To say James was scared of Remus wouldn't be strictly true because, in all fairness, he wasn't. It was just that when he looked at Remus he no longer saw Remus; instead he saw the creature that had attacked him in his nightmare and that scared him.

It had been a few weeks since then and he had been avoiding Remus like the plague. Not an easy feat when they shared not only the same lessons but the same friends, house and dorm too. He was embarrassed to realise he was relieved when Remus had given up trying to talk to him and had instead withdrawn inside himself, talking only to professors or Evans, or unless it was really important. James had no idea what his behaviour was doing to Remus, but he longed to forget about everything he had seen and worked out so that he could have his friend back. Even Sirius and Peter had noticed so things must have been bad.

"You've got to try patching things up with Remus," Sirius advised James, thinking the two had had an argument. "You've been friends for too long to throw it away."

James knew Sirius was trying to help but he wasn't.

"Sir, just leave it, please. It's not like we've had a fight or anything, I just saw something about him that I'd rather not have done."

Sirius looked at him eagerly, waiting for an explanation.

James shook his head.

"Oh, come on mate. We're best mates, and you can't say something like that and not tell me." Sirius pleaded with puppy-dog eyes.

"It's not for me to say," James said sadly, trying to ignore the face.

Sirius nodded, his face turning cold. "Fine," he said getting up and walking away.

'Great,' James thought. 'That's two people I have to apologize to.'

--------

Life was going good for Lily. She was spending more time with Remus now that he and James were going through whatever they were going through (Remus refused to talk about it), she was easily maintaining her position as top of the class for every subject and she and Alex were making plans to go to France as part of an exchange trip with Beauxbatons. All in all her first term was going well so far, and it was still only October; October 31st to be precise.

A feast was being held that evening but until then students had to attend lessons. It was their lunch break when Lily next got to speak to Remus, after that was Defence against the Dark Arts.

"Are you two not speaking yet?" Lily asked Remus gently as she noticed his three counterparts enter the Great Hall and sit at the opposite end of the table, James pointedly looking in the other direction. Remus shook his head making Lily sigh. "Look, I know Potter is an insolent brat but he's always been a good friend to you. I don't see what could be so bad now."

"He knows," she heard Remus' whispered answered.

"About wh…Oh, wait, that's what this is about? He knows your little secret so your not friends anymore?"

"No, but look at him. He doesn't want to know me."

Lily looked over, a glare on her face as she met eyes with James. "Of course he does. Anyone who doesn't is crazy."

A smile formed on Remus' face. It was only a small one but she was glad it was there, it was the first one she'd seen on him since this whole thing started. "I think you're the crazy one," he told her.

She faked offence, pushing him lightly. "Look, I'll talk to Potter, everything will be better by tonight's feast."

Remus looked at her with a frown. "I'm not going to be here tonight," he reminded her quietly. "Hold on, what are you planning on doing?"

Lily just laughed. "You'll see."

--------

"…And so you see, in today's world Vampires do not need to resort to the blood-sucking of humans to gain their food. In fact, many vampires prefer the drinking of milk and lemon juice to the salty taste of humans." Their new Defence teacher was telling them. Her name was Professor Sheldon and with her dark hair and pale face many of her students thought she herself was a vampire. Indeed her specialist subject seemed to be vampires, as the second years had learnt; at least one lesson per week was dedicated to them.

Lily raised her hand, which didn't surprise some because she was forever raising her hand, but it did others because she was interrupting their professor during mid-speech.

"Yes, Miss Evans?"

"I was wondering, professor. If what you say is true (Of course it is, how dare you insinuate my teaching is anything but?), then why are people so afraid of them?" Lily noticed Remus was staring at her wide-eyed, he knew where this was headed, but she dismissed it easily.

Professor Sheldon looked momentarily fazed before a smile crossed he face. "That is a very good question, Miss Evans. And I know just how to answer it."

Sheldon stood in front of the rows of tables; her arms stretched outwards, her palms together. "This half of the room," she waved her arms and the tables on the left hand side of the room turned ninety degrees so that they now faced the right wall in court-room style. "Are to be against vampires while this half." She waved her arms once more, this time the tables on the right turned to be facing the left wall, and these too were in court-style fashion. "Are in support of them. We are having a debate 'Why are people so scared of vampires in today's society?'" She quoted the topic title as she wrote it on the board behind her. "Now, begin."

Lily smiled as it did, this was better than she could have hoped. She and Remus were supporting vampires, the Marauders where on the other side of the room, she could make them all see without them realising.

"Lily, what did you do that for?" she heard Remus' voice hiss behind her.

She turned and smiled brightly at him. "What?" she asked innocently. "Sheldon did it, not me."

Remus sighed. "Lily, you know what I mean."

