Author's note: CW for disgusting every flavor bean consumption, emetophobia; also the girls are wearing jumpsuits, it's difficult sometimes describing clothes from the viewpoint of someone who doesn't know!

-x-

"Boogers. But… not only boogers, something else. Hmm… maybe… salted boogers?"

It was Saturday night and the Marauders were in their dorm, sitting in a circle with the newest thing from Bertie Bott's. It was a box full of beans and there wasn't any label on the back saying what was what; instead it came with a piece of paper with pictures of the beans on them and you could peel the pictures back to reveal the name. The point of this box was to guess the flavors. There were fifteen 'classic' flavors, fifteen 'altered classic' flavors, and twenty 'new' flavors.

It was just after Magical Theory, which had been really interesting. Chang talked at great length about wands, their cores, their wood, and what wands meant to their owners. There was a big thing about how certain woods and cores meant certain things—like when Remus got his wand and Ollivander told him it meant he'd do great and selfless things. Chang sat on the teacher's desk, going over what the woods and cores meant, getting input from the younger students about whether it was true or not. Remus voted that it wasn't true, though he was in the minority; to his surprise Sirius agreed it was, indeed, true.

"Ebony," Sirius said after class when Remus asked about his wand.

"I know you have ebony, I can't remember what it's supposed to mean," Remus muttered, keeping a brisk pace because he didn't want to be alone with Sirius right now.

Sirius got his wand out and twirled it between his fingers. "It means I am an individual. I don't let people dictate how I should be." Remus rolled his eyes. "What? It's true, innit?"

"Yes. It is very true."

Sirius squinted one eye. "You believe in tarot cards, why not this?" Remus only shrugged in response, not sure why other than his own experience. "Plus the core is a Hippogriff feather. In a wand that means—"

"Wild and unpredictable," Remus said. "I did remember that."

"What's your wand, then?"

"Doesn't matter."

Sirius had harassed him all the way back to the dorms until Remus gave in and told him. Sirius laughed, tousling Remus's hair, telling him that seemed to suit him.

"It does not fit me at all," Remus hissed out as the Fat Lady swung open. "I won't ever go on to on do—on… to do… great and selfless things."

Sirius reached over and flicked Remus's forehead rather painfully. "Stubborn arse, you are great and selfless already. Too much, you need to be more selfish."

Before Remus could argue, James ran over to tell them that his new Bertie Bott's beans had come in. Ten minutes later, James was chewing on a greenish bean, trying to figure out what it tasted like.

"Salted boogers," he said with a nod. "That's my final guess."

Peter held up the sheet. "Want me to look?"

"Noooo! Not yet, one of you try one and give it a guess."

"I'm not eating salted boogers," Sirius complained.

Remus sighed and reached out, taking a bean that matched James's. He sniffed it before tentatively putting it in his mouth, chewing down. "Urrrghhh!" He spit it out in a paper cup next to him, put there for that reason. "Salted boogers," he agreed.

Peter peeled the bean back. "Salted boogers!" he said, waving the sheet. "Both of you got it right! Ew, salted boogers, gross!"

James pushed a brown bean towards Peter. "You try one."

"Brown?" Peter picked it up, horror etched on his face. "Why the hell did you give me brown?"

"It's chocolate," Sirius said with a wicked grin.

"Is not! Probably—it's probably gonna be poop or something."

"Salted shit," James giggled.

Peter gagged and threw the bean at him. "No way, you try it then!"

"No, it's your turn!"

Sirius grabbed a matching brown one. "I'll try it, coward." He popped it in his mouth and began chewing, the others watching with curiosity. "Chocolate," he said.

Peter took the brown bean back and happily bit into it before spitting it out in his lap. "YUCK! THAT IS NOT CHOCOLATE YOU WANKER!" he screamed while Sirius fell back, shrieking with laughter. "Ugh what was that?!"

Sirius spit the remains of his bean in his cup. "I dunno, it tasted awful, that's all I can say."

James snatched the sheet and checked. "Roasted toenails," he said.

Peter threw a pillow at Sirius. "I hate you."

"I didn't tell you to eat it, dummy."

"You said it was chocolate!"

