That next day was an interesting day indeed. It was only the second morning after the full moon and yet Remus was waking up with the sun once again. And he was waking Sirius up with him. It was almost as if the full moon had never happened, and almost as if the sugar rush, and crash, had never happened either.

The whole week that Remus was five years old so far, the Marauders were seen at breakfast remarkably early. Seeing as they most of the time slept in, it was still quite a shock for the students. But, one could see that their early attendance was not by choice. Remus was the only one happy about it, sitting there on Sirius's lap, grinning and chatting the other Marauders' ears off as he happily munched his breakfast.

Sirius was seen sitting there with deep bags under his eyes looking very disgruntled. He was trying to drink his coffee, but every time he'd bring his mug to his lips, Remus would wiggle around and Sirius would have to pull his mug away to avoid hitting it on Remus's head and spilling it everywhere. Sirius had been hoping that after the major sugar crash Remus had last night, that he would sleep longer, but that did not seem to be the case.

For their first class of the day, Transfiguration, they were transfiguring frogs into goblets, so they could have a refresher course in time for their NEWTS.

Remus was sitting at a back table with his crayons, so maybe that's why they didn't notice. One of the seventh years' frogs had hopped off a table and little Remus looked up from his coloring, tongue sticking out of the corner of his mouth in concentration.

His eyes lit up in excitement. He loved frogs. He slid quietly out of his chair and knelt on the ground. He hid behind the leg of the desk so that the frog wouldn't get scared of him. Then maybe he could catch it and keep it and they would be friends.

But the frog had other ideas and hopped right past Remus and towards the door. Ooh, thought Remus, a game of catch.

He slipped out of the transfiguration classroom after the frog unnoticed. He followed that thing all the way to the Entrance Hall. He was transfixed with this frog. He decided he shouldn't try to grab it, and instead opted to follow the frog and see if he could earn his trust. He didn't want to jeopardize his chances of friendship with the frog if the frog didn't want him to catch him. He'd rather be a good friend than one who catches frogs and forces friendship. He couldn't have the frog possibly getting away and telling all his frog friends about the boy who was mean to frogs. He'd never see another frog ever again!

So he followed the frog outside. Well, that's not entirely true. He let the frog outside by opening the door. He wanted to be nice. He thought that would give him some points.

Needless to say, he was devastated soon after when he lost the frog in the grass.

"No, no, no," He muttered, dropping to his knees and searching through the grass. All he found was a ladybug, and he hated ladybugs.

He sat in the grass, a fair ways away from the castle at this point, and kept pulling the grass out of the dirt and throwing it. Take that, he thought at the green strands. He was angry that the grass was green and that the frog was green and that the grass probably had something to do with the frog's disappearance. The grass was probably hiding the frog away from him, just to be mean. The grass probably even helped the frog get home to all of his frog friends. The frog was probably telling all of his friends right now that he was a horrible, frog stealing little boy.

Remus started to cry.

"Aw, now, now, litt'le tyke. Wha's gotten ye all weepy?"

Remus looked up to see a giant man. He was so tall that his face was hidden behind the sun. He wore a red jacket and he had big black boots on his huge feet.

"Father Christmas?" Remus asked in shock. He couldn't believe his eyes.

The man chuckled deeply. "Ah, I'm not Father Christmas, litt'le tyke. I s'pose ye wouldn' remember me, eh? M'name's Hagrid."

"Oh," Remus said. He was a little disappointed that Father Christmas hadn't come to see him and possibly even given him presents. But then he remembered that he just had Christmas and Santa Claus must be resting at home in the North Pole. Then it occurred to him that there was supposed to be snow on the ground and he was supposed to be cold. It was January!

"Where's the snow, Mr. Hagrid?" Remus asked as the man offered him a hand. Remus took hold of one of Mr. Hagrid's fingers and the two of them walked the short distance to a hut that Remus hadn't noticed in his search for the frog.

"Well, Remus, Professor Kettleburn had his fifth years lookin' at a dragon, and it got aggravated and melted all the snow. It should be snowin' again tomorrow so we won't be withou' it fer long."

Remus didn't know what any of that meant, but he didn't feel like asking questions. He was quite exhausted from his frog search and then being sad about it.

So Hagrid led Remus into his hut and offered him some tea and scones while he wrote a letter up to the castle to Sirius Black because Hagrid knew that if Remus was wandering the grounds by himself, Sirius must not know where he is.

=-=-=-=-=-=

Meanwhile, Sirius was taking diligent notes. He knew that as soon as Remus was back to normal, he'd need all the help he could get to catch up. Sirius knew how crazy Remus was about his studies and with it being their seventh year, Remus would need help preparing for the NEWTS.

Sirius was also trying to not get distracted by James who, turns out, is quite the distraction. He was messing around with his frog, turning it different colors and laughing when Lily smacked his arm, trying to get him back to work.

James was quite exceptional at transfiguration, but he got distracted easily.

