The trip up to the dormitory was stuffy, full of an awkward, nearly suffocating tension that — despite the past few weeks — Remus and Katie still hadn't become accustomed to. Remus strayed slightly behind Katie, keeping a distance.

Stepping into the dormitory and closing the door did nothing for the tension. If anything, it only made it worse. They were trapped, enclosed, with emotions running high and no way out of confrontation. Despite what they each said to James and Lily respectively, the tension only seemed to build a lump in both their throats.

The silence was broken only slightly as Katie slowly walked over to Remus' bed, leaning against one of the wooden bed posts.

Remus just watched fondly as she let her fingertips touch his mattress comforter delicately, relishing a little at how that small action helped to elevate the heavy tension. Katie smiled fondly as well, unable to help it as a familiar chocolate scent reached her nostrils.

She still hadn't turned to face him. Despite how much she yearned for this moment — the moment to vindicate his self-blame and receive validation that their friendship meant as much to him as it did to her — she was at a loss for words.

She had always had a natural tongue. While James had his charismatic smile, she been gifted the ability to spin words in ways that others struggled to. But somehow, coupled with the knot that was carefully pulling itself tighter in her stomach and the moderate ache at her temples, she knew that her gift would fail her if she tried to speak.

Her words would be of no help to the situation, a disastrous spark to an already raging fire. Right now the room was at a neutrality, the scales hadn't yet been tipped from hopeful to disaster. The action of turning around and attempting to meet his eyes would change the balance of the room entirely.

The long silence stretched on for a few more moments. Later on, the two would eventually look back to say that this moment was one of the most uncomfortable in their lives. Katie could hear Remus' feet absentmindedly shuffling around nervously—one of his many tells that she'd picked up on over the years.

This entire silent exchange felt futile. It was a game of dancing around the other in hopes that things would magically heal the seams that had come undone in their carefully knitted relationship. The moment still didn't feel quite right because Katherine had never thought twice about a risk, and she'd certainly never felt so lost for words before. But there would always be exceptions to her rules.

Remus' shuffling had come to silent stop, but she could practically feel the tension emulating off of him in waves even when he wasn't in her view. It struck her that maybe she was waiting for him to run away, waiting for him to change his mind and decide that at the end of the day they weren't worth fighting for; and yet he was still firmly rooted to that spot, not having moved a smidge.

Biting her lip so hard she swore that she'd left a bruise, Katie managed as much courage as she could, silently hoping that her words wouldn't fail her when she needed them most.

"It's not your fault you know," she started, cringing at her words. They wrapped around her tongue distastefully, a hard differentiation to her usually smoothly flowing words. She held onto her pinky, squeezing it harder than she knew was healthy. Clearing her throat once more, she tried to find the words she was yearning to convey.

"James told me that you'd felt guilty—about what happened that night, but it's not your fault. It's far from it." She winced again, getting the sudden urge to kick herself.

It all seemed so forced, so unnatural. It seemed that she just couldn't find the words that would truly convey what she wanted to say, instead only spewing out lackluster words that seemed to be terribly missing the mark.

The room still felt all too heavy with the weight of wrongly spoken words that it still felt too fragile for her to turn towards him quite yet. With her back turned, Remus' voice somehow felt blocked in a way, as if her back was creating a barrier between them. "That's just the thing." The guilt was so clear and crisply woven into his words that she couldn't help tensing.

"That's what they've all been telling me. James, Sirius, Pete. And ... I want to believe them." He choked on his own words, making it increasingly more difficult for Katie to keep her back turned to him. Suddenly the fragility of the room didn't seem so paper-thin anymore.

Remus continued on. "God, I desperately want to believe them. It was all so easy in second year—when they'd found out. Because I—" He stopped again, this time taking his time to formulate the words he would say next. Katie's own curiosity and a strange pull she couldn't quite place was finally what got her to give in and slowly shuffle around to face Remus.

His eyes carried an intensity of hurt and so much self-loathing. And ... care. There was no mistaking the care in his eyes. Care for her. "I hadn't hurt any of them then."

They were so laden with unadulterated care that she suddenly felt silly to think that Remus hadn't told her about his problem because she wasn't important to him. Even her occasional anger that had popped into her head every once in a while the past few weeks had dissipated.

Because in that moment, she saw the same scared little boy she met on the train hidden underneath his eyes, the same boy that she'd vowed to herself to always go above and beyond to feel welcome and loved. And suddenly she understood why he'd been so terrified to let her know his secret, at least in her own way.

