A/N: 4th chapter! It's longer than the others :) Enjoy!

4. Really, really wrong

"So, Evans." James fell into the couch in the common room next to Lily. "Your birthday's coming up."

She rolled her eyes at him. "Really? I had no idea." She concentrated on her potions homework again, ignoring how James looked at her.

She gave up the homework with a loud sigh when the rest of the Marauders sat down around them. She should have known. Where one Marauder was, another one was never far away. Sirius sat down on the other side of Lily, while Peter and Remus took place in two of the old armchairs.

Sirius placed an arm around Lily's shoulders, but she shrugged it off. "Come on Evans, I'm just trying to be nice." Sirius exclaimed.

"Oh yeah? Can you do it over there?" She pointed at the other side of the common room.

"You're mean!"

"You're annoying!"

"Jerk!"

"Idiot!"

"Bitch!"

"Hey!" James' facial expression made everyone laugh. It almost seemed like he was the one Sirius had called a bitch, not Lily.

Alice and Mary came through the portrait hole and sat down with them. As they did, Sirius and Peter figured they would go down to the kitchens.

"Good, now can you go too?" Lily said looking at James.

"Just me? What about Remus?" he answered.

"I doubt Remus will disturb me while I'm studying."

James couldn't do anything but agree. He went silent for a while. Alice and Marry talked to Remus, and Lily picked up her books again. She had read one sentence before James talked again.

"But seriously Lily, what do you want for you birthday? It's on Sunday! That's like… four days from now." James said.

"Three actually, and I don't want anything. I tell you every year!"

"Come on Lily. It's your seventeenth birthday."

"I know." Lily got up and walked towards the girl dorms.

"Where are you going?" James asked and she turned around only long enough to answer him.

"To my dorm, where I can study in peace."

She turned and disappeared up the stairs. They all looked after her. "Well," Remus broke the silence. "That literally couldn't have gone any better." The girls laughed and James threw a shoe on him. Still laughing, the girls followed Lily up to their dorm.

Xxxx

"Where are they?" Remus fell on his back on his bed. It was later the same day. The sun was almost down and Sirius and Peter weren't back from the kitchens yet. Any other day this wouldn't have meant a thing, but today it was full moon and Remus started to freak out a little. "What if they forgot?"

James sat on his own bed, frowning. Maybe they should go and wait for them with the Whomping Willow, although it would be very hard to get into the Shrieking Shack without Peter. But if they didn't go soon Remus would transform inside the castle. "I'm sure they didn't forget." James said, not really believing it himself. He shook his head.

Right at that moment the door flew up and a breathless Sirius came into the room. "I'm sorry we're late. Come on, Peter are waiting for us in the common room."

They boys got up. James took his invisibilitycloak with him and they ran down to the surprisingly empty common room where Peter stood waiting for them with the marauders map in his hands.

"I don't see any teachers nearby, but you should probably put the cloak on now. Just to be safe." He said as the three boys came up to him. He gave the map to James. James took it and threw the cloak over their heads, not Peter who changed into a rat, the cloak was small enough as it was, and they got off to the Shrieking Shack.

Xxxx

Lily woke up early next morning. It was Friday and her last school day as sixteen. She got up and went to the bathroom. When she came back, Marry and Alice had woken up too. Alice lay on her bed covering her face with her hands. Marry was already dressed and was fixing her tie.

"What the hell are you so embarrassed? Just face it, you're in love with him." Marry said. Alice just growled from her bed.

"I know, but he don't like me. Not that way anyway."

"What's going on here?" Lily asked. Alice sat up on her bed and looked at Lily. Her face was almost as red as Lily's hair.

Marry turned to Lily. "Alice had a dream about Frank tonight." She rolled her eyes when Alice growled again. "Merlin, it wasn't even anything serious. It's not like it was a sex dream."

Alice threw a pillow at her. They all got ready and down for breakfast where they continued their conversation about Alice's dream.

"So no sex dreams then?" Lily joked as they sat down.

Marry giggled and sat down across from Lily, next to Alice who shot her a killing look. Alice sighed and shook her head. She turned slightly red again. She looked down the Gryffindor table, obviously seeing if Frank was anywhere near them. He wasn't, though. He hadn't even come down for breakfast yet.

"No, it wasn't a sex dream." Alice said in a low voice, taking some toast.

"What did you dream then?" Lily and Marry looked anticipating at her. Marry had heard the short version in the dorm, but she wanted details. She had barely managed to get Alice telling her what she had dreamt.

Alice hesitated for a moment before she started talking. "Well, at first we just sat there in the common room, me and Frank, we were talking, all alone. I don't remember exactly what we talked about. But then suddenly he just said it was late and walked towards his dorm. And I got this awful feeling, like my heart had been broken into thousand pieces. So I stood up and was on my way to my own dorm when I heard someone say my name. When I turned around I saw Frank come closer to me, and he came really close. He took his hand to my face, caressing me, and then he bent down to kiss me, but right before our lips met I woke up." She finished with an embarrassed smile.

"Wait, earlier you said you walked down to the common room but now you were already there." Marry raised her eyebrows at her.

"OK. So in my dream I woke up in my bed, from a nightmare. And I honestly don't know why, but I decided to walk down to the common room where I found Frank sitting on a couch. He comforted me. We talked for a while, but I promise you, I don't know what we talked about. The rest is true. I swear."

Lily and Marry just laughed at their friend. She was way too embarrassed about this dream.

