Fearless: You know that scene because it's a POV take off the scene in Snape's Pensieve (Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix). Basically I took the scene and added Derek's reactions to introduce you to the less-seen member of Gryffindor Tower. And Lily and James hate each other at this point because... they do. It's canon.

I'm glad that you were kind enough to review!

Chapter 2: A Few Friends

"Malicious Moron." What a dumb password.

It didn't really matter how dumb it was, really, because regardless of that it let Derek into Gryffindor Tower. Not exactly a place of great memories for the sixteen-year-old, but then again, he didn't really know of a place he thought held good memories. Everywhere was just as drab in the memory department. This prompted a sigh from the boy who had just walked into the Common Room. Naturally, no one else noticed.

He walked forward to the area in front of the fireplace. The marauders seemed to have retreated to the dorm, but Derek didn't feel like dealing with them at that moment, so he stopped in front of the fireplace and sat on the comfiest chair. Finally, a grin started to creep onto his face as he remembered all of the races to the chair that he was now sitting in. He took a quick look around to make sure he could relax, and there was nobody looking at him. Not that there ever was anyone.

It as only a few minutes of stewing through his life and nearly dozing off in the comfy chair before he heard, as opposed to saw, someone sit down in the chair to his left. One open eye told him that Lupin was falling into the cushion heavily. His face was drawn and his eyes sunken. He was sick again. "You look terrible."

Remus cracked a grin, but Derek didn't spot it because he had already closed his eye again. "When is it ever any different?"

"Point taken."

"How about you?"

"What about me?"

"How are you?"

Finally, Derek opened his eyes and turned his head to look at Remus. Merlin, even his robes were disheveled. "Thinking about the year, really. How having you as the prefect in the room kept my hide from turning yellow. Literally. Several times."

Remus's grin came back. "Funny. It's as if Dumbledore knew…" Then he ducked. And rightly so, because a pillow from the chair to Derek's right sailed where Remus's head used to be. "I meant about today. You seem to be stewing over something."

"Of course I'm stewing over something, and you know it's not Potter and Snape fighting."

"Why would I have asked?"

Derek snickered. "Fine. After everyone scattered, Malfoy took on a Mudblood. It was rather sad because unlike Evans, she couldn't fight back. So after letting the girl get a proper scaring, I gave him a dose of the laughing hex. He looked quite nuts."

Remus leaned back into his chair, a smile on his face. In true Marauder fashion, he appreciated the effect and as the image came clearly into his head, his grin only got wider. "And nobody knew what you did?"

"Save you."

Remus simply nodded. A clattering from the Boy's Dormitory stairs announced the arrival of the rest of the Marauders. Derek and Remus both knew that this was Remus's clue to leave. Remus rose without a word, but Derek didn't take offense, or even note. This was an encounter that was completely normal. As Remus walked over to the other three pranksters, Derek silently tuned into their conversation.

"-And then Sirius jumps out from behind the Willow and hexes him to kingdom come!" Pettigrew was saying, his voice gratingly sharp.

There was laughter from Black and Potter. "If that would actually work, Wormtail, then it would be a great prank on that prat. But since it won't…" There was a short pause in Potter's response for another bark of laughter, "It looks like it's Padfoot's turn to come up with what we'll do."

"Can't we just do nothing today? Despite the mind-numbing work of answering questions on things that are honestly below us, I think we're tired and should take a break." That was Remus. The voices were fading, they were heading back out of the portrait hole. Oh yeah. Dinner.

The next speaker and what they said were muffled since they had left the common room. Derek leaned back into his chair with a sigh. Remus truly had been able to make life bearable in the Fifth-year boys' room. That, and a few well-placed protection charms around his bed before sleeping. Every night Derek thanked Merlin that Evans was the Charms Mistress, and James was best in Transfiguration. It made Derek's life so much easier.

Derek blinked as the girls came down from their dormitory. He hadn't even thought about the fact that they had also retreated to their dorm after Potter and Evans had had the latest spat. Well, he did think about her, even if indirectly. Speak of the Devil, and He will come. Something his mother had always told him. Well, before she had stopped telling him anything at all.

"Are they gone?" A lilting voice asked, at the doorway to the Girl's Dormitory.

"Honestly, Wanda, you'd think that you wouldn't have a brave bone in your body if you weren't in Gryffindor," another said, much stronger and also closer. She must have been the one who looked.

"But I don't want Lily and James to fight again today!" Wanda said indignantly, and also closer.

"You don't want anyone to fight, ever," the second voice admonished.

"Is there something wrong with that, Kelly?" Lily's voice called from inside the Dorm stairway.

There was a silence, and it was broken quickly by footsteps down the stairs. "Let's go eat then," Lily said, "Sure, they'll be there, but we'll sit at another part of the table."

"Yes," Wanda said, seeming satisfied. There were footsteps of them walking away. Derek wasn't sure whether they knew he was sitting in the comfy chair, but they probably wouldn't have said anything to him even had they known he was there. However, there were two girls from the dorm that would come over and talk to him if they saw him there. It was now only a matter of-

"It's the music man!"

-time.