Tentatively, Katie took careful steps forward, queuing up a counterargument on the tip of her tongue. She suddenly felt the familiar thrum of knowing exactly what she felt needed to be said, the knot in her stomach slowly untangling itself. But one look at him caused the argument to silence itself, the look in his eyes desperately pleading with her to let him finish.

"Back then, it was all so easy. Of course I was scared of hurting someone in my werewolf form, terrified even." His voice was at a low whisper, vulnerable and guilt-laden.

"But I never really thought it would ever really happen. Even when they decided to become animagi for me, I was just so happy—so happy about the chance that transformations would be less painful. And after they became animagi, I never really worried. Hurting another human slipped to the back of my mind." His eyes flicked away from her, as if the thought of seeing her put him through physical pain.

Remus' eyes began to lift unconsciously, focusing on anything but her. As the light hit his eyes, she could make out the way they're glassed over with unshed tears.

Katie took the opportunity to walk closer to him, still managing to keep a distance. She kept her mouth shut, allowing him to speak what he needed to be spoken. "There was only one close encounter last year—with Snape. Things led to another and I'd almost hurt him. It took me months to forgive Sirius for his part in it. But even then, it never actually happened. I never actually harmed him."

"When I," Remus continued, pausing to gather his thoughts, "when I woke up in the hospital wing, and I saw you. The blood soaked bandages around your arm. I realized my biggest fear came true. It made me realize just how much destruction I was capable of. How many people I could inflict pain on." Something painful twisted in her chest as his eyes took on a haunted look and a barely audible shudder formulated unintentionally from his lips.

"... It made me feel," a sigh escaped his lips, "It ... made me feel as if I was a monster. Just as much of a monster as the man who turned me," he whispered, quiet and fragile. Suddenly it felt like the room had tipped, but to neither of the sides that she'd expected. Rather it was a feeling she couldn't explain, like pain and hopefulness swirling together to create a concoction that contradicted its structure.

She stepped closer to him still, now not caring about the distance between them. The balance may have been tipped, but her confidence had risen - she knew what words she needed to say, Gingerly, she reached out and touched her fingertips to his forearm, his muscles tensing underneath her touch. Their gazes met, an odd mixture of perfect understanding meeting the other.

To Remus' surprise, she smiled softly at him, the same characteristic smile that he'd gotten so accustomed to seeing over the years. "What went through your mind after you found me? Why did you distance yourself from me?"

Remus felt a pang of guilt build up in his stomach. "Kate I-"

Her delicate smile never wavered - a gentle, pleasing smile that never failed to make him feel at ease. Shh ... just—just answer."

He nodded ever so slightly, deciding to cater to her wishes. "You were hurt. Because of me. There are," he choked out, taking her arm into his grip, "scars left on your body that I caused." His eyes raked over her covered forearm, staring intently at the place he knew her scars to be. He couldn't think about that, not now. Not if he ever wanted to get out what she needed to hear from him.

He dropped her arm, letting it fall to her side gently. "You're important to me, Kate. That's why I ..." He stopped, letting out a humorless chuckle. "That's why I stayed away. It was your closeness to me that led you to that shack in the first place. In a way it was why I wanted to keep my werewolf a secret for so long, because I never wanted to give you an opportunity to walk away. Not after everything. But the the idea of you walking away doesn't seem so bad now, as long as you're still alive. Alive and breathing. I just—I couldn't, I wouldn't let you get harmed by me again. The thought of ever harming anyone again ..."

"I remember, the first thought that crossed my mind when I saw you in that bed was, 'what if I had done just a little more damage?' What would I do if I ... if I woke up and found you," Remus visibly gulped, whispering his next words, "dead. Dead knowing that this could've been avoided if you just hadn't known me at all."

She reached out to intertwine their fingers, the same smile still gracing her lips. Her eyes were glazed over with tears. "Remus," she whispered. Katie gripped his hand tighter as his eyes fluttered closed at the sound of his name on his lips. The effect she had on him was so undeniable at this point that he'd given up pretending. "Think about what you said just now. Word for word. And try to tell me honestly, looking me straight in the eyes that a monster would've said anything even close to what you just said to me."

He could feel himself blink, taken aback by her words. When she'd asked him to answer those questions, he'd expected something so much different. He straightened his posture ever so slightly, attempting to keep his front, to keep his argument.

