No F's Given - Another Marauder's RP w/Lynx - ABANDONED

/Late, late, late, late!/ Rachel thought to herself as she ran through the cramped corridors of the train, shoving and jumping over people as she made her way through. She was small enough that they’d only noticed her when she ran passed them, or accidentally knocked them over. She was thin, wiry with a fast paced run and good hurdle jump. Her bright magenta hair flew behind her in shimmery waves since her mom had wanted her to look pretty for her first day of school. She managed to squeeze past two students and misjudged how far in the trunk was into the compartment when she suddenly felt herself sprawl across the floor, hitting the floor hard with a loud thump.

A loud wolf whistle was heard followed by the same tone ending in an "oomph!". A brunette looked up from her book to look down at her friend and once she was standing she peeked around the corner at who might have made the noise. A teenager with shoulder-length black hair was holding his stomach and another teen with brown hair looked non-too pleased. Bending down, Brianna hooked her arm with Rachel's and got her standing, "Just another reason I hate skirts. You didn't break your nose, did you, Rae?"

"Cute stripes!" the black haired boy shouted again and then winced when the other beside him raised his hand, "No don't hurt me I bruise easy!"

"You are so /rude/," he rolled his eyes and walked over to the two of them, "Are you alright? That was a pretty hard fall. Sorry for Sirius, he's a bit of a wanker. I'm Remus."

"Sirius Black and Remus Lupin?" Bria stared at him in shock.

“The one and the same,” Remus replied as he looked Rachel over. She wasn’t bleeding anywhere, but her eyes were a little unfocused. Perhaps she had hit her head rather than her nose. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” She was still trying to regain what little of her balance she could remember from a fall like that. “Just a little discombobulated. I noticed you’re prefect.” She glanced at the golden badge that was attached to his robes. “Congrats.”

“Thank you,” Remus noticed the badge on her robes. “Which brings me to my next question as to why a prefect would be running down the corridor as if it was on fire.”

Rachel just smiled brightly, "Just something I do." She turned to Sirius. "Thanks for thinking that my stripes are cute. I thought they were, too."

Sirius pranced over, "Another Prefect? Must be new to the job. Congrats," he nodded, "So you and Remus will be hanging out a lot this year?"

"Kind of jealous," Bria admitted, "That means you'll be stealing my Rae away from me for you nightly rendezvous in the castle." She gave a sad sigh and an exaggerated pout.

"Rae? So that's your nickname? Cute just like you," Sirius winked.

“Is there no end to your flattery?” Rachel blinked at him and shook her head from side to side. “Sadly to say, that’s Bria’s nickname for me. You’ll have to come up with your own if you want to.” She winked at him and turned to Remus. “You can ignore Bria if you want. She’s a drama queen.”

“So we both have friends that are,” Remus agreed with an eye-twinkle. “Though I am one of her Housemates, I’m used to her antics.”

“You know, she was so gung-ho about being Hufflepuff I forget she isn’t.” Rachel snapped her fingers. “Then again I don’t pay attention to what Houses you’re in either. I sit up in front so anyone in back of me would be ignored.”

Bria stuck her tongue out at Rae before looking at Remus, "So we /do/ know we all existed! Imagine that. I'm always hanging out with Rae in Ravenclaw I kind of forgot what you two looked like, and it also seems like you both had a growth spurt on top of it. Sirius, you definitely have more muscle, but you're still lanky, Remus. Unless your clothes are hiding secrets."

"Oh, I think she might be able to play with the big boys if she's throwing comments like that," Sirius grinned wolfishly.

“Ravenclaws are indeed a lot quieter than the Gryffindor lot, that’s for sure,” Remus agreed.

“Who exactly are you calling a “big boy”?” Rae asked curiously. “Just because you can toss comments around like that doesn’t mean you’re very good at taking them up.”

Remus looked at Bria wearily, “I’m supposing that this is where you tell me that this is going to be common.”

“We should go and find our compartments, unless they’re already filled.” Rachel looked over at Bria. “Did you save us one?”

"Yes, I was sitting in it when I saw you fall," Bria laughed, "Yes, Remus, I'm pretty sure this is going to be a common occurrence."

"Fantastic," Sirius beamed, "I wish we'd found you girls sooner. We would've had a lot more fun."

"It's hard to see your other classmates when you're taking all the spotlight," Bria arched a brow.

"Touche...oh, James is probably wondering where the bloody hell we all are," Sirius realized.

"More than likely things you abandoned him," Bria agreed.

“We'll see you in classes then,” Remus smiled warmly at the two of them before dragging Sirius away before he could say anything more. He glanced behind him, noticing that Rachel was starting to use her hands in weird gestures and shapes as she walked into the compartment that Bria was staying in. He shook his head, “What do you think of them Pads?”

"That Rae-girl really did look cute, if boyish in /spite/ of her attire. Her magenta hair was really vibrant," Sirius hummed as he sauntered next to his companion on their way to the compartment they shared with James and Peter.

They reached the compartment and opened it. Peter was dozing slightly at the window, and jumped when James grinned and said loudly, “Finally!”

“Sorry that we’re late,” Remus replied as he walked over and took a seat next to Peter while Sirius claimed his usual spot next to James. “We were tangled up.”

“I heard that there was a big commotion down in the corridor. What happened?” James asked curiously.

"I saw the cute striped undergarments of the new Ravenclaw Prefect," Sirius said slyly, "She tripped and fell, sending her skirt flying. Also! I met one of our Housemates...I guess I saw her before but never knew her name. She's in our year. Bria, was it, Remus? Do you know her full name? You seemed rather familiar with her, though not personally."

Peter made a face, "You're such a pervert."

James rolled his eyes. “That poor Prefect. I’m shocked that she didn’t dock points and curse you. Must be that Black charm you keep yapping about.” He teased his friend and turned to Remus. “Do you know her?”

“Some,” Remus agreed. “We met on the train during our first year, but that’s basically all. We’ve barely exchanged any words.”

“Until now. Man it’s a shame that Tiger’s off with his Princess.” James lamented. “He should be hearing about this.”

“About?” Remus asked, almost wearily.

“That you and Sirius found a couple of girls to go after. For Sirius, that’s not a huge deal, but for you? Finally!” James pumped his fist up.

“I’m not going after her. She’s probably only spoke to me as long as she did since we were worried about whether or not Rachel was going to have a concussion.”

"I think you're down-playing it," Sirius smirked at Remus, "We may have been fooling around but she kept her eyes on you, Moony."

"What were their names again? Bria and Rachel?" Peter yawned, ready for the train to start moving so he could finally take a nap, "I remember Tiger and Princess talking about them I think. Raiden sometimes does sign-language behind your backs to a girl in Ravenclaw, and I know Bria from our classes. You are all too busy pranking each other or the teachers, taking the spot-light, to notice. Lily is always hanging out with her or pairing with her."

"So that's what that was..." Remus muttered to himself as he thought about when he glanced over his shoulder to see Rachel do a gesture. “It’s funny, I never noticed that Raiden did that…nor that he knew sign language.” It was a bit of a slap to the face that they hadn’t really paid attention to their friend.

James whistled. “I knew that Bria and Lily hung around each other. I didn’t know about Raiden and the Ravenclaw though.” He pretended to gasp. “I didn’t think Princess knew a Ravenclaw either. I knew she knows Bria. Her and Lily make up a trio.”

"Raiden and Rachel make the duo, then," Peter drawled, "Their personalities are fairly similar. Lily, Bria, and Eri are all the bright ones. I guess that's why they're drawn to them."

"It would make sense," Sirius agreed, "I saw when we cross Raiden later that we make him tell us all about Milady Fuchsia."

“I wonder if Raiden or Bria will drag Rachel over from her Ravenclaw cave and hang out at our table.” James mused. “Especially if you’re starting to wax poetic about her, Padfoot.”

“I think Bria wouldn’t mind bringing her over to the table. She did say that she hung around Ravenclaw a lot, I’m sure she wouldn’t mind a change of scenery or pace.” Remus mused.

“Great! It’s settled. So, now we got think about what our first big prank is going to be.”

“Me stopping you before you can lose points,” Remus drawled. “Don’t forget I am Prefect.”

“Aw, just take the badge and use it to our advantage. Marauders don’t abandon each other, don’t forget.” James beamed.

"Not like we'll fault him for doing his job, though, and he knows that," Sirius pointed out.

“Thank you Sirius,” Remus smiled at his friend fondly.

~

“I’m so glad you have a compartment to yourself,” Rachel sighed, tossing herself onto the seat across from her, swinging her legs up and crossing the ankles. “I was getting tired of all the talking and was about to go non-verbal. Man that Sirius guy can talk, and it looked like you hit it off quite well with him.”

"I got lucky, and people asked if they could sit with me but I turned them away," Bria picked her book up, "Felt kind of mean doing that but ah well. You doing okay? I'm not too interested in Sirius, my eye is usually on Remus when I'm /actually/ in the common room. I'm usually too focused on class to really pay attention to the lot as they mess around behind the teacher's back."

“/Remus is a nice person./“ Rachel signed lazily, letting her brain turn off from all of the excitement. “/Maybe this year could be your chance. I’m with him a lot more since I’m a Prefect./“

"That would be awesome!" Bria was giddy, "I never spoke with the bloke, and he always looks so forlorn. I want to know what goes through that smart brain of his."

“I think he could use a lot more friends.” Rachel smiled as she looked at her best friend. “What did you do over the summer? Did you go see Eri or Lily at all? I know you spent time with me, obviously.”

"I saw Lily a lot. Her sister's so rude to her, but she and I enjoy ourselves," Bria nodded, "Eri and I mostly wrote to each other. She keeps telling me she's bound and determined to do naughty things to Raiden in his Quidditch uniform. She may act so sweet and innocent, but she /definitely/ isn't."

“Fuck Petunia.” Rachel rolled her eyes as dramatically as she could. “It’s not like she’s anything but a jealous bitch. I’m glad you were able to enjoy your summer though. Raiden and I write, he hates it when summer comes along, he says that his sign language gets worse over break and he doesn’t want to teach his friends because all they’d do with it is abuse it.”

"At least Lily's parents are proud of her, so they can tell her sister to stuff it," Bria smiled, "I understand where Raiden's coming from, but I think he gives his friends too little credit. He should at least try, and he doesn't have to teach them a whole lot, just a few coin phrases and gestures."

“I don’t know, I think Raiden’s a smart cookie.” Rachel frowned, “Don’t they give you any vibes? Both Remus and Sirius give me the chills, and not the kind you think. Remus has something off about him, gut-feeling, and Sirius…underneath that perverted demeanor of his, I bet he’s one of the dangerous ones.”

"Rae, my love, I'm not saying that they don't," Bria's grin turned impish, "I'm attracted to danger. You know that. How may times have I nearly given you a heart attack from jumping off a tree into the lake, or climbing so high you an't see me and you're afraid I'll get stuck? Of course, I have given myself plenty of injuries that make you say 'I told you so'."

“Yeah, yeah. You’re also bad with sense of character and you get yourself into trouble too.” Rachel sighed. “At least Remus is just off. Unless you’re attracted to Sirius? Because if you are, I’d have to tell you to go jump in with the Giant Squid. That’s safer than him.”

"He's hot, but no, I'm not attracted to him in the sense I would date him," Bria laughed, "I'll keep that in mind, though."

"Tiiiiigeeeerrrrr!" Sirius but screamed at the tall man who had black hair that went mid-back tied in a braid. He tensed at the shout but otherwise didn't jump, "You have things to tell us!" he demanded, James and Remus behind him as they spotted the young man lounging on his bed looking through letters, his trunk open at the foot of the bed.

Raiden was an unlikely but handsome mix of Native American and Japanese features. His long hair was a tradition from both, but he had soft bangs that framed his face and softened the sharp features. His eyes were the darkest of blue, nearly looking black, but it was obvious when he was happy because they almost had a glow to them.

Raiden had no idea what they were on about. Sirius was acting like an excitable puppy and Remus was also looking at him with curiosity as he set the letters aside. Most of them were from Eri, but there were a few from other people. “What are you on about? What do I have to explain?” He asked.

“You know a Ravenclaw.” James prodded as he went over to his bed which was right across from Sirius’ and diagonal from the Tiger’s. “A certain Ravenclaw that has Padfoot’s boxers in a twist.”

“You mean Strawberry?” Raiden questioned, it was his only nickname for her since when they first met her hair had been a beautiful strawberry-blonde shade.

"The one you do Sign with," Peter clarified, "So, yes." He glanced at the Prefect, "Also, Moony might be interested to hear what you know about Bria."

“I could always talk to her myself.” Remus frowned.

“Might as well use the resources that you got.” James pointed out. “Raiden knows more and Bria might not be willing to give a lot of things up.”

Raiden raised an eyebrow. “Bria’s pretty open, anything you ask her she’ll probably answer. She’s good with making things have a double meaning.”

“Yes, I noticed that when we met on the train. Her and Sirius got along like houses on fire.” Remus agreed. “She has an interesting sense of humor.”

“Don’t worry. It gets worse as you get to know her.” Raiden assured.

"Is that supposed to be reassuring or a warning?" Sirius laughed.

"Take it as you will," Raiden smirked. "But seriously, what exactly do you two want to know?"

"How did you two meet? On the train like usual? Do you hang out or write a lot? What are her and Bria to each other?" Sirius then wiggling his fingers, "Do your Tiger senses tell you anything about what they're like?" While Raiden wasn't very good with human spirits, and didn't have normal dreams, his Native American Heritage helped him tell what people were like from their animal spirits.

/I could fuck around with them…/ Raiden thought and decided against it. Remus didn’t deserve it and even though Sirius sometimes could deserve it, he seemed to be genuinely interested and not going after her for a prank. He just hoped it wasn’t for a shallow get together. Strawberry wouldn’t go for it. “Sorting ceremony.” Raiden said. “She didn’t talk, at all. So I started talking to her instead. She has that thing about her…where she can just sit there and not say anything and you’d be spilling your heart out within days, seconds.” He shrugged. “So I told her about the Houses and what one I hoped to be in. Bria kinda was her mouth, talking for her.”

He paused on the second question. “We hang out. During first and second year I was hanging out with her during breakfast because none of you get up early like I do and you sleep in.” He rolled his eyes fondly. “I didn’t start to learn sign until Christmas. She wasn’t talking to me still. A few sentences, words singular words. She does that when she’s not comfortable or if Bria’s not around. The sorting and being in a new environment made her shut down a bit so she could find her own footing. She likes using sign language a lot so, I learned. Bria was already a master at it since they’re next door neighbors.”

The third question was interesting. “Well….I did have a sense about them. A dream. Stawberry came to me as the coyote. Bria came to me as a cat.”

"I got her to talk quite a bit," Sirius grinned, "She must've come out of her shell since then. Learning Sign sounds fun! A coyote, though? What's that say about her exactly? Cat makes a lot of sense for Bria, honestly. She kind of moved like one."

“She was with Bria, wait till she’s alone.” Raiden advised. “I don’t know…I kind of want you to meet her and talk to her face to face before I tell you what it means.”

“Come on, not the suspense.” James whined.

“It’s interesting that Bria’s a cat.” Remus frowned, “Considering that wolves go after small animals like that.”

“Don’t worry, if she’s hanging with a Coyote, you won’t have any problems.” Raiden smiled at Remus kindly. “The cat has a sense of adventure and courage which makes her fit right at Gryffindor. She’s independent, curious as fuck, and she’s patient, which she needs if she’s going to be dealing with Strawberry. She likes being social and she’s relaxed with herself. She doesn’t try to be someone she’s not, she’s very secure in herself and flows with it. Also, considering that she’s cat means that she’s healing from something. Whatever that something might be.” He shrugged. “I never asked and she’s never said.”

"Ooooh, a real life mystery apart from your books," Sirius teased Remus, "I'm excited to see what secrets I can discover as well. This is going to be an exciting year."

"You just met them, too," Peter rolled his eyes, "Yet they've been there the whole time. This is silly."

"Jaaaaaaames! You should see what you can gather from Lily," Sirius shook their pack leader's shoulder.

"I wonder who you're more excited to get hooked up," Peter stared at him, "Moony or yourself."

“Sirius” James and Remus said together at the same time. James continued, “And you want me to ask /Lily/ about your mysterious lady?” He wondered if the hexes would be worth it and shrugged. It couldn’t hurt. “You know Lily’s gonna tell Bria and Bria’s gonna tell Rachel.”

“Oh dear kami above don’t call her that.” Raiden groaned. “You’ll get slapped or punched.”

"Bria?" Remus questioned looking over at Raiden with surprise.

"No, Rachel. She hates that name with a passion of a thousand suns. That's why I call her Strawberry. It's the fastest way to tick her off and get a cold shoulder for a good month or two." Raiden sighed. "But Lily would be fun. After all, aren't you crushing on her something awful?"

"Yes, but..." James trailed off, "I don't want her to think that I'm just talking to her to get my mates hooked."

"It'd be a better conversation than you showing off on the Quidditch field," Raiden admitted.

"Something tells me Lily might be amused about it," Peter hummed, "Of course, Prongs, if you're too scared then I can ask her."

