The next day, a spring ball was scheduled for everyone third year and above. Neither Lily, nor the Marauders attended. (A/N: The Marauders didn't attend for certain lunar reasons, and I'm not going to tell you why Lily didn't attend, so keep reading)
Before the dance, Lily crept out of her dorm, hoping the other girls would be too obsessed with primping to notice her slinking off. Unfortunately, Lily was semi-accident prone when she was trying to be inconspicuous. Tripping over one of Missy's discarded shoes, Lily fell through the open dormitory door and all the way down the stairs, landing on top of James.
James, rather startled at being 'attacked', instinctively rolled over on top of his assailant. He was rather surprised to be looking down into Lily's shocked face. God, this is a sight I could get used to. Shit! What am I talking about? This is EVANS! Her red hair pooled across the floor, and her face was flushed from her fall, and there was a deep bruise spreading over one cheek.
Lily, rather dazed from her tumble down the stairs, was confused when all of a sudden the person who had broken her fall was pinning her down. James's face was inches from hers, ebony hair spilling into his hazel eyes. For a moment, he looked surprised. In that moment, she saw in his eyes not malice, or anger, as she normally did, but something that confused her because she couldn't place it. But it was quickly masked.
Lily didn't bother suppressing a wince. Her fall had given her quite a few bruises, and James's Quidditch-playing body was heavy.
"Get off!" she yelled. Unfortunately, James's body was pressing all the air from her lungs, so the command came out as a whisper.
He obediently rolled off her, allowing her to breathe. "Watch where you're going!"
"Yeah, because I could totally help that!" she said sarcastically.
James rolled his eyes, but Lily ignored him. She had a lot to do tonight, and if she didn't do it tonight, she would lose her nerve. Lily sat down on a couch, staring into the fire, and James, with one last look at her, went back up to the room he shared with the Marauders.
When everyone had left for supper (though she hadn't seen the Marauders), Lily snuck outside. She had been waiting for this opportunity for a long while. She walked to the edge of the forbidden forest, and in the night, felt eyes watching her. Lily rubbed her arms to rid herself of goose bumps. What was the worst that could happen? Well, you could meet up with a certain werewolf you know and get bitten… Stop it, Lily scolded herself, werewolves only bite humans. Because that was the thing Lily Evans was an Animagus.
Glancing around to make sure she was alone, Lily transformed into a doe. Feeling alive, she bounded into the Forest, worries of werewolves forgotten. She leapt over bushes, frolicking in the wind. Here, Lily was free of cares. She stopped, suddenly alert. She heard something coming through nearby bushes. If it were a wild dog, she'd have to flee, because it would chase her as a deer or a human.
What did come through the bushes caused her to nearly lose control of her transformation. A werewolf. But she remembered that she wasn't a human, and held her ground. That werewolf looked rather familiar. Sure enough, following it came a large black dog and a big chocolate colored stag. Lily knew Peter must be around somewhere.
The party wandered through the clearing. Lily ducked her head, hoping they wouldn't see her. But even as a dog Sirius couldn't resist pranking on something, and felt inclined to chase her, barking madly. Lily's flight instincts took over, and she ran for it, Sirius and the rest of the gang hard on her heels. Luckily, she remembered soon enough that she was human, and turned to face him with her most Lily-like glare.
James saw the black doe before Sirius did, but thought there was something strange about it. When Sirius took off after her, James followed easily, hoping his friend would keep it in mind not to harm the creature. The doe was graceful in a familiar way, and James's gaze sharpened when she turned to face-off Sirius. That definitely wasn't normal deer behavior, and it quite obviously startled Sirius.
Suddenly, James had an epiphany and realized that the animal they were facing was human. The doe looked worriedly from a cowering Sirius to a high-headed James. Sirius suddenly realized they'd left Remus alone with a rat to keep him in line, and James followed.
Lily knew that they knew what she was, if not who she was. She sighed and continued her adventure, but with less heart than before.
A/N: This was a really hard chapter for me to write because I wrote it just after seeing The Ring 2 (which was AWESOME), so I am now mortally afraid of deer… R&R or I'll send my evil purple elephant after you!