"Mr Longbottom?" Sophie said, rubbing her eyes. "Why are you here? How did you know where I lived?"

Neville stood at the door, a little lost for words. When he had knocked on the door, he had seemed full of purpose. Now, that purpose feeling had been diminished and left with a sort of fear.

"Is your mother here?"

"She's asleep." Sophie said blandly. "Do you know her?"

"Yes, I do. Anyway, can I just give it to you? You might need to wear gloves, it bites." Neville said, regaining his composure.

As he dug around in his large, oversized bag he found a pair of gloves. He handed them to Sophie who slid them on, then passed her a rather oversized bag of moving flower stems (or so it seemed).

"Um, thank you?" Sophie said confused.

"You're welcome, now I must be going. Very nice to meet you, Miss Austen-James. Might I say that you look very much like your mother."

*******************

"Remus? Are you awake?" 

"Good Godric, Juliet, you scared the living daylight out of me!" Remus said, jumping back on his bed. "What do you want now? It's one in the morning..."

"Are you busy? Should I come back later?" Juliet rolled her eyes. "Come on, I need to tell you something."

"No."

"No?"

"Juliet, I really need to sleep right now. If I don't get any sleep now, you'll be seeing grumpy Remus for the whole day. Go back to your dorm room, close the door, put your head on the pillow and go to sleep."

"Don't I need to close my eyes before I go to sleep otherwise I might look a bit —"

"Go!" Remus hissed.

"Alright alright, cool your jets!" Juliet said, putting her hands in front of her face innocently. "I'm off! Night, Rem."

Remus just turned over and fell asleep, not bothering to wave goodbye to her. He needed as much sleep as he could get.

"Juliet, I need to talk to you!" Lily said from the Gryffindor table.

She looked up and scurried over to where Lily was sitting. 

"I'm hungry and tired so this better be good. What do you want, Lily?"

"I heard from James that you went to see Remus last night to tell him something but he wouldn't listen." she said.

"You're obviously bursting to tell me something, you might as well say it." Juliet rolled her eyes, smiling.

"Don't talk to Remus today."

"Why not? He's one of my friends!"

"Likewise, but I found something out about him from Sirius and James that actually melted my heart. James is actually a great guy, you just have to look beyond the arrogant shell he has."

"Are you trying to advertise James to me or are you going to tell me this thing you found out about Remus?"

"Neither, I just wanted to let you know. Don't bother Remus either, he can be quite irritable around now."

Juliet frowned and turned around, just in time to see Remus, Peter and James walking into the Great Hall. She ran up to them shouting.

"Hey, Remus!" 

"What do you want?" he snapped but composed himself. "Sorry. What's up?"

"I still need to talk to you about —"

"Look, Juliet. I would love to talk to you about whatever it is you need to tell me but now I'm quite hungry and tired so I'd like to sit down." he said and pushed past her.

"Remus, wait." she said, grabbing him by the wrist. "Are you okay?"

He shook his head and continued walking to the Gryffindor table. She looked around for Sirius but he was nowhere to be found. 

Probably sleeping in, she thought to herself.

She decided to take a quick walk outside but before she did, she wrapped a scarf around her neck and pulled her Slytherin robe tightly around her. Crossing her arms over her body, she walked outside around the grounds. Only a few people were outside so it was quite pleasant. Enjoying the slight breezes that came and went.

"Hello, Miss White." 

"Merlin, Andrew!" Juliet shrieked.

"Can't someone say hello to their own cousin without the other person freaking out?" he smirked.

"Not if you sneak up on me like that!" Juliet said, still slightly taken aback. "Anyway, you never usually want to speak to me so I have to ask, what do you want?" 

"I want to see your mark."

"I don't have one."

"Of course you do, don't be an idiot."

"I'm not, I don't have one." Juliet lied, stepping backwards slowly.

"You're not like them, you know." Andrew said.

"Like who?"

"The mudbloods, the halfbreeds...you're like me. You're on my side."

"Don't call them that, Andrew!" she scolded. "They're just like us. What do you mean by halfbreeds? I don't have any friends who are half one thin, half another."

"Oh, but you're mistaken. What about your tired, little friend? I think his name is Mr Lupin?"

"What about Remus?" she arrowed her eyes skeptically whilst speaking.

"Have you ever wondered where he goes once a month every twenty-eight days?" Andrew smirked.

"I know what you're trying to say and it's not true. I don't believe you, you're known for lying in our family."

"See? You're facing the facts that we are related!" he said. "And I wouldn't be so sure about him. The dark lord has been trying to recruit him and I believe he is interested in recruiting you for the job."

"No."

"So you believe that he's a werewolf?"

"No, I don't believe anything you're saying." Juliet said and walked off.

"Juliet?"

"What?" she said harshly.

"Be careful around him, okay?" he started.

Maybe Andrew wasn't so bad after all, maybe he did hold her best interests at heart. Maybe he was a good cousin.

"You're far too valuable to the dark lord to die by befriending a werewolf."

She faked a smile and turned around, heading to the castle. She pulled her scarf off and went back into the Great Hall. She needed to find out what was wrong with Remus once and for all.

*******************

"Grandma? Can I come in?" Sophie asked, peering into her Grandmothers bedroom. "I'm sorry about earlier."

"Of course, Sophie."

The thirteen year-old stepped into the box room which had now been converted into her grandparents bedroom.

"Are you okay, Grandma? You look a little tired." Sophie remarked.

"No no, I'm fine, darling." she smiled tiredly. "And I do forgive you. I understand how hard it must be with all these secrets. But if you knew them all, it would be too much to handle. Because I am a pur — because I knew about these secrets before, they didn't affect me as much as your mother. She is quite an odd duck. Anyway, what did you want me for?"

"I was just going to say that a parcel came for you earlier from someone called Neville Longbottom."

"Longbottom?"