“Oh no, I can do it.” James puffed up. “I’m not scared, just over-thinking things a bit is all. I’m really not going to bother her tonight though,” he glanced at Sirius. “Unless you’re really that desperate.”

“Oh this should be fun,” Raiden muttered to himself.

"It can wait," Sirius laughed, "We got the welcome dinner and sorting ceremony to go through so it's a busy night. Remus will have his hands full with his new duties and whatever, so just talk to her whenever you get the chance, mate."

"Probably tomorrow morning before you go off and make an embarrassment out of yourself." James teased.

Raiden was going to have to hope and pray that neither Bria nor Strawberry were going to kill him for letting Sirius go wild about this.

()

The breakfast area was fairly quiet, many still tired from the night before. The redheaded woman from Gryffindor knew that soon once the students got used to things, they would be way more lively. She was studying her schedule, making sure she knew where to go for the day when she heard a familiar shuffle. It wasn't the sort of shuffle where one's feet skid across the ground from being shy or awkward, but more of a scuff of boots as they passed each other walking perfectly straight and confident. Bria made a similar sound, but hers was much more subtle and quieter as she, of course, weighed less. "You're up early, James," she said without even looking up.

"Alright Evans?" James asked as he sat down, trying to give off the air of confidence that he didn't feel at all. He wasn't going to give her a reason to hex him this time, his heart thumping loudly in his ears. Was it fear or was it because he was sitting so close to someone that he liked, he wasn't sure. "I have a serious question to ask of you."

"What do you want?" Lily glanced up, "If you want to know my schedule I'm not giving it to you. You'll have to find out for yourself what classes we're in together."

"Actually, it's about Bria and her friend, the Ravenclaw girl." James paused. "Sirius is dying for information about the Ravenclaw and Remus is kinda curious about Bria though he swears on his life that he's not making me ask, but Sirius is."

"Nightingale?" Lily blinked at him, "Sirius is interested in Poe, huh?" She narrowed her eyes at him and watched him stiffen, "So...is it actually legit interest or is he just looking for a romp to ease his hormones? Is Remus also interested in Bria or is he just a victim of matchmaking?"

"To be honest, I have never seen Sirius act this way before." James scratched his cheek. "Normally if he's just going to go after a girl he'd just turn on the charm and woo them in the hallway. What is up with her nicknames?! Nightingale? Poe?! Who is she some sort of secret spy?! Man!" He rolled his eyes. "He picked a weird one. Also for Remus, all I know is that Bria had met him before and he wants to reconnect somehow."

Lily giggled softly, "She hates her full name, and wrote me off when I tried to call her Rae, saying it was reserved for Bria only. I met her through Bria in first year, and I learned her birthday later when Bria celebrated it. January 19th. That's Edgar Allen Poe's birthday. No one's caught on except those two. Nightingale is a recent nickname I mostly use in private with them. /Don't use it/," she said firmly.

James tilted his head. Well that's...interesting. "Whose Edgar Allen Poe? Never mind," he waved it off, certain that he was going to get lost and Lily would laugh at him. "So she has a bunch of nicknames. Raiden warned us about her name, told us that if we used it be prepared to get hit. Anything...I should warn Sirius about? Besides to chose his own name for her?"

"Oh, there are many, many things about Poe..." Lily hummed and nibbled on a crumpet as she thought, "If you were to warn him about anything, tell him not to overwhelm her. I know he can be very excitable and go on and on. Bria does the same thing. Poe will often just let people talk and just listen. It may seem like she doesn't hear you, but you can tell in her face. She watches mouths, gestures, and eyes. If you were to look at her while you feel like you're talking to yourself, your eyes will catch with hers and you will know. She has...a very /knowing/ and sometimes...haunted look to her eyes. She gets...lost in herself often, and Bria is like her beacon. Bria shares the same expression, but it's hard to see in her because she's always so chipper. I've only seen it during the times when I walk in on her at the library or common room and she's been by herself. Poe's haunting happens more at night."

James frowned, deeply. The more he was listening to this, the more he wondered if Sirius would keep going. Would he? Or would he lose interest once he finds out that he would have to tone it down? "Will Sign Language help?" He asked after a moment. "Will it...help her a little from being overwhelmed?"

"More than likely. If he gets /seriously/ into learning it, he would have to take time to think about the signs he's making before producing a sentence," Lily hummed.

"You're a gem, Evans." James smiled at her. "What about Bria? Anything there I should tell Remus about?"

"I could write an essay about Bria," Lily let out a long breath, "There is so much about her yet even after five years she is still surprising me. She lives vicariously through Eri as a Hufflepuff. I swear to Merlin and back, she will tear off limbs and gouge out eyes if any of her few friends are threatened. She loves books as much as the next Ravenclaw. Her grades are an average E and A with Os every once in a while in her most favorite subjects. Yet I can /certainly/ see why she was ultimately put into our House. She's simplistic and easy to please. Courageous and energetic. Merlin you've never seen her during our games. She's always hoarse the next day."

"Interesting. I bet Remus will love this, being a bookworm and all." James blinked and grinned. "I bet Remus wouldn't mind offering to tutor her in any subject she's having trouble with. I'll have to ask him if that's something he's willing to do."

"Encourage Lupin to talk to her whenever he sees her. Sacrifice him in a few classes to team up with her," Lily suggested, "You and Sirius will be fine if you focus instead of goofing off, you're very intelligent. Potions for sure. She's not very good at mathematics and measurements. If Eri and I didn't help her last year she would've gotten a P."

"Gotcha." James stood up, "I'll stop bothering you and tell the guys what I found out. By the way, I don't know why you bother hiding your schedule. We have History of Magic together first. Yay Professor Binns!" With that, he went back to sit with his friends and gather himself a bit of breakfast before they had to leave for class.

~*~

Bria looked up from her chosen seat in the back corner of the classroom. A fairly normal seat in any class, really. Rae liked sitting up front so she could ignore everyone else, but she sat in the back for multiple reasons. She saw Lily and Peter and smiled, "Top of the mornin' to ya," she greeted with a bright smile, "You two going to fight over who gets to sit with little ol' me?"

"You'd like that," Lily winked, "But Peter and I are going to sit together and force the buggers who call themselves Peter's friends to split up. I just wonder who it'd be."

"It'd be funny if it was Sirius," Peter admitted, "Get him out of his comfort zone. Blasphemy!"

Bria snorted, "Good luck with that. I doubt he'd pry himself away from Potter."

"We'll see," Lily winked and she and Peter walked off to a seat closer to the middle of the classroom.

Not too soon, James and his posse had walked through the doors. Sirius with a bit of a saunter and Remus lagging behind a little, eyes darting around before landing on Bria’s. He gave her a friendly wave and turned as Sirius pointed out a desk that they could all sit by.

“Peter’s hanging out with Evans, what are they planning?” James frowned.

“Why do you think he’s planning something with Lily?” Remus asked, looking over at the blonde who was giggling at something Lily said.

“He has those…eyes.” James narrowed his. “The mischief eyes.”

“Come now, James. Peter wouldn’t do anything to toss you underneath a horse.” Remus assured.

“I just got a feeling that he and Evans are up to something. Which isn’t fair. I spoke to her this morning and was plenty civil.” James frowned.

“I’m still shocked that she has the same birthday as Edgar Allen Poe,” Remus reached into his bag and took out his quill and his books. “That is something to be proud of. I wonder if Bria’s birthday falls on anything or anyone famous.”

Sirius frowned as he looked between Remus and James and then back at Bria who looked...droopy? She was looking at her book, flipping the page and put her head in her hand, "She doesn't have a partner. Shouldn't one of us pair with her? We'd be three to a team and that's mean."

"Remus could go." James looked at Remus with a saucy-grin. "You could ask her about if she's born underneath anyone famous or what not, get her nose outta the book."

"Or one of us could," Sirius shrugged, "I don't mind sitting in the back. We got all day to figure out what pairs to be in."

"Pad will just be inconsolable if I go over there," Remus frowned, "Besides, we're in plenty of classes together, we can do a loop unless we're assigned."

"You know, lads, don't worry," Sirius gave them a thumbs up, "I'll go be her partner. You two have fun."

"Bye." James waved and turned to Remus. "Do you worry about him?"

"Only all the time. Especially when he's with you." Remus replied as he started taking out his books and quill.

Bria jumped in her seat when Sirius plopped his books down and she looked up with an open mouth, shock all over her face. She brushed her chestnut brown hair back, green eyes staring at him in disbelief.

"Not going to say anything?" Sirius laughed softly as he got out his notebook, ink and quil then lounged back in his chair, "Nice to meet you again. You know I never got a full name, just what you call yourself."

"You don't have to sit back here with me...it's not for everyone, being hidden...Lily and Peter said they'd be surprised if you did, but I would have been more dumbfounded if James did. He's the type who loves attention and draws it to him without trying half the time," Bria flipped another page, "Brianna Knight."

"I don't mind the quiet. It's isolated back here, you won't be noticed as much like you said. That's a boon if I just want to sleep my way through the class," Sirius grinned, "Knight...like the Knight bus?"

"My grandmother founded it," Bria explained, "Neither my mom not I plan to take it over, though. My mom actually disappeared, left me to my Nana. She was a Gryffindor here, I guess that's where I got it from," she smiled, "My mom went to the French school...Beauxbaton's Academy of Magic. Goddess that's a mouthful."

"...Goddess?" Sirius absorbed all of this information slowly. So she was part French? "Did you have a chance to go there instead of here?"

"Yes...though I didn't have any interest in being a periwinkle ballerina," Bria made a face and then motioned to her pants.

That made Sirius burst out laughing.

"Prewinkle ballerina." James snorted and Remus shook his head, a smile on his face. It described the school certainly to an extent. "I'd pay to see it."

"How much would you have to be paid for you to way a skirt or dress?" Sirius gave her a wolfish grin.

Bria grinned widely, "Depends on what it is. This year at Diagon I got fitted and bought some skirts for school if it's just /too bloody hot/ to wear pants, but all the previous years I outright refused and teachers eventually just gave up. Rae, too. I think they'll be more surprised to see me in a pair than not now. I also grew my hair out through the summer, I used to have a shorter style," she ran her fingers through her shoulder-length locks. "If it's casual-wear, then probably five to ten sickles. You'd have to pay me a galleon or three if you want me in a dress."

"Rae was wearing a skirt, though?" He was sure with her not around he could say that, at least. Bria arched a brow but didn't comment so he was still good.

"She likes to switch. For her it's not so much dislike, as she likes the freedom to chose and will wear whatever she wants," Bria giggled. "When we first started school a lot of her Housemates thought she was a boy. She was a late bloomer but she definitely changed in the last year. Eri too, didn't you notice? She's so gorgeous," she suddenly gushed.

"Raiden's the only one who's seen Eri so far," Sirius admitted, "I'll probably see what you mean later. She and I have Divination with Raiden before Lunch."

"Rae's Divination class is that time, too!" Bria beamed, "Maybe you could pair with her, then? She thinks you're worse than the Giant Squid so maybe you could prove her wrong. I have Ancient Runes before Lunch."

Remus quirked an eyebrow. James looked at him confused, but he waved him off. James didn't need to hear any of this. Worse than the Giant Squid? That's what she compared him to of all things? He wasn't sure if Sirius would keep trying...that sounded like hardcore rejection, even if Sirius could prove her wrong, did he want to take that kind of time?

"Aw, and I believed things were going so well!" Sirius pouted, honestly feeling hurt, "I'll see what I can do, if Eri and Raiden are willing to play along."

Bria bit her lip and attempted to real back, "I'm sorry...that was too much information. I shouldn't have said that. She just gets an uneasy feeling from you. Not that you're a bad person. She's sensitive to people's auras. I am, too, but I'm more likely to jump face-first into danger."

"Dangerous? Is that what she thinks I am?" That made a little more sense and eased the sting, "Ask James, I'm more like a puppy. I only get mean when it's justified."

"Ah, but you admit you are?" Bria asked, tilting her head.

"I suppose," Sirius hummed, "So you didn't answer my question about the Goddess comment."

"That's because I'd rather know you a little bit more before I throw beliefs around," Bria countered.

"Ah, touche," he chuckled.

Many ideas floated. Paganism, wiccaism, oddly enough witchcraft which would be both fun and interesting. Remus didn't practice any of it, but he read enough books to know that it existed.

~*~

Potions class was unfortunately with the Slytherns, and Slughorn didn't waste time in pairing people. Apparently his new idea was to try to pair as many Slytherns with Gryffindors as possible. Snape, obviously was paired with Lily which made James' nose wrinkle. Peter was paired off with a pudgy Slythern girl with bright brown hair. Sirius had the most unfortunate luck to get stuck with another Slythern boy, whose name was slipped from Remus' mind. James also was paired off with a Slythern boy as well, someone that James probably pranked a lot. It was starting to get hard to keep everyone in line.

"I knew that I had an even class, but an uneven number of Housemates." Slughorn frowned when the last two were Remus and Bria. "Go on then. Pair up." He gestured.

They sat at the back once more, which was easier for Remus since he didn't have to be in the thick of the potion's scent. Today, it looked like they were going to be brewing a Draught of Peace potion. It was a finicky type since if it was brewed wrongly it could bring death to the person who drank it. "You may want to be the one who brews." Remus told her. "I can get the potion ingredients and measure them."

Bria looked hugely relieved and nodded, "I can do that. If you need help with anything else let me know," she said as she made sure everything was neat and tidy so nothing would get in the way, setting her Alder wand off to the side for when they finished the potion, she could seal it. It was a pretty mixture of the light and dark colors that wands made out of this would could be, with notches above and below the handle to give it a rather simple design, a small knob look on the bottom to round it.

Remus went down to the front of the classroom to grab the ingredients that they needed and came back, putting them in organized piles so that he wouldn’t make a mistake. He glanced over at the book that Bria had already opened and started preparing the ingredients. “I hope you don’t think I’m rude, but I kind of overheard you and Sirius when you mentioned that you worshiped a Goddess. Do you mind if I ask which Goddess?”

"We were on opposite ends of the room, how did you hear that?" Bria stared at him with a raised brow, "Unless Sirius was a lot louder than I give him credit for. Which is possible. Do you /really/ want to talk beliefs? I've noticed talking about that sort of thing can make or break a relationship or even become taboo because it makes people uncomfortable that someone doesn't believe what they do."

"If you don't want to, we don't have to." Remus offered the out instantly. "I read a lot, so things like politics or religion don't bother me. Sure I'll get heated in debate if we're talking about something I'm passionate about, but not about religion. What is there to debate? You have your values, I have mine. All I'm asking, is if you're willing to tell me what you value. If I can't accept that, then I'm no good as a friend, nor as a fellow Gryffindor."

"Sorry...for being so defensive," Bria muttered softly as she added the first ingredient, admiring how he was able to so accurately dish out the right amounts and such while they spoke, "I have had more than one occasion where I'm told I'm wrong or why my beliefs are invalid or don't make sense. They make sense to me." She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, watching the water start to change color, "I am actually a Greek Polytheist. Often-times when I say 'Goddess' however, is referring to the Goddess of the Moon and Hunt, Artemis."

Remus was so thankful that he already chopped, because had she said that earlier, he was certain he'd be bleeding. Artemis? The goddess who ran with the wolves and the moon? Bloody hell, James would have a laughing fit over that. "I see." He said after a moment. "Why Greek?"

"Now that the best answer I can give you is intuition. It felt right," Bria answered, watching him curiously, "For a long time, I was simply 'spiritual but not religious' because I saw how people would rip each other apart. Now that I've more or less come into my own, I know what I want and who I am. I've always loved Artemis, staring up at the moon as it waxes and wanes each night. I spend most time during Astronomy looking at her instead of the Constellations," she blushed, "I feel so at peace during the night. Everything is so /bright/ during a Full Moon, and everything is so full of energy. Science has facts for that, but even if I know the Biological reason, I know there's magic in it, too."

Well he couldn’t deny that one even if he wanted to. “I’m surprised. That wasn’t what I was expecting.” Remus smiled at her as he handed her the second part of the ingredients and worked on measuring the next. “I had thought that it might’ve been on your parents side, or you had grown up into it. It’s good that you discovered it for yourself though. It means more when it’s your own, doesn’t it?”

"I think so, anyway," Bria nodded as she checked the temperature in the book and the temp of the pot, making sure it wasn't too hot or too cold, before watching him again, "So, I spilled my guts. What about you? Is there something you don't like telling people because of how they might react?"

“Unfortunately yes,” Remus replied and hoped that he could turn the whole conversation around since it was too close for comfort. The moon was one thing, but now it just felt like she had an inkling of an idea and he didn’t want to lead her on. The last thing he needed was either her telling everyone in the school. “I hope Sirius wasn’t too troublesome last class. He can be difficult and loud.”

As if 'being too troublesome' was a cue, there was a sudden shout "DON'T DO THAT MARCUS! IF I DRINK IT AND I DIE IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!"

Class continued more or less normally from there, which was surprising. Everyone was too focused on making sure they got it right to make too much noise or talk about mundane things. When it was over, and they all more or less passed, Sirius ran over to Remus after Bria had disappeared and was about to ask him a million questions when he stopped short, "You're shaking. You okay? Did something happen between you two?"

