"I'll give you two Galleons if you strip naked and jump into the lake."

James looked over at Sirius, his eyebrows rising as he ruffled up his already wild hair. The other boy just grinned at him, a mischievous glint in his grey eyes.

"Make it five and you have yourself a deal," James said, waiting as Sirius cocked his head, clearly deliberating his offer.

Before Sirius could even open his mouth to speak, Remus murmured, "Don't even think about it, you two."

Sirius looked to his sandy-haired friend, pouting as he whined, "But Remus..."

Remus just shook his head, his eyes never once leaving the book he was reading, and Sirius huffed.

"C'mon, Moony, it'll be brilliant," James said, already tugging at his tie. Peter nodded enthusiastically, watching James with shining eyes. "And I know you'd give anything to see me in my skivvies."

He gave Remus a roguish wink as Sirius laughed. Their sensible friend finally looked up from his book, his green eyes narrowed.

"I'd rather see a naked house-elf dancing in front of me than witness anything you have to offer, Prongs," he said coolly, and James pressed a hand over his heart as Peter giggled.

"You wound me, Remus!" he cried, falling back on the grass and giving a mock-writhe of pain. "Oh, how will I ever go on after this devastating blow?"

"Shut it, James," Remus said, though a smile twitched at his lips all the same. "You're being too dramatic; the fourth years are staring again."

James sat up and looked in the direction indicated by his friend, seeing a gaggle of fourth-year Hufflepuff girls casting surreptitious glances at the boys sitting beneath the beech tree near the lake, and they immediately squealed and started whispering when James gave them a jaunty wave.

Sirius snorted. "Careful, Prongs. Soon you'll have a fan club if you keep that up."

James shrugged, wholly unruffled as he messed with his hair again.

"I wouldn't mind a fan club," he said thoughtfully, before turning to Sirius with a suggestive grin. "As long as you're my number one fan, Pads."

Sirius batted his eyelashes, pretending to swoon. "I thought you'd never ask, darling."

They both leaned in, making as if to snog, before Remus's exasperated yet clearly amused voice broke them apart. "Oi, get a room! Some of us are trying to concentrate here."

"It's the weekend, Moony," James moaned, flopping back on the grass and putting an arm behind his head. "What are you possibly trying to concentrate on?"

"Slughorn mentioned something about starting a lesson on Sleeping Potions next class, and seeing as I'm going to be out of commission..." He trailed off, and the boys all exchanged a look at the unspoken bit. Monday was the full moon, which meant it was time for Remus's "furry little problem," as James put it.

"Don't worry, mate, we'll take good notes for you," Sirius said, flicking the cover of Remus's Potions book and causing the other boy to roll his eyes.

"The day I let you lot take notes for me is the day Hell freezes over."

"I resent that remark." Sirius sniffed. "I work hard for my grades, thank you very much, and you should be grateful that I am offering my services."

"No, you don't," Peter pointed out. Sirius turned on him, affronted, but the blond boy just shrugged his shoulders. "You breeze through lessons like they're nothing, you and James both; it's incredible, really, how you're both so smart, yet you never really do anything."

Remus snorted. "Don't encourage them, Pete."

Sirius looked to the mousy boy, who had gone back to staring out at the lake and pulling tufts of grass out of the ground. "I don't know whether I should be flattered or offended."

"Take it as a compliment," James suggested, "just like everything else."

"Good point," Sirius agreed, letting his eyes wander over the grounds before he saw something that made him punch James's leg. "Oi, Prongs, look who it is."

"Snivellus?" James sat up immediately, adjusting his glasses when they slipped off his nose and looking around eagerly, but Sirius shook his head.

"Better, for you," he said, pointing. "It's Evans."

James sat up even straighter, his lanky form easily peering across the grounds to see a flash of bright red hair that was indeed Lily Evans, walking with Marlene McKinnon as the two went for a stroll around the lake.

