Disclaimer: All hail JKR, magical master of Great Britain!

Thanks to the following reviewers: maneatingbananas, WhiteCamellia, Tai Greywing, Fairy-GYAKUTENNO-MEGAMI, sirius-starlight, Nimrodel Telcontar, Kilala-kat-ex, iluvgerardbutler, MoonylovesFlo, X.Little.Black.Cat.X, Sugar-huny-bun, blvd, chunky-01 and Bethany Inc.

A/N: ARGH! Exam results tomorrow! Somebody hide me!

Chapter 19

"INVOCATUM!"

Three jets of light shot towards the werewolf. Just before they hit, two large blurs, one black and one white, collided with the werewolf and pinned it to the ground. Lily gasped as James and Sirius began wrestling with Remus.

But in his werewolf state, Remus was vastly bigger and stronger than them. With a swing of his forelegs, Remus knocked Sirius away. The black dog lay whimpering on the grass. Tash screamed and Lily instinctively grabbed her arm to stop her from charging into certain danger.

Pushing against him with his antlers, James began to force Remus away from the girls. Enraged, Remus swiped at James knocking him over. Lily dropped Tash's arm and ran to him. Remus advanced teeth bared.

"Cestor Morandum!" Lily heard Tash shout. Remus flew backwards several feet. Jenny rushed over and pulled Lily up. James too was getting to his feet. He hurried over to Remus and began to push him backwards. Sirius joined in and together the two of them succeeded in forcing Remus back down the hill. Lily snapped back into action and began to drag her friends back to the castle.

Pushing Remus towards the lake James risked a glance over his shoulder. The girls were running back to the castle. He relaxed and released his grip on his friend. Remus snarled in anger at the loss of his prey.

OOO

"That…was…terrifying!" Jenny gasped. All three of them had collapsed in front of the fire in the common room. Shaking Lily nodded in agreement.

"I'm sorry guys," Tash said. "I'm so sorry I went after Apollo. I didn't even think that it was dangerous. I'm so so so sorry."

"Not your fault," Lily said. "We all forgot they were out there."

"I am so stupid. I risked our lives for my wand. I could have got you two killed," Tash continued to ramble before tearing upstairs to the girls dormitory. Lily made to follow, but seeing Jenny in tears decided to stay with her.

"That was so scary," Jenny whimpered. "That must be terrible for him. Having to go through that every month. Knowing that he could bite someone at anytime."

"Are you okay?" Lily asked.

"I'll be alright," Jenny said. "It's just going to take a while to stop shaking. See this is why I don't want to be an auror!"

"For now," Lily said. "We'd better go see Tash. She's going to go mad if she keeps blaming herself for this."

OOO

James and Sirius waited at the bottom of the stairs for the girls the next morning. Although they remembered that none of them had bitten, it didn't stop them from worrying about them.

"That was far too close last night," James said. "He could have bitten any one of them."

"What were they doing out there anyway?" Sirius asked frowning. "They knew he was out there. Why would they risk their lives to come outside?"

"Blame my cat," Lily said coming down the stairs. "He nicked Tash's wand."

Before she finished her sentence James had pulled her into a tight hug.

"Where are Tash and Jenny?" Sirius asked.

"Still upstairs," Lily said. "Tash still blames herself for leading us outside, and Jenny was up all night having nightmares. I told her to sleep in for a bit."

"We would have come up sooner but, you know, the founders don't trust us," James shot the staircase a dirty glare. Sirius on the other hand looked inappropriately cheerful.

"We are geniuses!" he stated before glancing around the empty common room (everyone was at breakfast) and transforming into a dog and trotting up the stairs with no complications.

"Where's Remus?" Lily asked.

"Still upstairs, blaming himself," James said. "Are you okay?"

"Fine," Lily said. James stared at her intently and Lily dropped her defences.

"I was so scared," she whispered. James hugged her again.

"So was I," he said. "If I'd lost you I don't know what I'd do." Lily pulled away slightly and James kissed her with all the love he'd ever felt for her.

"Guys show some restraint!" Crystel came downstairs looking very put out about something. Lily and James broke away. Lily felt herself blush slightly.

"What is Sirius doing in our dorm?" Crystel asked now that she had their attention.

"Visiting Tash I think," Lily said. "He's not doing anything else is he?"

"No, but how did he get up the stairs?" Crystel asked.

"He's a Marauder!" James said proudly. "We have our ways."

"Okay…" Crystel gave him a strange look before disappearing towards the portrait. She called over her shoulder.

"Oh, and Jenny is wide awake. I don't know what you three were up to last night but whatever it was scared the poor girl half to death."

"Does she know?" James asked.

"No," Lily shook her head. "But she came in just as we were leaving so she knows we were out last night." James gave a small sigh of relief.

