A/N: Well, this chapter is way longer than the previous one. Most of the next chapters are pretty long, but I am seriously considering to break a few of them in two. What do you think? Do you prefer longer or shorter chapters? Please let me know.

The Werewolf

Two days after receiving the letter, while Lily was preparing to go out with her broom to fly over the lake, someone knocked on the door.

"Lily, will you see who it is?" She heard her mother's voice from the basement.

Lily did as she was asked and opened the door to a tall, thin man with light brown hair and green eyes. He was dressed in little more than rags and had dark circles around his eyes, as if he hadn't had a single night of sleep in weeks. He carried a small leather briefcase which, Lily guessed, contained everything he owned.

The stranger looked down to Lily and his eyes, which at first had been full of darkness, sparkled with a light he hadn't seen in years.

"You must be Lily," the man bent down to have a proper look at her, "you look amazingly like your mother when she was your age."

Lily took a step back from the stranger.

"Who are you?" She asked nervously.

"My name," said the man kindly, "Is Remus Lupin. I am your godfather, although we never met before."

Lily felt her head bend a little bit to one side as she tried to understand that. Her mother had never told her about a godfather, and there was no way she had contacted the man when Lily was born, because she had been in hiding at the time. The invitation must have been recent.

"It's - ahn - it's nice to meet you, sir," it was the most she managed to say, offering her hand, which he shook and smiled. He didn't seem to know what to say either.

"Remus!" Violet's voice came from behind them, just after they heard steps coming from the stairs to the basement. Remus Lupin raised his head and the two adults stared at each other for a long time. Violet was the first to move, and she welcomed him with a long, tight hug. Lily watched as the stranger bent to fit in her mother's arms and closed his eyes, as if he was a child seeking safety under his blankets in the darkness of a room. His entire body had relaxed, and Lily recognized in the man the posture of someone who had been alone for a long, long time.

"I missed you," the man said.

"I missed you too."

Lily was asked to prepare one of the two spare rooms for the man and, while she did that, she heard her mother cooking something for the man which, for what Lily could smell, were eggs and bacon. Surprisingly, within the few minutes that took the girl to prepare the room and come back down, Lupin had already finished his meal. Only then it occurred to Lily that maybe the man was so thin because he had been through starvation.

"Well, now that you have eaten something, I will show you the house. Lily, why don't you go play outside while I show Remus his room and then we will have lunch so you can meet properly?" Lily nodded and took her broom outside.

Lily knew perfectly that her mother wanted to get her out of the house to talk to the stranger in private, and she weighed her odds of listening to the conversation without being noticed. Perhaps if she flew under the window? But instead she decided not to do this. A little voice inside her head told her not to, or she could find an inconvenient truth – and the little voice sounded a lot like Hector's –.

Of course she couldn't bring herself to do anything but think about what was going on inside. It had all happened so quickly that only when Lily was seventeen feet above the ground she started feeling the impact of the news. She had a godfather. A godfather that had known her mother from when she was Lily's age, which meant they had attended Hogwarts together, which meant that he also knew Sirius Black and could answer if he was Lily's father, if she dared to ask. But she dared not. Because when she first faced that man standing on the doorstep, she saw pain and loneliness, she saw longing, and she saw someone astonished by her mere existence, which meant that Remus Lupin had loved her mother and had one day woken up to a world in which she no longer existed. And perhaps Remus Lupin had also loved Sirius Black, and had witnessed him succumb into madness and betray their friends. Lily didn't want to make him relive those memories.

Lily sighed, analyzing her reflection as she floated a few inches above the surface of the lake. She did look exactly like her mother. She had gotten her mother's heart-shaped face; her almond-shaped eyes; her full lips; her freckles; her thick, curly, wilde red hair. The only thing that remained unexplained was the colour of her eyes, her smokey grey eyes that pierced her with questions which her own heart had already answered, but she wouldn't be satisfied until she heard her mother say it. And she wouldn't say it, because if it was true, it meant that Lily's father - the man Violet had loved - had been thrown in Azkaban for selling away her friends to Voldemort.

