The black dog snarled at the werewolf as it guarded Lily, who had stopped screaming and was now watching the scene before her with stunned interest. The werewolf did not stop when it saw the dog, but swung its massive paw out in an attempt to swipe it away. The dog did not flinch but clamped its teeth around the werewolf's wrist. The wolf howled in pain and tried to shake the dog, and the two canines got into a vicious fight.
Once the dog was no longer in front of her, Lily felt extremely vulnerable. That feeling didn't last long, though. Seemingly out of nowhere, a stag approached her and looked deeply into her eyes. It had beautiful hazel eyes; eyes that were strangely familiar to her, but she couldn't think where she had seen them before. In her situation, she was finding it very hard to think at all.
The stag stood in front of her like a sentry; unmoving, and ever watchful of the goings-on around them. The dog and werewolf were locked in fierce combat. The werewolf finally managed to get a mighty swipe of his paw in and the poor dog was thrust across the room with the force of it.
The werewolf then turned eyes on Lily and the stag. It let out a frustrated growl, realizing that it would have to face another obstacle before reaching its prey. The stag lowered its head, brandishing its antlers and scraped its hoof on the ground defensively. The werewolf then charged, but just as it was about to take a bite out of the stag, the dog had arisen and tackled the werewolf from its flank. The wolf barked as it was taken to the ground, and twisted around to try and attack the dog. The dog raked its claws down the wolf's front, and the wolf roared in pain. The dog raised its paw for a blow to the face, but the werewolf was quicker. It raised its paw toward the dog's front left leg and gripped it hard. Lily heard a loud CRACK and squeezed her eyes shut as the dog yelped and screamed in pain. The werewolf pushed the crippled dog off of it, and started for the stag again.
The stag braced itself once more for the werewolf to come. It lowered its head again, and this time ran at it. The stag got the wolf between its antlers and pinned it to the opposite wall. The wolf clawed at the stag's back, struggling, but the stag was holding its ground.
Lily, deciding she could no longer be useless, forced herself to run to the dog. She approached it warily, knowing that injured animals were a little touchy. She knelt down beside it, and was surprised when it offered her its injured leg. She touched it tenderly, and it whined in protest, so she got out her wand and pointed it at the dog's bleeding leg. She noticed her hand was shaking violently.
"Episky!" she said once she steadied her hand, but her voice was shaking now. She was unsure as to why she felt weepy, but she choked the feeling back.
The dog gave her a look of gratitude, and she smiled at it before it rushed to the aid of the stag. Lily wondered for a moment if she should do something as well. She had a wand, after all. She could curse the werewolf, but she found herself not wanting to hurt it. She had a feeling she knew who it was. She prayed she was wrong.
She watched the fight some more. It was really ferocious. Fur was literally flying. Before she knew it, the werewolf had gotten free of the dog and stag, and was now rushing toward her. She refused to be scared stiff this time, so she bolted across the room and dove under the bed. She noticed absurdly how dusty the place was, and thought it could really use a woman's touch. She then scolded herself and focused. Her eyes were flickering every which way, knowing the werewolf would try and reach under and smack her out from under there.
She felt a slight burn in her right leg and then hot stickiness run down it. Trembling, she looked to see the werewolf's paw resting on her leg, its claws already drawing blood. She tried to jerk her leg away, but was too late. She shrieked in pain as the wolf's claws tore through her flesh, and her leg exploded with pain. It then proceeded to drag her out from under the bed and leer at her, showing teeth that might as well have been daggers. She promptly raised her foot and sank it as hard as she could into the wolf's nose. It released her leg, but she knew she was going to be slower. She raised her wand at the werewolf, now clutching its surely broken nose, and stunned it. She felt bad, knowing she had hurt it, but she scrambled away while she could.
The stag and dog seemed to take this as their opportunity. The dog leapt onto the werewolf's back, lowering the wolf's head down. The stag pawed the ground, hopped gracefully over Lily and brutally head butted the werewolf, knocking it out cold.
The stag then trotted over to Lily and helped her to her feet. She looked deeply into its oddly familiar hazel eyes. As they held each other's gaze, Lily finally recognized the eyes. A single voice went through her head: A stag. Oh! And yours is a doe! Guess we're just meant to be.
Lily's lips curled gently upward into a smile as realized who the animals were.
"James…" she whispered happily. Once again, she didn't know why, but she felt a lump forming in throat, only this time, she allowed tears to stream down her cheeks. It was likely some concoction of relief, fear, shock, and sheer joy that she was still alive; it didn't matter. She cried.
James (still in his stag form) gestured for her to climb atop his back. She glanced at the still knocked out werewolf, who was slowly turning back to his original form. It was as Lily feared: the werewolf was Remus. She was saddened by this, knowing Remus didn't deserve this curse.
She didn't have much time to feel sorry for him before the dog (who she guessed was Sirius) practically shoved her onto James's back. Then Sirius padded over to Remus and somehow managed to get him onto his back. Then a rat (who she guessed was Peter) came over to them and joined Remus on Sirius's back.
James and Sirius carried their friends all the way back to the castle. Once they got to the large oak front doors, Lily slipped off of James, and Sirius gently put Remus and Peter down. Lily was finding it difficult to stand on her bad leg, but refused to fall. James, Sirius, and Peter transformed back into their usual selves. James hurried to Lily, who put her arms around his neck and he scooped her up bridal style and brought her inside. Sirius and Peter were supporting Remus across their shoulders.
As they walked in, the sky was getting a little lighter, but the sun was not yet visible. Dawn was approaching. They all were thankful that they didn't have class that day as they headed to the hospital wing. Lily felt suddenly cold and snuggled closer to James who gave her a gentle squeeze in return. They went through the halls in comfortable silence.
They finally reached the hospital wing where Madame Pomfrey was waiting for them. James set Lily down on a bed, and Remus was laid in a bed next to hers. Lily got a real look at how hurt he was from his fight, and she felt a pang of sympathy for him. He had blood all over him, his clothes were torn, and his face seemed to have aged so much in just one night.
"Are you okay?" asked James, his voice ripping her back into reality.
"Yeah," she assured him. "Is Remus going to be?"
James nodded.
She looked at Sirius. "How's your arm?"
"Fine," he said, showing it to her. "Thanks for that."
"No problem," she replied. Then she looked very seriously at the three boys before her. "Now, you all have a lot of explaining to do."
