Chapter 5: Lupin's Illness

The rest of the week was uneventful compared to her first two days at Hogwarts. News about the confrontation between Bellatrix and Alice had made its way around Gryffindor, and any time they were in the common room, older students kept coming over to them and congratulating Alice on her well-placed hex. Lily received her share of encouragement from the Gryffindors as well, who seemed to be making it a point to let her know that they could care less if her parents were muggles or not.

Potter and Black continued to give Lily a hard time. Thursday morning was a double-transfiguration period, and Potter had sat next to Lily, saying loudly to the class at large that it would be easier when he had to help her "again" if he just sat next to her in the first place. He said this with a grimace, as if it were a chore that he had resigned himself to doing, and kept making snide comments under his breath while McGonagall was lecturing them on the theory behind the straw transfiguration that they had attempted the previous class period.  Lily was worried that Bellatrix  would try to cause more trouble in class, but she more or less ignored them, except to glare in their direction whenever McGonagall wasn't looking.


Potter was just as difficult in double Potions that afternoon, although the class itself Lily found she enjoyed immensely. They had the class with the Ravenclaws, and the subject was taught by Professor Figg, an older wizard about Dumbledore's age who also happened to be the aunt of Arabella Figg, the friend of Lily's dad's who had told them about Diagon Alley, and how to find Platform 9 & ¾.


On Thursday night, as they sat working on their transfiguration homework, Andromeda came over and apologized to all three of them for her sister's behavior, explaining to them that while she and Bellatrix had been close before she'd gone away to school, they had had a huge row the night of the sorting and Bellatrix had told her that she was embarrassed to have a blood-traitor for a sister. Andromeda had realized that night that Bellatrix had chosen to follow the example of their other sister Narcissa (a Slytherin third year), and had more or less disowned both of her siblings, disgusted by their prejudice toward non pure-blood witches and wizards. Lily had nodded her understanding, and felt a swell of sympathy for Andromeda as she thought how difficult it would be if she and Petunia were to have a falling out like that. Andromeda had just returned to her usual study group when Potter and Black entered the common room.

They were returning from serving their detentions, and were arguing loudly over whose punishment had been worse. It appeared that Potter had been set to work polishing trophies while Black had been put to work in the hospital wing. Black seemed to think that emptying bed pans at the hospital had been worse, but Potter was holding his own, arguing that at least Black hadn't had to deal with Peeves, the Hogwarts' Poltergeist, following him around and sliming all of the trophies as soon as he finished cleaning them. Andromeda looked up from her studying and greeted the boys, who glared at her before heading over to where Lupin was now beating Pettigrew quite soundly at chess. They both seemed to forget their argument when they saw how badly Pettigrew was losing, however, and immediately started making suggestions to help him. Lily had left the common room shortly after their return, determined to write a letter to Petunia that evening, as she had been planning for the last several nights. She was finally able to send the letter after Desdamona had agreed to let her borrow her owl, Othello.

Friday passed quickly, with Herbology and History of Magic in the morning, and double Defense Against the Dark Arts in the afternoon. Herbology had gone as well as the first day's class, but History of Magic was easily the most boring class that the girls had had to date. It was taught by a ghost, who seemed to have lost the ability to keep the class's attention at the same time as he'd lost the ability to breathe. It was all Lily could do to pay attention, and she noticed quite unhappily that Potter, Pettigrew, Lupin and Black didn't appear to be trying at all. Defense Against the Dark Arts went as badly as it had on Wednesday, only it lasted twice as long. When they arrived back at their common room Friday evening, complaining loudly at Amos's unfairness—he had taken 10 points from Gryffindor every time one of them did not answer a question correctly, resulting in a loss of 30 points for the period, yet every time Slytherin had gotten one wrong, he'd just gone on to the next person—they found a circle of excited students crowded around the bulletin board. Alice pushed her way forward to read the notice, and returned to Lily and Amelia looking disappointed. "It's just the announcement that the first Hogsmeade weekend is at the end of September," she said with a sigh, "I do wish that they'd let first years go!"

"Isn't that the only all-magic community in England?" Lily asked, a trace of envy in her voice.

"Yeah," Amelia said with a sigh. "They've got a store there called Honeydukes, they've got the best chocolate."