Sirius sighed, shaking out his hands. He glanced at his watch and saw that there was still a good twenty minutes of the lesson.

He glanced down at his goblet that used to be a frog and smiled, thinking about how much Remus loved frogs.

He jolted in his seat and whirled around to see that Remus's chair was empty, his crayons abandoned. The door was open a crack.

Somehow, Remus snuck out of the classroom without them noticing. Sirius jumped to his feet, the chair scraping loudly and drawing the attention of everyone in the classroom.

James cast the transfiguration spell and the frog was now a beautifully decorated goblet.

"Sirius, what's—"

But he too had seen the empty chair.

"Sorry, Professor, but we have to go," he said, dragging Sirius out of the room. Lily glanced around and caught McGonagall's eye. The professor sighed and nodded her head at the door and Lily got up and followed James and Sirius.

In the hallway, the three of them ran for the dorms.

"How long has he been gone?" Lily asked.

"I don't know," Sirius answered miserably.

"Well we can find out where he went when we grab the map," James said, trying to calm the both of them down.

They reached the dorm, hoping that maybe Remus had just come back here, but instead they found only Peter.

"Lesson's not over for another quarter hour, what're you lot doing back?" He asked, sweeping something under his pillow before they could notice.

"Remus disappeared, where's the map?" Sirius spoke frantically, on his knees before his bed, checking under the mattress.

"It's...in the desk, what happened?" Peter asked.

Sirius grabbed the map. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

As Sirius searched the map, James turned to Peter. "Must've followed a frog somewhere. No worries, we'll find him."

"Yes, worries, he's five years old! He can't defend himself and he's alone somewhere!" Sirius said, looking up from the map with a look of distress before turning back to it.

"What could he possibly need defending from, Sirius? We're at Hogwarts, he's safe. And who would want to harm a five year old?" Lily tried to reason.

"He's in Hagrid's hut," Sirius answered with a relieved sigh. "Come on, let's go get him."

The three of them headed back out, leaving Peter on the bed. He sighed and touched his wand to the familiar parchment.

"Mischief Managed."

On the way down the moving staircases, Sirius turned back to Lily. "Because he's five could be exactly why someone would try to hurt him, Lily."

"Sirius you're sounding a bit crazy. Slow down a bit."

He shook his head, hopping onto the next staircase. "No, listen. He's the sweetest person ever, I know that, but that doesn't mean he doesn't have enemies. We live in scary time, Lils. How many death eaters are our classmates? And if not his enemies, mine? Ours? We can't take chances."

Lily accepted the answer and followed Sirius through a secret passageway that was a shortcut, James's hand warm in hers.

"Also," James interjected. "Just regular magic things at Hogwarts pose a threat to a clueless five year old. Just saying."

Sirius shrugged. "Can't argue with that."

They emerged into a deserted hallway and took a few turns until they were at the Entrance Hall doors. The two boys had mastered the art of sneaking around and out of the castle, so they knew just the way to get out without making a sound.

As soon as they were out of the castle and on the grounds (they all noticed that the snow was gone and James was just about to comment on the phenomenon) when an owl swooped down and landed on Sirius's head.

"Ow!" He shouted, wincing against the talons. James reached up and got the owl off of Sirius's head and onto his forearm instead. There was a letter tied to its leg.

Lily reached over and retrieved the letter and the owl flew off.

She unrolled it and read it allowed.

Dear Sirius,

Remus wondered out onto the grounds and I brought him to my hut. I'm writing you to let you know he's with me so you don't worry. Stop by for some tea if you'd like.

—Hagrid

"Well that's helpful," James said. Lily rolled her eyes at him and stuffed the letter into her pocket.

When they knocked on Hagrid's door and he let them in, Sirius saw Remus sitting at the table trying his very hardest to eat one of Hagrid's scones.

He was having quite the job of it, gnawing at it, switching hands even to see if he could get better leverage. His teeth simply would not break the surface of the dough.

"Hey, Rey, no that's a choking hazard," I warned, pacing over and taking the slobbery scone from his hands. The things people do for the ones they love.

Sirius discretely tossed the scone out the open window and wiped his hands on his pants.

James and Lily were talking to Hagrid, who was telling them the story of everything that had happened since he'd found Remus sitting in the grass and taken him back to his hut.

They were being good distractions, so Sirius sniffed at Remus's teacup. He wasn't quite sure if it should be edible, but Remus had already taking a few sips, so he decided he'd better just let it go.

He held out his hand for Remus to take and the boy did, hopping down from his chair and following Sirius to the door.

"Thank you, Hagrid," Sirius said as they left.

Hagrid nodded, a wide smile on his face. He closed the door and retreated back into his hut.

"You, little mister," Lily said, waggling her finger at Remus.

James interrupted her. "So, did you have quite the adventure today, Remus?" He asked.

Remus's eyes lit up and he nodded. "Yes I did! How'd you know?"

And then he proceeded to tell them all about his grand adventure and how he lost his frog and thought he met Father Christmas but then found out he hadn't.