Disclaimer- I don't own it any more than I own the tissue industry. Which I don't own.

Chapter 9: James' Surprise, and Lily's Anger

Previously: James transformed. He would try to subdue Remus, but this was not a joke; not planned. As he fought him, he soon realised that he, James, was losing pitifully. What a time to lose a fight, he thought despondently.

Remus was agitated, as none of them had come with him this time. Then, as Remus tore at his leg, James fell, and to his dismay he saw Remus charging at Lily. James tried to stop him, but his leg couldn't stand his weight. Remus was closing in on Lily, drawing nearer and nearer, and she was backing away, looking absolutely petrified...

As Lily walked backwards, she suddenly had an idea. If she was going to be able to get this wolf to stop attacking her, she was going to have to stop him herself, as James couldn't.

She took a deep breath, and drew her wand. She was so glad she'd brought it with her rather than leaving it in her schoolbag, but she could think about that later. Something else was important right now. She only knew one spell that would drive away evil creatures, and… a wolf was evil, right? Lily faltered, and stepped back again. This was no wolf. The retractable claws, the shape of the snout, the tufted tail… that was a werewolf, pure and simple. She really needed that spell now.

'Expecto Patronum!' she yelled, not thinking. A silvery mist escaped the end of her wand. The werewolf ignored it. She had to think of something happy. She knew that the Patronus charm was meant for Dementors, but what else could she do? What spell deterred a werewolf? She thought hard of when she had received her Hogwarts letter, and cast the charm again. More silver mist. She was on the edge of the lake now, and she stumbled as the pebbles underneath her feet shifted with her steps. Suddenly, she thought of what she and James had just done.

Sitting by the lake, skimming pebbles. Desperately, she tried one more time.

'EXPECTO PATRONUM!' She yelled, and out of the end of her wand sprung her family dog. It was a mongrel, with a lot of Red Setter in there somewhere, but you couldn't see that in the darkness, with a dog made of silver mist. It looked like any other large dog. It rushed towards the werewolf, wagging its tail, probably barking, and to Lily's surprise, the werewolf paused. It sniffed at the dog, and then rolled over onto its side. The dog ran off towards what seemed to be the Whomping Willow, and, after a short pause, the werewolf followed it. When the sound of running paws died away, Lily collapsed.

She sat down hard on the pebbles beneath her, shaking uncontrollably. She started to cry, letting out the nervous tension that had built up in her when she was fighting the werewolf, and tried to put her wand back into her pocket. From what seemed like far away, she heard James' voice.

'Lily, no! Don't cry! Please don't cry!'

Hearing this, she stopped. She had completely forgotten that he was there, probably needing immediate medical attention, and goodness knows what else. She tried to pull herself together, and crawled over to James, who had turned back into a human. He was very pale, and his left leg was bleeding. She reached his side, stared at his leg, and started crying again. He put his arms around her and held her close, until she stopped crying. He wiped away her last tears, and then held her head back to look at her. Her face was blotchy from crying, and her eyes were swollen. Her lip was trembling and she looked a complete mess. It seemed not only her eyes had lost control, but her nose, as she swiftly reached into her pocket for a handkerchief, and blew hard, blushing furiously.

'Lily, are you alright?'

Lily shook her head impatiently 'Yes, I'm fine', she said, sniffing, 'but… are you alright? Why was there a werewolf on Hogwarts grounds? Isn't that really dangerous? Oh my God! It's not a student, is it? Or a professor? James?' Her mind was bursting with questions.

'I'm fine. Yes, that was a werewolf, and yes, it is a student. It's, well,' he took a deep breath, 'I suppose you'd have to know after tonight anyway, but it's Remus. He's is usually kept somewhere secret, and safe. We, that is to say, Sirius, Peter and I – we can all transform, stag, as you saw, rat, and dog. I think that's why your Patronus worked so well, but that doesn't matter. We usually stay with him, but I think he was probably angry as no-one was with him today, and he was also worried. He saw us as two humans, and so, well. That's why.'

