Change of Heart
By Tempest Break
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, or his world, or the generation the Marauders are in. Hmm, I do own Colleen and Selena and anyone else you don't recognize as from the books. I wish I owned Sirius... WHY?? WHY MUST HE DIE??
Summary: James knows he's in love with Lily, and he's told her. Unfortunately, she likes Remus. Still, James has promised to give her his best shot and nothing less, unless she's officially Remus's girl. Meanwhile, they get closer and closer as friends, and don't the best of friends make the best of lovers? All James is waiting for is for Lily to have a change of heart.
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Chapter Fourteen: Dream Come True
That weekend, Hogsmeade was filled with Hogwarts students milling about, looking in windows of Zonko's or Dervish and Banges, or trying to meet up again with their friends. James, Lily, and the others, except Selena, sat at a table in The Three Broomsticks sipping their butterbeer and making small talk. Lily was keeping an eye on the amount of butterbeer Colleen was consuming, as she didn't want to have to give her best friend a detention for drunkenness, but Sirius was guzzling the stuff down like it was going out of style – or like it was syrup.
"So after this, what do you want to do?" asked Lily.
"Peter and I are heading to Zonko's," said Sirius, and Peter nodded. "April Fool's Day is coming up, and we don't want to be unprepared."
"I'll go with you," volunteered Colleen.
Lily eyed them warily. "Watch yourselves, you three, while you're there," she said. "I've heard McGonagall keeps a pretty watchful eye on the joke shop."
"Puh-lease," said Sirius, waving his hand so wildly he nearly slapped Remus in the face. "I know how to handle the ladies." He waggled his eyebrows saucily at Colleen.
"I don't have to be anywhere, really," said Remus sleepily. The February full moon was approaching and Remus was becoming more and more sickly as the moments passed.
Lily gave him a brief, sympathetic look that James noticed with a sharp burst of emotional pain. He hadn't told Lily about his conversation with Remus, even though he knew it might help his cause. He just didn't want to break Lily's heart – he didn't want Remus to, either, as a matter of fact. Just the thought of Lily sad made him want to rip Remus's arm off and bludgeon him with it.
And he probably wouldn't put up much of a fight, either, James thought, looking at his friend. Remus was nearly asleep where he sat across from Peter.
"Don't get into trouble," Lily warned Sirius, Colleen, and Peter as they went off to Zonko's. "I don't want to have to report you."
"Don't worry," said Colleen.
"Yeah, you won't have to report ush," agreed Sirius. "If we get in trouble, it'll be sho big that McGonagall hershelf will come."
Lily rolled her eyes. "Sirius, you're slurring your S's. You've had too much butterbeer."
"Shally shells sheashells by the sheashore," he said defiantly. "Let'sh go." He tried to pivot on his heel but went too quickly and nearly fell over.
Lily winced, watching as Sirius took Colleen and Peter with him in the direction of Zonko's – or rather, Colleen and Peter propped up Sirius, who was trying to begin a rousing, three-person staggered performance of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat". "That boy worries me," she murmured.
"He can take care of himself," James assured her. "Now come on. Where do you want to go?"
But, as it turned out, Sirius, Colleen, and Peter couldn't take care of themselves. They heard later that Sirius had shoved Peter into a display of Filibuster's fireworks and set off about fifty of them at once in Zonko's, earning them both detentions. Colleen had also gotten one, just because she had been laughing hysterically, and McGonagall was already suspicious of her since New Year's.
That wasn't the worst of it, though. When Sirius showed James the detention slip, James saw the date: the eleventh, the same night that Remus would be undergoing the transformation.
"Ask McGonagall if there's any way you can change it," James said. "We need you and Wormtail."
"I'll ask, but I doubt there is," said Sirius. "Why would you be able to choose the date of your punishment? And we can't exactly explain to her that we need to accompany Remus to the Shrieking Shack."
"Just check if there's any possibility," James told him.
There wasn't any. Sirius and Peter were stuck cleaning trophies with Filch on February eleventh, as James hurried to get Remus under the Invisibility Cloak earlier than usual. He wanted to give himself some time to get Remus there before he underwent the transformation.
