Part One
The September morning was bright and balmy as James watched as his mother and father hugged Sirius on their front step. Grinning, and full of excitement for the first day of year thirteen, James slung his backpack over one shoulder and started down the drive of his overly large townhouse.
“Come on, Padfoot! We’ll be late” he yelled as he reached the gate, Sirius still stood at the other end of the drive by the double-front doors. He turned at James’ call, and ran all the way down, slinging his arm over James’ shoulders as they walked to the bus stop.
Peter was waiting for them there, his uniform still as baggy on him as it had been on the first day of year seven. His mum was still holding out for an elusive growth spurt.
“Where’s Rem?” Sirius asked as the bus pulled up. They always met up at the bus stop.
“Ah, he texted saying he was running late and would meet us there” Peter said as he climbed onto the bus. James sat next to the blond boy and grinned widely.
“I can feel it, boys. This is going to be our year” he said, and Sirius rolled his eyes and snorted. The twenty minute bus ride passed as the boys recounted tales of the summer- even though they had spent most of it together.
“I wonder what’s up with Moony, Me n’ Sirius didn’t see him at all this summer” James asked, mainly directed at Peter.
“Don’t ask me mate, I haven’t seen him either” Peter said through a mouthful of granola bar. “I mean, we texted and that, but he said he was really busy working or something”
“That’s weird” Sirius said, screwing up his nose the way he did when he didn’t like something. “Why would he need to work?”
“Mmm” James agreed, reaching for his bag as the bus pulled up outside of the sprawling school buildings.
“Fuck me, mate! You’ve gotten tall!” James exclaimed as he saw Remus standing outside the school gates. He ran down the coach steps and pulled Remus in for a brief hug, clapping him soundly on the back before pulling away.
“‘S funny that, int it?” Remus said dryly, his welsh accent evident in his voice despite having lived in London since year seven. “I see Pete’s had no such luck” Remus continued, looking amused as Sirius and Peter descended from the coach.
“Alright mate?” Peter greeted Remus, knocking the taller boy with his shoulder. Remus nodded and smiled. “Alright, yeah Pete.”
“Long time no see, Remus” Sirius said, staring at Remus strangely venomously. The lack of his nickname was interesting.
“Ah, I've been a busy man, Padfoot,” Remus said, shooting a questioning look to James behind Sirius’ back, to which James replied with a shrug and a mouthed ‘I don’t know, mate’, before they all headed inside.
As they walked, Sirius noticed that Remus was wearing new doc boots, and his shirt was untucked. He looked… cooler, almost, with his disregard for the uniform. Sirius and James took their sixth-form suits seriously, shirts always tucked in, worn with french cuffs and expensive cufflinks. Effie made sure they looked pristine before they left the house. They looked so at odds next to Remus, like they didn’t belong together. He was much too tall, too. He had grown by at least three inches, towering over James, who he used to match. He almost seemed like a stranger, walking in front of Sirius now, back hunched, hands tucked into pockets. He made Sirius feel small. Sirius didn’t like feeling small.
He practically was a stranger- Sirius had gone all summer without seeing him, and it felt wrong. Really wrong. A feeling of wrong-ness that made Sirius’ skin crawl and turned his stomach to lead as he looked at the boy walking next to James and didn’t see the Moony he had parted ways with that July. That Moony had laughed and joked and worn brogues with his shirt tucked in.
James noticed that Sirius seemed particularly sulky which was strange- Sirius was perhaps the most excited of all of them to get back to school. Remus seemed changed, too. He was more serious, it seemed. Less quick to laugh, offering only a slight quirk of the lips at all of Pete’s prank ideas.
The first day of school was full of lectures about how serious year thirteen was, how the up-coming A-levels were more important than graduating uni; how they dictated your whole life. James noticed that Remus was paying more attention than usual, and assumed the changes were because he was taking his future more seriously. They all could be doing that more. Peter even fell asleep in three of the talks.
