Comedy/Tragedy: The Story of a Doomed Existence

Chapter Twenty: A Rabid Beast

Much to Lily's discontent, the early snow remained just that: early. The clouds over the mountains refused to draw any nearer, and the snow slowly melted away to be replaced by some sort of sleety substance that made going outside a difficult chore. All Herbology and Care of Magical Creatures classes were cancelled; the mud was so thick and the precipitation so fierce that no one really wanted to, or even could, be outside. Even Ogg and 'Missus Ogg' refused to leave their cabin. In fact, the only people who did spend any time outside were Hagrid, who carried out the Gameskeeper duties in a much more efficient way than Ogg ever had, and Professor Sprout, who had to deal with some sort of tricky plants who didn't like the cold at all.

Lily soon grew used to the sound of wet balls of ice slamming into the castle walls and ceilings. Unlike most people, she liked the sound, though she would have welcomed back the powdery snow they had received earlier.

Classes continued to grow harder and more interesting, and Lily continued to maintain superb grades, never mind that she was now a friend of the infamous Troublemakers Extraordinaire. During the weeks that followed the first snowfall, James, Sirius, Peter, and Remus waged a full out war on Filch and Pringle; they earned themselves detention for more and more weeks, though perhaps it was worth it to watch Filch, who was more or less a squib, try to figure his way out of a very long, tight evening gown the boys had spelled him into. Lily often found herself caught in the middle of their plots for revenge, not that she minded; she still hated what Pringle did and was more than glad for the excuse to play pranks on him and his irritable assistant. The Marauders were very protective of her, and would always take a detention (or five) in her stead. Lily couldn't help but be happy; she had managed to become friends with who she now thought were the nicest, funniest, and most caring boys at the school. All in all, she was very content with the way time was progressing.

Whilst Lily remained full of happiness and pleasant times, the sleet slowly washed away November, and strong winds blew in the final weeks of the term.

December the fifth found Lily and Remus in the Great Hall at a very early time of morning, especially for a Sunday, gazing up at the sky. For the first time in what seemed like years but was actually no more than three weeks, the sky was not filled with angry purple clouds. It was instead a dreary sort of pale gray, and no moisture fell from its depths. Normally, this sort of weather would put everyone into a very foul mood, but most who were awake so far were so glad to be rid of the sleet that they did not complain at all.

Lily remained neutral and turned back to her toast, applying liberal amounts of butter and a very curious-looking gooseberry jam that she was curious to sample.

"So, Remus, read any good books lately?" she asked, once her toast was deemed perfectly edible.

"Well, yes, actually," the boy grinned. He always liked discussing books, particularly the Muggle novels that his friends jokingly thought were everything from types of Muggle football teams to names of cheese. "I just started Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut - it's a difficult book, but also truly interesting. A very science fiction and apocalyptic theme, with some characters that are so creative! I really consider Vonnegut to be a magician of the quill, or tiperitter, or whatever that's called -"

Rather reluctantly, for the boy always had such intriguing arguments, Lily tuned out what he was saying about the book. She'd already read it, anyway. Instead, she observed him from over a cup of some interesting milk-and-Indian-tea concoction that she had taken a liking to.

Just like he always did at the beginning of the month, Remus looked incredibly pale and worn. Thinking back for a few moments, Lily realized with a pang that she hadn't even noticed that Remus hadn't been present in the common room from Thursday afternoon to mid-Friday! Why hadn't she paid attention to something like that? But then Lily remembered that she had been trying to teach Peter the levitation charm he still couldn't master, and it was simply too difficult to pay attention to everything when she herself wound up sailing around the common room, as compared to the immobile feather Peter was supposed to be levitating, once every few minutes. Still chastising herself, Lily surveyed Remus again.

It looked like a few large chunks of his hair were missing, and a few poorly healed scabs on his neck were nonetheless rather obvious. When Remus reached forward to grab the platter of croissants, Lily let out an audible gasp, causing a break in the boy's stream of comments about the book. When Remus had reached forward, his sleeve had slid down to reveal his arm. A few chunks of the hair on his arm also appeared to have been ripped off, and a very fresh scab ran in a track of ruby blood from his elbow to his wrist.

Seeing her gaze, Remus hastily pulled his sleeve down and cast around for a distracting subject.

"I say!" he proclaimed loudly, cutting off Lily's open mouth. "Would you look at that? I wonder who she is."

