III.

The next day, Lily noticed that Potter seemed very distant with everyone but his three closest friends. He wasn't in the thick of everything that night in the common room, and went to bed unusually early—10:30.

Lily walked over to his friends, worried. "Is James all right?"

"Yeah, he's just worried about next Saturday," Black started.

"You didn't tell him!" Lily exclaimed, "I was serious, I'll hex you into oblivion if…"

"We didn't tell him,' Lupin said hurriedly, "He really cares about you, you know. He wants to make sure everything is perfect. He's stressing about everything. I think it would be cruel to botch it up like you're planning to do."

Lily was surprised. "He…he really cares about me?"

"Well, of course he does, he wouldn't be this persistent if he didn't, now would he?" Lupin explained patiently. On closer inspection, Lupin did look a bit care-worn. How long had he been a werewolf? Was it recent, or had Lily not noticed how tired and sick he looked once a month?

"Ok," she said uncomfortably after a few moments. "Thanks."

She walked back to Sarah and Laurie, doing Transfiguration by the fire. "You guys, Black, Lupin, and Pettigrew said that Potter really does care about me. They said that he's going to great lengths to make our date perfect."

Sarah and Laurie looked up from their homework, shocked. "You're joking." Sarah said. "I thought he just wanted you because you're…well…"

"Pretty and smart, yeah. But I think… you guys, I think he loves me as Lily Evans, not that pretty girl over there that straight O's on her O.W.L.s!"

"So what you're getting at is…?" Laurie asked.

"We shouldn't pull the prank. If he's serious, I don't want to completely kill him. I think he'll get much worse than a broken heart—he might go insane if I got his hopes up and then blew him off…"

"Hm…" Sarah said thoughtfully, "You can still do it, I suppose, if he really does make a comment that you don't like…"

"Yeah, but still, I don't want to murder him…" Lily said, not convinced.

"Let's just wait until Saturday and see what happens," offered Laurie.

"Yeah, let's," Lily said.

The next week passed uneventfully, though the three girls noticed that Lupin was gone on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and even more strangely, his friends were gone all night after dinner on Tuesday as well. Lily thought back, and she discovered that whenever Lupin was gone, his friends were gone for a night as well. Why had she never noticed their absences before?

"Sarah?" Lily asked suddenly, "Where do you think Lupin's friends go when he…leaves?"

Sarah cocked her head. "Dunno. Maybe you can ask them on Saturday."

"Yeah, I'll ask him then. Maybe we'll figure out how they got those stupid nicknames, 'Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs' too."

Lily woke up on Saturday morning, her heart rate unusually fast. It took her a moment to remember why she was so nervous. When she remembered, it felt like it slapped her in the face. Today was the day Potter was taking her out. Today was the day…

She might break his heart forever.

Just thinking about it gave her a headache. She woke up Sarah and Laurie; they got dressed, and went down to breakfast together. Potter was already there. His hair showed signs of gel, but it was just as unruly as always. He was obviously extremely self-conscious about it; he kept trying to flatten it and he was shooting furtive glances down the table at Lily.

Lily tried to look at ease, but was completely unsuccessful. She could hardly eat anything at all, and Sarah and Laurie practically had to shove the food down her throat.

They left into the Entrance Hall, ashen-faced. Filch checked them off of the list of Hogsmeade-goers, and they set off across the lawn to Hogsmeade village.

"I can't see Potter or his friends anywhere!" Lily said, dismayed, "Do you think they ditched us?"

"No, Potter looked like he tried to tame his hair this morning. He wouldn't do that for nothing."

"But where are they?"

As is on cue, Potter and his friends emerged from Honeydukes. The girls gaped at them.

"How'd you get in there?" Lily asked.

"Secret passageway. Let's go to the Three Broomsticks then." Potter said shortly. Not convinced, the three girls followed. They went up to the counter and ordered butterbeers, and then sat down in a booth-the girls on one side, the boys on the other.

"So," Lily said casually, "we missed you guys on Tuesday. Where were you?"

The boys exchanged looks. Lupin said after a second's hesitation, "I wasn't feeling well, and they came with me to be sure I was all right."

"I see. And you don't feel well for precisely one night a month, every month?"

Lupin paled considerably.

"We figured it out. We won't tell anyone, though. Is that what Snape's been hinting about all this time?"

"Yeah, last year Sirius decided to tell him that if he went down to the Whomping Willow, he'd get a huge surprise, so he went down, and met…me." Lupin said, glaring at Sirius. "James pulled him out just in time, otherwise Snape would've been bitten. I would never have been able to live with myself."

"But," Sarah said, "That still doesn't explain where your friends go whenever you're gone!"

"Er…" Potter began.

"I'm not really sure that we can tell you," Black said quickly. Lily glared at him.

"You have to swear you won't tell anyone," Lupin said in an undertone. The girls nodded slowly. "On your lives, you'll keep our biggest secret?" They nodded again. Potter took a deep breath.

"We're unregistered Animagi."

He received three blank stares. "Did I hear correctly?" Sarah said after a moment.

"Yes," Black said, now speaking very quickly and quietly. "Werewolves only attack humans, so we learned how to transform so we can keep him company on full moons."

The girls still stared at them, at a loss for words. Finally, Laurie was able to use her voice again. "How?"

"It took us three years, from second to fifth. I'm a stag, Sirius is a dog, and Peter's a rat."

Sarah nodded slowly. "So that's where you got your nicknames?" The Marauders nodded.

"You know, you're missed in the Gryffindor common room. Everyone wants to know where you are."

"They do?" Black asked, thunderstruck. "What if they go looking for us, or…"

"Relax, the whole staff knows about me." Lupin said.

"But," Pettigrew squeaked, speaking for the first time, "our disappearances won't go unnoticed forever! Just because we've done it for two years doesn't mean that we'll make it through the rest of this year without being caught!"

"Does anyone else know?" Sarah asked.

"Nope, just us, and you guys," Potter said, puffing out his chest, "my parents don't even know!'

"Impressive!" Sarah said, grinning evilly, "I didn't know you guys had the brainpower…"

"Watch it," Black said warningly, but Sarah just giggled uproariously.

"Must be a boy thing," Lily whispered to Sarah, who laughed harder than ever.

"So," Potter said loudly, "enough about us. Let us ask the questions."