James ran. His legs were on fire and his lungs felt like they were collapsing inside his chest. But he couldn't stop to breathe, not for a second. He didn't have a second. It was in these moments he wished he could have a time turner. Time was precious, the most valuable resource given to mankind. Time was cruel, lacking when you needed it the most.

James tried to shut off his brain to focus on running. His footsteps echoing in the empty corridors. His heavy breathing echoing inside his mind. His fingernails digging in his palms.

The castle seemed to go out of its way to clear his path. Tapestries would move in front of him, revealing shortcuts, and the moving staircases didn't deviate him from his way once.

He tripped several times, the urgency in his movements taking over the precision, and he cursed himself for wasting these precious fractions of seconds. He could feel anxiety rising in his stomach and his chest but he used the muggle respiration techniques Remus had taught him to ease the storm inside of him. There was no time for panicking.

Sirius's words still resonated inside his head.

"I told him. About the Shack and the passageway under the Willow. I'm sorry."

Hearing this, James had started running immediately, not even bothering to check the map. There was no way Severus Snape went straight to bed after getting the information he had been dying to receive. He was probably well on his way.

But not checking the map had been a mistake, thought James, too late. At least he would have had an idea of where Severus was, of the time it would take to catch up with him.

Now James was maybe too late. He tried not to think about it. About the state in which he would find Snape. About Remus's guilt. About his own guilt.

He would throw up from fear if he had time but he didn't. He kept running. Not thinking.

Arriving at the doors leading to the castle's grounds, James pulled out his wand in one swift movement and blasted them open. The noise they made probably woke up the whole castle but he didn't care. No time to care.

Running on the grass was easier than on the stone and being finally outside he could see the last rays of sunlight peaking over the horizon. Maybe he wasn't too late after all.

The Whomping Willow was tall and terrifying, agitating its branches at a bird who had the unfortunate idea to fly too close to it. Snape was nowhere to be seen. James's heart sank.

His mind started racing. Peter, he needed Peter. In his rat form Peter was small enough to avoid the branches and press the knot to stop the tree from wanting to kill everyone and everything.

Frantic and forgetting his own safety, James got just an inch too close to the violent tree and was hit on the side of the head. He fell on the ground, blinded by the blood running down his forehead, and started tap-tapping around, looking for his glasses that fell off his face.

"Lumos," he whispered. The beam of light coming from his wand was bright in the darkness of dusk and he grabbed his glasses in front of him and slammed them on his face in a hurry, wincing from the pain.

With a flick of his wand he levitated a rock nearby and sent it crashing on the knot in the roots, not bothering to control the power he put into his magic. The branches finally stopped swaying towards him and the tree came to a standstill.

The silence that followed this sudden pause filled James's ears and terrified him. He ran to the trunk of the tree and entered the gaping hole between the roots. He could hear his own palpitating heartbeat and the blood rushing through his veins. It was like each of his senses were sharpened by fear.

After what felt like an eternity, he finally reached the last straight line in the narrow passageway. Snape was at the end of the tunnel, almost bent in half due to the low ceiling, and about to step in the wooden cabin.

"NO! Wait!" yelled James, his heart in his throat.

Snape turned around to look at him and had a spiteful smile. His eyes were bloodshot, his greasy black hair was falling in front of his face and there was dirt all over his robes. He looked like an insane scientist on the edge of a wicked breakthrough.

"You can't stop me Potter," he spat. "Everyone thinks you're so perfect. I'm about to see what's down there and prove them wrong."

He entered the opening without looking backwards. James's entire body was hurting and blood was still pouring from the open wound on his head. He was exhausted, so exhausted. But he rushed forward as fast as he could, fully conscious of the danger ahead, and followed Severus into the small dark room.

Both boys froze at the same time upon seeing Remus. He was mid-transformation, hair growing rapidly on his entire body, teeth and nails sharpening, becoming lethal. James and Severus were so close they could hear Remus's bones lengthen and thicken.

An enormous wolf sat where a good looking blond boy was standing a second ago, and turned its long head and red eyes towards the two boys.

"Go! GO! You need to run!" James pulled Severus towards him, towards the opening, but the slender boy didn't move, still entranced by the transformation that had just happened before their eyes.

Annoyed by the noise, the wolf howled and slowly started advancing towards them, growling and showing its teeth. James had never been human and therefore so vulnerable in front of the wolf before, and for the first time he saw how terrifying it was.

"RUN SNAPE!"

Suddenly snapping out of it, Severus turned tail and slipped back through the opening with difficulty. Behind him, James, certain he was going to die, faced the wolf and opened his arms, decidedly shielding Snape from the danger with his body. He just needed to stay alive long enough to give Severus time to get back to the safety of the passageway.

