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Chapter Twenty

The rest of winter break passed without much incident. James and Sirius spent a lot of their time together plotting against the Slytherins and trying to get their friends to play in the snow every waking moment while said friends played multiple games of chess and Exploding Snap. Remus proved his worth as the Gryffindor Chess Champion by beating Lily and Abby even when they played two versus one.

January brought more snow to Hogwarts along with the return of all of the students and professor who had gone home. It also brought around Moony's time of the month, so as hundreds of students flowed into the Great Hall for dinner, Remus and Madame Pomfrey snuck out of the castle.

Lily and James sat together at the Gryffindor table, hand in hand. Other than Lily spending every night in James' bed since they began dating, their relationship hadn't changed too much. They held hands all of the time and sometimes shared quick kisses, but James had respected Lily's wishes and was taking it slow.

"Where are Sirius and Abby?"

"Hey, Pete!" James exclaimed with a smile. "So good to see you, buddy. How was Christmas?"

"It wasn't bad," said Peter. "Hello, Lily."

"I'm glad your holiday was good, Peter," Lily said with a smile. "I haven't seen either one of them all day."

Peter raised his eyebrows and James shrugged.

"How did Moony seem today?" Peter asked. He was always really worried about Remus pre and post full moon.

"He seemed to be alright."

Peter nodded, gathering food onto his plate for dinner. "So, Sirius wrote me an owl night before last," he said slowly. James raised his eyebrows at the smaller boy. Peter looked up at James. "It's about time, guys."

James' response was cut off by Deborah Stevens showing up at their table. "Hello, all," she said cheerfully. The three teens greeted her politely. "Don't mean to interrupt, but is Remus around?"

"No, actually," said Peter, not meeting Deb's eyes.

"He had a family emergency," said James. "He should be back in a couple of days."

"I'll tell him to find you when he gets back if you'd like," Lily offered.

Deb nodded," Thanks, guys. See you later."

James and Peter both sighed once Deb was out of ear shot. "Moony's going to hate this one," James said. Peter nodded in agreement.

"Why?" Lily asked. "From what I saw, Remus is quite smitten with Miss Stevens."

"Lily," said Peter, "he doesn't date because of his condition. He didn't even want a date to the dance in the first place, remember?"

"Yes, that I do remember, along with James' horrid joke."

"Ha. Ha. Ha."

---

"POTTER SCORES AGAIN! SIXTY TO TWENTY, GRYFFINDOR!"

There was a wild wave of cheering from most of the school as James beat Slytherin's Keeper for the forth time. He and the other two Chasers were on fire. Lily, who was sitting in the stands with Remus, Peter and Abby, was jumping up and down and carrying on like a madwoman.

Remus pulled her down by her cloak. "You're giving me a headache, Lily!"

The girl blushed. "Sorry, Remus," she said over the roar of the crowd. However, within seconds, she was back on her feet.

The Seekers were locked in a fierce race to the Snitch. The entire crowd held its collective breath. Without warning and with thanks to Sirius, a Bludger knocked Slytherin's Seeker off course.

"GRYFFINDOR CATCHES THE SNITCH! GRYFFINDOR WINS! GRYFFINDOR WINS! GRY-FIN-DOR WINS!"

After the game, Peter wandered off toward a group of Hufflepuff girls while Remus, Lily and Abby made their way over to the entrance of Gryffindor's locker room.

"I'm going back up to the castle," Remus said. "I'll see you guys at dinner."

Abby waved goodbye to the boy as he turned and began to walk away. Lily turned to the girl and said, "I'm going to talk to Remus. Tell James, will you?" Abby nodded. "Thank you!"

Lily ran to catch up with Remus. By the time she did, he was halfway up the lawn to the castle. "Remus!" she called out.

Remus slowed to a stop and waited for the redhead to catch up. "Not waiting for James today?"

"I wanted to talk to you," Lily said simply.

"What about, my dear Lillian?"

Lily scrunched her nose at the taller-than-she young man. "Don't call me 'Lillian,' you!" she said. Remus chuckled a bit. "I wanted to know if you've talked to Deb yet."

"I have not…"

"Remus, it's been almost a week since she came to us at dinner."

"I'm aware."

