After his birthday in March, Remus was at last of age, and Diana turned seventeen in mid-April. That being said, they were both allowed to give their Apparition test which was held near the end of April in Hogsmeade.

     Diana couldn't believe that she passed the test, because even during their Apparition lessons, she always left an eyelash behind or even one or two strands of her hair. Remus, however, had no difficulty when it came to Apparating and Disapparating.

     But the Apparition hadn't been the only thing that worried Diana. She was growing restless and even annoyed at her private Divination lessons with Professor Tenebris, because it turned out to be a big disappointment.

     Only two years ago, Diana would've laughed at anyone who believed in Divination and took it seriously. But now she couldn't believe that she had actually paid for different Divination books and bought all that she could find in Hogsmeade, hoping that they could help her with her visions.

     From Unfogging the Future, The Dream Oracle, and The Oracle of Palombo, to Death Omens: What To Do When You Know The Worst Is Coming, Diana would stay up all night, reading through them. She had never felt more ridiculous.

     All a bunch of stupid superstitions. There's no such thing as death omens, she would think to herself bitterly, slamming her book shut.

     After their Apparition test that day in Hogsmeade, Remus and Diana decided to take a stroll around the village and return to the castle a bit later. After long months of cold winter and snowy clouds, the sun shone proudly in the sky and flowers bloomed wherever the looked.

"The weather's getting warm again," Diana said gloomily, looking around the village which had been covered in a white sheet of snow only a month ago.

"Is that so bad?" Remus asked her with a smile, his hands in his jacket's pockets.

"It's not bad, but I'll just miss wearing my socks." She pulled up the cuff of her trousers, revealing the long and woolly socks which Remus had bought her for Valentine's day, which had little chocolates on them as the pattern.

"You can be a big weirdo sometimes, you know. And you call me dorky," he said with a chuckle as they walked down the crowded village.

She gave him a look. "Remus, you carry chocolate with you wherever you go, you're always reading, you wear oversized dorky sweaters, and you fold your socks. If that's not a sign of a real dork, then I don't know what is."

"Maybe." Remus shrugged resignedly but then gave her a playful smile. "But let's not forget the fact that you fold your socks, too. Not to mention that your favorite thing about winter is wearing your woolly socks, and you still have one of my oversized sweaters, which you refuse to return. So if anything, you're just as dorky as me, darling."

Diana let out a loud laughter. "I had a whole badass comeback prepared to say until you called me 'darling'."

"Oh, right... sorry." Remus pursed his lips together, blushing. "I forgot that you hated those cheesy pet names."

"To be honest... I don't think I hate them entirely," Diana confessed, unable to prevent the goofy grin that made its way through her face. "But I am starting to feel like a hypocrite."

"Why?"

"Well, I always used to tease Layla about how her boyfriends called her by these stupid nicknames. Like pumpkin, dollface, princess, marshmallow... blurgh!" Diana grimaced in disgust only thinking about it, making Remus laugh.

"In your defense, 'darling' is much better than calling someone marshmallow."

"Yeah, true." She sniggered.

Remus glanced at her sideways as they were walking beside the many shops in Hogsmeade, all crammed with people. After a moment or two, he said with a little grin, "So does that mean you like being called 'darling'?"

Diana suddenly felt her face flush, trying to look at anything but him. "I — I didn't say I liked it. All I said was that I didn't hate it. That's all."

Remus kept looking over at her with a knowing smile.

"What are you staring at me for?" Diana retorted when he didn't look away.

Remus only kept on grinning. "I don't buy it. You might have everybody else fooled, but not me."

Diana's brows furrowed. "What's that supposed mean?"

"I know for a fact that underneath that grumpy, mean, up-tight cover you try to hold, there's actually a lovey-dovey cheesy romantic girl."

Laughing, Diana pushed him by the arm. "Oh shut up, Lupin!"

Laughing along with her, Remus reached out and held onto her hand, interwinding their fingers together as they walked down the village.

But suddenly, Diana's smile completely disappeared and she came to a halt.

"Oh, no..." she muttered under her breath, her eyes fixed on something in the distance.

Remus looked over at her worriedly. "What? What is it?"

Diana didn't answer. She couldn't bring herself to speak. Her breath was driven away from her, and her mouth had gone dry.

Only a moment ago, through the alleyway in the distance, she had seen something that terrified her to a great extent. She kept telling herself that she had only imagined it, that it was far from real and that her mind was playing games with her. But Diana was sure she'd seen it.

One moment there and the next gone, Diana had seen the grim, black and horrifying. It was the omen of death.

This can't be happening... she thought to herself in terror. It's all my imagination. I've been reading too many Divination books.

"Diana?" Remus called her again, finally snapping her out of her thoughts. "Are you feeling okay?"

She shook her head, trying to grab a hold of reality. "I'm fine. I just thought that I saw..." She sighed, rubbing her eyes. "Nothing."

"You know you can trust me with anything, right?" Remus said softly, looking deep into her eyes.

Diana nodded, but she still couldn't form the words.

"Do you want to head back to the castle? You look a little — AARGH!" Remus suddenly shrieked when a huge black dog jumped on him from behind, hurtling him to the ground.

"Merlin's beard!" Diana shouted with panic, trying to think of a way to help Remus get rid of the dog, who was pulling at his jacket while he was still laying on the ground, struggling.

Quickly taking out her wand, Diana pointed it at the dog, yelling, "Aguamenti!"

On cue, a stream of water shot out of the end of her wand in the direction of the dog, soaking him. Startled, the dog whined and immediately stepped aside from Remus and shook its whole body before running away, barking angrily.

"That son of a bitch," Remus mumbled to himself as he got to his feet and dusted his jacket off, his voice barely audible. "Only wanted to embarrass me in front of her..."

"What?" Diana asked, not hearing him.

"Nothing." Remus shook his head grumpily, but Diana had already rushed toward him to make sure he wasn't hurt.

Just then, they heard people laughing behind them. Turning around, they saw James and Peter walking toward them from afar, sniggering.

"That — was — epic!" the Potter boy said, holding his stomach as he roared with laughed.

Diana couldn't understand what was going on between the three boys as Remus joined their laughter, assuming that it was probably an inside joke among them.

Despite how the dog had attacked Remus out of the blue, she was glad that it happened. Because now Diana could rest assured that what she'd seen was not a grim, but simply a black dog.

But she didn't know how wrong she was.

This was only the beginning.