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Lily was thankful that she had decided to put on soft slippers for her trek through the halls instead of any of her other shoes. Her steps, muffled by the soft fabric of her shoes, still sent the soft pad pad pad noises echoing down the hall - the clack of every other shoe she owned would certainly have given her away by now. She crept quietly through the castle, peeking around the corners to make sure there was no one there. There never was, only sleeping portraits illuminated by the lit torches on the walls, the light it produced on the walls flickering and wavering with its movements. Although the castle was cold, the lighting made it seem strangely warm.
Lily had almost reached her destination, the Hospital Wing, when she heard it: whispers and murmurs coming from behind her. She turned around, sure that she had been caught, only to see that there was no one there. Perhaps it was just the portraits - or perhaps it was Peeves, ready to float off to Filch. Peeves usually announced his precense, but Lily was in no mood to find out if today was the day he changed tactics, and walked faster.
She had only walked two more steps before she heard it again, and this time she knew what she heard - it wasn’t Peeves, but it might have been the portraits. She stood still, straining her ears to hear what they were saying, hoping that what they were talking about might give them away as either a human or a painting.
After only a couple seconds of listening carefully, she heard it again, the quiet tap of feet on the floor, the even quieter sound of fabric rustling, and the not-so-quiet sound of whispers and murmurs.
“Hey - that was my foot!”
“Well, it’s not like I can see it.”
“You can see it full well, you prat! We’re all under the cloak.”
“We’re not small enough for this thing anymore-”
Lily looked directly at where the voices were coming from, and found nothing. This set her on edge - even after six years of attending Hogwarts, knowing full well there were plenty of ways to make oneself invisible, the fact that she couldn’t see anyone speaking unnerved her. “Show yourself!” Lily said in a whisper-yell, cutting off the three voices. She pulled her wand out, brandishing it in the general direction of where the voices had come from, sending the same place a glare for good measure.
There was a moment of silence that was broken by a suddenly familiar voice saying, “Evans?” And how many times had she heard that same voice say those same words? It was James Potter, the bane of her existence for all six years she had been at Hogwarts, although lately he hadn’t spoken to her to bother her, hit on her, or otherwise give her any reason to hex him. In fact, he’d also stopped his own hexing of Slytherins in the hallway for no apparent reason, although the pranks on them certainly hadn’t stopped.
“Potter?” If he was here, that meant the other voices must have been-
Sirius Black pulled a shimmery substance off of the three boys, revealing James Potter and Peter Pettigrew, the latter to which Black handed the shimmery thing off to. “Damn it, Prongs, you gave us away.”
Lily suppressed a groan - of all the people she had to run into, it had to be Potter’s Merry Band of Mischief Makers. What was it they called themselves? The Marauders? “What are you doing out here?” Lily said, making sure to keep her voice down.
Potter obviously didn’t have the same issue, and spoke at his normal (loud) volume. “What are you doing out here?”
“Yeah, I thought Ms. Perfect Prefect didn’t break curfew?” Black said, leaning towards her with a smirk.
Lily scowled at him. “I asked you first.”
“We’re here to, uh-” for a fleeting second, Potter actually looked nervous, letting his usual cocky and confident smile slip off his face in favour of biting his lip and letting out a single stutter. It disappeared from his face so fast, however, that Lily thought she must have imagined it - there was no way James Potter, of all people, would feel anything but arrogance, after all, especially when sneaking around at night. Yes, she might have had a couple conversations with him recently that she hadn’t hated, and maybe Potter’s head had deflated quite a bit from last year, but arrogance was still his middle name.
“-take some potions for a prank,” Pettigrew finished.
Lily raised a single disbelieving eyebrow. “From the Hospital Wing?” She gestured to the door outside which they were all currently standing.
All three nodded at once, as serious as could be.
She wasn’t sure what she had been expecting. “Why shouldn’t I tell McGonagall about this first thing tomorrow morning?”
