Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

A/N: Oh. My. God. An actual update! After 3 months and 9 days of silence! I'm just as shocked as you are. Thanks so much to my first and only reviewer, 17 Hope - you're amazing. I just wish there were more of you :( I might update faster if more of you reviewed, you know... *hint hint*

Anyway, enough of my ramblings! I hope you'll enjoy this chapter!

30 September, 1993

The rat crept along the corridor, wondering what exactly was wrong with him. He had a dangerous murderer out for his blood – no, that wasn't correct, it was Peter who had murdered all those people – and an evil cat set on assisting his vengeance, and yet for some reason he was prowling the corridors at a long time past curfew, looking for someone who thought he was dead.

There's nothing to worry about, he told himself. I'm not a student hidden under James's Cloak anymore – no. Stop. James was one of the things that didn't get thought about. So was Sirius, until he had escaped, and Remus, until Peter had found that he was teaching in this school.

He found his way to the DADA office without much problem; the number of times he had been dragged there over the years… For a moment he allowed himself to reminisce, before slipping under the crack between the door and the floor. He had been losing so much weight recently that it was not hard.

Now came the hard part. He had to be careful, now: stealthy and silent and rat-like. He had to go unnoticed. He walked slowly, his grey fur blending in with the wall behind him, and breathed a sigh of relief once he had reached the safety beneath Remus's desk.

When the wolf walked in from the bedroom, Peter had to fight hard to suppress a gasp. He had only ever seen it snarling with rage and the desire for blood, teeth bared menacingly. Now it walked with the quick lightness that Peter recognised from its other body; its breathing was slow and peaceful and its eyes were Remus's distinctive golden-brown, rather than a feral yellow.

This was Remus, no doubt about it.

Peter's heart was laced with the fear of discovery, but at the same time it was singing with joy. At last Remus had what he needed so badly: a chance to be himself in the wolf's body. A chance to go a month without ripping himself to shreds.

The wolf curled up in a corner of the room, breathing steadily. When it raised its head, it was wearing a pensive, slightly sad look that Remus had worn too many times when they were schoolboys. Peter remembered the brief glimpse he had had of Remus on the train – he was old, and tired, and completely different from the boy with the smile that lit up his whole face. And at the same time, exactly the same.

Peter didn't regret, most of the time.

He had at first, perhaps. He regretted betraying James and his family and putting Sirius in prison: but Harry was healthy, happy and normal, and Sirius didn't deserve anything else. They had not been treated unfairly. But even after twelve years the thought of hurting Remus still weighed heavily on him.

"Don't hurt him, Peter," James had said once, in one of his rare introspective moods. "Remus… he's fragile."

There was another broken promise to add to his ever-growing list, then.

He gave a tiny sigh and the wolf's ears pricked up. Peter stiffened, shrinking back into the shadows as Remus's gaze turned towards his corner. He tilted his head to one side in the way Peter remembered he did when he was curious, sniffing the air warily.

Peter tried very hard not to panic. Wolves, after all, could smell fear.

After a moment, Remus rested his head on his paws again and laid his ears flat against his head. He looked disturbingly sweet and harmless; Peter found himself reminded of a puppy, or perhaps Sirius in his dog form when his fur was clean. He couldn't even bring himself to be afraid anymore. Not when he could see his friend's eyes still gleaming with excitement and the way he wagged – actually wagged – his tail in slow, sweeping thumps against the floor.

After a while Remus began to twitch. At first, Peter assumed that he had caught his scent again and looked frantically around for an escape route, before he caught sight of the full moon outside the office window. It had sunk almost to the horizon.

As Remus's shudders became more vigorous, he stumbled to his paws and made his way over to the door leading to his bedroom again. From inside Peter could hear tiny whimpers of discomfort, which slowly changed into human moans. At last the rat's keen ears picked up the softer, more ragged breath of Remus's human form, and when he checked the sky it was devoid of any moonlight.

Normally, after a transformation Remus would be in too much pain to even consider moving for a few hours, but tonight he had not spent the hours of moonlight tearing himself to pieces. Peter knew that he had to leave the office now, or risk getting caught.

He scurried out of the shadows, slipping under the door again and pressing himself against the corridor wall. Once he was sure that nobody was there, he began the long walk back to the third-year boys' dormitory.

Passing by a window, he caught sight of a star still glittering bravely against the rose-gold dawn. Holding his breath, he walked as close to it as he could get without actually bumping into the wall, trying to pour all his regret and sorrow onto the tiny, twinkling light above him.

I wish I was brave enough to show myself.

A/N: So, as begging for reviews hasn't really got me very far with regards to this story, I'm going to start a competition! Isn't that fun? Basically, every chapter I will post a hint as to the identity of the next wisher. Every reviewer who guesses the wisher correctly will get virtual chocolate fudge cake, because it's amazing.

So, our next wisher is a member of the Order of the Phoenix. Who could it be? Please don't forget to review the chapter as well, and have fun guessing!

~Butterfly