Chapter 8

A few nights later, (or something like that), James, Sirius, Peter, and Lily snuck out to the womping willow under James' invisibility cloak after Remus was led out.

"Ow. You stepped on my foot!"

"It wasn't me."

"Sorry."

"It wasn't you."

"Oops."

"Hey watch it!"

"Well I can't exactly watch it can I? I can't even watch myself."

"Yep, we're kind of invisible right about now,"

"Shut up."

"Yea, we're almost there,"

The four got to the tree and went around the back so no one from the castle would see them.

James took the cloak off of everybody.

"Ok someone's gonna get it." Said Lily.

James interrupted her. "Lily, I know you really want to kick some butt right now, but couldn't it wait until tomorrow? I mean, we're on a mission right now."

"Fine."

"Ok everybody, transform." Said Sirius.

"Wait!" whined James, "I want to say it."

"No."

"Yes."

"No!"

"Yes!"

"NO!"

"YES!"

Lily interrupted them, "As much as I would like to stand here and listen to you two yell and tell the whole school that we're out here, I think I'll just transform."

She started to shrink, so that meant she was going to turn into a dog.

Sirius and James shrugged and did the same.

Peter, after seeing that everyone was changing, followed suit.

"Ready people?" asked Lily.

"Yep." Replied James, Sirius, and Peter.

"Wait a minute," said James, "How are we talking like this?"

"You read no books do you?" asked Lily, "It's thought-speak. You can only do it when you are in an animal form talking to other animals. Doesn't work when you're trying to talk to humans though."

"Ok, Let's go!"

Peter snuck under the lashing branches of the tree, and pressed a secret little knot.

The tree's branches stopped moving and a hole appeared in the tree, like a secret entrance. (Which it was.) Two dogs, one rat, and one stag slowly crept in.

They went down a long hall, until a door came into view. Inside they could hear howling and sniffing and scratching.

"Remus." Called Lily, "Can you hear me?"

No answer.

"Remus!" yelled James, "Talk to me buddy, it's James."

The scratching stopped.

The four animals went towards the door, and James used his antlers to unlock the door.

Lily and Sirius pushed it open.

A wolf, all torn up and strong, stood there in battle pose against them.

"Remus, Moony, cheer up buddy, we aren't that late."

The wolf cocked his head, and something clicked.

"Guys, I can barely… talk… You have to get this. My wolf brain is taken over, and... I can't go against it. The wolf... doesn't kill animals though. Just… humans." Said the pained Remus.

"Ok let's go!" exclaimed James.

The five animals headed out the tunnel, and out of the tree.

"Let's go to the forest!" exclaimed Sirius.

They went into the forest to play around and explore.

After a while, Sirius looked over at Lily and got an idea.

"Cant resist," he said so only Lily could hear him, "Dog instincts too strong... must play."

He launched at Lily and tackled her.

"Padfoot!" exclaimed Lily, "I wouldn't if I were you, I have a horn."

Sirius backed off mockingly, "Oh I'm so scared of the horn, bow to the horn." He kneeled his front legs in a dog position of bowing.

Lily was laughing so hard that she launched at him and had a full out dog play-war.

The others didn't hear how it all started, but anyone could tell that the war was all in fun, so they watched amusingly.

James felt somewhat jealous of Sirius being what animal Lily was, so they could actually play like that. And why were they playing like that anyway? If he had shoulders James would have shrugged; why would he even care?

The sun peaked a little over the horizon, and Remus exclaimed, "Guys, I'm getting my brain back! We have like half an hour to get back to the tree.

The four big animals raced back to the edge of the forest with Peter riding on Sirius' back.

"Hurry!" exclaimed Remus as Peter jumped off and pressed the knot. The animals rushed in and up to the room on the other side. Once they were all in, Remus started to transform back.

When he was done transforming, the others did too.

"Well that was fun." Said Peter.

"I agree." Said Remus.

"I thought you didn't have your brain." Asked James.

"I didn't. But I still know what's going on, even if I can't control it."

They said bye for now, and James put the cloak back over the same four, and they went back out and up to the castle and to the Gryffindor Common Room, where they took the cloak off.

"I'm going upstairs to get the 2 hours to of beauty sleep that I really need." And Lily dragged herself up the stairs to her room.

"That's a lie." James muttered.

Sirius caught it and his eyes opened wide. He was about to say something when he remembered Peter was there, so he held his tongue and went upstairs.

When Peter was asleep, Sirius went over to James' bed. He was wide-awake and staring up at the roof.

"You like Lily don't you?" Sirius teased. "I bet you were so jealous when we were playing in the forest."

"Mind your own business Padfoot." Said James.

"Oh come on Prongs." Sirius pleaded, "Tell me tell me tell me! I swear I won't tell anyone!"

"Fine! I do ok?"

"But what about Peter?" asked Sirius more quietly.

"Peter can go jump off a cliff for all I care. I mean, about liking Lily at least." James told him, "She doesn't like him anyway."

"How do you know?" asked Sirius.

"She told me herself. I asked her, and she said no."

"Hmmm..." Thought Sirius. He went back to his bed and fell asleep.

James thought for a moment. How much did he like Lily anyway? Obviously more than he thought since he said that Peter could just jump off a cliff instead of getting her. Well she was perfect. To him at least. She made a beautiful dog and unicorn… not to mention human. He was 15 anyway. He told himself; he could go out with someone now if he wanted.

"Whatever." He thought, "We'll see. We'll see."