AN: Quick note: I love my writing professor, and you soon will too.

Anyway, this fic will be continued, just slower than originally anticipated. I expected a slow semester at school after dropping a class and was very very wrong. Good thing I dropped that class. Anyway, enjoy!

The Incident

Chapter 2

"Where's Remus?' Lily said, not waiting for an answer before rising from her lying position on the white hospital bed.

"Oh no you don't," James said, holding her down with a solid, hairy arm. "You're in no condition to be running around the castle right now."

"I don't care," she said with a grimace. She doubted she was in any condition to sit up if she was being entirely honest with herself, but now was not the time for honesty. She didn't know where Remus was, but she was sure, if he had any clue of what had just happened, he'd be beating himself about now. If not, he would soon, and she wanted him to hear it from her. "I have to know if he's ok," she said, giving up on her struggles and lying back into the soft, plumped pillows breathless.

James paused. Looking down at the wilting and fatigued form of the girl he knew usually be so strong and fierce, he was overwhelmed with an urge to protect her, stronger than ever before. He looked down to see the small, pale hand he was still rubbing unconsciously.

"Why wouldn't he be?" he finally said awkwardly. He didn't know what she knew, or understood, of what just happened to her, but from her reaction, he was willing bet it was a great deal more than anyone would expect. Still, he couldn't be sure, and now was definitely not the time to be springing sensitive information on her.

"Because he's Remus. You're his friend; you know what he's like."

Well, she sure hit that one on the head. "So trust me when I say that you running out frantically calling his name is the exact opposite of what he needs right now."

She wanted to argue, she normally would, but that sudden burst of adrenaline at the sound of Remus's name, reliving the night before, was quickly wearing off. Not to mention that hand rubbing her's so soothingly. In the end, she never had a chance. She was asleep again in seconds.

James, noticing her deepened breathing and relaxed muscles, removed his hand and leaned back in his rickety, wooden visitor's chair, his mind released to think about other things. Like maybe his charms homework that he meant to finish tonight. Ha, if only his life so simple. No, he had more pressing matters to wrap his mind around.

How was Remus doing? Where did he go? James wanted to believe that all he needed was time, but if this was anyone but Lily, he'd be out there hunting him down, just like she wanted to. Was he doing the right thing? Surely Lily needed him more right now. Granted, she was sleeping at the moment, but what if he wasn't just here? She'd be on the floor bleeding out as she dragged herself after Remus. Ok, maybe that was a stretch, but still, she might be scared or confused. She had no one right now. Remus had Peter and Sirius. He'll be ok.

Sirius.

James suddenly felt tired and slumped lower in his chair. What was Sirius thinking? Who was he kidding? Sirius doesn't think, but he's not a killer either. He'd never forgive himself if he let Snape die. However, James still might never forgive him for Lily.

-x-

Just over two weeks went by since that night, one spent in the hospital wing with "dragon pox". The second, Lily spent catching up on missed homework, reassuring friends that she was indeed cured and no longer contagious, subconsciously checking her arm and her neck in various reflective surfaces for the scars she knew to be there thought hidden from sight, and trying (and failing miserably) to talk to Remus. He was avoiding her, she knew. He even missed prefect rounds, something he never does unless they happen fall on the full moon.

It was Friday night, and Lily was determined not to let it bother her for now. He couldn't avoid her forever, and she was still behind in her classes. At this moment, she was standing quietly with her school bag sitting empty on her unmade four-poster bed, and a pile of books stacked neatly on her desk, the topmost tome reading Standard Book of Spells, Grade 5, completely unaware of her roommates' activities in the room. She was currently sorting through her things, deciding what she would need for her library crank-out session, and what was rubbish. Her notes were always such a mess, but she didn't mind. She felt organizing them later into some coherent order was the most useful part of her study routine. It also kept her friends from slacking and stealing her's.

Somewhere in the back of her mind, she noticed the noise level in the room die down and heard the click of the lock on the door, but paid no attention to the meaning of these seemingly unimportant observations.

"So what's up?" Mary McDonald, Lily's best friend and roommate asked from across the room. Something in her voice told Lily this wasn't meant to be a casual pleasantry. Mary wanted something, and she was not going to stop until she got it.

"Nothing," Lily said faking interest in her Potions notes from the day before, hoping her anxiety wasn't showing through.

"To hell with that rubbish," obviously it was. "Something's going on. You're hiding something. So what is it?" Mary sat down on Lily's bed, watching her expectantly.

"Nothing, I promise. What's this all about?"

"C'mon, Lily, you've been acting weird ever since you came back from the hospital wing." Lily froze. "Is it a boooy?" Mary said in a giggly little girl voice and a flutter of her beautifully long eyelashes.

"What?" Lily exclaimed in both shock and relief, snapping her head up with a painful sounded crack to look her friend in the face as if she were insane.

"It is, isn't it!" Mary said, victory in her eyes.

