A/N: Well, that only took forever…I have no idea when the next chapter will be out, so if you truly like the story, savor this morsel…
Disclaimer: yeah, I've got nothing…
Soft moonlight filtered down through the cloudless sky, casting silvery shadows over the grass covered slopes of the Hogwarts grounds. The stars shone out in all their glory; the lake reflected the wonder of the heavens above. It was, to say the least, a glorious sight.
However, beautiful though the night was, the scene unfolding below was decidedly undeserved of its surroundings. Down on the sprawling grounds, a hundred feet or more below the castle window, a werewolf was wrestling with a large, black dog in a not entirely friendly way, headed towards the Whomping Willow. Jackie had looked just in time to also see a boy looking suspiciously like James Potter push someone who she couldn't make out back towards the castle entrance.
Her heart flew to her throat; she couldn't breath. A torrent of thoughts flew through her mind, all jumbled together without order or constraint.
"NO!"
The other two girls on the bed looked over to her, and on seeing her distressed face, quickly got up and stood behind her at the window. They were in time to see the willow freeze while the dog and werewolf, still tumbling together in what was becoming a bloody brawl, entered.
"Is that a…?" Gwynne started but found she could not finish the question.
"Werewolf," Lily said shortly but lowering her voice to a whisper, "Jackie, how did he get out?"
"He? Who is he?" the very confused brunette asked.
"Lils, I just saw somebody who looked a lot like James pushing someone into the castle, away from the werewolf, and then that dog…" Jackie said paying little mind to Gwynne's questions as her own mind was in a muddle of dazed questions.
"James? Was he alright? Was Sirius or Peter with him?" Lily asked Jackie who had now turned to look at the other two.
"No…well, I don't know," Jackie replied, "He was with someone, but I couldn't see who it was."
"You guys! Who was the werewolf and why would James, Sirius, or Peter be out there where it is? What is going on?" Gwynne bombarded them in a harsh whisper, she knowing even less than the other two girls of the occurrences of the full moon. Jackie and Lily shared a look; finally Lily decided to answer.
"Remus."
"What?"
"Remus is the werewolf," she said very quietly. Their dorm mates were hopefully all asleep, but one could never be too careful with Remus's condition.
"Wha…uh…oh…" Gwynne seemed too shock to fully comprehend, and she merely sat back down on her bed.
"We didn't want to tell you before because it was his secret to tell. You fully had a right to know, though, being one of his close friends and his best friend's girlfriend," Jackie added. All Gwynne could do was nod.
"Oh Gwynne, I know this is a lot to take in one night," Lily said sitting beside the flabbergasted girl, "It took Jackie and I a few weeks to get used to it. What you must remember, is that Remus is still Remus no matter what he turns into once a month."
"Yeah," Jackie added with a shrug of her shoulders, "It's no different than us, really; only he turns into what we act like." A small smile escaped Gwynne's lips at that.
"It's alright. I'll just need some time to adjust," she assured the other two though she was not sure she had even convinced herself, "But you two don't know why James was out there? Or what that dog was doing with Remus?"
"We have no idea," Jackie concurred, "Actually, I don't even know if that was really James out there. He was practically in the shadows, plus a hundred feet down."
"Well, that's an easy mystery to solve," Lily said, "I'll just go look in the boys' dorm and see who's in there. I'll be right back." And with that she quickly left the room.
"I can't believe this," Gwynne stated still in a state that could only be described as shock.
"It is a little overwhelming at first," Jackie agreed.
"I don't understand why Sirius didn't tell me…why Remus didn't tell me," she asked aloud with the slightest tremor of hurt in her voice.
"Don't get too upset about it Gwynne; I'm sure the boys just hadn't gotten around to discussing it. In fact, they probably have forgotten that you don't know about Remus's situation they're so used to all of us knowing," Jackie reassured the brunette.
"Yes, I suppose."
They sat in silence until Lily returned.
"Not one of those idiots is in there," she announced on her return.
"All of them are gone?" Jackie asked incredulously.
"Now I really want to know what is going on," Gwynne added.
"Yes, and the only way we'll ever be able to find that out is by asking the guys; now we can either go to sleep and wait until breakfast…" Lily began.
"No way, I have to know what is going on right now," Jackie said resolute.
"Or, we can go down to the common room and wait for them to come back…no matter if we have to stay up the whole night," she finished, "I vote we go to the common room."
"Me too," Jackie stated. They both looked at Gwynne.
"Uh, sure, right…to the common room."
On entering the Gryffindor common room, James expected to see a dying fire surrounded by the empty, plush chairs that made up the room's décor. What he and his two none-werewolf friends found, however, was three sleeping girls piled onto the couch closest to the fire, wrapped up in one of the comforters from their dorm.
He approached the red-head; partly because she was closest to him, and partly because she was probably the least likely to injure him in the process of being awoken at three in the morning. When he reached her, he gently shook her shoulder. Almost immediately her eyes fluttered open, and a moment later she was able to focus on who was in front of her.
"James!"
