A Marauder's Guide to Falling Together

Chapter Six

They walked silently down the hall until James redirected her from the typical path to Gryffindor tower and to a part of the castle that Marlene wasn't quite as familiar with. She immediately recognized their whereabouts when they passed by the classroom that they had shared for their first year in Defense Against the Dark Arts. James had taken them to the North Tower.

She had been relieved that Sirius and Peter hadn't joined them but her relief quickly turned into anxiety as she looked at the emotionless face that Lily was directing at her when they had reached their intended destination.

"This place is fairly deserted at night since they no longer teach Divination," James offered as an explanation when they had arrived. He led the girls and Remus into an abandoned classroom and the door groaned ominously as if it hadn't been used properly in a number of years before clicking shut behind them with such fierceness that it caused Marlene to jump.

Lily performed a simple imperturbable charm on the classroom so that they would be safe to speak before she said anything.

"I spoke with James last night," she said simply while settling herself atop of one of the dusty desks. Her hand graced the layer of dust and she ran the filmy layer through her fingers as she continued. "He told me that you know all about Remus."

"Er -" Marlene looked apprehensively towards James and Remus for confirmation. They both nodded their heads in agreement.

"Remus," Lily's brows furrowed as if irritated Marlene didn't understand. "About the fact that he's a werewolf."

"Yes," Marlene said slowly. "I know about that."

"I've known about you Remus, for a few years now," Lily sighed and her face relaxed. "I figured it out back in fourth year though I daresay that it was Severus that opened my eyes to it then. I was perfectly content for the first year or two believing that your mother really was ill all of those times."

"Snape?" Marlene's brain was racing; Snape had only found out about Remus back in the previous term. How could he have told Lily about it in fourth year?

"Naturally he'd been suspicious of Remus's absences and I eventually had to agree with him, he was absent quite a bit out of the school year. It wasn't until Severus associated his absences with the full moon that I really put the pieces together and I wondered if he had been right."

"He's been trying to figure it out for years," Remus said quietly. "I suppose it was only a matter of time before this happened. It's just a shame it happened the way it did."

"Snape wasn't too fond of the notion that Professor Dumbledore assigned me head boy after what he thought happened last year." James interjected quickly.

"I'm sorry Potter," Lily turned her attention towards him and frowned fierce enough to make him recoil. "I'd love to understand how Severus could think that you put his life in danger when in fact you actually did."

"I don't know how many times I have to defend myself Lily," James groaned desperately. "It was all just a stupid mistake. We didn't mean for it to go that far."

"When you told me that you told Lily 'most of it'," Marlene asked suddenly and all parties diverted their attention towards her. "What parts were you leaving out?"

"I'd be quite curious to know the answer to that as well," Lily said bitterly.

"No offence Evans," James' tone had clearly changed out of defensiveness. Marlene watched the look of shock on Lily's face to being addressed so aggressively; it wasn't within James' nature to speak to her in such a manner. "This whole thing really isn't any of your business anyways. I daresay if Snivellus hadn't felt the urge to play victim then you wouldn't be privy to any of this information in the first place."