Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or its affiliated characters.
A/N: So… I'm back! I'm really sorry about It Takes Two, but I don't think I'm going to continue it. It wasn't very original and I don't like it. But here's a new one, completely different from anything I've ever written. So before you guys get all freaked out and confused, I'm going to put a bit of an explanation summaryish thing here.
This takes place starting April/May 1976, the end of the gang's sixth year. Lily despises James and Sirius, but is good friends with Remus. Nothing major has happened so far in the school year; a few adorable innuendos from James, a handful of pranks and much more than a reasonable amount of homework for the students. This story is set on a few things characters have said throughout the series. Most importantly, Harry was told that his father had saved Snape's life. It was also explained that this was Sirius' fault, who told Snape to go to the Whomping Willow where he would see Remus' transformation. This led to a fight between the Marauders, one substantial enough for every one included to never forget about it. Remus also mentioned that Harry's mother was there for him in a time that no one else was. This all seemed to be interlocked to me, and that's where the idea for this story came from.
So- on with the show!
A young girl skidded to a halt. "Dot! Dot, did you hear the news?" she cried, barely able to contain her excitement.
"No! What is it?" squealed an equally excited Dot. Her spoon clattered to the bottom of her empty bowl of oatmeal.
"The Marauders! They're…"
Dot's gaze traveled down her companion's outstretched finger across the room the to the Gryffindor table. Her eyes immediately found the infamous marauder seats. Those four spots directly in the middle of the long wooden table had been marked as their own since their first day at Hogwarts.
They sat in those same four seats dutifully every day, and refused to place themselves anywhere else. On this particular day, however, the earth stopped revolving, manticores decided to become diplomats and the Fat Lady outside the entrance to the Gryffindor common room whipped out her sheet music.
Why had all this happened?
The seats were empty. Bare. Desolate. Abandoned.
Dot gasped and clutched at her heart. "Sweet son of Merlin, Flo! What happened?"
"Not a soul knows," Flo replied eagerly, slipping down onto the bench. "I've interrogated the entire school and the juiciest thing I've got is that James' fish died."
"He did love that fish," Dot nodded reasonably.
Flo wrinkled her nose. "Of course that's not it. It was something… something big. I can feel it! I've got a sense for these things, you know. My great aunt's cousin by marriage's girlfriend's brother's godfather's third cousin twice removed was a Seer, you know."
Dot's eyes widened in envy. "Ooh, you are so lucky..."
Flo tossed her hair over her shoulder. "I know. But on to more… pressing matters… Look! See, right there! James Potter! No, no Dot, over on the end! Poor thing… just look at him!
Both girls indeed did look at him. He appeared uncharacteristically defeated. His muscular yet lanky frame was hunched over the table. His head fell into his hands, tufts of unruly raven colored hair protruded between his fingers. His round glasses lay abandoned on the wood in front of him. His deep hazel eyes were closed on his handsome, spectacleless face.
He was alone, surrounded by none of his friends. There was nothing around him, save for an empty plate pushed to the other side of the table. This boy was very different from the James Potter most of the Hogwarts population fawned over. Gone was the cheerful, cocky, mischievous James, and in his place was a boy of quiet sadness and rage.
Dot's hand now flew to her mouth. This never happened! And there was simply no way that this was all another one of their pranks, she reasoned; James Potter would never be able to pull that off without seriously meaning it.
Dot and Flo kept watching the boy with worried interest as peter Pettigrew trudged up to him.
The short, stout boy placed a pudgy hand on James' shoulder, muttering something the girls could not distinguish. His watery blue eyes gazed at the back of his friend's head as he murmured something lifelessly in reply. Peter Pettigrew nodded sadly and left James alone once more.
Like James, Peter also had a similar conquered look about him. His grimy blond hair was dirty and unbrushed. Dark uniform robes hung listless and wrinkled off his shoulders while his head drooped onto his chest on his journey out of the hall.
Something was definitely amiss.
Flo could just feel it!
Lily Evans stared at the same unusual James Potter, a little further down the table from her. She listed to her best friend with half a mind.
"I mean, look at him!" Gemma said. "Too bad he's so depressed; he looks marvelous when he smiles. Doesn't he?"
Lily "mhmmed' absentmindedly.
"I wonder what's got him like that… he doesn't care about marks, so it couldn't have been a T on that potions essay… an I know his goldfish died, but that certainly isn't an acceptable reason to get him this upset." She paused for a moment and stuffed a spoonful of scrambled egg into her mouth. She made a gagging sound as she swallowed, her eyes wide.