“Ah, no.” Remus shook his head. “I see that Marcus failed to kill you with his potion. What was he doing? Adding the things in the wrong order to see what would happen?”

"Yes. Thankfully order didn't matter that much for this one, just exact measurements," Sirius made a face, "He enjoyed tormenting me. Did you find our what Goddess meant, by the way?"

"She worships Artemis." Remus responded. "And she has a fascination with the moon and it's cycle."

"What's this about Artemis and the moon?" James asked as he finally got to their side, breathing a bit heavily since he had packed as fast as he could. "Let's get out of here before the fumes kill us all."

Remus rolled his eyes but agreed and they headed out of the dungeon. "Nothing really, James." He promised his friend. "Just telling Sirius what Bria meant when she said Goddess." Wanting to drop this subject as fast as he could too as well, he continued. "I have Ancient Runes next, what do you have James?"

"Muggle Studies. Should be a bit of fun." James eyed his friend skeptically, but knew that it was probably not the best place to talk about it. "I won't be a public embarrassment if we ever come and visit the muggle areas."

"I have Divination next," Sirius hoped Remus would be okay but didn't push, "I have Muggle Studies on Wednesdays. DADA is after lunch. What about you guys?"

"Same." James and Remus said together. "Besides the muggle studies on Wensday." James continued. "I wonder what we're going to be learning in DADA, that should be fantastic."

"Are you going to be pairing up with Strawberry then?" Remus questioned Sirius. "For Divination or are you going to stick with Tiger?"

"I'll pair with her if I'm able to," Sirius agreed, "Hopefully I can dispel this notion that I'm worse than the giant squid."

"It was a harsh insult," Remus frowned. "But to call you that because thinks your dangerous isn't helpful."

"I just wonder why the Giant Squid popped into her head out of all the things." James frowned as well.

"Regardless, I should go to my class. Good luck in Divination Sirius." Remus bowed out, heading towards his class and getting lost in the sea of students. James watched him disappear and sighed.

"Poor Moony." He looked at Sirius. "Don't let that bird say another rude word about you, okay Sirius?"

Sirius nodded, "Alright. Thanks. Good luck in Muggle Studies," he waved and headed off to go upstairs to the tower where Divination was held.

His stomach was twisting, which was weird. He had never felt this way before, at least about a girl. Rae had played along with him just fine on the train. Would she really pair with him? Probably reluctantly. Sighing, he opened the trap door and climbed up, glancing around to see Raiden and Eri flipping through a book. "Oh wow, Bria was right," he grinned as he grabbed his things and walked over to them, "You really did become even more lovely over the summer, Princess."

Eri blushed darkly, "You think so? I don't feel like much changed."

"You're gorgeous." Raiden assured with a bright smile on his face. He looked over at Sirius. "You going to be pairing with us? The professor was lamenting that we have an odd number class and how it'll be our downfall."

"Where's Milady Fuchsia?" Sirius asked, "I'll pair with her if she doesn't have one yet."

Raiden pointed over towards the front of the class, near the professor's desk. He waved his hand a few times, and made her look up. /Do you have a partner?/ She shook her head. /Sirius wants to partner with you./ Rae didn't even make a face, just shrugged and went back to her book. "She doesn't care."

Sirius doubted that, but he shrugged and waved to them before going over to sit down next to Rae, "Do you know what we're learning?"

"Dream interpretation possibly." She replied, flipping through the book. "Fire-Omens is possible too." She kept her eyes down, but her body was tensed up like she was ready to spring. She missed that Bria wasn't taking it with her. He probably told everyone about the fall, and even if she brushed it off, it still was embarrassing. She wasn't about to ask Raiden or Eri to break apart though. She could keep her tongue.

"Fire-Omens? How would we do that? Candles or something?" Sirius asked. Keep it to the class. That was safe. James said don't overwhelm her. He felt as though he should piss off, but he wanted to be determined.

Her eyes flicked to him and then back to the book. "Candles, herbs, fireplaces. Anything with smoke." She didn't relax much, but some of the tension went out of her shoulders. "You have to read the symbols in the smoke."

There was a long, silent pause, almost bordering on the line of awkward. By the time everyone was around and partnered, the Professor began handing out candles. "Normally we'd start with dream interpretations, but you can do that as homework and begin to keep a dream diary for your partner to decipher." The candles were white pillar and unused. She walked passed them and handed them a candle. "Remember, you are looking at the whisp of smoke in order to see what the future holds. The symbols are clear as they are etched only for a brief moment. You have your books on symbols yes? Use that as a reference."

"Not sure if you'd like to read a dream diary from me," Sirius muttered, taking the candle and while several people used their wands, he used their distraction to light his candle with a simple wave of his hand.

Rachel's eyes widened a little at the power from the his wordless magic. Only strong wizards and witches were able to produce it. "Nightmares?" She asked softly, as if she understood.

"Occasionally. Often I don't dream because I try to tire myself out or don't sleep in order to dream, so a dream diary would be fairly empty," he shrugged, "Would you be hesitant to give me your dream diary?"

Rachel shrugged. "That's why I'd lie." She watched the candle's flame flicker and the smoke curl. She saw nothing besides the golden glow. "I have a lot of nightmares, a few dreams, and a lot of sleepless nights. I think I'm on day three now."

Sirius glanced through the book briefly to see if he could recognize any shapes, and went back to the smoke, but he was only half paying attention to it, "The fire lights up your face in a lovely way. Your hair shines really cool, too." He shook his head, "Lying gets you nowhere. How is one to be accurate if you lie? I wouldn't lie in my journal. I'll bare myself to you."

Rachel wasn't sure if she should get angry or just be sad. Sad that once more she was a shoulder, or angry that he'd think of her like that. Because they'd met once underneath a bad circumstance meant that they were friends now? Hell, Raiden took forever and a day to trust and talk to. The candle burned brighter than before. "Do you even believe in what your doing?" She asked after a moment. "In this class, I mean. Or is it because you want something from me?"

"Some deviation that we do is more believable than others. I do believe in what I do, and no I don't want something from you." 'Except for you to see that I'm not a bad guy,' he finished mentally. "Bria likes me well enough so far. Don't you want to learn about me?"

Rae’s lips pursed together her mind conflicted. She was still on edge, still afraid, and everything he was saying only made it worse. Just as she was about to answer him, the candle suddenly exploded, hot wax and flames erupted causing loud shouts and screams. Rae quickly got out her wand, but Sirius and Raiden were much faster than she was. The wax burned on her skin, against her cheeks and clothes. She sat there, just stunned and embarrassed.

Sirius ignored the burn and sting of wax on his own face, sliding over and began picking out bits from her hair and then scraped the white wax off her cheeks, "Are you alright, Fuchsia?" That had to have happened because of him. He backed away when her face was clear and clenched and relaxed his hands. His fingertips tingled, and he wondered why.

"I'm alright," She said in a soft whisper, practically curling in on herself, holding her breath. Now he was going to do it. Make fun of her. Why did he call her Fushia? Her mind just...didn't know what to do. The candle bits were already vanished and the table top was cleared off. "Are you?" Her voice still soft, like she was about to startle a frightened animal.

"I'm fine," Sirius pealed off the wax on his own skin, "Wax is good for the skin, right?" he tilted his head at her, "You didn't seem too surprised about the candle blowing up, though. Do things blow up often with you?"

Rae's lips pursed together. "I...my magic..." She shook her head and just...shut down. She stood up and gathered her stuff quietly and as quickly as she could. She waved, which was more than she normally did, before she fled the scene, tears stinging at her eyes. She thought she could handle it. She thought that she was okay....why did today have to be awful? Sirius was kind, and she would admit that she judged harshly, but her gut feeling still said that he was hiding something dark, but when didn't anyone hide something dark? Eri was a frightened child, Raiden was a quaking lion. Bria was a semi-solid. Sirius was an earthquake or a volcano at the ready. She decided just to go back up her dorms, and give up today and hope that tomorrow was a little kinder.

"Jeez..." Raiden muttered as he watched Strawberry leave. "She must have gotten cornered by a couple of people and picked on again."

"What do you mean by that?" Sirius asked with a deep frown, moving his things to join Raiden and Eri, as they still had at least 45 minutes left to their class and he couldn't be alone, "Did I do something wrong?"

"Not you, just jerks who don't know when to leave her alone." Raiden sighed as he let him into the group. "She doesn't trust people. Also, I hate saying this I do, but she puts everyone on edge because everyone can sense that there's something off about her. Just like she can sense something's off about everyone else. Maybe she was picked on, maybe someone told her something super depressing and now it's eating at her. Maybe it was both. She's probably going to skip lunch though....she's probably afraid you're going to be the same as every one else, and tease her."

He'd never do that, but how was he supposed to tell her that? Maybe he should be open with her. "I'll keep that in mind. Thank you...I guess we should just focus on the class for now. Sorry for barging in if you guys were on to something."

Raiden shrugged, "Not your fault. Come on, let's see if we can figure this damn thing out."

~*~

There was a knock on the door before Bria walked into the abandoned classroom, closing and locking it behind her and looked around the room, "/Already/? The school year's barely started!" she threw her hands up and pranced over, bouncing on her tip-toes, then ended up on her knees in front of her, picking at her singed robes, "Raiden thinks you got bullied already before the incident in Divination. Is that true?"

"Some comments were made," Rachel rubbed her eyes. "I just...had a vision and it's been eating at me. Then Sirius was my partner in Divination and I thought he was going to make fun of me, already someone asked me what color my underwear was today, so I kinda had blamed him for it since that story spread. Then he touched me and now I just feel bad because he's trying and I was just shutting down."

"There was more than one person in the hallway that day besides those two," Bria shrugged and she reached out, helping Rae stand, "Tell me about your Vision on our way to dinner. You're not going to get away so easily. Remus invited us to sit with them. I'm always sitting with you at Ravenclaw, so come sit with me. Remus and I talked a lot today, too, it was wonderful."

She sighed and stood up, fixing what little she could and took another breath. "What did you two talk about?" She was thankful the attention was off of her.

"I told him about Artemis and how I worshiped her and other Greek gods. He's my partner in Potions this year so I don't think I'll have any difficulty. Sirius is with a Slytherin named Marcus and if I wasn't so focused on brewing I would've thought they were hysterical." Bria hummed, "He acted a little weird though. I'm not sure if he disagreed or...something else. My intuition tells me it resonated with him a bit more than he let on. He did drop it when I asked him if there was something he didn't like telling people."

"I'm surprised he decided to jump into the heavy topics so fast," Rachel blinked, "I'm glad he's not a bigot and made you feel bad about it. It's an interesting faith you're following after all."

"Well...that's just it. He said he overheard Sirius and I talking in the previous class, which doesn't make sense to me. I tried to brush it off thinking Sirius was just loud, but he and James were on the other side of the room. Even if Sirius was just that, there's no way he heard us. Unless he has unnatural senses," Bria frowned.

"Maybe it has something to do with the moon and Artemis." Rachel suggested. "Really, I wouldn't worry about it. Remus might have good eye-sight and could see you and lip-read? Or maybe Sirius was loud enough to carry a few words here and there and he's a good guesser."

"If you say so," Bria shrugged and then poked her as they went down the stairs once they decided to move in a way that allowed them access from their current location, "Now, your vision."

"You and Remus turned into animals of some sort and that was....disturbing. It was weird. It felt weird because my vision...kept blinking in and out. Like one minute I see Remus and you, the next I saw a cat and a wolf." Rachel sighed, "so I didn't sleep much last night."

A sneaking suspicion came over her, but Bria decided to keep it to herself. She was smart, she could put two and two together, and where some would be in denial and instantly put it out of their minds, she entertained the thought. It would be interesting, to say the least. "Okay. I can roll with that. I suppose we should just wait and see. Your visions tend to come true, after all, even if they are a bit subjective or vague."

"And everyone wonders why I stopped telling my cards," Rachel sighed. "Though I probably shouldn't do that. I always tell fortunes to a few of the first years here and there. It's kinda been like tradition now. Feels awful to just stop it."

"How did they react this time? Or haven't you found any that speak to you?" Bria giggled and hopped down onto the next flight before they could move, balancing Rae while she tried to do the same. "This is going to be a fun year I think. Just give Sirius a chance."

"Oh someone told one of the boys to get a reading." Rachel smirked. "Freaked out when he saw that I was a prefect, but I gave him a reading during breakfast. He was a sweetheart. He's going to have a good year this year."

She sighed about Sirius. "I know. He did try his best. I said before he was kind."

"I know, but he thinks he did something wrong. He was a bit upset when he told me trying to team up with you failed miserably," Bria smiled, "I told him not to give up and you were probably having a bad day."

Rachel nodded, "Are you sure they'll let me sit with them?"

"Yes of course!" Bria laughed and they finally got to the Dining Hall. She held her hand tightly as she led her over to where the boys were sitting and already chowing down on chicken legs and ham and other things, "I have brought the elusive Rae!" she grinned.

"Milady Fuchsia! I'm glad to see you haven't withered away," Sirius grinned widely.

"Thank god, now he can stop waxing poetic." James groaned. "Sirius mopes like a puppy that had it's chew toy taken away."

"Are you implying he would like to chew Rae to bits?" Bria arched a brow at James.

"I'm a nice puppy! I'll just slobber all over you, I won't pull out your stuffing," Sirius laughed.

Her eyebrow went up and she sat down, deciding to go next to Sirius so that Bria could sit down next to Remus if she wanted to. She did say she'd give Sirius a chance. "I'm sorry about Divination." She said after a moment. "Once I get antsy or anxious my magic spins out and the candle exploded from that. It wasn't your fault. Why do you call me Milady Fuchsia anyway? You know this isn't my real hair color, right?"

"Your hair color as it is, though, reminds me of some flowers. The Fuchsia flower and then the Milady Rose, but Rose is just so /overused and cliche/," he emphasized, "So...Milady Fuchsia it is."

It was so cramped at the table with all of them together, Bria found herself more or less crushed against Remus, "I hope I'm not invading your space too much. I can shove back if you need me to."

"You're fine," Remus assured. "Your small like Peter so you're not crushing me too badly. I'm glad you managed to get your friend out and about."

Rachel wrinkled her nose. "Why the Milady though? I'm not a noble or anything like that. Also, I'm half-blooded, not pure."

"I can just call you Fuchsia if it bothers you, I was just having fun. It rolled off the tongue nice and you don't have to be noble to be called 'milady'," Sirius defended.

"What were you planning on doing after Dinner? When do you have to go on patrol?" Bria asked as she reached for the salt shaker to sprinkle on her ham and green beans and then the butter for her small potatoes. She went to put them back just as he reached for something else, and their hands brushed causing a warm tingle to go up her arm, almost making it feel like it had been asleep for too long and was now getting life back into it.

"There's a prefect meeting tonight and we have to decide patrol routes and days we do them." Remus said, making Rachel glance at him to confirm that's what he said. It was curious that there was a warmth that spread when his hand brushed against Bria's. It wasn't must of a tingle as it was a wave. It was...weird and felt...interesting. "After that, I suppose I'll do the essay that Professor McGonagall wants by tomorrow and go to sleep. Why do you ask?"

"It's not that," Rachel wanted to curl up again, but kept herself straight. "I was...I was just wondering why you used Milady is all since it.." She bit her lip as she started to put things on her plate, careful to make it small portions since she didn't feel comfortable taking too much even if there was enough for everyone.

"No, I just wanted to know if there was a chance we could talk again, but ah well," Bria smiled at him, "I hope you like being a Prefect." She looked over at James who seemed a bit put-out and she nudged him with her shoulder, "Hey! You Quidditch Captain yet?"

"I am this year." James beamed. "Finally after forever. I'll wait till we're all settled into our new schedules before checking and seeing who needs to be replaced and things."

"I'm hoping that this is where James cools down and focuses more on Quidditch than the pranks." Remus whispered softly to Bria.

"Well, you're important to Bria, and Bria is important to you, so why not? Raiden and Eri both told me you're super easy to tell absolutely everything to and you won't bat an eye, so how is not a good thing, too?" Sirius said without missing a beat now his mouth wasn't full of food, "I may be a Black but I don't give any flying fucks about Purity. Remus is a half-blood, too and I have huge amounts of respect for him."

Bria giggled, "He'll always make time for pranks," she murmured back as quietly as possible, her voice nearly drowned out by the chatter in the hall. If he was a good listener, then he should be able to respond to her no problem.

Rachel only blinked a few times. "So that's why you've been putting me off. I was wondering about that." She glanced over at Bria and Remus who were talking to each other, James and Peter were in a heated discussion about something that had to do with Chess or exploding snap. Some game anyway. "So...you said you wanted me to learn about you. So should we play twenty questions or something?"

"Your friend seems to be taken with Sirius finally," Remus looked relieved as he listened with a half-hearted attempt to Rachel's minor statement. "That took a bit. Is she able to sense magic or is she just that good at being aware? Can you do any of that?"

"Maybe we could do that another day?" Sirius grinned at her mischievously, "If I were to play twenty questions with you it might lead down a path you don't want shared in a room full of people."