Just then, Black strode over to them, followed by Potter, Pettigrew and Lupin, who was looking even paler and more exhausted than he had when Lily had talked to him Wednesday morning. "Why do you girls look so upset?" Black asked them. "Didn't you hear about the first Hogsmeade weekend?"

"What are you all excited about, Black?" Alice responded, a bit testily. She was still quite disappointed about only third-years and above being permitted to go. "First years aren't allowed to go."

Potter smiled at her mischievously. "That's true," he said, nodding in agreement. "But when has a little thing like 'being allowed' ever stopped us?"

Lily gaped at him. "You can't be serious!" she snapped.

Black grinned at her. "You're right about that, Evans. I'm Sirius." Lily glared at Black, and Alice, Amelia and the other three boys all groaned at the pun.

"That got old the first time you said it," Lupin said dryly.

"Five years ago," Potter added, but he couldn't hide his grin. "But we do mean it when we say that we'll be going. Would you like us to bring back anything for those of you who aren't going to be so fortunate?"

"You're unbelievable, Potter!" Lily said again. "You've already had detention, not to mention that you've lost Gryffindor more points than anyone—,"

"I've also gotten Gryffindor more points than anyone," Potter interjected. "Or do I need to remind you about Transfiguration?" he added with a smirk.

"I'm not likely to forget that any time soon," she snapped, thrown off balance by the new direction of the conversation.

"Did you hear that Jamesy?" Black chimed in, his face now smirking like Potter's, "She thinks you're unforgettable." Pettigrew laughed loudly at Black's comment.

Lily stared at them, flustered. "That is not what I—," but stopped when she saw the twinkle of amusement in Potter's eye. She could tell that he was enjoying the fact that they were bothering her, so she changed the subject back to the Hogsmeade weekend. "Just how do you intend to get into Hogsmeade without a permission slip, then?" she asked. "Filch will never let you out the front gate if your name's not on the list!" Filch was the young caretaker at Hogwarts. He seemed to dislike all of the Hogwarts students, but Lily had gotten the impression that he distinctly hated Potter and Black. Every time they would pass him in the hallway, Lily had noticed that his eyes would follow them until they were out of sight. On occasion, she'd been certain that he'd set his cat, Mrs. Norris, to follow them from class to class, just to be sure that they weren't setting off dung bombs. He'd even tried to give them detention for leaving fingerprints on a doorknob, but McGonagall had intervened and he'd had to let them off, albeit grudgingly. Lily didn't think there was enough money in all of Gringotts to bribe Filch to let them off the grounds.

"James's in—," Pettigrew began, before Black cut him off with a glance.

"Don't be an idiot, Pete. If we tell the girls how we're going to get there, they'll probably run off to McGonagall or something. Let's just say that we've got our ways," he said, grinning mysteriously. The four boys laughed at the bewildered expression on the girls' faces.

"Don't worry," Lupin said with a glance at Amelia. "I'll bring you some chocolate." He blushed furiously, and the four boys walked away, leaving the girls glaring after them.

"How do you suppose they're going to get out of Hogwarts?" Amelia asked, her curiosity evident in her voice.

"Probably let off some dung bombs to cause a distraction, or something," Lily said, still annoyed. There was no doubt in her mind that they were going to get caught, which would cost Gryffindor even more points, but she was more bothered that Potter and Black seemed intent on dragging poor Pettigrew into trouble with them. She was also disappointed in Lupin, having believed that he had more sense than Potter and Black when it came to stunts like these. She heaved a sigh. "Come on then, History of Magic awaits us."

Amelia and Alice both groaned. "Come on, Lil! It's Friday night for pity's sake. We've got all weekend. Let's just take one night off, okay?" Alice pleaded. "I'll teach you how to play exploding snap." Lily agreed reluctantly. She had always preferred to finish her homework on Friday night so that she could enjoy the weekend without it hanging over her head, but she knew it would go much better if Alice and Amelia were working on it with her, so the three of them stowed their books in their room, and sat down so that Alice could teach Lily how to play exploding snap, the wizarding equivalent of the muggle card-game.

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The weekend passed quickly. To Lily's relief, they were able to get all of their homework finished by Saturday afternoon, and had Saturday night and Sunday free to explore. Amelia had wanted to learn how muggles skip stones, so on Sunday, Alice and Lily had taken her down to the lake to show her. They had picked out a spot behind a tree on the shore when Lily finally decided to talk to them about something that had been bothering her since the first day of classes. "Why do you think Potter dislikes me so much?" she asked suddenly.

