Lily was so damn loud in the morning. Groaning, I pulled the covers over my head and tried to get a few more minutes of sleep.

Tried being the operative word.

How is the world is someone so chipper in the morning? I could hear her humming in the bathroom. Groggily, I rubbed my eyes and gave up. Flinging the covers back, I stumbled into the bathroom and glared at the perky redhead.

"Why can't you be a night person?" I grumbled, brushing past her into the shower. Turning the faucet on, I quickly stripped and jumped in as soon as it was hot. For a magical castle with you know, magic, it was ungodly cold in the mornings.

"Someone has their cranky pants on." Lily called out cheerfully.

"Well, at the moment I have no pants on so -"

I could hear Lily's eyes rolling and smirked, scrubbing my head with shampoo. "You're impossible, you know that? And how is it that James is a morning person and you're not? Seems like a Potter gene."

"Must be from Aunt Effie." I replied, scrunching my face as I tried to untangle a knot with my fingers. "Besides I didn't sleep much. Insomnia."

And nightmares. But as far as I knew, Lily didn't know about them. Thank God. Last night's was...odd. Terrifying but odd.

My feet pounded the forest floor, wind whipping my hair into my face. Panting, I brushed it away and looked over my shoulder. A shadow followed but I couldn't make out who it was. Turning back, I found a creek in my path. Without stopping, I leapt across it and then...

White.

It wasn't so much the actual dream which was to be honest, not that scary compared to some of the others I'd had but...the way I felt during the dream. That was what scared me.

It was a mesh of scared, exhaustion, and heartbreak. Utter heartbreak.

Remus would have a field day with me if I told him about this. I could already guess exactly what he'd say: You're afraid of going back and when you try to run away from your fear, you end up doing what you were trying to avoid.

Or some nonsense like that.

Finishing up, I turned the shower off and wrung out my hair. Wrapping a towel around myself, I stepped out and met Lily's gaze in the mirror. She tilted her head then turned around to face me. "The insomnia is still happening? You really should go see Madame Pomfrey, Mads."

I waved away the suggestion, picking up my brush to get that knot that was bothering me. Pulling hard, I let out a huff before replying. "I'll be fine. It was just the stress of yesterday."

"Here, let me." She held out her hand. Placing my brush in her hand, I turned to let her try and wrangle my birds nest. The bristles gently pulled my hair and I couldn't help but feel soothed from it.

"So what has you all bright eyed and bushy tailed this morning?" I shot her a look through the mirror. A slight blush crept onto her cheeks and I narrowed my eyes.

"Nothing. I had a good night's sleep and despite the utter chaos of yesterday," She shrugged a bit of a glassy look in her eyes. "I had a good day. Am I not allowed to be in a good mood just because? There we go."

Lily had managed to untangle the knot without pulling out half of my head like I would've done. A bit of guilt tugged at my chest. I hadn't meant to bring her down. Hell, it was nice to see her in a good mood like this. She went to head back into the dorm until I placed a hand on her forearm stopping her. Turning back, she gave me a questioning look.

"I didn't -" Biting my lip, I tried again. "That wasn't what I meant. Of course you can be in a good mood just because. I thought...I thought maybe you were in a good mood because of James. That maybe he wasn't a complete - what's that word you guys use?"

"Tosser?" Amusement clear in her tone.

I winked and pointed at her. "That's the one. Tosser. I was hoping he wasn't a complete tosser yesterday."

Lily pressed her lips together, eyes darting to the floor before meeting mine again and sighed. "He wasn't a complete tosser. Other than spilling a few ingredients, we had a pleasant day. Maybe...maybe he isn't as bad as I thought."

One of my eyebrows shot up in shock. Lily Evans admitting that James Potter wasn't as bad as she thought. Voldemort would have to get in line for ending the world because this red head might beat him to it.

Before I could remark on this development, she pointed a finger at me threateningly. "If you say one word to him, I will hex your bed to throw you from it every single morning."

"Not a word." I put a hand up, acknowledging the threat. She swept past me but I frowned for a moment. "Wait, there's a hex for that?"

The only answer I got was a laugh. Shit.

——

"Remus, can you do that again?" Emmy asked feeling the blush on her cheeks, still shocked she was even speaking to Remus Lupin. The tall bloke nodded and repeated the gesture. Emmy did her best to repeat the motion but failed to produce a patronus. Again.

