Doctor's Note: Very short scene inspired by Professor Lupin's quote from the Prisoner of Azkaban film, "Your mother was there for me at a time when no one else was." - Dr. Mini Pie
"It's weird."
"What is?"
Remus flexed the fingers of his left hand and examined them in the flickering firelight.
"That's it's the same hand, the very same hand and not some...pop, or snap transfiguration."
The many scars on his hand reflected in a pale sheen.
"It's just me. All me."
Remus curled his fingers into a fist. He rested his chin on his knees and stared into the fire. They were silent for several minutes.
"I think I have to leave," he said, so quietly that Lily didn't know for sure if he'd said it. She tried to look into his shadowy face, yet it was unreadable.
"What? Leave?"
He closed his eyes. "After last night, what choice do I have?" he whispered hoarsely.
Lily felt her chest begin to tighten. "You didn't do anything last night."
"I was very, very close," he said, shuddering at the memory. He kept his eyes squeezed shut. "I knew from the beginning that Professor Dumbledore's precautions would not be enough—"
"You know as well as I do," insisted Lily, low and intense, "that James and Sirius—and Severus—are foolish. But they're also brilliant. And it's—it's a terrible combination, and you were at the mercy of it—"
"I've had years to stand up to it," said Remus bitterly. "And all I've done is gone and joined in."
Lily grasped his tense shoulder. "Yes, to have a laugh, Remus, but you never join in to hurt anyone."
Remus grimaced when he spoke as though in great pain. "But if I have hurt someone, what difference does it make? What difference does it make, Lily?"
"But you haven't."
Remus finally opened his eyes—he realized he'd been pulling at his hair. He crossed his arms tightly, stuffing the offending hand under his arm. Remus' eyes flitted to anything but Lily's face—the stone floor, the tassels on the rug, the mantel, the fire.
"Severus," he said, below even a whisper, "will put two-and-two together. As you said, he is brilliant. Perhaps he has already reasoned through it."
Lily knew that Severus had theorized correctly; she thought better than to make it known to Remus. Instead, she relaxed her grip on his shoulder and began to rub his arm soothingly.
"You don't have to leave, Remus," she said.
"But I can't—I can't—"
"Please don't leave."
She closed her eyes and leaned her head against his shoulder, shifting so her arm was now behind him to rub circles on his back. Remus did not relax—he only shook; and she felt rather than heard him start to cry.
His voice, when it came, was tremulous and broken. "How can you bear to be so close to me? How can you touch me?"
"Oh, Remus," she murmured.
He could not answer her for his tears. Lily rubbed his back and spoke softly to him, for how long, neither knew.
After Remus was still, Lily withdrew her head to look into his face. He finally looked back at her through one tear-dimmed eye. The left side of his face was bruised, the eye swollen shut.
"Let's go back," she told him. He nodded.
Lily led him gently by the hand. They left the fire going in the tiny, cozy room. When the door shut behind them, it vanished from the wall.
"If you leave," said Lily as they made their way slowly down the deserted corridor, "who will read with me in the Room of Requirement?"
Remus smiled, though it was heavy with sadness. "Who indeed?"
They kept on toward the Gryffindor Common Room, hand in hand.