Lily's gaze scanned the castle grounds before fixating on a figure sitting on a fallen tree branch turned makeshift bench with his head bent down. James Potter. His messy hair and slumped shoulders were unmistakeable, even from such a distance. For the first time in the three years she'd known him, her lips tugged upwards into a relieved smile at the sight. He was there, and, more importantly, he was alone.

She strode across the broad expanse of grass, her footsteps speeding up as she neared him. Most of the school was still at lunch, leaving the space around them empty of other human life. This was a golden opportunity to talk to him without being overheard, and she didn't want to squander it. She felt bad about interrupting his solitude – given his usual excessively social nature, it was rare for him to actively choose to be by himself – but she didn't know when another chance might present itself. Surveying the area once more, she quickly double checked that they were indeed alone before stopping in front of him.

"Potter."

His head shot up like a jack-in-the-box, his surprised gaze meeting her steady one. Almost instinctively, his hand darted up to rake through his messy curls, and a disbelieving smile crossed his face. "Evans," he said slowly, as if he were struggling to process her presence. It apparently didn't take him long, however, for his smile swiftly solidified into the confident smirk that usually had her rolling her eyes and fleeing as quickly as possible. "Fancy seeing you here."

Most of her housemates would have been charmed by the display, but she just rolled her eyes in distaste. Had he not been the relentless bully she knew him to be, she might have been affected by his attentions towards her, but he was and so she wasn't. "Could you not?"

"What – "

Sarcastically, she continued, "I'm sure it's such a rare coincidence for someone to need to talk to one of the nine people who also happen to be in their house and year about something."

His smirk faltered at that. "What are you here for, then?"

"I need to talk to you about Remus."

"Asking for romantic advice about my friend? That's low, Evans."

"Given how your friend seems to run away from anything that could make him even remotely happy, would you really stand between him and happiness? If we did fancy one another, that is."

His expression turned pained, but he sighed and said, "No. He'd have my blessing."

"Good. Apparently you're not as self-centred as I thought. Now budge over." He eyed her in confusion, but he shuffled over on the branch so that she could fit beside him. "Before you go running to him about this conversation, though, you should know that he and I are friends. Completely… um… platonic. Anyway, do you know what he's doing tomorrow?"

A peculiar look crossed his face, and he was as closed off as she'd ever seen him. "He's going home for his dad's birthday, isn't he?"

"I don't know. Is he? You tell me."

"Yeah… Yeah, he is. He's visiting his parents." As if for good measure, he added, "His family is awfully tight, so they all wanted to be together for it. Lovely, isn't it? They're a veritable paragon of family life."

"That's really interesting. Because, you know, he told me that he's going home because his grandmother is sick."

Potter looked stricken, and she knew she'd made the right choice in coming to him instead of Black or Pettigrew. Black was a much smoother liar, and Pettigrew was more likely to play dumb, but Potter had neither that ability nor that excuse to fall back on. "Maybe I got my weekends confused," he said cautiously, eyeing her as if she were a viper ready to strike.

And perhaps she was. "Don't you mean months? I suppose it gets difficult to keep track of all of those…" Pausing, she mouthed the words 'full moons' at him. He opened his mouth to answer, panic evident in his wide eyes, but she dismissively waved it away, continuing, "Never mind. You've already confirmed things, really."

"You're wrong," he choked out, his voice thick with alarm. "I don't know where you've got this crazy idea from, but Remus just has a lot of family issues that he doesn't like to talk about and that pull him away from the school often. We just make up excuses so he doesn't have to tell anyone unless he wants to."

"Please," she scoffed. "I'm not stupid. He panics every time the word even mentioned, so there has to be something there, and it just fits."

He leaned forward and gripped her arm tightly. His hold wasn't hard enough to bruise, but it still bordered on painful. "You can't tell anybody about this, Evans. It's not something you can just waltz into and out of. It's his life. We need to speak to Dumbledore. We need – "

His concern for his friend was surprisingly touching. Despite his myriad faults, no one could ever fault James Potter for being disloyal or uncaring towards his friends. Should someone ever find themselves within his circle of loved ones, she rather thought it would be impossible to do anything horrible enough to lose his trust. He was almost like a knight of old, promising his sword and life to his friends for life. Deciding to put him out of his misery, she pulled a box of chocolates out of her pocket and passed it over to him. Her voice softer than before, she asked, "Could you please give these to him for me? They're his favourites. It's not much, but…"

Potter took the box in what appeared to be a stunned stupor. "What?"

"I would give them to him myself, but I don't think he's ready to know I know, and I don't want to risk being caught giving them to him. Sev's started asking awkward questions, so…"

"You're not making a threat."

"He's my friend. Of course I'm not going to blackmail him."

He seemed to visibly deflate in relief. "Of course you're not," he echoed back, before setting the box aside so he could lunge forward and pull her into a tight embrace.

She froze. If he had tried that at any other time, she would have pinched him until he released her and then yelled at him for having the audacity to do such a thing. In that moment, however, she couldn't blame him. She wasn't even sure if she were Lily Evans to him in that moment; she rather suspected he just saw her as another person who knew Remus' secret and was willing to do anything to help and protect him. As a fellow knight, swearing fealty to his friend.

Besides, there was something welcoming about his hug. It felt warm and all-encompassing and safe, and she couldn't resist slipping her own arms around him to return the gesture. She felt as if she could happily remain there for the rest of the afternoon. They sat there in silence for a few minutes before she extracted herself from him and, after reminding him to give the chocolates to Remus, made her way back to the castle.

When she reached the large doors, she glanced back behind her. Potter was making his way up the path, chocolates securely in hand. The sight pulled a reluctant smile out of her, and she hurried inside the castle before he had the chance to catch up to her.

She still hated him and what he stood for. But she had to admit, even just to herself, that he was a loyal friend. And he was, most definitely, an exceptional hugger.

A/N: I may or may not have based the hug itself off one I had with a friend on our last day of school. I had a massive crush on him when we were thirteen, and there were some residual feelings throughout the years, so that hug (our first and only) is still really special to me. So… to Tim. I wish I'd been more comfortable with my feelings back then, even though my respect for your then-girlfriend would still have kept me from saying anything. Hopefully, some day, we'll catch up at a reunion and I'll casually mention that the reason I acted so weird around you in year seven was that I didn't want you to know how much I liked you.