Thank you to everyone who left a review on the last chapter. More than 500 of you read it, so I hope that's a good sign! Hope you're all keeping safe and well in these bizarre times and enjoy the chapter. x

Whenever his friends asked him what the morning after a full moon felt like, Remus could only refer them to their worst hangovers as a starting point.

How could he explain the unsettling, prickling agony of his bones slowly shrinking back into their joints properly, the blinding pain it took for his eyes to readjust to normal light, the absolute terror at not remembering the night before?

Well, he supposed they could all relate to the last point. But he was more likely to have caused some real damage than any of the Marauders in a blackout state.

Apart from the time, perhaps, that Pete had almost set fire to the Owlery when he was off his face in fourth year.

This morning though, Remus didn't feel like he usually did. Despite Madame Pomfrey's best potions, he could still feel a dull throb of pain in his bones. From the claw marks across his chest, he could see he'd done some real damage to himself the night before.

But that deep, swirling sense of panic was in the back of his throat. He was hyper-alert. It was as if part of the wolf were still inside him.

When he turned to see only Peter in a chair beside him, that the two other chairs the nurse always left out were empty, he felt like he couldn't breathe.

Something very, very bad had happened last night. He was sure of it.

"Wormtail" he hissed "wake up!"

The boy in the chair sneezed and woke with a start. Taking a moment for his eyes to focus, he smiled "morning, Moony. How are you feeling?"

Remus didn't bother to answer the question. "Where are the others?"

Pete's ears tinged pink, which always happened when he was uncomfortable. "They're with Lily in the Heads' Office" he lied "they had some stuff to go over."

"On a Saturday?"

"Yes."

"Sirius had some stuff to go over with James and Lily at" he checked the giant clock on the wall "eight in the morning on a Saturday? After the full moon?"

Peter shifted in his chair. His "yes" was more defiant this time.

Merlin, Remus was going to be sick.

"What happened, Pete?" he asked gently "I have this awful feeling that I…"

He didn't remember much of course. Colours mostly, clashes of black, brown, a thousand shades of red.

They both looked up as the curtain around Remus' bed drew back and Sirius slipped between them.

"Morning, mate" he settled three bars of Honeyduke's caramel onto Remus' nightstand "how're you doing?"

His friend eyed the confectionary with suspicion. Remus wasn't necessarily saying that Sirius tended to overcompensate with presents when things went tits up, but the last time he'd been given three chocolate bars was when Padfoot had exploded their near-perfect Draught of Peace in fifth year two days before OWLs.

"So…" Sirius leaned forward, casting a quick muffliato around Remus' cubicle. "How much do you remember about last night?"

"Is Prongs dead?"

Sirius laughed hollowly. Pete continued to squirm like someone had upended an entire ant farm into his pants.

"You didn't finish him off, Moony, don't worry" Sirius reassured him, seamlessly handing him a wastepaper bin to vomit in to.

When Remus resurfaced, he didn't feel much better.

"Wh-what-"

Sirius held up a hand, signalling for silence. "If you stop chucking your guts up, I'll tell you, won't I?"

Remus sat in silence as his friend calmly explained the events of the night before, stopping at several intervals to allow the bin to be revisited.

When he was done, Sirius passed Remus a small vial of Sleeping Draught and forced him to drink it at wandpoint.

"I'm going to tell Madame Pomfrey" Remus declared, feeling wooziness slowly overtake him.

"What, get Evans expelled and the four of us thrown in Azkaban? Fuck off."

"You can't keep doing this!" Remus yelled, alarmingly close to tears "the full moon isn't a fucking game. I could've killed James, or worse. No more."

Sirius shrugged "not your choice, Moony. We all knew the risk and we're happy to take it."

"See how you feel after a sleep" Pete tried, knowing from experience that Remus' upset versus Sirius' stubbornness didn't end well for anyone. "I'm sure Prongs will be able to visit you when you're both feeling a bit better."

"We'll be here when you wake up" Sirius promised, kicking his feet up. "We're not going anywhere."

To say that James Potter was surprised to be alive was an understatement.

When he'd woken up on the sofa in the Heads' Office, he'd been quite sure that he was dead and, naturally, his ghost had come to haunt Hogwarts for all of eternity and take over from Nearly Headless Nick as the official Gryffindor mascot for the afterlife.

And maybe give Peeves a run for his Galleons.

But, when he'd looked up to see Lily and Sirius peering over him, he'd realised quite quickly that he was still in the land of the living.

"Are you crying?" James had asked his best mate.

"I thought you were dead, you prick."

"I'm not sure how we'd have explained a body to Professor Dumbledore" Lily mused, colour slowly returning to her cheeks.

"The body of the Head Boy, no less" Sirius pointed out. "We'd have been fucked. Plus, mum and dad would've killed me."

"Is it too early for a drink?" James croaked, not much enjoying the talk about his near death experience.

Lily's eyes flashed. "Water for you, death-defier. Maybe when Sirius gets back from the Hospital Wing later he can bring me a very large flask of Firewhisky as payment for my illegal healing practice."

Sirius had saluted the Head Girl before leaving for the Hospital Wing, leaving Lily to conduct a check of James' dressings and move him over to the other sofa, which she transfigured into a bed for comfort.

"I think we can get away with holing you up in here for the weekend" she explained "just say we're working on Christmas Ball stuff. It should give you a bit of time to feel better. I sent an owl to Doe this morning, so the girls know not to worry if I don't come back for the weekend."

