A/N: Thanks to everyone who reviewed me, you guys are so nice, keep 'em coming.
James kissed Lily slowly and romantically, and then, when she closed her eyes, the boys threw the invisibility cloak on and James backed away, ducking under the cloak and leaving the common room. They headed out to the grounds and let Peter transform. The small, brown rat ran forward and prodded the knot on the Whomping Willow and the boys escaped down into the tunnel, dropping the invisibility cloak a little bit after the entrance.
They walked through the tunnel, it being far wider and larger than the Honeydukes one, and almost ran. Sirius became Padfoot and ran through the tunnel, barking back twice to James. One bark meant that James needed to transform inside the tunnel, two meant that Remus hadn't transformed yet. James broke into a sprint and emerged from the tunnel in record-breaking speed.
"You all right, Moony?" asked James, seeing him sitting on the floor.
"Yeah, but it's soon, less than five minutes I'd wager. I hope you're ready, I can tell, this'll be a rough one, mates," responded the contemplative Remus.
"We're ready whenever you are," said Sirius, turning back into a human. The brown rat emerged from the tunnel now, deciding not to change back just yet.
"You should know by now, mates, I'm never ready," he said, his tone growing very somber. Moony was always like this on the night of the full moon. He was either very sad or extremely irritable. They didn't know which they preferred. On one hand, he didn't lash out in his depression, but being around him made them sad themselves. When he was irritable and lashed out easily, they didn't become depressed around him, but the most irrelevant sentences and comments would make him angry, it was all so confusing. James and Sirius sat down on the scratched, bloodstained floor. They looked around the room and took in the battered walls, scratched everything, boarded windows, broken furniture, clawed walls and everything else that made this house into the Shrieking Shack. A small silver light flickered through the crack in the nearest window. Remus looked up as the light filtered through the room.
"It's time," he said sadly. His body went rigid and he bent over on the ground, going on all fours. Sirius and James transformed immediately after the light came into the room, and were bracing themselves, the stag had his antlers down, towards the half-transformed wolf. The dog was standing with his feet spread apart, holding to the ground, his stance tensed. Moony's nose began to elongate into a snout, his limbs shortening, his spine going longer to form a tail.
The wolf was formed and was panting heavily, licking its paw. The animagi in the room never slackened their tension. The wolf let out a belting howl and approached the stag, sniffing him over cautiously. The stag made a note to grunt if the wolf got too close. The wolf recognized the stag's scent from a month earlier and moved to the dog, one of his playmates. He sniffed him over and the dog became loose, sitting down and placing a paw on the wolf's head. The wolf growled a low, menacing sound the echoed through the room, its lip curling to reveal its gleaming white teeth. The dog moved his paw and rolled over, showing his belly, a clear sign of submission. Padfoot knew all too well the wolf was stronger and fiercer and faster than he was.
The wolf took in its environment and began barking madly clawing at the walls, apparently trying to get out, but the large animals would not let him. The wolf began to claw at himself, leaving gashes across his face; this had to stop. Prongs looked around the room for something to distract the wolf and found it. He snorted a message to Padfoot and the dog took off into the dining room, picking up a broken chair leg in his mouth. The dog tossed it up in the air and caught it on his snout, balancing it there for a few seconds to get the wolf's attention. When he got it, he tossed the leg into the air towards the stag. Prongs caught it with his antlers and tossed it over to the wolf, who jumped into the air to catch it, throwing it around and catching it back in his mouth. Then the wolf tossed it back to the stag. The stag caught it in his antlers, but the wolf, apparently, changed his mind and charged Prongs, clawing at his chest madly until blood covered his brown fur and large gashes stood out clearly on his fur. He limped over to a corner, dropping the stick to the ground. He lay in the darkness for the rest of the night.
The dog and the wolf play-fought for the remainder of the full moon, Prongs snorted when it got too rough and shook his head to show the wolf his antlers, and it became just plain play fighting again.
Meanwhile
Lily stayed in the common room until about eight, watching the map anxiously for something, some sign that would show they were all right, but nothing came. When eight rolled around and everyone was returning from dinner and from Hogsmeade, Lily escaped up to her dorm, still watching the map like an obsessed teen, which she just might have been. Despite James's assurances and promises to be okay, Lily couldn't help but feel like something was seriously wrong, and she was biting back tears every minute. Tine seemed to pass incredibly slowly when all she did was watch a map, and it felt like there was hours passing by when they were only minutes. Soon, her friends came up to the dorm and she went back to the common room, putting the map on the coffee table and sitting on the couch, still watching it for any sign. It felt like the map got bigger with every second, and, despite her protests against sleep, it took hold of her and she fell asleep on the couch, alone in the common room.
Lily's dreams, as usual of late, starred James, but this time they were different. In her dreams James was dying, in the hospital wing, or hurt very badly, and Lily awoke countless times in tears and sweat, trying to pull herself together, but no approaches seemed to help. When she finally cast a sleeping spell on herself, she was able to fall into a deep and dreamless sleep, unafraid of James because he was no longer in her head.
