Disclaimer: as I once, maybe twice, maybe 21 times! Said before! Nothing that belongs to JKR is mine in anyway, so don't sue me!

Chapter 22

The night of the shrieking shack

No one wanted to go back to lessons after the holidays but of course they had to. The whole school was working extremely hard this term, as it was exam term. The whole school had exams and on top of that the fifth years had OWLs and the seventh years had NEWTs. Even James and Sirius decided that it was probably best to start paying attention in lessons and for them to actually do their homework. This wasn't much fun for the pupils but for the teachers it was like Christmas come early. They were having the time of their lives setting as much homework as humanly possible. They said that this amount was for the student's own good but Sirius reckoned that it was because they enjoyed being evil.

One particularly sunny Thursday all of the ten seventh years were sat outside. Vicky and Remus were sat next to each other and they were holding hands, which Lily thought was really sweet, but James and Sirius kept complaining and demanding to know what she had done with the real Remus. James and Lily were talking about aurors and NEWT grades. Sirius and Katie were both sat separate from the group and separate from each other, Katie was reading and Sirius kept pulling up bits of grass and then throwing them at the ground. Andrew Wood was talking with Anna and Sarah about which were better, muggle things or wizard things. They had covered sports and decided that Quidditch was a better game but muggle's had a better variety of sports and were now onto books.

"Well my friend read this muggle book called Harry Potter…" began Anna but was interrupted by James saying "someone mention my name?"

"No, there's this muggle book called Harry Potter but I reckon it was actually written by a wizard because it's got you-know-who in it. Well anyway, there's this boy called Harry and his parents, Lily and James" at this point Lily and James both started blushing furiously and Remus wolf whistled. "Can I continue? Thank you! Well his parents died when he was one so he had to live with his Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon…"

"NO! No son of mine is going to live with them!" Lily shouted interrupting Anna who was glaring at her now. "Sorry Anna, please continue"

"Thank you! He goes to Hogwarts and has two best friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley and his archenemy is Draco Malfoy. Remember though, it's fictional, it's not the truth, it's not actually going to happen so don't worry. It's stupid because me, Sarah, Katie and Vicky aren't in it, Peter's a traitor and I almost forgot, Remus is a werewolf" at this last comment Remus went pale and suddenly became very interested in the ground. Lily was worrying about her death and James was imagining him and Lily'' wedding.

Sirius was the only one who noticed Snape come over.

"What do you want Snivellus?" he growled.

"Not much dogbreath" he drawled. Sirius was shocked, he didn't know did he?

"Why did you call me that?" he asked.

"Sirius is the Dog Star. You don't know where your own name comes from! Sorry I forgot you were thick!" he laughed icily.
"I'm not thick!" Sirius whined.

"Prove it" Snape, said in his almost silent slippery voice.

"I know where Remus Lupin goes once a month," he said proudly. The others went silent and watched.

"No you don't" Snape laughed.

"Yes I do! And if you want to find out go to the Whomping Willow tonight, take a branch and prod the knot to stop it moving and then go down the trapdoor and follow the passageway" Snape looked extremely pleased and left them alone. Remus looked outraged and stormed off Vicky shot a dirty look at Sirius and followed him.

"Nice one Sirius" said James very sarcastically. "Not only have you just betrayed a friend you've just basically got Snape killed."

"That was the whole idea, but I didn't mean to hurt Remus, it just kind of slipped out." Sirius said defensively.

"You don't want Snape dead though. No one can deserve that, not even Snape." James said and left. Lily and the others followed and Katie moved to the other side of the lake to continue reading her book. Sirius felt guilty, very guilty. Thinking about it he didn't actually want Snape dead, it was a very tempting idea at the time but now.

That night James lay in his bed, he was restless and couldn't sleep. His mind was on more important things than sleep, he couldn't help but think of the events of that afternoon and how stupid Sirius had been. When he couldn't bare it any longer he resolved to at least try and rescue Snape, now there's a sentence he never though he'd say! He put on his invisibility cloak and crept out of school. He made his way over to the Whomping Willow.

As he was walking he saw a flash and a rat leapt out of nowhere followed by the same gangly, redhead boy that he kept seeing in his dreams. He saw another flash and his vision returned to normal and he ran straight across the hard ground. He stopped with another flash and a big, black dog bounded on top of the messy black haired bespectacled boy.

"Sirius?" James called out but there was another flash and the dog was dragging the red haired boy into the Whomping Willow by his leg. Another flash and the girl with the bushy brown hair got whipped by a branch from the Willow and something hit James, which, with another flash brought him back to reality. His cheek stung where the tree had whipped him. He had come right to it without realising it; the weird flashes had really disorientated him. He saw the branch on the floor, which meant that Snape had already turned up. James' stomach lurched as he thought that it might already be too late.

James prodded the knot and went down the trapdoor. As he walked down the dark dank tunnel he kept calling "Snape" but there was no answer. He ran all the way to the shrieking shack and saw a dark figure at the door.

"SNAPE! NO!" he shouted and the figure turned around.

"What Potter? You'd better not be wasting my time, I need to see where Lupin goes!" he said impatiently.

"You can't!" James said moving closer.

"And why not?" Snape said, his hand grasping the doorknob.

"Because" Snape didn't listen. He opened the door and screamed at the sight before him. Before he could do anything a stag rushed out from behind him and knocked him over. It charged at the werewolf with it's antlers, the werewolf dug it's claws into the stag's shoulder. It calmed the werewolf down a bit before pushing Snape out of the door. Snape fell to the ground and looked up to see James Potter locking the door.

"Don't tell anyone," said James. Snape got up and glared at him but silently agreed to keep the promise.

Both boys didn't say another word and went back up to the castle in silence. They separated when they had to go to different common rooms. James climbed through the portrait hole and heard the fat lady grumbling about 'silly teenagers' and 'night time wandering' he was surprised to see someone waiting for him.

"James! Oh James! I was so worried! I don't know how but I knew you'd gone!" Lily cried hugging James. She noticed him wince and she looked at the wound on his shoulder where Remus had got him.

"It's just a scratch," said James noticing Lily "it happens all the time" he said wincing in pain.

"Stay here, I'll go and get some essence of murtlap, it'll help the pain" she rushed up to her dormitory and he obediently sat down. She came back with a cloth and a bottle. She poured some of the ointment onto the cloth and pressed it to his shoulder, he winced again. They spent the rest of the night in the common room. They talked for a while before Lily fell asleep next to him. That's how they were found the next morning, with Lily sleeping against James and James asleep with the cloth on his shoulder and they were both smiling happily.