Author's Note:
To the lovely guest that sent me the nicest review paragraph ever – THANK YOU :-D sorry I didn't see your review until just after I posted the last chapter so I'm replying now, thank you so much for reviewing, I smiled for a whole hour! Do try writing fan fiction – it's so much fun and I can type pretty fast now because of it :P Ok I'm rambling to now, on with the next chapter.
"He called you what?" Sirius half shouted after Lily had meekly explained why she'd left to talk to Severus the other week.
"A… A mud blood" Lily ducked her head to hide the imminent tears.
"That slimy git" Sirius scorned, reaching for his wand.
"Don't Sirius" Lily was starting to regret telling them.
"If he doesn't I will" James stood fuming.
"Why does it even mean that much?" Lily tried to calm the two of them down.
"Because, Lils, he should NEVER say that to anyone, no matter what background you come from you should be judged only on your ability as a wizard, and how you treat other wizards. Basing it on the second one your more of a wizard then he'll ever be" James look intensely down at her.
"So he should be made to pay for what he did" Sirius stood up whilst slamming his hand on the table.
"He did apologise…"
"That means nothing, he doesn't deserve you forgiving him, he deserves me and Sirius kicking the shit out of him"
"Don't beat him up, please James" Lily tried to pull his fist down to his side.
"I either beat him up, or throw him into the Great Lake, which do you prefer?"
"Neither James, please, remember how much trouble you got him for dangling him upside-down by the oak tree last year after the defense against the dark arts OWL?"
"That was pretty funny…" Sirius tried to excuse the joke.
"Ok, fine" James looked back on it "In hindsight that wasn't the best idea in the world, but he deserved it after he betrayed you like that"
"I know you only do what you do to protect me, but it can't carry on like this" Lily put her hands on his cheeks "I love you James, and I can't see you get hurt because of it"
"Ok, I promise I won't lay a finger on Snivellus" he sighed, lowering his fists.
"Well HE won't…" Sirius thought to himself, the plan slowly forming in his head.
"Remus!" James found Remus huddled in a corner beside the Ravenclaw point counter outside the Great Hall "Oh God, Rem, what's the matter?" James hauled him to his feet and hooked him arm around his shoulder.
"It's… my time… of the month" He gasped between the sharp stabs of pain shooting through his head.
"Where shall I take you, Pomphrey, or the shack?" James looked at him in a panic.
"Madam Pomphrey" Remus managed to force out "She… has my medicine"
They met up with Sirius on the stairs and he automatically followed them knowing what was wrong straight away, Peter was no-where to be seen.
"Oh, Remus, are you getting those headaches again?" Madam Pomphrey didn't know that the rest of the Marauders knew about his condition, if she found that out the closer she was to discovering their transformations.
"Oh yeah, he asked us to bring him up here" James put Remus carefully onto a bed.
"Well he'll be safe in here for the night" Madam Pomphrey explained whilst shooing the two of them out of the infirmary "You can come and see him in the morning, I'm sure"
Just before they left James and Sirius mouthed "Meet you there" over her shoulder, smiled, and ran down the stairs to the entrance. Just before they left the castle Sirius stopped dead as he remembered his plan.
"Ooh, James, I've forgotten something, I'll meet you down there yeah?" He babbled before slapping his shoulder and running off determinedly to hover around the Slytherin common room entrance for a bit. It wasn't long before Severus came out.
"What do you want, Black" he scorned.
"Just a friendly hello Snivellus" Sirius smiled suspiciously.
"It's not just that though, is it" Severus frowned "Shouldn't you be running of with that Remus of yours? That's normally what you do every month"
"Yeah, funny that, isn't it?"
"What do you mean?" Severus was trying to walk around him but Sirius just blocked him each time.
"Well, I bet you really want to know where Remus goes, don't you. A massive secret like that"
"Probably gallivanting in the woods with the other idiotic Marauders"
"Ah, but can you be certain?" Sirius grinned.
"What are you trying to suggest?" he sighed glaring at him trying to find signs of what he was trying to tell him.
"Well, I was just thinking that you should follow Remus, I mean I know he's in the infirmary at the moment, but I know he's going to come down and go to the same place again"
"Why would you be telling me to do this if it wasn't a trick" Severus asked suspiciously.
"Well, if I'm honest, I want someone to catch Moony because I'm tired of running around after him trying to cover up the lies, and this way we both benefit from it. You get the pleasure of humiliating and blabbing on a notoriously untouchable Marauder, and I get to spend more time eating cake in the kitchens"
Severus thought for a moment, but sighed and decided that the worst that could happen was Remus seeing him and being annoyed, so what was the harm? "Ok then, whatever" he sighed, and barged past Sirius who stood there with a pleased grin on his face before running out of a back door to meet James behind the Whomping Willow waiting for Remus to come down for the infirmary.