Alice, who had been teaching Amelia how to find a good skipping rock, looked up at her in surprise. "Not just Potter, either. Black, too," she said, flushing. "I mean, they must!" She didn't want the other girls to see that she was embarrassed about the topic, so she quickly looked down and began inspecting stones. Alice was now looking at her oddly, but Amelia was continuing to hunt for skipping stones.

"I'm not sure that they do hate you, Lil," Alice said, now inspecting a rock that Amelia had brought over for her approval. "No, you want it to be flat," she said to Amelia, "like this." Alice held out the stone that she was preparing to send skipping across the water.

"Oh come on!" Lily said in exasperation. "First, they were going to put a tarantula in my bed before I'd even spoken to them. Then there was Transfiguration, Potter gives me a hard time every chance he gets about that. And they're constantly trying to embarrass me. I could be sitting in a corner reading 'Magical Creatures and Where to Find Them', and they would find a reason to come over and cause trouble." Alice's stone went gliding across the lake, and she turned to look at Lily, still looking unconvinced. "And what about astronomy, then? " Lily added quickly. "They sent my telescope floating around the room. I don't see them pulling stunts like that with the two of you!"

Amelia brought another stone over for Alice to inspect. "That one looks good, Amelia," Alice was saying.

Amelia tossed the stone and let out a little squeal of excitement, "Ooh! Look, I did it," she said, grabbing Alice's arm and pointing at the lake.

"Nice job, Amelia," Lily said, smiling. "But I'm serious about this! It's like they hate me!"

Amelia looked chagrined. "Sorry, Lily. I know you're worried about this, but… Well, it's just—why do you care? It seems like you hate them an awful lot, too! Like it's mutual."

Lily found a stone that looked like a good candidate and stood up to toss it. "It's not that I care if they hate me. I mean, I wouldn't be friends with them anyway, the way they strut around like they're God's gift to Hogwarts, but…" Lily paused, listening. She had thought that she'd heard some rustling off to the side of her, so she looked around quickly to make sure that they were still alone. She saw some older students that she recognized as Ravenclaws standing about twenty feet away, but there was no one else around, so she continued. "It's just… Well, first Potter and Black seem to have it in for me from the off. And then I run into Black's cousin, and I don't even know her, and she hates me…" Lily tossed her stone and turned to look at the two girls. "I'm starting to think something's wrong with me."

Alice looked offended. "And does Amelia's and my friendship with you count for nothing?" she asked.

"We've told you that you can't let Black's cousin get to you," Amelia added gently.

Lily didn't really want to discuss Black's cousin. She still got upset every time that she thought about it, so she steered the topic back to Potter and Black. "What do you mean, Alice, when you say that you don't think they hate me?" she asked.

"I mean," Alice said, as she heaved a stone across the water, "(Oooh! Seven skips! That's the best one so far.) That when Black's cousin called you that name, they both seemed to get very indignant on your behalf." She looked at Lily meaningfully. "They wouldn't have done that if they hated you so much." She sent another rock flying across the lake.

At this point, Lily had tired of skipping stones. She was now sitting on the ground, trying to make a tree branch levitate. The branch soared into the air, and she sent it floating toward the lake before she finally responded. "I don't think that had as much to do with me as it had to do with how they feel about the whole pure-blood/muggleborn nonsense," she said, her voice skeptical.

"They did call you Lily, though," Amelia reminded her. "That's the first time they didn't call you Evans." She looked at Lily thoughtfully for a moment. "And Potter did ask Alice and me to take care of you."

"Which you were doing perfectly well without his direction, anyway, I might add," Lily said, annoyed at the memory. The tree branch went falling into the water as she stopped concentrating on the spell.

Amelia was still skipping stones, but Alice had also picked up a branch and was trying to levitate it. She was not successful, however. "This is much harder than the feather," she said in annoyance as her branch shuddered, but stayed resolutely on the ground.

"You aren't swishing quite long enough," Lily said as she watched Alice critically. "Here, like so. Wingardium Leviosa," she said, flicking her wand at another branch lying nearby. The branch immediately began to float. "And anyway," she said, getting back to the subject, "they were just as nasty to me in astronomy that night as they usually are."

