The Keeper of the Keys
Remus Lupin saw her first on the platform of nine and three quarters. How could he have possibly missed her? That long red hair swinging around, catching the sunlight and his attention as he hugged his mother goodbye. "Everything will be alright, Remus," she assured him before bending down to whisper in his ear. "Professor Dumbledore has a place all set up for you. No one need know a thing." She caressed his cheek, the palm of her hand resting there for a moment as she kissed his forehead. Sending your eleven year old off to school, so far away from home, was difficult enough, but Mrs. Lupin couldn't help but feel that her apprehension was, perhaps, just a bit greater than the other mothers surrounding them.
Remus was embarrassed, but still pleased by his mother's display of affection. Mr. Lupin smiled and placed an encouraging hand on his sons shoulder. "Do your best. Study hard. Make lots of friends. We're proud of you son."
Remus next saw the girl on the train, told himself that he wasn't looking for her, not really, but there she was, sitting in a compartment next to one boy – another first year by the look of him- with stringy black hair and two other boys sitting on the opposite seat. The two boys on the left side of the compartment were talking animatedly, the one wearing glasses holding up his arm, fist lifted toward the ceiling. Remus moved on to find a quieter place for the journey, and heard hardy laughter drifting down the corridor behind him.
Three compartments down was nearly empty, just another first year boy, who was smaller than Remus and didn't look like he was eleven. Remus pushed the sliding door open and briefly met the other boy's eyes. The smaller boy looked away, out of the window, and Remus took that as acceptance. He stowed his trunk and settled in, pulling a thick book from his rucksack. He tried to settle in and spend the journey reading, but the butterflies in his stomach had other ideas.
The red headed girl came bounding in to his compartment followed closely by the black haired boy. She'd been crying, Remus noticed, looking up at their entrance and briefly meeting the girls startling green yet red rimed eyes. She gave him a weary smile in return, and sat down on the seat next to the smaller boy, who continued to watch the passing scenery speeding by the window as if he was alone in the compartment.
The black haired boy noticed the exchange between the girl and Remus and stiffened. Remus saw the movement and decided to turn his attention to his book.
The two newcomers began to talk, the boy more than she. She was muggle born, Remus guessed from their conversation. The boy was indeed a first year too but he was probably from a wizarding family, as he was telling Lily – he called her Lily – all about the school.
"Tell me about the ghosts again, Severus." So she'd already heard all about the school and the boy was talking to pass the time, to ease her nerves perhaps.
"There's a poltergeist too. His name is…" Severus' voice broke off, searching.
"Peeves," Remus offered when Severus came up short.
Severus shot him a nasty look and Remus, feeling somewhat abashed, tried to turn his attention once again to his book.
Lily glared at Severus then spoke kindly to Remus, engaging him in the conversation, "Tell me about Peeves," she encouraged. And then asked his opinions on the school houses. Severus became very silent and very still, only his eyes moved, darting back and forth between Lily and Remus as they spoke. The other boy in the compartment, the small one who didn't look eleven yet, still sat, staring out the window, but shifted slightly in his seat.
Hours later, after the sorting and after the feast; up in Gryffindor Tower, Remus caught sight of the flashing red hair again as it bobbed up the staircase to the girl's dorm. He thought no more about her as he made his way up to his own room to settle in and to meet the boys he'd be sharing a room with for the next 7 years. He hoped they'd get along.
Near Christmas, Lupin sat in the school library catching up on his homework.
Lily was a few tables down on his left. She'd been watching him for a few minutes when she suddenly got up, grabbed up her quill and her books and a few sheets of loose parchment and walked over to him. "You're welcome to look at my notes if you'd like."
"Sorry?"
"Transfiguration notes. I noticed you weren't in class for a few days, and thought my notes might be…" she paused looking for the right words "more detailed than what your friends might have."
"Thanks," Remus said softly and took the parchment from her. "It's my mother, she's not well, and I go home to visit," he offered a quiet explanation.
Lily tilted her head to one side, her brow furrowed. "I'm sorry to hear that," she pulled out the chair next to him and sat down. "Is it serious?"
"Er," Remus faltered. No one had ever asked about his mothers fabricated condition before. Anyone he'd mentioned it to in response of their questioning his absence would just move on in conversation. "Not entirely, no." And he breathed a sigh of relief when she accepted this.
It was in their third year when she realized that it wasn't a sick mother at home that had him missing class each month.
He'd fallen asleep in one of the armchairs in front fireplace in the Gryffindor common room, his Charms homework on his lap. The full moon had just passed, leaving Remus exhausted. His transformation took its toll, but so did all the catching up he had to do in its aftermath. Most months he didn't begin to feel fully rested until the week preceding the next full moon, when the cycle began all over again.
He was in the midst of a confusing nonsensical dream, the kind that came with spending part of your life as a monster, when he felt a hand gently caressing the top of his head.
Remus woke with a start, at once thinking of James or Sirius and some new hex they'd discovered, when he saw that it was Lily standing over him, touching his head. He blinked up at her, the beginnings of a smile on his lips as his startled heart beat eased back into its normal rhythm, when he realized there was an odd expression on her face.
