Chapter Sixteen: Insinuation, Parley, and Base Truce

January 1978

The first meeting between Lily and Marlene, when school had started up again in the New Year, had been fraught with tension – the sort that did not lead to raised voices, and a clearing of the air, but rather lurked edgily in the conversation. Both girls were determinedly pretending it did not exist.

They were sitting on Marlene's bed in the seventh-year girls' dorm. It was almost dinner time; Lily had only had to suffer another day in Grimmauld Place before the Christmas holidays were over, and away from the oppressive air that pervaded the house, her muscles were able to loosen. She had just finished telling Marlene about the startling news of Potter's new appointment, and was gratified by the other girl's indrawn gasp of surprise.

"Well," Marlene said after a short pause, "he is a rather good Quidditch Captain. He's obviously used to responsibility. Perhaps he'll be just as good as a Head Boy."

"But he's a Marauder!" Lily said despairingly. "He's the one who loses his House points, he can't be given the power to add them. For God's sake, he spends more time in detention than out of it!"

"Lupin is a Marauder too, and he was a decent Head Boy," Marlene said.

"Lupin seems to be the only one of them capable of thinking logically," Lily snapped. She rolled off the bed and onto her feet. "Let's go down to dinner now. I'm tired of talking about him."

Marlene readily agreed, and the two girls descended the spiral staircase down to the Great Hall. Arabella and Frank were already seated at their usual places on the table.

"Evening, Lily! How were your holidays?" Frank asked brightly.

"Uneventful," she lied. "Yours?"

He launched into a comprehensive account of the past two weeks. Nodding whenever there was an interval, Lily spooned peas into her mouth.

After a few moments she realised that Frank had stopped talking. She looked up. "What's wro – Potter?"

He was standing in front of her, his gaze shifting restlessly over Gryffindor table. When she craned her neck she saw the rest of the Marauders watching from the Slytherin corner of the Great Hall.

"We need to talk," he said.

She raised an eyebrow. "Do we?"

"About our Head Duties," he clarified. "I'm free now, if you are?"

"Oh, alright then," she said, getting to her feet. Her eyes scanned his wild dark hair and sharp-boned face, vaguely surprised to find that she no longer felt the urge to throttle him. He looked stunned at her acceptance. So did the others at her table, with the exception of Marlene.

James followed her out of the Great Hall. As she walked Lily could feel hundreds of eyes drilling into her back. She ignored them, holding the door open for him as they went through the entrance. He thanked her warily.

They stood facing each other in the deserted corridor. Lily made the first move.

"So, since you have Quidditch duties, I'm assuming you want me to do most of the Head work?"

"That won't be necessary," he said. "I'll do everything Remus did."

"Then you'll be doing the weekly points tally, as well as producing the overall report every other week," she said. "I'm in charge of the patrol roster and overall report on the weeks you aren't."

There was a silence. With amusement, Lily realised that his face was studiously blank of all emotion, which probably meant that his mind was working frantically behind it. He was assimilating her attitude towards him – trying to plan around it, strategise for it, calculate how it would impact both him and her.

Suddenly, everything had changed. No Slytherin liked that.

"So," he said. His voice was a lazy drawl. "Do I take it you've… forgiven me?"

"It would seem so," she said casually. "Perhaps. Probably, since I no longer desire to murder you."

To throw him off further, she smiled at him, a brilliant curl of her lips that he had never seen directed at him. He blinked, and his jaw slackened slightly.

"I.. um… that's good," he said, stumbling over his words. He shook himself as though to slough off its effects. "Very good. We can be civil to each other now?"

"I don't see why not," she said. "We can be civil, Potter."

"If we're to be civil you should really call me James," he suggested silkily.

She considered it. "Very well. I'd say you can call me Lily, but… you always have. You've always been ready to take liberties with things before they're offered to you, after all."

Before her words could sink into him, she reached out to grasp his hand and pump it. Warmth spread along her fingers. His hand was much larger than hers, slightly callused from Quidditch, strong and pale. Hastily, she dragged her hand back and surreptitiously wiped it on her robes. He grinned at her. For once it was genuine, not one of his manufactured smirks or sneers. The number of times she had seen him smile with feeling was so few that she wondered how she had managed to identify it now.

"Alright then, Lily," he said. "I'll be going now. And don't worry, I'll be just as good a Head Boy as Moony – I mean, Remus – was." He jammed his hands into his pockets and strode away. Lily turned to go herself, then something struck her with the force of a wrecking ball.

Moony.

Her eyes widened, and she started sprinting for the library, gasping out apologies as she knocked people out of her way. Her breath came heavily as she crouched down to look for the correct section.

'Werewolves' was filed under Magical Creatures. Lily pulled out the first book she saw on the subject and flicked frantically to the right page. She had to know if her suspicions were correct.

Werewolves, when bitten, transform painfully every full moon, once a month... They appear waxy and unwell for some time afterwards...

Her breath trembled. There it was, another secret gone, a layer exposed – Remus Lupin was a werewolf. He had to be. She felt suddenly slightly guilty for having treated him so harshly before the Christmas holidays. It really hadn't been his fault, had it? No wonder the poor boy looked so ill all the time. Memory of the 'furry little problem' Sirius had spoken of in Grimmauld Place came back to her, and she winced.

She should go apologise to him.

"You can't see him, he's busy," Sirius said. Hostility simmered beneath every word.

"I just want to say sorry for something," Lily said, striving to remain conciliating. "It won't take long, I promise."

"Sorry for what?" he asked interestedly.

"None of your business," she fired back. "Well?"

Sirius yawned expansively as he lounged against the dungeon wall. "He's still busy, unless of course you tell me what it is you want to apologise for."

"I... just wasn't very nice to him a while back," she said carefully. "Will you tell him I'm sorry?"

He eyed her, face expressionless. She tried not to squirm under his almost chillingly unreadable gaze.

"He doesn't do well with pity," Sirius said abruptly. "And if it's blackmail you were aiming for, I'd kill you before you say a word."

Lily's mouth fell open, but she snapped it shut again. How the hell had he known that she knew?

"And this business with James," he continued. "You might have been able to put off making your choice, but just remember that he's already made his. And had it made for him, a thousand times over."

She narrowed her eyes. "What do you mean?"

He shrugged. "Figure it out."

Sirius sauntered away, lithe and dangerous, like a panther. She bit her lower lip so hard she drew blood.

Well, at least she had cleared one mystery up: Remus Lupin was a werewolf, and James Potter of all people had been the one to point her in the right direction.

AN: Took Lily long enough... I'll see you all tonight!

Guest Reviewer Responses

Ellie - I'd agree that James respects Lily more now! It's such a Slytherin thing to respect the people who are strong enough to hurt you I think, at least in some ways. It's so hard to make a character named Fleamont be evil haha. Oh no that's really unfortunate! Antony and Cleopatra is such a great play to have done an A-level now. What are you doing now until the end of the year? Do you still have schoolwork? I hope it all works out for you! I actually really dislike tragedies... I know people think they're better/nobler than his comedies but honestly I just prefer laughing. For my degree, we study a different time period every term! So in my first year I did medieval, Renaissance, and Shakespeare, then this year was 20th century and Long 18th Century. Wow accounting and finance sounds really great! I'm sure you'll make your offer xx

Shruthi, Rookwood was one of the people reponsible for the Muggle massacre I mention a few chapters before - Lily meets him in the Cakes and Ale chapter. That's a really good gift idea too haha