If James Potter had been popular before, he was now a fixture of public gossip. Not only was he promoted to Head Boy—a decision that surprised students and a few staff members alike—but rumors about his relationship with a reluctant red-head were being tossed about and picked at like chickens going after their feed.

Remus was prepared for James' and Lily's relationship to alter the dynamic of their own little clique, but he wasn't sure how. Initially, James assured his friends that "nothing would change." If anything, he said, the other three would now have a direct inroad to Lily's set of close-knit friends—three of the most popular girls at Hogwarts, who had previously abhorred James out of loyalty and the other Marauders by association. The reassurance, though uttered with complete sincerity, was flimsy and wouldn't endure through the first week of school, Remus reckoned.

Sure enough, the first awkward incident arose during breakfast the morning after they arrived. To start with, Remus and Sirius waited nearly five minutes for James—who they supposed was dressing in the bathroom—so they could walk down together as they'd done regularly the past six years, only to be informed by Peter that James already departed the dormitory with Lily nearly 15 minutes prior.

As they made their way toward the Great Hall, Sirius grumbled, "He could have at least mentioned to us that he was going," more annoyed than was warranted, in Remus' opinion.

"Maybe he thought he had," Remus shrugged.

When they arrived at their normal table, James was not there, or anywhere in the hall, for that matter. Neither was Lily. His notable absence made Sirius even grumpier.

"Where the hell is he? They left before us. He should be here by now."

Remus wanted to joke about James' location probably being somewhere in the proximity of Lily's knickers, but Sirius' irritability—likely triggered by his highly sensitive and deeply rooted fear of abandonment—deterred the werewolf. Still, he couldn't help casting the black-haired teen a look that conveyed he was daft if he couldn't figure out the reason for the lovers' delay. Sirius' countenance merely darkened in response.

Searching down the long table, Remus spotted Mary Macdonald, Marlene McKinnon, and Alice Fortescue glancing around for their roommate and looking similarly disgruntled. Mary nudged Alice and pointed toward the door, giving a small shake of her head though the corner of her mouth tilted up in a mischievous smirk.

James and Lily were making their way toward the Gryffindor table, fingers intertwined and looking conspicuously chuffed. That is, until they were fixed with six sets of eyes, most of them full of expectation, a few accusation. Upon impact, both had the decency to look slightly abashed. Then, James whispered something into Lily's ear. She rolled her eyes and gave him a swift peck on the cheek before turning away toward her friends and setting his hand free so he could do the same.

Remus couldn't explain why he was struck by a sense of awkward embarrassment, but he curiously considered the emotion while Sirius immediately poked at James with verbal barbs that blanketed his lurking reproach with what was meant to be playful teasing.

True to form, time reliably turned the situation from different and unusual to ordinary, if not comfortable, in a matter of weeks. The Marauders grew accustomed to fewer sightings of James, and Remus sensed his relationship with Lily widening and shifting, as well. While the different environment made it easier for Remus and Sirius to conceal their relationship, Remus found his acceptance of the change to be rather grudging. Sirius was downright riotous.

"It's a well-known and tired trope isn't it?" He mumbled bitterly to Remus one afternoon as they waited for James so they could stage a long anticipated heist to procure several rare potion-making ingredients from Slughorn's secret stash. He was already 26 minutes late, and Sirius' face darkened with each passing moment. "Boy meets girl. Boy abandons his friends like a love-obsessed idiot, flagrantly disrespecting the sacred ties of camaraderie. It's disloyal, Moony, that's what it is. I thought Prongs was better than this."

Remus nodded, not trusting his words, fearing they would only cause Sirius' anger to compound and his own anxiety to materialize.

"And during year seven, none the less! Our last opportunity to make memories and leave a lasting mark on the school. And he's off gallivanting and not aiding the cause."

"I'm fairly certain, all hijinks and shenanigans from the past six years considered, we've done a decent job 'leaving our mark,' even if –"

"That's not the point, Moony!"

