Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. All characters and the wizarding world belong to J. .
Author's note: There is some pretty vulgar language in this chapter. I apologise in advance.
Remus had been pretty down over the last few weeks. He and Elizabeth had been fighting for some reason, and he didn't know why. He had gotten fed up with her crap behaviour that he's started taking his frustration out at her. He felt terrible about it, but he was pissed off at both her and himself. He thought maybe he had said something to upset her, and that was why she was cold. But then he felt that if he had done something like that, she would've told him.
Things had hit a boiling point for him during one breakfast. A 6th-year boy had come up to the Gryffindor table to talk to ask Elizabeth out. She had laughed when the boy had asked her out and rejected. He couldn't stand the sight of her laughing at someone like that, and he's called her a cold-hearted bitch. A fight had broken out between his friends and Elizabeth. Everyone was telling him to apologise while she just called him a cunt and walked off. He'd wanted to say sorry straight after, but pride wouldn't let him.
Remus had been chilling in the Common Room with Peter. He was reading Macbeth while Peter was engrossed in an article about the upcoming Quidditch World Cup. James and Sirius were at practice, so it was just the two of them. He'd been engrossed in his book until Marlene had come flying past him as she ran out the door. He'd never seen her run that fast.
After practice had finished, Sirius had come to join him and Peter. "Where's Prongs?" Peter was shuffling some cards for their game of go fish. Sirius shrugged his shoulders, "said he had to meet Marlene." James took the cards from Peter and started giving them cards. "He's always with Marlene these days." Remus replied. "You don't think that they're into each other, do you?" Peter leaned over, his eyes wide. Both Sirius and Remus let out a bark of laughter." Oh god, no. She's not into that." Peter looked at the two with a quizzical look, "What do you mean?". Remus tried his best to not burst out laughing as he watched Sirius fumble over his words in panic. "James is in love with Lily, definitely don't think she is into him, do you?" Sirius mouthed a thank you to Remus, who shot him a thumbs up. Peter thought for a while, "I suppose you're right.". The crisis had been averted.
The 3 boys had been deep into go fish when their attention had been drawn to the opening of the portrait, where a furious looking Elizabeth stood. The whole common room had looked at her, "What the bloody hell are you looking at?!" She screamed before storming past them towards the girls' dorm. Everyone was looking around confused, but Remus gaze was focused on Elizabeth. He saw the tears start to fall, and his heart had jumped out of his chest. She looked more sad than angry as she stormed past. He turned back to his friends, who looked confused, "She is terrifying when she's angry." Sirius remarked while Peter nodded in agreement. "Fuck, I'm supposed to meet James by the Great Hall. Sorry lads." With that, Sirius got up and made his exit. The boys quickly cleaned up their game. Dinner would be starting soon, and Remus was ravenous.
Marlene entered the Common Room looking flustered. "Is Elizabeth upstairs?" She asked Remus, "Yeah, she stormed up there a few minutes ago. Is she ok?" Marlene looked at him and gave him a small smile, "I'm about to find out." With that too, she disappeared upstairs. "Women, am I right?" Remus smacked Peter on the back of the head, "Don't be like that, Peter, it's not a good look." Peter quickly apologised, and Remus swung his arm over his shorter friends shoulders.
Remus was wedged between James and Marlene at dinner. He felt like they were purposely trying to keep him from moving away when Elizabeth had joined the table. Remus noticed how puffy her eyes were, but despite that, she had a smile on her face as she chatted to Peter about the world cup. He saw that she'd made eye contact with him a couple of times throughout dinner, and he didn't know how to feel. She'd avoided contact with him for a long time, "Marlene, could you pass the peas, please." Remus saw Elizabeth pick up the peas, he thought she was going to move them further away from him as she'd done the day she'd called him a cunt, but he was wrong. "Here you are." She handed him the bowl, and he graciously took it from her, "Thanks.". It had been the most civil exchange they'd had in a while. He was still angry at her, though.
The pea interaction was all he had with Elizabeth that night, and he was relieved. He was worried that a fight might break out between the two of them. After dinner, Remus and his mates went back to the common room. Remus had his prefect duties tonight along with a Hufflepuff prefect, so he wanted to kill time before then. He did like having prefect duties on a Friday because that was usually when students were sneaking out to go meet someone in a broom cupboard or something.
His patrol finished at 11:30, and he was wrecked. He had deducted points of two Slytherin students and a Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw student that he found furiously snogging in an alcove off one of the corridors. He headed back to the common room to find a small party held by some 6th-year students, a couple of 7th year and 5th years joined, noticeably his friends. Remus sat down next to Sirius, who was sipping on a glass of fire whiskey. "I love the 6th years. They're so damn fun." Sirius took a swig of his drink before offering it to Remus, "Oh come on, Moony, live a little." He took the glass from Sirius before downing it. He was partial to a glass of whiskey every so often.