It felt like it had been an entire week of thinking when Lily went back inside, but she had only been out for a few hours. It was time for lunch, and the sun was high up in the sky. All three of them were sitting around the table, with plates of spaghetti in front of them. Remus was eating as if it could be his last meal in weeks. Lily only realized she was staring at him when she saw thin scars all across his face.

"I must thank you, Violet. I haven't eaten anything remotely close to a proper meal in months."

"Merlin!" Lily let slip, and looked up guiltily, but not her mother nor Remus scolded her. Instead, Remus had a gentle smile on his face.

"It hasn't been easy," he said.

As Lily opened her mouth to ask why, her mother interrupted her.

"Well, Lily, I suppose you are wondering why this man is here," said Violet. Lily nodded. Violet looked at Remus, signing him to speak.

"As I said before," Remus started, "I attended Hogwarts with your mother when we were young, although I was in Gryffindor and she was in Hufflepuff. After we graduated, we joined the resistance against You-Know-Who. When your mother fled, the war ended after a friend of ours betrayed the Order and accidentally led You-Know-Who to his fall." Lily realized that mother was pressing her lips together nervously. "Now your mother kindly invited me to stay with you for a while, because I am in a time of desperate need," he said, and then looked at Violet. "I need to tell her, Violet, because even though you agree to let me in, it doesn't mean that Lily has to expose herself too."

"Do as you wish," said Violet, leaning back on her chair.

"It was very kind of your mother to let me tell you personally. Lily, I am a werewolf. Do you know what it means?"

Lily denied with her head. She knew that it meant that Remus would periodically turn into an aggressive wolf, but she hadn't yet studied all the implications of it, especially since her D.A.D.A teacher had died after allowing Voldemort into his body.

"It means, Lily, that I have been bitten by a werewolf, and therefore I turn into a dangerous beast every full moon. I am here because your mother offered me not only a place to stay, but to brew wolfsbane potion for me. This potion - which is very expensive and I cannot afford because I am unemployed due to my condition - allows werewolves to transform and keep our human consciousness, but your mother has never brewed it before and it can go terribly wrong. Do you agree to have me in your house? If you say no, I will leave immediately."

"I don't want you to leave," said Lily right away. Remus' whole body relaxed. Why would she want that man to leave? Not only she was curious about him, but also his company seemed to make her mother happy, and that was something she had barely ever seen.

"I told you that she wouldn't ask you to leave."

"It was fair to ask," said Remus.

"It wasn't. You put yourself under other people's decisions."

"It's her house!"

"It's your life! You can't push people and places away because of your condition, Remus! If you do that, you will only be doing what the Ministry and the blood-purists want you to do. I can decide what is and isn't safe for my daughter, and you are not a danger for her."

Lily buried her face on her plate and kept eating during their discussion. She agreed with her mom - Remus had been invited -, but she also thought that it was fair to ask, because should he bite anyone under the full moon, Violet would have to double the wolfsbane potion for every month.

"Either way," Remus changed the directions of the conversation, "I am glad you invited me. I don't know how you intend to pay for the ingredients, but I still have some of the gold James left me before he died…"

"I have the ingredients in the front yard. Wolfsbane is a tricky herb to grow, but it's not impossible. I will start the brewing tomorrow, or it won't be ready in time. If you want to pay, do it by helping with the house."

Remus smiled. After that, they no longer talked about lycanthropy. The man mainly listened to Violet and Lily, and asked questions about them. Lily's godfather seemed to be highly interested in her, and asked about everything from her friends to her experiences in Hogwarts– which both amazed and horrified the man. "You-Know-Who at Hogwarts, right under Dumbledore's nose!" He had said.

Lily didn't go back outside on that day. She was just as interested in Remus Lupin as he was interested in her. Violet was smiling and laughing more than Lily had ever seen her mother smile and laugh in her life when, late at night, the three of them were having chocolate ice cream and playing Exploding Snap.

It was already past eleven when, yawning, Lily went up to bed. She had just laid her head on the pillow when she heard her mother's muffled voice say something that took away her sleepiness.

