a/n: Just a story I came up with while battling a writer’s block for “By the Light of the Moon.” It’s about Lily, and a friendship that she develops with Remus. They seem to be so alike, that I’d image them to be good friends. Because we don’t know how much Lily hung out with MWPP at Hogwarts, I decided that she didn’t find out about Remus being a werewolf until her and James were married. In this story, Lily finds out about Remus, experiences some post-transformation fun, and realizes that she know in her heart that Remus could never be the spy. Please r/r!

Discovering a friend

            Lily Potter sat in her living room, waiting anxiously for her husband to return from work. As she began to pace the room, James’s head sprang up in the fireplace. Lily raved over and knelt close to the flames.

            “Where have you been?”

            “Sorry Lil. I was tied up at work. I’ll be home in a half-hour, and I have to leave again seven-thirty. Why don’t you invite Sirius or Peter over for diner tonight?”

            “Why not Remus? Honestly James, he must be so lonely out there by himself.”

            James grimaced slightly. “Not tonight Lil.”

            Lily rolled her eyes and sighed. “Alright, but when he comes storming in here to find out why you never owl him, don’t look at me.”

            James blew a kiss from the flames and vanished. Lily stood up again, glancing at the pictures on the mantle. Remus Lupin smiled shyly from behind a young Sirius, James, and Peter. She sighed heavily and pulled on her coat. She’d go visit Remus, just to make sure he was okay. Stepping out into the deep snow, Lily disapperated with a wave of her wand.

            Outside Remus’ cottage, the walkway remained un-shoveled and Lily made her way up his large oak door through the knee-deep snow. She knocked, listening for footsteps over the howling wind. Finally she head them, coming slowly towards the door. It opened and Lily looked up, letting out a small gasp.

            She’d never seen Remus look as awful. He was pale white and his face was clearly flushed with fever. His hand holding the door shook violently as her leaned on it, trying to remain standing. Lily rushed inside and wrapped her arms around Remus, leading him to the sofa. Once she’d tucked a heavy blanket around him, she knelt next to the couch, clutching his sweaty palm in hers.

            “Gods Remus! Why didn’t you owl us! Look at you!”

            Remus seemed to smile weakly at her, his eyes closing. As he dozed off, Lily hurried into his office and picked up a quill and piece of parchment.

        James-

                   Come to Remus’ as soon as possible. He’s terribly ill! Some friends you and Sirius are! Bring some fever reducer- he’s burning up.

                                                          -Lily

            Lily sent the note with Remus’ owl and then went back into his den. Remus was lying still, sound asleep on the sofa. Lily tossed another blanket she found over him and kissed him gently on the forehead.

            “I’ll be alright…” Remus muttered sleepily.

            “Sure, and I’m Albus Dumbledore,” said Lily sternly. “Where do you keep your medicines?”

            “Don’t have any.” Remus muttered, “Besides, they don’t help.”

            Lily took her wand and touched it briefly to Remus’ forehead.

            “Tempeturus Fahrenheitus”

            A thin wisp of gold smoke wove the numbers 104.5˚ in the air.

            “Remus!” Lily gasped, “You’re burning up!”

            She found a cloth in the kitchen and soaked it with cool water. Remus cried out as she placed it on his forehead, shivering violently.

            “Shh, I know it’s cold,” she soothed, “It will help break your fever.”

            Remus sneezed violently, and then coughed, gasping for breath. Lily pushed his hair back off his forehead and wiped it again with the cool cloth. Just as he was beginning to relax again, Remus broke out in a fit of hacking coughs. Lily tried desperately to suppress them, rubbing Remus’ chest rhythmically.

            “Ever consider being a healer?” Remus whispered hoarsely as the coughing fit subsided.

            “No,” said Lily smiling, “Just a friend.” Remus smiled back weakly and slouched down into his pillows, cuddling the blanket close to himself.

            “You should get going,” he mumbled, “James will come soon.”

            “I’ll wait until he gets here. Besides, you shouldn’t be alone in this state,” Lily said, gesturing to Remus’ flushed face and glassy eyes.

            A knock at the door announced James’ arrival. Remus had fallen asleep again, so Lily answered the door, motioning for James to be quiet. He stepped inside, brushing snow off his cloak.

