Hplover4ever3: Hey guys! Hope you all loved the last chapter as much as I did XD The next couple of chapters, you'll notice, will be shorties to lead us up to the Christmas holidays. We're very, very excited about what is to come and can't wait to hear what you guys think, as we've been planning for these moments for a long time. Enjoy and happy reading!

Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to J.K Rowling. Thanks


CHAPTER 24: PREPARATIONS

Alarmed by the sharp look on James' face, Draco shut the book in front of him and pushed it aside, placing a school book on top. He leaned forward.

"What is it, James?" he said, his voice lowered so that no one in the nearby tables would overhear.

Whatever this was, it was something big. Draco knew this for a fact because James did not speak right away. He looked pained to have to tell Draco whatever it was he needed to know. Instead, he looked in between each of Draco's eyes, as if trying to read him; as if trying to figure out whether he already knew what it was he had to know. But Draco honestly had no idea what James was thinking...unless...

"Do you...?" said Draco, suddenly hitting the idea that James could have maybe in fact found out his secret. But how to ask him this without falling into a trap and accidentally revealing everything to him?

But James, who'd looked distracted until now, suddenly sat up and cleared his throat.

"It's about the night before we left for the holidays," he began, making Draco relax just a little.

"W-what about it?" he asked, cautiously.

James took a deep breath and looked around again before answering, very, very quietly, "I saw you that night..."


35 days before


Tuesday, December 1, 1976

Dear Mr. Draco Black,

You are cordially invited to my annual Christmas party for the Slug Club, to be hosted on Saturday, December 19 at 7 o'clock in my office on the third floor. As a fervent member of the club, you are permitted to bring one guest to the party. Dress to impress!

Yours very truly,

Professor Horace Slughorn

"Sirius, cut it out," said James when Sirius continued to wave the letter around in front of Draco, a smug smirk on his face.

"But I really want to come with you!" Sirius mocked, still laughing. "Please, oh please, invite me as your plus one, Draco!"

Draco only glared at him, wishing more than anything that he could just come right out and say, "Shut up, you git!"

Remus looked up from his own letter and smiled vaguely at Sirius, but Draco could tell that he too was now beginning to dread what was to come...the ever so agonizing quest to find a decent date in eighteen days.

"You guys are so lucky you don't have to come to this thing," he told the boys as they packed up their breakfast things and got up from the Gryffindor table.

"Yeah 'cause while you lot are up there doing all this 'sophisticated grown-up party stuff', we'll be down at Hogsmeade, doing immature, teenage stuff," said Sirius, who patted James once on the back and let out a laugh on his way out of the Great Hall.

"Hogsmeade?" said Peter, following the boys out.

"Yeah, a couple of us are gonna go down there for late night drinks as a sort of post-exam pick-me-up," James explained.

"I mean, we'd invite you, Draco, but it looks like you'll already be busy that night," said Sirius.

Draco only growled at him in response and Sirius let out his bark-like laugh.

Remus smiled weakly at him.

The boys made it to Transfiguration and took their seats, quickly taking out their notepads and getting ready to work. Draco too, was really committed to today's lesson, no matter how much his tongue bothered him. He was pretty much committed to every other lesson that would follow from now to the holidays. The midterms were fast approaching and he had every intention to keep his promise to Dumbledore...it was either going to be all excellent's, or goodbye alibi.

That day, McGonagall had decided to delve more deeply into the immensely difficult topic of human transfiguration, one which Draco despised greatly. He knew that if he'd had difficulty with it last time, he would now as well. So even though he paid attention to everything that McGonagall was saying now and took down carefully cited notes, he still found himself wishing he could go back (or rather, forward) in time and make himself do those two assignments he'd never finished.

After Transfiguration, the boys meant to go to Defense when Remus was suddenly sidelined by an upset stomach. After he vomited over a stairwell, the boys grouped and brought him up to Madame Pomfrey's. The entire way there, he mumbled about how he would never have the time to do all the homework that was piling up already. Even though James assured him that he'd get him copies of every note from today, Remus still wouldn't stop mumbling.

