Tricky and Fun

Remus Lupin has quite frankly ignored James Potter's crush on Lily Evans since – third year, was it? At least that was the first year he was at all obvious about it, it wouldn't surprise Remus to find out James had had a thing for her since meeting her on the Hogwarts Express. Remus himself hadn't started looking at girls like that till fourth year, but his "furry little problem" prevented him from acting on it beyond swiping Sirius Black's magazines that arrived by owl, wrapped discreetly in brown paper. He was fairly sure he'd never be able to have a girlfriend that would accept his being a werewolf, and he hadn't yet hit upon the brilliant idea of just not telling a serious girlfriend about it.

So this is where he stands when fifth year begins: at his first prefects' meeting on the Hogwarts Express. He greets all the other prefects, waiting on a few other fifth years that haven't gotten the memo yet. And Lily Evans walks in.

She looks the same as always, except for one major difference: she appears to have lost ten pounds - or rather - rearranged them. Not that anyone has ever called her fat, but the plumpness of youth was now the voluptuousness of womanhood. Remus and a few other boys do a double-take. She was merely cute before, and now she is… breathtaking. Most of the Hogwarts males, to be blunt, shift their robes a bit in the crotch region. "Lupin, hi," she says, and gets introductions to the ones she doesn't know. The last couple of fifth year prefects enter, followed by the Head Boy and Girl. Remus pays almost no attention to anything but staring at Lily Evans as surreptitiously as possible. Finally, the Heads hand out parchment with instructions and schedules on them. Patrolling the train is grunt work, but every prefect has to do it. Since it's a twelve-hour ride, each fifth-year pair takes an hour, then sixth-, and finally the seventh-years for the last four hours.

Simple enough, except that Remus Lupin and Lily Evans have to go first. They don't actually need to enter every compartment, that would be rude, unless they hear something inappropriate. Or don't hear something, silencing charms are discouraged on the Express for obvious reasons. The Prefects' Car has four compartments, one for each house, or one for each year and one for Head Boy and Girl, depending on how well House Unity is going. It's going pretty bad lately, thanks to You-Know-Who, but Remus still know little about that.

He's about to find out more. "Um, so, Evans, do you really hate me?"

"What? No, of course I don't hate you. I wish you wouldn't hang out with Potter and Black, but I know they're your roommates and you don't actually have much options. Plus, they're arrogant and popular, so I understand you wouldn't want to be on their bad sides."

"It's - there's more than that." He's already checked his schedule for night rounds, and they have obviously worked around his affliction. "Have you read our schedule?"

She frowns, shaking her head, and looks. "Seven days a week, looks mostly fair - wait. Is this what you mean? The odd breaks we have? Lupin, I'm sure that since there are twenty-four prefects, they can't actually have everyone..." She pauses. She has top marks in a lot of classes, and Astronomy is one of them. "But, for some reason, our times off patrolling happen to fall around the full moon."

He never thought he'd be a prefect for that very reason, never, and now he's with the smartest witch of their year - he was well aware he wouldn't be able to hide this from her for long, Peter Pettigrew, for Merlin's sake, figured it out - "Please don't tell anyone," is all he can whisper.

Her face softens to a degree he's never seen, and it makes her even more beautiful, oh my, is this how James sees her all the time? "Remus, of course I won't tell anyone." Her face hardens a bit, just so she looks more normal, but now that he's seen her softness, he can't forget it - "I suppose Potter and Black and Pettigrew know, do they?"

"I never told them, but when your roommates notice you visiting your 'sick mum' every 28 days, it's a bit difficult to hide," he says with a tinge of sarcasm, far less than he'd normally use. He doesn't feel he can be even that mean to someone who's a) beautiful b) sharing his secret c) not appearing to give a shit about his secret. Well, she is a Muggleborn, probably doesn't actually get the werewolf thing, doesn't get that until he came to Hogwarts, he was a total outcast, friendless, alone but for his parents.

"So your mum isn't really sick, then?" She sounds a bit hurt, and he doesn't blame her, she always, every month, asked after his mum, and he always, every month, lied about it. He did vary his story according to how bad his own transformation went, which he informs her now.

"But you must understand, the teachers know, Dumbledore knows, my roommates and now you know. Not a single other person at Hogwarts knows, and we have to keep it that way."

"How long have - that lot - known?"

"Since second year."

She nods slowly. "My father was killed by Death Eaters the summer after my second year."

Remus stops short. "Evans - Lily - what? I mean, I'm sorry, I -"

"I didn't tell you so you felt sorry for me. I told you so you'd know. All right? And you can call me Lily, it's fine." And she smiles. Oh Merlin, if her softness was beautiful, her smile is almost blinding.

"I - I - all right. Do - do you know why?"