"Oh my god, Gemma! Are you okay?" Lily asked frantically.
"I've got it!" she hissed excitedly. after she gulped down the food. "Remus' mother is sick again, he's probably gone to help her. Sirius probably went with him, I can't see him anywhere. And James, oh, poor bloke… he's lonely, in desperate need of female company!"
"No," Lily said forcefully. "I'm quite sure he isn't."
Gemma rolled her eyes. "You are uncaring, unsociable and mean. He's not a leper, you know."
"I know he's not," the red-head replied as she gathered her books and stood. "Lepers are more appealing."
"You're insane," came Gemma's reply as the girls left the hall.
The room became silent as James Potter entered. The knot of his tie hung low on his chest and he hadn't bothered to button his shirt fully. His leather bag hung over his shoulder as he sat down without a word, his movements lacking their usual gusto.
Lily looked at him for a moment. There was definitely something wrong, she agreed. He was never this quiet, or this tolerable, in her opinion. She almost felt… bad for him! She shook her head. No. Lily Evan could not feel sympathy towards James Potter. Whatever happened to get him this upset, he did something to deserve it.
She smirked as she saw the state of his shirt and tie. McGonagall wouldn't appreciate that.
Peter Pettigrew slid into the empty seat beside James, the one that usually was occupied by Sirius Black. Neither boy said a word to each other and started resolutely down at their textbooks.
Lily's attention snapped up to McGonagall as she swept into the classroom.
"Now as you know," she began, "we've been working on transfiguring muggle objects into those of magical qualities. Today you and a partner will transfigure a record player into a broomstick. Points will be taken off if it sings, or if it makes noise when you sit on it. It must still fly and if I find that anyone cannot stop singing by the end of this lesson, you will not be sent to the hospital wing until after dinner."
Lily glared at her sugar quill. It was bad enough that McGonagall had assigned them a nearly impossible task in Lily's mind, but she hadn't said anything to Potter! She now turned her glower onto Satan himself, a perfect Rocket 87 sitting on the table he and Peter shared. She rolled her eyes at them and turned back to Gemma. "Let's get started."
The rest of the lesson went by uneventfully. Lily and Gemma had managed to get a Mars 6 put of their record player, and it flew fairly well. Satisfied, Lily began to gather her books and leave the room with the rest of the class.
"I think we could've done better," Gemma said. "I mean, a Comet 200 would've gotten us extra marks. That's the newest model."
"Oh, flobberworm!" Lily's bag ripped apart, a dozen heavy textbooks fell to the floor with a clatter. She hastily bent down and started to gather them. Gemma squatted down and piled a few into her arms.
"I'll bring these to Muggle Studies. Drop some of those off in the dorms, will you?" she called back over her shoulder as she left the room.
Lily muttered a spell to repair her bag and began to pile her books into it. She couldn't help but overhear what McGonagall was saying.
"If there's anything I can do, Mister Potter, do not hesitate to ask."
"Thank you, Professor. I'm sure I'll be able to handle the situation on my own."
Without looking up, Lily knew the second voice belonged to James. He sounded exactly as he appeared: tired, worn and upset.
"I've no doubt that you are quite able, Potter, but it never hurts to ask for help. Anything you need, come to me."
Lily tentatively poked her head up over her desk in the back of the room.
James didn't meet McGonagall's gaze. "I'll keep that in mind. Thank you."
As he turned to leave, Lily quickly turned her attention back to her books. After he'd left the room without noticing her, she heaved her bag onto her shoulder and took off for Gryffindor Tower.
The common room was empty as she bounded up the stairs two at a time to her room. She threw her books onto her bed and sped back down the stairs, a considerably lighter bag in her arms. She paused at the bottom of the girls staircase to put her hair up, when she noticed another occupant of the common room.
"Remus?" she asked, hurrying over to him.
He raised his sandy blond head from his hands. "Yeah?" he replied weakly.
"Merlin, Remus, are you alright?" Lily asked as she sat down beside him, putting comforting hand on his shoulder.
His face was covered in scratches, many large and deep. Nasty bruises were forming on his forearms, which were also surrounded by scarlet scrapes. He wasn't in uniform, but clad in a simply white t-shirt and bellbottomed jeans.
