Disclaimer: I don't own any of it.

A/n: Well… I finally got the new chapter up. Also I'm still looking for someone to help me write Blossoming. Enjoy and please review.

Chapter 4: Almost the End

Elizabeth collapsed to the ground near the whomping willow; her shoulders heaving as she cried and tried to breath. She slammed her fist into the wet grass like a child throwing a tantrum.

"It shouldn't be this hard." She cried, "It shouldn't." She yelled into the Halloween night. She wiped away her tears looking out over the grounds; a pair of silvery eyes caught hers. They weren't human, they glowed in the darkness but they still made her stomach drop. They eyes dug deep into hers but disappeared into the abyssal darkness of the forbidden forest. She wanted to chase after it but couldn't, instead she went back inside the castle.

"Anything?" Remus asked.

"No." She lied, she turned away quickly bumping into Snape.

"Are you sure?" He leered and she felt a ruffling in her mind; she glared at him concentrating hard on a memory instead of clearing her mind. His triumphant look faded away as he saw the memory playing in her mind.

"5th year?" Remus whispered in her ear as he hurried passed her to Dumbledore and Snape.

"There's no sign of him, he obviously had help." Snape said turning to Remus as he said help.

"Everything has been taken care of. The students can return to their tower in the morning." Dumbledore said ignoring Snape's animosity and hurrying from the hall. Elizabeth gave Snape a sweet smile as she too left.

"You can't do things like that." Remus hissed as he caught up with her.

"What?" She feigned ignorance.

"You know."

"He shouldn't have tried to invade my mind." Elizabeth said, "Since when to you care."

"He's my colleague." Remus said. Elizabeth snorted, "God dammit Elizabeth, James and Sirius aren't here try to be sensible."

"You could have said something but you never did." She wasn't talking about the confrontation in the Great Hall anymore.

"Would you guys have listened?" He asked quietly.

"We always did; your warnings and reasoning are what kept them from crossing the line." Elizabeth said exasperated.

"Except once."

"Where have you been?" Elizabeth asked as Sirius sauntered in the common room.

"Taking care of a few things." He said with an air of mystery. Elizabeth cocked an eyebrow.

"Everything is a go for tonight?" James asked as he sat down next to Sirius on the couch.

"Yes." Sirius said and Peter nodded, "It should be one hell of a night." Elizabeth stared at Sirius suspiciously.

"I think I'm going to get some sleep before we leave." James said.

"Hey James have you done the transfiguration homework?" Peter asked as he followed James up the boy's stairs. Elizabeth went back to work on her charms essay and Sirius stretched out on the couch.

"Hey where you going?" Elizabeth asked a couple hours later when Sirius finally woke up from his nap on the couch, "You're going to have to leave soon."

"I'll be back; I have to check on a few things." Sirius said, waving a hand over his shoulder before he disappeared. Elizabeth stared at the glowing full moon behind the clouds before looking back towards the portrait hole that Sirius just walked out of. She fished out an old piece of parchment from her bag, tapped it with her wand and mumbled the words, "I solemnly swear that I'm up to no good." Her eyes raced over the map, trying to find him. She found his dot; he wasn't alone. His dot remained stationary while the other dot left to the grounds.

"Shit." She swore. She didn't bother to clear the map before shoving it back into her bag and running out of the common room. She ran the four floors down to the Room of Requirement where Sirius's dot showed he was.

"What did you do?" She asked, bursting into the room.

"What are you talking about?" He asked; he was always a good liar, it helped them not get into so much trouble with the Professors.

"I saw who you were in here with and where he went." Elizabeth yelled, "What did you tell Snape?"

He ran his hand over his face, rubbing the five o'clock shadow on his cheeks and chin, "Just lended a helping hand." Elizabeth glared hard at him, "He wanted to know."

"Sirius, you stupid fuck." Elizabeth shoved him roughly, "Do you know what could happen? Huh?" She shoved him again, "Answer me god dammit." She shoved him hard and he grabbed her wrists.

"It's just Snape. The git deserves it." He said.

"No, Sirius, it's not just Snape. It's Remus, too." She ripped her wrists out of his hand, "You don't know what you've done." She said grimly; she threw open the door and ran out.
Elizabeth was panting by the time she made it up the boy's stairs and ran into the seventh year dorms.

"Where's Sirius?" James asked as he pulled on a shirt and Elizabeth rested her hands on her knees, trying to catch her breath. She was shaking her head.

"He told." She breathed, "Snape is going into the Shack." James perked up.

"What?"

"He wanted to get Snape to shut up, so he told him." Elizabeth said, "Snape already left." She took a deep breath, "James you have to do something." Elizabeth slumped to the floor. James ran from the room and Peter looked to the door to Elizabeth slumped on the floor trying to catch up with everything.

James ran as fast as he could, coming across Sirius on the fourth floor. He didn't pause for any words; he grabbed Sirius's collar and pulling Sirius with him. Sirius didn't object and hurried after James, trying to keep in pace with him.

"Transform and freeze the tree." James said as they ran across the damp grounds, towards the whomping willow. Soon after his words, Sirius's large black dog form over took James as they ran to the tree. James watched the dog duck and dodge the thrashing branches but the dog's whimper broke the silent night as he was thrown across the grass when a branch took a swipe at him. The dog shook off the pain and charged the tree once again, disappearing into the roots and the tree suddenly froze. James hurried forward, not bothering to wait for Sirius. The tunnel was empty and James began to worry. A wolf's howl erupted from just ahead of him; James began to run faster. He caught up with Snape just before the door to shack. He grabbed him from behind and threw him away from the door. Snape was too distracted to fight James back.

