socal4ever: You are absolutely my most favorite person ever :D I'm glad that you like my story so much… YAY!

For it was not into my ear you whispered, but into my heart. It was not my lips you kissed, but my soul. - Judy Garland

If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow. – Chinese Proverb

Chapter Seven

Lily woke up the next morning slightly disoriented; she turned her head to see James staring at her, "Hey." He muttered.

"Hey. How long have you been awake?" Lily asked. She looked at her watch, it's only quarter to seven, wow we're up early.

"Not long, about ten minutes."

"Why didn't you wake me up?"

James shrugged, "You look cute when you're sleeping. You have all these little freckles across your nose and cheeks."

Lily looked at him oddly, "James, I've freckles everywhere."

James grinned wickedly, "Is that a fact?"

"Shut up, you know what I mean."

Still grinning, James said, "I do, but I'd still like to put that to the test." Lily rolled her eyes. "But what I meant was that there's a bunch of darker freckles there."

Lily shrugged, rubbed at her nose, "I guess; it's from the sun and all. They're so annoying."

James grabbed her hand and kissed her lips quickly, "They're cute."

"Whatever you say." James kissed her again.

"I do say."

Lily sighed as James began to rub her back lightly, "Do you think that they've told Remus what happened yet?" She asked.

"I dunno." James replied, "They usually go get Remus pretty early in the morning, so they may have."

"Where does that tunnel go?" Lily asked.

"The Shrieking Shack."

"The Shrieking Shack? But isn't it supposed to be haunted?"

James kissed her nose, "It's supposed to be, but it's not."

"I've heard the villagers say that they hear all sorts of noises coming from it at night."

"Remus. He goes there to transform and he's the one who makes all the noise. Dumbledore encourages the rumor that it's haunted."

"Huh. When did you find out about him?"

"I've had suspicions since first year, but I didn't know for sure until second year." James replied.

"So you've known almost the whole time?"

"Well, it was pretty hard not to notice that Remus was missing one night a month, every month."

"But, you didn't tell anyone, didn't stop being his friend or anything."

James looked at her questioningly, "No, it's not his fault, he didn't ask to be a werewolf, and it's not like he's a werewolf all the time. He just has…"

"A problem, yeah I get it."

James kissed her again, "Not many people think that way. You're not going to hurt him are you?"

Lily watched him, "You really care about him, don't you?" She watched as James made a face and punched him lightly, "I meant in a brotherly kind of way."

"He's one of my best friends."

Lily kissed him, "No, I'm not going to hurt Remus."

"Okay, good, er, there's something else that you should know." James said looking nervous.

"You're a vampire?"

"How did you guess?" James said sarcastically, "Seriously, you have to swear not to tell anyone."

"Okay." Lily said slowly.

"I mean it, you can't tell anyone Lily. Not Emily, not Alice, not Dorcas, not Marlie, not even Dumbledore. You have to swear."

Lily looked at him for a moment, "Okay, I swear I won't tell anyone."

"Okay then; I'm an animagus."

"No you're not." Lily said rolling her eyes. "There's only been seven this century, McGonagall might be one, but you're not."

"There may only be seven animagi registered, but I am one."

Lily sat up, "You're an unregistered animagus? James, you could be sent to Azkaban for that."

"I know."

"Why? When? How? You're only seventeen; I don't think anyone's done it that young before."

"I've been an animagus for a little over a year." Lily gaped at him, "After I found out about Remus, I started looking into ways to help him. I came across something that said that werewolves weren't a danger to animals. Then Sirius said something about how it was too bad that we couldn't turn ourselves into animals then."

"Sirius is an animagus too?" Lily asked awed.

"Shit, I didn't mean to tell you that."

"I won't tell." Lily said. "What about Peter and Gideon?"

"Peter is, but Gideon's not. He didn't want a part of it, but he did help us research a bit."

"Wow."

"It took us three years before we were ready to transform. I was so scared that we'd done something wrong and we were all going to die. But it worked out in the end."

"What kinds of animals are you?"

"Peter is a rat, which comes in handy, because he can run under the branches of the Whomping Willow. Sirius is a dog; he looks a bit like the grim really. And I'm a stag."

"Wow." Lily said again. "And you did it for Remus?"

"Yeah, we visit him when he's in the Shack. If he's there by himself all he does is scratch and bite at himself, so at least when we're there his transformations go easier on him."

"I think I may have pegged you wrong all those years." Lily said kissing him.

James pulled back slightly, "What?"

"To do something that dangerous so that you could help Remus, it's, well, it's amazing." Lily answered pulling James into another kiss.