Lunch felt more normal, all of them sat around what they considered ‘their’ table in the ancient cavernous dining hall in the main school building. Remus seemed more himself, smiling and joking more, and eating as much as a horse. Sirius seemed to relax more too, but James could tell there was something up with him. He just wished he could figure out what it was.
===
Remus returned home that afternoon thoroughly exhausted.
“Home, mam!” he called down the tiny corridor into the cramped living room as he turned the immediate corner into his little bedroom. It had been hard that summer, going from a townhouse- small, and somewhat ramshackle yes, but a house still- to the tiny cramped flat they now lived in above the kebab shop. It definitely had its perks though. He was closer with his mum than ever, the landowner was a sweet and gentle widow who had clearly been moved by their ‘tragic backstory’, and the men who worked in the kebab shop would give Remus free food when he returned home.
The girl who lived just next door was great, too. She was a small redhead, who had been coming home from somewhere when he and his mum had started moving in, and had spent all day helping them move in boxes, before inviting Remus to the local spoons with her that evening. They had since become close, and Remus had seen her and only her all summer, not ready to cope with balancing the sudden change the direction his life had taken and his private school friends who simply would not have understood. Lily though, Lily understood.
Dropping his bag on the bed, he texted her, asking if they could hang that evening. He re-dressed in jeans and an oversized brown t-shirt as he waited for her reply, before wandering into the poky, dark kitchen to set about starting dinner for his mum. Lily affirmed as he poured a tub of soup into a small pan and she knocked on his door as the soup started to bubble.
“Tea on the hob, mam!” Remus called as he greeted Lily with a hug and left the flat with her.
“How was the first day? Were your worries unfounded?” Lily asked as they made the short walk. He had confided in her that he was worried about seeing his friends- both because of the radio silence from him over the summer, and also because the gap between them had widened to completely unbridgeable. Being a bursary student and living in a small three-bedroom house in catford whilst his friends had had islington mansions with five-beds and basement game rooms and holidays three times a year and everything they could ever ask for had been hard enough. Being a bursary student living in a two-bedroom flat above a kebab shop in peckham and currently barely enough money for fresh food would be even fucking harder.
“I mean yes and no. James and Pete were fine. Sirius was weird with me all day” Remus replied, digging into his wallet for his ID as they approached the door to the pub.
“I still cannot believe you go to a school so posh there are kids named Sirius” Lily said as they settled into what was now ‘their’ table. It was tiny, sticky and tucked into a far corner where barely any light reached. It was perfect, and they had spent many hours that summer there.
“First rounds on me. Well done on your first day of school, wolf boy” Lily said grinning, as she pulled her phone out to order. She often did this, making up excuses for her to buy him drinks, knowing he couldn't really afford them by himself. Whenever he tried to bring it up, she would wave a hand and say “You’ll pay me back once you get a job”. She was a good friend; a great friend. He knew the boys at school wouldn't have been so sensitive to his financial situation.
“Thank you flower” Remus said, before asking for a pint of carlsberg. The evening carried on much as they always did; a few drinks were drunk, only just enough to get tipsy, and they talked. Remus complained about school, and having to listen to James and Sirius harp on about their holiday to the caribbean whilst knowing he and his mum may not be able to afford the petrol for the christmas trip to wales, and Lily responded by bitching about her awful sister, and how increasingly hard it was to live under the same roof as Petunia, whilst her parents essentially turned a blind eye.
“I mean, it isn’t even normal sibling stuff, you know? It's fatphobia, plain and simple. She called me a whale this morning, and commented on my breakfast like a bowl of cereal is somehow ‘too much’ when eaten by a fat person and mum just doesn’t fucking care” Lily said, frowning into her vodka and lemonade. Remus knocked his leg against hers and grinned.
“She’s just jealous you’re hotter than her by a fucking mile, size fourteen or not” Lily stuck her tongue out at him, but smiled and blushed all the same, before draining her drink. He knew there wasn’t much else he could say that would help her, so he just piled on the compliments and hoped it made some difference.
