Apologies for the delay, exams y'know. As always this chapter was Beta-ed by Half-Drowned Dracula, many thanks. I would love your feedback on this chapter, does it work? Is it what you imagined? LB

Chapter Two

by Lilybet

Remus pulled himself up onto his feet, took a step forward and fell over. Confused, he blinked, trying to get rid of the grey mass in front of his eyes. It didn't clear. He pawed at it, only to make contact with his muzzle. Muzzle? Remus thought blearily, I don't have a muzzle. Struggling up he sat back on his haunches and looked at his hand. It was a paw. Oh, he thought, I'm Moony.

Then he thought, I'm thinking. That's odd.

Moony whined and lay down, his head on his huge paws. Over the last few months he had become more aware of what was happening when he was transformed. His moonlit nights had been growing less dreamlike and more real. But now...he could feel his dark desires – the wolf – as a rising presence in his mind. It was still there, but clearly his own human mind was growing in dominance. Muscles rippled as he shifted uneasily.

A scrabbling sound brought his head up and the door opened. The scent of venison wafted in. Inside his mind the wolf rushed forwards; prey, the hunt, bloodlust. Remus backed down in front of the terrible force. Yet he knew somehow that there would be a time when he could win. For the first time, as the werewolf snarled its way into existence, Remus felt a dash of hope.

XOXOX

"I can do this. I can. I've done it before," James said as he walked down the stairs to dinner.

"Of course all those times it didn't go too well," commented Sirius.

"Thank you for that."

"It'll be different this time. This time he has the power to put her in detention if she says no," said Remus, a twinkle in his eye.

"She won't say no," said James confidently.

"That's the spirit!" Remus cheered.

James growled at both his friends and stalked into the hall, sitting down with a scowl. He piled potatoes onto his plate with a vengeance, each scoop punctuating a diatribe against unhelpful friends. He was so preoccupied that he failed to notice Lily entering the hall and sitting down a few seats away. Until, that is, she asked what was wrong.

"Lily. Lily!" he acknowledged with a start, "Lily-"

"We've established her name at least," muttered Sirius to a grinning Remus.

"There's a Hogsmeade weekend coming up," James said, ignoring the aside.

"There is," said Lily, reaching for the chicken.

"Would you like to go...with me. To Hogsmeade," James said in bursts.

Lily looked along the table, raising an eyebrow at the two laughing Marauders, then back at James. He was biting his lip and running a hand through his hair nervously.

"Yes," she replied simply.

XOXOX

James was waiting outside when Lily emerged from the castle. A smile lit his face as he caught sight of her, and Lily couldn't help but return it. Since sometime last year Lily had been toying with the idea of actually going out with him, and over the summer she had made the decision that their one date would not be the only date. When she had got back to school six weeks ago and seen the Head Boy badge pinned to James' chest Lily had been secretly relieved. As the weeks had passed and no date had emerged she had become more confused. After six years of chasing had James finally given up?

"You look beautiful," he said, "Of course, you always look beautiful, but..." He spread his arms, took her hand and kissed it like a gentleman.

And Lily was glad all over again that the answer to her question was 'no'.

Taking his proffered arm they joined the other students heading for Hogsmeade. They were about half way there before Lily noticed the total absence of Remus or Sirius.

"How did you get rid of the laughing duo?"

"I really wish I could say that they were in detention for such rude behaviour," James said wistfully, "But, alas, not. Sirius is actually in detention. I'm not sure what for. And Remus was intelligent enough to make other plans than bothering us."

Laughing, Lily strolled on. As they walked they talked, covering a multitude of subjects from school to friends, to the ridiculous meeting they'd had with the new prefects. The one subject they stayed away from was the war. That would not have been a good topic for their conversation, filled as it was with little glances and fleeting electricity-filled touches.

They reached Hogsmeade in good time and wandered round the shops and farmers market stalls. James bought Lily a leather bracelet in reds and golds, and Lily dragged James into a bookshop insisting there was a book he had to read. By the time they were done with the shops they had both lost their nerves and relaxed into each other's company. James even teased Lily about her attitude towards exams, doing an exaggerated impression of her and getting punched for his trouble.

It wound towards afternoon tea-time, and Lily asked if James had a preference of eating place.

"We could always go to the Three Broomsticks," he suggested, "Or there is this new place, Madam...Puddifoot's. I've not been there, but apparently it serves great cakes."

"Alright," agreed Lily, and they headed towards the bottom of town.

James held the door for Lily as they entered the small café. From the outside Puddifoot's looked like a nice place, and the cake list in the window was certainly enticing. But from the inside...

"My goodness," murmured James.

"Quite," said Lily.

Pink and frills and ... It was like walking into a lace factory after the pink dye pack had exploded. Every surface was covered in delicate soft furnishings. Lace place mats on every table, doilies under the cake stands, and every tablecloth and chair was in a soft shade of pink.

James and Lily looked at each other, their shocked expressions perfectly mirrored for a second.