James shifted so that Lily was under him, his legs on either side of hers, "I really like this." He murmured.

Lily laughed, pulled his jumper over his head. "I'm sure you do."

James chuckled, helped Lily out of her jumper, "This is the part, where you say that you like it too."

Lily grinned as she unbuttoned his shirt, pushed it off, "Who says I do?" She gasped as James nipped at her neck.

"I think that says it all." James muttered against her neck.

"If you leave another love bite I'll…"

James kissed her lips again, quickly undid Lily's shirt and removed it. His breath caught in his throat when he saw her pink, lacy, and mostly see through bra. "You'll what?" He asked before he descended on her neck again, sucked just hard enough to leave a mark.

"Er…" Lily said, James' hand was kneading her breast, and she was having a hard time thinking.

He chuckled against her skin as he placed kisses over her shoulder, "That's what I thought."

A haze was settling over Lily as James made his way from her neck to her breasts. Lily gasped when James dipped his tongue inside her bra, and tangled her fingers into his hair. Lily moaned as James placed wet, open mouthed kisses across her stomach, as he circled her navel with his tongue.

She lifted her hips as James tugged her skirt down, moaned as his teeth scraped across her hip bone. "James!" She cried out as he settled himself between her thighs; her eyes sprang open when she felt his hardness against her inner thigh.

Lily looked into James' eyes as he dipped his head to kiss her again, "You are so beautiful." He murmured against her mouth.

Lily looked away, "I'm not."

James grabbed her chin, turned it towards him, "Gorgeous." He kissed her again, moved his hand to the front clasp of her bra.

Lily grabbed James' hand, "Wait."

James stopped, looked down at her, "Do you want to stop?"

Lily blushed, "No. Yes. Maybe. I dunno."

James blinked, "Er, okay. That's only a little bit confusing." But he moved his hand, placed both of his hands on either side of her head and kissed her lightly.

"I'm sorry." Lily muttered looking away.

"Lily." James said, "Look at me." She turned her head to him, "Don't be sorry, if you're not ready, you're not ready. I can wait, I've waited two years, I can wait some more."

Tears filled Lily's eyes, "It's not… It's just…" Lily stopped, took a deep breath, "I've, er, never done this before." She saw James' eyes widen, watched them darken, "I'm just a little nervous."

James kissed her again, "Neither have I."

Lily felt her own eyes widen in shock, "You, you haven't? Why, I thought…" Lily babbled.

James laughed lightly, "No, there was only one person I was interested in enough to do it. I didn't want to shag someone just to shag them; it's supposed to mean something, especially the first time. So, I've waited, for you."

Lily looked up at him, "Oh, wow." She muttered as her hands slowly made their way to the buckle of his pants.

James stopped her, "Lily, that wasn't so you'd sleep with me, that was the truth. I can, and I will wait. It doesn't have to be now."

Lily's hands continued to unbuckle his belt, unzip his pants, "I know."

James gulped, kissed her slowly, then stood up to let his pants pool around his feet. He waved his wand and dozens of candles appeared. "There's supposed to candles." Then he tapped himself with his wand. Lily looked at him curiously, "Contraception charm."

Lily remembered Emily's story of their twelve children, and giggled. James raised an eyebrow, "You're not supposed to laugh at a time like this." He said as he settled himself back on the bed.

"Sorry." Lily murmured looking shyly up at him.

James brushed a stray lock of hair gently away from her face, "I've imagined this so many times, I've lost count."

Lily rubbed her hand across his cheek, "Me too." She whispered.

"What?" James asked surprised.

"I've fancied you since the beginning of the year."

"You have?"

"Yeah."

James grinned then kissed Lily gently. This time when his hand moved to the clasp of her bra she didn't stop him.

Lily hissed out a breath when James pushed slowly inside her. James fought every instinct in his body to stop moving and instead bent to kiss her softly, "I'm sorry baby, it's only for a minute."

Lily slowly opened her eyes, looked into James', "I know." When she began to lift her hips to his, James started thrusting. And when Lily fell, screaming, over the edge she took James with her.

James rolled so that Lily was sprawled over his chest. "Wow."

Lily sighed, "That about covers it." She closed her eyes, "James."

"Hmm?"

"How did you know how to do a contraception charm?"

"Oh, er, dad." James said uncomfortably.

Lil propped herself up on James' chest so that she was looking down at him, "Your dad taught you a contraception charm?"

James shifted uncomfortably, "Yeah, the summer before last. He and mum decided that since I was almost sixteen that we should have the talk."

