That evening the Gryffindor Common Room was full of the loud chatter of students anticipating the weekend, so Remus went to the library to study. He had left Sirius and James playing wizard chess and arguing vociferously over the international Quidditch teams. He had no idea where Peter was tonight; he had been disappearing quite often lately, and Remus wondered idly if he had found himself a girlfriend.

After about an hour, Remus finished his Transfiguration homework, and he stepped over to the stacks of periodical literature. He knew the locations of all the articles about Fenrir Greyback and his parents, and he knew that they offered little in the way of detailed information about progress toward a cure. Pulling out an issue of The Daily Prophet from fourteen years ago, Remus began to read once more:

… The prominent couple tirelessly pursued an antidote for the tragic werewolf bite that claimed their only son's health and the family's happiness. Armand and Lavinia Greyback were advanced in age when they were finally blessed with a child, and their attentiveness to him was boundless. For eleven years, until their untimely deaths last week, a significant portion of the Greyback fortune was devoted to finding a cure for eighteen-year-old Fenrir and others who share his affliction. The Daily Prophet has tried to reach young Mister Greyback for comment; but he remains secluded, understandably, since his parents were found in their manor, apparently the victims of a robbery gone awry. All financial assets have been transferred into a trust until the family's attorney-at-law succeeds in contacting the Greybacks' only heir and executor of estate …

"Hello, Remus." A familiar voice startled him and he nearly dropped the paper. He wheeled around and saw Lily settling her books at his study table. "Do you mind if I sit here?"

"N-no, of course not," he replied, hastily folding the newspaper and replacing it back in the stacks.

"This is the farthest I can get from Madam Pince. She snaps if you breathe too loudly," Lily whispered, grinning.

"Yeah," Remus agreed, seating himself across from Lily. "But I like sitting near the newspaper stacks, anyway. If I get bored, I can always pull up the gossip section in the Quibbler to find out who's snogging whom."

Lily made a face and laughed, which caused Remus's grin to widen all the more. He tried to ignore the pounding of his heart and found that it was easier to do so when he wasn't looking at Lily's face. Even so, he felt her presence as if she were a blazing fire on a bitter winter's night; everything behind him was cold, and everything facing her was prickly and hot.

The two settled down with their books, and presently Lily spoke again. "Listen, Remus, I want to thank you for sticking up for me in Binns's class the other day –"

Remus felt himself blushing. "Oh, you didn't need my help."

"That's true," she said bluntly. "And if it happens again and you draw your wand, I'm going to clobber you. You don't need to wind up in detention, especially as a Prefect. You'll lose all credibility."

Remus stared at her in surprise, thrilled by her directness, her honesty with him. "But Cromwell called you a – a … well, I don't want to repeat it."

Lily smiled sadly. "Remus, I can't lie and say it doesn't hurt me when people say things like that. But the people who know me know it doesn't matter."

"I know what you mean," Remus agreed, watching her intently.

Lily turned back to her books; but when her eyes left him, Remus found that he wanted to keep talking to her. "Why do you work at Severus's table in Potions?" he asked abruptly. Where did that question come from? he thought. But it was too late to take it back.

Lily looked up, startled, and a cloud crossed her face. "Look, I know you lot don't like him, but he's not all bad."

Remus felt shame creep over him once more at the thought of the near-tragedy in December. Nevertheless, he now knew that Severus had met with Death Eaters at least once. "Lily," he said quietly, "there are things about him you don't know."

"And there are things about him you don't know," she countered hotly, tossing her quill down on the table.

"How can you defend him? He called you a Mudblood." The slur was out before he could stop himself.

"Yeah," Lily retorted hotly, "because James was holding him upside down in front of me and everyone else, wasn't he? I shouldn't have tried to help him," she said with bitterness. "He didn't want me to see him like that," she added, her cheeks turning red. She said no more, her eyes dark.

Remus's heart skipped a beat, and he unexpectedly felt intensely, irrationally jealous.

He was silent for a moment, wanting and not wanting to know what she meant by that comment. More gently this time, he asked again, "Still, why do you work at his table?"

Lily looked at Remus, her brow knitted. "Well, he's … he's … organized," she concluded cryptically.

Remus couldn't suppress a smirk and was bolstered by the smile returning to Lily's face. "All right, then, let me put it this way, Mistress of Mysteries. Why does Severus work at your table?"

