Chapter 10

James had been dating Lily for three months, and just looking at her now brought a goofy smile to his face, for which Sirius lost no time in taking the mickey out of him. He was happier than he could ever remember feeling, but a nagging thought at the back of his mind kept resurfacing. He did his best to push it back: It's a guy thing. It doesn't have to do with her, but he knew these excuses were feeble. Sooner or later she was going to find out about Remus and about his, Peter's, and Sirius' animagus transformations, and he much preferred telling her directly to having her catch them coming in from a monthly escapade. She already knew that they disappeared on some nights, but had let the matter drop when he refused to tell her where they went.

He held an impromptu conference with his roommates asking for their permission. Peter merely shrugged, but Remus and Sirius both looked at him shrewdly, and James found himself shrinking under their stares.

"I wouldn't be asking if I didn't think she was totally trustworthy. She won't blab, even if somewhere down the line we break it off."

Remus shook his head. "No, James, I trust Lily just fine. What I'm worried about is her reaction. If she reacts to me the way most people do, you might have just lost yourself a girlfriend, and I wouldn't want to do that to you."

James had not thought about that, but the idea of Lily shrieking and running from Remus just didn't fit with what he knew about her. "Well," he said slowly, "if she does that, I'll know she wasn't such a great catch after all, won't I?"

Remus raised his eyebrows, but now it was Sirius' turn to shake his head. "This is a Marauder thing. This is for us. I don't see why you want to tell her at all- it's not like she could come join us when we go out." James just bit his lip, and Sirius let out a sudden bark of laughter that made him jump. "Prongs, you have got it bad. All right, I say we tell her, but only after she has proved herself."

"Lily darling."

She looked at him suspiciously. "Since when have you called me 'darling'?"

"Uh, since now. Look, the guys and I have something to tell you, but I've been made to swear not to tell you until you've been deemed 'trustworthy.'"

She looked even more suspicious at that. "And what does being 'trustworthy' involve, exactly?"

"You've got to pull a prank of epic proportions tomorrow and not get caught."

James had total faith in his girlfriend, but as far as he knew, she had no pranking experience, and it had taken him five full years to perfect the craft. Besides his worry over what would happen if she tried and failed, he was not entirely sure she would try. She had looked supremely unconcerned at breakfast and had swept off to a first hour Transfiguration class without sparing him a glance. Because of his nerves, he deemed it prudent to duck into a bathroom before class, just in case. He was sitting in a stall, wondering how he would wrangle it for her if she got caught, when two bloodcurdling shrieks issued from the next stall.

"YEEEEAAAAACH!"

"BLOODY HELL!"

James finished his business and stuck his head out of the stall to find a boy he recognized as a Hufflepuff third-year backing away from the toilet, his pants still around his ankles. James managed not to laugh with great difficulty and asked what the problem was.

"There was someone in the toilet! And she…she screamed at me!"

"What're you talking about? Nobody could fit in there."

"I swear! You heard that scream didn't you? It was coming from under my bum!"

James was not so adept at keeping in his laughter this time and wandered into Transfiguration thinking that he had wildly underestimated his girlfriend.

Hardly five minutes passed in the castle that day without someone screaming bloody murder inside a bathroom. Apparently, Peeves and Moaning Myrtle had chosen this day to hide in the drains and would periodically screech at those sitting on the toilets.

Lily received a standing ovation when she was ushered into the seventh year boys' dormitory that night. She grinned modestly and sat on the end of James' bed.

"How'd you get them to do it?"

"Oh, well, Peeves was easy. I just mumbled to myself something about how much that would scare me when I walked past him yesterday, and Myrtle… well, we had a little girl talk. I just explained my predicament to her- turns out she had some boy problems when she was alive, so she was more than happy to help. Well… not happy, I suppose, but when is she ever, right?"

The boys shook with laughter, and Sirius gave her a bow.

"So do I pass?"

"Most definitely." Sirius' smile faltered, and he looked suddenly nervous. "Well, here I go," he said, and he transformed into the big black dog. Lily screamed, and James jumped to cover her mouth with his hand.

"It's okay, Lils."

Peter went next, and the dog and the rat both approached Lily cautiously. James gave Lily what he hoped was a comforting smile before transforming himself into a stag. She raised a shaking hand to her mouth and reached out the other to touch him. He nuzzled her hand gently, then with a nod to the others, all three changed back into humans.

"You're animagi?"

James nodded. "Took us about three years of study to figure out how to do it, and it's been a hell of a job keeping it secret. We're not registered, you see."

"Why?"

The boys all looked at Remus, who cleared his throat. "They did it for me, Lily. They did it so that they can keep me company when I transform. I'm…" he took a deep breath. "I'm a werewolf."

