The next day Snape left the Hospital Wing, nose restored to its usual unnaturally large size and shape and his body boil-free. Lily was, of course, waiting for him just outside the door to the ward and she walked with him to their first lesson - Defence Against the Dark Arts.

"You feeling better, Sev?" Lily glanced sideways at him.

"Of course. It'll take more than a hex from Potter to keep me down," Snape grinned.

Lily relaxed a little, smiled back and they walked together towards the classroom.

****************

"Full moon next week. What do you think we should get up to this time?" Sirius Black asked his friends up in the Gryffindor common room.

James was tilting his chair back on two legs, feet resting on the table in front of him, scowling at the ceiling. Peter was nervously chewing on the cuff of his robe, his eyes flitting from James to Sirius and back again. Remus merely raised his copy of A History of Magic a little higher to hide his face from his friends. Nobody answered.

"Fine then, if you're going to be that way. I guess I'd be better off being friends with the Giant Squid, at least it would have a reason to ignore me."

The other three continued to ignore Sirius. Sighing he got to his feet and stormed out of the common room in a whirl of robes and a cloud of muttered curses.

"James. Shouldn't we get to class?" Peter squinted at James. He was still scowling at the ceiling as though it had paid him a personal insult.

"Go if you want, Wormtail. I'm staying here."

"But, but… Remus, are you going to come to class at all today?"

Remus laid down his book and sighed. "Peter, I am not going to class today. I've already told you that. I am not well, and the full moon is next week. If I want to make life and my transformations any easier, I would do better to rest instead of going to class. In fact, I'm going back to bed right now. Please don't disturb me unless it's really important."

And with that, Remus gathered up his books, bag and quill and headed towards the boys dormitory.

Peter continued to gnaw at his sleeves, James glares at the ceiling again and his scowl deepened slightly.

Peter and James sat in silence for a few minutes more.

"To hell with this!" James sat upright so suddenly that Peter toppled over in fear. By the time he had recovered enough to look over the top of the table he had fallen under, the portrait of the Fat Lady was already swinging closed behind James.

Feeling rather alone, Peter gathered his belongings set off for Defence Against the Dark Arts. He had never been in class before without at least one of his friends sitting next to him. Friends, Peter thought ruefully, can I really call them that? James and Sirius were the undoubted leaders of the gang, and Remus was just pleasantly surprised that people seemed to like him, regardless of his "furry little problem". Peter however felt he had nothing to offer the group and was only there to serve as an audience, a bumbling sidekick, a running joke among the group.

One day, that will all change, he thought savagely. Just you wait.

****************

Limping out of class half an hour later, Lily winced. They had been practising the Patronus Charm today. Although it was beyond OWL level standard, they had covered most of the common spells and hexes to come up on the OWLs and the professor had thought it a clever idea to show the class what would be expected of them should they continue to NEWT level.

Lily had not been able to produce a Patronus; she had thought of a happy memory, she had said the incantation, but she had not been able to keep the silvery mist hovering in front of her for more than a few seconds and had ended up collapsing to the ground almost every time she tried. Snape, on the other hand, had produced a rather indistinct Patronus twenty minutes into the lesson, earning Slytherin ten points.

Snape caught up with Lily and said quietly, "I think you did really well today."

Lily snorted. "Yeah, right. You produce the best Patronus in the class while I keep falling over and you think I did 'really well'?"

Snape shrugged.

Lily rolled her eyes and continued limping down the hallway towards Transfiguration.

"Isn't the Hospital Wing in the other direction, Lily?" Snape called after her.

Making an obscene gesture with her hand, Lily turned around to face Snape.

"Severus Snape, you are unbelievable."

Snape grinned and bowed slightly. "Well, I do try."

Laughing Lily started back towards him and he ran forward to meet her. Taking her bag from her and taking her hand in his to help steady her, Snape lead Lily towards the Hospital Wing.

I did it, though Snape happily. I'm holding hands with Lily, I did it, it's one step closer! Maybe now she'll realise what she means to me.

Lily was busy thinking about how many lines she would be getting from McGonagall for missing class.