus and I must have attacked each other, like we do whenever we're together on a full moon. I carefully turned to my right and saw Remus sitting in the bed next to me; sleeping. He was snoring a bit, and I took a moment to examine how he looked. His eye was swollen, with bruises all around it, but I knew that was the least of it. "Remus… Hey Remus, wake up?" I said, first quietly, but then raising my voice. Despite me being careful, Remus woke up with a small jump and cringed from the pain. I bit my lip, asking, "Sorry, you okay Rems?"

"I'm fine Iz, are you okay?"

"I'm fine too." There was the normal, unpleasant silence that always followed the full moon. Finally, I had to speak. "Remus… sorry about last night, it was stupid for me to fight Black-I mean Sirius. I mean, he is one of your best mates," I said and he nodded a bit.

Before he could reply, Madame Pomfrey came in to inform us of our injuries, "good morning Mr. and Miss Lupin. Miss Lupin, I will need to fix your broken leg, and your back is very badly scratched. And Mr. Lupin, I'll need to fix your eye and a few broken ribs."

Remus and I glanced guiltily at each other. We both always blamed ourselves for the other person's injuries even though I never blamed him for mine and he never blamed me for his. We turned away from each, drinking the potions we were given while Madame Pomfrey fixed us up.

Then, we were forced to sleep.

It was almost dinnertime when we woke up, not quite yet healed completely, but we were allowed to leave the hospital wing, with a lot of persuasion on our part. I limped slightly, as we tried to walk normally into the Great Hall. At the Gryffindor table, I sat in between James and Peter; Remus sat next to Sirius and across from me.

"Are you two okay?" James asked right after we sat down, watching us closely.

"Fine, why?" I asked acting like nothing was wrong as I put food onto my plate.

"You were limping," James answered, a-matter-of-factly.

"We-uh, were using floo powder and-uh, I fell when we landed. Right, Remus?" I answered as confidently as I could; I wasn't the best liar.

Remus nodded very quickly, agreeing with me, "Yes, you know how clumsy Izzy is." He gave a weak chuckle as I gave him a small glare.

Remus, we're horrid liars. Do you think they're honestly that thick?

Well they obvious suspect something, but I haven't told them anything.

Well they're going to figure it out sometime.

Are you saying that we should tell them?

No! Of course not, Remus! We just have to make up a better story.

Okay…But I think they're on to us now.

Why d'you say that?

I snapped out of it when noticed the hand, snapping, in my face. "Hellooooo earth to Remus and Izzy?" James was waving a hand in my face and Sirius was waving his in Remus's face.

"Uh sorry, what were you saying? Zoned out," Remus said quickly.

"Sure you did, right," said James as Sirius just snorted and I started to glare at him, opening my mouth to say something, but stopped when I saw the look Remus was giving me. I took a deep breath and just continued eating without saying anything, trying to think of a better excuse for the next full moon.