From the window, he looked down at her. Well, could you really call that werewolf a he? A werewolf is more of an it. Anyway, it looked down at her. And as its empty hearted eyes bore into her, Lily knew she was going to die. She was expecting that at any moment she would see the normal "flash of scenes from her life" or feel regret for all she hadn't done or think about all the people she would miss. But she felt none of that, mostly because she was so frozen with fear, Lily expected even her blood had stopped cold.

All of the sudden, the werewolf beat on the window. This action jolted Lily enough that she got up and ran. Behind her, she heard a second beating on the window. This time she heard the glass shatter. She kept running as hard as she could. But she was no athlete, and soon she started feeling cramps, loosing her breath and her legs getting wobbly underneath her. Her clumsy feet tripped on a root just as she was entering the Forbidden Forest. She was quickly on her hands and knees.

Why am I running? Lily thought as she fell through the air. I'm going to die anyway. I might as well get it over with.

Lily got up just as fast as she had fallen. She got a sudden idea of how she might survive, but it was abruptly ruled out when she realized that, being the idiot she is, she had not brought her wand. So she stood there looking for a sign of the werewolf.

It must of lost my scent!

Lily rejoiced at the thought, but it was a premature celebration. The werewolf suddenly jumped only a few yards in front of her from behind a bush. It took a second for it to see her, but once it smelled the blood on Lily's hands, Lily knew she was done for.

She was right. The werewolf suddenly started bounding towards her. Lily's plan to just stand there and die failed when her brain shut off and instinct kicked in. And instinct screamed "GET AWAY!"

Seeing a nearby tree, Lily tried to jump into it. She had just scrambled onto the first branch when she felt a tug on her cloak. She looked down to see it biting on her clothes, trying to pull her down. This was it. This was the end. She looked out towards Hogsmeade and about to scream for help, knowing full well that none was going to come.

But when she looked out she saw a stag and a huge black dog coming towards her. Actually, they were very close to her. She might live! Wait, these were animals. They would run away as soon as they realized what was happening. Or so she thought. As soon as they were close enough to do something –anything!- to save her. They both stopped… and looked at her.

Lily was still struggling. The werewolf had torn at her cloak and ripped out a huge patch of it. She was still trying to get higher in the tree, but she couldn't reach the next branch up. The stag and the dog looked at her, then the dog looked at the stag. But that stag just stared at Lily, blood running down her arms and legs, she had a huge gash on her cheek from the tree and the blood flowing down her face was mixed with tears and dirt, her pale skin was deadly white, her red hair was everywhere, she was desperately tearing at a tree trying to get up and a werewolf was biting at her ankles. But that stag did nothing to stop the werewolf. The dog gave up waiting for the stag and bolted full force at the werewolf.

The impact of the dog sent the werewolf to the ground. The two canine animals tore at each other. Lily seemed forgotten so she jumped down and ran into the Forbidden Forest. But she was mistaken. Lily was far from forgotten to that werewolf and he dashed after her. She couldn't contain her terror any longer. Lily screamed and screamed at the top of her lungs. This didn't help anything. It only helped the werewolf track her and made it harder for her to breathe. She stopped screaming but kept running. Lily didn't know where she was going. She was just moving as fast as she could.

She didn't know when she stopped hearing the running, panting and growling behind her, but that didn't stop her from running. Her whole body was screaming for her to stop but her fear kept her on the move. She finally gathered the strength to look behind her, and saw no one or nothing. She also didn't see the root in front of her and she tripped. Her mind told her to get up, but as soon as she was on her feet again, her whole body collapsed under her.

Lily just lay there sprawled out on the ground for a moment. Her mind was numb and her body was in so much pain. Some blood drizzled in her eye and as she moved to wipe it away, she realized maybe lying on the ground with your face in the dirt in the middle of the Forbidden Forest wasn't such a great idea. Although she was in so much pain, and she had already done it once that night, she climbed up into a tree. This time she had time to choose an easier tree to climb. As soon as she had picked and climbed to a safe spot, she sat up with her back resting on the trunk. She was just about to relax when she heard voices.

"He would much appreciate your assistance. You see, Muggles are not like us. They are oblivious, naïve and incompetent to do anything of any worth. We need to get rid of them so that our own race may be more able to do great things."

By the end of this little speech, Lily had silently moved closer to the end of the branch until she could see the situation. A wizard was talking to a centaur.

"I do see, Malfoy. I see more than you know. Look at the stars. You see twinkling lights. I see a power rising, a Dark power," the centaur responded.

