Finally reaching her destination, her mind busy mulling over what she had read earlier she walked into the classroom. Someone walked straight into her.
"Oof!"
"Sorry," Remus said apologetically, backing up.
"No problem," Lily replied with a smile, she glanced round the room and frowned, "I thought this was supposed to be an office."
"Me too," he replied looking confused too, "Sirius asked me to pick up his essay on the way back from the library. He said it would be here."
"Saffron asked me to do the same," Lily replied.
Something seemed to dawn on Remus and he sighed, "did Saffron seem… a little odd when she asked you to get her essay?"
"Odd?" Lily frowned as she thought about it, "well, she'd just received an owl-"
"-Was is small and silver?" Remus interrupted.
"Yes actually, how did you know?"
"It's Sirius's," he replied shaking his head, "honestly, when I get my hands on him." He made a wringing motion in front of him with his hands.
"I don't understand," Lily said, perching on the edge of the table by the door.
"That's because you're too innocent. When you've been around Sirius and the Potters as long as I have, then you soon get to know how their minds work."
"Scary," replied Lily grinning, "I'm not entirely sure I'd like to know how Sirius's mind works."
"I don't love it myself," he replied with a smile.
"So why did they make us come here?" Lily asked.
"Ermm," he coloured and rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably, "I have a fair idea."
"Which is?" Lily probed.
"Sirius is always concocting weird schemes to meet girls he's interested in," he said, not answering her question. "I'm surprised it isn't him who's here instead of me."
Lily was beginning to get a funny feeling somewhere in the region of her stomach, "Me and Sirius?" she laughed, "no, I don't think that would ever happen."
"Most girls love him," Remus replied carefully, "him or James."
"I suppose I can see what they see in them. But neither of them are really my type."
"Oh right. I thought you might fancy James."
"No," she replied rather too quickly. He caught her eye and she dropped her eyes to the floor, blushing.
"What about someone else?" he asked awkwardly .
"Well, erm, there is someone," she said, feeling the heat in her cheeks increase as she met his eye. "What about you?"
He looked at her for a moment, gathering his courage. "You Lily, I like you," he replied, his words rushing out quickly and he looked at the floor, cheeks pink.
"Oh," it was Lily's turn to blush. She scuffed her shoes on the table leg. There was an awkward silence.
"I mean, we all thought that James fancied you, but he insisted he didn't and so…err…" he looked up and caught her eye, "I guess what I'm trying to say, really badly, is… will you go out with me?"
Lily turned a little pinker as she nodded.
"You will?"
She laughed, "yeah."
Remus grinned happily, "I really wasn't sure you would. Most girls prefer Sirius, even James to me."
She reached out hesitantly and took his hand, "Yeah you said, but looks aren't everything," she told him as he came and sat next to her. "I prefer a man with intellect." She smiled and he grinned back.
"Just wait 'til I tell Sirius that!"
They laughed.
"Although, you seem to have the best of both worlds," he said, a little nervously, "I'm surprised you haven't got a stream of men lining up to be your boyfriend."
Lily smiled shyly and shook her head, "only you."
He smiled, "Their loss." He looked at her for a long moment then slowly leant towards her.
She closed her eyes and felt his lips brush gently against hers. It was warm and sweet, exactly as a first kiss ought to be, but there were no fireworks. She kissed him back, wrapping a hand round his neck. His hand went round to hold her back, holding her gently to him.
"Mr Lupin, Miss Evans!"
They looked up startled to see Professor McGonagall frowning at them. Both turned a vivid shade of pink and got to their feet.
"I think you'll both find that it's time for you both to be back in your common rooms," one of her eyebrows arched as she spoke and her mouth twitched at the corner.
"Yes professor," they mumbled.
"Move along then," she told them, walking back off down the corridor.
Remus grinned, "I'll see you later."
She nodded and leant forward to kiss him lightly.
The moment she stepped inside the common room, Saffron came running over, grinning uncontrollably, "Well?"
