Chapter 14: The Wolfsbane Acceleration

That same evening, in the Gryffindor common room, Lily, Mary and Remus entered and sat down on the soft settees beside the fire. Remus was sat on a chair on his own. He was closer to the girls but still felt certain that if they, or anyone found out the truth of his lycanthropy, he would be condemned to a life of expulsion, seclusion and misery. His condition already guaranteed that he would not be a successful or indeed, comfortable man in his elder years. He would definitely live a life of squalor, dimness and poverty…but he at least wanted in his adolescent years, to have friends.

As the three of them sat and chatted, mostly girl talk, due to Remus' reluctance to get too close, as well as the fact that he was particularly tired and achy, since full moon would occur this Sunday. Professor Dumbledore had informed his family that arrangements had been made so that he would not be a threat to anyone, and he was to see him about it on the Saturday morning beforehand.

Just then, Sirius came up to them and asked to sit beside Remus. He nodded shyly and budged up a bit so that Sirius could sit down.

"So, what's up, Remus?" he asked cheerfully. "And Lily and Mary, how you both doing?"

He addressed the girls flirtatiously.

"We're fine, thanks." said Lily in a flattered but emotionless tone.

"Just fine." said Mary in a dreamy voice, which Sirius was relishing on.

He never had much contact with young girls except his cousins and his mother, and only Andromeda Black was worth noting as a good example of a lady. He was by no means attracted to her, but he was curious about girls at his early age already.

"Remus?"

"Yeah, um, yeah, I'm good." Remus had been very keen earlier to be friends with Sirius but was feeling excruciatingly tired at this moment.

"You don't look good, Remus." said Mary concernedly.

"Oh, thanks!" chuckled Remus.

"No, I see what she means, Remus." added Lily. "You look very pale."

"Are you ill?" asked Sirius shifting back a little.

"I do feel tired, and I often am ill, yes. I was weak since birth. The Muggle doctors never had a full explanation for it."

"What about the Healers at St Mungo's?" asked Sirius. "They know every illness there is, magical or otherwise."

Remus' pale complexion seemed to increase tenfold. "My family took me there a few times, but the Healers said it was unable to be diagnosed to a specific ailment, but they do know for certain that it is incurable at this stage."

"Aw, I'm sorry to hear that, Remus." said Lily.

"That's a load of rubbish." said a voice.

Everyone turned to see James Potter come in, followed in a worshipping posture by Peter Pettigrew.

"What?" asked Mary coldly. Lily noticed that her previous demeanour towards Potter seemed to have completely vanished.

"St. Mungo's know every single illness there is, just as Sirius said. There is no way they couldn't diagnose Lupin's illness. That suggests to me that he is lying to us. You're not ill at all, are you?"

Remus looked mutinous and afraid at the same time.

"Or…" muttered Potter, "…you are ill, but you don't want any of us to know what the illness is. What are you hiding, Lupin?"

"Yeah, what?" added Peter, in an attempt to be intimidating.

Remus didn't answer.

"He says he's ill and doesn't know what it is, James. Leave it out. It's not like he's some Voldemort lover." said Sirius defensively.

"Any more than Sirius and Severus are." added Lily.

Potter fumed at how even Sirius was turning against him.

"Gryffindor or not, Lupin is lying to you guys, and one way or another, I'm gonna find out what it is he is hiding."

He skulked off to the dormitories, followed by Pettigrew, like a ratty tail attached to the handsome stag.

"Sorry about him, Remus." said Sirius. "He's been uptight ever since he met Prince. He seemed to be quite a cool guy when I met him before that moment."

Remus said nothing. He just quickly slipped away into the dormitories too.

"Should you go and make sure Potter doesn't harass him again?" asked Lily.

Sirius considered that possibility and went.

"Well…Potter's not as nice as I thought." said Mary awkwardly.

"Cos you were basing him on his looks and not his personality." teased Lily.

Mary blushed. "Well, he looks cute."

