Chapter 14- Midnight Adventures

A few hours later everyone was already sick of waiting for news. James was pacing up and down, Jake was refusing to speak to anyone because he thought that Alex being unconscious was his fault, and the girls and the othe Marauders were already sick of playing Exploding Snap. Finally, Catherine Potter appeared all in black, and said:

"Alex, bless her, is alright. Will, Audrey and Alex are coming here, and tomorrow is going to be the funeral. Now I have to go, see you later."

Just then the three, now orphan, Owens appeared, with their eyes bloodshot and looking very dishelved. Jake rushed to Alex and hugged her. He then led her to an empty couch and layed her down, with her head on his lap. Lily hugged Will, and Carrie sat next to Audrey. They remained silent, except for the Owens' sobs. Jake was whispering things to Alex, but she was grieving almost beyond help. They all slept right there at the Potter's living room, and were woken up by Jeeny, James's own house-elf.

"Master James, should I serve breakfast?"

"Yes, Jeeny, and see if you can find some of Mum old clothes for the girls to put on."

"Thanks, James," Carrie said.

The next few weeks were horrible to the girls. After the funeral they all went back to their houses, and Alex would rarely answer their letters. All they knew was that she and her brothers were living with her Aunt Charly and her grandmother. They even received a brief letter from Jake, asking them if they knew how Alex was, since she didn't answer his letters. So that when Lily received a letter one morning while she practiced playing her guitar (she had once learned how to play it, but had given up and decided to learn again) she got all excited and thought it was Alex. When she saw the Hogwarts crest on the letter, her heart fell for the first time in her life. She opened one of the letters, finding it strange that she had received two, and a small little badge with a P on it fell from it.

"Oh, I had completely forgotten about prefects. Mum! Dad! I'm a prefect!" Lily shrieked and ran to her parent's room.

"That's great, Lily. Congratulations," Nathan Evans said, hugging his daughter.

"Oh, my little Lily becoming a prefect," Marisa said, kissing her daughter on the forehead.

"Thanks, Dad, Mum."

Lily went back to her room and wrote a letter to all of her friends telling them that she was a prefect.

Finally, a few weeks later, September 1st arrived. Lily was at Platform 9¾ promptly at 10:20. She hurried to the prefect carriage and waited for the other prefects. Remus appeared shortly after, and smiled weakly at her. Then Jake and Eileen Bradley appeared, and Jake nodded at them. Then Thomas Abbot and Delilah Dawson appeared, and lastly Tristan Avery and Bellatrix Black appeared. Bellatrix glared at Lily, who glared back at her. Just then the Head Boy, Lucius Malfoy, and the Head Girl, Bailey Vaughn, appeared. Lucius glared at the Gryffindor prefects, who ignored him and turned to Bailey.

When the prefects meeting was over, Lily waved to Remus and went off to find the girls compartment. A few minutes later she found them, and got in the compartment.

"Hey, let's play Truth or Dare," Carrie suggested brightly.

"What that?" Alex asked. Her face was considerably pale, but she looked a lot better.

Carrie explained the process to her, and Alex smiled mischievously. The girls nodded and Lily spinned her shoe.

"Truth or dare?" Ellen asked Alex.

"Dare."

"Run to one end of the train to the other in nothing but your underwear and bra," Ellen said, smirking at Alex, who pouted but obliged. She arrived looking very distraught, but said it had been worth it.

"Truth or dare?" Alex asked Lily.

"Truth."

"Grade Potter to 10-1, 1 being horrible and explain. Physically, I mean."

"Uh...three."

"Come of it, Lily! Say the truth!"

"Okay, ten."

"Why?"

"Because his eyes are beautiful, his abs are great, he's sexy, and he has a cute butt. However, just because he's hot does not mean he's nice, or that I like him, okay?"

"Truth or dare?" Esther asked Carrie.

"Dare."

"Go next door and kiss Sirius."

"Hang on, the Marauders are next door?" Lily interrupted.

"Yep. And they can hear everything we say, right, Marauders?" Esther said.

"RIGHT! And by the way, Evans, I think you're an eleven! Also, no one had ever complimented my butt before!" James shouted.

"AHHH!"

"Okay, Lily, now let's go and watch Carrie kiss Sirius," Esther said.

