Shadows of Love 7

Friendship is the soul's heaven

"Wha-what did you say?"
Lily took her hands off her mouth. Her green eyes were quivering with shock.
"We learnt to be Animagi in order to protect the students and Remus himself during full moon", said James. "On some level we can control his strength and chase him to a safe place where he can ride the furry little problem out, should it occur he doesn't get to his hiding place in time."
"Furry little problem?", Lily echoed quietly.
"Yeah, Prongs doesn't like calling a spade a spade." Sirius replied.
"Prongs… Padfoot…" Lily muttered. "Moony… Wormtail..."
"We are proud to introduce you the Marauders." Sirius grinned.
Lily wasn't in such a good mood.
"Since when has Remus been a werewolf?"
"He was bitten when he was seven." James answered. "He didn't tell us, so we worked out the truth in second year."
"How do you protect him?" Lily inquired. "By separating him or what?"
"He spends the full moon in a safe place", said Sirius. "He gets Wolfsbane Potion from Madam Pomfrey and goes there and we meet up with him in the form of animals. He usually doesn't attack us but tonight we forgot about the whole thing."
"It was mostly because of me." James lowered his head. "It was because of that bloody Bludger. If I wasn't hit in the head with it…"
"You know he was busy studying", Sirius cut in.
"And you know he wasn't."
The two boys' shared a steely look. Lily didn't know whether they would wrestle or hug the blow out of each other.
"You said you figured out about his… furry little problem during second year", Lily said, "so, is that the same year when you learnt to transform into animals?"
"Wow, we aren't geniuses, Evans." Sirius raised an eyebrow.
"We started to learn it in second year." James corrected. "But it was last year we could fully change to our animals."
"Are you registered?", Lily asked sceptically.
"This is a question we won't answer.", said Sirius. "Do you want to know anything else?"
Lily shook her head. "I'd rather sleep now or else my head will explode."
"It would be such a pity for it." James grinned a bit.
Lily narrowed her eyes and kicked Sirius in the leg to draw his attention to leave. She put her head on the pillow, but at the same moment something flashed in her mind.
"Wait, how did you…?"
"No more questions, Evans", she heard Sirius's voice from his bed. "No more questions."

Madam Pomfrey set Lily, Sirius and Peter free two days after that night. Lily was unable to look in Remus's eyes when he was in the Hospital, visiting his friends. Once, she caught a glimpse of his eyes with a mixture of confusion and sadness in them when Remus brought them the homework.

Lily always considered Remus as her friend and so she decided to talk to him about the matter. James and Sirius promised her not to tell their best friend about Lily learning the truth so that she could make it clear on her own.

On a cold winter night at the library, Lily 'accidentally' ran up against him. With a bunch of books in her hands, Lily approached the boy who was surrounded by a dozen of books for his Herbology homework.
"Hey", Lily greeted him.
"Hi", Remus looked up from his parchment.
"Can I join you?", she asked.
"Sure, of course!"
Remus pushed away four or five books next to him to give place to Lily. She sat down, fumbling for her quill, bottle of ink and roll of parchment for a long time in order to temporize. As much as Lily wanted to be honest with Remus, she couldn't start it from the beginning.
"So, I'm on a research."
Remus turned to Lily confused. Lily herself didn't know where this lame lie came from, but there was no turning back, so she went on:
"I'd like to learn how to brew the perfect Wolfsbane Potion."
Remus became paralyzed. A big splotch of ink landed on his parchment, between the words 'dragon' and 'dung'. He took his wand and cleared the blot away.
"Oh, is that so?", he asked on a higher-pitched voice than he normally had.
"Yeah", Lily nodded. "You know, the time I spent in the Hospital made me become more interested in curing potions."
"Well, you're very good at Potions", said Remus unnecessarily.
"I was thinking", Lily went on, "about what kind of illnesses could exist among Hogwarts students. I mean, the ones that need constant treating, for example…"
"…lycanthropy?"

Remus lifted up his head and looked at Lily. His honey-coloured eyes were jumping from one of Lily's eyes to the other. Lily blushed with shame. Who did she want to fool with this scrappy tale?

"For example lycanthropy", she approved.
"When did you figure it out?", asked Remus and released a tired sigh.
"James and Sirius told me about it on Monday.", Lily confessed.
"On Monday? Why?", he frowned. "Wait, you don't want to tell me I attacked you, do you?"
Lily got scared of the worried tone of Remus's voice. She knew he was the kindest and friendliest boy around her but the fact that he became so upset just from the thought of hurting someone, almost broke her heart.
"No, you didn't", she lied without batting an eyelash. She could tell how relieved Remus became by his expression. "I caught the guys out when they were sneaking out of the Hospital. I insisted on knowing the truth, so after a little bit of fight they told me about it. And about the Animagi part, too."
Remus stayed quiet. He was staring at the surface of his open bottle of ink, looking at his own, scarred face. In that moment, he didn't see Remus Lupin, the eminent student, Lily assumed, but the beast he had to become every month.
"Remus", Lily pronounced his name so silently as if it was the sound of a slight breeze. She reached out to his hand and grabbed the fingers of his shaky left hand. "I want you to know that I won't look at you differently because of your furry little problem." Remus turned to her at the phrase. "You are the same person I've known for six years. This little thing won't change anything."
Remus gulped.
"Are you sure?", he asked quietly. His eyes were like a puppy's, shining with hope and longing for love.
Lily didn't reply, just leant to him and hugged him tightly. She could feel Remus's shoulders trembling as she was stroking his back.