When you grow suspicious of a person and begin a system of espionage upon him, your punishment will be that you find your suspicions true.
~Elbert Hubbard
Chapter Nine
The Art of Espionage
Remus was leery about this. Over the past year and few months, he had grown to like Lily Evans. They hadn't spent a great deal of time together, but the few times they had been in the library or the common room together, Remus had enjoyed her presence. She was almost as focused on schoolwork as Remus, though she possessed a little more natural talent than he did. She was also spunky, passionate, and loyal. She would stand up for people who were important to her, as shown time and again when James and Sirius went after Snape in her presence.
It was in those few facts that the leery feeling Remus was experiencing lay. Firstly, he didn't want James or Sirius bugging Lily because he'd seen how annoying the rosette found the pair. Remus' affection for Lily made him want to ensure she would not be bothered. Plus, Remus was almost 100% certain that talking to Lily would be like trying to get blood from a stone. She was far too loyal, and far too smart, to say anything meaningful about Snape to James.
Yet, James still insisted on going through with it.
He first approached Lily the day after he decided he should. He managed to find the red haired girl momentarily alone in the library and took advantage of the situation. Remus, sitting at a table across the open area of the library, watched as James, trying to appear casual, sauntered up to the rosette. Even though Remus, as well as Sirius and Peter who were also sitting at the table, were too far away to hear what was said, the scrawny, increasingly sickly looking boy could tell what was going on.
As soon as Lily realised that James was nearby her previously relaxed posture stiffened. She crossed her arms, closing herself off, and stared James down. He tried to turn on his charm, smiling down warmly and mussing his already messy hair further. Lily didn't seem to respond; she was still closed off. Undeterred, James sat down at Lily's table, and managed to get in a few words. However, then Lily stood, quickly collected her things, and left James sitting alone at the table.
"So, how'd it go?" Sirius asked cheekily when James returned to the table. The messy haired boy playfully slugged his friend, and sat down with his arms crossed behind his head in an easy and relaxed manner. Obviously, James wasn't negatively affected by Lily's rejection. He was, after all, fairly used to that.
"I'll just have to try again later. Wear her down until she readily answers my questions. How hard can it be?"
James should have known that by making a statement about the ease of something. It would inevitably become a million times more difficult. Over the next several days, James approached Lily on at least a dozen times to no success. He cornered her in classes, at meal times, in the hallway, in the common room, and back in the library. Every time she rebuffed his attempts and left him, looking stunned.
"Shot down again?" Sirius asked James one day in mid-October as the messy haired boy walked into the common room and flopped down on a nearby chair. It was a cold, sleety day and, minutes before James had been out on the Quidditch pitch practicing. However, the annoyance that James was obviously feeling, his brown furrowed and his teeth clenched, was more than just because of the weather.
"Yes! I don't get it. I'm extremely charming, but I haven't been able to get a word in edgewise. She doesn't even know what I want to talk to her about, but she won't hear me out. I've never had this much trouble!" James complained, his body flung over the sides of the chair in a defeated manner.
"Looks like you've pissed her off one to many times, mate. You might have to apologize or bring her flowers or something. You know, get on her good side. Otherwise she isn't going to tell you a thing," Sirius spoke. Remus, who been busy reading from his Defence Against the Dark Arts textbook, nodded in agreement.
"But she won't let me say anything besides hello. How am I supposed to apologize if she won't let me talk? Plus, I don't think I have anything to apologize for; I've never hurt her or done anything to her."
"No, but she's upset at you because you've been antagonizing her good friend. If someone were bugging Peter, or I, or Sirius, wouldn't you be angry with them?" Remus asked, not looking up from his book. He wasn't disagreeing with James going against Snape. Last year, maybe because Snape hadn't really done anything except show James up in potions. But this year, Snape had gone after Sirius, had more openly antagonized the Black, and Remus felt his friends were more justified in their actions.
However, he also wanted James to realise how his actions could be seem from Lily's point of view. Maybe then, James would leave Lily alone and find another way to get back at Snape. After all, Lily didn't deserve the aggravation of being hounded by James just because she had made a poor choice of friends.