Derek turned and could not help but smile. Sarah Kosh had her hands on her hips and a huge smile on her face. The smile was infectious, and there was barely a soul in Hogwarts that didn't smile back when she pointed it at them. Just slightly behind Sarah with her arms folded and head cocked to one side was Helga Ross. Helga had the same brand of red hair as Lily, though she kept it shorter than Derek had ever seen Lily's.

"Just because my last name is Fugue doesn't mean I like music."

"And that doesn't mean I can't say it!" Sarah said, leaning in to make her point. As both continued to smile, she seemed satisfied. "Are you coming? I imagine you're as hungry as the rest of us after that brutal test."

"Brutal? Were we in the same room?" Helga asked, her face not changing.

Sarah's smile vanished. It was now a scowl, but there was something adorable about the scowl too. "Just because you're the best at Defense Against the Dark Arts in our year doesn't mean that you can hold it over everyone's head!" Derek snickered, which brought the scowl to bear on him, daring him to keep snickering.

So, he did.

Helga didn't laugh much, but a small chuckle escaped her now. After almost a minute of this, Sarah tried to regain her dignity by standing up straight and smoothing her robe out. "I'm going to dinner," she said stiffly, "I imagine that you will want to come with me." And then she was off.

Helga shook her head as Sarah stalked away. "You do need to eat, Derek."

Derek sighed. "I know. Oh all right, I'll come with you. Are you going to sit near the girls, the Marauders, or are you gonna try to sit somewhere in the middle?"

Helga pulled him up by the shoulders. "By the girls. Lily said she wanted to talk about something, and apparently you're allowed to hear it." This caused Derek to look up confused. What would she want to say that had anything in the world to do with him? He had made it clear to her a long time ago that being friends wasn't an option between them because of her birth. It wasn't like he had done it the way Malfoy and Snape and the other Blacks liked to do it. He just told her, and she just nodded. He had a feeling that she realized that there were no hard feelings. Just that it wasn't a good idea.

Not that anything was a good idea for Derek when it came to friends. Somehow, even though Helga and Sarah weren't from Pureblood families, they were able to get through the invisible wall that he had built. That he had to build. They weren't halfblood, but there were muggles somewhere in their family and it cropped up form time to time. Unlike the Pureblood families, they did not expunge the muggles and squibs and rabble from the family. These kinds of people needed to be taken on a one-by-one basis; so Derek had found in his own experience. Sarah and Helga were simply some of the more honorable of their breed. And independent events had changed a few things.

They reached the Great Hall soon after he had reached that point in his thoughts, and he was glad for the break. They joined Lily, Wanda and Kelly on the end of the table closest to the doors. The seventh years were sitting next to them, minding their own business, and Derek spotted the jet black messy hair that screamed "Potter" all the way on the other side of the House's table. Derek promptly sat down at the last spot open looking over at Lily, mildly interested. Sarah and Helga were settling into their seats and Lily was drinking some pumpkin juice while she waited. The other two girls seemed quite excited.

After everyone was settled and Lily's goblet was back on the table, the girls leaned in as Derek simply continued to look interested. He was, too. Why did she care if he heard this? Better, why did she want him to hear this?

Finally with all of the attention on her, Lily folded her hands in front of her. "I have an idea. We all know that Sirius has dated pretty much any girl in the school-"

"Except you."

Lily gave Wanda a withering look. "And that pretty much any girl wants to date James-"

While the others swooned, Helga simply smiled. "Except you."

This time, Lily gave a little smile. "Or you. And Peter has had his share of dates."

Derek snorted and made like to retch, which made all of the girls laugh. Peter was famous for picking the strangest girlfriends. There were ugly ones, odd ones, dumb ones… basically anything odd you could think of. Worst thing is that he generally shot for a few years younger. Derek found it odd that he found anyone at all; but then again, he was a Marauder.

Oh. Oh no.

"What about Remus?"

Derek had to stop himself from banging his head on the table.

Helga got a frown on her face. "You mean he hasn't…?"

Lily shook her head. Sadly. "Nope. Maybe if we can do that for him, get him a girlfriend, then he'll be able to deal with… all the crap he has to deal with at home." She received firm nods from all the girls, and Derek's incredulous glare that he couldn't get off of his face. When Lily looked at him, she visibly recoiled. All of the girls stared at him as she said, "What!"

"And I imagine the girl will be one of you?" he said, the sarcasm biting.

To his surprise, Helga giggled.

Lily smiled. "That, of course, depends on whether he likes one of us or not." Yup, they were insane.

Derek leaned back. "So, what's my part in this whole shindig?"

Lily's face went from amused smile to evil grin. It was a slow transformation, but it was easy to tell. Especially for someone who had watched her for the past five years and been boggled by the fact that she wasn't a complete savage. "You are our informant."

Derek was flabbergasted. "Your what!"

Lily sniffed, her face returning to a serious line. "You'll be the one who gets to find out about who he likes. And then we will see what we can do."

Derek sighed. Then he looked around at the expectant faces, clearly trying to come back with a retort of some kind. But… it didn't come. Nothing came. So he sighed again. "Alright. I'll give it a try. But only because you're right in that he may need some more help with his problems at home." And with that he dug into his dinner. Happy with his response, Lily and the other girls began to make plans as to how the dates would go, and Derek sighed, though inwardly. At least the cause was just.