Despite herself, Lily swiveled and looked toward the Ravenclaw table; the direction of Remus' stares. He happened to be looking directly at a familiar frizzy-haired girl.

"What, Bretta Bumforth?" she asked before she could help herself. "What's so special about her? Any time you want, you can listen to her talk about nargles or whatever crazy plot she's come up with." Bretta was well known for believing in a number of things that most of the wizarding world considered being complete rubbish.

"Oh - I didn't know," Remus said wildly. "I've never seen her before, I thought she was an exchange student, or, or something."

He let silence take over for a few moments, but as soon as Lily's mouth opened, he spoke again.

"So - erm, what are nargles?"

"Bretta is the authority on those," Lily told him shortly.

When Remus stood up and made toward the Ravenclaw table, apparently with the intentions of asking Bretta about nargles, Lily opened her mouth and blurted out the words that had been on the tip of her tongue ever since she had seen Remus' cut.

"Iknowthismaysoundreallybizarrebutareyoubyanychancea - a werewolf?" she said in one breath, very aware of the fact that the last word was particularly evident.

Remus sat down and, with a clatter, upset a tray of some kind of crepe onto his lap. Ignoring the cream now seeping onto his robes, Remus ran one of his hands through his curiously thinned hair. He frowned deeply, and Lily almost saw a wrinkle appear at the corner of his eyelids. A wrinkle, for a boy of eleven? Clearly something wasn't right.

"Erm...what?" He seemed to be trying to deny what she had said.

"I know this sounds really - really bizarre, and not very plausible and all that good stuff, but - but, well, you always disappear right before the full moon, and you look really peaky and - and, Remus? Is there any chance you could be a werewolf?"

Lily leaned back, toast forgotten, and watched nervously for her friend's reaction.

Remus didn't say anything for a few moments. First he busied himself with removing the crepes from his robes, which took a significantly long time, considering the fact that Lily had seen Remus use a cleaning spell on numerous occasions. After he had finished with this task, he scratched his chin nervously and tried to avoid Lily's imploring eyes.

"You can tell me," Lily prodded softly.

Remus looked up into her green eyes; Lily made sure to hold his vision.

"You - you might've touched on something," he half-whispered. He spoke almost as fast as Lily had, but just slow enough that she could discern what he had told her.

Lily opened her mouth to ask about a hundred rude questions that she couldn't avoid, but she was saved when the other three Marauders came bounding into the room.

"Why the long faces, fellow fabulous, foxy, flatulent-filled f - erm, Sirius, what's a word for 'people' that starts with an f?" James slid into his seat and helped himself to some of the spilled croissants.

"Folks?" his best friend suggested as he began to eat his breakfast.

"Brilliant!" James yelled, upsetting a pitcher of pumpkin juice onto Peter, who had just sat down.

"Thanks loads," Peter told him sarcastically as he tried to sponge the translucent orange liquid from his robes.

"Anytime!" James yelled happily.

"Mate, next time tip over the hot chocolate!" Sirius reprimanded James with all the air of a parent telling their child that they had used the wrong salad fork. "Pumpkin juice doesn't even stain! I'm disappointed in you!" He ducked James' fist and bit into a leg of chicken he had unearthed from who-knows-where (it being a breakfast that was set out), tearing the meat off with apparent relish.

"Eww..." Lily pushed her toast away, all appetite gone.

"I don't know why you insist on not eating meat," Sirius told her. "It's a staple part of the human diet! And it is goooood..." He ripped off another chunk of meat. Lily felt like throwing up.

"Yeah, what's the point?" Peter asked her curiously. "I mean - just because you refuse to eat a cow, doesn't mean that the house elves will stop cooking them!"

"Well, actually, did you know that by the time you are seventy-five, you may have eaten as much as eleven cattle, three lambs and sheep, twenty-three pork, forty-five turkeys, eleven hundred chickens and eight hundred sixty two pounds of fish?" Lily rattled off, pleased by the expression of surprise that passed over Peter's face. "Perhaps I can't save many animals," she added sarcastically, "but I am protesting against the vile and unethical behavior of my fellow human beings," she announced sniffily. She was, at the moment, trying to convince herself not to throw up.

"You mean you're a human being?" Sirius asked incredulously, ignoring the statistics Lily had told him. "Well, now I've seen it all!"

Lily disregarded him and instead went for the more flabbergasted audience. "Peter, do you even know how animals are treated before they are killed? For example, pigs: they are stacked two to three decks high, imprisoned in bins! Most go mad from the claustrophobia. They barely get to live at all; instead they stay cooped up and fattened up for all of their short lives."

