Lily sat on the train to Hogwarts on September 1st,
happier than she had been in a while. Her father and Rita 'Mom' were in seventh
heaven on cloud nine. She felt sure something would come of it, and she knew
her brother and Remus felt the same. With her father happy, the whole household
felt better, and Lily felt herself change. She still had bad
days, that's for sure, but they weren't as numerous as before and she
got through them. Slowly with one step up and two steps back, Lily was rising
out of her depression.
She sat there gazing at the window, her mind on the trip and thus
on her impending morhon sickness. Then, with sudden resolve, she stood and
walked carefully over to where Gwen was sitting. She cleared her throat and the
curly hair she was staring at revealed a face. When she saw who was standing
there it turned her to stone.
"What do you want?"
"Can I sit down?"
Gwen marked the place in her book and Lily sat wondering how she could read on
the train. The very though made her queasy.
"Gwen, I just want to say I'm... I'm sorry." She whispered as she
moved to stand and leave, but Gwen put a hand on her arm.
"Lily wait. I'm the one who should be
apologizing. I should have apologized a long time ago. Like
right after you left my house."
"Well you said it, not me."
"But you aren't about to disagree." Lily shrugged and her friend
smiled.
"I missed ya Lil."
"Pas moi?" (Not me?)
"Si, tu." (Yes, you)
They laughed together and for the rest of the ride Lily forgot about her motion
sickness. She remembered, however, at the sight of the rickety carriages,
Hogwarts wasn't the place for people who got motion sick. She held her breath
the entire time.
Not much changed at Hogwarts that year. McGonagall still hated
her, and Dumbledore still knew all. There was one change however, and that was
with Lily herself. Now, with her friends back, she was bubblier, more like her
old self than she had been at the end of last year.
Her truce with James was broken though when he went out for
Quidditch and didn't have the time to help her. When he informed her of this, a
long drawn out battle ensued.
When Lily returned to her room after this she sat on her bed and
Gwen looked up from her book.
"You two are going to get married."
Lily's jaw dropped, then she closed it and started
laughing her head off.
"I'm serious!" Gwen yelled over her friend's guffaws.
"The way you fight. You know you love him."
"I hate him. You know that."
"My Gram always says you have to love 'em to hate 'em."
Lily flopped back on her bed in an amazing impression of a dead faint.
Benny only got sick twice that year before Christmas, and Lily
never had to go home, Rita took care of him. Lily had her headaches twice that
year but they weren't as intense. Since she didn't go home, her grades improved
and her professors liked her. Not that she became a know-it-all, far from it.
Mostly she didn't give answers in class preferring to express herself in essays.
In October she found out something about Remus she never
suspected. He had to leave the castle for something, and she heard him say to
James that his mom was ill. Later she cornered him in the common room.
"Rem, Rita isn't ill is she?" he avoided her gaze.
"Erm… Well, you see…"
"Remus, what is going on here?" She searched his eyes.
"We'll probably be related soon. Tell me."
"Okay Lily. My mom's telling your dad soon anyway. You see Lily…
Erm… This is tough… See, I'm a werewolf."
"You're a what?"
"Werewolf. You see my dad was a
werewolf, and when I was about two, I wandered out into the woods when he was
out. Someone had left the door open, mom or Celeste, I don't know, but who ever
it was it happened. I wandered out to where he stayed and well… he smelled me
of course. In that state he couldn't know who I was and he bite me. My mom got
me before he did any major damage, but I still had been bitten.
"When my dad came around the next day and came home…. He saw what happened… And then he… He found a silver bullet… The same one that had
killed my grandfather… And he killed himself."
Lily gasped.
"Oh Remus, I'm so sorry."
He shrugged.
"It's okay, really, it was a long time ago and now I just live
with it. You know, change every full moon."
"Did Celeste?"
"Nah, she never got bitten. Apparently it's not an STD kind of
thing either so my mom didn't get it. Just me, but money isn't the only reason
mom works at the mall. The Wizarding World doesn't look kindly on people who
marry werewolves."
There was a clamor as James and Sirius ran into the common room from Quidditch
practice.
"Don't tell okay?" Remus whispered. Lily nodded.
Later that night she lay awake thinking about what he had told
her.
'So now werewolves are real
too. What next, vampires?'
'Never listen to Binnes do you? He was talking about that last
week.'
'Argh!! Go away!'
In November, she was finishing up a report on the 345th
goblin rebellion and was leaving the library when she was nearly tackled by
Remus. She caught her balance on a nearby shelf. Remus was dancing around
her...
"Alright Ants-in-the-pants, what's going on?"
"He did it!!"
"Who did what?"
"Your dad! He popped the question."
Lily shrieked and threw her arms around Remus dropping her book, parchment and
quill and earning a furious look from Madam Pince.
They ran back to the dormitory and as they ran Lily was furiously
calling out for Alec.
'Lily you okay?'
'Yeah, in fact, I'm way more than okay! Guess what?'
'McGonagall said something nice to you?'
'Hell no. Like that'll ever happen. DAD
AND RITA ARE GETTING MARRIED!!'
'Do you think you're loud enou… WHAT
THE…!! YAHOO!'
Remus and Lily bounded on through corridors and upstairs. They were nearly
in sight of the fat lady when Lily ran into something solid. When she looked up
from the ground where she landed she nearly fainted.
Standing above her was Professor McGonagall.
"Erm… Hi Professor?"
"Miss. Evans, what are you doing?
Why are you and Mr. Lupin running about like young hooligans."
Remus stepped in.
"Well, you see Professor, it's like
this…"
"I believe I was addressing Miss. Evans Mr. Lupin."
"Right Professor." He looked at Lily and
shrugged.
"Well…" She began… "You see, Remus just told me that his mom and
my dad are getting married, and we were going to go tell everyone, so I guess I
wasn't looking where I was going and…" She trailed off.
"I see. Well then, Miss Evans, I will see you in detention." She
then stomped off Lily watching her in disgust.
"Want some help Lils?"
"Yeah, thanks Rem."
She took his hand and he pulled her up. They raced up to the Fat Lady and Remus
shouted the password. They jumped through the hole and raced to their separate
dormitories. After telling Gwen and shrieking with her best friend, she wrote a
letter to her dad and a separate one to Rita.
