Tired, Oh so tired

Bleary eyed Lily staggered up the stairs to the Gryffindor tower very much looking forward to taking advantage of the other girl's penchant for "Sleep-in Saturdays". She thought it was fortunate, well either that or just good planning, that she had made sure to complete all her homework prior to the full moon, which had been the previous evening as there was no way she was awake enough to write even a paragraph now. The night had again been spent in the Shrieking Shack sitting outside the door to his room providing Remus with her silent and anonymous support. On her way back to the common room Lily made sure to make her usual stop at the infirmary, waiting until Remus was ensconced in his bed and asleep before leaving the customary chocolate frog. Now it only remained for her to make her way to her soft, warm, bed. Unfortunately she hadn't taken into account that some of her male friends preferred to rise early on the weekend in order to get in a little extra flying.

"Lily!" the exuberant voice of Fabian greeted her the moment she entered the common room and Lily could have groaned as she felt the coveted hours of sleep slipping from her grasp. "Where have you been young lady!" A small part of her was actually pleased that they had noticed that she was missing, especially after the year before.

"The girls have been worried sick. You're usually first out in the mornings."

Oh heck, she had forgotten to make an excuse last night and had merely closed the curtains knowing the girls wouldn't disturb her overnight. She groaned internally, how could she have been so stupid! And why were the girls up so early on a Saturday?

"I just went out for some early morning exercise is all," Lily finally said. "I reek; I'll be back down after a shower."

As she dragged her tired body up the stairs she made note to find out if there were any potions that could help her to stay awake, obviously having a supply on hand was going to be useful if she was going to keep this up. In the meantime she at least had some Pepper up potion to take.

It turned out that the Marly had planned to sneak out to Hogsmeade to go shopping and had wanted Lily to go with her so she had woken up the others when she found the bed empty. The rest had all gone back to bed. Lily rested her head in her hand as she forced herself to take another bite of toast, her eyes half closed. They felt gritty from the lack of sleep. Fortunately the boys seemed preoccupied with their own conversation for the time being. She pondered for a moment if she should ask one of them about wizarding methods to stay assist with staying awake, but decided against it, as it left an opportunity to expose Remus' secret. Lily sighed.

"So great a sigh Lil's?" said Gideon. "What's up? I am sure that a jog should not have tired you out this much? Are you sure you're not coming down with something?" He reached out to place the back of his hand against her forehead.

Lily fully opened her eyes and saw all three boys now looking her way, "I'm fine, really," she reassured them. "What are your plans for the day?" Marly wants to go…out…for a bit, but I have managed to persuade her to go just before lunch."

"Well, I have a little potions homework to catch up on, so I'm off to the library. I'm also low on chocolate fudge so I want to head to Honeydukes with Marly," volunteered Doc.

"And we," Fabe grinned as he indicated to his brother and himself, "Will be spending a fabulous morning flying. However we have Quidditch practice this arvo so we'll give Doc our shopping list."

"Just don't make it too long, and no I will not get you cockroach clusters so you can try and fool the firsties!"

"You wouldn't!" Lily turned wide eyes on the red-heads, and they faltered in the face of her stern demeanour.

"Who us….no…never," they denied, blushing a dip crimson. "We would never, ever do something so horrid." Doc couldn't contain his laughter, especially when Lily gave a cheeky grin.

"You, you did that deliberately! You use your innocent face in such a way," they blustered.

"I can and I did. And no teasing the firsties!" Lily said in a faux haughty manner as she stood. "Come now Caradoc, we must away to the library."

"M'lady," he offered her his arm and led her from the hall.

It wasn't too hard to find what she needed, between what they had already covered in lessons and what was referenced in their reading. Lily had decided that she would need to have a supply of Wideye potion, girding potion and wit sharpening solution to help her make it through those days when she couldn't have a nap. Murtlap essence, Essence of dittany and wound cleaning solution so she could help with Remus' wounds and they were good first aid potions to have on hand, and lastly a vitamin solution, and pepper up to ensure that she didn't become ill. She copied out the list of ingredients, crossing off those she already had and making a list of those that she knew she would need to purchase. It was fortunate they were sneaking out today, so she could pick up the ingredients and have plenty of time to practice the ones she didn't already know, before the next full moon.