"Well, what do you want me to say, Padfoot?"

"I want you to be appropriately outraged and help me devise a plan to show Prongs the error of his ways. Before we've passed the point of no return, and the Marauders are all for naught."

"A plan…?" Remus repeated skeptically. "As opposed to merely sitting him down for a chat and expressing how we feel about the situation?"

Sirius scoffed. "Certainly, Moony. What an ace idea! Let's simply tell Prongs, 'You're acting like a right selfish wanker and we're fed up with it. So if you could stop being a total prick, this might be salvageable –'"

"Not like that!" Remus interjected with a heavy sigh and roll of his eyes. "…Obviously."

Sirius opened his mouth to retort when they were interrupted by the huffing of a fagged James. For a moment, Sirius' face contorted with the heightening emotions he was about to unleash, and Remus was prepared to let him lash out when he noticed something was off. James' face was flushed crimson, but not with cheer. His eyes flashed, not with excitement, but anger and even a bit of malice.

Remus put a firm hand on Sirius' shoulder to curtail his forthcoming outburst. "What's wrong, Prongs?"

"I…she…that fucking prat!" he spluttered between great heaves. His arms, bent by his sides, seemed to quiver, starting at his shoulders down through clenched fists. The next breath he drew also shivered with rage. "Fucking Snape…the bastard… That jealous, pathetic bastard."

Sirius' mouth formed a thin line, his eyes widening with alarm. "What? What happened? Prongs?"

"He told her," James choked out at last.

"Told… Lily?" Remus guessed helpfully, urging James to continue. "Told her what?"

So unprepared was Remus, so unsuspecting and momentarily forgetful of the most sensitive, private information Snape possessed, that when James uttered his response, the noise passed through his mind leaving only a trace… a completely implausible, unbelievable trace.

"What?" Remus whispered urgently, needing that trace to be expunged at once. Or worse, made a shade darker by confirmation.

James took another rough breath and slowly turned his gaze toward Remus, his eyes now shining with the threat of unbidden tears. "About you," he repeated unwillingly. "You being… being a w-werewolf."

"What. The. Fuck?" Sirius seemed to bite out each individual word. "Why? Why...the hell-

"Because," James responded maniacally, his tongue loosened at last. "Because he reckons it will turn Lily against Remus, and against us. That if she knows we're friends with a m—," he paused even in his unabashed anger to correct the word, which would have reflected Snape's opinion not his own. "Friends with a werewolf, that it will make us… make me…seem untrustworthy. Or… dangerous? Evil? I don't even fucking know! Makes no sense in the first place, does it? I can't penetrate that snake's malicious, twisted thinking!"

"He simply wants you to suffer. To hurt you." Sirius' eyes were downcast. His voice was calm. Dangerously so, Remus recognized, although he himself was standing stock-still, his voice lodged uncomfortably in his throat and an unsettling numbness taking root somewhere deep inside of him.

At last he spoke, grasping for the only thin line of rational thought swinging in his mind.

"What did Lily say," he swallowed, "when she told you?"

"Nothing," James rubbed a hand over her face. "I mean, I didn't talk to her. I went searching for her, wanted to let her know I'd meet up with her later tonight… after we finished up here… and I found her in the library, with Snape. I was confused," his face reddened with shame as he confessed, "and got a little worked up, to be honest. Probably showed, too. But when I approached them, she just gave me this strange look."

His mind preoccupied with recollecting the severe lines of her brows and twist of her lips, the words dribbled into silence.

"And?" Remus snapped, alarm and incomprehension clipping the word with sharp urgency.

James shook his head, jaw clenched and eyes ignited once again. "She just stared at me for a moment – and then bolted away – I was going to follow her. But Snape stopped me. And he… fucking bastard… he let me know…what he had told her. Nattered away, taunting me with shite about needing to 'protect her' and 'keeping her safe.' But that look on his face. Fuck, Padfoot. I wish you had seen it. I was torn between beating the hell out of him and chasing after her. Obviously that's what I did. I couldn't find her, though, and then I realized how late it was, and that you all would be waiting."