"Ha! Have you seen me work? I'm clumsy, I talk to myself, I look like a big jerk." She laughed. "I think I make Severus feel cool by comparison."

Remus knew this was a ridiculous reason, but he ignored it. Instead he found himself saying, "You don't look like a big jerk." And he regretted saying it the moment it left his lips, for he began to blush furiously. He caught the barest glimpse of a sparkle in Lily's eyes before he looked down at his book once more.

The two worked in silence for an hour, the last fifteen minutes of which Remus was actually able to concentrate on his reading instead of the small movements Lily was making as she worked. They walked back to Gryffindor Tower together and Remus decided to ask her what he should expect at Slughorn's soiree tomorrow night.

"So how come he finally invited you?" she asked. The word "finally" in that question made Remus feel prouder than Slughorn's invitation itself ever could have done, even though he knew he didn't deserve the praise.

Now Remus was at a loss for words; he couldn't tell her about Greyback. "Well … I told him I might be interested in research, and he decided to, uh, get me connected to the right people. Strange, innit?" he laughed.

"Not so strange," Lily said encouragingly. "You have the mind for it."

Remus felt himself grinning again, not daring to contradict her by saying that he had no interest whatsoever in becoming a scholar.

"Blubbering buffoon," Lily said as they reached the portrait of the Fat Lady. "Okay, the first thing you have to watch out for at this dinner is Slughorn using you as a performing monkey," she warned as they walked into the dark Common Room. "He's going to put your talents and your background on display for whatever old codgers he invites, and he'll flout your accomplishments as if he were personally responsible for them."

"Right, no performing monkey," Remus repeated. Fortunately, since he was such a mediocre Potions student, Remus couldn't see Slughorn boasting very vehemently about him. He was very thankful that Slughorn didn't know he was a werewolf; otherwise that would probably be the main topic of the party and soon the whole school would know.

They sat facing each other on Remus's favorite brown velvet couch and she continued. "Next, he will attempt to manipulate you into agreeing to do stupid projects for him. Be strong! Say no. The minute you say yes, he will use that as leverage to rope you into countless meaningless tasks."

"No slave labor, okay," Remus nodded. He felt as if he should be taking notes, and he watched her attentively in the dim light.

"Third, and most important, you will have to be careful about what you say in his presence. Slughorn is very indiscreet and he will blab to the first person he sees if he thinks the information can get him somewhere."

"Shut my cakehole," Remus muttered. That won't be a problem, he thought.

"This is very enlightening," Sirius observed. Remus and Lily started at the sound of his voice and saw that he and James were sitting in shadows in the big squishy chairs just across from the couch, their wizard chess game on the table between them. Remus and Lily hadn't even noticed them when they entered the room.

"Do you mind if we listen?" James asked with a lopsided grin. "Not that I'll ever be invited to one of Sluggy's big events."

Sirius leaned back so that he was nearly parallel with the floor, his arms dangling over the sides of the plush chair. "I thought you were avoiding those dinners like the plague. What happened?"

Remus began to stammer. "Oh, w-well, it's funny. R-really. I just asked Slughorn a question at the end of class, and, erm, I don't know – "

"Remus told him of his interest in research," Lily piped up.

Sighing, Remus placed a hand over his eyes just in time for James to say, "Oh, really? How very, very interesting." James clambered over Sirius's feet to seat himself on the couch between Remus and Lily. "Do tell, Remus. I'm all ears."

"I'll even shut my cakehole," Sirius said, grinning sardonically from his horizontal position.

"It's no big deal," Remus said helplessly, his eyes still covered. He couldn't explain to them in front of Lily that he was merely asking about Greyback; but he knew they wouldn't let it go now, either. He endured several minutes of their showing off for Lily, gushing over him and his "promising career." Finally he feigned sleepiness and excused himself. Lily, too, wished the boys good night and left them to finish their game of chess.

As he changed into his pajamas, Remus reflected that Lily had actually smiled at some of James's ribbing. What had happened to cause this change of heart? She had had no patience for their humor in years past, and she particularly hadn't cared for James's and Sirius's more mischievous antics last year. He saw a softening of her demeanor around them tonight and didn't know what to make of it. He supposed he should be happy for James, if she was actually coming around. But a small, selfish part of him – he couldn't deny it – wanted nothing of the sort.