"Shall we?" James said. They sat down at the closest table and he pulled a menu out of the stand. The selection of cakes was certainly wide, choosing would be difficult. He looked up, over the menu at Lily.

"You look uncomfortable."

She gave a small noise of agreement and a half shrug. James leaned forwards and asked, "Shall we go somewhere else?"

"Somewhere that doesn't clash with my hair," Lily said with a pained smile as she rose with alacrity. James got up and they both escaped the pink profusion. "Who told you about that place?" she asked.

"Who do you think?" James said darkly.

"Sirius," they said in unison, and broke out laughing.

"I really hope that's not his idea of romantic. Otherwise..." she shook her head, "I pity the girl who goes out with him."

Once they were seated in the Three Broomsticks, had ordered, and were waiting for their food to come, James leaned over the table and took Lily's hand.

"Are you enjoying yourself?" he asked.

"Yes," she said, squeezing his hand lightly, "In fact we may have to do this again."

A wide grin slowly broke out on James' face. Six years of refusals, six years of planning, six years of hopes dashed, and all it needed was one deal, one day. It had paid off, all the following her around, gathering information. He may not be the expert on Lily Evans but he was pretty damn close.

Lily broke their hands as the food arrived and she tucked into a nice piece of carrot cake. James just sat watching her, his own chocolate creation abandoned, until Lily looked up and blushed. Then he gave a small self-depreciating laugh and tried, though his cheeks were sore from smiling, to eat.

XOXOX

Severus was heading back up to school from the rare book shop when he saw them. His heart leaped a little sideways as he saw Lily take Potter's hand. A blatant expression of surprise that turned to happiness was plastered over Potter's face. Over both their faces. Severus scowled deeply before pushing whatever remained of his feelings for Lily deeper inside. He knew that technically he ought to be happy that she was happy, but it was Potter who was making her smile. Besides, if he cared she'd only disappoint him - like Morrigan.

After all the promises she had vanished without a trace, it was as if she had never been in his life at all. The only evidence that last year had contained anything unusual was the lack of antagonism from Potter, and the Prophet article that said the Ministry were looking into the strange fog bank off Northern Cornwall. Well, that and...

He shifted the paper-wrapped set of books so they weren't pressing against the inner elbow of his left arm. The mark there still stung a bit, but Lucius Malfoy said that it would ease in time. And he'd had his for over a year now. Severus smiled a little to himself. Let Sirius Black bluster all he wanted, once school was over a new game would begin, and Severus was already allied with the most powerful piece on the board.

XOXOX

Lily woke in the middle of the night to Alice hissing her name. As she sat up reluctantly and rubbed the sleep from her eyes Lily became aware of an odd knocking at the door.

"What is it? Who is it?" she asked muzzily.

"We don't know – it's been going on for ages now," Alice moaned.

"It's been about five minutes," corrected Beatrice tetchily.

Groaning, Lily reached for her wand determined to shed some light on the situation so she could go back to sleep. The knocking was certainly insistent, going on and on at the same soft pace. It was no wonder Lily had been sleeping through it.

"Lumos," she muttered, wanting a low light. Her wand flared, the light completely out of proportion to her wishes. It lit every dark corner of the room, chasing away all shadows and causing Alice and Beatrice to yell.

"Nox," she incanted quickly, blinking against the painful sunburst behind her eyelids. Lily shook her wand, tapping it against her palm. "Let's try that again," she said, "Lumos."

This time a more reasonable light flickered into existence and the girls sighed with relief. Lily frowned at her wand, it seemed like a lot of her spells had been overpowered lately. Maybe she ought to her her wand checked next time she was in Diagon Alley. The continuous knocking drew Lily's attention away from her wand; it was definitely coming from the dorm door opposite her bed and, somehow, in the light it seemed more audible than ever.

"Why didn't you open the door?" she asked.

"You're Head Girl, you open the door," Alice said.

"You're closer," Lily pointed out. There was something a little creepy about the knocking that made her reluctant to investigate. Besides, it was warm in bed.

"I don't want to," complained Alice.

"Well I don't want to either."

"I'll go!" said Beatrice, throwing back her covers and grabbing her wand.

Alice and Lily looked at each other and then jointly scrambled out of bed to huddle behind Beatrice as she opened the door. As soon as the door was open a hand's width the knocking stopped and there was a soft 'flump'. Beatrice poked her head and wand outside, the light from Lily's wand illuminating the landing and top of the stairs. There was no one out there, and the stairs weren't a slide so it couldn't have been an annoying boy. Beatrice was about to pull back into the dorm when she looked down and saw the bunch of thick-stemmed roses. She waved her wand in a hex-detection spell – nothing. Taking a last look around, she picked up the roses and shut the door.

"Ooo," gasped Alice, "Pretty! Who are they from?"

"That's what was knocking on the door?" said Lily in surprise.

Beatrice nodded and smirked a little, "I think we know who they're from. Who else but James Potter, Head Boy and our Lily's boyfriend."

