Chapter Six

The week went by without so much as an incident. James was in a shocking mood of submissive silence. The week went without a murmur of a prank or hex from the mauraders. Some enjoyed the peace, while others were wary of it being an actual hiatus of serenity.

Remus had limped, crawled, bounced and dragged himself through weeks, but he never actually slouched through one. This was a week to slouch. The weather was bad, classes were boring and everyone seemed to be mad at one thing or another.

Friday finally rolled along and Remus was summoned to serve his detention with Lily. Lily had not spoken much to anyone throughout the week. Remus was not surprised. She probably felt guilty for what she had done. Her guilt showed. Remus just hoped they could put everything behind themselves.

At seven o'clock on Friday night, Remus left the Gryffindor common room and headed for Filch's office on the ground floor. He met Lily waiting in front of the office.

"Scared?" she asked.

"Terrified," Remus replied.

"And you call yourself a morder."

"Maurader," Remus corrected. "Officially, I don't call myself one. I just get conned into doing silly things that get James and Sirius into trouble. I usually I have nothing to do with the detention end of it. This is my first subpoena." Lily smiled and looked nonchalantly away. 'Great,' thought Remus. 'I just closed her off again.'

"So…what do you, er, think we are going to be asked to do?" asked Remus. Lily turned her head again. "Oh, probably clean off the toilets or something." Remus nodded.

"Did you knock?" Remus asked motioning towards the door.

"No," said Lily. "I was hoping you would." Remus was just as scared as Lily, if not more. He turned to the door again, inhaled a deep breath, and knocked on the heavy door.

"Come in," came a croaky, wheezy voice from inside. Remus opened the door and motioned for Lily to go in first. Remus followed. Filch's office was full of filing cabinets and a small desk. Remus noticed that one of the filing cabinets read 'Black-Potter'. At least the reason for his detention wasn't as bad as half of the reasons for James' and Sirius' over the years. Filch would run out of ideas sooner of later.

Argus Filch was sitting at his desk drumming his fingers on the table. Mrs. Norris was curled up on his lap.

"Well, well, well, you will soon learn what you get from misconduct," Filch greeted them. He got up from his seat, letting Mrs. Norris drop down. He walked out the door and down the hall without so much as an indication for them to follow. Remus and Lily walked out the door. Filch went to the staircases and went down the stairs to the dungeons, grumbling about the misconduct of students. James and Sirius had always said that detentions that took place in the dungeon were always a lot worse than those that took place elsewhere in the castle. Remus feared for the worse.

Filch took Remus and Lily down corridors until they got to a hall way filled with pictures of fruit. Filch walked up to one painting that depicted a bowl of fruit. He scratched at the pear in the painting. The mural gave way to the entrances to the kitchens. The kitchen was brimming with activity. Remus heard Lily gasp. House elves were everywhere. They walked back and forth singing songs and speaking admirably together. Remus was also aghast. He very seldom went into the kitchens. He had only been in there once, and it was at the dead of night when there were very few house elves.

"You are going to do the dishes," said Filch, repulsively.

"That's all?" Remus asked. Filch looked down and gave a snort.

"When seven hundred Hogwarts students and teachers eat dinner and dessert, that's two times seven hundred which is…" Filch trailed off.

"1,400," Remus finished for him. "That means there are 1,400 plates that we are going to have to clean up?"

"Without magic. You can not leave until you are done. Good night!" Remus could have gouged Filch's eyes out while he turned to leave. Remus stopped him.

"You mean to say that we have to do the dishes for 1,400 people in one night."

"Yes," said Filch, taking pride in the fact that his task had annoyed a student. "You have all of tonight. Good luck." With that, he turned around and walked out. Remus could have thrown something in his direction, but thought better of it.

"Well," said Lily. "I guess we should start." Remus and Lily made their way to the back of the kitchen where all of the dirty dishes were stacked up to be washed. There were not 1,400 plates that had to be cleaned up. It seemed there were closer to fifty. Remus started drying the plates that Lily handed to him after she washed. They worked in silence. Finally after half an hour of working, Lily spoke.

"I'm sorry," she said.

"Hmm?" questioned Remus.

"I want you to know that I'm sorry for-for-" She paused. "-For what I did to you on Monday. It was really stupid of me. Especially in front of the whole school."

"Lily, I want you to know that I have already forgotten about it- I don't want you to feel upset, or guilty about it. It just happened," Remus offered.

"Remus, I feel guilty about it. I have to. It's my fault that you are here. Nothing would have happened if it weren't for me. I really want to apologize. It was so stupid," Lily finished. Remus didn't talk. Lily continued. "I don't even know why I did it." She said. I wasn't thinking. You were there. I was there. The whole school was there. James was there…" Lily trailed off. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "I never really meant for it to happen."