"Cute looks hiding a rather ugly personality, I think." replied Lily bluntly.

Mary had to agree.

Severus enjoyed the remainder of his first few days learning at Hogwarts, but his lost memories of what he had learned still meant that he would go through the tedious and difficult studying preparing for his exams, particularly his OWLs and NEWTs.

However, this was a joy to some extent, as most of his free time with Lily had been helping one another on revision.

Lily was enjoying herself too. In the space of just these three to four days, she and Mary were almost the best of friends, aside from Severus, of course. They never had a moment without the other's company, and Mary filled the void for Lily whenever she couldn't spend her time with Severus. She was looking forward to tomorrow, a Saturday, so she and Mary could spend the whole weekend doing homework with Severus.

Remus was getting noticeably weaker and more tired around them.

Severus knew that full moon was imminent, and to keep Remus' peace of mind amongst his new friends, he himself always found an innocent way to distract Lily, Quincey and Mary from questioning his mysterious illness, and this was often successful, and did not arouse Remus' suspicions. However, Severus soon found that he could not deter Sirius Black nor James Potter that easily.

Potter constantly hounded Remus for his illness and kept demanding to know why Remus was keeping so much of a secret about the nature of it, and even showed repulse at the possibility of it being contagious.

Sirius was by no means as cold towards Remus, but nor did he completely object to Potter's methods as he saw him as his first true friend upon leaving home to go to Hogwarts. The only one in his family who came close was Andromeda, but they didn't meet often, especially after she left home to marry the Muggle, Ted Tonks. They married two years ago. Sirius was so happy for her, but was saddened that he would never be able to see her again in family gatherings, at least not until he came of age to meet her himself.

Sirius often consoled Remus after Potter's harassments, but still could not mask his own curiosity.

Remus eventually said. "I wish I could explain, but I simply cannot."

Sirius took that to mean that Remus didn't understand it very well himself, but what the latter really meant was that he longed to tell them all, but could not out of fear of rejection and expulsion.

The weekend finally came after their first lesson of Defence Against the Dark Arts came to an end. Professor Reynolds ordered them to study the movements of the Bat Bogey Hex for next week's lesson.

It was on the Saturday morning that Severus, Lily and their friends went to the Owlery to send off their letters to their parents. It was the first opportunity they had in all the excitement.

Severus wrote to his mother about being in Ravenclaw, and making some new friends, particularly Quincey. He also spoke of how much fun he and Lily had in their first lessons and that they had faced James Potter, but he wasn't causing too much trouble for their friendship this time.

Lily wrote of how she was put in Gryffindor, and how much fun it all was. She asked her parents to not show Petunia the letter as it might spark some jealousy, but to let them know she was planning to speak to Professor Dumbledore over the weekend about tutoring her.

Soon enough, all the letters were on their way. Gabriel took Lily's letter and Severus used a regular owl from the Owlery to deliver his.

Then they all went out onto the grounds, and found Remus Lupin with Sirius Black. Remus was looking paler than at breakfast which was barely an hour ago, but he had a bright smile, as he and Sirius were becoming more and more friendly with one another. James Potter suddenly came onto the grounds too, and deliberately shoved past Severus with such force, he was knocked off his feet and nearly rolled down the slope.

"OI! MIND WHERE YER GOIN', BOY!" boomed Hagrid's voice from down below at his hut.

Potter almost leapt out of his skin.

"Um, sorry, Mr Hagrid." he murmured as the gamekeeper marched up to him.

"Don't apologise to me, Mr Potter. Apologise to Mr Prince here."

Severus was back on his feet, and he and Potter exchanged looks of fury.

"S-sorry, Prince." said Potter with very little remorse.

"Fine." muttered Severus sarcastically.

Potter quickly avoided more humiliation by darting past Hagrid and towards Sirius and Remus.

"Seems a right piece of work, that one." said Hagrid with disapproval.

"He is." said Lily coldly. "He's given Severus nothing but trouble since we all met on the train."

"Why?"

"Cos I'm from a Slytherin family." said Severus.

