"Mooony."

"What."

"What are you doing."

"If you took the trouble of opening your eyes, you'd have seen quite clearly that I'm reading."

"I couldn't take the trouble."

"I know, Sirius." Remus' words were accompanied with a great sigh.

"What?" Sirius demanded.

"We have our OWLs in exactly..." Remus glanced at the calendar hanging above his bed. "...16 days."

"So?"

"You haven't opened a book yet. Neither has Prongs."

"Speaking of Prongs, where is he?" said Sirius, eager to change the topic.

Obviously, Remus knew at once that he was deviating the topic, but he sighed again and allowed it.

"Dunno. Went off somewhere."

"Maybe chasing after Evans AGAIN?" suggested Sirius.

"I wouldn't be surprised at all, Padfoot."

"But he's stupid, isn't he? He'll never have her convinced on his own, he needs our help."

Remus hid a smile at that.

"I assure you whatever he may manage on his own, it'll be ten times worse if you interfered, Sirius."

It was Sirius' turn to sigh.

"Where's Wormtail then?" he said, clearly in a mood to whine.

"I don't know, Sirius, go and look for them yourself if you're so bothered! And please lemme read in peace," ordered Remus.

Sirius rolled off his four poster bed and went to sit beside Remus, pushing him so hard that Remus almost toppled over the other side of the bed.

"What's your problem?" he said crossly, righting himself.

"I'm bored," said Sirius.

"When are you not bored?" said Remus severely.

"Plenty of times," said Sirius brightly, casually attempting to snatch Remus' book away. Remus, who had far too much experience in the field, caught his book just in time. Sirius continued speaking as if nothing had happened. "When we're hexing Slytherins, particularly Snivellus. When we're Marauding around the grounds as Animagi. When we're stealing food from the kitchen..."

"Everyone is inside their houses for the OWLs, so you won't get any Slytherin right now. It's not full moon, and you've just had dinner."

All three of Remus' counter arguments were uncounterable, so Sirius whined, "Let's go for a walk, Remmie."

"My name is not Remmie, and can't you see I'm trying to study?" said Remus, seriously exasperated by now (no pun intended).

"You already know everything, half an hour can't hurt," begged Sirius.

Remus slammed down his book and stood up. Sirius stared at him warily.

"Get up quick, and not a second more than 30 minutes!"

"Thank you, Moony!" cried Sirius.

So they set off for a walk. It seemed totally pointless to Remus, but when his insane best friend had decided to take him for a walk, he knew it was well beyond capacities to steadily refuse.

They'd almost reached the entrance of the Gryffindor common room when Sirius said, "Wait, we haven't taken the Invisibility Cloak!"

"Do we really need it for a walk?" asked Remus cautiously.

"Yeah, then we can sneak up on Prongs in case he is trying to woo Evans," said Sirius with a suppressed snort of laughter.

Remus had to admit it did not sound like a bad idea. Better than noisily barging in on Lily and James anyway, which Sirius was bound to do if they went without the Invisibility Cloak.

"Ok, go fetch it quick," he said.

Sirius was grinning from ear to ear. "You're sending me, so this doesn't count in the 30 minutes!" He sounded positively gleeful.

Remus rolled his eyes. He didn't know why he even bothered to roll his eyes these days; he had long since gotten used to the fact that his two best friends, James Potter and Sirius Black were incorrigible, insane, and in general, nowhere near the category society placed as 'normal'.

And yet...everyone in the school (except the Slytherins and Lily Evans) adored them. Come to think of it, he himself adored them to the end of the world. Sometimes he thought he loved James and Sirius considerably more than Peter, though he pushed the thought away whenever it occurred to him.

After a few minutes, they were making slow progress under the Cloak down the corridor. They had truly outgrown the cloak now; James, Sirius and Remus were far too tall to fit under it comfortably like they used to in their first and second years.

Abruptly they came across James trudging down the corridor towards them. There was no Lily Evans in sight, so Sirius deemed it safe to reveal themselves.

"Psst. Prongs!"

James jumped out of his skin. "Padfoot?"

Remus and Sirius pulled the Cloak over their heads so that they became visible again.

"Hello," said James, sounding distinctly mournful. "What's up with you two."

"What happened?" asked Sirius, trying and failing to look sympathetic. "Did Evans turn you down again?"

Remus sent Sirius a reproving glance that said, At least pretend to be nice.

