A/N: Keep up the great reviews! You guys rock!...And I still don't own anything that has to do with Harry Potter, even though I wish I did.

Discoveries

Lily entered Gryffindor Tower one Friday night in March slightly out of breath. It was nearly midnight. She had searched what felt like the entire castle for James, or any sight of the Marauders, but she hadn't found him. She walked across the room and sat down next to Alice, who had been watching Lily intently as soon as she came in.

"Still no sign of James?" she asked Lily.

"None what so ever, or Sirius, or Remus, or Peter." she replied in a discouraged voice.

"Well, the castle is huge, maybe you were just looking in the wrong places at the wrong time. And," she added in a whisper that only Lily could hear, "besides, tonight's the full moon; you're not going to find Remus" Alice and Lily had figured out that Remus was a werewolf in their fifth year.

Lily didn't reply; she simply stared at the dancing flames in the fireplace while Alice watched Lily's expression change from discouragement to confusion.

"Are you alright Lily?" Her voice was full of concern.

"I think that James is hiding something from me, but I don't know what it is." said Lily bluntly, still looking into the flames.

"Do you know what it could be about?"

Lily shrugged as she finally met Alice's eyes. "I'm not sure, but I think it has something to do with Remus being a werewolf."

Alice was confused. "What do you mean?"

"Think about it. Remus has been gone all day because he gets sick before the full moon. All day James, Sirius, and Peter have been excited about something. And every night that there's a full moon, all four of them are always gone."

Alice didn't know what to say. True, the Marauders had always been very secretive, but they weren't stupid enough to run around with a werewolf.

After while, Alice decided to go to bed and Lily made her way back to the Heads' common room.

The first thing Lily did was look in James' room to see if he was there. He wasn't there. Lily hadn't actually thought he would be there, but she still felt a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach when she saw his empty bed. She grabbed a book from her room, went back into the common room, grabbed a blanket, and curled up on the couch.

I'll just wait for him to get back and ask him where he was, Lily thought. But it wasn't long before she fell asleep, dropping the book on the floor.

000

James finally staggered back to the Heads' common room at around three. He was moving pretty slow; Moony had clawed the hell out of his back tonight. He saw Lily asleep on the couch. It killed him that he had to lie to her, but he had no choice. Once the Marauders had become Animagi over two years ago, they had sworn not to tell anyone their secret that, if everyone found out, could land all of them in Azkaban.

000

Lily awoke with a start the next morning.

"Shit," she muttered to herself as she ran her hands over her face, "I can't believe I fell asleep."

After stretching, she snuck back to James' room. There he was, sound asleep in his bed. If he hadn't looked so peaceful, Lily would have kicked his ass out of bed and demanded to know where he was. Instead, she shut the door quietly, went back to her own room, and got ready for the day.

Before she left to go down to the Great Hall for breakfast, Lily peaked into James room once again, and was surprised to see that he wasn't there.

000

"You look worried, Lil" said Alice as Lily sat down at the Gryffindor table for breakfast.

Lily glanced around to make sure that no one was listening. It was just the two of them. "Something is going on with the guys; I just don't know what it is."

"Well, they're coming in now. Ask them."

Lily looked up to see James, Sirius, and Peter dragging themselves into the Great Hall. They all looked like they were going to fall over if someone were to just touch them. They sat down next to the girls and started to eat their breakfast silently.

"Where's Remus?" asked Lily suddenly, yet sweetly.

"What?" James had heard what Lily said; he was trying to buy some time.

"Where's Remus? He's not here, and I don't remember seeing him yesterday."

James caught Sirius' eyes. They made an unsaid agreement. "His mum's ill," he lied as he looked back at Lily.

"Oh," said Lily, who looked at Alice and raised her eyebrows at her while Alice nodded.

When the James and Sirius saw this, which is what Lily was hoping for, they gave each other slightly worried looks. Good, Lily thought, let 'um worry.

James opened his mouth to say something to Lily, but she was too fast for him.

"I need to go to the library and finish that Astronomy essay" she said sweetly before she kissed James on the cheek. She stood up, gave Alice a triumphant smile, and walked toward the library.

"What the hell was that all about?" Sirius asked James.

"I have no idea"

000

James caught up with Lily in the library.

"James Potter in the library on a Saturday? Now I've seen everything." she said as he sat next to her.

"Well, I'm pretty tired, so I'm not in my right mind,"

Lily smiled as she continued to work on her essay. James had pulled out his own book and had started on his when she abruptly asked, "Where were you last night?"

"Around the school" said James, not looking at Lily.

Lily didn't believe him for a second.

"It didn't have anything to do with Remus being gone, did it?"

James quickly turned and looked into Lily's gorgeous green eyes, and he knew that she knew Remus' secret.

