~Chapter 2~
~*September 1, 1976*~
"Hey! REMUS! Over here!"
The Lupin family swung around as one at the sound of their youngest's name. A smile lighted Remus' tired features at the sight of the small, pretty red-head. "Hi, Lily!" he called after her.
"You've got a girlfriend already? You sly fox, you," Orion teased. He couldn't help but laugh when Remus turned a bright shade of red.
The family walked over to Lily, Remus slightly ahead of the others. "Hi, Remus! How was your summer?" she asked as she flung her arms around him and gave him a tight squeeze.
"It was alright…how about you?" Remus grinned back. At the sound of Orion clearing his throat he realized that introduction hadn't been made yet. "Oh, Lily, these are my parents, my brother, Orion, and my sister, Athena."
"How do you do?" Lily gave a polite smile, and shook each of their hands.
"This is Lily Evans, she's a Gryffindor as well."
"These are my parents," Lily said with a smile as she pointed out the two adults behind her.
Remus saw that Lily took after her father quite a bit with her red hair and emerald green eyes. "So, you ready for another year at Hogwarts?" Lily asked when she saw that the two sets of parents had started a conversation.
"I suppose so," he said with a mock sigh.
"Oy! REMUS!"
Both children, as well as all the parents looked up to see two boys running towards them. "Oh, no…not THEM," Lily hissed under her breath.
After his late night chat with Athena in mid-September his first year, Remus had made good on his promise to his sister and actually made an effort to make some friends. The ease of it all was a bit startling to him. Sirius was naturally social, so it hadn't been hard making friends with him, and James seemed eager enough to add another name to his short list of close friends. Peter on the other hand was just a tack on, someone that came with the package of Sirius and James.
Of all of his friends, though, Lily was the closest. Remus had heard Sirius complaining about girls numerous times, but there was something about Lily that made it impossible to dislike her. She was honest and sweet; impossible to hate…Well, that is if you weren't Sirius Black. Nobody knew why the two of them got off on the wrong foot, but it hadn't been resolved within the first year, and it seemed like it wouldn't be resolved any time soon.
"Why do you hate him so much exactly?" Remus whispered, as James and Sirius still had a way to jog to get to them.
Lily raised an eyebrow, "You want the full length list, the abridged, or are you happy with the knowledge that I do indeed have a list of complaints against him?"
Remus would have commented, but James and Sirius decided to appear at that moment. "Hey, Remus, long time no see. How was your summer?" Sirius asked as he slapped his friend on the back playfully. As an after thought he added, "Lily."
Remus couldn't help but smile when Lily just snorted lightly and flicked her hair back before turning around to talk to her parents. "You could try and be a bit nicer to her, you know."
"I would be nicer to her if she wasn't so impossible all the time!" Sirius shot. He looked around and saw the Lupin clan standing together and watching the three boys. He didn't know for sure if it was Remus' family, but there was no doubt in his mind it was. He recognized Remus' sister from that night in the common room, and the others just had the same soft-spoken look about them.
He was about to go introduce himself, but James beat him to it. "Hi, I'm James Potter and this is Sirius Black. Pleased to meet you!" James held out a hand and shook hands with each one of the family members.
"So this is the infamous James and Sirius," Perseus said with a twinkle in his eyes. "Remus has told us all about you."
"Putting superglue on the Slytherin seats in the Potions classroom was INGENIOUS!" Orion said with a wide grin.
"As much as I'd like to take credit for it, it was actually your brother's idea," Sirius said as he elbowed Remus in the ribs.
Perseus and Amanda both shot a reprimanding look at their son. "Heehee…would you look at the time!" Remus exclaimed as he withered under his parent's gazes. "Don't want to miss the train!"
"We'll have this conversation when you get back," Perseus said sternly. Although he loved the fact that his son was making friends and living a semi-normal life, he didn't like the fact that he was coming up with pranks.
"Yes sir…" Remus mumbled as he stood in front of his father with his head down. Out of nervous habit he start scuffing his shoes on the pavement.
