So I've been real busy this week (Halloween is a week-long celebration in college, and I had to show off my excellent Katy Perry costume every night). I didn't have time to reread this, so sorry if there's any type-o's (tell me in the reviews). This might be my favorite chapter...I think you guys will like it too :) Enjoyy!

"Expecto Patronum!"

Lily resisted the urge to snap her wand in half when a whispy stream of mist, and nothing else, escaped her wand.

"Keep trying, Miss Evans!" Professor Flitwick said cheerfully, noting her frustration.

"What am I doing wrong?" she asked helplessly looking down at him.

"From what I can see, you're doing everything right," Flitwick squeaked. "The problem is that your memory isn't happy enough!"

Lily sighed and flopped into her chair in exhaustion. She closed her eyes and rubbed her temples; it had never taken her an entire class period to get the gist of a spell. When she opened her eyes, a silvery dove floated by.

"Oh, it's so pretty!" Mary cooed, watching her dove delightedly.

Lily felt a pang of jealousy as she watched her friend's delight. Not only could she not do the spell, but she wanted to know what her Patronus was.

"Having trouble, Evans?"

"Not now, Potter," Lily said, closing her eyes again and racking her brain for a good enough memory.

"I'll give you some good memories to use," he whispered suggestively in her ear.

"Not now," she repeated, although she couldn't deny that at any other time, she might have been more affected by his words. "I didn't see you make a great mastery of it, either."

"That's because I've learned this ages ago," he said, although when she opened her eyes, she noticed that he was sharing a glance with Sirius, Remus, and Peter. In fact, none of them were working on their spells.

"I don't believe you," she said, suddenly brightening. "I'm not the only one who can't do it!"

"Don't get too cocky, Evans," Sirius said, brandishing his wand. "Watch and learn. Expecto Pa—"

"Sirius," James hissed.

Lily knitted her brows, confused by their odd behavior.

"What are you hiding?" she asked accusingly.

They were saved from answering her when Flitwick dismissed class. James shot her a grin and went to get his books. She watched suspiciously as the four boys huddled together and whispered hurriedly.

"What's wrong?" Emmeline asked, no longer distracted by her silver fox that had been playfully rolling around the room.

"Why won't they produce Patronuses?" Lily asked, standing up to leave.

"Since when do they take class seriously?" Mary chimed in. "You're just mad because you couldn't get one."

"No, that's not it!" Lily insisted. "Potter stopped Black from producing his in the middle of the spell."

"Who knows?" Emmeline said. "Maybe they just have really embarrassing Patronuses."

"Black's is probably a great, stupid ape," Mary grunted.

"Not even close, MacDonald."

Lily watched her roll her eyes and quicken her pace, ignoring Black, who was coming up from behind her.

"Ignoring me only makes me want you more!" he called after her playfully.

"Good," Lily heard her mutter vindictively under her breath as she struggled to keep up with her.

"Come on, Evans, some practice will do you some good."

Lily ignored James, burying herself in her History of Magic book.

"McGonagall's classroom is empty right now," he said, lowering his voice and leaning in to her face from behind the armchair she was sitting in.

"Potter, you can't even produce your own Patronus, why would I get help from you?"

"Because," he said, leaning in so that only she could hear him, "you obviously need help creating better memories."

With a pang of annoyance, Lily felt her heart flutter that familiar way it had been doing while he was around. She peeked a glance out of the corner of her eye and saw that he was coming in with his lips towards her face. Reacting instantly, she held up her book so that James met with the hard surface instead of her face.

"Oy!"

"I'm trying to study," she giggled. Despite her rejection, he still leaned in closer, never to be deterred. She only giggled harder at his vain attempts.

"Come on, Evans, just save us some time and admit I'm more irresistible than Giant rebellions," he said, now comically wagging his eyebrows at her.

She continued to laugh, affectionately ruffling his hair with her hand. She suddenly had an idea, and mid laugh grabbed onto her wand, gave it a wave, and said, through her laughter, "Expecto Patronum!"

A solid, silvery figure burst out of the tip of her wand. She blinked and examined it; it was a doe. She stopped laughing, now filled with wonder at the beautiful creature.

"Oh!" she said softly.

