Chapter 2

I woke up in the hospital wing with Potter pacing in the space near my bed and Caitlyn reading yet another book at my bedside. The minute my eyes fluttered open Potter raced over to me.

"Oh, Lily I am so sorry!"

"Potter," I said irritably. What did I say about calling me Lily? And what the heck are you doing here? Get out!"

Potter looked at me with a slightly pained expression and then turned and walked off drudgingly.

Caitlyn looked up at me then and said, "You are awake."

I glared at her. "Well obviously! It doesn't take an idiot to realize that." I snapped. I instantly regretted that when I saw her expression. "Oh Cait, I am so sorry!" She just looked at me steadily. I quickly changed the subject. "What happened last night?"

She broke her gaze her eyes looking down at the cover of her book. "Well from what James told me you followed him, Remus, Sirius and Peter outside."

"Yeah, yeah," I cut in. "I know that." Caitlyn always calls Potter by his first name. She says that everyone has their own individual name and that we should use them. Whatever I hate it when she gets all philosophical.

"Okay! So when you screamed Remus went to attack you. Oh why did you have to scream you could have just run away and then Remus wouldn't have to be so guilty that he almost hurt you?"

"Well he almost did!" I couldn't believe that she would defend him and not me.

"He wasn't in his right mind," she wailed.

"Well then maybe he should leave Hogwarts go to an insane asylum. St. Mungo's in the least." After I said this I knew I had gone too far.

"If you want me to tell you the story I will but I won't have you insulting Remus because of something that he can't control," she said coolly. I had seen Caitlyn angry before but I had never been the one to instill it. And frankly I was scared.

"Cait, please tell me what happened. I am so sorry I went way too far. I'm just so confused."

"Okay." she said and continued on.

Even though her tone had lost its edge I could still tell she was angry. I had been her friend long enough to know that most of the anger was confusion. Whom should she be defending: Me, her best friend or Remus, her boyfriend? We both meant so much to her. I could picture her yelling at Remus about what might have happened to me in spite of all the time she spent defending him. I found out later that I wasn't that far off on that.

"So a few seconds after you screamed you fainted, James who was the closest to you caught you before you fell to the ground. He then carried you all the way here while Sirius and Peter distracted Remus in their animagus forms."

"Wait they are animagi?" I seriously thought I was hallucinating. I mean I knew they weren't registered and I didn't think they would be that stupid as to take that risk but I guess I really underestimated them.

"What? Oh yeah they became animagi in like fifth year or something so that they could help Remus with his transformation, something about animals or something." I could tell she was distracted for some reason. I any other circumstance she would be spurting out facts. I knew she wanted to be done with this conversation but I couldn't help but be curious.

"So you knew all about this and you didn't tell me?" I asked accusingly.

She looked at me exasperated. "Lils, you have to understand. When Remus and I started dating he told me about the werewolf thing so that he could be completely honest with me. I couldn't tell you because it wasn't my secret to tell. But I really didn't know about the animagus thing until James told me. You really should thank James and apologize for your rudeness earlier. I mean he did save your life. And you should also talk to Remus about what happened. And you could even thank Sirius and Peter too."

"Maybe," I shrugged. "I'll think about it."

"Lily," she said warily.

"Oh fine why don't you go get him and then you can go and do whatever you want to do? You seem a little distant."

She looked at me gratefully and all but skipped off saying about how she was going to leave anyways so as to leave James and I alone. I was hoping she didn't want to get away from me, just the hospital. I knew she hated the hospital but lately I had been getting very irritable and hard to hang around with. Oh and as for the "alone thing. I have no idea what James and I could have possibly talked about or done that would involve us being alone.

A moment later Potter walked over to my bed. "Look Potter, I am sorry for yelling at you and thank you for saving my life." Under my breath I mumbled, "Though it wasn't just you."

"Oh, well, its no problem." He looked away. "Hey Evans will you go with me to Hogmeade this weekend?"

I looked over at him, running my choices through my head. He had been asking me out for ages maybe if I said yes it would put a stop to all his nonsense. Every time I had said no because he was such a huge jerk and I had to think he was using me. But you know something about this time was different. He seemed as if he truly wanted me to go out with him. Maybe he always did. Also I remembered that I would be going to Hogsmeade alone anyways because Caitlyn would be with Remus. And he did save my life. It's the least I could do. "Okay, fine, but this time only!"

He turned to me his eyes regaining their sparkle I didn't realize they had lost. "Really?" He sounded like a 5 year old at Christmastime.

"Yeah." I said trying to hide the reluctance in my voice.

"Okay well I'll see you later." He ran out to wherever he was going.

I was left alone again, but not for long. About a split second later Madam Pomphrey bustled in muttering about adolescents and running. She told me that there was no use for me staying because I had only fainted and she thought I had gotten over the shock by now. I didn't have to be told twice and was out of there like a shot.