On the day of the first Quidditch match of the year – Hufflepuff vs. Ravenclaw – James, Sirius and Peter headed down to the pitch, all of them eager to watch. Remus, however, was concerned over the growing pile of work they were receiving, and opted instead to spend a few hours in the library, to work.
He found himself a table away from the main entrance – he didn't want the others to disturb him once the match was finished. Gathering the books he needed, he took them to the table, nestled neatly against the back wall and behind a maze of book shelves.
He'd been working for just under an hour when he heard the voices.
"I don't understand," the girl whimpered, "why can't you talk to me normally?"
Remus gently laid down the book he had been reading from and half-turned towards the shelf on his left, listening to the voices behind. Lily sniffed, and the voice that replied started Remus.
"I've told you, Evans, I can't be seen with you by my housemates!"
"Oh yeah, Severus? Why's that? Because I'm just a muggle born? A mudblood, isn't that what you call us?"
"Lily, I..."
"Have you told them?" she hissed. "About your parents, Severus? About your father? Do they know? Or are you hiding that from them like you're hiding me?"
"Lily! You don't know what it's like..."
"Of course I don't! You won't talk to me..."
The voices grew distant for a second, then closer. They were about to turn the corner. Remus hastily reached out and grabbed the nearest book, opening it to a random page and burying his head in it, hoping they wouldn't catch him eavesdropping.
"...about it at all and, to be quite frank with you, Sev..."
Lily's voice, now coming from behind Remus, stopped.
"Oh, look," Severus drawled. "It's little Lupin. Where are your friends, Lupin? No doubt off causing trouble somewhere, I expect."
"Oh, leave him alone!" Lily groaned, and Remus finally turned around to face them. Lily was shaking, almost close to tears.
Over the last couple of weeks, Remus and Lily had become almost friends. She still disliked James, Sirius and Remus, but they spent time together in the library, or working in the Common Room when the other three were preoccupied. Remus enjoyed her company, as well as the company of Alice Prewitt; both girls were witty and intelligent, not that James and Sirius weren't, but they put their intelligence and wit towards pranks, instead. Peter often just followed along with them, with Remus helping work out the kinks in their plans. The two boys had begun to get a reputation as troublemakers, but Remus and Peter often stayed out of the direct line of fire, so to speak.
"What are you looking at, Lupin?" Severus snarled, and Remus found himself cowering back from the taller boy. Remus wasn't brave. Not as brave as James, or Sirius, anyway. Whereas the other boys had taken to taunting Severus and laughing at him, Remus couldn't bring himself to do it. Partly, it seemed mean, and partly, he was scared about what Severus could do to them.
"Nothing," Remus muttered, eyes darting to Lily.
Sadness shone out from her emerald green eyes.
"I need to go," Severus Snape hissed, turning away from Lily and striding past Remus, making his way out of the library.
Remus felt himself relax as Lily approached the table and flopped down into one of the chairs.
"Are you all right?" Remus watched her carefully, as Lily glanced the way Severus had gone.
"Fine," Lily mumbled, turning to face him. "What are you working on?"
"The History of Magic homework Binns set us," Remus explained, gesturing to one of the books he had picked up. "I kind of got distracted though. Picked up that instead."
Lily picked up the second book he pointed to and looked at the cover. "A History of Magic On The Sea; Pirates and Wizards." She glanced up at him from under her red fringe. "Pirates used magic?"
"Yeah!" Remus nodded. "It's actually really interesting, British Pirates attacked a ship that was full of wizards, including ex-students of Hogwarts. When the wizards fought back, the Pirates saw their magical skills and enlisted a few of them, guiding the rest back to land."
"Wow," Lily shook her head. "Where were they going?"
"Some were going to America, to see the New World, as it was then. But they ended up back on the shores of Great Britain. The pirates utilised the skills of the wizards to help them attack other ships. They were quite successful."
"I'm surprised they didn't turn them in for being witches."
Remus waved a hand through the air. "And said what? 'Oh yes, we have brought you people who can do magic. Who are we? Err..pirates. Yeah, you're going to hang us now?'"
Lily laughed. "You're getting funnier by the day, Remus."
"Must be James and Sirius rubbing off on me."
Lily frowned, as she often did at the mention of their names. "Oh, I do wish you wouldn't hang around with them, Remus. They are such a bad influence."
"They're my friends," he shrugged. "They're funny, and fun to be around."
"Then why aren't you tagging along with them twenty-four hours a day like Pettigrew does?"
Remus frowned, tilting his head to one side, a very dog-like action, as he surveyed Lily. "You don't have to be with your friends all the time, do you? I don't see you Alice constantly linked, arm in arm."
Lily's gaze swung to the window. "Alice is at the Quidditch match. Even watching people fly makes me feel dizzy, so she went with her cousin because Molly said Alice would like it."
"I see," Remus sighed. "Look, Lily, I know you don't get on with James and Sirius, but they are my friends. I'm not saying we all have to hang out together but..."
"But what?" she snapped.
"But, please, if I can refrain from insulting Severus every time I see you, I think you can do the same when it comes to James and Sirius. And, to be quite honest, he deserves it a lot more than they do."
Lily glared at him before her face softened and she groaned. "Fine. Fine. But that doesn't mean I'm going to be nice to them when they act like complete arses in class, all right?"
