Seventh year, Remus pov
"Hey," I said walking over to Lily outside the common room, "sure you don't want me to swap with Jamesie?"
"Aww, Remus and what would you do without me?"
"Actually do my job?" I offered as we set off on patrol.
"Because I get in the way of that so badly" Lily answered sarcastically.
"I mean it wouldn't be the first time you were caught in a broom cupboard"
"Not with you, sorry Re-Re" she said with false sorrow in her voice.
"Devastated" I sighed.
"Can you believe we're seventh years?" she said abruptly.
"No, I never thought I was even going to make it to school" I said as if it was something casual.
"Don't worry, I didn't even know there was a Hogwarts to go to" that was Lily, able to be kind without making it awkward.
"How different would things be if we hadn't come to Hogwarts?"
"I'd almost have definitely never met any of you guys"
"Especially me as I'm just a myth" I said seriously.
"I'm glad you trusted me" she said rolling her eyes.
"But seriously, how have we made it all the way to seventh year?"
"I have no idea," Lily smiled, "but I think we helped each other out"
"And now we have to work our asses off to beat the Marauders"
"They are so smug when they beat us in anything"
"Ask us why we worried about studying so much"
"I mean they do have a point, but still"
"It's been a good year"
"It has Moony, it has"
"Why do you only use that nickname to tease me?"
"Because I can't believe it took seven years to find out what it means" Lily grumbled.
"We actually only started using them in third year" I answered sensibly.
"Not the point. Anyway you'll always be little Re-Re to me" she pinched my cheek.
"One day you'll forget that nickname"
"But then one of the Marauders will bring it back" she smirked, the lights from the torches illuminating our dark path.
"How lucky am I that your dating my best friend?" I milled sarcastically.
"I mean we'd fall out of contact otherwise"
"Of course" I laughed as she grinned back at me.
"Aw I promise I'll write to you every week just so I can call you Re-Re"
"I prefer the first option"
"So from today on I'll only ever see you when were with James"
"I don't make the rules" I shrugged.
"Yep, not allowed any male friends"
"I'd love to see James try to pull that one on you"
"We wouldn't be together if he was that much of a douche," Lily grinned as we continued through the quiet corridors. "I'm scared to leave, Remus".
"Still haven't chose a career?" I smiled at her as she deliberately looked away, my hand touched her shoulder.
"I'm not even thinking about that anymore"
"No, I never was" I agreed, not that I'd ever admitted that to her before.
"I'll just start my own business when this is all over and hire us both"
"If it's your own business do you need to hire yourself?"
"You know what I mean"
"Okay, thank you for hiring me to this imaginary future business"
"It's not imaginary! Just future"
"And what is it going to be?"
"It could be anything that's the best part"
"So a job that involves me sitting around eating chocolate all day?"
"Don't act as if you wouldn't get bored of that"
"Maybe eventually" I smirked.
"Your such an idiot, you always pretend like you prefer to do nothing but I know you"
"Fine a job with lots of reading"
"Now that's a job I can get on board with"
"Well you have a few years to set up a business plan"
"Yes a few relaxing years" Lily said sarcastically.
"I know, it'll be all lay ins and days out" I agreed.
"That's exactly how I'd describe the future too"
"We'll be fine" I said, it was always the thing you said even if you didn't really believe it in this situation. Who knew what was going to happen next? There seemed to be pretty drastic changes every week.
"I'm so scared for my Mum" she said sadly.
"Honestly without a wand that woman could do some damage" I attempted to cheer her up, I was particularly grateful for the unusually quiet halls.
"I did some spells around our house, with Mcgonagall's help"
"You did? You never said?"
"I know, it's just easier to keep some things quiet"
"Dad did some at home too," I nodded, "What about Petunia?"
"I don't even know where she lives and I'm not going to suggest it to her because then I'll never find out"
"That's sucks, Lily"
"I mean I'm really happy seeing less of them but Mum isn't" Lily looked so disappointed, I knew she would happily protect her sister and brother in law is she was able.
"How's Mrs Evans doing?"
"I don't know, it's the first time she's ever lived alone in her life"
"That must be a big change from having an annoying little red head screaming around the house"
"Hey," she said hitting my arm gently, "she misses me"
"That's exactly what I said"
"You could be nicer about it"
"I could have been meaner about it"
"Why on earth do I ever come to you?" she chuckled.
"Seriously though, I hope she's okay it must be a big change"
"At least I'm still home on weekends and Petunia visits her during the week"
"Exactly, she is probably looking forward to the peace and quiet" I smiled at her, the unspoken hint of Petunia making her visits opposite to when Lily was there.