"As a matter of fact, she did." James was clearly thoroughly depressed.

Remus tried to say encouragingly, "Come on you can start reading for your OWLs with a free brain now. Let's get in an hour or two of studying now before we go to sleep!"

"We were going for a walk!" said Sirius, outraged.

"That was before we knew Prongs had suffered a heartbreak! This calls for a change in plans," said Remus, his lips twitching.

Sirius glanced at him. Who's making fun of him now?

That made Remus feel guilty at once; so he decided not to press him to study after all.

He tugged at James' arm and said, "C'mon."

James obeyed without a word. Sirius did not like James to be silent for long, so he said, "I s'pose it's no good telling you that Evans is a boring prefect with no sense of humour whatsoever, whose favouite thing in this world are books?"

"I'm a prefect and my favourite thing in this world are books," said Remus, rather hurt.

"You...you..." said Sirius helplessly. "You're not like Evans at all!"

"No you're not," agreed James in a tone that made Sirius ask suspiciously, "I hope you do mean that in a good way, mate?"

Remus suddenly heard footsteps approaching them and thought he caught a familiar voice. He hastily threw the Cloak over the three of them.

"What—" began James but Remus hushed him.

Lily and Snape were walking down the courtyard, evidently arguing.

"...thought we were supposed to be friends?" Snape was saying, "Best friends?"

James tensed under the Cloak. Remus couldn't help noticing that in spite of his unflattering words about Lily earlier, Sirius tensed as well.

"We are, Sev, but I don't like some of the people you're hanging round with! I'm sorry, but I detest Avery and Mulciber! Mulciber! What do you see in him, Sev, he's creepy! D'you know what he tried to do to Mary Macdonald the other day?"

Lily had reached a pillar and leaned against it, looking up into the thin, sallow face.

"That was nothing," said Snape. "It was a laugh, that's all--"

"It was Dark Magic, and if you think that's funny--"

"What about the stuff Potter and his mates get up to?" demanded Snape.

"There," whispered Sirius. "I knew he'd bring you in somehow. I'm telling you, mate, he's obsessed with you!"

Remus snorted. James scowled.

"What's Potter got to do with anything?" said Lily.

"They sneak out at night. There's something weird about that Lupin. Where does he keep going?"

James and Sirius exchanged a horrified glance. Remus had turned white as a sheet.

"He's ill," said Lily. "They say he's ill--"

"Every month at the full moon?" said Snape.

Sirius' heart was sinking so fast he felt ill. Dumbledore had made Snape promise...

"I know your theory," said Lily, and she sounded cold. "Why are you so obsessed with them anyway? Why do you care what they're doing at night?"

"I'm just trying to show you they're not as wonderful as everyone seems to think they are."

Sirius made a sudden movement as though he would fling the Cloak away and attack Snape. James, realizing in time, grabbed his arm and whispered fiercely, "Do you want to provoke him into telling the whole school now?"

Remus saw Sirius' face fall; because he was clearly thinking about the day few months back when his unthinking action had caused Snape to find out about his condition.

The incident, which had almost led to the Marauders breaking apart forever, was not a memory he liked to recall, so he took Sirius' other arm gently, to let him know that he wasn't upset anymore.

"They don't use Dark Magic, though." She dropped her voice. "And you're being really ungrateful. I heard what happened the other night. You went sneaking down that tunnel by the Whomping Willow, and James Potter saved you from whatever's down there--"

Snape's whole face contorted and he spluttered, "Saved? Saved? You think he was playing the hero? He was saving his neck and his friends' too! You're not going to-- I won't let you--"

"Let me? Let me?"

Lily's bright green eyes were slits. Snape backtracked at once.

"I didn't mean-- I just don't want to see you made a fool of-- he fancies you, James Potter fancies you!" The words seemed wrenched from him against his will. "And he's not...everyone thinks...big Quidditch hero--" Snape's bitterness and dislike were rendering him incoherent, and Lily's eyebrows were traveling farther and farther up her forehead.

Glad that the topic had changed from dangerous waters, James almost laughed.

The next moment, though...

"I know James Potter's an arrogant toerag," she said, cutting across Snape.

James clenched his fists. Sirius glared at Lily from under the Cloak, even if she couldn't see him.

"I don't need you to tell me that. But Mulciber's and Avery's idea of humor is just evil. Evil, Sev. I don't understand how you can be friends with them."

