Year of the Wolf

14. Man's Best Friend

James was not, in any way shape or form, impressed. In fact, Remus had never seen him so angry. Snape had caught him off-guard, and caught him good. He had not, the others had heard, been a good patient either, swatting and hissing at Madam Pomfrey as she healed his burns with ointment and potions, not wanting to attempt to fix his affliction with spells considering that it was James's attempt to do so that had made things so bad in the first place.

Sirius, too, was livid. Remus would even go so far as to say that he was more wound up than he had been when Regulus had been hit by the Bludger last term. He had already had to talk him down from a near-rampage.

'I'm angry at him too, Sirius, but you need to calm down,' he had said. The look that Sirius gave him could have cut right through flesh, through bone even.

'Calm down? He deserves whatever is coming to him!'

'Like he deserved what you did to him last term?'

'Yes! Don't look at me like that, Remus. You didn't deserve what I did, but it served him right, going after you, trying to get you expelled.'

'I'm touched, Padfoot, I really am, but you don't have to fight our battles for us.'

At that point, Remus wasn't convinced that what James would do to Snape was any better than what Sirius would. James was, after all, the primary instigator in their war on Severus Snape. Even Lily Evans was quieter than usual, and Snape looked at her with a guilty sort of longing as she ignored him throughout their shared potions class.

But both James and Sirius seemed to be back to their usual selves by the next Hogsmeade weekend. The full moon had put them in wonderful spirits, and Remus too was basking in the memory of a night that he used to try so hard to forget. They had left the Shack that month, and Remus had found that he was a little less reluctant to go along with the plan than he should have been. But it had worked, and they had explored parts of the grounds that they had never had the opportunity to explore before.

'I think it's getting warmer,' James said with a smile. Sirius looked at him coldly, his scarf pulled up over his mouth, gloved hands shoved beneath his armpits.

Hogsmeade was always beautiful in winter; it was truly a village made for snow. But it was a little chilly and they all agreed that the best thing to do would be to head to the Three Broomsticks.

Indeed, that was the plan before they saw Lily Evans, her red hair such a stark contrast to the white background of the village; it was pretty hard to miss her. She stood with Marlene McKinnon and Mary Macdonald, gazing into a shop window. Almost instinctively, James raised a hand to his head, doing a little double take when he remembered that he was wearing a hat. He couldn't have been too cold, because he immediately shoved it into a pocket and ruffled his hair.

Remus wanted to warn him, to tell him to just leave it be, but there was something about Lily Evans that just made him act like an even bigger prat when she was around. He showed off for her like he showed off for them, but he didn't seem to realise that Lily Evans was not Sirius Black or Remus Lupin, and she certainly wasn't Peter Pettigrew, who thought James's every action was sublime.

James twirled his wand, and for a moment Remus thought the spell had failed. Then, suddenly, the snowman beside the store window sprang to life and began to serenade the three very shocked girls. Marlene jumped backwards, Mary laughed loudly, and Lily whipped her head around to look for the source of the occurrence.

'Feeling better, I see?' she said when James, Sirius and Peter approached the girls, and Remus decided to ignore his better judgement and go with them.

'And looking better too,' James said, smirking, though he eyed the snowman with a wary sort of confusion. 'Wouldn't you agree?'

'Is there a reason you decided to spring that on us?' She jabbed her finger accusingly in the direction of the snowman, which had clasped its twiggy hands together and was mid-way through a rendition of a rather soppy love song of its own composition.

'It, uh...' James began to shake his wand like one would shake a faulty television remote. 'It wasn't supposed to do that.'

Remus could see Sirius laughing into his scarf, and Peter's awe-struck expression suddenly faded to one of dismay. Marlene had begun to poke at the snowman and Mary was hiding her face, though Lily continued to eye James with something between indifference and contempt.

'You really do fancy her, don't you?' asked Marlene as the snowman finally slowed to an inanimate state. James spluttered in response, his cheeks turning a shade of scarlet deep enough to match his scarf.

'Fancy her?' he shrieked (and he actually did shriek), waving his wand now in the vague direction of Lily Evans.

'Actually, I was talking about Mary,' Marlene teased, obviously lying. 'But that's an interesting conclusion you jumped to. Looks like your dear green friend was right, Lils.'

Lily herself had begun to flush, shooting a pained look at her friend.

'Marlene likes to think she's funny,' she said. 'The two of you could be great friends.'

'Yes, James, teach me that spell,' Marlene laughed, throwing her head back.

'It wasn't supposed to do that!' James continued to insist. 'It was supposed to be funny, actually.'

Lily winced, and Remus nudged James with his shoulder, hoping that he would get the hint. But perhaps he didn't nudge as hard as he could have. Because there was an amused twinkle in Lily's eye as the corners of her mouth twitched. It was a tick he noticed that she displayed quite often around James...like she found him dreadfully funny but would not give him the satisfaction of a positive response.

'I think our senses of humour differ greatly, Potter,' said Lily. She looked like she wanted to say more, but settled for a dismayed shake of the head and stalked off, the crisp white snow crunching beneath her boots.

