James and Harry made their way down the passageway as quietly as they could. It was eerily quiet—so quiet that Harry was afraid for an instant that his beating heart would give James away, before reminding himself again that he wasn't tangible. After what seemed like forever, James reached the end of the passage and straightened up, brushing off his robes as he did.

"What…are you…doing here?" croaked a voice, and James jumped. His head whipped around, and his eyes fell upon Remus, curled up pathetically on the floor, dripping in sweat.

"Remus." He immediately dropped to his knees next to his friend.

"Get. Out. Now," said Remus, and he sounded as though each word was a struggle.

"What's going on?" James asked, fear in his eyes.

"Didn't I tell. You. To stay. Out. Of. It," Remus gasped.

"Remus…"James looked at his friend with pity and fear. "Are you…dying?"

"No," Remus managed to say. "Worse." He groaned and his whole body shivered. "Leave."

"What can I do?" James said, panicking. "How can I help?"

"Leave!" Remus urged, and then he let out a scream so horrible that Harry's toes curled. James jumped back a few feet.

"What's happening?" asked James, his voice cracking in fear.

"James. Get. Out. NOW!" Remus writhed on the floor, and let out an animalistic roar. Harry could see the hair on James' neck stand on end. And speaking of hair…Remus' face and arms were sprouting thick, dark hair at an alarming pace. James jumped up, shock etched in every inch of his face.

"You're…you're a—"

"ROAR!"

His transformation was nearly complete. Remus writhed and screamed as the animal took over him, and James, eyes wide with fear, bolted up the passageway. He ran and Remus' screams became fainter, but no less terrible. He pushed himself out of the passageway and—

SMACK.

It appeared that James had completely forgotten about the Whomping Willow. One of the branches caught him in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him. He sprawled on the ground, coughing, and another branch came down on his back. James came to his senses and rolled out of the way of another incoming branch. He scrambled to his feet and attempted to avoid the rest of the flailing branches, but to little avail. He was shortly knocked back over, and this time, simply covered his face and rolled along the ground, as far away from the tree as he could get. There, he pulled himself into a sitting position, buried his face in his knees, panting hard. It was now so dark out that Harry could barely see him; it was only by the light of the full moon that he could make out his shivering form. James didn't move for several minutes, and Harry didn't know if this was out of fear, shock, or both. It was only when a howl from the general direction of the Willow pierced the night that he jumped up and ran up the entire lawn to the safety of the castle.

It was morning—early morning at that—and James was out of bed. Harry followed his father down the stairs once again, and down to, of all places, the lake, where he approached a boy sitting alone on the bank.

"There you are," said James, sitting down next to the boy, who recoiled slightly. "I've been looking for you for days."

"What do you want?" asked Remus, his voice shaky. The full moon must have been very recent.

"I just wanted to talk to you," said James, putting his hands up as though surrendering, "without you yelling at me to mind my own business. Is that cool?"

Remus didn't answer. James had pushed up the sleeves of his robes, and on his arm were several black bruises. "Your arm…I didn't…?"

"No," James assured him. "You can thank that stupid tree for these." James cracked a smile, but Remus did not. However, he did become visibly relaxed at these words.

"So." He said with a tone of finality. "You know."

"Yeah."

"That's too bad," said Remus sadly, looking around the grounds wistfully. "I really liked this place."
"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It's not like I can stay here now that my secret's out," said Remus. He kept his eyes fixed ahead of him, on anything but James.

"Your secret isn't out, mate," said James.

"Well, you know, which means you told Sirius, and he can't keep his mouth shut, so he probably has let slip to all of Gryffindor Tower by now and it won't be long before—"

"I didn't tell Sirius," James cut across his friend. For the first time, Remus looked at him.

"You…you didn't?"

James shrugged. "It wasn't my secret to tell." Remus continued to look at James, his expression unchanging. "And I think you need to give Sirius some more credit," James added. "He's loud, but he's not stupid."

"I don't understand," said Remus miserably. "Why don't you hate me?"

"Hate you? Because you're a werewolf?" said James incredulously. "I guess then I'll have to hate Sirius, because his family are in Slytherin, then, and Peter, because—"

"That's not the same," Remus interrupted. "You know that's not the same."

"Well, it is," said James, "because I don't care. About any of it."

"You have every right to be scared of me, and to hate me for what I am," said Remus. "You don't have to be my friend. I would understand."