"Remus - about Sirius - please don't say those things to Lily. I don't believe he betrayed us."

"Then who would have done it? Sirius exploded a street full of muggles, Vi, and he exploded Peter along with them."

"I don't believe it. I saw Sirius on the previous night, he was devastated about James and Lily. Besides, he said Wormtail was the one to betray them."

"He was the keeper of the Fidelius Charm. He lied to you."

"He didn't, I can tell when he is lying."

"Vi, you didn't see his face. He went mad."

Lily now had her ear glued to the floor, listening carefully.

"I don't think so. I know him, Remus. I know he went through a lot, but he would never betray us."

"You knew him. You didn't see what he was like when you left. He was sad, distrustful of everyone, distant… he changed. I find it hard to tell what Sirius would and wouldn't have done."

"You know why I left," said Violet.

"I'm not blaming you. All I'm saying is that he was no longer the same man you met."

"Sirius Black would never betray Lily and James Potter. He would have died before handing one of us to You-Know-Who."

"You are blinded by love."

"Love doesn't blind, Remus, hatred and revenge do. You should know that better than anyone else."

Remus sighed.

Lily sat up and met her own reflection in the mirror hanging on the wall. She didn't look like him at all. Those eyes did not belong to Roger, and she knew that.

Had he known? Had he known that he had raised another man's child? Had he loved her less because of that? Did he wish Lily to be his? Had Sirius Black known that he had a daughter? Suddenly, Lily felt really, really lonely. She had a hole in her chest, which she could not fill.

But it only lasted for a moment.

She remembered Snape's words when she told him about the accident. "You need to live," he had said. And, after all, Lily was loved. Violet had left all her friends and family, abandoned magic and ashamed herself to protect Lily. Hector and Rachel loved Lily with all their hearts. Roger had loved Lily, whether or not he knew the truth, enough to die for her. Snape had protected and guided her through the entire previous year. That man, Remus Lupin, seemed to love her too, even though they had met on that very day.

She gave up on listening to the rest of the conversation. She grabbed some parchment and ink and silently composed another letter to Hector.

Hi,

It's nearly midnight and I can't sleep. I wish you were already here.

A man arrived here today, his name is Remus Lupin, and he is my godfather. It's funny, because I never knew I had a godfather. I think my mom asked him recently. Apparently he will be living with us for a while, because he needs a potion only my mom can brew for him. He has known my mother ever since their second year at Hogwarts. He knows Sirius Black.

I think he knows the truth. Sirius Black is my father, I'm almost sure of it. I don't know what I'm feeling, Hector. Is my father a traitor and murderer? I just heard them talking about it downstairs. My mom doesn't believe that, but she also refused to tell Snape the truth… maybe a part of her believes it.

Do you think he knew? Do you think he misses me? Do you think he is a monster? I don't know what to think. I wish my mom would just tell me everything.

This is all too weird. I just want you to be here soon.

Lily.

She tied the letter to Helga's leg as the owl squeaked angrily.

"I'm sorry, Helga. But I really need you to deliver this letter tonight. Please come back as soon as Hector answers." Helga softly beaked Lily's nose and hooted, but took flight with the letter tied to her leg.

It was a funny feeling to wake up the next morning. Somehow, Lily felt like she had gone to bed as one person and woken up as another. She hopefully looked outside, expecting to see the distinguished silhouette of Helga flying towards the window, but the owl had not yet returned.

Lily gathered the courage to leave the comfort of her sheets and go down, feeling as if her legs were about to betray her balance. She carefully went down the stairs to face the most odd scene.

Remus and her mother were asleep on the sofa, showing no signs that they had ever gotten up to their rooms. Their bodies were piled on each other in a seemingly uncomfortable way. Lily had fallen asleep with Hector like that when they arrived back from Hogwarts, and the girl understood that scene in front of her was the consequence of the many years that the two of them had been apart. She thought it was kind of sweet to see two adults sleeping like that, being just friends.