"I have no idea what you mean," Lily replied in a lofty tone, deciding to tease her friend, "I went to get your essay but no-one was there so I came back."
"No-one?" Saffron raised an eyebrow, "and I suppose seeing as you took such a long time that you got lost on the way back."
"I went to the library actually," Lily replied.
"Oh really?" Saffron replied, entirely unconvinced. "your lipstick's smudged."
Lily wiped a thumb at the side of her mouth before stopping, she wasn't wearing any lipstick. Saffron burst out laughing, Lily tried hard not to grin.
"You're such a bad liar!" she said between laughs.
"What's going on?" asked Meg, coming over, Amy just behind her.
"Our Lily's found herself a boyfriend!" Saffron told her. Lily scowled at her and crossed her arms.
"Really? Who?" Meg asked eagerly.
"Is it Remus?" Amy asked.
"How did you know?" Lily asked in surprise.
"I work with him sometimes in Herbology and he's always talking about you," she replied grinning.
"I take it from your reaction to my comment that you kissed him," Saffron said with an evil grin. Lily glared at her, blushing furiously. "Ask the right questions and Lily's an open book."
Lily sighed, "You'll always be my friend Saffron, you know me too well."
***
The next month or so was really nice; having Rowena's assurance, Lily could put out of her mind for once the weight of all she was expected to be and just be a seventeen year old witch. She went to classes, did her homework and met up with Remus to wander round the castle.
Winter faded to spring and the first flowers blossomed in the grounds, leaving their winters rest. Students no longer complained at having to walk down to the greenhouses and Hagrid's hut and the temperature in Potions lessons became bearable. Lily was also growing into her power, learning how to use it instead of her wand, and how to avoid this being noticed. She quickly began to adapt to this and soon found that half of her classes became noticeable easier: Charms, Transfiguration and Defence against the Dark Arts. This meant she could spend more time on her other weaker subjects: Potions, Ancient Runes and History of Magic.
Before long spring was in full bloom and nature all around the castle began to come to life. One particularly warm day she and Saffron walked out to sit out on the grass in the shade of a blossoming tree. They even wore their summer robes, which were shorter, just reaching knee length. It was a Saturday, and they were in the middle of finishing a Charms essay. They lay side by side on their stomachs, the sound birdsong and the scratching of their quills on parchment around them. Both were so absorbed in their work that they didn't hear the four boys approaching them from behind.
Sirius let out a shout and they both jumped, scoring a long ink line across the page.
"You idiot!" Saffron cried, turning to glare at him.
Without thinking, Lily clicked her fingers and removed the mistake from both parchments.
"No harm done," she said, smiling at Remus as he came and sat beside her, "And we do have to humour the mentally retarded amongst us." Saffron grinned at her, temper vanishing.
"Hey!" protested Sirius, "I'll have you know I do six NEWTS!"
"So do the rest of us!" retorted Saffron.
"Except me," Peter put in embarrassedly.
"One less class you have to share with Sirius," Lily said in a comforting sort of way. She had always felt sorry for Peter; he was always so overshadowed by the other three. And it couldn't be easy to be reminded of your intellectual inferiority every day by the fact you went to one less lesson than your other friends. She often thought that if she were Peter, she would be just itching for an opportunity to prove herself. To show that she wasn't just a second rate wizard.
"What are you doing?" Remus asked, interrupting her thoughts, while the others sat themselves down.
"Sorry," Lily said, shaking her head, "I was miles away. Umm, I'm just finishing off a Charms essay."
"But that's not due in until Thursday," Sirius pointed out, leaning over Saffron to read her work. She shoved him away with her hand.
"Write your own essay," she told him, covering her work with an arm.
"Best leave them be until they're done," James said from experience, "they'll be more talkative once they've finished."
The others took their advice and the two girls got back to their work. Remus lay on his back next to Lily watching the clouds go past over head. James was sat a short way in front of Lily, talking to Peter. Every now and then his eyes would drift to watch Lily as she worked. Sirius sat on Peter's other side, joining in the conversation every now and then, but taking much more enjoyment in tickling Saffron's leg with a long blade of grass.