"Are we heading to the library when we're done?" Severus hissed to Lily as he decanted his potion into a phial.

She nodded her head absent-mindedly as she also finalised her work, writing her name on a label.

"By now you should all be complete, so I want a phial of your potion, labelled and on my desk before you leave the room," instructed Professor Slughorn as the lesson drew to a close.

Severus had just grabbed his bag thrown it over his shoulder, his phial in one hand, and was reaching down to pick up his cleaned cauldron in the other, when Lily caught hold of his elbow.

"I just need a word to Slughorn before we go," she stated. He put down his things grumping slightly at the delay and the pair waited for the line of students filing up to the front desk to recede.

"Professor?" asked Lily as she approached.

"Miss Evans," Slughorn looked up from where he was organising the phials. "Have you made some new adaption you wish me to see?" He raised an eyebrow in interest. Severus passed over his sample. "Ah, Severus," Slughorn's smile grew. "Exemplary work as always, keep this up and I can see you becoming a master. Next year I'll start the pair of you off on some more advanced work." He nodded to himself before turning back to Lily, his hand out ready to receive her phial.

"Professor," Lily smiled sweetly as she passed it over. "I was wondering if there was a classroom that we could use to practice potions in, in between classes?"

"Why Lily," he raised her phial and examined the contents closely. "I do believe you have matched your friends work today, no meddling with the ingredients?" Lily shook her head.

"I felt I needed to get a handle on the correct technique with this one first, there seems too many possible volatile reactions, before making any adjustments. That's why I wanted to see if there was a room free." The professor nodded in agreement.

"A wise decision. I believe it wouldn't be remiss of me to let you know that there is a vacant old potions classroom, on the second floor that hasn't been used in a while. It is not far from my staffroom, so I would be close by if you should need any assistance.

"Thank you Professor," Lily gushed making a mental note to check out the room.

"What was that about Lily?" Severus asked curiously as they walked out of the classroom.

"Just what I said Sev. I want to get some potions practice in. After all exams aren't that far away. Did you want to join me? We can go to the library and get our homework done and then, if there's time, head to the room to practice a little before curfew.

Being as studious as they were neither of them had a great deal of homework outstanding and so only an hour and a half later the pair were standing in the doorway of the empty room.

"Hmm, he wasn't understating things was he? It hasn't been used in quite a while," Lily ran a finger along the closest desk making patterns in the thick layer of dust. "Well I guess we had best clean it up if we're going to use it." She turned to her friend. "It won't take long."

So for the next hour they dusted, wiped and swept until…..knock, knock. Lily looked up from her position on the floor, scrubbing brush in hand.

"Oh my," the rotund Professor, pushed his way into the room," Well you have been doing a good job. Haven't you?" He glanced around at the now clean and tidy room. "Though I am a little curious as to why you haven't used magic."

"Oh," Lily was a little surprised, "First I guess because we didn't want magical contamination of the ingredients, when we were doing the desks and cupboards, but for the rest," she blushed. "I kind of forgot."

"Ah, well. It happens to the best of us, not to worry. Looking at this room, I might just have to move some of my classes back up here." With another chuckle Slughorn left.

"Lily you can't just say something like that to a Professor," the dark haired boy admonished. "I mean, You forgot about Magic! What's he going to think! You're already a Muggleborn, he'll think you aren't taking this seriously." Severus waved his arms around. "You should have told him you didn't know the charm."

"Why can't I say that? He knows how hard I study and that I do take everything here seriously. I'm not going to lie! I do know the charm and I should have used them. At worst he'll think me slightly forgetful, and," here her voice raised an octave, "What do you mean I'm a Muggleborn already? You told me yourself that being a Muggleborn didn't matter so what does it have to do with anything?" Lily glared at him.