He chuckled. "I wouldn't expect anything else, Evans."
* * *
He knew it couldn't have lasted – he was surprised to have gone this long without the others questioning his relationship with Lily, but still...
"Are you two going out?" Sirius asked, his voice low and hushed at the dinner table that evening. The Hufflepuff table was in high spirits, their team mates being hailed as champions when they entered the Great Hall. Even the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw teams applauded at their entrance; according to James, it had been a brilliant match, both teams had played well, but the Hufflepuff team had been, in his words, "just amazing, pure brilliance."
So, it was no surprise that by everyone who had gone to the match, the Hufflepuff team were seen as champions. Sirius explained to Remus that Slytherin had won the Quidditch Cup the last two years in a row, and he'd sneaked up on some of them after the match. They were scared that their streak would be broken by the Hufflepuff team who, up until that year, had been a rubbish mesh of rubbish players.
"No, we're not," Remus groaned, rolling his eyes and letting out a sigh. "We're just friends, all right?"
"But she's a girl!" Peter piped up. "You can't just be friends with a girl, can you?" He glanced at James and Sirius, eyes wide.
"I guess I'm friends with my cousin," Sirius muttered, considering it. "But she's family, so it's different."
"Friends with one of the banshees?" James gasped, eyes darting to the Slytherin table. The nickname had come about when Sirius had explained how the pair would squeal and yell in the house when Sirius did something exceptionally funny; like put a spider in their beds or planted a snake in the rooms they used when they stayed with their aunt and uncle, aka Sirius' parents.
"Nah, not one of those two – Andromeda. She's in Ravenclaw."
"Of course you can be friends with a girl," Remus snapped, frowning as he stared down at his plate. "It's a stupid question," Remus told Peter, who blushed and glanced away.
Still, what they said worried him, slightly. He questioned his own words, and wondered if Lily wanted something more than friendship – girls wanted to kiss boys, he knew, or so James and Sirius had told him. But he didn't want to kiss Lily. He didn't want to kiss any girl! Girls kind of scared him. Lily and Alice didn't, of course, but he felt scared of the other girls in their house, especially when he heard them giggling and laughing at this or that. Girls, Remus thought, were odd, strange creatures.
Still, he enjoyed the company of Lily and Alice – they were a nice break from James, Sirius and Peter. But he still preferred hanging out with the boys – after all, they were his best friends.
Weren't they?
"Ugh, look at simpering Severus following Caedmon," Sirius muttered darkly, and the boys turned their attention to the teachers table, where Professor Caedmon had just stood up, only to be approached by the first year Slytherin.
James frowned as he watched Severus follow Caedmon out of the Great Hall.
Defence Against the Dark Arts had proved to be one of James' strongest subject, along with Charms. Defence was the only class Remus saw him actually pay rapt attention to. It was also the only class in which James and Sirius behaved. Remus thought it was because they didn't want to face the wrath of Professor Caedmon, but in reality, James had too much respect for the man to misbehave.
In essence, James worshipped the man and, although he hadn't confessed it to his friends, he wanted to be just like him.
And he wanted to be better than simpering Snape at the subject.
He quickly made his excuses and disappeared from the Great Hall, heading to the library.
"Alice!" James hissed, poking his head around a book shelf when he spotted the girl around the other side. She jumped, before turning to face him.
"Potter? What are you doing here?"
James blushed. "I'm doing the homework for Defence – can you help me? I can't seem to find the right books."
Alice frowned, approaching him slowly. "OK, who hit you with a Confundus charm? As far as I was aware, James Potter copied off Remus Lupin and was never, ever seen in the library."
The blush deepened. "I...I haven't told the guys...can you keep a secret?"
Her frown quickly turned into a grin. "Of course!"
"I want to do well in Caedmon's class. I...I think I want to be an Auror. And Caedmon said we have to show consistent good work from first year on if we want to carry on in his class to O.W.L and N.E.W.T."
Alice tilted her head to one side, before letting out a sigh and moving around the shelf to join him in front of the Defence Against the Dark Arts books. She reached forward, pulling a few out and handing them to him. "You'll need these, but I am not going to tell you the page number. You can look that up in the index."
James nodded. "What are you here for, anyway?"
"Charms," she groaned. "I'm really struggling with it. I just don't seem to have that natural ability that you or Lily have."
James chuckled. "You flatter me, Prewitt. Who hit you with a Confundus charm?"
"Well, it's true. Remus is good at everything but even he can't match you two in Charms. You don't give yourself enough credit, Potter."
"Remus keeps telling me that," he mused, thinking over the conversation they'd had at dinner. Maybe Remus was right, maybe they could be friends with girls.
"Yes, and he keeps telling me and Lily that, too. Sirius seems pretty good at Transfiguration, Peter is getting the hang on Herbology quite quickly...you four could be a force to be reckoned with, you know."
"And what about you and Miss Goody Two Shoes?" he nudged her. "You two are excelling at everything. You could match us, you know."
She rolled her eyes before placing her Charms books on a nearby table.
"If you help me with Defence," he muttered, sitting down opposite her. "I can help you with Charms?"
"Deal!" she grinned, and the two settled in for a night of study, helping each other whenever the other one found themselves struggling.