SORRY GUYS!!!!!!!!! This is not a new chapter. This is the edited chapter. The other was my rough copy. Here is what happened. I sent the rough draft to my beta, and when she sent it back to me I uploaded the wrong file. Here is the right one. OH! And more good news I now recognize the difference between dose and does!!! Yea me. But I welcome all your corrections, because as you can see, I can't spell worth a flip. You guys are the best!!!! Thanks, Hpfreak1984
By the way, you people are too Smart to know that I made these characters. You all know who they belong to and who holds, their rights. Which is not me but the great JK Rowling.
"And who was this?" Dumbledore asked James on Monday morning in his
office.
"Lucius Malfloy and Severus Snape."
"Severus Snape?" Dumbledore looked perplexed. "Are you sure my boy?"
James nodded. Dumbledore paced around the room looking puzzled. James studied him closely then said, "Is there anything else, Sir?"
Dumbledore shook his head.
"No, James that's all for now. You need to go to class." James left the office. He ran down the spiral stair case, and then casually walked out from behind the stone gargoyle into the main stream of Hogwarts students. He had just glanced at his watch when Sirius came and found James.
"Hey prongsie." He said gloomily. "Hi pad foot. I take it you went to the hospital wing this morning to see Remus and Peter?"
Sirius nodded, "I did. Remus looks awful. He has a huge bruise on his neck from where I grabbed and another wallop of a bruise on his chest from you."
They were both quit for a moment. Then Sirius said, "Is it just me or was he more aggressive then usual last night." James considered it for a moment. He then beckoned Sirius into a class room. He shut the door tightly and turned to his friend.
"Sirius you remember in July when he stayed with us?"
"Yeah." "Well he was pretty much the same as he was Saturday."
"And when we went to see him in August..."
"Again it was the same. He's bearly controllable anymore. It's like the wolf part of him is taking over more and more each full moon. It's like he can't recognize us as animals any more."
"James we can't just give up on him. He's just as sane as me and..." he looked at James curiously for a moment then said, "Well, as sane as me anyway."
"When he's not basking in the light of a full moon, Sirius, he's fine. But something isn't right. He'll hurt us or another student if we don't do something soon."
"Another Student...you mean like Snivellus?"
"I'm serious, Sirius."
"You're too worried James." Sirius said trying to reassure himself along with James, "We'll just watch him over the next few months and see. If he is worse in October, then we'll talk to Dumbledore and see what he thinks. Come on or we'll be late for our classes."
James nodded as he followed Sirius out the door. He then said goodbye and took off toward the dungeons to his Potions class. He had just glanced at his watch and began to pick up his pace when a female voice called him.
"James, wait!" James groaned as he turned around to see who it was. He had many female admirers, but he did not want to tell Professor Fistic he had been late because a girl stopped him in the hall to flirt. He liked to flirt, and he liked female attention. But to tell his kind yet stern potions teacher this in front of Lily and Snape would not help any of his causes.
"Hi, James" Lily said lightly. James gave a great sigh of relief.
"Hi, Lily"
"Do you mind if we walk to class together? If I'm late, I'd prefer not to be the only one." James smiled at her.
"Sure," he said "you can blame me and I can blame you."
"Oh thanks." She said sarcastically. They walked together down the stairs toward the dungeon.
"I was hopping to see you yesterday."
"I had to study for this test. It's going to be awful."
"Do you understand about the lice wings?"
"Oh yeah, lice wing...no problem...they..."
James stopped when he saw Lily's amused expression.
"You have no idea do you?"
"No I don't." James laughed sheepishly.
"Remember this, ok? The lice wings when properly stewed give of a reactive protein called Temprabond. You can remember it because it temporarily bonds the drinker's DNA to that of the person they are changing into."
James nodded.
"Do you remember the four steps of Temprabond fusion?"
"I think so." James said as they reached the class room.
"Then you'll be fine."
"Thanks, Lily." James said as he reached up and pulled the door opened just as the bell began to toll.
"No problem she said as she past in front of James and went to sit by her Ravenclaw friend Mandy Killian. James took his seat by Remus just as the last chime was dying away.
"Morning Mooney." James said happily
Remus was wearing a sly grin. "Morning. You walked Evans to class?"
James nodded.
"Nice."
"I think so." said James as he pulled his essay out onto the table.
"Good morning my future Aurors and Healers. I hope we are all in good spirits today." Said their potions Professor, Professor Fistic, as she strolled into the room and up to the front of her class tying back her auburn hair. "I would like for you all to please get out your essays, seeing as how they are due today."
There was a sudden sound of scrapping chairs, and rummaging paper as most of the students reached for their bags to retrieve their essays.
