"i was scared of pretty girls and starting conversations"

*

"Moony, I've got a very important question for you."

"Is it 'Why do I insist on keeping all of my friends up when they clearly want to go back to sleep?'" Remus flipped over in his bed and closed his eyes, hoping his friend would get the message, knowing he would and realizing that he would ignore it.

"No, it's not. I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't disrespect the question that is currently depriving me of sleep," Sirius said, sniffing indignantly.

"You are currently depriving me of sleep." Remus rubbed his forehead tiredly, knowing that his long-haired friend wouldn't relent. "What's the question?"

"That's the spirit!" Sirius propped himself up on his elbows like a little girl at a slumber party. "If you get drunk before you turn into a werewolf, what happens when you transform?"

A groan escaped Remus' lips. "This is your pressing question?"

"I'm a curious man."

"It's two thirty-three in the morning, and this is what we're talking about? Seriously?"

A quieter voice spoke out into the darkness. "Now I'm curious, too," Peter admitted.

"I don't know, and I don't want to know," Remus mumbled into his pillow. All he wanted to do was sleep, not attempt to answer questions that didn't need answering.

"There are a lot of possibilities, really. The only limit is the imagination. You could be a tipsy werewolf and howl like a drunk. You could be normal until you turn back and then have a nasty hangover the day after."

"The day after a transformation already feels like a hangover, idiot. A hangover with new scars and renewed depression," Remus said, trying not to sound irritated and failing miserably. "I'm going to bed."

"Maybe the alcohol could have no effect on you at all," Peter said, thinking out loud. "Like a superpower!"

"We're so trying it."

Remus buried himself further under his mother's handmade quilt. "We're not trying it."

"I'd agree with you, but then we'd both be wrong," Sirius joked. "Roll your eyes a little louder, Remus, I can almost hear them."

"This isn't a joke," the scarred boy snapped. "I could really hurt any of you on the full moon, and that's without bloody firewhiskey in my system."

"Oh, loosen up, Moony! Of course we're kidding, unless you actually want to, but as of now, it's just all fun. Think of the possibilities!" Sirius jumped up on his bed and promptly lost his balance. He crashed into James' bed, but as his friend wasn't currently occupying it, he jumped up on the mattress instead. "It's three days until the full moon. We could all do shots of firewhiskey in the Shrieking Shack and the last one to transform back buys drinks next time we're in Hogsmeade!"

"No, Sirius!"

"Come on, you know it won't be you. It'll be Prongs, hands down. James can't handle any alcohol, the bloke can't un-stag once he's had two shots of the stuff, the weakling-"

"No!"

Sirius rolled over, grinning to himself. Even though Remus was upset, he wasn't, not really, and Sirius knew that. Especially on days close to the full moon, Sirius liked to make him feel normal as often as he could, and messing around was a good way to do just that. "Worth a shot. Where is James, anyway?"

"I'M JUST A POOR BOY, NOBODY LOVES ME!"

"There he is," Peter supplied needlessly.

Sirius jumped up and belted at the top of his lungs, "HE'S JUST A POOR BOY FROM A POOR FAMILY! SPARE HIM HIS LIFE FROM THIS MONSTROSITY!" Pointing at Peter, he added, "Take it, Wormtail!"

"Easy come, easy go," Peter ventured, always self-conscious about singing, even in front of his best friends. "Will you let me go?"

As James continued to belt his favorite song in the shower, Sirius turned to Remus, who still hadn't emerged from under his patchwork quilt. "You're up next," he whispered.

"No."

"Remus, no one else can hit that note except Blondie, and she'll kill me if I wake her up now-"

"No."

"I'm not letting you fall asleep until you hit that note!"

And because of how badly he wanted to go to bed, Remus John Lupin hit 'that note.' Then the boy under the quilt used no less than thirteen curse words in an order that made no sense whatsoever before promptly falling asleep.

*

Remus hated Prefect meetings with a burning passion. He hated them more than he hated Divination, white chocolate, and Pink Floyd combined. And there weren't many things he hated more than those.

