I am late. I know I am late. Do not tell me that I am late, because I know that I am late. Ness! This is for you! Just know that I spent the whole day finding other things to do to put this evil thing off longer! Ugh...this is going to be a horribly written chapter, I can feel it...

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE: TRANSFORMATION

"What did he look like?" Harry asked.

James shook his head as they walked, Lily following curiously, "Never saw his face. Kinda weird, he was. He knew my name and everything–and I asked him what he was talking about when he told me to tell you. All he said was that you saved his life. Seemed a bit like he was stating the obvious if you ask me..."

-x-x-

It was a storm coming. James could hear it. A long way down the hall. Growls, barks...kind of like Sirius'.

Wormtail had come. Wormtail couldn't fight. He was too small, too weak. He needed James. Sirius needed James...to help.

Lily was staring at them all, confusedly. Harry looked sick. Wormtail looked...well...like Wormtail.

James sensed them coming. He could see them running. Moony was on Sirius' heels. Sirius was running in the only direction that he could go–which was toward them.

"Wormtail." He whispered as the rampaging dogs neared, "Run away, please. Take Lily with you."

He'd done this so many times before.

"You're good at transfiguration," Harry said, "Change me, so I can help."

James glanced at Harry with a smirk, "You expect to take on the Dark Lord and you don't even know a good transfiguration spell?" Then he promptly sent a spell at Harry before a response came, shoved the wand back into his robes, and transformed.

James could see Sirius and Moony now. They were nearer now.

When he turned into the stag James could not speak, but he always could get his point across. He tilted his now heavy head at Harry, a gesture for his son to join him. He'd done a good job, James realized momentarily, he'd never gotten the lion down.

Moony screamed down the corridor, eyes mad with rage and carnal hunger.

-x-x-

A younger Severus Snape watched his breath turning into icy clouds in front of his face. The place was cold, especially in the night. He didn't notice before just then, though, since he'd been in too much terror to realize that the air around him was colder than his heart.

He should have noticed, should have realized.

Damn "Marauders" (so they called themselves) and their adventure. Their need for attention. Even the fact that Remus Lupin turned out to be possessed by the spirit of a werewolf couldn't stop them, oh no...but they had to find a way to fit in with him. Black...a dog. How it suited him. A mutt to be kicked around, that was what Snape would like to do with him–

Pettigrew. He made that wheezy noise when he ran. Severus shot out an arm into the hallway to catch the passing boy, but instead laid arms on Evans. He could see her hair in the dim light.

Pettigrew passed.

An acromantula could pass and that idiot wouldn't notice.

"Why didn't you yell out or something?" Severus asked, letting go of Evans.

"I don't know." Evans muttered, watching Pettigrew run off. "Why? Did you want me to yell?"

Severus narrowed his eyes in response.

Evans gave him a beady look in return.

"Where were you, then?" Evans interrogated.

"I ran off, what do you think?" He said grumpily as they began walking toward where Severus could only suppose was the direction Pettigrew had scampered off to. He sighed unhappily, muttering, "Guess we've found out what they named 'Moony' for."

Lily nodded slightly, thinking. Then she said, "Peter came to tell us what happened and James ran off to help." A thought suddenly seemed to occur to her, "Shouldn't we be running?"

Severus nodded, looking behind them.

The two set off at a jog at the same time.

He looked down at Evans and saw her smiling, and felt something stir in his heart, momentarily.

Disgusting.

-x-x-

"Where are you, Lily?" Wormtail yelled out. She'd just disappeared! How could she have done that? She was right behind him!

He wandered through hallways, hoping beyond hope that he wouldn't run into Moony, and stumbled into one particularly grand room.

Two chairs and a fireplace that was empty. All light came from a single candle on a bare table in between the chairs. A rug was squished beneath Wormtail's feet as he came further into the room.

"Hello Wormtail."

Wormtail squealed and jumped at least two feet into the air. Right behind him–

was something he really hadn't expected.

"You...you..." He gulped, backing away. He ran into a chair and almost fell over it, but thankfully kept his balance. Red eyes bored into his own.

"Me."

Wormtail nodded.

"Sit down, Wormtail, please." Voldemort said.

-x-x-

They caught him.

Or at least they were about to.

Escape, at least.

Moony was insane.

Harry was almost batting Moony around like a play-thing. He was so giant, it made James swell with pride. That was probably what was keeping them alive. They were being backed up outside onto the patio by the crazed werewolf, and so far James assumed they would just shut Moony inside, keep him at bay by the doors by leaving their human scents there.

This wasn't too difficult. They could deal. They backed onto the porch and Harry kept Moony away while Sirius and James transformed, but Harry roared before they could shut the doors. The two friends looked up and knew why. Lily and Snape–on the other side–with Moony.

"What the hell are you two doing here?" James roared as he changed back into a stag in a flash, kicking the two outside while Sirius struggled to shut the door. Lily and Snape rushed forward to help and together all three could shut the door on the massive, snarling thing that just a few hours ago was their friend.

They all panted.

"What were you doing...?" Sirius asked between pants.

"Wrong turn..." Lily gasped, clutching her side painfully.

Harry came, still a lion, and sat down in front of the door next to them. Snape, a picture of exhaustion, stared at him. He pulled out his wand and muttered the counter spell.

James was walking as a stag, still on alert. He looked around, ready for any Death Eaters, now that the nightmare of Moony was over (or at least kept away for the time being, they could still hear him on the other side of the door, scratching). His breath rushed through the black nostrils of the stag. The hooves clopped on the stone patio. When he changed back he sat down, letting himself fall...

"Ouch!" He yelled, sitting back up.

"What?" Everyone said. James touched his back and pulled his fingers back, surprised to find blood on them. He stood up and walked back to the door.

"What's happened to my back?" He asked, turned around.

"Did that thing scratch you?" Lily asked, standing up and touching him. He yelped.

James remembered vaguely a point when Moony had landed on his back after some attack from Harry and propelled himself off again...

"I think...yes..." James muttered.

"What was that anyway?" Lily asked, pulling James down to sit as she conjured some sort of paste with her wand, pulled his useless outer robes and shirt off (though not too kindly) and started rubbing it into his back. Behind them Harry and Sirius were talking and Snape was eyeing the door suspiciously.

James looked up at Lily sharply. Didn't she know...? "That was Moony. Remus."

Her hands stopped, hesitated, then resumed motion.

"Oh."

She must have figured it out by now. James could see Snape, listening in on them.

"Moony is a werewolf." James said. He hated silences. "And we're animagi." When she didn't respond he carried on. "We found out some time ago...about him. We wanted to help him. You know, he's usually not this bad...must be the high stress."

He saw her looking at the door, "Why doesn't he go away?"

James smirked at himself, "Humans. He can smell us. He wants to eat us..." Lily's hands shook momentarily.

"You have another scar here." Lily stated matter-of-factly.

"That's from a different time, when some people were out..." He hesitated, then, "We were all exploring in Hogsmeade...and someone came outside. Moony attacked. We had to get him away. It wasn't that bad, you see. When he's with us he's more human in werewolf form. But he still got me..."

Lily had stopped rubbing for a few seconds, but resumed, "You should have stopped going out after that."

"I don't care. Moony didn't mean it. I didn't even tell him about it because he would've gone berserk if he knew...besides. Ole' Siri and I would never let him sit around in the dark all that time...by himself..."

(July 18) A/N: I've just redone this chapter because I left some vital information out before...mind you, it's still not very good. I had to fix it up very sloppily after the power went out...