"Good going, you stupid git," James muttered to Sirius as he glared at him. The two boys slowly distanced themselves from the Lupins, giving them some room for the farewells that James and Sirius had already said to their families.
Sirius shrugged helplessly, "How was I supposed to know they would take it that way?"
Remus said his goodbyes to his parents before turning to his siblings. "Don't mind dad too much. Just have some fun, little man. You deserve it." Orion winked before walking off.
"I'm not going to cry this time, Rome…"
Remus nodded in agreement. "Neither am I, Athens…" He took in a deep breath to make good on his statement. "Thank you. I don't know why I thought I'd be able to get through life without any real friends."
"Friends give our lives meaning, Remus. Never forget that…" Athena ran her hand over his face while saying, "I'll miss you."
Remus returned the gesture. "I'll miss you too…but we'll see each other again at Christmas time," he added happily.
Athena's eyes turned sad before she nodded slightly. "Yes," she said wistfully, "we'll see each other at Christmas. Take care of yourself, Rome."
"Okay…I'll write you when I get there." Without another look back he turned and followed James and Sirius onto the train.
"Hey, Remus," Sirius started when the boys had found themselves an empty compartment at the end of the train, "what's with the hand thing that you and your sister do?"
"I dunno," Remus said thoughtfully. "It's just something that Athens has always done. I don't know where she got it though."
Sirius just nodded and shrugged, "Fair enough."
"Where's Peter?" James asked suddenly as the train began to pull out of the station.
The two other boys looked around the compartment stupidly before shrugging. "You don't think the stupid git missed the train, do you?" Sirius asked as he rolled his eyes. He actually wouldn't put it past the boy to do something like that. He didn't really like Peter, but James seemed to. So, he kept his mouth shut and let the boy into the small circle of friends that had formed within the walls of Gryffindor tower.
"Well, if he did, he's going to have a picnic explaining it to McGonagall." James sighed as leaned back in his seat.
The door to their compartment slid open suddenly, and the boys looked up expecting to see a sweaty, panting Peter. What they did see made two of them roll their eyes. "Well, it's nice to see you two too," Lily huffed as she rolled her eyes. She automatically turned her attention to Remus, "Remus, I was wondering if I could take a look at your Defense homework. There was one answer I just couldn't find anywhere in the text book."
Remus just shrugged before searching his trunk for his book. "You two are already talking about HOMEWORK?!" James exclaimed as he smacked himself on the head.
"Yes, well, some of us aren't as gifted as the two of you," Remus grinned as he handed the homework to Lily. "People like Lily and I actually need to WORK to get the grades we get."
"I thought that copying homework would be beneath you, Lily," Sirius said with slight malice in his voice that only Remus picked up.
Lily didn't seem fazed by Sirius' insult at all. "From someone like you maybe…but I know for a fact that Remus' homework is credible, and that I'd give him my homework if he were to ask." Lily glare at him before turning back to Remus. "Thank you, Remus, I'll have this back to you as soon I'm done."
"Take your time, Lily. There's no rush." Remus blushed when Lily gave him a bright smile. She gave one last glare at Sirius before leaving.
"You know, if I didn't know any better I would think that you fancied her," Sirius said suspiciously.
"What? No…Lily's just a friend."
Sirius gave him a look that clearly said, ~I don't believe you.~ "Yeah, sure…"
"Hey, Remus, why does she hate us so much?" James asked randomly.
"Well, she doesn't hate YOU exactly…The one she actually hates is Sirius."
James nodded thoughtfully. "So she doesn't hate me?"
"No, the only reason why there's animosity between you and her is because you and Sirius are basically inseparable."
Sirius jumped up and exclaimed, "You're not going to dump me for a GIRL, are you?!"
"Don't be thick, you nitwit. You know I wouldn't do that."
"Good! Cuz for a second there I got the impression that YOU fancied her too!" Sirius fell back in his seat melodramatically. "And if the two of you fancied her, that would mean that I'D have to fancy her! Because of course the three of us can't do anything separately, can we?"
***
About three months later, Sirius found himself running up the stairs to the dorm room that he, Peter, James, and Remus shared with a new bit of gossip. "You guys will not believe what I just heard!" he exclaimed as he burst into the room.