Carrie stood up, held her head high, and went to the next compartment. There, Sirius was staring at the window, trying to look innocent, but failing terribly. Carrie went up to him, and kissed him on the lips, while everyone else cheered. James winked at Lily just as they were leaving the compartment.

The girls game of Truth or Dare went on until they reached Hogwarts, and Lily was the only one who hadn't kissed James as a Dare. She had, however, kissed Peter, Remus, and Sirius, making James very mad by the end of the trip.

After the Sorting, which was disappointenly small (there were only four Gryffindors in all), Dumbledore stood up to give his annual speech.

"Welcome new and old students to one more year at Hogwarts! Firstly, I'd like to remind everyone that the Whomping Willow and the Dark Forest are out of bounds. Secondly, a list of forbidden objects in the school are posted at Mr. Filch's door. Thirdly, Quidditch tryouts are scheduled for next week. And fourthly, you may eat!"

"So, Alex, how about one of our competitions?" Sirius asked, piling his food on his plate.

"No, not this year. I'm not in the mood."

"But...but it's traditional!"

"So?"

"Please?"

"No."

Sirius pouted for a while, but then his latest girlfriend appeared and he took her to some broom closet.

"Evans, sweetie pie, what did you do during vacation? Apart from thinking about my cute butt, that is," James asked innocently.

"It's none of your business, Potter."

"Please?"

"Okay. My vacation was boring. Tell me, how interesting can playing a guitar for 50,000 times get?"

"You play a guitar?" James asked, surprised.

"You know what a guitar is?" Lily asked him sarcastically.

"Of course. You still didn't answer my question."

"Yes, I do."

"Alex plays the bass," James informed.

"I play drums!" Carrie said excitedly.

"We could form a band!" The girls said in unison.

"Esther, Ellen, do you guys play anything?" Lily asked.

"No. And we can't sing," Esther said.

"Then you can be our managers!"

"First you need a name," Ellen said.

"Er...."

"Untitled?"

"No way."

"Er..."

"How about Marauder Lovers?" James suggested.

"Shut up, James."

"Uh..."

"Wicked?"

"Wicked?"

"Yeah, Wicked."

"I like it."

"Me too."

"Me too."

"So we all like it?" Lily asked.

"Yeah."

"Then we're Wicked!"

"I still prefer Marauder Lover. Then Evans could be James's Lover, Carrie could be Sirius's Lover, and Alex could be-Ouch! Evans, what was that about?"

"Just be quiet, Potter."

"Oh, oh! Did I tell you guys I'm Gryffindor's Quidditch Captain?" James said, jumping up and down.

"I'm going to tryout for Quidditch this year," Alex said.

"So am I," Carrie said.

"Honestly, you guys, what is the point of chasing balls?" Lily asked them.

"Evans, it's your turn to be quiet."

"I won't! You weren't quiet, when I told you to be, so..."

"Will the little babies stop fighting?" Alex demanded.

"Little baby, indeed!" Lily said, outraged.

"Evans is the only baby here."

WHAM! Lily slapped James once more, and instead of sitting back quietly, she stomped of to the Gryffindor tower, forgetting her duty as a prefect and leaving Remus alone to take everyone to the Gryffindor tower.

A week later, everyone was at the Quidditch pitch watching the tryouts. Lily, Remus, Ellen, Esther, and Peter were watching the tryouts while they finished their Potions essay. When Alex was trying out, she captured everyone's attention by showing them her talent at Quidditch.

At the end of the tryout out you heard shrieks of joy. Alex was going to be Gryffindor's new Chaser, and Carrie was going to be Gryffindor new Seeker. While Alex was celebrating with her fellow Gryffindors, Carrie and Sirius had a row, but everyone ignored them.

"James, I can't do it!" Alex said desperately, as soon as Peter, Sirius, and James transformed in front of her to see if she could transform. Earlier that evening, the boys had accidently transformed, and Alex, who was usually top at everything, got very unnerved at the fact that they could transform already, and she hadn't yet. She had also gotten upset when they invented their nicknames, which were now Moony- Remus, Padfoot- Sirius, Prongs- James, and Wormtail- Peter. When Alex saw Peter transforming she had practically cried, but managed to regain her composture.

"Hey, calm down, Alex. It's natural that you can't transform yet, you've had so much going on your head that it's difficult to concentrate. Just try to erase everything from your mind, and focus on the hawk," James explained.

"I can't!"

