A/N: Another chapter! Thank you to the people who followed the story! It made me so happy to see. Enjoy :)

Lily recovered quickly physically over the next few days, but not so quickly mentally. She was jumpy, afraid of what was round every corner. They told Marlene and Dorcas and the rest of the Marauders about what had happened, but the news spread no further than that. The Marauders tired to keep a closer eye on Lily and her friends but had to do this quietly; Lily and her friends had told them they could handle it themselves. It involved a lot of walking behind them after lessons and checking their location on the Map. So, the next few days passed without incident and the full moon was soon upon them.

Snape hadn't forgotten. He had taken note of the spiteful threats Sirius had spewed in the midst of his anger, and wanted to know what exactly the Marauders were hiding- what their great 'power' was. A bunch of idiots like that couldn't even comprehend the meaning of power. Black had turned away from the opportunity of power at 11 years old, Potter had chosen to be a blood traitor, Lupin had sided with the wrong people and Pettigrew…well Pettigrew had sought out power by befriending the Marauders, without them he would have had nothing. Either way, Snape felt it was vital to discover any potential weapons the prats could be harbouring; it could earn him some more of Avery's respect. Avery and Mulciber hadn't seen Snape heal Lily's wound so, as far as they were concerned, it looked like Snape had proved his loyalty by harming the person who made him look like a blood traitor. Yes, for Snape, his future was looking darker by the day.

Sirius, James and Peter were sitting in their dormitory on the night of the full moon, waiting for the sun to go down so that they could join their friend. James lazed on his half-made bed, supporting his unruly black head on his arm as he looked over at Sirius, who was sitting crossed legged at the head of his bed on the opposite side of the room, surrounded by abandoned piles of paper either from homework or doodling. Peter was silently reading a mystery book and sucking sherbet lemons, trying to enjoy some down time before the events of the night began.

"Looking forward to tonight Pads?" James asked, visions of the possibilities of the night running through his head. As much as this was a sucky time for Remus, he always looked forward to having an adventure with his friends.

"Aren't I always?" Sirius grinned over at James, pupils dilated with the excitement, "There's so much we could do tonight! We haven't been to visit the spiders in ages but I would also like to try and see a unicorn again. What about you Peter, any preference on what we do?"

Peter looked up distractedly.

"Oh yeah yeah, it all sounds great." he said trying to play it cool as butterflies took control of his tummy. Peter wasn't less brave than Sirius or James, but he liked to think of himself as much more reasonable and sensible. Sure, their monthly transformations were as fun as heck, but many risks came attached to it, and this bothered him in the hour before the outing.

"Oh don't worry Wormtail," James said, unfortunately not very comfortingly, "not too much can even go wrong. Moony can't bite us when we're in our animal forms and it's not like any of us are suddenly going to transform back into a human. We have much more power over it than that."

At the mention of humans and power, Sirius' face paled. James glanced at him, concerned.

"What's wrong Paddy?" He smirked, "has Wormtail's worrying finally gotten to you? You could do with a bit of grounding so this might not be the worst thing."

"No, James."

James furrowed his brow. What situation called for the use of their first names?

"I think-" Sirius struggled to find the words, "I think I told Snivellus to go to the Willow tonight."

"What?" James said, his eyes widening, "Why on earth would you do that? That could endanger both Snape and Moony "

Sirius grew increasingly panicked, twirling his thumbs furiously as he tried to explain himself. "I was angry and it was the heat of the movement and,"

"You can't just tell people things like that just because it was the 'heat of the moment' Sirius!" James shouted, getting up from his bed and glaring at Sirius.

"He had just nearly killed Lily! James, you of all people should know what it feels like when emotions overpower you like that. It happens to you all the time! You never behave like yourself when you're around her so sorry if I said something I shouldn't have! You sure as hell say things you shouldn't do to her."

The truth of these words sliced through James like a knife and he turned to Peter without uttering another word to Sirius.

"Pete, help me find the map please," he said, his voice an octave higher than usual.

Both of them scrambled around the messy room, trying to find their most treasured possession. The boys had never been particularly organised. When Peter found it, James snatched it out of his hands and sprinted out the room as he checked it to see Snape's inky black dot leaving the castle. He dashed frantically through the common room, shouting a hurried excuse me to Lily, who had been walking in the opposite direction, as he shot away.

Lily turned to watch him go and raised her eyebrows. What had Potter in such a hurry?

James pounded along the dirt tunnel towards the shrieking shack, avoiding all the roots that seemed to slither like snakes trying to trip him up. He could hear soft footsteps in the distance and knew Snape was quickly nearing the trapdoor. He tried to speed up, but felt like his legs just weren't responding to him anymore. He was losing control. Finally, he caught sight of the dark silhouette of Severus Snape, hunched over and creeping slowly through the tunnel before him, holding his lit wand in front of him to help him find the way. Snape noticed the trapdoor, he turned to examine it, he reached out his hand to the latch, and James Potter barrelled into him, knocking him to the hard earth floor with a thud.

"What do you think you're doing, Potter?" Snape spat, pushing the much larger James off of him and dusting himself off in a hopeless attempt to preserve some dignity.

"Snape. Snape," James said, chest heaving, glasses askew and sweat shining on his forehead, "Get out. Run as fast as you can. I'll make sure he doesn't follow,"

Snape sniggered at how serious James looked.

"No, Potter. I haven't come this far just to obey you as soon as you command me to stop. I'm not another one of your pathetic followers and I am going to find out what it is you are hiding."

