A/N: I'm sorry I confused so many of you guys in my last chapter! I guess I got a little to enthusiastic and dropped a bomb of info in it. I'll try to take it slower without bringing the story to a stop.

I'm debating on whether to take the story right up to their deaths because I've suddenly gotten an idea or two for events leading up to then. What do you guys think? Yay or Nay?

TO: Taiyourshoes, technically yea he does need to be in 'wolf form but the guys were just kidding around so it's all cool. As for the one you mentioned...muwahahhahahhha my lips are sealed xXx

Remus gazed up into the starry sky admiring the sooty darkness peppered with lights. It was particularly clear that night and a chill had settled like a blanket, come morning and there would also be frost covering the grounds. His breath came out in white puffs but it failed to obscure the swollen moon. In just a little under two days it would be full again.

He sighed. "Are you sure everything is all set?" he asked Sirius who was leant against a tree whistling softly.

"As set as it'll ever be. We've got the right spells," this time they had researched well and had spent lunch time learning a new trick or two. "We've got rations," he pointed at the small knapsack by his feet stuffed with emergency food. "We've even got Wormtail as back up, to hold he fort up while we're gone and to tell someone if we don't return."

"That's comforting." Remus mused. If they could roam the forest and get out when they were in animals then they could do it when they were humans. They were only going a little deeper in than usual...

"All we need now is for Prongs to hurry up and get his ass here so we can get it over and done with." Sirius crossed his arms and picked up his tune again.

"Where did he go?"

"He didn't say but I'd bet my broom and the Quidditch Cup that he's with Lily at the moment."

"So certain?"

Sirius shrugged with a smile. "He's one love sick puppy."

James was pacing after Lily in the Common Room while she hovered from chair to chair to avoid him. He had spent a good deal of the day trying to convince her not to go.

"Save your breath Potter, I'm going to go." Lily replied tersely, she was as frustrated with his attempts to stop her going as he was with her stubbornness.

James threw his hands up in the air. "Evans! There's no reason for you to go!" and he followed her once again as she stood up and moved onto the next comfort chair to put some distance between them.

"Oh yes there is! I've got every reason to go because I know where I threw that damn thing!" Lily shot back and crossed her arms daring James to challenge her again.

"But we already know it's in that clearing! We've been through this before. All we have to do is search the area." He protested. "There're no need for you to-"

"I'll say it again: NO POTTER, I'M GOING!" she turned so that her back faced him. James scowled at the back of her head until an ingenious idea suddenly hit him. If he could just slowly-

"And DON'T YOU EVEN TRY PULLING THAT WAND ON ME!" James froze in mid action, he wasn't getting anywhere dissuading her and one little sleeping spell wouldn't have hurt...that much. More alarmingly, how did she know? He stared at the back of her head searching for some sort of abnormality, namely eyes that would have seen him pulling out his wand. But her hair was perfectly normal and there wasn't an extra set of eyes.

She turned to face him again this time her eyes flaring with menace. "Don't make me hex you Potter because I will." She warned her voice low. The effect was immediate and James surrendered his wand straight away.

Five minutes later they were making their way to meet Remus and Sirius, Lily happily trotting after James. Sirius was the first to spot them and applauded.

"Mission failed, Prongs. Well done!" He obviously knew what James had tried to do and was silently marking James off as a lost cause. Whether Lily was aware of it not she had a profound effect on James that Sirius hoped no woman would ever have over himself.

"Shut up, Padfoot." James replied easily.

The Forbidden Forest loomed menacing below them. All they had to do was descend into the valley and they would once again be lost in the mystery of its existence. No doubt the were many creatures of the dark lying in wait for them but the object of their goal was inside and whether they liked it or not they were going back in.

"Keep both eyes open." He said softly and began to slide down the hill.

"As always." Sirius slapped James on the shoulder and then they went in.

"Are you sure that you guys remember the way?" Remus asked and ducked under a low branch. They had been trekking for well over an hour now although they had to stop many times to discuss whether they could recognize a particular rock or root.

"That's the root Rosie tripped over." Sirius pointed out after another while.

James peered down at the upraised and gnarled but otherwise not very special root with the aid of his lit up wand. "Are you sure? Just looks another bit of tree to me."

"Sure, this is coming from Mr. Blinded-By-Porptule-Last-Time." Sirius pressed on. If this was indeed where they had passed through last time the forest had done a very good job at repairing the path they had trundled during their last visit. There was nowhere to go but straight into the heavily nettled growth.

"Ow, ow, ow." Sirius complained as they walked. "Damn plants are stinging my legs!" When he held his wand low he could even see the plant snaking its prickled vines around his legs.

"At least you're not wearing a skirt!" Lily cried out as a vine gave her a particularly vicious jab. The bottom of her uniform skirt was now jagged and the plants seem to favor snagging at it. Seeing her lagging behind James slowed his pace so he could help her detangle herself. "That's it!" Having had enough Lily pointed her wand to the ground around her feet. "Incendio!" A jet of flames spurted out from the end and the vines were fried in no time and those that escaped with minor burns retreated.

Once past the patch of nettles they were faced with more dense growth that resembled ferns but these tended to whisper to each other as they passed.

