A/N: Have you guys ever noticed that life sometimes gets in the way of living? That's kind of been me over the past few months. I started writing this a while ago, intending to post it around the same time I posted the last chapter of my 2nd Gen story Rose's Turn and my two other HP oneshots. Anyways, I've always loved marrying book cannon with movie cannon, and the line from the Prisoner of Azkaban movie, "Your mother was there for me in a time when no one else was," inspired me to write this in a way that it could make it cannon in both the books and movies. Enjoy.
Lily Evans was not a stupid girl, and she resented anyone who thought she was.
At first, she believed the story that her classmate, Remus Lupin, was ill. After all, it was hard to believe anything else. The first week of school, he looked positively dreadful, with dark circle under his eyes and pale, chalky skin. At other times, he seemed to be like any other eleven year old boy – albeit a little scruffier. And then he would get worse again, almost as though in a cycle.
That was the first thing Lily noticed, that his illness seemed to work on a cycle. He always seemed to grow sick gradually over a week, until it reached its peak, and began to die down. Most of their classmates wondered how it was that Remus could stay in class, as he looked as if he might pass out when the symptoms were at their worst. And yet, no one questioned anything. No one but Lily.
Perhaps it was because she was raised by Muggles, but Lily thought it quite odd that Remus's illness seemed so much like clockwork, and so she did the only thing she could think of to do: she went to the school's extensive library to search for the answer to what ailed her classmate.
She searched through book after book of magical illnesses and maladies to no avail. She considered asking Sev, who had grown up with at least his mother, who was a witch, but she was worried what would happen if it turned out to be something bad. How would the other students treat Remus if his illness was something terrible? And so Lily contented herself with her own studies.
That is, until she came across a book which gave the descriptions of an illness which happened on a cycle, which caused the sickly, run down appearance that Remus exhibited.
No, Lily thought to herself in shock, staring at the page in front of her. No. It can't be.
On the page was the diagram of a wolf and a man, under the worn, spindly title WEREWOLF.
"Hey, Lily," a voice suddenly asked from behind, causing Lily to jump and nearly snap the book shut. "What are you doing?"
"Oh, nothing," Lily told Severus as he pulled put a chair next to her. "Just reading."
"Werewolves?" Sev asked as she calmly closed the heavy volume. "Dark creatures, they are. Completely lose their minds when they transform. They'd kill their best friend if they met. What are you looking them up for?"
Lily gave him a smile. "No reason. I was just reading through Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and thought I would look them up further. There's still so much about this world that I don't understand."
Sev gave her a playful nudge. "Well, you could have just asked me, silly."
"I know," she said. "I just wanted to look it up myself. Gives me more experience with this library. It's huge."
"That's true," Sev reasoned. "Well, if you need anything from me, I'll be in Professor Slughorn's office. I had a question about the instructions in our potions book. I think I know a way to make it easier."
She grinned at him. "That's just like you, Severus Snape. Always trying to make the potions geniuses look like idiots." She gave him a quick hug. "I'll see you later."
"Bye, Lily!" he said, dashing away.
As soon as he was out of sight, Lily sighed and opened the book again.
That was close, Lily thought as she scanned the page again. Everything seemed to fit Remus perfectly. The fatigue he exhibited, the cuts and bruises, the cycle of illness. Everything fit. But she couldn't confront him yet. She needed a little more proof.
She copied down a few pieces of crucial information on a spare bit of parchment from her pocket and stowed it away in her cloak, and headed back to the Gryffindor common room. Christmas break was fast approaching, and, based on Remus's recent healthy appearance, the full moon had already come to pass. As she walked, she pulled out the astronomy star chart and lunar calendar and scanned the dates of the moon's cycle. It was a blue moon this month, she saw, but the next full moon was two days before term began, so Lily would just have to wait until the end of January to put her theory to the test. January 30th, to be exact.
OoOoO
The entire month of January, Lily could hardly look Remus in the eye.
Coming back from the Christmas holidays, Remus looked healthy, but with the healing cuts and slightly yellowing bruises that told Lily that the full moon was just a few days before. From what she'd read, werewolves were really taboo in the wizarding world. There wasn't a cure, there was nothing to halt the symptoms, and there was no protecting yourself from the disease if you got bit. But Remus Lupin didn't seem like a bad person, besides having an obvious lack of judgment when it came to his friends, like the vile James Potter and Sirius Black. He was extremely smart, neck and neck with Lily herself for the title of best in their year, something that the Ravenclaw students all loathed. He was very humble and kind on the occasions that Lily had spoken to him. He even attempted at times to keep his aweful friends in check, though those times were few and far between, and the times they actually listened to him were even rarer.
And then, about a week until the full moon was scheduled to arrive, he began to look pale and sallow again. Lily prayed that she was wrong about him being a werewolf, but the odds seemed highly staked against her.
On January 30th, the day of the full moon, Remus was looking his worst.