"Rather like you." James elbowed his friend playfully.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Peter's asked nervously. "You're planning on eating me, or killing me? Or that I'm a regular lunatic? Why, oh why did I have to make friends with those people in all of Hogwarts that were cannibals? WHY?"

He was actually fairly funny for once, Lily thought as she laughed with everyone else. Well, there's a first time for everything, she supposed.

"Hmm, but, Lily, I mean - in some traditions, it's custom to eat meat! Surely you can't argue with culture, and here just about everyone follows the tradition of eating a Christmas goose!"

"I'm Jewish," Lily explained shortly. "And are all traditions good ones? In Spain, people used to - and some still do - throw a goat out of a tower once a year, in the name of tradition. Slavery wasn't long ago, that could be considered a tradition! And what about not allowing women to vote in places like America? Also, in the eighteenth century, it was believed that red-haired women were all witches, so many were burned at the stake. But look around you; do you see even one redheaded girl in this hall? Those traditions can't be worthwhile; why not denounce the geese too?"

Sirius began laughing crazily at the end of her words; soon James, Peter, and even the slightly wary Remus joined in.

"What?" she asked, placing her hands on her hips. Boys could be so annoying!

"Lily -" James could barely contain his laughter; he was quite near collapsing into Sirius. "Lily - maybe it's hard to notice sometimes, but -" He began laughing raucously again, leaning on Sirius as his only way to stay upright. "I know - I mean, I might know one female redhead -" And he was off again.

"Who?" Lily demanded. What was he on about?

"You - have - red - hair," Sirius choked out.

Which left Lily feeling very stupid.

Sirius, Peter, and James toppled onto the floor and lay there for a good five minutes, slapping the ground and practically hyperventilating in the severity of their mirth. Even Remus, who had seemed justifiably uncomfortable ever since Lily had mentioned his being a werewolf, was unable to keep a strait face.

A loud cough came from behind Lily. The redhead swiveled around, though the boys remained, twitching, on the ground.

Professor McGonagall stood there with a roll of parchment in her arms, eyebrows raised to the brim of her hat and her lips pursed.

"Why hullo there, Professor McG." James stood up and shoved Lily out of the way so that he could shake his teacher's hand. "Splendid, corking, smashing, super-duper, really spiffy to see you, ma'am! Have you lost weight?" He grinned winningly.

McGonagall's eyebrows disappeared into the brim of her hat around the same time that her lips faded away.

"I suggest refraining from the caffeine so early in the morning, Mr. Potter. Merlin knows you will never need it," she told him stiffly. Lily felt her own eyebrows ascend. Professor McGonagall, telling a joke?

"You got it," James grinned. "But, really - you are looking particularly fine this morning. I can't put my finger on it...are you sure you haven't joined some kind of gym? Grisselda's Genuine Stiff-Witch-Buster Organization?"

"Quite sure," the professor told him. She arched her eyebrows even further. "Miss Evans, what has he had to eat this morning?"

Lily glanced over at the plate James had licked clean. "Erm -"

"Prof. McG. - Minerva - can I call you that?" James began.

"No."

"Alrighty, calm down, don't get your knickers in a twist," Sirius was finally able to stand up and join his friend. "Let's see...Jamie has had kippers, oatmeal, bacon, pancakes, pumpkin juice, tea, French toast, some weird pastry thing that no one else would touch, four and three quarters eggs -"

"I meant this morning, Mr. Black," Professor McGonagall told him.

"So did I. So let's see...oh yeah, I convinced you to try that weird fried porridge stuff too, didn't I?"

"That you did," James grinned at him. "And I'm glad, it was good! Oh, and I found some peppermint humbugs under the table, those were kind of stale, but not bad either, and -"

"That's enough." Professor McGonagall had finally tired of the boy's antics, and was now glaring at them. "Have a seat, gentlemen, or I will not hesitate to take fifty points from Gryffindor!"

"An empty threat," Sirius told her, but he sat nonetheless. Once he, James, and the still-giggling Peter had taken a seat, Sirius whispered loudly, "Didja hear that? She thinks I'm a gentleman!"

Professor McGonagall ignored him, and instead raised her voice to address the entire Gryffindor table.

"I have with me a sign-up sheet for all students who wish to stay at school over the Christmas holidays."

Winter holidays, Lily thought to herself. Not Christmas, winter! We aren't all Christian! But she kept her thoughts to herself. She suspected that any more disturbance from her group of friends would lead to immeasurable wrath on McGonagall's part.

