"Remus Lupin," Lily snarled angrily, "where are you taking me?"
Remus didn't reply. Instead, he tightened his grip on Lily's hand and continued to drag her down the abandoned 7th floor corridor. Lily tried to dig her feet into the ground, but Remus was stronger and easily kept her moving.
"If I had my wand on me," she said, "you would —"
"You're wasting your breath, Lily," Remus cut her off. His voice was quiet and steady; clearly pulling her through the hallway wasn't taking much effort on his part.
She let out a deep sigh, and then complained, "How dare you! How dare you trick me out of bed and then kidnap me in my bloody pajamas. I would've expected this from Sirius or James — maybe even Peter! But, Remus —"
"Lily, please," Remus said levelheadedly, "keep your voice down. I think there are a couple of Slytherins on patrol tonight who would be more than happy to take house points from us both."
"Well you would certainly deserve it," she huffed, though her voice was admittedly quieter.
"I know this is terribly rude of me, Lily."
"You're right," she agreed haughtily. "Thank you for admitting it."
"I'll stop dragging you if you agree to walk with me," Remus said conversationally.
"I really don't think I owe you that."
"You're right," he affirmed. "But wouldn't you be more comfortable?"
"Yes, alright," she said. She relaxed herself so that she was no longer pulling against Remus's grip, and in turn he dropped her hand. As soon as her hands were free, she crossed them over her chest in a display of indignation.
"I'm not trying to start any fights, Lily," Remus said. "I promise."
"I just don't understand. You know me, Remus. You know that if you had asked me to follow you, I would have done so without question."
Remus scoffed. "Lily —"
"Alright," she ameliorated herself, "there would have been questions, but I would have come!"
Remus chuckled lightly. "I know," he said. "I'm sorry. You've probably already figured this out, but this wasn't my plan."
"James?" she guessed through a sigh.
"Sirius, actually," Remus answered. Lily's eyes widened a bit, curious about what exactly was going on. "And part of my directions were to get you here wandless and a little bit angry."
Lily stopped walking and waited for a moment for Remus to join her in a standstill. "I'm sorry," Lily said, "I'm afraid I need you to go over this with me. Sirius asked you to kidnap me, make sure I was vulnerable, and —"
"Not quite," Remus interrupted. "He didn't say I had to kidnap you. But if I had asked you to go, you wouldn't have been flustered enough. You'd have grabbed your wand, and the whole plan would've fallen apart."
Remus turned back around on his heel and started walking again.
"Not so fast!" Lily burst. "Tell me what I'm getting into here, Remus."
Remus turned his head over his shoulder and beckoned to her. "Walk with me," he said. "We'll talk."
Lily rolled her eyes, but she heeded Remus's instructions. "I'm listening," she prompted after a quiet moment.
"Sirius has it in his head that you don't like him."
"Gosh! I wonder why that would be."
Remus gave her a playful nudge in the side. "We both know you would do anything for him," Remus said.
"Of course I would," she answered easily. "But just because I love him doesn't mean I have to like him. Especially not when he's coercing you into making me break curfew."
"Bear with him," Remus said. "He's trying to do something uncharacteristically nice."
"I'm trusting you," Lily said firmly.
"As you should," Remus answered.
The two walked on, though Lily lagged behind. When she was starting to drift further back than Remus was comfortable with, he reached his hand back for her to grab.
Lily tentatively reached forward, and the two continued on with cupped hands. Just when Lily had picked up to a reasonable pace, Remus stopped her short.
"Are we here?" she asked dryly, looking around the empty corridor in order to discern if there was something she was missing.
"Just a minute," Remus said, turning around and walking back in the direction from where they had come, "but I appreciate your newfound enthusiasm."
"Enthusiasm. Apathy. Same difference, really."
"Come now, Lily, none of that!" Remus stopped walking and turned them around again.
"Remus, what are you doing?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, why are we walking in circles?"
Remus looked to her and beamed. "James hasn't snuck you up here?" he questioned. "Really? I thought for sure…" He trailed off and finished with, "You're in for a treat."
"I don't understand," Lily said.
Remus's reply was to tug her in the opposite direction again.
"Remus, what —"
Lily's words died in her mouth as she was faced with the sudden appearance of a large, welcoming door.
Remus dropped Lily's hand and gestured ahead. "After you."
She tossed him a hesitant glance, but then proceeded forward. With a little bit of effort, Lily opened the door and was faced with the least magical room she had ever seen.
There was a large tube television set pressed against the wall with a series of recliners facing it. Atop the television was a stack of brand new VHS tapes and a very clunky VCR.
In the back of the room, there was a record player with more 78s than Lily could possibly name.
The furniture in the room was nothing like the ancient furniture in the rest of the castle. Instead, everything was patterned in bright plaids and hideous florals. Even the room itself had loud patterned wallpaper, clashing nicely with a thick shag carpet.
In three of the recliners facing the television sat James, Sirius, and Peter. Each was holding a bowl of popcorn; but, more importantly, they each were decked out entirely in muggle clothing.
"What is all of this?" Lily said, so taken aback that she was unable to step further into the room.
Remus nudged her forward, and as she took a shaky step Sirius launched out of his recliner.
"Miss Evans," he stated, approaching her with his bowl of popcorn still in hand, "I would like to welcome you to the Room of Requirement."
"Room of Requirement?" she repeated dumbly. Her attention was primarily being held by the room's décor.
"It becomes whatever the creator needs," Sirius filled in. "And James mentioned that you needed a bit of home."
"Oh," Lily breathed out. Her hand sprung up to her mouth, and suddenly she was holding back tears.
"Oi, Evans, no need for that! I thought — well, I know that we don't always see eye to eye on things, but I wanted you to know that I do care what's important to you. We all do."
Lily nodded her head, but she still wasn't able to speak.
"Out with it, Evans," Sirius urged her. "Are you tweaked?"
Lily shook her head back and forth quickly. "No," Lily said softly. "Are you daft? This is so sweet." She tossed Remus an unhappy glance and muttered, "The means of getting me here was a little unnecessary —"
"Part of the fun, love," James called from his recliner. "Now, would you stop being sentimental and come in here? Sirius was disgustingly thorough about this."
"I can see that," she said, ignoring James's suggestion and instead approaching the wall. She reached her hand up and stroked the wallpaper. "It matches my living room," she said to no one in particular.
"James helped me with the research," Sirius said with a shrug.
"But Sirius," she said, spinning around to face him, "I still don't get it. Where did this come from?"
"Don't worry about it," he said, walking over to her and thrusting his bowl of popcorn into her hands. "Instead, worry about showing us what it's like to be muggleborn. Just for a night. Movie marathon, and junk food, and whatever else you get up to when you're home. Now, go. Sit. Relax."
Lily rolled her eyes, but she followed Sirius's pointed look towards the open recliner between Remus and James. She'd been so preoccupied by what was going on that she hadn't even noticed Remus sit.
James beckoned her over, and she followed willingly, if not a little bit confused.
As Lily went to sit down, Sirius approached the television. She was more than a little amused by how much effort he was putting into figuring out the VCR, but she had more pressing matters at hand.
"James," she whispered, pressing her lips against her boyfriend's ear. Her words would've been drowned out by Peter's heckling Sirius, but she kept her voice quiet anyway. "This is sweet. So sweet. But what —"
James turned his head, causing Lily to stop speaking. In turn, he pressed his lips to her ear. "He feels bad that you get isolated from us sometimes. He wants you to feel like you're at home here."
This time when Lily moved her head, it was so that she could press her lips to James's. Of course she felt like she was at home. They were her home. They were all she needed.