            “He’s ill James! By the looks of things, probably for some time now!” She pointed to the un-shoveled walkway and the pile of teacups by the sink, along with an empty box for herbal tealeaves.

            “Lily, calm down! Remus will be fine, he always is.”

            “What are you talking about!” she hissed under her breath, “The poor man is running a fever of almost 105! You can die from that! I’m calling a healer.”

            “Wait Lily!” James called as she stormed off into Remus’ office. “His body can handle the fever; it’s been up to 107 before. And as for the healer, most will refuse to treat him. Just let him sleep, it’s all he needs.”

            “What are you talking about?” Lily said, spinning on her heel and staring at James with a look that clearly said ‘Have you gone completely mad?’

            James opened his mouth to speak, but the silence was broken by a low moan from the den. Lily pushed past James and entered to find Remus tossing and turning, sweat dripping down his forehead. Lily skillfully unbuttoned his pajama top and pulled it open in attempt to cool him. As she picked up the cloth to wipe his forehead, she caught sight of his chest and gasped.

            Remus’ feverishly pale skin was severely marred with scars of huge gashes that hadn’t properly healed.

            “What….what happened?” Lily whispered to James.

            “Remus…Remus is a werewolf. He’s so sick because the full moon is tonight. You happened to catch him on a particularly bad month. This is why I told you not to invite him to diner. Sirius and I were coming over at seven-thirty to check on him.”

            Lily opened and closed her mouth, speechless from shock. “He’s…a what?” she managed to spit out.

            “Werewolf, Lil. But please don’t tell him that you know. He gets a bit uncomfortable about it. It took him days to trust us again when we first found out. Besides, he’ll be in no mood to talk about it in the morning.”

            Lily turned her attention back to the sleeping Remus. “How long have you known?” she asked James, adjusting a pillow that had fallen off the sofa.

            “Since the middle of our second year,” said James, heaving a sigh.

            Lily smiled gently and kissed James on the cheek. “I’m sorry I yelled at you. I thought you didn’t care about him.”

            James frowned. “Sirius thinks he’s the spy.”

            Lily scowled, “I can’t see him doing that.”

            “Sure,” James replied offhandedly, “But can you see Sirius doing that? Or Peter? Remus is incredibly smart, even more then he shows. And not to be prejudice, but he is a werewolf.”

            “He’s not the spy.” Lily whispered, tucking the blankets closer around Remus. “He’d never do that. Not Remus, not Sirius, not Peter.”

            “Dumbledore thinks someone close to us must be spying!”

            “Look at all the tricks Sirius plays!” Lily hissed, “He’s just as smart as Remus!”

            “Are you implying that Sirius is the spy?” James asked angrily.

            “No, I’m just saying that it’s possible.” Lily shrugged. 

            “He’d never do that Lily, and you know it.”

            “So what makes Remus any different?” Lily snapped. “Gods James! You can be so narrow-minded sometimes!”

            “Look at you! Can’t you see that Remus is the obvious suspect?”

            “Not everything is obvious James!” Lily shouted tearfully. Remus jerked in his sleep, and began to awake. He opened his eyes, blinking a few times to bring the room into focus. He looked at James for a few moments and then spoke,

            “It’s getting late. We should go.”

            James nodded. As Remus attempted to sit up, Lily bent to help him. Remus recoiled at the sight of her.

            “What are you doing here?” he asked warily.

            “I’ve been here all afternoon. I came over around 4:30, and you were terribly ill, so I took care of you. You had a conversation with me earlier, but obviously, you were a little delirious.

            Remus nodded. “That’s kind of you, but you have to go now. James and I have some business to deal with.”

            “Alright,” said Lily with false cheeriness. “You just take care of him!” she added to James, who flashed a quick smile as if to say ‘I’m sorry I yelled at you.’ With that, Lily disapperated.

            Lily hardly slept at all that night. At dawn, James was still not back from Remus’ house, so she dressed and apperated to his front door. She was met by an exhausted Sirius.

            “It’s been a long night,” he told her. “James is still in the barn with Remus trying to get him conscious again. I just came back to get some potions I brought last night. Here- take these.”

            He shoved a pile of blankets into Lily’s arms and started off through the field by Remus’ house, muttering, “I feel like a nurse, this is ridiculous. Every month, and I actually used to enjoy this.” Lily followed until Sirius paused about 300 yards from the house. She watched as he removed his wand and disabled a ward. An old barn, all boarded up, appeared in front of them as if from out of thin air.