“Because you’re sneaking out too, Evans - and Professor Minnie would be a lot more disappointed in you than she would be in us.” Unfortunately, Black made a good point, and so instead of responding, Lily made her already-angry scowl angrier, which promptly made way for a frown instead as she registered what he had said.
“Professor Minnie?”
“It’s Professor McGonagall’s nickname!”
“She loves it,” Potter added with a solemn nod.
“No, I don’t think she does.”
“How do you kn-” Potter didn’t finish, instead frowning as he caught Black’s eyes, the frown quickly turning into a glare. Lily turned to Black just in time for her to catch the tail end of his teasing grin, but for what reason was still a mystery. “Shut up,” Potter murmured.
Lily turned to the other member of their little group that didn’t seem to be in the know and shot him a questioning look, but Peter just coughed awkwardly and redirected the converstion. “So, you never told us what you were doing out here.”
Damn. Lily had been hoping they had forgotten about it. Because unlike the self-dubbed Marauders, Lily had a good reason for being here - but she couldn’t tell any of them what it was.
It had been only a year since Lily had figured out that the only tolerable member of the Marauders, Remus, was a werewolf. Since then, they had gotten closer, and she had been keeping a careful eye on him, making sure to visit him in the Hospital Wing every month. This time around, however, it had been one of the worse fulls, and Madame Pomfrey hadn’t allowed her to see him earlier. Lily would have left it, but she knew that the Hospital Wing could get lonely after a complete day of solitude (she had experience after a nasty run-in with Bellatrix) and was determined to see him at least once.
She still wasn’t sure if Potter, Black, and Pettigrew were aware of Remus’s secret. On one hand, they did dorm with him and weren’t stupid, no matter how much they seemed like it. On the other hand, they showed no outward sign that they knew anything was up, and all three of them could be rather oblivious, just like how Potter was oblivious to the fact that Lily was not interested - or at least, he had been until the beginning of the year, when his come-ons had come to a screeching halt.
In any case, it was better to play safe than sorry. “I was, uh, getting some Pain Relieving Potions. For, um. Lady problems.”
“Oh.” None of the three looked like they knew what to do with that. There was silence for a minute, before Black said, “So, inside? We won’t tell if you won’t.”
“I don’t suppose I have a choice, do I?” Lily said, not bothering to hold in her sigh this time. She quietly pushed open the door of the Hospital Wing anyway, scanning the area to make sure Madame Pomfrey wasn’t still around.
“Nope!” Black said cheerfully, pushing straight past her, followed by Potter and Pettigrew. They immediately went to one of the bookshelves stocked with potions, but instead of reaching for any of them, just put their heads together and whispered between themselves. Lily removed herself from the doorway - Potter & the Prats would have already given them away anyway - and tried to get closer to hear what they were trying to say, but, maybe because they were aware of her presence this time, their voices were noticeably quieter.
She turned back to the bookshelf she was standing in front of. She couldn’t exactly do anything now - she was sure Remus was in the bed behind the curtain, but she couldn’t go towards it without setting off the Marauders’ suspicion, especially since Remus wasn’t even supposed to be at the castle. He was still sticking with his ‘having to visit his mother’ excuse.
There was nothing else for it. She would have to take a Pain-Relieving Potion and leave. She’d apologize to Remus in the morning.
She winced at the clink of the bottles as she moved them around, trying to find the one with the right label. The other three seemed to have stopped talking, and she could hear the noise the bottles on their side were making as they moved around. They worked in relative silence for the next couple minutes, broken only by the click and clack of their work as they picked out the right bottles, before they were interrupted by a sudden light from behind them.
Lily whipped around, wand out in case it was another student while simultaneously knowing that it was Madame Pomfrey, she had been caught-
“Lily? James, Sirius, Peter? What are you doing here?” Lily relaxed at the sound of the voice before the person’s face even came into focus behind the bright light. It was Remus, still dressed in thin Hospital Wing robes, swaying lightly on his feet and blinking owlishly at them, but it was him.
“Remus!” Lily said, turning to the remaining Marauders as she processed that they had all spoken at the same time. They were looking right back at her, and as soon as they made eye contact, they all hastily turned away to face Remus.