"You have a point there," Alice said with a sigh, as her branch did a cartwheel. "But I don't know. I just think there's more to it than them disliking you, Lily. I think there's another reason that they single you out."

Lily gave Alice a bewildered look, but she didn't bother to ask Alice what she had meant. She couldn't imagine what other reason there might be. She directed her branch back down to the ground with a sigh. "Come on," she said, getting up. "I think it's time for dinner." Amelia tossed her last stone across the lake, and Alice cast a look of disgust toward her branch, which was lying motionlessly on the ground, then both followed Lily back toward the castle.

When they arrived back at the common room, Potter, Lupin, Pettigrew and Black were all sitting at a table, their books scattered around them. "You heard her!" Potter was saying loudly, "She doesn't like—," but Black shushed him quickly. The four all turned to face the girls, who were just crawling in the portrait hole. Potter flushed, and then glared angrily at Lily. "What are you looking at?" he snapped at her.

Lily glared back and stomped up the stairs without replying. When Alice and Amelia reached their room, she turned to them in frustration. "See what I mean? I can't even walk into the common room without him yelling at me!" But Alice and Amelia just shrugged, their faces as blank as Lily's.

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Potter's behavior toward Lily became, if anything, even worse after his outburst in the common room on Sunday. It was so bad that even Alice had admitted that it did seem as though Lily was right when she thought that Potter and Black hated her. Amelia had commented that at least he was still treating her better than he did the Slytherins, but that wasn't saying a whole lot. Potter and Black had gotten detention for attempting to hex Snape in the hall. Although they had sworn that Snape had provoked them, the confrontation had taken place outside the classroom of Professor Amos, who had given them detention without even asking what had happened. "That's more points from Gryffindor," Lily had commented, within earshot of Potter. He had whirled around toward her.

"It must be truly exhausting to walk around so self-righteous all the time," he had said to her with a sneer, "Tell me, what's it like to be perfect, Evans?" Lily had stared at him, the hurt evident in her eyes, but walked away without answering.

And then there were the classes themselves. Lily had always been the type to prepare thoroughly for class, and frequently raised her hand when a question was asked. In Charms in particular, she had become a favorite of Professor Flitwick's. Now, however, she had started studying twice as hard, because any time a question was asked that she didn't know the answer to when Potter did, he took the opportunity to mock her. Transfiguration was easily the worst, however, as it happened to be the class at which Potter truly excelled, despite the fact that she never saw him studying for it, or actually doing any homework. Potter had been the first in the class to transfigure his leaf into a piece of parchment (followed shortly by Black), and had won fifteen extra points for Gryffindor for transfiguring it back. Lily, however, had been unable to complete the transfiguration by the end of class, although she was nearly certain that most of it was her inability to concentrate due to Potter's continual taunts throughout the class period. "Hey Evans, didn't you pay attention to McGonagall when she was demonstrating the wand movement?" or "You'll never get it if you keep pronouncing it that way, Evans." By the end of the class period, she had had quite enough, and when he called, "Hey, Evans! Would you like me to show you how to do it? Oh, I keep forgetting that you don't need any help from the likes of me. I guess I'll just work on transfiguring my branch into a pencil then, shall I?" she had been unable to ignore him any longer.

"Just why exactly do you hate me, Potter?" she had asked, with a note of resignation in her voice. "Is it because I'm one of the few who haven't joined your fan club, yet? Or is there something else?"

Potter looked taken aback, but was saved from answering by the ringing of the bell. "Come on, Sirius. Remus, Peter, let's go." He picked up his things and walked out, leaving Lily staring after him. Remus and Black both gave Lily appraising looks before following Potter, but Pettigrew looked a little scared, and scampered out the door behind the others.

The week before the first Hogsmeade weekend, Lupin began looking very pale and gaunt.  By lunch that Wednesday, Amelia was acting thoroughly distracted. "Lupin looks like he's sick," she had said in concern.

"Lupin always looks like he's sick," Alice had commented, tearing off a piece of bread. "I'd be more worried about him if he didn't."

"No," Amelia said, shaking her head as she chewed thoughtfully on a bite of steak and kidney pie. "No, I mean sicker than usual. He's been looking steadily worse as the week has gone on."