Careful not to make a sound, Lily tip-toed to the kitchen to prepare their breakfast. She thought it would be a nice thing to do, since she was the only one who was awake, and since her mother and Remus seemed to have gone to sleep late.

After all, the toasts were a little burned, there were a few tiny pieces of eggshells on the oversalted omelets and the coffee was a little too strong, but all three of them were sleepily enjoying their breakfast together.

"How long were you awake after I went to sleep?"

"I can't remember. I think… two in the morning?" Remus looked at Violet.

"I think that's a good guess," Violet massaged her temples. "Merlin - we shouldn't have stayed up so late! I still need to start the wolfsbane potion."

"Go. I'll clean the dishes and, uhm - what would you like to do today, Lily?" Asked Remus as he enchanted the dishes to wash itselves.

"Hm - I could show you around the lake."

"Will you bring me a few horned slugs?" Said Violet as she rubbed her eyes and went down to her lab. Her curly hair was even more tangled than Lily's used to get after waking up.

The sun was beginning to bring back heat when Remus and Lily went outside and put their shoes on.

"It would be faster if we could go by broom," said Lily.

"I don't mind walking," said the wizard.

They walked into the woods, hearing the song of birds, as Lily named most of them to Remus, who looked very interested. They had to stand quiet and still as they almost bumped into an angry moose mother before they collected two horned slugs near the lake.

"Well, this is it" said Lily as they stared out at the lake. Remus had sat down near the water.

"This is a beautiful place to live," he said, looking a bit tired.

"Is everything alright?"

"The full moon will arrive in a week. My body is getting a bit tired"

"Oh," Lily was surprised. Obviously being a werewolf meant that one had to be very aware of the moon cycle, but she had never thought about it.

"I hope the wolfsbane potion works, or you and your mother will be at great risk. Of course she could always lock me in the basement and enchant the doors and windows. But Violet would never treat me like the animal I become."

A question made its way into Lily's mind.

"Remus - what was it that my mother said about the Ministry and blood purists?"

"She meant that werewolves are treated as something between a beast and a being by the Ministry of Magic. We are not humans for them, or for the blood purists. We can never get permanent jobs, or have families. We are pushed away from society. There was a time when they wanted to catalog each one of us. Of course no one presented themself at the Ministry, because all of us knew what would happen after publicly admitting to being a werewolf."

"That is terrible."

"It is hard to find someone who thinks like that. Sometimes it's hard for me to think of myself as human."

Lily sat down by his side, unsure of what to say. They stared silently at the lake for a while.

"How did you and my mom become friends?"

Remus took a while to think, as if he was trying to fish back the memory from a deep and dark well.

"It is hard to set a date, or a specific occasion. I have known Violet since our first day at school. It would be hard not to spot her in a crowd with a hair like hers, especially when she was close to Lily Evans. They were always with Snape, your potions master."

"Were you friends with him too?"

"No, I don't think I could say that. Severus always had a thing for the dark arts, and he and James despised each other from the moment they first met in the train. I was put in Gryffindor with James Potter, Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew. Lily was a Gryffindor too. And Violet went to Hufflepuff."

"And Snape is a Slytherin," Lily muttered.

"Yes," said Remus. "James and Sirius were pranksters. Ever since the train, they wouldn't stop picking on Severus. I, of course, couldn't move against them, not after being locked in my house for all my life ever since I was bitten." He paused for a moment. "Violet never talked to any of us. I don't think she despised us like Lily and Severus did, but she was solidary to them. I had never talked to her until that Herbology class in third year to which James and Sirius didn't attend. After that, I found that Violet was a brilliant girl. She was amazing at both herbology and potions - I honestly think that if Violet hadn't fled, she would be the potions master at Hogwarts. From that day on, we studied together and had a few meaningful conversations. Then she became friends with my friends. Of course that meant a big fight with Severus and Lily."

"Snape hates them to this day. Your friends, I mean. Especially James Potter," said Lily.

