Chapter 2

"What do we do, what do we do?!" Lily shrieks.

"You're magic! Can't you just teleport or something?!" Con asks frantically.

"If we could, we'd have done it by now! There's some kind of anti-apparition field up that we can't get past," Lily replies as they slowly back up, the wolf advancing on them still.

Wren's eyes light up, "Maybe not. But I know who can. Minx!" A house-elf appears beside him.

"What can Minx be helping Master Von Dougall with?" It asks with wide, awe filled eyes. The way most house-elves look at their masters.

"Get us home!" Wren orders vehemently. Minx snaps her fingers and suddenly they're in a mansion.

Lily rounds on her brother, "WHY DIDN'T YOU DO THAT YESTERDAY?!"

"I didn't think of it until Con mentioned teleporting!" He defends. Lily huffs and crosses her arms in annoyance.

"Forget that, how are we supposed to find Remus? I doubt the wolf will stay in one place. He could be anywhere in that forest come morning," Con points out.

"He's right," Lily realises, looking at her brother in worry.

Wren sighs, rubbing at his forehead. "We could use an owl? One familiar enough with him to be able to find him without an address."

"Any of the Marauders' owls should work," Lily says, perking up again.

"We'd better move quickly. We have no idea how long it will take to get there, and we want to find him before anything else in that forest does," Wren points out.

"Do you know where these Marauders live?" Con asks.

Lily groans, dropping her head into her hand. "I know where the brothers live…"

"JAMES GIVE YOUR BROTHER'S HAIRBRUSH BACK RIGHT NOW!"

Lily rolls her eyes at the shout they hear when a house-elf opens the door.

"How can Popsie be helping you?" The house-elf asks.

Lily has to give it to them, though she loathes the son they've raised, the Potters do appear to take good care of their house-elf. "I'm looking for Sirius, I'm…a friend of a friend from school. Would you mind telling him that Evans is here, and that Remus needs help. His…erm…pet wolf is missing." Popsie disappears. Moments later, James and Sirius come thundering towards the door. Lily's just glad she left Con and Wren back at Von Dougall Manor, somehow, she doesn't think an interaction between those four would end in anyway other than her tearing all her hair out. Not that this simple conversation with these two won't do the same.

"What's going on? What happened?" Potter immediately asks.

Lily supposes she shouldn't be surprised that he doesn't make a pigheaded comment or try to flirt with her. Obviously, he knows Remus is a werewolf and so understands the importance of the situation. Lily takes a deep, shaky breath, adrenaline from the last two days crashing at long last and everything begins to hit her. She blinks tears from her eyes and clears her throat. "It's a long story, but Remus is lost in a forest and I need an owl familiar with him to find him come sunrise. It's time sensitive. There are…things in that forest that we don't want to find him before we do, believe me."

Sirius and James exchange worried looks before looking back at her. James nods her inside and so she walks in with them and through to the back veranda where she sees a row of owls in cages that have the door open so that they may fly off and come back whenever they choose.

"How long were you in this forest and why in the hell were you with Remus in an unsafe environment the night of a full moon?!" Sirius demands in a whisper.

"What Sirius means is, you're a mess Evans, and you could have gotten seriously hurt," James amends with a pointed look to his brother who huffs and turns to procure a suitable owl.

"It wasn't on purpose. It's a long story, like I said," Lily tells them cagily.

"Like the fiasco that you wouldn't talk about from last hols which landed one of my best friends in the hospital?" Sirius asks pointedly.

Lily looks to the ground, unsure whether to glare or cry. "It was my fault he got involved last time and it was my fault this time, yes. I'm sorry. I never meant for your friend to be in danger." Lily looks up at him, "Hate me all you want, but do it after we have Remus back safely."

Sirius looks at her disapprovingly for a moment before he nods. "How far away is this forest?"

"I have no idea where it is at all. There's an anti-apparition field up around it though," She replies.

"We'll need brooms then," James says, deciding to question the field later. "Popsie," James calls.

The house-elf appears before him. "How can Popsie be of service, Master Potter?"

"I need my broom and Sirius' broom," He tells her.

"And what am I flying on?" Lily asks.