Lily blushed furiously as Alice giggled. She took the flowers from Beatrice and picked out the note, mentally throwing stones at the Boy's Tower for sending flowers in the middle of the night. She flicked open the note and felt herself gaping like a fish, then she handed the flowers back to Beatrice.

"What are you doing? Why are you giving them back to me?" asked the dark haired girl, confused.

"Because they're not for me. They're for you." Lily turned the card round and held her wand so both Alice and Beatrice could read it.

"They're from Sirius," breathed Alice, "Are you seeing him again?"

Beatrice took the note and went to sit on her bed, the other girls joining her. She was shaking slightly. "Yes," she said, "No. Maybe. I don't know."

"You don't know?"

"Well, it's complicated, isn't it?" Beatrice said, smelling the red roses and smiling.

"You're not talking about the fact that you've been out before."

"No. I mean the whole Pureblood, Blood Traitor bit."

The girls sank into silence. Beatrice's family were traditional Purebloods, extremely conservative and steadfast in their belief that anyone branded a Blood Traitor should be exiled from society completely. When her father had heard about Sirius Black being disinherited he had laughed and said it was nothing more than he deserved.

Beatrice was just glad that her being sorted into Gryffindor hadn't been as much of an issue as it had been for Sirius. There were a few lions in her extended family, unlike the viper's nest that was the Black family.

"I suppose that having Lucy here won't help matters," noted Alice gloomily.

"She's in Ravenclaw, isn't she?" Lily asked.

"Yeah." Beatrice breathed an annoyed huff. "At least last time all we had to do was hide it from the Slytherins. But this time...if my darling thirteen-year-old sister finds out she'll go running straight to Daddy." She sighed. If her father ever found out that she had any kind of relationship with a 'filthy traitor' he'd...he'd...well, she had no idea what he'd do but it would not be pleasant.

"I'm not as brave as Sirius, I can't just walk out of that house. Even if mum is trying to marry me off to Rabastan LeStrange."

"Ouch," winced Lily.

"Yeah."

"We'll just have to hide it," Alice suddenly said brightly, "No, look. You keep any PDA inside our Tower, and we'll all run interference. I'll get Frank onto the 'Puffs, and Remus and Lily know plenty of Ravenclaws who'll help. We can keep this from Slytherins and Lucy. You go out with him. Maybe it'll put a smile onto that face of yours."

"Hey!"

"Alice is right," persuaded Lily, "We can do this."

Beatrice, tears welling in her eyes, pulled Alice and Lily into a big hug. "Thank you, thank you," she said emotionally.

"But mind you tell that idiot off for waking us up," Lily admonished.

"Ohh, believe me, I will!" Beatrice said to the light laughter of the others. Maybe things would turn out alright after all.

XOXOX

The sun was shining on the lake turning it into rippled silver glass and Lily and James sat quietly, watching the surface break now and again as the Giant Squid tried to catch seagulls. Frank and Alice were involved in a laughing snowball fight against Beatrice, Sirius and Remus not far away, but the new couple didn't feel like joining them yet.

After their first date nearly two months ago there had been second, third and fourth dates. Slowly they had both picked their way through the embarrassing slip-ups, the awkward and tentative first kiss, and had settled into a relationship that was argumentative yet stable. Lily had commented to Alice that it was nothing like she'd read or imagined a proper relationship to be like. Alice had just smiled knowingly and told her she still didn't know the half of it.

As they sat there a question crossed Lily's mind. She tried to ignore it, to think of other things but it kept coming back. Eventually she turned to James.

"I know we're not supposed to talk about it, but, well..."

"Go on."

"At...Tintagel. You were...hurt, and then we all passed out, at least I assume we all did, and, well, I know what happened to me." Lily took a breath, "I woke up. At home. My parents were really confused about how I got there; I gave them some fabricated explanation and then I apparated back to Hogwarts. But you...well, you're alive so..."

"You want to know what happened?"

"Yeah," she confirmed.

James watched as a seagull taunted the squid, flying low then veering away. It plunged down, its wings shifted to fly up again, then a tentacle burst out of the water and slapped around its middle. Fluttering and squawking the bird was pulled under the waves; dinner for the squid. It had given him time to think. Dumbledore had made him promise, but Lily deserved to know.

"I was glad when I passed out. I probably would have done from the pain anyway. I woke up at home, same as you. My parents were out, which was lucky. I didn't want to have to explain my torn and bloody shirt to them. The wound, well..." James unbuttoned the top of his shirt and pulled the left side away. Lily gasped at the sight of the raised scar. Cautiously she reached out and traced the line with her fingers.

"It was like that when I woke up. Dumbledore thinks that along with sending us all home, Tintagel healed me. He also said that scars were useful things." James looked down at Lily's hand, still covering the scar, and smiled, "I think I see what he meant."

Lily snatched her hand away and hit him on the arm. "I don't think that's what Professor Dumbledore meant," she said, half-smiling, half-scowling at him.

"You never know with ole Dumble," James said with a wicked grin.

XOXOX