"I just think-"

"Lily!" Remus cut her off, rounding on her. "I don't care what you think! There is one fact in all of this and only one fact. I. AM. A. MONSTER!"

Remus began to walk away from a stunned Lily, but she snapped to her senses quickly enough to cut him off.

"Remus Lupin, you are not a monster!" she said. "You're a bright young man who has a condition that he can't help. If Deb is a human being, she'll understand."

"She'll be afraid of me."

"She will understand," Lily repeated firmly. "She has no reason to fear you. If you were a monster, I wouldn't be standing here. If you were a monster, you wouldn't have any friends. I've known monsters, Remus. You are a great man."

"You don't understand, Lily."

"Michael beat me, Remus," Lily said. Her heart was pounding in her chest, nevertheless she continued on. "Michael beat the shit out of me. He was a monster. You would never do something like that…not to Deb and not to anyone else. You deserve a normal life."

Remus stared, openmouthed, at his small, fiery friend. "He…"

"Yes," Lily said, calming down now.

Remus wrapped Lily, without warning, into a big bear hug, squeezing the life out of her. She squeezed him right back.

"Moony, you molesting my girlfriend?"

Remus let Lily go and turned to see James approaching them, his trademark goofy grin in place. When he reached the two, he slipped one of his hands into Lily's and used his other one to shake Remus by the shoulder. "What's up?"

"Actually…I was just about to go find Deb Stevens," Remus said. "See you both at dinner." He left a confused James and a beaming Lily in his wake.

"How did you-"

"I'm just that good," Lily said, very proud of herself. "Good game today, captain." Lily stood on her toes and pecked James on the lips. James deepened the kiss without a thought and the two of them became lost in each other for quite some time.

---

Once James had run away to catch Lily, Sirius and Abby were left alone. They began to walk around the perimeter of the Quidditch Pitch, talking about this that and the other thing.

"Peanut butter and marshmallow fluff is so much better than peanut butter and jelly!" Sirius exclaimed, throwing his hands to the sky.

"No way, Black," Abby said, teasing her boyfriend. "PBJ rules lives!"

"PBF!"

"PBJ!"

"PBF!"

"No way, Black!" Abby repeated.

Sirius tackled Abby to the ground and began to tickle her mercilessly. "Can't…breathe!" she gasped out.

"Which is better, dear?"

"PBF! PBF!"

Satisfied, Sirius rolled off of her, taking her hand in the process, and settled himself next to her. "That's better," he said.

"Lily's right," Abby said after a moment. "You are a cow."

Sirius let out a bark-like laugh.

---

"Mischief managed," Remus whispered. As the Marauders' Map wiped clean he folded and pocketed it.

Deb was wondering the seventh floor and he assumed she was just taking a stroll. Using his Marauder knowledge of the castle, he was able to get ahead of her and take the same hallway in the opposite direction.

When she saw him walking her way, Deb waved timidly. Understanding that he had done a stupid thing by avoiding her, Remus smiled widely and waved back enthusiastically. He even broke into a little jog to meet up with her sooner.

"Hey, Deb! I've been looking for you since Quidditch."

"Really?" Deb said in shock. "It…it just seemed like you were avoiding me."

"No! Never!" Remus lied. "There's just been a lot going on at home this week and I've been a bit preoccupied. I'm really sorry I haven't come around to talk to you since Lily said you were looking for me."

"Oh, it's not a problem," Deb said. "Is everything alright? With your family I mean."

"Huh? Oh, yeah," Remus said quickly. "Well, no, but it will be. What did you want me for?"

"Oh, yes, er…" Deb fumbled with a button for a moment before taking a deep breath and looking at Remus. "I had a really nice time with you at the dance."

Remus smiled. "Thanks, I had a great time as well."

"Do you…would you want to…I dunno, maybe…maybe get together next Hogsmeade weekend?"

"I'd love to," Remus said simply.

"Really?! I mean…great!" Deb said. "I didn't think that the Great Remus Lupin would agree to something that's about as equal to a date as you can get."

"My appearances are deceiving, remember?"

Deb smiled and told him she needed to get back to her room to get some work done, so he said his goodbyes and she left him standing in the otherwise deserted seventh floor hallway.