"Of course. They did a lot of damage to each other. And having you and Harry there must not be easy for him. It must be a nightmare to face his past everyday. Seeing you, a perfect clone of your mother and bearing a name that, to him, must sound like a sick joke - it can't be easy. Not that it redeems him of anything."

It hurt Lily to think like that. In spite of everything, she did like Snape a lot.

"He regrets it, you know? Being a Death Eater," said Lily. She hated to think how much of a burden it was to Snape to see her impersonating every last bit of remorse he had.

"I damn hope so. I hope he regrets what he has done." Bitterness dripped from Remus' words. "What Severus did, took everything from a lot of people."

"I know." Lily gave up on that discussion. She understood perfectly why Remus hated Snape. To be honest, she thought Snape hated himself too. "How did my mom become friends with your friends? Didn't she, hm, dislike them?"

"It happened after she didn't go home for Christmas in our third year, and one of my friends was forced to stay at Hogwarts too. After that, they became very close."

"Was that person Sirius Black?" Lily asked, looking severely at Remus. Pierced by her eyes, the man stumbled upon his words.

"I - uhm - yes."

"He is my father, isn't he? She told you. That was why she was protecting him last night, wasn't it? She doesn't want me to know because he is in Azkaban, right?" The girl spat out the questions before she could control her tongue. She wasn't sure that it was the right time to know, she wasn't sure to be ready.

Remus went pale. He had been cornered.

"Yes."

With that single word, Lily felt like a nail had been hammered into her. She looked away from Remus, uncertain of what she was feeling and unsure of what should be her next question.

"Sirius is your father. I don't think it is fair to directly lie to you about that," he said. "I don't exactly know why your mother didn't want to tell you."

"Did he know? Did she tell him before she left?"

"I don't think she did."

"Why?"

"Lily, this was the choice your mother thought to be safer for both of them. I don't think you should judge Violet based on her decisions at the time," Remus explained, but Lily's mind was so rushed she barely acknowledged his voice. There were too many questions.

"Did she love him?"

"Enough to leave him when she thought it would save his life."

Lily still couldn't bring herself to face Remus, and kept asking whatever questions popped into her head. She wasn't prepared for those answers. Her mother had probably been right not to tell her.

"Would he have loved me?"

"There is no way he wouldn't," Remus' smile was kind. Lily smiled back, unsure of what to do. "Sirius was a good man before," he sighed.

"My mom doesn't believe he did it, and she must have a reason to think like that."

"Her reason to believe in his innocence is that she hasn't seen him. I am truly sorry to tell you that, Lily, but Sirius went mad," Remus declared, with a deeply unhappy gaze at her. "I am sorry," he said once again.

Lily made an enormous effort to swallow back her tears after his words. Now she had two fathers, and somehow had lost them both.

When they arrived back at the house, Remus refused to let Lily convince him not to tell Violet about their conversation. He said that it would be dishonest of them, and that since Violet was doing so much for him, he couldn't simply lie to her. So he and Lily guiltily went downstairs at Violet's lab and knocked on the door.

"Come on in!" She said from inside.

Lupin slowly opened the door to the sight of his old friend calmly cutting tiny brown seeds and occasionally stirring a milky white potion.

"Hm - hello, Vi."

"I didn't expect you to come back so soon. Did you not manage to find the horned slugs?"

"Yes… yes we did." Remus gestured Lily to give the horned slugs to her mother. The girl did as she was told, and then went back to Remus' side. She knew her mother would barely ever get angry, but that was, she could say, a special occasion. "Vi, I think I need to tell you something…"

"Remus, I told you not to worry! I will make your wolfsbane potion on time. It is over there, on the covered cauldron. It needs to rest for a few hours before you take it."

"No, that's not it. I…" the man tried to push the words out of his mouth, but guilt and fear wouldn't let him.

"What is it, then? Go ahead, say it,' Violet said as she chopped the horned slugs and prepared to put a few of them in the potion she was now stirring.

"I - I might have revealed the truth about Sirius to Lily," he said all at once, barely allowing any pauses between the words.

