Chapter 1: Remus Lupin Doesn't Take Charity

The sun was barely making its way into the kitchen, dappling the scuffed countertops, and Remus was barely two sips into his coffee, when there was a muffled knock on the screen of the open side door.

"Am I too early?" Lily was standing on the stoop with a chipper smile. Her green eyes darted from his sleep-rumpled hair, to his ratty wrinkled t-shirt, to his faded pajama pants, and then finally down to his decrepit old slide sandals. She wrinkled her nose jokingly and commented, "Looks like I am."

"Hey, at least I'm awake," Remus protested. He opened the door to let her inside. "Nobody else is. I'd hear Al singing his horrible show tunes in the shower otherwise. And I'm pretty sure Blue would gut you with her paring knife if you woke her up before eleven."

"Well, that's why I knocked on the screen to avoid making too much noise," Lily said pertly. She dumped her tote bag full of textbooks onto the floor with an impossibly heavy thud and took a seat at the kitchen table. "It's not my fault other people like to waste half the day sleeping."

Remus poured her a cup of coffee and passed it to her without even asking if she wanted any. Lily Evans always wanted coffee. "You're not exactly the average college student," he pointed out with an amused smile. "On your typical day, you're in the lab until nine at night. Then you take a shower, you're off to a party with Mary by ten, you're not in bed until two in the morning, and by eight the next day, you're studying at the Central. It's unnatural."

Lily shrugged. "Some people just need less sleep. It's—"

"Scientifically proven," Remus chorused along with her. "Yes, we know, Dr. Evans."

"Oh, fuck off," she said, but she was smiling. Lily was one of those lucky people who had known her calling since she was a child, scooping dazed birds off of the sidewalk and nursing them back to health in a shoebox that her mom insisted she keep out in the garage. After earning the top score on the AP Biology exam in high school and a shocking 3.8 GPA on the pre-med track so far, there was no doubt in anyone's mind that she'd be off to veterinary school right after graduation.

They sipped their coffee for awhile in pleasant silence, listening to the chirping of the birds outside. The chill of the early morning was wearing off into what would soon become sweltering August heat. Lily would complain about it on the entirety of their half-mile walk to campus if they didn't get going soon.

Remus was not really looking forward to the day. He was slated as the teaching assistant for Political and Moral Philosophy, and today was the first meeting of the course. He wasn't sure what qualified a sophomore English major to teach philosophy, other than the fact that he'd done surprisingly well in Professor Dumbledore's intro course as a freshman last year. He'd only taken it to fulfill a gen ed requirement, but it wasn't a total loss – apparently, philosophers had oddly relevant insights for a writer whose primary curiosity was the mundane. Remus loved finding the meaning in the meaningless, loved coaxing out the characters that were hidden in the ordinary people around him.

Lily, for instance, was an interesting conundrum. She was caring and kind once you delved past her rather brusque exterior, but she seemed to understand how to interact with animals much better than how to interact with fellow humans. Animals were easier in a way, Remus supposed. They wouldn't be put off if you constantly talked to them like you knew better than they did—which, cognitively speaking, Lily surely thought she did.

Everything in life had to have an energy source, Lily had once told Remus – it was just physics. But Lily's energy source was invisible and seemingly endless. After a year as best friends, Remus had yet to figure out what drove her to maintain such a pace, what allowed her to focus relentlessly on whatever task was at hand. Further, it was a mystery why Lily even liked Remus, who, admittedly, was languid and mild and required quite a bit of sleep.

When he returned back downstairs after getting dressed and collecting his things for the day, Lily was typing away furiously on her phone. "It's about time," she griped, standing up and heaving her tote bag over her shoulder without looking away from the screen. "You don't want to be late on your first day as a TA, do you?"

Remus glanced down at his watch. "My class doesn't start for four hours. Who are you texting?"

"Mary—she's having problems with Gideon again. You know, the senior she hooked up with at the end of last year?" Lily chewed on her lip, squinting at her phone. "She sent me some screenshots and I have to say, I have no idea what's going on. He seemed really into her before he graduated." She glanced up, struck with sudden inspiration. "Wait, you're a guy, aren't you, Remus? Maybe you should take a look."

"It's taken you a year to realize I'm a guy?" Remus asked dryly. It wasn't that surprising. This sort of thing happened to Remus a lot, and he'd long ago learned not to take offense. It wasn't that Remus was particularly effeminate as much as he just didn't go out of his way to assert his masculinity, uninvited, into every situation. That was enough to make it fade into the background. At least, compared to the way most guys went around wrestling with each other, leaping up to do impromptu chin-ups on any bar or branch of an appropriate height, and readjusting their junk ostentatiously as if to remind others—or themselves—that it was still there.