Lily giggled, "So he taught you a contraception charm?"

"Yeah." James sighed, "It was one of the most uncomfortable moments of my life. He said that while he and mum would prefer that I wait, they knew that not everyone did. And that they'd rather I be 'safe than stupid', I think he said, so he taught me the charm." Lily shook her head in disbelief. "What didn't your mum have the talk with you?"

"Please don't make me relive that." Lily mumbled. "But my mum didn't start handing birth control after she was done."

James shrugged, "To each his own I suppose. It did come in handy though, didn't it?" He grinned.

Lily smiled back and settled herself back on James' chest. "Yes, I suppose it did."

She shivered as James ran his hand up and down her back, "I wish we could stay here all day."

"I know, me too." Lily murmured.

"But, we're going to have to go to our rooms so that we can get ready for our meeting with Dumbledore." James looked at his watch, "We're going to have to hurry as it is, we've only got an hour before we have to be in his office."

"Back to the real world." Lily sighed. She winced and sucked in a breath as she rolled off of James.

"Are you okay?" James asked worriedly.

She grabbed the sheet, wrapped it around her, "I'm fine, just a little sore is all."

James leaned over, kissed her shoulder, "Are you sure?"

Lily turned her head and kissed James lightly, "Yeah, I'm okay."

They dressed quickly; stealing quick glances at each other when they thought the other wasn't looking. "James, how are we going to get back without anyone seeing us?"

He grinned, "We'll use The Marauder's Map."

"Is that what you used last night to find Snape?" Lily asked.

"Yeah, we made it, the guys and me. It shows all of Hogwarts, the secret passages and everything, all of the passwords too. And the best part is that it shows where everyone in the castle is, so that way you can see who's around you, here let me show you." James said as he stuffed his hands into his pockets. "Shit."

"What?" Lily asked looking confused.

"I think I lost it last night." James replied. "Damn it. That was bloody hard to make."

Lily stood on her toes to kiss James lightly, "I'm sorry."

He grinned goofily, "If it means I can do that now I'll consider it a fair trade."

Lily smiled, "Come on, we'd better go shower and change before we meet Dumbledore."

The hurried to the common room, ducking around corners and giggling when they saw anyone. They managed to get to the common room without incident, "I'll meet you back down here in half an hour?" James asked.

"Okay." Lily crept into her dorm, thankful that her roommates were heavy sleepers, grabbed fresh clothes, and slipped into the bathroom. She hummed the tune of 'The Shoop Shoop Song' happily her entire time in the bathroom.

Lily stepped out of the shower and dressed quickly. She combed out her hair, then using her comb as a microphone and shaking her hips, sang, "If you wanna know. If he loves you so. It's in his kiss. Oh, it's in his kiss. Whoa, hug him and squeeze him tight. Find out what you wanna know. If it's love, if it really is. It's there in his kiss." She didn't even mind when she saw the red mark on her neck in the mirror. In fact she grinned and hummed louder than before; though she did cover the love bite before stepping out of the bathroom.

She walked out of the bathroom to see four pairs of eyes staring at her curiously. "Why are you so happy?" Dorcas asked.

Lily shrugged, "No reason."

"You're singing." Marlie said suspiciously.

"So?"

"So, you don't sing." Emily replied, "Not ever."

"I sing sometimes."

"Not when anyone's around." Emily answered.

Lily shrugged again, "I'm happy."

"What'd you do on patrol last night, shag James?" Alice asked yawning.

The smile fell off from Lily's face. "No. Listen, I'll see you guys later, I have a thing with Dumbledore and I don't want to be late."

They watched her leave the room quickly, "That was definitely odd."

Lily walked down the stairs to find James sitting, staring at the fire. "You alright?" She asked sitting on the arm of the chair he was in.

James shook his head, "Remus was awake, he wouldn't even look at me, never mind talk to me."

Lily kissed the top of his head, "I'm sorry, I'm sure he'll understand eventually."

"I hope so. Come on; let's head on down to Dumbledore's office."

James and Lily walked slowly, the lightheartedness from the morning long gone. "Do you know why he wants to see us again this morning?" Lily asked.

"I have an idea, but I don't want to say anything, just in case I'm wrong."

Lily looked at him questioningly, "Do you think it has to do with why you've been having secret meetings with Dumbledore all year?"

"I'm not sure, but, yes I think that it might." James replied. "Licorice stick."

Lily took a deep breath before knocking on Dumbledore's door, she looked at James, "You ready?"

"Yeah."

