James couldn't help but notice that Lily was a bit withdrawn over the next days. He watched her eat dinner a couple of nights later, bent forward while Alli whispered in her ear.
"So, as I was saying," Sirius said, waving a chicken leg in Peter's face as a gesturing tool, "For tonight, after we leave the Shack, we can.. Uh, James? Hello?" James was frowning at Lily.
"Hmm?"
Sirius winked at Remus. "Hey, Prongs, Santa Claus called.. He wants you to help pull the sleigh this year." Remus shoved a napkin in his mouth.
"That's lovely," James said, now staring at his soup. Sirius gaped at him. Since when was James the brooding type?
"Wait, he did?" Peter asked, scratching his head.
Sirius shook his head. "I'm in hell."
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Lily was late leaving Potions as she had to finish her essay. She was bent over her desk, her silky hair flowing into her face, when she felt a gentle hand sweep her hair out of the way and soft lips barely touch her neck. Smiling, she turned around.
"James, what are you doing?" She kept thinking about the adult James and the way he had kissed her, so seeing him here, in his school clothes, had given her a small jolt back to reality.
He gave her that goofy smile. "Kissing you?" He sat down in the seat next to her and looked around the bright classroom. "I'm gonna miss it here."
She looked up as she finished her paper with a flourish. "What?"
"When we graduate. I'm gonna miss it." He was being uncharacteristically serious, and she smiled unsurely.
"Let's not think about it. Hey, do you want to do something tonight? I think I've been around you too long," she said, rubbing her head. "I'm ready to sneak out."
"I can't tonight, love... It's Marauder's Night Out." He looked out the window, a huge grin on his face.
"Maybe I'll just have to get myself into some trouble."
James dramatically joked falling off of his chair. "What?" he asked as he picked himself up. "My little Lily Evans with her notes and her rules, looking for trouble?"
"Mmm," She said as she rolled up her essay. "See, there's this boy. He's captain of the Quidditch team, he's cute (and he knows it), and he's just turning out to be the most horrible influence on me..." He kissed her quickly, a hard capture of lips before she was laughing.
"How's that for an influence?"
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"Oh, stop groaning," a tall man with grey-speckled black hair at the front of the room muttered. "It's just review."
The man was Professor Rosen, the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, and he was tired. Weary would be a better word to describe the good-hearted man. A retired auror, he had been spending all of his extra time looking into the rising rate of murders; Sad, indeed, it was that every day there was a new murder, a new death, a new suspicious crime.
Today seemed as good as any to give the students free reign over their review for their N.E.W.T.S.
"Ok, just get partnered up and work on a defensive spell. I don't care which one you choose, just don't kill each other, please." A few appreciative chuckles rose up, but the class was so used to his jokes that the majority just rolled their eyes and got into partners.
Rosen sat down in his faded red chair and picked up a letter from Dumbledore. Apparently the more recent murders had been linked together by a symbol left over the place they were committed - A skull with a rancid snake protruding from it's mouth.
He peered over the class. 'It's a shame,' he thought. 'Here they are, in their seventh year, ready to begin their lives, and they have to go out into a world like this.' His gaze wandered to Lily Evans and Alli Landry. 'Clever girls,' he thought. 'Especially Evans. Pure desire to succeed, and talent. Interesting.' He then bent over a clean piece of parchment and quickly wrote a note to Dumbledore- "I have a few inquiries about the Evans girl. Is tonight convenient for a meeting?" Whistling for his grumpy old owl, he sent the note off as laughter erupted from the class.
Lily and Alli had both produced a patronus and they were laughing as they silvery shapes fought playfully with each other. This caught Rosen's attention for two reasons:
1.- He had never seen a patronus interact with anything but a dementor, and
2.- They had the oddest, most distinct shapes he had ever seen.
Lily's was a brilliant stag, while Alli's was a huge dog. The only members of the class who weren't cheering or laughing were the Marauders, who were huddled in a corner whispering furiously.
Rosen frowned; Usually, the boys would be fooling around while Lily and Alli were serious. Well, while Lily was serious and Alli was bored.