Violet went quiet and still for a second. Then, she seemed to involuntarily relax her hand out of rage and dropped all of the horned slugs into the potion, which immediately turned to a nasty shade of green and began to boil before the cauldron vomited its content all over the room, especially on Violet's clothes. For a second, she was still not moving and stared at Remus in absolute indignation.

"You didn't have the right to do it!" she finally yelled. With a raw gesture of her wand, Violet made a silent spell that cleaned her clothes.

"Mom -" Lily tried to interrupt her mother's scolding on Remus, who was staring guiltily at the woman.

"I spent almost thirteen years protecting her, only for you to let it slip through your teeth!" She went on. As she spoke, Violet made violent movements with her wand, and spells went everywhere as she cleared the spots caused by the explosion.

"Mom!" Lily tried louder. Violet was now dangerously gesticulating with her wand pointing towards Remus.

"Do you have any idea how hard it is to pretend you are a muggle when you live with one of them? Or to pretend your baby daughter isn't performing accidental magic?" She casted a spell, which to Lily's relief wasn't any curse or jinx, only an incantation that cleaned her godfather's clothes.

"Mom!"

"And then when I came back and asked about Sirius, I found he was in Azkaban! Accused of killing my best friends! Have you ever tried hiding from a girl that her father is in Azkaban? Or that he has been accused of being a mass murderer? No, you haven't, because you just told her the truth straight away! For Merlin's sake, Remus, I specifically asked you not to tell!" She finished cleaning the room and themselves and was now walking towards the living room upstairs.

"Vi-" Remus followed her, and so did Lily.

"No! This is absolutely unforgivable! This isn't about me, it was about waiting until she could handle it! And you couldn't wait more than twenty four hours?"

"MOM!", Lily yelled.

"What?"

"I already knew it," said the girl. "I've known it for a while now. Remus just confirmed it to me." Violet's chin dropped.

"How?"

"Professor Snape, at the Leaky Cauldron, asked if I was Sirius' daughter. I didn't think so at the time, but… after a while it was like his name kept popping everywhere I went. I found a book about old wizarding families, and Black was one of them. And then… Voldemort told me he would let me leave if I wanted, because I was a pure blood. Then Snape told me I had his eyes, and I learned from Hector that there would be almost no chance that I would have grey eyes if dad was biologically my father.

"Oh." Violet said, and let herself fall onto the sofa as if she had become exhausted. "All this time hiding it from you - only to have it spoiled by Severus."

"Why did you hide it from me, mom?"

"Because -" Violet took a deep breath. "At first it was because of Sirius' family - they hated me, and would have all of us killed if it became known that Sirius had a baby with a blood traitor like me. Then it was because of Roger. Then it was because I was just used to hiding it from everyone. But most of all, because it wouldn't matter if I told you, you would still never meet your father. And what a burden it would be, to be Sirius Black's child. How could I let you go to Hogwarts with that name?"

"I am not ashamed of who I am." Lily was now the only one standing in the room.

"And I am proud of you, but you don't know the extension of the issue."

"I understand," said Lily at last. "But I wish I had known."

Once again, Violet took a deep breath. She no longer seemed to know what to say.

"I think we need a moment, Remus."

Without questioning, Remus obeyed and left Violet and Lily alone in the living room.

They stared at each other for several seconds, green meeting gray in midair. On any other occasion, they would have found it funny to see the same stare in each other's face, despite the eye color.

"Come here," said Violet, gently tapping on the seat next to hers. Hesitantly, Lily obeyed. Violet hugged her and laid her face on the girl's hair. "I wish I didn't have to do this, but I don't regret doing it," Violet finally said.

Lily didn't blame her. She wanted to, but couldn't.

"I'll go outside and practice," the girl said, and Violet didn't stop her.

Lily climbed on her broom and took off, carrying her club and a ball, which she threw in either directions and tried to get to it and knock it away before it reached the ground, and then do it again and again until she couldn't keep the ball in the air anymore. Practicing not only took her mind off the recent events, but also made it easier to decide how she was feeling.

