The first month of school was finally over. The students had finally settled in for the year. October had just begun, and the students were all buzzing with excitement. The first game of the year, Gryffindor vs. Slytherin was scheduled for the end of the week, followed by the first Hogsmeade weekend and the traditional Halloween Feast in the Great Hall.

James tossed his books in his trunk, grabbed his invisibility cloak, a piece of parchment and his broom. He slammed his trunk shut and rushed out to the Owlery to visit Jinx. "Hey Jinx, sorry I haven't been able to visit lately but I'm so busy with Quidditch and everything. You know how flying goes." Jinx nipped his finger affectionately and held out her leg so James could tie the note to it.

James gave Jinx a pat on the head and scribbled:

Meet me at the Astronomy tower at 11:00 tonight. See you soon.

James

He rushed to the locker rooms just in time to get changed and head out to the Quidditch Pitch for practice. He glanced in the mirror before he left and tried desperately to pat down his wild hair.

Lily waited outside the locker rooms for James. When he stepped out, her knees gave a little jolt. He took her by surprise every time she saw him. When he looked her way her heart beat faster. She had to fight the reaction to look around to make sure he was looking at her. Whenever his bright green eyes caught hers, she felt like she was going to explode.

James was tired from all day classes but seeing Lily rejuvenated him and he ran at her with full force. James grabbed Lily and gave her a big hug and a quick kiss.

"I got lonely walking to the pitch by myself. So I came to join you." She gave a weak smile and before she could say anything else, James stopped her by putting his hand to her mouth.

"Um, I know we haven't got to spend much time together since Quidditch training took up, but I just wanted to know if you'll be patient with me? I've got something to do tonight -" James could see the disappointment in Lily's eyes. "But I was wondering if you'd want to spend some time together this weekend?"

Lily's eyes brightened a bit, "Sure, you know this weekend is the Hogsmeade visit right?"

"Yeah, that would be perfect." James gave Lily a reassuring smile. Lily felt much better after the talk. She was beginning to think that he didn't feel the same way about her as she did about him. But now she was assured that there was something between them and that he wanted to do something about it. Quidditch practice was great. Lily and James preformed the best they had in weeks. The Gryffindor captain, Matthius Avery, a seventh year kept flying by them both giving them compliments on their excellent flying.

James, the seeker had caught the snitch a total of five times already tonight. Lily played the keeper and nothing was getting past her. The three chasers were none other than Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and the captain Matthius Avery and the two beaters were, Matilda Brim and Derrick Clay. The Gryffindor team had practiced so much that they were bored with it.

"Guys!" shouted Matthius.

"-And Ladies!" Lily and Matilda shouted playfully.

"Guys. and ladies. Practice is over. If we play the way we did today we'll definitely beat Slytherin."

The team all jammed into the locker rooms and quickly got changed. Lily rushed to get dressed and waited for James outside the boy's locker room. After about 10 minutes she felt something brush past her but couldn't see anything, so she forgot about it and walked up to the Gryffindor Tower.

James didn't want to run into Lily and upset her even more so he put his invisibility cloak on and rushed past Lily. He held his breath as he passed her outside the locker room. He hated the way she looked, so lonely and depressed, but he knew he would just depress her more if he had blown her off again.

It was about eight o'clock when Lily reached the Gryffindor common room. She ran upstairs to her four-poster bed looking for Maggie.

"Maggie! Maggie!" Lily assumed she was out hanging with other friends since Lily hadn't had much time to spend with her since Quidditch practice had started up. Lily flopped down on her bed and almost fell asleep when something caught her eye.

Underneath Maggie's bed, something was shining. Lily lifted up the blanket and felt around underneath the bed. She pulled out a pile of about 10 leaves. The same leaves from the tree in the Forbidden Forest. Lily pulled her cloak over her shoulders and set out to find Maggie and ask her how she got all those leaves.

