Chapter 7
Lily's next
class wasn't very interesting and her mind kept getting pulled back to the
thought that James was hiding something.
As she looked across the classroom she could see James talking rapidly
with the others, all the while their voices never rose from a whisper. 'What could they possibly be doing?' Lily
thought to herself. Lily continued to
wonder what horrible things they were planning and her mind couldn't stay
focused. The class passed at a snail's
pace and she became very agitated.
Class finally ended and Lily leapt
from her seat. She ran towards the
hallway and waited as patiently as she could for James and the others. After five minutes they still had not come
out of the class and Lily went inside to search for them. As she stepped back into the classroom she
noticed the four friends huddled in a corner by the window.
"What are you guys doing," asked Lily annoyed.
Their huddled group immediately
scattered, and they looked up at her with mischievous smiles upon their
faces.
"Well, what are you doing?" asked
Lily impatiently.
James looked up at her and studied
her face, looking for real danger in her expression. When he saw that she was only annoyed he laughed.
"What does it look like were
doing?" asked James.
"Well it looks to me like you are
up to no good!" she replied.
"By saying that your making us look like number one
trouble makers," said Remus sweetly.
"Would I be so wrong if I did say
that?" asked Lily.
"I would have to say no, but that
is beside the point. What we are doing
now isn't bad. In fact it's actually
going to be really useful," said Sirius calmly.
"Useful in what way?" asked Lily
unconvinced. Peter spoke up at
this.
"Well, it will be great for the
purposes of sn…." James, Sirius and Remus leapt onto Peter to stop him from
spurting out everything. Lily walked
closer to Peter and waited until the others untied themselves from him.
"So Peter, what do you have to say
about this whole matter?" she asked cunningly.
Peter was speechless and took a quick glance at the rest of his
friends. Each one of them was looking
at him and they were certainly not willing to let him spoil everything. Peter slowly answered Lily in a quieted
tone,
"Sorry Lily but I don't have
anything to say."
Lily looked suspiciously back at the
others, but their faces had quickly returned to normal.
"Well I guess that's the end of the
matter for now," said Lily quietly and she then began to walk towards the Great
Hall for lunch.
"Lily, wait up!" said James who was
running steadily towards her, the others following closely behind.
Two weeks
passed quickly and James's secret grew.
He and his friends were almost always talking quietly to each other and
Lily was becoming steadily annoyed. One
time as she passed them in the common room she heard them talking. She could only catch a little bit of what
they were saying, but what she did hear was
"…parchment, and we can sign it
with secret names so no one will ever no who we are."
This meant nothing to Lily but it
did raise her interests in the matter.
She tried to stay closer to them whenever they were talking, but she
tried so many times that they finally caught wind of what she was doing and
steered clear of her. The days passed
slowly and finally one day a break through happened. Lily was far from prepared for what she saw that night and she
would never forget it.
It was the
night before Halloween and the sky was a dark stormy black. Lily was walking through the corridors
looking for nothing in particular. The
moon was full and the clouds steered clear of it, letting the light filter into
the castle and illuminate the surroundings.
Lily was beginning to get tired so she began to head toward the common
room. As she walked, she noticed
several people make their way quickly in the same direction. Lily couldn't make out who it was, so she
followed closely behind them. She
stopped near the entrance to the common room and watched as four people jumped
stealthily into the portrait hole. When
it had finally closed completely, Lily also went inside. The room was as normal as ever and there
were few people inside. It was late and
Lily assumed that most people had already gone to bed. The four that she had watched were nowhere
in sight, but Lily did spot a mess of books and papers lying on one of the
tables. She quickly walked over to the
table and picked up the first paper she saw.
Who ever had been at the table must have left in a hurry. Lily looked at the paper she had picked
up. It was an assignment for potions
class that was written in very messy handwriting, it appeared to have been a
quickly written assignment. Lily looked
at the top of the paper and saw the name Peter Pettigrew.
'What was Peter doing that made him
leave in such a hurry?' thought Lily.
She inspected the rest of the
homework and books, looking for any clue that might help. As she looked she moved aside a
transfiguration textbook and spotted an old piece of parchment paper. She quickly picked it up and looked closely
at it.
"Oh my gosh. What is this thing?"
she said frantically.
The parchment she was holding
showed the entire castle and every entrance in and out of it. There were passages Lily had never seen
before, and the map even showed where everyone in the castle was and what they
were doing. Next to each person was
their name. Lily examined the paper
with great interest. Suddenly an idea
hit her. Lily could find out who those
people in the hall were. All she had to
do was look for a group of four. Lily
searched the map carefully and finally she found four figures directly outside
of the castle. She looked at the names
next to the figures and nearly fell backwards in fright. James Potter, Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew,
and Remus Lupin were the names that appeared beside the figures. They were heading quickly in the direction
of the Whomping Willow. The Whomping
Willow was a tree that had been planted in front of Hogwarts almost seven years
ago. It was a deadly tree and would
attack anyone who came by it. As Lily
continued to look at the map, she noticed that they were almost to the
tree. 'I have to stop them!' she
thought quickly. Her finger traced the
path of James and the others, when she noticed a secret tunnel below the
Whomping Willow.
"I sure hope those roots don't
attack also," she said as she quickly hurried through the portrait hole and ran
off towards the direction of tunnel.
Finally Lily made it inside the
tunnel with the help of her wand and a secret a hidden wall. Now she was underground and running as fast
as she could. She glanced quickly at
the map and saw that James and the others had just reached the tree. She looked ahead of her and saw the roots of
the great Whomping Willow. She slowly
edged toward the roots hoping nothing would happen. Lily slowly reached out a hand and touched a long dark brown
root. Lily was knocked off her feet as
the root came alive and began to attack.
