DISCLAMER: I REALLY don't own anything.

Chapter 9

Padfoot and Prongs Mooning.

No, I couldn't be right. He can't be.

But even as I run down the endless hallway, I know I'm too late.

He's there, at the end, and hazel melts into green for one last time before the man in black robes raises his wand.

A flash of green light, and he crumples to the floor. I stumble. No. No. NO!

"LILY!" I'm shaking. I wonder why. I'm not cold; on the contrary, I'm quite warm. But I realize it's not me shaking. Someone else is shaking me.

"Lils, c'mon, wake up. You were having a bad dream." I open my eyes. Alice is shaking me with a worried look on her face.

Gilda is standing over me, biting her bottom lip, looking anxious. I've never seen them so worried. What happened?

They both sigh in relief as I look at them.

"Gods, Lily, you scared the bloody hell out of us for a moment there." Alice says.

"W-what happened?"

"You looked like you were having a seizure." Gilda announced.

"Did you have a nightmare Lils?"

I can't tell them. If I do, then I might have to explain how James Bloody Whatever-his-middle-name-is Potter has been dominating my dreams.

Alice would smirk, and Gilda would laugh about how I'm probably falling in love and Alice would say 'I told you so,' and Gilda would say 'No you didn't' and that would lead to another unnecessary argument. And I'm not letting that happen.

Sigh. It feels good to know your friends so well.

But there is NO WAY IN HELL that I'm telling that that Potter was murdered before my very eyes in my dream. They might send me to Madame Pomfrey for some sort of nasty tasting potion to get rid of lovesick soul in a victim's body.

So I put on an 'I have no idea what you're talking about' face and say, "No, I don't think so."

"What do you mean you don't think so?" they both say at the same time, narrowing their eyes.

They have been CLEARLY spending too much time with each other.

"I mean, I might have, but I don't remember, it was just colours." I say. Wrong. I remember it vividly, as if I was there now. Gosh. I'm a terrible liar.

"Well, it must have been pretty bad, because you were screaming for the past five minutes."

"And you didn't wake me because?"

They both shrug. "We wanted to see if you would say anything."

"And did I?"

"Sadly, no."

"So do you remember the dream or not?"

"No.." I insist.

"Fine." Alice looks convinced, but Gilda knows better. She knows that she could probably worm it out of me, but she doesn't. Instead she smirks at Alice and starts rummaging in her trunk for her socks.

"What?" Alice asks her.

"Nothing." She grins.

"Doesn't look like nothing."

"Isn't a girl aloud to smile once in a while?"

"Not when there's nothing to smile about."

"I'm smiling at the fact that I have Sirius as a boyfriend."

"What's so great about having Sirius as a boyfriend?"

"What's so great about having Frank Longbottom as a two year crush?" Gilda shot back.

"I do NOT have a crush on Frank Longbottom!"

"Suuuuuuure you don't Aly."

"I DON'T!"

"Guys," I groan. "Can you stop for ONE MINUTE? One minute! That's all I'm asking! Just peace and quiet for ONE BLOODY MINUTE!"

"Gilda checked her watch. "And your minute stops….now."

"I DON'T LIKE FRANK BLOODY LONGBOTTOM GILDA!"

"Alice, stop denying it!"

"Why?"

"AHA! So you admit that you DO like him!"

"No I didn't!"

"Yes you did!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Really, because I don't seem to recall saying that I fancy Frank!"

"You just did!"

"No I- well, there is more than one Frank in this school!"

"Sure there is. A first year Slytherin by the name of Frank Lents. Nasty boy. But you like the Gryffindor seventh year Frank who happens to share a dormitory with my boyfriend. Is that specific enough for you?"

Aren't my friends lovely?

Especially at seven in the morning, where they DON'T have an argument and where they go about their business QUIETLY, and where they let me ponder something in my mind in PEACE.

Yeah, right. Like that's EVER going to happen.

I let their jabbering fade into the background as I start to rummage around in my trunk for my things.

I wonder about the dream. Why is it always him?

When the man in black raised his wand, I didn't scream because he was going to kill once more, I screamed because those bright hazel eyes lost their life, their spark. And as the lifeless body tumbled to ground, I felt as if a part of me had been ripped apart, as if, my heart had been ripped in half so severely that it would never heal again, as if no amount of time and no amount of happiness in my life could even begin to heal the soul that was half lost. Lost, with no way to find it ever again. Gone.

I shook my head.

But why? Why was it always, ALWAYS him? Why couldn't it be friends, or family, or even vampires that I dreamed about? Are my dreams suddenly trying to torture me in the most crucial way possible? Making you dream about the one person where last year you wouldn't have given a damn if he died…get murdered before your very eyes?

"Lily? LILY! Are you ready yet?" Alice's voice interrupted my thoughts.

"Yeah, we only have twenty minutes to have breakfast and meet up with Sirius."

"OR, you can meet up with Sirius and have him for breakfast and Lily and I will eat a proper breakfast, which doesn't include your boyfriend of one day on the menu."

"Pity, he is quite delicious, if I do say so myself."

I giggle at the mental image of Sirius lying on a platter with his eyes closed and an apple in his mouth with Remus standing over him with a napkin tucked into his collar, holding a knife and fork and licking his lips.

On second thought…..EW.

Alice rolls her eyes. "Let's get going, or we'll be late."

"Oh no Aly, not you too, we're EARLY for crying out loud!"

"Yes, well, I thought you wanted to meet up with Sirius?"

"OH YEAH!" and then she runs off to the common room, where Sirius is probably waiting for her.