The energy wrung out of him, James sank down into a squat, resting his face in his hands. Remus allowed the information to dance through his mind, twirling and refusing to be subdued for closer examination. Try as he might, he couldn't contain it. He just felt each emotion zipping in carelessly, unconscientiously. Zip – there was nausea. Zip – then came blind terror. Zip, zip – alarm, anger. Accumulating into a senseless barrage of sensation.

Then the silence was broken by a sound that tore through the storm in Remus' mind and stabbed at his heart.

"It's my fault." Sirius' voice was so brittle with guilt and anguish it took Remus a moment to recognize it, and when he did, he wanted to take the unnatural sound, massage it, stretch it and return it to its former buoyancy, plucked with laughter and snapped with sarcasm.

"Padfoot," Remus reached with a searching hand for his friend's rigid shoulder.

"All my fault," Sirius ignored the touch. "Fuck… I thought it was over. I can't," his eyes squeezed shut and it took several seconds for him to find his voice again, "Can't believe he would do that. Damn it…. Damn…"

As if participating in some demented relay race, the guilt seemed to pass involuntarily to Remus.

"No," he responded. "It's mine. I'm the monster," he continued, adding a sardonic punch to the detestable word. "You're my friends… it's not your fault I am the way I am –"

"Remus, stop it," Sirius interjected forcefully. "That's bollocks and you know it. What have we told you about using that term? Now shut the hell up. If I hadn't been a bastard and led Snape to you – "

"Sirius. We already settled that matter! We dealt with it, and it's not worth it to talk about it."

"Obviously, it is!" Sirius' voice was rising to counter the resolve weighting Remus' own words. He stepped forward, capturing Remus' calm, amber eyes with glinting silver. "Look what's happened now! And who knows what other consequences are forthcoming…. All because of that one, stupid mistake."

"Padfoot! It's in the past," Remus retorted, feeling the rise of anger. "I've put my mates in this position and I – "

"Stop. It!" James roared unexpectedly, causing the other two to whip around in shock. "Stop."

"Prongs –"

"No." James shot up so he was once again level with his friends. "This is madness. No one is to blame except that pathetic piece of vermin. But you know what? It is what it is."

Sirius' brow furrowed and he appeared ready to contradict James, when the latter forcefully continued his explanation. "Remus is a part of my life. And being a werewolf is part of who he is. That won't change. Ever. Neither will our friendship. If Lily is going to be my girlfriend… if we are going to make this last past a childish fling, then she has to accept it. Because we will never change. And we've spent six years with you, Moony, and we're no worse for the wear. She was bound to find out eventually. And if she won't accept that…won't accept you for all that you are…then," his voice faltered and disappointment flooded his eyes for a mere second before he concluded emphatically, "then, her and I won't be able to last."

Stinging tears had long since started burning Remus' eyes, threatening to spill over, but he couldn't find his voice to make any sort of verbal declaration of the impact James' words had on him. Meanwhile, Sirius grabbed James in a rough embrace, much needed after the weeks of uncomfortable tension infiltrating their friendship.

James buried his face in Sirius' neck, still distraught, and Remus at last found the capability to speak, muttering reverently, "We will never change," as he gripped James' shoulder.

Although Remus was comforted to know James would prioritize friendship over his romantic relationship, and he was pleased Sirius and James were getting along as they had not since the beginning of the school year, he couldn't help waiting with baited breath to see how this would further affect his relationship with Lily—a relationship he wasn't sure he had the willpower to let go of easily.

He first had an opportunity to gauge the impact of Snape's untimely revelation during his shared Arithmancy class with Lily the next day. When he arrived at Professor Vector's classroom, however, Lily was already seated with Edna Young, a seventh-year Ravenclaw who was taking the shared class with Gryffindor. That itself was an unsettling sign.