"I guess," James eventually conceded, though slightly begrudgingly, "but I still expected my charm to get me further than it has. Lily truly is a tough egg to crack." A wry smile crossed James' face. Remus couldn't help but think that the smile on James' face meant that he enjoyed the chase, enjoyed that Lily wasn't instantly overcome by his charm. Remus hoped that didn't mean too much aggravation on Lily's part.
"Uhhghh!" James groaned out at the breakfast table one Friday late in October. He banged his head down on the table in frustration. The banging caused nearby dishes to hop and nearly sent the oatmeal in Remus' bowl down onto his lap. It was nearly that time of the month and, such an occurrence would have ruined his day and he may just have called it quits and holed up in his room for the rest of the weekend. Luckily, his oatmeal just sloshed but didn't spill.
"And how are you on this lovely morning, Jamesy?" Sirius asked sipping his tea with a coquettish smile. In response, James made a rude hand gesture and groaned louder. The Black chuckled and continued sipping his tea. Eventually, James raised his head again.
"I think I'm willing to finally concede the fact that Lily will never tell me anything about Severus. I tried apologising, and I even cut some flowers from the grounds to give to her and everything, but she still wouldn't hear me out. we'll just have to try and find things out some other way. Maybe you could convince Regulus to help us? Play the big brother card or something?" James turned to Sirius hopefully.
"I doubt it. Regulus and I haven't been close for years. And he seems pretty buddy-buddy with Snape. Plus, he's already, you know, betrayed the brotherly bond once by talking about some of my closely held childhood secrets. I don't know if it'll work," Sirius responded, his expression now apologetic and no longer cocky.
"There's got to be something we can do. Someone we can talk to, or-" James suddenly stopped talking, his eyes growing wide. The other three eating breakfast together turned to look in the same direction. Slowly, making her way down the Gryffindor table, in their exact direction, was none other than Lily Evans. She had a small box clasped in her hands and, for once, looked a little uneasy.
Well, well, well, Evans. I guess you just couldn't stay away," James spoke. His entire demeanour had changed from defeated to cocky and slightly peacock-ish. He was obviously showing off for Lily. In response, the rosette pulled a face at James and turned to look at Remus.
"I'd noticed you haven't been looking all that well lately and I brought you something that might help. It's a muggle remedy my mum gives me whenever I'm sick. It tastes fairly disgusting, but it always makes me feel better," Lily spoke softly, looking slightly sorrowfully at Remus. She then held out the box for Remus to take.
Remus looked awkwardly up at Lily. Firstly, she'd noticed that Remus was sickly, which could mean some fairly terrible things for Remus if the rosette's observational and deductive skills lead her to figuring things out. Secondly, besides James, Sirius, and Peter, no peer had ever given him a gift. It was a little shocking that someone who was a little more than an acquaintance was gifting him something. And finally, Lily was giving Remus this gift in front of James. It was like a big screw you to the boy who was trying so hard to get her attention.
"Ah, thank you, Lily. I have been feeling a bit off. I'll definitely try this. My mother is a muggle so she uses a fair amount of muggle remedies at home," Remus finally spoke, taking the small box from the girl and smiling up at her.
Lily returned the smile. "No problem, and feel better. Lots of soup and tea!" Lily then turned on her heel and headed back to her awaiting friends. Remus slowly turned his head back to look at his friends, a sheepish expression on his face. Surprisingly, James didn't look jealous or angry, but had a knowing, plotting look on his face. Remus gulped, positive that it would not mean anything good for him.
"You and Lily Evans seem quite chummy, Remus," James spoke, leaning in closer to Remus. The sickly boy nodded, but hemmed and hawed to try and play down their relationship. James didn't seem interested in what Remus had to say. Instead, a glint formed in his eye. "She'd probably talk to you, easily. You know, share some personal things with you about herself or, you know, someone else."
Remus was right. James' look hadn't been good for him. The messy haired boy wanted Remus to talk to Lily, to mine her for information about Snape. Not good at all.