She was right! Bria was giddy and she beamed at him, "It's both, really. I'm rather aware, myself, but I also like to solve puzzles, putting two and two together, figuring out someone's secrets by the clues they leave me. Rae's kind of like a puzzle, I guess, which is why I'm good at it. Yet I can never answer the riddles for the Ravenclaw dorm."

"So you're the puzzle-master and she's the riddler?" Remus would have to be sure that his clues weren't too glaringly obvious though now that he was thinking about it, he feared she already knew. "That's interesting. Being able to sense magic is hard. Sirius is good at it, but that's because he's a strong wizard. James can only sense the four of us and surprisingly Lily. He's working on sensing Eri, but so far that's a no go."

"I don't mind waiting." She shrugged. "I usually skip lunch. How you lot can /eat/ three meals a day is beyond me."

"How you /don't/ is beyond /me/!" Sirius stared at her, "I feel like I'm going to die from starvation before each meal."

"I've seen how he's head over-heels for Lily these last several years, and it seems to me they're meant to be mates," Bria tapped her chin, "She doesn't hex him when he's genuinely talking to her and not showing off, and /not/ doing something awful with Snape. Which is rare, but they did this morning. She told me about it and actually appreciated the honest conversation."

"Small stomach," Rachel replied as if it was the most simple thing in the world. "And if I can't sleep, it's a good time to take an hour long nap."

"Well James and Snape have a special relationship that isn't going to end anytime soon," Remus replied as he took a drink of his water. He glanced at her with the weird phrasing as he went back to his food. "He's still working out what it is to talk to her. He can't help but to show off, that's just James Potter in the flesh and blood," James glanced at him but Remus shook his head and gestured for him to go back to his conversation. "I'll let him know that Lily said that...I just hope it doesn't give too many ideas. Why call them mates though?"

"They're not even dating and yet they're drawn to each other in the same way I see, say Raiden and Eri are," Bria explained, "Raiden and Eri are definitely mates. Raiden will graduate but the following year Eri will graduate and they'll promptly get married. I see Lily and James walking out of here as sweethearts and getting married a year or so later as well. I'm not even a Seer. They're just so intertwined in the way only mates can be that there's no other alternative."

"That'd be interesting to see." Remus hummed. "To see them happy and to run off." It still didn't explain why mates, but he'd leave it alone. Maybe he was being paranoid now. "Raiden and Eri definitely are."

()

“Okay class, be careful of these plants.” The Professor told them at large. “Stick with your group and put on your protective gloves. if the leaves get on you or any of the sap, it’ll start to eat at your skin and you’ll have to immediately go into the hospital wing as it can be passed around from skin to skin. I have some ointment to pause the effects at least until you get there. Alright, begin planting.”

Marcus rolled his eyes as he looked at the shrub. It was fairly small, but it was undoubtedly going to get larger as the days would go. It wasn’t anything useful, but if you knew how to trim it down and take care of it, it could be the best burglar trap in the Magical World, given if it was used correctly. He looked over at his partner, codenamed ghost, as she carefully took the pot.

“So I hear from Pretty Boy that he has a crush on you,” Marcus stated bluntly as was gently tapped the pot around the edges, breaking apart the soil so he could easily get at the plant. “What do you think about that?”

“Pretty boy?” Rachel looked at him blankly as she paused in her pot tapping.

“Black.” Marcus amended.

She still looked puzzled, only for a moment before realization drawn on her. Marcus knew that she was horrible with keeping up with names and faces. Marcus had been called a dozen names before she managed to start calling him by his name. “Oh, him.” She shrugged. “Okay.”

“Jeez, Ghost. Chill out on your fan-girling.” Marcus replied dryly as he carefully pulled the plant out of the pot, wiggling as carefully and gently as he could like the plant had feelings and he didn’t want to damage it. “You’re going to give the girls a horrible headache.” Rachel gave him a mild glare and he shrugged. “Most girls would be grateful that Sirius would even look at them, let alone have a crush.”

Rachel sighed. “He’s good looking, I’ll give him that.”

“Give him something else.”

“Like what? My nonexistent virginity?” Rachel replied dryly.

“I forgot about that,” Marcus frowned. “But no, I mean a hint.”

“A hint,” She repeated.

He sighed, this was going to be like pulling out teeth. Or this plant, the damn roots didn’t want to untangle themselves from the soil. He understood that sentiment. The soil must have been nice and comfortable and the pot was tight, but the poor shrub was going to suffocate if it stayed in there. As much as he disliked that it was a “weed” basically and a flesh-eating one, that didn’t mean it deserved to die like that. Fire was kinder. “Sirius doesn’t do subtle. Either you tell him to fuck off your accept his feelings.”

"Why does he like me? I haven't given him much reason to," Rachel frowned as she started to pull the plant out of the pot and putting it in the slightly larger one.

"I dunno. You don't question the heart on what it wants. Sirius likes you, from whatever unholy reason that might be." Marcus shrugged.

Rachel just made a face, but didn't say anything about it. What could she say? She didn't exactly want to say yes. She wasn't very trusting towards people and yesterday was just a shit-show. But she did challenge herself to say yes. Yes to whatever there was, which what got her into such sticky situations to begin with. Why Professor Flickwit wanted her as a prefect was beyond her.

"Tell you what, I'll give him a few hints on how to woo you and see if you don't fall then." Marcus said, as he too pulled the plant from the pot and placed it in the slightly larger one, careful to put the soil around the roots. "I'll give him three pieces of you."

As if that wasn't ominous enough. "What three pieces?" Rachel asked hestiantly.

"Nothing too dirty." Marcus waved it off. "I"ll tell him something common, a favorite of yours and...oh I know! A secret. You have plenty of them. You should think about going into the Secret-keeping business."

"You're not going to tell him-"

"Nothing about family or that betrayal. That dick of a-" he cut himself off just as Rachel glared him heatedly. "Nothing too dirty, like I said."

"You better not embarrass me."

"Oh no dearie. You do that on a daily basis anyway, it's practically your job."

"I'd hex you if you weren't right...."

~+~
Sirius jumped a bit when a green robe slipped in among the red. Looking up he beamed when he saw Marcus, "Hey! How's it going? You look awfully smug."

"Hey Pretty Boy," Marcus grinned as he sat down, taking off his green and silver tie before rolling up his sleeves. He always did this when he was at their table, not really because he was self-conscious, the Gryffindors liked him enough so that they didn't mind being seen with him, but it became a habit and it stuck. "You'll be smug too when you find out what I know."

'And what do you know?" James asked curiously as he took a bite of the cold sandwich. "Something that'll help us prank Slythern?"

"Nothing that'll benefit you, Jock." Marcus shook his head. "Just Pretty Boy. I just got done with Herbology and Ghost is in my class."

"Ghost being...?" Sirius blinked at him slowly.

"Magenta." Marcus gestured over to the Ravenclaw table. "If she hears me say her name, and I swear she will, she'd hex me and you won't get anything from me."

"She has a huge aversion to her name," Remus frowned. "I never knew anyone who disliked their name so much they'd go out of their way to not use it."

"Well, there's a few reasons for it. Number one being that she doesn't want any attachment to it." Marcus shrugged. "But that's all aside. You know who I'm talking about now?" He asked Sirius.

"Milady Fuchsia, yes," Sirius nodded, "I never asked you to get information, I hope both of you know that, but I appreciate the help."

"Milady." Marcus snorted. "She must have had a field day when she heard it. So, I told her that I'd give you three little things about her, but that's it. However, I'm more nosy than she realizes so, tell me what your looking for and I'll nudge you in a direction too."

“Hmm...what do I want..." Sirius hummed, tapping his chin. He took some genuine time to think about it, "She's a rare flower, isn't she?" he said absently before shaking his head, "I want...to see her smile and have it reach her eyes, instead of smiling as if she is trying to appease whomever she is with. I want...she see her unfurl from her cocoon, to sit up straight and interact with out fear, because that's what it is. She curls in on herself. Almost...like Moony."

“Oh she’s rare alright,” Marcus hummed as he thought about what he was saying. “The first one is going to come with time. I hate saying that, but…until she gets to know you, you’re going to get the half-smiles and fake grins for a bit. Now the uncurling part? That’s an easy one.” He paused wondering how to do this. “Talk to her like a person. Believe me, she’ll talk about anything. Sex, education, religion, politics, she isn’t shy. That’s the thing people don’t get. She’s /not/ shy. She’s observing. How do you act, what do you say, she needs a rhythm to follow and the only way she’s going to get that rhythm is if you talk to her or let her watch your guys dynamic. It might take a few weeks or a month to get her to actually go with the flow, but…who knows really. You might just click.”

"That's why she was talking so much when Bria was with her," Remus concluded. "She had someone to bounce off and use as reference."

Bingo." Marcus snapped his fingers.

"So what do you mean by "Talk to her as a person'?" Remus frowned. "I don't think we were talking to her any other way."

"Mostly I mean be yourself. Be rowdy, loud, whatever. She'll get with the game sooner or later. Don't...be too soft? I know Raiden's all "don't overwhelm her", but the thing is, is Ghost is always overwhelmed, she just has a stronger breaking point than most. Yesterday was just a bad day. I heard about it, believe me."

That was a bigger relief than Sirius realized, "Sorry if the mixed signals I'm getting from you guys is a bit confusing. I'll do my best. Honestly, I'm a bit more inclined to believe you on this one, Marcus, than Tiger. I mean, you do have five sisters."

"Ghost counts so make that six." Marcus said firmly. "I invite her over every once in a while and mom keeps trying to get her to stay." He shrugged. "Okay so three pieces to give you...." He tapped his finger to his mouth in thought. "I'll go with the easy ones. I'm still debating on the third."

He held up a finger to show the list. "First and foremost, something common and well-known about her is something a lot of people will overlook. Even though I just said Ghost counts as my sixth sister, and is a part of my family Bria is her older sister. You have to get /our/ permission if you want to do anything to her. Bria first and then me. Never the other way around. Bria is her mirror, everything she shows, Bria hides. Everything Bria shows, Rae hides. Bria's social but likes being alone. Rae is anti-social but dear god does that girl want friends more than she wants anything else. Oops that's two, but that's alright. I'll cheat."

Remus was a little surprised with the information. It made a little bit of sense on how well the two of them connected. Bria talked, Rae listened. Rae spoke, it was cut short and blunt. Bria probably did the same thing with her listening observing considering she saw everything as a puzzle and looked for clues. It was curious that the girls were each other's mirror. And a little sad that life made it so that they relied dependently on each other. Something must have happened in order for them to be so close they could do that without being twins or blood.

"I like this cheating," Sirius grinned brightly, "Okay, so perhaps I should get to know the tiny brunette with a little more intent, if they're so connected. I did talk to her a bit yesterday, but there's so much more. Why are women so complex?" he laughed softly and then took a moment to eat a bit more before speaking again, "I'm enjoying this challenge a little more than I expected. Do tell me more. I'm sure if I'm myself I can find some sort of common thing between us without even getting a headache."

“True, you do need something in common with her.” Marcus laughed. “Let’s see…something that is her favorite…” He paused. “Fucking hell, that’s actually harder than I thought. She has a lot of favorites…ugh you know what. Narrow it down for me. What do you want to know?”

“Everything..." Sirius gave a breathless chuckle, "I don't know, there's so much. Oh...bugger all..." he muttered and just...ate for a while. "Music," he said randomly, "I really have no clue. Tell me what sort of music she likes. Raiden was teaching me guitar in his spare time..."

Marcus stared at him for the longest time and nodded his head, "Okay fair. The darker the song the better I swear that girl knows more dark songs than I do and it freaks me out. Um...she likes folk songs too. She doesn't like country. She likes rock, pop, those kinds of genres. Jazz no. She hates that. But she likes a lot of other things." He shrugged. "She sings. She plays piano. So she'll like someone to accompany her."

"That would be an interesting mix. Perhaps that's something you could share with her, Moony. You play piano," Sirius grinned, "You should see what Bria does! That's a question to ask her. She likes questions, doesn't she Marcus?"

"Both of them do." Marcus nodded. "Any and all. Bria will be pleased to answer anything too though if she doesn't like any of it, she'll tell you to fuck off."

"I see, that' something to keep in mind." Remus hummed thoughtfully. He hadn't played in a while, but it was interesting to hear that they had something in common. Perhaps since he was dealing with a mirror, he would ask the reflection to know more about her too. Rather than always hounding on Bria considering he knew that's what Pads was going to do.

'I see Bria as an open book, where Fuchsia is a closed one," Sirius nodded, "I like that analogy. I suppose we'll find out now, won't we? Do you anything else, Marcus? Or was that it?"

"Didn't give you a secret yet." Marcus pointed out to him. "Unless you think you don't need it?"

"Nah, not really, but curiosity says to tell me something anyway," Sirius grinned at him, "Whatever comes to mind that won't be too much information too soon."

"Okay so, the perfect date is an outdoors date." Marcus grinned, making Remus' eyebrow go-up and James had stopped talking to Peter long enough to start edging his way in to listen to this. It may not be for their specific girls, but they could always tear up the ideas however they needed. "As much as she doesn't like gifts and such, she likes flowers. Also, hand-holding. Innocent little things that you don't think of. I will warn you that she will steal your jacket and will replace it with hers. Oh and she gets cold super easy. I gave you three secrets. You owe me Pretty boy."

"You know you told the Marauders those secrets right?" James asked curiously.

"I honestly doubt she's going to have the entire Marauders at her beck and call." Marcus frowned. "Though I hope those secrets give you some idea on how to woo your women. Especially Lily. If you get hexed by Christmas I'm going to be losing a bet."

"Who did you bet against?!" James demanded, almost offended.

"Frank Longbottom and Dorcas Meadows. Lily's friend and Alice's maybe boyfriend? Honestly if anyone needs to work out their relationship, its them."

"Whenever and whatever you need, I'll do it," Sirius was giddy, "Thank you, Marcus. I really appreciate it." Oh, it would be fun. He could /technically/ use the date secrets whenever he wanted, because it was that time of year and going outside to eat for lunch was not uncommon. Yes! "Oh hey, what do Rae and Bria think of Hogsmeade? I know that's not until October, but it's fun to look forward to."

"Bria's favorite area is Hogsmade are you kidding?" Marcus snorted. "Rem, secret for you because why not, take Bria to Madam Puddifoot's tea shop. Just not on Valentine's day since it gets /really/ girlish. But during October they have really awesome fucking decorations up." He turned to Sirius. "Ghost would appreciate going to Tomes and Scrolls as well as going to...Dominc Maestro's. A music shop. I'm sure she'd enjoy that."

Bria would probably like the bookshop too, Remus would just have to arrange it so that he didn't crash on Sirius. "Should you be giving away secrets like candy?"

"Bria maybe, Ghost? She won't miss one of three secrets." Marcus shrugged. "Besides if it gets you two to start doing something, then please...take the secrets I am giving you freely."

Sirius laughed and patted Marcus on the back, finishing his meal and wiping off his face so he didn't look like the mutt he was, "I'm taking them and running away with them. This is going to be so fun, guys," he grinned brightly. The rest of the day would go by just fine if he was up in the clouds like this.

~*~

Remus wasn’t in the least surprised when he was paired up with Rachel to do the patrol route. They walked silently, their footsteps echoing in the empty corridor. It was weird to see it so huge and wide when it was usually cramped and filled with students. The armor that decorated some of the walls of the hallways looked dangerous and looming over the corridor. The display cases had candlelight shining on the glass, making the interior look more mysterious and ominous. Remus couldn’t help but to sometimes look over his shoulder, a habit from when they were sneaking around underneath the cloak.

The silence, Remus decided, was what got him the most. James, Peter, and Raiden were usually underneath the cloak and talked in a whisper. Right now, they were silent as the night, and it just didn’t sit right with him. He kept waiting for a wise crack or something come from his friends. Maybe a hurried shushing sound as the prefects rounded the corner.

Rachel didn’t seem to be bothered in any particular way. In fact, despite that they were in the shadows and she was holding herself stiffly, she seemed to also be relaxed. Bria must like the day time, if the mirror analogy that Marcus had given them earlier was any sort of clue. Rachel, despite being afraid and obviously from the smell that she gave off, liked it.

Maybe her fear is what drove her to enjoy it? Or perhaps, she was cautious out of training but couldn’t help but to enjoy it anyway.

“Bria knows what you are,” the silence was broken and it made Remus take a step back, feeling as though someone had just dropped a bunch of books on his desk without his knowing.

“I’m sorry, what?”

“By the time the full moon comes around, she’s going to be telling me all the puzzle pieces that she solved and how she discovered what you are.” She repeated. “Don’t worry. I won’t say anything.”

“I’m curious to know how you know, if you know at all.’ Remus retorted.

She turned to him, a confused frown on her face. “Isn’t it obvious? No one gets those kinds of scars from just falling.”

Remus wasn’t certain how to continue that kind of conversation. If this was a conversation at all. They continued walking, but Remus’ mind was bouncing around. How could she have known? Did Bria already give her suspicions and that’s how she figured it out? Sure, the scars might be a sign, but certainly she must have come up with other plausible reasons before she gave him the one that seemed most outlandish.

The clues were in Bria’s hands, how could she have solved it without them?

