Lily knocked on the door to the spare room.

"Go away, Remus!" Spencer's voice was weighted and fraying.

Lily hesitated, then called, "It isn't Remus."

There was a pause and Lily bit her lips, listening, and after a moment or two, the door cracked open. Lily stepped inside and Spencer looked her over. "You were Wonder Woman."

Lily nodded, "At the party, yes." She lingered by the door. "My name is Lily. I'm Remus's friend. My husband is James. He was Superman at the party. And every day really, at least to me."

Spencer's tone was sour. "And I suppose you and James are werewolves too?"

"Well, no," Lily said. "I'm a witch and James is a wizard."

Spencer shook his head in disbelief.

"I'm very sorry, everything must be so overwhelming for you. It's a great deal to have happen all at once..."

"I'll say," Spencer scoffed.

Lily took another couple steps into the room and lowered herself into a chair gingerly. "I think you're handling it rather well, I mean, all things considered. You're standing up, for one, which is a world better than I'd be if I were you right about now. I'd have collapsed entirely. Probably have flung myself down and just dissolved into a blubbering mess of tears like they do in the movies."

Spencer said, "I'm not sure I believe it still. You don't need to make me fly again or anything," he said quickly, looking at her wand.

"Oh Spencer, I'm so sorry! Remus told me what he did, he panicked. What an awful way to be introduced to the wizarding world. I hate that spell he did." She shook her head. "I knew some bullies once who used it when we were in school --"

"In school?" Spencer said, "They used magic at a school? Weren't they found out? How does the entire world not know about wizards and magic and all if they were using magic to bully others at school?"

"Oh it was a magic school," Lily said gently.

"Of course it was," Spencer said miserably.

Lily said, "We were all very worried about you, you know, especially Remus. He was simply torn to pieces."

"I believe it's me who's been torn to pieces, rather," muttered Spencer bitterly.

Lily nodded. "Do you need a fresh bandage?"

"Can you heal it?"

"I'm afraid not. Wounds like you've got can't be healed by magic," she said.

"Then what good is magic?"

"Well its very good and quite a lot of things that can't be healed the, er, conventional way can be healed by magic. It's just your wounds were inflicted by a magical creature and so the magic has its limits."

Spencer sighed.

Lily motioned for him to come over and sit by her, which Spencer did, crossing his legs as he settled onto the carpet. Lily used her wand to carefully remove the bandage from his shoulder. The bite was raw and torn, oozing slightly with half-clotted blood, pink where the muscle showed through and deep. She pictured the long teeth of Remus's wolf, which she'd seen and petted only a month ago, and felt a chill go through her.

"Accio salve," she whispered, and from the dresser came a squat pot of a healing salve she'd learned to make, similar to one that Madam Pomfrey used to give to Remus after the full moons. Remus used it often. Being careful not to touch the wound - being so raw, there could be some lingering venom, Remus had warned when they'd originally bandaged the wound - Lily used magic to carefully smooth the salve over the torn flesh. Spencer gasped and winced at first touch, but the sting gave way to a cooling, soothing sensation that had the tense muscles in his shoulders relaxing. He closed his eyes as Lily's magic worked, gentle and loving. When it was properly smoothed over, she applied fresh bandages over the bite, and set the salve to smoothing over minor cuts and abrasions, covering over the slices in his chest, his arms, back, and even his face.

"This is why Remus has scars," Spencer said. "How many people has he done this to for him to be all cut up like that?"

"He's never bitten anyone else," Lily said. "He only bit you to save your life."

"Fights with other wolves then?" Spencer asked, "He has all those awful scars like this, he must have got them from someone."

"Most of his scars are from his own doing."

Spencer looked up at her. "His own doing?"

"The wolf over takes the consciousness," Lily explained, "He loses himself to the wolf."

Spencer shivered. "How did he... become...?" he asked.

"He was only three," Lily said quietly. 

Spencer looked up at her.

"His father worked on a committee - an anti-werewolf committee at the Ministry, and there were some... some bad wolves who were very upset about his politics. The leader of them went to Mr. Lupin's house and he bit Remus in revenge of the laws they were passing. The most anti-werewolf man in the Wizarding World with a werewolf for a son."

Spencer looked away.

