Disclaimer: Nothing is mine except the occasional character/plot.

Gossip

"Sirius that is actually complete insanity!" exclaimed James, rolling his eyes wearily.

"It could work! We just need a bit of time... patience, and it could really help Remus."

Remus looked up at his two best friends, who were currently debating another of Sirius' outlandish ideas. "Sirius, as much as I appreciate everything you are doing for me – actually I'm still kind of in shock – I don't think building a cage in our dormitory is quite the way to go."

"Well I'm out of ideas," sighed Black resignedly.

"Thank god," muttered Peter. Out of all of them he was the one who had offered the least. Remus was sure that he was avoiding him, and really, he couldn't blame the boy, but he knew if Sirius twigged he'd get pissed off. The brown-haired boy found it rather ironic that Sirius was actually touchier and more prone to offence about the Moon-phase thing than he, himself, was.

"There must be something we can do," pondered James. "I mean we can't transfigure in a cage but there must be some plan where you're not left on your own on the full moon."

"Dumbledore says he's finding a place outside Hogwarts for me to spend them," Remus said, trying to keep the slightly despondent tone from his voice. "He says he can't risk another night like that, can't risk me being in the Forbidden forest and so close to Hogwarts."

"Where will he put you?" James asked, calculatingly.

"I think he said something about Hogsmeade..." Remus replied slowly.

James and Sirius shared a look and Remus could practically hear the cogs turning.

"I don't want to know, do I?"

"Just trust us, Lupin. Trust us," James replied conversationally throwing an arm around Remus' shoulders affably.

Total chaos, was Remus' only thought.

Lily heard her voice echoed through the corridors. She turned and waited patiently. There was only one person who called her name in that particular tone of voice.

Caroline quickly shimmied into view, her robes entirely too short, her heels to high, her bag impossibly small, Lily smiled. Some things just never changed.

"Well haven't you been busy since I last saw you?" Caroline surpassed the usual greetings, getting straight to the point.

Lily blinked. "How so?"

"I've heard all about you and Severus Snape being spotted together this morning." The Ravenclaw drew out certain syllables in her words giving the impression of almost singing the sentence.

"There's nothing going on," protested the Gryffindor quickly. "He was just being bizarrely friendly. I didn't know he could even be nice," she added as an afterthought.

"Well as the rumour mill goes, he doesn't half like you."

Lily considered this. She didn't particularly want to be the 'talk of the school' but for time being it seemed somewhat inevitable.

"And I've been told everything concerning those nasty 'Marauder' boys. I mean who would've thought?" Caroline linked arms with her, happily rambling on.

The redhead smiled internally, just last week Caroline had been head-over-heels in love with each member of the elite Marauder clan. But Lily herself was beginning to disbelieve Snape's claim about the boys. If they were outside, tangoing with death, then would they really have had the time – or even the presence of mind – to push her down the stairs?

"You must really hate them." The Ravenclaw added, breaking Lily's thoughts.

The redhead processed this thought quickly. She shook her head. Somehow, she didn't hate the four boys at all, well not anymore than she had done before anyway, and she didn't think she'd be able to hate them even a little bit more until she had discovered what had really happened. Especially with all the werewolf business thrown in.

The fact remained though that somehow she had ended up unconscious, and it had something to do with the Marauders and something to do with Snape. Lily wished once again that she could remember anything at all from the night, but her mind was just as blank as it had been that morning.

The rest of the school had already passed judgement on the four boys though. Originally quite well liked, they were now barely talked to. Snape had been transformed from a sly - somewhat geeky - Slytherin into a fifteen-minute hero and Lily was treated like some kind of martyr with respect and sympathy.

And all her 'friends' who had just popped up out of nowhere - as she was the centre of a lot of attention - were urging her to consider Snape as a possible relationship. The girls were caught up in the hopeless romanticism of the inter-house connection and Snape's 'heroic' act.

It didn't help either that 'Severus' had suddenly become charming and almost... sincere? But Lily couldn't shake the inkling that there was something seriously wrong with the situation that she'd overlooked and couldn't for the life of her think of it was.

Caroline was, of course, in her element. Being Lily's longest (and technically only 'real' friend) she was in a position to rule the roost over Lily's new found following. Of course, the kind of instant popularity the event had conceived was the kind where one makes as many jealous enemies as one does friends, and a fair few admirers.

In fact, to get away from the frenzy of attention she was receiving, Lily ended up in her bed – with the curtains drawn – just shortly before eight, still wide-awake.

The past twenty-four hours were the weirdest she'd ever experienced. It was as if her whole world had been turned upside down, overnight popularity was something she'd never wanted, and now it had landed on her doorstep she wasn't entirely sure how to deal with it. And the weirdest thing was that she couldn't even remember the events that had led to her recognition.

The fact that the four Gryffindors were being ostracised didn't affect her so much, she was still in the state of mind that they deserved everything that was coming to them, seeing it as a kind of repentance for past years of grudge-holding. But Lily was not an unkind girl, and before she finally judged them she was going to find out the real events of the previous night.

And she knew just the way to do it.

Responses

Knight-whosays-ni - I'm sorry this chapter took so long coming! But i hope it's kinda-semi worth it hehe

Child-of-scorpio - i am dreadfully sorry for the wait, but here is the next chapter! Read and enjoy!

Actrez - yes, Remus we still love you :)

Sweetginny86 - thank you so much for reviewing my last chapter! Yes, we all know what happens from now onwards, but - as you know from all my stories - i like to add twists, so it may not be quite so straight forward!

Thank you everybody!!

xx Susannah xx