"What?" James asked, splitting his attention between his friend and his homework.
"I've just heard that the Slytherins have officially named us THE vindictive clique of the school…haha!…Where's Remus?"
James looked up at the mention of his other friend. He honestly hadn't noticed that Remus wasn't in the room. The boy was just so quiet that sometimes it was easy to forget he was there, or, in this case, not there. "I dunno…I thought he was here."
James and Sirius both turned to look at Peter. He just shrugged in response. "I thought he was with you," he said meekly.
Sirius rolled his eyes. "Well, he obviously isn't. You know, that git does this a lot."
"Does what?" James mumbled as he went back to his homework.
" 'Does what?'" Sirius mocked. "Disappear, that's what. Tell me, honestly, how many times did he go missing last year? And it hasn't changed at all this year! It's not even Christmas yet, and he's already been missing at least twice."
"Actually this would be the third time," James said calmly as he put away his work. "Okay, so I suppose that tonight we're going to try and figure out why Remus disappears so often?" he asked sarcastically. It was obvious that he wasn't going to get any work done with Sirius in this state.
Sirius glared at him. "Don't tell me you don't care."
"Of course I care, but did you ever stop and think that maybe he doesn't tell us where he goes because he doesn't want us to know?" James raised and eyebrow for emphasis.
"But we're his friends! He HAS to tell us…and if he doesn't, then it's just an invitation for us to go snooping."
"No it's not! Sirius, Remus deserves his privacy. Give him some room…why do you care about this so much, anyway?" James asked suspiciously.
"Because he's my FRIEND."
"No, there's something else, and you're not telling us. What is it?"
Sirius looked at him for a moment, then looked at Peter, then back at James. He looked around to make sure that no one else could hear, and shut the door to their room. "Did you ever notice that whenever he comes back from wherever he goes, he looks horrid? I mean, he always looks as though he hasn't slept in months, and he's got bruises all over his arms…and I think it's safe to say that his arms are probably not the only part of his body that's bruised…"
"What are you saying, Sirius?" James had noticed this too, but hadn't really mentioned it to anyone before. Hearing that Sirius saw this somehow made it real to him. It was true that Remus wasn't his best friend, but the boy was well on his way to becoming one. There was just something about him that made it impossible to dislike him. He was…for lack of a better word, pleasant, and likeable.
"You think that someone in one of the other houses is jumping him?" Peter asked, his eyes wide with fright.
"No…that's not what I think at all…Both the Hufflepuffs and the Ravenclaws like him too much, and the Slytherins know that they'd have the entire school after them if anything happen to anyone in the other three houses. No, this is something different." Sirius shook his head and walked over to the dresser between his bed and Remus'. There was a picture sitting on it that Sirius now picked up and looked at. It was the Lupin family portrait. His eyes glided over the picture and stopped for a moment on the laughing image of Remus' sister.
James watched closely before asking again, "What aren't you telling us, Sirius? Remus is our friend too, and we deserve to know everything that you do."
Sirius glanced at the picture again and couldn't help but smile. The portrait was so sweet. The mother and father standing behind their children with proud, happy looks on their faces, the older brother standing by with his hand on his sister's back, and the oldest sister laughing with her arms wrapped around the small shoulders of the youngest boy, who was also laughing happily.
The Lupins really were the ideal picture perfect family. They were all pleasant people, and there was such happiness there. Sirius' own family wasn't anything like it. His mother and father, although still married, were not happy. He knew that the only reason they were staying together was for the image of the happily married couple of Ministry Aurors. It wouldn't be proper for people of their public standing to go through a nasty divorce. And of course, it would be a nasty divorce. What other types of celebrity divorces were there?
Remus' family was happy together, and they liked being in each other's company. They also LOOKED good together. Perseus was a tall man, with dark brown hair, and chocolate brown eyes that were stern yet gentle in appearance. Amanda was a bit shorter, with full curves and a classically handsome face. She also had chocolate brown eyes, but with blonde hair.