"You can ride with me, Sirius will carry Remus back," James says.

"I am not riding on a broom with you, Potter."

Sirius rolls his eyes, "We don't have time for this. Popsie, get one of the spare brooms." James raises an eyebrow at Sirius pointedly. Sirius cringes, flushing slightly and clearing his throat, "Please," He adds, significantly gentler than the previous demand had been.

"Ulula," James calls, holding an arm out. A grey screech-owl flies over and lands on his arm. "Argh!"

"Arm guard," Sirius says in a monotone voice suggesting this happens a lot.

"Before I call the owl, Pads. You're meant to remind me before."

"Well I didn't know you were calling it that second, I'm not a mind reader Prongs."

"What, you want me to warn you to warn me?"

"If you wouldn't mind."

"Then I'd just bloody warn myse-you know what, we'll talk about this later. Ulula, find Moony," James requests. The owl flies off. The three teenagers mount the brooms and fly off after it, unsure how far they will be flying but determined to make it any distance.

After flying for what seems like hours, Ulula begins circling over a forest. "Ulula!" James calls, the bird flies back over and lands on the tip of his broom. "Fly home. Help yourself to some treats." The bird screeches at him, presumably lovingly, before it flies off.

"How are we supposed to find Remus now?" Lily asks, flying closer.

"We can't send Ulula down to locate a werewolf, let along with what else could be down there, that was never the plan. Besides, we can't do anything until moonset. Then we go in, we find him, and we bring him home."

"That doesn't answer my question, Potter."

Sirius and James exchange a nervous look for a moment. "Evans," Sirius begins, "Do you understand how horrible and painful Remus' transformations are? How much he hates them? How much they make him hate himself?"

Lily frowns, "From what little I've seen since I found out…I'm beginning to." She looks down for a moment before looking back up, "I watched him transform, close-up."

"If there were a way to help him deal with it, would you do it?" Sirius asks, she nods.

"Even if it were illegal and dangerous?" James presses.

Her frown grows as she looks between them. Then she nods, "Hours ago I was sat on that forest floor. We didn't think there was a way out. We thought that the moment he transformed, Remus would kill us and there was nothing we could do to stop it. Remus…he wanted to be killed before that happened. He…He was going to do it himself if his wand hadn't been taken off him," Lily tells them, grabbing his wand from her pocket. "I've seen what this is like for him. So yes, even if it were illegal and dangerous, I would still do whatever I can to help him."

"Great, then there's nothing stopping us from going down there and finding him now," Sirius says, aiming his broom down.

James reaches out and yanks it upwards again. "And do what, hmm? We don't know what's down there, Padfoot, but from what Evans said it's nothing good. He's a werewolf, he can take care of himself."

"We can take care of ourselves too! How many times have we taken on a werewolf? That werewolf?" Sirius asks, pointing in the general direction of the forest below them. So, you know, down.

"He isn't trying to eat us, what's down there might. I am prey, Sirius." Sirius blinks in surprise at that, he hadn't ever thought of it like that before. "And like it or not, huge, or not, you are still a dog. Yes, you are dangerous, yes, you are strong, but if Moony were truly trying to hurt you, how much of a hope would you really have?" Sirius glares towards the tree tops. "We can't do anything for him right now anyway. We have to wait for moonset."

"…Fine," Sirius capitulates.

"Doesn't look like that will be long anyway," Lily says, looking at the moon.

And she's right, it's less than an hour later that the moon finally sinks below the horizon. The three immediately fly down and land on the forest floor.

"Right, what's the pla-ahhhh!" Lily screams in fright as she turns to face the others and sees a giant black dog. She clutches at her chest, looking at the dog before recognition fills her mind along with the memory of Sirius and James' earlier argument. "Sirius?" He barks at her once before he puts his nose to the ground and sniffs around.

As Sirius searches for Remus' scent, Lily and James walk along in silence after him. Lily yawns into her hand.

"Alright, Evans?" James asks.

"Haven't slept in over almost forty-eight hours. Hasn't exactly been an easy forty-eight hours either," She replies as she shakes herself awake.

