Chapter one Nighttime Prowls

"SHH!" James Potter whispered, "Get under the cloak." Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew hastened to his side and were seen no more.

This was one of the many night time prowls the three friends took every full moon. They were on their way to an innocent young looking tree. All students were forbidden to go near the whomping willow because in fact this tree was really very ferocious. Just last year a student was nearly killed because they had gotten too close. That was the story that got out, however, James Potter and his friends knew the truth, and the truth was that Sirius had accidentally let slip to Severus Snape how to get into the secret passage underneath the tree.

Severus tried it, and believe me it worked but there was something even more dangerous than the tree beyond the passage. James had gotten there just in time to pull his school enemy away from death. Afterward Severus Snape was very angry at James for saving his life. He knew he was indebted to a boy he hated.

Pushing the memory to the back of his mind, James looked forward to the freedom the grounds held for him and his friends. The three boys transformed into their other selves or you might call them a stag, a dog, and a rat. The rat scurried over to the tree and pressed a giant knot. The tree immobilized and then the stag and the dog followed the rat into a large hole between two roots.

The tunnel led them to a boarded up shack. Inside the shack was their best friend Remus Lupin. Remus had been bitten when he was a little boy. He tried to make excuses about why he would disappear every full moon. But his friends had figured out the boy's darkest secret. He was a werewolf.

The animagi and the wolf made their way back out to the grounds. When the wolf had his friends with him he felt more like himself so he was able to control his thirst for human on those nights.

Tonight the animals were going onto the school grounds to have a little fun. They went over to the lake with the giant squid and rested under their favorite tree. As long as no humans were around they would be safe. Next they went to a place near the forest and started to wrestle with one another.

Nights were a lot shorter when Remus had his friends with him. Near dawn the animals went back the shrieking shack. The stag trotted alongside the dog and the rat when he started to change back into himself. The dog followed suite but the rat took a while to realize that his friends had transfigured to their normal selves. He too changed quickly into his human form.

They ran to their dormitory hoping to get a few minutes of sleep before they began the days classes.

Nearly falling asleep in back of charms class James and Sirius were doodling on the page of their notebook where they were supposedly taking notes about the new shield charm. The boys had already perfected this spell after one of the many times Severus Snape had cursed the boys in the hallway.

Finally the lecture was over and the class separated in twos. Sirius and James were too bored to work on a spell they already knew so they looked for something that would be more interesting. Then something caught Sirius's eye. He tapped James on the shoulder and gave him a sly grim. James realized what he was thinking and mirrored his grin with an even more mischievous hint behind it. Immediately they both raised their wands and shouted the spell. Blue sparks flew from the ends of both wands and everybody in the room froze.

Sirius ran right over to Snape and spelled words onto his face with a gleeful smile. James was laughing at his friend the whole time. As soon as Sirius was finished both boys raised their wands again and shouted the counter curse. Everybody looked puzzled including James and Sirius due to their many acting experiences. All the students in the class turned and looked at each other to see if they had felt the same thing. Someone caught sight of Snape and burst into laughter. All eyes flew toward Severus Snape and everyone in the class burst into loud fits of laughter too. Well everyone except three people and those three were Severus, Professor Flitwick, and Lily Evens. The tiny professor went to Severus and removed the muck from his face them turned to the two boys howling with laughter.

Professor Flitwick cleared his throat and the smiles faded from the boys but only briefly. They knew very well this could not be pinned on them, well technically. "How might I ask did this get on Snape's face? Do you know how it happened, boys?"

Sirius looked around at Snape and replied, "I didn't even notice something was there, alright there Snivelly?" As the class howled again with laughter Snape looked murderously at the boy, but knew he could do nothing about it now because of Professor Flitwick.

The professor had had it. "Detention both of you, in my office at seven thirty tomorrow evening." He stomped off muttering under his breath about what a waste of intelligence this was.

