With a moment of panic, Remus remembered he had detention that night. He glanced at the clock above the fireplace and gave a quick explanation for his rushed exit.

Sirius laughed as he commented that Remus was always on time to everything, but ten minutes late to detention. Remus rolled his eyes, and fled the common room.

He skidded down the halls, and out onto the grounds. It was a rather strange detention he had tonight - one that would be in the greenhouses. With a deep foreboding, Remus wondered what he might have to do in the greenhouses.

He entered greenhouse three to see that Professor Sprout was carrying a large bucket of flobberworms, and looked incredibly flustered that Remus was late.

"Five points from Gryffindor, Mr. Lupin." she said, and shoved the bucket of flobberworms into his arms.

Remus was just wondering what he would be doing with the flobberworms when Rebecca stepped forward, and placed the bucket on the table next to her.

"Thank goodness, you're here," she said, "I was beginning to think I would have to feed the Mennasprouts all by myself."

Remus finally noticed the blue plants with yellow flowers that were, to Remus's dismay, snarling hungrily.

"Is that what we're doing?"

Rebecca nodded, and handed a pair of gloves to Remus. "You might want to use these."

Remus took a deep breath, and put on the thick, dragon-skin gloves. Rebecca smiled encouragingly and handed him a pot full of snarling, vicious plant.

"This is definitely going to be interesting," he said to her.

She nodded, and grabbed a flobberworm from the bucket between them. She looked behind her to see that Sprout was gone.

"Why was James under the invisibility cloak anyway?"

Remus reluctantly stuck his hand into the bucket of flobberworms and pulled one out. "Sneaking food for Lily."

Rebecca turned to Remus. "She still wont leave the common room?"

Remus shook his head, and turned to his own mennasprout. He heard Rebecca cry out, and turned to see her holding her finger and glaring at the mennasprout she had tried to feed.

Remus brought out his wand and mended her finger. She smiled at him and gave a quiet "Thank you." She was about to turn back to her snapping mennasprout when she stopped and looked at the wand Remus was holding, when a thought struck her.

"We can use magic?" she asked.

Remus looked at his wand. "Sprout didn't tell us not to."

Rebecca sighed, "Why hadn't we thought of that in the first place?" She brought out her own wand, and levitated a flobberworm into her mennasprout's mouth - that is, if you could call it a mouth.

She examined her finger. "Where'd you learn to heal like that?"

Remus snorted, "I thought that would have been obvious."

However, it was not obvious to Rebecca.

Remus turned to look at her, "I mean, imagine how many times I've ended up in the hospital wing," he said.

Rebecca looked at the ground. "Oh," she said. She had figured out about his condition in sixth year. It didn't bother her - she just couldn't imagine smiling, composed, clever Remus Lupin transforming into such a monster. It wasn't something she liked to think about.

Remus, however, talked about it like it was the weather. "I ended up in the hospital wing so many times from biting and scratching myself that finally Madame Pomfrey gave up and told me it would be far too suspicious if a student noticed me injured every month. So, she just taught me all the healing spells I would need to know."

Rebecca forced a smile and levitated another flobberworm. She could tell Remus hadn't taken his eyes off her. "It's really not that bad anymore," he said reassuringly.

Rebecca turned back to him and suddenly noticed how tall he was compared to her. She had to look up at him to look him in the eyes - especially since he was so close.

She nodded numbly, trying to remember what she was agreeing to. He laid a hand on her cheek, and Rebecca blinked to see a different Remus, a haunted Remus. His hair was out of place and he had dark circles under his eyes.

Rebecca knew she was having a vision, and she was somewhat surprised - she didn't have visions very often.

She saw him running through Hogwarts grounds, and then saw him stop dead in his tracks. She heard a wolf cry, and then saw him standing in front of a smoldering house that stood in its own ruins.

Remus smiled and leaned into her. She jerked away, shocked at what she had seen - yet not knowing exactly what she had seen.

Remus blinked and turned to his next mennasprout.

