! ! ! DISCLAIMER ! ! !

Do I look anything like the fantastic author J.K. Rowling?

...Well, since you can't see me, I'll just tell you that NO, I don't. Sorry!

A/N: This is my second publicly shared FanFiction. (To read more about my first attempts at writing FanFics, see my bio...)

EJDimera'sGirl - I definitely agree...the world could use more Lilemus paring stories! ;) I'm so glad you're loving it so far, and I'm sorry this wasn't posted sooner!

EmberlynnFaye - I'm so glad you're enjoying it so far! I just hope you don't kill me for writing this chapter... *hides behind pillow fort*

And just a warning to all my readers: Chapter Four is not gonna be a happy chappy. Just warning ya.

Many thanks to my good friend Alex H. for giving me inspiration to finish this chapter...it wouldn't be posted right now if it weren't for her!

And thank you to Animorphs007 for reading through every single one of my fanfics I've ever written...she's been a big help!

This is actually an idea that has been bouncing around in my head for some time now. It started back when I was looking for some fanart I could use for my OC on a Harry Potter Roleplay website called Wizmail. My character (Maggie Weasley) has red hair and green eyes and was dating Remus Lupin's son, so I started looking for Lily/Remus fanart. I discovered that, apparently, Lily/Remus isn't a very popular pairing used in fanart, or fanfiction for that matter. That's when I started pondering the idea of writing one of my own. It was around that time that I read Bloody Phantom's Harry PotterLupin? and finally found inspiration for my first Lily/Remus fanfic. Enjoy!

Scared For My Health,

~M.M.W.

Moon Lilies

Chapter Four – Full Moon Aftermath

(I am looking for a new title for this chapter! I don't really like this one, but I can't seem to find anything better...if I pick your idea, you'll be credited in this chapter!)

"MADAME POMFREY!"

The nurse woke to someone pounding furiously on the Hospital Wing door. She muttered angrily to herself about students disturbing the patients as she pulled on her dressing gown and bustled across the dark ward. She opened the door and found a frantic, ashen-faced Peter Pettigrew standing in the hall, bouncing on the balls of his feet, wringing his hands, and glancing over his shoulder every few seconds.

"What is it, Mr. Pettigrew?" she asked tiredly, still a bit groggy with sleep.

"It's Remus!" Peter squeaked, looking terrified. "He's–He's—"

"What?" Madame Pomfrey asked, suddenly alert. Last night had been the full moon, but the boys weren't supposed to fetch Remus for another forty minutes, just to be safe. What in the world were they thinking? Judging by the sky outside, the sun had only begun to rise a quarter of an hour ago. "Do you realize how dangerous it is for you to go down there this early?"

"Y-Yes," Peter said, his voice high-pitched and desperate. "But that's not - we weren't - we were careful! And Remus is really hurt!"

"How badly?" she asked, fear and worry swelling in her chest. "Where is he?"

"J-James and Sirius are bringing him," Peter said hurriedly. "They told me to run ahead and wake you. They're—"

Poppy pushed past him into the corridor when she heard footsteps coming from down the hall.

"Careful–careful!" said a voice in a loud whisper. "Watch the step, Pads."

"Sorry, Prongs," a second voice muttered. "Can we take the cloak off yet?"

"Wait 'till we get into the Hospital Wing," the first hissed back. "So no-one sees by accident."

"Black, Potter," Madame Pomfrey said in the direction of the staircase. "You can take that thing off, there's no-one else nearby."

"Pomfrey!" the first voice – James Potter – said, the relief evident in his voice. "Thank Merlin – nice work, Pete."

"Hey, could you help us get this thing off?" the second – Sirius Black – said. Peter hurried in their direction and felt around for the invisible fabric. When he managed to pull it off of the other boys, Poppy gasped. James' robes were ripped and dirty with dark stains in multiple places. His hair was in complete disarray – worse than usual – and his glasses were askew, with some red smudges visible on the lenses. He was bleeding from a cut on his eyebrow.

