A/N – Everything you recognize belongs to J.K. Rowling!

Remus + Lily

For the Mix and Match Pairings competition.

Prompts: (in order of appearance)

Amazed

"I Wouldn't Mind" by He Is We

"Promise me one thing."

Hope you like! Rate and Review!

Remus was walking. He didn't know where he was walking; all he knew was that he was walking.

Actually, he kind of did know where he was walking (he was going to the library eventually) but he didn't know how his feet were going to take him there if he was wondering around in an abandoned classroom.

He rubbed his hands along his face, sitting down on a random desk and throwing his considerably light book bag upon one beside him.

Why couldn't the boys just listen to him? He'd been going through the werewolf thing for a decade and a half. They'd been doing it for a couple months.

In his wolf stage, it didn't help to have three other animals acting like idiots around him. James always got his antlers stuck in the tunnel to the Whomping Willow (Remus had lost count of the number of times he'd had to help him.) and Peter was always getting sat on.

Sirius was a completely different matter. In his dog form he was always bugging Remus and almost getting himself killed. He was actually amazed that none of them had.

And today in class, when they'd done Patronuses, James had been ecstatic when Lily's was a doe. His, of course, had been a stag.

He was now convinced they were soul mates. He'd jokingly mentioned telling Lily about Remus's "furry little problem". (He really had no idea how much that pissed him off when he called it that, did he?)

And then, in the middle of lunch, he'd practically yelled when he asked Remus how he was feeling, with a wink.

The ruddy bastard had winked at him!

Remus had blown his top.

Well, at least he'd like to think so.

Remus never really 'blew his top'. He just left, chin held high, leaving the gang staring confusedly after him.

It wasn't their secret to tell. Even if he had meant it jokingly, which he probably did, it set Remus on edge. He knew what would happen if his secret got out. Did James never weigh the consequences with his actions?

He sighed, smiling ruefully. Of course he didn't.

"Remus?" he jolted at the voice, turning abruptly to stare at the person in the doorway. It was Evans! He blinked slowly, nervously.

"Evans?" he asked.

"Yeah." She said, raising an eyebrow.

He smiled nervously. "What're you doing here?" he asked, trying not to notice the smell of her perfume as she sat on a desk next to him.

She smiled. "I noticed you storming off, spitting like a cat, even if none of your idiot friends noticed it."

He sighed again. "Those 'idiot friends' are the whole reason I'm trying to hide from human contact at the moment." There was an awkward silence, and she made a movement to get off the desk.

"Oh, I'll just –" She started.

"No – it's fine," Remus assured her, smiling. "I didn't mean you."

"Oh, so I'm not human now?" she joked. Remus winced. He really did hate small talk.

"Um, no – just…" He stammered awkwardly, blushing fiercely. Lily laughed, the twinkling sounded making a warm ache spread through his body.

Wait a moment. This was Evans. She was, literally, James's girl. Even if she didn't know it yet.

There wasn't allowed to be warm aches spreading through his body. He forced the thoughts – and feelings – roughly out of his head, a wry smile twisting at the corners of his mouth.

"No, Evans, I don't consider you to be human," he joked. Lily put a hand to her heart as if he'd shot her.

"Ow. That one burns." She looked at him sorrowfully, green eyes sparkling at him with mirth. She gave up after a few seconds and laughed again, shoving his shoulder, catching him unawares.

Unbalanced, he tipped over the edge of the desk, long limbs catching him after the short fall.

"Oh my God! Remus! Are you – " Lily started, only to be interrupted with Remus's roar of laughter. He got up slowly, brushing his knees and hands off, looking up amusedly at the disapproving figure in front of him.

Lily's hand was perched on her hip. "And here I thought you were hurt and I was to blame!" she sighed.

"Oh, yes Evans. Falling, what? Three feet? From a desk," he smirked at her as she rolled her eyes. "That's really going to hurt me."

She folded her arms over her chest. "You know," she said, moving a step closer to where he'd gotten up. "I wouldn't mind at all if you weren't so much like James. The sarcasm isn't the boy I knew at all. What happened to Remus Lupin?"

He raised an eyebrow. "We all fall out of line."

"Yeah," she agreed, snorting. "Some a little farther than others."

He pursed his lips, avoiding her gaze. What was she saying?

And how had she gotten so close to him all the sudden?

She looked away, too, backing up as if she could hear his thoughts. "Well, I've got to go. Wouldn't want Marlene and Alice to wonder where I've got to."

He shuffled his feet. "Yeah, I've got to get back to the gang." She turned, a sweet-smelling wave washed over him. He watched her walk out of the room.

But, just as the last auburn lock disappeared around the corner, her sweet, pale face reappeared. "Just promise me one thing, Remus." She said.

"What?"

"Don't end up like him."