Chapter II:
“…and then she turned and walked away.” James looked over at Remus expectantly. Remus Lupin was the third member of the Marauders, as James, Sirius, Remus and Peter Pettigrew called themselves. But Remus was different than the rest of them. Sure he had, light brown hair, and blue eyes, and looked fairly normal, but he had a secret. He was a werewolf. He had been ever since he was bitten at the age of five by Fenrir Greyback. And as much as the other Marauders wished, they couldn’t do anything about it. But they could make his transformations more enjoyable. They had become Animagi in order to be able to spend the time with him, without the risk of becoming werewolves themselves.
But the reason James was asking Remus, shy, quiet, Remus, and not school heart throb Sirius for tips to get Lily was not only because Sirius was unconscious and incapable of speaking; It was because Remus was a friend of Lily’s. When Lily had found out about Remus’s ‘furry little problem’ during their fifth year, she did not run away as Remus had expected. She befriended him and helped council him after some of his most gruesome transformations. She helped him make up the missed school work after every full moon. Because of that, he was the perfect person to ask for advice regarding Lily.
Remus thought about what James had told him. Lily usually only tells James off for a good reason. Even if it was only because he had asked her out, it was a good reason; after all, he did ask her out every chance he got. And it usually was extremely embarrassing to be at the receiving end of one of his invitations (which tended to include flowers and sappy love songs in a deafeningly loud voice.) But to tell him off because he told a small lie was most definitely not like her. “Maybe she was just still angry about this morning.” She had had an encounter with his flowers that very morning. “You’d better stop with those flowers if you’d like to ever be able to talk to her civilly, even strictly about Heads business. “
“I know, I know, but this morning it wasn’t my fault. Sirius is the one who bewitched them. I thought they were normal flowers! You know I wouldn’t usually do it to her, not anymore. I love her, Moony. ”
“I know that now, but she still doesn’t. I’ll go tell her. But you owe me,” Remus replied as he got up.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
“Why is he such a prat to me, yet so kind to Alianne” Lily thought as she lay on her stomach in the Gryffindor Common Room. “Just this morning he makes a fool of me in front of the entire school, and then he can gently take care of Alianne. After all of that, he even has the nerve to lie to me! What is wrong with that guy? What’s wrong with me, for that matter? What-“
Her thoughts were cut short by footsteps coming from the direction of the boy’s dormitory. She sat up quickly. She saw Remus walking down the stairs and immediately relaxed. At least she still didn’t have to face Potter again quite yet.
“Hi Lily,” Remus said hesitantly. Lily frowned. Why is he scared?
“Hello Remus, what’s wrong?”
“Listen, Lily, this morning, Prongs didn’t mean to embarrass you. He didn’t know that the flowers were bewitched. He thought they were regular flowers. He’s matured since last year.”
“Mature boys don’t lie to someone.” Lily retorted.
“Unless the lie was protecting a secret that he and his friends have been hiding from the rest of the world for the past two years.”
“What are the four of you hiding?”
“Lily, I’m not allowed to tell you. Believe me, it’s hard not to. And it’s probably double as hard for James, who-“the portrait hole swung open and Peter Pettigrew walked in. Peter looked pale and shaken. “Peter, what’s wrong?”
“I…I went to the hospital wing for a potion against stomach aches and I saw Sirius and Alianne.”
“Oh, you better go to sleep. Good night Peter.”
“’Night” he walked away.
“I better go too. ‘Night Lily.”
“Good night, Remus.”
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
"Sirius, she's fine."
"No, she's not. She's unconscious." Sirius replied.
"So were you till five minutes ago. She'll wake up soon enough." Remus retorted, in a gentle voice.
"She's hurt worse than I am. I should have protected her." Sirius said in a sad voice.
"How do you know that you didn't try?" James replied. "Listen, Padfoot, you were most probably attacked from the back. You can't protect someone if you are unconscious. Or if you don't know what's happening." His eyes showed pain for not being there with Sirius when he was needed.
"You don't know that we were attacked from the back. Even I can't be sure of it." Sirius replied, flatly objecting to cheer up.
"We saw footsteps leading from the forest, behind you. Right, Lily?" He said, turning to Lily for the first time that evening.
"Yes, I'm pretty sure we did. I couldn't see much, because it was very dark, but now that you mention it, yes, I did see footsteps." Lily thought a moment before continuing. "Come to think of it, it was a little too dark. They must have used a darkening spell." James sent her a look of gratitude at those words.
Sirius finally looked cheered at these words. "Well, I guess it's possible…we'll just have to ask Alianne when she wakes up."
"Yes, and there is nothing to do just now. So, is anyone up for a game of Exploding Snap?" James looked at Lily hopefully.
"Only if you want Madam Pomfrey to kick us out." Lily said in an amused voice.
"So, how about…Wizard Chess?"
"There are more than two people here." Sirius reminded him.
"A tournament then."
"Hope you're ready to have your arse whipped." Sirius said.
"Same to you." James said, a smirk on his face.
Do You Carrot All For Me? by looseboregs
Chapter Notes: Sorry for the wait...Thanks to Nuts's good friend Rozzie for BETAing this for us....