Warning!: This has to be forewarned against, for some strange reason: this contains pre-slash in the first chapter, then slash in the second, although that is not the central focus. Kinda. It wasn't supposed to be, anyway.

Flames will keep us warm because it snowed in bleeding April. Snowed.

Sol: This idea has been floating around the computer hard drive for what, three, mebbe four years? It was high time it was written, although it seemed to have a mind of its own. It was supposed to be centred on the Lily-Remus friendship, originally, but that has faded a little.

Star: I'll say. Ladies, gents, and fanfiction writers, here is our first chapter fic, although it only has two chapters.

Sol: Star, if you want any more, write and post it yourself. I'm done here, and I was in a bad enough mood anyway when I wrote the second chapter, so some of my grumpiness has been transferred to Lily.

Star: Oh, and we apologise if 'chit' is not actually an Irish thing. It just seemed to fit, even though we know none of the boys were Irish.

Rating: K, or K+. Star, your call, I'm feeling lazy.

Genre: Friendship

Disclaimer: We own more chocolate than is probably healthy, and some really painful stomach cramps, but we do not own Harry Potter.

Chocolate Cures All

The Lycanthrope

Remus twitched, pulling out of the deep fog of warm sleep. His muscles protested and an itch on the arch of his foot made itself known. The soft, plush armchair had been comfy enough to be made of clouds when he had curled up in it several hours earlier, but now it had solidified, turned hard and unyielding within its confines. His knees were suddenly digging painfully into his collarbones, and every single muscle ached almost tangibly with the aftermath of the moon. He gritted his teeth and told himself to uncurl, to stand. Nothing happened. After a moment, the itch in his foot reminded him of its presence by growing in size and ferocity. He bit back a groan of irritation, and unwrapped an arm from around his thighs. Pain shot through the limb, and the groan escaped, but his hand reached his foot and scratched through the sock, and the itch was relieved.

A hand on his shoulder made him jump, as much as he could when trapped in the foetal position, but the hand was small and the fingers slim, the thumbnail slightly bitten. A stray freckle at the join of wrist and palm caught his attention, and he smiled, although the movement turned the ache in his cheeks into sharp lines of pain along the muscles.

"Hello Lily," he croaked, and a freckled, green-eyed, red-framed face appeared in his view.

"Hello to you too. How're you feeling? You didn't sound too happy about waking up in the common-room." Her eyes shone with genuine care and only a hint of amusement. Remus pulled his face into a smile again.

"No, I wasn't. Mind you, I chose this armchair over the sofa, so it's my own fault."

Lily's eyebrows raised in invitation to continue.

"We were… overactive last night, and Miss Prefect would not want to know." The eyebrows look dissolved into a smile and a small chuckle.

"Of course that's what you'd say. I suppose your illicit activities were well-illuminated by last night's full moon."

Remus would have tensed, but his muscles were already tightly knotted. As it was, the smile slipped from his face, and Remus' amber eyes widened.

"Err… yes, I, er, suppose they were… You didn't hear anything in the grounds last night, right?"

"Of course not Remus. I didn't hear a single person. There was, however, a very loud sort of howling which came whistling through my window when the wind blew it… I don't suppose you'd know anything?"

"N-no…"

"Calm down Remus, I'm no executioner or prejudiced brat to see you hurt because you encountered something furry while outdoors."

"Lily… please, if you mean what I think you do… don't tell anyone, please, just let me get my NEWTs, I've never harmed you, I won't ask anything else of you, but please let me get my NEWTs, OWLs aren't enough, and I'll understand if you want nothing to do with me, but for all the years we were friends –" Lily interrupted the frantic, quiet babble.

"Were friends? Remus, we are friends. I know all about your affliction, and you being ill makes no difference to me, except I'll have to take care of you every now and then."

Remus felt his eyes well with tears, but his ego threatened him with bodily harm and they didn't fall. He opened his mouth, found his throat choked and shut it again. He swallowed, and this time managed to breathe:

"Thank you," to Lily's expectant expression. She rolled her eyes.

"You're forgetting that I'm Muggle-born," she reminded him. "You being lycanthropic simply makes you sick in my eyes. It makes you an ill, human teenager, who needs a bit of help once a month, and trust me, I know what that feels like. I've got just the thing, too."

She swept her eyes from Remus' grateful, touched expression, and dug a hand into her pocket. From it she pulled a large bar of milk chocolate, which she opened and snapped a square off. She offered it to him, held loosely in her fingertips, so he stretched out the arm not trapped beneath him to take it and deposit it in his mouth. The pleasant taste of sugar, milk and cocoa flooded over his tongue as the square melted, and he could feel himself relaxing, his twinging muscles loosening enough for him to wriggle around onto his back and start to push his legs out over the arm of the chair. Unfortunately, his legs didn't get the memo, and remained uncomfortably curled above him.

"Owowowowowowowowww…" he groaned, trying to force his muscles to obey him. Lily laughed, handed him the chocolate, and reached up to gently pull his legs down onto the soft red fabric. Nimble fingers stroked his calves into relaxing as more chocolate-flavour flooded his mouth, and he let out a moan of mixed relief and pain just as Sirius stumbled through the portrait hole, arms laded with an assortment of foods. As he caught sight of them, his jaw dropped and the grin slid off his face.

"Evans?" he said incredulously. "Are you molesting Moo- Remus?"