"Black and Potter probably hexed him, too," Lily said dryly. "I wouldn't put it past them."

Amelia rolled her eyes at Lily. "Oh come on, Lily. They wouldn't hex their own friends!" she had said with a laugh. "They aren't Slytherins, after all," she added, with a glare at the Slytherin table. Bellatrix Black had progressed from glaring at them to making snide remarks every time she passed them in the hallway, or when the teacher wasn't paying attention in class. The three girls' hate for her had grown into loathing, although Lily found that for some reason, Bellatrix's behavior towards her no longer bothered her as much as Black's and Potter's did. She figured that the reason was because she didn't know why Potter and Black hated her so much; at least Bellatrix had been kind enough to give a reason.

"I think I'm going to go tell him that Madam Pomfrey can help," Amelia said, flushing a little. She stood up and walked down towards the end of the table where Lupin was sitting with Black, Potter, Pettigrew and Longbottom.

"She's so cute," Alice said with a laugh, as they watched her talking to Lupin. Amelia stared at her feet the entire time she was talking. Then Lupin shook his head, said something to her, and then Black and Potter both started singing something that she couldn't understand the words to. Amelia turned around so quickly that she bumped into a fifth year Hufflepuff that had been walking by, causing her to spill pumpkin juice on her robe.

The fifth year glared at Amelia before pulling out her wand, pointing it to her robes and saying "Scourgify". As Alice and Lily watched, the pumpkin juice immediately disappeared. "That's a handy spell," Lily commented. "I'll have to practice that one." Amelia mumbled an apology to the student and hurried back to her seat.

"He says it's just a cold," she said, still flushing, "and not to worry about him."

"What were Potter and Black singing?" Alice asked with curiosity.

"Oh—oh nothing," she said, suddenly finding her green beans fascinating. Lily looked up as Lupin hurried past them, smiling shyly at Amelia. The voices of Potter and Black grew louder, and they were able to make out the words of the song.

"Remus and Amelia, sitting in a tree…" they sang. Pettigrew was laughing so hard that he nearly fell out of his seat.

"Oh that's clever," Lily said, with a glare in their direction. The bell rang to signal the end of lunch, so the three girls rose quickly.

When they arrived at potions, Lupin was already there, looking exhausted. "I hope he wasn't too embarrassed by what I said at lunch," Amelia said, casting an anxious look in his direction.

"I don't think you need to worry about him," Lily said, smiling. "Again I have to say, it's Potter and Black I'd worry about! They aren't likely to let you live it down any time soon."

They began pulling out their cauldrons and potion kits to prepare for class. Lily was quite excited, after nearly a month of being lectured on how to recognize the different ingredients, methods of preparation, and heating, they were going to attempt their first potion today. Potter, Pettigrew and Black arrived, and as they walked by Lily's cauldron, Potter said to her, "Do make sure that you pay attention to the teacher in this class, Evans. You can really cause a mess if you add the wrong ingredients."

"Leave her alone, Potter," Alice snapped.

He just grinned at her. "I hope that you and Bones will take care of Evans in this class, see that she does it properly," he said before moving behind them and setting up his own cauldron. The rest of the class filled in, followed by Professor Figg, who reminded them all about the importance of paying attention to details in her class before rapping the blackboard sharply with her wand. The potion recipe appeared on the blackboard, and the class set to work. Amelia, Alice and Lily worked in silence for awhile. Lily looked up at the directions, and saw that she was supposed to add a pickled frog's eye, so she tossed one in and noted with satisfaction that her potion had turned a deep purple. She looked over and saw that Alice and Amelia appeared to be doing just as well, and with a glance behind her saw that Pettigrew was struggling, as usual, and Potter was giving him suggestions out of the corner of his mouth.

"I don't get the four of them," Lily said quietly to Alice and Amelia.

Alice looked quickly behind her. "What's to get?" she asked, flicking her carefully chopped caterpillars into her potion, which emitted a spark and thickened immediately. "Potter and Black are cut out of the same mold. Pettigrew hero-worships them, and they love the attention."

Lily added her caterpillars and saw with satisfaction that her potion also emitted a spark and began to thicken. "You might be right about Pettigrew and the two of them," she said thoughtfully, now measuring out her armadillo bile. "But what about Lupin? How do you explain that? He seems like such a nice boy."