"Look Lily…..Petal…. Things are… they're… changing, there are people about now who I …didn't know about before and they put a great deal of emphasis on the heritage of magical people. Your heritage or lack there-of may count against you." In the face of her glare he continued, raising his hands placatingly "Not that I am one of those people and it is only coming to light now."

"Do you mean people like that….Voldemort?" Severus looked at her sharply.

"Yes Lily people like that, but I'm sure that if you show talent, and real dedication that not having magical parents won't matter, at all," he sounded as if he was trying to convince himself as much as appease her.

"Sev, there's been lots of attacks on the families of Muggleborns and they speculate that it's Voldemort or his followers who have been doing it. He's unlikely to change no matter how much I study."

"You can't always believe everything you read in the Prophet, Petal. You know that. It's nearly as bad as those tabloids that your Mum reads."

"Hmmm," Lily had her doubts but for the moment she thought that she would wait and see. Regardless of who was behind the attacks she meant to protect her family. Lily glanced around the room, "Well it looks like we're done here. We'd best get back to our common rooms before curfew. Night Sev."

"Night Petal."

It was another two days before they had a chance to return to the room. Lily had had a free period and so had already started by the time Severus arrived. As he walked through the door, his eyes boggled at the sheer number of ingredients she had laid out.

"What in Merlin's name are you doing Lily?" he asked.

"Brewing," she didn't look up from the cauldron she was leaning over. Severus placed his bag on one of the few empty tables before coming up behind her and looking over her shoulder.

"Petal…" he asked hesitant to interrupt her concentration.

"Mmmmm," well he thought – at least she had acknowledged his presence.

"You have a lot of potions here? And only one of them is part of the curriculum for this year,"

"Mmmm," she gave a slight nod of agreement as she gave the potion she was working on a counter clockwise turn. "Ahhhh.." a happy smile crept across her face as the potion colour changed to a pale shimmering blue.

She straightened up then and stretched out her back, wiping a hand across her forehead to remove the perspiration. Pieces of hair had come adrift from her braid and Severus felt a strange urge to reach out a hand and tuck them behind her ear.

"Lily," Severus tried again, "What are you up to?"

"Oh," Lily seemed surprised at the question, but Severus never once considered that she wouldn't tell him the truth. "Well, to be honest, I have led the Professor on slightly. While I do want to practice for exams, I also wanted to prepare some potions to take home for the summer."

"What on earth could be useful in a Muggle household? Do you even know if they will work on Muggles?"

There was much to be said about the inability of people raised in, or mostly in, the magical world to be able to think logically. She shook her head slightly, thinking that she really shouldn't be surprised by it any more, though she would have thought that having a non-magical Father would have meant that Severus should have had at least a modicum of deductive reasoning.

"Well, some will and some won't I would expect, and some will have a partial effect. For example essence of dittany has two effects, one to decrease infection and the other to accelerate healing. At this time no-one is sure as to how healing is accelerated though it does seem to result from an acceleration of cell growth. Now the anti-microbial effect will definitely carry across to a non-magical person. What is unknown is whether or not the healing will. It won't however have any sort of detrimental effect, so I can take it home and try it out. Next murtlap essence…"

Severus cut her off before she could proceed any further with what was clearly building up to be a lecture, "Ok your point has been made. You have fun over here. I'll be over there doing some private study." He moved back to the desk his bag was on and began to unpack. Lily breathed a sigh of relief and returned to her work.

As she made her way up the corridor Lily stumbled slightly on a raised flagstone and dropped her bag. As she stooped to pick it up she was grateful that she had stored her completed potions in her pouch for the journey and made a note to order a specially cushioned box to store the phials in. She finally had a complete stock of all of the potions she wanted on hand. It had taken another four visits to the classroom, with Severus complaining most of the time, though she had to admit he did have a point about the Girding potion but she was only going to use it once a month at most, so there shouldn't be any risk. Sev hadn't appeared for this last session of brewing as he said he had other matters to attend to, Lily figured this meant the Herbology assignment that was due the next day.

Hoisting her bag over her shoulder Lily went to stand but was interrupted by a familiar and dreaded voice.

