Remus and I headed outside for our free period splitting ways with Lily after Herbology.

"Where do you want to go and talk?" I asked.

"How about the black lake?" Remus suggested.

"I don't know what that is but sure." As we passed people in the hall on the way to the front of the school I could feel the eyes of guys on me and quickened my pace.

"So what do you want to do for the date?" Remus asked slightly out of breath.

"I'm not sure. What is there to do?"

"We could go to Hogsmeade. The Three Broomsticks is a nice place to go." Remus shrugged.

"Yeah sure! That sounds good. When do you want to go?" I asked.

"How about this Saturday? We can go for dinner. I'll treat us." Remus smiled.

"Really? Thanks Remus! I'll get us desert or something." I grinned. We went over a ride and I gasped. In front of me was a huge black body of water. It seemed like it was never ending.

"Here we can lay down here." Remus sat down and proceeded to lie on his back. I followed his lead.

"So what do you do in your spare time?" I asked.

"Read and study. That's pretty much it." Remus shrugged.

"Do you ever participate in the pranks that James and Sirius do?" I raised an eyebrow.

"It depends. Sometimes yes and sometimes no."

"Oh. Have you always liked to study and stuff?"

"Not really. When I was younger before...something happened I loved to go out and play with my friends. We would try and chase objects that our parents levitated inside the house." Remus smiled. So far from what I collected, something big happened when he was young, he had scratch marks and bite marks on his arms, and he was exhausted last night. "What about you?" He asked. Slightly frustrated I couldn't think of anything linking those together.

"I prefer studying and reading too. Sometimes it's fun to get into mischief. However I had no opportunity to do that at Beauxbatons. It felt like my sole job was to look nice and set an amazing example of what a girl should be like." I sighed.

"Don't worry about any of that here. I mean you're way above the rest without trying." Remus said encouragingly.

"I am?" I raised an eyebrow.

"You're only a Veela after all." Remus joked.

"I suppose." I dramatically flipped my hair over my shoulder and laughed. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure." Remus smiled.

"What were they all talking about last night? And why did you leave early?"

"Uhh. Well you see nobody's really supposed to know at Hogwarts. So we'll just say I have a condition." Remus said quickly.

"Okay." I tried to let it go but I felt like I knew what he had. It was at the tip of my tongue but I wasn't going to try and find out here.

"What have you been doing over the summer? Did you go anywhere?" Remus asked. I had a flashback of going on blind dates almost every night so I could eat dinner.

Sometimes I would try to search abandoned homes for food to eat during the day. Having to do that was humiliate and all I could look forward to is for school to start. My parents have always hated me and couldn't wait until I was fourteen and they said I could live off in the world if I was really smart. They permitted me to take my clothes which I left in a suitcase. The nice bartender at The Leakey Cauldron was nice to me and gave me a permanent room over the summers for free but couldn't afford to feed me. Ever since then my life has been...

"Nicole." Remus called and was waving his hand in front of my face.

"Huh?" I asked snapping out of my thoughts.

"I had just asked you how your summer was and what you did." Remus said.

"Oh. Um it was fine." I said quickly and my voice rose in pitch. I couldn't lie for the life of me. Remus seemed to be unsure if I was being truthful but left the matter alone.

Today was a bit of a chilly day and I shivered. Subconsciously I scooted closer to Remus and closed my eyes. For the first time, in a very long time I was actually happy as I slept.

"Nicole. Remus!" James shook us awake.

"James don't be too rough." Lily chided.

"Awe you guys are so cute." Sirius made obnoxious kissing noises.

"Guys don't delay them or else they'll be late for their last class." James said.

"What?!" I scrambled up and heard the bell ring. Shoot. For some reason they all started cracking up. Even Lily looked like she was struggling to keep a straight face. Remus shook his head.

"We already had our last class Nicole. They're just pranking us." Remus sighed.

"Nicole and I have very important things to talk about. Please excuse us." Lily said. She grabbed my hand and tugged me away.

"What?" I frowned.

"I saw you getting VERY close with Remus over there." Lily raised an eyebrow.

"And?" I blushed.

"Oh my gosh so are you guys going out now?" Lily asked excitedly. "We've been waiting for Remus to find the right one for so long now."

"I don't know. I mean obviously we're going out on that date to Hogsmeade but nothing's official yet." I shrugged.

"Awe you guys are so cute." Lily couldn't stop smiling.

"Can I ask you something about Remus? He wouldn't tell me what was wrong last night. I feel like I know what is. It's on the tip of my tongue but I just can't grasp it."

"Oh. I'm really sorry Nicole but he made us all swear not to say anything. I mean James and Sirius avoid it by just saying it's his "furry little problem" Lily laughed. I froze mid-step. It all connected now. The scars, the tiredness, and leaving the night of the full moon.

"He's a werewolf." I whispered. Lily's eyes widened and she pushed me into an empty classroom.

"What did you just say?" She asked breathlessly.

"He's a werewolf isn't he." I said slightly shocked.

"What? I don't know what you're talking about." She avoided making eye contact. Turns out she was a horrible liar too.

"He could've told me. I don't mind." I sighed.

"You can't tell him you know." Lily said alarmed. "He'll think we told you."

"Don't worry I'll make sure he knows I found out. And that you didn't help at all." I reassured.

"At least wait until tomorrow. Or dinner. Don't tell him yet." Lily pleaded.

"I'll wait until dinner." I drew myself up to my full height. "Now let's go get some of that homework done."

"I like you more already." Lily grinned. Together we headed off to the library.