"This is a perfectly normal thing to do, and anyone who wishes to may stay. There is a Christmas tea in the afternoon of the proper day, but otherwise you are free to do what you like. Within reason," she added when James and Sirius looked as though she had announced they were getting full crates of Dungbombs for their birthdays. "I will be very frustrated if a Gryffindor disappoints the school in any way. There will, or course, be no classes, and students are free to roam the castle grounds, not including, of course, the Forbidden Forest. Due to some pressure placed on the staff by a number of second-years, we are happy to announce that ice skating will be permitted on the lake, if conditions meet the requirements."

Lily glanced over at Nafeesah and her other second-year friends, all who were grinning happily.

"Of course, we expect all students to exercise caution; this is an experimental allowance. So, who would like to sign up?"

There was a mad scramble as a large number of people crowded forward, undoubtedly with the intentions of scrawling their names onto the list. Lily was rather surprised at the number of people staying; she would have thought that most families would want their children home for the holidays.

"Sirius, mate, we're going to have the best time this break!" James yelled gleefully as he slid back into his seat. He and Sirius exchanged some kind of body-slam high-five that looked like it hurt a lot. The boys seemed to think so too, for each massaged his shoulder and sat down fairly quickly afterwards.

"I take it you two are staying?" Lily asked them from below a raised eyebrow.

"Bloody well are!" Sirius yelled, causing Professor McGonagall to give him a reproachful glare.

Lily laughed. "What about you, Peter? R-Remus?" She surveyed her pale friend apprehensively.

"I'm not staying," Peter announced laboriously over some sort of lollipop he had pulled from out of his bag. "My mum wants to see me."

"Petey's such a Mommy's boy," James laughed, ruffling his friend's hair.

"There's nothing wrong with respecting and loving your mother," Peter told him, sparking fits of sniggers from James and Sirius.

"What about you, Remey?" Sirius asked once he had controlled himself. He punched Remus lightly in the arm. Remus raised his eyebrows.

"Remey?" His mouth formed into a curious grin, but as soon as Sirius opened his mouth, undoubtedly to explain the reasoning behind the nickname, Remus seemed to decide, quite wisely, in Lily's opinion, that he didn't want to know. "Erm...never mind. I'm staying, I suppose," he muttered to his knees. "Lily, what about you?"

"I'm sure my family wants me home," she smiled at him.

Lily looked at him curiously for a long time after the other three boys had lost interest. Why was Remus staying, if he was a werewolf? And, come to think of it, what did he do, once a month? Surely Professor Dumbledore wouldn't let a werewolf run free in the forest...but maybe he would. So far, the headmaster of Hogwarts had done little or nothing to convince Lily that he was at all a sensible, respectable person.

"OI! LILY! Pinnacle of pale princessic perfection!" Lily snapped out of her thoughts to see James' face in front of hers, grinning in boyish sort of way.

"Princessic isn't a word," Lily explained half-heartedly as she brought her mind back to Earth.

"Sirius, if you'd do the honors?" James asked. Lily looked at her tall friend curiously.

Sirius pointed his wand into the air and wrote, with many flourishes, the following words:

Princessic, Adj. (prin-sess-ick)

"Is that sufficient?" he grinned.

"I give up," Lily threw her hands up into the air.

"Second smartest decision you've ever made," Sirius continued, still grinning.

"What's the first one?" Lily asked, suddenly quite tired and a little bit annoyed of James and Sirius. She yawned lackadaisically.

"Have you no memory? Don't trust me, eh? Smartest decision you've ever made. Quote endquote, Sirius Black, a quarter to midnight on Thursday the eighth of September."

"Oh...erm...oops?" Lily tried. "You have quite a memory, Mr. Black."

"Thanks, darlin.'" He winked suggestively at her. She raised her eyebrow and Sirius giggled in a very uncharacteristic way. For some reason, he seemed to be overly amused whenever she undertook such a venture.

Lily turned her gaze back to Remus. She wanted to know what was going on with the boy. If he really were a werewolf, why had Dumbledore allowed -

"OY!" James shouted again. "You keep staring at Remey, why?" He sounded across between offended and jealous; Lily hoped he was acting.

