Part 2 - Marauders Confer

REMUS' POV FOR THE REST OF THE FIC

'The 1871 Wizard-Goblin convention ended in disaster when the Bavarian goblins accused the American wizards of larceny, the Americans having proposed a trade to the goblins (a tonne of the finest goblin-made jewellery for the right to carry and use wands in America), but didn't uphold their side of the deal', I wrote.

My face became a frown. The sentence was clumsy and muddled. I would never consciously write something as dull as that.

"Tergeo." The offending sentence vanished, and, with a sigh, I began to re-write it.

"Hey, Remus. Thought I'd find you in here."

I looked up. Lily Evans slipped onto the bench opposite me, her emerald eyes glittering

"Lily." I nodded at her.

Out of curiosity, she took my essay off me and began reading it. "What's this?"

I scratched the nape of my neck.

"Oh, it's, er, Binns' homework. Four feet on the Wizard-Goblin Convention."

"Oh yeah," Lily smiled, returning my essay. "I've been meaning to ask you about that. What happened in 1840?"

I raised my eyebrow. "Tsk tsk. Haven't you been taking notes in class, Lily? Been too busy staring at a certain James Potter, have you?"

It was worth the jibe just for her reaction. Lily choked on air, spluttering and wheezing.
Once she had recovered, she hit me round the head with 'Achievements in Charming'.

"Of course not, Lupin. I... I was focusing on keeping Lois from feeling me up. You know how hormonal he gets."

I snorted, and went back to my essay. "Sure."

"Although," Lily continued. "I know that somebody's getting that way too. How are you and Sirius doing?"

Now it was my turn to splutter.

My voice was squeaky as I said, "What?!"

"You heard me," Lily smirked, amused.

I waived her accusation. "It wasn't that type of what. It was more like a 'I-can't-believe-you're-actually-talking-to-me-about-relationships-when-you-can't-even-sort-out-your-own' type of what."

Lily now raised her eyebrows. "You meant to say all that with just one word? Anyway, stop changing the subject. How's your relationship with Sirius going?"

"Oh." I reddened slightly, remembering last night's less-than-innocent-but-not-too-forward activities. To put it mildly, lots of Arousiem Retanos had been cast that night. On both of us.

Lily motioned for me to elaborate.

"It's, uh... stable. And if this another ploy to get us to 'come out' publicly, then you've got another think coming."

Lily's angelic face almost made me believe that she could do nothing wrong. A misleading assumption. Lily could be as manipulative as any of the Marauders.

"No, it's nothing to do with that. I had July next year, so..."

I was aghast. "Lily, please don't tell me you actually bet. Please. For the sake of my sanity."

Lily's mischievous smile returned. "I, too, bet on when you and Sirius would come out as gay. It doesn't really matter, since everyone knows you two are gay. Well. Everyone apart from Sirius. I expect he thinks that he just has lust for you, not actual love. He's probably in denial.

"Lily. He is most definitely not in denial, for fuck's sake. Not after last night. I know he isn't."

The red-head's eyes lit up again, even brighter. "Oooh! So you do do stuff with him!"

"Keep your voice down!" I implored. "It's nothing heavy. Just fooling around, really."

"You know how it goes. First it's 'just fooling around', then it goes on to being really full on, and then you end up living together. It's too bad that the wizarding world doesn't let people of the same sex to get married. Otherwise I would force you two to get married as soon as you graduated."

"Okay, this is getting weird. I'm gonna go find the others. See you, Lils."

I put the lid on my ink pot and rolled my essay up. I packed all my stuff in my satchel, and with my copy of 'Wizards vs. Goblins - The Eternal Feud' under my arm, I walked out of the library.


A/N: Please take the time to review this story so far. It really makes my day to see that someone's actually bothered. Even if it's just a sentence!