Immature - Friendship

Remus was never fond of children. Maybe it was because they didn't understand, or maybe it was because they had to learn everything that seemed so important to know. Whatever the case may be, he could not stand them.

Lilly Evans was amazed at finding that out - after being friends with people like Sirius Black and James Potter for 6 years he could still be twitchy around children.

She had always found Potter and Black to be childish in the wondrous 6-year-old way - wanting to touch the things they were told not to or doing something you said not to just because you said not to. They like to play in the mud and light things on fire and whine and get into trouble and Lilly - for the life of her - could not figure out why someone like Remus Lupin would want to be friends with those children.

Then, -something- happened.

No one was really sure what, but when three if the legendary Marauders entered the dining hall the next morning, something was... off. There was something in James's gate, something in Sirius eyes, something in Peters shoulders, that showed the entire school that something was off. The quiet during breakfast proved it. Not passing notes or muttering to each other in class proved it. The cold shoulder James was giving Sirius proved it. Sirius color and defeated motions proved it.

And mostly, the shape of Remus Lupin the next day eradicated any definition of norm that had surrounded theses boys since they met.

The shake in his pale hand, the light in his eyes, the...effort of it all made Lilly uneasy.

For weeks this went on - and it seamed that none of them talked. James and Sirius would sit in the common room on the couch and stare at the fire and not talk for hours. People were sleeping safe in their beds and waking up paranoid, thinking they would wake to find whipped cream all over their face. No dung bombs, no itching powder, no exploding pies.

Nothing.

For the most part, Sirius Black seemed to be falling apart. He looked paler and paler every day. Lilly could swear that he had stopped speaking all together. James seemed to be different as well -and if that was so, Peter was as well. James held his head a little higher, his shoulders a little straighter. Peter made eye contact and spoke his own opinion, and would leave his friends and go off and talk to other people. They all looked a little more pulled together by strings, and surprisingly, a little more grown up.

And then the day came when Sirius Black, ex-hear to the Black Family, dropped to his knees in the middle of the Gryffindor common room and beg for forgiveness from one Remus J. Lupin - with no hesitation and no shame and complete sincerity - did it make sense. And when Remus smiled in a knowing way and reach his hand down to help Black up did she get it. And when the next morning when the gossip about the events in the common room were at it's peek, and suddenly everyone's breakfast exploded into their respective faces - minus 4 Marauders who hadn't bothered to come down for breakfast - did she really Understand.

Remus was still very childish himself.