"So was Mr Black." said Hagrid. "Potter seems alright with him."

"Don't ask me to fathom how that doofus' mind works." said Severus in exasperation.

Lily slapped his arm.

"Sorry, Hagrid." said Severus.

"No problem, Severus." said Hagrid kindly. "Your temper is understandable. Come on, you four. Come inside for some tea."

Lily and Mary couldn't refuse, and therefore, neither could Severus and Quincey.

That evening, some newspapers flew into the castle, all of which were copies of the Daily Prophet.

"Must be some kind of breaking news." said Mary.

Severus and Quincey looked at a copy together, as did Lily and Mary.

What Severus read was astonishing and quite unexpected: AMAZING BREAKTHROUGH IN LYCANTHROPY TREATMENT.

Severus read that the potions master, Belby had invented the Wolfsbane Potion and some six months ago had introduced it to the Ministry and St Mungo's for testing. After much testing and deliberation, under strict secrecy, the Potion was deemed a success and a breakthrough. Belby insisted on selling it, and was due to receive substantial fame.

Severus looked up from the paper towards two people. The first of which was Remus, whom was wide-eyed and in shock, then both boys looked toward the second person: Dumbledore.

Dumbledore looked positively thrilled.

Severus was confused. He recalled that in his past timeline, the Wolfsbane Potion hadn't been made until five years after Hogwarts graduation, and one year after Lily's death. Dumbledore had used his position in the Wizengamot to obtain the recipe for the Potion before entrusting it to Severus to make it during Harry Potter's third year to keep the adult Remus Lupin safe and at bay.

He once again recollected that things in this universe would be different, such as his House at Hogwarts, his father's death and his reunion with his grandparents. This was possibly the first occurrence that didn't specifically benefit him, and he was nevertheless delighted about this eventuality. He needn't fear Remus getting loose now that the Potion had been made earlier than anticipated.

After the feast, Lily made to get up from her seat to see if she could quickly ask Dumbledore for an audience in his office, as she and Severus had agreed, but Remus got to Dumbledore first and when Lily approached them, she was swiftly dismissed.

Lily was very disappointed, but Severus was not surprised at all with this development that greatly affected Remus' life.

Severus comforted Lily and said that she could always try again tomorrow.

"I guess that's true." said Lily. "But still, I want to get this done as soon as possible, for Tuney."

"Petunia can wait an extra day, Lils. Don't worry." said Severus soothingly.

Lily nodded, hoping that it was only one day.

But it wasn't.

Severus was surprised at how naïve he had been in giving Lily that bit of false hope. That day, a Sunday was the night of the full moon, and Remus was likely being attended to for his first transformation in the Shrieking Shack by Dumbledore and Madam Pomfrey. As was the case, Dumbledore was once again unavailable to speak with Lily.

"If you want an appointment with Professor Dumbledore, why don't you ask Professor McGonagall if she can arrange a meeting with him for you?" suggested Severus. "After all, she likely knows him and sees him more than anyone here, as she is Deputy Headmistress here."

"Good idea." said Lily. "I'll ask her in Transfiguration tomorrow."

Severus smiled as they went to bed that night. Remus was in the Shrieking Shack and out of trouble, Lily was safe in her common room and soon there would be no need to fear for her safety where he was concerned, and soon enough, eventually, she will be able to try and help her sister, and keep her promise.

James Potter, on the other hand, was most interested to learn that Remus had gone away due to his illness.

"Why wouldn't he be in the Hospital Wing?" he asked Sirius.

"He told me that his mother was ill too. Dumbledore arranged for him to visit her too, especially as he seems unable to attend class tomorrow anyway." explained Sirius. "Why does this bother you so much, James? Remus is a good guy. Very friendly."

"I just don't like that he acts as suspiciously as Prince does." said James defensively.

"Prince has done nothing wrong either." said Sirius.

"He was born into a Slytherin family. His existence is doing something wrong in that regard." snapped James.