Now her face goes all harsh and mean, like she was telling off Potter or something. "He was a Muggle in Diagon Alley, what more reason do they need? Fuck the Death Eaters, fuck the purebloods, and fuck Voldemort."

Remus has never in his life heard Lily Evans say anything more than "dang" in four years, and he decides he likes it. Although he shivers when she says "Voldemort." "James and Sirius are purebloods."

Her face is still a bit harsh, but she says, "His parents are Aurors, but he's nothing but a toerag. And I don't like Sirius Black, but I have to admit that he's nothing like his brother or cousins. I do admire that much about him, that he helps show that it's one's choices, not family, that matters."

"It's probably extremely difficult for him," says Remus slowly. James and Sirius are the closest of the Marauders, but whatever he tells James about his family stays quiet.

But Lily nods. Nods! "I have a sister," she says quietly. "She blames me for Dad's death."

Remus's jaw drops and he stares at Lily. "Is she crazy? I mean, doesn't she get this whole Death Eater crap?"

"Not really. To her we're all just freaks of nature killing each other, and she just wishes we'd stick to each other instead of killing normal human beings," she says in an angry high voice, which he one day learns is an imitation of Petunia Evans' voice.

"Lily?" He knocks on a compartment, no one answers, and he pulls her inside.

"What, what is it?"

"May I kiss you?"

She blushes, and Remus discovers yet another face of Lily that takes his breath away. "Are you serious?"

"I promise I won't tell anyone, but I've been thinking about kissing you since you didn't run away screaming about, um, you know. Not that I think it means you want to be my girlfriend, I know it just means you're a wonderful person, who wouldn't ever want to be my girlfriend anyway, but if it won't disgust you too much, I -"

Lily's mouth cuts off his babbling, and he puts one hand on the back of her head, one on her left shoulder, and they kiss.

It's a bit awkward at first, since it's his very first - he knows a bit about what to do with his hands, thanks to too many times catching Sirius this way, and he even manages to tilt his head for the noses to not hit - but at least he knows that girls don't actually like the feelings like they're being eaten, partly because he is a werewolf, after all. He keeps his lips closed for quite a while, and then Lily goes "Mmmm!" and breaks through with her tongue.

So he follows her lead, gently as he can, caressing her tongue with his, pushing his tongue into her mouth in return, and it's divine, and his crotch area really seems to like this, and he manages to suckle at her tongue with his just underneath, and he loves this, and he wishes he could do this for the rest of the train ride, but that makes him remember that they actually need to finish their rounds, so he gently squeezes the back of her head, softly pulling her back and closing his lips.

"So that's what you wanted, hmmm?" she says in what he knows is a flirtatious tone, but Lily Evans doesn't flirt, but then she also doesn't kiss like a siren either, and she clearly just did both.

"Very much," he manages to get out.

"All right then." She's as red as he feels.

"Let's, um, let's go back on patrol."

Just as they open the door, a gaggle of first-years enter. They manage to keep their faces straight until closing the compartment again, then they break into laughter.

As soon as the laughter dies away, Lily's got a serious expression on her face. "So do we want to do that again?"

"Snog, you mean?"

"Well, yeah," she giggles and blushes again. "I mean, I don't really think I have time for a boyfriend, but it's rather convenient that a very handsome bloke has patrols with me at the same time. Although I wouldn't want to snog instead of patrolling, it would be fun to, um -"

"Break up the monotony of patrolling?"

"Exactly," she said, snapping her fingers.

"And since I wouldn't be your boyfriend, you wouldn't tell anyone," he says, his heart sinking a bit.

"I wouldn't mind if my roommates knew," she counters. "But you would."

"Well, they do kind of think you're a goody-two-shoes," he admits. "Also, I think James would hate me."

"Oh my God," she says, rolling her eyes. "As if I give two rats what James Potter thinks of me."

"I'd rather he not know, but I might tell Peter. Peter is good with secrets." Peter hadn't actually told anyone but Remus that he followed them to the Whomping Willow, but when Potter figured it out, he even acted surprised.

"Well, it's not like I'm ashamed of how much I enjoyed our session earlier," she said flirtatiously again, and OH Remus wants to kiss her again.

So he does, but very quickly, basically only enough to lick her lips quickly. "Me either," he whispers in her ear, and bits her earlobe for good measure.

"Remus," she giggles, and by now he's figured out that giggling is a good thing.

"YES OKAY BACK TO PATROLLING," he says loudly and lopes away from her. She giggles again and follows her, and as soon as they've discovered, on the way back, which compartment contains the fifth-year Gryffindors, they start kissing again every few yards, until they get back to the prefect car.

They sort of ignore each other there, the way they would have beforehand, but every now and again there's a glance and a blush his way. Oh this is going to be fun. Or tricky. But he's a Marauder, and FUN+TRICKY is what they do.