Madam Pomfrey was surprised at how uninjured I was, but she seemed happy that she didn't need to touch me, so she didn't question it, she just let me sleep in the Hospital Wing for a few hours before letting me go to class after lunch.
The other marauders, however, didn't get to sleep at all after the long night, and they weren't used to having to stay up all night, so the three of them were exhausted, and however much they tried to act like they weren't tired at all, I could tell how fatigued they all were.
But even though the four of us were all tired, we were all in a ridiculously good mood throughout all our classes that day, and the other three were itching to experiment with their animals after class.
So, after our last lesson of the day, we went straight to the dormitory to grab the invisibility cloak. We no longer had to squish up under the cloak, because Peter could transform into a rat and climb onto one of our shoulders.
Once we were under the cloak, we made our way to the forbidden forest. I personally thought it was a terrible idea to go there because it had to be forbidden for a reason, but James was sure that as a stag he'd be able to fight off anything that tried to kill us.
As soon as we were deep enough into the forest so that no one would be able to see us from outside, we took off the invisibility cloak, and Peter climbed off James's shoulder and transformed back into himself, just as James and Sirius transformed into their animal forms and ran off into the forest together.
It was so dark in the forest that I could barely see anything other than the outlines of the thick trees surrounding us. I heard Peter trying to subtly shuffle closer to me.
Once my eyes had adjusted to the dark, I walked deeper into the forest to try and catch up to James and Sirius, and Peter followed me closely, jumping every time one of us stepped on a stick.
"Maybe we shouldn't be here..." he said.
"Of course we shouldn't, it's forbidden," I said.
"But apparently there are werewolves..." said Peter, then he gasped. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean... I know you're not..."
"It's fine," I said quickly. "And it's not a full moon, anyway..."
"Oh, yeah," said Peter, relaxing slightly.
"Um, Shaggy? Hooves? Where'd you guys go!?" I called out. "Ugh, why did they have to run off? I thought we were going to stick together. I can't transform into a bloody animal if I want to... at least you could hide from... whatever's in here easily enough."
"Maybe we shouldn't make too much noise by calling out..." said Peter nervously.
Suddenly the black dog was running towards us, and transformed back into Sirius in a hurry, panting.
"Do you guys have your wands? I left mine in the castle," he panted. I noticed there was a scratch on his face.
"I have mine, what's wrong?" I said, drawing my wand.
"A big spider... just come on, quickly," said Sirius, transforming back into a dog and leading Peter and I deeper into the forest. Peter transformed into a rat and climbed onto Sirius's back, and I struggled to keep up with the pace he was able to maintain as a dog.
I stopped finally when I caught up with Sirius and Peter, who transformed back into themselves. I gasped when I saw what they were looking at.
James was lying on his back, his shirt torn and a thick gash across his back.
"Do you know any healing spells!?" Sirius asked me.
I pointed my wand and performed the only healing spells I knew to make James's bleeding slow down, and his wound somewhat close, and he was able to regain consciousness.
"What happened!?" Peter cried.
"There was this giant spider thing," said Sirius. "It bit James, and I managed to fight it off, but James was bleeding a lot and I didn't have a wand so I went to get you, and... yeah."
"I think we should go," said Peter. "Do we need to take James to the Hospital Wing?"
"No, I'm alright," said James, standing up, his legs shaking as he did.
"Are you sure?" I asked as Sirius took his arm.
"I'm fine," said James. "We probably should go, though... I have no idea what time it is, and I think we need to be more prepared for next time."
"Next time?" Peter repeated, his voice dry. "You mean, you want to go back in there after a spider attacked you."
"We weren't ready, and we're not used to our Animagus bodies," said James as we began making our way out of the forest. "Plus, the spider probably didn't mean to hurt me. I was in its territory. It was just using self-defence because it was probably intimidated by the stag."
"Are you defending the giant spider?" Sirius said, almost laughing despite what had just happened.
"I guess?" said James.
We finally came into the sunlight, and James's legs suddenly gave way and he stumbled, gripping Sirius's shoulder.
"Are you sure you're alright?" I asked as James managed to stand straight again.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm just feeling a little dizzy from the sudden sunlight," said James.
"D'you want to sit down?" Sirius asked.
"Nah, it's alright," said James. "Let's just go back to the castle."
