Disclaimer: JK Rowling is overlord to all that is here.
Chapter Two
"Patefacio!" Peter bawled while making a slashing motion with his wand.
The porthole stretched and widened until only one life-size archway was visible in the stainglass window. Peter grabbed Lily by the scruff of the neck and charged through before Lily even had a chance to wonder about the logistics of shattering a circlet of glass with her body. To her surprise they passed through as a ghost would through a wall and landed in a heap on a dirty, dusty stone floor.
"Claudo!" Peter screeched as he simultaneously rolled onto his back and brandished his wand with a thrusting motion toward the opening. The window shrank back down to the size of a porthole and there was a distinctive thud as the beast struck the outer side of the stone wall.
Lily disentangled herself from the boys and clamoured to her feet.
"What was that thing?" she asked as she hunced over James with her hands rested on her knees. "You alright?" She nodded in his direction. James' hair was crusted with blood from the blow to his head and his face was screwed up in pain as he clutched at his unnaturally bent foot.
"Fuck," he swore darkly under his breath as he shifted his leg with his hands. "Yeah it's alright, we'll fix it up once we've get up to the Tower," he winced as he tried to stand.
"Excuse me?" Lily asked in disbelief while hauling him up to his feet and supporting him from under the elbow. "You're going straight to the hospital wing."
"Listen mate, I'm sorry but you gotta get back out there to check on Padfoot," James ignored her.
Peter looked nervously toward the porthole before shifting his beady eyes back toward James.
"What about you?" he asked in a shaky voice, "Who's going to patch you up?"
"Lily can do that now, you need to go," James insisted impatiently. "You did good getting us here but you need to make sure that Moony and Padfoot are okay, I'd do it but I can't, its gotta be you."
Peter looked apprehensive but a flash of glowing pleasure crossed his face at the compliment. With a curt nod he transformed on the spot and scurried through a crack in the wall leaving Lily and James standing in the moonlight shining through the porthole.
James sighed and closed his eyes.
"We need to get you to the hospital wing," Lily repeated herself firmly.
"We can't," James said through gritted teeth.
"Well let's get a move on down this passageway and we'll row about it the whole way along," Lily said rolling her eyes and brandishing her wand to levitate James for the second time that evening.
"Argh!" James cried out. "Keep your wand steady, you're knocking me into walls all over the place!"
"It's not my hands, the passage is to narrow and the walls are uneven!" Lily protested before lowering him carefully to the ground. "We'll have to do this the hard way," she grunted and tossed his arm over her shoulder yet again. "It'll be slow going but you've got a lot of explaining to do anyway."
"There's nothing to explain," James said shortly as they hobbled toward a set of roughly cut stairs. "We're animagi and we were out for a bit of fun. What else is there to say?" he spat out.
"But that's really advanced magic," Lily intoned sceptically, "and I'm assuming you're not registered with the Ministry so it's illegal," she thought out loud.
"Right, which is why we're not going to the hospital wing," James nodded.
"We'll see about that," Lily said through gritted teeth. "And what the bloody hell was that thing following us?"
"I don't know," James said flippantly, staring hard at the wall. "He's chased us around before, he lives in the forest or something."
"So you became illegal animagi so you could go out every once in a while and romp with monsters from the forest," Lily said dubiously. "That's breaking about a million school rules and the law and is incredibly dangerous. You could get expelled or in legal trouble or killed. What are you hiding?" She demanded. "Not even you are that reckless."
"Reckless?" he exclaimed, "What the hell were you doing down by the forest all alone at midnight?"
"Nothing," she blushed deeply and turned away.
"Nothing?" he gaped at her. "You just fancied going for a late night stroll towards the most dangerous part of the grounds?"
"I guess so," she said lamely and staggered up the steps.
"Not fair, I told you my secret, you tell me yours," James persisted adamantly.
"Alright, alright," she conceded, "I needed to collect some ingredients for some er- extracurricular potion-brewing," she said shamefacedly.
While she was not worried about what James would think of this blatant rule breaking, she was worried about what he'd say if he discovered her illicit potion making included an as of yet uncompleted concoction of Amortentia.