They'd been at this for weeks and the most she'd done was a wisp of a patronus for a second. Maybe those Slytherins were right and she shouldn't be here. Merlin knew she awful at charms and -

A laugh caught Emmy's attention and she glanced over to see Mads smacking Sirius' hand away from her, a glowing smile on her face. The brunette pulled her long wavy hair off her neck and secured it to the top of her head, a scar peeking out from the uniform collar at her neck.

Emmy had no idea how she could be so relaxed around someone like Sirius Black. Or Remus Lupin for that matter. Or James Potter. Maybe it was that she was related to James that she felt so comfortable around them but Emmy was still blushing when she spoke to Remus. She'd barely said a word to the other two. Well, three. Peter was a bit quieter than his mates but always offered her a kind smile. And he wasn't completely unattractive. Maddy, another fourth year in her dorm, favorited the smaller boy over the other seventh year Gryffindors. She didn't see it though, not when -

"Emmy?" Remus's voice yanked her out of her head causing a blush to sweep over her face aggressively. "Did you want to take a break?"

"No! No, I was just - uh -" He turned his head to see what caught her attention and smiled gently at her.

"Mads can be distracting." Remus gestured for her to take a seat in the grass. The two of them were a few yards from the group, everyone busy with their own work and not paying attention to the two of them.

Emmy wondered, not for the first time, if there was any truth to the rumors circulating the castle. There had been wild ones the day before when Mads, Remus, and Sirius had failed to show up for classes or even to the Hall for meals including one where Mads was pregnant from both of them and they were trying to figure out how to co-parent together. Or the one where Remus and Mads had run off together leaving Sirius heartbroken in his dorm where he was writing songs about how he'd never love again. Or the one where Remus and Sirius had broken the news to Mads that they were together now and spent the day consoling the poor girl.

There were some others but those were the ones Emmy had heard the most.

Regardless, James and Lily had been seen periodically and even Peter had been spotted but the other three had only been seen once. If Rebecca Pearson was to be believed. She claimed she'd seen Mads and Sirius wandering the grounds near the forest with James and Lily before a hippogriff ran them down.

It was believable until the hippogriff.

Running her fingers through the grass, Emmy bit her lip and debated asking Remus about it. She assumed he'd heard them. Merlin, it was difficult not to hear them, but it might not be her place to ask. They'd only known each other a few weeks and it was solely because of Mads that Emmy was talking to Remus Lupin. She opened her mouth then stopped and bit her lip again, losing her nerve.

"You'll get it, Emmy. Patronuses are extremely difficult. I wouldn't compare yourself to Mads." He rolled his eyes at the mention of his friend. "Merlin knows she's -"

"It's not that." She interrupted then blushed again. What was wrong with her? She'd just cut off Remus Lupin. He raised an eyebrow questioningly at her and waited for her to continue. Bollocks. "I - I wasn't - I mean, Mads is so smart, of course she'd conjure a patronus so fast. I'm not very good at spells, I'm much better at potions but that wasn't what I was thinking about." Glancing back to the brunette in question before meeting the beautiful chocolate eyes in from of her, Emmy blurted out her thoughts. "Were you lot really rebuilding the dorm because you and Sirius fought over Mads?"

Remus groaned and threw his head back with a curse. "Bloody Prongs. I told him no one would believe that."

She tried to hold back a smile at the aggravation in his voice. "No one does." Her voice grew quieter and she shot another look towards Mads, making sure she wasn't in hearing distance. "But it's better than what some people are saying."

A dark look flitted over his face at that. Apparently he had heard the rumors flying about. Emmy gulped, worried she'd upset him but the look disappeared in the blink of the eye. Running a hand over the bottom half of his face, he let out a deep breath. "People should mind their own business. We...were fixing a situation. A potion gone wrong. It's a bit difficult to explain but we had permission from Professor McGonagall to skip classes. Pr - James and Lily took notes for us while we took care of it."

"So...you're not fighting for Mads?" Emmy asked as casually as she could, hoping he didn't hear the hope in her voice.

"Merlin, no." He scoffed, a grin breaking over his face. "I'd rather throw myself into the Whomping Willow. Pads is the only one who could handle her madness and I'm more than happy to let him. Mads is like a sister to me and even if I did want to date her, I'm not sure who would take me down first, James or Sirius."

