Under the Sapphire Moon
By Rayven Darkheart

Chapter Two

"Lily! I need to talk to you, now!" Sirius looked up as Ebony came busting through the fat lady's portrait. Her eyes widened in shock when she saw that the only person in the room was a friend of the boy who knew what she was. "Where's Lily?"

Sirius shrugged and looked back at his book. "Not sure. I think she went off with one of your roommates. Something I can help you with?" Ebony shook her head and started to walk out of the common room before Sirius stopped her. "Wait. Dinner's soon and I wondered if you wanted to start working on my plan."

Ebony gazed at the fire for a minute, contemplating. 'Maybe Remus hasn't had a chance to tell him. Maybe he won't tell him.' "Yeah, sure Sirius. I need to talk to Lily first."

"Talk to me about what?" Ebony jumped and turned around, staring into jade eyes. "What's going on, Ebony? You look like you've seen a ghost." Lily let out a screech of surprise as the dark haired girl pulled her toward the steps of the girls' dormitory.

Growling a bit, Ebony let Lily's hand go and stared hard at her. "You swore to me that you would tell no one my secret. Now Remus knows. How do you suppose that happened?" Her cerulean eyes seemed as cold and hard as diamonds.

Lily held her hands up. "I didn't tell anyone. What makes you think that I would do that?"

"I went to find Remus to ask him if he would be willing to help me with my Defense Against the Dark Arts assignment and he was asleep. I looked at his book and guess what it was about." Lily physically shivered under her roommate's shadowed gaze. "It hasn't even been a month. The full moon isn't even for another week."

Lily shook her head sadly. "I swear on Merlin that I didn't tell him. He did ask for extra credit in Care for Magical Creatures. I bet he was doing research." Her eyes met her friend's eyes and saw the hard sapphires turn into their normal soft blue hue. What she noticed more than anything was that Ebony's eyes were slowly filling with tears. She wrapped her arms around the weepy girl to comfort her.

Remus stormed into the common room. Sirius looked up and frowned. "What is it with people running in here like the world is about to end?"

Sirius's eyes widened and his heart seemed to stop with Remus's words. "Ebony knows."

Sirius jumped up from his seat and grabbed Remus before running up to their room. James, who had been sleeping, looked up at the two intruders and blinked away the sleep. "Wha- Huh? Why are you guys acting like Snivellus just hit on you or something?"

"Ebony knows about Remus." Sirius sat down heavily beside a wide eyed James. "Now we just need to find out how she knows."

Remus raised his hand slowly. "I know how she knows." He watched his friends look at him in surprise. "I was looking in the new addition to the Magical and Dangerous Creatures encyclopedia. You know, to see if they had come up with anything new to treat my" he stopped and looked down before whispering the last word, "problem."

James started slowly, as if he was talking to a small child, or a slow adult. "Moony, mate, what does that have to do with Ebony?"

"Prongs, she saw! I fell asleep with the book open to the entry on werewolves. She woke me up and looked like she was ready to be in tears before she ran off as fast as she could. I thought she was going to knock Padfoot's younger brother over." Remus flopped down on his bed and groaned. "I-I'm not sure what to do." 'I think I would've told her eventually.'

Sirius took the lead. "Okay, so she's not sure what to think. You're used to people not understanding. How about this? Pretend it never happened. If she avoids you, give her space. If she speaks to you, be kind. Don't bring it up. Who's to say things won't smooth over?" He jumped on top of his lycanthrope friend and poked him in the ribs. "Everything will be fine, Moony."

The boys came out to find a sullen looking Lily and Ebony who looked as if she were still a bit weepy. Remus frowned and looked at the floor with interest. 'Those tears are my fault. She's afraid of me.'

Sirius stepped on Remus's foot and pointed at Ebony. Remus looked up at her to see her with a soft, understanding smile on her face. He returned the smile with one of his own. Clearing her throat softly, she looked at Sirius. "Well, shall we go to lunch?"

Sirius smiled brightly and reached forward to grab her hand. No one noticed when Remus flinched a bit and looked down. Ebony was pulled from her seat easily. Sirius wrapped his arm around her shoulders as they started out toward the great hall, leaving a saddened Remus, a mystified Lily and a grinning James.

The buzz of the students in the great hall suddenly stopped as the Marauders, Lily, and Ebony walked in. There were a few whispers from some of the girls about Sirius and his arm. No one had ever seen Sirius show any affection to a girl in public, that is unless he was kissing her senseless or groping her.

Remus picked up little tidbits of conversation with his sensitive hearing. "What makes her so special?" "He was never like that with me." "Hey, Sirius is actually with a girl that is dressed. Surprising." Remus shook his head a little sadly. 'Why does it have to be that girl though?'

To his surprise and secret delight, Ebony sat next to him. He almost had a heart attack when she kindly patted his shoulder. "You all right, Remus? You've been really quiet since…" She glanced down, a soft blush appearing on her delicate cheek bones.

"I'm fine. I just haven't been feeling so well. I mean, I'm sure you know what next week is." Ebony's eyes grew wide and before anyone could stop her, she ran out of the room and toward the Grand Staircase. 'I messed up this time…'

Sirius started to get up to go after her, but he noticed that Lily had already gone. He sat back down and leaned closer to Remus. "What was that all about, mate?"

Remus shrugged and suddenly became very interested in his food. "I don't know. She knows about me, yet when I mentioned it, she ran off. That's going to make DADA quite interesting next period. She sits next to me."

Peter perked up beside James. "You can trade seats with me. I don't want to sit next to Snape and you don't want to talk to her. It's a fair trade, right?" His smile widened when Remus nodded in agreement. "Good, it's settled then."

Lily walked into the common room to find Ebony curled up on the sofa, gazing blankly at a book. "Ebony?" The girl didn't answer her so Lily walked forward and picked up the book that seemed to hold her attention.

It turned out to be a copy of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. A soft, heartbroken voice startled Lily. "Read what it says. Please."

Lily looked down and found:

Werewolves-

This creature is a human afflicted with the disease of lycanthropy, which is contracted via the bite of another Werewolf. Anyone who has this disease will be normal for the majority of the time. At each full moon, however, they will transform into a ravenous psychopathic wolf-maniac which actively seeks out humans to kill. When the full moon has passed, the affected person returns to normal.

A heart wrenching sob filled Lily's ears suddenly. "See? How could anyone trust someone like me? Remus doesn't know about my charm. He only knows what he reads in books. What am I supposed to do?"

Lily dropped the book and wrapped her arms around her roommate. "Ebony, Remus has always been very levelheaded. Ever since first year when all of the other students were looking around wide eyed with excitement, he took everything in stride. I can't see how this would throw him. Give him time."

Ebony whimpered slightly, sounding almost like a lost puppy. "Thanks, Lily. All I can say is this is going to make DADA rather interesting for a while."