Sirius smiled angelically. "Yes, but I still didn't say you should eat it. That's on you."

After a few seconds of silence, Sirius asked who was going next, so Remus reached out to take a bean. His hand hovered the assortment of 'sweets', trying to decide which color looked best. Any of them could be disgusting, though; so far it was two of two being gross.

Finally he chose a red one, hoping it was just cherry or something. He stuck it in his mouth, biting down nervously before happily chewing. "Strawberries," he said after swallowing. "Sugared strawberries."

"Yep!" James said, checking the paper. "All right, Pete, you need to do one."

He wrinkled his nose up as he peered carefully at the beans. "Any day now," Sirius said and Peter flipped him off before picking up a very pale beige-y sort of bean.

After chewing it for a moment he finally said, "I think it's… like… really milky tea? I mean really milky. Too much. But not really. I mean, it's kinda bitter? In a weird way? I don't know what kind of tea it is, but it's milky."

It was Remus's turn to check the sheet. "Milk coffee," he said. "Half right."

"How can you get tea and coffee mixed up?" James asked.

"I've never had coffee before!" Peter retorted. "I thought it was a weird sort of tea."

"Time for vomit!" Sirius exclaimed, picking one up that was orange and brown mottled. "Here, Jimsy."

"No way!"

"Eat it!"

"No! You eat the vomit." Sirius tackled James and stuffed the bean in his mouth. James struggled against it, and started to gag until he caught the taste of the bean. "Ooooh! Not vomit at all, it's chocolate orange."

Just as Remus was peeling the orange-and-brown bean off the sheet to see what it was, he heard strange footsteps out in the hall. They were definitely approaching the dorm, so he was the only one who didn't jump when someone knocked at the door. He could hear hushed giggling on the other side so he knew whoever it was, they were girls.

"Chocolate orange," Remus confirmed as Peter went to get the door.

The giggles stopped when the door swung open to reveal Lily, Cassie, and Alice. Cassie and Alice were half-hiding behind Lily, both of them peering around her to look in the dorm. All three were in matching outfits; all three wore what looked sort've like overalls only made out of a dark green soft fabric, and the top part looked more like a sleeveless vest. Lily had a cream blouse on under hers, Cassie a yellow one, and Alice an earthy brown one.

"Ew, it's so messy!" Cassie exclaimed.

Peter opened and closed his mouth, trembling a bit at the sight of three girls right there, even if they were friends. Finally, he let out a faint squeak, turning towards the others. James and Sirius were getting up, Sirius immediately smoothing his hair down and putting a really seductive smile on his face at Cassie.

"What do you want?" James demanded, folding his arms, glaring at Lily.

Lily shifted from foot to foot before turning to Cassie. "You ask, he's your boyfriend."

"He's not my boyfriend!" Cassie argued.

"Besides, he probably wouldn't do it without James anyway," Alice whispered, pushing her glasses up. "So you need to ask him."

"Why me?" Lily demanded but Alice gave her a push forward. "UGH!" She turned back to the boys, stepping carefully around the clothes strewn all over the floor. "Potter. Oh Christ, I cannot believe I'm saying this." She pinched the bridge of her nose. "Potter… I need you."

James goggled at her in complete shock. Actually all four boys were in complete shock. Remus slowly got up, wondering what was going on. Did he really hear Lily say she needed James? Was this a dream? Or some sort of… prank?

"Pardon?" James managed to get out.

"Don't make me say it again," Lily hissed out while Cassie shut the door.

"Oh. Oh no, I have to hear it again," he said.

Lily looked at the other two girls who waved their hands in a 'go on' sort of gesture. "Augh! Potter, I need you!"

After he gave a scoffing sort of surprised sound, a slow smirk curled along his lips and he cocked his head to one side. "Come again?"

"Oh, bugger off! I've said it twice!" she snapped.

"That isn't a nice way to talk to someone you need," he said, clearly enjoying this.

"Cassie!" Lily wailed, backing up and grabbing Cassie's arm, swinging her towards Sirius. "I can't do it!"