When they reached the hospital wing, they helped Madame Pomfrey lift Remus onto a bed and cover him up with a blanket. She then fetched a wet cloth and pasted it on his forehead carefully.

"Thank you, boys, I'll take it from here," she assured them, ushering them out of the hospital now.

They tried to protest and looked over her shoulder at Remus, who was now turning and twisting painfully on the bed.

When Madame Pomfrey slammed the door shut in their faces, the boys stood there, lost in time completely and forgetting all about how late they already were.

"Perhaps we shouldn't all go with him tonight," James suggested, his eyes on Draco.

"Mmmm," said Draco, nodding his agreement. He wasn't even an animagus yet, so it'd probably pose a great threat if he was there tonight.

"I'll stay with you," Sirius suggested, but James quickly gripped his shoulder and shook his head.

"No, I will," he declared. "You two go out with him tonight and Draco and I will work on his transformation...in the common room, won't we, Draco?

Draco nodded at James, feeling hopeful that soon, he'd get somewhere with his animagus pursuit. He'd only been carrying the mandrake leaf in his mouth since Saturday and he already felt sick to his stomach from it. It was difficult to speak too without slurring his words, so he resorted to just not saying anything at all. Sirius was really having a laugh out of this, but the rest of the boys were pretty neutral about it. They'd all gone through it (except Remus, of course) so it wasn't that big of a deal.

The boys arrived in Claybrook's classroom fifteen minutes after class had started, but Claybrook didn't seem to mind. Somehow, Draco was sure Madame Pomfrey had already contacted him in advance. He simply urged the boys to take their seats quickly and turned back to the board.

"...as I was saying, these exams are crucial and I want each and every one of you to take them seriously. You'll need to remember all of these topics (and well, too) for your NEWTs next year."

By dinnertime, it was evident that the boys had enough homework to last them the rest of the year. Draco couldn't remember ever having such a big pile of work just waiting for him up in his dormitory. Feeling a little bummed out, he joined the boys in the Great Hall, but only got even more bummed out when he spotted Regulus sitting at the Slytherin table and looking right at him.

None of the Marauders seemed to notice (perhaps they hadn't known otherwise) that Draco hadn't spoken with Regulus in over a month. Funny, it seemed a lot less than that to him, but he knew he really missed the kid. He'd actually grown to like him a fair bit. He was a lot like Sirius, though Draco would never dream to tell him that. Still, he couldn't help but feel upset with himself for screwing Regulus up so bad. He still wasn't quite sure how he'd managed it.

Sitting at the table in the Great Hall now, Draco looked all around him at his peers eating and chatting about day-to-day things. James was right. The energy and atmosphere in the castle had improved greatly over the weekend...ever since the match. So what if Gryffindor had lost badly? Draco had just never expected for James to be the one to assure him of this. Somehow, he'd always thought it'd be the other way around.

It was then that he finally noticed how often Sirius was checking his watch and how nervous he looked...and how full his plate still was.

"Mmm?" he said, nodding his head at Sirius so that Sirius would understand that he was looking at him.

Sirius shrugged and shook his head dismissively.

"Will you be able to help me with that human transfiguration essay later, Draco?" Peter asked.

Draco shrugged and proceeded to cut his chicken. He doubted he would be of any more help to Peter than Remus would be. He himself was struggling with the topic in general. But his eyes fell on Sirius instead and he frowned. Sirius was shaking his leg rapidly under the table and looked beyond nervous.

"We should probably get going soon, you finished?" he told Peter, nodding once at his plate.

Peter looked down at his half-eaten plate in confusion and then back up at Sirius.

"He's probably not ready yet," James whispered to Sirius, making it clear to all the boys that he was talking about the wolf, not Peter.