The party was pretty quiet; there was no music, just friends chatting amongst each other and a couple of drinking games. The party began to wrap up by 12:30, with most of the 7th and 6th years heading up for bed. James offered to help Remus clean up the common room to hide all the evidence in case McGonagall decided to give an impromptu visit.
By the time they'd finished cleaning up, everyone else had gone to bed; even Sirius had disappeared upstairs. "Thanks Prongs." James stood on his tippytoes and ruffled Remus's hair. "Can't have you doing all the cleaning now, can I? Well, I'm knackered. You coming up?" Remus laughed and pushed James, "Nah, I think I'm going to chill down here for a bit. I'll be up soon." He nestled himself into one of the armchairs putting his feet up on the coffee table. He stared at the fire, deep in thought, when someone sat in the armchair opposite him. Remus watched as Elizabeth curled up, resting her chin on her knees.
"Why aren't you in bed?" she asked him. Remus gave her a look, "I could ask you the same." She nodded, "Touché. I can't sleep, I have a lot on my mind, plus Marlene is snoring.". Then there was silence. Elizabeth was looking at Remus, but she refused to meet her gaze. He heard her sigh and finally looked over at her.
"Remus, I'm sorry." He was taken aback by her apology, "I was going through some personal stuff, and I took it out on you. That wasn't fair. I'm sorry." He stood up and walked over to another table, leaning on it, "Yeah, it wasn't fair. You were pretty awful to me. If you had personal issues, you should've talked to someone. For fuck sake, you were still all buddy-buddy with James and Sirius; how do you think that made me feel?" Elizabeth looked down to the floor, "I know, it was awful. I really am sorry." She stood up and made her way towards him. Remus could feel the anger bubbling, but she looked sorry and sad as he looked at her. "I'm sorry for saying the shit I did to you." She gave him a weak smile, "You don't have to say sorry. I think if I'd been in your shoes, I would've done the same."
The two then again fell into silence; the only sound that could be heard was the fire's crackling. "You know, I've never had a lot of friends. I've always been an outcast. Pretty much till I met James, Sirius and Peter I had no one. So whenever I make a new friend, it…..it…I don't feel so alone.". The conversation was bringing up memories from his childhood. The long hard transformations, the sheltered life, he was so unhappy as a child. "I think before I came to Hogwarts, I only had one friend. We lost contact over the years, but I think when we were friends, I was the happiest I had ever been." Elizabeth's heart sunk. She hadn't realised how hard his childhood had been.
Elizabeth had never told anyone, but during their first year in Hogwarts, she noticed how he would disappear once a month. By second year she'd figured it out. She'd been observing him throughout their years together, watching him. She noticed every new scar that began to show up, how pale and agitated he'd get around the full moon. She couldn't imagine what it must have been like, considering all texts and information was biased against werewolves and how they were dangerous and disgusting.
"Remus, I'd like to be your friend. I know it'll take a lot of time to forgive me, but I really want to be your friend. I enjoyed the time we spent together, and I don't want to lose that…again." She awkwardly stuck her hand out to him as some sort of peace offering. Remus wondered if she would act like that again, was it a waste of time. But like she said. He'd enjoyed their time together, so he shook her hand. At least they could try to mend their friendship.
A couple weeks later, Remus found himself sitting in the one Defense Against the Dark Arts class he wanted to avoid. The topic for the lesson was werewolves. Sirius, James and Peter could feel how tense Remus was. What if a student put 2 and 2 together and found out his furry little secret. As soon as the doors to the classroom opened, Remus made his way to the back of the classroom. Sirius took the seat next to him and gave his shoulder a quick squeeze.
Throughout the lesson, Remus felt like he was going to throw up. As the textbooks went on and on about the horrors of lycanthropy. Remus had gripped Sirius leg the whole time. He even thought he caught Snape staring at him. Then a heated debate broke out in the classroom. Remus wished he could just leave. "Werewolves are disgusting creatures. They should be kept away for the safety of everyone. You know, usually, Muggles can't survive a bite." Snape sneered, many of the classmates agreeing, "They're dangerous." Another student shouted. "I hope I never have to see one, I'd be disgusted.". Sirius put his hand on Remus, "Don't listen to them, Moony." Remus nodded; there were only 10 more minutes of class left.