Lily just stared at him. "Look, do you want them to be alright with your wolfishness or not?"

"Well…"

"Miss Evans, do you have something to add?"

Lily flinched, what was the last thing that was said?

"Um…I guess I could." She muttered darkly. "It's about werewolves though, not vampires."
Sheldon nodded. "That's quite alright, just link it in somehow."

Lily nodded, 'Think link, think link,' she thought wildly. Suddenly an idea hit her and she stood up to speak.

--------

James' attention had been wandering during Defence, what kind of person thought a debate was a good way to teach? It had been snapped back when he heard the word 'werewolves' though. Looking up now he saw Evans stood up addressing the people in the room who, surprisingly, were sat in silence listening to her. Why would anyone be listening to Evans of all people? She spoke so much rubbish at the best of times; James was beginning to think her head was so far up her…

"The whole idea for the distrust and fear of vampires comes from the misconceptions people have of what they should be like. Vampires have, in truth and myth, always been an evil creature, hypnotising their victims, drinking their blood, killing those unworthy and so this idea of them has always stuck in our mind of what they should be like that it's hard to remove it. That they are changing their ways, finding alternative, less aggressive means of food sources does not matter to these people who are unwilling to change, and that is their prerogative, but how can they simply judge on an idea and not what they know?

"This does not apply solely to vampires; other creatures are misunderstood for their violent behaviours. Take werewolves for example. For three nights a month they turn into bloodthirsty creatures and hunt for fun. It is not their fault they do this, they have been turned through bite or, in some rare circumstances, are born like that. Yet when we know of a person who is a werewolf what do we do to them? We shun them, we turn our backs on them and turn against them. We forget that for almost everyday and night of the year these creatures are human, trying to live a normal life. We forget that they don't choose to live like this, nor, I am sure, would they want to if there was any kind of alternative, our fear and hatred of such creatures takes over."

James was getting uncomfortable by this point, Evans seemed to be looking directly at him as she spoke, as though she knew and this whole speech was a charade meant to cover up a message intended for him alone. But, and this was more unsettling, what she was saying was true. James had been staying away from Remus because of what he was for a small minority of the time, he had forgot all about the things they had done for one another and all the things they had done together. It wasn't right.

"So they're not evil all the time," he heard a voice sneer from behind. Turning around he saw Alex. "There's still those three nights a month when they go around killing people, ripping them to shreds and leaving their family with no body to bury or grieve over. There's still that creature inside the person whenever there isn't a full moon. That creature that is just waiting to be released and quench its thirst for blood. Just like a vampire. No matter how much it can try to change, it is always going to want blood, nothing can change that."

Remus was on his feet now. "No, you can't change their want," he said aggressively. "But they can ignore it. Not everyone needs to give into their urges Alexandra. And tell me, do you have any idea what it feels like to be alone? To be left with no one to talk to, no one to share your life with because of a curse you can't control? To have to go through the daily pain and rejection?"
James smiled as he heard no words from Alex, but could see her shaking her head as answer.

"No," Remus continued. "You don't. It's not easy for werewolves or vampires so how about you shut up with the comments and go sc-"

"Mr Lupin that is enough!"

Remus shut up and sat down again. Lily continued to stand; James noticed her smile down at Remus, squeezing his hand gently as, it appeared, did Alex as she was making some kind of noise behind him.

"Alex just made a good point, these people do have creatures inside them, but nobody is perfect 100 percent of the time. In fact, I know for a fact that Alex is quite nasty for at least 3 days a month, sometimes more." The room laughed, James turned to look at Alex who was shooting daggers at Lily.

"But like I was saying," Lily continued over the quiet murmurings that had now started. "We forget that the creature is within the person and that, as a general rule, that person is more human than the rest of us. Whatever evil they have inside them, they can counter it so much that we don't realise what they're going through. They live half-lives, those who have learnt their secrets disown them, those who haven't they have to hide their secrets from. And really, isn't that enough penalty for them without us adding to the burden and letting our feelings control us?"

She sat down again after that, the whole room burst into cheers and applause, even Professor Sheldon was sniffling quietly. After the lesson was over James pushed all his feelings aside and went to find Remus to make amends. 'If he'll accept it,' he thought gingerly.

Marauders-Wzrd10 He he, I don't need to have fun at school today, I didn't go in. I couldn't be bothered with it and we weren't going to do anything anyway so I decided to write all that instead. Enjoy it. Oh, and England's not all that great.

Sirius'-muggle13 Wow, I didn't really have any plans for explaining the dream, but there'll be more to come so I might do, we'll see if I can fit in anywhere. And James is happy to see him; he was just more freaked out than anything.

Away with the Fairies2 I'm glad you like it :D