“Why do you sign?” It was the only question he could think of that would get his mind away from this. His heart thudded and his adrenaline just kicked in. Fight or flight, and he wasn’t sure what her plan was. Would she tell? Who would she tell? Sirius liked her, it’d be a shame if it turned out Sirius fell for someone that wasn’t going to accept him.

“I don’t like talking. I don’t understand people. I don’t /get/ them.” Rachel’s mouth curved into a genuine frown. “I can’t translate.”

She couldn’t understand her own mother tongue? Remus never heard of something like that before, “Is it a Deaf thing?”

She spun around, eyes flaming. “I’m not Deaf.” She snapped. “Okay? I can hear you just fine. I just don’t understand what you’re saying. Like a foreigner.”

He held up his hands, trying to pacify. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to say that.”

She relaxed, but her shoulders were still hunched up and tensed. She turned back around, and they started walking again. Footsteps heavy and the silence unbearable. This time, it was her turn to speak. “Why did you ask?”

“Curiosity mostly. Sirius is thinking about learning how to sign. To be honest, I think that it might be helpful.” Remus shrugged. “Easier to talk to people from all the way across the room.”

“Your hearing has everyone at a disadvantage.” Ah, so Bria told her that. “Understandable.”

“Raiden and Marcus seem to know it as well, and considering this may be your only method to communicate with us,” Remus shrugged. “You shouldn’t feel like you’re missing out on conversation.”

Again, the mirror analogy started to bite at Remus’ mind. Rachel couldn’t understand, but that meant that Bria probably understood the most. She probably understood the underline that Rachel couldn’t. Maybe, that was also why Bria had no problems saying that Sirius liked Rachel. It wasn’t subtle enough for her not to get.

Once more, they turned the corner. Remus strained his ears to listen for the whisper of an invisibility cloak or his friends shushing whispers. He thought for a moment that a shadow moved, but considering no one was coming down to them, he brushed it off. Rachel on the other hand, must have seen the same thing he did, for she only tensed for a moment, gripping something in her pocket, before letting her shoulders go, but her hand still there.

“Is Bria the lonely type?” Remus asked for a moment.

“Sorry?” Rachel glanced at him.

“Bria,” he repeated. “Is she lonely?”

“She’s lonely in a way you don’t understand. She’s lonely that everyone sees a facade and not what she’s actually showing. Oh sure, she’s loud and brash and overly sexual. But she’s insecure. She’s scared. Will you still like her even after the facade is gone and crumbled away. Her happy exterior is nothing more than just a glass mask. Fragile as hell. She holds her heart on her sleeve too much not to.” Rachel explained.

“While you have a bleeding heart on your sleeve,” Remus concluded, making Rachel glance at him in surprise. “You’re just as lonely as she is. You have this heart and you don’t want anyone to look at it. That’s why you’re so confused by Sirius, isn’t it? Who wants to see a broken mess? Am I wrong?”

“That’s….”

“If Bria is the insider looking out, you’re the outsider looking in. Bria only sees her friends and how to keep them. You look and you long for friends, but you know what keeping them entails.” Remus stopped, making Rachel stop and turn around. “Bria’s smiles aren’t fake, they’re genuine and proud. Yours on the other hand, don’t reach your eyes.”

The smile that broke on Rachel’s face at that exact moment, only hardened this. It wasn’t fake, but the way it reached her eyes was heartbreaking. He could practically feel the loneliness, the longing, and the broken heart that was beating so steadily in her chest. She smiled as though she were crying. He recognized that smile. He used to wear that smile when James offered his hand of friendship, when he was discovered as a werewolf, and again when Sirius asked him a question.

It hit how much his friends meant to him. He would do whatever it took to keep them safe. He didn’t care about facades and what they saw, they saw the worst. What more could they see that would make them break apart? Rachel on the other hand, didn’t seem to have that. Raiden was given so much, Marcus knew more, and Bria knew the most.

If he had to describe the set up, Bria wasn’t Rachel’s mirror. She was her anchor. Her grounding tool. The person who caught her. Raiden was a net, soft and flexible, but could break at any given second. Marcus was a rope, a little stronger than a net, but could also break if the right tool could be used to cut.

“My friends are your friends,” Remus said softly.

“I don’t think that’s how it works.”

“For the Marauders, that’s exactly how it works. You and Bria are now our friends. I’m not going to let you just back away like that.” Not when he knew that face and smile. Not when he recognized that Bria was practically Sirius’ in this relationship. “Can I…offer you something?”

Rachel tilted her head, confused.

“Take your time falling for Sirius. I know he’s impatient and wants things to happen, but I think that you should take your time.” Remus told her honestly. “Raiden and Marcus gave him ideas on how to win your heart, and maybe those methods won’t work, and that’s okay. Maybe you two weren’t meant to be together after all. But, I’d like it if you took his attempts with more than just a grain of salt. Look at them as signs of friendship. Sirius really thought about not even attempting this.”

“Why do you keep encouraging him, then?”

“Because out everyone, I know how you feel.” Remus told her honestly. “Because out of everyone, I know what Bria means to you. Sirius means the same thing to me, and I want him to mean something to you.”

“That’s…not much of an answer…”

“To be frank, I don’t know why he crushed on you. Maybe it’s the way you brushed off any attempts to make yourself a victim. Maybe it’s the way you were able to keep up with his witty banter. Maybe it’s about time you let go and take a giant leap of faith.”

“And what do you suggest that I do?”

“Open yourself up, even if it’s just a tiny piece.’ Remus shrugged. “And let Sirius figure out the rest. That’s all.”

~*~

"Insomnia's a bitch, isn't it?"

Sirius jumped nearly so high out of the chair he was curled up in he almost fell out of it. "By Merlin's beard, what the bloody hell?!" he half whispered, half shouted as he held his hand over his chest, panting, "Bria?!"

"Gomen," Bria shrugged as she came and lounged on the couch, "Good thing tomorrow's Saturday or we'd both be in trouble." She hummed happily as the fire warmed her side and face.

He blinked slowly at her, "If it wasn't for Raiden I wouldn't know that was Japanese." He watched her eyes as she stared into the flames. The steel green shade was obscured by the red-orange glow, but they were still a sort of haunting pale shade. Her hair glimmered beautifully, however, and he saw flecks off natural redness in it. If only Remus could see her right now.

Bria perked and eyed him curiously, "Do you know any?"

"Just a few basic words. Gomen means sorry, arigato is thank you, nani is what...not much more really matters, they're almost like second nature when Raiden's caught off guard or isn't thinking about what he's saying, so I think he speaks it fluently at home," Sirius explained.

"That's awesome! I've been studying it for a while. I should surprise him one day and start randomly speaking it. Rae can speak it, too. All this time, and I had no idea," Bria grinned.

They were silent for a moment longer before Sirius broke it, "What brought you down here? Did you even know I was here?"

"Mm...no. I just wanted to be away from the others in my dorm, even if they're all sleeping," Bria explained.

Black brows furrowed, "Why is that?"

"I can feel their presence," she stretched, "I can feel when I am alone or when others are around me. A word for it is 'empathic'," she arched a brow at him, "Emotions affect me more than I would like them to."

"Emotions...of others? Or...your own?" Sirius furrowed his brows. He had heard about empaths, but hadn't encountered one before and didn't understand what it meant.

"Both," Bria nodded, "I don't like crowds. Yes, classes suck because of it. Thankfully I can control it to an extent, and watch you or the others as a distraction."

"I haven't seen you have any odd mood swings," he sat up a little straighter.

Bria shrugged, "Oh, you will. As Rae has her bad days, so do I. I can go to cheerful to depressed in a split second, or get extremely angry for no real reason. Science and the muggle world call that bi-polar and depression, but more than one reason can cause it."

"Uh...huh..." he drawled and she giggled at him.

"It's okay if you don't understand. Anyway...I do have melancholy outright, aside from my empathy," Bria explained, "Those times, I am very emotional and don't have a lot of motivation for things. It can take a few days or a week for me to get over it, but I bounce back fairly quickly."

/That/ he did understand, "Does Rae have it?"

"Yes. She goes through it differently, and she also has bad anxiety. I get anxious, but not like her. That's what causes her to run away," she gave him a very sad smile.

Something occurred to him, "The way you sit on opposite sides of the classes. She sits up front to ignore everyone and focus on the teacher so she doesn't get overwhelmed. You...sit in the back because it's a comfort. You don't like feeling like everyone's eyes are on you, and you can keep an eye on /them/ instead. You feel protected."

"Spot on, aren't you?" a grin formed, "Rae and I are similar as well as we are different." A pause, "We're talking an awful lot about me. Why not tell me more about you?"

Sirius was taken aback, "I thought you liked questions?"

"It's called equal opportunity," Bria's smirk was sly.

It reminded him of a smirk Marcus or any other Slytherin would give him, "Alright...I have a touch of melancholy but it's not something extreme. It happens a lot over the summer more often than not."

"Away from your friends, and you don't like going home. Rae hates going home, too. She is always anywhere but," Bria nodded.

That...was an interesting piece of information, "Do you not like going home?"

"No. I don't like being alone, and my grandmother is always gone, running the Knight Bus."

He should've expected, "That's the first time you've admitted it outright." She only shrugged at him so he sighed and thought of something else, "Something I think we have in common...we don't have a lot of friends." He watched as she looked as though he'd raised his hand to hit her. Her posture and demeanor changed, and she looked like she was remembering something, "Bria?"

"I'm...yes. Rae and Lily...and now you boys and Eri...are my only friends. It seems like a lot, but for a long time...it wasn't." She sounded as though she was choking back tears.

Sirius knew he'd pressed a button and he felt like a fool when she stood up and headed back to her dorm, "I'm sorry," he said, but he really didn't know what else to say.

"I'll see you tomorrow. It's okay, it's not your fault. Just...spot on," Bria echoed earlier words and disappeared.

()

"What black magic possessed you to be up after dawn broke, Prongs?" Sirius yawned, "Moony, maybe, but you? You look awfully energetic as well..."

"It's nine, Sirius. If I let you sleep in you're going to sleep the whole day away and then where are you going to be?" James rolled his eyes. "Quidditch Tryouts!" He held out one of the flyers to Sirius. "I'm posting them all over the school."

"I slept like crap, or rather, not at all..." Sirius looked like a kicked puppy, "I done did bad."

"....What did you do?" James asked, frowning as he watched Sirius. He did look awful. His eyes were blood-shot and he looked more like a frightening vampire that was hungering for blood. His lips quirked at the thought. "You didn't go off and upset Moony did you?"

"Not Moony, but just as bad," he plopped down in a seat, "I upset Bria...we were both having a bout of insomnia and we got to talking about this and that. It was a rather random conversation. I...well...hit a few nails on the head..." he chewed his lip, "I'll go find Moony after I wake up a bit, but I mentioned that something we had in common was we don't have a lot of friends."

James clicked his tongue sympathetically. Sirius was the greatest observer, but a little on the blunt side. It probably tossed Bria for a loop. "I'll go ask one of the girls to drag her down the bedroom if she's up there and demand her to come with me for the day. You...might want to tell Rem so he's prepared. He likes her after all, he might have an idea on how to cheer her up."

"Way ahead of ya," Sirius nodded and yawned wide and sounded like a dog at the end, "Ah man...I'm gunna go take a hot shower to kick myself awake. Moony's probably in the Library studying so it's not like I'm on a time limit."

"You need it. If you ran into Rae she might scream you look horrifying." James turned around and said loudly. "Oy! Someone grab Bria-Bambina for me and drag her down here. I want help putting up these flyers around the campus and I'm not falling for that slide trick again."

Sirius was long gone by the time Bria managed to emerge from the dorm, Lily bringing her down. The circles that weren't otherwise noticeable were prominent today, obviously covered up with make up that Lily threw on. She had the slightest natural shimmer to her eyes so she didn't look so much like a zombie. Her lips were also covered in a shimmering peachy-pink lipstick. Without it they were pale and looked awfully cracked.

"Hey, James. How are you?" she yawned and looked over his fliers, "So you need a new beater, a keeper, and a few chasers? Backups welcome?" Her choice of clothing was casual. Just a pair of dark brown sandals, brown capri pants that showed off pare legs, and a red tank top with white roses and rhinestones.

"Yes and we're going to plaster these everywhere so no Gryffindor doesn't go uninformed." James told her as he handed her part of the stack. "And we're getting you out of the Common Room for a bit. I need a good cheerleader."

"I'm going to have no voice after the first game," Bria smiled, holding the stack close.

"You take care of her, you hear?" Lily warned with a slight smile and she shouldered her backpack better, "I'm going to the Library."

"Have a good day Lily-flower, hopefully I'll see you later" James grinned at her. "And don't hex Sirius he already feels bad." He turned to Bria. "That's our fan! Come on."

Bria giggled and walked with him out of the Common Room and out through the hallway, "I know you want these everywhere, but any place in particular you were thinking of?"

"Just stick them and yell at Gryffindor's that aren't first years was basically how I was going to do it." James shrugged. "By the way, don't sweat yourself over what Sirius said. He's a little sharp around the edges because he thinks being blunt is being kind."

"What?" Bria blinked at James and then she blushed a little, looking away, "No, no...don't get the wrong idea, okay? I'm not mad at him. Quite the contrary, I'm impressed he was so accurate. It's just..." she took a deep breath and she placed a poster on the wall where Gryffindors would pass by to and from class, "I remembered my past and what my life was like before Hogwarts. It hit me harder than it should've. I had just told him before that, that I outright don't like being alone. If Rae's fear is darkness, then mine is isolation. Ah...I didn't tell him that last part."

"Oh last night should've been fun. The prefects have to go down those empty corridors and things and all they have is their wands or lanterns." He was seriously hoping that Remus didn't leave Rae somewhere in the dark. "I'd tell you to forget it, but unless you're real good with a memory-charm that's not happening. Instead if you feel lonely hang out with us. We're supposed to start talking pranks soon. I could use the help."

"What's your favorite kind of prank? I see you guys do all sorts, but have you ever hurt anyone?" Bria asked curiously, they hit another well-used hallway and she placed another poster between two paintings.

"Oh fuck no." James look scandalized. "If our prank hurts someone that's not a prank, that's cruelty and we have a punishment for that. No, our pranks are harmless. Changing colors, make you sing, make you do the hot step every once in a while. You know, real fun stuff. Of course some pranks do have accidents happen, we're not responsible for those. We're also the type of pranksters that fuck with your food. Which Eri will kill us for if we screw around in the kitchen, but...it's Eri and I like Princess too much /to/ do too much with the kitchen. I might fuck around with the arrangements though. That sounds like fun...."

"Oh Eri would be so mad. Have you done the katchup prank?" Bria grinned, "Or toothpaste in oreos?"

"Those are ideas.." James frowned as he looked at Bria. "What the heck is an oreo? Is that a food? It sounds like something plastic."

"It's...a biscuit," Bria blushed, "It's a sandwich treat, originally from America, with white or chocolate biscuit pieces surrounding cream frosting filling. I like the double stuffed ones, myself, with extra frosting. Those I think would be best for the toothpaste prank."

"Is there a way to get them from there to here?" James asked. "Because if there is, I want to do that prank now."

"Where there's a will, there's a way," Bria was giddy, "For sure. Don't traumatize someone right away, have them try them regularly before you pull the prank."

"Gotcha, I understand." James winked at her. "You should be our fifth member. We need a name for you though. Bambina was just me being obnoxious. I'll ask Sirius and Peter their thoughts. Moony sucks at coming up with names."

"Oh that's very nice," Bria grinned, "Lily would be your fifth, though. She's saucy and even though she yells at you, she finds your pranks, at least these days, rather funny. Don't tell her I told you," she waved her finger, "She'll probably jinx me."

James raised an eyebrow at her, a little surprised that Bria would just offer Lily like that. "She's a lot better than a fifth." he said sincerely. "But you're still a friend regardless. You have to know that."

Bria smiled brightly, "Thank you. I think pranks with you guys will be fun. There's one I've never been brave enough for because I hate onions, but I think it would be great for Halloween. Caramel Onions instead of Caramel Apples."

"Oh my god we can do it to Snivilus and his bunch of friends." James snapped his fingers. "See, this is why your our fifth member. I love Tiger to death, don't get me wrong, but he's only honorary. Princess took him away from us. Can't be mad about it, they're too cute."

Bria rambled on, "Raiden and Eri /are/ adorable. I can agree with that one. Of course there's the head in a jar prank. Just an image placed in a glass jar so it's distorted and looks like it fills it, like you were decapitated. That's another wonderful Halloween one."

"Okay, slow down. You're giving me too many ideas and I want to get these posters up before I fly down to the library and ruin Remus and Sirius' heart to heart moment. I'd never hear the end of it if I ruin their conversation."

"I'm sorry! You got me on the warpath," Bria cracked up, "I'll make you a list, how about that?"

"Please do. Sirius is going to be so fucking jealous." James cackled.

~*~

"Moooony!" Sirius whined without shouting so he wouldn't get yelled at, plopping at the desk and laying his head down looking up at Remus with the most pitiful expression, "I'm sorry."

"What happened?" Remus asked, carefully placing a finger on the sentence he was just reading. He was doing the puppy-dog eyes and Remus could only fanthom what just happened. He just hoped that nothing of his was damaged.

"I hurt Bria's feelings last night," Sirius pouted.