"Still here Mudblood? One would have thought you would have given up and left by now." Lucius Malfoy was standing behind her, having approached while she was gathering her things from the floor. "A word of advice, be very, very careful when you go home. I'm sure it would be dreadful should something happen to your family." He sneered at her as he spoke and Lily felt a shiver of fear travel up her spine.

"Surely for one such as yourself, my family and I are beneath your notice Malfoy?" Lily said with a confidence she didn't feel. "Thank you for your concern but I am sure we will be fine."

"Being the ignoramus that you are, you have failed to comprehend the message. Let me speak more plainly. Should you continue to return to school then your family's lives will be forfeit."

"Really Malfoy, as if you would sully yourself with the whereabouts of some muggles."

He grinned maliciously at that, "Now Miss Mudblood, it would surprise you what I already know." He raised his wand as he finished speaking, but having been expecting that since the beginning of the confrontation Lily fired off a quick Expelliarmus without waiting to see which spell he would cast and then followed it with a stupefy. Leaving the seventh year prefect face down on the floor she ran the rest of the way back to the tower where she collapsed breathlessly into a chair beside Fabian.

"You're all in a fuss, Lils'. What's wrong?" he asked taking in her flushed face and trembling hands. She told him about the confrontation with Malfoy and her growing concern for her family. Fabian reassured her that Malfoy wouldn't sully himself with entering the Muggle world so her family was safe. She gnawed at her lip when he told her of Arthur's reply to the letter he had sent. There was no means in place for portkeys to be provided to the family of Muggleborns, they just had to fend for themselves. Though there was the possibility of petitioning the ministry to allow wards to be set up around a property.

Lily had lain down on the couch after their conversation, worry preventing her from sleeping long after Fabian had gone to bed. They had penned a reply to Arthur asking whom a letter of petition should be sent to. She was still there staring into the fire, which had dwindled to glowing coals when three boys crept back into the common room.

"Another dead end!" Sirius complained.

"It's been ages, we should just give up," Peter agreed.

"It's for Remus," reasoned James. "We can't give up just because we can't find it straight away, we know it has to be here, and we shouldn't discuss this here!" He looked around the room but couldn't see anyone.

"I'm too tired to worry about it now, I'm for bed," said Peter through a wide yawn, and the three boys made their way up the stairs to the dormitory. Lily rolled over on the couch with a sigh. What she was doing each full moon was helping, she knew that, however she was sure that Remus would get a greater benefit if the others could join him. It wouldn't be that hard, she mused to sneak into the library, again, and get the books and leave them for somewhere for the Marauders to find. In fact if she could find the energy to get up now she could was sure she could have it organised by morning. With a groan and a sigh she pushed herself upright and went about her work.

The next morning as James sat, eyes closed and cheek resting in his palm, thoughtlessly shovelling forkfuls of scrambled egg into his mouth, he was interrupted by the arrival of the post. In fact a letter was deposited into his breakfast, landing with enough force to spray the eggs all over the table and boy.

"Ergh! Bloody owls are a menace," James groaned, opening his eyes at the soft thud and noticing the mess. Remus sitting beside him quickly charmed him clean while he rescued the letter. It was similar to the one that Sirius had received in first year and his immediate thought was that it was another prank.

James,

You will find all that you need for your most recent project, stowed under the bench in the Quidditch locker room.

A Friend.

He passed the letter to Remus with a raised eyebrow, silently asking his opinion. Remus only had time for a brief glance before Sirius snatched the out of his hand, read it and passed it on to Peter.

"Well any ideas?" James asked.

"It doesn't look the same as the one Sirius got," said Remus cautiously.

"However you can never be too careful," added Peter.

"We could use your cloak to check it out," mused Sirius.

"Agreed," nodded Remus. "If two of us go under the cloak then we should be able to avoid any unpleasantness."

"So who wants to come with?" James asked looking around at the others. Sirius of course raised his hand immediately. "Alright let's go." The two boys went to stand, only to be interrupted by Remus.