Cassie stumbled forward, and would have smacked into Sirius if he didn't catch her. For a second they merely gazed into one another's eyes before he let go. Cassie gave a nervous giggle, taking a step back. She began winding a coil of hair around her finger. "Sirius, could you please help us?"

"Please," James groaned, making gagging sounds.

"With what?" Sirius asked, puffing up a bit.

Cassie fluttered her eyelashes at him. "We want to go to the concert next Saturday."

"Er…" Sirius ran his fingers through his hair. "I'd love to help, Cassie, but I'm not going. My parents would never."

"I know." She looked up at him in what was probably supposed to be a sexy manner. Remus tried not to roll his eyes or gag like James did earlier. "Buuuuuut you—" here she gave his chest a gentle tap with her finger, "—have snuck in plenty of times. So you know how to get to Hogsmeade, right? From here?"

"You want to sneak into Hogsmeade for the concert?" James blurted out, staring in disbelief at Lily. "You? Miss Goodie-Two-Shoes?!"

"Nobody could go last year but this year students can and it's not fair!" Lily said. "I think there should be a—a chaperoned event or something, with a teacher. Or Prefects or the Head Boy or Girl!"

"You can go if you're chaperoned," James pointed out smugly.

"Only with our parents or guardians," Alice said glumly. "And none of our parents can be there. Please? We really want to go."

"Pleeease?" Cassie breathed at Sirius, clasping her hands under her breasts, subtly pushing them up. "You're so brilliant at sneaking out, aren't you?"

Sirius puffed up even more, somehow, and Remus wondered what would happen if he stuck a needle in him. Would he pop like a balloon? He snickered slightly at the thought. "Weeeeellll—"

"No," James said, yanking Sirius back.

"I was asking Sirius, not you," Cassie pointed out.

"They're my secret passages too, and I say no," James said, his focus completely on Lily, not even sparing a glance towards the other girls. Remus knew if it was just Cassie and Alice asking, James would probably agree.

"They're not yours!" Lily argued. "They're the schools!"

"Then you go through one," James spat out.

Lily frowned. "I—I don't know where any of them are."

"Well, if they belong to the school —"

"Oh, shut up, Potter! I knew this was a waste of time!" Lily complained as Alice put a hand on her shoulder. "He's such a prig! Forget it, we'll ask someone else!"

James spread his arms out. "Who else knows about them? Not many, and even fewer who would bother with some third years. It's as you said. You—Lily Evans—need me."

Lily clenched her teeth before turning towards Remus who shrank back a little. "Remus, you must know about them—"

James quickly stepped between them, waggling his finger. "Uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh, he's part of our group and if I say no, it's a no from all of us."

She folded her arms. "You can't speak for them, they're their own people! You're not Remus's boss, though I imagine you probably think yourself so."

"This is pointless," Alice grumbled. "It was a good try, though."

"Aw, come on, Sirius, please?" Cassie tried again.

James finally looked at the other two before going back to Lily. "I never said we wouldn't—"

"Yes you did," Peter said, then, "Oomph!" as James elbowed him in the gut.

"I never said we wouldn't, only that it's not right for you to go through Sirius when we both discovered the passages, and—and it's a decision we have to agree on. Lads, c'mere." He tugged the Marauders away from the girls, putting an arm across Peter's shoulder and an arm across Sirius's in a sort of huddle. "Okay," he whispered. "I changed my mind, I think we should take them to the concert but I don't want them to know that it's that easy so just shake and nod your heads like we're having a proper discussion."

Sirius and Peter obediently began shaking and nodding their heads while Remus groaned. "Why are you being like this?" he asked.

"I want to draw it out, make her squirm a bit, make her see she needs me for this," James snickered. "Torture her."

"She already said she did," Remus sighed.

"Decision reached!" James said loudly, pulling away from the huddle.

Lily looked very unamused. "You do realize we could hear every word."

"No you couldn't."

"You said you already made a decision, and Remus said—"

"Okay!" James clapped his hands. "We reached a decision and yes, we'll help you out on one condition."

Lily blew a curl away from her face. "Actually, you never once mentioned a condition to them. Potter, we could hear you, we're five feet away from you."

James scowled at her. "D'you want to hear the condition or not?"

"Fine."