"I...erm, I wanted to continue a debate we were having about Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut. Remus, I suppose that you have an admirable contention, but I'm quite surprised that you would attempt such an endeavor as to consume the contents of a science fiction novel. It strikes me as strange that a member of the wizarding world would involve themselves in a book that so clearly is based on the very pinnacle of an imaginative version of the Muggle lifestyle -"

"Oh, begone with you!" James roared, hands over his ears in mock pain. "Foes of all normal people, why must you discuss the incredibly boring subject of muggle books? Or even books in general? It is right unnatural! And so pointless, and so painful to the ears of the sane! Begone, begone!"

"You are comparing me to a normal person?" Lily asked incredulously.

"Mine ears ache! Such pointless topic, it hurts me, it hurts me!" Sirius yelled once his friend was done, discounting Lily's sarcastic comment. "Be rid of ye!"

Lily grinned and followed Remus out of the hall. This was exactly what she had been hoping for.

"Outside?" Lily asked once she could no longer hear the anguished cries of Sirius and James.

Remus nodded nervously and held open the great doors for Lily. She smiled comfortingly at him; this wouldn't work out if he remained so uneasy.

Though still a bit muddy, the grounds were a lot more pleasant than they had been the past week. Most of the muddy slush on the ground had frozen, so it was not difficult to walk across it, though the ground remained a bit slippery. As Lily and Remus headed in the direction of the lake, the redhead stepped carefully, ruing the fact that her sneakers had been ruined. Mary Janes had no traction whatsoever!

"So...erm, is there any particular reason that you are making me freeze out here?" Remus asked a few moments later, once he and Lily had begun their circular trek around the partially frozen lake.

"Hey, I didn't make you come!" Lily exclaimed.

"I was just kidding."

"Me too."

Lily was amazed at how uncomfortable it suddenly was for them to be together, when they had been able to laugh and talk about books as though nothing were unusual, and now they could barely look at one another.

"Look, this is stupid," said Lily, a few moments of uncomfortable silence later. She stopped walking and whirled around to face Remus. "You're still the same person! And why should I care if you are different, anyway? I'm here to help, not to discriminate," she finished.

"You - you don't care that I'm a rabid beast?" Remus asked her incredulously, amber eyes wide.

Lily couldn't help but grin. Soon her grin erupted into a giggle, and then a mad laugh. Remus surveyed her from below elongated brows.

"Erm...what?" Her bizarre laughing seemed to have disconcerted the boy even further.

"You - a rabid beast -" Lily burst out laughing again.

Remus looked down at his frail body, and slowly began to laugh as well.

Lily was glad that he saw what was funny; he was very pale, skinny, not particularly tall, and he also had a rather sad look in his eyes, predominantly so at this time of month. He was probably the last person who one would connect with being a 'rabid beast', out of a collection of subjects including everyone from Professor Dulcissa to Peter Pettigrew.

Still grinning slightly, Lily forced her giggles to subside.

"Really, Remus, I want to help," she told him soothingly after she could maintain a straight face. "I'm not going to pry, and I don't think of you the slightest bit differently now that I know the truth." She didn't mention to him how long she had suspected such a thing. "I just thought that maybe it would be easier for you if you knew that there was someone who knew, someone who understood but didn't care. I take it you don't want to tell James, Peter, and Sirius?"

Remus nodded fervently.

"I understand. I think that they would, too, but I'm not going to pressure you into telling them if you don't want me to. Just remember that James and Sirius are incredibly smart, and they care for you more than you realize. If you don't tell them, they will undoubtedly follow in my footsteps. They will figure out your secret."

"I don't want them to know," Remus told her. "The friendship I've had this year - it's the most amazing thing I could ever have imagined. These are people who care about me, at least I think. People who want to be around me, anyways. I don't want to risk that for something that isn't that important. I can't see any of them understanding. James hates all 'dark' things, what if he sees me like that from now on? And Peter would be afraid of me. Sirius - well, I can't tell him and not tell James. Maybe they won't figure it out; maybe I'll be lucky." He looked up at Lily, seeing the doubt in her eyes, but he remained steadfast nonetheless. "They wouldn't understand."

"I think that they would rather hear it from you than find out on their own," Lily told him softly.

"No."

"But -" Lily raised her voice above his; she hadn't finished speaking. "But, it is your decision. I respect whatever you want to do."

"Thanks, Lily," Remus matched her smile. "You don't know how great this all feels. Now I have someone who understands, as well as friends who don't have to know. Thanks."

"So, what, I'm not your friend?" Lily yelped, but she was only joking, to lighten the mood.

