Chapter 9 ~ Evidence

Lily woke up early the next morning, before the dawn. Too many thoughts plagued her to be able to get an adequate amount of sleep. Though waking up didn't help, she was in a daze as got dressed that morning, taking time to think over what had happened last night. She had seen two people turn into animals. Well, she hadn't exactly seen them, but any other explanation didn't make sense. One minute there they had stood, the next, there was an animal in their stead.

Even though Lily had been out late last night, she was still the first up from her dorm. She wanted to get breakfast over with quickly, and hopefully avoid James and Peter. Then she thought of something, hadn't Sirius been with them last night? And if Peter and James were the stag and the rat, then was Sirius…

She dismissed it; Sirius was not the wolf. But that dog, that black dog, he had helped the stag. He had helped James. That made sense, well, as much sense as the whole idea made, anyway. You can't just turn into an animal whenever you feel like it, thought Lily ruefully. How nice that would be, to be able to turn into any animal you wanted. Something in that thought, however, tingled the dark recesses of her mind, perhaps tugging on a piece of knowledge she had forgotten was there, but she paid it no attention.

She walked down into the common room, and there sat James, Peter, and Sirius. Peter looked upset, probably because he had to get up so early, but James and surprisingly Sirius too, were looking very nervous. They hadn't noticed her yet, though. She gasped and backed up into the stairwell. She pressed herself up against the wall of the stairs to hide herself from view. 

"I still don't understand why we had to get up so early for this guys," Peter grumbled. Lily laughed inside, Peter was so predictable. He was a good friend but he had his faults.

"Because," started James, "Lily saw us transform. We have to talk to her about it, so she doesn't tell anyone." Lily was caught in surprise; they had turned into animals. And James had actually tried to convince her otherwise. Normally, she would have rushed into the common room and confronted him about lying to her, but with her new sense of self-control she kept herself hidden. Having control on your temper certainly does have its benefits, she thought with a smirk.

"Yeah, Wormtail, do you want to get expelled?" Sirius said. She had heard these nicknames before, and yet she felt as though she should be putting all these pieces together.  But her head was so full of worries that she dismissed it. She also wondered how expulsion fit into this little predicament, but decided that there were more important things to worry about.

"We just have to wait for her to come downstairs, then we can explain to her. Okay?" Peter nodded, he would agree to almost anything. You didn't need an Imperious Curse to get him to do something for you. Especially when he worshipped James, Sirius, and Remus as much as he did. She felt bad for him, he was always a little behind the rest of his friends.

"Sure Prongs, I know. Wake me when she comes downstairs." Sirius proceeded to lie down on the couch. Lily thought, There it is again. Those weird names! And I'm sure I've heard them been called that before. She thought for a moment, The name Prongs makes sense, that must be because James is a stag. And Wormtail, well, I guess that is like a rat. I still can't believe that they are animals! I mean, not that they are animals, just some of the time. Or only when they want to maybe. But how can they do that in the first place? Obviously, Lily was still having trouble digesting the fact that some of her closest friends could transform into other animals. She was rambling in her own mind again, another annoying habit she intended to get rid of.

Soon James and Peter were lying down too. Lily quietly slipped across the common room. She whispered the password, "Jupiter" and was about to step through. It might seem like an odd password, but Professor Trelawney had said that Gryffindor was in for hard times if they didn't acknowledge the planet. She had even thought that redoing the password was not an adequate homage. Professor Trelawney was a new teacher and Lily didn't know her very well. She didn't really want to either. Lily wasn't one for Divination, but the thought of the whole of Gryffindor at stake was NOT a pleasant thought. The Fat Lady snorted very loudly at the password and reluctantly opened up—she hadn't wanted the password changed either. Someone coughed behind her and Lily cursed under her breath, didn't the Fat Lady understand she was trying to sneak out? She heard the person say, "Lily? Is that you?" She turned around, it was James.

"Oh, hi James." Lily tried to act as if nothing had happened. She didn't understand what had happened last night, and that scared her more then she let on.

"Lily, about last night I—" Lily saw the direction of this conversation and she had no desire to go there.

