Salamander || The Marauders

X. | D E C E M |

The middle of the night was usually Rita's happy time. With the sun having done its days work and retreated for rest, the moon came out to shine. In Rita's point of view, everything of importance happened in the day, and everything sorted itself out during the night.

Which was why, even during the unrest, she enjoyed the nights off, with the moon waning, when she could run in the forest, free from her responsibilities, free from Remus and James and Lily and their prefect duties.

"What exactly do you think you're doing out here?" the wolf stopped by the shore, seeing a familiar face. "Miss me?" the animal let out a playful yip before running over to Sirius, sweeping his legs from underneath him and as he fell, Rita locked him onto the floor by standing above him. "Now that was just rude," he laughed, reaching up to ruffle her fur as she licked at his hand. "Okay, I think it's time you turn back, love," he chuckled as she retreated and he gave her some room as she transformed back to her true self. "Well I damn well missed you," he smiled, getting up as she ran her fingers through her hair to comb the curly mess a little. He didn't exactly care about it, and instead swept her up in a hug, making her laugh at the speed of his actions.

"I missed you too Padfoot, but we were only separated for a couple of weeks, you know," she chuckled, pulling away when he let her.

"Euphemia, the lovely woman that she is, thought I was coming down with a cold and force-fed me tea laced with some potions to cure me," Sirius shrugged as he leaned down to pick up her jacket and shoes that she must have left when she first transformed.

"Aww, poor Snuffles," she grinned, not at all sympathetic.

"Anyway," he chuckled, "James and I ran into Snape," he started, making Rita glance at him for the follow-up. "He brought up fifth-year again," he stated.

"On what grounds?"

"Remus hasn't been out of the common room since arriving, and he said he hadn't seen him at all yet."

"So what? Is he concerned? That doesn't exactly sound like Snape with our history," she shook her head, very aware of Remus' need to keep to himself since the summer.

"He wants to expose him."

By the kitchens, talking over the house elves in the kitchen, the four boys and two girls stood with Millie, the conversation heating up.

"I'm not letting Severus-"

"He's jealous, it's not exactly our first time dealing with it," spoke James in a much more stern voice than Rita was used to.

"Sirius didn't exactly help when he gave out the Shack," Lilly jested just lightly, having been inducted into the full Severus problem upon her first date with James.

"I'm incorrigible, I know," Sirius rolled his eyes as he leaned against the cold stone wall beside Rita.

"Look, I'm on Padfoot's side here. You know I don't want anyone to hate anyone else, but this time, if Severus is about to give away something Moony has been looking to hide, then he's meddling in private business that has nothing to do with him," Rita nodded, crossing her arms as a protective stance. The boys picked up on it, as well as Lilly, but the conversation was an important one.

"He's jealous of James, but he's willing to use someone he cares about," Peter spoke up, something that didn't happen often, but when it did, he most spoke sense. "Maybe we just have to give him what he wants," he shrugged.

"I'm not breaking up with Lily for Snivellus," James replied.

"No, but that makes sense," Lilly nodded, finger extended as she thought about Peter's idea.