Just as she stepped outside of the hole behind the portrait of the fat lady, Jinx, James owl hit her in the side of the arm. Lily didn't recognize Jinx because James had never used her to send Lily a letter. She slipped the letter off Jinx's leg, read it and stuffed it in her pocket.

"Thank you." Lily said as she patted Jinx on the head. Lily didn't know who would send her a letter inviting her to the astronomy tower, but she secretly hoped it was James. She didn't have anything else to do tonight and she had a few hours to think it over. Jinx flew away and Lily continued searching the castle for Maggie.

James caught up with Sirius, Remus and Peter in the great hall.

"Remus are you all set for tonight?" Sirius asked. "Peter and I will come to check on you at about 11:00 tonight. ".

Remus nodded and James said, "Peter will walk you as far as the Forbidden Forest entrance and then they'll join you at 11:00 tonight. I'll be there as soon as I can get there. I've got something to do first."

James ran off to Hagrid's hut and Sirius headed back to the Gryffindor Common room. Sirius stopped by a window in one of the corridors and looked out. Sirius watched a boy, Remus, and a rat, illuminated by the full moon, walking quickly to the entrance to the Forbidden Forest. The boy stopped at the entrance but the rat walked to the giant willow tree blocking the entrance. The willow immediately began thrashing its limbs around, barely missing the boy. The rat ran ahead and slipped underneath the massive limbs. It lifted one of its paws and hit a knob on the tree. Immediately the willow stopped thrashing around and the boy slipped in a door on the willow tree.

After seeing that Remus had made it to the Whomping Willow safely, Sirius turned around quickly to begin walking towards the Gryffindor Tower. He didn't get to move more than a foot when he hit something head on. That something was a scrawny fifth year Slytherin with greasy black hair and piercing black eyes.

"Severus! Why are you always lurking in the shadows. Don't you know it's a bad habit to follow people around?' Sirius boomed.

Snape picked himself off the ground and straightened his robes. "I know you are up to something. You and your snotty little friends. I'm going straight to the Headmaster unless you tell my what you were doing watching the boy and that rat down there! Who is that boy and how did they get past the Whomping Willow?"

"Alright calm down. I'll tell you. Actually I'll let you see for your self. At ten minutes until eleven o'clock, go down to the Whomping willow and press the knob in the middle of the trunk. That will stop the willow, and you can see for yourself what they are doing down there." Sirius gave a sly grin and jogged out of sight.

James looked around to make sure Lily wasn't there before taking his cloak off and dashing up the stairs for the boy's dormitory. He reached his bed and slammed open his trunk. He rustled a few things around before placing a rose and a box with a silver bow on it on his bed. It was a few minutes before he noticed Sirius quietly staring out the window.

"What are you doing looking out that window? If I didn't know any better, I'd think you were in deep thought." James taunted. "What time is it James?" Sirius turned to look at James. "I think I've found a way to get Snape off our hands for a few weeks."

"It's twenty till eleven and how are you going to get him out of our way?" James gave a puzzled look.

"I told him how to get past the Whomping Willow tree." Sirius grinned.

"YOU DID WHAT! HOW DARE YOU TELL HIM SOMETHING LIKE THAT!" James boomed. "Do you have any idea what Remus can do to him? Are you aware of what it took for Dumbledore to allow him to come to school here and now you are going to go and ruin all of that." James face was bright red. His untamed hair seemed even wilder and his green eyes flashed in the light from the full moon shining through the window.

Sirius had a look of panic on his face. "Its just a joke James! I don't really expect him to go down there do you?" I was just trying to pay him back for always following us around and tattling on us."

James paced the floors for a few seconds and said, "He'll do anything to get one of us expelled. He will go down there."

"We have to stop him. How could I have been so stupid! James you have to go help him." Sirius was shaking so hard that he had to hold himself up "I'm so sorry James. I don't know what to do. I told him to go down to the Whomping Willow at quarter till eleven. We don't have time to stop him!"