"You know what I mean." He locked eyes with hers. In that short minute in which amber and emerald mixed, Lily gave Remus her reassurance. He gave her his trust.

The two first years continued their walk around the lake. Lily had asked a few questions about Remus' being a werewolf, but he avoided the subject several times so Lily returned their conversation to that of books.

Once they had finished their Cat's Cradle discussion, Lily began to give Remus a detailed explanation regarding all of the reasons for him to read Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain.

"Lil! With the kindest of intentions, I'm telling you to shut up!" Remus laughed after she told him that he 'simply had to read this marvelous interpretation of the written word' for the tenth time.

"When did I ever say I didn't want to read it?" he asked once Lily had stopped speaking.

"Erm..."

"Exactly."

Lily grinned at him. This was how it was supposed to be; she was supposed to be able to talk to him and laugh with him without worrying about anything. Without pretending to not know things she did, or pretending to not care either way.

As they neared the place where they had started from, Lily felt something pleasantly cold and wet drop onto her nose from out of the sky. She looked up and squinted at the bright gray color of the atmosphere. Another of the droplets landed on her cheek. She put a finger to the spot it had hit, and lifted the snowflake down so that she could see it. She was very thankful that her hands were so cold; this also meant that the piece of ice wouldn't melt.

It was tiny, perhaps, but at the same time it was large, for a snowflake. Lily held it up to eye level, reveling in the beauty that was snow. If she squinted hard enough, she could see the lines and contours of the snowflake, see the patterns it made against her own pale, blue-tinged skin. Lily felt amazed that she could see it so well, see the patterns so clearly. But it didn't matter how she did it, simply that she could. She let her mind's eye trace over the geometrical, equally proportioned patterns; watched the ice form tiny irregularities on the edges of the snowflake.

"Lily, what are you doing?" Remus' soft, rather scratchy voice broke into her fascination.

In answer, the redhead flung her arms out into midair and twirled around, face pointed to the snow-spewing sky and long red hair unleashed down her back.

"Snow!"

She spun around slowly, watching the snowfall grow faster and faster.

Two boys watched her as she did this, each thinking the same thing. How can an eleven-year-old be so pretty? And why is it that she, the one girl who would never dream of using makeup or enhancing herself in any physical way, is prettier by far than people like Leanna Thompson?

However, each boy's musings were interrupted when the tiny, wild-haired redhead lost her balance in her poorly soled Mary Janes and slipped on the frozen mud below her feet. One boy rushed forward to help her before she could hit the cold ground.

"Oof! Thanks, Remus!" Lily had grabbed him by the neck to stop herself from falling.

"Anytime," he gasped, massaging his neck where she had grabbed it.

"Sorry about that," Lily grinned at him. "It really was great of you to help me."

"You git!" A voice came from behind Lily and Remus. Lily was suddenly very aware that she was still holding on to Remus' neck. She let go and righted herself hastily, spinning to see who had intruded on their conversation.

"You cheating, lying, traitorous git!" James Potter howled at Remus. "I can't believe you! You - you - you -" He seemed unable to find words severe enough to describe how he was feeling, so instead satisfied himself with throwing a muddy snowball at his friend's face and storming up to the castle.

"Oh, Remus, are you okay?" Lily squealed in an uncharacteristic tone. She was worried for him; that snowball had contained more than just snow and her amber-eyed friend was already in a fairly poor physical condition. She handed him her cloak so that he could wipe the mud, snow, and small pebbles from his face.

"Yeah, fine," he answered inattentively once he had hastily removed the remains of James' snowball. He craned his neck in James' direction in time to see the short boy slam the giant castle door shut.

"What was that about?" Lily also glanced in the direction of James' speedy departure.

"Oh - just James, being - James," Remus explained futilely.

"That's helpful," Lily scoffed.

"Don't ask me to fathom his mind," Remus continued, though he still wouldn't meet Lily's reproachful eyes. "I have no idea what he meant by that!"

His words might have been convincing, but his tone and manner were something else. There was something big going on here, something important that Lily had missed. She didn't like being left out of things, and mentally vowed to find out why James had treated Remus in such a completely uncalled-for way.

It just didn't make sense, she thought to herself as she and Remus turned back toward the castle. Cheating? Lying? Traitorous? What was James on about this time? Could it be true, perhaps, that he hadn't meant anything by what he had said and done?

Somehow, Lily doubted it. She had no idea of the implication of the point she had hit upon, and, more importantly, she was entirely oblivious to how flagrant and how wavering a situation she had stumbled into.