AUTHOR NOTE: What a stupendously awful day. Finishing this while recovering from a problem was the only good thing. Would be nice to hear how you liked it. Thanks for reading. DDD

Monday began with a double period of seventh year Care of Magical Creatures. The morning was cold but bright, everyone blowing clouds of warm vapour as they trudged toward the forest.

"Lads, wait up," James Potter called out, hurrying down the hill to catch his friends.

A cheer went up when they saw him.

"Here he is," Remus announced as he approached. "Are you going to be able to survive without her for two whole hours, James?"

"Doubtful," he said, smiling anyway, slowing to their pace.

"Here we all were, thinking you'd still be in hiding today," Sirius said. "Especially when you didn't turn up for breakfast."

James cleared his throat, smirking. "Yeah, busy morning at home."

They were yelling again, jostling him, Peter pretending to punch him in the stomach. "So married life then, it's…?"

"Quiet, Pete," James said. "But yeah, I have no complaints. None at all. None ever again for the rest of my life. It's amazing. Inexplicable, really - "

"Alright, then," Sirius laughed. "We believe you. And we're happy for you, mate."

"Do I look different?" James joked. "Isn't that what people always ask? I get it. I feel different."

"How about Remus?" Peter asked. "Does he look different too?"

Remus's face was instantly red. "Shut it, Pete."

James was sputtering, grabbing at Remus's arm, stumbling along beside him. "Why would he - what did you do, Remus? Who? I'm gone for forty-eight hours and - "

"Never mind it right now," Remus said, watching something over his shoulder, desperately shushing James.

Sirius laughed at them, hard, holding onto Peter as if he'd fall over otherwise. "Stars, it serves you right, Lupin."

"Tell me," James was insisting, gripping Remus by the front of his cloak. "In one weekend you went from zero to - "

"Just a kiss," Remus said in a shouted whisper, pushing himself free of James's hold.

"Stars, Remus! With who? Not with Padfoot's cousin."

Sirius and Peter were laughing again.

James gasped. "No, it wouldn't be - not when she's still officially with - "

"Later, James," Remus said.

Mercifully, Grubbly-Plank was beginning her lesson. "Right. For today, our mer-folk have generously provided for us these Lobalugs. They've had a bumper crop this year, don't know why, and fear they may have been seeded in the lake for," she eyed Narcissa Black, who was arriving last of all, "for nefarious purposes by cunning malcontents."

Remus clenched his fist inside the sleeve of his cloak. Narcissa might not have been the only thing bringing Malfoy around the school this year.

"As advanced students like yourselves will doubtless know by now," she went on, only slightly sarcastically, "the Lobalug is a very simple aquatic creature. Little more than a rubbery bulb for squirting a powerful, potentially deadly venom. A lazy creation, if I do say so," she paused to chuckle to herself.

"Our task for today is to remove the venom glands from these animals before they're dispersed into the sea. Their venom is an ingredient in several weaponized potions and these creatures must be de-venomized in order to control its supply. In other words," she paused again, no chuckle at all, "this is much more than a lesson today, my lads and lasses. This is an act in the service of the peace and stability of your country. Now McKinnon, come assist me while I demonstrate."

The de-venomizing process looked easy but harrowing. "If you make contact with the venom on any part of your body," Grubbly-Plank warned, "see me immediately for the antidote. Now partner up and get to work."

Remus's chest swelled with a deep breath as Narcissa sauntered through the crowd, coming to stand beside him at the long work table, over a large glass fishbowl where a Lobalug lay suspended beneath the water's surface like a limp, swamped yellow balloon.

She glanced up at him. "Good morning, Lupin."

"Hello, Black," he said, struggling to sound casual as he opened the vial of aquatic stunning anesthetic potion.

They had seen each other since everything changed for them on Saturday night in the empty Divination classroom, but they hadn't spoken, and certainly hadn't touched. Yesterday had been Valentine's Day, of all things, and they independently decided to give each other some space. Narcissa had done quite enough chasing that weekend, and Remus - he was so used to caution he could hardly do anything else. By the end of the day, they had exchanged nothing but a few blush inducing glances across the dining hall.

"Did you get caught up on your studies yesterday?" She asked as if making breezy conversation, watching his back as he bent to measure the anesthetic into a flask, thinking how she'd like to climb onto that lean, long back and have him carry her around for the rest of the day, her arms looping his neck, legs hooked around his waist, face nestled into his shoulder.