All of the meetings happened in the same way. First, sixteen of the school's most pretentious and boring students gathered in a room. Then, Lucius Malfoy and Gianna Danvers, the Head Boy and Head Girl (or as Sirius called them, King Stuck-Up and Queen Killjoy) marched in with their game faces, and he had to spend an hour of his life pretending like he cared what they had to say. He kept his expression politely bored, like he was listening to a mildly interesting story about Dumbledore as a boy, but he hardly paid attention. Because she was a people person, Lily handled these meetings better than he did, but even she had to admit that they were dryer than white toast. He also didn't appreciate the snide side-comments about him being the Prefect with the most detentions under his belt. Most times, Remus just stayed quiet and pretended to be a goody with nothing better to do while secretly running through the school rulebook in his mind to find new loopholes for James and Sirius to use to their advantage.

"Is this seat taken?" He glanced up and tried not to stare at Kriss. Strands of pin-straight hair fell out of her ponytail. Part of her sweater had come untucked from her skirt, and a few dirt smudges streaked her tan cheeks, but there was a sparkle in her sky blue eyes and her lips turned upwards into a bright smile.

Remus thought she looked beautiful.

He opened his mouth to tell her as much, but he only managed to stutter out, "Um... no."

"Thanks!" She sat down and surveyed the other members of their group with slight distaste. "I hate being late. Did I miss anything?"

Remus shook his head. "We didn't even start yet."

"Of course not." She laughed a bit and pushed a few chestnut flyaways out of her face. "You look really tired. You okay?"

Kriss noticed the bags under his eyes seemed darker than usual, because they were always there. She found herself fascinated by him: his scratches and scars, the amusement that seemed to linger on his face long after he smiled, and his soft brown eyes. It embarrassed her, how much she noticed, and so she glanced down at her hands, hoping that her cheeks weren't as red as she believed they were.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks for asking," Remus said, giving her a small smile. He suddenly felt the room was too warm and rolled up the sleeves of his sweaters to his elbows.

Her slim fingers tapped the edge of the table. "Well, I was going to ask if you wanted to meet me at the library tonight, but if you're too tired-"

"No!" Embarrassed at his mini-outburst, he cleared his throat and grinned sheepishly, shoving his left hand into his pocket once again to hide the nervous twitch. "No, that sounds great. Seven?"

"Seven." Kriss nodded, then looked like she was going to say something else, but a certain redhead plopped down in the seat next to Remus.

"What were you idiots torturing last night?" Lily asked abruptly. The usual light in her green eyes had also dimmed due to exhaustion. Kriss scooted her chair away the slightest bit. She'd always been shy around Lily, whose confidence and fiery temper made her uncomfortable.

Remus coughed and looked at her, eyes wide, partially from embarrassment and partially from confusion. "I'm sorry?"

"There was some terrible inhumane screeching coming from your dormitory last night. The walls are thin. None of us could sleep! Marlene was ready to march in and murder the first one of you she saw. You're lucky Eva convinced her to stay in bed, or you might be staring at me through two black eyes."

"Ah," Remus said once he understood what she was talking about. "What you heard last night would be your future husband's heavenly singing voice."

Lily covered her face with her hands, wondering how much actually surprised her anymore. "At three in the morning?"

Remus shrugged. "He says that music needs to be shared all twenty-four hours of the day. I say that he has his own time zone that's different from everyone else's. McGonagall says that screeching Muggle rock music in the dead of night is a disturbance."

"Detention?" Lily asked. Her copper waves fell loose around her heart-shaped face and as she smiled, Remus saw a trace of fondness in her expression for James Potter.

"All four of us. James got two for being Freddy Mercury, the rest of us got away with only one for being his backing band." He closed his eyes before putting on a straight face and altering his voice to imitate Professor McGonagall. "It is incredibly rude to keep your classmates awake just because you, Mr. Potter, 'could no longer contain the rock and roller within.'"

Lily Evans laughed hard at the antics of her friends and an overwhelming sense of gratitude washed over her. While she often complained about them, she couldn't imagine how boring life would be without stupid James Potter and his slightly-less stupid friends.