A/N: Sorry for the delay between chapters. I was on vacation. Expect more regular posting now.

Chapter thirteen: An Unexpected Apology

At lunch that day, Remus was abnormally quiet. He was thinking that he would like a secret passage in his house when he was older because he could hide in there at the full moon. He was very grateful that December's full moon had fallen more in the middle of the month so it hadn't interfered with his Christmas plans. He was trying to recall the date of the next full moon when James' voice interrupted his thoughts.

"What?" Remus said, coming back to the present.

"I said, do you want to go have a snowball fight after lunch?" James repeated.

Remus smiled. "Yeah, that'll be fun!"

The rest of the week passed just as pleasantly. They celebrated the New Year with glasses of sparkling grape juice and Remus had no more bad dreams. All too soon it was time to leave. Remus was sad to go, even though he'd only be away from his friends for a day.

The day passed quickly. Remus told his parents about his week, except for James' cloak and the secret passage. Then he packed all of his things. He looked longingly at his broom, but he had to leave it at home. Soon enough it was time to meet the train back to Hogwarts. His mother accompanied Remus and his father this time.

Once they were on Platform 9 3/4, Remus started to look around anxiously for his friends. His father laughed. "Wait, Remus, let us say goodbye and you can join your friends."

Remus grinned. "Sorry."

His father hugged him. "Keep up with your work, son. You could be at the top of your class, you know."

Remus nodded. "Ok, dad. I will."

His mother hugged him next. She held him tight a moment longer than necessary, but Remus was glad to see that she wasn't crying. "Take care," she said. "Send me an owl."

"I will, mom." Remus answered. He saw James and his parents appear, so he said, "There's James. I'll see you guys in a few months! 'Bye!"

He ran over to where the Potter family stood. He stopped a few feet away so James could say his goodbyes first. James turned to Remus a moment later as his parents disappeared with a popping noise. "Hiya, Remus," James said grinning.

"Hi, James." Remus replied.

James' face turned grave for a moment. "I have something strange I want to talk to you about, but we should wait until everyone else gets here."

Remus was puzzled, but he didn't press his friend. They got onto the train and picked a compartment to share. As they watched out the window for Sirius, Austin and Lily, they chatted about school and the massive amounts of homework they expected to get. It seemed like hours before everyone else arrived because Remus was so impatient to know what James was talking about. It was actually only about 15 minutes before the group was reunited.

James waited until the hustle and bustle in the train had stopped and they had started their journey before he brought up his strange subject. "Hey, you guys," he said quietly. "I got a weird letter yesterday and I want to know what you think about it." He began to read it out loud.

James read:

"Dear James,

I realize that I was wrong to abandon you and Sirius like I did. I was caught up in the fact that older students wanted to be my friend. As it turns out, they just wanted me to follow them around, admiring them and doing whatever they asked me to. I am very sorry that I left you and Sirius, my true friends. I understand that you probably don't want to speak to me again, but if you could find it in your heart to forgive me, and let me be your friend again, I would be grateful forever. Please meet me by the common room fire after dinner on our first day back.

Begging your forgiveness,

Peter Pettigrew"

James folded the letter back up and put it in his pocket. Everyone stared at him in silence until he said, "So, what do you think?"

"Why does he miss us now?" Sirius asked.

"Because he's finally realized that Snape's crowd was using him and you are his real friends!" Lily exclaimed.

"Took him long enough," Sirius said. "But I guess we ought to give him another chance."

"I thought you would agree, Sirius," James said. "What do you think, Remus and Austin?"

"I barely knew him before he left," Remus began. "But he just seemed a little unsure of himself. I think he's come to his senses and we should welcome him back."

"I wouldn't be quite that quick about it," Austin said. "Just from what I've heard. But you should give him another chance, if he's sincere."

James nodded. "Good. That's what I thought, but I wanted to make sure that everyone agreed. We'll all go meet him after dinner tonight and make sure he means it."

Austin cleared his throat. "While we're having some serious discussion, I have some rather bad news."

Everyone turned and stared at him. "What's wrong?" Lily asked.

"Well, I just found out from my folks that my dad has gotten transferred to France. We're moving after this term."

"What?" Remus exclaimed. "You're moving to France? You can't leave Hogwarts! Where will you learn magic?"

James and Sirius' faces turned from surprise to snickers as Remus realized he had again displayed his ignorance of his new world. "There are other wizarding schools," James said.

"Though Hogwarts is the best," Sirius added, "Austin can still learn magic in France."

Austin nodded. "I was a bit worried about that, too, Remus, but I'm going to be attending Beauxbatons Academy."

"Oh," Remus said, feeling slightly less stupid.

"But you can't leave," Lily said. "We'll miss you!"

Austin smiled. "I'll miss you guys, too. You were my first friends here."

"We'll write to you all the time," James said.

"And we'll still be able to go to the World Cup together," Sirius said. "It's in France, right?"

Austin brightened up. "Yeah, I hadn't thought of that."