"Did you get what you needed? "James asked his out of breath smiling friend.
"Oh, it's fine, someone else has taken care of it" James was about to ask what it actually was he was getting but Remus came limping down to the Whomping Willow, Madam Pomphrey clutching his hand.
"You'll be ok from here then Remus?" She asked whilst handing him the rest of his pain relief potion.
"Yes Madam Pomphrey, thank you" Remus took the bottle and began to limp in pain down to the base before quickly stopping, James and Sirius came around to meet him.
"Where the hell is Peter?" James looked around in shock "What are we supposed to do without him?"
"I have no idea" Remus panted through the pain.
"We thought he'd gone up to see you" Sirius looked behind Remus in shock to try and find the outline of Severus to try and ward him off.
"We'll have to try and freeze it then" James suggested determinedly before transforming into his stag animegus, Sirius quickly followed, desperate to freeze the tree before Remus changed. He'd only waned for Severus to get a fright when he heard the howling, not get seriously injured.
In an attempt to get to the pressure point at the base of the tree James began to charge to the trunk, but was thrown back by a massive, rock hard branch whacking him in the chest before he collapsed in a heap next to Remus.
"James, don't try again" He begged before falling to the floor in pain. Sirius, however, had gone to the other side of the tree and howled before rampaging forwards, avoiding the first branch before getting hit in the head with one and being knocked out briefly. He then stumbled up and continually got thrown back and forth by other branches.
On hearing Sirius' wails James hauled himself up and galloped over to him dragging the huge black dog over to the side of the tree where Sirius turned back into his human form, James then nimbly skipped in between branches, one scraping the side of his shiny coat and another crashed into his leg.
Just as James turned back into a human and was about to hit the pressure point there was a scream of joy from the bottom of the hill.
"Well well well!" Severus strolled over to Remus who was desperately trying to get to the opening "This is where you're going, hm? What's through there a secret base? Why would you lot risk getting pulverized by the Whomping Willow just for a secret meeting?"
"Severus, please, I'm begging you, just let us go" James decided he had to let Severus see the secret exit just to save Remus so he slammed his hand onto the pressure point totally freezing the tree.
"And you've abused school property to do it, you sicken me, and I'm pretty sure the school will be delighted to find out too" Before James could retaliate there was an ear piercing howl from the spot where Remus once lay.
"NO!" Sirius yelled after dragging his bruised body up from the ground.
"WHAT THE HELL!" Severus reeled backward, tripping over on a branch and attempted to pick himself up as the towering, black eyed beast loomed over him.
"SEVERUS RUN!" James screamed before he swiftly transformed back into his animegus and ran up to the werewolf, a battered black dog next to him.
In an attempt to distract the werewolf they bit at his ankles, the werewolf turned and swiped James the dark, crimson blood trickled over his pure coat. Sirius growled whilst jumping on the werewolf's back. James looked over at Severus who lay unconscious because of the shock and ran to him, checking him over for scratches or bites. Satisfied he was alright - apart from his twisted ankle - James grabbed Severus' collar and painfully dragged him out of harm's way leaning up against the side of the castle before licking his face to wake him up.
"This is going to scar me for life" He thought to himself as Severus slowly regained consciousness and looked over in shock and the stag next to him. Sighing, James reluctantly turned back into his human form and stood in front of Severus.
"What. The. Hell" Severus gawped open mouthed at him.
"Tell anyone and I'll kill you" James threatened.
"You saved my life Severus stammered, and then contorted his face into an unforgiving scowl "Looks like I owe you"
"Well you're to be blamed, why the hell did you think it was a good idea to follow Remus" James glared at him. Severus was about to blame everything of Sirius, then remembered that he owed his life to James Potter, he shivered in disgust at the idea, but at least he could start by not destroying his friendship.
"I dunno" He shrugged "Now I'm getting out of here" He looked in terror down at the Whomping Willow and limped back into the castle.
"Shit" James thought to himself as he transformed back into a stag and limped back down to the tree "This is going to hurt in the morning" Was the last thing he thought before passing out, his body was too weak to uphold the transformation and he turned back into a human, an open wound on his chest pouring out blood.
Sirius had been flung to the floor by the werewolf but he got up, determined to get Remus away from where he could harm anyone. Painfully limping he howled so the werewolf turned and Sirius quickly charged to the base of the Whomping Willow and disappeared, the werewolf hot on his heels. Once Sirius had lead him deep into the forest by Hogsmeade he hid under a bush for a while before running back to the school to find James lying unconscious on the floor. To try and wake him up, still weak and wounded Sirius licked at his face and whimpered with the rest of his strength. Unable to withstand the weight of his own body he fell to the floor and changed back into his human self.
