A Dangerous Night in the Life of a Marauder

A/N: So this is just something I typed up on my iPod Touch one night 'cause I couldn't sleep. It took around four hours of almost nonstop typing in my sleep-deprived state (including the amount of times I had to stop to flex my fingers 'cause, damn, they hurt like hell).

Rated M for language, and scenes with lots of bloody injuries (literally). Just a fore-warning.

Disclaimer as usual – anything you recognize is JKR's, anything you don't is mine. :P

Cheers mates, and read and review please. :) (even though I don't really mind if you don't review since this is just a random one-shot that I didn't initially want to post up, but meh, anyway.) xP

"See ya later then Prongs! Take care, yeah?" Sirius said slapping his best mate a high five before going off to the Gryffindor common room.

"Yeah, you too mate. See ya tomorrow," James replied, then got into the heads common room, rubbing his forearm. They'd just come back from another nightly adventure with Moony, and he was beat. Remus had been pretty savage tonight, for some reason. He'd given James and Sirius deep scratches, but probably nothing they couldn't cure.

James moved carefully to the nearest armchair and collapsed in it, trying not to disturb his aching muscles too much as he took off his t-shirt. He took out his wand and lit up the fire in the grate then grimaced when he saw the claw marks. He'd felt it when Remus had clawed his chest in his stag form, but at that moment he was too busy steering the werewolf away from heading off to the main path outside, to pay full attention to his wounds. And any injuries he got in his Animagus form hurt less than when he was human.

The marks were covered by dried blood, which was why they weren't still bleeding. But as soon as he got the blood off, James guessed they'd open up again. By what he could tell, the deepest one was in the middle - it ran from just between his right shoulder blade and collarbone, curving all the way down across his chest and stopping about three inches above his belly button. James winced as he fingered it slightly. The other two wounds weren't as big, though they still hurt like hell. One was across the left side of his rib cage, not too deep, but still deep enough to have spilled a lot of blood. The last was a cut on his right forearm - he'd probably felt that one the most at the time, since he hadn't been able to step properly with that front leg as a stag.

James took a breath and thought about how he was going to cure these. He needed his Essence of Dittany for sure, probably not the Blood Replenishing Potion though - he saved that for when he lost so much blood that he felt woozy. Then it occurred to him that he'll most likely feel that way if his wounds opened. He swore and got up cautiously, heading over to the stairs that led to his dorm. He glanced at the other staircase to his right - Lily's one. She'd be sleeping by now, no doubt. He usually came back late anyway when he was with the Marauders - though, admittedly, not this late. But this WAS a monthly exception.

He strode into his room then headed to the bathroom he shared with the Head Girl. He moved slowly and quietly, not wanting to wake her up. James lit his wandtip then opened up his cupboard, pulling out a small bottle labeled 'Dittany' and the potion. He glanced in the mirror and swore softly at how bad the injuries looked. He stepped back hastily when he thought he heard movement coming from behind the door conjoining Lily's room to the bathroom.

But the sudden step had made him lose his balance. James swore loudly this time - involuntarily - as he tripped and fell backwards, his arms flying back as he instinctively tried to stop the fall. This was a bad move as the glass vials in his hands flew from his open hands and shattered on the tiled floor, just as James fell back onto it heavily. He yelled out as the glass cut into his back and rolled over away from it, swearing heavily under his breath, just as Lily's door flew opened, revealing a wide-eyed, terrified-looking Lily, holding out her wand, and still in her short pyjamas.

"James?" she cried, rushing over to him.

"Fuck, watch out Lily, bloody glass on the floor," James managed to get out through a haze of pain. It felt like the wound on his abdomen was starting to bleed again.

Lily took control of the situation, removing the glass and spilt potions with a wave of her wand. Then she helped James sit up, eyes full of worry. She gasped as she saw the wounds on his front as well as the glass wounds. James' eyes were threatening to flutter shut as he tried to get up, swaying dangerously as he did so. Lily quickly stood and put one of his arms around her shoulders to support him, leading him out of the bathroom as she asked, "What happened? What are those cuts from?"

But James shook his head, gripping her shoulder tight as they descended the stairs.

"Alright then," Lily said firmly. "I'm taking you to Madam Pomfrey okay?"

This time he found the energy to mutter, "No, don't... Sirius... I'll go to Sirius..."

Lily opened her mouth to object but thought better of it when she felt him falter in his step. The Gryffindor common room was closer anyway.

James groaned as his head spun, but he willed himself to keep moving. Sirius will help him... He cringed as the new cuts in his back stung with each step, and the deep cut in his chest tingled as cool air hit it from the windows. He knew it was reopening slowly slowly with each movement; he could feel blood trickling down his stomach already. It was a wonder he hadn't already collapsed from blood loss. He was dimly aware of Lily's warm hand tugging him to the left and he obliged automatically. Then he realised they'd reached the common room. He let out a shaky breath of relief and hurried to stagger up the stairs, the worried Lily steadying him so he wouldn't fall down. They fell through the door to the seventh year boys dorm, and Lily called out "Sirius!" as James collapsed, relieved, into a random chair.

Sirius came bounding out of the bathroom, wand out as he hurriedly looked around. He first saw Lily, and his mouth opened on surprise, but then he noticed the almost-unconscious James and everything else flew out of his head. He rushed over to his best mate's side, cursing rapidly and fumbling with his wand. Without looking back he said "Lily in the drawers in the cupboard there's a couple of potions. Get them quick!"

Lily didn't hesitate. She rushed into the bathroom and, ignoring the mess, grabbed the two potions in the top drawer then rushed back to the room. Sirius had carefully sat James up on his bed, propping him up with some pillows.