"You," said James, shaking his head, "are an idiot. C'mon, I'm starving. Let's get some breakfast." He tugged on Remus' robes and pulled him up. Remus looked at him like he was crazy.

"Are you serious?"

"Shut up and let's get back inside," said James, chuckling to himself and starting up the grounds. Remus hesitated, then shook his head as well and followed.

"And I refuse to be called an idiot by someone who followed a werewolf down a dark tunnel."

And James and Remus laughed all the way up to the castle.

"Today," boomed Professor Slughorn, "we will be attempting our most difficult potion yet." He flicked his wand and the words, "Deflating Draught" appeared on the blackboard. He tapped the blackboard, and a piece of chalk began to scrawl instructions on the board. Several students squinted at them, confused.

"As you can see, it is rather complicated," said Slughorn. "So I want all of you to pair up and attempt this potion together."

Everyone in the room scrambled towards their desired partners, and set up their cauldrons. Harry was unsurprised to see James and Sirius settling at a table, with Peter and Remus at the desk next to them. Lily and her friends had paired up similarly, though Harry noticed how reluctant Alice looked to be working with Marlene.

It was almost as if Harry knew what was coming, because when James and Sirius' potion exploded, he wasn't surprised at all. The Gryffindor and Ravenclaw students screamed and hid beneath desks to avoid the half-made Deflating Draught, while Slughorn yelled at everyone to calm down and tried to restore order. When the potion had settled, James and Sirius were the only people still standing, and they were laughing like crazy.

With a sweep of his wand, Slughorn cleared up the mess.

"Detention, boys," said Slughorn simply as the students emerged from underneath the tables. "And as you two appear to be unable to safely work together, I'm assigning you new partners. Potter, you're with Evans, and Sirius, you're with Macdonald. Move. Now."

"Professor!" James and Lily both protested at once. Slughorn held up a hand.

"No 'buts.' Potter, maybe some of Evans' maturity will rub off on you."

Lily scowled, and she grudgingly made room for James at her station.

"Don't touch anything, you walking disaster," said Lily before James could open his mouth.

"You know, you sure talk to me a lot for someone who claims to be ignoring me," James snapped.

"Well you sure mess up a lot for someone who claims to be the best at everything," Lily grumbled. She consulted the instructions on the board without looking at James and carefully diced her caterpillars. "If you shut up and keep your hands off my potion, I'll let you put your name on it at the end, okay?"

James rolled his eyes. "Yes, Princess."

Lily ignored the jibe and turned her attention to her potion while James sat on a stool and stared into space. Sirius and Mary, meanwhile, were having the opposite argument in front of them.

"Aren't you going to help at all?" Mary demanded, whacking Sirius's arm. He was currently using his wand to levitate her hair, to Mary's extreme annoyance. "I can't do this thing by myself!"

"This is stupid," was all Sirius said in reply.

"I don't care what you think about it," said Mary exasperatedly, "just cut these roots for me, okay?" Sirius looked affronted. "What now?"

"You don't care what I think?" repeated Sirius in mock-pain. "I'm so insulted, I'm indisposed. In my fragile emotional state, even cutting roots has become too much—OW!"

Mary jabbed him with the wand she was using to light the fire under her cauldron.

After half an hour full of tense silence from two particular tables, the bell finally rang. As Lily and James cleared up their mess and joined their respective groups of friends, Harry could have sworn he heard them both say,

"I hate potions."

"Merlin, can you believe that essay Binns assigned us?" Sirius grumbled as he, Peter, and James traipsed up the steps to their dormitory. "As if it's not bad enough to have to sit in that class for an hour and a half..."

James and Peter laughed, pushing open the door to their room.

"Where's Remus?" asked Peter, looking around. "I thought he decided to sleep through History of Magic."

"He's sick again?" said Sirius. "How am I supposed to copy his homework when he's too busy being sick to do it in the first place?"

"Tough, mate," said James, tossing his bag on his bed.

"We should go check up on him," said Peter. "Bring him something from dinner. They never give you the good food while you're in the Hospital Wing."

"Nah," said James, trying to sound casual. "I think we'd better leave him alone. We wouldn't want to catch what he has."

Sirius and Peter seemed to see his logic and dropped the subject, but Harry thought he knew the real reason he wanted to keep Sirius and Peter away from Remus.

Harry withdrew himself from the memories. As much as he hated to tear himself away from his parents, he really had to use the bathroom. He was just washing his hands when he heard a knock at his door.

"Who is it?" he called.

"It's me," Hermione called back.