"Miss Evans, Miss Landry, please. Can I have a word?"The girls walked over with grave expressions on their faces as if they expected to be chastised or punished for their out-
of-character fun. Rosen chuckled.
"No need to look so scared, girls. I actually find your festivities amusing. I only wanted to ask, have your patronuses always taken those shapes?"
Lily nodded while Alli shook her head.
"No," Alli said. "Mine used to be a tiger, but it's changed since...." she trailed off and sent Lily a significant look.
"Thanks," Rosen said, dismissing them with a nod. Turning, he began writing furiously in a faded leather-bound notebook. "Class dismissed early. Go find something to do."
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"That was odd," Lily said as she pulled her cloak around her tighter. The girls had decided to take a quick walk in their free time before Charms. "I mean, Rosen has always been pretty weird with his dismissive manner, big words and jokes, but.. I don't know, the way he was looking at me kind of scared me."
"Yeah, amazingly weird," Alli said as she toyed with her ring. "But, anyway, what are you up to tonight?" Lily shrugged. "Didn't James show you how to sneak into Hogsmeade? I want to meet this Val, she sounds so... cool!"
Lily frowned. Sometimes Alli could just be impossible.
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That night, as a full moon cast a silver spotlight over the school, anyone looking outside might see a small menagerie of animals making their way jauntily across the grounds.
"What do you say we go into town and get some food?" The question seemed to come out a large black dog, but his mouth hadn't moved.
The next sound came directly from a small rat- "Yeah, James, come on."
A brilliant stag glanced back at a large wolf and nodded.
It may have appeared to be a wolf to the untrained eye, but if one looked closer they would have noticed a longer snout and a bushier tail. It was slightly larger than a wolf, and it was calm only for the moment. It was unmistakably a werewolf, calmed only by the presence of other animals to keep him company. "Him" would refer to none other than Remus Lupin.
That was his secret. Caring, compassionate, polite Remus Lupin turned into a monster once a month and had to be shut and locked away from the world with nobody but himself, whom he loathed, for companionship.
Of course, there was no way James Potter and Sirius Black would let their best friend suffer by himself every month. Upon learning his secret, they did something for him that would keep him faithful to them for years to come: They each became an Animagus, meaning they could each change into a different animal. When in company of the other animals, Remus kept his head and ended up having the best nights of his life rather than ones that would ordinarily be full of unbearable pain. Peter was hesitant, but it wasn't hard to convince him after a while; Peter did whatever his friends did.
James was a stag; Sirius was a large black dog; Peter was a rat.
"So, I'll run into Honeydukes and get some candy?" James asked, looking around empty Hogsmeade as they came out of an old, abandoned house.
"Yeah, but no vampire candy.. The blood gets Moony all excited and it's hard to get him back to normal," Sirius said with a flick of his long black tail. The tail flick was easily comparable to the quick grin that would take over Sirius's face had he been in human form.
"Right," James said, bounding off.
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"Darlings, I can't begin to describe how much fun I had tonight." Val's hair was red now, though nowhere near the natural red of Lily's; It was boarder-line purple, and tossed up in a high ponytail. She wore purple jeans and a black tank top, complimented by purple docs. "I was thinking to myself, 'Val, you are going to be bored to tears this week.' Be careful walking back to the school, girls."
They had spent the night in Val's shop, trying on dress robes and outrageous hairstyles. Alli was simply captivated by Val.
"She's so .. Cool!" Alli was grinning in a way that made Lily's cheeks ache.
"So you keep saying," Lily said, glancing at her watch. It was getting awfully late.. Ok, so she had broken the rules and snuck out, but she was still sensible Lily, and her senses were telling her to get into bed or she'd be a wreck the next day.
"It's so peaceful here at night," Alli murmured. Their only light was the moon.
A long howl split through the air, and Lily dropped her bag. "That sounded awfully close, didn't it?"
"Yeah," Alli said,looking up and snapping out of her daze. "C'mon, let's just get back. It's freezing." Another thin layer of snow was on the ground, covering the ice of last week's snow. "Where's the passage again?"