"How...what....did you even do?" Remus sighed, closing his book. He already memorized the page number, so he wasn't bothered by it.

Sirius sat up so he could look at him properly but he still had a frown, "James is already making her feel better but still..." he sighed, "I'll start from the beginning and tell you everything so it makes more sense." Without further ado, he did so.

Remus frowned deeply at the end of the conversation. "It's shocking that you say all of this...considering this is almost the same conversation that I had with Rae." He thought about it, "I wonder if my own observations hurt her. She seemed to have just brushed it off. Bria on the other hand, is a little more sensitive and you should /apologize/ when you see her next."

"Of course I will," Sirius nodded, "I was planning on it, of course. I just wanted you to know. I did say I'm sorry in the moment, but it was more of the shock factor that I made her run away. It seems...our respective interests are more fragile than they seem."

"They're both real lonely." Remus agreed softly. "I made the observation that Bria is lonely like you are, Sirius. While Rae appears to have the loneliness of someone like me. I urged her to take her time falling in love with you. I see so many similarities between us and them."

Sirius was quiet for a moment before he sighed, "I'm beginning to see that as well. I guess in a way we could use that to our advantage? A little less guess work if we already have an idea of what we're looking for."

"I believe so," Remus agreed. "Though, Sirius...I think you may want to ask Raiden or Eri, or even Bria to teach you how to sign."

"Do you think I could find books here about it? Get started and then have them help me practice?" he asked.

"I think you might want to look at a phrase book, and study the grammar and things from that if you're going to learn from a book." Remus agreed.

"That's a good idea," Sirius agreed and he stood up, "I think I'll go do that now. I'm sure Bria's doing better now, Prongs has that way about him."

"I'll go catch up with Prongs while you study." Remus also stood up. "I want to see how Bria is doing." He clapped Sirius on the shoulder before leaving the library.

~*~

It was two weeks after that, and Bria found herself studying at a table that was on the other side of a library bookshelf from the Marauders. Everyone else was focused on their own thing, but as soon as she heard their voices, she just couldn't help herself. Remus wasn't the only one with good hearing. Of course, hers weren't nearly like his, but it was enough.

“We have to practice the transformations before we surprise Moony. I know we think we got it, but…we really got to be sure before one of us gets stuck as an animal. I do not want to be eating leaves for the rest of my life.” James whispered softly to his friends as he made a circle with them. “Eri has this perfume…I think she’s willing to lend it to us for tonight. At least till we got the you know what down pat.”

Okay. This as plain arse /weird/ and Bria did not use that word lightly. Moony. She'd heard that in passing and she guessed a while back it was Remus. They always used real names with each other with her and Rae around. Stuck as an animal? She thought of Professor McGonagall and how she turned back and forth between a cat. Oh Goddess, were they trying to be animagi?

"A /perfume/? Are we going to be smelling like girls?" Peter wrinkled his nose, "Please tell me it's just a spritz potion."

"Yeah, Tiger was telling me about it. It takes your personal scent and makes it so you smell like an animal. It's an illusion type of potion Eri's grandmother came up with because she's encountered /them/ before," Sirius explained, "So no, we won't smell like girls."

"I bet you'd smell real good as a girl though Pete." James teased him. "You could pull it off better than Sirius maybe unless it's something else. That being said though, the question is where and when. We should leave soon because he's going to be going down there, but do we want to be there ahead of him...or...wait till Moony comes?"

"Piss off about pulling off being a girl. Anyway, we should go ahead of time, after lights out but before patrols," Peter pointed out, "Who's all going then? Is it just us or will it be Tiger and Princess too? That might be a bit cramped."

"Just us." James shook his head. "As much as I love Princess and Tiger, I think they wanted to have a bit of a date if you catch my drift." He rolled his eyes. "Everyone's romance is going to be the death of me. Wormtail I'm so glad your single, we can be lonely together for a bit till someone catches your eye."

"You poor sod," Peter snorted, "Lily's been less hostile towards you this year, though. You might have a chance. At least until you do something to Snape."

"Slimy fucking weasel, you know...you just reminded me of a prank I could do to him...Thanks!" James grinned wildly.

"On point, though...should we finish up here and go find Princess?" Sirius asked James, "We can worry about pranks later."

"Yeah let's go." James said as he stood up, he checked his bag once and looked around, "No one's around...let's get under this and we'll leave."

Bria quickly got into a position where it looked like she was asleep, and heard footsteps going by. Then a gasp and a hiss.

"Be extra quiet, guys. Bria's been there the whole time," Sirius' voice spoke up.

"Then let's not waste anymore time and get the bloody hell out of here before she wakes up!" Peter hissed again.

James didn't even dignify that with a statement just shoved them roughly so that they'd hurry up and go. They had bigger things to do and they needed to leave now in order to do it.

Bria felt her stomach twisting in knots. Oh Goddess. Everything she had been suspecting was right. She wasn't afraid, though, as she knew she wouldn't be. Remus was a werewolf. It was an excited kind of nervous she was feeling. Of course, things were too late now. Perhaps a month from now, they'd trust her a bit more she might be able to go with them. Maybe Remus would like her more, too in a romantic sense? He had been approaching her, but more as a friend and made no response, positive or negative, about her flirtation attempts. He was probably afraid of her reaction. That was okay, she would be, too. Should she be more forward, then, and say she knew? Would that get them to open up? Or would that make them run away? Make.../him/ run away?

Oh...now tears were forming. She was scared of /their/ reaction. She didn't want to lose them, but going further while playing dumb and innocent would be bad, she suspected. What to do? Sniffing, she snuggled into her arm for real and let her robe dry her tears...

~*~

Remus was hurrying down the corridor as fast as he legs could carry him without breaking into the a run or without causing too much suspicion on him. He was thankful that not many students were out and about and he could probably reach the Weeping Willow before anyone could catch a hold of him. He was so reckless, letting himself get so close to the edge. He had been waiting up for his friends, thinking that they were going to come back from their impromptu study session. He rounded the corner and nearly crashed into Bria who smelled like salt and tears and sadness. "Bria?" He choked.

Bria looked up at him with wide eyes, which quickly turned sheepish and she averted her gaze. She looked tired, like she had just woken up, "Remus, I was just going to the dorm. Bugger all, I'm getting docked for being out, aren't I?"

"No...no it's fine." Remus shook his head from side to side. "As long as you leave quickly and get up to the dorms, I'll pretend I didn't see you." He'd offer to escort her, but shit he wasn't certain if he would be able to.

She didn't move at first, biting her lip harshly. "Remus...are you okay? I mean...I'm sorry. You've been really snappy towards me the last few days, and really short with me today of all. I'm just...never mind." She sighed, "Forget I asked. You're probably just swamped with prefect duties. I'll go."

He wanted to tear his hair out and scream. This wasn't the time! "I can't explain it." He told her. "I am sorry that I've been rude to you and I'll make it up to you, but I do have...I must go." He felt awful and he could feel the wolf claw at his veins and and he bit back a growl. Oh fuck, even the wolf thinks that this is a great idea, of all times, to act possessive.

Nodding, she got out of his way and watched as he bolted down the hall and around the corner. Okay. If he was for sure by all the clues, then it was probably just his instincts. Wolfs were aggressive creatures which is why they had a bad rep, but they had reasons. She would have to look back on the previous days with a new perspective...later. Much later when she could think properly. Going up the stairs, she said the password and went to the dorm room. Rae...she needed to talk to her about it.

The full moon had been wonderful which was a surprise. He scratched himself up and tried to hurt himself until he smelled a mixture of animal and human. He couldn't fully understand what they were after, or who exactly they were, but he felt calm around them. Peaceful. The human scent was enough to give a hint that he knew them, but nothing more. By the time dawn broke and he managed to come back into his human form, he only took feeble notes that it was his friends who came to spend the moon with him, and oddly enough he didn't feel angry or upset about it. Just happy that he didn't have to go through this alone, as selfish as that was. Though maybe when he got his mind together, it'd be a different story.

When the next day rolled around, Bria didn't bother trying to disturb Remus during class. The poor guy looked half asleep and barely with the program, let alone remember what they talked about the night before. He had a bandage on his cheek, but just a small one. Looked like he got hit with a tree branch. She was thankful the potion they had to make that day was super simple, so she made the ingredients while Remus mindlessly stirred and she /swore/ he fell asleep on his feet at one point. In Runes he practically slept on his book. None of the teachers said a word, however, which she found a bit suspicious. Did they know? Stupid question. They would /have/ to know.

Lunch came, and Rae had decided to sit at the Ravenclaw table and Bria saw homework, so it was more than likely her partner she was talking to. Biting her lip, she shifted on her feet and gripped her backpack handle, "Hey, sorry Bonnie, can I steal Rae? It's important."

Bonnie gave Rae a look and smiled gently, "Sure. No problem. I'll talk to you later, Lock."

"Bye Bonnie." Rachel waved before turning to Bria and signed, "/What's important/?"

Bria spelled out Remus' name and placed her hand by her face, pulling it out twice to signal a snout, the sign for Wolf. "/You know, his name is ironic. I don't think his parents intended that./" She was fairly calm, but she did have a frown, "/Let's go to the classroom./"

"/Okay/." Rachel didn't seem to be bothered by this at all. Instead she grabbed her books and shouldered her bag and let Bria lead them to a classroom that was empty. She set her books down in a heavy waterfall on an unfortunate desk and sat down on top of it. Today, she was wearing the boy's uniform, so there wasn't a reason to worry about crossing her legs inappropriately. "/I don't feel like talking, but you can talk./" She told her. "/Tell me./"

"Remus is a werewolf. There's no other way around it. Honestly, I am and I'm not surprised people are oblivious to the obvious signs. It's a good thing, for sure, or there would be panic everywhere and why would he want that?" Bria shook her head, "I'm just...I myself am at a loss for what to do. He was snappy the last few days, but I wonder now if it was because of that, instead of myself. You know me, I'm paranoid. I don't mean to make things about me." She shrugged, "I've been trying to think about what could've started it, because don't wolves have a reason for acting the way they do? The only thing I can think of is Potions class, another male student helped me out because I couldn't reach an ingredient and he was a bit touchy-feely. I didn't think anything of it."

"/Stop, stop, stop./" Rachel quickly slapped edge of her dominate hand into the palm of her other in order to get Bria to stop talking. "/Remus knows you know because I called him out on it./" She paused. "/Also, I don't think he has anything to do with you but the moon, as you caught him at a bad time. If he growled at the kid, then he fucking deserved it. You should've told him not to be so touchy with you for grabbing an ingredient. That's sick./"

Bria only stared at her. "Remus knows I know because you told him?" she finally sat down since she'd been on her feet pacing while she talked, "Good Goddess, do you have any idea how relieved that makes me? I was /so/ upset last night because I was torn between talking to him about it or playing dumb and innocent for a while longer and how that would affect things. Would that make him go away? Would that make the others go away, too?" She didn't care about the other student, that was days ago and it didn't matter anymore, "That's what I really wanted to talk to you about. Whether or not I should say anything."

"/I think you should still say something/." Rachel frowned. "/Because the other boys don't know that you know and they're going to tip toe around you. They're not going to hate you. They'll make you swear a thousand times not to tell anyone though./"

"I'll swear just as many times," Bria placed her hand over her heart, "So...something else, then, as we're on the subject of Remus being a wolf. Tell me, wolf master, is there anything I should be aware of? Do's and don'ts?"

Rachel nearly choked, "/You ask me the weirdest questions. Why am I the wolf master in this?/"

"Because you love wolves and read about them a lot more than I do. I was always more of the vampire type," Bria laughed.

"/Yet you love a werewolf, do you see the irony in this? I see a bunch of it./" Rachel rolled her eyes sarcastically as she placed a finger on her chin in thought. "/Let's go back into the great hall, this requires hands on explanation and we don't have a werewolf here./" She used her wand to stuff her books into her bag and grabbed Bria's wrist to drag her out.

"Bria's looking better than she has all day," Sirius commented as he saw Rae and the brunette in question walked back down the Great Hall, "They're Signing up a storm, though."

Raiden raised an eyebrow and he watched girls come by and all of the sudden Rae just plopped herself beside Rem and was directing Bria to sit down across. What the hell? The boys exchanged a look as Rae's lips curved into a bright smile as she started talking, "/Okay...dos and don'ts...man you make this hard there's a list...give me an idea to jump off first./"

Bria was blushing, but she nodded, "/Where to start...I don't want to be too obvious. So let's start with the pack dynamic./"

"/In a normal pack of wolves you have 4 kinds./" Raiden's eyes widened comically as he watched this. No. No, no. He really wished he could jump over the table and slam Rae's hand down. "/You have two Alphas, two betas, and maybe one stupid person we call the Omega. Considering this is a werewolf pack? You might only get two alphas, two betas and the rest have a complicated system./" She gestured to Remus. "/He probably doesn't know the system considering that he's a lone wolf, but since the pack is growing bigger, he might start assigning you to a dynamic without your knowledge or his./"

Remus was kind of impressed that Rae knew all of this. Then again, she was a Ravenclaw, but did she just...stay up all night studying wolves and their packs? The system that she was talking about wasn't /anywhere/ in a book. Not that he knew of. His eyebrows furrowed as he looked over at his friends. The only one that looked like was about to have a meltdown was Raiden. He felt a little sympathetic for the guy.

"/This/ is the Language you want to learn?" James hissed at Sirius. "Look at that speed! That's...that's sorcery. That's fucking hand magic they're doing."

"We /are/ in a school of /magic/ and we use our hands from time to time," Sirius laughed, "They've had tons of practice. I'll probably be a fumbling buffoon the first year."

"/You have a high rank and a low rank./" Rae continued, not even listening to them. "/High ranks are age and who suceeds the Alphas and the Betas should that come down to it. The low ranks are your watchers, your scouts, your caretakers, your medic, your warrior. The omega in  a werewolf pack is a person who disrespected the alpha. Didn't listen to the rules./"

Remus was going to have to ask Rae one of these days if she knew a werewolf and that's why she had all of this information. He pursed his lips together and glanced over at Raiden. So far, Raiden didn't seem to be too panicked, yet. They hadn't gotten anywhere dangerous.

"Who is going to teach you sign anyway, Padfoot? Poe?" James asked curiously. "Or are you going to be asking Raiden?"

"I don't mind teaching you," /If only next time you people stop them before this happens again/ Raiden mentally thought to himself as he kept watching the conversation.

"I was going to try memorizing things from a book then practice with whoever I get my hands on," Sirius admitted.

"/I like the sound of all of that, and I remember reading similar stuff before in my books,/" Bria nodded and took another bite of the sandwich she'd made while Rae spoke. After a moment and half of it was gone, she responded again, "/Before you added the part about 'disrespecting' I was thinking that one would be the stupid one./" She pointed at Sirius.

Peter and Raiden both snorted and Sirius perked, "Why are you pointing at me? What are you saying?!"

"They're calling you stupid, stupid," Peter drawled.

"HEY!" Sirius whined.

"/Totally did that just to get a laugh. Now we know who can read us,/" Bria grinned, then looked at Peter, "Are you fluent?"

"Nah, but I know a couple basic words or tiny phrases. I put two and two together," Peter admitted.

Rae clapped her hands excitedly. "/New Student/." She signed ecstatically. "/Later I can show you more./" She promised Peter before turning back to Bria. "/So, we got pack out of the way, so the question is how does it relate to you. Depends on Moony./" She gestured to Remus. "/And what his pack thinks even though he's the boss. But if he's your sweetheart and he feels the same? He's going to get super possessive of you after and before the moons./"

"I guessed that one," Bria said as her hands were full of her food. A moment later, "/I think you're wrong. Remus isn't Boss of this pack. James is Alpha./"

"/As leader of the Marauders? Oh yes James is Alpha. As a pack? Unless they're animgaus and one of them fights to be leader, Remus is alpha. It doesn't have to be a gory...drawn out fight. Sometimes it's just a show of whose more tough./" Rachel agreed.

Bria glanced over at James, Peter and Sirius. She'd heard them last night. "I got my eye on you three."

"What's that supposed to mean?!" Sirius gave her an odd look.

"You're mean, Bria," Peter smirked in amusement.

"You're not prefect so you can't boss us," James sing-songed.

"We're all friends with two, but I got Lily on my side," Bria's grin was impish.

"..."

"James' kryptonite." Remus mused. "That's harsh Bria, using Lily like that."

"Oh bugger off." James pouted.

"/She would be adorable as an animagi, not that she ever would be but I see her as a fox,/" Bria told Rae.

Remus blinked slowly. Wait, what? Animagi? His eyes wandered over to the four who were sitting with him. Was that what they were doing in the library? Did they even have a clue of how illegal that is? He schooled his features as well as he could, but Rae noticed and raised an eyebrow at him before turning back to the conversation. "/You'd be a cat, like Raiden I think. I think the pack has more cats than anything./"

They got Bria into this?! Remus wanted to shake James and Sirius as hard as he could because he just /knew/ it was them that had the idea first.

"/I still don't have the faintest idea on how to begin trying,/" Bria sighed, "/If it wasn't so open here then I would spill the beans, but the bells' going to ring soon, too. I guess I'll just wait for the Common Room to do it./"

"/Raiden and I already know the entire conversation./" Remus offered to Bria in his delicate sign. It was slower than Rae's and Bria's, and a little more precise, but the message got across clearly.