            “Nice work with the barrier!” Lily exclaimed, “I couldn’t even sense it!”

            “Remus did it.” Sirius replied casually, “He’s good at hiding things.”

            Lily gave Sirius a stern look and followed him into the barn. Sirius shivered in the cold air. “Should have apperated down,” he grumbled.

            As Lily’s eyes adjusted to the dim light, she spotted James kneeling over a disheveled Remus, lying in a pile of hay. She noted the dark circles under his eyes, and a nasty cut that was bleeding down his left leg. Lily ran over and knelt next to James. She threw a blanket over Remus and wrapped another around her shivering husband.

            “What happened?” she asked gently, picking bits of straw from James’ hair.

            “He was rather violent last night,” James said sadly. “Sirius should have some potions to help him.”

            “Should I revive him?” Sirius asked, coming over. His nose was bright pink and running. He set the potions down and sniffed, wiping it across his sleeve.

            “You three look like hell!” Lily laughed. “I’ll revive him.”

With a swift “eniveriate", Remus’ eyes flicked open. He seemed to take a moment to focus, then sat up quickly, turned his head to the side, and proceeded to vomit in a nearby pile of hay.

            “Oh gross.” Sirius muttered, “I hate when he does that.”

            “Honestly you two!” scoffed Lily as she sat beside Remus and pushed his hair back off his forehead, rubbing his back gently. He coughed a few more times, and then relaxed, resting his head against Lily’s shoulder. She checked his temperature with her wand and found it to be at a high 105.

            “Where’s Pete?” Remus asked wearily.

            “He’s still at work,” responded Sirius, “He might drop by later.”

            Remus closed his eyes and curled up, trying to suppress a series of hoarse coughs,

            “Let’s get you three inside before you all catch pneumonia.” Lily said gently, helping Remus to his feet. He leaned heavily on her shoulder, and she stumbled under his weight.

            “We’ll apperate him inside,” James said, taking Remus around the shoulders. “Sirius and I learned group apperition specifically for this.”     

James waved his wand and disappeared with Remus, followed closely behind by Lily and Sirius. Once inside, James half-carried Remus into the bedroom, where Remus managed to crawl into bed. James and Sirius collapsed into identical chairs next to Remus’ bed, and promptly fell asleep. Lily crept into the kitchen and returned an hour later with three bowls of thick soup and three mugs of healer’s herbal tea. She awoke James and Sirius, who accepted the cups graciously, and drank them, then moving onto the soup. Remus awoke as well, and sipped his tea only twice before setting it aside and slumping back into the pillows.

            “Drink it Remus,” Lily prompted, “It will help your cough.”

            Remus sniffed, resting his head on the carved headboard of his four-poster and closing his eyes. “I’m not thirsty.”

            “Remus, you threw up. You’ll get sicker if you don’t have something in your stomach soon.”     

            Remus looked up at Lily quickly. “Then you know…if you were there this morning.”     

            “I know what?”

            “That I’m a…” Remus trailed off, looking away.

            “Yes, Remus, I found out yesterday. The important thing is that you get better.”

            Remus turned back to look at her saying, “Lily, I’ve been through this once a month for thirteen years, I think I can handle it.”        

            She studied his face for a moment and noticed something she’d never seen before. Behind his warm smile and gentle eyes, she saw a hint of sadness, like a flame that had been somehow extinguished. Lily moved to sit on the edge of Remus bed, and wrapped an arm around his shoulders. Then Remus did something James and Sirius hadn’t seen since their second year. Remus broke down completely, crying into Lily’s shoulder, enveloping her in a hug. Peter entered at that very moment, and stood in the doorway watching the scene. As Lily held the sobbing Remus, an understanding developed between them. She knew that at this very moment that the spy stood in her midst, and she knew that she could never hug a traitor.

a/n: Hey, thanks again to OrcaPotter for beta-reading! Please r/r, but I won’t beg- I find that gets annoying. It’s just that I LIVE off reviews… (lol.) I didn’t really know where this story was going when I started it. I just wanted a story about Lily and Remus. I write about Remus a lot, but I’ve only looked into Lily once before, very briefly. She’s a pretty interesting character, and, like Remus, we don’t know too much about her, so I can give her a personality all my own.