"You can imagine it's not been easy for Remus. The very policies that his father created led to a great deal of hatred toward werewolves - misunderstandings and judgmental attitudes and such."

"I can imagine," Spencer murmured.

"They kept him locked up so that he wouldn't bite anyone else, but they also didn't let him release any of the energy that built up - so he would bite himself, tear himself all up. That's where those scars came from. They almost didn't let him go to school."

"Isn't it illegal not to send a child to school?" Spencer asked.

Lily replied simply, "A child, yes, but it's illegal to send a werewolf to school."

"It is?"

Lily nodded. "It's a secret - Remus's Furry Little Problem - to keep him safe, to keep him free."

"Furry Little Problem?" Spencer asked.

"That's what we call it," she explained. "Condition is too clinical, don't you think?"

"I - suppose," Spencer said.

Lily said, "It sounds cold - and Remus isn't cold. He's not a monster, even though he really thinks he is and a great deal of people might agree with him - they don't understand werewolves. And people fear what they don't understand, and the things they fear... well, they can be very unkind, can't they?"

Spencer frowned.

"Remus has dealt with it all of his life... and that prejudice is precisely why he hesitated to - to change you," Lily explained. "But Spencer, you really would have died if he hadn't done it. The aconite was in your veins before we ever could've helped you, even by magic, and the hospital did all they could, but it would have killed you. It would have. The only cure was to change you into something that could take on the aconite. So your body could fight it."

Spencer looked down at his hands.

"It's not easy," Lily said, "I won't sugar coat it... But you're not alone."

"Of course I'm alone," Spencer snapped, turning to look up at her again.

Lily shook her head, "You've got us... Remus and Sirius and James and Peter and I - we're Remus's family, and - and we can be yours, too, Spencer."

"Honestly, I don't know why we didn't send Lilith up to talk to the poor bloke to begin with," Sirius said. He was leaning back in the front seat again, passenger window open, legs sticking up and out it, crossed at the ankle, as James clutched the wheel.

Remus leaned forward from the back, elbows folded over the bench seat, his chin propped on his bicep. He sighed.

James had graduated from the Potter's carpark and was doing his third lap 'round the square in the center of Godric's Hollow at a mere five km per hour.

"Meanwhile, I'm an idiot and I go up and traumatize him instead," Remus said heavily. "D'you reckon Lily will be able to talk him out of the trauma I've already caused?"

"Lily can talk the trauma out of anyone," James confirmed.

"Even me," Sirius offered, grinning up at his husband. 

Remus stared at the clock built into the dashboard. He'd left Lily with Spencer a little less than thirty minutes ago - fifteen of which had been spent coaxing James onto the actual road with the promise that if it appeared they were about to crash, Remus would perform the arresto momentum immediately. "If only it wasn't so bloody awful of a world for werewolves, it would be a bit easier. Like a muggle born learning they're a wizard - exciting, right, magic exists and guess what you're a wizard! But this... Hey you're a werewolf, be prepared to be mistreated your entire life at the hands of arseholes that ought to know better."

"Equal rights or we bite!" Sirius declared, punching the air.

"Sends sort of the wrong message, though, dunit?" James asked, glancing at Sirius.

"I suppose it does," Sirius said, shrugging.

"And how about Lula? What about her? Do we tell her? Do we tell him he can't tell her?"

"Aren't they broken up?" Sirius asked.

"It isn't really that simple, is it?"

James slammed on his brake so hard Sirius rolled forward and fell into the floor area of the passenger seat, his head knockin' against the center column of the dash. The car stalled from the abrupt stop. "Sorry!" James gasped.

"What in the bloody hell did you stop for?" Sirius grouched, pulling himself up out of the floor with Remus's help of an extended arm.

"Pedestrian," James answered, breathless as though it was a near hit.

Sirius and Remus looked up. An old woman was halfway across the street about a block away. Sirius looked at Remus, who sat back in the backseat and buckled in as Sirius looked at James. "Prongs... the speed you're going, she could've stopped, laid down, had a good nap, and still gotten back up before you'd run her down."

James looked at Remus in the rearview. He nodded his agreement with Sirius's assessment.

"Why am I so awful at this?" James asked.

"You're being overly cautious," Remus supplied.

Sirius studied James, rubbing his chin.

