A/N Thanks to . who donated rice to the last chapter.

Chapter 8

Marauders Marauding

"So does that even count as a prank?" asked Sirius. "I mean, no one was laughing."

"They will be when word spreads about what happened," said James.

"But you told them if they told any teachers it would make us credible witnesses," said Sirius.

"Which is true. But they're still going to tell their Slytherin friends what happened, then some Hufflepuff will hear, then the whole school will know. Plus, Christine knows everything that happened, or at least will once she hears that the two kids were found paralyzed with their broken wands on their chest. And she's a chatter. Students knowing and teachers knowing are two entirely different things. The teachers know better than to dignify student rumors, even though this will be one of the times that the rumor is true," said James.

"True enough. So it's a Marauders' prank with a delayed reaction," said Sirius, seemingly satisfied.

"Precisely," said James. "Now, you ready to pick up Wormtail so we can go hang out with a werewolf?"

"Absolutely!" said Sirius, obviously earnestly excited.

In about half an hour, the three teenage boys had transformed and were making their way across the grounds as a stag, a huge black dog, and a small rat. Peter opened the door by hitting the knot underneath it.

Sirius slipped easily in behind him, but James needed to lower his head and make his stag frame small to make it through the tunnel, bending his knees low to the ground. I would have been much more convenient to crawl through as a human, but it would be no good to encounter Remus in his wolf form while he was still in the form of a human.

Still, the stag that James had become did not like being cooped up in this tunnel. It was meant to run free, stand tall, get into fights, and it knew it. The part of James that was still separate from the beast coaxed it, trying to comfort it with the fact that it would only be less than twenty minutes before they were running around Hogsmeade, or the grounds of Hogwarts, or somewhere else that it could be wild and free.

When they got to the entrance to the Shrieking Shack, Sirius went in first. The big black dog was the werewolf's favorite of the bunch, and the one it liked to see first. Neither James nor the stag let its feelings be hurt by that fact. It was only natural that the werewolf would want to be greeted first by something so close to its own kind.

The two animals sniffed at each other, and each clearly recognized the other's scent. Sirius began to bark and nip at the werewolf. The werewolf did the same. It would not matter, James knew, that Sirius had been bitten by a werewolf, werewolf bites were only problematic for humans. In his animagus form, Sirius was safe. James strutted into the room next, glad to be out of the confined space, and Peter scurried across the floor and into a crack in the wall that allowed him out of the room and outside of the shack. It was his job to transform into human form and open the door to let them all outside. James and Sirius would have to control and the werewolf as Peter turned back to his normal form.

James and Sirius both knew that this was the scariest part for Peter. But he knew that the dog and the stag were strong enough to keep the werewolf at bay. And tonight, like always, Sirius and James kept their promise to keep Peter safe. Peter transformed back into his animagus form, and the four were ready to begin their wild marauding through the night.

Sometimes, they had plans before hand, of where to go, what to do, what they wanted to see. Tonight they had had no such plans, but James and the stag with whom he was sharing a body decided that where they wanted to go was the Forbidden Forest, so Prongs began to lead the way up to the castle grounds.

He was followed by the dog and the wolf, still covertly nipping at each other's heals whenever they got the chance. The rat scurried fast to try to keep up, and was almost left behind, if it weren't for the fact that Padfoot scooped Wormtail up in his mouth and tossed him toward Prongs. Padfoot and Prongs had done this trick many times before, so Prongs knew just how to pause and stand so that Wormtail would be able to regain his balance on his back. Once that was done, the rat managed to climb up to the stag's head, where it nestled safely between the stag's antlers. It was Wormtail's favorite place to be.

Now that all three of the larger animals could lope along without being concerned about losing their smaller companion, they made it up to the border of the school grounds very quickly. They knew there was one part of the Forbidden Forest where animals could come and go unregulated by the security of the castle. It was, primarily, a demand of the centaurs that had made this particular lapse of security exist, as they refused to be caged on a reserve, they wanted to know that they could leave and seek other forests any time they wanted.

Moony was the only werewolf ever to breach the system, given that all other werewolfs would be much more attracted by the smell of human blood down in Hogsmeade than the wild-life smells wafting out from the forbidden forest. The only humans nearby were protected behind pure stone, something that werewolves were able to sense with their smell, and something that would not give them much hope of reaching their human prey.

So they went to this secret part of the Forbidden Forest, one that they had not even bothered to put on the Marauders' Map because they knew it would be useless to any future prankster who wasn't best friends with a werewolf, and also because they always had the hardest time remembering where it was once morning came... They often wondered if perhaps this was an extra enchantment put on the entrance. Perhaps it could only truly be found by animals.

At any rate, they ran through the forest. First, they encountered a pair of roaming hippogriffs, who took flight at the site of this strange group of creatures which they had never seen before. They spooked a number of unicorns, who ran away in a group of seven. Unicorns were not confident to know that the group of seven of them could have given a good fight against the three strong animals among the oddly marauding pack.

