James ran down the last remaining steps and sprinted into the Entrance Hall. Sirius and Peter were waiting for him and looked irritated.

"Prongs, where have you been? Moon's been out for half an hour!"

"I'm sorry, Filch nearly caught me and I ran into… doesn't matter."

"It was Lily wasn't it." Sirius stated as they ran out the front doors.

"I kissed her," James whispered.

"Couldn't you have done that later?"

"Look, Sirius, it doesn't matter, bros before, er... her, okay?"

Sirius looked doubtful but nodded before they began to run to the Willow in silence. James was torn between feeling bad because he was late when Remus needed him, but he had dreamed of that moment with Evans for years. Remus had to come first though. Evans was just a girl, just a stupid girl. James sighed at how big a lie this was, he wasn't convincing anyone, even himself.

Peter transformed and touched the knot in the wood. James shut his eyes and let the familiar warmth flow from his core to his fingertips that had now become hooves. He breathed in through his nose and opened his eyes. Sirius was staring up at him, a questioning look in his eyes. James did a half nod to show he was good. Well, good enough.

As they made their way up the passage and into the bedroom of the shrieking shack, James could have kicked himself when he saw Remus. Blood from bite and scratch marks lined his fur and he was a lot more restless than usual. He snarled as he spotted them but stayed crouched in the corner. Sirius made towards him. Slowly he padded loser, dirty paw prints trailed behind him. He whined softly, his wet nose stuck high in the air.

James thought everything would be okay. Remus seemed to grow less weary but as Sirius took a step closer, Remus growled and leapt at him. His claws were out and his teeth were bared, spit flying from his mouth. Sirius watched, his eyes widening but the werewolf was too fast for him. James charged towards his furry friend, his antlers forcing him away from Sirius. Sirius ran back to where Peter sat, terrified at the open door. Remus suddenly turned on James. His claws landing strike after strike. Sirius frantically tried to stop Remus' teeth from hitting their target. James' attempts at fighting back were becoming weaker and Sirius was really starting to panic. Peter tried to distract the werewolf for long enough so that Sirius could drag his best friend to safety before he got ripped to shreds.

After much struggling and many cuts and bruises Sirius managed to drag James to the foot of the Willow. Somehow he managed to lure Remus into the Forbidden Forest before changing back to his human form and running back to where James lay. Sirius was in dismay when he saw James had somehow changed back.

"Mate, please, talk to me." Sirius pleaded, giving him a little shake.

James looked up at him from the gap in between his eyelashes. "Yeah, I'm fine," he chocked out before falling into unconsciousness.

As Lily made her way down to the Great Hall for breakfast, she wondered why everything was so quiet. Nobody at the Gryffindor was speaking, all of them engrossed in their breakfast. She went and sat down next to Mary.

"What's going on," she whispered to her friend.

Mary nervously flicked her long fringe out of her eyes. "You… You don't know?"

"Know what?" Lily asked, furrowing her brow.

"It's… It's James. He… had an accident."

"An accident? What kind of accident?" Lily asked, surprising herself with the amount of concern she felt.

"Don't know."

"Where is he?"

"Hospital Wing," Mary muttered.

Lily nodded. She walked from the reat Hall, trying not to look too impatience but could stop herself from jogging the last few feet.

Lily ran up to the Hospital Wing. Her heart drummed as images ran though her head, each less likely than the one before. Death Eaters, centaurs, giants, spirits, huge poisonous snakes, suicidal mermaids, the giant squid, roaming werewolves…

Gasping, Lily came to a halt. Werewolves. Last night had been a full moon, she knew because they were doing moon patterns in astronomy. But that meant someone in Hogwarts was a… a… Lily gulped, failing miserably to swallow the lump that inhabited her throat. Surely people would have noticed a huge furry thing running around the grounds. Something so evil that it… She stopped herself. Professor McKay had told them about werewolves last year. Just ordinary people that had been bitten. So maybe this person, whoever they were, didn't want to hurt people?