As he felt claws digging in the skin of his chest and his own warm blood cascading down his body, James thought of Lily and her green eyes. He would never see her again. This thought awoke something in him. A survival instinct. He was willing to die for Asshole Severus, but he had to live for Lily.

Pushing the wolf off him and backing up against the wall, James reached for his wand and fired a string of non lethal curses at his best friend.

"I'm sorry Moony, I'm so sorry!" he whispered, knowing very well the wolf didn't understand him, but hoping that the human inside of it would remember the words.

A stunning spell more powerful than the others hit the werewolf in the chest, and the animal was propelled all the way across the cabin to the wall on the other side.

James took his chance and slid through the opening with ease, having done it many times, and sealed it with complex charms he had seen Madam Pomfrey use. In the cabin, the wolf was howling and snapping its teeth, throwing itself on the wall and trying to claw through the hole to get to James. The smell of blood seemed to drive him mad.

Trying as hard as he could to remain calm, James looked down at his chest to see a bloody mess. His robes were torn but it was nothing compared to his flesh. The adrenaline kept him from feeling the pain, and he decided to get back to the castle while he was still able to move.

He had to crawl all the way, dragging his wounded body on the floor. His mind was blank. The only thing keeping him from passing out was the instinct that he had to, he had to find the nurse before draining of his blood. Dying in a dirty and narrow tunnel would be very anticlimatic.

James thought about the way he wanted to die and settled on old age. Peacefully, in his sleep, happy after living a long and fulfilled life, surrounded by his many children and grand-children, who all had Lily's eyes. Not now, at 16, covered in blood and mud, five days before Christmas. Remus would never forgive himself.

In a final effort, he dragged himself out of the hole under the Willow and crawled to the silhouette laying on the grass in front of him. Severus was looking up at the stars, struggling to catch his breath. He didn't turn his head at the sound of James approaching him.

"I almost died," he said in a cold voice.

James thought it was perhaps a little self-centered, considering the wolf hadn't touched him and that the blood of the person who saved his life was emptying on the grass they laid on. Nevertheless, he didn't point out the unfairness.

"Merry fucking Christmas," said James. Snape only answered with a chocked chuckle that strangely resembled a sob. James ignored it and got to the point quickly. The adrenaline had escaped his body, leaving him drowning in the pain. He wasn't sure how long he had left.

"You can't tell anyone."

"I have to."

"Severus. You can't."

A few minutes passed, where James desperately waited for an answer that didn't come. The stars were spinning fast above his head. The grass was so comfortable. The song of the birds lulled him to sleep.

James woke up slowly, slightly disorientated. The bed sheets smelled like lavender soap and the room was very bright and made him squint. No snoring. It wasn't his dorm. Propping himself up on one elbow and grabbing his glasses from the nightstand so he could see, he realized he was in the infirmary.

The events of last night suddenly came back to him and he pressed a panicked hand on his chest. There was no trace of blood and the pain was gone but three large and deep silver scars ran down his chest, from his clavicle to his abs.

He grunted and let his head fall back on the pillow. His eyes closed, he heard precipitated footsteps coming towards him. The noise he had made had alerted Madam Pomfrey, who pulled the curtains back from around his bed and smiled at him softly.

"How are we feeling this morning, Mr. Potter?"

"Alive for a start," he answered, smiling back at her. "And that's wonderful, thank you for patching me up ma'am."

"Don't be silly," she tutted at him. "No kid will die at Hogwarts as long as I'm here."

"Well I ain't no kid."

"You're right James," she smiled sadly before sitting on the bed next to him. "What you did last night was the bravest thing I've ever seen anyone do. Your actions go beyond words."

She stopped and looked away, blinking to hide her tears, and James suddenly found his blanket very interesting. But his head was full of questions and he couldn't wait a second longer to ask them.

"Did Snape tell anyone?" he blurred out. "Is Remus okay?"

"No and yes," answered the nurse. "Mr. Black and Mr. Snape are in the headmaster's office right now, and rest assured they will both be appropriately punished and warned about the consequences that come with divulging Mr. Lupin's secret. Remus himself is still sleeping, he doesn't know anything about what happened yet."

Sirius. James's heart skipped a beat. Sirius had betrayed all of them and had put another student's life in danger. Only a miracle could save him from being expelled. And James wasn't sure how he felt about it just yet.

But Moony's secret was safe. As long as Dumbledore talked to Snape, there was no way Remus's furry little problem was getting out. There was just one last thing James needed to make a secret of his own.

"Can you... can you not tell him? About, you know.. this?"

He rubbed his chest and Madam Pomfrey seemed to understand. She nodded gravely.

"He won't hear it from me," she whispered.

He mouthed the words 'thank you' but she was already gone.