"Werewolves deserve death if you ask me." Snape piped up. Remus could see James face growing red with anger. He looked ready to start shouting. "I'm sorry, but that is an absolutely disgusting thing to say." Elizabeth stood up, turning to stare at Snape. "Do you think people ask to be turned? You must be an idiot, Snape." Their DADA teacher sat back on the desk. He had no desire to intervene; he believed debate was a healthy thing to happen. "Do not call me an idiot O'Leary! They are filthy creatures." Elizabeth scoffed at his statement. "Do you think the children that Fenrir Greyback went after asked to be turned? They were and are children! It shouldn't matter that someone is a werewolf; they're human; they deserve to be treated like the rest of us." Snape sneered at Elizabeth. "That attitude will get you bitten." Elizabeth slammed her hands down on the desk, "Are you threatening me?" she turned to the rest of the class, "I'd have no problem befriending a werewolf because for only one night a month they're not themselves. That doesn't make them a bad person." Marlene cheered for Elizabeth, and some of their fellow classmates clapped for her too.
Remus, Sirius, James and Peter had been transfixed by Elizabeth's speech. "Alright everyone, settle down. I'm enjoying this passionate argument; however, the class is finished. Since we're so passionate about this topic, your homework is to do an essay on the topic of lycanthropy.". Remus shut his books and bolted out of the class towards one of the bathrooms. He locked himself into one of the stalls, trying to stop the oncoming panic attack. He heard the bathroom door open,
"Moony, it's us. Open up." When James didn't get the response, he unlocked the door to the stall. Peter locked the main entrance. "Moony breath, In…and out. In…and out." Both James and Sirius were perched in front of Remus. Sirius was rubbing his back., both of them noticed the colour draining from Remus's face and quickly stood up to let him vomit into the toilet. Remus felt like shit. After vomiting one more time. He turned back to his friends; Sirius handed him a towel. "Sorry." James looked at Remus and put his hand on his shoulder. "Mate, you've nothing to apologise for. We're here for you." Remus smiled at his friends before heading to the sink to clean up.
"If it makes you feel better, not everyone thinks werewolves are monsters. Look how fiercely Elizabeth defended them. Please don't beat yourself up. If you want, we can do the essay for you. I know that you usually help us or do ours for us so let us return the favour." Sirius spoke up. Remus weakly nodded before brushing his teeth. It was lucky that Defense Against the Dark Arts was the last class of the day.
For the rest of the day, he did his best to focus on his homework. Sirius had graciously offered to do his DADA essay for him. He would do the final read-through. It was well known that Remus was the top student in the year for DADA. So if his essay wasn't perfect, Professor Burdock would know he didn't write it.
It was time for bed, and the 4 boys were the last to leave the common room. They'd been deep in discussion about their next prank, nothing too dangerous. Sirius had planned to drop a stink bomb into Slughorn's office in retaliation for all the cauldrons he'd had to clean. Remus had been pretty quiet during their discussion, only offering advice and suggestions here and there. "You ok, Moony?" Peter asked; he nodded. He'd felt shit earlier, but now that the lesson had been covered, he wouldn't have to think about it, other than when he'd receive his grade. "You know Moony, it was pretty amazing to see how passionate Elizabeth is for the fair treatment of werewolves." James and Sirius looked at Peter; they were ready to throttle the idiot for bring up the whole lycanthropy situation. "Yeah, I guess it's good to have more people on my side, not that she knows what I am." Remus smiled. He'd never tell her about his disease, but she'd in some way made him feel a little less alone. As Remus was thinking about her, he began to blush a little. Their friendship had been on the mend, but Remus was still a little reserved. He was afraid that she'd leave again.
"Moony, are you blushing?" James grabbed Remus face, dramatically moving it around. Sirius let out a howl of laughter as he watched this friend grow ten times redder as James clung to his face. Remus pushed James off him, rubbing his cheeks, "You fancy Liz, don't you?" Remus was dying. Why were his friends doing this to him? Before he could get a word in, Sirius began to sing, "Moony and Liz sitting in a tree, K.I.S.S.I.N.G…bloody hell!" Remus punched Sirius hard in the arm, his face flushed from embarrassment. "James and Sirius started making kissy faces to each other.
"I think it's cool if you like her. Elizabeth is bloody amazing." Peter spoke up, "She's a fantastic quidditch player, seems like a great friend, and she's…". "Beautiful." Remus finished the sentence before covering his hand with his mouth. He couldn't believe that he'd just said that. There was no denying that she was beautiful. She was tall, had a wicked smile. Her energy made everyone want to be her friend. James and Sirius finally stopped joking. Neither one of them could believe that Remus had just admitted to thinking she was beautiful. Whenever they talked about girls, he'd always give answers like, 'She's alright.' Or 'Yeah, no.' so it was a big step for him to say that he thought she was beautiful.
"Moony, that's amazing." James smiled at his best friend; he somewhat felt like a proud parent. "I'm not going to do anything. I don't want to lie to someone, and there's no way in hell that I'm going to tell her about me. I don't want to talk about it." Remus replied. He felt like a weight was lifted off his chest as he told his mates. Remus would love nothing more than to pursue Elizabeth in a romantic light; it wasn't going to happen. He was content just being her friend., he just hoped his friends wouldn't do anything.