"Yes, it was most productive," he fibbed. He'd spent yesterday sitting in front of his books, running his eyes over the same passages without remembering what they said, distracted by reliving one particular shadowy half-hour over and over again.

"I started that research we talked about," she said. "About bonds and contracts."

For a moment, he was puzzled. "Contracts?" He said, straightening up.

"Yes, family contracts. You remember," she said, taking the flask from him and using her wand to distill it, drop by drop, into the Lobalug's bowl.

And he did remember. She had said she would look into betrothal law. As they waited for the stun to take effect, she was twisting her hair into a bun at the top of her head, looking up at him from beneath her pale eyebrows. That familiar pricking in his fingertips returned, the urge to grab her, to fold himself around her torso while she held her arms above her head.

But he kept still, concentrating hard on listening as she explained. "Most of the laws are antiquated, and if recent case law is anything to go on, they wouldn't hold up in a modern courtroom." She dropped her arms. "By now, they're traditional more than they are legal. Though the social consequences of breaking them are real. The shunning and disinheriting. It's a good thing most daughters of old families have - "

"Ladies and gentlemen, what are you doing?" Grubbly-Plank was standing at the head of the table, frowning deeply, her hands planted on her hips. Everyone had been waiting for their Lobalugs to fall asleep, and as they did, many of the partnerships had draped their arms around each other, leaning their heads together, whispering and giggling. "My word," Grubbly-Plank scolded. "Valentine's was yesterday. In this class, you will maintain a professional working stance at all times."

The cuddly student pairs were properly jarred by her words, unhanding each other and stepping apart, confused and muttering apologies.

"What was that all about?" Sirius asked. Whatever had come over everyone, it had not inspired him and James to start cuddling. Though he had looked over at Marlene and noticed she was looking prettier than usual this morning.

"I don't know," James answered, staring out over the tops of the trees, toward the castle. "But I'm missing Lily terribly all of a sudden."

Sirius craned his neck to check on Peter. There he was, looking physically sick, holding himself up on the edge of the table as Alice held out her wrist, showing him the fine silver bracelet Frank had given her as a Valentine's gift.

"Remus," Sirius called, beckoning him over to their side of the table.

"What?" he said as he arrived.

Sirius spoke into his ear. "Did you feel strange at all just now? Before Grubbly-Plank spoke up. Like - like you could do with a good snog all of a sudden?"

Remus glanced at Narcissa. "No more so than usual," he said.

Sirius hummed. "Something funny is happening here this morning. I'm not sure, but I suspect there might be some kind of love magic at work. Maybe to throw us off de-venomizing these monsters the Death Eaters planted."

"You think so?" James said. "I might have felt something a minute ago. But it was for my own wife, thank the stars. And it seems to have passed now."

Sirius stood quietly for a moment, as if checking himself. "Oi, Marlene," he called.

She turned around, openly annoyed at being interrupted. "What is it?"

While she was still looking her usual lovely self, Sirius's drive to take her in his arms had abated. "Nothing," he said, waving her away. "Yeah, alright. Back to work I guess."

Remus left them, walking back to Narcissa. The Lobalugs were drowsy now, floating instead of swimming. The students were getting into their gloves, preparing to handle the deadly venomous creatures. Remus took his place beside Narcissa. Her hair was still tied up, but a strand of it had fallen along her long bare neck. The mark he'd left on her skin had indeed been healed, and as he tucked the stray hair behind her ear, he dared to swipe one finger along the place on her unbruised white skin where the mark would have been if she hadn't treated it.

The caress was subtle. No one but a blinking, pink-cheeked Narcissa seemed to notice, especially when, right beside Remus, a pair of Hufflepuffs tumbled to the ground, snogging the daylights out of each other.

It was happening all over, pairs of students clasping hands, stroking one another's faces, and looking longingly into each other's eyes. Peter crawled under the table to get away from Alice's ardent babble, thanking him for teaching Frank chess. He was a natural, truly brilliant at it, a delight to watch…

"Sirius," James groaned. "I miss Lily so much right now I think I might cry."

It was a good thing he said something, bringing Sirius back to himself when he was about to leap over the table to fall on the suddenly unfathomably gorgeous Marlene.

