***

The next day proceeded as before. Remus was missing from the Great Hall during the meals and classes, nowhere to be found. Diana knew he was in the hospital wing at the moment, and at sunset he would be going to the Shrieking Shack with the help of Madam Pomfrey for his transformation.

Diana really wished that she could visit him at the hospital wing, but Remus reassured her that he had enough company, and it was too dangerous for her to tag along.

With the arrival of the night, Layla began to get ready in their dorm for the Slughorn party, while Diana was laying in bed with her back leaned against the headboard, reading a book. The rest of the girls in their dorm were downstairs in the common room, most likely studying together. Diana never liked them to begin with, and was grateful for tonight's privacy in their dorm.

Diana wasn't exactly paying attention to what she was reading, her mind far away. She couldn't stop thinking about Remus, an ache growing in her each time she thought of all the pain he was going through tonight. Diana wished that there had been something she could do to help him, but she'd read every book she could get her hands on in the Hogwarts library, but there was no mention of a cure anywhere.

"Hey, could you help me with this?" It was Layla's voice that snapped Diana out of her thoughts at last.

"What?" Diana questioned, glancing at her friend sideways.

"This." Layla raised up a magazine in her hand as she was sitting in front of the mirror. It was a copy of the Witch Weekly.

Diana put her bookmark between the pages and closed her book, placing it down on the bed before walking up to Layla to see what she was talking about.

"I read about a new spell here — see this?" Layla pointed at the page in the magazine. "It's to make the curls look bigger and shinier. I really wanted to try it. Could you do it for me? I can't reach the back of my hair."

"Er... yeah, sure. Can't be that hard." Diana shrugged, taking out her wand. She took the magazine from Layla's hand to read about the spell, muttering the incantation under her breath a few times as practice.

"Okay..." Diana nodded after a while and placed down the magazine after looking at it one last time, and got to work.

She picked a strand of Layla's dark and wet hair, just out of shower, and wrapped the strand around her wand, saying loudly and clearly, "Comas Melior!"

The strand of hair began to grow into a beautiful curl, shining under the dorm light.

"Oooh, nice!" Layla grinned as she looked back at her reflection in the mirror with fascination. "Great, do the rest as well."

"Yes, sir!" Diana saluted in a deeper voice, chuckling as she grabbed another strand of Layla's hair, wrapped it around the wand, and said the incantation again.

"You sure you don't want to come to the party? There's still time. And it wouldn't kill you to make an effort to look better. You can look great if you tried."

"Well, I don't want to. Besides, you can't take friends to Slughorn's Christmas parties," said Diana.

"Then I can introduce you as my girlfriend." Layla smirked, wiggling her eyebrows at her playfully.

Diana laughed. "Yeah, that would be — AAARGH!"

"What? What happened?" Layla asked in horror as Diana let out a scream. She looked back in the mirror, her eyes widening in terror when she saw that a big spot on her head was burning, letting out a smoke. "AAARGH! DO SOMETHING! QUICK!"

"WHAT DO I DO?"

"ANYTHING! JUST HURRY!"

Freaking out, Diana quickly pointed her wand at Layla's head without thinking, almost yelling, "Aguamenti!"

On cue, a great amount of water splashed out of the tip of her wand and poured onto Layla's burning hair, finally putting it out.

Silence filled up the room. Diana and Layla remained motionless, breathing heavily. They slowly turned to look at each other, eyes still wide, before both of them burst into laughter.

"I'm never letting you do anything ever again." Layla laughed, grabbing her own wand. Thankfully, she knew enough beauty spells to be able to fix her hair in a heartbeat.

"Yes, that would be very wise of you," Diana nodded in agreement, sniggering.

***

The next day, Diana couldn't take her eyes off the Gryffindor table, in search for Remus. She could see Potter, Black, and Pettigrew sitting there, but Remus wasn't with them. He hadn't shown up for breakfast.

Finding Layla and Regulus deep in a conversation about O.W.Ls, Diana quietly picked up her bag and slowly got to her feet, hoping to sneak away without them realizing. But of course, she wasn't successful.

"Where are you going?" Regulus asked, looking over at Diana with Layla.

"I forgot my Potions book in our dorm. I need to take it before the class starts," Diana said casually, waving at them and quickly leaving the Great Hall before they could come up with followup questions.

Regulus and Layla knew that she was dating Remus, but Diana didn't want to tell them that he was in hospital wings, knowing that they would want to know what was wrong with him and why he was there.

Walking up one staircase after another, Diana at last reached the hospital wing, out of breath when she walked through its doors. She looked around the ward, her eyes landing on the only occupied bed.

      Remus was laying there with his back leaning on the pillow against the headboard, his eyes closed peacefully as he took steady breaths.

     At first, Diana thought that he was asleep and therefore didn't want to disturb and wake him, so she turned around to leave. But at the sound of her footsteps, Remus slowly opened his eyes.

      "Diana," he called out to her softly, stopping her.

      With a little smile, Diana turned around, facing him. "Sorry... didn't mean to wake you up."

     "I wasn't sleeping. Just resting my eyes," he said with a warm yet weary smile.

     The dark bags underneath his eyes had become less visible compared to a few days ago, but he certainly looked more tired and pale.

      The sight broke Diana's heart, but she tried to hold onto her cheerful smile for his sake. She then walked closer toward his bed, sitting down on the chair which was set beside him.

     "Oh, by the way, I brought you this," Diana said quickly with an excited grin, fishing a little box out of her bag. When she opened it, Remus saw that she had made him two toasts with scrambled eggs on top of them.

     Remus didn't have the heart to tell her that Madam Pomfrey had already made him eat a lot of breakfast, so he took the box from her with a broad smile. "Woah, thanks!"

     He took a bite from it, his face brightening up. "Mmm! It tastes amazing! Thank you!"

     "Oh, it was nothing." Diana chuckled, shaking a hand at him, though a blush had run across her pale and freckly cheeks.

     Remus ate one of the toasts before placing the box on the nightstand beside his bed, trying not to grimace in pain.

     "So how are you feeling?" Diana asked.

      "I'm fine. Don't worry about me."

      "How can I not worry?" Diana frowned, sighing. "I really wish there was something I could do."

     "Are you kidding?" Remus chuckled lightly. "This... this is more than enough. The fact that you let go of all the things that your family had taught you, and accepted me... that's all I could ever ask for."

      "Well, I'm not the only one." She grinned playfully. "You accepted me, too. Up until last year I was a bigger monster than you ever could be."

     Remus laughed. "You weren't that bad. Just... maybe a little more violent, that's all."

     "Oh, I could still be violent, all right." Diana smirked, though it slowly faded. She threw her gaze away gloomily. "But all jokes aside... it was a surprise even to me that you didn't hate me."

     Remus frowned. "Why would I hate you?"

     "Oh, please. Everyone does." Diana managed to grin teasingly. "I know what they all say about me. Heartless. Mean. Cold. I don't mind, really. But with you... You always seem to see the best in people."

      "Well... I guess it's just because I know how it feels," Remus whispered as his eyes bore into hers.

      Diana reached out her arm, holding his hand where it lay on the bed. Neither of them needed to say anything as they let the silence fill the space between them, for their hearts felt closer to each other than ever.

      "Could you... could you stay with me here a bit longer?" Remus asked in a quiet tone, looking up at her with pleading eyes.

     Diana's smile widened at those words. She stood off her chair and sat beside him at the edge of the bed, leaning down to plant a small kiss on his lips. "For as long as you want."