The next month was horrible to everyone. The Marauders barely had time for pranks, which made them very upset, Lily was snapping at anyone who interrupted her studying, causing more and more fights between her and James, Alex and Carrie were sleeping even more, and everything was a whole mess. That was all because of the OWLs, so that when a homework less Saturday arrived, everyone was thankful.

The girls went to bed early, but Lily woke up in the middle of the night to drink water. While she made her way towards the glass of water, she happened to look at the window. Suddenly, footsteps were seen on the mud, and Lily's suspicion was confirmed: the Marauders were up to something.

"Alex, Alex, wake up! Carrie, Esther, Ellen, wake up!"

"What, Lily?" Alex asked grumpily.

"The Marauders are up to something. We've got to stop them." Alex looked at the window, saw the full moon and it struck her, Remus is transforming and they're there.

"Lily, just leave them be," Alex said.

"No. I'm sick of their pranks. Come on, let's go there."

Alex had no choice but to go with Lily and the girls, so on her way she grabbed her wand quickly and hid it. The girls made their way to the Whomping Willow quickly, and soon they reached it.

"Okay, I saw someone doing this once." Lily grabbed a stick, and as quickly as she could she pressed the knot. The tree stopped moving, and a little tunnel opened. A howl was heard from within, and suddenly footsteps.

"LILY, CARRIE, ELLEN, ESTHER, RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!" Alex shouted and she grabbed her wand and ran to the Forest, not daring to look behind her. She got in the Dark Forest and she had barely run a few meters when she tripped and she heard growling. She looked up and saw Remus, fully transformed, merely inches from her.

"Remus, it's me, Alex. Remember? Your old friend, please don't bite me, please," Alex whispered. The werewolf only growled and got closer. Alex got her wand, and realised it had silver on it. She then remembered her grandmother telling her five years ago, "I've covered your wand's handle in silver so that you're safe from werewolves. You do know that they die by the touch of silver, don't you?" Alex realised what she had to do to save her life, but simply couldn't bring herself to do it. "Please don't make me do this, Moony," Alex whispered. Slowly, she raised her wand, holding it by the tip, and suddenly, when her handle was only an inch apart from Remus, she was soaring in the sky. She looked down, and was surprised to see that her sight was excellent. Alex looked at herself and saw...feathers? "Hang on, there's something really wrong," Alex thought. She looked down and saw a dog and a stag pushing a werewolf into a tunnel. Next to the castle was Lily, Esther, Carrie, and Ellen, huddled in a corner, Lily crying. She let out a shriek, and everyone looked at her. Alex could have sworn the stag had winked at her, but it was impossible. Alex then landed, and concentrated on her true self, and found that she was human again. Smiling, she ran over to where the girls were. Lily let out a small "oh" when she saw Alex, and she went over to her.

"I though you were dead. I thought that the werewolf had killed you. I wonder which Marauder it is. You knew all this time, didn't you, Alex?"

"Yes. I can't tell you which one is the werewolf because he might want to tell you guys personally."

"Uh huh. How did you escape?" Lily asked her.

"Er, I'm an Animagus."

"You're.....an Animagus?"

"Yep. I'm a hawk!"

"And you never told us? How dare you?" Carrie asked.

"Well, you know now. Let's go back to the castle, okay?"

The girls went to their dormitory and slept peacefully the rest of the night. The next morning, Carrie, Ellen, Esther, and Lily got up early and went to the Hospital Wing, where a grumbling Alex had said Remus would be and went to his bedside.

"Good morning, Remus," Lily said.

"Hey. Do you guys know what happened last night? Something really strange happened, but I can't remember it, and the boys are still sleeping."

"Er...well, you see, last night I saw the footsteps appearing magically on the floor, and I woke everyone up to see what was going on. So, when I got there, I opened the tunnel to the Whomping Willow and a werewolf ran out of it. We managed to get away, but Alex went to the wrong direction. She tripped, and the werewolf was on top of her," Remus paled, and nodded at Lily, "and then she transformed into a hawk, and was safe. Do you know who is...was the werewolf?" Lily asked Remus.

"Yeah. You see, there's something I need to tell you guys. I'm the werewolf. I'm sorry, Ellen." The girls gasped, and Ellen hugged him tightly. The other girls left them alone, and went back to the common room. There, they found Alex sleeping in the couch and Sirius and Peter pouring tea over her face.