Instead, Sirius tore his gaze away from her to find Remus, standing composed but confused next to Narcissa. "Remus, over here," he called through gritted teeth. "Now. Hurry!"

Alarmed, Remus threaded through the couples Grubbly-Plank was ordering to behave themselves, making his way back to Sirius. As he came, people let go of each other, backing away, embarrassed again.

"Are you seeing this?" Sirius asked James.

James wiped his eyes and put his glasses back on. "Yeah. You're right, Rus. There's love magic, but it's not the Death Eaters doing it. It's coming and going depending on how close Remus is to - "

"To the Veela," Sirius finished.

"What about her?" Remus said, his voice rising.

"Easy, mate," Sirius said, pulling him aside. "We just couldn't help noticing the change in Narcissa today."

Remus frowned. "What change? She's as she always is."

James tried. "Alright, but don't you think she's exuding a bit of a love magic this morning?"

"Yes, as she always is," Remus said, frustrated, his voice rising again.

Sirius was understanding. "Always for you, maybe. But now it's affecting more than just you. Look at these people. I reckon you must have made some magical change in her when you, uh, you know," Sirius said. "Or maybe it was Moony. Creature magic."

"Moony is me."

"Whatever you say," Sirius allowed. "All I'm saying is that since you snogged Narcissa the other night, her Veela nature is now in full bloom. And her liking you is making everyone here like everyone else here far too much."

Remus scoffed. "You think this pandemonium is our doing?"

"It's hard to argue with it," James said. "Look around. Now that you're over here with us again, everyone just looks mortified with themselves. No more inappropriate snuggling."

"But if I go back - "

"No!" James and Sirius shouted at once, grabbing at his cloak.

"No, no going back," Sirius said. "I don't know what to do about this in the long term, but for the rest of class today, to save us all from being squirted with venom, I'll be the one to partner with my cousin."

"At least let me explain it to her - "

"No!" the lads said again, loud enough this time for Grubbly-Plank to frown in their direction.

"Not until there's no more venom on the table," Sirius said as he backed away, leaving Remus with James.

The rest of class was uneventful. The Black cousins worked together in efficient, if testy near-silence, Alice regained the ability to speak of things other than Frank, and James and Remus settled into interrogating one another.

"So Narcissa Black," James said as he gingerly clamped the drowsy Lobalug into place.

"She started it," Remus grinned as he raised his wand over the creature.

"Yeah? How far did it go?"

"Not nearly as far as you went that same night."

James smirked. "I should hope not."

Remus set his wand on the table, digging into the Logalub with a silver probe. "So you're alright then? You and Lily? No problems?"

James sighed, only a little sadly. "The first one hurt her. Everyone expects that. But you always hope it will be different for you, especially when everyone's crowing at you about how you're soulmates."

Remus hummed. "Maybe that's only right. Maybe soulmates need to understand the painful potential of love more than anyone," he said. "Since it may not be as obvious to you as it is to other people. Isn't that what your mum said? That most of the trouble in your life will come from everything else but Lily?"

"I hope so," James answered. "But I'm suffering for her right now, hating to think of her up there in double Divination class with Snape."

Remus straightened up, pinching their successfully extracted Logalub venom gland with a pair of tweezers. He tipped it into a vial and screwed on the lid.

James bent over the Logalub to mend the wound left from the gland removal. "Not that Lily's angry about him sending her parents over to the wedding at the last minute. He did us a favour, really. It's better they know from the beginning."

"But the Evanses aren't the only ones Snape told," Remus said. "He ran and told You-know-who as well."

"Who?"

Remus leaned in close. "Riddle. Tom Riddle."

James huffed. "What's he going to do about it?"

Remus shrugged. "Nothing good. And he wants you to know that he knows. He sent Malfoy here on Saturday to gloat about finding out."

James shook his head and dropped a hand on Remus's shoulder. "Malfoy's still coming and going freely from the school, is he? Please be careful, mate."

Remus nodded. "You as well."

James threw both his arms over Lily's shoulders, around her neck as he rushed up behind her in the dungeon corridor to the potions lab. He didn't say a word before burying his face in her hair and breathing in her scent like it was oxygen he'd been deprived of for too long.

She laughed and turned to kiss his cheek. "Hello, my darling. How was Creatures class?"