It pushed her into the center of the tangle of roots and they began to
wrap themselves around her body. She
pulled at the roots but they held tightly.
One root quickly slashed her shoulder and a small trickle of blood began
to seep down her arm. Lily began to
lose feeling in her legs when the tree suddenly fell limp and Lily fell from
its grip. She ran with all her might
away from the tree. She continued to
run practically doubled over when the tunnel slowly began to rise and Lily
could see a small bit of light through an opening. She finally pushed herself out of the hole and into to a very
disorganized room. Lily stood
transfixed with terror. She was in the
Shrieking Shack. There was a door at
the end of the room and Lily slowly walked towards it. She looked around the room and saw chairs
that were ripped to shreds. Pictures
were smashed and torn to the floor.
Lily opened the door and walked into a hallway, she was about to go up a
crumbling staircase when she heard a deep dangerous growl from behind her. Lily couldn't move. Her feet seemed to be glued to the floor as
she heard the growling coming closer.
Then a horrible thought struck her so violently that she thought she
would die of terror.
'How could I have been so foolish,'
Lily thought terror struck.
She quickly remembered that tonight
had been a full moon, and that every full moon the four came to a house so that
Remus could complete his transformation into a werewolf.
All the pieces of the puzzle fell
into place, and she wished that she was far from the house, nice and snug in
her four-poster bed. Lily knew why
James and the others had been secretly talking. It was the map she had found, they had probably planned to sneak
around the castle using the map, since they now knew every passage in and out
of the castle. The fact that Peter's
handwriting was rushed was because he and everyone else always accompanied Remus
on his way to the house to make sure he didn't attack anyone. That was the main reason James and the
others had become Animagus.
Lily was brought back to reality
with feeling of hot breath behind her.
This was her last chance to get away.
It was either that or die. She
slowly gathered whatever courage she could muster and flung herself up the
stairs in front of her. Remus was
gathering speed and closing in on her.
Lily didn't dare turn around to see the horrible animal he had
become. There was a bedroom in front of
her and Lily swung herself in with just enough time to swing the door closed
and lock it. She felt the vibrations
from the floor as the werewolf pounded over and over again at the door. The door began to creak from the weight, and
Lily knew it wasn't going to last too much longer. She backed up away from the door and fell to the ground in a heap
as she tripped over something large and black.
A small scream erupted from her mouth and she huddled against the
wall. A large black dog rose from the
floor and bared its teeth at her.
"Sirius?" she asked frantically
hoping to communicate with the animal.
Suddenly the dog changed and it
became Sirius.
"Oh Sirius!" she said as she leapt
into his arms for protection.
"Lily what are you doing here? You could have been killed!" said Sirius
angrily.
"I know, but I didn't remember it
was a full moon until too late. I
haven't been in this house before so I didn't know I'm sorry!!" she said while
sobbing deeply.
"It's okay Lily, but now we have to
get you out of here," said Sirius.
"Where is James and Peter?" asked
Lily still sobbing.
"They're down…" Sirius couldn't
finish because the door to the bedroom came crashing down, and a hideous animal
with long black hair and enormous teeth, came pounding into the room.
Lily let out a high-shrilled scream
so loud it could have woken up people for miles around. She ran to the side of the bed and hid
herself behind it while Sirius changed back into the large dog. Lily saw little but she heard
everything. She heard the howls of pain
as Sirius fought against Remus's horrible werewolf form. Then as she listened more intently she heard
something else come up the stairs and into the room. She looked above the bed just enough to see the glimpse of a
beautiful stag, or maybe it was a unicorn.
It was too hard for Lily to tell while half hiding behind the old
bed. The stag was a beautiful white and
shown brighter then anything in the room.
She knew that the deer was James almost instantly. Lily continued to watch as the werewolf's
attention was drawn to the stag.
"No, No, Don't hurt James!" Lily
yelled.
The werewolf turned quickly and
faced Lily. It growled loudly and
jumped upon the bed. It was inches from
Lily's face and she froze in place. The
stag galloped quickly toward the werewolf and kicked it with its hooves. The werewolf once again turned its attention
towards James. Sirius, who still
remained in dog form, intercepted the werewolf. He tackled the werewolf to the floor and the deer leapt over to
Lily. The stag nuzzled her, and Lily
stood up and got on it's back.
Everything was a blur as the stag swept past the werewolf and down the
stairs. It was not until they were
safely back in the tunnel that James returned to his normal self. Lily ran into his arms and wept deeply,
soaking every ounce of his shirt. He
hugged her back tightly and then he pried her from himself.
"Lily what were you thinking?"
James asked concerned.
"I forgot! I forgot about Remus and
the full moon. It's just that I found
that map and I thought you were going to get hurt by the Whomping Willow and…"
she couldn't finish her sentence because of all the tears streaming down her
eyes.
"You found the map?" asked James
confused.
"Yes, It was under all of Peter's
books in the common room," said Lily.
"We've been looking for the map for
two days now. Why would Peter have it
and not tell us?" asked James.
"Where is Peter now" asked
Lily.
"I don't know. Lily you stay here because I have to go see
if Sirius is all right," said James quickly.
"Please don't go!" Lily began to
cry harder and he pulled her close.
He held for a couple of minutes
until her tears had ceased and then he sat her down on the tunnel floor.
"Wait for me here. I will be back soon because the moon is
almost gone," said James.
Lily grabbed his arm as he was
about to leave.
"Lily you have to let me go. I promise I'll be back." James leaned towards her and kissed her
softly and reassuringly on the lips, and then he left.
Lily shivered in the darkness of
the tunnel and then a new question began to grow in her mind.
'Where is Peter right now?'
A shiver went down Lily's spine and
she huddled against the wall awaiting James's return.
