"You kissed me anyway," he said more to himself than to Lily.

"Er." Lily felt very awkward all of a sudden. "Didn't you have somewhere to go? Having to do with Remus's top-secret message?"

"Oh yeah—fuck!" James said again, jolted suddenly out of his reverie. "Thanks. Fuck. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you Lily. Fuck…" and with that James sped out of the Quiddich pitch like a bullet and Lily watched his back grow smaller and smaller.

Damn he's fast, she thought admiringly. She closed her eyes for a moment, remembering how James's soft lips had felt against her own. Why had she kissed him—she really shouldn't have given him any more false hope. But he was so noble…

When she opened her eyes a moment later, James was gone; all that she could see now was a huge stag pausing near the Whomping Willow. Then Lily turned back to the pitch to collect her thoughts, and when she set back off for the castle, the stag was gone. I must have imagined it, she thought. I don't think there are even any deer in the Forbidden Forest, and even if there were, forest animals rarely come out onto school grounds.

But that was her last thought, for at that moment the cold that had been seeping into her bones suddenly overcame Lily, and she collapsed onto the ground.

Chapter Fifteen:

The Shrieking Shack

As soon as he saw Lily turn away, James had transformed into his stag form and used his antlers to prod the knob on the Whomping Willow. How could he have been so stupid, to forget that tonight was the full moon? He had never once forgotten a full moon night, and he knew how dangerous it was for Sirius to be handling Remus on his own.

Silently cursing, the stag dashed down the stone passageway until he reached the basement of the Shrieking Shack; he could hear Sirius's barks and shriek-like yowls of Remus as a werewolf as he drew closer. He burst through the door and found a dog and a werewolf clawing and biting angrily at one another; already both were more bloody than he had ever seen them.

James, as a stag, threw himself between the two and thus entered the fray. Peter, as a rat, scampered about their feet. Another full moon night had begun.

When the first thin rays of sunlight seeped into the Shrieking Shack, the wild werewolf collapsed onto the ground, taking Remus's true form once more. The rat, dog, and stag each transformed, going to sit by Remus.

Remus looked awful, but by then they had gotten used to the white face, sweaty hair, and bloodshot eyes that Remus would have after a full moon night. He was a bit more scratched up than usual, but it was nothing compared to Sirius.

Though Sirius only had to handle Remus alone for about a half hour, that little time alone was enough for the werewolf to break three of his ribs, bruise his arms and legs, and bite at his chest and stomach. Sirius could barely move.

James and Peter were relatively fine, at least compared to the condition their friends were in. Now that James finally had time to think back on what had transpired on the Quiddich Pitch, a surly look came onto his face.

"You okay, Remus? Sirius?" he asked gruffly.

"I'm…the same," said Remus weakly. "Merlin transforming hurts."

Sirius glared at James through bruised eyes. "Where the hell were you, Prongs?" he asked angrily. "Why were you late? Did you forget? Did you forget about the most important thing that the four of us have? The only thing that we swore never to forget?"

"I'm—" began James, but Sirius cut him off.

"Don't fucking apologize, James," Sirius said. "You know if you had been ten minutes later, I would have been dead."

"I would have killed you," Remus said quietly.

Now Sirius turned to Remus. "You wouldn't have killed me, Moony," he said, still angry. "But a werewolf would have. A werewolf and James would have killed me, if he had been ten minutes later."

James didn't know what to say; despite his fury, Sirius was right. "Well you're alive, aren't you?" said James angrily. "I did come, didn't I? We're fine, what's done is done."

"You're fine, maybe," said Sirius, "but I have some things broken inside me, and I'm feeling dizzy from blood loss. And you forget that I'm going to need to go to the Infirmary for this, which means we'll need an explanation for why I'm so fucking bloodied up. And if I don't say anything, they'll assume I got in a fight; it looks like I killed someone, James. Look at me!"

"We'll think of something," said James, but a note of panic had come into his voice.

"And there's another thing, Prongs," continued Sirius. "You say we're fine. But you know what, we're not fine. I don't know if I can trust you. I'm going to have to wonder each month: is this the month he'll forget again? Is this the month I'll die?"

"I won't forget again, okay?!" James exploded.

"Ha, so you admit it," sneered Sirius.

"Admit what?"

"That you forgot."

"No, I…you don't understand, Sirius. I didn't forget; I was under…circumstances. Circumstances that have never occurred before and will never occur again. I couldn't…think straight, with her that close to me."

"Who?" asked Sirius. Sirius still didn't know of James's affections for Lily; as far as he knew, the bet was still on.

"Um…" said James, unsure.

"Lily," said Remus. Sirius and James looked at Remus in surprise.

"Excuse me?" asked Sirius.

"He's talking about Lily," said Remus.

"Speaking of that," said James, his voice rising again, "what did you do with Lily, Moony?"