"I don't need to look at the stars to know that a power is rising. The Dark Lord will soon have more control than any other wizard there ever has been or ever will be," said Malfoy with great annoyance in his voice.

"I also see other things," said the centaur, as calm as Malfoy was annoyed. He continued looking at the stars. Lily guessed that he was thinking as well as star gazing. Finally, he spoke.

"Tell your Master that the centaurs will not join him."

"Are you serious?" Malfoy sneered. "Do you know what opportunity you are passing up?"

"Centaurs are not naturally evil creatures and we will not promote it." The centaur was as calm as ever.

"It's not about evil. It's about power."

"That is what you believe. But the only power you are increasing is the power of Voldemort."

"Oh, really? How about I show you some of my power?" Malfoy whispered menacingly.

"I am more than willing to sacrifice myself for the better of my centaurs and the world."

Lily was so amazed with this centaur's bravery. But she was also very sad. And angry. And confused! But whatever was going on, she didn't like it one bit!

"Your highness?" suddenly another centaur came out from behind a bush. "Oh! I'm sorry, am I interrupting something?" This centaur was much younger than the other centaur who Lily now assumed was the king.

"Actually, we were just getting started," Malfoy growled. He suddenly drew his wand from his cloak.

"Don't touch him!" the king centaur's voice boomed through the forest. Malfoy was only momentarily affected.

"Join us. Join the Dark Lord. Join the winning team," said Malfoy.

"Never." This time the calm voice was coming not from the king, but the young centaur. The king looked torn. Lily almost started crying.

"Well, what will it be?" No voice responded. "Maybe this will speed up your decision process. CRUTIO!"

A scream pierced the air. It was filled with pain. Lily could almost feel his pain in her own body, and then she realized that she was just feeling her own pain in her own body. She couldn't imagine how the young centaur must feel. This time she did start to cry.

"STOP!" the king yelled.

"You can make it stop now. Just join us."

The king looked at the young centaur. "I'm sorry," he whispered. "No. As long as I am king, the centaurs will never join Lord Voldemort," he spoke, with fierce passion.

"Fine. I will just have to kill you once I'm done with this one. AVADA"

Lily didn't know how she did it. She didn't know where she summoned the courage or when her brain finally clicked on. But when that click happened she realized that from the little wandless magic she could do, there was one wandless spell she could do with confidence that could solve this situation.

"ACCIO MALFOY'S WAND!" The wand flew out from the wizard's hand and into Lily's. Malfoy was startled. The centaur king, however, took the opportunity to lunge toward Malfoy and promptly reared and knocked Malfoy out with his front hooves. Lily dropped the wand to the ground and climbed down the tree to see if she could help the young centaur. It was a pretty long climb down and the whole time she was thinking about what had just happened and all that had happened that night. Once her feet touched the ground, Lily broke down sobbing. She fell in a heap on the ground and cried her heart out until she fell into such a deep sleep, one might think she was unconscious.

Oh, Merlin, thought James. He looked at Lily in the tree, saw her in danger. He had a chance to be her knight in shinning armor. And he froze. She thought she was going to die. He could see it in her eyes. And he thought he was going to die right alongside her. The prospect of her dieing was unbearable.

Finally Sirius helped her. He saved her. He did what James should have done. As soon as Lily, Remus and Sirius were out of sight, James turned back into himself. He sat in the grass and got lost in thought, gazing into the Forbidden Forest. He was going to let her die. He was going to let her die at the hand of an uncontrollable beast. What if Sirius hadn't been there? How long would he have just stood there? Long enough for Lily to either be bitten and become a werewolf herself or perish.

What kind of person was he? He said he loved her. He told everyone. Told the world. But what kind of person let the object of their love die right in front of them, without trying to stop it? And now he was just sitting there feeling sorry for himself. And Lily, his Lily, was fighting for her life in the Forbidden Forest, were a werewolf wasn't the worse thing you could run into, and he was here; feeling sorry for himself. But as hard as James tried, he could not move himself from that spot. He sat there all night.

Eventually, the moon set. Now at least James had a reason to wait. Remus, Sirius and Lily should all be coming out any second. Just as he was thinking that, he heard a rustle in the bushes. A beaten up Sirius and Remus practically crawled on all fours out. James finally stood up and rushed over to them.

"Where's Lily?" he asked immediately.

"She hasn't come out?" asked Sirius.

"I thought you might have knocked Remus out or something and helped her," responded James. "When was the last time you saw her?"

"I only saw her for about five minutes once we got into the Forest."

"What should I do? She could be in major trouble! She could be hurt! Or she could be…" James trailed off. He had been thinking about Lily dieing all night but he still couldn't bring himself to say it out loud.