So, around five, James strolled towards Gryffindor Tower. He had taken some food from the kitchens earlier so that he could miss dinner, because the winter nights came earlier in the day than the rest of the year. Remus was waiting for him in a nearly-empty common room. Sirius, Peter, and Colleen were down at dinner, because McGonagall wanted to keep an eye on them even before the detention started. The only other person in the room was Selena; she sat curled up in one of the armchairs, reading.
Selena smiled at James as he entered. "Hello, James. What brings you here this fine evening?" she inquired.
"I'm looking for Remus," he replied. "Have you seen him?"
"He hasn't been by, so he must still be up in his room," she answered.
James nodded in acknowledgment before ascending the stairs to speak to Remus. "Come on, Moony," he said, in the lines that he had rehearsed earlier, in case someone should overhear them. "Let's go down to dinner. Thanks for waiting for me."
"It's – no – problem," breathed Remus, standing shakily from where he sat on his bed. He staggered across the room to latch onto James's arm for support, as James accompanied him out the door.
"Selena's in the common room," James said to Remus under his breath, "so we can't put the Cloak on just yet."
"Just – hurry," he replied, his voice ragged.
They made it down the steps haltingly, Remus breathing roughly in James's ear, and then nearly across the common room to the portrait of the Fat Lady. James had just opened it for Remus, when…
"James?" It was Selena. She had looked up from her book and caught sight of the two of them about to leave.
"Yes?" he answered reluctantly, aware that every moment counted tonight, with Remus in such a condition.
"Could you come here for a moment?"
James glanced over his shoulder at her and saw that she needed to speak to him; the look on her face told him there was some urgency. "You go on," he whispered to Remus, passing him the Invisibility Cloak. "You think you can make it?"
Remus just nodded and left the Gryffindor commons quickly. James hurried over to where Selena sat. She had closed her book and was looking at James intently.
"Well?" he prompted her after a while.
"I know about Remus."
James froze for a split second before laughing. "Oh? And what is it you 'know'?" he asked, but his voice hit a careening note.
"It's no use pretending, James, I figured it out long ago," she said. "I've also figured out that – somehow – you and Sirius and Peter accompany him to the place he goes during the full moon, wherever that may be. I don't yet know how you do it, but I think I rather understand. It has to do with the nicknames you call each other, doesn't it? Only, I can't get what your name means. Prongs..."
James averted his eyes. "Yes, so you know, then," he sighed. Then he raised his head to meet her gaze again, his eyes blazing intensely. "You mustn't tell anyone."
"Of course not," she said. "But there is someone who has also figured it out. She confided in me that she thought there was something the matter with Remus, since he always got sick once a month. Then she remembered that his nickname was Moony, and she looked it up on the lunar calendar…"
"Who's this?" James asked, though he already knew the answer.
"Lily."
James ran a hand through his hair anxiously, wondering how Remus was at that moment.
"But there's more," said Selena, "and it's not good. Lily's the type that has to make sure she's right. Today she checked the calendar and found that the full moon was tonight. She's going to make sure of her theory. She could be following Remus right now, as we speak."
James's heart skipped a beat and his muscles seized up, before he sprinted towards the portrait hall, throwing open the exit to Gryffindor Tower and dashing down the hall toward the Whomping Willow.
He heard the loud, familiar meow! of Mrs. Norris behind him, but he didn't stop until he had reached the foot of the Willow, which was, forebodingly, stone-still. He darted into the passageway, changing into Prongs as he went. Soon cloven hooves beat the ground instead of sneakers, churning up the dirt that paved the passage into the Shrieking Shack. Finally he reached the entrance.
He had to slow to go up the stairs in his stag form, and he heard a human scream from the second story. He leapt to the landing and saw, through his strange stag-vision, Remus, hackles raised and his lips curled back in a snarl, advancing on Lily, who was huddled behind a chair.
"Remus! Remus, it's me, Lily!" she screamed.