"Shouldn't we make some sort of plan?" James shrugged.

"We have one, we sneak in, check out this package, and sneak out, no worries."

"But, what if…" Peter started to speak, but James and Sirius had left before he could finish. "They could have listened at the very least," he complained. Remus patted his back while nodding sympathetically and continuing to eat his breakfast.

"Shhh, if you keep that up they'll know we're here," James shushed Sirius for what felt like the fortieth time. Sirius just laughed.

"James there's no-one here," he stepped out from under the cloak into the empty locker room. "So where's this stuff supposed to be?"

James bent over and looked under the benches. There tucked up in a dark corner was a package wrapped in brown paper and tied up with string.

"Here," he reached out a hand and picked it up. "Should we open it, or do you think there could be curses on it or something?"

Sirius shrugged, "Don't know, kinda seemed genuine to me."

James sat down on the bench, undid the string, and slowly unwrapped the bulky parcel, to reveal two books with book marks protruding from the top, a white paper bag with some sort of dried leaf in it and four phials of potion. He raised his eyes to Sirius.

"Go on, open the book to the book mark," Sirius encouraged.

"Becoming an Animagus," James read the chapters title from the top of the page, paling. "Someone knows!"

"Hmm, more to the point someone knows and someone is encouraging us!" Sirius replied sitting down next to his friend and grabbing the other book. A quick scan of the marked page, revealed the ingredients for the potion so he reached over for one of the phials, and held it up so that he could see the minute writing on the label.

Finally James noticed that the place mark in the book he was holding was actually another note.

Care should be taken when conversing in the room of commons. Little ears can hear big secrets which should be protected. Never the less, goals that are altruistic should be rewarded. So assistance has been provided for your journey of discovery. Components three must be combined to achieve your aim. Once no longer required the literary resources should be returned anonymously to the repository of knowledge, so as to avoid erroneous repercussions. The fourth phial is provided so clarity can be assured before usage.

Best Wishes

"Alright that's just weird," commented Sirius. "We'd better show it to Remus." They re-wrapped the package and trundled back up to the castle, to drag Remus and Peter back to their dormitory.

The four boys lounged on their beds discussing the note and the contents of the parcel.

"Well the note for all its weird terminology is pretty straight forward," Remus said.

"Really, I can't understand it at all," complained Peter.

"That's alright, we'll translate it for you," Sirius reached over and patted the other boy on the head.

"Sirius!" the shorter boy whined pushing the hand away. "Like you know what it means!" Sirius went to open his mouth to reply but stopped and shut it again with a wry grin and a shrug.

"Ok, tell us what it says Remus," James said.

"So obviously, you were overheard in the common room the other night, by someone who thinks that what you're doing is a good thing. So he has provided us, well you guys, with the means to become animagi. They have taken the books from the library which contain the spell, made the potion and supplied the mandrake leaf, these are the three components required. They have even given us an extra portion of the potion so we can test it and make sure it is correct. However we are responsible for returning the books to the library without getting caught, and if we are caught it there is nothing they can do about it."

"Well that covers that then, glad I could point it out to you all," Sirius said puffing out his chest. Two seconds later he got hit in the head by Remus' pillow. The ensuing pillow fight derailed the conversation until Peter's pillow burst showering them all in feathers. With a quick reparo all was well again and they continued.

"Ok, Peter, could you test the potion for us and make sure it has been made correctly," James asked, the blonde nodded happily. "So then we need to decide when we do this."

"How long is it going to take?" Sirius asked. James moved so he could read over Remus' shoulder.

"The Mandrake leaf needs to be held in the mouth for a month. There's a note here at the side, that an extra two days should be added if the leaf has been dried, as it will require that time to soften up before it can work. Then we take the potion which should induce a trance like state which should reveal the animal we will each turn into. Finally there is a spell, which depending on the skill, power and maturity of the individual can take some time from 1 week to 12 months to succeed at. Though in this not here it mentions that meditation can help speed up the process. Eventually after enough practice, the transformation can be performed wandless and wordlessly," Remus read. He and James then tipped their head's to the right wile still staring at the book.