"I'm sure she's fine, mate," Sirius assured his best friend. "Lily's got a smart head on her shoulders."

"Yeah, she does," agreed James. But he was still worried. Before he had been frozen in fear of loosing her, but now all he could think about was finding Lily, making sure she was ok. "But I don't know what I should do! Should I go get Dumbledore? Should I wait here incase she comes out and needs help? Should I try to go find her?" James was near hysterical.

"James. First of all, you have to calm down. For Lily, if not for the rest of us. Come on, we're the Marauders. We can think of something to do. OK. For your idea about going into the Forest, not even I know my way around there. Getting you lost in the Forest won't help anyone. I don't think you should wait here either. Remus needs to get to hospital wing soon."

At this comment both boys looked at their friend who smiled weakly at them. He looked horrible.

"I'm not exactly in the best shape to practically carry him back to the castle," continued Sirius. "So I think you should take him and then go to Dumbledore. I'll sit here and wait for Lily and try to transfigure some of these leaves into bandages."

James was too indecisive to do anything but agree with Sirius. He helped Remus off the ground and pulled Remus' arm around his own shoulders. In this way they walked back to the castle, along the way passing a forgotten bag of chocolates and a wrapped box.

Bloody girl, thought Sirius while transfiguring leaves into bandages, How does one girl manage to cause so much trouble… without meaning to?

But Sirius was worried. Lily wasn't one for getting in trouble so consequently this was probably her first time in the Forbidden Forest. And she was by herself. And probably hurt. She could be de… no. She was fine. He had convinced James that Lily was alive and well, he had to believe himself.

But how was anyone going to help her? No one knew where she could possibly be. As much as it pained him, Sirius tried to think of ways Mr. Potter had found people. Mr. Potter had been an auror so this was part of his job. But thinking about Mr. Potter and the fact that he was dead was almost too much to bear. Suddenly, Sirius remembered a way that would be quite easy for him to do.

Sirius reached into his cloak pocket and pulled out a two-way mirror.

"James? James, can you hear me?" James' face suddenly appeared in the mirror instead of Sirius'.

"Yeah. What's up?" James replied. He sounded calm but his gray face and panic-stricken eyes quickly revealed his true feelings at the moment.

"I just remembered a way to find people. Usually just Muggles do it. They use a dog to search for a person with their noses. I just need something that Lily recently had."

"That's brilliant! Good thinking, Padfoot. I saw a bag left right outside the Shrieking Shack. It must have been hers. You can use that. Do you still want me to get Dumbledore?" James rambled.

"No. Not unless it's absolutely necessary. I'm gonna go. See ya soon." Then Sirius took the mirror and put it back into his cloak. In the blink of an eye, Sirius was gone and a huge black dog stood in his place.

Padfoot ran to the Shrieking Shack and found the bag that James had described. He took a long whiff of it and suddenly he could smell the scent everywhere. He ran towards the Forbidden Forest. There the scent was again. No not there. Ok there. And this was how Padfoot kept moving for a half hour. He moved at top speed until he found her. Lily was sprawled out on the ground. She wasn't moving. Padfoot couldn't even tell if Lily was breathing. He bolted towards her. He nudged her with his huge nose. No response. He did it again. Still no response. He pushed her hard with his head until she rolled over onto her back. At least her eyes were closed. Her poor face was covered with dirt and blood and tears. Padfoot did the first thing that came to his rather dog possessed mind. He started licking her face.

The next thing Lily felt after she fell asleep was a dog tongue all over her face.

"Beast! Stop it!" she giggled. She opened her eyes and sat up. The dog licking her suddenly stood up and wagged its tail feverishly, panting heavily. It wasn't until Lily actually looked into the eyes of the dog that she realized it was not Beast… but possibly A beast. The "dog" had very humanlike eyes… eyes she almost recognized.

She stood up quickly and started backing up, but the dog followed her.

"Who are you?" she asked, her voice no longer filled with playfulness but with threatening.

"Ruff!" was her only reply.

Lily's back hit a tree and she was again filled with fear. But this time she put herself in check. There had been too much fear for one night; too much fear and not enough fight.

"Listen! If you're a wizard, show yourself!" she yelled. This time her reply was a little better. The dog jumped on her, pulling her to the ground and started to wrestle with her. But Lily could tell that this was just a game and not actually an attack. She burst out laughing.

It felt so good to laugh.

After playing around with her for a long time, the black dog started tugging on her cloak sleeve. He seemed to be pulling her somewhere. Lily hesitated.