“Home?” Lily asked, bending to pick up her bag.
“Sure, come back to mine, yeah? Mums on night shift” Remus said, getting up and following Lily out of the pub. They were both given free chicken shish on their way back in, and they ate it on Remus’ small double bed that took up nearly all of his room. Once done, polystyrene boxes discarded on the floor, they lay down and talked late into the night, before they both fell asleep on his bed.
Remus felt half dead going into school the next morning. He had woken up from the sound of his mum returning home, and Lily had been sleeping peacefully next to him. He took a quick shower and got ready before waking Lily and sending her home so she could get ready for school, before boxing a lunch up and putting it in the fridge for his mum for later. Sirius seemed somewhat back to normal, which was a bright spot in his morning as they started lessons proper. Remus was doing English, Philosophy and Politics for A-level, and shared only English with Sirius, who sat next to him and joked around like everything was normal.
It was a much better day than the day before until his phone rang at lunch and he saw a text from his mum saying: Migraine. Bad. Need you
“Ah fuck” Remus cursed under his breath, before making a vague excuse and heading to the school office. He had explained to the school before returning that now it was only he and his mum, he had taken on the role of her part-time carer as she had Migraine disorder that could get so bad it warranted hospital strips. He explained to the receptionist that he had to go home and why, and emailed his teachers for the worksheets whilst he was on the bus home.
The flat was deathly silent when he returned, and Remus took a few minutes to breathe before going into action. First, he took his shoes off so he would make little noise as he walked over the cracked tile floors. His socked feet moved quietly as he prepared two bowls, one of warm water and one of cool, before putting a flannel in both. He turned off the lights in the corridor before entering his mum's room so no light could spill in and cause pain. The noise from the road outside would be agony enough. He then settled into the armchair set beside his mum's bed for this very reason, preparing for long hours ahead hanging around in a dark flat, and checking on his mum to alternate between the two flannels on his mum's forehead, and getting her painkillers and water periodically. It was going to be a very long, very boring afternoon.
Going back to the living room, he checked his phone.
New message from: Sirius Where the fuck did you go?
New message from: Petey Bro?? You just dipped??
New message from: Prongsy Hope u r ok?? U didn’t say anything?
Remus turned his phone off again, not replying, and going into his room and pulling netflix up on his laptop. His dad used to do this. With a lot less gentleness and attention, yes, but it meant Remus wasn’t a child carer, and didn’t have to drop everything in his life, including missing out on the most important year of his education, for his mum’s unpredictable and debilitating disorder. Remus sighed, before asking Lily if they could go to the rye that evening. She immediately replied with an enthusiastic yes, and Remus immediately felt a little better. He wasn’t sure what he had done before Lily.
His brain helpfully reminded him that Lily walked into his life not days after his dad walked out of it, ruining his day once again. Fuck. he hated thinking about that. If he didn't have to stay there for his mum, he would have been miles away from his flat by now. He had spent many summer nights wandering the streets of London, guided by instinct and streetlamps, pretending he was someone else. He checked his phone again.
Two missed calls from: Prongsy
One missed call from: Sirius
New message from: Prongsy Just wanna know you’re safe, mate.
Remus opened the message from James.
All safe, mate. Sorry to worry. Small family thing. He replied. Not two minutes later, he was called by Sirius again. He declined.
===
Luckily, after that first flare up, his mum was more or less good for the next few weeks, and So Remus managed to excuse his absence by saying a cousin had died, and life went back to normal, or his new normal. Lily came over pretty much every night and they'd do homework before cooking for them and his mum, then they’d either go to the pub or walk round Peckham Rye. A few weeks ago, an old friend from Wales with whom Remus had gone to Primary school, called Dafydd, had messaged Remus on instagram saying that he and his family had moved to east London, and would Remus like to hang out and show him around the city sometime? Remus had said yes, and some Saturdays were spent wandering the streets and catching up with Dafydd, who had grown up very nicely.