“Remus!” Potter repeated loudly. “Nice to see you, still here, after our prank that went wrong!”
What? Is that was Remus had been telling them? But Potter had said our, so he would have to be there, but if he was there, he would know that Remus hadn’t actually gotten hurt in any prank, so . . . ? Maybe she had overestimated the group's intelligence, she thought, watching the other two nod along, Potter and Black sending (not exactly) subtle glances her way.
Remus seemed just as confused as she did, and she was pretty sure they were wearing matching wtf-ur-so-stupid faces. “What are you talking about, Pro-” Then his eyes met hers, and understanding dawned in his eyes. “Did I not tell you that Lily figured it out?”
Lily watched Potter’s jaw practically hit the ground, while Black’s inky hair created a brief halo around him as he whipped his head around to face her so fast he must have gotten whiplash. “Since when?” Peter yelped.
Lily herself was mildly surprised by the revelation - although she supposed somewhere, in the back of her mind, she had always suspected it. Oblivious or not, it would take a special brand of stupid not to figure out something fishy was up after five years rooming with the guy. “When did they figure it out?”
Remus waved a hand around, upsetting his already iffy balance. “She figured it out last year. They did it in second year.” He raised an eyebrow as the four of them turned to look at each other, again in perfect sync, this time with incredulous expressions. “Why so surprised?”
“I’m not surprised,” Black said, composing himself quickly. “It just . . . caught me by surprise.”
“Oh, really?” Remus said dryly. “James, aren’t you always yammering on about how smart Lily is?” Lily rolled her eyes. Remus noticed and shot her an amused smile.
“Yeah, James, what about that?” Black jeered, ruffling Potter’s hair playfully, likely glad to have Remus’s judgemental stare on someone else.
Potter batted his hands away. “Yes! I don’t doubt that she could do it, it’s just . . . you took a long time telling us she did!”
Remus sighed heavily. “I suppose I did, but-” He cut himself off with a noise of surprise as his failing balance got the better of him, and he tilted to one said, face en route to the floor. Lily jumped forward in the hopes of catching him before his face reached its destination, but Potter’s Quidditch reflexes bested her, and he was already there, wrapping Remus’s arm around his shoulders.
“Back into bed, then, mate,” he said, gently leading Remus back to the curtain and the bed behind it. Black caught up to them with Pettigrew on his heels.
“We brought chocolate, too!” Pettigrew added.
“We all know you can’t make a day without it, and Madame Pomfrey wouldn’t let us in earlier.”
Remus laughed softly as they all disappeared behind the curtain. Lily lagged behind, first watching, then listening to the group of boys. She had never liked three out of four of them very much, and she couldn’t understand why the one she could stand, was friends with them. But, seeing them now, late at night, voices soft but their laughter filling the silence just as well, she caught a glimpse of the side of the Marauders that Remus must have been intimately familiar with.
She smiled softly. Remus was in good hands, as much as it pained her to admit it. She made to leave, but was cut off by Potter. “Evans?”
She turned to him expectantly, saying nothing. He ran a hand through his hair and said, “You can stay, if you want.” He looked at her for a second hopefully, before realizing how that must have sounded and backtracked quickly. “And I’m not hitting on you, or anything! It’s just, well, you’re one of Remus’s friends too. You’re already breaking curfew,” it seemed James couldn’t help himself here and shook his head in mock judgement. Lily hated the fact that she was tempted to laugh, “so if you want to spend a couple minutes with us . . .” He tilted his head towards the curtain, from which Lily could hear more laughter and cheerful voices, although she couldn’t make out what they were saying.
Bathed in the soft lights from the candles on the wall, happy noises painting the background, hand still in his hair, James Potter looked less arrogant than she had ever seen him. Looked like someone she could spend a couple minutes with, if only for Remus. So she nodded, and joined the happy gathering behind Remus’s curtain, a warmth in her stomach that she never thought could stem from the Marauders.