"He is a nice boy," Amelia said. "And so are Potter and Black." Lily and Alice both paused in their potion making and stared at her. "According to Lupin, I mean. He says that they only act like gits toward you." Amelia tipped her caterpillars into her cauldron, which also emitted a spark. "And Snape."

"Oh, well that makes me feel better then,," Lily said. "Just me and Snape." Lily felt an unexpected swell of sympathy for Snape, knowing as she did what it was like to be the target of Potter and Black. Telling herself that Snape didn't need her sympathy, Lily poured her armadillo bile into her potion, which immediately turned a putrid green and started letting off a foul stench. The cauldron boiled over, and the people around her immediately jumped up onto their chairs as the potion began spreading over the floor. Lupin had been cutting up his caterpillars, however, and hadn't seen Lily's cauldron boil over. He yelped in surprise as the potion reached his feet, melting his shoes. The rest of the class began laughing.  "What happened?" Figg demanded, striding over and pulling out her wand. "Evanesco," she shouted, and the potion disappeared, but Lupin's feet were now covered in feathers.

"I, I don't know, Professor!" Lily said, truthfully. "I added my armadillo bile, just like the directions said and the next thing I know, my potion started boiling over."

Professor Figg bent down and examined Lupin's feet. "No, Miss Evans," she said, shaking her head. "You can't have added armadillo bile."

"But I did, Professor!" Lily said, holding up the bottle that was labeled armadillo bile.

Figg looked at her quizzically, but took it from her and sniffed. "I'm afraid that you've mislabeled your ingredients. This is essence of myrtlap," she said, sighing. "Come on, Lupin. You better get to the hospital wing. Madam Pomfrey will have the antidote."

Lily mumbled an apology to Lupin as he walked by, but he didn't look at her. "The rest of you, finish your potions," Professor Figg said after Lupin had left the room. "Miss Evans, I'm afraid I'm only going to be able to give you partial credit for your potion today. To get the other points, I'll need to have you research what potion you did create by adding myrtlap instead of bile. Have that for me on Monday." And she strode away, leaving Lily trying to figure out how she had gotten her labels mixed up last night.

"Hey, Evans," Potter said casually. "I told you to check your ingredients." Black and Potter laughed.

"He did warn you," Pettigrew added, also laughing.

Lily's eyes narrowed with a sudden suspicion. "You switched the labels!" Lily said accusingly. To her surprise, Potter did not disagree with her.

"You'd have a hard time proving that, Evans," he said, grinning devilishly. "But I probably would keep a better eye on my things from now on, if I were you."

Lily stood there for a moment fuming, then before she could think about what she was doing, she pulled out her wand and pointed it at him. To her fury, he just laughed. "Go on then, Evans."

But before she could do anything, Professor Figg was beside her again. "Miss Evans! Just what do you think you're doing."

The sound of Figg's voice brought Lily back to reality. She hastily put her wand away. "He switched my armadillo bile and my myrtlap essence so that my potion wouldn't work!" she said, glaring in Potter's direction.

Figg turned to Potter. "Is this true, Mr. Potter?" she asked.

"It might be," he said, now glaring at Lily. Figg looked back and forth between the two of them and sighed deeply. "That will be fifteen points from Gryffindor for both of you," she said. "And you'll both be getting detention for this as well. Be at my office on Friday night at ten o'clock."

"But Professor Figg!" Lily began to protest. "I didn't—," but Figg held up a hand to stop her.

"I cannot allow a student to pull a wand on another student in my classroom, Miss Evans. Perhaps next time you will think before you act." She strode up to the front of the classroom. "Please put a sample of your potion into a vile, and bring it up front for me," she said as the bell rang. Lily glared at Potter.

"This is all your fault!" she said icily.

"It's not my fault that you don't know how to take a joke, Evans," Potter replied, putting a stopper in his vile and turning to take it up front.

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Lupin did not return from the hospital wing Wednesday night, and was not in class on Thursday morning, either. By the time lunch had arrived, Amelia was quite worried, and had decided to talk to Potter and Black and see if they knew what had happened to them. "Come with me," she was begging Lily and Alice, who were watching her with amusement.

