By headupintheclouds
Weeks and months passed much the same, and December was fast approaching. The temperature had steadily decreased, and teachers were now finding amusing ways of warming their rooms.
Professor Slughorn simply had his students light fires in their cauldron, but had needed to change this method after a student singed his eyebrows one chilly afternoon. He had started simply warming the air in the classroom before each hour started, which meant that by the end of each class, students were huddled together for warmth, but he just asked them all to bundle up tighter.
Professor McGonagall had chosen this as the perfect time for teaching students to warm up books, so that they could study while heating up frosty hands. Chris Giddley had accidentally incased his book in a block of ice, and was sent out of the room.
Some teachers decided that just shutting windows would keep the cold out, and those were the classes where students brought 2, 3, or perhaps even 4 cloaks to keep them warm, shared seats, and cast Warming Spells on each other (Subo Corporis!) put this was banned from Flitwicks' class after poor Emily Wanteg had accidentally said "Sub Corporis," and ended up in a compromising position (think knee next to ear) under Whitney Passer's desk.
Outside of classes, students merely huddled together in their Common Rooms. This was awkward for Lily and James, so she just looked up how to heat up the room, and put a continuation charm on top of it.
Lily hadn't blown up once lately, which caused him much hope and happiness, and vexed her a little, but she convinced herself he hadn't done anything worth blowing up over.
Sitting down at the breakfast table, she swirled her food around her plate, her chin resting on her knees. Remus came up behind her, sitting down next to her. Springing up, Lily rejoiced, "Remus!"
And encircled him in a hug. He looked baffled, uncomfortable, and confused. "Er- I'm going out with Lizzie, you know," he said awkwardly.
Lily's eyes widened, and she blushed a little.
Interrupting the awkward moment, James cautiously asked, "Don't I get a hug?"
And so, in the moment, not realizing anything, she hugged him.
He eyes bugged out of his head, and he got a lopsided, dreamy grin on his face.
Sirius teased Lily, "Imagine what he'd do if you kissed him," and Lily pursed her lips and hit Sirius on the shoulder.
Strutting out of the hall, James completely ignored his raging fan girls, and for the rest of the day, he merely stared starry-eyed at his Professors, once in a while giving Lily a glance.
Later, in the Head Common Room, James came in late from a detention, to find Lily asleep on the couch. Silently sidling up to her, he brushed a long auburn lock from he face with the very tips of his fingers, and bent down.
Close to her ear, he whispered, "You don't know how happy you make me," and watched as she stirred a little, then turned over and fell back into a deep sleep.
James went to sleep with a smile on his face.
Soon it became early December, and the Professors had increased the homework load by quite a bit, in hopes of finishing sections of the curriculum before Christmas hols.
Lily kept up to date on her work quite nicely, and surprisingly, James followed the example. However, during the next to last Astronomy class, she knocked on James' door to see if they should walk to class together, and he jumped, clearly shaken, when she opened the door.
"Want to walk to class together?" she asked suspiciously.
"Erm, not going to class," James said slowly, working it all out in his head.
"Not feeling well," he claimed, clutching his stomach and heading for the bed. "Think I'm going to give it a pass,"
Lily raised an eyebrow, but pushed the thing from her mind as she exited and headed for the Astronomy Tower.
Tonight's assignment was to calculate the distance each planet was from the full moon. They did this about every 4 days for nearly a month, and tonight was the last time they'd have to do it.
As she was rounding up Jupiter's calculations, she noticed movement on the vast lawn below her, and glanced around. No one else had noticed three figures that stole silently over the black surroundings, as they all had their necks craned to look at the sky.
She squinted into the darkness, barely making out silhouettes through the night. She saw a pair of antlers, a bounding dog, and a thrashing figure.
"Werewolf," she deducted, wondering at the others.
All too soon, they stole behind a tree, and Lily could no longer make them out. There wasn't room behind the tree from them all, and she would've seen if they went beyond it, so she concluded that they had apparated.
After class, Lily walked up to the school with Lizzie, who she told about the figures.
"And the last silhouette looked like a deer or a stag, and had antlers." Lily finished, looking intently at Lizzie.
"First of all, Lils, female deers don't have antlers, and second, a stag has prongs, not antlers. Technically," she added, upon Lily's eyebrows furrowing.
A look of outrage and surprise replaced them, and Lizzie quickly joined her friend Sarah up ahead.
Realization had dawned on Lily, and after everyone had entered the Gryffindor Common Room, she lurked outside of it, her anger growing with every second.
"How could they?" she wondered, seething.
"It would mean- illegally- but, that's such a hard series of potions and spells!" Each thought was more irate than the next.
Lily Evans sat outside the Common Room all night, and with each disconcerting, but impossible thought, she grew more irate. Finally, she heard footsteps echoing along the hallway, and she got to her feet.
The poor Marauders had no clue what they'd gotten themselves into.
A/N: Short one, I know, but I was having writer's block for most of the weekend. Anyway, I'm up to almost 1,000 hits (933, which is closer than far from). Also, I posted the one-shot chapter whatever was based off. It's called "The Cloak that Changed the World," so please review it, and take it OUT OF CONTEXT to this story.