After Dark
Written for PoisonParadiseExpress's HP Writing Challenge… Hope you enjoy :D
As Lily walked through Hogsmeade she became aware of a shadow following her. Something cold and dark, an animal, yet not… she gasped… a Werewolf. All she could think was 'I'm being stalked by FUCKING WEREWOLF!' She turned around, only to be met by the oddest sight anyone would ever see; a Stag, a black Dog and a Rat attempting to stop a Werewolf from eating her. If she hadn't been scared shitless, she would have found it hilarious and burst out laughing, however, she was scared shitless and had no urges to move, let alone laugh.
Lily gripped her wand as if it was a lifeline, there, in the dark streets of Hogsmeade, she was about to be killed by a Werewolf… not the way she thought she was going to that was for sure. She had imagined being killed in war, the glory of dying for her beliefs, not being murdered in some no-where dark little street.
She looked at the creature about to murder her in cold blood and was surprised to see the spark of intelligence in its eyes, the little things that made human beings human was in this Werewolf's eyes, at that moment, when it was about to kill her, Lily felt a connection. She mentally berated herself, 'seriously, I feel a connection NOW?! It's about to kill me! Why do I feel as if I know it? As if I am friends with it?' Then Lily saw the Stag, the mighty, beautiful Stag jump in front of the Werewolf as it lunged for her, knocking the monster aside and earning a giant gash on its muscular chest. The Dog and the Rat lead the Werewolf away from the scene as blood began pouring out of the wound.
The magnificent Stag, now covered in blood fell to the ground in front of Lily with a thud, and started transforming; limbs bubbled outwards, expanding in a very odd fashion, only to suddenly shrink and turn into arms and legs. The torso of a man erupted from the bloodied mess of the Stag's wrecked body, and from the dying mess of a once majestic animal, the naked, torn and half-dead body of James Potter was formed.
Lily gasped, Potter, her long-time arch enemy, the arrogant, narcissistic, bull-headed toe-rag with whom she was now friends with and had grown a small crush on, was an animagus; an animagus that had just saved her life and was about to die. Lily had no choice, she levitated him back to the castle and after deciding that perhaps the hospital wing was not the best place to go, as it presently housed Evan Rosier and Lucius Malfoy, two of the most horrid and deceitful Slytherins of all time apart from one Snivellous (Severus) Snape, she took him to the Room of Requirement.
Lily paced in front of the door to the Room back and forth three times, thinking to herself 'I need a place to help heal James Potter'. A door appeared and swung open. Lily was met by shelves full of potions, antidotes and poisons alike, books filled with information on every type of cut, scrape, bite, infection of any kind. Instructions on how to heal anything and everything. And a hospital bed to place the injured person.
She levitated James onto the bed and immediately rushed to the shelves to get clothes to halt the blood flowing freely out of the wound. As soon as the blood had stopped spewing out of the gash in James's chest, Lily conjured up a bowl full of luke-warm salt water and started to clean the mess. It was a long task; filled with dread that James would die before she administered the antidote, which was supposed to be consumed by the ill as soon as the wound was clean and cleared of any infection.
Finally finished cleaning and dressing the gash in James's chest, Lily administered the antidote. She then lay down next to James on a bed that had appeared just for her and fell into a deep sleep, her last thoughts being that if James Potter was a Stag, then all the Marauders except Remus were animagi along with him. James, Prongs as he was called by him fellow Marauder was a Stag, which meant that Sirius, Padfoot, was the big black Dog; Peter, Wormtail, was the Rat and Remus, Moony, was the Werewolf that had tried to kill her… such a pleasant thought, needless to say, Lily had a very restless sleep that night as she was plagued by nightmares that involved everyone that she cared about being sliced and diced by poor Remus.