Sirius was all for following them as they were going out of earshot, but Remus said sternly, "It's been more than one hour and I thought we decided on 30 minutes?"

Sirius grumbled all the way back to the common room about what an extraordinary git Snape was while James wallowed in self pity at having heard Lily call him a toerag to his arch rival. Remus tried not to think about how Lily, whom he considered as his best friend in the school apart from these two and Peter, might react if Snape managed to convince her about him being a werewolf.

*******************************************************************

When they returned to the common room, having taken a detour to the kitchens (Sirius claimed it was to cheer James up, James seconded it and Remus couldn't deny them), Lily approached them and said, "Can I have a word, Remus?"

Remus swallowed.

James and Sirius automatically flanked him from either sides.

"Sure," said Remus, hoping he didn't sound as nervous as he felt.

"You can have whatever conversation you want to have with him in front of us," said James coolly.

Lily looked taken aback by his (unexpected) tone.

"Who are you, his bodyguards?" she said, equally coolly, once she'd recovered.

"Yes, we are," said Sirius bluntly. "Got a problem with that, Evans?"

"Sirius!" said Remus, annoyed. "Go upstairs, you two. I'll be joining you in a minute."

"We're not going anywhere," said James stubbornly. He was determined to stay here and protect Remus in case Lily was preparing to attack him.

"Fine," said Lily. "Stay here." She turned to Remus, totally ignoring the other two. "Look, Remus...I was...I was...talking to Severus today..."

All three of their worst suspicions were confirmed at that, of course.

"You don't take what that greasy git says seriously, do you?" said James with an air of surprise.

"He happens to be my best friend," said Lily nastily. "So yes, I do." She turned to Remus again. "He's been pointing out some stuff, like..."

"I always get ill during the full moon," supplied Remus dully.

Sirius and James stared at him as if they couldn't believe their ears. Lily looked much the same, to be honest.

"Remus, you're raving," said Sirius, in a rather poor attempt to cover up.

"Yes, he is. He needs to sleep, this OWL preparation is driving him crazy," said James. "He'll talk to you tomorrow morning, Evans." He reached out to drag Remus straight back to the Gryffindor common room.

Remus dodged James' arm and said firmly, "If she already knows--"

"I already know," said Lily quickly.

"No you don't," snarled Sirius. "There's nothing to know."

"Come on, Remus," said James, finally having caught his arm.

Remus noticed Lily staring at James and Sirius with an odd look on her face.

Something almost like...admiration.

But it couldn't be, could it? Lily hated the two of them.

"You don't have to pull him away, James," said Lily, confirming Remus' observation. She corrected herself hastily as James looked at her in amazement. "—er, Potter. I know about his condition, and I assure you I don't share Severus' view on the issue."

James stopped pulling Remus' arm. Sirius stopped glowering at Lily.

Remus and Lily stared at each other.

"You—you haven't got a problem with—" said Remus hoarsely.

Lily sounded almost indignant as she said, "Of course I haven't! You're the nicest person I know... and it's a way of the world that the nicest people have the worst luck."

Remus could not believe what he was hearing. Before coming to Hogwarts, he had not had a single friend who accepted him with his condition. Now he had four.

James was beaming, any signs of his earlier annoyance towards Lily forgotten. Sirius was almost ready to take back all the nasty things he'd ever said about Lily (which he said mostly because she kept turning his best friend down).

"Thanks, Lily," said Remus, feeling that it sounded a little inadequate.

"What are you thanking me for," said Lily. Unexpectedly, she rose on her toes and kissed Remus on the cheek.

Sirius held back his laughter with great difficulty at the sour look on James' face.

"If anyone quips at you let me know," said Lily. "Not that you'll need it..." Her eyes grazed James and Sirius' faces. "These two will be on their case before you can say 'Quidditch'."

James' smile was back on in place, and stayed there long after Lily had left and they'd retired to their dormitory.

"I was right about Evans, wasn't I, Padfoot?" he gloated for the twentieth time that evening (yes, Remus was counting).

Sirius threw a pillow at him.

James lifted his own pillow when he caught Remus' expression.

"You—have—got—your—OWLs—in—16—days," snarled Remus.

"Sorry!" cried James. "Sorry, Moony. Sit quietly and study, Sirius," he ordered gravely.

"You too," said Sirius, equally gravely.

And they both sat down with their books on their laps.

Remus did not laugh, no matter how tempted he was, and let the blessed peace in the room prevail.