"What do you—" asked Remus.

"She—she…" but James couldn't make himself say it. It seemed to low to say it out loud, but his thoughts were screaming for attention in his head: Lily likes Remus, she talked to him, Lily likes Remus, not you… "She talked to you," he finished lamely.

Remus could sense the accusation in James's voice. "Hey, wait a minute," Remus said defensively. "She sought me out, you know. Did she tell you that? I didn't come on to her, I didn't even approach her. Lay off, Prongs, get a grip."

"She…sought you out?" asked James weakly.

"What the fuck is going on?" asked Sirius loudly. "What's all this about Lily? I'm a little confused, here, because Merlin it sounds a lot like you like her, Prongs, and I don't know what to think about that."

James looked torn. "Yes. I like her," he said. But it's all for nothing, his head told him. She doesn't like you that way. She likes Remus. She sought him out. You want them all to be happy…so let her go. James amended himself: "A little. I only like her a little. Whatever, no big deal. Flavor of the week, right?"

"That didn't sound like a flavor of the week," said Sirius resolutely. "I've never heard you get angry about a girl before."

"No, no…that's not it," said James. "I was just mad…because Lily came to talk to me, and I guess she likes Remus or something or I don't know the fuck what, and I was so confused, and so upset about coming here late, about what could have happened. I was nervous about you guys, and…I was just angry about everything."

"Wait a second, James," said Sirius. "Do you like her or not. Because if you do…I lay off, you know. I'll stop trying to get her to go out with me. I'll forget the stupid bet. But only if you really like her, man. If you're going to ask her out on a date, if you're really going to make an effort…if this isn't a goddamn flavor of the week. If that's what's going on here, I'll call off the bet. But only if. Because I don't want you to just try to get out of this bet by some vague means, or whatever you're playing at. Tell me."

James thought very hard. He liked Lily so much it hurt, but…she clearly didn't return his feelings—they had almost been kissing on the Quiddich pitch and she had pushed him away because she only wanted them to be friends. She had told him that there was someone else. And if that someone else was Remus, or even Sirius…then his own obstinance could keep the people he cared about from being happy. He wanted Lily to be happy, but he wished she could be happy with him.

James turned to Sirius. "I like her," he said simply. "But she doesn't like me. She…made that pretty clear to me. And so. No, I can't tell you truly that I'll be able to make it work. In fact, I'm pretty sure I can't. But I wish we could still call off this stupid bet, Padfoot. I feel really uneasy about gambling with Lily's feelings."

"So you're calling off the bet because you care about Lily, not because you know you're going to lose?" Sirius asked incredulously.

James nodded vehemently. "Yeah, certainly."

"So you're not just chickening out because of what you'd have to do if I got Lily to go out on a date with me?"

"Of course not!" said James. "I don't care about that. I just…don't feel right about the bet."

Sirius nodded gleefully. "Great! The bet is done, then…but since you're the one who called it off, you still have to do the punishment as though you'd lost."

James paled. "Now, Sirius, don't you think that's a little…"

"Prongs, you said you don't care about the punishment. If you were telling the truth just now, you'll go along with my plan."

"Fine," James said shortly. "Now lets get you guys to the Infirmary—you look awful!"

Sirius looked somber again and Remus just nodded—he hadn't spoken for a while because his ribs hurt too much for him to talk. He was hurt far more seriously than he let on, but he didn't want his friends feeling guilty because of his affliction. They did so much for him, as it was.

"You okay, Sirius?" asked James.

"Well, what are we going to tell Madame Pomfrey. I mean, she knows about Remus, but what excuse do I have for being in such a state."

James thought hard for a minute. "Tell her you were flying late at night and you fell off your broom. You'll get a detention for being out after curfew and you'll seem damn clumsy, but it's better than being sent to Azkaban for being an Animagus. Hell, I'll come with you. I'll say I was out playing Quiddich with you. We can polish trophies together, eh?"

Sirius grinned. "That's my boy," he said. "Always willing to keep me company in detention." He started to stand up. "But fuck! I am still mad at you for forgetting, Prongs. This hurts like hell."

James levitated Sirius and Peter levitated Remus; the four of them made their way back to the castle without noticing an unconscious Lily lying cold by the Quiddich pitch.

Coming up: James will find Lily, and later he'll need to carry out his "punishment," heh-heh.

A/N: Sorry for the delay. School, life. Please leave a review, even if it's just a few words (but more words is better!), because it'll make me move my ass to get started on the next chapter. Veddy eventful things coming up. I love reviews, please take a second to tell me what you think, or what you think should happen in the future.

And incidentally, if you're curious about what kinds of things I'm interested in out of fanfiction, you can look at my blog at http:thecavebelow .blogspot .com (minus the spaces, of course…stupid won't print urls. Bye my lovely readers and reviews. Happy Thanksgiving.)