"It...it doesn't matter, we should go," Sirius said. He stood up from the table and pulled his sweater off so that he was wearing a white t-shirt underneath. He tossed the sweater to James and motioned for Peter to get up too. Peter glanced sideways at Draco but nevertheless followed Sirius out of the Great Hall.

"He doesn't like to talk about it but he worries about Remus a whole lot," James explained, watching with Draco as the two boys disappeared from the hall. "Hell, we all do." He sighed and looked round at his friend. "You wanna get going?"

Draco nodded at once, never minding that he'd barely touched his own food.

Without Remus there for the night, he'd finally be able to get some more work done on his animagus and not have to hear all that nonsense about how it was dangerous and how he shouldn't be doing it at all. James, at least, was the most supportive when it came to the animagus.

When they got up to the Gryffindor common room, James insisted that Draco follow him up to the dormitory. Apparently, they were going to be doing homework there instead of downstairs. But when they got there, it soon became clear that James had no intention of doing any homework at all. Instead, he pulled out his wand and applied a locking charm to the dormitory door. Then, he pulled out the candles that he'd nicked from the Transfiguration storage cupboards and proceeded to light them all around the room. Draco only sat down on the carpet, cross-legged, and waited.

"You need to clear your mind of everything completely," James instructed with his back to him as he finished lighting the last of the candles. "Think of nothing at all."

Draco grumbled but James didn't pay attention. After he'd finished, he pulled out a thick book from his trunk and sat in front of Draco, crossing his legs as well. He flipped open the book and looked up at Draco.

"Clear your head completely because that's the only way you'll be able to really concentrate on the animagus," he explained. "Concentrate on the animagus and the animagus will start to try and find you."

Draco used his tongue to slip the leaf to the side of his mouth long enough for him to say, "You talk like the animagus is another person and I'm trying to merge the two together."

James let out a laugh. "In a way, it is. See, your animagus is like your soul in physical form...eh, sort of. And you need to basically get in touch with your soul, as cliché as that may sound, in order to truly find your animagus." He paused and then shrugged. "I dunno, it worked for me when I tried it."

"Okay," Draco mumbled, the leaf replaced underneath his tongue where it was before.

"Now," James began, "When we did the animagus process, we were first timers so we didn't have someone to guide us through the process, like you do. So you're lucky." Draco nodded. "We ended up meditating for months and months before we ever got to the leaf part. But you can do both at the same time to speed up the process!"

"Wait," Draco mumbled, moving the leaf again so that he could talk without mumbling, "Won't that be dangerous though?"

"Nah, not at all," scoffed James.

"And mediate? What for?"

"You're supposed to visualize your animagus for like six months before you even begin the process but you're already ahead there."

"I am?"

James rolled his eyes. "You can produce a patronus charm. That gives you an in."

"Wait, how come?"

"Because your animagus will most likely be the same shape as your patronus." James paused. "You still haven't told us what your patronus is shaped like, you know..."

"I..." said Draco, deciding that now was a safe time to replace the leaf again.

He had somehow conveniently failed to mention to the marauders what his patronus was shaped like. Only Remus knew and he wasn't going to say anything about it because it was Draco's business and he knew this very well. So Draco had decided that there was no need for the boys to know just yet. But if James was right, if his animagus would take up the shape that his Patronus currently was, then it was only a matter of time.

Draco grumbled again, this time a little more clearly than before, enough so that James laughed his understanding of what Draco had said.

"Yeah, that's what the candles are for," he said, looking down at his book again and biting his lip.

He then stood up and started rummaging in his trunk. Draco grumbled one more time and then James turned around to look at him again, this time holding some weird looking stick in his hands.

"Wormwood," he said when Draco gave him a questioning look. "It's like incense, you know? It's gonna help with the meditation." He took his seat again and shoved the book aside. "Now if you're anything like me, it'll probably make you feel sick to your stomach...or worse...but doncha worry," he suddenly pulled something out from under his bed and smiled at the look on Draco's face, "That's what the bucket's for!"

