The common room was too crowded for anyone to send a second glance at Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew, who were dancing and jumping around like lunatics, having the time of their lives.

   Every thirty minutes, Diana would take out the Polyjuice potion'a flask from inside her robe, taking a sip of it as Remus had told her to. She wanted to make sure that she would look like Peter for the whole night, because she was having too much fun to leave.

If she forgot to take the potion and transformed back to herself, the Gryffindors would certainly kick her out of the common room; not only because she was a Slytherin, but because she was a Beater in the Slytherin Quidditch team.

     "You sure you don't want to kiss me?" Diana asked Remus jokingly, her voice muffled against the loud music as she made a kissy face at him.

     "Pretty sure." Remus nodded, chuckling as he looked back at Peter Pettigrew's figure, dancing in front of him.

     "Tsk tsk." Diana shook her head at him playfully. "And here I was, thinking that you liked me because of my personality rather than my looks."

     He laughed. "Now that's not entirely true."

     Diana opened her mouth to reply, but she suddenly halted, her face crumbling and her eyebrows furrowing. "Uh oh..."

     "What is it?" Remus asked worriedly. He stopped dancing, walking closer to her with concern. "Is the potion's effect wearing off?"

     Diana groaned, knowing that she was doomed. "Worse."

     "Then what?"

     "I have to pee!"

     Remus threw his head back and laughed. "So? You can use the bathroom in our dorm. Don't worry."

     "No. You don't get it." Diana shook her head fervently, moving closer to him so only he could hear her. "You do realize that in order to pee, I have to pull my pants down, right? And not my pants. Peter's pants!"

     Remus's face fell when the realization hit him. "Oh..."

     "Exactly!" Diana huffed in frustration. "What the hell am I supposed to do now?"

     "W-well, can't you just hold it for another hour until you transform back to yourself?"

     "I can't! I've had too much Butterbeer!" She face-palmed in misery. "I wasn't expecting that I would be spending the night at the party, talking to my boyfriend about my peeing problems."

      "I mean, it's mostly my fault for talking you into taking the Potion," said Remus, laughing. "And for giving you the Butterbeer."

      "Your fault or not, that still doesn't give me a solution, Lupin! Don't you have an antidote for the Potion, or anything?"

"Not really." Remus rubbed his forehead, trying to come up with a solution, but he couldn't think of anything. "I guess you just have to close your eyes while... doing it."

"Wow, thank you for the great advice!" Diana said sarcastically, scoffing. He chuckled in return.

Having no other choice, Diana went up Remus's dorm and dreadfully walked into the bathroom, mumbling every curse word she knew under her breath, which were quite a lot.

"Don't forget to aim!" Remus's voice rang from behind the door, and she could hear him sniggering.

"Oh, shut up, Lupin!" Diana yelled back at him, trying to get this horrible experience over with as soon as possible.

After leaving the bathroom with a grimace on her face, Diana saw that Remus was still in the dorm, obviously trying hard to suppress his grin when he caught her eyes.

"Don't you dare say a word," she told him darkly, glaring daggers at his direction. But that was enough for Remus to burst out in laughter. "It's not funny!" Diana yelled.

"I know, I know!" he said between roars of laughter, holding his stomach that had begun to ache.

"Then why are you still laughing, you arse!" she bellowed, but that only made him laugh harder.

He couldn't stand on his feet anymore and collapsed to the floor, laughing harder than ever before. Diana didn't want to give in, but it didn't take long for her to crack a little grin, and then joined his laughter in the end.

***

The rest of the year went by quickly, passed with late night studying at the library and waking up early for more classes. Diana was relieved when the finale exams came to an end, even though she knew she hadn't received full marks on them.

Regulus had been more stressed than Layla and Diana near the end of the year, seeing as he had his O.W.Ls in his fifth year. But he was a smart boy, and Diana reassured him that he had certainly done well in his exams. Although that didn't make him feel any better.

"We have our N.E.W.Ts next year," Layla said as the three of them sat in their compartment on the Hogwarts Express, on their way back to King's Cross station.

"I can't believe next year is going to be our last one at Hogwarts," Diana muttered, her gaze fixed outside the train's window, watching the trees and rivers swish past their sight. "It went by so quickly, didn't it?"

"Yeah, it all went by fast. Well, other than Professor Binn's class," Layla joked and Diana sneered, but when she saw that Regulus didn't even spare a little smile, she turned to look at him.

The boy had his head leaned against the window, staring outside absently. He had been awfully quiet throughout the whole train ride, and hadn't uttered a single one word for the past hour now. There was something on his mind and it was certainly troubling him.

"You okay, Reg?" Diana asked, trying to catch his attention.