"Deranged," he said. "There was a Veela there charming people into snogging each other. Making me miss you even worse than I normally would have."

Lily frowned. "They can only do that when they're in love themselves. Grubbly-Plank brought a romantically active Veela to school?"

"No, Remus did."

"Remus? James, what are you talking about?"

He gave a low laugh against her throat. "It's hard to explain. We'd better skip potions and go upstairs and sort it out."

She scoffed. "I am not falling for that. And I'm not skipping potions. It would break Slughorn's heart."

James moved to hold her from the side instead of from behind. "Who cares?"

"I do," she said, arranging his arm around her shoulders the way she liked it best. "Especially after we couldn't invite him to the - you know. The poor dear."

He nibbled at her ear. "You do like deer."

"James Potter," she said, "do you have news on Remus and a Veela or not?"

He hushed her and whispered the developments between Remus and Narcissa in her ear. Like everyone, she was concerned about the arranged fiance, that dangerous Malfoy.

"She's got to leave Remus alone or break up with Malfoy. She simply cannot have them both," Lily said. "And I'll be happy to explain that to her if she doesn't understand it."

"She doesn't want both," James assured her. "At least, that's what Remus says. She's looking into throwing Malfoy over."

"Looking into it," Lily scoffed. "She's going to force the two of them into a duel."

James shrugged. "As long as they duel during a full moon, I think Remus's chances are spectacular."

"It's not funny," she said. "Remus is clever, and good, and self-disciplined. I can't imagine why he's going along with it."

"Don't be too disappointed in him," James said, pushing the door open in front of them. "He and Narcissa will both be in potions with us. Maybe you'll get a sense of her influence, what the poor bloke is up against."

Remus and Narcissa were already in the classroom when the Potters arrived, sitting at opposite corners of the room. Severus was Narcissa's partner, but they lacked their usual close, conniving posture. In fact, she looked tense and angry with him. So did Remus.

Sirius joined James and Lily as they stood in the doorway. "Great stars, the drama in here," he said, pushing past, to their usual table. Peter had quit potion in fifth year so it was just the three lads for this hour. Sirius sat next to Remus, sniffing at the air.

"What are we cooking in here today, love," James said, his chin on Lily's shoulder as she opened her textbook.

"Generic Skele-gro," she said. "See, aren't you glad we aren't skiving? A family that plays quidditch needs to know how to make their own Skele-gro."

James still wasn't convinced they wouldn't be making better use of their time upstairs alone in the tower, but he said, "I'll head to the supply cupboard."

"No you don't," she said. "You're not going into an enclosed space with a bunch of other people when there's an active Veela around."

"Why? All she does is make me desperately lonely for you," James said, taking her hands. "Honestly. People were snogging all over the place and I didn't even try anything with Sirius during Creatures class. Did I Rus?"

"No, he was nothing but a complete sap for you, Lily," Sirius said, not looking up from his textbook.

Lily cooed, leaning into James and holding his face, kissing him softly on the mouth.

Remus groaned and covered his face.

It snapped Lily out of her sweetness. "Now Remus, you're a dear friend of mine. And for your own well-being, I really think - "

"Not now, darling," James said. "We need to get the potion started. Off you go."

"Not you," Sirius said, pushing Remus back into his seat. "You stay here at a safe distance. I'll go to the cupboard."

The Skele-gro smelled awful - awful enough that it seemed like not even Veela pheromone could overpower it. Near the end of class, Sirius and Remus were short one ingot of alabaster, and since there had been no cuddling incidents, Sirius didn't object when Remus went to the supply cupboard to get it himself.

"Excuse me," Narcissa said, rising from their table and leaving Severus to do the final stirring himself. She slipped into the supply cupboard behind Remus and shut the door.

She was fast, darting across the small room and hugging Remus from behind almost before he knew she was there, her face between his shoulder blades, breathing him in.

"They should be safe from me while I'm shut in here," she said. "Fumes from this cupboard vent outside the castle. I hope that means magical as well as chemical residues."

Remus dropped his hand on top of where hers were linked together at his stomach. "So Sirius explained his theory to you?"

She scoffed. "Please. I don't need Sirius to explain being part Veela to me. If there's anything he wants to know, he can ask me."

