Chapter 37 You're What?!

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter though I do wish was a Ligilimens and could access all the facts and background I don't know that is in JK Rowlings head.

It was now the end of February and the next full moon was fast approaching. James was lying up in his dorm room when his friends came in.

"Hey, Prongs," Sirius said. "Is this where you have been hiding? Why aren't you with Lily?"

"Lily is off somewhere with Katie and Marlene," James replied. "We don't have to spend every minute together you know," he added rolling his eyes.

Sirius snorted. "You could have fooled me, mate."

"Sod off, Padfoot," James shot back.

"How're you doing Moony?" James asked. With the full moon so close Remus was starting to look a bit peaky.

"Tired," he said. "But I have to get all this homework done. I wish the full moon only came on weekends."

"Me too, mate," Sirius agreed.

"I've been thinking," James began.

"Yes," the other three boys said in unison.

They all grinned.

"Hang on," James said getting up.

He walked over to the door and peeked out into the stairwell checking to see if anyone else was around. Seeing no one he closed the door and cast a silencing charm.

"Okay," he continued. "I've been thinking about it and I think we need to tell Lily the rest of our secret."

"Are you sure?" Peter asked.

"Are you mad?" Sirius asked.

"Yes, we probably should," Remus agreed.

"Thanks, Moony," James said.

Remus nodded.

"Why?" Sirius asked.

"Because, now that Lily knows about me she's more likely to notice that you three always disappear on the full moon, too," Remus explained.

"Exactly," James agreed. "And I don't fancy getting into another row about my keeping things from her."

"But what if she tells someone?" Sirius argued. "Her knowing about Remus is one thing. I mean it's only a secret to the students, all the teachers already know. But this, nobody knows but us. If she ever told we would be so screwed. I don't fancy ever spending any time in Azkaban."

"If I thought she would turn us in I would never even suggest it," James said sounding slightly annoyed. "We don't have to go into detail about what we do at the full moon. She just needs the basics of how we keep Moony company."

"I know, Prongs, but what if you two break up and she's really, really mad and she decides to tell?" Sirius continued.

"I think Prongs would have to do something pretty awful for her to be so angry as to get the three of you sent to Azkaban," Remus countered. "She's not particularly vindictive."

"I suppose," Sirius said though he still sounded uncertain.

"What do you think, Wormtail?" James asked.

"Well," Peter said, "I don't want to go to Azkaban either but if Prongs doesn't think she'll tell then I say okay."

"It's settled then," said James.

"When are we going to do it?" asked Sirius.

"And where?" added Remus.

"It has to be somewhere where we have no chance of being overheard or walked in on," James said.

"Why don't we do it in the Shrieking Shack?" Sirius suggested. "No one will find us there."

"But what if someone sees us sneaking down from the castle?" Peter asked.

"We can go in groups," Sirius suggested. "Prongs can sneak you and I down under the cloak after dark. We can hide inside the mouth of the tunnel. Prongs can bring Moony down after us and we can push the knot to let him in. Then he can bring Lily down and they can meet us in the Shack."

"How are Prongs and Lily going to get in?" Peter asked.

"He can use a long stick like Madame Pomfrey," Remus said.

"Shall we do it Saturday night?" James suggested.

The other three boys agreed.

"Let's plan on getting you three in place before 8:30. Lily and I can head down around nine to meet you. When we come back you three can hide under the cloak. Lily and I can use the map. We will get in less trouble than you three if we get caught out of bed because we have extended curfew."

At 8:30 James and Lily left the Common Room.

"James, where are we going?" Lily asked curiously.

James just grinned in response. When they reached the first floor he pulled her into an empty classroom.

"James," Lily said trying to sound annoyed but failing rather spectacularly.

"Alright," James said. "What I am about to show you must remain a secret. You have to swear a solemn oath."

"A solemn oath?" Lily asked sounding more than a bit skeptical.

"Yes," James replied grinning cheekily. "You will need your wand."

"James, you are ridiculous you know that right?" Lily asked laughing.

"Lily, this is no time for laughing," James admonished. "Now take out your wand."

Lily rolled her eyes at him but did as instructed.

"Now," James said in a very businesslike manner removing a slightly battered looking piece of parchment from his bag, "Place the tip of your wand on this paper."

"Okay," said Lily eyeing the paper suspiciously but placing the tip of her wand on it none the less.

"Now, repeat after me," James instructed. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

Lily laughed. "James, what are you up to?"

James just stared pointedly at her.