None of the Marauders cared that they were not encountering any highly interesting creatures. Moony, Padfoot, and Prongs were simply happy running around the grounds, and Wormtail was content being in between the stag's natural defense mechanism, surrounded in every way by his three stronger friends.

But then, they did encounter a more interesting creature... a pack of seven scuttling spiders each the size of a small dog were scurrying toward them. It was Padfoot who decided to stand his ground and growl. Neither Sirius nor the big black dog were of the character to be scared by a bunch of overgrown insects. There was a tense moment where the spiders seemed to be considering seeing if they could take on the motley crew. However, the wolf came to back the dog up, and James knew that it must have been some part of Remus himself that decided to help his friend, even though the Padfoot and the werewolf were always on good terms.

James saw very little need to fight the spiders,and would just as easily have turned and walked away from the spiders had Padfoot not stood his ground. The stag had no desire to fight anything that wasn't a fellow stag, and then only if it were questioning its dominance. Still, James knew he needed to help protect his friends. So he made a move as if to charge the spiders. That's when they began to scurry away. Padfoot made to chase after them, but Padfoot stood in front of him, letting them get away.

The marauders had a good time making their way through the forest. The only close call they had was when they nearly ran into some centaurs, but Padfoot smelled them before they got too close. They had gotten shot at by centaurs before. It was a near miss.

The next morning, Sunday morning, James was the only one to stayup for breakfast, hoping that he would see Lily. He knew she never skipped breakfast, it was her favorite meal of the day. Peter and Sirius went to bed, whereas Lupin, of course, was in the Shrieking Shack.

When James got down to the Great Hall, he was grateful to see Lily sitting alone.

"So where are Marietta and Chloe, then?" asked James as he sat down.

"Errr, well, both sleeping for different reasons," said Lily, after she greeted James with a warm smile.

"Why's that?" asked James.

"Well, Marietta stayed up drinking from a stash of fire-whiskey she keeps in her trunk, celebrating her making seeker by getting all the girls on the Quidditch team drunk," said Lily.

"Yikes," said James. "Lucky no girl on the team is below 6th year. Didn't drink much, I hope?" asked James. He knew all the girls on the Quidditch team and rather looked out for them. Thought of them almost as sisters.

"Just a couple of drinks apiece, except for Marietta. But she can take care of herself, trust me. She just needs to sleep it off. Wouldn't do it on a school night," said Lily.

"Fair enough. What about our good friend Chloe?" asked James.

"She, er... found this interesting book on some odd magical traditions from Scandinavia... Stayed up half the night reading it," said Lily, laughing as if she were embarrassed for her friend.

" Sounds like something Remus would do," said James.

"We'll talk about Remus later," said Lily, in a way that sounded slightly ominous to James. "We have more important things to talk about."

"Er, well... what do you have to say?" asked James.

"Prefects on second shift last night found Flint and Prewett paralyzed on the ground with their wands snapped," said Lily.

James' face contorted in surprise, "Right, we forgot that prefects would find them first!"

"So I assume it was Flint and Prewett who cursed poor Joseph Pellin the other night?" asked Lily.

"Yeah. Well, then, you gave them what they deserved. You and Sirius I assume," suggested Lily.

"You're not going to tell on us, are you?" asked James, somewhat jokingly.

"Of course not, James. I approve of what you two did, and I assume Dumbledore would, too. If he didn't suggest it. But you got done what you needed to get done, and I assume it required bravery, or cleverness, or possibly both. So 6 points. I hope the prats take the message and get the hell out of our school," said Lily.

"Ooooh, up to 20 already. I should curse Slytherins in hallways more often," James paused. "I'm joking of course. Only if they deserve it, like Flint and Prewett did. But I don't know if they'll leave the school. Word should spread that seventh years can't pick on fourth years in the hallway, though, if nothing else," said James.

"Good. Now tell me why you look like you're going to fall asleep in your eggs over-easy," demanded Lily.

"I, er... I can't really tell you about that right now," said James, feeling there was no point in denying the fact that he hadn't slept all night. Lily would have to be blind not to see it.

"Okay, well. Two points for being all mysterious and interesting and making me curious," said Lily. "So, yes, that's 22. But just keep in mind that it will earn you a lot more points when you trust me enough to tell me your secrets."

"Merlin, Lily, you sound like you're on some Muggle soap-opera. Which you probably watch! All right, mystery solved!" shouted James, loudly enough that people seats away turned around and looked at him.

Lily giggled slightly, beautifully, charmingly. But then, once her face got serious, her line of questioning did, too. "Does it have anything to do with Remus being a werewolf?"