'Oh my God…' Lily burst into tears again. James held her close as she sobbed into his shoulder, pausing every now and again to wipe her face on her handkerchief.

They sat like that for a while, Lily's sobs subsiding, her mind reeling from the past few minutes, until James said,

'You like honest guys, right Lily?'

'Yes. Of course.' That wasn't a question she had been expecting.

'So I'll be honest. Sirius had a plan. It was to get us together. I'm really sorry. And it was that something was going to attack us, except it was going to be Sirius, who transforms into a dog, instead of Remus as a werewolf, and then I was going to 'save' you.'

'But… why?'

'I really like you, Lily.'

'I really like you!' Lily blurted out, 'But I wouldn't get one of my friends to attack you and try to set something up! I'd hoped that it would happen between us, without interference,' she shook her head sadly, 'but… I don't think that can happen now. How many of my friends knew?'

'Well, all of them; Suzie, Caroline, and Sarah. They helped us.'

'Well then they're dead. Vile cows. I take it you can't walk. No? Then I'll have to take you up to the hospital wing. Come on.'

Lily, fuming, supported a limping and wounded James up to the hospital wing. The journey was silent – Lily was too angry to speak, and James didn't want to make it worse – but before they went in Lily said,

'You know we were talking about things that we know about each other? Well, I think my transformation was something else you don't know about me. Maybe we should try not to keep so many secrets from each other.'

She helped him in and left, off to the Gryffindor common room. She strode up to her dormitory, where all her friends were.

'Suzie, Caroline, Sarah! You'll never guess what happened to me just now down at the lake!' she said, the sarcasm and hint of niceness only just covering the malice that was the main bulk of her sentence, 'Really, you won't.'

'What happened?'

'Oh, nothing. I just got attacked by a huge werewolf and had to fight him off myself.' Suzie squeaked and Sarah gasped, 'Oh, don't be stupid,'snapped Lily, 'I didn't get bitten.'

'But, Lily…' Her three friends looked at each other quickly. The plan had gone so wrong!

'Tell us everything,' said Sarah sympathetically.

'Are you sure you don't know most of it already?' Lily's comeback answer was ready and waiting, and shut them all up.

'I was having a lovely time with Ja- Potter, when suddenly this huge werewolf came up to us and started to attack us. James tried to fight it off and failed, so I had to do it. Satisfied?

'But…'

'How…'

'But nothing, my relationship with Potter, or lack thereof, is none of your business. I'd appreciate it if you kept your collective snout out of it.' Caroline's giggles at this were cut off by the glares of all three of her friends. 'I'm going to bed. Leave me alone. I shall incinerate anything that disturbs me. Goodnight.'

Lily went into the bathroom to brush her teeth.

'Oh... oh my god...' sighed Suzie.

'I suppose we should really have expected it,' said Sarah sadly, then sighed deeply and added, 'We're screwed.'

'I know, marvellous, isn't it?' drawled Caroline in her sarcastic manner which was infuriating to say the least. It exasperated her friends to no end, but they knew better than to thump her for it. Caroline was by no means shy of using her fists and she hit hard. Very hard. Ignoring Suzie and Sarah's gritted teeth, she added 'Night, all' and slouched off to bed.

Lily, when she came back in, avoided Suzie and Sarah's eyes, and lay in bed, staring at the cover of her four-poster above, thinking. It wasn't really James' fault. It was Sirius'. Trust Sirius Black to think up such an utterly stupid plan. Maybe she should forgive James. Could she? A song drifted into her mind, sending her to sleep as she tried to remember every lyric.

I never thought I'd miss you
Half as much as I do
And I never thought I'd feel this way
The way I feel
About you

As soon as I wake up
Every night, every day
I know it's you I need
To take the blues away

It must be love, love, love
It must be love, love, love
Nothing more, nothing less
Love is the best…

Yay! Another chapter. Unfortunately, it has a cross Lily in it. Anyway. Please review. The topic is scissors.

Larka :)