Chapter 16: Howl to the Falling Action

Disclaimer: I, Kira, do hereby disclaim Harry Potter, in accordance with JK Rowling and the other writers on this site who would kill me if I didn't. Thank you and have a great day.

Lily stopped completely after she told her boy that there was more. She suddenly realized that what was "more" was not all sunshine and daisies, and it wasn't completely avoidable, either. Even if she could come up with some great remake, she wouldn't be able to fill in this blank. This blank that tied everything together.

"So much more," she said quietly again. She looked down at her anxious son, and continued, "And what was to come next was the topper."

…

Lily woke up to giggling girls. They hadn't stopped giggling since they had heard about her date with Amos, and then her "encounter" with James Potter. Encounter was the brilliant word Lily came up with to avoid talking about it. One night it severely angered Marlene into saying, "he sounds like an extra-terrestrial!"

But, you know… sometimes she wondered. Sometimes she wondered whether this creature, this James Potter, was real or not. One moment he was silly and stupid, and the next he was charming and sweet. She didn't know what to think, and the confusion bugged the hell out of her. She tried her best to avoid the subject at all costs, but some days it was harder than others…

Like days when the girls decided to gang up on her in her sleep and wait an inch away from her face until she woke up so they could play truth or dare and find out if Lily actually did kiss James like everyone was saying she did.

Nothing too specific, of course.

And it was this day in particular, because it was a Saturday and no one had classes, that they grabbed there pillows and plopped onto her bed.

"So…are you ready to talk about it yet?" Emmeline asked. She had been asking her that same question ever since the incident, and ever since the incident Lily had been saying "no comment." Today was no different. She gave Emmeline a dirty look and rolled over in bed so her face was buried in her pillow.

"Come on, Lily, it's just us," Marlene said. She was currently sitting on Lily's feet, but she didn't care, and she was too tired to yank her feet out from under the crazed Marlene.

"Lily, just tell us the truth," this time it was Alice. "And if you don't tell them at least tell me, I think I actually deserve an explanation."

Lily rolled back over and sat up in bed. There would be no sleeping-in on this Saturday.

"Don't you girls ever get tired of asking?" she inquired.

They all looked at each other, then turned back to Lily and said, "NO!"

"And we won't until you tell us the truth!" Emmeline whined.

"Or at least if he was any good," Marlene said with a flip of her hair.

"It's okay, we'll understand anything you want to tell us," Alice interjected with an encouraging hand on her hand.

Lily stopped, stunned. This was just too much for her. Then, faster than you can say "Potter has rock hard abs," she was out of the door and down the corridor.

She was going to go to breakfast and vent a little to the easiest person to complain to: Remus.

But there was a problem this morning. When she went to sit at her usual place at the table in the Great Hall she found that Remus wasn't there. She tried looking around to see if he had been misplaced, but sure enough, he was no where to be found. Things like this only happened when Remus got sick. She was worried, but she knew that Remus was used to it by now, so she decided to skip breakfast. She hadn't been hungry anyway, she just wanted to talk to her best friend.

She was about an inch from stepping over the threshold between the Great Hall and the world beyond when she heard a couple of voices she recognized just on the other side of the door.

"I don't see what the big deal is," one of the voices was saying. She was certain that the voice belonged to Peter Pettigrew. Lily wrinkled her eyebrows at what she heard. And she had to admit, she was curious.

She stopped to listen just as the second voice began, "yeah, I know, and now we have to pay for it! And here I thought James was my friend!" The voice was undeniably Sirius Black, but Lily wasn't thinking about his voice, she was thinking about his words. What had James done? James never did anything to Sirius. They were best friends and practically worshiped each other. But Sirius was still huffing when she came out of her thoughts.

"Yeah," Peter said weakly.

"It's just Snivellus, like anyone cares about him." Severus? What happened to him?

"Yeah," Peter said again, but a silence followed. She was about to give up on finding any information, but then Sirius broke the silence.

"Well, after breakfast we'll go visit Remus. Hopefully, he isn't too mad." And then more forcefully he added, "I mean, honestly, it's just another day in a hospital bed for him, he's used to it."

Lily's ears reddened. He was sick again. But this time he was in the hospital wing? She had never heard of him being in the hospital wing before for his illnesses. He would just sit in bed for a couple days.

Or did he?

Maybe this was some kind of conspiracy. Maybe Remus kept it a secret so she wouldn't worry. But why did the "crap for brains" twins get to know and she didn't?

Then, just like that, she was angry at Remus Lupin. And without even a thought about being caught listening in on other people's conversations she stormed out of the Great Hall passing Sirius and Peter on her way.

"Oh, hi Lily!" Peter said enthusiastically as she passed, but at the look on her face he suddenly changed his focus.

