So, this is chapter seven. Probably the angstiest/sappiest chapter ever. Sorry 'bout that. I still don't own Harry Potter, and I'm writing this because I'm obsessed with it at the moment. If you think these pre-story boldface introductions are a waste of time, please tell me. Anyways, tons more action will go down after this chapter. I promise. In fact, I solemnly swear. And there might be a bit more romance. I dunno. I like Sirius and Marlene, I just need to give her more personality. I've decided she's the 'wildest' among Lily's friends. And Octavia - what d'you all think of Octavia? She's probably a Mary Sue, but I just wanted to give poor Lupin a little romance while Tonks was busy being three. I'm rambling again. I should shut up and let you get on with this angsty chapter. Please review, tell me what you like and don't like and stuff. Enjoy!

Alone, in the remotest corner of Hogwarts, Lupin wept. His tears slid down his cheeks so quickly and copiously that his front was soaked in minutes, and he had added significantly to the river flowing by his feet. It was a small underground tributary to the lake that flowed through this secret passage. It was quite easy to cross, and beyond it was a narrower corridor that led into the basement of Dervish and Banges. He and his friends had discovered this passage on their third voyage under the full moon . . .

"So I'm going to take a wild guess that you weren't really chopping onions this morning."

Lupin jumped, whirled around at the sound of Sirius's voice. His three friends stood there, Sirius with a self-satisfied expression, Peter looking somewhat scared, but James's face with nothing but sympathy.

"H-how did you find me?" Lupin asked hoarsely.

Sirius grinned and held up the Marauders' Map. "Turns out, it wasn't so hard to figure out how to have it show more people. Now we're all on it, Moony. Now we can always find each other."

There was a pause. "So your mother's ill," Sirius went on. "You weren't lying." He gave a very affected cough. "I'm ill, too. I don't see you bursting into tears again."

"How did you -?" Lupin began again, wiping his face noisily on his sleeve.

"Lily Evans," James interjected.

"Who at present has resumed," Sirius interjected into James's interjection, "due to some ingenious machinations of my own, her former position on the subject of James Potter, also known as hating his guts."

"Yeah, thanks for that, by the way," James replied scathingly.

"Oh, it was my pleasure," Sirius grinned.

"Anyways," James went on, "We had to ask her, the first Muggle-born we could think of, what The Boy Who Cried Wolf was about. She wouldn't even talk to us until we said it was for you, and she just gave us this book she borrowed from a friend in Muggle Studies and said, 'Educate yourselves.'" He briefly flashed the book.

"We asked Peter first, since he's in Muggle Studies with you," Sirius interjected. "But he said he never pays attention and you do half his work, so he had no clue."

Again, Lupin said nothing.

"We put it together," Sirius said softly. "The moral of the story is not to lie too much, or people won't believe the truth. So what you said must have been the truth. Ergo, your mother is ill."

"Remus, is this why you've been so sensitive about her?" James went on. "And about Muggles in general? Why you went ballistic on Mulciber for implying she deserved to die?"

"You were very adamant in saying 'My mother doesn't deserve to die!'" Sirius remembered.

"Is it because you think – you think she's going to die?" James finished gently.

"Not think," Lupin corrected falteringly. "Know." He once again was overcome by grief, and broke down in fresh sobs. James immediately rushed forward and hugged him, quite literally offering his shoulder to cry on and they sunk to the ground, Peter and Sirius uncertainly kneeling beside them.

When Lupin could bear to speak again, he elaborated. "The letter," he breathed, "was my father's absolute confirmation that if she did not receive the cure, she would be rotting in the churchyard before another fortnight passed us by."

"Such a pity it had to be your mother and not mine!" Sirius muttered.

"But – there's a cure?" James said, cheerfully pouncing on the word. "You just said –a cure, Remus! Just get her the cure, and she'll be right as rain!"

To his surprise, however, this only made another stream of tears glide down Lupin's cheeks. "That's the worst part, Prongs," he said softly. "There is a cure, but there's no way she'll get it."

"Why not?" demanded James.

"It's not for sale to Muggles," Lupin said coldly, his voice shivering with venomous rage mingled in with his sadness.

"What?" demanded Sirius.

"It's very rare, it's very expensive, it's very hard to make," Lupin said, "but in the face of my mother's death, I could have shelved my pride and begged you for the money, James, as our family could never afford it. But the only way to get it – through some ridiculous Ministry department, with all this paperwork – simply said that it was so valuable, they weren't going to waste it on Muggles."