"How bad is Remus?" Lily asked.

"Pretty bad," James said. "He keeps blaming himself. He's horrified that he could have bitten you. He was talking about breaking up with Jenny."

"Over my dead body!" Lily said furiously.

"Please don't," James said. "Come on, we've got ten minutes until Potions."

OOO

"Where's Jenny?" Lily looked up from her breakfast to see Remus looking even more ill than he usually did after full moons.

"In the tower," Lily said. "You're not going to break up with her are you?"

"I'm too dangerous for her to be around," Remus said sitting down. "I am so sorry about what happened last night." Lily flared up at him.

"You have nothing to be sorry about Remus," she said quietly so no one could hear. "And you are anything but dangerous."

"I could have bitten anyone of you last night," Remus said.

"That was an accident," Lily said. "We would have been out there if Apollo hadn't stolen Tash's wand. You can't break up with Jenny just because of one night."

"I don't want her to get hurt," Remus continued. Lily could see underneath all his excuses, the thought of breaking up with Jenny was killing him inside.

"Remus look at us," James said. "Lily's in danger dating me. Voldemort's after all Aurors, that includes my parents. You'll be lucky to find a relationship that doesn't require some kind of risk, particularly with the Death Eaters hanging around."

"Just go and talk to her," Lily begged. "And please don't break up with her. She's never been so happy in all the years she's been at school. It'll kill her if you split up. And you know it'll kill you too."

Remus stared at his plate for about thirty seconds before getting up and heading out of the hall.

"What do you think he's going to do?" Lily asked.

"Don't know," James said watching his friends back disappear out of the doors. "I hope he doesn't do anything stupid."

Hearing the bell, Lily and James raced to potions. As they arrived outside, they found Sirius and Tash talking outside. Sirius was clutching Tash's hand (the one that Apollo hadn't bitten, which had swollen to twice its normal size due to lack of a recent tetanus shot) and appeared to be giving her a stern talking to.

"Hey," Lily said handing them the stack of toast that she had brought. "Are you two okay?"

"Been better," Tash said. "My hand's swollen up though. I'm not going to be able to hold my quill! Your cat is on my hate list Lily! Where are Jenny and Remus?"

"Remus is talking to Jen upstairs?" James said.

"Does he still want to break up with her?" Sirius asked. Tash choked on her toast.

"What!" she spluttered. "He wants to break up with her! Why!"

"He seemed to think she'd be safer," Lily said.

"But it's not his fault! It's mine!" Tash raged. Sirius coughed and Tash remembered their conversation. "Okay it's not my fault as I've just been told, but it's not Remus's fault either!"

"That's what we said," Lily said. "But I still don't know what he's going to do."

"He breaks up with her and I'll turn him into…" Tash struggled to think of a suitable punishment.

"A Slytherin?" Lily suggested remembering that Tash had never got the opportunity to do so last night.

"That should be our answer to everything!" Tash said as the door to the classroom opened and everyone hurried inside for potions.

An hour and a half later they all hurried out of the classroom and up to the tower.

"He'd better not have done anything to upset her!" Tash muttered furiously as they climbed through the portrait hole. Lily cast her eyes around looking for them. She gave an audible sigh of relief as she located Jen and Remus kissing in a corner of the room.

"Aww!" Tash cooed causing both of them to look up and blush furiously.

"You guys missed potions," Lily said evenly. From their not-so-private corner Jen gulped.

"What did we miss?"

"Nothing that you probably don't already know Jen," Lily assured her as everyone came to sit beside them. Once they were within reach Jenny seized them all into a hug which made Lily feel like she was having a compression curse put on her.

"Ow!" Sirius complained, his voice sounding muffled. "Jenny you could kill someone like this!"

"Oh for the love of God has the whole world gone mad this morning!" came a voice from the stairs. Everyone broke away to see Crystel standing there. "First Jenny has a sleepless night, then Sirius is up in our dorm now Jenny's hugging everyo…"

She was cut off as Jenny ran over to hug a very flustered looking Crystel. Lily felt herself laugh along with everyone else at Jenny's happiness. Lily wondered if she knew how close she had come to losing Remus.

OOO

By the end of January the snow and ice around the castle had melted and sunshine returned to the grounds. For the seventh years however this meant an extreme increase in workload. However by the second week of February attention in the castle was diverted by the upcoming Valentines ball.

On the morning of February fourteenth, Lily was awoken by someone sitting on the end of her bed. Thinking it must be Jenny or Tash she threw her pillow at the offending person.

"Ow! Nice way to greet your boyfriend on Valentines Day!" Lily snapped wide awake.

"James what are you doing up here?" she grinned at the person in question.

"Came to say good morning to the most beautiful woman in the world!" he said hugging her. Lily hugged him back.