Draco buried his face in his hands. This wasn't going to be at all like how he'd imagined. Now that he thought about it, practicing legilimancy in Dumbledore's office sounded way more appealing than this.

"Okay," sighed James, crossing his legs and looking straight at Draco. "You ready?"

Draco hesitated before nodding. If he was going to do this, he'd have to be in it all the way. He knew that.

James nodded his approval and proceeded to light the wormwood. He was right. It reeked, filling up the entire dormitory with its horrible, strong smell of incense. It wasn't long before it started to give Draco what would eventually turn into a pounding headache. But Draco sucked in his breath and tried to hold back his frustration. Thinking of the end result was his main motivation right now and he wasn't about to give up on this. He wanted it, and he was going to make it happen.

James had been right. Once the wormwood got going, meditation was actually a lot easier than it would have been without. Draco was actually able to focus more and concentrate his thoughts more smoothly. James being there didn't even bother him at all with this, because he too, looked like he was trying to meditate, perhaps out of respect to the fact that Draco had to. Draco smiled to himself. That right there was part of the reason why he enjoyed having James as a friend so much.

After just twenty minutes of meditating with the wormwood, Draco started to feel uneasy and weird. His mind was starting to get all boggled and his brain actually hurt. He started to feel like he was having hallucinations or that perhaps his mind was playing tricks on him. He swore that at some point he'd smelled pine, like from the trees in the Dark Forest. It was a strange feeling.

James did not speak a word during all this, but instead remained seated and kept his eyes shut at all times. But by nine o'clock, Draco's headache had reached its limit and James decided it was time to put away the wormwood and burn out the candles in the room. They packed up their stuff and hurried on downstairs to get good seats in front of the fireplace. To their surprise, the common room wasn't even that packed. There were people of course, but they weren't cluttered like they'd expected. The two boys got their books out and began working their way through their homework piles. And they actually remained fully concentrated for the first twenty minutes or so, but after that, Draco lost his patience and removed the leaf from his mouth.

"You know you're not supposed to do that," James warned, looking up from his Potions book briefly.

"A little break won't kill my animagus's spirit," Draco assured him, setting the leaf down on a napkin and sitting back against the couch. He let out a deep sigh and closed his eyes.

He personally couldn't wait until the holidays because that would mean that he'd be finished with this whole mandrake leaf thing. It was really starting to trip him out and he didn't like it one bit.

"Did you guys do the leaf thing all at once?" he suddenly wondered, looking up at James.

"Nah," said James, looking down at his book again, "We didn't want it to become obvious to anyone, you know? The four marauders, silent as doornails for an entire month? I don't think so."

"So you took turns then."

"Mhm."

"And was Remus as persistent with you guys as he is with me?"

"Oh yeah," laughed James. "I'd say he's being easier on you than he was on us."

"Really?"

Draco couldn't imagine it so.

"Yeah definitely," said James. "He went absolutely mental when we first brought up the idea and when he saw that we weren't kidding around...that is, when we brought in the wormwood and practiced our first meditation, he completely lost it."

"Wow," Draco mumbled. He liked Remus, a lot, but dammit, the boy needed to understand that this wasn't his decision to make and that there was nothing he could do about it. Draco was Draco's own boss...unless Dumbledore was in the room, in which case he was the boss.

Ugh, don't go there, he said to himself now. He'd also neglected to mention to Dumbledore that he was even pursuing this, and somehow, he doubted Dumbledore would be too pleased to hear about it, so it was better to just not say anything at all. As far as Draco was concerned, Dumbledore didn't need to know everything.

James sighed and looked out the window at the full moon that could be seen clearly shining up in the night sky.

"I hope Remus isn't having too horrible of a night."

"Nah, don't worry too much about him," said Draco. "Besides, he isn't alone."

"Still," said James, sadly. "You weren't around before. You don't know how bad it used to get."

"Well has it been getting better or worse over the years?"

James paused. "It's different every time. There is no apparent pattern."

"Damn," said Draco.

