With a Little Help From My Friends; A Remus Lupin One-Shot

Rating: K

"Sirius did what?"

James shuffled his feet. Remus sighed, annoyed. The news had obviously come as quite a shock to the mild-mannered werewolf. He had known Sirius disliked Severus Snape, and everyone knew that Sirius quite often lacked foresight, but this…

"He could get sent to Azkaban!" Remus continued.

James sighed. "Yeah, I know that, Moony. I can't believe it myself, and I'm the one who saved Snivellus's arse."

"He could have died!" Remus seemed to think for a second and then froze, eyes wide. "I could have died! You could have died!"

"Try telling that to Sirius."

"Snape had a wand… the three of us could be dead right now, James!"

"I know," James said calmly. "But we're not."

"Which is pure luck."

"But it's what happened, luck or not. I talked to Dumbledore, he's certain you won't get expelled or anything, Moony."

"And Sirius?"

"Snape needs to keep his mouth shut, and Sirius is banned from Hogsmeade all year, detentions every Saturday until the end of the year at least."

"That's not what I meant," Remus said. "What does he think of all of this?"

"I dunno," James admitted, "I haven't talked to him since last night. He was pretty peeved that I stopped Snivellus, but I'm not going to let one of my best mates be responsible for someone's death. As annoying and greasy as Snivellus is, I don't want him dead."

Remus sighed. "So that's it, then? That's the only thing that happened? No one else knows, no one else got hurt?"

"…I think Evans knows."

"Lily knows?" Remus asked, massaging his temple.

"Well, I caught her in here earlier, before I came down. She was talking, saying stuff like 'it's okay' and rubbish like that."

"Great. I suppose I have to go talk to her, now?"

James shrugged. "Dunno, but here's the best part–" –James was grinning at this point, and Remus wasn't certain that he wanted to hear it – "– Snivellus owes me a life-debt!"

Remus rolled his eyes. "And so do I."

"Yeah, but you're one of my best mates, I'd rather you not have a life-debt to me."

"Mr. Lupin, you're free to go. Mr. Potter, out."

Remus smiled appreciatively at Madame Pomfrey as he stood up.

"Let's go to the Common Room," James suggested.

Remus shook his head. "OWLs are this year, mate. I need to study. I'll meet up with you later, all right?"

James scrunched up his nose in mock disgust. "Yeah, okay."

Remus nodded and went to the library, fully intent on finding Lily Evans and explaining a few things to her.

He found Lily sitting at a table by herself, apparently reading a book.

"Hey, Lily," Remus said quietly, nervously.

Lily looked up at him and forced a smile. "Hi, Remus."

"Mind if I sit here?" he asked, gesturing to the chair next to her. Lily shook her head.

"So… er… what are you reading?"

"Hairy Snout, Human Heart. It's by a werewolf, anonymous, of course, but…" Her voice trailed off.

"Severus told you?"

"Told me what?" Lily asked, looking up at him. "He told me that Black tried to kill him last night, but other people have said that Potter saved him from whatever's hiding in that Willow."

"Oh," Remus said, relief evident in his voice. "Yeah, James told me this morning."

Lily acknowledged this, and then said, "Severus told me that it was you. I didn't believe him, but he thinks you're one of these." She lifted up the book.

"He thinks I'm a book?" Remus asked, in an attempt to lighten the mood.

"He thinks you're a werewolf," Lily said quietly. "And, Remus, I have to admit that his theory makes sense…"

Remus bit his lip.

"I wouldn't think anything of it if you were, you know. It's an affliction, and it can't be helped. People don't ask for it, and it's only on the full moon anyway. If you were a werewolf, I'd be more upset that you didn't tell me."

"Lily? D'you wanna go take a walk around the lake?"

"You're not going to shove me into the lake, are you?" she asked, eyebrow arched.

"Of course not," Remus said quickly.

Lily smiled and collected her books, following Remus out to the lake.

"So, Lily, I don't exactly know how to say this…"

"Severus is right?"

Remus looked at her in shock. "Yes, actually."

"And why wasn't I told about this? Potter, Black, and Pettigrew know…"

"I didn't tell them; they figured it out on their own."

"And they didn't abandon you or tell everyone, so what made you think I would?"

"It's not that," Remus muttered defensively. "I thought that you'd judge me, start treating me differently."

"Remus, am I like that at all?"

"Well, no. I mean, you're friends with me, and with Severus Snape, and neither of us hang about with people you like at all, so I suppose if you wanted to judge me negatively you'd have done it already."

"Exactly," Lily said, "and I think you're absolutely lovely. Your secret is perfectly safe with me, don't worry."

Remus smiled. Between James and Lily, he had two of the best friends in the world.

A/N: Of course, title credits belong to the Beatles. This is a rather quickly written one-shot, though I did read through it twice to check for any errors, so please tell me if I missed any. I'm working on several other oneshots at the moment as well, so expect them soon, hopefully. This is only a one-shot and absolutely no continuation or sequels are planned. I own, well, I only own part of the plot, as the whole Sirius tricking Snape bit belongs to JKR as do the characters.