"Just get out!" James shouted slowly losing his temper at the venomous boy in front of him. He could hear Moony's steady pounds on the door as the wolf was fuelled by the smell of fresh human blood. He could hear the wood splintering beneath the weight and his desperation reached new heights. He started to push Snape along the corridor, but before long he heard the loud snap of the wood giving up and breaking.

In a split second, the stag dove in front of the werewolf and bravely battled him away with his antlers. The vicious snarls filled the corridor as the wolf tried to bat the stag away so that he could get to the meal behind him. The fight was vicious, as both combatants used all their might and strength. Snape stood still in shock as he watched. Was this some sort of strange dream? Why was he imagining that Potter had turned into a deer? It wasn't until a large shaggy dog shoved him out of the way that Snape was driven into action, and he started to run. The dog started to engage the wolf and the stag turned to help Snape flee the corridor. Snape gripped its neck as they both ran along the corridor, the sounds of the fight echoing further into the distance. Before they left the corridor, the stag suddenly turned back into James Potter and the two boys scrambled out of the Whomping Willow.

They both collapsed onto the soft grass outside, panting with adrenaline coursing through their veins. James opened his eyes to see a rather unexpected sight.

"Evans?!"

"I think I should be the confused one right now, Potter." She said crossing her arms as she looked down at him, concern etched into her features.

James sat up, head swimming and glanced at the already sitting Snape, who was watching Lily with a strange sort of resentment in his eyes.

"I'm not sure I can explain this right now."

"Potter tried to kill me!" Snape cried indignantly at the same time, "in some sort of beastly way!"

Lily looked between the two boys sitting in front of her and her eyes narrowed with confusion.

"Huh?"

"Oh come off it, Snape. I just saved your life!"

"If it hadn't been for you and Black," Snape spat, "I would never have been in that tunnel in the first place and you wouldn't have had the opportunity to set a wolf on me!"

"HUH? A wolf?" Lily interjected.

It was then that Sirius rolled out, just as out of breath as the other two had been.

"Evans?"

Lily started to get frustrated at the lack of answers in a situation that was just becoming more and more confusing to her.

"Well I can see you are all in the middle of something so, when you're done, feel free to come and explain to me what in the bloody hell is going on here." She said sarcastically.

James then got up and strode over to Sirius, picking him up by the collar before punching him in the eye.

"You could have killed Snape and ruined Moony's life, Sirius!" He shouted, his voice sounding hoarse.

Lily's and Snape's jaws dropped at the sight of James and Sirius falling out. The night was continually getting weirder.

Snape stood up, pointing his wand at James.

"Don't pretend it's his fault, Potter," he said jabbing his wand toward Sirius and James in turn, "this was all your plan to get me out of the picture to have a better chance with Lily."

"Merlin's beard, Snape!" James cried, "Your mind is one strange and twisted place to think I would kill someone to try and get a girl!"

"And do you not know me well enough, Sev, to understand that killing someone wouldn't impress me!" Lily added.

James turned to her.

"Why on earth are you here?"

"I have already asked you the same thing, Potter. It looks like we both have as much reason to be out here as each other."

James sighed and dragged a hand through his hair.

"I'm so sorry James." Sirius said, a tear rolling out of the eye that was steadily blossoming into a black eye.

"It's not me you're going have to apologise to, Padfoot."

This was the scene that Peter and Dumbledore walked into. Peter had tried to explain to Dumbledore everything he had understood from the conversation in the dormitory, but it was all still quite surprising.

"Mr Potter, Mr Black, Mr Snape," Dumbledore said calmly, "and Miss Evans?"

They each looked at Dumbledore.

"Would you all please follow me to my office? I can assure you that we will all be much more comfortable in there than out here."

The walk back was in absolute silence; no one dared to make any conversation because of the tension between Snape, James and Sirius. Dumbledore instructed Peter to return to his dormitory and told James and Lily to wait outside whilst he spoke to Sirius and Snape. They both stood on opposite sides of the corridor, each with a million thoughts racing through their mind.

Lily was trying to make some sense of the events of the past hour. After seeing James leave the dormitory so late and so quickly, she had become worried and, as a prefect, had to follow him. From then on, nothing seemed to add up. She took in James' appearance. He was slumped against the wall, his glasses hanging awkwardly off of his nose. She noticed that they had been damaged along with some of his uniform. There was a rip running across the sleeve of his right arm and the shirt was covered in mud and blood marks. Lily wondered whose. His hair was even more disheveled than usual and his eyes look tired. She had never seen him so defeated and, she realised, it was not something she liked seeing either. For her whole Hogwarts career, he had had an air of confidence and self-assurance. As much as she hated it, her and the people around her had come to rely and feed off of it, so seeing him now was draining. She wanted to try and make it better but had no idea how.

James' thoughts were too preoccupied with thoughts of Remus to notice the girl staring at him. He wondered whether Moony had noticed that no one had come to join him. Would that mean he would start injuring himself? Would that mean that Remus would feel more pain when the transformation was over? He wanted to be out there, but he couldn't just walk away from Dumbledore. Actually, he considered, he could. Remus' wellbeing was much more important than any punishment that Dumbledore could give him. So, he pushed himself off the wall and strode along the corridor, not even looking back.

When Sirius appeared out of the office, he looked around the corridor before looking to Lily, who watched him sadly.

"Where's James?"

"He left."