He had a strong jaw and light brown hair, similar to Remus’. He was roughly 6’3 to Remus’ 6’4 and they got on like a house on fire. Dafydd also got on quite well with Lily, who had taken to sometimes joining them. His two new friends (well, maybe Dafydd was becoming a bit more than a friend) took up pretty much all of Remus’ time, and he realised he was only really seeing the boys from school, well, at school.
He felt bad that he didn’t actually miss them much. Between weekdays with Lily and weekends with Dafydd and sometimes Lily, Remus’ hands were full. Which was why he wasn’t surprised when, around mid-november, James had said at lunch,
“right boyos, there’s a party at Gid and Fabs this friday, and Remus, you’re bloody well coming, yes?” Accepting his fate, Remus nodded.
“Can I bring a mate? He’s just moved here from Wales” Remus asked, getting his phone out to invite Dafydd.
“Yea, sure. Is this why you’ve been blowing off footie saturdays?” James asked, and Remus was inundated with questions about his mysterious friend. He answered them whilst deftly leaving out the fact that he and Dafydd were now fooling around a bit… well possibly a bit more than a bit.
===
Friday evening was soon upon them, and Peter went round to James’ house for the pre-drinks. He was early so it was only James and Sirius there, and they played fifa until Remus arrived. The friend was almost as tall as Remus himself, and Peter found himself more than a little mad at his unfortunate height. The bloke seemed nice though, he was a good laugh and even better at fifa. Peter noticed that as the pre-drinks continued Sirius seemed more sulky, but decided it was because he wasn’t drunk enough and kept sliding shots Sirius’ way.
The party was well underway when they arrived. Peter and James were more than a little drunk, leaning on each other and stumbling a bit as they made their way inside. Peter made a beeline to the drinks table and immediately lost the rest of them for hours, before he saw James and Sirius sat in the corner of a sofa, and he went to join them, flopping down heavily over their legs and looking up at them.
“David seems an alright bloke” he said to Sirius and James as the three of them watched the other two boys leave the living room, heading up the stairs.
“It’s Dafydd, he’s Welsh, but yeah he seems calm.” James said noncommittally, eyes on a blond on the other side of the room.
“I don’t know boys, I don’t like him much” Sirius said, bitterness clear in his tone. Peter sat up properly, excited for some gossip, wanting to know what Sirius meant.
“Oh? And why is that? He’s been perfectly pleasant all evening” James said, narrowing his eyes slightly and waiting to see what Sirius would respond with.
“I don’t know he just- doesn’t seem like the type of person Rem would be friends with. He’s nothing like us” Sirius said and James coughed to stifle a laugh. Peter wondered what James found so funny. Sirius shook his head, before standing up and leaving the two of them there.
“Well I like him” said James decisively, before getting up and walking over to the girl he had been watching, leaving Peter the last one on the sofa. He went on a search for another drink.
Peter stumbled down the corridor, head spinning and in desperate need of a piss. The loo downstairs had been full of spew; the smell had been almost enough to make Peter sick too, and he desperately needed to empty his bladder. He tried another door and saw a desk and a computer. Fuck! Where were all the bloody bathrooms in this house? He tried the next door, and froze in the doorway.
Dafydd was on his knees on the rug, mouth open, face buried in Remus’ crotch. Remus was shallowly pistoning his hips in and out of Dafydd’s mouth, one large hand buried in Dafydd’s hair. Peter was rooted to the spot. He registered a feeling of disgust vaguely in the back of his mind, but was too overwhelmed to focus on it. It was silent, save for Remus’ heavy breathing.
Remus’ head turned at the opening of the door and he made eye contact with Peter, grinning before he moaned, deep and quiet,
“fuck Daff, you feel so fucking good.” Peter ran out of the room, hearing a breathy laugh before he slammed the door, running down the stairs so fast he nearly fell. He raced to the sofa James was sitting on, talking to the girl he had been eyeing up earlier.
