Sirius spent the rest of Saturday and the whole Sunday with me, not ready to face his friends yet.

We had a fun time, played a lot of Quidditch, did our homework together (although that was to Sirius' dismay, but he was really happy and proud, once we had finished) and he helped me improve my Transfiguration and Arithmancy skills, because he was actually really good at those subjects.

When the evening came around, the Prefects had a meeting in which I was assigned to patrol with Remus again.

The boy smiled at me, and it might've been my imagination, but it looked as if he had fresh scars on his face.

We did our patrol in comfortable silence, doing a little small talk then and there, until my mind wandered off to Sirius and I couldn't restrain from asking.

"I hope you don't mind me asking, but I'm wondering... Sirius feels really bad and has told me that he's apologised very often already. Why won't you three forgive him?"

Remus' head snapped towards me, a suspicious look in his eyes. "He's told you?"

I furrowed my eyebrows. "Well, of course he's told me about your argument, why else would he hang out with me?"

Remus chuckled lowly. "You know, your self-esteem is really low."

Well, maybe that was true.

I chuckled sarcastically and pointed at him with finger guns. "Others can't really dissapoint you when you already dissapoint yourself," I said with a terrible American accent.

Remus sighed with a small smile, but then raised an eyebrow. "I don't know if this attitude is healthy?"

I waved my hand dismissively. "It's defenitely not, but you've changed the topic, Mister."

Remus sighed again - a bit dramatic, wasn't he? "I know, but still... Don't think so low of yourself. I like you, and I know for a fact that Sirius does, too. He'd find a million reasons to hang out with you, even when he is on speaking terms with us. Why do you think did he sit down next to you in Arithmancy?"

There was a weird feeling in my stomach, but it disappeared as soon as it had come. I was sure my head was as red as a Gryffindor banner.

"Thanks?" I cleared my throat and shook my head. That wasn't the original topic! "Soo.... What exactly happened that you won't accept Sirius' apology?"

"Oh, look over there," Remus pointed at something at the end of the corridor, obviously avoiding my eyes- and the question. "There are some first years out of bed. Let's go."

I squinted my eyes, and with much difficulty I saw that there actually were two children hastily walking towards us.

"Can you help us, please?" They shouted across the hallway. "We found a secret passageway, went through it, but we don't know where we got out. And we can't use it to go back, because the entrance is closed and won't open, and now it is past curfew!"

I smiled at the children, now that I was actually able to see them properly. Remus' eyesight had to be really good. Or mine was just bad.

They were Gryffindors, two girls, around the same height, both with red hair and blue eyes. (I was a bit jealous of their hair - I'd always wanted my hair to be naturally red... I had strawberry blond hair, but it was more dark blonde than it was reddish. My hair only had a red glow when the light shone on it in a certain way, except for the hair on the side of my forehead. That was pretty orange, as weird at it was. Okay, enough about that.)

"Hey, you two. Do you want us to accompany you back to your common room?"

They nodded in sync.

I exchanged a look with Remus, and it was pretty clear that he thought the same thing as me.

"I know it wasn't on purpose," said Remus with a sympathetic expression. "But we have to take two points from each of you, for being out of the common room after curfew."

Or at least for getting caught, I added in my mind. Because I was pretty sure that the marauders snuck out after curfew almost every night, they just didn't get caught. But hey, Remus had at least toned down the punishment, because officially, we would have had to take 3 points from each of them. But I didn't complain, and I didn't plan to snitch - I didn't really care.

The kids nodded guiltily. "We're sorry, Remus."

He shook his head. "Oh, you don't have to be so sad about it. Personally, I'm more impressed that you've discovered that passageway, it's pretty difficult to find!"

"You are?" The other girl asked, her eyes sparkling. Her friend, cousin, sister or whatever, giggled. "But you're a Prefect!"

"And?" Remus tilted his head. "I'm still a marauder, aren't I?"

Oh yeah, and that side was definitely showing at the moment. That was pretty funny to witness.

With Remus mentioning the marauders, I saw an opening. When we all started to walk towards the Gryffindor tower, I cleared my throat.

"Speaking of marauders, you have a great friendship, I must say."

Remus' smile dropped, but I continued despite my fear of annoying him or pissing him off. I had to do that for Sirius. Although I'd enjoyed spending so much time with him, I knew that he missed his best friends. I knew that he'd rather pull pranks than do homework with me, and I understood that. Also, getting the marauders to talk to Sirius again would also profit Remus and the rest of the them. I was sure that they missed Sirius' crackhead energy, too.

"You're all on the same page, and I really admire that nothing can come in between your friendship, not even the biggest fights. You all love each other and forgive them when they genuinely feel bad about something they have done. That's what friendship is about, isn't it, Remus? Having each other's backs, no matter what happens?"

Remus didn't respond, but one of the girls did. Her reply made me grin. She was unconsciously helping me, the little one. "Yes! Hannah and I want to always have a friendship like you four have!"

The corner of Remus' lips twitched.

"We do!" The other girl, probably Hannah, agreed. "Your friendship is our inspiration to become pranksters, too!"

I grinned when I saw that Remus finally chuckled. "Oh, that's nice - but please, you don't have to follow the extremes that James and Sirius like to do. The best pranks don't have to be extreme, they just have to be teamwork. They only work when you're good friends, you know? You have to trust each other, and find and use each other's strengths and weaknesses."

Hannah and her friend nodded frantically. I was sure that, had they had parchment and quills, they would have taken notes. For them, this seemed to be an interview with a role model.

"Okay, enough prank lessons," I interrupted them with a low chuckle, ignoring the girls' complaints. I bent over to Remus and talked in a quiet voice. "Careful, or you're creating monsters."

He laughed and replied in the same volume. "If they were meant to be monsters, we would've already been too late anyways, so don't bother. Real monsters can't be tamed."

A few seconds after the last sentence, every trace of humor in Remus' face had disappeared. His expression was completely serious, maybe even a little hurt. He seemed to have remembered something, or the last words had had a different meaning for him?

I was clueless and kept quiet, letting Remus think. After a few more minutes, filled with the redheads' unbothered blabbering, we arrived at the portrait of the so-called 'Fat Lady', behind which the Gryffindor common room was.

"Can she know our password?" Hannah asked with a suspicious expression, eying the Ravenclaw logo on my cloak.

I was a little embarrassed and looked at the watch on my wrist. "Oh, don't worry about it," I answered before Remus or the Fat Lady could reply. "Our patrol ends in four minutes anyway, so we can just call it quits now and I'll go away."

I smiled at the two girls. "It was nice to meet you."

Then I looked at Remus, who had finally snapped out of his thoughts. "Talk to Sirius. Please."

Remus hesitated, but eventually, he nodded. "Okay. Good night, Freya."

I let out a relieved sigh. Now I only had to pray that this conversation would end well.

I nodded, smiling. "Good night, Remus."