A/N: Ahhh! Sorry about the whole Chapter 11/ Chapter 12 fiasco. Just so you know, my computer kept stuffing up whenever I posted chapter 11 (it wouldn't show up) so I had to make chap. 11 chap. 12… BUT THEN MY COMPUTER SHOWED CHAPTER 11 AND MADE ME LOOK LIKE A TOTAL IDIOT BECAUSE I'D POSTED THE SAME CHAPTER TWICE! Yes… uh, my last ever thanks (or maybe not – check the authors notes at the end!) go to Fred's Girl 4 ever, pixiestixx, summerluck2, potterlurvesginny, Hermione Jane Malfoy, EmmaandDanielFan, computerboy, DANI, EboniteEvans, notquiteblonde31, Girl of the stars, pinkalarmclock, WhiteCamellia, Eleanor, IceFire9, zippyfox, rachel, Whitelight72, chocolatefrogs07, brown-eyed angelofmusic, scowlingpixie, Gwenog Jones, PremzaWitchOfWeirdos and VODE. And I thought I had lots of reviews last time!Thanks for reviewing, even if you were just saying I posted the same chapter twice!

Dislclaimer: Per-lease.

Just say sorry!

He won't except it!

You've got to try!

I can't!

The battle had been raging on inside Lily's head for hours.

You'll never have the chance of him forgiving you if you don't apologize! This thought rang true to Lily. James forgiveness – how wonderful would that be? And her conscience was right, she had to try. Gathering herself up, she walked over to the 'marauders' armchairs.

"Er, James?" she began, hoping he wouldn't yell. But he only blinked up at her blearily.

"Me?" he said in a disbelieving voice, a tiny flicker of hope in his brown eyes.

"Come to slap him for something else?" asked Sirius coolly. Both Lily and James glared at him. Then James turned back to her.

"Could I, um, have a moment?" she asked, gesturing at armchairs on the other side of the common room.

"No problem." Sighed James, so together they walked across the room. Lily sat down beside the crackling fire. Dispiritedly, James flopped down onto the chair opposite her. As he did so, his shirt collar shifted, revealing his right shoulder to Lily. Too late, he tried to cover it…

"I thought you would've been to the hospital wing by now!" Lily yelped.

"Shh!" James shushed her, although there were only six other people in the common room. "I can't. I… wasn't supposed to be out there last night."

"Then why were you? What on earth were you doing in there? James, what was that thing that hurt you?" she asked.

James hesitated. "Remus." He said softly.

"WHAT?" exclaimed Lily. "He didn't… Remus?"

"Yeah, he did, but he didn't mean to, it was an accident. I can't tell-"

"An ACCIDENT? How can slicing your neck open be an accident?"

"Keep your voice down! Look, he can't help it, he's a-" James stopped, looking furious with himself.

"He's a what?" Lily's mind was spinning.

Remus? But he's always so pleasant! And a prefect! It's just so unlike him to do something horrible like that, especially to one of his friends. James said he couldn't help it, but how could it be accidental unless something was, like, possessing him? And if something WAS possessing him, how did James know when it was going to happen, when he cancelled our date? And then, who would possess him in the middle of the night?

And then it clicked. Remus' mysterious illness. The howls at the end of the tunnel. Madam Pomfrey coming back up to the castle. The destruction in the Shreiking Shack. Lily gasped.

"A werewolf?" she asked weakly. "He's a werewolf?"

"Shut up!" hissed James. Lily had forgotten entirely about her apology.

"So that's why he kept looking up at the sky during dinner! But I still don't get it. How did you become a …stag?" James grinned.

"Sorry, Lily. Can't tell you that." But Lily glared at him so hard that his smile faltered.

"I'll figure it out anyway." She told him. James sighed again.

"I guess you're right. I'm – we're – unregistered Animagi."

"WHAT? But that's against the law!"

"Going to turn us in to the ministry?"

"Of course not. But that's really, really advanced magic! You're just lucky you haven't been left with antlers permanently!"

