Lily rushed through the halls, terrified that she'd be caught out this late. She had fallen asleep in a bathtub in the prefects' bathroom. She took a shortcut back to the Gryffindor common room. As she rounded a corner, she was very hard-pressed to stifle a shriek. Walking down the corridor towards her was a terrifying party. It contained a rat, a huge black dog, a chocolate colored stag, and -- a werewolf. Any other person might of thought it a wolf, but Lily knew otherwise. They were at the other end of the hall, so Lily desperately thought that if she backed around the corner quickly enough it might not see her. Wrong. The werewolf caught her scent anyway.
Lily turned tail and ran. The werewolf gave a short, quiet howl and took chase. She heard more than one set of feet behind her. The stag, dog, and rat must also be coming, she thought. Her two legs were no match for the werewolf's four. The group was soon caught up. Lily tripped on the hem of her robes.
The werewolf was almost upon her when the dog erupted into action. It turned and fought the werewolf to keep it away from Lily. The stag looked at her, held her eyes for one curious moment, and then whirled around to help the black dog. Lily inched away from the battle as quietly as possible.
The werewolf fought viciously to get at the sixteen year old girl, but the stag and dog put together slowly pushed it down the hall, step by step. It opened many small cuts on both of Lily's defenders, but there was a long gash down the stag's right front leg that bled rather badly. When the two had forced the werewolf into a classroom, the stag turned and limped back to Lily, who hadn't made much progress on her escape.
The stag bowed its head to her. She took the jest of the offer and grabbed one of its antlers. He pulled back, bringing the frightened girl to her feet.
"Thank you," she whispered to him. She turned to the dog. "And thank you. You both saved my life tonight." They could hear the werewolf trashing the classroom, searching for a way out.
The stag nodded his head down the corridor. Again, Lily understood. "Yes, I'd love an escort, thank you. I've had quite a scare tonight," she told him, voice shaking. The black dog moved in front of the werewolf's door. Lily nodded to him as she set off with the stag.
The stag limped along valiantly, but Lily knew the cut had to hurt.
"You should have that looked at," she told him. She had already figured that the stag and dog were most likely students of the school. "You might want to think of a story to explain it in the hospital wing, though."
They stopped in front of the Fat Lady's painting. Lily threw her arms around the stag's neck.
"As strange as the situation was tonight, I'd like to thank you again. You honestly did save my life. I hope that werewolf isn't a student like you and that dog."
The stag looked alarmed. She smiled at him. "I'm smarter than people think," she told him softly, then frowned. "Well, what I mean is, people think I'm such a bookworm, that I have no common sense or anything. They think all I'm good for is trying to get answers to the next test out of. Actually, the only people who don't milk me for information is the Marauders. They're smart enough, even if they're mischief-makers. And it's not like they're really mean to anyone, just Snivelly. Away from his friends, even Potter can be almost considered decent." She stopped, looking horrified as she remembered that she was talking to a fellow student. "If you ever tell anyone I said any of that, I'll figure out who you are and tell Dumbledore that we have a werewolf, as well as unregistered animagi running around our school after dark." She hugged him tight for a moment, then kissed him on the cheek. "Good night," she whispered. He nodded to her and trotted off to rejoin his gang, still limping. Lily shook her head and entered the common room.
A/N: This is my first fanfic, so please go easy on me. If you decide to completely flame this story, that's ok too, flames help me see what I'm doing wrong (besides, I'm a pyro…) R&R or I'll send my evil purple elephant after you!