James sighed, his gaze following the girl wistfully, and Sirius rolled his eyes at the lovesick expression on his best mate's face.

"D'you think she'll try and hex me if I go talk to her?" he asked, and the three Marauders responded "Yes" in unison almost instantaneously. "Alas, another time, then." He sighed again. "I'd rather not get hit by a Tickling Curse today."

He took another look around the grounds, mussing up his hair even more, before gesturing with his chin at some point over Sirius's shoulder.

"Hey, there's that Cassie Alderfair girl," he said. They all turned to see the dark-haired witch who'd been the center of gossip the past few years walking across the grounds with Alice Fortescue, heading for the spot where Evans and McKinnon had sat on the shore.

"She's also the girl I had to apologize to on your behalf after that stunt in History of Magic," Remus said, raising a pointed eyebrow that James waved off.

"It was just a bit of fun. No need for her to get her knickers in a twist," he said, and Remus frowned disapprovingly. "She's a feisty one, though, eh? Calling out Professor Carlisle like that in front of the whole class."

"I thought it was good for her to stand up for her brother like that," Remus said. "A teacher should know better than to discuss things that personal in front of other students."

"Remus John Lupin, riding to the rescue of another damsel in distress," James teased. Remus scowled. "C'mon, Moony, I saw you two working together yesterday; you looked like you were enjoying it too."

"Come off it, James." Remus snorted. "I was trying to be nice after your prank."

"D'you reckon her brother really is a Death Eater?" Peter broke in, staring after the Gryffindor girl with wide eyes.

James shrugged. "Dunno," he said, scratching the back of his neck. "He was our Quidditch Captain for two years, and I thought he was a pretty decent bloke – quiet, kind of moody, but still nice enough."

"He is a Death Eater," Sirius suddenly said, also staring hard at the girl as she sat down with her friends. He felt the others' eyes all turn to him.

"How do you know?" Peter asked breathlessly.

Sirius scowled. "My family had her parents over for dinner sometime this summer. I was trying to sneak some food up to my room to avoid them all, but I heard them talking about it: You-Know-Who, pure-blood ideology, all that rubbish. They were practically boasting about their son's contributions to 'the cause.'"

They all exchanged a dark look at this, before turning to stare at Cassie Alderfair, who was now wading along the shore of the lake as the other girls stripped off their shoes and rolled their pants to join her in the shallow water.

"What about her?" Peter whispered, and they didn't need his pointing finger to know who he was talking about. "Is she one of them?"

"Don't be ridiculous, Wormtail," Remus said, his voice uncharacteristically harsh, and they all turned to him with raised brows as Peter flushed. "She's too young; why would You-Know-Who want a fifteen-year-old Death Eater?"

"Right," Peter said, nodding meekly. "That would be stupid."

There was an uncomfortable moment of silence before it was broken by James.

"Anyway," he said, clearing his throat. "We should start preparing for Monday..."

Sirius tuned out their change in discussion, his eyes still focused on the girl in the lake. He flashed back to that morning on the train, when he'd helped her load her luggage into a compartment. He hadn't even realized who she was until she'd pointed out that they were in the same year, and the same House, and he'd suddenly remembered her from the year before, after the rumor about her brother had taken hold of the student body like wildfire.

In the past few years, it was not unusual for a graduate of Hogwarts to go off and work to spread the pure-blood ideology that was slowly coming to the forefront of the wizarding community again. William Alderfair must have been a right shock, however, as he thought back to Professor Carlisle's description of him: a Gryffindor, Head Boy, and Quidditch Captain, along with being one of the top students? It was wrong of him, but he had to agree with the professor; William Alderfair had given up everything to follow the beliefs of a madman that his own family supported, and the thought disgusted him.

He looked back to Alderfair's sister and watched her splash water at her friends, her long hair flying and her face split into a wide smile, and he suddenly had trouble believing that she could end up as rotten as her brother. But then again, he could be wrong.