"Alright, alright," Lily said smiling good naturedly. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

Suddenly lines began to spread across the paper from where her wand tip was touching it. Lily stared at the parchment.

"What is this?"

"This, love, is The Marauders Map," James said grinning.

Lily looked more closely opening up the folded pages.

"This is a map of Hogwarts," she said slightly amazed.

"Yes, it is," James replied grinning.

"What are all these dots?" Lily said picking it up to have a closer look. As Lily examined the map more closely her eyes grew wider. "Wait, they're all labeled with names," Lily said as comprehension dawned on her.

She scanned the map for the first floor.

"That's us!" she said in amazement.

"Why yes, it is," James said with a smile. "This map shows where everyone in the castle is at any given moment," James explained. He glanced quickly at the first floor corridor to make sure no one was coming.

"Where did you get this?" Lily asked in amazement.

"We made it," James said.

"We? You mean you, Sirius, Remus, and Peter?"

"Yeah."

"How does it work?" Lily asked curiously.

"It's a bit too complicated to explain right now," James said. "But it involves a Homonculus charm."

"You can cast a Homonculus Charm?" Lily asked sounding both shocked and impressed.

"Sure," James said with a shrug. "It's not that hard."

"So, is this how you guys manage to sneak around so much without getting caught?" Lily asked.

"Well, that's part of it," James said now grinning like a small child at Christmas.

"There's more?" Lily asked. How could there be more. This map was incredible. She always knew that the Marauders, James and Sirius in particular, were brilliant but this was amazing. How could there be more?

James reached into his bag and pulled out something silvery.

"What is that?" Lily asked.

James grinned at her and suddenly swung, what Lily barely had time to register was some sort of cloak, over himself.

"Ahg!" Lily shouted as James suddenly vanished in front of her. "James!" Lily called. "Where did you go?"

"I'm right here," James said pulling off the hood.

"What? How? Is that an invisibility cloak?" Lily asked in amazement.

James's disembodied head nodded.

"Where did you get it?" Lily asked.

"From my dad. He gave it to me for Christmas the year I started Hogwarts. It's been in my family for ages. It's always given to the oldest son in the family for Christmas during their First Year at Hogwarts," James explained. "Only, it's a family secret. No one has an invisibility cloak as good as this one. So you can't tell anyone. Not even Marlene and Katie."

"But these things aren't the reason I brought you here," James continued. "They are just tools to help us reach our final destination."

"Our final destination?" Lily asked.

"Yes. And we should probably head out. The map shows that the coast is clear," James said.

"Mischief managed," he said tapping the map with his wand. The map vanished leaving the parchment blank once more.

James took the parchment and tucked it inside his cloak. Lily assumed he must be returning it to his bag which had disappeared under the cloak.

"Well, come on Lily," James said holding up the cloak so she could join him.

Lily slid under the cloak and James wrapped his arms around her.

"How do all four of you fit under here?" she asked. She was smaller than any of the Marauders and it was rather cramped with just the two of them. Not that Lily minded.

James laughed, "We don't anymore. We can cram three of us if one of them is Wormtail but definitely not all four of us. That is one of the reasons the map is so useful."

James led them out of the castle and across the darkening grounds.

"James, where are we going?" Lily asked.

"You'll see," he replied.

"James," Lily said suddenly. "The Willow. We're getting too close."

At the sound of her voice the Whomping Willows branches began to swing wildly.

James took out his wand and levitated a long branch that was laying on the ground.

"What are you doing?" Lily asked confused.

"You'll see," James said grinning.

James levitated the branch over to the base of the tree and used it to press the knot. Suddenly the tree froze.

"Come on," James said. "We have to go quickly before it unfreezes."

"James, what are we doing?" Lily asked again.

It wasn't that she didn't trust James. She just had no idea what he was up to. Where were they going?

When they got to the trunk of the tree Lily saw the entrance to what looked like small cave at the base of the trunk between the roots.

"You go first," James said quietly. "I'll follow you."

Lily slipped out from under the invisibility cloak and entered the hole feet first. The entrance sloped downward and Lily slipped a bit on the earthy floor. James slid down behind her balancing on his feet; he had clearly done this many times before.

Lily looked down the long tunnel. Where was he taking her?

"Lumos," Lily holding her wand aloft.

The wand light disappeared down the tunnel. It was long and narrow with a very low ceiling.

"What is this?" she asked James quietly. She didn't know why she was whispering.

"You'll see," James said. "Just follow the tunnel. It goes straight to our destination."

