Chapter 1
The dark figure ran bent over as if wishing to avoid detection towards the violently thrashing tree. The boy, who looked to be about fifteen, looked over his shoulder, pushing back his long limp hair as he did so, thus profiling his overlarge nose, then picked up a stick from the ground and began circling the tree, scanning the base of its trunk. He seemed to find what he was looking for, thrust his stick forwards, and disappeared behind the suddenly still curtain of leaves.
Disembodied laughter, which had been drifting towards the same tree, was suddenly cut off. "Oh, shit" came a voice, and then another teenage boy, this one with messy black hair and glasses, appeared out of nowhere and began sprinting at the tree. "James! Wait! Oh, bloody hell" shouted a new voice and two more boys materialized and followed their friend, the taller of the two shoving a silvery cloth into his pocket as he ran. They reached the tree just as James too had disappeared behind the leafy curtain. The tall boy glanced at his companion, took a deep breath, and dived at a hole in the base of the tree, becoming much shorter, blacker, and furrier as he did so. The shorter, rounder boy appeared to shrink, and with a flick of his long, bald tail, he too scrambled down the hole.
Inside the tunnel beneath the tree, James ran doubled up, cursing the low ceiling which prevented him from transforming lest he become even more cramped than he currently was. He rounded the final familiar corner just in time to see the first boy opening a door at the end of the tunnel. The boy glanced inside and sprang back in alarm, then turned at the sound of James' labored breathing. Before he could screech more than, "Potter! You…" he had been hit by a jet of red light and crumpled to the floor. James launched himself over the boy's body to slam the door shut, and heard a roar of rage from the other side. "Co…Coloportus!" he gasped, pointing a wand at the door, and with a squelching sound it was sealed shut.
He was kneeling over the boy's body muttering and swearing under his breath as a large black dog and a rat rounded the corner and came near to sniff at the boy's clothing. The dog appeared not to have enjoyed what he smelled and jumped back, its tail between its legs. "Oh, ha ha Sirius," said James, apparently not amused. "How the hell did he know? Never mind, let's just get him back to the castle," and with a wave of his wand, the boy began to float. James steered the boy back down the tunnel and all four began moving away from the howls and screeches of pain and anger now issuing from behind the door.
James, his two friends, and the boy with the large nose were sitting in a beautiful circular room facing an old man across his desk who was looking uncharacteristically severe. After a long silence, the old man cleared his throat. "Severus." The boy with the large nose looked up and met the man's eyes. "I believe I have a clear idea as to what happened tonight, but I am still at a loss as to why. How did you gain knowledge of that particular tunnel, and what possessed you to follow it? And in the middle of the night no less?"
Severus shifted uncomfortably in his chair and was unable to keep the anger out of his voice as he murmured, "Sirius said if I did I would find out where Remus goes every month." The old man's piercing gaze shifted sharply from Severus to the tall boy on James' right.
"I see. Severus, will you wait outside please." Despite the polite phrasing, it was quite clear that this was not a request, and Severus cast a glance of loathing in Sirius' direction before nodding and leaving the room.
The three boys all spoke at the same time. "Professor Dumbledore, sir…" "What is he…?" "Will Remus…?" but Dumbledore held up his hands for silence and the boys obliged. "I take it the three of you have known of Remus' disappearances for a while now?" The boys nodded in unison and Dumbledore cast a critical eye over them before continuing. "I do not know what you boys thought you could do for Remus at this time, and I do not want to. But surely you must realize how dangerous it is to be near him during his transformations. Especially," he focused again upon Sirius, "if one is unaware of what they will be facing. If you did indeed inform Mr. Snape of the tunnel, as I can see from your face that you did, that may as well constitute involuntary manslaughter, no matter how exceedingly foolish it was of Mr. Snape to follow your suggestion." The color drained from Sirius' face, and he opened his mouth to speak but seemed unable to form words. "Furthermore," continued Dumbledore, "had such a murder indeed occurred, the Ministry would want to be sure that it would not happen again, and would hand Remus over to the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures for execution." Now all three boys were pale, and Sirius was caught in the beam of three different sets of angry stares. Dumbledore sighed and turned away. "James and Peter, please go back to your dormitory while I talk to Mr. Black here. Please do not talk of this incident to anybody until I can assess how much damage has been done."