She watched it for a moment, and then realized that James had fallen uncharacteristically silent. She realized she had been subconsciously waiting for him to gloat and take credit for her success. Instead, he was staring at her Patronus with an odd look on his face.

"James?" she asked, touching his arm in concern.

He turned to her, smiling widely. She was astounded to see a hint of tears brimming from his eyes behind his glasses.

"What's wrong?" she asked quickly, afraid she had done something wrong.

He seemed to find himself again and cleared his throat, looking away for a moment. He turned back to her as her silver doe began to fade.

"You should take a stroll with me tonight," he said with a charming grin.

"Okay," she said breathlessly. When once she would have been suspicious, and even flat-out denied him, she didn't even question him. There was something about the way he asked that made her unable to say no. It wasn't the same way he had asked her to sneak into Professor McGonagall's room to "study."

"You're just going out with him?" Mary asked, concerned.

"I can't explain it...I had to say yes," Lily said as she ran a comb through her hair. She glanced quickly at her watch. It read quarter until one; she was to meet James in five minutes.

Mary shook her head, although she had a slight smile on her face.

"Who would have thought?" she said rhetorically. "Lily Evans, Head Girl, sneaking around grounds after hours with James Potter."

Lily rolled her eyes. "Oh hush, I told you...I don't think it's like that."

Mary suddenly became stern as she watched Lily put her cloak on.

"You watch yourself, sneaking around at night," she warned, a small crease appearing in her forehead. "These days you should question everything."

Lily was affronted. "James isn't like that! He's so against—"

"What about the Imperius Curse?" she suggested quietly.

Lily was silent for a moment, considering.

"No, he asked me after he'd seen the doe—something about it made him ask me. It's not like he's been trying to get me to go out."

Mary nodded, appeased.

"Fine, but if you're not back in an hour, or I don't hear from you, I'm getting Dumbledore."

Lily nodded silently. She felt a sudden feeling of sadness that they had to question so much, and couldn't just have some fun and sneak around their school—their home—carefree.

"Well, I should be going," she said, heading towards the door. "You'll be here when I get back?"

Mary smiled encouragingly. "Of course."

"This is awesome!" Lily whispered excitedly as she and James slinked down the hallway.

"Shh," he said with a smile. She could tell he was enjoying her excitement.

He glanced down at the worn piece of parchment she had seen fifth year—now revealed to be a special map of the school—and motioned for her to follow him.

She linked her arm with his so that she could stay close and not let any part of her slip from under the cloak. They slowly made their way down a few staircases and endless halls, until finally they reached the front door. James opened it just enough so that they could slip out, and then closed it silently behind them.

Lily could sense that it was pretty cold out, but the thrill of their adventure distracted her. James gently guided her across the grounds, until they were well concealed behind a patch of bushes by the lake. He pulled the invisibility cloak off and turned to her, concerned.

"Are you cold? You can have my cloak—"

"That map is amazing," Lily interrupted impatiently, reaching out and snatching it from him. "Where did you get it?"

She studied it closely so that her nose was nearly touching the parchment. There were a thousand tiny dots littering the map, each labeled delicately with a name. Currently, most were condensed to each House, although a few, such as Filch and Mrs. Norris, lurked the halls.

"We made it," James said with a small grin as he watched her.

Lily's jaw dropped opened. "We? As in you and the other Marauders?"

He nodded proudly.

She looked at him impressively. "I guess I've underestimated you all these years, Potter."

He grinned and cupped her cheek in his hand affectionately. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the sensation for a moment, when she suddenly pulled away.

"No snogging until you've showed me what you came out here to show me," she said playfully. His face, which had tensed with worry when she'd pulled away, suddenly relaxed into a grin.

"Are you sure you're ready for it?"

She lifted her head defiantly. "I can handle anything you throw at me, Potter."

"Okay, Evans, but no screaming."

She smiled uncertainly. He was probably joking, she assured herself. Right?

"Don't look," he said, going to hide himself behind more bushes.

"Well," he added as an afterthought, "I suppose you can look if you'd like."

She squinted her eyes in the darkness and saw him remove his shirt.

"James!" she said sharply. "What are you doing?"

"I just don't want to rip them," he assured her. She could hear the smile in his voice.

"On what?" she insisted, now becoming more uncertain.