"No," he tried to lie, but he knew it didn't work.

Lily turned back to her essay, trying to blink away tears. But she didn't give up that easy. She looked back at James, anger burning in her eyes, and asked, "Why are you lying to me?"

He looked sympathetically at her. The last thing he wanted to do was to hurt Lily, as he so obviously doing, but what choice did he have?

"Lily, I can't tell you, I would, but I can't."

"Why not?" asked Lily desperately.

"You wouldn't understand" he muttered.

By this time, Lily had had enough. Without another word, she gathered up her things and stormed out of the library.

She didn't stop until she reached the Heads' common room. Lily ran into her room locked the door, flung herself on her bed and thought over and over again about how absolutely dumb boys were.

Suddenly, she heard a knock on her door followed by, "Lily? You in there?" It was James.

"Go away!"

"Lil–"

"I said go away!"

Everything was quiet, then Lily heard James leave.

000

James walked into Gryffindor Tower feeling like shit. He saw Sirius, and (to his surprise) Remus sitting near the fire. He put on a fake smile and said, "Good to have you back, Moony"

Even though Remus was pale and felt totally drained, he gave James a small smile and said, "Thanks, but that fake smile bull shit won't work on us. What's wrong?" Behind him, James saw Sirius studying him.

He should have known that the guys would see right though him.

"Let's go up stairs" he said quietly. Sirius, and Remus stood up and followed James to their dormitory.

Once they were all in, Sirius locked the door. James looked around. "Where's Peter?"

"Probably with Josefine" said Sirius, his voice grim.

Remus, changing the subject, said, "Out with it Prongs."

James told them everything from that had happened today, how Lily had asked him what he did last night, how he thought that Lily knew about Remus being a werewolf, how he wouldn't tell her what he did last night, how she got pissed and stormed out of the library, and how she wouldn't even talk to him now.

Remus was the first to talk after James' story. "You need to tell her everything"

James looked at him in surprise. "What?"

"He's right" said Sirius. "You can't let something like this come between you two. You love her, and she loves you. I know we said that we'd never tell anyone, but this is different. And it's not like Lily's gonna go and tell everyone."

James still looked a little shocked. "Get out of here." said Sirius. "Go tell her!"

000

Lily was sitting by the window in her bedroom, watching the sun as it began to fall across the horizon. Suddenly, she heard someone try to open her door, but failed as it was still locked. She knew very well who was trying to get in.

"Lily" said James' voice from beyond the door. "I know that you're pissed, but I need to talk to you."

She didn't say anything, but took out her wand and unlocked the door. James took a few cautious steps in.

"Why did you lie to me?" she asked.

"I had no choice, but, after talking with the guys, we know that you wouldn't tell anyone, so I'm here to tell you exactly what's been going on."

He walked across the room, sat next to Lily, and started to tell the story he had never, or would ever, tell anyone else.

"Ever since we started school, Remus had been disappearing for a few days every month. He told Sirius, Peter, and I that his mother was ill and that he had to go and visit her, and we believed him...at first, anyway. But then we noticed that he was always gone the day of the full moon and the day after. In our second year, we finally put all the pieces together and realized that Remus was a werewolf. We confronted him about it, and he didn't deny it."

He had expected Lily to be shocked, but she nodded her head and said, "I know about Remus"

James looked at her, puzzled. She gave him a small smile and said, "You guys aren't the only one's to figure it out...Anyway, keep going"

James continued, "Well, during the next full moon, Sirius, Peter and I were all sitting in our dorm, feeling terrible. Remus had described how painful his transformations were, and we wanted to do something about. And then, Peter said, 'To bad we can't turn into animals'. He meant it as a joke; Sirius and I took it seriously.

Over the next three years, summers too, the three of us researched into Animagi, with Remus helping. And after far too many failed attempts to count, we finally did it during the first week of our fifth year. Now that we could transform, we were able to be with Remus during the full moons. At first, he was vicious, fought us all the time. But now, he hardly ever fights. We helped him become less dangerous."

Lily stared at him in disbelief. "That is so dangerous! What if Remus bites you!" But curiosity got the better of her. "What do you guys transform to? Does it have anything to do with those nicknames you guys have?"

James smiled slightly. "Remus is Moony. Peter is Wormtail, he's a rat. Sirius is Padfoot, he's a big, black dog. I'm Prongs, I transform into a stag."

"Show me" said Lily. She wasn't a hundred percent sure if he was telling the truth.

He stood up, walked to the middle of the room, and transformed in Prongs. Lily looked at the stag in shock. She walked up to Prongs and scratched his head. The stag transformed back into James, who took Lily's hands and placed them around his neck.

"Are we okay?" he asked.

"Yeah." she smiled, "We're fine."

"Good"

He lifted her into his arms and carried her to her bed.