"Sorry James. Gotta go, bye!" She dashed out of the still open portrait hole and rushed down the hallway. James called after her, but she continued. She didn't want to have to talk about last night.

* * *

When Lily got down to breakfast there were hardly any people there. She suddenly realized a fault in her plan. Coming down to breakfast before anyone else means that Peter and James would be able to corner her yet again. Sirius seemed to be in on it too, and if three of them were in on it then that almost certainly meant the fourth one was too. But Remus was gone visiting some sick family member or something. She found a seat and pretty soon James, Peter and Sirius had come down too. Peter and James found seats while Sirius sauntered over.

"Hey Lily," he offered as a greeting.

"Hey Sirius. What's up?" Lily didn't really trust him, he was in league with those shape-shifters over there. Lily looked at them, Peter was eating and James watched her conversation with apprehension. Her eyes lingered on him, those lying shape-shifters, she corrected herself mentally.

"Lily, I know you think it's weird what you saw us all doing, but—"

"Hold on, hold on. 'Us'? All three of you? That means…" she paused while her brain worked it out. She gasped, "Padfoot! You were the dog, weren't you? That's what I thought! Now all the names make sense!" she declared triumphantly. Sirius looked alarmed.  She wondered, did the boys do this every time Remus went out of town?  Or was Remus a part of this little joke, just absent for the previous night's installment.

"Lily be quiet! Someone might hear!"  Sirius looked worried.

"There's hardly anybody else down here, Padfoot," she said drawing his name out, trying to annoy him. It did.

"We figured you had already guessed that." Lily took this comment very offensively, as if he was making a comment on how smart she was.

"My brain doesn't work at full speed when I'm still scared out of my mind, you know," she said in her defense. For the first time Sirius was aggravated by Lily acting childishly, instead of the other way around.

"Lily, come on. We helped you!"

"Please go away Sirius."

"Lily, you can't just forget about it."

"Yes, I can." Sirius just stared at her for a moment and walked away. Lily saw him recount the whole story to James, Peter wasn't really paying attention. James stood up, and Lily prepared herself for a lecture. Then his confidant face faulted, and he sat back down, dejected.

"Hey, Lily!" Cecil greeted her and sat down. No wonder James hadn't walked over, he couldn't talk about it in front of Cecil. "Why did you get up earlier than you had to? I never thought I would have seen the day! And on a Saturday too!" Lily had forgotten it was Saturday, the week had passed so quickly.

"Very funny, Cecil." Evelyn and Laura walked over, and the table turned very quiet. Lily wasn't scared enough of the guys to forget she was still seething mad at Laura. That reminded her, she really did want to set things straight with James about that letter. But no doubt if she tried to talk to him about it he would go on about last night. She could forget it, but she doubted he would. Kind of like the whole problem with last night, her conscience told her. "Shush!" she said quietly to herself. The other girls looked her oddly, nobody was even talking at the table. Lily pretended it didn't happen, encouraging them to follow her example.

And for the next two days that's all Lily did, pretend it didn't happen. She avoided conflict of any sort. The words Laura, Sirius, James and Peter weren't even a part of her vocabulary. She wouldn't even talk about them, let alone to them. She constantly tried not to think about the night she was attacked, but she couldn't help it. She knew that James and Sirius wanted to talk about it too. Well, tough, they wouldn't get to.

She stayed mostly to herself, observing people. After the boys had decided that their efforts were fruitless, Sirius had started hanging out a lot with Evelyn. They were remarkably close and even disappeared for a lengthy time on Sunday—probably to Hogsmeade. It wouldn't be long before they were a couple!

Finding humor in her friends' romantic escapades brought only so much amusement to her weekend. Lily would never admit to herself that she was scared about what had happened. She knew it was possible for people to transform, McGonagall had done it on their first class of fourth year. But something about having her friends do it frightened her to no end. It scared her, thinking about that night. And she fully intended to let it just go away.

* * *

Monday's classes passed quickly until Potions, but she was thankful that she was working with Remus, who had just returned the middle of yesterday. She had worried she'd be paired with one of the other Marauders, and she didn't think she could handle it.  They were supposed to make the Omedicor Potion.  Lily had been a bit preoccupied with her relief that the Professor had been prompted to warn, "I expect you all to do it perfectly, for this is a very precious and valuable potion. Mess it up and I will be very upset, this is a potion that you never waste."  It had the most extensive ingredient list she had ever seen, and she didn't even know what it was! From the name she guessed it had to do with healing but she wasn't sure.