"Stay close, could get lost with all these big leaves." Remus warned and he picked up his speed to catch up with the others. The whispering increased but nothing jumped out to catch them. James' automatic movement to catch Lily's hand was not lost upon Sirius and he grinned at James.

"You can hold my hand too!" he muttered under his breath to him as soon as he was close enough. James responded by using his wand much like a cane and cracked it on Sirius' head. A shot of sparks exploded from the end and flashed into the darkness ahead of them.

"Hey." Lily cautioned disapprovingly and her hand withdrew from his and went into her cloak pocket. Sirius rubbed the sore spot and ducked around the other side to walk beside Remus before James could do it again.

Every now and again Sirius would stop at a tree and draw a mark on its trunk with his wand pointing in the direction they had come in. Lily admitted that it was a much better than idea than her flour trail but it offered little comfort of leading them back out again. If the forest could screw about with time and directions to keep them circling then it could most definitely screw about with the little insignificant arrows. However, she kept these pessimistic thoughts to herself not wanting to ruin the general optimistic mood the guys shared.

Another indeterminate amount of time passed before Sirius sat down on a fallen log and refused to move another foot.

"I'm tired!" he complained. "We're looking for the hand but there's no need to kill ourselves to do so!" Lily also felt like her feet would collapse but there were too many questions to be answered for her to want to rest. Particularly since all questions seemed to stem from that hand. Again she questioned its importance all the while trying to suppress her fear of that creature that had crawled out of the grave.

James sighed knowing that Sirius was in one of those moods. "Fine, we'll take a very short break. A very short one only. Why don't know how long we've been in here. I know it's only been a few hours but time in here passes differently. Wormtail may have already told McGonagall where we've gone."

"I'm sure Wormtail is able to hold his horses for a while." Sirius stretched unconcerned. So Peter had a history of panicking and making bad choices, but what made him reliable in this instance was the fact that he was scared of McGonagall and getting into trouble with her. "And so what if she knows? Just means we'll get a rescue team quicker that's all."

"Then we're back to square one if it gets her before we find the hand." James pointed out.

Meanwhile Lily lowered herself to the ground beside Remus who had remained rather quiet throughout. She glanced over to his lowered head and studied him without meaning to. He was neither as good-looking as Sirius nor as charming as James was but there was definitely another quality to him. For one thing he never picked a fight or hexed other students for amusement. He was generally pleasant with a sweet nature although she could also see a more outgoing and louder side to him when he was with the other two. Speaking of which, they were still debating over the time difference between Hogwarts and the forest.

Lily glanced over at them continuing her observations. Sirius was as Cerise described. "Devastating" with his arrogant and aristocratic features; add on his usual cheek and there he was, the lethal combination that was Sirius Black.

James was running through his hands through his hair as he spoke, it was a default gesture that used to annoy Lily but recently she had strangely gotten used to it. If he so wanted, James could easily look equally as haughty as his friend but more often than not he usually sported a half crooked grin that many found endearing. He was always bright with ideas and blazed with intelligence that Lily would sometimes be jealous although she would never admit it. It was worse when he flaunted it so openly while others had to work twice as hard just to be mediocre.

As if sensing her stare James paused in mid sentence and looked at her. Lily dropped her eyes blushing furiously. She couldn't believe that he had just caught her staring like that! Not noticing anything amiss James continued talking while Lily stared at a clump of dried leaves at her feet as if it were the most fascinating set of leaves in the world. Her heart continued to thump heavily as if she had been caught doing something that she shouldn't be doing-

The pile of leaves twitched. What was that?! The pile twitched again this time a whole leaf turned itself over-

A large beetle scuttled out of the hole. Lily sighed with relief. She had worked herself up over nothing. Wait...another beetle climbed out and ran away as fast as it could followed by another and another. Spiders and huge armies of ants were also on the move now, all around her they shot away and disappeared under bushes and into trees. Were these insects scared of her? Was it her perfume, her shampoo or what? As far as she knew only girls went running away from insects and never the other way around. She shuffled back as a centipede as thick as her wrist wove straight past her, its hundreds of legs working in unison. Her hand landed on Remus' rigid leg and she apologized.

Remus did not reply. He looked awfully pale and Lily could see that he had broken out in a cold sweet. His hands clenched into balls, his knuckles white and a muscle in his cheek jerked. Her first thought was that he had gone into some sort of seizure but then his all his muscles started to quiver and he convulsed. Now the bugs were running away in waves as if terrified...of Remus? Like rats to a sinking ship they knew when something bad was about to happen.

"Remus!" Lily shrieked. His pupils had rolled to the back of his head and she could see only the white of his eyes. Sirius and James were on their feet in an instant.

"Shit!" Sirius swore and gaped at the sky. He couldn't see the moon through the foliage but that didn't mean it wasn't full. James yanked Lily to her feet even as Remus seemed to grow in size. The material of his uniform ripped and muscles rippled and expanded.

James cursed at their lack of foresight prior to leaving; with the full moon being a mere two days away and knowing that time passed quickly inside the forest they should have been prepared.

"MOVE!"

They plunged into the darkness once more, the lights of their wands extinguished in their panic to run.

Seconds later a deep howl that rumbled through their very beings echoed in the dark forest night...

A/N: phew! I had a right case of writer's block at the beginning of this chapter but lucky for me an idea hit while I was idly tapping some keys. As always, enjoy enjoy enjoy! xXx