"You can ride on my back if you want?" He offers.

"Ride on your back?" She asks in confusion. He transforms into a stag. Lily blinks at him. "So…Pettigrew is some kind of rodent with a worm like tail then?"

James transforms back, "A rat, yes."

"And you did all this for Remus?"

"Werewolves don't harm other animals, only humans. We wanted to help him, and we couldn't do that if we can't even get near him. Took us three years to finally be able to transform but…well he ends up less injured now and that's worth losing a night of sleep once a month." Lily smiles at him, something she doesn't think she's ever done before. He clears his throat, "How's Crookshanks?"

"That bloody cat is a nightmare, but I love it," Lily replies, chuckling.

"I still don't understand why Remus hates it so much." Lily snickers but gives no reply. Sirius suddenly barks at them.

"What does that mean?" Lily asks.

"He's found Remus' scent."

A few minutes of frantically chasing after Padfoot, Sirius transforms and drops to his knees beside an unconscious Remus.

"Moons?" Sirius asks, slapping his face lightly.

Remus groans, turning his face into the dirt, "P'foo?"

"Yeah Buddy, it's me. We're gonna get you outta here."

"L-Lillll?" Remus tries to ask, face screwed up in anguish.

Lily kneels down and strokes a hand gently through his hair, "I'm right here, Remus. I'm okay, we all are." Remus relaxes and seems to fall back to sleep.

"He's injured," Prongs says, looking at a deep cut on Remus' leg. He removes his shirt and put it on the wound, applying pressure to stop the bleeding and trying to ignore the whimpered moan of pain Remus releases, apparently too exhausted to wake up. "What are we going to do? Mum and Dad don't know about Moony, we can't take him home," James points out.

"We need to go somewhere, the smell of that blood is only going to attract more attention from things in here than we already were," Lily adds, still stroking a hand through Remus' hair.

"Pomfrey. We'll take him to Pomfrey," Sirius says decisively.

"Can you call your house-elf? It'll be quicker than flying there, and safer for Remus too," Lily suggests.

James nods, "Popsie?" Popsie appears. "I need you to take us directly to the hospital in Hogwarts," He requests before she even has a chance to speak.

"Popsie is glad to help Master Potter," Popsie replies, clicking her fingers.

"My Goodness," They hear as soon as they land. All three conscious teenagers look up to see Hogwarts' Matron hurrying over from the other side of the room. "I knew something had gone terribly wrong after he didn't return yesterday morning," Pomfrey says as she levitates Remus onto a bed. Immediately she begins casting healing spells on the injured lad.

"Will he be all right?" Lily asks timidly when Pomfrey finishes.

Madam Pomfrey turns to her with a surprisingly gentle smile that Lily doesn't know she often has when it comes to Remus' condition. "He'll be just fine in a couple of days. Until then he'll need rest. I suggest you inform Professor McGonagall that Remus has returned and is here, and perhaps tell her what in Merlin's name happened." Lily nods. "It might do to clean up before seeing her though, Miss Evans."

Lily looks down at herself, filthy from the forest and with some of Remus' blood on her jeans and small cuts on her hands from climbing trees. "Uh, yes Madam Pomfrey. Erm, I have Remus' wand…?" Lily says, pulling the item out of her pocket. "I'll just, err, leave that here," She says, awkwardly putting it on the table beside Remus' bed.

"Come on, Evans. Let's get you cleaned up," Sirius says, putting his hands on her shoulders and gently leading her away. James takes a seat beside Remus' bed to keep watch over him.

Lily returns home that night, though Remus has yet to wake up. Sirius and James had promised to owl her the moment he does but considering she had just been kidnapped and missing for two days, it didn't seem fair to her parents to refuse to come home.

McGonagall apparates her and waits with her at her door after she knocks.

It's mere moments before it is flung open and Lily finds herself being hugged tightly by her Mum.

"Oh Lily, we were so worried," Michelle tells her.

Lily sighs, finally feeling calm for the first time in two days. "I missed you so much, Mum."

"Thank you," Michelle says to McGonagall who merely nods, smiles, and then apparates away.

