It was a regular night for James.
He was currently a deer, hanging out with Sirius and Peter in their animagus forms, as they kept an eye on a werewolf Remus.
A regular Friday night.
Remus was currently running circles around a clearing in the forest as Sirius chased Peter around a cluster of trees. James was trying to occupy himself by digging a hole in the soft dirt with his hoof. He was bored and desperately wished he could be back in the warm comfort of his bed.
Their job of watching Remus had become less demanding since he had started taking Wolfsbane Potion, but the boys had promised Remus that they would be there with him every month. Now James was just counting down the hours until they would go back to the Shrieking Shack and then back to their dorms.
After what seemed like hours (and probably was), James saw the moon beginning to fade on the horizon. He signaled to Sirius, who raised his snout and howled for Remus to come back to the clearing.
They heard the rhythmic thumping that signaled Remus bounding back towards them. Peter jumped onto Sirius' back and clung to his fur. James lead the way back to the Whomping Willow as he heard the two sets of rhythmic thumping behind him.
Remus excitedly whooshed past him, slamming into his shoulder on the way. James crumpled to his side as pain seared through his shoulder. That's gonna hurt in the morning. Sirius paused to look at James, worry passing over his brown eyes. James shook out his antlers and kept moving towards the tree.
When they reached the tree, which was swinging violently towards them, Peter scurried off of Sirius and slid into the entrance. A moment later, the thrashing stopped. Peter lead the way into the hollow tree as Remus and Sirius followed close behind. James stayed behind and transformed back to himself. His features stretched and sank back into their normal place on his body.
James slid through the hole in the trunk with ease. He started his trek towards the shrieking shack. With every step his shoulder ached. He gritted his teeth and walked on.
As he finally reached the shrieking shack, he saw Peter and Sirius transformed back to their original selves. They looked curiously at him.
"Alright, Prongs?", Sirius inquired. "Remus hit you pretty hard back there."
"Yeah," James shrugged, immediately regretting the action as pain radiated through his shoulder. "Better than getting bitten or scratched."
Peter and Sirius nodded as James looked down at the makeshift bed to see a barely conscious Remus. Sirius knelt by the bed side and pulled a blanket over Remus.
"You blokes go on," he told Peter and James. "I'll wait with him. Go, get some sleep."
James and Peter made their way out of the shack and back to Hogwarts grounds. They walked back to the Gryffindor tower and quietly made their way to their dorm room.
As soon as they stepped past the threshold, Peter crashed onto his bed and was immediately asleep. James was very aware of his dirt-covered shirt, so he changed into a clean one. As he took his shirt off, he saw his reflection in the mirror on the wall, and grimaced at his arm.
He had a deep purple bruise from the top of his shoulder, trailing down his bicep. He lightly ran his fingers along it. He could already picture Remus apologizing profusely when he found out he had hurt James. James made a mental note to wear his long sleeve shirt the next day so Remus wouldn't be able to see it.
He slipped on pyjama pants and crawled into bed. He closed his eyes and was out like a light.
Lily was going to bore a hole in the floor if she didn't stop tapping her foot against it.
She was eating breakfast in the great hall and waiting for James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter to arrive. They were usually there by 10:00 on weekends, but it was nearly noon and they were nowhere to be seen.
"Lily, we've been here for 3 hours," Marlene whined."I'm sure they just got up earlier than us and are already back in the common room. Let's just go back and find them."
Lily sighed in defeat. First James canceled their friday night plans to go spend another night doing god knows what with his friends, and now he couldn't even bother to meet Lily for breakfast. What was going on with him?
As Lily and Marlene climbed through the portrait hole, they nearly ran into Sirius. He stumbled out of the door while yelling, "The most important meal of the day is calling my name!", and ran faster than Lily had seen him to the Great Hall.
Finally stepping into the common room, Lily ran into yet another figure. This time it was James. She stopped short and crossed her arms, looking at him expectantly.