Although Edna and Lily were fair enough friends, she typically sat with Remus for the class. When Remus caught her eye and smiled, she returned the greeting briefly before distracting herself by fiddling with her elegant quill. Remus felt his heart sink slightly, but he resignedly took an empty seat next to another Ravenclaw he had worked with on the rare occasion Lily was sick and missing from class.

Remus was hard-pressed to focus on the finer details of Professor Vector's lecture while his mind was threatening him with wild theories about how if this was any indication of the life he could expect to live, then it wasn't bloody worth it.

Lily was supposed to his friend. If this is how she reacted to learning about his true nature than what could he expect from strangers on the outside? What recourse was there but to keep his identity concealed indefinitely? Month after month, year after year, never demonstrating any indication that beneath his collected, intelligent exterior lurked an extremely volatile beast that Remus had little power to control.

"Lupin?"

Professor Vector's robust voice cut through his reverie. Remus glanced up, startled.

"What would be the probability of Outcome C taking into consideration those statistical values of variables x, y, and z?"

Remus tried to mentally do the math as quickly as possible to conceal the fact he hadn't been listening, but couldn't navigate the web of concerns currently fogging his brain. "I…I don't have it quite figured out… sorry," he mumbled. Professor Vector raised her eyebrows in surprise but moved on, calling on Edna instead. Remus involuntarily glanced over at Lily. Her eyes were fixed on him, but she once again blushed and looked away when he caught her gaze.

Flustered, Remus determined he would not endure this sort of cowardly behavior, especially from Lily. If you have something to say, he pictured himself commanding Lily in his head, then just bloody say it. What do you have to lose? You're the normal one.

However, when he did manage to catch up with her after class, his boldness seemed to be dissipating.

"Lily," he called out, coming even with her as she hurried toward the Great Hall. She had the decency to stop and Remus was surprised to see her eyes were misty.

"Remus," she started, but she seemed at a loss of where to direct he conversation.

Irritated, Remus pressed on unsympathetically. "Well?"

"Well what?"

"Don't do that." Remus couldn't help the hurt from making his words hard and unyielding. "Don't play dumb with me, Evans. You're better than that."

Ever prepared for a rise and egged on by the use of her surname, Lily spat back, "Why shouldn't I, Lupin? You've been playing for the past six years, haven't you? Pretending, playing, lying."

"Playing at what exactly?"

"You had plenty of opportunities to be honest with me!" Lily continued, her color of her face starting to mimic her braided hair, "Opportunities to tell me you were… are…that," she was still unable to articulate the forbidden word at the root of her discomfort.

"Yes, I'm a werewolf," Remus said, unable to bear the evasion, the shame that was demanded when a topic wasn't supposed to be breached. He had learned confronting the truth head-on was the only way to start undermining the stigma. "But I haven't pretended to be anything I'm not."

"But your friends have a right to know. To be informed, so they can…," Lily seemed as confused by what she was saying as Remus was. "I don't know. It's just not right. To hide a truth like that, especially from people who trust you. To put on such a massive charade."

"Being a werewolf doesn't define me," Remus responded simply, feeling the unmistakable urge to cry. "Any more than being a Muggle defines you."

Lily's lips clamped shut, and for a moment, the only audible sounds were the deep breaths causing her chest to heave and the clamoring of students as they anticipated what delectable dishes would be served for dinner. Remus held her gaze, wishing he could make this unexpected ugliness go away with the mere force of his will. "Lily…" he started again, noting with relief that his voice was softer this time.

"Everything alright, Lily?"

A ferocity unlike any he had yet experienced began to bubble angrily in his chest as Remus turned toward the speaker. Severus Snape was standing there, but it wasn't so much his presence as the look on face that had Remus' blood boiling. He looked worried, genuinely concerned, for Lily, as though the safety of her physical and mental wellbeing was in question simply because she stood within Remus' reach.