She wasn't interested in serving the potent love potion to anyone; she merely wanted to smell it. Ever since sitting in Slughorn's class and breathing over the brew, she had been captivated by the curious scents she could detect. There was the pine tinged smoky smell that reminded her of Hogwarts, a hint of lavender that reminded her of home and a whiff of brown sugar and oatmeal. While she found these scents to be untroubling, there was another scent that was familiar yet unidentifiable. She had caught only a fleeting whiff of it when sitting in class yet it had nettled her ever since. How could she find the scent so attractive and yet be unable to recognize it? She only wanted to breathe deeply over a vat of Amortentia so as to solve the tantalizing mystery it presented- but she didn't expect James Potter to understand that.
"You're brewing potions outside of class?" James asked with more glee than one would expect from someone in such considerable pain. "I don't know whether that's rebellious or just especially nerdy," he mused to himself. "But still," his eyes snapped back into focus, "that doesn't explain why you needed to be out on your own at night!"
"I was collecting crawling Pleinluna," Lily huffed. James was becoming heavier with each step they climbed.
"Come again?"
"Crawling Pleinluna," she repeated impatiently. "It's a creeping vine that only blooms under a full-" she stopped suddenly and stared at James in a daze.
"What?" he asked nervously after several moments of silence.
"Moon," she finished breathlessly.
"What'd you say?" he swallowed, horrified.
"It only blooms under a full moon," she whispered. "That thing- Remus- werewolf," she strung together in a shaking voice. In the half light he could see her wide, green eyes roaming over every inch of his face, reading it for answers.
"What?" He forced a laugh. "What are you talking about?"
"It fits. It all fits perfectly. The full moon was tonight. Your stupid nicknames! Moony- werewolf, Padfoot- dog, Wormtail- rat, Prongs- deer," she professed under her breath as her eyes flitted shiftily in their spheres.
"Stag," James corrected her softly.
"What?"
"I'm a stag," he sighed in resignation.
She stared at him stonily waiting for some kind of protest or explanation but the only action from him was a hand pushing slowly through his hair.
"I can't believe this," she hummed after a moment's silence. "I can't believe I didn't see it before, I can't believe you've been covering this up for so long!"
"We had to cover it up Lily, can you imagine what would happen if this got out?" he asked her gravely. "He'd be run out of Hogwarts, nobody would want anything to do with him. Don't you see? We had to protect him. And now you need to protect him."
Lily bit her lip and stared fixedly at the wall before sliding her eyes back to James.
"Are you the only ones who know?" She asked.
"Dumbledore knows," James said. "It's thanks to Dumbledore that Remus is here at all. You'd be hard pressed to find another wizard who would give him a chance."
"Does Dumbledore know that you three are animagi?" she asked.
"No," James admitted. "I know its irresponsible and unfair to Dumbledore after all he's done," James trailed off and seemed to forget Lily was there for a moment. "But we couldn't let Remus go through this alone."
Lily stood stock still and let these revelations sink in. She was suddenly grateful that the narrow passage was so dark because she could feel her eyes stinging and welling over with unsought emotion. Feeling stupid, she wiped her face on her sleeve and tightened her hold around James' middle.
"C'mon," she mumbled. "Let's keep moving."
"That's it?" he asked in surprise.
"What do you mean?" she cocked her head in confusion.
"We just keep moving along?"
"Well yeah," Lily said slowly, "He's still Remus, isn't he? And you're still you, you still got that busted leg we need to fix," she said staring down at it appraisingly. "That's gonna be a fiasco by the way. I've never healed a broken bone before but it's not as if we can go to Madam Pomfrey about it, can we?"
James stared at her dumbfounded, his mouth agape and forehead creased.
She moved as if to start walking again but caught sight of the stupefied look on his face.
"What? C'mon, we've got things to do," she said waving a hand toward the steps looming in front of them.
"I just can't believe you took this so well," he pronounced, shaking his head as though to clear it.
"I'm a muggleborn, remember? Feeling misunderstood and alienated comes with the territory. I'd be a right hypocrite if I preached tolerance and acceptance for my personal minority but didn't dole out the same treatment for others," she said in a slightly patronizing tone. "And yeah it downright disturbs me that you're an illegal animagus and have broken just about every rule there is," she wrinkled her nose in distaste, "But that's your best mate out there and if I were in your spot, I can't say that I wouldn't want to do the same," she finished resolutely.
He gazed at her with unmasked admiration for a moment causing her to shuffle her feet uncomfortably. At a loss for words he bent over and leaned his forehead against hers, closing his eyes and breathing a heavy sigh.
"Thank you."
AN: I hope you enjoyed it! Chapter Three is on its way. Please don't forget to review. Rabiscar.