Chapter Fourteen

The end again

Lily had barely spoken to Severus all year, they didn't even glance in each other's directions anymore.

They spoke in Summer.

They spoke in the library.

But that was virtually it, it bothered Lily more than Severus. He was too busy with his new friends and they couldn't pretend that they hadn't been growing apart as friends for a while now, even at the tender age of 12. Lily and James were clashing less and less but were nowhere near becoming friends, they tolerated each other, they weren't even civil to each other, they were just, part of the landscape to each other, they ignored each other. Lily still got irritated by virtually everything he did but she didn't bother voicing her opinions on it nearly as much anymore.

They didn't like to fall out, especially since Lily and the girls had become so friendly with Hagrid. Hagrid had taken to the three girls, finding them funny and ridiculous at times.

Months passed in the same patterns, doing homework, visiting Hagrid, sitting by the lake in the light evenings.

The teachers supplied them with more and more homework as the exams neared and Lily urged her friends to study, she gave them copies of her notes for subjects in the hopes that they would and most of the time Mary and Maggie and Remus did. Sirius was another matter entirely and she didn't care enough to try and make James study, she found the idea kind of ludicrous.

The exams passed one by one, History of Magic was difficult for most people, minus Lily. Then again Lily got out of her last exam of the whole year and commented to Maggie,

"I've heard that Defence against the Dark Arts is supposed to be really difficult but I found that to be rather enjoyable."

Maggie rolled her eyes so far that she thought her eyes were going to fall out of her head. "Shut up!" She said.

Lily grinned. "Fine," she said, "But I was actually quite happy up until now."
Maggie frowned, "Sorry, I just think I failed."

Lily linked her arm through Maggie's, "Don't be silly, you thought the exact same thing last year when we left all of our exams."

Mary rushed after them, "Guys, wait up!"

She catapulted herself in between her two best friends and linked her arms through theirs. "How did that go for you guys."

Lily said, "Good."

Maggie said, "Bad." And Mary laughed.

"In the middle, as per usual," Mary said laughing, "Ah, predictability."

Lily grinned.

"Who the hell even needs exams anyway!" Sirius yelled as they walked back up to their room, "Who cares?! Not me!" Sirius became serious on very few occasions, mostly because that was almost his name. He was actually quite clever, he just never thought of himself as such. James was so clever, he often felt he paled in comparison, not nearly as much as Peter. Peter was in comparison and by nature, a bit dim-witted. Remus was very clever, very, very clever, but he did work for it.

The four boys walked to their beds and sat down. It was that day and at that time, that James, Sirius and Peter decided that they would tell Remus Lupin that they knew what his problem was, they knew what he did every month, where he went. They knew that his mum was really fine, that he was really a wolf. Lily had been aware of what she called Remus's problem for months, since the beginning of the school year. She knew, she supported him and she kept it a secret, she had been wanting to tell someone for those months but she had promised.

"Remus." Sirius said very slowly and carefully without adding anything else.

"Sirius," Remus said sounding quite amused, "What is it?"

"Well, we know." Peter said.

Remus paled, "What do you mean?" He asked in a quiet voice.

"Remus, shut up, we know, you are a werewolf." James said.

Remus if possible got even paler, "I'm not, I'm–"

James held up his hand and stopped him mid sentence, "Look, we don't care, you are our friend and this doesn't change anything. We just want to know," James said, "Where do you go every month?"

Remus looked at them, "You don't care!" He bellowed, "You don't care that I'm a monster, I'm a wolf, I'm a beast, I could kill you, kill anybody that I come into contact with. Do you know how hard it is to know that is what you are and that is what you can do and you can't do anything to change it?" He knotted his hands in his hair, needing to feel pain.

"Remus, we know you can't change it," Sirius said, "You aren't responsible for what happened to you."

"I know, it's his fault." Remus said gritting his teeth.

James's eyebrows knitted together in confusion and worry, they had never seen Remus anything less than completely and utterly composed. "Remus, whose fault?"

"Greyback." He growled. "Fenrir Greyback, my dad told me when I got back last month, he was angry with my dad and he meant to bite me, he meant to punish my dad by turning me into this." He sounded so disgusted with himself.

Peter stayed silent, Sirius sat down beside Remus, "Remus I know more than anybody that you can't choose your life, you just have to focus less on the bad things and more on the good things, the people you surround yourself with, and you, my fine friend have got us, me and James and Peter. Your mum and dad, we all think you're great and your parents don't care that you are a werewolf."

Remus looked at him, red eyes, "Sirius, do you really still want to be my friend?"

James, Peter and Sirius screamed, "Yes!" At the same time, Remus let out an exhausted laugh.

"I go to a house on the outskirts of Hogsmeade." Remus said.

James grinned, "A house, really?"

Remus nodded, "Madame Pomfrey or McGonagall come to get me and they take me down the slope to the Whomping Willow, you press the knot in the trunk and a door opens and you go in and along a tunnel to that house over the fence across from the Three Broomsticks."

"I was hoping that there was some way around the apparition rule in Hogwarts or some sort of invisibility serum and a secret room in Hogwarts." Sirius said.

Remus laughed, "Nope, not at all." He put his hands behind his head and fell back. "God, this is such a relief. I had nobody to talk to about this, well except Lily and we never really see each other outside of class anymore, so it's hard to–"

James cut him off, "Evans, you told Evans before us, you weren't even going to tell us, we just knew." James said.

"I didn't tell her she just knew." Remus said, "She asked me about it in September."

"That's why you got to be so friendly then." Peter said.

"Yeah, it was just nice to have somebody that knew, even if we don't talk very often." Remus said, "But I'm really, really glad that you know."

James smiled, "Well we're glad too I'm sure."

"I didn't know how to tell you." Remus said, "It's such a hard thing to bring up."

James nodded, "I don't really know how you would have done it so that we would have believed you."

"I couldn't have." Remus said with a chuckle.

"Well, we have some things to talk about Remy boy." Sirius said. "So, let's get chatting."

"I don't want to go home, Petunia's such a git." Lily complained, "Even when I'm nice to her and she has such horrid friends. They are awful."

"I'll write every day but mum and dad are taking me to France." Maggie said, "I love you, but, France."

Mary smiled, "And you honestly wouldn't want to spend your summer at my house."

"Its fine, but you promise me, you write to me every day." Lily said.

They were walking along the narrow corridor on the Hogwarts express walking into an empty compartment and stowing there things away and sitting down.

"Of course," Maggie said.

"Definitely," Mary agreed.

"At least I can talk to Severus." Lily said.

Maggie and Mary stopped for a second. Then they nodded, they had never liked Severus, he had such awful friends and such an untrustworthy face. They really did not like him.

"I guess so." Mary said quietly.

At that precise moment to stop a conflict between friends the kindly lady with the trolley arrived and asked them if they wanted anything. They did, they got some Berty Bott's Every Flavoured Beans. They spent the rest of that train ride became quite hilarious as they all tried the most ridiculous flavours. They parted ways as they had done the year previous and would do for a long time to come.