“James, shit James you will not believe what I just saw-“ Peter panted Full bladder suddenly remembered, Peter hauled James to the very bottom of the garden where he relieved himself against the fence.
“I swear to god Pete if you’ve dragged me out here to watch you piss” James said, words a tiny bit slurred.
“Just let me finish you sod. You’ll want to hear this” Peter said, zipping up his jeans and turning. James raised his eyebrows, looking unimpressed. “Seriously mate. I was upstairs looking for a loo, yeah? And I walk into an empty bedroom only it wasn’t empty, was it? Remus was fucking David’s mouth like a gay Hugh Hefner” Peter said, grinning triumphantly at the fact that he had finally secured the juiciest gossip of the year so far.
“Remus is gay! Why did he never tell us he was gay? Do you think David is his boyfriend?” Peter was waving his arms about as he spoke, distressed- both by the new information, and how he had stumbled upon it.
“Bloody hell” James mumbled, looking towards the kitchen, where Sirius could be seen through the window, talking to Kinglsey.
“Not a word to Sirius, okay?” James said, turning back to Peter, face sombre.
“O…Kay?” Peter said, on uneven footing. He had been expecting a very different response.
“I mean it, Pete. It’s crazy news, and Sirius cannot find out” James said, his voice becoming more defined and less drunk-sounding.
“Okay, fine, whatever. My lips are sealed” Peter said, knocking James with his shoulder before the two headed back inside. When they got back to the sitting room, Remus and Dafydd were nowhere to be seen and Sirius was sulking on the sofa. Peter felt confused. James knew something he wasn’t telling him, and Remus hadn’t told any of them he was gay even though they were his best friends. Or maybe they weren’t best friends anymore. Remus hardly spent any time with them outside of school, and had different lessons to nearly all of them, so they only got to spend time with him at break and lunch- if he wasn’t doing homework, that was.
Peter wanted everything to go back to how it was before, it didn’t feel like too much to ask.
===
Remus’ mam was really bad the week after the party, and he missed three days of school to be there looking after her. He ignored streams of texts from the boys asking where he was and what was wrong, managing only to text James that he was ill, because James’ texts were the gentlest. Peter’s were too jokey and Sirius’ too filled with the strange bitterness he had been occupied by all term.
On the last day of his mam’s most recent migraine, Lily called him crying, and he invited her in saying that she had to be quiet on pain of death until they were shut in his room, which luckily was the furthest from his mams, not that it was a massive distance.
“What happened, flower?” he asked as she sat on the window sill he sometimes smoked from, tears staining her lovely face.
“Its so fucking dumb Rem but this boy at school asked me out and i just, I don’t even like him but it felt nice, you know? Nice to be wanted like that so I said yes and then suddenly all his friends were there and they were all laughing at me and they called me fat and said that no one would ever want me and I just, I know they’re dumb and mean and it’s not true but it still hurts, you know?”
During her tirade the tears started to fall harder, snot dripping from her nose and her face turning red. “Oh, flower, here” Remus said, grabbing some tissues and kneeling so he could wipe her face, gently cleaning it.
“Oh, I’m so gross you don’t have to do that” she protested but he shh’d her, and cleaned her face before starting to stroke her hair.
“Lily, you are one of the most beautiful people I have ever met, don’t you ever think differently about yourself” he said, perching next to her on the windowsill, feeling the cold glass against his back.
“You’re the only one who says that to me, Rem, and you don’t even mean it” she huffed, turning away from him.
“What? Of course I mean it.” He gently took her chin and turned her back to face him. “Lily, of course I mean it.”
“Yeah, well its not like you’d want to have sex with me or anything. No one likes me like that” Lily said quietly, eyes cast down.