"Look."

She turned around in time to see him tap himself on the head with his wand. He dropped it suddenly, and hunched over.

"James?" Lily whispered.

She watched as his hunched over figure grew a few feet and began to sprout dark hair. His face elongated and his eyes widened, so that they quickly became large and liquidy black. Finally, a huge pair of antlers sprung from the stag's head.

"James," Lily said, this time more loudly. She stared at the stag wide-eyed.

It cautiously approached her, extending its muzzle. She reached out instinctively and put her hand on it. It was just like that night a year ago...

"You moron!" she burst out suddenly, breaking the spell. The stag (or James?) stepped back uncertainly, watching her carefully with its head turned.

"You tricked me! You were the stag! Let me guess, Black was the rat that stole my essay?"

The stag had retreated back to the bush. Soon, James was standing there again, quickly throwing on his robes.

"You enjoyed it," he said, smiling devilishly at her. "And no, the rat was actually Pettigrew."

"I could have been expelled!" she exclaimed, working very hard not to shout. "Just so you could indulge in whatever sick fantasy—"

"Evans," he interrupted, suddenly serious. "It was selfish of me. I only did it because I thought I would never have a chance to get that close to you in person!"

Lily bit her lip, her anger ebbing away. It did sound kindof sweet when he said it like that...

"Why else would I have done it?"

She looked at him grudgingly. "So you lot could have a laugh about it later."

He shook his head and smiled, pulling her into a hug. "Always so suspicious."

"Always giving me reason to be," she protested gently.

She stood there against the warmth of his chest for a moment, trying to process all that he had revealed to her in such a short time. He was an Animagus! So was Peter! That must mean—

"Black's a dog, isn't he," she said suddenly, pulling away to look at him.

He nodded.

"Oh, that's sick," she said, although she was smiling. The memory of their encounter with the black dog last year came back to her. "He violated Mary's leg!"

James broke out laughing. "That we got a laugh out of."

Lily shook her head. "So you're a stag—Prongs. Peter is a rat—Wormtail. Sirius is a dog—Padfoot. So what about Remus? Moony?"

James' smile faltered. "He—er—couldn't get the hang of it. It's just a nickname—"

"James Potter, you are lying to me," Lily said, looking him directly in the eye, as though the truth was hidden in there. "If Peter could get it, surely Remus...could..."

She trailed off at a distant sound from the Forbidden Forest. It sounded like a wolf. Unwillingly, she recalled Severus' theories. "Always sneaking around at night...always during a full moon."

"Oh, James!" she said softly. "He's a werwolf, isn't he?"

She noticed that James was watching her carefully. "Lily, you can't tell anyone. It's bad enough Snivellus is always following us around—"

He stopped when he saw the way she was glaring at him. "What?"

"James Potter, do you think I'm that terrible of a person?" she said sternly. "Of course I won't tell anyone! Remus is so nice."

James looked visibly relieved. He hadn't seemed to anticipate her discovery of Remus when he planned to show her his secret.

"So what, you run off with him during the full moon?"

James nodded.

"That's so dangerous!" Lily said, stepping back to give him an effective glare. "What if—"

"It's worth it," James cut in quickly. "Lily, he tears himself up when we're not there to distract him. Remember how bad he was our first few years, before we could run off with him?"

Lily was quiet, impressed with James' loyalty. She bit her lip and sighed in assent. "I suppose."

"I'm fine now aren't I?" he said with a grin. "We've got it down."

Lily was suddenly stuck with an idea.

"That's why you lot wouldn't produce your Patronuses in class today!" Lily said. "Because I would have recognized your stag, and every girl in Hogwarts would have recognized Black's dog."

He nodded and looked up at her shyly. "And then I saw your doe today, I knew I had to show you the truth."

Lily smiled. "I'm glad you did."

She gasped as he suddenly pulled her closer and kissed her. She sighed against his lips, enjoying the rush of adrenaline he produced within her.

"What happens now?" he asked softly, looking down at her intensely.

Lily grinned and pulled her wand out of her sleeve. "Expecto Patronum!"

The doe emerged from her wand again and timidly paced back and forth in front of them.

"There's not much I can do about that, can I?" she said with mock exasperation. "I guess I'm stuck with you, Potter."