He winced slightly under her gaze. "I'm sorry I missed breakfast and I promise I'll make canceling last night up to you, but I haven't had anything to eat in 16 hours and if you knew the night I had, you would be pretty hungry too, so I'm gonna go make sure that Sirius doesn't choke while inhaling breakfast sausages but I really am sorry, Lils, okay I love you," he rattled off in one breath. And with a quick kiss to Lily's forehead, he was out of the common room. It took her and Marlene a moment to register what happened.
"Well that wasn't at all weird," Marlene quipped.
Lily sighed as she slumped over into a nearby chair.
After James had eaten enough breakfast for both him and Lily, he spent his walk up to the common room trying to think of excuses for why he had to cancel on Lily. He had told her that he needed to help Remus with something- You made it sound like you ditched her to help Moony with his charms homework, no wonder she's fuming- but he knew she was going to demand a full explanation. They were honest with each other about everything.
Well, everything except for the fact that Remus was actually a werewolf, and James, Sirius, and Peter were unregistered animagi who snuck out once a month to go wander through the forest with him until sunrise.
The miniscule detail that he was keeping from Lily.
In truth, James wanted to tell Lily the truth about the Marauders. But telling her about being animagi meant he had to expose Remus as well, and James couldn't do that to his friend.
Now what to tell Lily? That Remus had fallen ill and needed to be taken care of? He was in the hospital wing resting up so it wasn't really that hard to believe. His thoughts were interrupted as he noticed The Fat Lady eyeing him suspiciously.
He sighed as he muttered, "Fortuna Major." He may as well get talking to Lily over with.
He barely had a foot in the common room before he saw Lily. She was sitting in a chair facing the fireplace. When she heard the door close, she turned to look at James.
He gave her a pleading smile as he approached. "Okay, I know I was acting kind of weird yesterday-"
"You think?" she cut in.
"I'm sorry that I flaked on hanging out last night. Really sorry. But I had to-"
"What did you have to do, James? You disappear on me with barely an explanation to go hang out with your friends who you see every day."
"Lily, I promise that I-"
"You're keeping something from me."
He didn't know how to respond. Yes, he was keeping something from her. Probably about the biggest secret of your life.
The silence was enough to tell Lily she was right. She looked up at him with unshed tears in her eyes. "I thought we're supposed to be honest with each other. I thought you trusted me enough to tell me these things." She finally stood up out of the chair and took a step towards him. "I've tried to just let it go, James, but I can't ignore the fact that you're lying about something and I want to know what it is."
James sighed as he ran a hand through his hair. He was desperately trying to keep calm but the mix of stress and sleep deprivation were making it hard. "You have no idea what I've been through in the past 12 hours. Even if you did, I don't even know if you'd believe it!"
"Then tell me," she pleaded. "How am I supposed to understand if you won't talk to me?"
"I'm not in the right mood or headspace to be having this conversation right now, so can we please-"
She laughed humorlessly. "Right, you're not in the right mood-"
"Lily-"
"You think this is the first time you've ditched me for your friends? It's a monthly occurrence at this point-"
"It's not like we're married! I don't have to tell you about every thing I do, every place I go!"
He somehow struck a chord with that one. She stepped backward and straightened herself up. "Fine then," she said as she collected her things. "Don't bother telling me anything. Go pick a fight with the Whomping Willow for all I care." She shoved past him to get to the girls' dormitories, bumping James' bruised shoulder along the way. He winced in pain but quickly recovered to follow her.
"Lily!" he called after her.
"Get lost, Potter," she muttered before disappearing up the stairs.
James collapsed onto the couch. Great, he thought. What now?
Hey guys! I'm finally back!
I've been slowly working on this chapter for the last few months, because I really have missed this story, so I'm trying to get back to writing it.
I know that this one ends on a cliffhanger so I am actively trying to finish up the next chapter so I don't leave you all waiting in angst ; )
See you soon in the next chapter!
~Vivi
