A/N Nothing belongs to me, of course. Enjoy, and any reviews (positive or negative) are appreciated!
02/2018, edited to fix some grammar mistakes.
Remus Lupin had a lot of work to do. Herbology, Transfiguration, Ancient Runes, Care of Magical Creatures... He scolded himself inwardly for not getting it all done before the full moon, but realistically he hadn't expected to spend so long in the Hospital Wing. He rarely stayed more than a day or two since his three closest friends became animagus, which stopped him getting so injured at the full moon. But somehow, last time, despite James, Peter and Sirius's best efforts he had ended up pretty battered. So he was really behind on his homework. He probably shouldn't be even wasting precious time on having any dinner, he reflected, but he wasn't given much choice in the matter.
"Come on Moony, if you don't go for dinner the homework will rot your brain," Sirius had insisted and Remus, after both a particularly tiring full moon and an entire Sunday of homework, had been far too weary to resist.
He picked at his potatoes in a rather morose fashion, sighing as he thought of the mounds of homework he had left to complete. It was going to be a long night.
"I don't even get why you're bothering, Remus. The teachers will let you off. They'd let you get away with anything."
Remus rolled his eyes at Sirius's ignorance.
"But then I'll fail my NEWTs," he said, his fragile patience beginning to wear thin.
"Nerd," muttered Sirius.
Remus shot him a venomous look.
"Just because I actually care about NEWTs..."
James cut him off quickly. The combined stress of the full moon and upcoming exams meant that Remus had been very snappish recently, and he knew it wouldn't be long until he was screaming Sirius's head off.
"Moony, NEWTs aren't important anyway," said James, in what he hoped was a reassuring fashion. After all, an angry Remus was not a pleasant Remus.
"Yes, they are! They affect what job you can apply for and everything! They're really, really important! We'll never get a job if we fail our NEWTs ! Ever!"
Remus was talking so loudly a few heads had turned and were staring at him curiously. With a swish of a cloak, a bat-like Slytherin swept by. Severus Snape. He muttered, just loud enough for the Marauders to hear: "Well seeing as you'll never get a job anyway..."
He let the sentence hang and walked off, a smug sneer on his lips.
James and Sirius narrowed their eyes and curled their hands into fists under the table. Remus went very pale.
"How dare he ..." said James through clenched teeth.
"You can't blame him for saying what's true can you?" said Remus, flustered. "I need to go and study."
He dashed off, leaving behind his bag with all his homework in. Peter, James and Sirius exchanged glances. Careers where a very touchy subject for Remus. Last time the topic had been brought up it had not ended well.
"How does Snape do it?" asked James, a note of awe in his voice. "Remus never gets upset like that, unless Snape is involved. He knows all the right things to say to get him worked up."
Sirius merely shrugged.
"You can't deny Snivellus is smart."
Remus had known it of course. But to hear it said like that... He wasn't ever going to get a job. He was going to leave Hogwarts to enter a world where everyone hated him. He sat down at his usual table at the back of the library and grabbed a random book off the shelf.
"Fail these exams Moony, and you stand even less of a chance," he said aloud.
Just then, in a blur of flame red hair, Lily Evans sat down next to him.
"Who you talking to?" she asked teasingly. "Talking to yourself is the first sign-"
"Of madness, I know," finished Remus. "Sirius is probably right. Maybe the homework is melting my brain."
"Your book's upside down," she pointed out politely. Remus flushed and pushed it aside.
"I was actually going to revise…" he looked down at his feet and saw his bag was not there.
"Oh."
Lily gave him a sympathetic smile.
"I need to ask you a favour," she began. "You know our Defense homework?"
"What defence homework?" said Remus startled. Not another piece of homework!
"Remus, relax. The presentation, remember? You did it ages ago."