"Shh…" he said indicating the other two girls.
"You three have some explaining to do," she said eyeing him and Sirius and Peter who had just come around and planted themselves on the two chairs across from the sofa. Then she turned to Jackie who was asleep practically on top of her.
"Jackie…Jackie…" Lily rolled her eyes and then repeated in an even harsher whisper, "JACKIE!"
"What? What? What?" Jackie popped up looking around. Then spotting the boys, although still not fully awake, "Oh, Gwynne, Gwynne, they're back."
It took about half a minute for Gwynne to be focused completely on what was going on around her.
"Why are you three asleep on a couch in the common room?" James asked. He looked solemn; more so than Gwynne and Jackie had ever seen him, and Lily had only seen him so once or twice. Then they saw Sirius; he looked neither happy nor sad, nor anything really. His face was wholly void of any sort of emotion. He did not look much like Sirius at all.
"Don't change the subject," Lily accused, "What has been going on?"
"What do you mean? Nothing's been going on," Peter tried to cover. Their situation, however, was too suspicious to be lied out of.
"Don't even try any bullshit," Jackie took up the harangue, "All we were trying to do was have a simple girls' night. Just trying to admire the full moon and the stars, and what do we see out the window?"
"A werewolf, a dog, and James Potter," Gwynne finished.
"Now," Lily said slowly and firmly, "Explain yourselves."
At any other time and in any other situation, that tone of voice from Lily Evans would have meant murder if one disobeyed; but this was not another time or situation.
"Lily," James pleaded, and that was when she saw the overwhelming exhaustion in his eyes, "We will tell you girls all about this, but it will have to wait until morning."
What was a girl in love to do when he ordered her around like that?
"Fine," she said still commandingly, but slightly softened, "Meet us down here when you wake up. Gwynne, is it all right if we use 'The Room'?"
A nod from Gwynne was all the boys needed, though they had no idea what 'The Room' meant, to head on up to their dorm.
"I suppose we'll just have to wait a few more hours," Gwynne said complacently.
Jackie sighed, "So much for a relaxing weekend."
Morning couldn't come fast enough for Lily, Gwynne, and Jackie. At eight the three were all assembled on the same couch they had been on the night before, anticipating the arrival of their male counterparts. The boys, though, seemed to be taking their sweet time waking up. It was close to nine thirty before the girls heard them making their way down the steps that led up to the boys' dormitories. By the time they reached the last step the girls were already up, making their way towards them through the practically empty common room as most people had already gone to breakfast by that time.
Lily took a good look at the boys' faces before her; it was immediately evident that they had gotten little sleep, and if she wasn't mistaken, none of them was looking forward to the soiree they were about to go to.
"Follow us, then," she said and the six left the common room together. When they were out in the hallway the girls directly took a right, heading in the direction of their Room.
"Sirius," Gwynne spoke up, she had been walking beside them since they met up in the common room, "What happened to your arm?"
Lily looked back and was rather surprised to notice a deep gash on his right forearm. She met Jackie's eyes and saw she had not noticed either. James and Peter, on the other hand, didn't even glance at their friend after Gwynne's comment.
"I'll explain when we get there," Sirius stated tiredly in a most un-Sirius-like way.
It only took a few more minutes to get to the painting that concealed the girls' secret getaway, but it felt like hours had passed before they reached it. Jackie whispered the password to the painting; just because they were bringing the boys here now did not mean they were welcome all the time.
Once inside Lily instantly took a seat on the big armchair that was catty-corner to the fluffy couch on which Gwynne and Jackie sat. They left the boys a place to stand in front of them.
"So, now that we're finally here," Lily began, "Explain."
Sirius and Peter looked at James who sighed and then began their story.
"Alright. I assume you two informed Gwynne on Remus's condition?"
After receiving a nod, he continued.
"When Remus first told us in second year that he was a werewolf, we were pretty shocked, but after the initial shock wore off we realized we had to find a way to help him. He was and is one of our best friends. Of course, what could we really do? A werewolf bite is irreversible," he paused for a moment; "Sirius and I searched the library for weeks, and found nothing. But then, one day when we were paying attention in McGonagall's class for a change, we heard the perfect solution to our problem. It might not cure Remus's lycanthropy, but it would certainly make the full moon a better experience each month."
While James spoke, Lily wracked her brain for what he could have possible heard in Transfiguration that would help Remus during the full moon; Potions she might understand, even Charms, but Transfiguration? Unless…
"Werewolves' bites only affect humans; if we joined Remus as animals, he couldn't cause us any harm…"
"Wait a minute," Jackie interrupted, "You aren't saying what I think you're saying, are you?"
James let out yet another sigh, "We're animagi."
Lily blinked slowly. This was truly unbelievable. She was so stunned she could hardly breathe, let alone speak, but that was quickly turning into another, much less tongue-tying feeling.
"Do you mean that you three have been sneaking out on the grounds, transfiguring yourselves into animals, and then running around with Remus in his werewolf state?" she asked just to clarify.
"Yes."