"Come in." Called Dumbledore after Lily had knocked. "James, Lily, good, thank you for coming so early this morning." He said eyes, twinkling. "Please, sit down." James and Lily each took a seat in the squishy armchairs across from Dumbledore. "I want you both to know that for your actions last night I am going to be awarding each of you awards for special services to the school."

Lily and James looked at each other, "Thank you, sir." Lily said.

Dumbledore smiled at them, "What you did showed true moral character, especially considering neither of you get on particularly well with Mr. Snape. I'm proud of both of you."

Lily and James gaped at one another. "Sir," James said after he had recovered, "What's going to happen? With Remus, Sirius, and Snape?"

Dumbledore sighed, "As there was no physical harm done, there is no need to take Mr. Lupin out of school and he will of course be allowed to stay. Mr. Snape has been forbidden to tell anyone of Mr. Lupin's affliction. Again as there was no physical harm done to anyone, Mr. Black will also be allowed to remain in school. However, he is banned from Quidditch and Hogsmead; he'll also be serving detention every Saturday until the end of the year. And I've had to take two hundred and fifty points from Gryffindor for his actions."

Both Lily and James nodded gravely. "There is something else that I would like to discuss with the both of you. Lily as you may know James and I have been meeting over the course of this year."

"Yes, sir."

"What am about to ask of you Lily may very well put you in danger, but after your actions last night, I feel that you could be a great asset." Lily's brow furrowed in confusion. "I've formed a group that's sole purpose is to resist Voldemort, I call it The Order of the Phoenix."

Lily's eyes widened as she looked from Dumbledore to James and back. "I want in, I want to help."

Dumbledore smiled at her, "I had a feeling you might react like that. I want you to know that you will not be a full member,"

"But, I'm of age." Lily interrupted unable to help herself.

"Yes, I know, but as long as you are a student in this school you will not be made a full member of the Order." Dumbledore said gently. "You will be allowed certain information not generally known to the public, however, you will not be fully admitted until after you have left school, if that is still what you would like to do. Do you have any questions so far?"

"Yes," Lily said slowly, "if I'm not going to be fully admitted for another year, what is it that I can do?"

Dumbledore smiled again, "You, like James, will watch the happenings of the school. There are students in my school that are either working for Voldemort or prime candidates to do so. I would like to know which, if any, student is behaving oddly. I want to do my best to stop Voldemort from recruiting within Hogwarts."

"I'll do it." Lily said without hesitation.

"Lily, you should seriously consider this, you could be putting yourself in danger."

"With all do respect, sir, I don't need to think about it. What Voldemort is doing is wrong, he needs to be stopped. He's counting on people being too scared to do anything to stop him, and mostly they have been. That's why he's been getting away with as much as he has. People are getting to the point where they are terrified to even say his name. Even The Daily Prophet has been calling him He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, or You-Know-Who. And that just makes it worse doesn't it, if people are too afraid to say his name, how bad, how frightening must he be?"

Dumbledore smiled broadly, "Yes, very proud indeed." Dumbledore said softly, "You're right Lily; fear of a name does increase fear of the thing itself. I can see now, why James has been telling me to bring you in." Lily blinked and looked at James who was grinning proudly at her. "Now, the two of you should be off to breakfast. I'll send for you for our next meeting."

"You've really been asking Dumbledore to let me join?" Lily asked once they reached the corridor.

"Yeah, for quite some time now."

Lily kissed James lightly, "Thank you."

James smiled, "Lily I've got to ask you for a favor."

"Okay."

James pulled her into an empty classroom, "I wanted to know if you would mind keeping this, us, from people for now?" He asked nervously.

Lily narrowed her eyes. "Why?"

"Er, first because there are going to be a lot of rumors going around, and yes, I know that you don't care what people think, I don't particularly either," James said when Lily opened her mouth, "But I don't want those rumors to ruin this. What we have right now is so perfect, I've been waiting years to be with you and I don't want it to be…" James paused trying to find the right word, "Made to be less, because this is probably one of the most important things that've ever happened to me. I'm in love with you and…"

Lily's eyes went wide, "You're in love with me?"

James gulped, "Er, yeah." He mumbled.

"You're in love? With me?" Lily asked again, but this time she was grinning.

James, who now resembled a tomato, mumbled, "Yes."

Lily threw herself into his arms, kissed him soundly on the mouth, "I'm in love with you too."

James grinned, "Yeah?"

She looked up, "Yeah, you idiot." She said rubbing a hand over his messy hair.

James picked her up off the ground and spun her around, "I hadn't meant to tell you so soon, you know."