We began making our way back to the castle, but halfway there, James completely collapsed and began moving around on the floor like he was having a seizure.
"Oh my god!" Peter cried out.
"Come on, come on, let's take him to Madam Pomfrey, I think he might have been poisoned..." said Sirius.
I drew my wand and performed the spell I'd seen Madam Pomfrey do before, to make a stretcher appear out of thin air underneath James, and it floated behind us, following us as we ran back into the castle, then found our way to the Hospital Wing.
As soon as Madam Pomfrey saw the state that James was in, she moved away from a first-year that she'd been treating, and ran over to James and helped lower him into a bed, drawing her wand, then told us to leave, her tone and facial expression so fierce that none of us thought to argue.
Sirius, Peter, and I all rushed out of the Hospital Wing in silence, then stood in the hall outside of the Hospital Wing awkwardly while Madam Pomfrey treated James.
Thankfully, just half an hour later Madam Pomfrey came out to let us know that he had been poisoned, but was now OK, and we could come in and visit him if we wanted to.
Madam Pomfrey led Sirius, Peter, and I to the four-poster bed where James was lying, asleep, and I was surprised that she wasn't pestering us with questions about how he'd been poisoned. She just seemed glad that she'd been able to save him at all.
"So... you think he might have died!?" Sirius asked, alarmed.
"Might have?" Madam Pomfrey repeated. "He would have died if you boys didn't bring him here at all or brought him here any later."
I felt my stomach roll. Too bad if James thought we could go back into the Forbidden Forest. No way we could risk any of us getting poisoned by a giant spider again.
James had to spend the night in the Hospital Wing, so Fleamont and Euphemia were notified and had to come to the school.
Euphemia was in hysterics from the moment she saw James unconscious in the Hospital Wing, and Fleamont was distressed at the sight of his son being unresponsive, but he managed to ask Sirius, Peter, and I what had happened.
We of course couldn't tell him that we'd been in the forbidden forest and James had been attacked by a giant spider, so we just told him we didn't know but we thought something must have bitten him.
After we'd told Fleamont that, I saw Madam Pomfrey's lips purse, but she didn't say anything. It was obvious that she was able to tell what the venom in James was from, and she probably knew that we knew as well, but if she did, she kept it to herself.
James regained consciousness the next morning and was able to come out of the Hospital Wing that afternoon after class, however, Madam Pomfrey had told him that he couldn't do any physical activity until after the Easter Break, which meant he wasn't allowed to participate in Quidditch training.
"I can't believe it," he said on Friday, the day after he'd gotten out of the Hospital Wing. It was the ten millionth time he'd said it since being told he couldn't train for Quidditch.
"We don't play until June," said Sirius. "It's OK. You can go for a few weeks without training. Plus, you're by far the best on the team. It will give the rest of us some time to get to even a quarter of your skill level."
"But I'll be so bored without our daily training," said James, crossing his arms. The other three marauders and I were all trying to study in the common room, however, not much studying was getting done. "There are three weeks until the break, plus the two-week break. It's over five weeks without training."
"You'll live, James," said Peter, fiddling with his quill. "I mean, it's a good thing you are living..."
"Yes, and I'm grateful," James sighed. "I'll get to live to marry Evans and be an old married couple with her..."
The three weeks leading up to the Easter Break went by quickly, and I was somewhat annoyed that the next full moon would be during the break, so I wouldn't be able to spend a second full moon with the marauders.
I didn't tell them that, of course, as we spoke about our plans for the break the night before as we packed our trunks. Sirius was permanently staying with James now, so of course, they'd be together for the entire two weeks.
James was making plans for Peter and I, and our families, to come to his house on Easter Sunday to have a chocolate-eating party.
"I should ask Evans if she wants to come over, too!" James said as he struggled to close his overstuffed trunk. "Ugh, surely I can just leave some things here, it's only two weeks..."
"What would your parents think about you having a girl at your house?" Peter asked as James took half the contents of his trunk out and shoved them under his bed.
"Oh, they know I like Evans," said James.
"You told your parents about your crush?" I said, but then I realised that he could do that without judgement, unlike Sirius or I.
"Yeah," said James. "They're very curious about her. They'd probably want to meet her. The only problem is they might embarrass me... oh, screw it, I'm going to ask her on the train tomorrow."