Tearing his eyes away from Cassie Alderfair, he rejoined the Marauders' conversation and tried to push all thoughts of mysterious girls and Death Eaters from his mind.

Monday morning dawned overcast and chilly, and Cassie made her way down to the Great Hall for breakfast, her arms wrapped around herself in an attempt to stave off the draftiness of the castle. Fortunately, the Hall beckoned her with its warmth, and she entered gratefully, dropping her hands back to her sides as she took her customary seat with Alice, Lily, and Marlene.

"G'morning, Cassie," Lily said, taking a careful sip from her tea as she skimmed through the pages of that morning's Daily Prophet.

"Morning," Cassie said, already too focused on filling her plate with eggs and bacon to offer more than a short greeting.

"Anything interesting going on?" Alice asked, gesturing to the newspaper, and Lily frowned.

"Nothing, really," she said, before pausing and tapping on an article crammed at the bottom of the third page. "Wait, here's something..."

She scanned the article quickly while the other girls waited, before she finally sighed and lifted her head.

"There's been another attack on a Muggle-born family," she said. Cassie saw her eyes flicker over to her for a brief second as she stopped chewing, her throat growing tight. "They don't know who did it, but they suspect Death Eaters are behind it."

Cassie swallowed with difficulty, keeping her head down as her friends looked to her in concern. They'd been exceedingly careful about keeping away from the topic of Death Eaters whenever they were in her presence; and though they'd never once questioned her loyalty or her friendship, this walking-on-eggshells business around her grated her nerves.

"Why would something like that be on the third page, though?" Marlene asked, shaking her head. "Something like this needs to be on the front, to at least caution other Muggle-born families to be on their guard."

"Because the Ministry doesn't want to scare everyone," Cassie said bitterly, taking a sharp stab at her eggs. "They want to pretend like everything is fine, and they have it under control, when they don't. The attacks are going to keep happening, more frequently, and they're going to be running around like chickens with their heads cut off while You-Know-Who keeps getting more and more powerful."

Silence met her dark prediction, and she glanced up to see the three girls looking at her with varying expressions of worry and discomfort.

Cassie sighed, shaking her head, her sudden vehemence retreating as quickly as it had come. "Never mind, forget I said that. I didn't mean to get so carried away."

Alice put a comforting hand on her shoulder, smiling gently. "It's fine, Cass," she said. "I think it's good that you're not trying to sweep this under the rug, like my family is doing."

Marlene nodded in agreement, and Lily looked at her with sympathetic emerald eyes.

Cassie gave them a tiny smile, suddenly feeling a rush of emotion as she said, "Thank you. Really. That...actually means a lot to me."

They all smiled and nodded encouragingly, but the moment was interrupted when a voice from behind her said, "Er, Cassiopeia Alderfair?"

Cassie turned, seeing a brown-haired boy who looked like a second-year standing behind her nervously, holding out a roll of parchment to her.

"Oh, thanks," she said, and the boy nodded before scurrying off, the tips of his ears red. She looked down at the sealed scroll apprehensively.

"What is it?" Alice asked, and Cassie shrugged, unrolling the parchment and immediately letting out a groan.

"Detention with Binns, eight o'clock," she said, letting the parchment fall to the table as she buried her head in her arms. "My parents are going to kill me!"

"No, they won't," Lily said firmly. "McGonagall's not going to write your parents over something as minor as a quill being thrown."

"They always know," Cassie moaned, her thoughts flipping through all the possibilities of what her parents might do if they found out about her first detention. "I'm a dead woman walking."

"Nonsense," Lily chastised. "Just do the detention, and make sure it never happens again. You'll be fine."

Cassie answered in lieu of a groan, keeping her head down until Alice informed her that classes were starting in ten minutes and that she couldn't stay there all morning.