When Lily awoke the next morning, she was surprised to find herself in the very muscular arms of James Potter. Somehow their beds had moved during the night and meshed together, turning two separate hospital beds into one big, comfy, king sized bed. Lily froze; shocked to find herself in such an awkward position with the guy she had a crush on. She couldn't bear to think of what her best friend, Ella, would have said if she saw Lily and James in such a compromising position. She may not have said anything, just raised her eyebrows and walked away, with one last glance at Lily that clearly stated 'You will tell me everything, every last detail, of what happened last night, I will find out, whether I have to torture you or not'. Lily loved Ella, but she could be scary, and was very determined to find out everything about anything that sparked her curiosity.
Lily heard a groan next to her ear and shivered in spite of herself, James just had that effect on her. She quickly tried to get out of his arms before he actually woke up, only to have him tighten his arms around her. She bit back a gasp as her somehow bare back hit his bare chest. Again she froze, unsure of what to do, having no idea of how to get out of the situation, especially without awakening James. There was simply no way. Unless she could lift his arms… but she had run out of time. James lazily opened his eyes and blinked, tightening his arms around what he thought was his pillow, until he heard a squeak coming from it. He looked down to see a mass of wavy red hair and gulped, was Lily Evans in his arms… or was this just another dream. That was the question in James's head.
James had been in love with Lily since he had first seen her at Platform 9 ¾, her mane of vivid red hair had reminded him of flames, of the beautiful dancing flames cavorting in the fireplace of the Potter Manor just that night. He had fallen for the red headed girl that second and made it his goal to marry her. But first he had to get her to go on a date with him. She hated him, so that made things harder. Every time he would ask her out she would turn him down, sometimes using violence. Over the years he had just fallen for her even more, but he could never make her like him and in their seventh year at Hogwarts had matured as a last ditch effort to make her like him. He had gotten Head Boy, her Head Girl, and they lived together in the Head's Common Room and had become friends, yet he still hadn't won her heart.
So when he saw her lying in his arms, he almost screamed, he was finally holding her, and she wasn't trying to get away. He turned her around in his arms and looked at her; she stared back at him, a soft smile on her face. 'Does you injury still hurt?' she asked. 'What injury?' he inquired, confused. 'You got attacked by Remus while trying to protect me idiot' Lily said. 'Oh' James said, 'I didn't realise.' Lily laughed; it was just like him not to remember that he had almost died.
James stared at Lily in awe her laugh was amazing. The he really registered what she had said. 'WHAT!? How do you know about Remus?' He nearly shouted. Lily looked amused, 'It's obvious when you think about it, plus, you transformed from a Stag to you after he had slashed your chest, so after I saw that you were an animagi, I realised that you nickname reflected your animal, I also saw a big black Dog and a Rat, and there's Padfoot and Wormtail, then it really wasn't hard guessing that Remus was the Werewolf, Moony, very subtle.' She answered flippantly, then continued, 'But I think it's a very nice thing, what you do for him, Remus was cursed, a horrid thing to befall such an amazing young man, but you, you care enough about him to help him when he is at his lowest point. I wish to do the same, help him. Plus I can't be mad at you and deduct points, because apart from the fact that you are Head Boy, I'm also doing something very illegal, I'm an animagus too.' James' mouth hung open in shock, he had known that she was smart, but not even Professor McGonagall had guessed that they were animagi, and she had been the one to teach them about it. And Lily was an animagi too… 'What do you turn into?' he asked. 'A doe' she answered.
Again, James was staring at Lily, and she was staring back, there was a spark, some tension, then they were both leaning in and kissing, lips moving, tongues tasting, and moans filling the air. James was on cloud nine, the happiest he had been in a long time, the girl that he had been desperately in love with since first year knew his biggest secret and was fine with it, in fact, she had the same secret. He pulled away and looked her dead in the eye, 'Lily Evans, will you be my girlfriend?' he asked. She looked at him, hesitated, and then said 'Yes, I would love to.' Brilliant smiles lit up both their faces and their lips met again. Lily's hand traced the scar on James' chest where Remus had clawed him and she realized that she must have used a really strong potion to clear it up. She broke away and looked at it, to be completely honest; it just made him sexier. Lily pulled his head back down to hers and they made out for a while more until Sirius thought it was time for him to check the Room of Requirement for his missing friend and was met by a disturbing site. But that's another story…
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