Sirius didn't look much different, aside from the blood smeared down the side of his face and the split lip he was now sporting. He was also walking oddly, as if it hurt to move too much.

The worst of the three was the boy being supported between the other two. They were holding him up by his arm, which were slung over each of their shoulders, and his head was drooping against his chest. They had obviously dressed him in a hurry, because he was wearing only his boxers and a white button-up shirt that was hanging open in the front. Remus' arms (or what she could see of them, anyway) were covered with scratches and bite marks, his legs were marred with deep cuts, and he was bleeding from large gashes on his chest and sides. She couldn't tell how injured his face was because it was covered in blood.

Poppy felt faint. Remus hadn't returned from a full moon in this poor of condition since his first year. Even the incident in his fifth year paled in comparison to his current state.

"Get him inside," the nurse said faintly. "Quickly."

~ J ~ H ~ P ~

I hadn't seen Moony this bad in years. Since 5th year, in fact. The night before had been the worst full moon I'd ever gone through, and even being an animagus hadn't helped much. I had somehow managed to get off with nothing worse than a large bruise on my shoulder from hitting the ground, when Padfoot had knocked me out of the way to take the worst of Moony's blow. Sirius ended up with a deep gash in his side from Moony's claws, but he had bandaged it up afterwards without much complaint.

It was Remus I was really worried about. He had collapsed moments after the sun had risen and he had turned back into a human. It didn't take a genius to figure out he was in bad shape, hell, the amount of blood was enough to make it obvious. Sirius hadn't said much yet since we sent Peter to tell Madame Pomfrey we were on our way. I could tell he was worried, too.

As we laid Remus down on the nearest bed in the Hospital Wing, it became apparent to me just how small he really was. Lycanthropy had taken a serious toll on his health. He was shorter than both Sirius and I, and extremely thin, and much too light. I made a mental note to make sure he ate better in the future.

"I think it would be best if you three went back to your common room," Madame Pomfrey muttered, worry etched in every inch of her face.

"No," I said immediately. "We've been with him all night. We're not leaving him now." It was out of my mouth before I could even register what I was saying.

"I-I beg your pardon?" the nurse choked, her eyes wide with shock. "All night?!"

I felt the colour drain from my face as Sirius closed his eyes and groaned.

"Prongs!" he said through gritted teeth. "You're been on our arses about keeping this thing a secret for two bloody years, and you're the one who finally lets the cat out of the bag?" He let out a humourless laugh before continuing, his voice laced with bitter sarcasm. "Just brilliant, mate. Just bloody-f*cking-PERFECT!"

"Dammit, Pads, I'm sorry!" I said, mentally berating myself for the stupid slip-up. Peter just stood there, staring at me in shocked horror.

"What are you talking about?" Poppy snapped, a bit on edge because of recent events.

"Listen, Madame Pomfrey," I said putting on my most charming smile. "I'd love to tell you all about it, but I believe Remus here is in serious condition and requires immediate medical attention."

"Very well, you can stay," the nurse said waspishly. "But I expect a full explanation the moment I'm through with him."

~ S ~ O ~ B ~

"So, we began doing some research– we didn't tell Remus, of course – to try and find a way to help him. 'Course there's not many ways you can help a werewolf. It's not like there's a cure..."

I wasn't listening to James, not completely. I had both hands clenched in my hair as I tried not to look at Remus. Yeah, I know...weird, right? Sirius Black, not even concerned about how horribly messy his hair looked.

But here's the thing.

Remus was in bad shape, and for the first time since this whole animagus thing started, I was seriously concerned about whether he would make it through this or not. With the blood cleaned up and his wounds as healed as they could get with his Lycanthropy, I'd finally gotten a good look at how bad last night had been.

Three deep lines, red and enflamed, ran almost parallel to one another from the left of his mouth up to his right eyebrow. That was were Moony's claws had done the most damage.