A mixture of sorrow and regret shone in her wet eyes and that was very different from anything he'd ever seen there before.
Her right hand was still on his head, and in her left, he realized, was a book. Lying open on her forearm, her fingers at the top of the page, marking her place. There was a hand drawn illustration of a furious looking werewolf on the left page of the book and with a jolt he realized she'd been reading their Defense Against the Dark Arts text book. A chapter he knew by heart. Could have recited it word for word, he'd read it so often. The chapter listed the signs and symptoms of lycanthropy.
His eyes flickered up from the book and he saw she'd been watching him piece it together. When her eyes met his, he knew in that instant that she had figured out his secret. He saw not fear in her emerald eyes, nor pity, but such a deeply painful sorrow that Remus couldn't help but feel a little sorry for her.
She never said anything to him, only continued to hand her notes to him after each full moon and he never saw anything in her eyes but kindness.
At the beginning of their fifth year, Remus had a secret. Or another secret, one the Marauders didn't know, and he dreaded their inevitability finding out. The teasing would be relentless.
James and Sirius had arrived together, it seemed, they stood at about the middle of the train, chatting, and greeting friends in the crowd, asking about summers and who the new DADA teacher might be. Remus approached them with a smile. He'd missed his friends.
They'd only begun catching up when Remus saw the flash of long red hair that announced Lily Evans arrival back to the wizarding world as if a siren going off. She was followed quickly by the sour faced, greasy haired Severus Snape. Remus glanced quickly to James; he hadn't noticed Lily's presence just yet, engaged in animated conversation with Mary McDonnell about the Quidditch World Cup that had taken place over the summer.
Remus' eyes flew back to Lily, who was still standing next to Severus. Her emerald eyes flashed across the platform, landing on him, Remus, and she smiled and waved, then placed a hand on Severus' arm saying something to him, and left him behind as she walked toward the three Marauders.
"It's you, isn't it?" She said still smiling at Remus.
"Hello there Evans, good summer?" James hand flew to his hair, the conversation with Mary McDonnell forgotten.
Lily ignored him. Sirius laughed a short bark like laugh.
"It is, isn't it?" She prodded Remus again.
"Sorry?" Remus thought he knew what Lily was talking about, but was still hoping for a peaceful, non teasing train ride to school.
"Prefect!" Lily said simply. "Come on now, you know you've got the badge. Let's see it then."
Remus glanced at his fellow Marauders. Both James and Sirius looked amused, but not at all surprised. "Don't worry 'bout us mate," Sirius began, "we've known for a while you were the good one." Sirius smirked at his own joke.
"Yeah, Mooney" James interjected, "we're having too much fun to give it up to be Prefect." The two dark haired boys glanced at each other and began to laugh.
Lily, still ignoring them, threaded her arm through Remus' "Let's get our things loaded onto the train, and go down to the Prefect car!" And without waiting for a reply, she started off. Remus, happily, obliged.
Peter Pettigrew fell in love with Lily Evans the moment she sat down next to him on their first trip on the Hogwarts Express. He pretended to not notice she was there, kept his eyes on the scenery whizzing past the window, but he was very much aware of her presence. The ugly boy she'd walked into the compartment with called her Lily.
Lily, Peter thought. How beautiful. How delicate. How appropriate. She even smelled like a flower, he thought, and shifted slightly in his seat so that the scent of her shampoo could waft over him.
He listened to her talk to the other boy, the one who'd come in first, and heard her say she thought she'd quiet like to be in Gryffindor, but that Ravenclaw sounded like a good option too.
And then later, Peter watched from the crowd of first years in the Great Hall as Lily sat on the stool in front of everyone with that old brown hat on her head that shouted loudly "Gryffindor!" and the table of Gryffindors cheered as she ran to join them.
When Peters turn came, he chanted over and over in his head Gryffindor, Gryffindor, Gryffindor. It was a few moments of debate before the hat agreed with him, for there was courage in him, and Peter, his heart racing with joy and terror alike, walked toward the table, where he too, was greeted with cheers, his eyes on the salt and pepper shakers sitting in front of Lily, simply so he could see her without looking at her.
James and Sirius weren't exactly the friends to him that they were to each other, or even to Remus. Peter knew this, and accepted it. He was the runt of the group, a kind of mascot. And even, as their powers strengthened and their reputation grew; a kind of practice dummy. They would come across some long forgotten hex in an old book or a new one making its rounds through the students, and try it out on an unsuspecting Peter. Usually, as soon as whichever had placed the hex had removed it, and Peter relaxed and returned to whatever interrupted activity he was doing, the other would place the same hex, the two of the doubling over in a second round of laughter. Peter would laugh along with them, because life was easier in their shadow. And when James would turn his attention on Lily, Peter was able to look at her unnoticed by anyone from behind James' back.