"There was a compliment somewhere in all those accusations, and for that, I thank you." Lily frowned.

"So I guess Sirius was that dog?"

"Uh-huh."

"Then where was Peter?"

"Couldn't you see him? I guess he was quite small – he was a rat."

"So you, Sirius and Peter, in the form of a stag, a dog and a rat, go to Hogsmeade every full moon to hang out with Remus, who's a WEREWOLF?" she gaped.

"Er, yeah. Pretty much."

"But that's really dangerous! What if one of you got bitten?" said Lily. James laughed.

"We're too fast. The closest we've ever gotten to being bitten is last night, you choose a bad night to follow us."

"You chose a bad night to ask me out." muttered Lily, and James grinned again.

"Now, can I ask you something?"

"You just did." Said Lily. James smiled in a sarcastic kind of way.

"How did you know that I was the stag out there?" Lily flushed. She wasn't too keen on letting James know that she could recognize his eyes as those of the one she fancied, but, worst of all, she had just been reminded of the purpose of the conversation.

"I dunno. I kind of just… knew."

"Right, whatever. And, why did you follow us? Were you still angry?"

"No." said Lily truthfully. "I wanted to apologize." James looked confused.

"Apologize? Apologize for what?"

"Apologize for WHAT? For being so rude to you when you couldn't help the fact that you were busy! For following you out of pure spite and hatred! For doubting you when you told me the truth! And for leaving you when, for all I knew, you were being KILLED out there! Apologize for that!"

James was looking at her with a funny expression on his face.

"You risked your life to say sorry?"

"Risked my life?" asked Lily, her eyebrows raised.

"You knew that tree was the Whomping Willow as well as I did." Lily blushed again.

"I can take on a tree." She said more lightly than she felt.

"Well, you have every right to, you know, hate me and everything - but now you mention it, I'm sorry. " Now it was Lily's turn to feel confused. What did James need to apologize for?

"I could've got you seriously hurt last night." He continued.

"What? It's not your fault I followed you! I'm to blame for everything that happened last night. I'm so, so sorry, James." James looked relieved.

"It's OK. Truce?" he held out his hand for her to shake, but she only stared at it in amazement.

"How can you possibly just forgive me for something like this?" she asked, dumbfounded. James smiled.

"It wasn't your fault. And besides," James took a deep breath. "I love you, Lily Evans."

Lily merely sat there, gaping at him. A wonderful feeling was coursing through her body. She wanted to ask "You do?" but her mouth couldn't find the words.

"Now, where's that stuff when you need it?" said James casually, checking his jacket pockets. "Ahh, forget it. Accio mistletoe!" Lily looked up. A clump of white berries was speeding towards them from the boys staircase. She laughed.

"But it's not even Christmas!"

"Who cares?" asked James, pulling her to her feet.

And, as Lily felt, for the third time in her life, a wonderful, warm sensation spread throughout her while wrapped in James' strong arms, she knew she loved him, too. With all her heart.

A/N: Hee hee! Cheesy ending! Wow, ending – I can't believe it! Less than two months ago I posted the first chapter! Sob. I'm going to miss writing this, that's why I'm going to do a sequel. It'll be a few weeks before I post it, though, cause here in Australia, the new school year's about to start, and I need to do all that boring text book shopping and uniform sorting. Yeah, anyway, I know it was kind of still the fifth day of Christmas, but it sounded a lot better for James to say "Who cares?" than "It's still the fifth day of Christmas.". So there. Before I go, I've got a couple of things I wanna say to you guys, so…

To all my reveiwers:

Every single one of you guys are awesome. The best thing that can possibly happen to me is for my inbox to have an email in it from with the subject 'Review Alert'. An extra special thanks to xEngulfedInDarknessx, rupertisahottie05, EboniteEvans, russianchikk and PremzaWitchOfWeirdos. You guys started reading and reviewing in early chapters and have stuck with me ever since.

Until Next Time,

Dudette 13.