Chapter 3

After I left the common room I went to Remus and we talked some about what happened and I consoled him that he didn't do anything to me and I forgive him. I also thanked Sirius for helping with the whole saving my life thing. I tried to find Peter but he was no where to be found. In fact he hasn't been around for a while now, always going on mysterious trips. Ooh, maybe he has a girlfriend. Then I went and found Caitlyn up in our dormitory. I was forced to tell her all about my conversation with James. When I told her I said I would go out with him she actually squealed. Yes Caitlyn, the calm, cool, and collected one actually squealed. Wow things were getting weird. Remus is a werewolf, James and his friends were animagi, I am going out with James and Caitlyn squealed. Oh my god, I am losing my mind. Okay so back to the point. Caitlyn squealed, she had always thought that James and I would be good together. I couldn't agree in the least. Though, as the week wore on I found myself feeling really strange. I couldn't understand the kind of nervous feeling I mean I have been on plenty of dates before. But what bothered me the most was the excitement. I mean it's a date with Potter! I decided not to dwell on it and soon enough it was Saturday morning and I was sort of panicking. Don't ask me why I was panicking over a date with Potter but I was. So okay I was panicking because I had no idea what in the world to wear. Caitlyn wandered in every once and a while, completely calm about her date with Remus. But you know that's her, not me. As the date grew nearer she finally decided to act like my best friend and help me out. Or at least she thought she was helping.

"Lils, it's just a date. You don't even like him anyways. So why are you stressing?"

"I don't know but…"

"Besides you'll look great in anything."

So with and without her help, I finally decided on a pair of jeans and an emerald green sweater. I pulled my long red into a high ponytail, looked into the mirror, announced, "Well this is as good as it's gonna get," and then I stalked out of the room and down the stairs. I found Potter waiting in the common room near the bottom of the stairs. We walked silently out the portrait hole and then walked out to the front of the castle where all the students were waiting to go to Hogsmeade. We got into a carriage with Caitlyn and Remus and right when we got to the village we headed off to The Three Broomsticks. I was surprised by Potter's silence, I mean he really didn't seem the quiet type and from what I knew of him he wasn't. I decided that he might be nervous; I mean we hadn't talked at all since the "incident", as I decided to call it. I asked him to tell me more about the whole werewolf and animagi thing.

After the initial question, he sipped his butterbeer thoughtfully. "Years ago," he began. "Before we started Hogwarts, Remus got bitten by a werewolf. He didn't think that he would be able to go to school because his transformations were dangerous and he didn't think that any headmaster in his right mind would let him come to school. But then Dumbledore put the Whomping Willow on the grounds and let Remus into school. Soon after school started Remus became friends with Sirius and I. He entrusted us with his secret. We helped him find the secret passage from the Whomping Willow to the Shrieking Shack."

"There is a secret passage!"

"Well yeah. We figured out that if you pressed a knot on the tree it would freeze the tree and then we could slip through the bottom so that Remus would be confined when he transformed."

"Oh, so now I get it. That is why the Shack is said to be haunted!"

"Yeah. So at the beginning of 3rd year Peter caught us and found out what Remus was. We let him hang out with us because we couldn't let him go blabbing to everyone Remus' secret."

"I was wondering why you let him hang out with you."

"And then in 5th year we finally figured out how to become animagi. We had learned that werewolves did better around animals. We thought that we could help him with his transformation. I am a stag, Sirius, a dog, and Peter is a rat. We made up nicknames and we call ourselves the Marauders."

I laughed. "Tell me what your nicknames are."

"Well Remus' is Moony, Sirius' is Padfoot, Peter, Wormtail, and I am Prongs,"

I laughed again. They did come up with good nicknames that fit their animagi forms or in Remus', Moony's, case his werewolf form. He continued to tell me more about all the things they did together on those nights and other times. Some memories shocked me and some made me crack up. I was so intrigued with this new side of Potter that I had never known but I tried to hide it. After all I wasn't supposed to have fun on this date. Two hours and 4 butterbeers later we fell silent.

"Let's go on a walk." I was getting kind of restless and I wanted to get up and do something.

He eyed me cautiously and then asked, "Lily would you like to go to the Shrieking Shack?" Sometime during our conversation we had started calling each other by our first names. Yes, even me.

"Well since you already told me it wasn't really haunted, I guess there is nothing to be afraid of." I had to say that the Shack was still really creepy even though I knew its history.

After the date, when I was lying in bed that night, I reflected on all that had happened that day. As the evening went on it had gotten colder, James, being the fine gentleman that he is, offered me his coat which I had gratefully accepted. AHG! I can't believe I just called him a gentleman. But you know he really seems as if he might not be a jerk at all. It seemed he really cared about me. Well maybe those thoughts are what made me agree to another date the following day. But hey, I guess I really had fun.

The next day, Sunday, dawned bright and early, really early. When we woke up Caitlyn talked non-stop about her date with Remus. Remus was probably the only person to make Caitlyn talk that much. She normally was really soft-spoken and quiet. And of course I was the only one that she talked to so I had to suffer through her rambling.

When I told her about my day and how I ended up agreeing to another date, she looked at me dead serious and said, "You like James. Soon you will find you love him."

Okay you should probably know that Caitlyn can get a little weird sometimes. She was a really good at divination, though. Her mother was a seer and sometimes she came out with predictions that normally ended up true, but this was really out there. I mean me falling for James? Now that was really ridiculous. I decided to forget about it but the problem with me is that when an idea gets into my head I can't stop thinking about it.

After breakfast, I met up with James outside of the great hall and we went out by the frozen lake and talked under an oak tree that the Marauders always hung out under. We talked about everything, our families, and our childhoods. It's amazing how easily I could talk to him, it just seemed right. After about an hour we lapsed into a comfortable silence, which unfortunately was broken by Sirius, Remus, and Caitlyn lobbing us with snowballs. Peter again wasn't there. I take this time to tell you that over the night quite a few inches of snow had accumulated on the grounds. This turned into a huge snowball fight. James and I fought hard in our own little competition and I have to say that I definitely won. However, throughout the whole day, Caitlyn's words kept running through my head. "You like James. Soon you will find you love him."