"Are you trying to say my little brother's existence is wrong? My existence is wrong?" fumed Sirius.

"N-no, that's not what I-"

But it was no good.

Sirius stomped away and up to bed.

Meanwhile, in Heaven, James and Lily Potter were surveying all the events of Severus' new life, as well as those of their own, and Harry's life back in their universe. They were pleased at Harry's life. His three children were delightful and not a little cheeky towards one another, and his marriage to Ginny was very content.

But in Severus' new universe, there were some things that left them ill at ease.

"Was I really as bad as that?" asked James after watching his counterpart inadvertently end his friendship with the alternate version of Sirius Black.

Lily wanted to say yes to an extent, but knew that would not be entirely true.

"No, you weren't." she said honestly. "You weren't as paranoid about Remus as far as I know, and you were more understanding when you found out he was a werewolf. I have a sad feeling that this James won't be so kind and accepting."

James hung his head in shame. "But I was like that to Severus."

"Yes, you were." said Lily. "It started off rather in the same prejudiced way Harry was with the Malfoy boy, but then it became more personal after you had both fallen in love with me. Though you were too vain to realize he had the same feelings towards me that you had."

"To my regret." said James.

"Yet you admit you wouldn't have relented." she said.

"Would you have preferred I did?" asked James.

"I suppose not." said Lily. "I just wish…I just wish that our love didn't hurt my best friend so much."

Lily started to cry, much to James' surprise.

"Hey, there's no need to be so upset, Lily, love." he said softly, embracing her. "Severus has moved on to have a better life, and by the looks of it, he will oust my counterpart for your counterpart's affections. And we helped him to get that second chance. You should be happy right now. Especially with Harry having such a good life as well, now."

But Lily shook her head.

"You don't understand, James." she sobbed. "I heard his thoughts. He thinks that the other Lily he's with now is not only better suited for him as a lover, as we wanted, but he now thinks she is a better friend than I ever had been! I know I wasn't as close to him after he was put in Slytherin. I know I was not as kind to him after he began cavorting with those Death Eaters, but it was all the pressure from the other Gryffindors telling me he was therefore no good, and I just wanted to not be isolated because I was a neophyte in magic, as well as my blood lineage! I just didn't want people to hate me for being friends with a Slytherin. But after I heard his memories, and realizing he now likes this new Lily as a best friend over me as well as a lover…I thought my heart would break…and it's all my own fault!"

James was stunned. He didn't realize that Severus' feelings towards Lily had diminished this much since meeting this new version. And he failed to comprehend what losing Severus as a best friend for a second time would mean to Lily. He cradled her in his arms.

"He still loves you, Lily. I am sure of it."

"How can you be?" sniffled Lily sadly.

"Because he owes his second chance to you."

"No? He owes it to the Higher Ones."

"Wow, you really don't see?" asked James. "Don't you remember what the Higher Ones said? Severus avoided reincarnation for you, because you must be very special! He was able to earn the Four Options because of his love for you, for his loyalty to you. You made him the best of himself, and able to work his way out of the darkness. You may not have done so in the way he wanted, but you affected his life so meaningfully, that he was given this new lease of life, and he can finally have the love of his life…because you were worth all he went through to earn it."

Lily considered these words for a moment, then through her tears, she chuckled through her sobs.

"For someone who was such an idiot at school, you turned out to be such a wise guy afterwards." she teased.

James smiled and cuddled his wife some more.

"And at least there has been another bright side to today." he said to keep up the risen spirits.

"Remus can get Wolfsbane Potion quicker in this life?" guessed Lily.

"Yep."

"I wonder how Severus will be able to help with it. He's too young and isn't supposed to know how to brew it." wondered Lily as she wiped her eyes.

"Time will tell, I guess." said James. "I just hope my counterpart won't be a moron forever."

Lily agreed and they continued to watch over Severus and Harry's lives.

(So here's Chapter 14. Sorry it took a while. Been busy at university. Chapter 15 coming soon! Please review! Thanks for reading!)