Conceding this point, Cassie stood up and departed the Great Hall with her three friends, oblivious to the curious and borderline suspicious looks she was receiving from the Marauders.

xx

Later that night, Cassie bid good-bye to her friends and exited their dormitory, heading off to her very first detention she had ever received at Hogwarts.

Despite knowing the general punishments one had to do in detention, she still felt nervous as she descended the winding staircase and entered the common room, where her Housemates were returning from a late dinner or chatting idly by the fireplace.

She passed a group of sixth-year boys playing a very loud game of Exploding Snap, but paused on her way to the portrait hole when she heard someone call her name.

Turning around, she saw Remus Lupin waving to her. She frowned, looking over her shoulder to see if she was mistaken and he was in fact acknowledging someone else. But no, it had to be her, as there was no one else behind her. She made her way over to him cautiously, where he was sitting amongst the other three Marauders in a secluded corner.

"Hullo, Cassie," he said politely, giving her a smile that looked quite forced; though upon closer inspection, she realized that he might be ill, his skin pale and his eyes shadowed with dark circles.

"Er, hello...Remus," she said, testing out his first name on her tongue and finding it very strange. She kept her eyes focused on him, refusing to look at any of the other Marauders, though she could feel their intense gazes upon her.

"Want to take a seat?" he asked. He pulled another armchair closer and scooted over so he could add it to their circle, and Cassie stared, gobsmacked by the sudden invitation. Her immediate thought was that this was a prank; it had to be, right? She'd never spoken to any of them before this week, and now here she was, being asked if she wanted to sit with them. (Granted, it was only Remus who had asked her, but still.)

"Um, I'd love to, but, er...I'm actually supposed to go meet Binns for a detention soon." She couldn't help glancing over to Potter at this, and he grimaced when Remus gave him a pointed look.

"No worries," the sandy-haired boy said coolly, pushing the chair back to its original place as she shuffled her feet awkwardly. "Have fun in detention, then."

His eyes glittered good-naturedly as he said it, and Cassie resisted the urge to turn and flee, instead giving him a slight nod.

"I'm sure Binns will be a hoot, as ever," she said, smiling tightly when he chuckled. She noticed Pettigrew's mouth twitch as he looked at her before his watery eyes darted away quickly upon her observation. "But thanks for the offer. Maybe another time?"

Her voice rose at the end, turning the statement into a question, and she cringed at how uncertain she sounded. But if Lupin noticed, he gave no sign of it.

"'Course," he said, giving her another lopsided grin like he had when he asked her to work with him on their hag essay.

Realizing she was standing there like an idiot with nothing else to say, she finally nodded and said, "Right, then. Er...see you later."

"See you, Cassie," he replied, sending her off with a wave as she turned and made for the portrait hole, trying not to walk too quickly.

She clambered out into the corridor, hoisting her bag higher upon her shoulder as she made her way down to Professor Binns's stuffy classroom, her face hot. Her mind was reeling at what had just happened, debating on whether she had hallucinated the whole thing or not.

What had Remus Lupin wanted with her? It was one thing partnering up for a class, but to be invited into the Marauders' inner circle was something else entirely. It was baffling, and the only conclusion that she could come to was that he had definitely been setting her up for a prank, or some other form of humiliation. After all, she was Cassie Alderfair: the Invisible Girl with a Death Eater for a brother. She was nothing to them, just another victim in their arrogant, infantile ways.

Gritting her teeth, she marched the rest of the way to Binns's classroom, vowing to herself that she would never get involved with the Marauders – only if they didn't mess with her first.

xx

"What the bloody hell was that, Moony?" Sirius hissed as soon as Cassie Alderfair was out of earshot. He turned on his friend with an incredulous expression.

"I second that," James said, looking utterly bewildered at what had just happened. "Seriously, what did you call her over here for?"

Remus shrugged, looking wholly unconcerned at his friends' bafflement.