She turned away not looking at Remus.

"I know you didn't, Lily. You were just confused. You are tired of James, and for a good reason. You're tired of him bothering you. You wanted to show him that you were tired. Words aren't enough for James. You have to show him with actions," Remus finished.

"I wanted to get back on James. So, I took it out on you." Lily's voice was barely a whisper. "I don't know how I will ever forgive you, Remus. It's just so- so- senseless."

Remus nodded. Lily stopped washing the plate she had been scrubbing continuously sense the beginning of her conversation. "I'm glad you understand that it's not about you," she said. "I was afraid I'd have to explain it. It's all me, and James. He bothers me so much, Remus. I don't know why. All of my friends say 'go out with him, Lily, everyone else wants to'. I just don't understand. He can be so-so-"

"Arrogant," Remus finished.

"Arrogant," Lily acknowledged. Lily looked up at Remus. "You are really good at listening," she observed.

"Yeah, well, with James and Sirius around, it's hard to get a word in." Lily laughed, then she turned and sat down on a stool. She dropped her head into her hands and began sobbing. It took Remus a minute to figure out that she was crying. He walked over to her and pulled his handkerchief out of his pocket. He handed it her and was about to put his hand on her shoulder when she looked up. "I'm so silly," she said.

"No, you're not. You have just been holding in a lot of emotion. I would to if I were you. Sometimes, the things that my friends do bother me. I mean really bother me. I don't know what to say to them. It's hard to sway James Potter. You, Lily, have been holding up a really good fight. You are really brave. That's why James keeps doing it. He wants to get a rise out of you but you just bottle it up and move on. You have never stopped to think about it-until now." Lily looked up. She started wiping her face with Remus' handkerchief.

"Thank you, Remus," she whispered.

"Don't mention it," he said taking the handkerchief back. Lily smiled and got up.

"Those dishes aren't going to wash themselves," she said.

"They could if we-"

"Filch said no magic. Not that he'd know- No, we have to finish, by hand." Lily picked up another plate and began scrubbing it. For a long time nobody said anything. All that could be heard was the clinking of plates and the bustle of house elves behind them.

After what seemed like hours, Lily handed the last dish to Remus to be dried. Remus staked it on top of the clean pile and wiped his forehead.

"Well, that was that," Lily said. "I guess we can go now."

Remus and Lily left the kitchens. They turned the hall and started up the steps.

"What time is it?" Lily asked. Remus looked at his watch.

"Ten thirty," he said. They started up the staircase when they saw something running down it. Remus squinted. "No, it couldn't be," he half said to himself. The object came closer.

"Is it Peeves?" Lily asked.

"I don't think so," said Remus. The object came closer and closer. It was on the landing above Remus and Lily. Remus took a chance.

"Peter, is that you?" The object stopped moving. Out of the mass of a black cloak a voice could be heard.

"Remus, what are you doing?"

"I could ask the same," Remus said. "What in Merlin's name are you doing at this time of night?" Peter stepped out of the black cloak but someone inside was still holding it up.

"I got hungry," he said. "I wanted to come down to the kitchens. Would you like anything?"

"No," said Remus. "Who is with you?" Remus couldn't see Peter, but he was sure he was turning pink.

"Oh…er…just, just, er, Justin."

"Justin?"

"Yeah, Justin from Ravenclaw. I met him coming here. He's hungry too."

"Ohh, all right then. Go ahead, I guess. Bye Justin." Peter got under the cloak again and walked past Lily and Remus. As they went by, Remus could hear a female giggle from under the cloak. He rolled his eyes and continued up the stairs.

"What was that?" asked Lily.

"Oh, I'm not sure," Remus replied.

"You know, Remus. I really like you." Remus turned to Lily.

"Sorry," he said, unsure of what she had just said.

"I think you are a really nice guy. I'm glad I could meet with you. I hope I can again." With that Lily sped off up the stairs. Leaving a bewildered Remus standing on the stairs.

A/N: Can you believe it is the eve before the Half Blood Prince? I can't. I have made a vow not to read any fan fiction while I am reading the Half Blood Prince. I also vow on taking a very long time to read it so as to savor it to every last drop. I'm really excited. I will still post this fic every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, but I don't want any spoilers as to the sixth Harry Potter book. If this story turns out to be a little AU, I will do my best to change that.

I really want to thank my reviewers. You are all really helpful and you have great advice that I shall follow...one of these days ;) . I really want to jump on all of you and kiss you!

Next post on Monday. ENJOY HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF BLOOD PRINCE!