"Uh...Bria suddenly looks like the ghosts that roam around," Sirius arched a brow and gave an exaggerated frown.

"Well she deserves to be shocked. You were about to spend a hella time in the library when you could have begged two, three, three and a quarter people to help you learn." James frowned.

"/Sorry for that./" Remus signed apologetically. "/I think Rae set you up./"

"Are we the only ones who don't know what the bloody hell is going on?" Sirius looked at Prongs.

"I think so," James moped looking at Peter. "Do you have a lick of sense of what's happening?"

"Hey I only got about half the whole thing, so I'm a little confused as well, but not nearly as much," Peter shrugged.

James turned to Raiden, "Are you going to spill?"

"/Did you know they all knew?!/" Bria signed at Rae.

Rae nodded. "/They've been looking in the library for animagus books so...I started leaving them around where they could find it for a few years. I didn't know what it was for till you outed Remus and I had a vision of a cat and a wolf./"

"/Vision/?" Remus asked curiously. "/What?/"

"/My time to leave. See you!/" Rachel quickly gathered her bag and tossed it over her shoulder. She waved cheerfully at the boys before leaving the Great Hall.

Bria put her face in her hands, wanting to shrink away as the bell rang, "Oh Goddess." She wanted the day to be over, like, now, but they had at least three more hours. "Common room after classes, unless you lot know somewhere better where we won't have prying ears?" she asked.

"There's a classroom that's never used that we sometimes go to when we don't want to be walked in on." James offered. "I'm supposing this is a Marauder meeting or a love bird meeting?"

"Marauder Meeting," Bria nodded standing and popping the last bit of her food in her mouth, grabbing her bag. She didn't look at Remus, mostly out of sheer embarrassment, her face tomato red.

Remus felt a little bad for springing that up on her. Perhaps maybe he shouldn't have? But he didn't want her to feel like that she had to worry. Without saying anything, for fearing he'd just make it worse, he got his stuff together and decided to wait till they were in the unused classroom to talk.

~*~

Peter watched as Bria sat in the corner by the window. They were all waiting for Remus on her request, even though they were all hyped up, wanting to know what happened at lunch. Raiden was also here, technically a part of the Marauders. It made sense to wait for the one they would ultimately be talking about. Bria jumped when the door opened, and she was gripping at the pants of her uniform. Peter had come to quickly notice a nervous habit of hers was Bria never kept her hands still. She was always fiddling with something. Her words came out in a rush, and he barely caught it all if he wasn't used to James and Sirius talking five klix a second when they were excited.

"Remus, I just wanted to say first that I'm /so/ sorry for more or less Signing behind your back. I obviously had no idea. I was going to talk to you later about it, but Rae and I were on the topic and she convinced me to because I was really fumbling around and didn't know how to go about it so..." she was cut off from her tirade.

"Its fine, it's fine." Remus said gently, reassuringly. "Best to sign about it when there's not a lot of people who know it, than to actually say something. You forget, Rae already told me that you knew during our patrols. She warned me that you were going to figure it all out and was going to want to talk to me. I do think next time though, be careful that you sign it in the Great Hall, we'll have to come up with a sign name for Moony if you want to talk about it."

"So she's our next member of the Marauders. I called it!" James grinned. "Since you know the secret and all, you can't tell anyone. You have to guard this a lot more than you guard...say...any other secret in the universe. It's that important."

"I was never going to tell anyone. It's already a risk because so many do know," Bria admitted, "Last night I was upset because I didn't know how you would react to me telling you I knew. For some reason I thought you'd all be mad at me and wouldn't talk to me..." she shifted, "It's...really dumb, thinking about it now."

"How does one outright say 'oh, I know your buddy is a werewolf'?" Sirius shook his head, "It's not an easy topic for a lot of people. In reality, we were probably more worried about /your/ reaction. This could've turned out entirely different."

James and Remus nodded their agreement, looking determined at the same time serious as they could. It could have been bad if Bria's reaction was a lot worse than this. "We didn't want to scare you away or anything. Especially since you and Remus have a thing going on that we clearly don't understand."

"We have a thing?" Bria looked at Remus, "I wasn't aware we had a thing. You're completely stone faced whenever I flirt with you."

"Probably because he doesn't know how to deal with a chick knowing and still trying to get in his pants," Peter hummed, "You throw him for a loop."

"I'm not trying to get in his pants!" Bria defended, then added, "Yet."

Sirius just covered his mouth when he snorted a laugh.

"You and Sirius." Remus sighed fondly. "Have the same horrible way. I don't do the sexual thing. I don't know how to react to it. So I'm a bit more subtle. Which of course is why it looks stone cold to you."

"And no wonder Rae runs away every time Sirius opens his mouth," Raiden muttered to Peter.

"How do you see between the lines and see clues like Remus being a big dog with scary teeth and yet not see he's being subtle?" Sirius asked.

"The better to eat you with," Bria said nonchalantly.

"You didn't!" Peter cackled.

"Everyone has their own version of subtle and I guess I don't know his. Though now, I'll more than likely be more aware of it." Bria grinned.

"If that was subtle then I fear what her loud is," James commented.

"Sirius loud?" Raiden's lips quirked in a playful smile.

"Siriusly loud?" James titled his head back and forth and tested it out. "Sure we can go with that."

Remus pinched his nose, "I hate to say it, but this is what you'll have to put up with if you really are serious about perusing me."

"Sirius already tried." James pointed out with a bigger grin.

"I'm seriously about to hex you," Remus responded.

"Siriusly hexing James?" Bria's face was split wide by a Cheshire cat grin.

"I think she's fine," Sirius waved his hand.

"I feel sorry for you. You attract the weird ones," Peter shook his head.

"Moony you have to deal with two Sirius's." Raiden groaned. "Jesus fuck do I feel bad for Rae if /this/ is what she signed up for."

"Kit!" Sirius shouted.

"What are you yelling about?" Remus asked looking at Sirius curiously.

"Kit or Kitty. James asked me to help him figure out a better nickname other than 'Bambina'," Sirius beamed.

"Kit-kat?" James offered. "Would that be another one? Kit sounds cool. Looks like we found one!"

"She does look like a cat that ate the canary," Peter nodded.

"I wonder what would happen if you scratch her chin." Raiden wondered.

"Maybe be like you and melt?" James offered.

"You do realize that I'm not going to let you two test that out, right?" Remus asked, with a bit of a frown.

"You'd rather test it yourself, admit it," Bria purred.

"I'm not going to say anything." Remus shook his head. "They already have enough dirt on me."

"Awww, we should leave the two love birds alone since this isn't a Marauders' meeting anymore." James snickered. "Unless you want to go into the common room and take a place on his lap, Kit?"

"It's too soon for lap-sitting," Bria shook her head.

"If she's me, then it would be more naughty than nice," Sirius agreed.

Peter rubbed his face, "Please no."

"I think we reached the maximum quota of sexual innuendos for the night. I'm going to leave." Raiden said as he waved to them. "I'll see you all in the common room."

"You're not fun Raiden." James pouted as his friend turned around to leave.

"I didn't say it!" Bria defended.

Raiden just waved and left. James rolled his eyes. "Prude. Then again he has a girlfriend. This is probably voyeurism for him."

"And not you?" Remus questioned.

"Look who we room with." James pointed at Sirius.

"Fair enough." Remus agreed.

"Okay, you blokes, I think it's time for us to disperse. We do have homework, and I think we all feel better now that we know the truth of things," Bria smiled.

"Agreed." James stretched. "Good talk lady and gentlemen. Let's hope we don't have another furry scare like that in the near future."

Bria watched as Peter was out the door first, eager to get away from the sex jokes, then James and Sirius arm in arm talking about how glad they were all of that was now out of the way. She looked at Remus and before he had a chance to move she leaned up on her tip-toes and kissed the bandage on his cheek, "Kiss it and make it better. Isn't that what our parents say?" she smiled shyly, leaning back. Now that she didn't have anyone to bounce off of, she wasn't nearly as confident, but she wanted to do that at least.

"Is it just my cheek or is it my lips that are hurt?" Remus questioned slyly as James and Sirius were off and he could let go a little.

Bria's eyes widened and she was a bit taken aback. She eyed him suspiciously, "Do you not like PDA? More of a private person? That makes things a little easier, knowing what goes and what doesn't." She reached up and her finger touched his lips, "Hmm...they may be a bit chapped. That could count as being hurt," she said slowly. This was quite the turn of events. She hadn't expected him to be so forward so soon.

Remus laughed sheepishly, but leaned down and gently cupped her cheek with his hand before giving her a gentle kiss on the lips. Nothing too deep since he wasn't ready for that, but a soft kiss would do it. Her lips were chapped, but clearly not as bad as his own. He doubted his were soft in anyway. "Yes, by the way." He said softly when they pulled away. "I don't like PDA."

"I'll tell you a secret," Bria whispered, their faces still close enough their breath mingled. Her nose brushed his in what she hoped was a cute manner, "That was my first kiss." Her lips tingled from the touch, and her heart was pounding hard in her chest. Vaguely she wondered what it would be like down the road, when things got more intense. She suspected he would take her breath away and even make her dizzy. "Careful, I might get addicted. I really liked that."

"You were my second, I'm glad I was able to steal your first." Remus smiled warmly and gently offered his hand to her. "I hope you'd get addicted. It means you won't go to someone else for their kisses. Shall we go?"

"Yes! Before the others think dirty things. Of course, they probably already are, but the longer we stay the worst it'd be," Bria giggled and squeezed his hand, enjoying how warm it was and how it almost engulfed her tiny one. Everything was better now.

()

It had to be around the twentieth or so time that she re-read Sirius’ note. She wasn’t sure how he managed to get into her bag when he only passed her once during breakfast and she didn’t see him in the hallways after that since they didn’t have classes together. The note was in his messy cursive sprawl, which oddly enough gave the letter character.

She walked to the Great Hall first, and went over to Peter. James and Remus weren’t around yet. Remus probably escorting Bria from her class if they had class together, and James was probably heading here anyway. “Peter.” She sat down across from him. “How was class?”

"It was pretty good, /thank you/," Peter nodded, signing the last bit. Signing had become a lot more prominent in the last two weeks since that incident before, "What's that you got there? It looks like Sirius' handwriting."

"Actually that's what I wanted to talk to you about. Is there...a prank that's happening in the courtyard?" Rachel handed the note over to him so he could look it over. "Or...is Sirius...losing his mind or something? Like...I'm not sure what to think about this really."

"It's legit," Peter assured her, "He wants to have a date with you. That's all. I would suggest meeting him in some casual clothes that are all you, instead of the uniform right away. It would also show you took time to consider it instead of rushing out."

Rachel bit her lip, hard. "Casual? Ugh, okay, debate time. Go /all/ the way up to the Ravenclaw tower and pray the riddle's easy so I can get my clothes...or do it the easy way and transfigure my clothes and hope that it comes out good..."

"Now that's up to you," Peter shrugged, "I can tell you that Sirius will wait for you, if you go after classes. Might even give him extra time himself."

"Has anyone told you that you are just golden?" Rachel looked relieved. "I thought I was going to be running up stairs and breaking my neck. Honestly, I owe you Pete." She smiled at him warmly. "You're a life safer and a dream."

"Well I don't think I deserve /all/ of those compliments," Peter laughed, "You're welcome. Oh, hey, I know what I /can/ do to deserve the rest of that praise," he put his chin on his hand, "I can give you some secrets about Sirius. Well, maybe not so much secrets since he's an open book like Bria is, but clues."

Rachel was trying her hardest not to grin. "Tell me." She said, scooting in more to the table and folding her hands ontop of it. "Marcus ratted me out, so this is fair game I think." She grinned.

"If Bria is like a cat, she's just as mysterious and finicky as one," Peter pointed out, "As much as she enjoys the simple pleasures like lazing about. You don't understand humans, right? Then don't think of Sirius as a human. Not at first, anyway. He is very much like a dog. Excitable, needs lots of attention and if you ignore him too long he gets pathetic," he laughed, "He needs to be taken out for walks or he gets antsy, given his meals at regular intervals or he goes crazy, and lots of water, or in his case he also really likes juice." He snickered harder, "Oh man, I can't believe I made all those analogies, but they're so /true/."

"A dog..." Rachel looked away in thought, her fingernails tapping at the table as her mind wandered. Bria was very much like a cat, though the 'Mysterious" part was probably because no one really knew how to read her. Sirius on the other hand..a dog? Well, he's been better. Louder though. But better. He liked to be in her personal space and he did have a pout to end all pouts. He did also say that he couldn't understand /how/ she was able to skip meals the way she could. And he was a very playful creature. James was easily someone he could bounce off on. And oddly enough, Bria was now included in that. Probably because of the werewolf thing. "Huh...."

"I haven't figured that out yet," Peter scratched his head sheepishly, "I think as much as you don't understand humans, it's because you are one. You're probably the most complicated person in our whole group. James is a Buck, I'm a Rat, Raiden's a Tiger, Remus a Wolf, Sirius a Dog, and Bria a cat while Lily is a fox."

Rachel burst out laughing. "So I'm either Sirius' dominatrix or this is some weird bestiality shit I'm being tossed into. Oh, I don't even have a gods or goddess name to say this just blew my head off." She laughed again, "I'm going to...um...I'm going to hope I don't see him too soon, otherwise I'd start laughing and he's going to think it's at him. I don't need him to think that."

~*~

Sirius was still in his own uniform, but he was rather comfortable in it. He'd splayed out a picnic blanket on the grass and set out all of the available food. He'd gotten some of Rae's favorite foods from Bria, so he hoped she liked it. He was /so/ hungry, and he eyeballed the red grapes. He could sneak a few, couldn't he? No! No, no, bad. He had to wait. He /could/ at least pour himself a drink and he pulled out a bottle of apple cider. Perfect for the October weather as he used a warming charm and he hummed as it felt good on his hands when he poured the cup, and practically moaned as it went down his throat and into his belly. That helped a lot.

“Starting without me?” Rachel asked as she approached the picnic spread. It was a gorgeous, well thought out spread. Filled with different kind so fruits and vegetables and meats that looked savory and well seasoned. The air was crisp, not too cold for autumn but just about greeting the winter’s chill. She wore dark blue jeans with a light pinkish-purple halter top that showed off her midsection. Her long beautiful magenta hair was tied up in a wavy ponytail, the holder of it braided. She wore neutral make up, mostly focusing on darkening the lines of the eye and defining shadows of it. Her lipstick was a light pink color, blending with the natural shade of her lips. She also wore black lace up boots that had a heel on it. “This was really planned…I was still expecting a prank.”

Sirius' jaw dropped and he stared at her, giving her a thrice over before grinning broadly, "You look /fabulous/ if I do say so! No, I'm not starting without you," he poured her a glass of the cider and handed it to her, "Here you are. You're welcome to start with whatever you want. Eri cooked the meats for us," he grabbed himself a paper plate and started filling it, "I hope you like the selection."

"Thank Peter, he told me to go all out." Rachel smiled shyly as she started picking and choosing her favorites. She went after the steak first, along with asparagus and thing filled with grapes. She also found, much to her delight and probably everyone else's disgust, a small bowl of sour-cream with horseradish mixed in. "Yay! I can't eat steak without this."

"I love steak when it's medium-rare, still tender and soaked in it's own juices. Top it off with salt or maybe even some garlic and that's all I need," Sirius grinned at her, popping a cube in his mouth. Eri had been so kind as to cut it up to bite-sized pieces to make it easier and so they could eat other things as well. He added some potatoes pieces to his plate with cubed ham and sprinkled it all with salt. The fruit would be his desert. "What's your favorite fruit? Surprise! We're playing twenty questions now," he laughed.

"Out of all the questions you start off with, Black, you chose fruit?" Rachel gave him her best unimpressed look and she frowned as she stared at the spread. "Gosh, I dunno...I like oranges and bananas. I also like strawberries. I don't like apples much. Too dry."

"The cider okay, though? I should've asked," Sirius was a bit worried.

"Cider has cinnamon, it's fine." Rachel smiled warmly. "Apple juice is okay, but the actual fruit itself, just doesn't have much for me." She took a sip of the cider as she took another piece of steak and dipped it into the sour cream. "My turn....if you could have a muggle job, what would you be?"

"A muggle job?" Sirius shook his head, "That I have no idea. I've always wanted to be an Auror...so maybe a constable?"

Rachel hummed. "Fifth year career tasks are coming up. I still have to do some thinking about mine..." She took another bite of fruit and looked at him. "Your turn to ask."

He thought about it while he ate a good portion of his plate, so happy to have some food in his belly, "Tea. What kind of tea do you like? Play on words, but I enjoy black teas with brown sugar in them. Gives them a sort of hearty flavor."

"Ummm...." Rae once more had to think about this. "I like chai. I like vanilla. I like Earl Grey Black tea. I like...mostly sweet teas. I love apple cinnamon teas but that only comes out during Christmas I hate it."