He didn't know too much about adult Remus Lupin to be able to offer any consolation. The only wolf he'd ever been around in his past life was Fenrir Greyback, and he'd hardly call him a decent human being. Remus, he actually cared about.

"So how come you don't hang around Snivelly anymore?"

"Ugh, his name is Severus," Draco said, rolling his eyes. "And I dunno—our schedules are different."

"Right," said James.

"He's actually a decent kid, you know."

"Whatever you say."

Draco rolled his eyes again. He was just going to have to accept it. There were any things he could change about this timeline, but the rivalry between James Potter and Severus Snape was certainly not one of them.

And speaking of, he'd actually found that Severus had avoided him the entire weekend. Oh he'd tried looking for him in the seventh floor corridor alright, but Severus was doing a good job at staying in the dark. He probably knew that once Draco found him, he'd flip out on him. It was real smooth, the way he'd gone behind his back and taught all his Slytherin mates all those neat tricks that Draco had worked hard at teaching him. Real smooth. Definitely not a betrayal.

Draco sighed and shook his head quickly. He didn't know why he was letting this bother him so much. It wasn't like he didn't have more important things to worry about...like this Slug Club dinner party thing. Alice walked into the room just then. Noticing Draco, she gave him a little wave and a small smile before retreating to the girls' dormitory upstairs. Draco waved back at her and then rested his head on the armchair again. Sure, he and Alice weren't exactly dating anymore, but they were still friends! Perhaps he'd be able to ask her to come with him to this party thing, as a friend of course...oh but wait, that wouldn't work. Frank was a member of the club too—he was bound to take Alice. It was inevitable. Draco groaned out loud. This was going to be harder than he'd thought.

"Something on your mind there, pal?" James said, noticing.

Draco opened his eyes to look at his friend but said nothing. Instead, he found himself wondering who Lily would end up taking, seeing as how her only logical choice was also a member of the Slug Club, and he didn't seem too pleased about this dinner party either. Draco frowned at the thought of Remus coming to the party with some date and actually having a good time. It was a bizarre image.

His eyes fell upon James again, who was now staring at him with raised eyebrows.

"Um," said Draco, sitting up, "So, any luck finding out who tipped the Slytherins off last Friday?"

If he didn't bring it up soon, the boys would surely start to get suspicious as to why he wasn't as enthused as they.

"Ugh, no," said James, putting his own book away and sitting back. "But I do have my theories."

"Oh, well care to share them?" said Draco in a very casual tone.

James suddenly sat up and leaned forward, his voice lowering as he spoke. "Well, I haven't run this by the others yet, but I'm willing to bet that one of the Slytherin players got in touch with some famous Quidditch player and cheated their way through the last game." He paused. "And I'm willing to bet anything that that player was Regulus."

"What?" cried Draco, startling James a little. "Nuh-uh, no way. He wouldn't do that."

"What—how do you know, you don't even know him!"

"Look who's talking!" cried Draco. "You've spoken to the kid, what, three times since he came to Hogwarts?"

"Well—"

"I'm his cousin, so that gives me reason to talk to him," said Draco, "…as I have been doing all year."

James stared at him.

"I just didn't tell you guys because I didn't want Sirius to know that I was talking to Regulus so much...because well...you know…"

"Yeah no, I get it," James mumbled. "Damn, you sure can keep a secret."

You have no idea, Draco thought.


"Hey, get back here, you, I'm not through talking to you!"

"Well I'm through listening!" Severus yelled without looking back.

Though he did not stop racing through the woods, Draco managed to catch up with him.

"Let go of me, Draco," he grumbled at him, trying to break his arm free of Draco's grip, but Draco held tight.

Feeling a surge of anger mixed with an adrenaline rush, he grabbed Severus by the collar of his shirt and threw him up against the trunk of the nearest tree.

"You will stand here and you will listen until I'm finished saying what I have to say, you got it?" he grumbled at him through gritted teeth.

