The full moon was always bittersweet. James loved the feeling of the wind and the grass around him as he ran faster than even his broomstick could go. Sirius and remus ran beside him, and james could sense peter scurrying along beneath them.
Remus could almost fully control it tonight. He had been liberal about taking his potion.
James kept pace with sirius, as he ran towards the forbidden forest. They didn't go there every month, but they went often enough. They knew their way around and successfully avoided the spiders and the centaurs pretty much all the time. Honestly, at this point they were probably just so used to them they didn't care, so long as the marauders didn't bother them.
James felt a light tickling and knew peter had climbed on his back. He sometimes did that when his little legs could hardly keep up.
James felt the leaves crunch under them as they reached the trees. They wound through the foliage and jumped over fallen logs. Peter squeaked on his back and nearly fell off when james's back when he lept over a creek. The three of them, and peter by extension, slowed to a stop.
They couldn't exactly talk in their usual english while the were in these forms, but they could somehow understand each other all the same.
They were just taking a moment before they began running again, then they heard someone else coming.
Do you hear that? James turned to sirius. Sirius took a second and listened before agreeing.
Yeah. someone's here. Definitely not an animal.
Remus gave a small jerk of his head towards where the sound of the footsteps were coming from. Peter scuttled off james's back and ran up next to sirius's paws. The four of them walked slowly towards it, listening carefully.
The footsteps stopped. Sirius put his nose in the air and walked towards where the scent seemed to be coming from. James followed him, and remus and peter followed him. The scent smelled familiar, but james couldn't quite place who it was.
The four of them kept going, quietly, waiting to see who it was. As he heard them grow closer sirius halted to a stop and the rest of them followed. James laid down in an attempt to be less noticeable and the rest of them did the same, except peter, who was small enough for it to not make a difference. And they waited. The footsteps grew closer into the clearing and out stepped lucius, followed by snape. Great. His two favorite people.
"The ministry of magic, lucius?" snape sneered, stopping him in the middle of the clearing.
"Yes, severus. Why is that so hard for you to understand?"
"Why now? There's no real reason to."
"People are forgetting. They're not fearful enough. The dark lord wants to remind them."
"They are not afraid enough? Students are still getting pulled out of school every day."
"Are you questioning him, lucius? Questioning voldemort?"
"No, no." snape shook his head "never."
"Good." lucius said curtly. The two of them were standing nearly nose to nose in the clearing.
"Friday night. Five o'clock. That's when it'll be the busiest. That's when the most people are working."
"Alright." snape nodded once "i'll make sure to get there."
"If you want to, severus. If not it's no skin off my back. I'd love to see what he'll do to you if you don't show."
"I'll be there." snape repeated and lucius turned to walk off.
"Use the usual passage." he yelled over his shoulder. Snape stood there for a moment before stalking off after him out of the forest. James nudged remus with his nose and stood up. The rest of the marauders followed.
James started walking and then broke into a run, the rest of them trailing behind him. James headed for the shrieking shack.
The four of them headed for the largest room in the house. By the look of the sky it would probably be dawn in an hour or two and remus would shift back but james couldn't wait. He shifted, flinching at the tightening in his gut and the way it made his head spin. Sirius and peter also shifted back and sirius shot an apologetic glance over at remus, who had to stay in his animal form for now.
"What the hell are we going to do?" were the first words out of sirius's mouth when he shifted.
"No idea." peter shook his head.
"Well, we have to stop them, don't we?" james asked even though it wasn't even a question. They had to stop them.
"How?" sirius asked
"We have to go there don't we." peter groaned "we have to try and stop them. We have to."
"As much as i hate to say it," sirius pulled his hair back into a bun like he did when he was stressed or thinking "peter's right, isn't he?"
"Yeah," james sighed, running a hand through his own hair.
…[...[]...]...
That night james toiled with the idea of telling lily about the ministry. On the one hand she had been having a bitch of a time lately and he knew she still cared about severus, even if he was a slur-using arsehole. They had been friends for long enough she was still hurt by losing him. Part of james grew jealous when he thought of him, then he realized that was ridiculous.
The other bad side of telling her was she'd demand to go with them and james couldn't stand the thought of what they'd do to her. He couldn't stand the thought of her being in danger like that.
But on the other hand… she deserved to know. Especially if james was going. If there was one piece of relationship advice james's father had drilled into him over the years it was that you couldn't keep secrets from each other. And james desperately needed lily. He could not screw this up. Plus, she was kind of a badass and could probably be helpful.
Goddammit. He had to tell her didn't he.
…[...[]...]...
Lily woke up just as dawn was breaking. She felt a hand poke her in the side and sat up fast, still thinking it must have been the boy from last night. She grabbed her wand off her nightstand and shoved it into his face, her heart beating out of her chest before she saw it was james.
"Bloody hell, evans!" he whispered, trying not to wake up her dorm mates "put that thing away before you take my eye out!"
"Sorry." lily said a little breathless, tucking her hair behind her ears. She lowered her wand and tried to calm her heart down.
"Can i talk to you for a minute?" he asked "in the common room?" lily nodded and shakily removed her covers and stood up. The two of them walked down and stopped in the middle of the darkened room.
"Lumos." james whispered and his wand lit up, illuminating the portion of the room. Lily was suddenly very aware of her skimpy shorts and t-shirt. It was all she had clean. She was also very aware of the way she hadn't worked out in weeks and her stomach was sticking out a royal amount. She would pull her shirt down, but she would then be revealing something else, and that would cause a different problem.
"So," lily said, crossing her arms over as much of her chest as she could cover "why are we meeting in the common room at… what is it? Five AM?" she tried not to sound testy, but she was still a little shaken up from last night. She was trying not to think about it, but it kept edging its way into her brain. She felt a shiver go up her spine at the thought of his phantom hands trying to make their way up her shirt.
"Well…" james ran both hands through his hair and lily saw him fiddling with the deactivated snitch still in his pocket. Nervous habits. "i wasn't going to tell you, but i think-" he took a deep breath "i think, in an effort to be honest here i need to tell you."
"Okay." lily said, suddenly concerned. Her first thought was that he had cheated on her and she felt her stomach begin to sink.
"Sirius, remus, peter, and i were in the forbidden forest and we saw lucius and severus…"
Lily's stomach chilled in a different kind of way. So he hadn't cheated on her. That was relieving, but if he was saying something about severus that couldn't be good.
"And they were talking about voldemort." james continued and lily's fears about severus were confirmed
"They said there's going to be an attack on the ministry. Friday night at five… the other marauders and i are going to try and stop them." lily was shaking her head before he was even finished talking.
"No. no. i won't let you guys risk yourselves like that."
"Lily we have to," she shook her head again, but he kept going "we have to at least try. Lily." she couldn't stop shaking her head
"I'm going with you." she finally decided
"Lily, please." he sounded desperate "is there any way i can convince you to stay?"
"No." lily reached a hand up to his face "if you're going i'm going."
James closed his eyes and leaned into her hand "there's no way i can stop you, is there?"
Lily forced a small smile and stood up on her tip toes.
"Not a chance in hell." she pressed a small kiss to his lips "if you're going down i'm going down with you."