The brutal light pounded James' eyes as he forced them open, him bones aching and the hot burn of pain piercing most of his body, an unbearable stab from his chest, his right hand felt stiff as if something was restraining it. The world around him was a blur of white light. To try and decipher where he was James attempted to heave his legs of the bed he was lying on and look for his glasses, but the bruises forced them still as every slight movement caused immense pain.
"James, don't move sweetie" Madam Pomfrey's pitying voice rang through his ears making his headache even word.
"Mrrgh" Was all he could say, the cuts around his mouth made it hard to speak.
"Yes dear" He could hear Madam Pomfrey putting a glass of water by his bed. Determined to see if Remus and Sirius were safe in the infirmary as well he dragged his hand up, wincing at the pain, and patted the bedside table before finally feeling the cool curve of his glasses. Using the rest of his strength he balanced them on his nose and looked around.
A mop of fiery red hair rested on the bedside table, Lily was fast asleep at his side.
"L…Lily" He whispered nimbly tapping her head, she stirred up sleepily looked up at him, on seeing that he was awake she snapped her eyes open and shot up.
"James!" She beamed clutching his hand even tighter.
"Wh…what happened?" He stuttered.
"That's what I want you to tell me, Filch found you and Sirius covered in blood by the Whomping Willow and called the teachers immediately"
"Ah" James racked his brain to remember the events that had happened and he shivered.
"Why, what happened? I mean look at you! You could have been killed!"
"It doesn't matter" James hadn't got past three word sentences yet and he didn't have the strength to explain.
"Please James" Lily begged, stroking his forehead.
Trying to avoid the question James looked around the room "Sirius… Remus" He panted, urgently trying to find them.
"Well…" It was Lily's turn to explain "Sirius is fine, well, he's as bad as you, but, er, they never found Remus"
"What!?" James sat up in shock staring at Lily, avoiding his muscles that were screaming for him to stop.
"Please sit down James, it'll be fine, they've got people out there looking for him right now" Lily tried to calm James down and get him back to lying down.
"Lily, I haven't been through all of this just for Remus to get hurt" Lily could see the hurt in his eyes.
"I know, I know" She hushed, getting him to sip some water.
"And Sirius…" James asked worried about the answer he was going to get "Has he woken up?"
"Not yet, Madam Pomphrey has been trying to rouse him but she's got nothing.
"Let me try" James said quickly sitting up again to try and find Sirius, he could see his outline through the curtain next to him.
"No James, we need to try and get you better first" Lily's attempts to calm him down were failing this time as James battled through the pain from his chest and the bruises covering his whole body and hauled himself into a wheelchair next to his bed, on realizing he had no strength to wheel himself over to Sirius he looked over at Lily desperately.
"Fine, but on your head be it" Lily knew nothing she did would ever be able to keep the Marauders away from each other so she reluctantly rolled James over to Sirius' bedside.
"Pads" James whispered, lightly shaking his arm "Pads wake up!" he got no response. "This is never going to work" he sighed not wanting to do anything drastic in case it hurt Sirius more than he already was. James sat there painfully taking it Sirius' battered body, wishing he'd helped him keep Remus at bay instead of Severus.
"What normally wakes him up?"
"Bacon, but unless you have a portable oven on you…" James racked his brain for ideas, but didn't have the chance to put any of them into action because they could hear shouting coming from down the stairs."
"Quick get into bed" Lily swiftly rolled James over to his bed and carefully helped him back into bed, tucking his sheets in for his and dabbing his forehead.
"MADAM POMFREY!" They heard a voice shout, Madam Pomphrey ran to the door and gasped.
"No" James whispered. Hagrid came into the room clutching a limp Remus in his arms.
"Found 'im like this at the entrance to Hogsmeade" Hagrid sniffed "I dunno how 'e got there, but 'e was covered in mud 'n' drenched, 'n I don't like the look of those bruises either"
James sat up straight in his bed trying to catch a glimpse of Remus but got nothing.
"Bloody hell someone turn the noise down" James and Lily heard a croaky voice moan from the bed next to them.
"Sirius!" James called out smiling.
"Who else is it bloody well going to be?" Lily got up and drew the curtain back to reveal Sirius lying flat on his bed looking annoyed. "It's not good, is it?" He asked James and Lily trying to look and himself, they shook their heads
Author's Note
I could have written more, but I just felt it would have ruined it, thank you to those dear reviewers to whom I owe this story, really, or I would have given up because I would have thought no-one liked it, so thank you :D This chapter was basically given to me by JK, thank you to her and her amazing mind, and I hoped you liked it :) Review and…
-Mischief Managed