"...then the summer before our fifth year, Pete and Sirius stayed at my place. We'd 'borrowed' books from the library – don't tell Madame Pince – and my parents' library is rather large, so we had those books to work with as well. We managed to figure out the potions and spells we needed and started practicing. It wasn't easy, but—"

You practiced illegal animagus transformations, without supervision?!"

"No!" James said defensively. "How daft do you think we are?" I heard Peter let out a cough that sounded suspiciously like 'Very'. "No, my dad helped us, after we explained why we were doing it. And after he screamed his head off about breaking the law and how it would make him look, of course..."

They had done so much to make sure Remus didn't have to go through any more life-threatening full moons, and he'd still gotten hurt. He, Sirius, should have been able to stop this!

"...Well, I'm a stag, hence the name 'Prongs,'" James said. "Wormtail is a rat, and Padfoot here is a dog. And of course, Remus is Moony, because—"

"Lily..."

My head snapped up at the sound of Remus' voice. James had cut off mid-sentence with his eyes fixed on Moony, looking much like a deer in the headlights. (In fact, if the situation hadn't been so serious - no pun intended - I would have laughed.) Peter fidgeted in his seat and Madame Pomfrey stood up. I looked over at James.

"Lily?" I mouthed. He just shrugged, confusion evident on his face. We both looked back at Remus when his eyes suddenly flew open and he sat bolt-upright. He hissed in pain and allowed the nurse to carefully lover him back onto his pillows.

"Wh-Where's...Lily?" he said with difficulty, wincing.

"Probably still in bed, mate," James said flatly.

"I'll get her," I said quietly. I understood that look in his eyes – he needed her. Why he needed her, I wouldn't even attempt to figure out, but I wanted to do whatever I could to help Remus out. I left the Hospital Wing, waving off James' questioning look.

~ L ~ R ~ E ~

"Evans!"

I was startled awake by someone shaking my shoulder. I turned my head to look at them and cringed at how stiff my neck was. I must've fallen asleep by the window...

"Black?" I muttered, rubbing the sleep from my eyes. "What do you want?" Then, with a jolt and rush of emotions, I remembered why I was using the hard stone wall as a pillow. I had fallen asleep sitting on the window sill, staring at the moon and worrying about– "Remus!" I gasped. "How is he?"

"Not good," Black said, his back to me. "He was asking for you."

"He was?" I straightened up and stretched to loosen my stiff joints. Ugh...I'd never fall asleep by a window again.

"Yes, he was," Black said, glancing back in my direction. "In fact, your name was the first thing he said when he woke up."

As he said this, he turned around to face me fully, and I felt my face drain of all colour at the sight of the blood on his face and robes. Was that...was that his own blood? Or was it...Re...

"C'mon, Evans," Black said, impatiently puling me by the wrist towards the portrait hole.

"Alright, alright!" I tugged my hand free and followed him at a hurried pace.

~ R ~ J ~ L ~

Fuzzy images floated in an out of view, none of them clear and all of them with an underlying thickness of emotion — of longing, desire, protectiveness, need —

Lily...

I suddenly found myself sitting bolt-upright on an all-too-familiar hospital bed.

Pain. That was the first thing I registered when I woke up. And all-over bodily pain that was nearly as bad as being burned by silver. Almost.

I bit back a sob and let the Matron lower me gently back onto the pillows. I tried to blink, but immediately regretted it when it made my entire face hurt. What the hell happened last night?

I could see James and Sirius sitting at my bedside, and Peter shifting somewhere in the background, but—

"Wh-Where's Lily?" I asked, wincing at the pain it caused. My throat was dry and felt sore, and my voice sounded horse and gravelly. I was barely able to register Sirius' response of, "I'll get her," before James shoved a glass of water into my hands.

"Thanks," I rasped, sipping from the cup gratefully.

"Why Lily?" James asked quietly after a moment. My heart rate quickened and my hand holding the glass shook slightly. How was I supposed to answer that? I lowered the glass and frowned, trying to decide whether or not I should tell Prongs the truth. "You have all of us here, helping you out, and the first thing you do is ask for Lily?"