"Well, since you were so keen on talking about her this weekend, I thought she should be able to join in on the discussion," he said, and the other three exchanged a stupefied glance.

"We talked about her once," James pointed out. "Hardly enough to justify 'getting to know her,' or whatever scheme you had planned."

He suddenly paused, his hazel eyes narrowing as he scrutinized Remus, before a huge grin began spreading across his face, causing the other three to eye their friend warily.

"But that's exactly it, isn't it?" he said, looking as if he had just found a sack full of Galleons lying in the street. "Of course you'd want to get to know her, Moony; you fancy her!"

"What? No!" Remus objected, his face and neck immediately flushing red as James cackled, Peter watching on with a gleeful expression.

"Who knew the day would come so soon!" James crowed, his voice rising so those nearest them were beginning to look over in interest as Remus slid lower in his seat, glaring at James vehemently as he went on. "Our little Moony, growing up and finally seeking out the wonders of love!"

"Shove off, James," he snapped. "I don't fancy her."

"Then why did you ask her to sit with us?" Peter asked eagerly, nearly bouncing in his seat with excitement.

"It's called being a decent and polite person, something you clearly know nothing about," he said hotly, and Sirius broke in before James pushed too far and ended up with a broken nose and a black eye – again.

"Back off, you lot," he said sternly, fixing them with his signature Black-glare that was guaranteed to make them stop acting like gits. He knew the subject of girls was a tricky matter for Remus, and with tonight being the full moon, his agitation would be quicker to ignite than normal, something James and Peter finally seemed to get as their grins faded.

"Right you are, Padfoot," James said seriously. "Sorry about that, Remus."

"Sorry," Peter squeaked, but Remus just waved them off.

"It's fine," he said, rubbing his eyes. "The common room's starting to clear out; we should get ready soon."

They all nodded, and Peter and James started for their dormitory upstairs, but Sirius put a hand on Remus's shoulder to keep him from following immediately.

"Hey," he said. Remus turned back to face him, his scars standing out whiter than usual, and Sirius saw the glint of gold in the back of his green eyes that alerted him to the stirring creature inside his friend. "You all right?"

"Yeah, good," he said, looking away awkwardly. Sirius studied him carefully, hesitating only a little before speaking again.

"This Alderfair girl..." he said slowly, watching Remus's face slip into a scowl, but he held up a hand before he could say anything, only wanting to help his friend. "Do you really fancy her?"

"Look, Pads, she's a nice girl, but I don't really know her at all." He shook his head irritably. "And what with my condition..."

Sirius nodded, patting his shoulder. "I understand," he said. "Don't worry about it, Moony. They're just being prats. They'll start talking about James's love life – or lack thereof – again in no time."

Remus cracked a smile at this, and Sirius pulled his friend close as they headed up the stairs together, the dark-haired boy already itching to get this night started.

xx

Cassie thought detention would never end.

It was only supposed to be two hours of copying lines, but from the way her eyes were blurring and her hand was cramping, it felt like she had been in there for eternity.

Maybe this is how Binns feels all the time, she thought as her fingers twitched painfully along her quill. Trapped in this one classroom, doomed to put up with students for the rest of his immortal life...I'd be bitter too if I got stuck with this job forever.

When the clock hands signaled that it was ten o'clock, Binns finally looked up from grading a stack of papers and waved her over to his desk. Her hand muscles weeping in relief, she stood up and walked over to him, handing over a foot and a half of parchment that read I will not throw things in the classroom like I am a Neanderthal nearly a hundred times over.

He read over the lines silently, before nodding his ghostly head once and setting it aside.

"I hope you have learned your lesson thoroughly, Miss Angford?" he said in his monotone. Cassie nodded quickly, anxious to leave and get started on the homework she still had to do to ensure she got some sleep that night. "You may leave, then," he said, his expression as melancholy as ever, and Cassie thanked him before bidding him goodnight and bolting out of the classroom.