"That is so wrong!" blurted out James and Sirius in unison, quite disgusted. "The head of that department must be Imperiused or something!"

"Did you think to try – cheating them?" Sirius asked, once he could speak again. "Saying it was for someone else, a wizard, or -?"

"There are very thorough investigations by the Department of Magical Law Enforcement," Lupin went on gloomily. "And Dad told me if Crouch saw anything fishy, he was liable to chuck the whole family in Azkaban without a trial or anything, on suspicion of being a Death Eater. Though what a Death Eater would want with a cure, I cannot fathom."

He drew a resigned breath, and mopped his face again. "So it wasn't soup that I and those first-years chucked in the lake this morning. I had checked out Moste Potente Potions in the hope that I could brew the stuff myself. But Potions was always my worst subject; there's no way I could make it, given a whole year to try . . ." Lupin hopelessly buried his face in his hands again. When he dared to look up, he saw true sympathy and compassion resonating from the faces of his three friends.

"Don't lose hope," James said shortly. There was a soft noise of a door creaking in the distance.

"James, this isn't like a Quidditch match, where you just have to do your best, and try harder, and you'll win," Lupin said harshly.

"Why not?" demanded James. "Everything can be reduced to a Quidditch match, Moony – and I haven't lost a Quidditch match since second year! So with me – with that at your side, you can fail at nothing!"

"Makes one wonder how you always fail with Evans . . ." Sirius put in under his breath. "But James is right. We're Marauders. We can do anything."

But Lupin was shaking his head. "She's past saving . . ."

"We're going to save her," Sirius insisted stubbornly.

"We're going to get that potion," James went on assuredly.

"We'll do it by whatever means necessary, and we, your friends, the unstoppable Marauders, will help you to cure your mother, whether you like it or not!" finished Peter.

There was a pause. "Well said, Pete," said Sirius unexpectedly.

"But how -?" began Lupin.

"It's elementary, my dear Moony," James said. "Like the answer to everything, the answer to this is –"

But he was stopped short a gasp from Peter. Filch had just burst into their presence.

"Peter," Sirius asked pleasantly with no pretense of having noticed Filch, "did you forget to close the passage door when we came in?"

Peter groaned and looked abysmally sheepish.

"Thought so."

"First order of business," James said ruefully, "is to add Filch that little Map of ours." It was an hour later; the four boys had been led by Filch and forced to wait silently while the calamity of students discovering secret passages was discussed very seriously amongst the staff, and then they were placed in very unpleasant detentions – James and Peter in one, Sirius and Lupin in another, for the rest of the night. James was speaking through the two-way mirror to Sirius and Lupin on the other end. "Oh, and possibly Evans, too."

"What, so you can stalk her more easily?" Sirius demanded, not deigning to respond to Professor Sprout's demand to put his back into chopping up the tough, slimy, spore-filled mushrooms, nor her warning not to inhale the spores. Lupin, too, was so focused on what James had to say that he did not hear any of Professor Sprout's words.

"I suppose that's one way to put it," James replied, as he and Peter suddenly jumped back in the mirror to avoid a jet of flame that spurted at them. Sirius and Lupin could not fathom what they must be doing for their detention. "But anyways, as I was saying before Filch so rudely interrupted, was my brilliant but obvious scheme: like the answer to everything, the answer to this problem, Moony, is Lily Evans."

"Evans?"

"Use your head! She's in NEWT Potions and she likes you! Her parents are Muggles, too, and if you explain the situation, there's no way she'd turn down making that potion for you!" James exclaimed.

"That is brilliant!" exclaimed Lupin. "You're brilliant, James!"

"Of course I am," James replied with a smirk. "Make sure Evans knows that before you're done talking to her, will you?"

Lupin saluted. "Yes, sir," he said enthusiastically before returning to the slimy, spore-spurting mushrooms and letting James and Sirius have their own conversation, which was largely about adding Marlene McKinnon to the map as well.

Lupin had no opportunity to speak to Lily that night, because he had inhaled a few too many spores from the mushrooms and passed out right when he was about to address her in the common room that night, and his friends, laughing, had dragged him up to their dormitory. The following morning, he hastily asked her if there was anyplace they could meet to talk alone, and the only place she could think of was the front of the prefects' bathroom, where the sinks were, before it split into the boys' and girls' sides.

Lily found him waiting for her there during break time. "If this has anything to do with trying to get me to forgive James Potter, you can just forget it, Remus!" she told him warningly.

"No," he assured her swiftly, but then tilted his head in indecision, "Well, that's not what it's . . . what it's all about."