Rebecca did not move for a moment, wondering if he had been about to kiss her. She sighed, thoroughly depressed that she had stepped back, and turned to her own hungry plant.

~~~~~~~~~~

The weeks passed and Lily still refused to come out of the girl's dormitory. Especially for Christmas since she had nowhere to go. James struggled with trying to get her to come down. He wasn't sure it was any of his business. He glanced around the common room to see Dorcas Meadowes, a fellow seventh year, gazing at Sirius dreamily.

James snorted, and walked up to her. Her gaze turned to James, and she looked up wide-eyed at him. "Could you try to get Lily to come down?"

The girl was at a loss for words - she obviously had a thing for James as much as for Sirius. "Sure," she answered, her blushing face bearing a small smile, and ran up the steps to the girl's dormitory.

Moments later she came back down, crestfallen. "She said she doesn't want to talk about it."

James sighed, "Tell her that she's *going* to talk about it."

Dorcas eyed James as if unsure he really meant persisting at the issue, and ascended the stairs again.

It didn't take long for her to come back down with an answer. "She says you're really not helping."

James glared at the door to the girl's dormitory, "That's because she won't let me help," he said defiantly.

Dorcas shook her head, and sighed sadly.

But James continued, "Fine then, I'll make her come down. I'll go up there myself if I have to."

"You can go ahead and try, but no boy can get up that staircase," she said matter-of-factly.

Sirius unexpectedly joined the conversation, "Now, who came up with *that* idea?" he exclaimed.

"Oh, hello Miss Meadowes," he added politely with a grin.

Dorcas blushed furiously, and gave a small "hi" to Sirius.

Sirius turned to James, "It's no use, mate. Just forget about it."

James looked again at the door to the girl's dormitory, and then turned back to Dorcas, "Just - just give this to her, will you?" he asked, handing her a biscuit he had taken from the table at lunch.

She nodded, and Sirius and James joined with Remus and Peter, and they all left the common room for the Christmas Feast.

~~~~~~~~~~

The four marauders came back to the common room with their spirits slightly lifted. Remus and Peter went to go play a game of wizard's chess, and Sirius had just spotted Dorcas Meadowes, and walked swiftly over to her. Sirius's arrival brought a multitude of giggles from the girls that were around. One of them even waved at James, and he smiled.

He scanned the room, and halted his search when he caught a fleeting glimpse of red hair. He saw that the red hair belonged to a girl that was sitting in a chair by the fireplace.

James smiled. There was only one Gryffindor with hair that red.

He pulled up an armchair next to Lily, and didn't say anything, afraid that maybe she really didn't want to talk to him.

Nevertheless, he found himself speaking, "Hello," he said cheerfully.

Lily turned and looked at him through her tears.

James looked mortified, and started stumbling over his words, "I - I'm sorry, I. I didn't mean to - "

But Lily cut him off with a smile.

"I shouldn't have bothered you," James said miserably.

Lily shook her head and ignored his comment. "Thanks for the biscuit," she said.

James smiled nervously - though he didn't know why. He was never nervous around girls. but Lily.

"Sure. um. I'm sure my parents wouldn't mind you staying for the holidays," he said.

"Really?" she asked, looking in his eyes in a way she hadn't before.

"Yeah, no problem," he said stupidly.

She smiled, and James hoped so much he had helped. He desperately wished she was feeling just a little less pain than she had been feeling before. James was relieved to see that her eyes were smiling as much as her face was.

Her eyes were so green.

James wasn't sure if it was him or Lily, or maybe if they had met halfway. All he was sure of was her lips on his - her tears streaming down his cheek.

James wasn't sure if it was real or not. *Was this the same Lily Evans he knew? Isn't she the girl that hated him so much?*

James felt like it was Christmas.

*It is Christmas, you idiot,* he told himself.

Lily pulled back, and smiled. She almost laughed. James felt suddenly giddy. He wouldn't mind laughing either.

Awwww. got some LJ romance goin here. *so cute!* Remus and Becca? Who'da thunkit? Ha. It was pretty obvious.

Anyhoo. yup. It's getting all confusing and prophetic again. Gosh darn, I know it's annoying! Review and tell me how I'm doing.

If this story is a crappy waste of time and everybody hates it - I'd like to know.

*smilies*