Emmy noticed the name correction he'd made. The boys frequently used silly nicknames for each other even when in conversation with those not in their immediate group. It had been easy to pick up on who was who based on the conversations. She wasn't sure if she liked the correction or not though. On one hand, it felt as if she were truly apart of the group when he used the names offhandedly but on the other, it was as if she were missing an inside joke when he used them.

"That's a shame." Emmy replied, shrugging when Remus gave her a curious look. "I heard you two were going to joust to win her over."

A sparkle lit up his chocolate eyes at the word joust. "No jousting...for now. Let's keep practicing, see if you can produce a non-corpeal form again."

——

The common room was unusually quiet for a Tuesday night. Mads had been training with Minnie until a half hour ago, Mar was with Dory, Ali off with Frank, and the rest of the group was in their usual spots. The fire crackled merrily behind Worm, bathing everyone in a warm glow. Across from Sirius, Mads had her head buried in another book. He couldn't tell what exactly it was about from the cover but could tell that it was another rubbish romance.

Amusement shot through the bond and a foot nudged his knee gently. "You're staring."

Frowning, Sirius watched Mads for another moment but she kept her eyes on the page. "Did you...you know?"

Sighing, she placed her left pointer finger on the page she was at to mark her spot. Since they were in the common room and there were a few other younger students lounging around, they couldn't openly talk about the bond but he was curious if she could feel him staring at her through it.

He hadn't meant to. Really he hadn't. He'd been in the middle of writing a sentence and when he looked up, the way the fire caught a few of the caramel strands in her hair had mesmerized him.

"No. I could feel eyes on me in the normal sense not -" She gestured between them. "Our sense."

"But you have no sense, Mads." Prongs interjected from his spot on the floor below them. With a swift kick to the shoulder, Mads knocked him all the way down. "Oi! It's true!"

"True, my ass." She growled back. The cousins glared at one another in a stand off. Sirius had his sickles on Mads, she was entirely too stubborn for her own good.

A pillow smacked Mads in the side of the head and she whipped around to find the culprit. Sirius' eyes widened as he realized it had been Lily. Moony was trying to stifle a laugh next to her as she crossed her arms and glared at his mate.

"Enough. You've been a mood all day and I'm sick of it. Drink your tea and settle down." Lily scolded. Sirius had at first attributed the crankiness to the nightmare from the night before but during a boring lecture in Defense, he'd decided to test the bond himself. It took quite a bit of concentrating but if he focused on the tether, he found he could pinpoint an exact feeling.

Problem was, Mads typically felt more than one thing at a time.

It took a few tries during class to get a couple of them and even then it was difficult to put those feelings into words. Anxiousness, exhaustion, and restlessness were the only ones he was able to name and the last one bothered him. When he'd been focusing on that particular feeling, it was sort of under the surface, not something that was typically noticeable unless focused on. Like breathing.

He expected her to be anxious and tired. Merlin, he was tired himself from being woken up from her nightmares. But the restlessness...something about it seemed off.

Rolling her eyes, Mads stood and took the offered teacup from her best friend. "Yes, ma'am. You're so bossy sometimes -" Mads took a sip of the tea and swallowed, "Always tell -"

The thunk jolted Sirius from his seat. In a heartbeat, he knelt next to Mads who was sprawled out on the common room floor. Blood trickled out from a cut on her forehead where she'd hit the coffee table on the way down.

"Godric's balls, Lily! I thought you were going to give her a small amount!" Prong exclaimed behind him. Sirius carefully cradled Mads's head and checked for any other injuries then looked between the Head Girl and Head Boy on either side above him.

"What the bloody hell did you two do?" He growled dangerously. Both of them turned to looked down and simultaneously took a step back. Even Tux stayed in his spot by the table, head down with his body pressed flat against the old tapestry rug at Sirius's voice.

"I must've brewed it too strongly." Lily threw her hands up defensively then gestured at Mads's prone form. "She's been waking up from nightmares and I was trying to help!"

"Since she won't see Poppy we thought Lily could slip a sleeping draught in her tea." Prongs continued, looking worried. The messy haired boy ran a hand through his hair in agitation.

"It won't hurt her! Well," Lily paused and grimaced as she glanced around Sirius to look at Mads's head. "Not the actual potion. I didn't think she'd drink it standing up."