"Fair enough," Lily replied. "What else is it about, then?"

"I hear you're a very good potion-brewer," he replied. "One of the best in the school."

Lily blushed. "I wouldn't say that."

"But you're pretty good."

"I suppose. What of it?"

"Well you see," Lupin faltered. "I know . . . I know a person who's ill, who needs a very specific potion, one that, due to some ridiculous extenuating circumstances, they cannot get otherwise. So I was just wondering if . . . if you could possibly make it for them."

"Well, it depends," Lily replied. "What potion is it?"

Lupin showed her the page he had copied out of Moste Potente Potions.

"That," said Lily, squinting at it, "looks," she looked back up at him, shaking her head, "impossible."

His last hope dashed, Lupin held back tears again.

"What's the matter?" demanded Lily, holding him back as he tried to spin around and hide his face from her.

"Er – nothing," he said. "I was just – er, chopping some onions."

"Uh huh," said Lily sarcastically. "And Voldemort is my bestie, and James Potter is the most modest person I know, and I'm secretly in love with Mulciber, and - Oo! Oo! My sister has never been jealous of my magic, and you're the best liar ever!"

"My friends believed me," Lupin said slowly.

Lily snorted, but she was now holding Lupin's hand in hers. "Boys. They would."

"They told me we're the very best idiots," Lupin told her with a weak smile.

"Well, I don't know about best, but they've got the idiot part spot-on." She paused. "Remus, are you the person that's ill? I mean, you do look sick a lot."

"No," Lupin replied, "I only wish I were." He turned to go. He added, so quietly Lily could not hear, "It would be much less of a tragedy.

"Well, then, who is?" asked Lily.

"It's not important."

"Why don't you tell me?" demanded Lily, catching his shoulder and turning him back around. "You're being very silly, trying to bear it alone. Why don't you just put away this stupid 'I am lone wolf' front you've adopted –" (here Lupin laughed) "—and let me find a way to help? Because you're not alone, Remus," she added, gripping his hand still tighter. "You've got your little Marauder posse on one side, and me on the other!"

Lupin could not speak for a moment.

"Oh," Lily added anticlimactically, "and don't bother lying, either, because I was lying when I said you were the best liar ever."

"Why I won't just tell you, Lily," said Lupin slowly, "is because I'm afraid I would cry if I tried to."

"Well, so what? Do you know how much crying I deal with after Mulciber attacked Mary last year? And with Alice, after Frank graduated? Crying is not shameful to girls, Remus."

Lupin gave another weak smile. "The person that's ill," he said heavily, "is my mother. Because she's a Muggle, she can't get the potion from the Ministry, and she's going to die without it."

Lupin stared quickly up at a mirror and attempted to control his voice. Lily looked shocked, but said nothing, stared compassionately into his face and gripped his hand still tighter.

"Once," he said with difficulty, "when I was about eight, I was – I was quite ill, too. I had to go to St. Mungo's, and I was scared, and in pain, and I thought I would die, but my mother was there sitting beside me, holding my hand and telling me I'd be OK. I asked her to read to me, because I'd always loved books, and it would take my mind off things, but the only thing she had on her was Pride and Prejudice, so she read that to me, and I focused on that, and she kept on telling me I would be alright, whenever my mind left Elizabeth's plight. But you see, I can't even do that for her, Lily. Because it would be a lie, and as we've just established, I'm a horrible liar." His voice broke, and he fell silent, and spent a moment in mopping his face.

"And I would never have told that to James and Sirius," Lupin laughed airily. "Just a mite too sappy for most gents."

"You ought to find a girlfriend, then," said Lily matter-of-factly, "and no, thanks all the same and no offense, but I'm not volunteering myself."

"And I wouldn't want you to," Lupin replied, blushing madly, "because James –"

"James! You spend all this time trying to get me to like James, why don't you try to get someone to like you? You're nice enough for it."

"Oh, will people just give my love life a rest?" demanded Lupin.

"Fine," Lily smiled, "then back to this potion business. I might not be able to make this potion for your mother, but I know someone who can."

"Who?" Lupin asked eagerly.

"Well, the who is the problem, Remus. He'd never make the potion for you, and definitely not for a Muggle. He might make it for me, but I'd feel dreadful taking advantage of that now we're no longer friends."

"You mean . . . ?" began Lupin.

"Yes," she replied. "The only person in the school capable of making that potion is Severus Snape."

"Oh," Lupin replied with a dull sarcasm, "Brilliant."