Disclaimer: yeah, yeah, you know, I know, let's move on.

Dedication: To the chickens in the hallway. It's crazy! It's chicken mania! Bha-bhack!

XxXxX

"Next year, my house," Aly said to Lily once they had crossed through the barrier.

"I'm totally there," Sirius said walking between them.

"Shut up!" Aly exclaimed and pushed him.

"Yea, stop eavesdropping!" Lily yelled as he wondered away laughing. She turned to Aly and said "I'm so sorry about my sister. She can be a pain."

"Understatement of the year," Aly mumbled under her breath as they started off towards the train.

"What?" Lily asked.

"Nothing. Let's just go find a compartment."

Aly hadn't wanted to upset Lily because in all honesty she had loved staying at her house. Her mother had been very loving and sweet, her father was like the father on all the old TV shows, he even looked kinda like Ward Cleaver. Her sister, however, had been above and beyond the word pain. She had made it her mission to make Aly's stay miserable. Aly never really understood why, all she could tell was that Petunia had a real problem with Lily being a witch and an even big problem with her bring home one from school. Aly was so glad to get away form Petunia and hoped she'd never have to hear the word "freak" ever again.

Petunia even made her miss the Marauders. Who happen to decide to come pillaging into their compartment when they had made the last wide turn on the trail to the school.

"Whoops – oh man!" Sirius said slipping in through the door.

The two girls looked up as James and Peter came up behind him.

"What?" Aly asked as Sirius looked at them very upset.

"You aren't naked," he said.

"What?!?" both girls shrieked.

"I was hoping you were changing," he stated simply as he stretched out across from Aly.

"Where's Remus?" Lily asked noticing that he wasn't with them.

"He's sick. He'll be at school in a few days," James explained not looking up from the book he was reading, Quidditch Through the Ages.

"You're trying out for the Gryffindor team this year, aren't you?" Aly asked.

"No, I'd never make it. I just like Quidditch," James replied.

Aly nodded and Sirius rolled his eyes.

XxXxX

Remus reappeared in the common room on the second day of classes. He looked more pale than usual, but when Aly asked him what he had he simply smiled and said, "Nothing to terrible."

XxXxX

Quidditch try-outs took place in the second week of school. Sirius, Remus, and James headed down to the pitch a little before sundown. The team was looking for 2 chasers, a beater, and a seeker. Sirius was planning on trying out for all 3 different positions and take whatever he was given. Remus and James planned on just watching.

Aly was already at the pitch, waiting, with her broom. She rolled her eyes as Sirius came bounding towards her.

"You're like an excited puppy, you know that."

"Woof, woof ," he replied sarcastically.

Soon the air was filled with people zooming around the pitch. Madam Hooch was watching as Lynda McDaniels, a 6th year and Gryffindor captain, yelled commands and took notes on players. The sky was glowing red when Lynda yelled for everyone to land.

"Ok, Johnson, you got chaser number 1 and Black, you got chaser number 2. And for our new beater: Aly, that's you."

Aly smiled and Sirius gave her a high five.

"The rest of you can go," Lynda yelled to the group.

She then turned towards the 3 new members of the Gryffindor team. "What we need is a seeker. No one here came even close to being able to catch a snitch. Any ideas?"

Madam Hooch landed not to far away from them and started back towards the locker rooms.

"I've got one," Aly said glancing towards the stands. "Hang on one sec."

She ran over to Madam Hooch. After consulting her for a few moments, Madam Hooch smiled and got back on her broom and shot up into the air.

"What was that about?" Lynda asked.

"Are we going to practice?" Aly questioned ignoring Lynda.

After another suspicious glance at Aly, she yelled, "Let's go. UP!" The entire team shot up in the air.

Madam Hooch flew over to the stands were James and Remus sat.

"You, Potter," she called over to him.

James' head shot up.

"Yes, you. Get out here."

"I'm not here to try out."

"You don't come to Quidditch tryouts and not tryout. So, get out here."

"I don't have a broom,"

"Here," Aly said flying over to them. "You can use mine."

She landed and James came over to her. "Good luck," she said handing him her broom.

He shot up and was soon level with the rest of the team and Aly joined Remus in the stands. James looked rather uneasy. Lynda just looked at his scrawny figure and sighed. "Alright, let's see how you do."

Madam Hooch let out the snitch and James tried to follow it

The team went back to its practice, basically ignoring James. Within 10 minutes the whole team had stopped to watch him though. He dove straight down, grabbed the snitch, and shot back up just in time to avoid smashing into the ground. He kept letting it go, giving it a head-start and then repeating the process all over again. Everyone watched speechless.

"Everyone," Lynda said, smiling, "meet our new seeker."

