BLACK MOON ⍋ Remus Lupin

Chapter Nineteen- Marlene and Sirius.

The day went by slowly, everyone groggy from the party and with homework they had to complete before the new week begun, people weren't in the best of moods.

Sirius still hadn't returned with Marlene and with each person from the group finding their way back together, questions were being asked.

"Have you seen them at all, Remus?" Lily asked Remus who had only just awoken from a deep, three hour nap, in the Gryffindor common room. Remus shrugged and wiped his sleepy face.

"As I said Lils, neither seen or heard from them" he yawned. Lily and James had just gotten back from 'skipping rocks' but both Remus and I thought four hours was an awfully long time for an activity like that. I smiled and turned to an absent looking James.

"How was your day, James? Did you manage to learn how to skip those rocks?" Remus sniggered at my tone and the way James faced me with a dead expression. He stared with his head tilted and eyebrows raised.

"No...still quite shockingly bad-" He stated "But I did learn how to skip one thing- this conversation, goodbye" He sassed and strutted out of the common room. Remus turned to a slightly pink Lily.

"Did you have a good time?" he asked more earnestly and she hung her head lowly and laughed sadly. This made Remus sit up straighter and perk up with concern "Hey what's the matter?" he observed her closely. Lily sighed.

"Just James being James, that's all" She forced a laugh. Remus gave her a look of confusion and she rolled her eyes at him "Honestly Remus I'm fine!" She expressed "- we were getting along so well, which is a surprise you know that!" and Remus nodded with agreement "I thought 'Great! James and I are getting along, which means the number of arguments in the group are going to be reduced by loads!' but after the third of forth rock was thrown...he may have started aiming at a someone instead of the lake" She huffed and Remus frowned with confusion "Severus. He started throwing rocks so hard at him that I thought he may have to receive medical attention" Lily frowned, an anger finding its way onto her face.

Remus looked down at his twiddling thumbs briefly and then back to a worked-up Lily.

"Did you ditch James for Snape?" Remus asked, and Lily hesitated. Slowly Lily started nodding looking slightly ashamed of herself.

"Look it's not an issue, I'll speak to James. I'm sure there was a reason" Remus started and Lily raised her eyebrows at him "But-that-doesn't-excuse-his-behaviour!" He rushed before she could fight him on it and she sunk into one of the arm chairs relaxing. There was a small silence before a question came to mind.

"If you weren't with James all day then, who was he with?" I asked and both Remus and Lily looked at each other.

"Probably with Peter" They both said at the same time and I shook my head.

"No, Peter was with Professor McGonagall and then when he finished he came back to the dorms and told me whether I wanted to help him clean his robes before tomorrow- I said no of course but he said there were some really stubborn stains that weren't coming out with any magic, so he'd be upstairs for a while. Peter's been here all afternoon" I frowned. Remus shrugged.

"Okay, so he went to find Frank"he reasoned and Lily nodded.

"Again no, Frank went to watch the Hufflepuff Quidditch practice for his friend. Alice told me that they both went after herbology catch up but eventually she got bored and left him there...alone"

"Well James has other friends apart from us, he probably just went to hang out with them" Lily said and Remus sighed loudly and shook his head.

"James has other friends, sure! He has the Quidditch boys and a few people he's known since he was little, but he doesn't have anyone he'd go to after a fight with you Lily, except myself and ..." Remus paused.