The tunnel was so low that they had to crawl. As they crawled through the tunnel James thought longingly of when they had first become animagi and were still able to stand up inside the tunnel. However, as uncomfortable as it was to crawl through the tunnel now he was going to miss their adventures on the full moon after they graduated.

James watched Lily crawling along the tunnel in front of him. Despite his continual reassurances to Sirius he was slightly concerned about Lily's reaction. James wasn't so much concerned that she would turn them in, he would not have suggested letting her in on their secret if he thought there was any chance she would turn them in. James was not actually sure what the length of the sentence to Azkaban was for being and unregistered animagus and he didn't fancy finding out. He was, however, mildly concerned about how she would react. They were about to admit to her that they were deliberately breaking Wizarding Law and being illegal animagi was not exactly a mild infraction.

But after their row when she figured out Moony's secret he wasn't willing to risk keeping this a secret. He knew that if she realized that he, Sirius, and Peter were absent the same night as Remus that she would most likely become suspicious of where they were. In fact he suspected that the only reason she hadn't put two and two together yet was that she still adjusting to the fact that Remus was a werewolf. She was bound to notice the boys' absence on the next full moon and the fact that they were, once again, exhausted all day during classes.

"James, are we almost there?" Lily asked interrupting his thoughts.

James was glad that this tunnel was not as long as the one to Honeyduke's.

"Just a little bit farther," he replied.

Eventually the tunnel began to slope upwards. Lily stopped when she could see a dim light shining through a hole in the ceiling. James looked up. The others had left the trap door open. She turned back and looked at James questioningly.

"Go on," James said encouragingly.

Lily climbed through the opening and froze. What was this place? The windows were boarded up and all the furniture was smashed.

"James," Lily said, sounding frightened. "Where are we?"

"The Shrieking Shack," James stated.

"What?!" Lily said her voice squeaking slightly. "What are we doing here? This place is haunted. You've heard what the villagers say. And what happened to all the furniture, ghosts couldn't do this?"

Suddenly, Lily heard laughter. She spun around to see Sirius, Remus, and Peter entering the room through a doorway.

"This place isn't haunted," Sirius said grinning.

Lily gave him a look that clearly said he was crazy.

"He's right, it's not," James said reassuringly.

"What are you talking about?" Lily asked. "You've heard the villagers talking about it. They hear loud noises coming from here all the time," Lily argued.

"Actually," said Remus, "They don't hear them all the time."

"Only on the full moon," James finished.

"What?" Lily asked.

"This is where Remus comes to transform," James explained.

"Dumbledore set it up before I started here," Remus explained. "Shortly before I turned eleven he learned from some of his contacts within the werewolf community what I was. My parents never thought I would be able to attend Hogwarts because of my condition you see."

"But when Dumbledore found out he came to visit me and my parents at our home. He informed my parents that he was aware of my condition and had already put a plan in place to keep me and the other students safe," Remus continued. "I was very excited. I had never dreamed that I would be able to go to Hogwarts. I wasn't even allowed to have friends."

"You weren't allowed to have friends?" Lily asked clearly stunned.

"My parents were concerned that someone would find out what I was," Remus said. "Especially when I was younger, they were afraid I would let something slip. We had to move frequently as it was; before the neighbors got to suspicious. They wouldn't want a werewolf in the neighborhood."

"But, that's that's," Lily was at a loss for words.

"Awful, horrible, unfair," Sirius supplied.

"When I first came to Hogwarts I was terrified that everyone would find out," Remus continued. "How was I going to explain why I had to disappear once a month?"

"Yeah, that was a little fishy," James said with a chuckle.

"Hogwarts was everything I dreamed of," Remus continued. "I had friends for the first time that I could remember."

The other three boys grinned at each other. "Three rather fabulous friends," Sirius added.

Remus rolled his eyes but the affect was somewhat ruined by his broad grin.

"And being exceptionally brilliant, we could hardly fail to notice that our friend disappeared once a month," James said.

"Yes, quite," Remus added rolling his eyes. "I told them my mother was very ill and I had to visit her. I claimed she had some sort of Muggle malady, I was very vague about the details, and that because she wasn't a witch the healers at St. Mungo's couldn't cure her."

"The first two moons while we were at Hogwarts just happened to fall on weekends. But the third one was in the middle of the week and we grew suspicious," Sirius added. "Though I admit we never dreamed that Remus was a werewolf."

"We started keeping track of when he left," James added.

"But it still took us until second year to figure out what was going on," Peter said.