"That doesn't look comfortable!" James squeaked.

"What?" Sirius made a grab for the book, but Remus quickly moved it. He lowered it so that the others could see the pictures of the various stages of transformation. Peter's face turned a shade of green.

"So sometime between six weeks to a year," James summarised, ignoring the disturbing images on the next page of failed transformations. "It says that it's difficult to talk with the mandrake leaf in your mouth and you should use a gentle sticking charm to hold it in place, because if it falls out you have to start again. So we will need to look that up first."

"I think it might be noticed if you and James don't talk for a month," Remus pointed out.

"We could start it over the holidays? If everyone came round, we could act like we'd all caught that muggle disease that Lily had last year," James suggested. "You remember the one," he looked at Remus, "Ton-sell-tus."

"Tonsillitis," Remus corrected. "I guess, I just don't know if magicals can get it."

"Hey," James eyes lit up. "Sirius that could work for you. You could tell your Dad that you had been near some Muggleborns who got sick and you think you picked up their illness, and that you should be isolated or sent to stay with us for the duration. Which would also get you out of your house."

"Do you really think it could work?" Sirius asked hopefully, he had been dreading going home.

"I think if we get Mum and Dad on board for it," he was stopped by the shocked expressions on the three faces that were looking at him. "Not the Animagi, thing you idiots. The sickness thing, Mum and Dad can verify that there are diseases that could be caught from muggles and they know how to treat them."

"So we have a plan then?" three heads nodded. "Ok so when is good on the hols for you guys to come round for a month?"

Peter grimaced, "I'll have to write Mum."

"The sooner the better for me," Sirius said.

"And I'll just come and go when I can," Remus added. Peter and James drafted letters with the help of the others then they ran up to the owlery to post them before lunch.

Lily had watched silently the morning that James had received the note to go to the locker rooms. She had watched again, standing invisibly in a corner of the room as they undid the package. The wording of the letter inside had been deliberately obtuse so that it made clear that it was nothing like the letter that Sirius had received in first year. She was slightly concerned that Remus would be able to identify her writing, but as yet he hadn't said anything. They were now all sitting in Charms and she looked over to see the four of them heads together conversing under the guise of working on the shield charm that they had been allocated by Professor Flitwick. As she had already been taught it over the Summer Lily was not paying full attention to class, and this was noticed by the professor.

"Miss Evans," Flitwick called out to her. "If you could demonstrate for us." He indicated to the centre of the room. He often called on her to demonstrate when he noticed her focus slipping.

Lily stood and took a position opposite the diminutive man. He raised his wand to cast.

"Protego!" the spell bounced harmlessly off her shield. The little man bounced on his toes in excitment.

"Now Miss Evans, if you could demonstrate another shield," he raised his wand again

"Protego Duo!"

"Another."

"Protego Maxima!"

"And another."

"Protego Totalum," with each shield the little Professor became more thrilled until he was practically vibrating with excitement. "Well done Miss Evans," he gushed, "you may sit down." He rushed over to the shelf behind his desk clearly looking for something. "It seems that this class has not been challenging enough for you, so for the remainder of our time, you may peruse this."

The book he gave to her was….old….practically ancient. It was bound in brown leather, with thick yellowed parchment pages. The words: Charmes for Protection by Salvadore Cavalier were embossed on the front in a bold silver font. Lily carefully opened it to the first page and was quickly engrossed in the dissertation on protective charms for the house and person. As she read she took notes on the various charms that could be used in combination with runes to form a protective layer or ward around a building, on the off chance that the ministry would allow her to help set up wards on her parent's house.

Just as interesting was the author's theory on the ability of a witch or wizard to use their life force to protect another. He hypothesised that this Protego Vitam, would be stable enough (assuming the good health of the protector) to continue to protect an individual or group for a period of time in a location separate to the caster, from nearly any curse, though he also theorised that it was fraught with danger as it was possible to over-reach ones limit, expending too much life force which would cause death to the caster.