With trembling hands and a shaky breath, Diana put the book back on the shelf. She felt like her knees were going to give in any moment as her whole body went numb in shock.

"He's not... he can't be..." Diana muttered to herself, her head hurting and her heart aching.

She didn't want to go to the Great Hall where the others were. She didn't want to see anyone. With her hand over her mouth in disbelief, Diana left the library without caring as to where she was going.

It was all coming back to her. The full moons she had been seeing in the orb, the howling she had heard; they all pointed at Remus's direction.

As she wondered down the hallways aimlessly, everything began to add up in her mind. The first time she had touched Remus's hand and had felt pain, darkness, and the bitter feeling of loneliness, they were all what Remus felt each time during full moons when he transformed.

It was lunch time. But instead of going to the Great Hall, Diana walked down into the dungeons and walked into the Slytherin common room so she could be alone.

     Barely blinking, barely thinking, she moved toward the fireplace and sat down on the floor in front of the blazing flames, hugging her knees to her chest as she stared into the burning fire. But the heat of it wasn't enough to mortify the shiver that ran through her body.

Diana couldn't take a grasp of what she had just learnt. Or rather, she couldn't bring herself to believe it.

She closed her eyes shut and shook her head furiously as unwanted memories started floating back to her mind; she could remember all those pictures she had seen in the history books in her father's office. She remembered the terrifying sketches of the pack of werewolves who had attacked a Muggle village, ripping their bodies apart.

She could remember the articles she had read in the Daily Prophet about the werewolf attacks that still happened to this day.

      Even the words of her parents were still fresh in her mind, though the conversation had happened years ago.

"Another attack," her father had mumbled that day, looking through the newspaper. "Two children dead. It says here that the bites belonged to a werewolf."

"Poor kids..." Her mother had sighed, her brows knitted together in sympathy. "Those vicious beasts must be stopped."

"They're already banished from the community, but I agree, it's not enough," Mr. Greengrass had said earnestly, putting down the paper. "There's no way to easily recognize a werewolf when it's not a full moon. They can be walking among us, looking like any other innocent Wizard, while searching for their next victim."

"Blood-thirsty half-breeds such as them aren't deserving to live, when all they do is attack the innocent!" said Mrs. Greengrass.

Diana shook her head again as she remained seated on the floor of the common room, trying to banish the thoughts from her head. There was a burning sensation at the back of her throat that she could not get rid of.

He has no control over it, she tried to convince herself over and over again. He's not like them. He can't be. Remus would never hurt anyone.

But then again, he didn't have any control over that either. With each full moon that emerged, so did the beast.

***

The full moon that week was a rough one. The transformation was more painful than the month before, but at least Remus had his friends to keep him company. As always, they had left the Shrieking Shack and roamed the Hogwarts grounds way after midnight, all the way until dawn.

As the sunlight beamed through the crooked windows of the Shrieking Shack, Remus groaned once he woke up on the dusty floor, his head hurting.

"Why is there — ouch — why is there a bump on my head?" Remus mumbled sleepily, getting up into a sitting position with his hand over his forehead.

"Sorry, mate. That was my fault. You were getting a little cranky last night, so I hit you with my hoof to get you back here," Remus heard James's voice, although he felt too weak to open his eyes.

"Moony, do you mind covering yourself up? We've been sitting here with our backs to you for the past hour ever since the sun came out," said Peter, yawning.

"Right... sorry..." Remus muttered, blinking his eyes a few times in hopes of washing the tiredness away.

He found his ripped trousers a bit away from him on the floor. Wincing in pain, he reached out for his wand and fixed his clothes before wearing them.

"Can we turn now? I'm getting tired," James complained as the three of them were sitting on the floor beside each other with their backs to Remus.

"Yeah, it's fine," said Remus, buttoning up his shirt with difficulty.

"Finally." Sirius rolled his eyes as the three of them stood up, stretching his arms.

"All right, we better get going before Madam Pomfrey comes to get Remus back to Hospital Wing's," said James, grinning. "Besides, I want to look at my Charms book again before class. I loved the look of shock on Evans's face when she realized that I had studied."

"It wasn't shock, Prongs. It was annoyance. I had it on my face, too," said Sirius with a smirk, making his way toward the room's door and leaving through it.

"See you later, Moony!" Peter waved at him before following Sirius away.

"By the way," James stopped at the door right as he was about to leave the room, turning to face Remus, "do you have last year's Charms' notes that you'd written?"

"Yeah, they're all in my trunk, at the bottom of it," said Remus, trying not to wince again as he sat down at the edge of the bed inside the room, all the bones in his body aching because of last night. "I still can't believe you've decided to actually study to impress Lily. I never thought I would see this day."

"Don't give me that sass, Moony," said James jokingly. But then he half-smiled and ran a hand through his jet-black hair, ruffling it up goofily. "Well... to be honest... it's not about impressing her anymore."

"What do you mean?"

"You know..." James chuckled nervously, giving a light shrug of his shoulders. Remus had never seen him this way before. "I... I really want her to like me."

Remus smiled. "Wow... I knew you liked Lily, Prongs. But I never knew you liked her this much that made you knock some sense into yourself."

James laughed, messing his hair up again. "I guess some people are just worth the trouble."

"The trouble of changing yourself?"

"No." He shook his head lightly. "The trouble of letting go of the things that are holding you back, so you can finally take the leap," said James. He then sent one last smile at Remus's direction before leaving the Shrieking Shack.

Remus sat there alone, haunted by the eerie silence of the dusty room as he pondered those words.

     It was the fear that had been holding him back all this time; the fear of abandonment once people realized what he was. So, for years he had banished the thought of happiness from his mind, knowing that he could never live a normal life. Happiness wasn't written in his destiny.

      But for the first time in his life, he had become selfish and started to fall for the girl with messy blonde hair, freckly cheeks, and a sharp tongue. He had been afraid all his life, but perhaps James was right. She was worth the trouble of letting his fear go.

      He had to tell Diana how he felt about her.

      With that thought, Remus raised to his feet with difficulty, ignoring the ache in his bones as he quickly left the Shrieking Shack. With each step that he took, a sharp pain went through his body as he walked the length of the tunnel, finally emerging from the hole inside the Whomping Willow after pushing the knot to stop the tree from moving.

     Already panting from exhaustion, he walked away from the edge of the Dark Forest and paced up the hill, passing Madam Pomfrey on his way who was going in the opposite direction, toward the Whomping Willow.

"Remus!?" Madam Pomfrey came to a stop as she recognized him, staring at him in surprise as he walked past her quickly to get to the castle. "What do you think you're doing!?" she shouted after him.

"I'm taking the leap!" Remus yelled back as he kept on going, a wide smile playing on his lips.