My head snapped up in surprise and I winced at the sudden movement. James was staring at me intensely, but he didn't look suspicious – he looked hurt. Behind him, Peter had a similar expression on his face.

"It's not like that," I said in a hoarse whisper. "Lily – she was quite distraught yesterday. She was worrying about the full moon, so I promised I'd let her know how I was in the morning." I let my eyes and drift closed. That was the truth, but not the reason I had asked for Lily. I felt this inexplicable…need to be beside her, to see her…

I felt James relax beside me and it seemed as though my quickly – fabricated "lie" had worked. I lay there in silence, trying desperately not to move a single muscle, as it seemed every miniscule iota of movement caused me pain.

After what seemed like hours, the Hospital Wing door opened, and a loud, very feminine gasp filled the room. I heard running footsteps and cracked my eyes open to see a very scared-looking Lily Evans standing by the bed.

"Oh, gods, Remus—" she choked out. I felt her grip my hand as she collapsed into what had, earlier, been Padfoot's chair.

"Hey, Lil," I murmured. Seeing how concerned she was for my well-being, I couldn't help but smile. I squeezed her hand to let her know I was okay, and felt some of the pain and tightness in my chest fade. Whoever said love wasn't magical?

~ L ~ R ~ E ~

Saying that Remus was "Not good," as Black had oh–so–verbosely put it, was an extreme understatement. "Not good" was having a serious bite or a deep scratch. "Not good" was having, maybe, one extra day of recovery in the Hospital Wing. "Not good" was NOT the phrase I would have chosen to describe how Remus was doing.

I pushed open the Hospital Wing doors and looked around until my eyes fell on the only occupied bed in the ward. I started walking towards it, and it was then that Potter decided to step aside, allowing me full view of the bed.

My gasp echoed around the near-vacant room and I was at Remus' bedside in an instant.

"Oh, gods, Remus—" I choked back a sob and clamped a hand over my mouth, the other reaching out desperately to find his. I felt my knees giving way and I sank into the chair behind me, not even caring that it was Potter who sat next to me.

"Hey, Lil," Remus murmured, his voice hoarse and scratchy and weak. He flashed me a pained smile from behind the scars that marred his pale skin. I was vaguely aware of the nurse standing over my shoulder, watching us all like a hawk.

"Hey, Poppy, could you maybe leave us alone for a few?" Black asked. Remus let out a wheezy sigh.

"I apologize for his lack of tact, Madame Pomfrey," he said politely, though I could tell it was taking everything he had just to keep his voice steady. "But I would like to have a few minutes to speak with my friends alone, if that's alright with you."

"Yes, of course, Remus," the nurse said warmly. I would bet my last knut that she glared at Black as she left.

"So, what…what happened?" I breathed when I had found my voice. A small voice in the back of my head was telling me I really didn't want to know.

"Moony went bloody mental last night," Black muttered, sitting on the end of Remus' bed.

"Yeah," Potter nodded. "I've never seen him like that before. We had to keep him inside the shack because he kept trying to get back to the castle. It was mad!"

"And when he couldn't get out of the shack, he got really angry," Pettigrew squeaked. "He started attacking himself."

"We really tried to stop him, mate," Black said apologetically to Remus. "But – you know what Moony can be like. When he wants something, it's really hard to stop him. He can be brutally strong."

"I know, Padfoot," Remus said weakly. "I'm just glad I made it back at all. Thank you."

We sat in a tense silence, during which a very annoying thought kept pestering me. What they had just told me simply didn't make sense.

You see, last year, Potter had slipped up and mentioned something about watching "Moony" tackle a Niffler in the Forbidden Forest last full moon. That, of course, set off alarms in my head and I demanded to know what the hell they were doing out there during the full moon, and how they even managed to survive the night.

"We go out every full moon," Potter had said. "Have been since last year."

"How?" I'd asked, horrified at the thought. I was entirely certain they were all off their rocker.