James' mouth dropped wide open. Shit, he thought. The way to get out of having to answer that question honestly would have been to do just about anything but let his mouth drop open.

James still tried to recover and play it cool, which Lily thought was hilarious, but she felt that now was not the proper time to laugh at him. She had apparently dropped quite the bombshell on him.

"Why would you think Remus is a werewolf?" asked James, trying to act casual.

"He gets sick once a month at the full moon," said Lily, feeling ashamed to be using the same logic that Snape had used almost two years ago, when they were still friends although drifting apart.

"That doesn't necessarily mean he's a werewolf. Plus, sometimes it's his grandmother who's sick. Or his father," James pointed out.

"You're covering. Plus, Snape knows," said Lily.

"That bastard!" said James. "He told you he knew?"

Lily was almost scared of how angry James had gotten.

"Dumbledore directly forbade him to say anything," fumed James.

"He never actually said the word," said Lily, apologetically, although she couldn't figure out what she was apologizing for.

"You swear you'll never tell anyone?" asked James.

"Haven't told anyone in a year and a half," said Lily. "Why would I start now? I was friends with Remus before I was friends with you. Plus, it isn't anybody's business if he's a werewolf."

"What about your friends? Marietta and Chloe. Do they know?" asked James.

"Marietta definitely doesn't. Not observant enough. Chloe might, 'cause she's smart. But I didn't tell her, and never will," said Lily.

"Well, I've got no choice but to trust you," said James.

"Does that mean you'll tell me why you're so tired this morning?" asked Lily, almost playfully, knowing the answer would not have changed in the last several minutes.

"Sorry, Lily, but that requires a completely different level of trust. Like, I would literally have to trust you with my life. I mean... What I'd tell you couldn't necessarily kill me, but..."

"James, you don't have to tell me. I understand. We've been friends for two weeks. That's not enough time. It took two years before Marietta told me that she still had a bed-wetting problem... In second year. She's over it now, or I wouldn't be telling you. Took Chloe one year before she told me she thought she was a squib up until she received her Hogwarts letter. But I just want you to know that I have never betrayed a friend. The only friendship of mine that has ever really ended has been with Snape. The bastard, the coward, the man who hangs out with death-eaters. The man who called me a mud-blood. Technically, I'm the one who ended the friendship, because he wanted to come back to me. But even with him, I've got secrets that I wouldn't tell. Nothing dangerous, just stuff that would embarrass the hell out of him in front of his cronies. But had he not turned out to be a future death-eater, I'd have kept even dangerous secrets for him."

"Lily," James asked tentatively. "Could I give you a hug?"

Lily's eyes opened wide in surprise. Very rarely had she been asked for a hug from a guy, at least one who wasn't trying to snog her. She'd probably let Potter snog her now, if she wanted to, but it didn't seem that he had snogging on his mind at the moment.

"Of course!" said Lily, who got out of her seat, crawled under the table, and popped up next to James, who pulled her into a tight hug.

"Thanks for being my friend, Lily," said James.

"Of course, James," said Lily. "And.. three points for being so damn cute."

"A round 25. I wonder if that earns me some credit so that I could ask you a favor," said James.

Lily sat down next to James rather than zipping back under the table.

"I'd do a favor for any of my closest friends," said Lily.

"Well, I've got to go to bed in a little bit. But I'm not going to get any sleep tonight or Monday night either. But I want to be in class. It'd look bad if I wasn't, as a head-boy."

"It sure would," said Lily. "And we couldn't have you bringing shame to the Gryffindor House like that. What do you need from me, my friend?"

"Well... Are there any potions you could brew before tomorrow that could keep me awake Monday and Tuesday without any sleep?"

"Pepper-up potion and wakefulness draught in combination would probably do you just fine. Keep you up for a couple days straight if that's what you need. I wouldn't recommend doing this too often, though. Even wizards need their sleep. And you still might get depressed and moody, in which case a mild cheering charm could keep you feeling normal. You'd better let me be the one to administer the cheering charms, though. Most people can only master a charm that makes you euphoric for a short period of time. You'd want one that made you just normal happy for longer, and I can do that for you. Not that I'm bragging or anything," said Lily, seeming to have caught herself.

"Lily, you can brag to me any time you want. And I really appreciate your help. You sure you're going to be able to brew me stuff by tomorrow? You don't have better stuff to do?" asked James.

"No, they're both fun potions to brew, and I don't have too much homework to do before tomorrow, and I can always do that while the potions are simmering. Slughorn would let me into his office any time I wanted," said Lily.

"Well Merlin bless him," said James.

A/N: Hope you enjoyed that chapter. Please drop me a review to let me know how the story is going. And if you can be so persuaded, please donate rice from freerice dot com (and let me know how much you earned for my story).. Anyone who donates, or leaves a review (like an actual review) which includes their reason for not donating, gets a shout out in next chapter's beginning author's note.