(Hogwarts Academy of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Gryffandor Common Room)

Everyone else has left the Common Room for their beds, books carried off, games packed away. Potter has gone, and Pettigrew. Even Black has taken himself off, although he paused for a moment near him, exchanging a few quiet words I could not hear, touching his cheek in a ...

Oblivious to my presence here in the shadows just beyond the fire's light, he sits, quiet and still, on the window seat of the Common Room. His back and head are pressed against the deep stone casement as he looks down at the side gardens in the light of the newly waning moon.

He has been ill again. His eyes have deep black circles beneath them, and he is so thin a good stiff wind would blow him away. He moves as if every bone and muscle in his body pains him.

He is ill quite a lot. He tells Black and Potter his mother is ill; I wonder if they believe him? Or are they just pretending?

I certainly don't believe him.

He disappears for a few days just about once a month, and comes back looking like death warmed over. It's obvious to me  that he's the one who's ill, not his mother.

Add to that the fact that I saw him with Madame Pomfrey out on the school grounds the other night, hours after he'd supposedly gone home.

It doesn't add up.

He doesn't belong here. He's just a child. He's barely grown since our first year, and we'll be taking our O.W.L.'s next term. He's years younger than we are - he's not even allowed to go into Hogsmeade with us, he has to wait another year. Not that he'd have any money to spend - his family must be as poor as church mice, judging by his robes and books.

I hear his father took early retirement from the staff at Beauxbaton, when Remus was just a child. I wonder why? And what do they live on? And where?

Why did Professor Dumbledore allow him in so young? He's no prodigy. Oh, he's intelligent enough, a good enough student, especially in Charms and DADA. He always has his nose in a book, always has his work done, and his work is always correct -  but he is always behind because of his "absences".

He seems to have plenty of talent, but Potter, Malfoy, Black, and I...we have just as much or more.

No, he's nobody special, so why is he treated as if he is?

He's no great shakes at anything physical, either. Of course, we're all older and more developed than he is. He's not even as old as the Second Years, so comparing him to us is hardly fair. He is quick and fast, though even if he's not that strong.

No, no, he's nothing special.

Still...

He's still sitting there, alone, seemingly content. He doesn't even know I'm here. Then again, he never notices me. He only has eyes for Potter and Black, sometimes Pettigrew or Lilly. Mostly Black, though.

I wonder what Black said to him. I wonder what he answered?

You can see it in those eyes of his - the purest hero worship I've ever come across. If Black told him to step off a cliff, he'd do it. If Black said he'd flown without a broom, he'd believe it.

He watches Black with Potter, their antics, their games. Black and Potter are almost always together. It seems you never see one without the other, and I'm sure he's longing to be there with them.  He probably would be if he were not ill so often. Pettigrew hangs about in the background, not quite one of them, but more so than not, and Lilly is usually with them, more frequently now that she and Potter are an item. What she sees in Potter is a mystery to me.

What Remus sees in Black is, as well.

Remus. Yes, I do think of him as Remus. I wonder why, When the others are Potter and Black and Pettigrew?

Nonsense. It's all nonsense. I should be in bed. And so should he.

Why am I sitting here, thinking about Remus Lupin? I have better things to do with my time. I'm sure I don't care about him, not in the least.

Still, he is...attractive.

There is an...ethereal quality to him. He almost seems to shine from within. If I were fanciful, which I am not, I would say the moonlight kisses his skin. Golden brown hair, elegantly arched brows, thick long lashes, straight nose, fine boned face. Slender arms and legs...

What is he, that he should receive special treatment?

Who cares if he is...beautiful?

If Black touches him with the possessiveness of a ...lover?

He does not belong here, with them, and I will prove it.

Who is he that I should care?

Nobody.

Beautiful.