Remus sighed with relief. Yes, he remembered that. He had done it weeks ago. Each member of the class had been given a dark creature to research and write a presentation on. Remus had been thrilled when he was given Boggarts. His father studied boggarts for a living and was considered to be among the world's most informed experts on the creatures. Throughout his childhood, Remus's father was only too happy to talk about boggarts in length to his curious son, which meant Remus was pretty knowledgeable on the subject. And he had even been able to get his dad to check over his presentation.
"Oh yeah. Now I remember."
"Well, I've been looking for you for days actually. But you've been sick, haven't you?"
"Full moon," explained Remus shortly.
"Oh. I should've realised," said Lily, embarrassed. Remus shook his head, indicating she was forgiven. Lily carried on. "Well, it was about that actually. My project. I mean I got… The creature, well not really creature, but the…"
"You got werewolves?" interrupted Remus. Lily blushed slightly.
"I… well… Yes," she said finally.
"And you want to know if I would help?"
"If you'd just check it over I'd be grateful. It's just a lot of the books I've been reading have been highly prejudiced and pretty useless. I think managed to get some truth from them but…"
"Give it here," said Remus kindly. "Any excuse to put off my homework."
Lily passed over her essay and watched anxiously as Remus read it, his face as unreadable as ever. But when he finished, he broke into an enormous grin.
"Wow Lily," he said breathlessly. "I would hug you right now but James would kill me."
Lily laughed. "You liked it?"
"It was amazing. Absolutely amazing. Thank you"
"No problem. Did I make any mistakes?"
Remus looked down at the parchment. His brow furrowed.
"A few," he said slowly. "But I don't think anyone but me would notice them. You did a really good job considering the rubbish books you had to work from."
"What mistakes?" asked Lily eagerly, wanting her essay to be perfect "Will you go through it for me?"
"OK. Right, so the mind doesn't actually transform as such..."
"Why are you looking so happy?" demanded Sirius as soon as Remus climbed through the portrait hole into the common room.
"None of your business," he responded, grinning.
Sirius and James exchanged glances.
"Looks like a cheering charm," murmured Sirius.
"Maybe… But perhaps not," mused James. "He looks more like he's just pulled a prank."
"Without us!" exclaimed Sirius. "The traitor!"
"I'd keep an eye open tomorrow," concluded James.
"Thank you, Mr Lupin, for that really interesting speech. You obviously know a lot about boggarts. A really exemplary effort. If only others…" His gaze lingered over James, Sirius and Peter, "Tried as hard. Finally, we have Lily Evans. Her speech is about" he consulted a list, "Ah, yes. Werewolves."
Sirius, James and Peter expected Remus to look fearful or embarrassed but were surprised to see him fighting a grin.
Lily stood up and walked to the front of the class. She straightened her parchment and began to read.
"For this speech, I will be asking the question, do werewolves deserve the bad press and prejudice they face?" she began and Sirius looked over to see Remus had finally lost the battle with his grin and was smiling so hard it looked painful. Fortunately, Sirius was the only one looking. Everyone else was absorbed in Lily's speech.
"So in conclusion, it is wrong to judge Werewolves on their Lycanthropy alone. Becoming a Werewolf is something that could happen to any one of us and we need to build a society where Lycanthropy is treated as the disease it is, and not with prejudice and the ill-founded belief that werewolves are less trustworthy or responsible than any of us. In fact, by believing that werewolves are violent we force them to live on the outskirts of society, the so-called feral werewolves would not be driven to such extremes if society was more welcoming," she finished, before sitting down amidst enthusiastic applause from the Marauders, her face flushed with success.
They left the classroom amidst whispers of "I never thought about werewolves like that before." and "Maybe I have been a little judgemental." They saw Remus, looking more cheerful than he had in years, listening to these comments with a content smile on his face.
"Lily is some girl, James," said Sirius quietly. James could only agree as he looked at his friend smiling so happily.
It was moments like these where Remus was filled with hope. He was always going to be a Werewolf, but maybe there would be a time where that wasn't such a bad thing. And so it was a much happier Remus Lupin who went and joined his best friends for lunch.
A/N Thanks for reading! I am always happy to get feedback, so please review!