James glanced over to his right. He saw Lily Evens give a nod as though he deserved that detention. Looking to his left however he found Snivelus giving him a menacing look. He knew he would pay for what they did but it was worth it.

James' thoughts began to wander to random things such as Lily Evans, his friends, and things that were going on outside school like a wizard who called himself Lord Voldemort was attacking muggles and muggleborns. James despised everything about Lord Voldemort but there were some people for example Sirius's younger brother who absolutely worshipped Voldemort and everything about him. The only thing that bothered James about this was that anybody who stood up against the Dark Lord no matter their heritage ended up dead or else worse than dead. James knew that his parents were against Lord Voldemort and he knew that it was right but he wished that they would keep quiet because he was afraid that they would lose their lives along the way. With all these thoughts wondering around in his head he went to his dorm and fell into his four poster bed. Sleep welcomed James like a friend that night.

The next day was Friday. James was quiditch captain so he scheduled the next practice for that evening at six. Everybody on the team was experts. The last match quickly approached the team as if it wanted to catch them off guard. But Gryffindor was ready for anything that would be thrown at them and were tested that very night.

As soon as the balls were released James knew there was something wrong. Both bludgers shot up at him at precisely the same moment. Not only were the bludgers bewitched but the quaffle zoomed up at Sirius at the same time. The whole team was firing jinxes at the balls to make them stop but were failing to do so which forced both James and Sirius to fly for their lives.

Finally Camille Nickoles one of the beaters managed to blast apart a bludger and continued on with the rest of the flying balls. James landed. Making up his mind that it was probably just Snivellus, James repaired the quaffle and the two bludgers them resumed practice along with the rest of the team.

They played as well as ever and retired early to the dressing rooms.

Sirius wondered aloud to James when they were the last two in the room. "What was that all about?"

James shrugged "I have no idea but my guess is snivellus."

"Probably," Sirius let it go. The two boys went up to the castle for dinner. They piled their plates as high as they could and began eating.

Lily Evans was sitting across from them arguing with her friend Addison. "No I can't."

"Yes you can."

"No I can't."

"Yes you can." This went on for a while until finally Sirius said.

"Ladies why don't you tell James and I what it is that you can or can't do then we can give you our opinions."

Lily glared at him. "James and me." she said.

James looked up and Sirius said. "What?"

She repeated. "James and me"

"Lily why don't you save us the trouble and tell us what you are talking about." Sirius said back. Both boys looked very confused.

She lifted her eyebrows. Then Addison cut in. "You said James and I, she corrected you by saying James and me."

The two boys burst out laughing. Lily looked as if she hadn't found it at all funny. She stood up and left the table. James ran after her. "Will you go out with me Evans?"

"No." She yelled and stomped up the stairs.

James went back to dinner. "How was it mate?" Sirius asked.

"No luck." James said. Sirius smiled and continued eating his dinner.

"Do you know when Remus will be back?" Sirius began.

"Mmmm, sometime tonight I guess." James answered then added, "He usually takes a full day of recovery so that is at about five o clock tomorrow morning."

"What do you mean?" Addison interrogated from across the table. "I thought he was home with his ill mum."

Sirius looked at James and stated quietly,"This one's yours mate."

"Well he is." He was thinking quickly "He is coming back tomorrow morning."

"You said recovery."

"Did I" he glanced at Sirius.

"I think you did." He said matter-of-factly.

James turned back to Addison."My mistake."

Sirius jumped up. "I am going to go to detention."

"Wait for me to finish." James whined.

"Hurry up."

"I can take as long as I want."

"I'm not waiting for you then." And Sirius left. James just smiled after him then went to detention alone. Professor Flitwick let them go early.

Day after day the Daily Prophet reported people found dead and people missing. James and Sirius both relied on what Remus told them was in the newspaper and never read it themselves. So far neither of their families were harmed.

The fear James had for his parents quickly evaporated from his mind. His parents were purebloods after all and it seemed Lord Voldemort and his death eaters were only attacking muggles and muggleborns.