"I knew it." He sneered from the floor as James fought to catch his breath. Another howl erupted from somewhere behind the door. James pulled Snape up by his collar and slammed him into the rock wall; anger blazing in his eyes but he wasn't mad at Snape.

"Get out." James growled, throwing Snape away from him, "GET OUT!" Snape scurried to his feet and hurried back down the tunnel. James sighed and ran his hand through his hair. A large black dog appeared out of the shadows and transformed back into Sirius as he walked towards James, "Are you all right?"

"I'll be fine." Sirius said, clutching his shoulder. Another howl erupted and the door rattled, "We better get in there."

"We're not leaving the shack tonight." James commanded before he transformed into a large stag. Sirius opened the door for him before following suit.

Elizabeth was passed out on Sirius's bed the next morning when the boys returned with a weak Remus. She immediately woke up when she heard the door click shut. Remus had scratches on his body and face; she hadn't seen him this bad in years.

"What happened?" She asked as she pulled out a first aid kit from under Remus's bed before healing some of the cuts with her wand.

"He got antsy, we couldn't leave the shack last night." James said, looking down at the weak Remus as Elizabeth healed him.

"Did you…" She trailed off, looking up at him.

"Yeah." James said before glancing over at Sirius who was sitting on his bed, pulling his shirt off, "I'm going to go to Dumbledore." Sirius froze but didn't say anything.

It wasn't long after James left that an owl dropped a letter on Sirius's face as he slept. Elizabeth looked over at him curiously but he wouldn't meet her eye; he got dressed and left. Dumbledore wasn't alone in his office when Sirius arrived, both James and Snape sat across from Dumbledore. Sirius nodded silently as he took his seat; it wasn't the first time Sirius sat in Dumbledore's office after getting caught for a prank but it was the first time that Dumbledore ever looked furious.

"Mr. Black." Sirius cringed at Dumbledore's harsh voice before he looked up at him, "Tell me what you thinking." Sirius swallowed hard and shrugged.

"I-I-I wasn't thinking." Sirius finally managed.

"That is obvious." Dumbledore said.

"I was tired of him snooping and following us and running his mouth." Sirius said desperately, "I just wanted to shut him up."

"You are very lucky Mr. Black." Dumbledore said, "You are very lucky to have to friends who are quick on their feet, if not there could have been dire results due to your lack of intellects.

You have lost your privileges to Hogsmeade for the rest of the year and I'm taking a hundred points away from Gryffindor, as well." Sirius hung his head and nodded, "I have also been assured by Mr. Snape here that he will not say anything about Mr. Lupin's condition." Snape's lips pursed into a thin line as he was reminded of that, "I have already awarded Mr. Potter his one hundred and fifty points for his brave actions." The three boys nodded, "You may all go to bed now."

The mumbled, " 'Night professor."

"I'm sorry." Sirius finally managed to say once they were outside the Gryffindor entrance but he got no response from James, "Prongs, c'mon you can't just ignore me. Okay so I messed up but I'm sorry." James still didn't answer him. Sirius grabbed his shoulder and pulled him away from the stairs, "James, please listen to me. I'm sorry."

"Is that suppose to fix it all?" James yelled, "You know what could have happened? Do you? What if I didn't get there in time? They would be pulling Snape's dead body out of the shack and hauling Remus to Azkaban for murder!"

"But that didn't happen." Sirius managed to say before James's fist connected with his nose.

"James!" Elizabeth cried, running down the rest of the stairs.

"Bloody hell." Sirius mumbled, as his nose bled profusely.

"I'm tired of you not thinking; I know you live life the day but you're not a kid anymore and what you do doesn't affect just you." James yelled then blew passed Elizabeth to his room.

Elizabeth fixed Sirius's nose, looking into his eyes with disappointment, "You have to face Remus tomorrow. He doesn't ever have to forgive you." She kissed his cheeks and retired to her room for some well-deserved sleep.

Remus was furious with Sirius after James told him what happened; even in his weak state Remus lunged at Sirius. Elizabeth sat back the next week, watching her friends grow apart after one misguided mistake. James and Remus remained together, excluding Sirius from everything they did while Peter floated between Sirius and the other two. Sirius became an outcast and didn't try to reach out to his friends.

"Hey." Elizabeth said, taking a seat next to Sirius in the back in the library, his refuge place.

"Hi." He said dryly. Elizabeth gave him a half hearted smile but he had returned to his book.

"This is ridiculous." Elizabeth cried, grabbing his hand and pulling him up and out of the library to the Gryffindor tower. She tossed him in front of James and Remus.

"What are you doing?" Sirius asked Elizabeth.

"I'm not doing this any longer." Elizabeth told them, "You have to forgive him."

"He almost…" Remus started but Elizabeth cut him off.

"That's right he almost but he didn't." Elizabeth said, "Snape is very smart, as much as you three would hate to admit it, he would have figured it out, he already almost did. So stop holding that against him." She was getting louder, "Y'all are still the same, you guys are best friends; you guys need each other." Elizabeth elbowed Sirius. 'What' He mouthed to her. Elizabeth gave him an annoyed look. Sirius took a deep breath.

"I'm, I'm…I'm sorry." Sirius said. Nobody said anything, they just stared at each other.

"I'm pretty hungry, anyone want to go to the kitchens with me?" James finally asked.

"I'm pretty famished." Sirius said patting his stomach.

"That was almost the end of us." Elizabeth said, as they stood outside Remus's office.

"You still don't think he's capable of murder?" Remus added, "Night." He said after a few seconds of silence.

A/n: Please Review thanks.