Michelle leads Lily to the living room where her Father and Petunia are waiting. Daniel hugs his youngest as tightly as Michelle had before stepping back.

Petunia steps forward, "Lily, listen. What I said during dinner…I-" She's cut off by Lily hugging her.

"I love you, Sis."

With tears in her eyes, Petunia hugs Lily back. "I thought I'd never see you again."

"I'll always come home."

Lily gets a letter off that day to Wren and Con, filling them in on what happened, but it's not until three days later that she manages to escape her parents' clutches and go see them.

"And you're sure he's okay?" Con asks, looking concerned.

"I got a letter from him this morning, he's out of the hospital and he's just fine, if a bit tired," Lily replies.

"What'd you tell them happened?" Wren questions.

Lily sighs, "I told them the truth. Headmaster Dumbledore is looking into Powermatch. He's going to do whatever he can to get it shut down but…well it was illegal to start with, so I don't know how much he can do. Con, he's given me this." She grabs a potion from her pocket. "Says it should turn you back to your original form."

Con looks at the potion, tears in his eyes. He looks up again, "I…I suppose this is Good bye then." Lily nods sadly. "Well, if you're ever in Manitoba…" Wren and Lily nod. Con drinks the potion, instantly regaining his true shape. He howls happily and runs around in a quick circle. Lily and Wren smile before Wren nods at Minx who transports Con back to Manitoba to re-join his pack.

"And what about us, then? Is this good bye for you and me?" Wren asks her, rather cagily.

Lily looks to her feet for a moment before she looks back up, "No more cat experiments, or mad scientist tests, or evil taking over the world plans, okay?"

"What am I supposed to do with my time?" Wren asks with a pout.

"What you wanted to. Find a way to help addicts. But do it the right way."

Wren sighs fondly and nods. "I'll see what I can do."

Lily smiles, hugging her brother before she walks to the door. "I'll see you round, Wren."

Wren chuckles slightly, "See you 'round…Lily."

As a prefect, the first day back at school is always busy. So, it's not until everyone else has gone to bed that Lily finally manages to have a moment alone. Quite luckily, Remus walks towards his dorm as she sits in front of the rather unneeded fire drinking coffee in the deserted common room.

"Rem," Lily calls. He looks over and smiles sheepishly at her. She smiles sweetly back, "Care to join me?" She asks, holding up the pot of coffee.

"It's a little late to be drinking coffee, but my sleep schedule is already doomed," He replies, joining her on the ground and pouring himself a cup.

"How are you feeling?" Lily can't help but ask.

"Back to 100%," He assures her.

She nods, looking into the fire for a moment before she speaks again. "So, about our conversation under the tree…"

Remus sighs, nodding. "I suppose there's no more avoiding this particular conversation then." Remus pinches the bridge of his nose for a second before he turns to her, "I didn't expect these emotions. The fact that they're meant for you is even more bizarre to me," He tells her.

"But you do have these emotions for me?" Lily asks uncertainly.

"I…" Remus takes a deep breath. "Prongs would kill me but…yes, Lily. Wren was right. I am in love with you. Powermatch only made me realise that more. But you're also my friend and you aren't interested in me that way, which is fine, so-"

"Who says I'm not interested in you?" Lily asks in confusion.

Remus looks to her sadly, "I tried to eat you Lily. You saw me turn into a monster not three feet in front of you. What possible chance is there that you'd be interested in me?"

"Pretty bloody high if you'd get your head out of your arse long enough to notice," Lily replies. Remus looks shocked, she takes a calming breath. "I know you hate being…what you are," She says, too concerned about saying it aloud in the common room, deserted or not. Remus smiles sheepishly but seems grateful to her for it. "I know you hate it, but I don't. I think I'm in love with you too. And I know that it puts you in a weird position because of Potter's obsession with me, but he doesn't own me, and he doesn't own you. I'm quite happy to keep it quiet and between us for a while if you'd prefer, but I want to see where this goes."

Remus hesitates for a moment before he nods. "I want to as well." Lily smiles, shifting over to be closer to him and leaning her head on his shoulder.

He puts an arm around her and together they watch the fire, unaware that even greater dangers lay just around the corner.