╔═══════════════╗
fourth year,
not my secret to tell
╚═══════════════╝

In the far corner, of the library, Aimee had a tall pile of books with the topic of Lycanthropy and Werewolves. While Sirius should have been joining her, she was glad that he was off somewhere plotting pranks, they were becoming more extreme, using jinxes along with Zonko's limited joke collection.

She had the idea that Potter was the Stag she saw, as his name was Prongs, which probably refers to the antlers. Aimee then had the idea that Wormtail which was Peter's nickname, must have been the Rat she saw, as rats have a tail that looked like a worm.

That just left Remus. She knew Sirius was Padfoot, thanks to Torvus, she discovered Snuffles true identity. She couldn't imagine someone as kind and generous as Remus having to cope with this condition. Aimee made it her job to learn as much as she could about Werewolves.

If Remus truly were a werewolf she wanted to know how she could help him, even if all she could do was something so little. Aimee heard something scurrying around her feet, she looked under her table, she didn't see anything, she shrugged her shoulders sitting back up.

"Ahh," she shrieked, "what do you think you're doing to get me a heart attack?"

"Sorry," Daniel said, sitting on the table, picking up a book to look at, "what's your sudden interest in werewolves for anyway?"

"No reason, just think they're a complex being,"

"Being? I take it mother hasn't convinced you otherwise,"

"You don't think they are?" she questioned

"No, I believe they're beings but because you only ever hear about the bloodthirsty ones, that purposely attack people, that's why they're labelled as beasts,"

"I guess the bad ones outweigh the good ones," Aimee said

"You're not planning on staying here all night are you?"

"No, I'm just going to put these back then, I'm leaving," she told him.

Daniel left her to put the books away knowing it wouldn't take her long as she practically lived in the library. As she made her way down the corridor towards the staircase leading to the dungeons, she heard a familiar voice, choosing to follow.

She carefully followed the voice, she hid around the corner, then heard two more voices. She recognised the voices, as Sirius, James and Peter, 'it was almost past curfew where in the world could they be going?' She thought. Continuing to follow closely behind them, she turned into a dog in case anyone spotted her out of bed.

"What was that?" Peter asked, James and Sirius, turned around to see what he was looking at,

"There's nothing there, Pete, come on, Remus is waiting," James said,

Some long grass, tickled under the white dog's nose causing her to sneeze, she quickly hid away. Sirius flicked his eyes behind him, he didn't see anything, he kept his guard up. She watched as the three boys turned into animals, A Dog, Stag and a Rat.

"I was right," she said out loud, she watched as the animals could approach the whomping willow without being attacked by it. She waited until they had gone inside before getting a closer look, as she was about to go inside the whomping willow. She was taken off her feet by another dog.

"What are you doing out here?" Padfoot asked

"I could ask you the same thing," she said, shaking the dirt from her white fur, a loud screech tore her mind away from him. She walked towards the tree, Padfoot stop her,

"You can't go down there-

"Well, Potter and Peter did," she said,

"You saw them?"

"I saw all of you expect..." she trailed off, "Is that. Is that Remus down there,"

"No," Padfoot said not too convincingly

"I thought we weren't going to keep things from each other,"

"I'm not but this is different, this isn't my secret to tell," Padfoot said, she sighed, turning back into herself, she looked down at the secret door hidden in the whomping willow's roots.

"I understand, it's not your thing to tell," she said, turning away from him, "just let me know how he is," tears began forming in her eyes, she quickly wiped under her eyes to prevent tears from falling. She left not letting Padfoot see her cry.

***

The next morning, she managed to catch a few extra minutes of sleep as her first class of the day was potions, only a few corridors away, from her dormitory. All she could think about was Remus, how he was feeling this morning. Sirius didn't have to tell her, the pieces fitted together, Remus is a werewolf.

It infuriated her that she couldn't just ask him how he was doing, without revealing that she knew. Sirius sat next to her in class, though he was falling asleep, all four of them were falling asleep at their desks. Peter was almost sliding down on his stool.

"Alright, now can anyone tell me what kind of potion this is?" Professor Slughorn asked, he scanned the students, "Mr Black, care to tell the class what brew this is?" Sirius didn't answer mumbling in his sleep, she nudged him awake

"Uh, erm Amortentia," he yawned, "most powerful love potion in existence,"

"Corrected, what do you smell?" Sirius rolled his eyes, leaning forwards a bit.

"Roses, strawberries, and new books," he said, there were smiles amongst, Lily, Marlene, Alice and Dorcas' faces as they knew exactly who he was attracted to.

"Miss Burke, what about you?" Aimee gulped, leaning over her desk.

"The lake, muggle sweets, and... " 'Sirius' hair' she thought.

"Yes, Miss Burke?"

"Erm, dog fur," she said, Sirius tried to hide his smirk from her.

Aimee's smells were harder for the girls to know who it was, they didn't know anyone that had a pet dog, or who ate muggle sweets regularly. However, Remus, James and Peter knew who it was, from one smell. Dog fur.

There was just over a week until the summer break, most students were excited for summer, going home seeing family. For Aimee and Sirius, they were both trying to make the best of their last two weeks, the possibility of them being able to see each other and be together was slim.

He laid his head on Aimee's legs, she played with his hair, massaging his scalp. He hummed finding the feeling to be so soothing he was nearly falling asleep. She kept her door locked hoping to keep Regulus and Daniel from entering her room, Aimee stopped playing with Sirius' hair, letting her hand fall to her sides.

"Why'd you stop, I was enjoying that," he smiled at her,

"Sorry, I'm just not in a happy mood," he sat up, sitting next to her resting his head on the headboard

"What's wrong?"

"I can't stop thinking about Remus and my mother,"

"You aren't going to say anything about Remus are you?"

"No, I wouldn't dream of it," She snuggled into him, he wrapped his arm lazily around her waist.

"I don't usually look forward to going home, but I hate it even more now, we won't be able to see each other,"

"I know," he looked down, lifting her chin with her finger, placing a soft kiss on her lips.

She ran her fingers through his hair, pulling him closer, for a deeper kiss, he leaned over her, she shuffled down her bed laying under him. He placed kisses down her jawline, along her neck, she leaned her head back, giving him further access to her neck, he ran his tongue over her neck.

A new feeling stirred inside her, as he sucked her neck. Her mind snapped back to reality, once she felt his hand softly trailing under her shirt, she braced her hands against him, he pulled away from her. He lifted her chin, gazing deeply into her eyes.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm just don't think I'm ready yet," she said, running her hand through her hair, he smiled at her, lightly pressing his lips against hers.

"It's alright, we'll take things further when we're both ready," she smiled at him, wrapping her arms around his waist, snuggling close to him.