When the noise had died away, Professor Fistic waved her wand causing 32 sheets of parchment to fly form the tables and into a neat stack on her desk.
She glanced out of the enchanted windows she had put in the dungeon to make it less gloomy then said sweetly, "As it is such a beautiful day, and seeing as how it would be best to wait for the start of the next lunar month, I have decided that we will take a reprieve on starting the Polyjuice potion today."
A sudden brightness seemed to fill the room as 32 faces lit up at once.
"However," said Fistic as she reached for a stack of parchment that was lying face down beside the essays, "That does not mean we get to forget our lovely little pre-test that Mr. Fistic help me make up for you over the weekend."
The room filled with groans and disapproving sighs.
"Oh don't give me that rubbish." She said passing out the tests. "Now here are the rules. No talking. No cheating. No helping. No advising. No assisting. Do we understand each other.....Mr. Potter?" She said stopping to look at James.
There was a sound of admiring laughter form the students who were in her class last year with James, in which he wasn't cheating. He was merely helping, advising, and assisting Sirius, and in which Sirius was doing the same for him.
James gave her a sly grin. He saluted her as he leaned back in his chair.
She chuckled at him then said, "Now there are thirty questions. You may leave when you are finished." She stopped in front of her desk again after handing out the test. "Remember you all have a LOT riding on this test. If you fail it I will have to take you out of NEWT level potions, so do your very best. I want you all to pass and succeed at your goals of healing and catching dark wizards. You may begin now."
James took a deep breath. He flipped over his test. He swallowed the lump in his throat. He noticed that Remus was scribbling away on his answer sheet. He looked up and over at Lily. She slowly stopped writing and turned her head in his direction. She gave him an encouraging smile. James winked at her. Her smile flashed bigger then shaking her head she turned back to her test. James ruffled his hair. Then feeling much more confident he read the first Question.
Question one. Please answer in full sentences.
Please explain the reaction that takes place when the Temprabond Protein fuses with the host DNA in the Polyjuice Potion.
James stared at the question. He decided that he would skip it and move to question two.
Question two. Please answer in complete sentences.
Please state the four steps of Temprabond fusion, and name the waste chemicals produced in each stage.
"Well," James thought to himself, "At least I'll get one question right."
James took a shot at every question. The first four had to deal with Poly Juice Potion, the rest were trivial questions about more complicated potions that they had gone over last year. He was surprised to see that he knew most answers and guessed at those he didn't. Over all he felt that he was doing pretty good. He was just finishing question twenty seven when the bell dismissing class had tolled.
"Please put your quills down and turn your tests and answer sheets face down." Said Professor Fistic kindly. James did as he was told. He glanced around the room to see that only Lily and Snape had finished before the end of class.
"Blimey that was hard." Remus said to James as they walked up the dungeon steps to the fourth floor where they would meet Sirius for Defense Against the Dark Arts.
"Tell me about it." James said rubbing his forehead. "I only got to twenty seven. I was really hung up on that Dragon Heart diagram. I couldn't remember which strings had the magical properties."
"Three big two small," Remus said, "But I can't remember what the names are exactly right now."
"Did you remember them on the test?"
"Yeah, but my brain hurts too much to recall right now."
"OY!! Prongs! Moony! Over here." Sirius called to James and Remus.
"What's up Padfoot? How was you're class with Bins?"
Sirius shrugged as they walked into their Defense against the Dark Arts room. "Same as usual great material, but no enthusiasm what so ever, he bored me stiff. How was your test?" he asked James and Remus.
"Oh that test was bloody awful." James said as Remus buried his head in his hands.
"Oh, come now Potter, It wasn't all that bad." Said their Defense Against the Dark arts teacher, Mr. Professor Fistic, as he came into the room and began writing on the Black Board.
"Oh come off it, sir, that test was bloody hard."
"I saw that test this morning. I think it was very appropriate. The type of preparation you will need to be an Auror will be like that test from now on, tough, grueling, and 'bloody hard'." Then trying to reassure them he said, "Look, you three are the cleverest wizards in your year. I'm sure you and Mr. Lupin both did fine on the test. Did you finish it?"
"No!" James and Remus said together.
"Good." Fistic said, "Then you probably did just fine." When all of the students came in they began their lesson.
They started to discuss the theory of a partonus charm and other shielding spells. James enjoyed theory lessons, because Professor fistic tried to let them discuss their own theories and ideas before cracking the textbooks and finding the answers. However, because they did this most of the time they would discover the answers as a class making them all feel more brilliant than they usually did in their classes.