Lily placed the potions on the bed next to him and sat silently as she watched Sirius swiftly wave his wand in a spiral motion over James' bleeding chest wound to cease the flow. Then he hesitated, muttered "Hang on mate" and motioned for Lily to help him turn James so he could fix the cuts from the glass on his back. He inspected them, concern for his brother in his eyes, as he asked the redhead, "How did he get these?"

Lily frowned, remembering. "He was in the bathroom getting something - potions, like those ones, and I - I heard him fall and glass shatter and when I went in I realised he must've fallen backwards, and the vials would've fallen from his hands, and he fell onto the glass..." She shook her head worriedly, then said to Sirius, "Can you fix him up, then?"

He nodded. "Yeah, these aren't too serious. Gimme a couple of minutes." He frowned in concentration then muttered a spell, removing the little glass pieces from James' back. He let out a sigh of relief when it worked. Then he worked quicker, pouring a couple of drops of Dittany on the cuts that were bleeding, effectively stopping it. Sirius grinned shakily then turned his mate over so he could properly inspect the werewolf-made wounds. Only then did Lily notice that Sirius had cuts on HIS body as well, one of the marks that caught her attention the most was a deep, red one along his side, across his ribs to the middle of his chest.

"How did you both get those?" she asked quietly. Sirius glanced at her in surprise, his wand paused in mid-wave.

"I, um... can't tell you that," he muttered awkwardly, not meeting her sharp gaze.

She paused, frowning, then finally said threateningly, "Sirius Black, you better not have been doing anything dangerous."

The Marauder lifted the corner of his mouth in an ironic smirk. "Wouldn't dream of it Lilykins," he replied, then returned to tending the unconscious James' wounds.

He took a deep breath and debated between using his wand to clean up the blood, or doing it manually. Lily seemed to read his thoughts.

"You should do it by hand. If you try removing the blood using tergeo it might reopen the cuts," She advised, and Sirius nodded agreement, though he was apprehensive. He wasn't used to dealing with injuries without magic, having had to heal his own wounds from when he used to still live at Grimmauld Place.

He glanced back at Lily. "Do you know how to do it properly?"

Lily looked surprised, but nodded anyway. She Conjured a rag and sent to the bathroom to wet it, then returned to James' side. Sirius moved over to give her some space.

Lily carefully took one end of the rag and, starting from the blood furthest from the cuts, wiped it away slowly. James stirred slightly at the feel of the cold rag on his chest, but didn't wake up. Lily's eyebrows furrowed as she wiped off most off the surrounding dried blood, leaving only the wound itself. His arm and rib cuts hadn't spilled as much blood, but she wiped them too. She sent Sirius a glance.

"If this cut starts bleeding again when I remove the blood from it, I want you to put on it a couple of drops of Dittany. That should fix him up."

Sirius nodded quickly and she started dabbing at the deep cut, beginning at the end of it where it was most shallow. It was fine until she reached the middle - then it threatened to reopen again. But Sirius dropped on it some Dittany, and it cured. In a couple of minutes they were done, and Lily Vanished the rag wearily, sitting back to watch James sleep on.

Sirius let out a deep breath, sinking onto his bed. "Thanks for that Lils, you're a bloody lifesaver," he said to her with a shaky grin. She smiled back, then hesitated, and asked, "So... those scratches... They looked like they were from some sort of animal?"

Sirius looked unsure of something. He seemed to be on the verge of telling her, when James stirred more and, as they watched apprehensively, slowly opened his eyes. He looked around at the relieved faces of Sirius and Lily.

"Back in the land of the living, then?" Sirius asked with a wide grin, though his eyes showed how relieved he was.

James let out a shaky chuckle as he attempted to sit up, but stopped when Lily put a firm hand on his arm to stop him.

"Don't even think about moving, not after all the hard work we went through to get you to stop bleeding!"

James looked at her hand for a second then sat back again, looking at them properly.

"Just how badly was I beat up anyway? You both look dead beat."

"You think?" said Sirius sarcastically, though a faint grin was still on his face. "Healing you wasn't an easy job mate, you owe us big time."

James grinned crookedly then looked down at his chest, fingering the red mark gingerly. It didn't hurt as much as he'd thought it would, but they'd healed it really well anyway. He glanced back at them. "Cheers guys, you make good healers."

Sirius chuckled, obviously glad that James was feeling pretty normal, and jerked his head at Lily. "Thanks Lils mate, not me. You should've seen her working on that cut there, bloody brilliant."

Lily's cheeks burned bright red, embarrassed, as James' gaze turned to her, an odd look in his eyes she couldn't replace. After a moment he said quietly, "Looks like I owe you a lot now."

She stared at him, mind blank for a moment before it remembered how to send a message to her mouth. "It wasn't a problem," Lily replied quickly. "It was really simple to heal anyway."

He nodded slightly, eyes still boring into hers, until Sirius cleared his throat, effectively breaking them out of their reverie. They both turned to him simultaneously.

Sirius looked amused. "Well If you two lovebirds are quite finished, I think I'd like to catch up on my sleep?" He laughed as the two Heads flushed slightly but got up, James moving slowly and carefully, testing out the strength left in his throbbing muscles. Lily watched with concern and opened her mouth to ask whether he needed assistance, but thought better of it - she knew James well enough to realise that he wouldn't want to use someone's help when he could make it himself. As Sirius had stated once, it was the Potter pride.

"Night mate," James said to Sirius, as they bumped fists.

Sirius grinned. "This time I mean it when I say take care, Prongs."