Lily and Dawnelle watched the boys hurry out of the Great Hall.

"Something's wrong," Dawnelle said.

"How do you know?"

"Look at their plates. Those boys do not leave food sitting around like that."

"What would get them to leave?"

"I don't know. Should we follow them?"

"Where do you think they went?" Lily still wasn't concerned. She just figured that they had run off some place stupid.

"No idea."

"Well then let's not worry about it," she decided. Dawnelle nodded and they turned back to the girls they were sitting with. Dessert appeared and everyone dug in excitedly.

About twenty minutes later Lily was approaching her common room after saying good night to Dawnelle. Lily grabbed her book from the coffee table in the common room and sat down to read again. Moments later, however, the portrait burst open and James stumbled through holding the barely conscious Amber in his arms. There was blood everywhere.

"What the hell happened?" Lily exclaimed as she jumped up and ran to him. James staggered into Lily's room and placed Amber on her bed. Lily grabbed a blanket and covered her with it. She was chalk white and Lily thought she might be in shock.

"Did that really happen? Is he ok?" she asked James shakily. He put his hand on her forehead and tried to calm her.

"Everything will be fine. Sleep now." He didn't have to tell her twice. She was soon unconscious. He straightened and gasped in pain and collapsed onto the floor. Lily cried out in alarm. His shirt was ripped to shreds and there were three deep gashes running across his chest to his shoulder. He was almost whiter then Amber. His eyes fluttered shut as he lost consciousness.

"Oh shit," Lily whispered to herself. She knew she would never be able to get him all the way to the hospital wing so she decided to go find Madam Pomfrey and bring her back. She ran to the common room and ran straight into Sirius, who was gasping for air and almost completely naked. His shirt was hanging in shreds and his jeans were almost completely gone. However, he didn't seem to be bleeding. He put his hands on Lily's shoulders to steady her as she rocked backwards from hitting him.

"Did he make it back here?" Sirius whispered. Lily nodded and pointed to her room. Sirius grabbed her arm roughly and dragged her back to her room. He checked over Amber once before pulling his best friend up from the ground. "Help me," he muttered as he sagged under the weight. Lily quickly ran and wrapped one of James' arms over her shoulder. She took some of his weight from Sirius and the two of them pulled the unconscious boy from the room.

They reached the Hospital Wing five minutes later. Both were gasping for air as Lily pounded on the doors. Madam Pomfrey appeared and quickly assessed the situation.

"Put him on the bed," she snapped. She ran off to get some supplies as Lily and Sirius obliged. Once free of his weight the two of them sank down on the bed next to him. Madam Pomfrey appeared carrying a tray of supplies.

"Remus?" she asked.

"In the Shrieking Shack," Sirius replied. Lily analyzed what Sirius had just said and gasped.

"Full moon," she whispered.

"Yes," Sirius answered.

"Amber."

"She was walking with him. We realized it just in time."

"Sweet Merlin," Lily muttered.

"He will be alright," Madam Pomfrey said. She had stopped the bleeding and magically knitted the wounds back together. James was breathing shallowly. She opened his mouth and forced him to drink a potion. "He'll sleep through the night. He should be fine by tomorrow afternoon."

"Thank you," Sirius said. He stood up and Lily followed him.

"Take this to the girl," Madam Pomfrey said to Lily. She meant Amber. Lily took the bottle of potion and thanked her. She and Sirius walked out of the Hospital Wing.

"I can't believe you two went out after her!" Lily exclaimed.

"We had to. We couldn't just leave her!"

"But all of you could have been killed!"

"I got him away from them in time. Well, almost. But he didn't get to bite James so it's ok."

"Are you kidding? What about you? How did you take him to the Shack and not get mauled?" Sirius looked away. "What did you do?"

"Um, Lily, if I tell you something, will you promise to keep it a complete secret? From everyone?"

"Um, yes, I will. I swear."

"James and I are Animagi."

"WHAT?"

"Shh, you can't tell!"

"Are you crazy?"

"Didn't you already know that?" Sirius asked grinning.

"Do you know how dangerous that is?"

"Well, we had to do something for him! He was miserable! He thought we wouldn't talk to him ever again!"

"And that was the best idea you could come up with to prove him wrong?"

"Well, it was the one that sounded the most fun!"

"Oh Merlin, you two are insane."

"Peter is one too."

"What? Are you kidding me? Since when is he smart enough to have the skills to do that?"

"James and I did most of the work for him. Actually, James figured out most of the finer points on his own. It took us most of first, second, and third year to accomplish."

"Well, I'm not saying I completely approve, but I guess I am glad I convinced Remus to tell you guys."

"Yeah! What is that about!? He told you before he told us!"

"Well, I figured it out at Christmas time in first year. I talked to him about it and he told me he couldn't tell anyone. I asked him why not. He said no one would want to be his friend. I told him that was ridiculous after all, I was still his friend. He told me he didn't think the boys he hung out with would accept it though. He was so worried that you guys wouldn't talk to him again. He thought you would leave him, apparently many in his past have. It's true though. Some people are so stupid."

"But you told him he could trust us? I mean, you hated us. Why?"

"I told him to take a chance. I told him that if you didn't accept him you didn't deserve to be his friends anyways. I promised him I would be there for him no matter what happened."

"I see. Well, we decided to keep him around. Besides, who else was I gonna copy my work from?"

"Great," Lily said as they reached the head's dorm. "You coming in?"

"What? You think I'm going to sleep in my own dorm? Are you nuts?"

"Silly me, how could I not know?" Lily said sarcastically.

"Yeah, seriously!" He walked in behind her and sprawled across the couch.

"Sirius!" Lily exclaimed, "Get off my book!" He pulled the book out from under him and threw it to her.

"Sorry," he said. "Got a blanket?"

"What do you normally use?"

"James' blanket."

"Go get that then."

"That means I have to get up," he whined.

"Apparently, but I'm not your slave, and go get changed too."

"Oh fine," he muttered. Sirius hauled himself up and disappeared into James' room. He came back a moment later with a blanket. He was wearing boxers, and nothing else. Lily rolled her eyes as he sat back down and pulled the blanket over his lap. "You might want to tell James to clean his room. I'm surprised his shit hasn't spilled into the common room yet."

"When it does, we'll have issues. And besides, half that crap is probably yours."

"So? It's still his room."

"Good Lord."

"Where's Dawnelle?"

"I'm guessing she is sleeping in her own dormitory."

"That sucks."

"What is with you two anyways?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you aren't your normal self so far this year. How many girls have you made out with?"

"Well, it may only be a few, but that doesn't mean the number of times has changed."

"Too much information, Sirius."

"You asked."

"I'm mentally kicking myself," she replied.

"Good. How's Amber?"

"Well, I only saw her for a moment but aside from being incredibly shaken up she was worried about him."

"Really?"

"Yeah. All she kept asking was 'is he ok?'"

"So you think she will be able to deal?"

"I think so. Will he though?"

"I don't know. We won't know until tomorrow."

"I guess. I think they will be ok though. If she can accept him how can he not be ok?"

"That's true." The two of them lapsed into silence for a while as they both stared off into space.

"Sirius?"

"Yes?" he asked sleepily.

"Go sleep in James' room. I need the couch. Amber is in my room."

"Are you kidding me?"

"No."

"His room is HIS room."

"Then go to YOUR room."

"Fine, I'll sleep in his room."

"Fine, go. You can leave the blanket."

"Here ya go!" He tossed her the blanket and leaped up. She got up to go get changed. When she came back he was gone. She sighed as she lay down on the couch and pulled the blanket up around her shoulders. She was asleep in a moment.