Lily laughed, her hands not ceasing to knead at the blond boy's calves, knees and thighs. That combined with the chocolate earned her another moan, as one leg finally unbent enough to rest its weight on the arm. Her fingers moved to the other leg, and started working again as she replied,

"Of course not Black! I know you're the only one who's allowed to make Remus moan, after all." She shot him a wink, then laughed again as colour flooded his cheeks.

"Don't be ridiculous Evans," he snapped, his usually pristine image suddenly cracked. "But you know James fancies her, Remus, so don't go shagging on the sofa. And I brought you food, if you're up for it."

Remus wriggled a bit so he could see Sirius without removing his leg from Lily's soothing grasp. He passed Sirius a grateful smile, and lifted his arm.

"You could come and break the chocolate for me, or give Lily a hand," he told the dark-haired boy. "My muscles have solidified."

For a fraction of a second, Sirius' eyes were unreadable, but then he stepped forward and put his armful on the table, and the moment was gone. Remus held the chocolate out to Sirius, then whimpered as Lily hit a knot and dug her thumbs in. It was probably a good thing that Sirius was holding the chocolate then, because at that noise his grip tightened until his knuckles were white, and the bar snapped in two. The noise seemed to bring him back to himself, and he shot Remus a rueful grin as he broke off a smaller piece. But instead of handing Remus the chocolate square, Sirius held it to the smaller boy's lips, which wafted warm breath over his fingers as Remus spoke.

"This is the life," he sighed, eyes fluttering closed as he accepted the rich food, swallowed and continued. "Waited on hand and foot. A massage and chocolate, the perfect cure for cramps."

"Which you wouldn't have had if you hadn't spent the entire afternoon and evening curled in that chair and not moved at all," said Sirius cheerily, back to his usual happily teasing self.

Remus raised an eyebrow at him and opened his mouth to speak, only to find it occupied again with chocolate. His leg twitched, and a pained whimper escaped him as Lily dragged her fingers across the knot in his calf again, and suddenly Sirius was gone from his side, down to his legs, and Lily's delicate fingers were replaced by Sirius' powerful, masculine hands. They rubbed circles into the taut, wiry muscles of the smaller boy's leg, kneading gently and relaxing the limb. In turn, Lily's scent moved up towards his head, and a moment later she was visible again, her hand outstretched to drop a chocolate square into his open palm. When he crooked an eyebrow at her, she responded with a slight smirk and a murmured,

"I think he'd throttle me if I went anywhere near your mouth, so I'm not going to spoon-feed you."

Remus smiled in thanks, ate the chocolate (relishing the sweetness now coating his tongue) and shut his eyes. As he started to doze off again, he felt the hands leave his now limp legs and powerful arms push under his shoulders and knees to lift him against a firm chest. On instinct, he snuggled further into the arms, towards the warmth, and felt more than heard a breath catch.

"Careful Black, he's had a hard night and a tiring day."

The admonishment floated above him with a waft of flower-warm-friend scent. In reply, a moist breath washed over his head with the smell of approaching-storm-spice-fire-packmate, and the mournful words,

"You don't know the half of it Evans."

Remus frowned and burrowed further into the angular chest, pleased when the arms tightened around him, holding him close to that comforting heat.

"I think you'll find that I do, Black. I've known for just over a fortnight now, and you have nothing to fear from me."

As she spoke, the grip on Remus tightened to painful, and the boy let out a quiet whine.

"Sorry Moony," came the deeper voice of approaching-storm-spice-fire-packmate, and the arms loosened a little. "I'm glad to hear it Evans. We've protected him for three years now, and I'll be damned if we let a chit like you spoil things." Remus smiled as he heard the hint of Irish in Sirius' dialect, courtesy of Peter's teachings and adopted to irritate his parents. "Are you the only one, Evans? The only one who knows?"

As Lily replied, the arms shifted around Remus, bringing his head up so that when he cracked an eyelid open, he could see a stretch of pale collarbone where Sirius' shirt had been dragged down on one side. He wriggled a little to press his cool nose into the dip above the bone, and inhaled the heady scent of packmate-friend-fire-storm-rain-spice. The torso shuddered a little, and a slightly husky voice said,

"D'you want to go to bed, Moony? Alright." In a louder voice, he continued, "You're not too bad Evans. Keep your promise, like we've kept ours. I mean – thank you."

Then there was movement, up and down and slightly side to side with each step, and then he was rising, only for the movement to be stopped by Lily's hushed call.

"Take the chocolate, Black. It will help with the cramps and fatigue." There was a smile in her voice as she finished. "After all, chocolate cures all. Goodnight Black; sleep well, Remus."

A brush of warmth over his forehead, the almost imperceptible weight of a chocolate bar placed on his finally loosening abdomen, and her presence was gone. The climbing sensation returned, and with it the chest beside him heaved with exertion. When, an eternity and a split second later, Remus felt himself lowered into a soft, cosy warmth (bed, his drowsy mind reminded him), he automatically grabbed his shifting packmate, pulling him down beside him with surprising strength for someone semi-unconscious. Something snapped under Sirius' hip, but Remus just shuffled into a comfortable curl around his torso, his head resting on the gentle curve of muscle between Sirius' shoulder and rib-cage. Sleep claimed him.

Sirius froze, then relaxed as he realised what was happening, and after a moment's hip wiggling, he managed to extract the crushed chocolate bar and drop it on the bedside table. With the same arm, he dragged the curtains as shut as possible, then draped it over Remus' middle, pulled the werewolf in to himself, and settled down for the night.