She was currently grinding a piece of bark into a fine powder. But the piece was so small she didn't see why it was even necessary. She was getting very aggravated at the lengthy tasks that were obligatory for the success of this potion. While she ground her bark she asked Remus, "I don't get it, why is this potion so important?" He only laughed.

"This potion has the capability of healing any sort of wound, internal or external. It can even heal physiological problems. The second you take it you are in perfect health. It cures anything." He had said this with a great deal of awe and excitement, but then his spirit dampened. "Well, almost anything."

"Wow." She was surprised at the extent of his knowledge. All the Professor had told them to do was add the ingredients on the list. If anyone had done it right, then he would explain what it did. "Wow," she said again, "that's amazing."

"Yeah, that was my first reaction too. It's a relatively new discovery, too." One thing confused Lily, though.

"This potion is so valuable, how come people don't use it all the time? I mean, it can't be that hard to get hold of."

"I'm surprised you didn't know. Usually you're so good at potions. What happened?" He didn't say this maliciously, he was just joking around.

"Thanks Remus," she began, sarcastically. Her conscience reminded her, What happened on giving up sarcasm? Lily ignored it and continued. "I just love it when people point out my faults." Remus laughed again, and held up his hands in a signal of defeat.

"That bit of bark you ground? It's from the Tree of Life. It's so hard to obtain most people can't make this potion. I'm surprised they let us use up some just to do it in class. Buying it is terribly expensive; I doubt this is from Professor's private stores." He paused a moment, obviously considering something. "There's one of these trees in the Forbidden Forest, but it's guarded by centaurs, and of course, by its own special means of protection. There's no way this bark could be from that tree." She wondered why Remus knew about the Forbidden Forest, but declined the thought.

"I thought the Tree of Life was imaginary, like from a fairy-tale or something." Remus laughed again, which earned him a glare from the Professor. He had to take time out from complimenting his favorite student, Severus Snape, to reprimand Remus.

"That is the second outburst I've had from you today. I expect nothing but silence from you for the rest of the day. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, Professor." Lily looked away from the Professor, she didn't want to get caught laughing at him. His eyes were practically bulging out of his head. He was so unfair though, no Gryffindor could hope to do well in his class when they had it double with the Slytherins. He walked back to Snape and continued singing his praises.

Lily looked at Remus, "Why were you laughing anyway?" He grinned.

"I was just thinking, I bet you thought that magic belonged in fairy-tales before you came to Hogwarts. I bet a lot of the things you do now you used to think were make-believe." Lily remembered her games when she was small, she had played a lot of games having to do with magic.

"You're right." A large bubble in their potion popped drawing their attention to it. "So, what do we have to do next?" Remus answered straightaway.

"Add the remaining ingredients, the order doesn't matter, except the bark goes last. But put on your gloves, because before you add the bark the potion is toxic." He added, "Oh, and make sure your sleeves are rolled up because they'll dissolve if you touch the potion, okay?" That bit of knowledge surprised her, Lily knew that the Professor hadn't told them that. Remus certainly does know a lot about this potion, he must've read ahead. And it's a good thing too, otherwise I'd be lost! she thought emphatically. The liquid in their cauldron was a poisonous looking orange, but the steam it let off was green.

"I see another reason why they don't use this potion so often, it's dangerous!" she exclaimed. She looked through her bag for her gloves, but to her dismay, they were missing from her bag. She looked up at Remus. "Remus, I don't have my gloves with me! What'll I do?"

"Don't worry Lily, I'll add the ingredients. You can just watch, if that's okay."

"What else can I do?" she replied ruefully.

"Okay." Remus put his gloves on and picked up some green sludge to add to the cauldron. He rolled his sleeves back and started to explain what it was, revealing even more of his expertise on this potion. But Lily didn't pay attention, he had revealed something else beside his knowledge. His arm glowed a bright red.

* * *