Deer Diary || Jily

Year 3 II

The next evening, Lily approached Remus while he was alone, which was frustratingly difficult as he was always surrounded by his rowdy gang of friends.

"Remus," Lily said as she sat across from the wiry blond at the library.

Remus looked up from his work in surprise. "Lily," he said, "Do you need something?"

"Um, no. Not exactly," Lily said awkwardly. Now that she was actually facing the teen, she did not really know what to say, "I just wanted to know where that bruise came from."

She pointed to his neck and chin where the wound was healing and fading quickly.

"Oh," Remus looked at her with widened eyebrows and adjusted the collar of his uniform to try and hide more of the damaged skin, "It's nothing to worry about. I just fell down the stairs, but Madam Pomfrey gave me a healing potion that works like a charm, no pun intended."

But Lily did not have time for any jokes, "This is what? The fifth time you've used the stairs as an excuse?"

"I don't—"

"Are Potter and Black hurting you?" Lily asked quickly, "Are they using you as a punching bag or something?"

"What the fu—" Remus looked flabbergasted. "Merlin, Lily! Why the bloody hell would you say that?" he practically yelled at her.

Seeing as they were in the library and many eyes turned to look at the two of them, Remus quickly got up, grabbed his belongings, and headed for the exit.

Lily raced after him. "I didn't mean it like that. It's just that they're both on the Quidditch team and they're getting stronger and—"

"And what exactly? I'm small and weak and they would just use me as a punching bag when they're bored because you think they're evil like that? Maybe you've been hanging out with the wrong Slytherins too much, Lily, because James and Sirius would never, ever hurt me," he stopped in his steps and glared at her, breathing heavily from walking quickly. "They've done more for me than you will ever know. Stay out of my business and don't talk about what you don't know." And with that, he walked away.

But that wasn't who Lily was and she had to know more. If Remus was in trouble, Lily had to know the truth so she could help him. If James and Sirius were hurting him, Lily had to know. On the outside, they may seem like the best of friends, but Lily knew from experience that friendships aren't always what they seem on the outside and people aren't always who they say they are.

Her own friendship with Severus seemed on edge for the past year, ever since the black haired boy decided to spend more time around the more shady Slytherin characters. Whenever Lily would confront him and ask him what they were up to he would get nervous and push her way, insisting it was nothing, that he just wanted to get to know the people of his house better.

Lily would argue that they were the wrong crowd of Slytherins and that they were Death Eaters, but then he would glare at her and say, "I thought you didn't judge, Lily."

Lily wondered what happened to her childhood friend who she knew even before Hogwarts. The boy she used to play on the swings with and make mud pies in the rain.

If he could change and push her away, Lily knew that the Marauders, as strong as their friendship seemed, could change as well.

James and Sirius were both capable of physically hurting people. Sirius had violent tendencies, finding reasons to fight the Slytherins in every which way. While James was less so, he would not hesitate to jump to Sirius's defense if he needed it.

Lily didn't want to believe that they could do it, but it was not like Remus was around anyone else and James and Sirius were the only two who looked physically capable of doing that much damage to the boy.