'Sorry, boys,' apologised Mary, gazing after her friend. 'Interesting spell, though. Not convinced of the vocal talents of anthropomorphic ice sculptures, however. See you around.'

James sighed heavily when they were alone again and aimed a kick at the snowman.

'Stupid spell,' he growled. 'C'mon. Three Broomsticks. Now.'

Peter took off after him right away, but Sirius hung back a little and Remus joined him out of pure habit.

'Shouldn't have done that,' he muttered.

'You know him,' said Remus with a sigh.

'Nah, mate...I meant me.' Sirius let out a pained noise. 'Got my wand in my pocket, thought I'd...help. Guess our charms mixed and...well, it wasn't pretty, was it?'

James was brooding into a cup of butterbeer, silent in a corner of the Three Broomsticks. Sirius had already declared that he was sick of his moodiness and left, and Remus and Peter looked like they weren't exactly enjoying his sullen company either.

He didn't know where the girls were now. Were they with some other group of guys? Were they with Snape?

The day had been horrendous, and he was regretting even coming into Hogsmeade at all. As if making a fool out of himself in front of Lily Evans once again wasn't enough, they had passed a group of fourth-year Slytherins, including Regulus Black, and he had felt Sirius's pace slow at his side. For a moment, he wondered if he had wanted to say something, but the haughty look of superiority that Regulus threw his brother (and the rather cold one he flashed James) pushed James into gripping Sirius's arm and marching him past.

'Cheer up, Prongs,' Peter said, in a rather weak attempt to break him out of his funk. James didn't even have any words to offer him. Remus had already tried, had told him that he needed to rethink the way he approached "the whole Lily thing", for all the good it had done.

'Let's just go,' he said at last. They were, after all, in Hogsmeade, and there were many things outside of the Three Broomsticks to distract him.

There was a small crowd of laughing girls across the street, gathering around something on the snow.

'He's adorable!' gushed one of them, and her friend giggled.

James found that his curiosity pulled him towards them, Remus and Wormtail following too. Evidently they had found some animal. Maybe it was a cat? Lily liked cats. She had one herself, a gift from her parents in their early Hogwarts years for good grades. He didn't know why he knew this.

'I don't believe it,' Remus said, stopping suddenly. 'That is just wrong.'

The girls were crowding around a large black dog, which was splayed lazily on its back in the snow, enjoying belly rubs and chin scratches and just generally looking like it was in its element.

James laughed, but also wanted to slap his palm to his face and just walk away. The dog seemed to hear his laughter and rolled over, ears pricked as it observed the newcomers. It looked somewhere beyond them, then it barked, and it moved.

'Oh no!' James cried, knowing what was coming. He stumbled backwards, hands raised. 'No, no! Don't you dare!'

But it dared, and its front paws collided with his chest, knocking him flat on his back. The girls howled with laughter, and so too did his friends. The dog was heavy, and he could feel its hot breath upon his face.

'Get off!' he demanded. But the dog did not budge, it just barked and stared down at him.

'You lick me, Padfoot,' he warned in a whisper, 'and I swear you will regret it.'

'Here, boy!'

The dog looked to the owner of the new voice and finally moved, coming to sit in the snow beside James, who managed to push himself into a seated position, the back of his cloak now covered in snow.

'Well you're just a soft little giant, aren't you?' cooed the girl to his right. He knew that voice. 'Yes you are.'

Lily scratched the dog behind its ears, the black tail wagging so frantically that it carved a little niche in the soft powder on which it sat. It was still looking at James, its tongue hanging from its mouth in a rather smug little pant.

'Do you know this dog?' It took James a moment or two to realise that she was talking to him. It was as though their little meeting earlier had never happened.

It was not often, rarely in fact, that she started a conversation with him, and even less common that said conversation did not pertain to his behaviour where other students (usually Slytherins...certain Slytherins) were concerned.

'I've, uh...fed it a time or too,' he said, responding when the dog barked. Because he realised, looking into those grey eyes, that Sirius had achieved in two minutes what he had been unable to do in almost five years...he had sparked a normal conversation between James and Lily. 'I thought you were more a cat person?'

'I like dogs too,' she said, smiling when the black dog turned back to her, seemingly in a world of her own. 'I like all animals, really.'

'Even Fire Crabs?' he asked.

Lily laughed at this, and it was a beautiful sound. So beautiful, in fact, that he momentarily forgot to breathe. Because Lily Evans had laughed, genuinely and not sarcastically, at something he had said. And he wanted to make her laugh again, to never stop making her laugh.

'They are surprisingly tolerable when they're not giving me second-degree burns.'

James reached over to scratch the dog behind its other ear as its tail thudded against the snow, and Lily turned suddenly, looked at him like she had only just realised who she was talking to, and moved her hand.

'I, uh- I'm supposed to be meeting Cassandra,' she said, and as quickly as she had appeared, she was gone.

The dog barked.

'Yeah, yeah,' James said, lowering his hand and throwing the animal a hesitatingly grateful look. 'Thanks.'

AN - Thanks for reading, and thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter! :) There are still a few left to go, so keep letting me know you're interested/still following and I'll keep posting! The next few weeks are going to be a bit busy but I'll still try and find time to update.

Thanks again, and please review!