One dreary January Saturday evening in their fifth year, the Marauders lazed about the Gryffindor common room, Peter lying on the floor on his stomach just in front of the fire, a book lying open in front of him. His eyes moved quickly and often from the book to the set of table and chairs on the other side of the room, where Lily sat doing her homework. James and Remus both sat in squashy armchairs, one on each side of the fireplace, James near Peter's feet, Remus near his head. James too had an unobstructed view of Lily. Sirius lay draped across the sofa that sat in between the two chairs James and Remus occupied.
"We should be upstairs practicing," Sirius said in a voice so low that only the three boys near him would hear. "He still needs work," Sirius waved a hand, gesturing toward the floor where Peter lay.
"Not just yet, Padfoot." James said in a voice equally quiet and glanced across the room toward the table and chairs. Peter stole a quick look too; Lily's head was bent over the two books lying open in front of her, the quill in her hand racing across the parchment. James' hand flew to his hair, and he raked his fingers through it.
"Oh, come on Prongs, we won't be able to go until he gets it right." They'd made a pact, similar to one in an old muggle book James had a few read years ago. 'One for all.' None of them would go with Remus until all of them could. Then in a louder voice, hoping his lack of discretion would spurn them all upstairs, Sirius said, "You want to go, don't you Wormtail?" Sirius shook his long hair from out of his eyes.
Peter opened his mouth, about to agree with James that they should stay right where they were, when a grunt of frustration came from the other side of the room. All four boys looked up, Remus turned in his armchair, one arm draped across its back. Sirius half rose from the sofa. Lily was staring at them with murder in her eyes. It was a look they'd come to know well.
"Oh no," Remus said quietly and turned around, glancing at James before pretending to burry himself back in his homework.
"Well hello there Evans," James said brightly, as if just realizing she was in the room.
Lily ignored him and fixed her eyes on Sirius. "Why do you call him that?" Sirius sat the rest of the way up, planting his feet on the floor. His hand drifted almost casually toward his wand.
"Wha-"
"Wormtail!" Lily all but shouted at Sirius. "That is not his name; it's a horrible thing to call him." She stood and slammed both books shut. "Wormtail…" she muttered to herself and then looked again to Sirius. "His name is Peter!" Grabbing up her belongings, she stomped her way up the stairs to the girl's dormitories.
"Wow," James said softly, a dazed smile on his face.
Wow Peter thought to himself. She knows my name.
Then, in seventh year, it all changed. James had lost both his parents to illness that summer. That coupled with the stirrings of the coming war had changed him. He showed up on the platform, greeted his friends with all the enthusiasm of the old James, but something was defiantly different. Peter watched, dumfounded, as Lily walked by, and not only did James not obnoxiously grab at Lily's attention, he didn't rumple up his hair either.
It was a few feet past the Marauders when Peter saw Lily stop in her tracks and glance back at them, as if waiting. A curious eyebrow cocked, she stayed like that for a brief moment, until Mary McDonnell called her name and rushed up to hug her.
Lily did not go as unnoticed as Peter had assumed. As she hugged Mary, James reached into his rucksack and pulled something out, buffed it on the leg of his jeans, and pinned it to his shirt. His eyes were on Lily the entire time.
"There it is," Sirius said with only a bit of sarcasm. "It only took you, hmmm, five minutes." He checked his watch mockingly.
"Head boy?" Peter was astounded. "How did you get to be Head Boy?"
"Congratulations Prongs," Remus shook his friends hand with a genuine smile.
Lily had heard the commotion and turned. Peter, watching her from the corner of his eye, noticed something that had escaped his attention a moment ago. The Head Girl badge pinned to her light cardigan. Lily walked with a determined pace right up to James and peered questioningly at his badge. "You?" She turned and looked at Remus. "But I thought you would..." turning back to James she studied the badge even closer, as if trying to determine if it was genuine. Peter stepped closer, and the honey scent of Lily's shampoo filled him.
Lily seemed to have realized the badge was, indeed, real. With a final glare at James, she gave a harrumph like sound, turned her back on him and stalked away toward the train.
Grinning, James messed up his hair.
James didn't ask Lily out until October. Then one afternoon, while waiting for Potions class to begin, talk of the first Hogsmeade weekend filled the air around them. James, his feet up on the desk, balancing his chair on only it's two back legs, casually asked, almost out of habit, if Lily would like to accompany him into the village that coming Saturday.
"Alright," Lily said and smiled at her Potions book, while Mary and Alice, in the seats in front of Lily, turned simultaneously, and gaped at her.
James' feet fell of the desk and his chair slammed forward. "What?" He looked at Sirius, and then at Remus "What did she say?"
"I said ok, I will go to Hogsmeade with you." Lily answered, feeling her cheeks grow hot. "That is," she glanced at him over her shoulder. "If you were really asking me."
"Uh, yeah." He cleared his throat. "That is, yes. Yes I was really asking. It's a date then," he grinned. And as Professor Slughorn came into the classroom, and the students settled in, Sirius slapped James on the back, Remus smiled at him.
Peter folded his arms on the stack of books in front of him, and put his head down. None of the other three Marauders noticed.
The End
A/N: Thank you for reading, and please look for the next story in my project Diagon Alley.