"I wouldn't blame her for that" she laughed.
"You'll be home in soon"
"That does make leaving exciting, is that boring?" Lily looked up at me, her big green eyes showing nothing but love and worry.
"No, it's caring"
"Have you heard any more about that potion I told you about?" she asked rather abruptly. I wouldn't be surprised if that was the only thing she wanted to talk about all night but was just waiting for a better moment. I mean, she wouldn't want to start the conversation with it.
"Uh no," I answered awkwardly. Lily had always been interested in potions but the prospect of there being one that could help me and made her obsessed. I knew she was doing it for me but I didn't quite trust the new potion as it hadn't been the first one. "I have you for that"
"You told me not to!" Lily said defensively.
"And you've listened, have you?"
"Well…no, but what if I did!"
"Then my Dad or the Marauders would be up to date"
"Fine!" she answered viciously, "They are still working on it which means it must be positive"
"Yeah" I nodded, not wanting to get my hopes up again. It was never something they had the best Wizards working on. No one really cared about werewolves.
"Are you going to tell me to stop finding out about it?"
"I think I've learnt there's no point" I laughed.
"I'm sorry I care" she said sarcastically as she could.
"Me too, me too" I smirked back at her.
"Shall we get back to talking about old times?" Lily not so discreetly changed the subject.
"It's last year of school nostalgia"
"Remember the time you used to have short hair?" she reached to mess my longer hair up.
"Sadly, do you remember that time we dyed our hair pink?"
"We had to make out that we weren't involved"
"What if I'd have told first year Lily we did that?"
"I'd have been like why would Remus talk to me?"
"Would you have known my name?"
"Yes, we weren't that bad"
"At least were friends now" I poked her side.
"Are you going to find your own place after Hogwarts?"
"I think so, it doesn't look any of the Marauders are going to get to travel for their coming of age so we may get a place"
"And there will be a spare Lily and her family slash friends room?"
"What is a house without a Lily and her family slash friends room?"
"It's a very empty house" she nodded seriously, her hair bouncing.
"A very quiet house," I teased, "Shall we just get a place together? Or I could move in with you and Mrs Evans?"
"Perfect! You'd get the freedom of moving out and the mother who'd wash your clothes"
"And you'd get?"
"The company of my best friend every day and more company for Mum"
"Not selfish at all"
"I actually think it's at least partly selfless" she smirked.
"You always have to have an answer"
"Think we'll get in trouble if we bring our notes with us next time?" she yawned openly.
"I mean can you multi task?" I teased her, Lily was in fact one of the best study partners I could ask for.
"Meh, sometimes" she shrugged.
"Okay, as long as you bring a blanket and one of us keeps watch"
"It would be hard for a teacher to tell us off for doing work"
"Very good point Mr Lupin!"
"Actually we could bring the invisibility cloak"
"That would be slightly problematic when they are expecting to see us"
"Oh, yeah it's just nice you knowing about the cloak now"
"Yes, how great to know now when I can be out around the castle pretty much whenever I want"
"Right, because first year Lily was constantly sneaking around"
"I would have been with a cloak" Lily said enthusiastically.
"I think we've found where it went wrong for Prongs"
"Yeah, wonder if he'd still be the same"
"Probably" I grinned.
"I think we need to work harder on this end of year prank, by the way"
"I'm more than happy just to supply the magic"
"Not that you'll ever tell that"
"Stop making out like I never get involved in the pranks!"
"Our indoor swimming pool one was the best, I mean there was even diving boards and no one got hurt"
"And it was easy to clean up"
"Yeah, that did save our asses"
"Though they were probably the most detentions I ever had"
"Didn't...uh was it Alex? Try to get you out of that?"
"It was Nathan; I can't believe he thought that would work"
"Didn't he get some detentions?"
"Yeah, maybe that was his plan all along, spend a detention with me"
"Ah, yes how romantic" I teased sarcastically.
"Now we've just got to get out of the year without a detention"
"Good plan" she smiled.
"Think we can manage it?"
"I don't know; you are a bad influence"
"Me?"
"Were never going to settle this are we?" she grumbled.
"We can try" I laughed.
So Lily went, talking about the times we had been friends. Debating who had been a worse influence on each other, even though she was clearly the bad influence. So much had happened in that time and it meant a lot to both of us. It was so much easier to think about what was happening now. Neither of us wanted to think about that. Talking about old times helped the patrols go quicker too as here was not much to do tonight.