She made her way back to Gryffindor Tower quickly, keeping her eyes and ears out for the heinous caretaker, Filch, or his demon-spawned cat, Mrs. Norris. She figured she probably wouldn't be in too much trouble if she was caught outside of her common room, considering she actually had a valid reason to be out, but she wanted to avoid a confrontation with the despicable man and his unnatural cat, all the same.

She came to a stop before the portrait of the Fat Lady, who started out of a doze when she heard Cassie approach.

"What are you doing out so late, dear?" she uttered sleepily.

"Detention," Cassie said, grimacing.

The Fat Lady nodded understandingly. "Password?"

"Doxy," she said, and the Fat Lady nodded again, yawning.

"Nasty little things," she said as the portrait swung open. "Tried to eat my frame once."

Cassie chose not to comment, climbing in through the hole and emerging into the Gryffindor Common Room, where she promptly dumped out her bag on the nearest desk and sat down, sighing at the amount of homework she had.

Picking her star chart for Astronomy out of the mess of papers she had, she started filling it out, her eyelids drooping the longer she worked. The fire was still going, casting an orange glow on her paper as she scribbled the names of stars and what constellations they belonged to, the warmth lulling her into a state of contentment as her eyes drifted shut...

She jerked awake to the sound of whispering voices, her cheek pressed firmly into her star chart and her mouth hanging open. For a moment she thought she'd dreamed the voices until they sounded again, coming from the staircases that led up to the dormitories.

She sat up, ripping the star chart from her face when it stuck and rubbing at her skin, yawning as she looked around the common room.

The fire was little more than glowing embers at this point, and shadows played across the walls from the bright moonlight streaming in through the high windows of the tower. Cassie stayed seated, not really wanting to have an awkward encounter with some couple sneaking out of their dormitories to snog in the moonlight, and so remained where she was, hidden in the shadows as the voices came closer.

"Wormtail, hurry up!" one of them said. Cassie's brows furrowed, knowing she'd heard that voice somewhere before...

"Coming!" a high, breathy tone responded, and her eyes widened when she recognized the adoring voice of Peter Pettigrew as rapid footsteps came down the staircase of the boys' dormitories, which meant that the other voice was definitely Potter's.

Cassie peeked her head around the corner, indeed seeing James Potter standing at the foot of the stairs impatiently with Sirius Black, who leaned against the wall with a bored expression, though she could tell he was waiting as much as Potter was, if his tapping foot was anything to go by.

Pettigrew padded down the stairs then, and Potter jerked his head toward the portrait hole.

"C'mon, then," he said. "Moony's waiting for us."

Cassie watched the three of them disappear into the portrait hole, utterly confused by what she had just witnessed as she was once again left alone in the dim light of the common room.

Glancing at the clock resting on a table nearby, she saw that it was just before midnight. She frowned, wondering what the Marauders were doing, and why Remus wasn't with them. Then she remembered the note Potter had thrown at him that one day in Defense, and the word 'Moony' scrawled across the front, and his reference just now: "Moony's waiting for us." Maybe Moony was some sort of stupid nickname they had made up for him. She didn't understand why it was 'Moony' of all things, though. And what had Potter called Pettigrew? Wormtail?

Cassie shook her head; nothing was making sense. This had to be a dream, or some sort of half-conscious delusion, but she wasn't too keen on finding out which it was, either.

Yawning widely, she packed away her things and vowed to finish her star chart at breakfast in the morning before taking her bag and hauling herself up the stairs to her dormitory.

She pulled off her robes and changed into a set of nightclothes, being careful not to disturb her sleeping friends as she climbed into her bed. She looked out the window next to her four-poster before settling in for the night, and through the shifting clouds, she could see a very bright full moon illuminating the night sky.

In fact, if she had shifted her head only a few more inches to the left that night, she might have seen three shadowy figures stealing their way across the grounds before disappearing under the cover of a cloud hiding away the moon.