"That will do, Alastor, James."
James cut himself off right before replying (he had been about to say something along the lines of "Do you really think two fifteen-year-olds are brave enough to be spies for Voldemort?") and switched his attention to Dumbledore, who was standing in the doorway.
Moody turned around to face Dumbledore, arms crossed.
"Now. One of you, please tell me the entire story." The professor waited patiently in the doorway for someone to begin.
James looked around at Sirius and Remus, who looked back at him, eyebrows raised. He knew what they meant- there was the slight problem that Rhia had found them as an illegal Animagus by following an also-illegally-transformed Sirius.
He gave a small mental sigh and hoped the story he was about to tell would satisfy Dumbledore. "Well, Remus and Peter and I were waiting for Sirius behind Flourish and Blotts. Rhia saw him on his way there and followed him. And then Regulas was there, and we tried to make them go away but they said if we didn't take them with us they'd get their mother. And we didn't want that, so we brought them here," he finished.
Dumbledore regarded him with impassive ice-blue eyes for a moment, before looking carefully at Sirius, Remus, Peter, and the twins in turn.
"Very well," he said at last. "They may come in." He walked back into the room without further ado, Moody following him.
James, Remus, Sirius, and Peter let out breaths that James, at least, hadn't realized they had all been holding.
Rhia turned to them. "You four have a lot of explaining to do," she hissed, before she and Regulas followed the two men inside.
"Nice save, Prongs," Sirius whispered, before the quartet entered the room, closing the door behind them.
James looked around for Lily, but didn't see her. He looked questioningly at Dumbledore, who had taken his customary place at the front of the room.
"Lily is on a mission," Dumbledore said, looking directly at James. All heads turned in that direction, and no-one was surprised when they saw James there. "She will be fine, James. She is perfectly capable of taking care of herself."
"Yes Professor," he said, sitting down between Remus and Sirius. Sirius gave him a calculated-to-be-reassuring smirk, and Peter, who was on Remus's other side, gave him an encouraging nod.
"She'll be fine, Prongs," Remus whispered, almost-echoing Dumbledore.
A/N: Yes, I know the overprotective-of-Lily-and-thus-angsty James is somewhat cliche by now, but... too bad. And yes, James is a good liar. This is from another story (not posted on FF) that I wrote. Plus you'd kinda have to be to be that good of a prankster, wouldn't you? Course ya would. :winks: Lassie's doin' the next chappie.