"We will take you if you, Evans, wear a shirt to the Gryffindor game coming up with my name and number on it."

Lily stared aghast at him while James smirked. "Ew! I am not wearing your name!"

"Annnnd carry a sign that says," he spread his hands out, smiling blissfully at the air, imagining the words spread out before him, "'James Potter Is The Greatest'."

"Merlin, no!"

"No jacket or jumper to cover it either," James added. "Everyone needs to see how much you," he pointed at her with both fingers, "support me." With that he pulled his fingers back and pointed at himself with his thumbs.

Lily turned to her friends, obviously wanting backup. "It's only one game," Alice murmured. "A few hours supporting James during Quidditch in exchange for seeing the Hufflepuffskeins live?"

"It's not a bad deal if you ask me," Cassie said. "He could have asked for much worse. Like a kiss."

"EW!" James screamed, nearly falling over. "DON'T YOU DARE PUT THAT DISGUSTING IMAGE IN MY HEAD! What are you trying to do, destroy my soul?"

"Cassie, if you ever say anything like that again I will kill you," Lily threatened, face beet red while James staggered around making retching noises.

"You—you can borrow my shirt," Remus offered and everyone looked at him. "That way it's not something you have to—to keep or get rid of after. Though it might not fit… it fit me last year…" He hadn't grown much but the t-shirt was getting a little small on him as of summer when he tried it on, and Lily was taller than him.

"You can borrow mine," Sirius said, sauntering over to the wardrobe he and Remus shared. He flung clothes out (Alice squealing with disgust as a pair of socks nearly hit her in the face) until he found it. "Here." He tossed the shirt to Lily.

"This smells like stale sweat," she complained, holding it between two fingers away from her.

Sirius shrugged. "So wash it."

Lily wrinkled her nose, lips turned down in a repulsed sort of frown. "Oh, Christ, fine Potter. I'll wear this and carry that wretched sign for the first Gryffindor Quidditch game."

"HAH!" James pumped a fist victoriously in the air. "Yes!"

"Now, tell us where the passage is, please?"

"Eh?" He stopped doing his victory dance and adjusted his glasses. "What? No, we're not telling you where the passages are."

"But—"

"We're taking you," he continued, ignoring her. "Blindfolded, so you don't see where it is."

Lily's jaw hung open while Cassie glared and Alice frowned. "That isn't fair," Alice said.

"Oi, we worked hard to find these passages, you know," James said, thumping his chest. "Can't just give away all our secrets. No, we'll be going with you to the concert. Sirius and I were already planning on it anyway." Peter looked surprised but Remus didn't, as he had overheard the two of them discussing the possibility the other night. But he was surprised when James continued with, "So the four of us will be guiding you three to the passage blindfolded and once we're down the passage you can take the blindfolds off, and we'll all go into Hogsmeade to the concert."

"All? Four? Of? Us?" Remus asked, whipping his head around to look at James.

"Yes," James said firmly. "All. Four. Of. Us. You wanna go to the concert too, don't you?"

"No! I don't!"

Lily suddenly grabbed his arm. "Please, Remus? Don't leave me stuck with that thing! Please?"

He opened his mouth to argue, to insist he wouldn't be going, then he slowly shut his mouth. There was a strange quivery feeling inside of him, and not a pleasant one. More of a scared one. He knew Lily would never, ever, ever share That Secret… however didn't he owe her something? Actually he owed her a lot, he owed all his friends a lot, all the time. It seemed small but…

"Do you really want me there?" he asked, hoping his voice wasn't trembling too much. Lily nodded. "A—all right."

Lily gave a happy squeal and hugged him. "Thank you!" she said then lowered her voice, whispering very softly in his ear. "I don't mind Sirius or Peter so much, but without you there I might be tempted to run Potter through with a sharp stick."

"I can hear you," James grumbled.

"Want me to say it louder?" Lily offered.

"You really will help us?" Alice asked, changing the conversation away from James and Lily's mutual hatred of one another. She gave James a dazed sort of happy smile. "Really?"

"Yep!" James puffed up again. "As I said, I don't want to reveal all our secrets so you'll all need to be blindfolded part of the way but you're in safe hands, I promise."