"Where are you taking me?" she asked. She was not really expecting a reply, but a part of her thought that she might get one. Suddenly she heard a rustling behind her. She turned around but not quickly enough.

"Don't move," the previously unconscious wizard threatened. Lily didn't even move a muscle. She didn't know if Malfoy had his wand back but she was sure he didn't need it to kill her. Her back was still turned to Malfoy so she glanced sideways toward the dog. He was slowly slinking away.

Thanks a lot, Lily thought.

But she was almost greatful. It had been a long night. She had almost died and had undergone severe extremes of a multitude of emotions in a short period of time. She was tired. She was done. This "Malfoy" character could kill her right now and she might even put in a good word for him at the Pearly Gates. Lily gave up.

"So who may I ask are you?" Malfoy sneered. "Who are you that you dare interfere in the work of the Dark Lord?"

Lily's courage was gone. "Lily Evans, sir," she answered meekly.

"Ah, Miss Evans. I don't recall any families with the name Evans," he continued.

"I'm Muggle born, sir," Lily replied.

"Perfect. Now the Dark Lord will be especially happy I disposed of such dirty blood," Malfoy jeered. "Your stupid mother will probably mourn and your incompetent father will probably try to find who killed you, but no one will ever know. We are out in the middle of the Forbidden Forest. This is where you are going to die. Your disgusting family might not even ever find your body. What a shame."

Her family. Her mum. Her dad. Petunia. They loved her. They wanted her to live. If she couldn't live for herself, she could live for the people she loved. James. What? Why did she think of James? No matter. Now was not time to wage war on herself. How could she save herself? That was the question. And she had to hurry, Malfoy was walking toward her, she could hear his footsteps.

The next thing she heard didn't kill her but it might as well have.

"CRUCIO!" Lily wasn't expecting the curse but she somehow found it in her head to resist as strongly as she could.

He can't make me feel pain. He can't do that. I'm me. She kept repeating her mantra in her head. Her body was shaking but she wasn't feeling pain. There was sweat dripping from her forehead, but she was OK. Suddenly for some reason she didn't know, Lily lost her concentration. Her body doubled over in pain and she began screaming. The pain ran through her body. She felt like she was being lit on fire, electrocuted and beaten up all at the same time.

"JUST KILL ME!" was the only thing that could escape her lips. It was all she could think through the intense pain. She strived to open her eyes for one last look at the world and saw a blur of black. And then the pain was gone and she fell to the ground.

Lily opened her eyes. The blinding whiteness of the Hospital Wing made her instantly shut them again. She heard voices so she tried opening her eye again. This time a little bit more slowly. As her eyes adjusted to the light, familiar faces came into focus around her.

"Lily…" she heard someone say. Whoever it was spoke barely above a whisper.

Then more loudly another voice, "Oh LILY!"

Emma and Katy were right there; their faces were full of joy.

"Madam Pomfrey said you were going to be ok…. But we still weren't sure," Katy rambled.

"But you ARE ok," Emma said, a little more calmly.

Lily tried to sit up, but immediately fell back down. "Well, I will be," she said with a wince. "So how long have I been out?"

"Two days," responded Katy.

The three girls continued on with their gabbing; Emma and Katy were filling Lily on all that happened for the past couple of days, most of it concerning her.

"No one knew what happened to you. Madam Pomfrey even said that you were just left here, on one of the beds, in the middle of the night. It's all very mysterious, Lily," Emma said.

There was a silence, not awkward but thick with ambiguity. The silence was ended with a loud growl from Lily's stomach. The girls laughed nervously.

"We're gonna go get you some food from the kitchens," Katy told Lily. "Madam Pomfrey might kill us, but it sounds like your stomach might eat you so we'll be fast."

"We'll be right back," agreed Emma.

The two friends rushed out of the hospital wing, passing a shadow in the corner they didn't notice. James had been sitting there ever since he had brought Lily back from the Forbidden Forest. He would never tell her that, of course. He would never tell her that he had gone numb when he saw her dead-like body on Padfoot's back. He would never tell her that when Sirius had morphed back into a human and told James that Lily was alive, he had tears in his eyes. He would never tell Lily that he had held her body tightly to his as he had carried her from the edge of the Forbidden Forest. Or that her subconscious self had held onto him almost as tightly as he held her. He would not tell her that he had sat up without sleep and eating only the food Sirius and Remus brought him for two days… waiting for her to wake up. He would never tell her that almost overwhelming sense of joy he felt when he heard her voice on the other side of the curtain.

James stood up and straightened himself out. He rubbed his face so as not to seem so sleep deprived and went to see her.