James mood lightened significantly as Professor Fistic closed the lesson with a story of how during a raid, when he was working as an Auror with the ministry, the wizard in question was caught literally with his pants down.
"Oh and the best part was this. He was begging us not to tell his wife. We decided we would oblige him. But when she got home she saw that we apprehended him and the mistress. She put two and two together and by the time she was done with him, he was begging the ministry to take him."
The class broke out into laughter as the bell announced the end of class and the hour and a half break for lunch. Remus, James, and Sirius were laughing the whole way to the Great Hall, receiving admiring looks from their fellow students.
"Hi James," Said a pretty brunet Huffelpuff as she walked past them. James winked at her, causing her to catch a fit of giggles as she hurried off with her friends.
"Why do they do that?" Remus asked as the three of them watched them walk off. James and Sirius shrugged.
They all went and sat down at Gryffindor table and began discussing their plans for the evening. When Lilly came hurrying over.
"Hello gentlemen."
"Hi Evans," Sirius said pulling out a chair beside him, "Have a seat."
"I can't" Lily said apologetically, "I have to get to the Library. But, can I borrow James for a moment?"
"HA!" Barked Sirius, "Borrow? You can have him, right Mooney?"
"Too right," agreed Remus. "Thanks, mates." James said getting up to follow Lily to the edge of the Great Hall. They stopped just in the door way.
"James," Lily said quietly. "I want you to know that I was thinking about Saturday night, and I want you to know that I'm in."
James started laughing at her. "IN? In what?"
"In whatever silly little Marauder scheme you happen to be up to." It was pointless to lie to her.
"No, Lily. You're not in."
"Why not? I know I can help you."
"No you can't. But thanks for the offer." James turned to leave. Lily leaned over his shoulder and whispered in his ear.
"Then I'll tell Dumbledore that you're an animagus...Prongs."
James froze. The smirk he was wearing vanished. He quickly looked around to see if anybody had over heard them. He then grabbed Lily's arm above the elbow and quickly dragged her out of the Great Hall into the Entrance hall, and into an empty broom cupboard. He shut the door tightly, and then turned to her.
"How did you find out?" He asked in a panicked voice.
"Oh, James, It really wasn't that hard." She said sounding a bit amused.
"Indulge me."
"Well, when I was on my way back to the castle on Saturday night, I stopped when I realized you weren't behind me. So I turned around to see a stag running into the forest from under the tree where I was just standing with you. The first question I asked was 'Where is James?' The next was, 'How is it that a stag is running from the tree I was just at and didn't see it anywhere?.' And then I asked myself, why James Potter would be walking around with an enchanted map and an invisibility cloak.' That's when I realized you were up to something, and that's why you turned into a stag and ran off. And now I want in on whatever it is."
"Kudos to you, Lily Evans, but you don't know everything and you can't know everything. You will get hurt. So do yourself a favor and forget it all right now."
Lily rolled her eyes. "Fine, I'm going to Dumbledore. And tell your friends Moony and Pad-foot that they had better...."
She stopped in mid-sentence. She turned to look at James with a horrified understanding sweeping across her face.
"Prongs?" Lily whispered as the horror of the situation was starting to dawn on James as well. "Pad-foot? Moony? Well, they would have been on the map if they were in their dormitories." Her mind flashed to the picture of the map on Saturday night. "But they weren't. They weren't on it at all."
"Lily..."
"We would have seen them on the grounds, but they weren't there."
"Lily please listen, you don't need..."
"Pad-foot...the dog." She thought of the dog that ran out of the forest beckoning them to run. Then......
"Moony? Oh God no." she whispered as the image of the werewolf played back in her head.
James made Lily sit on an overturned bucket. He knelt down in front of her so that he could look her in the eyes.
"Remus is a werewolf?" Lily asked him.
"Yes, he is and I trust him with my life." James said.
"It makes so much sense now. I mean the monthly absences, the unexplained bruises...it all makes sense now."
"Yes but Remus is the same as he always had been. He's still, kind, smart, charming, snooty Remus. And I will not let this get out and ruin his reputation." James said as he pulled out his wand. "So Lily you have to swear to me that you will not tell a soul, or I will modify your memory."
"I swear on my blood that I will not tell a soul." she said. "Thank you." James said putting his wand away.
"Now, you need to go to the Library, and I need to get to lunch."
Lily and James left the cupboard. Lily ran up the stairs, James ran back into the great hall where he found Remus and Sirius throwing olives at each other. He pulled them both up by their robe collars.
"Hey James what gives?" Sirius objected.
"Room. Now." "James what's...?" Remus started.
"We have a problem. Lily knows."