"Do you notice something different this morning?" Alice continued, obviously wanting to change the subject from her dream. Marry seemed confused but Lily nodded.

"Yes, actually. It's quite pleasant eating today, I can't put my finger on what exactly." she answered.

Marry looked around the table and she saw what made this particular morning so different from the others. "Let me put your finger on it." she said. She looked troubled in a way. "Where are the marauders? They never miss a meal."

"Unless they're planning some big prank." Alice looked for them too. "There's Peter. Over there with the entrance." She pointed where Peter stood. He was alone, something that was very unusual for him.

They decided to go over and talk to him. Something was just not right here. A marauder never walked alone, and if he did, another was never far away. And there was no sign of James, Sirius or Remus anywhere. As they came closer they saw how distant he looked, like he was not really there.

"Hey Peter. What's wrong?" Lily asked concerned.

"Oh, hi." He answered and kept looking on his shoes.

"Why are you alone?"

"Something… happened… really… really wrong… hospital wing…" He couldn't say full sentences. Like he was in shock. Alice, Marry and Lily looked at each other.

"What went really wrong, Peter?" Alice asked in a low voice.

"A prank?" Marry added.

Peter's eyes widened suddenly, and he looked up at the girls. He panicked and said quickly, "Yes, yes a prank!" He calmed down a little and looked down again. "The others… I couldn't help…"

The girls were starting to get what he was talking about. "So one of your pranks backfired and the others are at the hospital wing?" Lily put a tiny hand on Peters shoulder. All he could do was nod. Lily looked at the other girls before turning to Peter again. "It's going to be OK, Peter. You know it will." And then they left him to his own thoughts.

The girls walked down the corridors together on their way to Defence Against the Dark Arts. It was still some time before class started, but there was no shame in being a little early. While they walked they talked about what they had heard from Peter.

"I think we should visit them." Marry said matter-of-factly. "It sounded like it was really bad."

"Yeah, I think you have a point." Alice said thoughtful. "But I don't have any free periods today."

"We can do it in lunch."

"Okay." Lily said. She sounded defeated. "But for the record, I'm not going there to see Potter or Black. I'm going to see Remus." She stopped and her friends looked questioning at her. "Is that mean?" Lily said thoughtfully and smiled.

Alice and Marry laughed. "Yes, come now." Marry said, pulling Lily with them.

Xxxx

After Charms the three girls walked towards the hospital wing instead of going to lunch like the rest of the castle. They hadn't seen the three boys in any of their classes so it was big chances they were still there.

As they walked through the doors they saw James and Sirius in two of the beds. Sirius seemed to be the one recovering the best. He was lying feet on pillow in the bed. He had a bandage around his head and a long cut on his neck. James couldn't sit up by himself. He leaned his back against his pillow. His arm was tied up in a rag around his neck. He also had a couple of scars in his face and down his neck.

Both lit up when they saw the girls come towards them. Sirius sat up and crossed his legs on his bed. "Hello ladies. What are you doing here?" he asked smiling.

"Peter told us about a prank who went wrong." Marry said. "And he said you were here, so we thought we'd see how it's going."

"Evans probably dragged you two down here with her so she could see me?" James said. He winked to Lily who rolled her eyes at him.

"Actually, I'm here to see Remus, not you." She looked around. "Speaking of which. Where is he?"

Sirius pointed at a bed across from him with curtains drawn in front of it so they couldn't see who's lying there. "He's there, but you can't talk to him. He's still unconscious." Sirius said.

"Unconscious?!" the three girls said at the same time.

"Relax, he's fine!" James said. "And why would you rather visit Remus instead of me?"

"Because he's my friend." Lily answered. She sent a concerned look towards Remus bed. "And he's obviously hurt more than you…"

At this point Madam Pomfrey chose to come check on the boys. She was carrying a bottle with a light pink fluid and a glass. Putting it on the nightstand next to James' bed, she took one look a Sirius and sighed. "Incredibly stupid of you boys." She said. "Doing pranks and mischief on a night like that… Well, well. Mr. Black, it seems you are well enough. You can go."

Sirius jumped off the bed. He didn't have to change his clothes. They were all clean and not damaged at all. Peter probably had brought them all clean clothes. "What time is it?" he asked the girls.

"It's lunchtime. If you run I bet you can make it before it's over." Alice answered friendly.

"Great! See you later Prongs." And then he was out the doors.

James watched him as he walked away. Envy clear in his eyes. "Madam Pomfrey? Can I go too? I'm much better now, honest! And I've had much worse." He said. He tried to lift himself up, making a face of pure pain.

"Stop that, Mr. Potter. You need to rest. But if you're a good boy and drink your potion every hour –," She said as she handed him a glass of the pink fluid. "– you might get to go by dinnertime."

James huffed and drank the potion. The girls tried not to laugh out loud. It was hilarious to see Madam Pomfrey treat him like a little boy. She put something on his scars and some of them seemed to slightly disappear.

After a while the girls had to go. Lily refused to be late because she was visiting James Potter in the hospital wing. "Will you tell Remus we were here when he wakes up?" Lily asked.

"Sure. See you later." James winked to Lily.

"Sure." She sighed.

A/N: Poor Remus. This is what a full moon can do to him… Anyway! Did you like it? Please leave a review. Is there something you think I can do better? Or anything you would like to be in one of the future chapters? I'm open for suggestions ^^