James and Sirius nodded in agreement.

"It never occurred to us to check a lunar chart when we were first years," James said. "But in our second year we started learning about lunar charts right before the second full moon. Which was also in the middle of the week."

"We were doing homework after Remus left and noticed that it was the full moon," Sirius said. "We didn't think it meant anything at the time but on a whim I added that bit of information to the chart we were using to track Remus's disappearances."

"Well, the next month we noticed it was the full moon again," James continued. "But it was a Friday or a Saturday, I can't remember now, so we didn't think much of it."

"We assumed it was a coincidence," Sirius added.

"That's what I said," James said giving Sirius an annoyed look.

"But anyway," Sirius continued, "The third month is happened again. But it was a Wednesday."

"It was the third month in a row he disappeared on the full moon," James said. "At that point we went back and checked all the other dates we had recorded, starting in first year."

"It took us about five minutes to realize that every time Remus disappeared it was the full moon," Sirius stated.

"I admit, we panicked a bit at first," James said. The other two boys nodded in agreement. All three looked slightly ashamed.

"You were twelve years old," Lily said comfortingly wrapping one arm around James's waist.

"True," James agreed. "Once we were over the initial shock we started talking. We agreed that we would ask Moony when he came back."

"We also agreed that we would still be his friends, even if he was a werewolf," Sirius added. "Clearly Remus wasn't dangerous."

"It took a little prodding but eventually he admitted it," James explained.

"Thank you for sharing," Lily said looking at Remus.

"Well, actually," James began. "That is not the reason we brought you here."

Lily looked at James quizzically.

"I mean, that was part of it but there's more," James explained.

"More?" Lily asked.

"What we are about to tell you, you have to swear never to tell anyone," Sirius stated.

"Padfoot wanted to make you take an unbreakable vow," James said with a roll of his eyes. "But Moony and I talked him out of it."

"An unbreakable vow?" Lily said.

"Yeah, it's a…" James began before Lily cut him off.

"I know what it is," Lily interrupted. "But why would he want me to take one?"

"Because what we are about to tell you can never leave this room," James explained. "Ever."

Lily gave James a nervous look. What were they talking about? What more could there be to their story. She trusted James but what were he and his friends up to?

"Yeah, I don't fancy going to Azkaban," Sirius said.

"Ha ha, very funny, Sirius," Lily said looking over at Sirius.

She stopped laughing abruptly. The look on his face said that he wasn't joking.

"James?" she said questioningly.

James took a deep breath.

"So, once we figured out that Moony is a werewolf we decided that we should learn a little more about them," James continued.

"Well, it was a little more than we bargained for," James said. "We had never realized how painful it is for the person who becomes a werewolf, you see."

"It really is rather awful," Remus agreed. "While I am grateful to have a safe and secure place to transform it's painful. After the pain of transforming I was alone. With no people to bite or scratch, which is the werewolf's natural instinct, I would bite and scratch myself."

"Oh, Remus," Lily said reaching out to squeeze his hand.

Remus smiled appreciatively.

"But we came up with a solution," Sirius said.

Lily raised a skeptical eyebrow.

"We learned that while werewolves are highly aggressive towards humans they are not dangerous to animals," James explained.

"And how does that help?" Lily asked.

"Well, we couldn't help Remus as people," James explained.

"Obviously," Lily said with a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

James chuckled at her.

"But we could keep him company as animals," James continued.

"But you aren't animals," Lily said looking confused.

"Well…" James hesitated.

"James?" Lily said.

"It wasn't easy. It took us the better part of three years to be able to do it," James continued.

"What did you do?" Lily asked though part of her suspected what they had done.

Something that would allow them to help Remus. They could keep him company as animals. Something that would get them sent to Azkaban if anyone found out. But there was no way. It was supposed to be so difficult.

"We became animagi," James finished.

"How? What? How?" Lily couldn't seem to form a coherent thought.

"It wasn't easy," Peter said speaking up.

"Especially the part where you have to walk around with a Mandrake leaf in your mouth for a solid month," Sirius said.

Peter and James both groaned at the memory.

"You have to keep a Mandrake leaf in your mouth for a month?" Lily asked sounding somewhat disgusted.

"Yeah, it's pretty awful," James said.

"It tasted pretty bad by the end of the month," Peter said.

"Wait," Lily interrupted. "Is that why you three smelled horrible that time?"