"I won't!" Lily said, glaring down the table where the two boys sat huddled in conversation with Pettigrew. "If you hadn't noticed, I don't cross James Potter's path unless I'm forced to it."

"Oh come on, Lily. You might find that they aren't so bad to talk to when you aren't yelling at them about their not taking things seriously enough," she said, pulling on Lily's arm.

"Fine," she said casting a look at Alice. "I'll go, but only if Alice comes with."

"No problem, mate." Alice said with a broad smile. "I like Lupin myself. I am a bit worried. If it were only a cold, I'm sure that Pomfrey would have just given him some pepper-up potion and he'd have been better in no time."

As the three girls approached, Potter, Black and Pettigrew's conversation became audible to them. "If he doesn't get better soon, he'll miss Hogsmeade on Saturday!" Black was saying.

"Do you think he's really sick?" Pettigrew asked anxiously.

"No, I think that Pomfrey was keeping him there because she wanted the company, Pete," Black replied, a tinge of annoyance in his voice.

"I just don't understand why she wouldn't let us see him last night. I'm sure we could have cheered him up!" Potter said with a mischievous smile.

"Excuse me," Amelia said in a small voice, clearing her throat. The three boys looked up.

"Come to ask me for help in potions, Evans?" Potter said, grinning. "I would, of course, but you see I'm already spending so much time helping you in transfiguration that I barely have time to do my own work as it is." He gave an exaggerated sigh. "I'd hate to fall behind."

"That's enough, Potter," Alice said sharply. "Lily was doing just fine yesterday until you switched her ingredients out."

"I wouldn't have thought that to be a problem for the saintly Miss Evans," said Black, grinning at Potter. "If she'd prepared properly for class, she'd have known that there's a simple way to tell the difference between the two before your potion goes spilling all over the floor." At this point Pettigrew started laughing so hard that he spit pumpkin juice out of his mouth. The girls jumped away in disgust, but Potter and Black just rolled their eyes.

"That's true," Potter agreed, with a nod at Black. "You see, Evans, armadillo bile has a very acidic smell to it whereas myrtlap essence smells very sweet. That might even get you a few more points, if you write it in your paper—,"

"Knock it off!" Amelia said harshly, taking Alice and Lily by surprise. "Lily had no reason to suspect that her labels had been switched, because until yesterday, she thought better of you than that, Potter!"

"A mistake I won't make again," Lily added with a glare. The grin disappeared from Potter's face for an instant, and Lily was surprised to see a momentary flash of hurt in his eyes. Or was it hurt? She looked at him again to be sure, but whatever it was had vanished. She had probably imagined it. Why would anything she said hurt Potter?

"Well if you didn't come over here for help with potions," Potter was now saying in a voice that indicated he could care less, "what did you want?"

"We came to find out if you knew what's wrong with Lupin?" Amelia said, flushing again.

"We don't," Potter replied, exchanging a glance with Black. "Pomfrey said it was a reaction to the potion antidote, and that he should be back in class today. I don't know where he's been all morning."

"Catching up on his sleep, most likely," came a third voice. Lupin was now standing beside Amelia, looking haggard and pale, but smiling. "The reaction to the antidote made my feet itch all night. I barely slept at all!"

"Remmy!" Potter said, a relieved smile on his face. "We thought you were going to miss the weekend!" He and Black moved over to make room for Lupin at the table.

"Are you kidding?" Lupin replied, sitting in the space left by Potter and Black. Lily glanced at him in disapproval, but remembering what Amelia had said, she refrained from saying anything. Lupin had the courtesy to flush a little at Lily's look of disapproval, but added, "I wouldn't miss it."

"I'm glad to see you're feeling better," Amelia interrupted, smiling at him.

"I'm really sorry about my potion," Lily added.

"I'm not sure that can be blamed on you," Lupin responded, looking in Potter's and Black's direction.

Potter and Black were quite successful at arranging their faces in to looks of innocence. "I have no idea what you're talking about, mate," Black said, but he couldn't quite conceal the glint in his eye.

"Right," Lupin said, laughing. "And I suppose the next thing you're going to tell me is that Potter here found out last night that he's a werewolf!"

They all laughed, and then Alice said, "Well, now that we know you're okay, we won't keep you. See you in class," and the girls headed out of the great hall, Amelia looking very relieved indeed that Lupin was feeling better.