It was an, exceedingly, hot mid-spring day at Hogwarts, in 6th year when it happened. I know that I will never forget that day for the rest of my entire adult life, and for good reason.

We were sitting down by the lake after classes, in a hot stupor, barely being able to think from the heat. Our heads teetered from side to side, barely awake, hoping that with the coming of night in a few hours, cool air would also follow. We had decided to speak as little as possible "too much heat…..no talk…." Sirius had 'intelligently' put it, talking from the deep depths of heat induced stupor. The giant squid rolled its great tentacles across the water; obviously it was also seeking refuge from the heat. We were all laying in the shade of a large tree, near the edge of the water, and I had my face close to the water, glancing down at the ripples the giant squid made as it swam lazily across the surface.

"I can't stand this much longer," James said, sounding tired "If I can't talk I…………" He began to drift, his head falling to one side.

"James," growled Sirius Lazily, poking James in the arm "If your going to talk at least finish your sentences!"

"Oh….." he said groggily, opening his eyes again "As I was saying……..I think I will go mad if I don't say anything."

"Yeah," agreed Sirius, pushing a stray black hair from in front of his eyes "but if you do say anything your bound to fall asleep…..I don' no about you, but for me its just altogether to much work."

I snickered and went back to gazing into the water. "It's such a quiet day," I observed, I knew I sounded almost bored "shouldn't we be pulling some hugely elaborate prank to shake things up?"

"Could," forced out James.

"But won't," finished Sirius. Then he made an overly exaggerated attempt to turn his head and look at me, but only managed to get half way before giving up "Its just to much work Mooney my friend."

I smiled and shook my head "Right…….." I said, getting up and grabbing my book bag "I'm going back to the school."

"Oh Remus!" said James, looking up at me belligerently "With you its always study,study,study!"

"Yeah!" agreed Sirius, latching on to my leg and holding on tightly "Don't leave us!"

I rolled my eyes and kept on walking, knowing that he couldn't hang on forever, but he managed to hang on for quite a while before I shoved him free with one last kick of my leg and a bit of cursing.

"Fine!" he said, standing up and checking him self over for grass stains "It's already been to much work to try and keep you here. I'd just be wasting more energy if I went after you now!"

"Uhuh," I said, smiling to myself at their antics, they always had been a great pair of fools. "Bye then!" I yelled, waving a hand at them as I walked away.

"BYE REME!" James shouted back, I winced at the nick name and shot a glare back at them. They knew I hated it.

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The castle was quiet that day, not many people were inside. Most kids were outside in the heat, the girl's sun bathing the boys doing well, what boys do. I decided that I'd get a head start on studying for our end of year exams, so I trotted of to the library hoping to find some peace and quiet. Unfortunately for me, and for one Ms. Lily Evans, there happened to be a group of rowdy Slytherins causing an insurmountable amount of trouble.

I waited for a moment, hoping that the racket they were making, would soon be halted by an extremely annoyed Madam Pince, but nothing happened, and when I realized that the person they were bothering was Lily I sucked up all the courage I could muster, and went in to try and stop them.

I puffed out my chest hoping to make myself look much larger than I really was, and stepped quietly up behind them.

"Hmhm," I cleared my throat, in what I thought was a loud way……..nothing. Not even a glance! I tried again, this time louder "Hmhm!" Still, nothing happened. So I tried one last time "HMHM!" Not a single thing, they just went about their horrible, nasty business. By this time I was slightly fed up so I wasn't exactly thinking straight, which you will see as I write this next paragraph.

"HEY!" I yelled, tapping one of the larger ones on the back (May I point out……..much larger than myself) "That's my friend your bothering!" He looked down at me, obviously eyeing me up to see if I had some hidden strength, that he just couldn't see. Then, after he discovered I was a little weakling he quickly began to laugh.

"What's so bloody funny?" I growled, my blood pressure growing ever higher (God I was a stupid child). He continued to laugh and eventually the whole lot of them was laughing.

"STOP LAUGHING!" I practically screamed. They all stopped laughing, and that's when I knew……….I was in BIG trouble. I barely had time to think, the last thing I remember was every single one of their fists, connecting with any part of my body they could find.

