DISCLAIMER: See previous chapter.

Lily Evans is a popular student. She has many friends, in many different Houses, who she loves very much. Now, she loves the Marauders as well. But she has always had a soft spot for Remus in particular.

Having met on the Hogwarts Express, young and scared, Remus was her second ever magical friend – after Severus Snape, who she has known throughout childhood and who didn't seem nearly as scared as she and Remus were on that first day. Remus is one of her closest friends, now; perhaps even her best friend. And now, his friends are her friends too.

The Marauders haven't always been her friends. In fact, for the longest time, they were the bane of her existence – Remus excluded. Before, Sirius and James and Peter were all annoyances for her; obnoxious and cruel, and they were bullies, and she just could not stand them. To her, they were just people who Remus hung around with and who she reprimanded and avoided as best she could.

But then fifth year came, and everything changed. Remus and Sirius had a massive row. Sirius began moping around, starting fights and hiding in his dorm. Remus began studying harder, ignoring Sirius and not talking to anyone. James and Peter were tense and angry, and all pranks came to a halting stop. Hogwarts was off-balance for months and Severus was quietly furious. Then it happened. Severus called her a horrid slur, and she lost her childhood friend.

Then everything changed again, but for the better. Remus forgave Sirius, then James and Peter forgave Sirius, and Hogwarts slowly regained its energy. And they all grew up, somewhat. And now, now Lily is friends with them. All of them, even if she does find Sirius vexing now and again. (Remus says that she finds Sirius so vexing because they are so similar: both strong-willed and opinionated and stubborn. Naturally Lily disagrees.)

She can tolerate Sirius now. She never used to be able to, but she has seen a lot more of him in recent months – since she began dating James, and since Sirius and Remus had begun courting.

Over the last few months, Lily has gotten to know Sirius better. And the more she has gotten to know him, the more she has grown accustomed to his eccentric, devil-may-care personality. Eventually, she saw past his recklessness and arrogance, and she saw the vulnerable and caring boy/man underneath.

However, with that said, she has to admit that she will probably always love Remus more. Which is why, if asked, she would be angered by such a thoughtless question before she backed Remus up; by saying that Remus was the 'settler' whilst Sirius was the 'reacher' in their relationship.

Truthfully, though, she would probably only back Remus up out of loyalty more than because she actually believes this.

Lily thinks Remus is an amazing person. Actually, she believes he is an extraordinary person. He is strong and stoic and she remembers how brave he is every month when the Full Moon arrives and he has to go through yet another transformation. And he never complains about it either, which only further proves how strong he really is.

He is patient and tolerant – more so than Lily, which is saying something – and he has always been kind to her. He has even tried being civil with Severus. After she lost Severus, Remus was there for her. Not to bad-mouth him or anything. He was just there for her, comforting her, supporting her, offering her a shoulder to cry on. She is very grateful for his selflessness.

Remus is also incredibly smart; so smart, in fact, that had the Sorting Hat not seen his bravery, he probably would have been put into Ravenclaw House. But he is brave and chivalrous, and she understands exactly why the Hat put him into Gryffindor House.

Lily is not stupid. She knows Remus. She knows that her best friends has his problems.

She knows that his Lycanthropy causes him great distress. She knows that he constantly worries, that someone will find out and expose him or that his friends will give up on him and abandon him – which they would never, she knows. He doesn't say anything, but he doesn't need to. Lily knows. She knows that Remus is fragile and that he holds himself together by keeping his walls up and by closing himself off to the world. But he is not impenetrable and unmoved, as Black has shown.

Lily knows that Remus never stops thinking; that his brain is constantly working. She knows that this problem is something that correlates with his rather large intelligence. She knows this problem intimately, as it often takes her a long while to stop thinking. But Remus doesn't stop. He can't seem to switch off. The cogs are always turning in his mind. But Lily has noticed that when Remus is with Sirius, he slows down. Even if it is just a little bit. With Sirius, Remus seems to relax and stop worrying.

Another problem Remus has, Lily has noticed, is that he finds it difficult to express his emotions. Or, more specifically, he finds it difficult to say the word 'love'. She hadn't really noticed it before, not until recently when Sirius said he loved Remus, and Remus replied with, "I know. Me too." And Sirius had actually seemed satisfied with that answer! Lily knows Remus loves Sirius. It is blatantly obvious, with his staring and his secret smile reserved only for Sirius. And she knows he loves his friends, but he just can't seem to say the words, 'I love you.'

Lily doesn't know why he can't say those words but she thinks that maybe it has something to do with his childhood, with how he had grown up fairly isolated and how he had been taught not to get close to anyone because of his condition. But that is mere speculation. She thinks that maybe he is scared to say those words because they mean too much. Or maybe they mean too little. It doesn't matter, though. Because, lucky for him, the people closest to him know that he loves them. He doesn't need to say the words for them to know.

Sirius, on the other hand, says he loves everyone and everything. Lily finds it in equal parts annoying and endearing. He obviously doesn't love everything but she thinks it's sweet of him to feel passionate about certain things.

While Sirius is cocky and arrogant and self-involved, he can also be very sweet and thoughtful. Lily has witnessed this side of him first-hand. She has seen the way Sirius is with his friends, and she has seen the way he is with Remus in particular. It is different to how he is with James. It is less forceful. He is gentle with Remus, and that is something she has not overlooked.

But Sirius has a lot of flaws. He gets into fights, and he swears a lot, and he never seems to know how to be subtle about something – unless it concerns Remus, that is. (Remus is a naturally private person and Sirius seems to respect this.) Sirius is also uninhibited and egotistical because he is very talented at many things. Sirius knows he is attractive, even if he doesn't pay any mind to it, and he knows he is smart but he often tries to hide this fact. He only mentions his abundant intellect when he is bragging about something.

Sirius and James are very similar, Lily realises. However, James seems to have matured a lot more than Sirius has. Sirius still acts like a child sometimes and Lily doesn't really know how Remus fell for him. Sometimes she thinks that maybe it was Sirius's confidence that drew Remus in, or maybe it was his looks, but then she remembers that they are friends and that there is probably a side to Sirius that she has never seen before; a fragile side that goes with the gentle part of him. Maybe only Remus gets to see that side. It certainly seems as such.

Lily loves Sirius in her own way, but she loves Remus more. He is her very best friend. He has always been there for her and he even helped her to see a side of James that she hadn't seen before.

If Lily were asked who she thought to be the 'reacher' and who she thought to be the 'settler' within Remus and Sirius's relationship, she wouldn't know what to reply. She knows that Remus has his fair share of issues, but so does Sirius. She wants to say Remus has settled, because she is loyal, but she can't. Because she doesn't believe it.

Truth of the matter is, Lily believes that they settled for each other.

She wonders if Remus settled because of his condition; because he doesn't think he can do any better. But then she thinks of Sirius – charismatic, charming, classically handsome Sirius Black – and she thinks of how he could be considered the 'settler'. But Remus is beautiful, in her fine opinion, and she can't help but think that neither of them settled.

If asked who she thought was the settler and who she thought was the reacher, she would probably reply that they had both settled for each other. Or maybe, she thinks, maybe they reached for each other...

Written: July, 2016
Rewritten: October, 2018