"Happy Valentines day," she said giving him a swift kiss on the lips as a bang echoed through the dormitory. Lily stuck her head out and her vision was obscured by thick purple smoke. Across the dorm, she could hear coughing and realised that Sirius and Remus had also come to say good morning. Hearing a great deal of swearing Lily guessed that Sirius had tried to wake Tash and had not banked on having her wand under her pillow.

"Mother of Merlin! Who is it!" the culprit screamed. "Who attacked me!" The smoke disappeared revealing a very angry pyjama clad Tash. Sirius looked sheepish.

"Are you trying to give me a heart attack!" Tash asked.

"Sorry love," Sirius hung his head in mock shame. Tash's furious expression tweaked.

"Sorry to wake everyone," she said, but Lily and James were the only ones listening. Crystel had flopped back to sleep and Jenny was being hugged by Remus (or was she hugging him? It was hard to tell)

"What's everyone doing today?" Lily asked, shifting up on her bed so that Sirius and Tash could join them.

"Well I was originally banking on a lie in before breakfast," Jenny said as she and Remus sat on the bed too. "But that idea's gone now. So I guess it's breakfast, Hogsmeade, then the ball."

"Food?" Tash perked up. "Where?"

"Downstairs if you would all care to get off my bed so we can go?" Lily asked. Everyone piled off and the three boys went back downstairs.

"Hurryuphurryuphurryuphurryuphurryuphurryuphurryuphurryuphurryup!" Tash said, fifteen minutes later at the door. Lily was dragging a brush through her hair and Jenny was searching for her socks.

"Shut up Tash," Lily begged. The mention of food had brought insanity with it.

"Hurryuphurryuphurryuphurryuphurr… OW!" she yelled as Crystel threw a pillow at her head.

"Ready," Jenny said pulling out her pale green socks from under her bed. Lily led Tash out of the door like she was a rather unstable person (which of course she was). Waiting for them at the bottom of the stairs were the three boys.

"Morning again!" Sirius said cheerfully. Tash kissed him on the cheek and rushed out of the portrait.

"What did I do?" Sirius asked looking rather confused.

"She's hungry," Jenny said.

"Oh good point," Sirius said before racing after her.

"Bonkers," James muttered. "Come on. Better go eat otherwise there'll be no food left with those two down there."

They trekked downstairs to find Tash and Sirius eating everything they could reach.

"Save room for tonight guys," Lily warned sitting down and helping herself to toast.

"K Lils," Tash said, reaching for the bacon.

"Hey guys," Jenny said scowling at the Slytherin table. "Check out Bellatrix and Rudolphus. Sick or what?"

Lily looked over and immediately wished she hadn't. Bellatrix and her boyfriend were sending soppy looks at each other across the table.

"Can't they do that in private?" James complained. "I mean, I know it's Valentines Day but we're trying to eat here!"

"I think they need some breaking up," Sirius gave an evil grin, which stopped Tash from her marathon mange tout (A/N: 'Eat-a-lot' for those of you who don't speak French). "Who wants to send them a present?"

"What kind of present?" James asked.

"An evil one," Sirius said. "Tash be a dear and pass me the ketchup."

"Must you do this every time we see them?" Lily asked wearily knowing it wouldn't make the blindest bit of difference. This time however, she was wrong.

"If you don't want us to…" James started. Sirius and Tash were giving evil glares.

"No go ahead," Lily said waving her hand dismissively. "Just try not to get caught, whatever you're doing."

Grinning from ear to ear the boys began setting up for their punishment. Before they could put it into practise however, there was a strangled cry from one of the other tables as the post owls swooped in.

"Oh no!" Lily said staring at the ceiling, where hundreds of black letters were being dropped to their appropriate tables. James squeezed her hand in worry. The tense arrival continued for about five minutes, in which time people periodically burst into tears and family groups began to find each other to tell the bad news.

"Look at the Slytherins!" Tash said in rage. Lily tore her eyes away from the ceiling and looked at the table, where they could see Bellatrix and her little group chuckling over a fifth year Hufflepuff who had just run out of the hall in tears.

"That evil…evil little…" Tash said having trouble articulating her sentences. Lily felt hot rage rise up in her.

"Um guys," James said getting their attention. Lily looked skywards again and to her horror, another owl swooped low over the Gryffindor table and dropped the letter at their end of the table…right in front of Jenny.

A/N: Aww! I really hate having to do this to the characters I love but it's story development. Leave me a review and I will start handing out virtual sugar! IMPORTANT! I update again on Friday (19th) cause I'm on holiday after then!

Next Chapter: The Valentines Ball! Put your dress robes on and find yourselves a date…oh wait that's the characters not the reviewers! Well you can always dress up and get a date anyway I'm not stopping you!

May Stardust fall in your dreams!