With a final flourish, Lily finished her essay and rolled it up. She rolled over onto her side and looked at Remus, "Are you alright?" she asked, "you don't look very well."
"No, no, I'm fine," he assured her with a smile, "just a bit tired."
The marauders exchanged a meaningful look.
In a low voice Lily said, "Well, I suppose in that case I shouldn't bother asking."
"What?" he replied, turning his head to look at her.
"Well, sometimes I like to go for a walk at night outside. And seeing as tonight's a full moon there'll be more light and I was wondering if you wanted to go with me."
He sat up abruptly, the others turned their eyes to him questioningly.
"What?" Lily asked, sitting up too, "If you're too tired I understand, maybe some other time."
He shook his head and grasped her hands, speaking in a low and urgent tone, "I don't want you wandering round outside at night. It can be dangerous! Promise me you won't go out tonight?"
She frowned, "why? I'm perfectly capable of defending myself against anything out there!" She was now speaking loud enough for the others to hear. They looked away, pretending they couldn't hear. Only Saffron and James knew that what she said was true; the others thinking that it was only bravado.
"No you aren't," he argued, "you never know what's out there."
Lily pulled her hands out of his grip and folded her arms, narrowing her eyes, "I'm no damsel in distress, Remus. And I see no reason why I shouldn't continue doing something I've been doing for months without incident!"
"Months!" he exclaimed agitatedly, "Lily please!" he pleaded, "don't go out at the full moon!" he bit his tongue, realising what he had said. The others looked at him in surprise, even Saffron. James had told her about Remus' condition years ago, it was that which convinced her to help the other marauders to become animagi. She hadn't wanted to do it herself having read too many stories about transformations that had gone wrong. It was only her compassion for Remus that had helped her get over her worry for James.
Lily got up and looked at Remus, her face a mixture of annoyance and puzzlement. "I'll think about it," was all she could commit to as she walked away from them.
Saffron jumped up and ran after her, "Lily wait!"
"I'll go," Sirius said to the others astonishment. Seeing Remus' face he said, "Don't worry, I won't tell her." And he sprinted off after the two girls.
"Whatever possessed you to say that?" James asked Remus in surprise.
"I don't know," Remus replied, covering his face with his hands, "I was just so worried that we might run into her when we were out, you know?"
Peter nodded, "That'd be horrible!"
****
A/N: So sorry for the really long wait, I did give my sister a copy to upload for you guys but she lost the floppy and it's a 3hr train journey to get from mine to hers. Anyway, internet finally sorted at uni so there shouldn't be anymore huge delays fingers crossed.
Some ppl got the Remus/Lily hints but I was surprised not everyone did. Well, I hope that those who didn't guess it don't hate it, but if you do that's just tough cos I'm not changing it ^__^ (plus she ends up with James in the end, and once she's had a least one other relationship she'll be able to appreciate more what she's going to have with him.) But I'm glad some of you like the idea, because I think that it is fairly likely the two of them did give it a go at some point.
Quietona, since you wrote me such a long review I'll have a go at answering some of your questions:
'A question about Rowena, is she still alive or something like that?' –not really, not like the other ppl are.
There's a new Huntress every thousand years, so does that mean that the Huntress lives for a thousand years? But that couldn't be possible because Lily only lives to be about 'twenty six or twenty seven, a far cry from a thousand years.' – no they live a normalish life span, like any human, a new one is born about that often.
'When is she going to get the bow from the museum? And how is she going to get it?'- the perfectly honest answer to that is I don't know yet. I'm several chapters ahead but I don't see her getting it any time soon. What comes in the next few chapters is charac development, and relationships etc, plus a ball, the next proper bit of huntress action is going to be in the summer holidays, but time should start to go a little quicker every so often. But there are some unexpected developments coming up so stay tuned as they say. Just thought I owed you ppl a bit of a clue for what's in store for our lily seeing as this chap was so long in coming.
Well, thanks for sticking with me guys and I hope you liked this chapter.
xxx