Another growl escaped Sirius unintentionally. Lily gulped, stepping closer to Prongs who moved to stand protectively in front of her. Every nerve in his body was telling him to protect Mads. They tried to hurt his mate. They -

A throat cleared from his right and Sirius turned to find Moony watching him carefully. "Pads, how about you take her up to bed? She's probably fine -"

"She could have a concussion." Sirius spat, instinctively curling Mads's body closer to him so he was now leaning over her. "If she wakes -"

"Padfoot." Moony said sharply. Sirius's jaw clenched at the tone and waited for him to continue. Worry and anger coursed through him seeing Mads unconscious and the only thing keeping him from throttling Prongs right now was that his concern over Mads was more important. "Take her up. I'll come up and check on her. She will be fine."

Biting his tongue, literally, Sirius gently scooped up his mate. Mads's head lolled against his collarbone, coming to rest in the crook of his shoulder. He felt her breath ghosting against his skin and shivered at the feeling. Without another word to the group, Sirius took Mads swiftly up the staircase, holding her as close as he could.

——

Once Padfoot had disappeared up the stairs, Remus turned back to Lily, Prongs, and Worm. "What was that?"

"I'm sorry! I thought I had the -" Lily's distress over knocking Mads out was evident but it wasn't what Remus was concerned about.

"Not the tea, Lily. I'm sure you brewed it correctly." Remus reassured her then raised an eyebrow towards Prongs. "I meant Padfoot. Has he done that before?"

"The growling?" Prongs scratched his head, glancing at Worm who shrugged and shook his head. Prongs was still hovering protectively next to Lily and shot a concerned look towards her before continuing. "Not that I remember. Only when he's - you, know, Padfoot."

Remus couldn't remember Padfoot acting so odd either. The protectiveness reminded him of...well, wolves. Dogs could sometimes be protective of their owners but Remus recalled a book he'd read years ago.

When he'd first come to Hogwarts, it had been the first time he'd had almost unadulterated access to hundreds of books and he'd spent time combing through the wolf ones, trying to learn more about his...condition. One book had described mates and bonding amongst wolves including the protectiveness a male had towards his female.

And now that that was rolling around his brain, other bits of that book began to resurface. Like how during courtship, potential mates would walk close together, groom one another, and sleep next to each other.

Like Mads and Padfoot.

But Padfoot's animangus was a dog. They'd determined that years ago. There was no way he was a wolf. Unless -

"I'm going to go check on them." He ran a hand through his hair, reminded of how Mads had said they all played with their hair too much. Shaking his head, he turned to Lily to reassure her again that it wasn't her fault. "Don't worry about it, Lily. Now, we can at least know she's sleeping tonight. Maybe you, Prongs, and Worm can work on tweaking the potion."

Lily had her arms crossed, one hand nervously biting a nail. "Right, ok. We can do that. And if she wakes up, can you tell her I'm sorry? Merlin, she's going to be livid with me."

"She knows you did it because you care." Prongs said soothingly, resting a hand on her arm. Remus's eyes almost bugged out of his head when Lily didn't brush him off. Godric's balls, unless Remus was starting to see things, Lily leaned into him. "It takes more than a sleeping potion to take my cousin down."

Lily gave him a weak smile and Remus took that as his cue to escape. He wasn't sure he could handle whatever was happening between those two at the moment. With a nod, Remus headed up, taking the stairs two at a time. Reaching the top, he grasped the doorknob and gently pushed it open.

Padfoot laid on his maroon bed with Mads curled around him. Her head rested on his chest, her breathing even and smooth. Her glasses rested on the bedside table and it threw Remus for a moment seeing her without them. Tiptoeing over, Remus carefully sat on the edge of the bed. Behind him, he heard the door squeak and turned to find Tux sneaking in. The black dog gracefully hopped up to join them and curled into a ball at his owner's feet.

Raising an eyebrow, Remus glanced at Padfoot who shrugged. Without a word to Padfoot, Remus ran his wand over Mads's forehead. A bruise was starting to form but it looked as if Padfoot had already cleaned up the wound and sealed it with a potion. The air shimmered around Mads's head but remained colorless. Padfoot let out a breath of relief seeing that the charm had indicated that Mads was perfectly fine.

"So," Remus whispered, giving Padfoot a look. "Want to explain your little moment out back there?"