After a few throws, however, Lily realized that she couldn't deal with what was happening by practicing quidditch, and decided to once again fly over the lake. For some reason, looking at the still reflection of the sky and of herself also seemed to calm her down. She had left her club and ball at the shore, and floated again a few inches from the lake, carefully lying on her broom, with her curls falling in the water.

Knowing, Lily had thought, would be easier than not knowing, no matter what the truth was. But she was wrong. Now even more questions popped into her head, and her brain was working at a thousand miles per hour. She could barely formulate the questions she wanted to ask. The most important of all, however, was an easy one. Was her father a monster? Remus seemed to think so, but Violet believed with all her might that he was innocent. Lily remembered something Hector had told her once, about a muggle scientist who had trapped a cat in a box with poison, and no one could know whether the cat was dead or alive until someone opened the box, and therefore the cat was dead and alive, so anyone who opened the box and found a dead cat would have killed the cat. At that point, Sirius Black was both guilty and innocent, just as before he had been and not been her father. Finding out the truth had built a single reality that had previously been ambiguous. Should Lily find out that Sirius Black had betrayed the Potters, she would be once again building a reality which would hurt both her and her mother, and wouldn't be able to unbuild it.

Either way, it didn't make any difference. Sirius Black was currently locked in a cell in Azkaban and wasn't going anywhere. As Violet had said, Lily would still not have a father, and that was her life sentence.

With a soft squeak, Helga landed on the edge of her broom. What was it with owls and brooms? Did they think it was a perch? Lily caught balance easily, since Helga was lighter and more gracious than Errol. The girl sat up and flew a little higher, Helga still standing on the edge of the handle. The owl offered her leg, which held a tied parchment.

"Thanks, Helga. Now I suppose you need some sleep." Helga flew away.

Lily took the letter and unfolded it.

Hello, Lils.

I'm sorry it took me so long to write back. I just didn't know what to say. Knowing you, you must already have asked someone about Sirius Black. I think you are going to regret it, though. I think your mother is right to keep it from you, especially after what you learned from Snape at Hogwarts. Maybe she is waiting to tell the truth when you are older. You should probably respect that.

About Remus Lupin, I'm glad that you and your mother have a friend there. To be honest, me and mom have been worried about the two of you living in the countryside without a single soul nearby. But I guess you are going to be alright, your mother is a high skilled witch.

I hope you are okay, Lily. I will be with you within a few days, and we will have a long conversation about what is going on. Until then, I have to figure out what I can say to you. I'm sorry that I can't be more helpful right now.

See you soon,

Hector.

PS: Just know that our parents don't define us.

"You couldn't be more right, could you, Hector?" Lily muttered.

"Lily!" Remus' voice called her from the shore. The girl flew back and landed near to the man. "Your mother is calling. It's time for lunch. I did the cooking, so I can't promise it will be good."

They ate in an awkward silence. Only the cutlery against the plates made any noise, and even the objects seemed to be trying to keep quiet. More than once Lily considered saying something, but the oppressive silence seemed to keep her lips shut. For what she could tell, Violet and Remus were under the same effect.

After their meal, the day went by in the same silence. They didn't play Exploding Snap on that night, and when Lily went up to bed early, she heard another conversation between her mother and Remus.

"I think I have done enough damage," said Remus.

"What are you talking about?"

"I will leave in the morning. It is better for you and Lily. I shouldn't have come."

Lily's heart tightened.

"And what good would that do?" Violet's voice raised a bit.

Remus fell silent again.

"You would only break her a little worse. The damage is done, now help me fix it."

"How?"

"I don't know. But this is why you are her godfather. You need to be part of Lily's life, because she won't be able to deal with all of this on her own."

"What good would that do, Vi? How can a lonely werewolf help a girl like Lily?"

"Being her family, Remus! Now go to sleep, and if I wake up tomorrow and you have left, I will hunt you."

Remus laughed faintly.

"Good night, Vi."

"Good night, Remus."

Lily's body relaxed as she heard two pairs of feet climbing the stairs.

A/N: So, did you like it? Did you guess who was Violet's secret guest? Please, let me know in the comments!