"I'm fine," he told her with a stony face. His eyes betrayed no emotion, but Lily was sure he was lying.
"Come on, Remus, you can talk to me." She urged, dropping her bag to the ground. "You can trust me; I'd never tell anyone anything if you didn't want me to."
Remus picked up his head to look at her. He swallowed hard and nodded slowly.
"Last night… well, it was… full moon, it was a full moon." He stopped. Lily looked up at him and smiled comfortingly. She'd known Remus was a werewolf since her fourth year, when he'd come into the hospital wing early one morning when she had the flu.
"Well anyway," he started again, only to pause once more. "I can't, Lily, I'm sorry. I know you, you'd get angry and I can't have any more people finding out about… about what I am."
"I promise I won't say anything, Remus."
"You have class."
"I don't care."
"Lunch is soon."
"You're more important."
"The cut under my shirt where your hand is might be infected."
Lily didn't move her hand. "You're more important," she repeated.
He hesitated. "Dumbledore is going to revoke your status as a prefect."
"Let him."
"You're not going to give up, are you?" He asked her, a weak smile on his face.
"Never." She turned his head to look at her. "You're my friend, Remus, no matter what you are, no matter what people will think, never mind your friends, never mind class, never mind infections and never mind Dumbledore. "
He looked back down at his hands.
"I'm never giving up on you," she told him forcefully.
"I can't-"
"You can," she urged. "It's obvious there's something wrong, here, the whole school sees it. And it's obvious you need to talk someone. I'm right here, Remus."
He stayed silent for a long time. Lily sat next to him, refusing to leave until he spoke to her. Stupid boys, she thought, and they say that girls are stubborn!
"Alright," he said quietly. "It was last night… Sirius…" an angry glare passed over his face. "Sirius did something stupid. Really stupid."
That's no shock, Lily thought.
"He…. He nearly killed Severus Snape. And now he kn-knows about me and," his voice caught in his throat, "…and he's threatening to tell."
Lily's eyes widened, first in shock before anger and sympathy took over. "My God, Remus… is he…"
"Okay? Yeah." He gave a humorless laugh. "I didn't hurt him. James got to him before that."
"James?" the name felt foreign in her mouth. "James saved him?"
"Yeah, James saved him," the boy replied sarcastically. "He probably knew about it before. Probably planned the whole damn thing with Black before. It was a prank. All a prank. It was just a stupid prank that nearly got a boy killed! I hate them. This is all for their pathetic amusement! They don't see the consequences in things that they do, ever! They wanted fun, they wanted to be heroes; but what they didn't realize was that they were putting someone's life in danger. My god, imagine if I got to him? I… I can't even…" He shook his head. "And now, because of their prank, letters will by flying through every window with parents screaming that they don't want their children going to school with a werewolf, that I'm too dangerous, that it's not safe. It bloody isn't, is it? I… I was accepted here. Dumbledore let me come even though I was well, what I am. I tried so hard, so hard to keep it a secret from everyone. But they figured it out, and my god, it was wonderful. I had three friends who didn't care. They did things for me I never even imagined. And now… bloody hell, Lily."
Lily lunged at Remus and engulfed him in a tight hug, her tear stained face burrowed into his shoulder. It was several moments before he wrapped his wounded arms around her in return. Lily slowly pulled back after a few minutes.
"I won't let you leave," she informed him. "I'll be right here with you through seventh year and graduation. You're going to stay here and I won't allow anything else."
He smiled. "Thank you, Lily."
She smiled back. "I suppose you don't want to come to class, right?"
Remus shook his head. "No. But you need to get back."
"I told you, Remus," she slid her hand into his, "I'm not going anywhere."
A/N: So did you guys like it? I know this is completely different from anything I've ever written before, but the idea just came to me and I began to write it. I fully intend to regularly update it, and I already have ideas of where I want the story to go, something I was lacking in all my other stories. As long as you guys review positively, I'll continue. Definitely.
Let me just clarify that Lily and Remus are in no way romantically involved. This was a really hard time in Remus' life, and Lily was trying to comfort her friend. Remus may have seemed a little out of character, but I wanted to break him away form the normal reserved Remus, because, as I said, this was a really hard time and, to me, a turning point in many of the characters lives.
So, the end! Please review and tell me what you think. The good, the bad, the happy, the sad, whatever! Just please don't flame, I don't think it's respectful or very nice. If you hate it that much, you don't have to hurt someone's feelings to let that fact be known.