A/N: Here is the long-awaited chapter. God, I am ashamed to call myself an angst writer after writing this. This is so fluffy. I hope my angst idols aren't reading this.. *wince* anyway. The first date. Um. Enjoy? And I'm still writing angst, of course, of course! This is too hard to write.. *wince*

Chapter 5

...I could...

Sirius and James have let up since yesterday, and lessons haven't been so bad. Lily is tolerable, now that I've sated her request for a date.

Now it may be blatantly obvious that I'm not the most clever and flirty git in the school--that's Sirius. The only girl I've ever talked to farther than "Can I borrow a quill?" is Lily, all right. Then it may not be a huge shock that I have no idea how to look, act, and... all of that, on a date. Then again, she does know what I am and probably doesn't expect much from me.

Still, here I find myself in front of the bloody mirror trying to get my hair to look halfway decent. It isn't working.

"Nice try," the mirror says. "Trying to impress a girl, are ye?"

I stop. "Of course not," I say.

It grins. "Liar. There's only one meaning to that look on yer face and I've seen plenty. Taking 'er out, are ye?"

I try one last time, then sigh. "Not that it's any of your business, but yes."

"Put the comb down." I do so. "Get the hair outta yer face." I do so. "Yer fine, kid. Good luck."

I blink. "All right then..." I hesitate, then leave the dorm. By the Great Hall, Lily had said.

I pass Sirius in the common room and stops me. "Off to see Evans, are you?" he says, grinning. "How sweet. Love budding in midwinter--"

"It's fall, Sirius."

"Midfall, then." The grin explodes over his face again and he ruffles my hair. "Don't be out too late, Remus. I'll stay up."

I push my hair out of my face again and try to avoid anyone else. All I need is Peter spilling something all over me or something along those lines. I don't think I've ever been so nervous in my life.

And she's there, somehow looking stunning while looking as she normally does. A grin spreads slowly across her face. "'Lo, Remus," she says. "Ready to go?"

"Yes," I say. I can barely move, but I go to her and follow her as she leads the way out of the building. The moon is waning but there's still slight blue-silver light to see by. It definitely suits Lily's warm features, cold as it is.

She looks up at the moon, cold blue-silver light pouring over her features like water, and says, "What's it like?"

I'm startled at first by the question. "What?"

"What's it like, being... what you are?" She goes a few steps further and I can now see the lake spread across the horizon. "I'm just a Muggleborn girl, three years ago I... I wouldn't have even believed this existed. And now I'm here and... I can't imagine what it would be like to be what you are--me, normal as anything."

A million things jump to my mind, a few of them actually tactful, but one eventually wins. "You're not just normal," I say. She turns and looks at me questioningly. I feel myself flush. "Well, um, you know..." I look away from her. "You're really smart, smarter than most purebloods or halfbloods. Blood says nothing. You're the most extraordinary of us all, Lily, and I think you'll go the farthest of all of us."

Did I just call her abnormal? God, this is a nightmare...

I feel her hand take mine and she's pulling me towards the lake. "Remus, I think that's the most you've ever said at once," she says, half-laughing as she speaks. I blush again. "That's really sweet, you know. James would have said something stupid. I'm not the only intelligent one around here, Remus."

"There's plenty of time to study when one can't leave the house," I say. I look into the lake, so clean like a mirror, reflecting the dark Forbidden Forest and the moon above it. "That's why I know my Defense Against the Dark Arts. My family became obsessed with it after I... I became what I am. They bought lots of books. But nothing came out of it... and there's still no cure, not even close." I feel the lump rising in my throat and I choke it down. "It's lonely," I finish lamely. "Really lonely."

"I think in some way everyone's lonely," Lily says, "even those who don't realize it." Her hand is warm, soft in mine and she squeezes my hand. "You should tell them," she says. "We could help, somehow."

"I don't know," I say in total honesty. "I don't want to lose them. You don't understand, Lily... you're a Muggleborn." I look up at her and she looks slightly offput. "Werewolves are dangerous and evil and unnatural and... werewolves don't have friends, except for other werewolves."

"All I care about werewolves now," she says, "is that one is my friend, and I'm not going to abandon him. No matter what." I look away, because if I don't I'm either going to cry or... or do something that's going to get me slapped.

"That's very... decent of you," I say. "But it's not necessary. I'm absolutely fine without friends, Lily, werewolves--"

Her other hand, somehow colder than the other, touches my cheek. "Remus," she says, pulls my face up to her eye level. "You are human. I don't care what happened to you as a child, what you become once a month--I'm not such a picnic once a month either, Remus." Her eyebrows flick up in that conspiratory way and I definitely feel uncomfortable. "We all have our things to deal with in life."

"What's yours?" I hear myself say. What a thing to ask on your bloody first date, eh? I feel the blush come for the millionth time within 48 hours.

"Being normal," she says, smiles that smile. It's as if that smile of hers interferes with my head, like waves of her amazing smile are interfering with the positive use of my brain. No words come, but a rush of emotions as I look into her eyes...

Could this be love, or am I just being a bloody idiot?

"You're blushing," she teases, and I blush more. "You're blushing like a crushing schoolgirl."

One part of that's right. "If you haven't noticed," I say, "I've been blushing nonstop since you first did... this. I... I'm not too good at this, if you haven't noticed."

"It's okay," she says. "It's a thing you'd do. You're so real, Remus. I don't think I've met anyone realer than you. Maybe more people should be ostracized for pointless reasons. Like Sirius, for example?" We laugh. Her face goes serious soon after we begin. I am suddenly very aware of her hand on my cheek.

My lips and my vocal cords and my mouth say something that doesn't even remotely go through my brain. My ears hear this: "Lily... you're beautiful."

I could die now, I really could. Her cold hand feels like ice against my now flaming cheek. I lower my eyes quickly and stumble over my apology. "I wasn't--I didn't--you know that I--Lily, I--"

"Are you really going to take that back?" she says. "Because that was the best thing I've ever heard."

She doesn't smile now, and that affects me even more than the smile would. The smile would mean she was joking, toying, laughing. She is serious now, and that's why I truly think right now that I am in love.

Her lips are against my hot cheek at first, then the other, and then I lean forward and kiss her on the lips. She doesn't seem to mind at all, and I sure don't.

"Ms. Evans and Mr. Lupin," a voice says. I reluctantly pull away from Lily and look up, up and up at the tall figure of Professor McGonagall. "I'm reluctant to take points from my two best students, so if you could hurry along a bit I could probably say I hadn't seen you." I look at Lily, who is now beet-red. "Well?" McGonagall repeats sharply.

Lily grabs my hand and pulls me again, and we run into the building. She's laughing, I'm laughing, and I don't know that I've ever been happier in my life. The likelihood is high. I stop her a hallway away from Gryffindor Tower and pant, "Did I see you blush back there?"

"I think it was my head exploding," Lily says quite seriously, then bursts out laughing again. I can't help but to follow suit.

Her warm hand in mine and that smile for me... no, I don't think I've ever been happier than tonight in my entire life.