Remus let out a howl of hunger, his bushy tail lashing back and forth.
"Remus!"
James pushed off with his hind legs just a split-second before Remus jumped at Lily. James willed himself to make it there faster, concentrating every bit of himself on stopping Remus.
Then his antlers connected with Remus's side, jarring his head violently, but he knocked the wolf Remus away. James shook himself and then leapt to block Lily from Remus, who had recovered enough to stare at her hungrily. Remus snarled at James from where he lay on the floorboards. He tried to lunge again at Lily, but James thrust himself in her way, and Remus locked his jaws around James's shoulder, tearing at him with his sharp claws. Blood dripped to the floor.
James looked at Lily through one of his pain-filled eyes and motioned for her to get out. She didn't need any encouraging; she leapt up and bolted down the stairs and out of the Shrieking Shack.
Remus calmed down a few minutes after Lily left and relinquished his death-grip on the stag's shoulder. James stepped back from him, pain shooting through his leg, but he kept a wary eye on the werewolf. Remus bit at the couch halfheartedly for a while, until James deemed it safe to tell him: "I'm leaving. Stay here."
Remus didn't respond, but James could tell that he understood, so he hobbled out of the Shrieking Shack to find Lily. He needed to talk to her, to explain things to her.
He found her collapsed from exhaustion a little ways away from the Willow, just out of range of its branches. He turned back into himself before shaking her awake; his shoulder still throbbed with pain, but the transformation back had mostly closed up the wound. "Lily," he hissed. "Lily, wake up."
Her eyes fluttered open and focused on him. "James?" she said, dazedly.
"I'm getting you to the Infirmary," he told her. "Can you walk on your own?"
"Yes." She sat up too fast, though, and got a head rush. After it subsided, she turned to him and said, her eyes wide: "Remus... he's a werewolf."
"I know," James told her quietly.
"He... he almost bit me," she whispered. "A stag saved me, though. That was – " Her eyes fell on his wounded shoulder, and she gasped. "That was you, James."
James looked away and said, "Let's get to the Infirmary, hm?"
"No, it was you," she said. "I know it was. You're Prongs because of your antlers. And Sirius and Peter, Padfoot and Wormtail... You're all Animagi!"
James was silent.
"James, that's incredible!" Lily continued. "It takes most wizards half of their lives to learn to be Animagi."
"Lily, you have to promise to never, ever tell anyone that you know about us," he said seriously, ignoring the pain in his shoulder to ensure Lily's secrecy. "And not just me and Sirius and Peter, but also Remus. Other than you and Selena, Snape is the only other person who knows."
"Snape?" Lily repeated. "Why does he – ?"
"Long story," James interrupted. "Now please, let's get to the Infirmary. Can you walk?"
Lily nodded, standing. James put an arm around her waist just in case she fell, and assisted her to the Infirmary.
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Tempest: Hahahaha! That was eventful, wasn't it? Well, the next chapter is in the Infirmary, with some romance, as I promised. And then chapter sixteen should be the Gryffindor vs. Hufflepuff game (wow, that's a lot of F's). Okay, now I will respond to some people. Jsas: Well, they went to Hogsmeade, just like you asked! I knew I should have a Hogsmeade weekend somewhere. Misha: Wow, you talk just like my friend Jane! About going insane and murdering everyone if I don't update... Anna Black: Don't worry; Colleen's middle name is Anna. Flexi Lexi: Really? You got a jolt when Lily said that?! Wow, I'm so proud of myself!! eep: I had no idea I had puns in here... Could you tell me a couple of the ones you found? Hplova4eva: About the James being Head Boy thing... I think I read in my Exploring Harry Potter book that James and Lily were the Head Students, so that's where I got the idea. It also made sense, because in OotP, it said that James and Lily got together in seventh year.
8-03-07: This chapter has been revamped! I took some liberties with Animagus transformations and assumed that turning back would heal you a little bit, perhaps just for werewolf wounds. Because, you know, only humans can be infected, so if you're attacked as an animal, maybe it would heal…? Anyway, ignore it if you don't like it.