James stood up, unaware of whether or not Peter was following, and opened the door to find Severus leaning against the wall outside the door, his arms crossed and a scowl on his face. They stared at each other for a few seconds before James hissed slowly, "Snivellus, you bastard," and shouldered his way past him down the stairs, Peter following timidly behind.
James was still sitting up in bed when Sirius came back to the dormitory an hour later. Sirius acknowledged his friend with a nod, then walked over and sat on his own bed facing James. The silence solidified between them for an almost unbearable amount of time before Sirius said in cracked voice, "Here's your cloak back," holding out a piece of silvery cloth as he did so. James took it and fingered it quietly.
"Why'd you do it?" he whispered.
"Dammit, Prongs, I don't need another lecture." Sirius swung his legs into bed and stared determinedly at the canopy of his bed. "I've just been given a detention every night for the rest of term, and that's on top of the ones I already got for hexing that toilet on the third floor."
James looked up. "I don't want to lecture you, Sirius, but you're like my brother, and I just can't see family members leaving something like this hanging. I know you would never hurt Remus intentionally, but I have to know what you meant to happen to Snape."
Sirius was quiet for a moment, and when his reply came it was hoarse. "You should have heard what Snivellus was saying about Moony yesterday in Charms. You would have cursed him into jelly if you had heard. I wanted to shut him up. I just wanted to scare him, to embarrass him, and to stop him trying to spy us out. It never occurred to me that he might die...that Remus would…" He turned his head to wipe his eyes, as if afraid to let James see him cry.
James sighed. "Padfoot, why did we spend three years studying to become animagi? Because we know that werewolves kill humans. Of course Remus wouldn't kill Snape, but Remus isn't Remus when he's in that shack, and he's not Moony either… he's something else."
Sirius ran his fingers through his hair and met his friend's eyes. "I know. I'm sorry, and you know how much I hate saying that." James held up his hands in a gesture of surrender. Sirius managed a weak smile then yelled at Peter who was sprawled out on the bed two down from James', "Oi! Wormy! You can stop faking sleeping now." Peter blinked and looked up, grinned sheepishly and rolled over.
James was woken the next morning by a pillow thrown at his head and Sirius' distinctive hiss: "He's back!" James sat up and fumbled for his glasses. When he finally located them and put them on, he witnessed Sirius launching out of bed to give a massive bear hug to Remus, who was standing with the aid of crutches in the doorway, looking tired and rather alarmed to be greeted such. Sirius was practically shouting in Remus' ear: "Oh Merlin, Moony, I am so sorry! I'm an idiot and if you never want to talk to me again I'd completely understand. I should be made to live as a Muggle, or worse, to live with my mum!" James jumped up grinning to rescue Remus, who was now looking utterly terrified.
"Let him breathe, Sirius. Good to see you mate… Dumbledore told you what happened?"
Remus nodded and hobbled over to his bed and sat down looking exhausted and gingerly feeling the various cuts on his arms. "Yeah. Thanks for being there, James." Sirius made a strangled noise and Remus glanced up at him. "Don't worry about it, Padfoot. Madam Pomphrey said with potions I'd be okay in a few days, and Snape is fine, so no harm done. Just… just… well, you know. I'm really tired." He lay down and gave them a thin-lipped smile. "See you on the other side."
Sirius let out a long breath, looking profoundly relieved that his friend was not angry and still looking Remus over as if to assess the damage. James, however, grabbed Peter by the feet and dragged him out of bed despite his squawk of protest. "Come on, let's go to the common room and let Moony get his beauty sleep."
A/N- I hope you enjoyed the first chapter- there will be 15 in total. I know it's not the most exciting thing in the world right now, but it does get better and (I think) much more interesting. Mostly, this story is just my attempt to put everything we know about James into a coherent narrative, so this is going to be more of a character study than a super-complex plot… Just so you know what's coming.
It's all JKR's.