A sudden realisation hit her again. If there was a werewolf wandering around Hogwarts, and James had been out last night, did that mean…

With a squeak Lily started to run again. Did James get bitten? What would happen to him? Would he die? Lily stopped running when she reached the doors to the Hospital Wing. She ran her fingers through her hair trying to smooth it and yanked down her robes properly. She then peaked through the crack in between the doors into the Hospital Wing. She didn't want to disturb anyone.

She saw that James was the only patient there and that he was surrounded by his three friends. Madam Pomfrey was sitting in her office, oblivious to the scene taking place mere meters away.

Remus seemed to be arguing with Sirius and James. Snippets of their conversation reached Lily where she was standing at the door.

"…Reckless and stupid and I should have known this would happen before long. I should never have let you come with me-"

"Come on Remus," Sirius whispered angrily. "You know if you didn't let us come we'd come anyway."

"Yeah," James agreed. "Anyway, I knew the risks and I still came-"

"The risks?" Remus half-shouted. "The risks? You could have been killed. Or worse I could have bitten-"

Remus stopped mid-sentence as he noticed Lily at the door. She looked horrified. Remus… a werewolf. Remus was staring back at her with an identical look of horror. The rest of his friends seemed oblivious until Sirius turned round and spotted her, fire burning in his eyes. He leapt from his seat and walked quickly to the door. His jaw squared as his teeth clenched and his robes billowed out behind him. He grabbed her arm and pulled her inside the room before locking the door at each end with his wand and putting a silencing charm on them both.

"What did you hear?" Sirius hissed.

"I…n-nothing," Lily stammered, petrified by the ballistic boy in front of her.

"I said. What. Did. You. Hear." Sirius said, gritting his teeth. His hand still clutched her arm like a vice, his grip getting hander by the second.

"Sirius." Remus warned.

"Answer the question!" Sirius shouted in her face.

"Stop, Sirius!" James snapped.

"Not until she-"

Sirius stopped. James had limped out of his bed and pointed his wand at the middle of Sirius' back. Sirius breathed out through his nose and let Lily go.

"Look, I'm really sorry but I don't want people, yunno, treating Remus like he's some monster when he's not." Sirius explained.

"You don't have to apologise, if it was one of my friends I would have done the same," Lily said, giving a weak little smile.

There was silence for a few seconds as Sirius and Peter helped James back to his bed.

"I'm not gunna tell anyone." Lily said. The others stared at her. "I mean, you can trust me."

Remus smiled slightly. "I know Lily, I do trust you."

There were a few minutes of silence before Sirius nodded to Peter and Remus before the three of them made for the door.

"Emm, where are you going?" Lily asked.

"Peter's still got to his Transfiguration essay." Remus smiled kindly.

"And we thought you two might want some… alone time," Sirius added, one eyebrow raising slightly as they shut the door behind them.

Lily looked round at James, feeling slightly awkward.

"So, emm, what happened?" She asked, feeling slightly stupid at her own words.

"Not sure I can say, sorry."

They sat for a few minutes in comfortable silence. James shrugged into his pillow and stared at the ceiling. Lily noticed for the first time that he was topless. His chiselled chest was the colour of honey and he had a white bandage wrapped round him from his left shoulder to his waist at the right side, like a weird sash. Lily bit her lip. He looked, well, really good.

"So, errr…" James cleared his throat and started again. "Was there something you wanted? Or…"

"I just came to see if you were okay, yunno, after you sorta, walked away last night…" Lily's voice was becoming steadily quieter.

"Look, I'm really sorry about that, I know it's not what you wanted and I'm sorry I forced you into it."

Lily opened her mouth to argue but then shut it again. She didn't want to admit any feelings to him until she was sure it wasn't some weird puberty thing.

"So, we're cool?" James asked, his eyes sparkling.

"Emm, yea, sure, why not?" Lily smiled.

They sat there for around half an hour, perfectly happy in each others company. James held Lily's hand, though more in a friendly way rather than anything else, and drew small circles in her hand with him thumb. They chattered meaninglessly as the sun shone through the large glass window in front of them.

"So what's your favourite book?" James asked.

"Not sure, too many to name." Lily answered, shutting her eyes as the sun touched her face.