James stopped, his jaw dropped, but then he smiled. Sirius came zooming over to him, "Go Jamesie," he whooped.

James just turned and looked at Aly. She smiled and then before turning and disappearing down through the stands, he saw her wink.

XxXxX

"Hey, Aly!"

"Hey," she said turning to see James running towards her.

"Here's your broom back."

"Oh, thanks."

They stood silent for a few seconds.

"Ok, well, I'm going to go," Aly finally said.

She started to walk down the hall then James called after her, "Thanks."

She turned and they smiled at each other and then they both turned and walked away.

XxXxX

Aly couldn't help, but notice that Remus was always disappearing, at least once a month she noted. The Marauder's had taken notice too. More than once she had seen them conversing about it and when he returned they always questioned him, but none of them had ever seem to figure out what was wrong with him.

Lily was the first to figure it out though. She had gone to the hospital wing one day in November hoping for a headache reducer potion, "a lot quicker than regular aspirin" she assured Aly, and over heard Madam Pomfry and Professor Dumbledore talking to Remus.

"Are you ready?" Madam Pomfry was asking Remus.

"Yeah," she heard him mumble.

"Now, don't worry. It'll be dark in a few moments and you'll have to move quickly since it's very clear tonight. We don't want the transformation to occur before you're safely in the position."

"Alright," Lily heard Remus mumble as she ran back towards the common room, her headache suddenly gone.

XxXxX

"Transformation?" Aly asked after Lily told her what she had heard.

"What do you think he means by that?" Lily questioned.

"I don't know."

Aly thought about it for a long while, trying to figure it out. She walked over to the window and looked out onto to the dark grounds. She looked up at the clear, black sky, at the bright, twinkling stars, and the large, glowing moon. The large full moon. It suddenly clicked in Aly's head.

"Lily," she whispered. Lily looked up from her homework.

"Lily, get me a book on human to animal transformations,"

"Why?" Lily asked standing.

"Just go get one. You'll see in a minute."

Lily disappeared through the portrait hole and was back within 10 minutes. Aly was very grateful for Lily's extended knowledge of the library.

Aly took the book, flipped through it until she found what she was looking for.

"He disappears once a month," she whispered.

"What?" Lily asked.

"Come'on," Aly said leaving the common room and heading straight to her father's office.

"He's a werewolf!" she stated slamming the book down on his desk.

He looked at her, looking mildly impressed.

"You think so?"

"Yes, and I want to know why I wasn't informed."

"A werewolf?" Lily asked.

"Indeed, Mr. Lupin is a werewolf. I would ask that you keep it quiet though. He doesn't want this kind of thing spread around."

"I can't blame him," Aly mumbled.

Lily and her left the office not long after and both seemed to have decided not to talk about it because they both walked back in silence.

Aly couldn't believe it. Remus was so kind. It was hard for her to believe that once a month he turned into a violent monster. In fact, she told herself, right now he was a violent monster. She shivered at the thought of him in his werewolf form.

When he returned two days later, Aly noticed that Lily didn't meet his eyes when talking to him. When Remus turned to Aly to ask a question about charms homework, she looked at him and saw the same grey eyes she always saw when she looked at him and they were warm and friendly. She smiled at him and knew exactly was she was suppose to say. "You feeling better?"

"Just fine," he answered smiling his usual smile.

Lily looked at Aly and Aly looked at her. Remus inquired after noticing their looks, "What?"

"Nothing," Lily said quickly looking at him and smiling, "I'm just worried about you. You don't look all that healthy."

"I assure you, I'm fine," he said still smiling, "Now, do either one of you understand this hover charm?"

XxXxX

When Aly looked at Lily, she saw her best friend, the same as she had always been. However, someone else had gotten a new out look on her.

On the second day back, the Marauders were sitting at "their" table in the common room and James dropped his quill. Lily and Aly were walking past and Lily leaned down to pick it up. "Here you go," she said smiling at James as she handed it to him and kept on walking.

He watched her walk away and leaned back on the back two legs of his chair as he stretched to see her go up the staircase. He feel back with a huge crash.

He jumped up and dusted himself and tried to act cool. "Uh, who was that?" he asked.

"Dude, that's Lily," Sirius said.

"She's always been here, remember?" Remus said.

"Oh, really? Wow, she's pretty."

"Ok, whatever, dude," Sirius said shaking his head and laughing.

XxXxX

Ok, like I said, a lot of chapters in a row. What do you think? I wasn't really sure how to bring in the whole James and Lily thing. I don't think James is going to start bothering her about dates until later. He won't get annoy and obnoxious until later either.

Ok, byebyebye.

And do as the little blue box says and review.