It was the one belief that never wavered. Even as he made friends and learned of love and learned of joy, he could never quite truly untie himself from the rope the kept him so tightly strapped onto the ship of his own insecurity. It had been engrained in his mind ever since he could feel his heart slowly break at the look of badly hidden fear and disgust behind his father's eyes, even for just a second.

A monster, he'd heard his father spit out when talking about werewolves long before he as a child had gotten bitten. It really was just his luck that his son had been bitten, plagued to a lifetime of scrutiny for as long as he lived.

And that's what he was - a monster. An awful monster that could kill and maim and hurt, and he couldn't do anything about it.

He raised his gaze, his self-hatred bubbling hotly in his stomach, dark and scorching. The words had been on the tip of his tongue, ready to prove her wrong until he got a glance at her eyes.

It was these eyes that had always drawn him in. Though they didn't really hold any physical difference to any of the hazel-colored eyes he'd seen in his lifetime, it was in the way that she wore her most vulnerable emotions in them - you just had to know her well enough to look.

And at the moment he stared straight into pools of care and love and hope and sadness that suddenly he was tied onto a different boat. The boat now had Katherine Hart at its mast, and he was no longer pulled roughly into the surface of the water from a rope tied too close close to the ocean. Rather he was standing with her at the mast, no chains, no ropes, and yet still so inexplicably bound.

Her touch brought him back to the setting of the sixth year dormitory, but the feeling of acceptance in his chest still hadn't wavered. At the sides of his shirt, her fingertips danced, leaving a trail of both a warmth and a chill.

Suddenly, with stark realization, he knew that he wouldn't be able to look her in the eye and tell her that he was a monster.

Her voice rang out clearly over the jumble of his thoughts, quiet and gentle. "You ... are not a monster. You never have and you never will be. Because this right here," she poked a finger at his heart, "the heart in there is too good, too bright, too full of love, to ever even come close to being the cold, shriveled up heart that belongs to the man that turned you."

He stared at her, disbelieving. Never in his life had he felt more comforting words. He felt tears stinging in his eyes that came dangerously close to tipping out. But all he could think of was how much he loved the girl standing in front of him. And how much he knew that she loved him back.

So he hugged her. Wrapped his arms tightly around her small frame and sobbed into her hair. In this moment, he didn't have a care in the world.

Neither of them said anything. They knew that the vulnerability present in this room is one that they'd never have again. They knew that the moment a word was spoken, the moment would be over - the feeling of it captured only in their memories.

They stayed like that for what felt like forever, until Remus finally detracted his head from her hair. His eyes were puffy, red rimming the whites of his eyes. There are a few dried tears streaked on his cheeks. He looked to Katie's face and attempted to laugh, but ended up making a sound that between a chuckle and a sniffle. Her face was nearly identical to his.

And he stared at her, stared at the face of this young woman that somehow snuck her way past his guards, because nobody quite made him feel emotions the way she could. Because she had been the only one capable of ever changing his mind when he'd thought his stance would be unbreakable.

"God, we're a mess," he said, not just because they were both red in the face and teary eyed but because there was nothing more in this moment that he wanted to do than let go of all his emotional inhibitions and put his hands on her face and just see where that would lead.

But he couldn't, he reminded himself. However, he didn't feel any heavier, because somehow he felt as if one day he'd allow himself to break that rule, just once. For her, and for himself.

So instead his mouth quirked up and soon they were both laughing loudly, letting the stress of the past few weeks wash off.

Soon they ended up on his bed, laying on their backs next to each other. The comforter rose and fell with each of their breathy chuckles from something the other had said. The tension was slowly melting out of the room - there was no longer a heavy weight on either of their chests.

The moment felt refreshing, like a breath of fresh air after being forced to hold your breath for some time, or waking up to a day you knew was going to be great.

"Thank you, Kate. This means a lot to me, more than you'll ever know," Remus told her, turning his head slightly to flash her an upturned grin. Katie hadn't realized until then that she hadn't just missed Remus himself, but that she'd missed all his tiny quirks that seemed so deeply ingrained as almost a part of who she was now too. That small upturned smile was a part of him that she carried around with her like a hand to hold to.

Katie smiled cheekily back at him. "You can pay me back by promising to never let me sit through another one of those insanely awkward library conversations that we had. Think I might just go insane if I ever have to go through that again." She held up her pinky finger between them. Lily had explained to her the mannerism in their first few weeks of being friends.