"Er...brooms," Black had supplied. "We fly above the trees and watch him to make sure we know where he is at sunrise."

And that had been that. Their explanation made sense. They knew what happened every full moon, and they always came back looking a little scuffed up, probably from descending through the trees at sunrise.

But what they had just told me didn't quite fit. Potter had said that they'd had to "keep him inside the shack," and according to Black, they had "tried to stop him" – the wolf, presumably – from hurting Remus further. What did they do to keep a werewolf from leaving the Shrieking Shack? And what did a Black mean, "tried to stop him"? Surely, they weren't actually inside the building? Magic didn't usually work against werewolves, so how else would they stop Moony from attacking himself?

Above all of this, I remembered the question that had bothered me the first time I found out about the other boys' monthly excursions: How did Remus get out of the shack in the first place?

~ R ~ J ~ L ~

After the other Marauders had finished recounting the previous night's events, I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and tried to make sense of what had happened. The longer I thought about it, the more my stomach filled with dread.

Moony had been trying to get back to the castle — to Lily. Which probably meant that Moony already considered Lily his "mate". If this was the case, and this was what happened the first full moon we were separated, what would happen next month? My breath caught in my throat. What if it became worse? What if, next time, I didn't make it? The thought alone terrified me.

"Remus? Mate? You alright?"

Sirius' voice stopped my train of thought before it went too far down the track, much to my relief. I opened my eyes and whimpered in pain, and found four concern faces staring back at me.

"Does it really hurt?" Lily asked quietly, pushing the hair off my forehead with delicate fingers. "Do I need to get Madame Pomfrey?"

"No," I whispered, smiling weakly. "Just sore." My eyes slid closed and I leaned into her soothing touch.

"You've been here long enough," Madame Pomfrey's voice permeated the peaceful silence. "Out, all of you. He needs his rest if he's ever going to get better."

The scuffling of chairs and footsteps signified the other Marauders leaving, but the cool fingers never left my forehead.

"You, too, Miss Evans."

Lily froze, but reluctantly withdrew her hand.

"I'll visit you later, I promise," she breathed, leaning close and placing a feather-light kiss on my cheek.

I fell into a peaceful sleep, my dreams filled with memories of Lily.

~ SB ~ JP ~ PP ~

"Pura Venefirous!"

"Ouch!"

"I still think it's a bit strange."

"What do you expect, Pads? They were best friends back in first year, even before we were friends with him."

James, Sirius, and Peter were in their dormitory, all sitting on James' bed. Sirius was healing James' most recently acquired woulds while Peter sat off to the side in an attempt to avoid the blood. Sirius shook his head.

"I'm not just talking about what happened in the Hospital Wing," he said. "Tergeo!" James hissed in pain as the dried blood was magically scoured from the gash on his eyebrow.

"Warn me before you do that next time!" he growled irritably. Sirius ignored him.

"Remus was acting really strange all day yesterday, remember?" he went on. "He kept spacing out, and I kept catching him with that silly grin on his face. Episky!"

"Shite!" James yelped, rubbing furiously at the now-heeled patch of skin above his eyebrow, where the faintest of scars could be seen if you looked really, really hard. "Dammit, Padfoot!"

"I remember that!" Peter said, also ignoring James. "We were joking about it at breakfast, weren't we?"

"How about we talk about this later?" James suggested as he pulled off his shirt. "When I can actually pay attention to the conversation?!" He shot a glare at Sirius, who just blinked back at him and shrugged.

"Okay," he said indifferently. He held out a hand and James reluctantly offered up his forearm, where a long cut ran across his skin.

"Pura Venefirous!" Serious muttered.

"Ouch! Freaking—" James spat, biting down hard on his own wrist to distract himself from the pain. "Is that really necessary?!"

"You know it is, Prongs," Sirius rolled his eyes. "We do this every month, the same three spells. One to clean up the dried blood, one to heal it, and one – this one – to make sure there isn't any wolfie–contamination in it."

