The Next Great Adventure (A Marauders Fan Fic)

Chapter Twenty Five

She chuckled and said, “I thought that might be the case! Their dedication to it is... admirable.”

Remus’ face broke into another smile. “Don't worry I won't tell them. I don't think any amount of adoration could stop even James from crying if he found out that you'd committed one of the cardinal sins.”

“Oh dear, that bad eh?”

“Oh yes,” Remus replied, “I was nearly put in four detentions the first time I tried it.”

“What happened?” Lily gasped.

“Oh nothing too serious. Sirius bewitched a Quaffle to bounce off my head constantly and James tied me to my bed saying that ‘if I couldn’t go to Quidditch then I couldn’t go anywhere.’ It took me about an hour to get free and I missed almost a whole morning of classes.”

“That's horrible! I can't believe you let them do that to you!”

Remus shrugged, glancing over at where Sirius was pouring what looked like a bottle of Firewhiskey into the pumpkin juice and over to James who was still surrounded by girls. “Nah it’s not Lily, they’re great friends really, just a bit passionate about trouble. And they’re unbelievably loyal – there’s no way anyone else would get away with doing it.”

“No I can imagine that they wouldn’t be happy,” she stated dryly, knowing full well that anyone who tried to do that to their friends would likely end up in the Hospital Wing once James and Sirius were finished with them – that was, if there was any of them left to send there. Lily had had enough experiences with them hexing people who had threatened them in the past to know that they were ferocious when provoked, especially when friends were involved.

“That they most certainly would not,” he chuckled. “They’re morons,” Remus said as Sirius swigged from his bottle of Firewhiskey and flailed at Peter in some sort of approximation of a wave, “but they’re better friends than I could ever have dreamed of. You never approved of their actions, and frankly neither did I, but I did always have the advantage of seeing the reasons behind them whereas you were just stuck with the consequences. And I suppose I never tried as hard to stop them as I should have done because I knew they were doing it for the right reasons, even if their actions were wrong; course I should have done but I didn’t. And they’re so bloody unswervingly loyal that it felt wrong to turn around and tell them to stop hexing anyone who said a bad word about any of us or to drag them away when they wanted to stop first years being bullied.” Remus sighed and Lily placed one hand on his shoulder.

“Hey it’s okay Remus, you shouldn’t feel bad about it. It’s not like you didn’t try. And they seem to have grown up a bit anyway which is probably due to you. They’ve definitely stopped hexing people so that must count as something.”

He let out a shaky laugh and said, “I wouldn’t be too sure about that; they’ve managed to avoid any of my ‘good influence’ for the past six years and somehow I doubt that it’s changing now. Anyway I’m sorry to bring the mood of the party down so much; it must be the Firewhiskey Sirius slipped into my drink. Quidditch always did bring out the worst in him and the parties afterwards are doubly as bad.”

“It’s nothing Remus really; I’d never dream of not listening to you. We are friends after all,” she smiled. Remus had never had a smile quite like Lily’s directed at him so fully and that, coupled with her previous statement of them being friends and the Firewhiskey which he had been drinking earlier, froze him to the spot; as he stared at her he realised why James had spent so long chasing her – just one smile from her was enough to make the world seem so much brighter. Of course James had never really succeeded in getting that one smile until this year which was, Remus thought as he stood mere inches away from Lily, almost definitely one of the reasons he had spent so long making an arse of himself in front of her in an attempt to get her attention. It worked with others so why wouldn’t it work with her?