Orion lived up to his namesake. He was a very handsome young man, well built, tall and toned. Sirius had heard his father talking of the hot new auror that would quickly rise in the ranks. Athena was the only member in the family with light eyes other than Remus. She was tall and slim with long dark brown hair that fell gracefully in large curls down to her lower back; in the picture it was held back in a simple wooden clip at the nape of her neck.
Sirius had to give her credit. She was pretty…for a girl. His mother seemed to like her as well, and Sirius' mother hardly ever liked the rookie aurors. Elizabeth Black had been paired with the young woman to train her, and had gotten to know her through that. It was no wonder Sirius had recognized the last name when Remus had introduced himself on the train over a year ago.
"Sirius?!" James' voice rang through his thoughts and brought him back to Gryffindor tower in Hogwarts.
"What?!" he asked, annoyed at having his thoughts interrupted.
"What aren't you TELLING us about Remus?!"
Sirius sighed as he took a good look at his best friend from even before he could talk, and Peter. "Okay, but you can't yell at me…"
"For what?" James asked suspiciously.
"If you wouldn't interrupt me, I would tell you," Sirius shot sarcastically. "I overheard him talking to his sister one night last year."
"You mean you were eavesdropping."
"No…I couldn't sleep, so I decided to go down to the common room so I wouldn't wake you guys up. Anyway, I didn't think anyone else would be up so late…early…whatever. But there was Remus sitting there talking to his sister. I couldn't help but OVERHEAR." Sirius stressed the last word while glaring at James.
"Alright, you OVERHEARD," James said as he rolled his eyes. "So what did you hear?"
"Oh, you know, the usual…I miss you…I hate it here…I'm tired of worrying and being afraid," Sirius said sarcastically.
"Worrying about what?"
"Being afraid of what?"
Peter and James asked the questions simultaneously. "If I knew the answer we wouldn't be having this conversation!" Sirius said as he smacked each of his two friends on the head.
"HEY! That was completely unnecessary violence, SIRIUS NATHAN BLACK!" James scolded playfully. "But seriously…you really think there's something going on?"
"Why else would he be afraid?"
James sighed as he took a seat on his bed. "I don't know where to even begin in trying to figure this out."
"Neither do I…" Sirius walked over to the window and stared out into the growing darkness.
"You know…we could start by looking at the days he's been absent…you know? To see if there's a pattern or something?" Peter offered quietly.
Sirius rolled his eyes before looking back up at the night sky. ~Peter really is an idiot sometimes,~ he thought with a snort as he started studying the stars and the moon…Sirius' eyes flew open as a thought came to him. ~Wait a minute!~ "Wait a minute!"
James and Peter both flew out of their seats in surprise. "What?!"
"Peter, you're a GENIOUS!" Sirius yelled as he ran towards Remus' pile of books.
"You know, you may want to ask Remus if you can use those…" Peter began meekly.
"Shut up before you go back to being a nitwit in my book, Peter." Sirius threw open Remus' astronomy book on his bed and began flipping through the pages. ~Oh boy…if what I think is true…then…then…Then what?~ Sirius paused for a moment. ~Then Remus is a werewolf? But there are no werewolves in England…are there?~ His eyes grew wide when he saw the evidence backing up his hypothesis. Remus was a werewolf.
"What?! What is it? What did you find?" James asked as he walked over.
Sirius quickly put the book back before James could see what he'd been looking at. "Nothing…it was just a hunch, but it turned out to be wrong," he mumbled. "Listen…if Remus wants room, why don't we give him some?"
"What?!"
"You said yourself that Remus deserves some privacy…let's just drop it for a while, and give him some room. Maybe he'll talk if we don't…"
"Sirius Black, I don't know what you're up to, but…"
"Trust me, James…let's stay away from him for a while."
James looked as if he wanted to say more, but decided against it and went back to his homework. At least if Sirius wasn't talking, then he could get some work done. He still didn't understand his friend's change in heart, but then again, it was SIRIUS. The boy was known for his sudden mood changes. With a sigh James went about answering the ominous question of "Why do muggles need electricity?"