Severus winced slightly at the pain that his left hip brought him from the slam against the tree. Draco had forgotten that it had been injured back in the Shrieking Shack, but right now, this didn't seem to matter. He knew he had something important to take care of before Severus could get himself up to hospital wing for treatment.

"What you saw back there is exactly what you thought," Draco declared. "You were right the entire time...he's a werewolf."

"And I am so telling people this," Severus said, a smug look on his face.

Draco pulled him away from the tree and slammed him up against it again, bringing him more pain to the back of the head.

"Ow—Draco, cut it out!"

"You will do no such thing," Draco declared, "Not if I have something to say about it."

"Why do you even care? It's not like I'm ratting you out!"

"He's my friend, Severus."

"Funny, I thought I was your friend."

Draco paused. "You know that I would do the same to him if the situation was reversed, don't you?" Severus said nothing to this. "If you were the one in danger, I would do anything—risk everything—to protect you, just as I am prepared to do for him."

Severus rolled his eyes and looked away.

"You know how much it'll hurt him if you tell anyone," Draco added now. "And I don't think you're that horrible of a person to actually do that to someone."

Severus looked him in the eye. "Well then you clearly don't know me that well, Draco Black."

Draco released his shirt and stepped away, allowing him room to breathe. His hand quickly flew to his side and he gripped it tightly to stop it from hurting.

"I don't want to do anything to jeopardize our friendship, Severus," Draco said now, "But I will if you put me in that position." Severus looked up at him. "So don't make the mistake of underestimating what I will do to protect my friends."

"I don't think you even know who your own friends are right now," Severus breathed.

"Maybe not," said Draco. "But I do know who I'm willing to break the law for." Severus raised his eyebrows. "Who I'm willing to punish…" Now his eyes went round. "And who I'm willing to put in their place." The kid's eyes now found Draco's wand, sticking out from its pocket, and he swallowed loudly. Draco sighed. "Go get yourself cleaned up—you look like you could use it."

Without waiting for him to answer, Draco ran off into the woods, back in the direction they'd come from. Severus remained standing up against the tree for a long time, one had shielding his hip and the other clenching the strange wand in his own pocket. But when he heard the echo of a wolf's howl from the distance, he snapped out of his daze in an instant and hurried back up to the castle as quickly as his legs would take him, wanting nothing better than for this terrible night to be done and over with.


"What say we get back to work and try to finish at least half of this?" James now suggested, taking his Potions book in his hands again and flipping it open. "Oh and put the leaf back in. You shouldn't be taking any breaks, you know."

Draco groaned but did as James told him. The taste of the leaf was rotten disgusting but he was slowly starting to get used to it now. Not feeling up to any homework, he nonetheless opened his own Charms book and got started on those notes he'd need for that dreadful midterm that was just weeks away.

"Hey James," he suddenly said without looking up, the mandrake leaf at the corner of his mouth. "You'd risk everything you love if it came down to that, wouldn't you? To protect someone else?"

James looked up at him. "I'm not sure what you mean."

"Like if it came down to life and death, you'd risk everything you had to protect a friend?"

James shrugged. "I dunno, I guess no one ever really knows the answer to that question unless they find themselves in such a situation that requires them to decide." He narrowed his eyes at Draco now. "Why?"

"I'm just curious," Draco said, shrugging. "I guess I'm wondering just how far your Gryffindor loyalty lies."

James thought about it for a minute before leaning forward again. "If someone I loved was in danger, then I would most likely already be at fault for getting them into danger, so I'd say that yeah, I'd probably owe it to them at that point."

"Even if it wasn't your fault?"

James shrugged and leaned back against his couch. "I'm not friends with people who I wouldn't lay my life down for."

Draco smiled and replaced the leaf under his tongue once again, silencing himself for the remainder of the night.

But what if you found out that the person you thought you knew in fact wasn't that person at all? he thought.


Anyone care to venture a guess as to what James is trying to tell Draco in those flash-forward scenes we keep posting? Find out this spring in Chapter 32!

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