Remus turned around, taking her in his arms. "They say your powers are stronger now, like they awakened when we... But frankly, I don't see the difference - "

She laughed and tipped her head against his chest. "You wouldn't. It's been like this for you from the start. That's why it's all your fault."

He laughed back at her. "Whose fault is it?"

As she looked up at him, her smile faltered. "It nearly broke my heart yesterday when you didn't come find me. I was in the library, not studying but reading about betrothal contracts all day, trying to make my way through it all to get to you. And you never came."

He sighed and pressed his face against her forehead. "We know it's not safe for me to be with you in places like the library, where people can see," he said. "I'm sorry. It wasn't because it wasn't breaking my heart too."

She leaned back, her eyes were wide, fixed on his mouth, her own lips parted. He felt a twitch in his face, a rush of anticipation. It had been too long, agonizing. He was going to kiss her again, now with the rest of the class just behind the door. As he bent toward her, he could hear her heart beat in his ears again. But he could also hear footsteps, fast and heavy, pounding toward the door. She was stretching toward him but he pushed himself away from her, turning around and standing as if looking at the alabaster ingots just in time for someone to crash through the door.

It was Sirius, sweating, his hair disheveled. "You've got to stop," he said, his breath laboured. "I told you."

Narcissa was arguing. "But we didn't - and the fumes are vented - "

"Not good enough," Sirius said. "Not by a long shot. Come on, Remus. We're on our way to the Hospital Wing. Snape has attacked James."

No sooner had Narcissa Black closed the door to the supply cupboard in the potions classroom than the room changed. Partners were standing closer, brushing hands, blinking shyly at their notebooks. The atmosphere was less headlong than it had been in Care of Magical Creatures class, but the feeling was the same.

The change struck Sirius like an alarm. He glanced around for Remus, then for Narcissa. "Oh no they don't," he said, his stir-stick clattering in the cauldron of the now ruined potion. He took off his gloves and headed for the cupboard.

Meanwhile, James's face took on a dreamy look, blinking slowly as he watched Lily stirring. She looked up from the potion, leaned forward and kissed him, but again, only sweetly. Through the door, the Veela magic was not so strong that it could cause her to breach Slughorn's limits.

Severus Snape, however, was standing much closer to the cupboard door. As Sirius strode toward it, Snape's gaze drifted up, away from the potion he had been diligently stirring, away from everything in his surroundings that usually restrained him.

Lily.

All at once, her name was in his head, as if a voice had whispered it into his ears - a cruel voice, taunting. It was a voice he knew and knew to hate: Potter's.

There Potter stood, on the far side of the room, standing next to Lily as she brewed their potion, like a dutiful little wife. Potter leaned on the table, his weight on his elbow, looking up at her, chattering some nonsense that was making her smile and - sickeningly - making her blush.

Two nights - they must have spent at least two nights together already, impervious to the schools' chastity charms, unbridled, with the blessing of the headmaster and their parents. Snape had steeled his mind against it, not letting it tear him apart. It had taken all of his considerable mental skill, and it was all for nothing now. He stood consumed with rage, disgusted at the undeniable reality that, by now, Potter would have seen all of her, touched all of her with his hands, his mouth, her most tender inner self violated with his contemptible, unworthy -

Someone cried out, a choked, wet sound. It was Potter himself, falling over the table, already soaked in his own blood.

Shocked, the class looked first to him and then to Snape. He looked down at himself as well, his arm still raised, wand drawn, the room resounding with the sound of his attack. What had he said?

Lily hadn't screamed but she was sobbing now as she spoke to James, pulling off her tie and wrapping it around his bleeding neck. "James - no. Don't talk, love. Don't - let me - Stars, someone help us! Please, there's more time than this. No. I know there's got to be more time."

As two big Ravenclaw beaters bore Potter away, up the stairs to the Hospital Wing, Slughorn was in Snape's face. "Sectumsempra," he was saying. "That was your incantation. What kind of spell was that? You tell me this instant, boy!"

Sirius and Remus bolted past him, out the door, Sirius's shoulder colliding with Snape's hard enough to knock him into Slughorn, who barely steadied him before he would have fallen on his face.

"Is there a counter-curse?" Slughorn demanded, holding Snape by the shoulders.

"I never meant to - "

"Is there a counter-curse?"

"Yes."

Slughorn spun him around, marching him toward the door. "You either cast that counter-curse for Potter, or you leave this school for life."