Meanwhile
Moony was snarling in a corner as his snout shortened back into a nose and the large amounts of hair fell off. James and Sirius went back to normal, Wormtail staying safely tucked away in a corner until they were safely on the grounds. Moony began having muscle spasms as his limbs lengthened and his spinal chord shortened. He fell back onto the ground in his human form, taking in his environment again. James and Sirius looked him over, there were claw marks in his face, but nothing compared to what it used to be. Moony looked from Sirius to James and took in James's blood-soaked t-shirt, cringing in horror at what he had done.
"Prongs, I…I…I'm so sorry," he said, panting.
"I've h-ha-had w-wor-worse," stuttered James through the pain in his chest. It was true, worse had happened to James form just Quidditch, but never from this. Sirius was casting a spell to remove the blood from the ground so madam Pompfrey wouldn't suspect anything.
"We should go before Pompfrey comes, Moony, okay," said Sirius. Moony simply nodded and stood up. Feeling the weakness in his body, he fell back to the ground, sitting, his legs out in front of him. Sirius put his arm under James's and helped him to his feet, acting as a crutch for him. James's breathing came in hoarse gasps, and his strength to walk was slowly failing him. His vision became darkened and he was fighting to stay at the surface of consciousness. He wanted to keep his promise to Lily. He wanted her to see him awake before he slipped into an unconscious state. He had made a promise to her to be conscious when he got to the common room and he intended to keep that promise. When they clambered through the common room noisily, Lily woke from her sleep. She threw a hand over her mouth to stop her scream of panic. James gave her a weak, forced smile and his eyes closed. Lily ran to him and heard him mutter a few soft words.
"I kept my promise," he whispered before passing out. Tears were streaming wildly down Lily's face as Sirius gently put James in a chair. Peter looked at James disgustedly, trying, apparently, not to vomit.
"Can you do anything?" asked Sirius, not looking at her.
"Can't we take him to the hospital wing?" asked Lily, staring at James's still form.
"And what do we tell Pompfrey, that he was skydiving in the alps when he landed on a hibernating bear that woke up and attacked him? And at this late of an hour, what do we say Lily?" asked Sirius sarcastically. He had a point; there was no excuse for James's condition and especially not at this late hour.
"I'll be right back, she whispered, climbing up to her dorm in a haste, opening the door as quietly as she possibly could so as not to wake her roommates. She sifted through her trunk until she found the Muggle first-aid kit that her mother made her take with her to school. She grabbed it and rushed back down the stairs. She fumbled through the kit, Sirius watching anxiously. He wasn't used to Muggle methods, his family was one of the oldest in history.
"Take off his shirt," said Lily, not looking up. Sirius lifted James's unconscious body and removed his shirt. "Hold him upright, please," she said, pulling out some cream for stopping infection and to help it heal faster. She looked at James, his muscled chest no longer just hinted at, his Quidditch-toned muscles were there, in front of her, but she was preoccupied with the task at hand. There were four sets of three marks, a total of twelve cuts. She rubbed the cream over each of the cuts, taking extra care not to use too much pressure. The bleeding had already stopped, and that was good. The cuts weren't too deep either. She pulled a roll of bandage tape out of the kit and grabbed some non-stick padding. She placed the padding on the cuts, asking Peter to hold them in place while she wrapped James's abdomen in the tape to hold on the padding. This would keep something from infecting them for sure. She was scared for James, and Sirius could tell, it was obvious, for she never stopped crying the entire time. When she was finished, she backed away, wiping her hands on James's already completely ruined shirt. Lily went and draped James's arm over her shoulder and helped Sirius pull him upstairs while Peter lagged behind, having grabbed the map after they left.
They entered the dorm and placed him gently on his four-poster bed. Lily turned to leave, but Sirius grabbed her wrist. She turned to face him.
"He'll be okay, please, do not worry too much. I can't tell you not to worry because I know you will, but I don't want you losing sleep over it either. It's already four in the morning and you need your rest. Go to your dorm and get some sleep, I'll clean up the common room and keep that healer's box in here in case something needs replacing, okay?" Lily simply nodded, tears still streaming down her face. She didn't want to leave him, but Sirius's words were something that surprised her. She wasn't used to him being sincere, and it moved her. Despite everything, he had become her friend.
"You're a good friend, Sirius," she said quietly.
"James would do it for me, it's no big deal," said Sirius, misunderstanding her.
"No, well, yes, that was good of you, but you are also a very good friend of mine," she said sincerely. Sirius smiled; it was obvious he felt she was his friend too.
"Like I said," he began. "Go to your dorm and get some sleep." Lily walked over to James's bed and kissed him on the lips. He might not feel it, but Lily knew it meant something to her just to help, and, despite the past years, she was truly falling for James, and all this happened in only two days, how? After she kissed him, she left the room and went to her dorm, trying to sleep, but not finding the ability to. As she was lying there, she saw a small black cat with startling green eyes jump up on the bed and curl up at her feet.
"Moonstone," she breathed, fighting the urge to cry. She grabbed her wand from the bedside table and cast a sleeping spell on herself like earlier so that she could rest-at-ease while James was recovering in the dorm across the hall.
A/N: Poor James, huh? Okay the skydiving in the alps thing, my friend made that up when someone scratched him, it's a longer story than that though, but I thought it fit perfectly with the situation. So, read, review, you now the drill, and I'll update as soon as I can!