"No, what ever gave you that idea?"

"Well, you've been pretty cozy with Potter over the last week," she said suggestively.

"So we haven't had a fight yet, you call that cozy?" Lily said. She gave up and pretense of studying and stuffed her things into her bag haphazardly. It was true that they've been getting on better since that night. He was one of the few who knew about what happened. It felt good not to be worrying about being discovered when they hung out together. Now she was thinking she should limit their time together a bit.

"With how much you two have been in contact with each other? Definitely. Pair that with the fact that he hasn't asked you out yet this week –"

"Ever think maybe that's why we haven't fought?"

"The only explanation would be that you were already dating," she finished as if never interrupted.

"So, you think me and James are together. That's what this is about?" Lily said amused. Now that she wasn't expecting to get caught any moment, she could enjoy some good old girl talk, even if it was about James Potter.

"Well, now that you've called him James, I may have to revisit that theory, but no. I think you're with Remus."

Suddenly, Lily's nervousness and anxiety began creeping back to her. "Where in the world did that come from?"

"I admit, I did think it was Potter, but then I noticed you watching Remus in Charms the other day, and looking for him in the Great Hall at meals. From there it was pretty obvious, and now I have my proof!"

"I'm not dating Remus, he's not even talking to me right now," Lily slipped.

"Oh, but you want to. What happened? Did you ask him out and now he feels awkward? Is that why he won't talk to you?" She said all this at an almost incomprehensible speed that only gossipy girls seemed to manage.

"No, no. Nothing happened, and I'm not crushing on Remus. I don't know why he won't talk to me. I asked James and he won't tell me, not even sure if he knows, so let's just drop it."

"I'll go find out!" And before Lily could process what was happening, her feet were stuck to the floor, and Mary was speeding down the dormitory stairs with a mischievous smile on her face.

-x-

"Remus!" Mary called across the common room. It was just her lucky day. She knew all about Lily's failed attempts at stalking Remus over the last week. More than once, she fell asleep on the couch, waiting for him to come through the portrait hole. He must've had some kind of Lily detector or something, because he was just entering the round room full of energetic teenagers doing homework, playing games, and just generally hanging out when Mary hit the bottom stair. Better yet, he was alone, though that wasn't unusual. Something happened between the Marauders recently. They were once inseparable, but lately they barely talk anymore. That was sure to be Mary's next mystery to solve once this Lily and Remus business was all cleared up.

Remus, meanwhile, was swearing in his head at his stupidity. Sure the map said Lily was in her dorm and therefore, not a danger to Remus if he hurried upstairs, but that didn't mean he was safe from her friends.

"Uh, hi Mary." He said anxiously trying to think up an escape route.

"Remus! Do you have a minute?"

"Actually, I was –"

"Good! She said, knocking him down onto one of the big, comfy, Gryffindor red couches facing the crackling fire, only causing Remus to sweat rather than filling him with homey warmth as it usually did.

"I know about you and Lily," she proclaimed confidently, pulling a visceral reaction from the normally laid-back Gryffindor.

"You what?" He said in a monotone voice, but with panic growing on the inside. Did Lily tell her? He didn't think she was the kind of girl that would tell everyone, but this was her best friend. His friends knew about him, and it wasn't like she could tell her about being a werewolf without the little detail of who bit her. Well, she could, but that would be lying. Still, only two weeks? It took him almost a year, and he didn't even tell his friends, they found out on their own. Maybe they, the Marauders, helped her. We all know, and we're still friends, well, were, maybe that made her believe she'd be ok. Maybe Lily and Mary are closer than he thought. Maybe Mary was about to kill him…

"She told you?" he asked.

"Still denying it, the little bugger, but I have eyes. I see things. Can't hide anything from me."

"And you're ok with everything?" His brain all but shut down at this point. He couldn't believe he was having this conversation.

"Of course, why wouldn't I be?" she looked at him like he was insane.

"Well, most of the world doesn't look at werewolves in a very positive light," he said quietly, "but I think it's great you're being so open-minded about it. She's really going to need a friend right now. Mary? Are you okay?"

Mary stiffened. All traces of the proud, confident, victorious woman that was just there was gone. "What did you say?"

At that moment, Lily emerged from the staircase leading up to the girls' dormitories barefoot yelling "Mary, where are you, you little –"

"You're a werewolf?" she announced to the whole common room. Lily stopped in her tracks, a book, yellowed and beaten, halfway into a throwing position aimed at her terrified friend. Lily took in the scene before her: Seemingly the whole of Gryffindor House staring at her, Mary standing in the center of the common room, pale as a ghost, Remus sitting next to her recently vacated seat. It wasn't hard to put the pieces together.

"Lily," Remus said, not yet sure what he was going to say, but feeling responsible. It didn't matter. Before he couldn't get another word out, she was gone, the book, an old copy of The Hobbit left forgotten on the floor.