"Not that an abundance of caution isn't something that at least one person in our friend group could use, but in this instance, you could afford to use a wee bit less, perhaps," Remus continued.

"You're worried about the baby," Sirius said suddenly.

James looked at Sirius. "The baby's not even born," he said.

Sirius concentrated, then shook his head, "Yes but you're thinking about what it will be like driving Lily around in the car and then what it'll be like driving with the baby in the back." Sirius wagged an accusatory finger at James, "You're worried about the Prongslet."

Remus raised an eyebrow, then looked at James. "Alright, he might be on to something."

James flushed. "I'm sure I'll be just fine by the time the baby comes --" he said, but his confident tone was lacking.

Sirius nodded, "Yes, that's it, we've figured it out. I've figured you out," Sirius said pressing a finger on James's chest. 

James was quiet a moment, then, "It's not like trying to fly a broom. There's far less control and it's not just my life I'm having to think about if I crash, is it? It's Lily's and the baby's or yours and Rey's."

"No, it isn't like flying a broom at all, you're right, it's got far more protection built-in. But I argue that it actually has more control, you're just controlling it with your foot pedals for the accelerator and the brake instead of your hands on the stick is all... and it's alright that takes a mo' to get used to --"

"It takes a great deal to get used to!" James interjected.

Sirius continued, "-- but you're James bloody-fucking Potter and you're good at bloody everything and ferfucksake, Prongs, you're fearless. You're brave. You're confident. You have an ego the size of a small planet."

Remus nodded in the backseat. "And that's after it's downsized a bit. It used to be the size of a large planet."

"Jupiter," Sirius said.

Remus was still nodding, "And it's moons."

"Now listen here, Prongs, you really will be grand at this by the time the baby comes, and all the better for it if you stop being wretchedly cautious and just drive the damned car."

James nodded with resolve and turned to face forward again. He pressed the clutch and turned the engine on, shifted and pressed the accelerator and the car jerked forward - not smooth, but a start - and James took a deep breath, steered them 'round the square once again, and then pulled down the street, and although he didn't quite get up to a normal driving speed, he did manage to go faster, getting all of the way up to 25 kph before they'd reached the Potter house and Sirius clapped him on the back as they came to a stop. "A good first outing."

Remus patted James shoulder.

The lads got out of the car and started toward the house. James opened the latch of the gate and it creaked loudly as he murmured that he needed to fix it. Sirius helped Remus up the steps to the front door and James pushed his way in, followed by the dogs, Sirius's arm around Remus's hips.

Spencer Stewart was sitting at the dining room table, drawing, a Joni Mitchell record spinning on a player on the kitchen island counter as Lily sang along, stirring a pot of delicious-smelling stew. Both Lily and Spencer looked up as the lads entered and James elbowed Remus, who looked surprised to see Spencer looking so calmed.

Only James noticed how tired Lily looked around the eyes, and he went and grabbed Dora's apron from the hook by the pantry and pulled it on, laughing as he tied the waist ribbon at the small of his back, grinning, "Smells good, love, how can I help?" he asked, sliding up behind her and running his hands over her belly as he kissed her cheek.

Lily smiled and he felt her sink into him.

"You go and sit," he directed her. "Sirius and I will finish cooking." He looked up. "Won't we, Padfoot?"

Sirius grinned and came 'round into the kitchen, shrugging off his leather jacket. "That's right," he said, "No better place for a dog to be than in the kitchen."

Lily kissed James's cheek and thanked them and went' round to join Spencer at the dining room table. "C'mon, Rey," Lily said encouragingly.

Remus moved nervously forward, looking at Spencer. As Remus and Lily sat, Spencer looked up at Remus, and then carefully moved the box of pencils between them and pushed a few sheets of the bristol he was drawing on over to be before Remus - a motion he'd done a hundred times at their art class.

Their eyes locked for several seconds, and then Spencer looked away.

Remus selected a pencil, but before he'd begun drawing, Sirius appeared at his elbow, at the space between Remus and Spencer. He bent down, glancing between the two of them. "Anyone want some tea?" Sirius asked, and then, after a pause, "Promise it isn't poisoned this time." He winked at Spencer.

There was a tense moment in which everyone in the room stared at Sirius.

"What?" Sirius asked, looking 'round. He grinned that irresistible grin and his eyes sparkled with mischief. "Too soon?"