“Rachel – Rachel!” I
heard a voice croak. I whipped around to see Remus bounding into the
Great Hall.

“Remus,” I smiled. I
stood and walked quickly towards Remus. We crashed together in a hug.

“Rachel – I'm so sorry,”
he whispered into my hair.

“This is my fault,” I
said. “My curse.” Pain burst through my head, but I ignored it.
Seeing Remus back, normal, despite a few minor injuries from the
night before, was so comforting.

We finally broke away and
walked back to the Gryffindor table, holding hands. I sat down by
Lily.

“You guys are the cutest
couple,” she grinned.

“We're both supposed to
di-” I stopped myself. “Um, I mean, we're both supposed to go to
class in ten minutes!” I said, giving my best smile. Lily frowned.

“Are you two – okay?”
she asked suspiciously.

“Yeah! We're great! Never
been better,” I said, nodding.

“Rachel, is there anything
-”

“Nope! Nothing,” I said,
and felt a growing pain in my chest and head. I was lying to my best
friend. No wonder I didn't have any friends before. I was a liar, not
the least bit trustworthy.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Classes were horrible.
I had forgotten about at least 5 assignments, and therefore gained a
zero in each of my classes.

At lunch, James asked Lily
out (again) and she said no (again) and left James in foul spirits
for the rest of the week. Thanks a lot, Lily. Now even James was
bitter.

In other words, the Marauders
were now the Mopers. And the whole school had noticed.

In fact, one of Sirius's
ex-girlfriend groups had been heard talking about how “Sirius was
growing up to be quite a boring man” and that “they were glad
that he dumped them.”

The only eventful thing about
today was at Herbology. Professor Delrid is always very –
interesting. And not always in a good way.

Today, he had tried to
embarrass me in any and every way possible.

He had asked me all the
questionUntitled Part 29s I didn't know, and called me a million
names. Walking back to the common room to put all my books down, I
tried not to break down completely. The pain in my head had returned,
and I probably just gained Trolls in all my subjects. And how could I
forget that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was after me.

I fell onto the bed and
closed my eyes. Maybe if I fall asleep, I'll wake up and be back to
normal...

Nope. Lily came walking in
the dorms and frowned at me.

“You okay?” she asked.

“Right, Lily,” I said,
“I'm completely okay. Great, actually. I just got zeros on
everything, and the most powerful wizard in the world is after me -”
by then, nobody could here what I was saying. I just cried into my
pillow and let Lily rub my back. After about ten minutes, I finally
sat up.

“Now could you tell me
what's wrong?” she asked me. I nodded.

“Remus is supposed to die
in less than two weeks,” I said. Lily's eyes widened.

“What?! I would've heard
about it before!” she said. I shook my head.

“I have a curse, and if I
tell someone about it, then they die before they turn 18.” I said,
then covered my mouth.

Pain shot through my whole
body, and a inhuman voice roared inside me.

Ha, you can't keep a
secret at all, can you? You'll just have to die, then.

Everything went black.