By The Whomping Willow

The boys ran out of their dormitory skipping two stairs at a time. They met the girls waiting outside of the portrait hole.

'Stay here,' James ordered. The obstacle they were about to meet would be too dangerous to involve many people in. Once the boys got into a deserted corridor they pulled out the invisibility cloak and draped it over themselves. They quickly made their way outside and headed to the Whomping Willow. They spotted Chloe right away who was crying on the stump of the Whomping Willow. James and Sirius ran over to her to and pulled off the invisibility cloak.

'Chloe!' James shouted from a few meters away. Chloe looked up to see one of the last people she wanted to see.

'Stay away from me!' She yelled. James didn't even think that Chloe could use that sort of tone. Her voice was hoarse and her eyes were angry.

'No, Chloe you don't understand!' James begged pleadingly as he stopped in front of Chloe.

'What are you doing here?' she asked.

'Just please come inside,' James pleaded. 'Please!' Chloe shook her head,

'Why should I listen to you?' Sirius turned around and looked at the Marauders Map. Lupin's dot was advancing towards them from the forest.

'Shh!' Sirius hushed them. He leaned over to James,

'He can hear us,' Sirius whispered. They then heard the rustling of bushes. Chloe looked frightened as she stared at the bushes. Then they all heard footsteps running over to them, James looked up and to his surprise saw Lily, Katie and Mel running over.

'What are you doing here?' He whispered harshly.

'Well we waited but you were obviously not making that much progress!' Mel retorted. Mel ran over to Chloe,

'Chloe…' she started to say but then noticed that Chloe's attention was elsewhere. Mel followed her gaze to the bushes as something stepped out. In it's eyes the full moon reflected and it howled as it advanced on the young witches and wizards.

'A werewolf!' Lily exclaimed, her eyes filled with terror. The girls slowly backed away with their wands out and ready. Sirius walked up to Remus Lupin,

'It's ok,' he whispered, 'it's me. Your pal; Sirius.'

'And me, James.' James told him. The werewolf swiped at both of them just barely missing their faces. As Sirius swung his face around to avoid the scratch he saw the girls behind him with their wands out,

'Don't fire!' he bellowed. The girls were confused. 'Whatever you do! Do not jinx him!' The werewolf started to advance on the girls all looking petrified. The werewolf began to chase at them and the girls started running.

'What should we do?' Lily yelled.

'Sirius told us not to use our wands!' Mel yelled out.

'That's not true!' Katie exclaimed, 'We just can't jinx the werewolf!'

'Spedomis Petropi!' Chloe incanted and waved her wand at all of them. The girls legs instantly sped up and they were running at top speed.

'Werewolves can move faster!' Lily exclaimed, 'We did that essay on them! I know all about them!' Lily thought as she ran as fast as she could the werewolf advancing on them. Just then a stag dove under her legs and pulled her properly onto his back. The stag ran along side Mel who was the closest and Mel hopped on. They ran away leaving Chloe and Katie running as fast as they could. They reached the Whomping Willow again and a great big black dog hopped in between the girls and the werewolf. The werewolf ignored the dog and kept trying to advance on the girls. The dog tackled him to the ground and the dog barked at the girls. The girls ran as fast as they could into the forest and watched from in the bushes. The dog and the werewolf were tackling each other, the dog was putting up a good fight. It seemed like the werewolf was not interested in the dog but only wanted the girls. The dog continued to defend the girls until the werewolf seemed to give off hope.

'Where's the boys?' Chloe asked worriedly.

'Maybe they went to get help.' Katie told her. They averted their attention back to the animals. The werewolf seemed to be pleading with the dog. The dog chased the werewolf in to a tunnel by the Whomping Willow. They noticed that a rat followed them in. Both of them thought that a rat would be terrified of being in the presence of such a ferocious dog and a werewolf. Once the werewolf was inside the dog morphed into a human. Katie's and Chloe's eyes widened as they were looking at the form of Sirius Black.

'Sirius!' Katie exclaimed coming out of the bushes. Sirius whipped around to see Katie and Chloe running towards them. Sirius wasn't expecting to see them. 'You're an Animagus!' Sirius nodded. 'Wow!' Katie exclaimed, she couldn't get over it.

'Does this mean?' Chloe started to ask. 'That the stag was James?' Sirius nodded again. 'Makes sense, he did go for Lily.'

'He told me he was going to get the people who looked like they were struggling the most. You and Katie are in better shape from Quidditch and weren't having as much trouble.'

'Oh…' Chloe said. They could see James running back across the field.

'Are you guys OK?' he asked the girls. The girls nodded, they were still slightly shaken from that nights events.

James turned to Sirius, 'Is he OK?' he asked.

'He's where he belongs.' Sirius told him trying not to convey to much information to the girls. 'Let's head back up.' The four made their way across the school grounds to the castle completely speechless. Chloe and James left Sirius and Katie out by the Hufflepuff common room entrance.

'Are you OK?' Sirius asked her. Katie smiled and nodded her head.

'I'm fine.'

'And your ok with me being an animagus?' Sirius asked her.

'Of course I am,' she said looking at him questioningly. 'Why wouldn't I be OK with that?'

'I didn't tell you.' He told her.

'Some things can be left un-told. You just need to know what the right things to tell me are.' Sirius nodded, he understood.

'Please don't tell anybody. Only James, Peter and Lupin know.'

'My lips are sealed.' She told him. 'You can trust me.' Sirius kissed her good night and then headed to the common room where he found Mel sitting on the steps outside.

'Hey…' he said suspiciously.

'Oh hi Sirius,' she started. 'I didn't want to be a lone but I thought that the three should talk. I don't know where Peter is.' Sirius knew. He was in the Shrieking Shack with Lupin.

'Are you OK?' Sirius asked sitting down.

'I'm f-fine.' She stuttered. 'It was just that today was supposed to go so right for Chloe and it went so wrong. I'm just confused.'

'It was also supposed to go right for James too.' Sirius told her. Mel understood.

'He loved her that much?'

'Ya, he really did.'

'Well I think I'm going to walk quietly through the common room.' She glanced at her watch which read 1:30 AM. Mel got up to see the portrait of the Fat Lady sleeping.

'Bertie Botts.' Mel said loudly. The Fat Lady snored on.

'Bertie Botts.' Sirius yelled waking several portraits.

'Pipe down!' Yelled a portrait.

'Well then tell her to wake up!' The Fat Lady yawned and woke up.

'What are you two doing up so late?' She asked.

'Well Fat Lady I was up to no good.' The Fat Lady rolled her eyes.

'Password?'

'Bertie Botts.' Mel told her and the Fat Lady revealed the hole to the common room. Mel and Sirius glanced at the three sitting on the couch and then hustled on up to their own dormitories.