"I'll stockpile it for you," Sirius grinned, "There's a pumpkin spice tea you can only get during Autumn. When we're allowed to go to Hogsmeade I'm going to look for it. It's really great, and I like it with or without hazelnut creamer. I'm not much of an oolong person and I used to dislike chai but it's growing on me."

"I'm going to keep that in mind." Rachel beamed as she took a few pieces of banana and decided to try the pork as well. "The pumpkin tea sounds good, especially with the creamer. I don't think I'd use hazelnut though. That's something to experiment on." She  took a bite of the bite of the pork, thinking. "What's your favorite animal?"

"Big dogs. Wolves, huskies, german shepards...the hyper or guard dog types. Long haired ones. They're so fluffy!" Sirius scratched his cheek sheepishly after the last bit, "That was probably super obvious, though."

He was going to take in a stray. Rachel wasn't sure why that came up into her head, but she didn't doubt it one bit. He would find a stray and take it home and cuddle it to death. Another thought that randomly popped into her head was whether or not Sirius would like his head scratched. She had a half of the mind to try, but decided to keep her hands to herself. "You're going to be one of those crazy dog men then, aren't you."

"If I have a big enough house, maybe. An estate out in the country where there's lots of play room," Sirius made his arms wide, "I might train them and sell them to good homes, or I might keep them all. Breeding is always a possibility. That'd be super adorable."

"Oh my gosh you're cute." Rachel laughed as she ran one of her hands across her face, grinning brightly. "That's your muggle job right there. Dog breeder and running a dog shelter."

"I'll take it!" Sirius nodded excitedly. They were getting somewhere, he could feel it. "What's /your/ favorite animal? Oh I'm cheating and throwing in a second question. You know Raiden's big on Spirit Animals and stuff. What does he say yours is?"

"He thinks that I'm the coyote. Which is hysterical." Rachel rolled her eyes fondly and hummed. "Oh gosh...you make it hard. Any animal or does it have to be domesticated?"

"What does the coyote mean? Don't they eat babies?" Sirius arched a brow at her, "Any animal. I mean, bloody hell Eri and Raiden both love tigers."

"Agh! Wolves, foxes, dolphins..." Rachel counted down on her fingers. "Dragons, cats, dogs...Maybe owls...I haven't decided on that one yet." She looked at Sirius and cracked up. "No. They don't eat babies. They eat basically anything to everything. They're omnivores. Also, they can cross breed with dogs I thought that was a bit fascinating. Wolves can too, but...in Native American mythology, coyotes trick people and are very smart."

"Oh, so are you a tricky little thing? I know you're /extremely/ smart. I mean...your /House/ says it all, but yet there are plenty of Ravenclaws who are stuck up because they are so smart. You're not, and that's nice," Sirius smiled softly at her.

Rae just ducked her head, her cheeks flushing a bright pink and she tried to come up with another question to ask him. "Why go after me?" She finally asked, deciding not to hold back punches.

"Ah, getting to the down and dirty," Sirius smiled and he paused to finish his plate and then filled it up with assorted fruit, "You are interesting. You make me think. Would you like me to ramble on?" he smirked.

"Ramble away I do hang out with Bria and I need an ego boost." Rachel said, putting her elbow on her knee as she leaned in teasingly. "Come on, tell me. Why go after me when I was so rude to you?"

"Pffft, you're a girl. You're going to be rude to me sooner or later. You have this thing called PMS?" Sirius pointed out and then snorted a laugh, "No, I'm sorry. It did hurt but I'm obviously over it. See, there's this thing called /communication/ and I kinda can't keep my mouth shut when something's bothering me so I /fixed it/ or figured out /how to fix it/." He shrugged, "Okay. So. You got my attention when you entertained me on the train first of all and it /wasn't/ just your cute stripes. Your witty banter is hysterical if I catch you in the right mood, which that day it was more of an in the moment sort of thing and it was great. Divination has become one of my most looked forward to classes because I enjoy the way you think. You have a way of observing things that puts a twist on stuff and a lot of it /makes sense/."

Instead of blushing like crazy and denying it, she sat up a little straighter, taking his comment to heart. Even though she heard plenty of good things about herself, Bria was only one source and the teacher's were almost obligated. It felt...nice, to hear someone genuinely like her for these things.  "So you like my brains." She was teasing him, but her voice became softer. "That's something I didn't think I'd hear."

"I wish I saw you more, honestly. I still don't know your schedule very well but we /have/ to have a study at the same time somewhere," Sirius pouted, "I'd enjoy hearing your thoughts an opinions on other classes, maybe do homework together to see how you do it and maybe I'd get ideas of my own. Who knows? I just...want a little more time with you. Is that so bad?"

Rachel shook her head from side to side, looking away quickly to purse her lips tight and swallow back tears. He wanted to spend time with her. She was scared and nervous and happy. Her father's screaming rang through her brain, but she did her utmost to shut it out. "No, I don't think that's a problem." Her voice was on a rough end, but she needed to change the subject. "Okay, your turn."

"What is PDA to you? I've noticed Bria's hesitant to physically touch Remus, but he's not /that/ much of a prude. I think if I get an idea of what you think PDA is, I might have to help Bria out or at least tell Remus to spell it out for her. She's still too cautious. I wonder who's scared of scaring who away?" Sirius arched a brow.

"Valid question." Rachel hummed. "Don't kiss me in the hallways unless it's a cheek kiss or a head kiss. I don't like it if hands touch my thighs, it's too sexual for me and I get highly uncomfortable. I like Hand-holding, and I like stealing my boyfriend's jacket if I'm having a bad day or just want something to keep me calm. Scent helps me calm down, I think that's another reason why Raiden called out Coyote. I like hugs the most. Out of everything, I love, love, love hugs. Tight hugs, cuddle hugs, I like being held. But I don't like being held in front of people? Hugs sure, no problem, but being held in front of people no."

"Bria's hugs are usually very quick to end once she realizes she did it," Sirius nodded, "Perhaps she's too used to you being so put-off she isn't sure what's okay and what's not to other people." A devil grin formed, "I'll have to jump her sometime. That's a grand idea. Bria and I can get all the attention we need from each other in the PDA department and in private I get you all to myself and Bria gets Remus all to herself. Do you know how confused people are going to be?"

"It sounds like a prank," Rachel offered timidly. "Hmm...." She took another piece of fruit and decided to ask another question. "Serious relationship or casual relationship?"

"I've been in a bunch of casual relationships that are dead in a month or less. I'd enjoy a serious relationship where we actually try and the lady isn't out for my looks or my money," he wrinkled his nose, "After the first two I refused to buy gifts anymore unless it meant something." He popped a chunk of banana and then a bite of a strawberry, enjoying the raw mixture.

"Good thing I'm not exactly fond of receiving gifts." Rachel admitted, scratching her nose. "Unless it's flowers or something. You know, the non-pricey things. I like paying for a least half of my date, or at least take turns about it, because relying on someone's money is just...shallow. You share it."

"Taking turns is a good tactic," Sirius agreed, "Though if you ever can't cover I'll handle it. If I get into a serious relationship with you like I want, I want to do things I've never really done before. Fancy dinners and things like that. I don't like half-assing things. Of course, I will listen to what you want," he motioned to the picnic, "This was a date focused on you and what you enjoy. Courtesy of Marcus, if you were curious about what secret he shared."

"Oh Branwen." Rachel burst into laughter, hiding her face into her hands. "Noo, Marcus...you should have just taken the credit. Just take all the credit next time. I don't need his ego."

Sirius laughed, "Okay, okay. Sorry about that," he tilted his head at her, "I lost track of who's turn it was. Who's Branwen? Are you a polytheist, too?"

"I'm a witch." At his deadpanned "duh", Rachel beamed. "I use muggle magic, so you'd call me a wiccan." She paused. "Since we were talking about dates and things, it's my turn because of the PDA. One last question since I doubt we want to be here for all twenty of them." She paused, thinking and nodding her head. "What is your biggest fear?"

All smiles faded and he paled a little, "Do I have to go into detail? Can it be short?"

"A sentence even, I'm not looking for a long winded story..." Rachel frowned deeply. That wasn't the kind of reaction she was expecting. "For example I'm scared of the dark." She shrugged.

"I'm scared of turning out like my parents," Sirius looked off to the side, silver eyes wavering on going darker, "How do you deal with patrols then?"

"I have a good imagination," Rachel's voice turned, once again, soft. Almost like she was confessing a secret, or even had an inkling of what he meant. "I pretend...and sometimes even then my imagination betrays me, but I pretend that I'm going to be okay. That it won't swallow me. Helps that I patrol with a partner."

"Usually Moony?" Sirius smiled a little again, "Are you about ready to wrap this date up, then? I could probably ask you questions all day."

"I'm sad that we have to, but there's always another one." Rachel looked at him curiously. "It's almost the new year, I think there's a certain question you want to ask, but it's not for me to answer." She winked at him as she stood up. "Let me help you carry things back, unless you're going to vanish all of this."

"Help will be nice. Eri will probably save any leftovers for later," Sirius agreed. He gave her the sign for 'thank you', "For indulging me. You could've left me hangin'."

"Thank Peter, I almost did." Rachel took her wand from her jacket pocket and casually waved it wordlessly to make some of the dishes float. "I thought it was an elaborate prank."

"Oh if you're going to be pranked, we'll prank you. None of us give warnings," Sirius chuckled. That probably wasn't reassuring at all but it was the truth.

~*~

“I don’t understand why you had to tell me within Sirius’ love letter to come see you,” Remus frowned as Rachel started to fuck around with his tie. He thought that it was tied properly, but according to Rae, it needed to look a little better than just a single not. She was doing something outlandishly fancy with it. The knot that she was doing at the moment looked like a hexagon and had three folds in the front. “Why are you tying my tie like this?”

“Because it might discourage her from ripping it off you when she decided to use it as a leash and yank you down to kiss her.” Rae said as she smoothed out the tie and beamed. “You look adorable.”

“You still have yet to answer my question,” Remus was going to take her word for it. Both James and Sirius had a field day telling him what to wear. A button down shirt, and dress slacks. Sirius had wanted to forgo the tie, James said it brought out style, Rae seemed to have James’ sense of style along with Sirius’ need to complicate a simple tie not.

“Because I knew that Sirius would pass on the message, and I needed to talk to you.” Rachel told him as she backed away.

“More like James passed on the message. He enjoys reenacting the letters that you send him. Peter nearly pissed himself laughing the last message Siirus got.” Remus rolled his eyes.

“Why did I let my heart decide to send him letters when I could just talk to him?” Rachel groaned.

“I’m quite fond of your poetry. /In all of the shadows cast around me, your voice calms my monsters and tells them to leave me be./ Quite dark. I liked it.”

“Dear Bridgid, I love you, but stop inspiring me to write poetry right now.” Rachel sighed. “But this is totally off track. I wanted to give you some advice with Bria.”

“Which is?”

“Maybe you could let her know what your comfortable and uncomfortable with? That way she doesn’t come crying at the doorknob and threatening to hex it to stop talking if I don’t come down within bloody fifteen minutes.”

“I see….explain boundaries then.” Remus frowned. “Why, have I been coming on to her too much?”

“Opposite.” Rachel replied. “And she’s going to toss herself in a frenzy.”

“I understand…” Remus tugged at his tie and frowned. “Are you sure I have-“

“I will make that permanent if you ask me again.” Rachel warned.

“I liked you better when Sirius wasn’t a bad influence on you.” Remus rolled his eyes. “Okay, am I ready to go?”

“Go. Be blunt and frank with her and for the love of god don’t do something stupid.” Rachel said, turning him around and practically shoving him. “Go, go, and have fun.”

Down in the hallway, Bria looked up when she heard the portrait open and stood up on the stairs, "I would feel under-dressed if Lily hadn't helped me." Was the first thing out of her mouth, "How is it you took longer than me? Isn't it the other way around?" Indeed, her outfit was a pair of black boots with thick three-inch heels that disappeared under her black skit that reached her ankles along with a red long-sleeved top that hugged her curves and poked out from under her black sweater jacket sleeves. Her eyes popped under a gold and brown smokey mixture and her lips had a red shimmer lipstick. "That is the fanciest tie I've ever seen."

"Blame Rae, she decided James didn't know how to properly tie a tie and made me suffer." Remus grinned softly at her as he offered his arm to her. "Happy birthday by the way." he had a small gift for her in his cloak's pocket, but he was going to save that for after dinner. "Come on, we have Hogsmeade to visit."

"How you ever got permission is beyond me, but thank you very much," Bria beamed all but clinging to his arm and they made their way down in order to leave Hogwarts, "Lily convinced me to wear the skirt, since you've never seen me in one."

"You look stunning." Remus smiled kindly. She really did. "The skirt makes your legs look fantastic, if I may be so bold to say."

Bria blushed at the compliment, "Considering I'm probably not going to make it passed five feet, thank you." She glanced up at him, "You might be stealing my height. Stop it. You grow an inch every week, I swear."

"I'll probably be stealing James' height while I'm at it." Remus mused. "I come from a very tall family. My mother was the only one that was short."

"You don't talk about your family," Bria tilted her head, curious now, "Is it a 'it just never comes up' or a 'rather not talk about it'?"

"Mostly never comes up." Remus smiled at her. "I tend to keep my family life private. Of course I'm not ashamed of them, I love them very much. They have to go through a lot in order to protect me and keep me safe. They don't see me as...a monster or anything like that."

"What a relief that must be for you, I'm glad," Bria leaned her head on his shoulder. She enjoyed the loving feeling he was getting from him, and it made her mellow, "I guess I see both sides of that long argument. There's people like you who you can't even /tell/ if you're any normal person. I'm not normal, we've established that. Neither are your friends. I mean, if muggles think anyone who believes in magic is crazy then they're the special kind of crazy." She giggled, "Anyway, I need to stop rambling. There's /other ones/ who give you a bad rep. It's human nature to focus on the bad stuff and in a lot of the cases, ignore the good."

Bria went to rub her face but then diverted her hand into her hair, not wanting to ruin her make-up that Lily so diligently applied, "Oh, I hope this topic doesn't upset you. I'll stop being philosophical on touchy subjects."

"It's fine, I'd much rather talk about something meaningful and thought-provoking than meaningless conversation that can be repeated over and over again." Remus assured. "You're not upsetting me."

Bria glanced at him before nodding, brushing her bangs from her eyes, "That's good. I'm still learning. I don't mean to be so paranoid. Um..." she bit her lip, "So...what's your opinion, then?"

"On the topic of being normal, I have to disagree with you on the muggle part. According to Sirius, which I'm unsure if Rae is picking on him or not, muggles have their own form of magic. Yes, some muggles think it's absolute bullshit that there's something called magic, but at the same time it appears, again this could be a prank, that muggles have their own idea of what magic /is/. I never been fond of secrets, but...when you're a Dark Creature and you have the ability to turn others into a Dark Creature, it's a valid opinion that I'm considered "Dangerous" therefore, I have to keep hidden. It is human nature to split things into bad and good, but I think that when you grow older, it's no longer about "Good and Bad" as it is "White and Black"." Remus knew he was rambling, but he liked this topic. He enjoyed being able to share his opinion on things like this.

Taking what he said and processing it, the two of them were on the path to Hogsmeade finally. Remus must have found plenty of short cuts during his patrols. "All of that makes sense. I can't even refute it. There are so many controversies and arguments about that sort of thing. I like to think I see things in grey, rather than black and white. There are things that are undoubtedly either, but a lot of the time even our precious Eri has her own dark side."

"Everyone does." Remus frowned. "It's not fair to say that everyone is one or the other. So it's true then? That Muggles have their own magic?" He asked curiously.

"Rae practices something called Wicca and has for a long time. It's different than things such as the witchcraft we practice here," Bria explained, "I've dabbled in it but besides candle lighting and prayers to my Gods and Goddesses, I don't do much. Rae does rituals and performs specific sorts of spells and incantations. Sometimes they work, sometimes they're bogus and it's just the thought that counts. In the muggle world things like that is the Devil's Work...I mean...the Salem Witch Trials were no joke."

"I remember reading in History of Magic that there was actually two witches that were very real in the Salem Witch Trials, but one didn't do anything. Tituba was one in name, and...I think Abigail? Was one but didn't know how to control her magic and destroyed her. Though, to be honest, I'm uncertain about that history." Remus was a little surprised. "You know James is going to start bothering Rae to show off her magic and to see what he can do to use it against the Slytherns if not use for pranks. I heard about the long list you gave him. It's quite handy."

"I doubt Rae would use her magic for, not evil, but petty things like pranks. It means a lot to her so I don't see her tossing it around willy-nilly," Bria shook her head, "He can try, but I would be shocked if she agreed."

They got to Hogsmade and it was beautifully lit up with warm yellow-orange lights glowing in the windows. There were some people who were still out and about, laughing as they walked into the Three Broomsticks and a few hurrying back to their homes. "Are you hungry or do you want to explore?" Remus asked bringing his arm to wrap around her shoulders and bring her close against him. "We don't have to be back for a while."

Bria slid her arm around his waist, snuggling close to him and she took a deep breath, humming happily at his scent. The forest earth and pine, but there was no chemical smell from cologne. It was fantastic, "Food can wait for a while, when our stomachs are growling. Does the bookshop or tea shop sound good to you?"