"Oh, you know what I mean," Lily said, waving a hand impatiently and holding out her phone.

Ah, right—and there was that other thing. Sometime near the end of last year, Remus had admitted to her, spoken it aloud for the very first time, that he liked men instead of women. It was almost disappointing, how this announcement hadn't been a big deal to anyone in his life but himself. With his dad having disappeared years ago, his mom as breezy and open-hearted as she was, and Lily responding matter-of-factly like she always did to everything, Remus was left to process the emotional weight of it alone.

Remus took the phone and read through the screenshotted conversation.

Gideon: Yeah law school is fucking rough haha

Mary: Can you video chat tonight? Haven't seen your face in too long :)

Gideon: Can't, sorry, gotta study. First big exam next week

Mary: Text me after then? Tell me how it went?

Mary: I'm sure you'll do great. Good luck!

Remus looked up, confused. There was nothing wrong with this interaction, as far as he could tell.

"It's been almost two days," Lily clarified, "and no response. You think he's been studying that whole time?"

"Uh, probably not, no."

"Me neither," Lily said, "but I don't understand why he wouldn't just say the exam was on X date and he'd get back to her at Y time. You know, save the poor girl all that worrying. That's what I'd do, after all."

Remus gave her a small smile. "Well, not everyone is as considerate as you. I'm no expert, but he'll probably just text back after the exam, like she suggested. It's always better to give people the benefit of the doubt, I think." He shifted the weight of his backpack, which was growing heavy on his shoulder. "Shall we get going?"

They walked the handful of blocks to campus at the rather brisk pace set by Lily. By the time they could see the columns—a rather forced design choice, Lily pointed out—that flanked the entrance to the Humanities building where Professor Dumbledore taught all his courses, Remus's t-shirt was unpleasantly damp with sweat. Luckily, though, he still had hours before class. He could sit in the air-conditioning in the building's lounge, eat his packed lunch, and work on his latest short story.

"You gonna be alright?" Lily asked him as they paused in front of the building. She shot him a teasing smile. "I know you're a wise old man at heart, Remus, but it takes a bit more than that to teach philosophy."

Remus shrugged. "I'm sure it'll be fine. Dumbledore asked me to do it, after all. He wouldn't have picked me out of all his students if he didn't think I could manage. And besides," he said, in an attempt at airiness, "I needed a work-study position regardless. You know my mom would never be able to afford the tuition here if I didn't help her out. She's had to cut corners at the store to save enough money as it is."

He didn't bother to add the part where he'd wondered incessantly all summer whether he got this job because Dumbledore had noticed his worn clothing, his packed lunches, his laptop that was at least five years old and weighed three times as much as the ones the other students brought to class. Maybe that was why Dumbledore had chosen a completely inexperienced teaching assistant who knew nothing about political and moral philosophy when there were plenty of philosophy majors available instead. Maybe it was charity.

Remus's voice must've betrayed something because Lily gave him a knowing look, her intelligent green eyes seeming to read more in his reluctance. "Surely this is better than serving chicken fingers at the Central in an apron and hairnet," she said softly, putting a comforting hand on his arm. "Less humiliating, at least."

Remus nodded, but he found himself pressing his lips together harder than he needed to. "Well, I'm used to customer service," he finally said. He'd been working for his mom in her tiny herbal tea shop in Portland for as long as he could remember, first organizing the stock in the back and then, when he was old enough, working the register. In fact, standing behind that tea counter was how he'd just spent his entire summer after freshman year. "But trying to teach something about life to spoiled rich kids who are texting each under the table making fun of you? Now, that sounds humiliating."

Lily screwed up her face in a sympathetic way. "I'm sure they won't do that," she said. "These are your peers! You might even have some friends in the class! Isn't it a sophomore-level class?"

"Yeah," Remus said, and shrugged again. "I guess we'll just have to see how it goes."

He gave Lily a small wave as she headed off in the direction of her lab building, tendrils of her long auburn hair drifting lazily in the wind. Then he shouldered his way through the door into the Humanities building, his jaw tense. He wasn't really happy with this teaching post, but he didn't have much choice at this point. He'd do a good job for Dumbledore and earn his tuition properly, muddling through with grit and determination like he always did. For if there was one thing you could definitively say about him, mild and generally inoffensive as he was, it was that Remus Lupin doesn't take charity.

Author's Note: Hey there, thanks for reading! Reviews would be so appreciated (I reply to each and every one).

I've never written AU, but the random Wolfstar at College ideas bouncing around my head were so cute, I just had to start! :) For much more canon Wolfstar, check out my other fic Same Bones. It's a slow burn WIP that spans all seven years of the Marauders at Hogwarts.