"Moony, they put a potion in her tea." Padfoot hissed angrily. Gesturing with his other hand, he began to quietly go off. "They should've at least asked her. Prongs I expected this from but Lily? I thought she knew better! Lily was the one who insisted that Mads drink tea instead of coffee and then does this! No wonder she had trust issues! She can't even have -"

Remus put both hands up in defense, stopping his mate mid-rant. "Pads, Lily didn't mean for it to be so strong. And she has a point. One I would've thought you'd be behind. Mads hasn't been sleeping well and refuses to see Poppy about it. She's already irritable on a good day. Maybe they should've talked to her about it but you know as well as I do that Mads would've most likely been against it. Lily did what she thought was best. Unfortunately, it didn't work out. What I want to know, is why you were almost at their throats over this. It wasn't that big of a deal. Merlin, Prongs made her bash her face in and caused her to go partially blind. This is nothing compared to that."

Running a hand over his face, Padfoot let out a deep sigh. The rise of his chest caused Mads's head to move up and down but it didn't wake her, she actually rubbed her face against his chest and Remus had to hold back an aw.

Merlin, this was ridiculous. Between these two and Prongs and Lily, Remus was turning into some romantic pre-teen girl who cooed at the slightest show of affection between the couples.

That Whomping Willow was started to look real good right about now.

"I don't know, Moons." The confusion was evident in Pads's voice. He looked down at the dark haired girl and his eyes glazed over with concern. "I saw her lying there and - and I snapped. It was - was like this instinct to - I don't know, protect her from Prongs and Lily. Which is insane. I know that. I knew that downstairs and I know that now but - but I couldn't help it. Everything in me was telling me to -"

"Protect her." Remus finished. He looked down at Mads then back to his best mate. The bond had created something none of them could predict. And if something truly awful happened to Mads...Remus wasn't sure what Padfoot would do. But it wouldn't be good.

——

"Love." The low timber of Sirius's voice filtered into my sleep heavy brain. I hummed in questioning tone, too tired for words. "I need my arm back."

"Fivmrmnts." I mumbled into his neck, pulling my arms tighter around his chest. His chuckle rumbled underneath my cheek causing me to smile sleepily. Fingers ran down my spine and I shivered at the touch. Mmm, if he kept that up, I wasn't ever giving that arm back. Stupid Jamie and his stupid Quidditch.

"Love, if you keep talking about Quidditch like that, Prongs is going to drag you out with us as punishment." Huh, I really needed to get a filter on this early in the morning. Sighing dramatically, I relaxed my grip on Sirius and let him slide out of bed. Then promptly rolled into his spot. "Get some more sleep, love."

There was a light pressure on my left temple but I was too tired to try and figure out what it was. Yawning, I snuggled into Sirius's pillow and let the warm bed lull me back into a dreamless sleep.

——

Peter glanced over to the sleeping form again. Mads continued to sleep even with him and Moony getting ready for the day. It was incredible how she could sleep through almost anything. His eyes lingered longer than they should've and he quickly snuck into the bathroom before Moony caught him staring at her. Again.

Merlin, why did Mads have to bond with Padfoot?

He hadn't known Moony would attack Mads like that. If he had, he wouldn't have gone to check and see who was out so late. But once he'd heard the branch snap, he worried it was someone who had heard them running through the woods. Being so small, it was easy for him to check on things like that in his animangus form. He hadn't expected it to be Mads though. Or for Tux to chase him.

Stupid mutt.

And now Mads, one of the most beautiful and strong women he'd ever met, was bonded to Padfoot. And not just bonded like a normal bond, oh no, it was a soul mate bond.

Just his luck.

He could tell that Mads didn't want to be bonded to Padfoot though. Peter knew in his gut that the bond was a mistake. But he'd never voice that. Especially not anywhere near Padfoot. Godric knew Pads would tear him apart.

Peter rinsed his mouth out, finishing up his morning routine, and went back into the dorm to finish getting ready. Moony sat on his bed, head in another book, already set for the day as Mads continued to sleep peaceful with Tux at her feet. A low growl came from the dumb dog as Peter passed a little too close to Padfoot's bed causing him to quicken his step.

Pulling out the textbooks he'd need for the morning, Peter knew that sooner or later though, they'd all realize what he already had: Mads wasn't meant to be with Padfoot. It was just a matter of time until they saw it.