"I don't have time to listen to your apologies. We have to stop Snape before he gets to the willow." James left his packages on his bed and ran out of the room, with Sirius at his heels.

Lily climbed the stairs to the astronomy tower. She couldn't find Maggie anywhere and was beginning to worry. What she really needed was some time with James. She wished he would wrap his arms around her and listen to her troubles. She stood at the window for a few minutes getting more depressed by the minute. He's not coming. What if this is just a joke that Venus is playing on me? Why am I even here? She turned to the window and stared up at the bright October moon. Something caught her eye, running toward the entrance of the forbidden forest.

A skinny boy was walking at a hurried pace across the grounds. A giant antlered body was galloping across the grounds, followed by a jet-black dog. Lily tried to call out to the boy. Why are those animals chasing that boy? Is that James and Sirius? It has to be, there are only five students who can transform themselves into animals. So this is what he does, he blows me off to play a joke on Severus?

Lily turned her back from the window and slid down the wall. She pulled her legs closer to her body and began to cry. Her whole body shook with sobs. She couldn't believe James would do something like this to her.

Snape heard galloping footsteps behind him and he quickened his pace even more. He finally reached the Whomping willow and slid underneath one of the giant limbs aiming at his head. Loud screams echoed from the tree. He almost turned back, but he had to see what James and his friends had been doing once a month, behind the door in the Whomping willow.

The screams softened and he opened the door and stepped in. Snape found himself in a small tattered room. The walls were worn and had large claw marks across them. An old chair sat in the corner of the room, missing half a leg. Snape heard a low growl coming from a shadowy corner across the room. All he could make out were two yellow eyes and a large hairy body.

The wolf slowly stalked out of the corner and growled even louder showing its teeth. The giant wolf reared back ready to jump on Snape when the door slammed open and a stag crashed through the door. The wolf turned its attention on the stag and pounced. It latched on to one of the stag's legs. The stag kicked the wolf across the room knocking it out for a few minutes. It leaned down and pushed the stunned Snape out the door.

Snape dazed by all the confusion turned around in a circle and lost sight of the stag. Instead he found none other than James Potter standing next to him. He was shouting something at him. Something panicked. All of a sudden a big black dog grabbed Snape's sleeve and dragged him across the grounds to the Hogwarts entrance.

Snape stood up and shouted, "YOU! YOU DID THIS JAMES POTTER! You planned this out. What was that thing? It could have killed me!" Tears of anger were streaming down Snape's face "I'm going straight to the Dumbledore!"

It took all James had not to slap Snape across the face. He looked around and the big black dog had transformed back into Sirius. "I did not plan this! If anything I saved your life. I could have just let you fend for yourself with that werewolf." His heart was racing. He looked past Snape and the giant clock on the wall said 11:10. Too late, I've missed her.

"Oh is that what that was? So I assume that was one of your friends? I'll make sure they never come back to Hogwarts again for this!" Snape turned toward Sirius. "And you. You let him talk you into telling me how to get past the tree. Do you do everything James says?"

"I DID NOT TRY TO KILL YOU SEVERUS! SAY SOMETHING SIRIUS!" James turned towards Sirius, who said nothing. "You have nothing to say? I'm not going to be around to fix your messes all the time." James pushed himself past Snape and raced up the stairs towards the Gryffindor Tower.

James slipped in the girl's dormitory Lily was lying on her stomach, sprawled across her bed. Strangely the bed next to her's was empty. Her body rose and fell with each sob.

"Lily. Lily." James whispered. "Lily, let me explain."

She didn't answer, her sobs only got heavier. After a few minutes went by she turned her face towards the window. The light caught the tears running down her cheeks, and she managed to choke out. "Do you know what today was?"

Tears slipped from James' eyes and he quietly left the room.

Lily put her head back on her pillow and cried herself to sleep.

The jet-black dog slowly walked into the small room inside the Whomping Willow and pushed the door closed with his paw. The chair that was in the corner was ripped to shreds and the wolf lay collapsed in the corner of the room