"And besides," said Remus, "We still have half of the year, so we have a lot of time to spend together first."

"A lot of time to pull memorable pranks, you mean," James said smiling.

Once the topic turned to pranks, they spent most of the trip discussing ideas for future pranks, when they weren't stuffing their faces with the candy they bought.

The train arrived at Hogwarts just before dinner was served. Remus looked around the Hall to see if Peter was there, but Remus didn't see him anywhere. He did see Arabella sitting further down the Gryffindor table and he remembered that he had a gift for her. She waved at Remus, who waved back. Arabella stood up, walked over to Remus and sat down beside him.

"Did you like your present?" she asked with a smile.

Remus grinned back. "Yeah, maybe now I can beat Sirius!" They laughed and Remus said, "I have a present for you, too, but it's still in my trunk. Can you meet me at the table in the corner of the common room at about 8:30 so I can give it to you?"

"Sure," Arabella said. "Maybe we can try out your new chess skills while we're at it."

"Sounds great," Remus said, and he meant it.

A couple of older students who Arabella had been sitting by were beckoning to her, so she turned to Remus and said, "Well, I guess I have to go now. But I'll meet you later."

Remus ate dinner with his friends feeling very happy. He was back with them, they were going to be reunited with another friend, and he was going to spend time with Arabella. As the food was being cleared from their plates, Professor Dumbledore stood up. "I'd like to welcome everyone back to Hogwarts," he began. "I'm sure we'll have a very pleasant second term. In case visions of sugar plums and Christmas gifts have clouded your memory, I will remind all students that the forest is out of bounds and that you are not to go near the Whomping Willow at any time or for any reason. That said, please enjoy the rest of your year at Hogwarts."

Remus felt a twinge of guilt at the mention of the Whomping Willow, but he wasn't going to let anything ruin his first day back with his friends. Since dinner was done, they headed up to their common room, where they were to meet Peter. The boys promised to meet Lily in the library after they had talked to Peter. They were surprised to find Peter already sitting by the fire when they arrived. They all took a seat near him and waited in silence for someone to break the ice.

Finally, Peter said, "Does this mean you forgive me?"

James looked around at everyone, then nodded at Peter. "We want to give you another chance, if we are sure that you really mean it. Everyone makes mistakes, and those slimy Slytherins can convince anyone of anything. If you are ready to be a true friend again, we're ready."

Peter looked nervously at the other boys before replying. They were all nodding or smiling reassuringly. Peter's solemn face broke into a smile, too. "Good! I'm ready to do whatever it takes to show you I'm sincere."

Sirius stood and embraced Peter. "That's good to hear. I've missed you, old friend!"

They asked Peter how his Christmas was, and felt bad that he was stuck at school without any friends. They told him about the presents they got, and the week they spent together. James told him in a hushed voice about the invisibility cloak, and promised to show him when they went up to bed. Peter couldn't wait, so everyone headed up to the dorm room.

"Oh wait," James said. "Lily's waiting in the library. Remus, why don't you go tell her we'll be there in a minute?"

Remus did not want to be alone with Lily, he was still worried that she wanted to confront him about his secret. 'Even if she doesn't know,' he thought, 'she'll want to talk about that night I had the dream.' But he couldn't say that to James and the rest of his friends, so he just nodded. He headed slowly back to the library. All too soon he arrived, and saw Lily sitting alone at a table, reading a book on ancient Egyptian wizards.

Lily looked up and said in surprise, "Where's everyone else?"

"Peter wanted to see the invisibility cloak right away, so they went to show it to him," was Remus' sullen reply.

"Well they can take their time," Lily said with authority as she closed her book and set it on the table in front of her. "We need to talk."

Remus was very nervous, but now that he couldn't get out of it, he had to face whatever it was Lily needed to talk to him about. "What about?" he said, trying to keep his voice unconcerned.

"Well, I have been trying to get you alone since after the Halloween feast, because I wanted to tell you." her voice trailed off and she looked away. "I wanted to tell you that I was beginning to have a crush on you. Then you kept avoiding being alone with me, so I figured you didn't like me. But then that night at James', when you had your bad dream, I thought you were about to kiss me, until you threw me off of the bed."

Remus stared at Lily in disbelief. She'd liked him since Halloween? All this time he'd thought she'd figured out his secret. As he stared, she leaned in closer. "I wouldn't have minded if you had," she said softly.

Remus leaned towards her, wanting to feel her soft lips on his. As the moment of contact came closer, he closed his eyes and three images flashed through his mind. The first was Lily's face, looking at him sympathetically the night of his dream. Then he saw his awful werewolf face. The third image was Lily leaning towards him, then jumping back in horror as she saw his wolfish form. He abruptly opened his eyes and moved backwards.

"Lily," he began, as she looked at him, shocked. "I can't do this. Not now. I like you, too, but." He happened to glance at the clock on the library's wall. It read 8:26. "Oh no," he said, jumping out of his seat. "I have to go, Arabella is waiting." Without looking back, he ran out of the library, leaving Lily sad and confused.