Sirius on the other hand went back to staring out the window. ~So, Remus is a werewolf…WHAT IN BLOODY HELL WAS DUMBLEDORE THINKING?!~ A WEREWOLF! A bloody werewolf was running around the school. A SCHOOL! Filled with kids like him. What if one night Remus forgot about going away and turned into a werewolf right there?! Right there in their room?
HE WAS SHARING A ROOM WITH A WEREWOLF! ~Oh my GOD! Mum and dad would have a PICNIC with this one,~ he thought. ~So…that's what Remus meant by "Looks can be deceiving." He lied to us…he's been lying to us. All for what?! So that he could run free and be an educated dog?~
Sirius didn't care if he'd looked upon the boy as a good friend up until now. He was angry, and the truth of it was, he didn't care enough about Remus to consider what the boy would go through if he were to lose his only friends. That is what would happen, after all. James would stop talking to him for as long as Sirius asked, and Peter basically worshipped the two of them, so he'd do whatever they did. The group would grow farther apart from Remus until all he would be was the dark figure in the corner of the room.
Maybe he'd put in a request with Dumbledore to have Remus moved to some other room…or maybe another tower altogether. He didn't like the feeling of sleeping next to a dark creature. He didn't like the feeling of being within a mile of a dark creature. It didn't matter if little Remus got hurt, he was protecting himself and James from a potential danger. After all he and James were practically brothers, and he'd do what needed to be done in order to protect his family.
***
Madame Pomfrey, or Poppy as most of the faculty called her, had dealt with many bizarre medical cases in her many years as a school nurse. Or…so she thought until the previous year. Remus Lupin had walked into her infirmary making him her first lycanthropic patient. She had to admit that at first she'd thought Dumbledore a fool for thinking that a werewolf could ever be anything but a monster, but then she'd actually seen him.
Remus Lupin was so small and almost helpless looking, but there was a great deal of silent pride in the way he walked in to the room. She'd read in his file that he'd been born premature, and that the offending bite had nearly killed him. In fact, the doctor had put his recovery down as a miracle. One look at the little boy standing next to Dumbledore told her that all the books she'd read were wrong. This boy was anything but a monster, and one look into his eyes told her that.
"Poppy?"
The weak voice floated through the curtains into her office. She'd given him permission to call her that since he was the only one that she could count on to come to her monthly. He was becoming routine for her. She gathered up the various potions and instruments she needed before making her way over to Remus' bed.
"How are you feeling, pup?" she asked as she drew back the curtains. Pup…that was what he was. She'd gotten a good look at him on his first full moon at Hogwarts. She'd taken him to the Shrieking Shack, but hadn't gotten out in time. She'd had to stun him to protect herself. She still hated herself for doing it, but it'd given her chance to actually see him.
He was adorable. Well, when he was knocked unconscious. He was still quite small, still a puppy with baby fur that was fluffy. His human hair color had carried over to his werewolf self, making him a beautiful tan and white wolf cub. She was sure that the white would go away after he shed his baby coat. He would make a very handsome wolf when he got older.
She shook herself from her little reverie and started attending to the various cuts and bruises on his small human body. "You really did a number on yourself last night," she sighed as she rubbed some more healing potion on a rather large gash on his right calf. "You're going to be limping for at least a week, little one."
Remus nodded silently and let her work. It was one of the many characteristics she liked about him. He never complained; no matter how much it hurt, he would always sit still and let her do her job. "Now, I want you to get some more rest, young man. Do you want to stay here, or go back to your room?"
"I'd like to go back to my room, Poppy, if it's alright. I think my friends might think something odd is going on if I'm gone for too long," he sighed.
"Alright. But don't do anything too strenuous. I'll tell the teachers that you've been here all weekend and couldn't do your homework."
"It's alright…I did it all before." Remus gave her a weak smile before easing himself off the bed. "Thank you, Poppy."
"You're quite welcome, my little wolf cub…now, go get some sleep."