Remus' smile widened at the gesture, intertwining their pinkies together. It may have been childish, but Katie got the slight impression that Remus went along with it because he didn't quite have a childhood as free and as fun as she did. "Promise," he breathed, his voice so quiet she wouldn't have heard it if she wasn't so close.

Katie scoot closer to Remus, angling her head to lay on top of his shoulder. Remus' cheeks brightened slightly at the proximity, but he didn't move. Both realized that they'd slowly become more intimate with one another - brief hand holding, hugs that always seemed to be a second longer than usual, a slight touch to the shoulder, or even a shared glance that just held something different.

But somehow it all still felt natural, like they were still in some ways the Remus and Katherine that met on the train all those years ago.

Katie felt a pull to the curve of his lips, slanted and full. Something akin to desire bubbled up in her stomach - even though she wasn't staring at his face, but rather the ceiling, the thoughts the pervaded her mind didn't seem like something that should be thought when the person in question was laying not even a centimeter away from her shoulder.

The things of desire felt fleetingly familiar, though she couldn't remember ever feeling the way she did at that moment. Quick as lightning, a flash of a memory flashed through her - lips and hands and Remus' hair - but it was gone as soon as it came, and as much as she tried, she couldn't remember a single detail of the memory that had just flitted through her mind.

That would be something to worry about another time. All she wanted at the moment was to bask in the comfort his friendship brought to her, a constant in her life that she may have become too dependent on. Insecurity bubbled through her at the thought, but she pushed it down, determined not to be the one to ruin the moment.

All that mattered right now was that they were okay. They were okay.

They stayed like that for moments more, just taking in one another, glad the tension had mostly gone. It was an odd game that they played, rather like cat and mouse but coupled with a huge heap of unspoken feelings.

Even though her ear was in close proximity with Remus' shoulder blade, her focus was somehow on the steady rise and fall of his chest. She could hear that his exhales had with them a distinct roughness that meant he was contemplating something.

Something akin to weariness pulled at her shoulders, somehow she felt as if the night wasn't quite done without them. Of course she knew that there were still things that troubled her, things she wished she could say out loud but didn't for fear of this perfect reverie crashing down. Still, even with as hard as she tried to stuff the emotions down, insecurity ceaselessly picked at her, slowly tearing at the different edges of her heart.

The silence was cut with Remus' voice, cautious and uncertain. Even now he wouldn't look at her, but rather still stared intently at the wooden boards of the ceiling. "I told Lily." The words left his lips slowly, as if trying to gauge her reaction before they were completely spoken out loud.

She wished that she could say that those three words had little effect on her, but with insecurity already pulling tightly at her, those were the furthest words she wanted to hear at the moment.

Still, she tried her best not to let the hitch of her breath become too audible, trying to rely heavily on what James had taught her about putting on a good face. For someone who was a terrible liar, he was a fantastic pretender, and somehow those were two completely different things, despite the contradictions that they caused. "About being a werewolf?" She finally let out, trying to hide the strain in her voice.

She heard him take a breath, hesitating before answering, "Yeah."

Katie couldn't help but feel a drop at her stomach, a different kind of knot building tightly and making her gulp. Suddenly the anger and insecurity that she felt had resurfaced with more depth, an ugly aspect that she knew would ruin whatever dream they'd crafted. "Oh," she finally said, her voice sounding smaller than she wanted.

Absentmindedly she'd turned slightly away from Remus, not wanting him to notice what was wrong. She knew that the action probably made her distress more noticeable, but something in the back of her head was annoyingly whispering that in a way she wanted him to notice, because in a way she needed his reassurance that she hadn't placed her heart on a friendship that didn't mean as much to him as it did to her.

She felt him shuffle and there was suddenly a hand at her shoulder, warm and sure. The roughness that lined his fingertips felt right as he dragged each finger tentatively down her shoulder. His touch sent a whizz through her, making her feel just slightly better.

"Kate, look—" The way her name rolled off of his tongue almost made her forget her anger, but she pushed down the feeling as quickly as it came and her anger came rushing right back to take its place.

"No, no it's fine. I understand," she said, interrupting him. Even though she wanted to pretend that the bitterness in her voice wasn't badly masked, it was too obvious for her to push out of her mind. She moved to sit in a sitting position, pulling away from him with her legs dangling off the side of his bed.