“Of course I would, Lils. I mean, you’re my friend and I always want you to stay my friend, but I’d sleep with you in a heartbeat. I’m not lying when I say you’re hot.” Remus said, desperate for her to believe him, so he wouldn't have to see that pained expression on her face anymore.
“You’re just-” she started to speak but before he could let her say one more self deprecating thing he kissed her, pressing his lips to hers gently but insistently, before pulling back.
“Would I do that if I didn't mean it?” he said.
“That was my first kiss.” Lily whispered. Remus was shocked- he thought Lily was stunning. He said as much, before kissing her again, just to really drive the message home that he wasn’t just making empty promises. Remus liked being a man of his word.
And then she kissed him, and then they fell onto the bed and then…
It was nice. Nicer than with Dafydd, Remus thought. Gentler. There was giggling as Lily’s t-shirt got tangled in her hair as he peeled it off, and she didn’t say anything about the scars across his chest and stomach, and her pants had little flowers on, which was the cutest thing Remus had ever seen.
He tried to be as gentle as possible, intensely aware that he didn’t want her first time to be like his, which was a lot of drunken fumbling with a stranger that he kind of regretted. afterwards, they lay together in his bed, her head tucked against his shoulder.
“You’re the best friend I’ve ever had.” she whispered. Remus squeezed the arm he had around her shoulders.
“You and James are my top.” he said. “But I think I like you better.” he winked at her, and she giggled, before checking her phone.
“Ah, shit. I better get home. I’ve got so much homework to do.” she said, dressing quickly and dropping a chaste kiss to his cheek before silently slipping out.
Remus dressed and went to check on his mum, who was fast asleep on her medication. He returned to his room to do his own work, of which he had so much.
The next day his mum was well enough to work, and he managed to get back to school. He had a mountain’s worth of work to catch up, and he messaged Lily to ask if they could do evenings at the library and work together for the foreseeable, instead of their usual pub trips. It was also a good cover for the fact that he was massively running out of money. He’d see if the kebab shop downstairs had any work he could do.
He was late to school that day. He always endeavoured to be early, because he didn’t want the others to see him get a different bus, but it seemed that today that was bound to fail.
The three of them were sat on what they had decided was ‘their’ bench in year seven. It was right in front of the school, and they all watched him step off the bus, and he winced a bit as Sirius just stared at him, eyes like flint.
“Alright, boys?” Remus said, aiming for casual as he strolled up to them, despite his three day absence.
“Feeling better rem?” ah, sweet Pete. Remus had always appreciated Peter’s special brand of naivete and stupidity.
“Yea, I am actually. Right as rain.”
“Where were you coming from?” James asked, not meanly.
“I may have moved during the summer.” Remus shifted and fiddled with the straps of his bag as three sets of eyes stared at him. He couldn't blame them; they had always been the types of friends who had told each other literally everything, but now… well now they knew nothing about him. They thought he was a straight virgin who lived in Catford with two parents, who never did drugs or anything untoward in the eyes of posh private school boys.
Well actually, there’s no way Peter wouldn’t have told at least James about what he saw at the party, so a not so straight virgin. But still.
He was practically a stranger to them now. It didn’t make him feel good.
“Where to? And why haven't we seen the new house yet?” Peter asked, excited, as the three of them started to make their way inside for lessons.
“To Peckham, and because the house isn’t fully sorted yet. You know what Mam’s like, she doesn’t want anyone seeing it until it's perfect.” The lie felt bitter in his mouth, but it also felt necessary, and so he bit back his grimace and bid them goodbye as he entered his first classroom of the day.
===
“Why the fuck didn’t he say anything?” Sirius hissed at James as they walked to their chemistry lesson together.
James knew there was something Remus wasn’t telling them, but he also knew Remus, better than any of the others, most likely, and so he kept his mouth shut, determined to speak to him in private.
“I don’t know mate, he was probably just busy. Don’t deep it, okay? We should do a boy’s thing this weekend. Not footie, since he clearly doesn’t want to come to that. I’ll ask mum if we can go to the camber house this weekend.”