"James showed me a couple, actually. One was through the Shrieking Shack; Feeling brave?"
"No."
Lily laughed. "Ok, then, to get back through that mirror, we have to find the alley. It's just past Honeydukes."
The girls walked in a shivering silence and it seemed ages before they got to the alley. Lily was about to climb through the small opening in the ground when she heard a growl and looked up.
She was face to face with a werewolf.
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"So, Albus, what do you think?" Rosen had just proposed his brilliant idea to the headmaster.
A few members of the Order of the Phoenix were gathered in a small cave, back in the mountains behind Hogsmeade.
"I think it's genius," a tall man with dark red hair said boldly. "But I think you should ask the Potter boy too, Professor."
"Gideon, please call me Albus," Dumbledore said with a smile.
"I don't think I could, Professor." Gideon Prewett smiled apologetically.
"Well," Dumbledore looked around the cave, lit by fire from his own Phoenix, Fawkes's flame. "I'll speak to Lily and James, but as Cistibal said earlier, they might not want to. It's a great deal of responsibility."
Somebody in the back cleared their throat.
Dumbledore smiled serenely. "Yes, Alastor?"
Alastor Moody stepped into the light. "Well, Albus," He spoke as if he and Dumbledore were the only people in the crowded space. In his opinion, they should have been. "All signs point to one of those two being or having something to do with the heir. They're strong kids, barely kids at all. And if you ask me, they're up to it. It's probably what Potter had in mind already, coming from his background. And Evans, as you told me, has a strong desire to do good. Let's give them a chance."
Cistibal, a short and thin man with white-blond hair, stepped forward. "I don't think we should let these.. Kids," He said 'kids' like it was a disgusting word, "have such a responsibility. It's unwise."
Fabian Prewett stepped forward. "It's the only way."
Dumbledore nodded. "I'll speak to Mr. Potter and Miss Evans tomorrow evening. I think it's only polite to give them a week to decide, don't you? The meeting is over."
He grabbed the tail of Fawkes and vanished, officially ending the meeting.
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"LILY!" yelled a frantic voice, and suddenly James was by her side, guarding her and Alli.
Dazed, she merely stared at him and pointed at the werewolf. "That's a werewolf."
Had he not been trying to save her life, James would have laughed. "Yes, Lily, I need you to do me a favor. Don't scream, ok? Just hop on my back. You too, Alli. Ok?" He stared at her for a moment, then decided what he had to do.
"James, we won't both fit on your... AHH -" Her sentence was cut off as her boyfriend turned into a magnificent stag, and her scream was cut off as Sirius, appearing out of nowhere, put his hand over her mouth.
"You'll understand," Sirius promised. "Just, please get on." He picked up Alli, who was frozen in fear, and placed her on the stag's back. Lily climbed up uncertainly, trying not to hurt James.
She'd seen the stag countless times at the place by the lakeside, and James usually came along soon after. Things began to fit in her mind as neatly as the pieces of a puzzle coming together. How could she not have realized it before? She leaned forward, her hands on the antlers, and stuck her face in the stag's coat. "I knew you were beautiful."
The werewolf, who had been glaring at the girls, pounced as soon as the stag took off. Sirius quickly became the giant dog and jumped on him, holding him back.
Lily tried to look around, to see where James was taking her. She tried to turn around to make sure Alli, who was gripping her waist, was alright. She tried to hold on to James. She tried, but everything went black.
A/N: Wow, it took me forever to write this chapter, I'm so sorry for that. Anyway, sorry if I made any spelling/grammatical mistakes, I'm posting it anyway because you've waited long enough. Yes, it ends on a cliffhanger, but im just so eager to get this chapter over with. So, Lily and Alli are figuring it all out. Next chapter shouldn't take as long, but if it does- Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanza, Happy Winter Solstice, and Happy December. If I've forgotten anything, let me be kidnaped by leprechauns and beaten with their sticks. See you in chapter 14, cause I'm sure Lily will wake up full of questions...
-Ria