He, James, Sirius, and Peter Pettigrew, another boy who absolutely adored Potter and Black, sat around the fire in the Gryffindor common room as Lily discreetly examined her notes on werewolves. Remus was peaky and shaky and looked as though he might faint if he made too sudden of a move. The faint, nearly unnoticeable scars that adorned his face stood out against his chalky parlor. Carefully tucking the papers in her cloak, she stood and walked over to the group, where James and Sirius were playing a rather loud game of Exploding Snap as Peter cheered them both on and Remus leaned his head precariously on the side of his chair.
"Lupin, I was just wondering how you were planning on tackling that essay that Binns assigned," she started, and then stopped, as if she had only just realized that state he was in. "Oh, Remus, you're not looking very well!" she said with concern. "Maybe you should go see Madam Pomfrey."
Remus nodded weakly. "I was planning to go soon," he rasped out.
"Good," Lily nodded. "I'd hate for you to be anything less than on your game for that Charms test on Wednesday."
Remus gave her a small nod and stood hesitantly, slowly making his way out the portrait hole while Potter, Black, and Pettigrew shouted their get wells to him.
A feeling of ice-cold dread washed over Lily as she walked away from the warm fire and up to her dormitory.
She had her proof.
OoOoO
Sure enough, the next day Remus returned to class with the other students at Hogwarts, covered with cuts and bruises, looking a little tired and worn out, but otherwise healthy. He even had the entire class of Hogwarts first years in a clamor that he had cheated on his Charms test that Wednesday, as no one could believe that he could possibly had achieved the grade he'd gotten with as sick as he had been. He argued with the other students, telling them that he didn't cheat, but no one believed him. Lily did, though. She knew that he would have revised for the test even if he was on his deathbed.
Lily devised her plan, and on Friday after classes, she put it into action.
The first year Gryffindors and Ravenclaws were making their way from the Transfiguration classroom to the Great Hall for dinner, and Remus, James, Sirius, and Peter walked together, though only Potter and Black seemed to really being having a conversation. Remus was just half listening as he examined his latest essay while Peter hung on their every word, nodding enthusiastically.
With reflexes like a snake, Lily grabbed Remus's arm and yanked him into an empty classroom.
"I know the truth," Lily said with determination as the door shut.
"Look, I'm telling you Lily, I didn't cheat on that Charms test!" he begged.
She had been prepared for him to deny being a werewolf, not that.
"The Charm's test? No! Not that! I know you didn't cheat on the test," she told him. "I know what you are."
Remus froze in shock, and his face seemed to pale, causing the cuts on his face to stand out even more. After a split second he tried to recover, forcing his face into what he thought was a neutral mask, but the damage was already done.
"I don't know what you're talking about," he said defensively.
Lily rolled her eyes. "I know that you're a werewo –"
"Shhhh! Keep your voice down!" Remus said in a hushed tone, pulling Lily as far away from the door as he possibly could. "Just… okay. Okay. So you know. Just… I know you must hate me… who doesn't hate a werewolf?… but could you please not tell anyone?" A desperate look crept into his eyes. He was begging Lily not to say anything.
"Why would I hate you?" she asked, astonished. "I don't hate you! Sure, I might not exactly love the company you keep, or the fact that you beat me on that Charms test, but I don't hate you!"
"I know but –" he began, before he paused again, finally hearing what she'd said. "Wait," he said, backtracking. "You don't hate me?"
Lily laughed at the absurdity. "Of course I don't hate you! Just because you're a were –"
"Shhh!"
"– wolf," she continued, lowering her voice again, "doesn't mean that I hate you! You're still just Remus Lupin, the boy who gets the highest marks in the class and hangs around with dolts like James Potter and Sirius Black!"
"But everyone hates werewolves," Remus insisted. "We're dangerous and uncontrollable and deadly! If it weren't for Professor Dumbledore, I wouldn't have even been allowed in Hogwarts, and if anyone figures out what I am, the parents will be in a rage, and not only will I be kicked out, but chances are, so will Dumbledore. No one can know, Lily. No one."
And Lily just smiled at him. "I know, Remus. And I would never tell anyone about you. You can trust me, Remus. I'll always be here for you. Even if you are friends with the likes of James Potter and Sirius Black."
"Do you really mean that?" he asked, slightly in awe that Lily could be so kind and understanding about his illness.
She gave him a quick little hug. "No matter what happens, Remus, you can talk to me. I'll always be there for you, as long as you ask. Always."
And with that, the two walked out of the classroom and to their separate lives. But Remus knew that Lily would always be there for her when no one else was. That was just the kind of girl she was, the kind of girl she'd always be. Always.
A/N: Please pardon any grotesque spelling or grammar issues, as I didn't run it through with my beta before deciding to post it. If you're one of my readers from Rose's Turn, I'm sorry I haven't updated in forever. I have a new chapter in the works, but life kind of got in the way. If you enjoy my writing style, go ahead and check out my other two HP oneshots – Picking up the Pieces (a post-war Hermione and Ron fic) and Sorting Victory (a 2nd Gen fic about Victoire Weasley's sorting) – and my multi-chapter fic, Rose's Turn (a 2nd Gen fic centralized around Rose Weasley, Scorpius Malfoy, Albus Potter, and Lucy Weasley). As always, please review. It really helps to keep my spirits up. And more reviews equals more work in the future!