"Top three?"

"Emm, Pride and Prejudiced, Death on the Nile , and, emm, probably Romeo and Juliet."

"Romeo and Juliet?" James scoffed.

"It's a good story! Anyway, have you ever read it?"

James reached into his bag that lay beside his bed. He pulled out a battered copy of the same book. Lily stroked the familiar cover. "What's in a name? That which we call a rose, By any other name would smell as sweet," James smiled, one corner of his mouth tugging up.

"Impressive." Lily said. James Potter, Quiddich Captain… knew Shakespeare? "Why don't you like it then?"

"Well, First of all, Romeo has dedicated his love to Rosaline, but as soon as he sees someone better looking he swears love and marries her within a day of meeting her. Then he gets banished and thinks it's the end of the world, hears she's dead then kills himself so she kills herself. He is way too irrational to be a character I like. Plus Juliet's like fourteen, it's creepy."

Lily was impressed. "So not a great believer for love at first sight?"

"No, I do believe in it." James answered, thinking of the first time he saw her. "I just think he lusted after her, I don't think he loved her."

Lily had to leave James for her second class (her first one had been a free period) but went to visit him later that day, bringing his homework.

"Oh cummon Lily! I almost got savaged by a werewolf, don't you think I should get a day off?"

Lily smiled. "McGonagall's idea, not mine."

Suddenly there was a crashing noise coming from outside the shut hospital doors. Madam Pomfrey was there in an instant.

"What's all the commotion?"

"I was just here to see James," a girl's voice answered. James groaned at the familiar voice that Lily didn't recognise.

"Are you a friend of his?" Madam Pomfrey asked.

"Yeah, well I'm actually his girlfriend," she said in her bubblegum-sweat voice.

Lily's eyes snapped round to James. "Girlfriend?" She mouthed.

James looked a bit sheepish.

Madam Pomfrey eventually let her in. She strutted into the room slowly, her pink high hells clicking on the floor. She was dressed in light denim skinny jeans and a tight fitting white tank top with pink stripes running horizontally across it. She gave James what she probably thought was her sexiest look and waggled her fingers in what resembled a wave. Lily scoffed and James looked embarrassed. She gave Lily a look before turning back to James.

"Hey Baby, you miss me?" She giggled before leaning in to give him a kiss on the forehead, showing a lot of her "assets" as she did so. Lily made a gagging motion behind her back and James stifled a laugh. The mystery girl seamed to have forgotten Lily but suddenly remembered her. She turned round and put on a fake smile.

"Hey, I don't think I know you! I'm Sandra Johnson."

"Lily Evans," she grunted. Where had she heard that girl's name before? Oh, she was the girl Potter had played tonsil tennis with on the train.

"You're Lily?" she asked. Lily was so closed to saying 'isn't that what I just said?' but managed to restrain herself. Just.

"OMG!" Do people actually say that? "I've heard so much about you!"

"You have?" Lily asked, giving James a puzzled look, he looked as clueless as she did.

"Yeah, that boy, emm, what's his name, black hair, slightly short of his shoulders that looks like it needs a wash, big prankster, pretty handsome…"

"Sirius," James added helpfully.

"Yeah! Serious, that's it. Anyway, he says James talks about you all the time."

"He does, does he?" Lily said raising her eyebrows.

James open his mouth but Lily never got to hear the answer because Madam Pomfrey chose that moment to decide that visiting hours had gone on long enough and she ushered the two girls out the door before locking them behind her. Lily and her 'friend' stood outside the Hospital Wing in awkward silence.

Sandra suddenly gave the girl in front of her a big hug. The heels she had on gave her an extra six inches and Lily's head was in a somewhat awkward position.

"Well, it was great to meet you!" Sandra gushed.

"Yeah, you too." Lily said, her voice muffled by boob.

"I've, err, gotta go see my friend." Lily mumbled, trying to get away as fast as possible. Sandra gave her a big smile. As Lily turned round, she saw Sandra pull a facial expression she was sure that she was not meant to see.

"Bitch," Lily mumbled as she walked away.

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