Four

Sirius turned to Lily, his eyes conveying how desperate he was. "I'm so sorry. I know you don't like it when-"

"I don't care about Severus, Padfoot. I stopped being friends with him when he chose the Dark Arts over good. I am worried about you. Look, if James doesn't want you coming to his house anymore, come to mine."

"You're not... you don't hate me?" I'm just like my family, he thought to himself.

"Oh, no. I'm furious. I just think you need someone. And I know how scared people can do crazy things. That's why you did it... didn't you?" Sirius nodded numbly and mutely. "Let's get you back to the-"

"No. I can't. I can't go back to the common room or dormitory." Lily looked at him sadly.

"I'm afraid you don't have much of a choice."

~

James flew through the corridors, swinging his cloak open and whipping out the Marauder's Map. Snape was in his dormitories. They had enough time to run to theirs and grab the invisibility cloak. "Come on, Peter! We have to hurry!" He called over his shoulder, not even slowing down in his sprinting.

"James-"

"Peter, come on!"

"James Potter! You listen to me right now!" The stout boy shouted. It was almost frightening, Peter had never yelled at any of the other Marauders before. James stared at him, a question resting in his eyes. "We don't need the cloak. You can go to the edge of the forest and transform and wait for him there. I can go and talk to Dumbledore. Who the hell knows when Snape will decide to come out of his scaley hole. But it will probably be sooner, even if Sirius had told him to wait, which he probably did. He's going to be too curious."

"Wormtail... you..." He inhaled a shaky breath. "You're right. Go to Dumbledore. I'll wait. And please. Hurry. Get there in under thirty minutes if you can." James turned around and began walking towards the front entrance. There was no one in the corridors, everyone was either in the library, in the Great Hall, or their House, so it was easy for him to slip to the edge of the forest and change into his stag form. He hid between the trees, it was just getting to be dark, and the moon had to appear over the mountain. They had about twenty minutes at this point, give or take, before the moon began to rise over the peak. As a side thought, looking back it didn't seem all that early for Remus to be heading out, he was just distracted. From just at the edge of his earshot, he heard footsteps approaching, and he pounced behind a tree, only peaking out his head to see Madam Pomfrey walking Remus to the Shrieking Shack. The boy must have sensed James, because the boy suddenly looked right at him and nodded his understanding. Remus didn't even bother looking around for two more animals, he just looked back at the ground, mumbling something to Madam Pomfrey, and slipped down the secret tunnel to the shack. She seemed very concerned because she almost went after him. Clearly, she thought better because she hung her head and sulked back to the castle.

James began to worry. They were always in the room with Remus when he transformed. It always made the wolf at ease to be brought out of that with animals by him, but today he was going to do it all alone. On top of that, he was stressed. This moon was gonna be a rough one. And it was all because Sirius didn't think about what he was doing. He never thought. Somewhere inside him, he knew that wasn't true. Sirius did almost anything he could to keep James and Peter and Remus from getting angry at him, because at home that's all he got. And when people got angry at him, he expected pain. So, Sirius being Sirius, always thought if he ever did anything wrong, it would be more painful than what his mom could do.

Sadly, maybe he was right. After tonight he was going to be alone for a long while.

Almost forty-five minutes of pacing back and forth between the trees at the edge of the forest, sliding in and out of the shadows they cast, a small, greasy-haired figure slipped out from the side of the castle, eyeing the willow intently. The boy slumped out of the shadows and into the light of the moon, causing James to shift out of his animagus form quickly. He waited until he was closer to reveal himself. "Severus! Stop!" He cried.

It looked as though Snape had a heart attack, he jumped so high and took such deep breaths with a surprised look, it looked like he just ran ten miles and then was told he was going to have to go back again. His expression changed relatively swiftly, however. He screwed up his face in disgust and called back, "Try and stop me!" Then he sprinted to the edge of the tree's reach. Calculating a way to get past the braches without dying, then James saw the understanding on his face, and he saw his eyes stare at the knot above the hold into the ground. Severus promptly began searching the ground for a long stick. James had already begun running to him, but he wasn't as fast on the ground as he was in the air with a broom, or in stag form. While Severus's back was turned, he changed once more and sprinted a few meters to him, appearing behind him once again as his human self right as he picked up a long tree branch. "No!" James yelled, trying to grab it from him.

"Let go!" Severus yelled, pulling back and swinging him dangerously close to the tree's reach.

"No! Severus, stop!" He screamed and the boy stabbed him with the end, making him stumble down to the ground. He was about to roll over and take another grab at it, but a loud wooshing sound and an almost worried look from Snape told him to look up. And when he did, he was a large knot swinging down at him at top speed. There wasn't time to roll out from under it in any direction. He was going to get squashed. So, he did the one sensible thing. He threw his arms up over his face.

Because that was going to protect him.

He waited a few seconds, but nothing happened.

James looked up. There was a frozen tree knot just half a meter above him. But, Severus was gone.

He shuffled to his feet and dove down into the tunnel, sprinting after Severus. "Stop!" He tried again. "Stop it! I'll do anything, just come back!" He heard his voice echo down the tunnel. "You are going to die!" The response he got back, was not a great one. Instead of words, he got a loud, angry, and long growl that bounced off the walls, followed by a howl. James was about to change into a deer and run for Snape, but something toppled into him that was unmistakenly human.

"You really are trying to kill me!" The boy shouted, getting to his feet and sprinting to the opening, sticking his hand out and hitting the tree root before jumping out. Hopefully, he was ok.

There was heavy breathing that James could feel run down his neck close by. He was sure that Remus was down the tunnel, maybe halfway to him right now. And it took everything in him not to meet him there, but right now, he had to make sure Severus wasn't going to do anything, and more importantly, that he wasn't hurt.