"It's open!" said Harry as he quickly tried to straighten up his apartment. He heard the door click and stood up straight as Hermione let herself in.

"What's up?" asked Harry.

"Nothing really," Hermione said, removing her coat and draping it over Harry's couch. "I was just in the neighborhood and I thought I'd drop in. I haven't seen you in a while. No one has."

Of course. This is what the visit was really about.

"If you're here to tell me not to look at the memories anymore, then you can just leave," Harry snapped.

"Harry, you don't have to get so hostile!" said Hermione. "I'm only trying to help."

"Why is everyone so determined to keep me from my parents?" he demanded.

"Harry, shut up or I'm going to put a Silencing Charm on you," said Hermione exasperatedly, whipping out her wand, and Harry, fully aware of what that wand could do, promptly shut his mouth.

"No one is trying to keep you from looking at your parents' memories," Hermione explained gently.

"They've got a funny way of—all right, all right!" Harry began to grumble, but when Hermione brandished her wand again, he stopped talking.

"As I was saying, no one wants to stop you from looking at your parents' memories. Everyone is just worried that you're getting lost in them," Hermione resumed. "And don't protest, you know it's true. You're obsessed. You disappear into them for days at a time. Everyone is worried. Ginny is just worried."

"I don't want to talk about Ginny," Harry muttered.

"You're not even allowed to talk, remember? Just listen. Ron told me about your fight, and you two are the most stubborn people I have ever met in my life. Ginny isn't trying to stop you from looking in the Pensieve. She just wants to see you, too. That's why she's worried."

Harry was beginning to feel guilt seeping through his veins. Had he really been so hotheaded to yell at Ginny over nothing?

"I guess I should talk to her," he said grudgingly.

"That sounds good," Hermione told him. She sat down on his couch and Harry followed suit. "So what are those memories like, anyways?"

"I'm watching their second year at Hogwarts right now," said Harry. He was torn between a desire to talk about all he had seen and wanting to keep it all to himself. "My dad just found out that Lupin is a werewolf."

"How did he find out?" asked Hermione curiously. Harry hesitated, and then decided it would do no harm to answer her.

"He followed him down the tunnel leading to the Shrieking Shack one night and watched him transform," said Harry. Hermione gasped, her eyes wide.

"He did not," she said in disbelief. "Lupin never mentioned that." Harry privately thought that Lupin didn't mention a lot of things, but said nothing. "He didn't get hurt, did he?"

"Not really," said Harry, "although he did get beaten up by the Whomping Willow."

He was surprising himself at how easy it was to discuss his parents' lives with his friends. He thought he wanted to keep it all to himself, but he reminded herself that Hermione knew Lupin, Sirius, Snape, and Peter, too, and wondered about their pasts.

"How's your mom?" Hermione wanted to know.

"Fine," said Harry. "She reminds me a bit of you, actually. She takes her studies so seriously. And she's a bit like Ginny, too. She has a temper." Hermione laughed.

"Too true," she agreed. "How are your parents getting along?"

Harry hesitated again. He had never told any of his friends about the scene he saw in the Pensieve, back in their fifth year. None of his friends had any idea that his parents once hated each other with a passion, and he didn't feel comfortable disclosing that information quite yet.

"Fine," he said vaguely. "I mean, they're twelve, so not much is going on, but they're good."

"It must be so fascinating," gushed Hermione. "I wish I could watch my parent's childhood. Although, I'm sure it wouldn't be as interesting, seeing as they ended up as dentists." Harry laughed at that.

"So are you going to talk to Ginny?" Hermione asked, changing the subject abruptly, and Harry sighed.

"Yeah," he said, sounding resigned. "Yeah, I'll go over there tomorrow."

"Good," said Hermione, smiling.

Hermione ended up staying for dinner. She was right, Harry had to admit; it really had been a long time since he had seen his friends, and he missed them. No matter how enticing his parents were, he knew he could never interact with them, and nothing could compare to dinner with old friends. Not even his father's memory.

A/N: THANK YOU for all of your wonderful reviews! Please, please, please tell me what you think of this chapter. Reviews keep me motivated :] I miss all of you! Thank you to FallingForFootie, starlessnight777, summersrain, and jessluvsharry! Y'all are amazin! Also, check out my new story, "The Muggle-Born Protection Act." It's another L/J story, and I think you will enjoy it. Anyways, I hope you all have a very happy holiday season, and I'll be back with another update soon!

-Dem