"As long as you're not the one leading me," Lily said.

Cassie trailed her fingers down Sirius's sleeve. "I know I'm in safe hands with you."

This time Remus couldn't hold back a slight cough, which was a huge mistake because Lily gave him a curious look; he knew what she was thinking and he turned slightly away from her, everything inside of him twisting up into knots. All he could hear was her saying, it's Sirius, isn't it?

But before anything else happened there were more footsteps outside and Remus recognized these ones easily. The door opened and David and Spinnet came in, both of them stopping when they saw the girls.

"Oops, we better go," Cassie giggled then planted a kiss on Sirius's cheek. "Thank you." She grabbed Lily and Alice's arms, all three girls giggling goodbyes as they hurried out of the dorm.

Spinnet turned once the door swung shut, raising his eyebrows at them. "They're not supposed to be in here," he murmured but thankfully didn't argue more than that.

Because the other two were there, the Marauders couldn't really discuss what just happened so they took the box of beans and sat on James's bed, the curtains closed around them for some semblance of privacy. Once it got late enough they retired down to the nearly empty Common Room, finding a spot far enough from the older students. They still didn't talk about it until after one in the morning, when the other students finally went to bed. Less than a minute after they disappeared up their stairs, they began talking about what just happened, James, Sirius, and Peter chattering excitedly about the girls coming to them. Remus remained quiet for the most part, his head ducked low as he worked on an essay. Well, Peter's essay, circling misspelled words, wrong grammar, and other small issues, resisting the urge to write down better phrases and suggestions.

"Are we really gonna blindfold them?" Pete asked.

"Of course!" James protested. "We can't have them knowing the passage, then they could go whenever they wanted."

"Luckily, the mirror passage is a silent password," laughed Sirius as he kept sweeping his hair back into various updos—ponytails and buns—before letting his hair swing free. "Remus, what do you think?"

"About what? Blindfolding the girls, going to the concert, or your current hairstyle?"

Sirius let go of the partial bun, grinning. "All three."

"It's worrisome, it's worrisome, and it's fine."

"Eh?"

Remus sighed, sitting up straight, stretching his muscles. "It's worrisome to blindfold them, it's worrisome to go to the concert, and your hair is fine."

"Just fine?" Sirius asked, voice falling.

"Gorgeous," Remus amended, knowing what he wanted. "Beautiful. Perfect."

"Thank you."

Remus hunched back over Peter's essay, returning to his volunteer work, not planning on saying anything else until James demanded to know why it was worrisome. Sirius joked that it was Remus, so everything was worrisome and he looked up, brushing his fringe back. "You know I don't like or approve of sneaking out of school."

"You've done so before," James pointed out.

"Yeah, you got drunk," giggled Peter before yelping as Remus threw a quill at him.

"Irregardless of all of that," Remus said, probably a bit too loudly as he fetched another quill from his bag, "there are going to be Prefects at the concert, more than likely. Even if there aren't, there will be other students who know we aren't there with guardians."

"We can say my parents brought me," James suggested. "And we invited the girls. Besides, you already promised Evans you'd go."

Remus sniffled. "I did, and I will. I'm just saying it's worrisome. A bad idea. However, I won't do anything to stop it." He did make a mental note to remember to bring his earplugs. He'd try to stay as far from the stage and crowd as he could without being too suspicious, but he knew it wouldn't be far enough. Hopefully the earplugs would be enough.

-X-

On Sunday, Professor Charlemagne was back. He was at lunch and looked rather tired, though kept a smile on his face as he talked to Professor Sprout. Remus wondered vaguely if he knew what Bagby had said about him, and hoped he didn't know. At least he looked okay; whatever had happened wasn't anything too extreme.

After lunch James and Sirius went to visit Hagrid, stating they had promised the groundskeeper they would. Peter and Remus went to the library so Remus could help Peter prepare for an upcoming test in History. Which did not go too well. Peter kept moaning and dropping his head against the table, complaining he was too stupid. Remus grew agitated, stating that Peter was not stupid.

"Just because it's difficult for you to memorize dates and battles doesn't make you stupid." He gave Peter a fierce glare. "You are very smart when it comes to other things."