Snapping out of his thoughts, Regulus looked up at the two girls, realizing that they were both staring at him worriedly. So he just gave a small shrug of his shoulder, saying, "I'm fine."

"Are you sure?" said Layla.

"Yes, I said I'm fine!" Regulus snapped back at her, catching them off guard. The next moment, his face fell in guilt, but he didn't apologize. He merely turned his eyes back on the window, losing himself in his thoughts once more.

Diana and Layla shared a knowing glance in silence, both of them wondering what had gotten into him. Perhaps he was still upset over his O.W.Ls, because throughout the last week he kept saying how he hadn't done as good as he wanted in the examinations.

Not wanting to bother him any further, Diana and Layla decided not to disturb him for the rest of the train ride and talked only to each other, leaving him out of it. But even when the train at last slowed down to a halt in Platform nine-and-three-quarters, Regulus mumbled a cold goodbye to them before getting his trunk and leaving the train without another word.

"What has gotten into him lately?" Layla mused as she and Diana walked down the train's corridor along with other students.

"Maybe he's got into another fight with Sirius?" Diana suggested unsurely. She might not have shown it, but she was starting to feel really worried about Regulus.

"Dunno. But whatever it is, it's been bothering him for a few days now," said Layla, walking down onto the platform. "Well, this is it." She sighed, looking back at Diana with a little grin. "I'll see you after the break, little brother."

"I'll see you then," said Diana, chuckling as she leaned in to bring her friend into a hug, before waving her goodbye.

She watched as Layla pushed her trolley forward and disappeared through the red brick wall, getting herself to the Muggle side of King's Cross station. Although Diana wanted to wait a little longer before leaving, so she could say goodbye to Remus.

      When she saw him walking out of the train along with James, Sirius, and Peter, Diana waved at him to catch his attention. Remus gave her a weary smile when he caught her eyes from afar, and then hugged his friends goodbye before walking toward her direction.

     From the dark bags under his eyes and his pale skin, Diana could tell that the full moon which was going to take place tomorrow night was going to be a rough one.

      Remus came to her with a tired smile planted on his face. "I'm going to miss you."

"Me too. But I promise to write to you often," said Diana, bringing him into a tight hug. But when he flinched in pain, she pulled back quickly.

"Sorry. It's a full moon tomorrow night," he apologized, talking in a quiet tone. "Everything hurts at this point."

"I understand." She nodded awkwardly, pursing her lips together. "So should we get going? Our parents must be waiting on the other side."

"Yeah, all right." He nodded, weakly pushing his trolley forward after Diana, running toward the brick wall and appearing on the other side of the station the next moment.

The two of them moved past the wall and through the crowded station, looking around for their parents.

"There's my mum and dad," said Remus, spotting them from afar.

Diana sighted her mother right at that moment as well, and began to walk toward her. But before she could even take another step, Remus stopped her by grabbing onto her hand, holding her back.

"Are you really going to leave without even a little goodbye-kiss?" he said in a playful tone, grinning goofily.

Diana felt all color drain from her face as she looked up at him, and then glanced behind her shoulder at where her mother stood. Mrs. Greengrass hadn't yet spotted her daughter, and Diana was worried of her reaction if she saw her with Remus.

"I — Remus, my mother is here," she whispered to him worriedly, trying to pull her hand out of his grasp. But her heart clenched like a fist when she felt his grip on her tighten.

"So?" He frowned.

"You know how my family is," Diana fumbled with the words, throwing another glance at her mother. And to her fear, she caught her mother's eyes.

"Oh... I see..." Remus muttered coldly, dropping her hand. "You don't want your mother to see us together."

"Look, don't take this the wrong way —"

"And what way is that?" Remus snapped, causing a few people standing close to them to turn around. He never had a control on his emotions or his temper near the full moon, as if it was the beast within him who took control.

"Remus, please d—"

"You know what's funny?" he went on, his tone cold and harsh. "You were mad at me for not telling my friends about you, and yet here you are, too ashamed to even be seen with me! What is it? Am I too poor for you? Is my family not noble enough? Or is it because of who I am?"

"This is different!" Diana tried to explain desperately, keeping her voice down so at least her mother couldn't hear them. "You don't understand what it's like. If my mother finds out —"

"Diana? What is going on here?" Diana turned around in fear at her mother's familiar voice. The tall woman stood behind them, glaring at Remus's direction with disgust. "Is this boy bothering you?"

Diana didn't even look at her mother. Her eyes were locked with Remus's, as if silently begging him to understand. But it pained her heart that he looked back at her with nothing but coldness and disappointment in his eyes.

"Apparently I was," Remus said tonelessly. "But don't worry. I won't bother her anymore. "

And so, tearing his eyes away from Diana, Remus turned around and walked off, leaving her heart in pain.