Remus gave one last smile before turning to leave. Poppy hadn't lied, Remus could barely put any pressure on his right leg it hurt so much. With each step making his leg feel more and more like it was going to fall off, Remus limped to Gryffindor tower. "Bumblebee," he muttered the password and waited as the portrait of the fat lady swung open. He thanked God that there was no one in the common room. No people meant no question about where he'd been, and why he was limping. In all honesty, he probably couldn't answer half the questions. He didn't remember where the gash on his leg came from, nor any of the other cuts and bruises.
He sighed as he opened the door to his room and walked in. He didn't exactly know what he'd been expecting, but the welcome he got was anything but what he was used to. There was no "Hello" or "Bugger me! You look horrid!" or "Where in bloody hell have you been?" It was just silence when he walked in. James, Peter, and Sirius were all playing a new card game called Exploding Snaps. None of them even acknowledged his presence.
Remus just shrugged before making his way painfully over to his bed. For a moment it looked as if James wanted to ask him why he was limping, but then thought the better of it. There was silence in the room for the rest of the night, and Remus couldn't help but wonder if he'd done something wrong. He felt bad about lying to his friends, but he couldn't exactly tell them the truth, could he? They wouldn't understand. At least this silent treatment wouldn't last for too long, things would go back to normal the next morning.
That was the thought that Remus fell asleep to that evening, but it wasn't exactly how things turned out. In fact, for the next three weeks the three boys drifted away from him. Things started changing; small things like going on to breakfast without him, not saving him a seat at lunch or dinner, sitting away from him during classes. He didn't understand what was going on.
Even Lily had noticed the change in attitude. She would not have argued against Remus dropping someone like Sirius as a friend, but he'd always been happy when the boys had been together. All Remus did now was sit alone and isolate himself. He was the worst she'd ever seen him that night. It was late November, the 28th to be exact, the first snow storm of the year was brewing outside, and everyone was starting to get excited about Christmas break. She watched him silently from across the room, staring out into space, absentmindedly rubbing his left shoulder and collarbone. He looked so lonely, and…hurt.
~That's it. I'm going to talk to those stupid excuses for boys!~ she thought to herself as she got up and headed towards Sirius and the other two. She was about to start yelling at them when the portrait suddenly swung open. All the children looked up to see Professor McGonagall standing there with a solemn look on her face.
"Remus Lupin, I need to speak with you for a moment."
Lily watched as Remus followed McGonagall without a word. The moment the two had disappeared through the portrait hole the chattered broke the silence that had taken over the common room.
"What do you think they're talking about?"
"Wonder what he did wrong…"
"You know I heard that Sam Porter in Hufflepuff got called out by Sprout the other day…she told him that his sister had just died."
Question flew through the air non-stop until silence fell again with the opening of the portrait. Lily looked at Remus and knew that McGonagall had given him news resembling that of Sam Porter's. His eyes were red and his usually pale skin was blotchy from crying. He didn't say a word, not that she'd expected him to, he just walked up to his room silently and shut the door behind him.
For a moment she thought she'd go up after him, but then thought the better of it. She looked up at the door between her and her friend, and thought sadly, ~He probably wants some time alone.~
***
The next morning, Lily wasn't surprised to hear that Remus had left for home. What did surprise her was the presence of Professor McGonagall in the common room.
"Good morning," McGonagall greeted as she stood in the center of the room. "I have a sign up sheet for all those of you who wish to attend the Lupins' funeral. I would suggest that at least all the first years go in support of your classmate. I know that you have all been told that Remus has suffered an incredible loss…"
"Excuse me, Professor?" Lily raised her hand in question. She had, indeed heard the news, but she wasn't sure of how it happened. "Could you tell us how it happened?"
"I'm not sure if I'm at liberty to tell you that information, Ms. Evans."
"Remus is our friend and housemate, Professor…we're just wondering how an entire family can be killed in one day…"
McGonagall looked at Lily evenly before sighing. "Remus' older brother and sister were both aurors, and were called to duty last night when there was an attack on the Ministry. Their mother and father, both being Ministry officials went to aid them as well. All four of them were killed in the attack."
"I'll go, Professor McGonagall," Lily said as she raised her hand. As soon as she'd said that, the entire house burst into activity. It turned out that every single member of the Gryffindor house wanted to go to the funeral taking place later that day in support of their housemate.