She tried to repress the argument that was playing at her lips, but it itched to make itself known. James may have vouched for Remus all those weeks ago, but that didn't mean she didn't want to hear the words come from Remus' lips, to hear him confirm that six years of friendship wasn't for nothing.

Remus came to sit next to her. Whether he was aware of the lack of space between them or not she didn't know. "You're upset." It was in these moments that Katie was beyond irritated with Remus' density when it came to certain emotions.

"Maybe I am," Katie mumbled lowly, her anger overtaking her logic. But in a way, her emotions were always dictating her logic.

"And you have a right to be." Katie's jaw ticked - what angle was he trying to play here?

"Do I, Remus?" Katie turned her head slightly, catching Remus' eye. Her question was loaded with both insecurity and edge that she herself didn't quite know how she wanted him to answer that question.

Remus sighed beside her. "I owe you an explanation, and an apology."

The room was suddenly starting to feel warm, pulling at her in her long-sleeve blouse. She stood, not looking at him. His short, sentences that consisted of statements they were already both aware of just irked her a little more. "I don't want you to give me a half-hearted apology, Remus."

"Then hear my full-hearted apology. Because you don't deserve any less than that." She could hear him standing, but he didn't come any closer. His tone softened to the tone she'd only heard him use around her. She wasn't completely sure if he was aware of it.

"I didn't deserve six years of being kept in the dark either, but we both know how that panned out." Katie hated to hear the anger in her voice so clearly written into her words, spit out in retaliation that just came naturally to her. It hadn't seemed like such a huge deal before, but now that she'd learned of him telling Lily just like that, it almost felt like a betrayal.

"No, no you didn't. You never deserved that," he agreed. She heard the steady beat of his footsteps on the ground, the sound coming closer to her. "That'll be one of my biggest regrets, not telling you. just—I was terrified that I'd lose you. I was so scared that maybe life would make a joke of me and you'd end up not accepting the fact that I was a werewolf."

Katie turned to face him, her arms crossed, her eyes dancing with hurt. "Have I ever done anything to make you feel like I wouldn't accept you, Remus?" Her brows knitted together, a silent, underlying question in her eyes.

Something in his own eyes changed, though she couldn't quite pinpoint to what it changed to. "It wasn't you. It was never because of you. It was my own insecurity, my own," he paused, and Katie watched as his eyes flicked over her face, as if deciding something. "My own feelings, because I couldn't quite believe that you would still choose to be my friend when you had people like Gideon and Fabian and Benji practically lining up to take that place."

Katie suddenly felt as if he was referring to something more within his words, a meaning that he both wanted her to pick up on and also not comment on. Somewhere in the back of her mind she knew what he was referring to, but something in her heart wasn't ready for that conversation quite yet.

That would be a monumental change, a change she'd tried to push out of her mind ever since her brain had started whispering unwanted thoughts to her early in their third year.

"I made that decision the very first day I met you. And I've been making that choice every day since. Do you really think that I would be standing here, walking in here with you to fix," she paused, unsure of what to call it. "This," she pointed a finger between the two of them, "when I could be downstairs with Gideon if I hadn't already chosen you over him over and over again?"

She didn't quite know why it was only Gideon she referred to, but something about saying Fabian and Benji didn't feel right in the situation.

Remus was looking at her with both awe and pain. "God, you deserve so much more than just a shitty apology for something that can't even be apologized for. I'd go back in time and you'd be the first person I'd tell if I could." Remus shook his head. "I'd never have hesitated. Not anymore. Not ever."

Katie didn't say anything, the knot in her stomach pulling her edges. He was sincere, she knew that much to be true. But that didn't mean it didn't hurt any less. She so desperately wished that he could go back, that he could tell her before any of this happened and rid of the uneasiness that plagued her.

Remus let out a sad, hollow chuckle, his gaze not meeting hers. "Have I ruined us?"

That got Katie's knot to pause momentarily, her breath catching. She knew the answer to that before she could even get a word out. "You could never ruin us." She watched his face soften, but she was again reminded of uneasiness that poked at her. She just needed to know. "Why did you tell Lily?"

Remus' eyes changed again, watching her carefully. "I was overwhelmed. I don't know why or how but hearing that you ran away from Tolbert like that, it made me realize that losing you was a very real possibility. And James was looking for you, and so was Sirius and Pete, and Lily was just there and I was panicking because god I wanted to kick myself over and over for pushing you away." His eyes fell from hers.