James didn't respond, too busy trying not to wince when Lily propped up his pillows. He took in the room, trying to avoid looking at the deep red stains on the sofa that he knew would have been from him. Lily had set up a cauldron on each of their desks, and he could smell the familiar sweetness of the Wiggenweld Potion she was brewing.

He couldn't take his eyes off Sirius' t-shirt, though. His favourite grey one, now the colour of rust, was in tatters on the floor and would never been worn again. He wondered how his best friend had felt last night, having gotten there just in the nick of time, having to make those judgement calls.

If it had been the other way around, James wasn't confident that he would have held it together well enough to have saved his best friend.

After Lily taken care of breakfast for the two of them (begrudgingly calling on one of Sirius' favourite House Elves from the kitchens) and topped up James' pain potions, the Head Girl pulled up a chair at his bedside.

"Is this okay?" she asked "I promised Sirius I'd keep an eye on you."

"Thank you" he said softly "for everything."

He could see that Lily was about to cry and, on instinct, he reached out and took her hand in his. She didn't pull away.

"Didn't have much choice" she admitted, wiping a tear from one eye with her spare hand. "I just hope I didn't mess anything up. I've not used that spell in a long time and when Sirius said-" she choked back a sob "when he said it was a werewolf injury, I j-just wasn't sure if there'd be any lasting effects. W-we read up on it this morning and I think you'll be okay. I hope you'll be okay."

James squeezed her hand in a way that he hoped was reassuring.

"I'm so sorry" she muttered "I have no idea why I'm crying. You're the one who almost died last night."

"Thanks for the reminder. I don't know how Moony's ever going to get over this one."

Lily shook her head. "I just…I don't understand, James. What were you doing with him? You knew it was a full moon. Where were you?"

James shifted uneasily. "You must have a lot of questions" he conceded.

"Will you answer any of them?" she shot back.

The groan he emitted felt like it took up his whole body. Where would he even begin? At what point would she report him to Dumbledore?

"I can" he said carefully. "But a lot of it isn't my story to tell."

"I've known about Remus for years" she insisted. "I asked him in fourth year and he told me. I haven't said a word about it-" she paused for a moment, looking suddenly crestfallen, "you…you do trust me, don't you?"

"Mostly."

"James, I sewed your fucking intestines back in last night."

"You're also a stickler for the rules, Evans."

She snatched her hand back. "I'm pretty sure I broke most of them last night, Potter, and I seem to be doing just fine."

He knew he'd overstepped, then.

"I'm sorry" James sighed "I don't want us to fight. It's just…Lily, this is so complicated. I don't want to make you even more complicit than you already are."

"Don't be a dickhead, James."

The Head Boy took a deep breath. "Okay. Shall I start with last night?"

He took her silence as an affirmative, and started to explain about Moony's process with a full moon: the Shrieking Shack, the boys walking down to the Whomping Willow under the Invisibility Cloak (an old family heirloom and, yes, it did explain how their pranks were so brilliantly executed) to check it's secure (only a small lie on the Head Boy's behalf) and last night, when they'd seen Doe and Marlene leaving Hagrid's hut and panicked, and Sirius had left the group to make sure they made it back up to the castle safely.

Lily's frown only deepened. "But I don't understand. Did he almost get out last night?"

"No."

"Then how did you end up near him? You don't go into the Shack when he's transformed, do you?!"

James weighed up his options very carefully before speaking again. "Sort of."

The Head Girl's eyes were so wide that he thought they'd fall out of her head, so he pressed on: "Lily, do you remember last year when we did Patronuses in Defence Against the Dark Arts?"

"What on earth does that have to do with werewolves?"

"Yes or no?"

"Yes."

"And you remember when you cast yours and Sirius started laughing so hard that he was thrown out of class?"

Lily frowned. She'd forgotten about that part, actually. "I do now."

"It's because, um, well…your Patronus is a doe, isn't it? And, when Remus transforms, er, I transform as well, you know, to keep him company and, um, I'm a…well...I'm a stag."

The silence lasted for a lot longer than James expected it to.

Lily thought she'd misunderstood him. "Are you…James, are you telling me that you're an Animagus?"

He didn't need to answer.

"Bloody hell" she breathed "I knew you were good at Transfiguration but that's just unfair. Did McGonagall teach you?"

"No" he admitted "I taught myself and I'm not on the Registry."

"But that's-"

"Illegal? Yes. But I wanted to help Remus out, so that's how I do it. Last night just got a bit out of hand."

Lily considered for a moment. "This all makes a lot more sense now. Is that why you all have those stupid nicknames? What are Sirius and Peter?"

James flushed "I didn't say-"

Lily shot him down with a look. "Please. We both know that Sirius is just as clever as you and wouldn't want to miss out on the fun. And you four always do everything together, so…"

"Lily" his voice was serious "you can't tell anyone about this. I'm begging you."

The redhead eyes him curiously. "Do you normally need to beg your friends to keep secrets for you?"

James felt like he was walking into a trap. "No…?"

"There you go then" she bristled. "I asked my questions, you've answered them, and this conversation never happened."

Sometimes, just sometimes, James underestimated the best witch of his generation and today he was paying for it.

"Now" Lily, business-like, flicked open a textbook "if you don't mind, I've got a Charms essay to finish. I didn't expect to spend my weekend playing matron."

James smiled "you make it sound filthy."

The redhead rolled her eyes "you'd be so lucky, James.

Didn't he know it.