"Probably," James said with a laugh. "I still haven't decided if the hardest part of that was keeping people from noticing we had a leaf in our mouths' or keeping the actual leaf in our mouths. It was pretty disgusting. It took us more than one try."

"We finally managed sustained transformation in our fifth year," James said.

"Wait, so you're telling me that the three of you managed to teach yourselves to become animagi by the time you were fifteen?" Lily asked both shocked and, she had to admit, a bit impressed.

"Yup," said Sirius.

"But that is so incredibly dangerous," Lily said. "I remember McGonagall telling us about animagi in our third year. It can go horribly wrong."

"They were incredibly lucky," Remus agreed.

"Luck had nothing to do with it," Sirius said indignantly.

Remus rolled his eyes.

"So, is that it or is there more?" Lily asked.

"That's pretty much it," James said nervously. "Once we could all transform we were able to sneak down here after Madame Pomfrey left and keep Remus company while he transforms."

"Their presence definitely makes my transformations more bearable," Remus said. "They give the werewolf someone to play with and it keeps me from biting and scratching myself. My mind also seems clearer, less wolfish, under their influence."

"So," James said still eyeing Lily nervously.

"So what do you turn into?" Lily heard herself asking.

She wasn't sure how to process this. On the one hand it was crazy. What they were doing was both highly dangerous and highly illegal. But on the other hand she was in awe of the lengths they were willing to go to help their friend.

"Do you want to see?" James asked.

Lily nodded. Suddenly Sirius and Peter began to change. Peter was shrinking rapidly. Sirius was shifting, his arms getting longer. Then before Lily even had time to blink Peter and Sirius had been replaced by a rat and a very large, shaggy, black dog.

"What about you?" Lily asked looking at James.

"You need to come over here," Remus said taking a few steps back towards the wall.

Lily looked at Remus, "What?"

"Trust me," Remus said.

Lily looked at James who nodded.

Lily went over and stood by Remus.

Sirius allowed Peter to climb up on his back and then moved over towards the wall.

James moved to the middle of the room and took a breath.

Then he transformed. Lily watched as his body stretched. His legs and arms grew longer and became thinner. Suddenly, where James had stood not seconds before there was a beautiful stag. Lily looked at him in awe. Cautiously she walked forward. The stag, James, Lily reminded herself looked at her and Lily was fairly certain that if stags could smirk this one would be.

Hesitantly she reached out her hand, the stag, James, took a careful step forward and nudged her hand with his muzzle. She scratched his head and he made, what she could only assume was, a sound of contentment.

"This is kind of amazing," she said at last.

Sirius came bounding up to her then, his tail wagging vigorously. Lily bent down and scratched him behind his ears. In response Sirius licked her face sloppily.

"Oi," Lily jumped at the sound of James' voice. "Do you mind, Padfoot?"

Padfoot stopped licking Lily's face at once and cocked his head at James. Lily stood up and used her sleeve to wipe the slobber off her face.

"Sorry, Prongs mate, I couldn't resist," Sirius said grinning cheekily.

"Yeah, well try harder next time," James said looking thoroughly annoyed.

Lily laughed and placed a hand on James' arm.

"Don't worry, James," she said smiling, "You're a much better kisser."

James smirked at Sirius who laughed. Lily was surprised how much his laugh sounded like a bark. She had never noticed before.

"So, you aren't furious with us?" James asked.

Lily couldn't help but smile, "No. I'm not sure why. I feel like I should probably be terribly upset with the lot of you but I can't bring myself to do it."

James smiled, his relief evident on his face.

The five friends headed back up to the castle. Remus, Sirius, and Peter, in his rat form, hidden under the invisibility cloak. Lily now realized why three of them could fit only when the third one was Peter. James checked the map to make sure the coast was clear before they entered the castle. They might have been Head Boy and Head Girl and have an extended curfew but even they would get in trouble if they got caught being outside the castle after dark. James suspected that, since they were dating and all the teachers knew it, they would probably get into even more trouble than most.

When they reached the Portrait of the Fat Lady, without incident, Peter transformed back to his human form under the cloak. James gave the password and allowed his friends to climb through first, taking the cloak from Remus and stuffing it into his bag along with the map.

James followed Lily over to the entrance to the girls' staircase.

"Goodnight, Lily," James said quietly.

"Goodnight, James," Lily said wrapping her arms around his neck.

James put his hands on Lily's waist and pulled her closer as he kissed her goodnight.

Several minutes later Lily finally pulled away.

"See you in the morning," she said, still smiling.

"Mmhmm," James said leaning in for one more kiss.