"Sirius! Wait!" Lily called to the boy as she fought through the crowd of students. "Wait!"
She saw Sirius roll his eyes, but stop walking all the same. "What do YOU want?" he asked, annoyed.
"Not here…let's go someplace more private," she said as she started towards the boys' room.
"Okay, I'm here, you're here, what's this all about?" Sirius asked as he slammed the door to his bedroom behind him.
"One word…REMUS. Why have you been so unpleasant to him lately?" she demanded as she glared at him.
Sirius just glared back at her. "What do YOU care?"
"Remus is my FRIEND, and unlike you I care about him. So what is it? Hmmm? He look at you funny? Did he insult your intelligence? Did he say something that didn't quite suit you?"
"No…"
"REALLY? You want to know what I think? I think you're just being a bastard! Remus didn't do anything to you, did he? What? He's not good enough for you anymore? Is THAT it?" Sirius stayed silent and just glared at her. "For your information, he should have been the one to walk away from YOU, but you and I both know that he's way too sweet to do anything like that. Why? Because HE'S a DECENT human being!"
That was it. How dare the little mudblood insult him like that?! Comparing him to the likes of a WEREWOLF! "FOR YOUR INFORMATION HE'S NOT EVEN HUMAN! Remus Lupin is a dirty werewolf!" ~Well, that did a good job of silencing her,~ he thought with a smirk when Lily didn't answer back immediately.
"You little bigot!" she finally exclaimed after a few minutes of silence passed between them. "Is THAT why you're pushing him away?! For YOUR information I've known about that since last year. People like you make me sick!"
Sirius' face burned red. "What do you know about it, you…"
"Mudblood?" Lily shot arrogantly. "That is what you were going to call me, right?" She started pacing in front of, looking him up and down, sizing him up. "Look at you," she began icily. "You think that you're on top of the world. Mr. Perfect, in his own perfect little existance where just because you're a Gryffindor you truly are brave at heart and open hearted. Where all the bigots and close-minded people are Slytherins. Well, wake up! You're no better than them! It's because of people like you there's a war brewing out there in the world beyond Hogwarts. You think that fighting a war means going out there and shooting off a wand. When are you going to realize that as long as there are people that think like you out there, this war is never going to end?
"As long as people look down on others, there's always going to be animosity, and sooner or later, that's going to lead to war. Would it make you feel any better if someone took a gun loaded with silver bullets and shot him to death? Or maybe you'd like the honors yourself? Hmmm? You want to see me put through the Cruciatus Curse just because I was born to muggle parents? You're no better than those prejudice bigots out there killing off innocent people just because they don't fit into their idea of the perfect world!
"Remus Lupin is Remus Lupin. It doesn't matter what blood is flowing through his veins. So he changes into a wolf every once and month, so what? 29 days of the month he's still the sweet, loveable, caring, kind hearted person everyone knows him to be. He trusted you…"
"Yeah right! If he trusted us, why didn't he TELL us?" Sirius demanded as he, too, started pacing around the room.
"Well, can you really blame him? Look at the way you reacted! I don't know much, but I'm sure that he's been through more than we can imagine. I've done the research and I've seen the way werewolves are treated. They're treated like animals, like monsters!"
"That's because they ARE!"
Lily glared at him before walking over to Remus' night table and grabbing the picture off of it. She stalked back over to him and shoved the picture in his hands. "Take a look at that. Take a GOOD look at it! Tell me that little boy in the picture looks like the monster you think he is!"
Sirius glared at her before reluctantly staring down the picture in his hands. It was Remus' family portrait. Just the other day he'd been staring at it, thinking that THIS was what he wanted in life. What had changed all that?
~That's simple, you moron, the little boy turned out to be a blood thirsty werewolf,~ he thought with a snort.
"Looks can be deceiving, Lily. Remus said so himself."
Lily didn't say a word, she just huffed in annoyance before storming out of his room. Sirius looked back down at the picture before a thought came to him.
~Yeah, and you told him in some cases, but not his.~