Losing Lily
Chapter 4: Nicknames
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"Hey!" yelled a familiar voice from behind as he ran to catch up with her, "Hey, Lily!"
"Hello, Severus," she replied. "How are you?"
"I'm fine, but more importantly how is our revenge on Potty - er – Potter going?" he asked.
"Umm, fine," she said in an uncertain voice.
"Great! Are you and Loony Moony going out then?" he asked.
"What? Loony Moony? What the heck is that about?" she asked.
"Oh, umm they all have nicknames and his is Moony," he said.
"Really? Why is his Moony?" she asked.
"Well," said Severus with a grin on his face that made it apparent that he was enjoying this. "You see, our beloved Remus is a wer-"
"Lily!" exclaimed James as he ran up to her. "There you are! I've been looking all over for you!"
"Hello," she said. "I was just asking Severus why Remus' nickname is Moony. Could you tell me?"
"Well, you see umm, Remus, uh, loves astrology and he, uh, particularly loves the moon so we call him Moony," James said uncertainly.
"Really? What's your nickname?" she asked, but before James could answer Sirius appeared.
"Hello, chums!" he said. "I see you've found Lily."
"Uh, yeah," James said.
"What are we talking about?" asked Sirius.
"Why Remus's nickname Moony," Lily said.
"Oh," Sirius said in a nervous voice as he turned to James. "She's not going to tell anyone, is she?"
"Tell what?" Lily demanded.
"Don't you see!" Severus cried. "His nickname isn't Moony because he likes the moon it's because he's a were-" but at that moment Sirius had knocked him out with a hex.
"SEVERUS!" Lily cried. "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO HIM!"
"Don't worry," Sirius said. "I only stunned the little git. He'll wake up in a few hours."
"WHY THE HECK DID YOU DO THAT?!?" Lily yelled. "WHAT DID HE EVER DO TO YOU?"
"Well, he almost got Remus in trouble for one thing," Sirius said.
"What do you mean? I want to know what's going on right now!" she demanded.
"Take it easy, Lily," James said. "Unfortunately we don't have the right to tell you that. If you'll just go sit in the common room for a minute we'll tell you everything."
"Okay," she said uncertainly, "but don't give me any of this loving the moon nonsense!"
"Agreed," Sirius said.
With that a very confused Lily headed off to the common room, leaving two very nervous Marauders alone in the corridor.
"We've got to find Remus," Sirius said. "Do you know where he is?"
"Umm," James said a he tried to remember where Remus had told them he would be. "I think he said he would be in the library doing homework for charms."
"Okay, let's go get him," Sirius said as they hurried to the library.
"Do you think that Remus will be mad at us?" asked James, who thought being loyal to friends was very important to him and he felt like they had betrayed Remus by letting Lily find out.
"It's not our fault, mate. Snape was the one who let Lily find out!" Sirius said. (Snape knew because Sirius had once tricked him into going to the shrieking shack during a full moon)
"Yeah, I guess so," James said uncertainly. "Look there's Remus!" and he pointed to a figure surrounded by so many books you couldn't see his face.
Remus was overwhelmed. He had missed loads of work during the last full moon and was still trying to catch up. Right now he was working quietly on a 5 foot-long Transfiguration essay. He was about halfway done with the work he missed during the full moon, but still had his normal homework to do also. That's a lot of work.
"You tell him," Sirius said.
"No, you tell him," James said.
"Oh, no. YOU tell him," Sirius said as he gave James a little shove towards Remus.
"Oh fine," James sighed as he walked up to Remus. "Hey, Remus," he said weakly. "Whatcha doing?"
"Oh, hello James. I'm just catching up on the work I missed during the full moon. You wouldn't believe how much you can miss in one day," Remus said as he closed his book. Whenever James and Sirius showed up study time was over.
"Er, umm, speaking of the full moon…" James murmured.
Remus's face now had an expression of worry on it as he said in a nervous voice. "What is it? Has the Ministry of Magic decided that I can't go to school here anymore?"
"No, no!" James quickly reassured him. "You see umm, well someone was -er- a asking about you're nickname, and umm Snape, well he umm, he-"
"Who knows?" Remus said in a cold voice.
"Lily Evans," James said, "but she just knows that you're hiding something. She doesn't what it is."
"Well, I guess I better tell her," said Remus. "Where is she?"
"In the common room," James said. "Hey, Moony there was nothing I could do. Severus just-"
"It's okay," Remus said. "She was bound to find out sooner or later." And with that he got up to tell Lily the truth.
"Hello, Remus," Lily said as Remus walked through the portrait and into the common room. "Look, if you don't want to tell me why your friends call you Moony its okay."
"No, you're bound to find out sooner or later," Remus said.
"Okay," she said, "and I'm assuming that whatever you're going to tell me I need to keep a secret, am I right?"
"Yes, but just from fellow students. The teachers and the Marauders already know," he replied. "So, can you keep a secret?"
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Editor's note: (I realized that I shouldn't really put 'author's note', as this isn't my story) So everyone, here is chapter 4, as promised. Chapters 5 and 6 will be posted quickly as well, thanks to yours truly harassing Taylor (the author) to write more. Everyone review!