"And when, exactly, were going to feel it necessary to tell us about these little escapades?" if she wasn't careful, her anger was going to get the better of her, "Or did you think we did not need to know? Are we not important enough to be let in on your little secrets? And do you even realize how dangerous and illegal all this is?"
She would have kept going only James broke in.
"Lily! Calm down. We were going to tell you three, I swear," he added at the skeptical look in her eyes, "We just didn't want you to worry or try to talk us out of it. This year is the first year we've even been able to do it."
"But this doesn't explain what happened last night," Jackie started, "I only saw one other animal out there besides Remus; and what were you doing James? You definitely weren't transfigured."
At this statement James's entire face darkened. Lily, let alone the other two girls, had never seen him look so angry.
"Sirius," he said the name as an accusation, "can explain last night to you."
The girls turned expectantly towards him. He pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a breath.
"A few weeks ago, we had an encounter with Snape in the hallway. Earlier that day, James had given me a slip of paper reminding me when the next full moon was. Snape was being himself saying something about you, Lily, and basically trying to get us riled up. I thought he deserved a punishment of some sort, so I purposely dropped the note so he would find it."
"Was that you, then?" Gwynne asked, "You were the dog, and that's where the gash on your arm came from?"
He nodded.
"That's why James wasn't in his animagus form; he was trying to get Snape away," he explained.
"But Snape didn't see anything…did he?" Lily asked.
James decided to answer.
"He didn't see me change back into a human; but he did see Remus, and he's not stupid, he put two and two together," James continued, "When we got back inside the castle I tried to tell him he was seeing things, but he had gotten a good enough look to know that it was a werewolf out there. I spent awhile trying to keep him there; I knew if he went back to Slytherin he would tell every soul he knew about it. After about thirty minutes, I was running out of ways to detain him when Dumbledore appeared."
"Does Dumbledore know then, about your being animagi?" Jackie asked.
"He took them back up to his office," Peter cut in, "Sirius and I were able to get Remus back in the Shrieking Shack and get ourselves back into the castle after they had already gone. We saw them on the map; so we decided to wait until James was able to get out of the office before heading back up to the dormitory."
"Snape told Dumbledore about the note and about seeing Remus," James finished up the story, "I said Sirius told me when we were going to sleep about how he had let Snape get the note, and then I said I had hurried down as fast as I could to stop Snape from getting into the Willow. When Dumbledore finally let me go, I met Peter and Sirius and we went back up to the dorms. I imagine Dumbledore's going to be calling for you today, Sirius."
Sirius nodded his agreement. The girls didn't know quite what to say.
Lily could hardly believe Sirius could do such a thing, even if it was Snape, but then, Sirius did a lot of things without thinking of the consequences. Most likely, dropping the note had been a spur of the moment decision; no doubt he had not stopped to consider that by doing so he was endangering Snape's life. That's not say of course, that he was blameless either. It was certain he deserved a just punishment. Sometimes, Sirius just needed to know when to grow up.
"We'd better go down to breakfast, that's probably when Sirius'll get summoned," Peter commented. The others agreed.
"Wait James," Lily said as they all stood and headed toward the entrance, "I want to talk to you."
The other four filed out while Lily and James staid behind. Once they had gone, she turned to face him.
"How could you?"
"How could I what, exactly?" he asked.
"How could you keep all of this from me? This isn't some stupid prank or joke, James; you could have died this year! What if you had? What if you do?" vocalizing her fear made everything seem even more real than it already was. Suddenly she found tears pricking at her eyes. "Oh God, any of you could have, and we wouldn't have known…"
She sank back down on the couch, definite tears spilling out of her eyes now. James moved so quickly, she hadn't realized he was beside her before he was pulling her into a hug.
"I'm sorry, Lils. We promised each other we wouldn't tell you or Jackie, and then Gwynne, until we were able to transfigure without fault. We didn't want you to worry, and obviously we were right that you would, but it would probably have been better if we had told you to begin with." He released her from the friendly, yes friendly, hug as her tears stopped. She was suddenly struck by how warm he was.
"You're damn right."
"Lily, I can't undo what's already been done," he said half exasperated and then added, "If I could, I'd go back and erase all of this." They sat in silence for a moment.
"How did you keep it from me anyways?" she queried. He laughed a little.
"It wasn't easy, I'll assure you."
"You know what we used to say," she said, "'Secrets, secrets are no fun; secrets, secrets hurt everyone.'"
"Did we used to say that?"
"I don't really know," she admitted, "But it's true; and if I ever find out that you've kept any more secrets from me I can assure you that you will be suffering from some serious consequences."
"No more secrets then."
"Yeah, no more secrets…"
A/n: Yes, Lily is being a tad hypocritical there…anyways, I do know what will be happening in the next chapter, so I'll give you a hint: Sirius and Gwynne, and unfortunately, it might not be pretty…I haven't really decided yet.
Anyways, review! I always enjoy those! And I will do my very best to get the next chapter out as soon as I can find the muse that urges my flanges…so until then, adieu