While he was initially hesitant, and against James' plan, Remus eventually came around. James was incredibly persuasive and knew how to play on Remus' rule-breaking streak. While most of the staff saw Remus as the good one of his friends –he was the only one of the four that hadn't received a detention- he was always an integral part of the pranks. He got a thrill out of skirting the rules, and James was able to use that thrill, and the grand prank they would play on Snape, to help change Remus' mind.
Plus, if Remus took over talking to Lily, it would save her the aggravation of having to deal with James' obnoxious behaviour.
However, he was still a little reluctant when he approached Lily in the library that afternoon. By the appearance of the table she was sitting at, despite the fact that she was currently alone, she wasn't, in actuality, alone. Her friends must have been somewhere in the stacks, looking up books and information. Remus wasn't sure how much time he would be allotted, but since Lily was so rarely without her friends, he wasn't sure when he'd get another chance.
"Hey, Lily. What are you working on?" Remus asked as he approached the red haired girl. He tried to act as casual as possibly and not tip Lily off to his true intention. For her part, Lily seemed to have been extremely focused on her work as it took her several seconds to raise her head and focus on Remus.
"Hello, Remus. How are you?" Lily smiled warmly at him. Nothing about her expression led him to believe that Lily was intentionally avoiding his question. Instead, he guessed she'd been so focused on her work that she simply hadn't heard him.
"I'm good. Taking a break from James, and Sirius, and Peter. I was hoping to get out Potions essay done, but they have, ah, other priorities," Remus spoke sheepishly. Lily's warm smile dropped momentarily at the mention of James, but quickly returned.
"Well, you're welcome to work here. The girls and I are also working on that paper, so we could all help each other. Marley and Vicky are looking for helpful books, but their research skills are a little lacking, so they may be gone for a while." Remus gladly accepted Lily's offer and tried not to look too relieved at the fact that they would be left alone for a few more minutes.
"So, how are you finding work this year? James and Sirius have been complaining an awful lot about the amount we've gotten so far." Remus had decided to ease in to talking about Snape, to try and steer the conversation as naturally as possible to her Slytherin friend. It was with this idea in mind that Remus began by talking about work.
"It's been a fairly heavy load, but I've been able to cope with it. Perhaps, if James, Sirius, and Peter spent more time focused on their schoolwork and less time pulling pranks and … antagonizing others, they wouldn't feel so overwhelmed." Lily spat the words 'antagonizing others' with such venom that Remus felt like he'd been slapped. Once he got over that feeling, he realised that this was his moment, his in.
"You're very protective of Severus. That loyalty is quite noble." Remus didn't look up from his books in an attempt to appear disinterested in what he was talking about. Apparently, it had worked because Lily started to open up.
"Yeah, well, Severus hasn't exactly had it easy. He doesn't have a lot of people to cheer him on and fight for him. So, I take the responsibility of being his friend extremely seriously. We've both helped each other through a lot.
"He's the one who introduced me to magic, who explained what it was I could do and why. He helped me navigated everything at the start of this crazy journey; I really relied on him. And, in turn he relied on me.
"His family is really not great. Lot's of problems and yelling and they don't do a good job of minding him a lot of the time. So I take over for them; I'm the one who makes sure he has clean and mended clothes and knows that people care for him. Which is why I can't stand it that James and Sirius pick on him for no reason at all!
"He's been so kind to me in spite of the terribleness of his family. His muggle, magic-hating father, and his mother who could care less about him really. So, if you could tell James and Sirius to lay off him, I'd greatly appreciate it." Lily then turned back to her work, perhaps a little upset with herself that she'd shared personal details about her friend. She hadn't said much in the way of specifics, but Remus could read between the lines and put two and two together.
He thought about pressing her for more details to be sure about his assumptions, but the look of distress on Lily's face combined with the reappearance of Marlene and Victoria stopped him. The two girls had obviously been successful in their information hunt; their arms were burdened with copious large reference materials. Relieved at the distraction, Lily jumped on her friends and instantly began burying herself in work.
But, as the four began relatively quietly working, the red haired girl caught Remus' eye and shot him a pleading look. It was obvious that she was asking him to keep what she'd said between the two of them. Remus now found himself between a proverbially rock and a hard place.