Sirius looked like he was about to say something, but then the teacher silenced them and started the lesson.
At lunch, James texted Remus, talk to me mate. Can I come over? Won’t tell P or S.
Only for you prongsy. Came the reply. James smiled. He and Sirius had always been as close as brothers, but he and Remus had a stronger understanding of each other, which the other’s didn’t realise. Remus had matured far beyond his years, as had James, recently, at least. He would admit his year eleven self left much to be desired, but having to liaise with his parents about Sirius had opened his eyes to how to behave and act like an adult, whereas Sirius and Peter were still young.Peter because his family life was perfectly normal, and Sirius because his wasn’t. He was immature and he acted out because his parents were shit.
At the end of the day, James hung back, claiming he had a meeting about missed homework, and so Sirius and Pete left without him, despite the fact that Sirius was going back to James’ house. Remus met him at the bus stop, looking sombre, and stressed. James guess that a lot had happened that summer.
He was right.
“Dad left.” Remus said as they walked across Peckham Rye.
“Oh, I’m sorry mate.”
“It means I’m mums carer. She’s disabled, basically, so thats why I miss school. I have to look after her. And because she misses work and we don’t have dads salary now, well…” Remus trailed off, and James understood.
“Here we are.” Remus said, gesturing at a shop front that read ‘Diamond Kebab’ and had a very skinny door next to it.
“Hungry? I get as much free food as I want.” James shook his head, and Remus opened the tiny door, leading James up a thin and rickety wooden staircase to a blue door that’s pain was massively peeling.
“It's all we can afford. It's not that bad, actually.” Remus said, leading James into the door immediately after the front door, which led into a room mainly taken up by a bed.
“Home sweet home, I guess.”
“I want to say the others would understand, but I get why you didn’t tell them.” James said, dropping his bag and flopping onto the bed. Remus huffed a sarcastic laugh.
“Yeah,” he said shortly.
“What happened?” James asked, hesitantly. He knew Remus well, but not well enough to know how far he could push on this.
“He left. Said he was sick of caring for a disabled wife, which wasn’t what he signed up for when he married her. Said that I was a strange boy that he had never understood. And then he just left, and took everything with him.”
“Oh. shit. That's so shit.” James said, at a loss to say anything else.
“Yeah, you could say that.” Remus said, quietly, laying down next to James. James, for perhaps the first time in his life, didn’t know what to do. Even when Sirius had revealed the extent of the abuse at home, there had been a clear solution there. James had simply organised for Sirius to move in with him but this wasn’t like that. Remus wasn’t like that. He was proud, and independent.
“Do you want help?”
“I’m not sure how you can help, Prongsy.”
“Can I tell my mum and see how she would help?”
“Yeah, okay.” Remus said, after a long pause. Remus then texted someone, before rolling back to face James and said,
“you can meet Lily, if you want. She lives next door and she has been a lifeline for me this summer. She’s the best.”
James grinned. It felt nice to be back in Remus’ life.
About ten minutes later, the door knocked, and Remus left and returned with one of the prettiest girls James had ever seen. Her cheeks were rose-pink and her fiery red hair fell in gentle ringlets over her shoulders. She wore a massive t-shirt and 80’s looking jeans.
“James, this is Lily. Lily, this is James.” Remus said, sitting down.
“James, stop drooling.” he said laughing when James just stared at the girl in the doorway.
Summoning all his Potter confidence, he grinned. “It’s lovely to meet you, Lily. Remus never told me how beautiful you are.”
“Oh come off it, James. You didn’t know she existed until about three minutes ago. You still thought I had a dad, and lived in Catford about five minutes ago.”
“You told them, then” Lily said, sitting by Remus’ side, and James noticed that their thighs touched.
“Not them, just him.” Remus said, and Lily nodded, before launching into a story about her awful sister.
James thought he was in love.