"I just—I needed to hear someone tell me what to do. If I hadn't told her what happened, I'd probably still be gripping that door handle for dear life right about now."

"Okay."

"Okay?"

"We can't redo the past six years. I found out when I found out. I'm not saying it won't take time, but I'll accept why you chose not to tell me. In time," Katie replied back to him, her eyes meeting his questioning stare. Seeing him stare at her with such hopefulness made her realize that she meant every word. Sure it still stung, but what was done was done, and she was choosing to move past it.

This time it was Katie that hugged him, her short arms coming around his torso, fitting in all the right ways. As dysfunctional as they were, they made each other work. It was the same way they felt about James, and Sirius, and Peter, and Lily. At the end of the day, they all completed each other in some way or another.

"Just no more secrets, okay?" Katie whispered as she dug her face into his chest, her senses filled with his scent, both intoxicating and calming at the same time.

"Okay."

Soon enough, the heaviness that encompassed the room had lifted, and they were once more conversing on his bed.

They shared stories of their childhood, and Remus had obliged to tell her stories of some old pranks the Marauders pulled that Katie could never get out of James. With his secret no longer a divider between them, their level of trust felt renewed and at a higher level.

Remus was still mid-story when he realized the girl beside him had fallen fast asleep. She looked calmer than she had in weeks, but the bags under her eyes caused him to grimace.

He was about to shake her awake when he realized just how late it had gotten. So instead, he picked her up, careful not to wake her, and placed her down onto his bed with her head rested comfortably on his linen pillows.

Remus watched with a smile as her small body curled up into a ball, her head muzzling slightly into the pillows further. He quickly grabbed the wool blanket located at the edge of his bed and draped it over her sleeping form. Stepping back a few steps, he took one last look at her—her dark, brown locks spilling gracefully over the pillows—before taking a seat on the floor, leaning against the frame of his bed.

He was in the middle of finishing his potions essay when the rest of the Marauders, led by James at the head, came bumbling in, each of them laughing as if their life depended on it.

Remus was about to tell them off when James' laughter stopped abruptly - causing the other two to stop as well - his eyes landing on the sleeping figure on the bed that was definitely not Remus. His eyes traveled back and forth from Remus' position from the ground to Katie's sleeping form on Remus' bed—his eyes sparkling with mischief as a smirk graced his features.

"So, did you two... hug it out?" James' finger was moving back and forth between the two, his features fighting a smirk.

"I reckon they did more than hug it out," Sirius snickered, ducking right on time as Remus aimed to throw a book at his head. "Oi! Moony be nice!"

Remus stood up, haphazardly placing his nearly-finished essay onto his night stand, careful not to spill his inkwell in the process. "I'd give you a nice hook to the face if I didn't already know what kind of hell you would reign down." He shook his head wistfully.

"Look at you living up to your reputation as the smart one," Sirius retorted ironically. Most of Hogwarts had associated Remus as the studious one in their group simply because he wasn't keen on speaking to others and possessed a talent for being exceptionally good at hiding his tracks. It was an association that never ceased to make the rest of them laugh.

James snorted. "If he was the smart one he'd finally grow a pair and admit that he has the hots for Kate."

"Who doesn't have the hots for her?" Peter remarked. His eyes widened the tiniest fraction when Remus and James both shot him identical glares. Sirius merely laughed heartily.

James was still glaring at him. "Keep your eyes away from her Pete. Don't forget that she's practically a sister to me," he growled, though not unkindly.

"But you've just said that Remus—"

"That doesn't mean I want to hear about how fit everyone thinks she is. Besides Remus would never say any of that out loud." He shot a playful warning glare to Remus. "Don't ever let me hear any fantasies for the love of Merlin or I'll empty out my stomach all over your precious essays."

There was a dusting of red to his cheeks, but Remus just nodded obediently. "Of course not." He was glad the James couldn't read thoughts. His blush darkened as he stole a sideways glance at the figure on his bed. He was very glad that James couldn't read thoughts.

Sirius was lounging on the chair next to his bed, his legs dangling in odd directions. "She's fit as fuck James, get over it wanker."

"Sirius," James warned.

Sirius' characteristic smile fell naturally to his lips. "Go ahead, Potter. Transfigure me into anything you please. I'm not taking back what I said either way." A mischievous twinkle played in his eyes. He was enjoying getting James riled up.

The next thing they knew, Sirius' favorite pair of shoes had grown legs.