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.