I grin. "You really know how to deal with her, don't you Alice?"

"Well who do you think I spend my time with when you're on patrols? The Giant Squid?"

"Ah, well, you'll be spending some more time with me this year as Remus, Potter, and I have to alternate patrols and Gilda I believe, will be spending much time with a certain dark haired Black."

"Oh no…." She says in mock horror.

"Besides, the Giant Squid is quite friendly. I fell into the lake once back in second year remember?"

We're both laughing as we descend the staircase to the common room.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!"

CRASH!

We stop in mid-step.

"What was that?" Alice asks, looking around.

"I don't know." I shrug my shoulders.

We walk over to the tables where the sound must've come from.

What we see is quite shocking.

James Whatever-his-middle-name-is Potter, is being attacked….by a dog. A great, black dog the size of a wolf.

"No Padfoot, stop…I didn't mean…c'mon…I never expected you to take it personally…..OUCH!"

The dog has gotten a hold of Ja-Potter's ear and is tugging on it, as if he expects it to come off.

"No….OW! Padfoot let go of my ear!"

Padfoot only pulled harder.

"That's it! I'm kicking you out of the house!"

That must've done the trick, because Padfoot got off of him and walked to the portrait hole.

I realize something.

"Isn't Sirius's nickname Padfoot?"

Potter suddenly looks nervous.

"Yes well, er-"

"Padfoot is Sirius's dog. He used to play with him so much that we nicknamed Sirius Padfoot too." Remus interrupted.

Potter looks relieved.

"I see." I narrow my eyes. Something isn't right. How can J-Potter kick Padfoot out of the house if he belongs to Sirius? I mean, sure, Sirius lives with the Potters now, but, he can't kick his dog out!

Just then, the portrait hole opens again and Sirius walks in.

"It's amazing how when Padfoot walks out, Padfoot walks in." Gilda says dryly.

"Good morning humans!" he calls out and walks up to us. "And good morning to you too James." He says as an afterthought.

"Hey!"

"What?"

"I'm human!"

Sirius scoffs. "Humans, don't threaten to throw their best friends out of the house!"

"Hey, how did you know James threatened to throw Padfoot the dog out of the house? You weren't even in the room!" Alice accuses.

Wait a minute. Padfoot is Sirius's nickname. Potter called the dog Padfoot. Sirius is an Animagus.

Wow. I've been really stupid. The dog is Sirius's animagus form!

"The dog is your animagus form isn't it?" I ask Sirius quietly.

His eyes bug out. "W-what? A-animagus? Me? No!"

"Sirius, she knows." Potter whispers ever so quietly.

Um, hello? SHE is right here!

Everyone else is in shock. Except for Remus.

"I told you she would find out one day Prongs." He says smugly.

"Really? You're a dog?" Gilda sounds kind of…excited.

"Sirius stands there for a second, and is gone. In his place, is the same huge, black dog.

He growls at James, oh darn it! Potter! And then pads across the floor and nuzzles against Gilda's thigh.

She giggles and scratches him behind the ears.

Wait. He PADS across the floor.

Padfoot, PADFOOT, padFOOT, PADfoot. Ohhhhhhhh. Padfoot. Of course. It's just like them to associate their nicknames with the animals that they become. And Moony. The moon. Obviously. How did I not realize that? So Prongs probably has something to do with then animal Potter becomes, and Wormtail has something to do with the animal Peter becomes. Ooookay. I get it.

"Ah, so your nicknames have something to do with your animals' right?" I say.

"Yup."

"OH! I get it! MOONY! The moon!" Gilda all but shouts.

"A little louder Gilda." Remus says.

"Oh sorry." She paused. "It makes sense now. I thought Moony meant something like a desire to moon people."

Remus blushed slightly.

Sirius, who had transformed back wrapped his arms around her. "No, Moony doesn't moon. That's Prongs' job."

"WHAT?" we all shout. Well, except for Prongs in question who is blushing quite adorably in fact.

Oh Merlin, NO! Not again!

"SIRIUS BLACK! If you know what's good for you will shut your trap!"

"Oh but Prongsie, I DON'T know what's good for me, so I tell the story. You see, on the way home from Hogwarts two summers ago, our car was right in front of a car full of hot muggle girls. Anyways, I dared Prongs to moon the car behind ours, and he did! Did he ever get a scolding from his mum or what?"

"Padfoot!" Potter groaned.

"What?"

Gilda and Remus and Peter laugh, while I and Alice grimace. For some reason, I didn't like the idea of Potter showing off his buttocks to other girls. Hmmmmmm. I wonder why.

"I feel sorry for those girls." Alice says.

"Why?"

"Well for one, who would want to see your ass in a car?"

"Ah, I'll have you know, they were smiling when I turned around again!"

"They were probably laughing at your stupidity James."

"They were not!"

"Of course they weren't."

"Yes, yes. We all had a great time." Sirius interrupts Alice and Potter's argument. He smirks. "That is, until his mum realized what he was doing."

"Oh no…." Potter clapped a hand to his forehead.

"Oh yes James." Sirius clears his throat. "James Charles Potter! Don't let me ever see you do that again. You are a disgrace to the family! What were you thinking doing that? What will your father do? What will he say?" Sirius says in a womanly voice. And then, "Yes mummy." He says cheekily.

This time, I can't help myself. I collapse onto a chair, laughing so hard it hurts.

I guess it does take pain to hang out with the Marauders. Pain from laughing too hard.

A/N: Thought I'd just slip this little chapter in…sorry it's been so long…don't kill me….