Peter ran his fingertip across the table. "It doesn't feel like enough."

"You're smart," Remus said again, gently. "The problem that I've seen is that you panic too easily."

"That's rich, coming from you."

Remus kicked him under the table; even though he kept the kick light, Peter still yelped in pain. "That's a good point though. I panic when it comes to some things, while you panic when it comes time to remember information for exams. When you have the information at hand, you are very good at magic. Like Potions."

"I s'pose so."

Remus got a wicked, evil idea. "I know so. Like the potion you three are making for a prank. Aren't you the one who tends it most often?"

Peter nodded, not suspecting anything which made Remus feel slightly bad. "Yeah, I mean—me an' James made it together but I'm the one, er, tending it."

"It's taking a long time, so it must be a complicated potion…"

"Oh! It is, it's not something we'd even learn in—" He stopped, clamping a hand over his mouth while Remus mentally swore. "Shit! Forget I said anything."

Remus tilted his head. "You didn't say anything though." So it wasn't something school would teach. Because it was a nasty pranking potion? Or because of its difficulty? "See? You're doing very well with that complicated, difficult potion, aren't you? It must take talent to even prepare it. What sort of ingredients are even involved?"

"Yeeees," he drew out slowly, letting his hand drop. "Except you're wheedling at me, Remus!"

Blast.

"I shan't tell you anything, until they're ready to tell you," he continued.

Remus apologized for fishing for answers before returning to the task at hand. They worked for another half an hour before Peter decided it was enough (or rather, too much) so they gathered their things and left the library. Halfway down the corridor someone stepped out of a shadowed nook, blocking their way. Both Gryffindors froze at the sight of Snape staring at Remus.

"We need to talk," he said, ignoring Peter completely.

Remus began to respond with a why? Or a what do you want? Then he closed his mouth, narrowing his eyes a little. "N-no," he said and tried to sidestep Snape.

Snape moved to stay in front of him. "It's important."

"Go away," Peter said rather faintly.

Snape shot him a disgusted look. "This has nothing to do with you, Pokey."

Remus straightened up, a flash of anger coursing through his veins. "You w-want to t-talk, but then you go and insult my—my friend? Brilliant. Come on, Peter."

Snape's fingers closed around Remus's wrist, causing him to jump. His skin crawled at the feel of Snape touching him. "It's important," he said again. "It's about Lily."

He hesitated. "Like wh-when you t-told someone that Aegis needed to t-t-talk to me and then jumped me, b-breaking my hand?"

"What?!" Peter half-shrieked.

Snape pressed his lips thin. "No, it—that—I—look." He let go of Remus and took his wand out of his pocket. Remus instinctively went for his own wand however Snape simply tucked his wand deep into his satchel, closing and buttoning it. "There. I can't get to it without it being obvious."

Remus's hand was still in his pocket, holding the end of his wand. He looked at Peter who looked furious. "He broke your hand?" Peter demanded. "When? You never told us!"

"It's—it's f-fine, it was a long time ago.," Remus eyed Snape curiously. What was so important about Lily? He had a sneaking suspicion it was the hand-holding gossip that had gone around the school, but wouldn't he have attacked Remus sooner for that? Remus turned to Peter. "If anyth-thing happens to me, you know I'm with Snape and c-can tell a teacher he's the one who h-hurt me."

"I'm not going to hurt you," Snape grumbled.

"I don't think you should go with him," Peter said.

Snape was already walking down another corridor, shooting Remus a look over his shoulder. "I'll be right back," he said, touching Peter's sleeve before following Snape. He did pull his wand out, though, holding it close in preparation for an attack. Snape led him into a nearby storage room—thankfully one big enough that they weren't right near one another.

"Shut the door," Snape said.

Remus did so, frowning. "Peter knows you're the one t-talking to me so—"

"Yes, yes." Snape waved his hand dismissively. "This is about Lily. While you and I dislike one another, we can agree that Lily is something we both wish to protect, right?"

Remus chewed his lip. "Something?"

Snape stared at him for several long seconds before, "Someone."

He shuffled a bit and reluctantly said. "Yes…"

"I know you fancy her—"

"What? No I don't!"