"That's the most important one," Peter nodded, agreeing with Sirius. "Wouldn't want to risk getting infected, would we? Because if one of us were to become a werewolf, we wouldn't just get in trouble for being out at night. The three of us would get thrown in Azkaban for who–knows–how–long for being illegal, unregistered animagus, and Remus could—"

"Could face the death penalty, I know," James sighed, trying not to think about it, and Sirius paled at the thought.

"Tergeo!" He muttered, earning a string of curse words from James, and quickly followed it with, "Episky!" He let go of his friend's wrist and stood up, wincing as he did so.

"Are you sure you don't want to go to Madame Pomfrey about that?" Peter asked, eying the bandages wrapped around Sirius' torso.

"And, what, let her get even more suspicious than she already is?" Sirius said through gritted teeth. "I'd rather not."

"Speaking of which," James put in as he pulled on a clean tee-shirt, "she's going to want to talk to us about the whole animagus thing." Sirius groaned and sat on the edge of his trunk, shooting a glare at his best friend.

"Yes, let's talk about that, shall we?" he said sarcastically. He crossed his arms over his chest, winced, and uncrossed them again. "What the bloody hell were you thinking?! Slipping up like that, right in front of Madame Pomfrey—"

"I told you it was an accident, Pads," James interrupted him. "I was just a little bit panicked about what happened to Remus!"

"I get that, I do," Sirius said hotly. "But you didn't have to go and tell her every goddamn secret we've been trying to hide for the past three years! Why couldn't you just have told Pomfrey the same thing we told Evans?" James let out a harsh, humourless laugh.

"What, that stupid story about us flying on our brooms? Are you mental? First of all, there is no way she would have believed such a ridiculous lie. Second, she probably would have warned ol' Dumby to watch the skies when the next full moon rolls around. And third, and most importantly, Remus isn't supposed to leave the Shrieking Shack! It would have caused more harm than good, if you ask me."

Sirius blinked stupidly at James as he waited for a response.

"He's right, you know," Peter muttered from where he still sat on James' bed.

"Then why did we tell that to Evans?" Sirius asked, frowning. James gave him a confused look.

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"Well, I was just thinking–"

"Dangerous, that," Peter muttered to James, who snickered quietly.

"Just let me finish!" Sirius grumbled. "I was just thinking, and I realized, wouldn't Evans have figured out we were lying by now?" Both James and Peter fell silent at his words and exchanged nervous looks.

"Y-You don't suppose she's...figured out the truth...do you?" Peter asked shakily. He paled slightly.

"Of course not!" James scoffed, though he looked uncertain. "It'd be impossible for her to guess what we really do every month. But...as to whether or not she knows we're lying..." He ruffled his hair and looked over at Sirius.

"We'll have to keep an ear open then, won't we?" the Pureblood said with a shrug and another wince.

"Seriously, mate, let me take a look at that," James sighed, pulling out his wand, their previous topic forgotten. Sirius grimaced but nodded anyway, reluctantly starting to pull of the bandages.

"Here, let me—" James muttered a quick severing charm, and the white cloth was cut down the middle. He pulled back the right half of the fabric and paled when he saw the deep gashes just below Sirius' ribcage.

"Moony really did a number on you, didn't he?" James said jokingly, trying to lighten the mood a bit. Sirius just rolled his eyes.

"Just get it over with, would you?" he growled. His best friend's eyes lit up behind his glasses as a mischievous grin spread across his face.

"Gladly," James said. "Pura Venefirous!"

Sirius hissed in pain, and James' grin only grew wider.

End of Chapter Four

A/N: Thank you so much for reading the fourth chapter of my second FanFiction posted in the history of forever! Please leave a response! Critiques wanted...PLEASE tell me any and all opinions, good and bad! Flames will be used to torch Horcruxes and Set Fire to the Rain.

Read my profile for extra information, and have a FantasMic day!

~M.M.W.

Edited Cover Image Belongs To Jason Manzatt and Claudia Wallace