"Are you alright? He didn't threaten to hurt you, did he?" Snape continued, placing a protective hand on Lily's forearm. Remus felt his mouth drop open at the insinuation, the anger slightly giving way to shock and disbelief. He barely registered the look of incredulity Lily turned on Snape, before she whipped around, her braid swinging like a cord of crimson, and broke into a jog as she headed back in the direction of Gryffindor tower.

Remus' feet seemed rooted to floor and he could not move his eyes from Snape, who watched Lily depart and then turned back toward Remus with a look of disdainful triumph.

"Would you be so obliged as to inform Black that he should think twice next time before so carelessly and cruelly revealing your true nature? The next person to find out might not have my…uh, restraint, if you know what I mean. You are well aware, I would assume, of how the general public feels about dangerous animals."

By the time Remus could regret giving Snape the middle finger as opposed to whipping out his wand and giving him a gigantic hex, the haughty-faced Slytherin had already spat at the ground and turned his attention toward Mulciber and Avery, who were passing by on their way to dinner. Remus' fingers reflexively curled around his wand, but his ingrained good manners wouldn't allow him to cast a spell at someone with their back turned, no matter how hateful and deserving they were.

Instead, he backed up to rest against the wall, closing his eyes and willing himself not to break into tears. He knew Snape and Lily had a history that predated their friendship, but he hadn't realized the magnitude of the Slytherin's influence over her, how much weight she would give his opinion simply because he was her first bridge to the wizarding world.

And yet he hates Muggles, Remus was appalled rather than amused by the cruel irony.

"Moony?"

The rich, deep voice gave him the first bit of pleasure he'd had all day. Slowly opening his eyes, Remus' pleasure was furthered upon finding Sirius approaching, his silky hair curling to his shoulders, his tie hanging loosely, and his eyebrows sharply tented.

"Padfoot," he smiled, impulsively reaching for Sirius' hand before stopping to consider that they were in a public place. But a quick glance around told him they were alone, at least for the time being, with the majority of the student body happily eating their fill in the Great Hall.

Sirius didn't hesitate before cupping Remus' chin and giving him a slow, thorough kiss, his tongue gently brushing against Remus' upper lip. Remus relaxed into the kiss, allowing it to sweep away at his lingering anguish. His free hand pressed into the small of Sirius' back, pulling him closer and closer so he could continue extracting a sense of peace and comfort from his boyfriend's sweet and solid presence.

"What is it?" Sirius gasped, finally pulling back from Remus' mouth. Remus reluctantly let him go, although he would have preferred snogging to discussing his ugly emotions at the moment. "What's wrong?"

Remus sighed, turning his face so he could press another kiss to the warm palm Sirius was still resting upon his jaw. "I just…" He paused, considering for a second whether it was worth recounting his awful interaction with Snape. If he did, he knew full-well he was risking an all-out assault on not only Snape but his entire band of Slytherin comrades. James and Sirius wouldn't rest until the group was thoroughly punished, and even the threat of expulsion wouldn't be enough to deter them. The thought made Remus smile inwardly at the depth of his friends' loyalty.

"Just…?" Sirius turned Remus' face back toward him so they were once again looking at each other. His silver eyes betrayed his concern.

"Just… I spoke with Lily," Remus explained, deciding to give Snape another day to live. "I don't," he swallowed the painful lump that had returned to his throat when he recalled the way her face had twisted with confusion, and pain, and even a hint of fear. "I don't," he continued slowly so he could manage to push the words out, one by one if need be, "think that we will be…seeing much of her for a time."

Sirius didn't need additional words to fully comprehend to meaning of the ones Remus had already uttered. His jaw flexed dangerously, but to Remus' great relief, he didn't burst into rage, or even give way to frustration. He merely shook his head, his black hair brushing his shoulders as he did so, and sighed through his nose.

"I'm sorry, Moony," he wrapped both arms around the taller boy, pressing his hands into Remus' shoulder blades. Remus felt Sirius' warm breath on his exposed neck as he returned the embrace. "I'm sorry. But it's like Prongs said. You're not alone. You have us, and that won't change. You'll never be alone."