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The next day, I awoke to the sound of soft talking by my bed side. I knew where I was, because I could hear Madam Pomfrey scolding whoever it was who was talking.

"You should not be here!" she said, in her usual bossy tone "Mr. Lupin needs his rest!"

"But he's our friend Madam Pomfrey! Come on, just let us-"

"Not a chance boys!" she growled "Come on now! Out Black! Out Potter!"

"How come she gets to stay?" said Sirius, sounding utterly disgraced.

"Because Mr. Black," she said, matter of factly "she is quiet!" growled Madam Pomfrey, slamming the door.

I didn't know If I should open my eyes or not, to figure out just who "she" happened to be, so I decided I would moan instead, a sure sign I was awake, but it didn't necessarily mean I had to open my eyes.

"Ooooooo," I groaned, it really did hurt.

"Remus!" she said, sounding worried about me "are you ok?"

"I don' no, what happened exactly?" I asked, honestly.

"Well you got beat up by a bunch of Slytherins," she said, sounding hurt.

"Yes!" I said, a small smile beginning to appear on my face "I know that, but what happened after they all ganged up on me?"

I could hear this mysterious girl shifting around on the bed nervously. "Well," she said, her voice going quite quiet "They hit you pretty hard, even after you had blacked out………but I didn't see much because I went to get help."

Wait………she had helped me, she must have been there…………she must have really seen what had happened, and not just come as an after thought. I was puzzled, there had only been one other, nice, person in that library and even through all her niceness, she would not have been inclined to stay by my bedside after help had arrived and been given. Would she?

I finally decided to open my eyes, I just couldn't stand the suspense anymore. It was like a really bad horror film, and I was just about to find some horribly mutilated, and bloody, body on the floor and scream "oh my god noooooo!"………and all the tell tale signs had been leading up to this moment, in a slow and painful (very painful) arc of a BAD plot (On a side note…..I love analogies).

I opened my eyes with one swift movement, and my suspicions were confirmed. On the end of the bed, opposite me, sat Lily Evens.

"Lily?" I asked, my hands going to my sides to prop myself up.

"Yes," she said, her eyes lighting up "what do you need?"

"Nothing," I said "I just thought…….well I………what I mean to say is………well I didn't think you would come and sit by MY bed side."

"Well," she said, her head hanging lower, and her voice becoming sadder "I guess I just felt guilty……"

"For what?" I asked, staring at her with a truly confused look on my face.

"How can you even ask that?" she said, a lonely tear running down her cheek "you got hurt, because of me, because you tried to help me. You shouldn't have even been there."

"Ok……" I said, looking at her with raised eye brows "I didn't get hurt because of you, I got hurt because I was stupid enough to be belligerent with about six really BIG Slytherins."

"Yes, "she said, looking at me seriously "but it was because of me that you even went up against them in the first place."

"Listen, don't worry about it Ok." I said, taking her hand from were it rested on the bed "You're my friend, and that's what friends are for…….right?"

"I guess," she said "But I just…I….don't like to see you get hurt."

The room was quiet for a long time, neither one of us talked or moved for at least a minute. Then she pulled her hand away from me, as if she had only just realized that I was holding it.

"I'm sorry," I said, looking her in the eyes "I really am."

"It's alright," she said, her eyes turning away from mine. We sat in silence for some time, not a word passed between us. Then she spoke. "Thank you," she said, in little more than a whisper "Thank you for everything," She said again, as silent tear escaped her eye and rolled down her red cheek.

"Don't mention it," I said, looking into her deep, emerald eyes.

Then sheslowlystood up from the end of the bed, and walked around to sit beside me.

"Thank you," she whispered, placing a soft kiss on my cheek. "You're such a good friend Remus; I don't know what I would do without you."

I smiled brightly "And I don't know what I would do without you Lily Evens."

She smiled her eyes sparkling at me as the sun from the open window hit them. Surely those eyes held a look of something more than friendship, but I will never know. The two of us never spoke of the day to anyone else but each other. When we did speak of it, it was spoke of in a longing way as if we both had wanted that moment to never end, as if we both wanted to go back to that moment desperately, forever...