She marched, literally marched, all the way to the hospital wing. She was not going to let him get away with this. She was his friend too, and, by her opinion, a better one than the Marauder Mess-ups. She rolled her eyes heavily and continued to march all the way to the door. She found herself at the door to the infirmary, but without even a glance to see that no one was coming, she flung the doors open and stormed in.

Only one bed was occupied in the whole room, and it was at the far corner of the infirmary. There lay a boy with white linens pilled to his chin. When she entered, he drew them even closer.

"No one is supposed to be in here right now!" he said in a raspy voice, but it was still obviously Remus.

Lily, still in a rage, stormed up to him without heeding his words, but as she got closer her pace slowed.

As she got closer she saw clearly what had happened. Remus wasn't "sick to the stomach, puke a lot" sick or "green from a potion gone wrong" sick, or even "I didn't do my homework so I'm pretending to be sick" kind of sick. Remus was very very sick.

"What happened to you?" she asked as she drew closer and saw that what used to be Remus' face was ripped to shreds and his usually pale complexion was even more so. He was covered in a light sweat, as well, and his eyes that always seemed cheery were sad and tired, like a lost child, and yet something in his face terrified her.

"Lily?" he asked from within the blankets. He tried to cover his face, but Lily had already seen the damage.

"Remus, what happened to you?" she asked again with slight tears in her eyes.

"Now, Lily you were not supposed to see this," he offered in a nervous tone.

"Well, I have!" she yelled, despite the quiet of the room. "Now, tell me, what happened to you?"

Remus just looked at her for a few moments. Then, he let out a large puff of air, and looked to the ground. "Lily, haven't you ever wondered why I miss so many lessons?"

Lily looked at him questioningly. What did he mean? "Well, you are sick a lot," she said in a naive voice.

"Yes, Lily, but do you know why? Haven't you ever noticed a pattern?"

Lily paused for a moment, and then out of the blue broke into tears. "Please don't tell me it's sectumsempra! I couldn't stand to know they did this to you all the time, Remus!"

He looked at her questioningly and incredibly shocked. "Huh?" he said simply. When she didn't calm down he put out his hand, that was also covered in scratches, and placed it on hers. "Lily, think about the pattern."

She looked up at him perplexedly. What pattern? He just got sick. Now, it was very frequent. Maybe that was what he meant. "Well, it does happen a lot. But I don't remember it ever being like this," she said as she reached out to touch his face, but he drew away.

"Well, how could you know, Lily? Have you ever see me when I'm sick?" His face was calm, but impatient. But he was right; he would be gone for a couple days and Lily wouldn't see him until he was better again.

Remus must have seen her mind reeling, because he clenched onto her arm tighter and made her look at him. "Lily, you said it happens a lot."

"Yeah, very often, sometimes I worry about you, but Potter just says you are okay and that you are used to it." She sounded like a little baby, she knew this, but she couldn't change it when he was so dominating and impatient like this.

"About how often?" he asked.

"I don't know," she said, "maybe once every 5 weeks."

"Maybe every month?"

"Well, yeah, probably so…" Lily began, but in the middle of her response she finally understood. She took one moment to let it all sink in, but then the tears poured out of her like water from a faucet. She couldn't stop, even though she really wanted to, because Remus' face was so sad in that moment.

He was staring at the ground, waiting for her to finish crying, but there seemed to be no end in sight.

Eventually, she calmed down a little and Remus looked her in the eyes, "you don't hate me, do you?"

She stopped crying that instant, and looked at him significantly for a long time. "I could never hate you, Remus." She grabbed hold of his arm as she spoke, as well as control of her emotions. "You are my best friend, and nothing will ever change that."

And for the first time since she had arrived, Remus smiled.

…

"And that is how I found out that my best friend was a werewolf," Lily said as she leaned her head onto her hand that gracefully lounged on the crib bars. "Now, it seems like it is something that I've always known. Maybe I always did and just didnt want to admit it. Who knows? But one thing is for sure: it changed my life. Sometimes I feel better for it, but usually I just feel worse." Lily smiled weakly at her son, but his eyes were drifting. His legs weren't kicking as much, but his voice was still full of giggles.

The shadow, however, was incredibly...attentive.

A/N: Okay, so that is the next chapter. Sorry it took me so long to write. I could not figure out what I wanted to do with the story next. But I figure after this chapter you can at least hypothesize about where I'm going with it. If you don't know, don't worry, you will in the next chapter. It's going to be a long one, I've already started it and will probably have it done very soon. Hopefully, but I do have a lot of homework. lol. I won't tease you too much though. It will come soon. I'm thinking two or three more chapters. The last one will mostly be in the present, but I'm not sure how much yet, so I don't know how many chapters are left. Thanks everyone, again. You guys and galls are wonderful! Thanks so much and enjoy!