"—so I knew you'd be willing to help," Snape continued, ignoring Remus's protests. "She can't go to the party with Struthers."

Remus blinked now. That was what this was about? Lily's date with David? "Are you j-j-jealous?" he stammered out, trying not to laugh.

"No!" Snape held his head high. "Unlike you I do not fancy her, she is my—my friend."

"I don't fancy her either, Snape; we're friends," Remus growled.

Snape snorted. "I'm not stupid. Anyway, we need to do something to… prevent this."

"No."

"I was think—what?"

Remus shrugged. "I'm not helping y-you ruin Lily's date with D-David." He made sure to put emphasis on date, knowing it would annoy the Slytherin.

A flash of fury went through Snape's black eyes. "You must be joking. Aren't you angry about it?"

"No. D-David's nice, I think th-they'd be happy," Remus said as casually as he can, still trying not to laugh at what this was about. Then he couldn't resist rubbing Snape's big nose in it. "Actually, Lily asked m-me to the party, before David." He enjoyed Snape's shocked expression. "I said no."

"Wh…" Snape stepped back, obviously shaken up by this. "You're lying." He shrugged again and turned towards the door to leave. "Wait. Fine, even if you don't fancy her, you still should want to prevent this from happening!"

"Why?"

"Because it would be a disaster for Lily," Snape said, hands curling into fists.

Remus glanced at the door then turned back to face Snape, too curious. "Why?"

Snape didn't say anything for a few long seconds. Finally he rubbed his palms off on his trousers, averting his gaze. "I thought you'd think it was a disaster."

"I would assume you'd revel in something that might cause me pain, not try to help—"

"It wasn't to help you, Loopy!" Snape cried out, sounding frustrated. "It's to help her! I would assume you would want to help her, but I can see you don't care about her."

There was a surge of emotion in Remus—a mix of fear and fury. Even though the fear was completely unfounded; he knew David was nice, it wouldn't be a disaster at all for Lily… well, as far as he knew. "Did David say something? To make you th-think it will be a disaster?"

"No, it's obvious!" Snape tried to pace but didn't have much room. "I should have known you wouldn't want to help. People like you are all the same."

"What, Gryffindors?" Remus spat out, unable to stop himself. "Like Lily? Or a half-and-half… like you?" Snape looked beyond livid and his hand darted to where he normally kept his wand. "It's in your s-satchel—"

"I KNOW WHERE IT IS!" Unable to easily hex Remus, Snape decided instead to kick him rather hard in the shin. Remus tried to jump out of the way but… again, there wasn't much room, and the toe of Snape's boot clipped against Remus's calf. It wasn't too bad, but still hurt enough to warrant a slight yelp of pain. "You're nothing but an idiotic pile of disease!" Snape shoved past Remus, leaving the storage room.

Remus leaned back, lifting his leg to rub the spot where he had been kicked which was already healed. What in Merlin's name was that? He reached to open the door but before he could the door opened on its own. No, not on his own; it was Peter.

"Snivellus ran past me, what happened?"

"He was…" Remus tugged at his sleeve, trying to figure out the best thing to say. "He was being weird about Lily."

"Did he hurt you?"

"No," Remus lied.

Peter folded his arms. "Like he didn't break your hand?"

Remus sighed, brushing past Peter to leave the storage room. "It doesn't matter—"

"When did he break your hand?"

"It's not—"

Peter grabbed him, spinning him around. "If you tell me it's not a big deal I'm going to smack you." Remus flinched a little at that, not from the threat of violence but from the fact it was coming from sweet Peter. "Did Snape break your hand before?" Remus licked his lips, wishing he hadn't said that. He hadn't thought about the fact nobody knew about the incident. "Well?"

"Yes," he finally admitted; Peter's eyes narrowed. "It happened a long time ago, and my hand healed, and you are not to tell anyone about this. Not even James or Sirius, do you understand?"

"Remus—"

"Please? It won't do anyone good for them to know."

Peter groaned a little. "You're really stubborn, you know that, right?"

That seemed to end the conversation for now and it wasn't until much later that Remus realized Peter hadn't promised not to tell.