"I'm glad you did." Lily replied. "What was the other reason that you didn't want to tell anyone about us?"

"Remus, he's got to be feeling pretty shitty right now with everything that's happened. I don't want to rub how happy I am in his face."

Lily sighed, "Alright, for how long?"

James shrugged, "I don't know, until this blows over a bit."

Lily nodded resolutely, "Okay. Let's head down to breakfast then."

When Lily and James walked into the Great Hall it was buzzing with whispered conversation. Everyone was talking about one of two things: how Gryffindor, who had been tied for first with Ravenclaw in house points, was suddenly down one hundred and fifty from the night before, and if that had anything to do with the fact that none of the Marauders were sitting together. Peter was sitting with Gideon and the sixth year girls, Remus was sitting on one end of the table not eating or talking to anyone, and Sirius was sitting at the other end snapping at anyone who came near him.

All conversation stopped when Lily and James walked into the hall, everyone waiting to see where they would sit. Lily squared her shoulders and walked to Remus, "Hi." She said softly.

Remus didn't acknowledge her, but rather, turned his back, got up, and left the hall, which caused a new flurry of whispers. Lily blinked furiously at the tears that welled in her eyes. James put a hand on her shoulder, squeezed, "Come on let's sit down."

"What the hell is going on?" Marlie demanded. "Remus and Sirius are in some moods, pissed at everyone. We're down a hundred and fifty points overnight and no one knows why. There's not even a likely rumor as to why, it has to be the first time in Hogwarts history that that's happened."

Lily shrugged, "Dunno."

"My ass." Sirius mumbled from the end of the table.

Both Lily and James threw him furious looks. "You know." Alice said.

"Maybe, but we can't tell anyone." James replied.

"Why not? I think that we should know why we're suddenly down one hundred and fifty points and practically out of the running for the house cup." Dorcas said.

"We can't." Lily responded.

"Well why the hell not? We're supposed to be friends." Gideon added.

"It has nothing to do with being friends." James started.

"Bloody right it has nothing to do with being friends." Sirius said standing behind them. "You don't know how to be a friend anymore, do you?" He demanded, "All that matters is Lily. For years now all we've heard is Evans this and Evans that. And now that she's finally deemed you worthy of her time, you fall at her feet and forget about your real friends."

"MR. BLACK!" McGonagall yelled from the staff table, "THAT IS ENOUGH!" Sirius stormed away from the table and out of the hall.

"I'm going to catch up to him, make sure he doesn't do anything stupid." Peter said and scurried off.

James and Lily glanced at each other, both were thinking the same thing: Too late.

"Why the hell were you so happy this morning if you knew what was going on?" Marlie asked, "Merlin, Lily, what did you do?"

Lily, who was red in the face and already taking deep breaths, threw down her fork, "I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING!" She yelled. James placed a hand on her leg, squeezed it gently, she took another deep breath. "I didn't do anything." She said again. "I was in a good mood this morning, that's all. I didn't know about everything before."

"You had a meeting with Dumbledore?" Marlie asked.

"So?"

"So Dumbledore told you everything?" Marlie responded. "I guess we know who Dumbledore's favorites are, now don't we. Flawless Lily and Faultless James. I'm leaving." She said to the rest of them, "The rest of us obviously aren't needed in their circle of perfection."

"Marlie." Dorcas called. "That's a bit harsh don't you think?"

Marlie glanced back, "No."

Dorcas sighed, "I'm going to go after her."

"Bloody hell." Lily said rubbing the bridge of her nose.

"If you just said what happened Lily…" Alice started.

"I CAN'T!" Lily screamed again. She fought the need to throw something breakable and instead stormed out of the Great Hall and onto the Hogwarts grounds. James caught up with her, grabbed her arm, "Bloody hell Lily, I'm sorry, I didn't think about…"

"Stop, don't apologize for those prats." Lily said. "They know bloody well that I'd tell them if I could. They're just being selfish, immature, berks." Then Lily put her head in her hands and started sobbing.

"Baby, don't cry." James said pulling her into a hug. "It's going to be alright."

Lily clutched at his shirt, "James what am I going to do, they're my best friends, and they're so mad at me, especially Marlie. We've never fought like this before."

James stroked her back, "It's going to be alright, Lily. Isn't that what you told me last night?"

"Oh, James, I'm sorry, this is awful for you too."

"Don't worry about it; at least we still have each other." He whispered into her hair.

"Always." She murmured, "Always."

A/N: Read & Review, you know you want to... ;oD