"You'd make a wonderful stag, Potter …."

James's eyes opened wide at these words. He was deeply confused. Did Evans discover their secret?

"What do you mean," he asked in an innocent voice.

Just then a boy with vivid orange hair came to talk to them. His name was Arthur Weasley. Lily liked him a lot because he was always friendly and strangely interested in muggles. He had spend long nights asking Lily Evans about them. Every Christmas Lily just had to buy him a muggle plug and he was over the moon!

'Funny sweet guy' was Lily's opinion on Arthur Weasley.

But right then he came in a most unfortunate moment. Evans had felt sure James was trapped and would have told her everything if Weasley hadn't just burst in!

"Hey, James," Arthur greeted his friend. There was huge smile on his freckled face.

James Potter was relieved. He had been quite scared of Lily and when her green eyes didn't reflect happiness they looked quite menacing.

James Potter liked Arthur Weasley because he was a very funny and trustable guy. Unfortunately Arthur was what Sirius called way un-cool. He didn't particularly want to impress, unlike Black and Potter, so he didn't care about his reputation. As long as he had plugs he was happy. And, Lily had noticed, he was even happier now that he sneaked of every night with Molly Hope.

"What do you want, Weasley?" James tried to sound annoyed.

Being annoyed would hide the fact that he dreaded the moment he would have to be alone with Evans.

"Well, mate, Arthur grinned, Dumbledore has been sending messages all over the place for you and the others. He's getting impatient by the minute and is wondering why you're not showing up. But, aha! I now understand that you were having a private conversation with Madam."

Lily had to laugh. James got really annoyed and he wasn't pretending anymore.

"Firstly we're not having the kind of conversation you're thinking of, because Peter and Remus are—"

James turned around. Peter and Remus had disappeared and so had Sirius!

Fuck! He swore silently.

Had they gone to see Dumbledore without him? No, that wasn't the kind of thing Marauders would do!

"Well, Potter, I'm waiting for an explanation."

James paled. He knew he had to lie. He simply had to. For Remus. For his best friends. Not even Evans could make him tell her Moony's secret. James often made up stories to get out of detention. Like the time he had jinxed Snape's hair to be bright pink, his excuse was that he had tripped and had done the jinx wrong. It wasn't his best lie but Professor Slughorn totally bought it. But maybe that was because he was concentrating not to smile! So, because he had had many practise, James found himself being a professional liar. Without a trace of hesitation he spoke again.

"Okay, you won, Evans, he said in a fake defeated voice, well you see the guys call me Prongs because one night we saw a stag in the Hogwarts grounds!"

James's eyes were wide in innocence.

"They said I resembled the stag a lot and so came this strange nickname. Every night the stag appears mysteriously and that's why we slip out of the common-room in the dark. The stag is our friend, you see."

Lily nodded.

"Sure, that makes sense," she said.

James smiled.

"Yeah, yeah. Now, Evans, if you will excuse me I have a special meeting with the headmaster."

And he trotted out of the common-room. There was a long silence between Arthur and Lily.

"Do you believe him," he asked after a while.

Lily laughed and shook her red hair.

"No, of course not! That's a lot of crap he just told us. Who does he think we are? The stag is our friend, indeed!"

Arthur looked shocked. If someone could be really naive than that someone was Arthur Weasley.

"But he looked so innocent, and I don't think he would like that if he wasn't telling the truth!"

Lily scoffed.

"Don't be a fool, Arthur, I have been seeing that look practised on many teachers of the school for six years now! I'm telling you, it's when he looks innocent that we have to worry ..."

--

James made his way to Dumbledore's office. He already knew the password because he often 'visited' Dumbledore with Padfoot. There, just in front of the door, he found his three friends waiting for him.

"Cool, you've been waiting for me, James grinned at Padfoot, I thought you'd just go without me."

Sirius looked cross.

"That's not the kind of thing a Marauder would do," he cried.

James grinned.

"Nope, you're right. We Marauders always stick together!"

Remus was standing against the wall looking paler than before. James went to him.

"Moony, don't worry, whatever happens we'll be there with you and we'll protect you."

Remus said nothing as he approached the door and knocked …

--

Author's note: This chapter is rather short, I think, but it's been the most difficult one to write! I didn't how to make James react, if he was going to tell Lily or not. I decided now wasn't the time… Please if you have any ideas for the rest, tell me! Thank you for all your Reviews! It has made my day.

One last thing, I don't know what Molly's name was before she turned into a Weasley so I invented one.