Understanding flashed across her face, and James' heart sank when he saw her jaw clench: She's not going to run out is she? She stood up slowly, walked over to Remus, and wrapped her arms around him. He looked shocked, and awkwardly patted her back. When she stepped back she was smiling. "Thank you. I'm glad I know. I won't tell anyone." All five teenagers in the room smiled at one another and laughed at Sirius' assertion that now was the perfect time for a game of Gobstones.

They did indeed play Gobstones on the dormitory floor for about an hour. James spent the entire time with one arm wrapped around Lily's waist thinking that he did indeed have the best girlfriend in the world.

Lily approached James later that week with a firm look in her eye that James had come to associate with being told off. She had even resorted to giving him detention once, something that Sirius found extremely funny. He had just set off a bunch of dungbombs in the Charms corridor, so he braced himself for the rebuke. He was thrown off guard, therefore, by her next words.

"I want to go with you."

"What?" As far as he knew, he was not about to go anywhere.

"It's three days until the full moon. I want to go with you. I need to know what happens out there."

James' eyes had widened, and he shook his head violently. "Lily, you can't! He'll bite you! I won't let you risk that, or him, especially after what happened with Snape."

"That was… ooooh." She seemed to have understood something, but she looked no less firm. "James, you go with him all the time."

"But not as a human! That's the whole point!"

She grabbed his arm. "You can do whatever you like to keep me safe, and I won't try to do…whatever it is that you do, but I need to see. Please." The hard look in her eye had softened, and she now looked at him pleadingly.

James bit his lip. "It's just… Lily, we never really know what is going to happen on full moons, and this is a werewolf we're dealing with, and… I don't think you know what you're asking."

Letting go of his arm, Lily straightened up. "I know exactly what I'm asking, James. I'm asking to know you. I'm asking you to let me see inside your little Marauder bubble and know you. Merlin help me," her voice was rising now, and the pair started to attract strange looks from those nearby. "You're the only person left in this world who understands the first thing about me, and I want… I need to return the favor."

"Even if it kills you?"

She gave a small, wry smile. "You won't let it kill me."

She was right, he wouldn't. Despite the objections chasing each other through his head, the look in her eyes made the decision for him. Thinking that he would never forgive himself if something happened, he dropped his gaze and nodded.

It was planned carefully. Lily, James, Sirius, and Peter were to enter the tunnel before Remus was taken out to it by Madam Pomphrey. They would then construct a protective bubble for her made of shield charms, repellant charms, and (just in case) some planks of wood. She was taught some protective spells in case something in their own protections was faulty, and was given firm instructions never to leave her cage until given the say-so. James announced that she would be coming to the other boys the day before the full moon, and they looked at him curiously, but did not question him.

James was a bundle of nerves the next day and nearly bit the head off a first-year who ran into him in the corridor. Sunset came all too fast, and before he knew it, he was jogging across the front lawn with Sirius, Peter, and Lily, all under the Invisibility Cloak. Peter went down the hole first, followed by Sirius, then Lily, with James bringing up the rear.

Lily looked around in wonder at the broken down structure at the end of the tunnel. "This is the Shrieking Shack, isn't it?" James nodded and pulled her over to a corner of the room. Without another word, he and Sirius began casting spells around her, while Peter rummaged for scraps of wood. When they finished she looked as if she were in a caged fishbowl. The boys stood to one side, hands in their pockets and not saying anything. Remus came in about twenty minutes later and gave Lily a weak smile before stripping off his clothes, laying them neatly in a corner and lying down on the floor with his back to the other four. As if on cue, the boys all transformed into their animagus shapes at the same time, but did not move from their positions by the window.

Moonlight began slowly inching across the floor towards Remus as the moon rose. As soon as it touched his skin, Remus' back arched and he started writhing in pain. Brown fur began spreading down his back as his head started changing shape, and his feet grew claws. He was gasping and choking as if trying to cough up a fur ball, and then with awful suddenness he let out a screaming howl and Remus was gone.

The wolf stood on shaking limbs, but seemed to gain strength quickly, and was soon quite steady. It turned and caught sight of Lily. With a snarl, it hurled itself at her cage, and she jumped back, wand at the ready. The wolf hadn't even gotten halfway there, however, when it was charged down by a pair of antlers and prevented from circling around by a snarling dog. The wolf howled and growled, but the animals in the shack allowed it no leeway, and slowly it began to back down and shudder. The animals began circling the wolf at that point, and each time one passed by its face it shuddered again. After three full circles, the wolf looked back at Lily, but this time it was Remus' stare she met, not the wolf's.

James chanced a glance at her, and she met his gaze with tears in her eyes. She mouthed, "Thank you," and he nodded once before returning his attention to his three best friends.

A/N- This chapter was really hard to write for some reason, but I think it worked out okay. It's all JKR's