Yay For reviews! It makes my day brighter! Thank you so much for reading!

This update is for littlemissmoonbeam, who is just as skeptical of this new James and Lily as I am but is reading this anyways and I adore her for it : )

Then again it is really hard to resist spending time with James Potter ; )

Not a long one, but a big one I think.

As always, this isn't mine, but I sure wish it was, or at least James was…Sigh.

Chapter 5

Uninvited Guests

It was late and the moon was high in the velvety dark sky. Prongs looked nervously into the thick wood where he could hear the dog and wolf wrestling around. They were taking a risk tonight. There were humans nearby. People they all cared about. But they couldn't leave Moony alone in that prison his father had planned.

Being prongs was strange for James. He still understood his human thoughts but he felt them differently. He knew that Lily and Alice were close by, he knew that he had to protect them. But he felt it as a pull, an innate longing to keep them safe from harm. This was dangerous but a necessary danger.

Moony was strangely jumpy tonight, almost as if Remus was trying to keep control of his wolfish head. He was bounding back and forth like an overactive terrier snipping and snapping at the always playful Sirius. James thought quickly that this should have felt strange, without Pete here. But it wasn't, it was natural as always.

Just then the wolf jumped at him and Prongs reacted quickly, using is antlers to throw some brush up in the air and to prance slightly, showing his own spirited nature. It took only moments for Moony to again be distracted by the panting massive black dog and he ran off after it. James glanced back at the house and thought of the girls in a drugged sleep inside.

In his animagus state, he did not feel guilt but he could remember feeling it before he turned. They had used a sleep potion on the girls that would not fade until dawn to keep them safe in the house. Frank was off on a run and would be gone until morning, Lily and Alice were his responsibility. He trotted off to find the gallivanting canines.

It was nearly dawn when James heard it. He saw the stiffness take over the werewolf's form as he took in the smell, the bearlike dog flipped itself around and stared in the direction of the house. James didn't know that smell, but it was undeniably human. In a flash the nightmare in front of him roared towards the unknowing, unwelcome presence. James saw Padfoot streak towards the house, trying to keep whomever it was out of danger. He felt the soft flesh of the wolf make contact with his rack as threw him against a tree.

His flank burned like he had been seared with fire and he watched as the thick fur of one of his best friend's was painted red with his blood. They wrestled and threw each other about until the wolf fell to the ground and began to shake and fold into himself. James looked up as the sun began to rise and he let himself shimmer down into his own body, unnaturally landing on his knees.

There was so much more pain as a human. He could feel the draining power of his blood rushing out of the wound on his side. He was pretty certain he had crushed his cheekbone from the pain shooting through his left eye. He looked up at Remus, he looked bad, he was bruised and bleeding. But he was breathing.

Standing he walked over and roused Remus, intending on walking back to the manor and collapse in their rooms, or maybe in his room, he didn't think he could make It into two different places. He was sincerely hoping that Sirius would be able to heal this.

Dragging each other along both of the boys were wincing painfully with each step. They had torn each other up last night. It had not gotten this bad since the night Sirius had led Snape to them. His mind was wandering until they reached the silent house and he noticed no sign of Sirius.

Something wasn't right. Sirius would have waited until the sun rose and came back to help.

"Rem, where is Pads? He…He should be here." James said under his breath.

Remus stiffened beside him as he took in his surroundings.

"Something is wrong. I feel it. James we can't go in there." Remus barely breathed into the messy black hair.

He saw the furious look on his best friend's face and knew there was no way they were not going in there, no matter the danger, no matter the cost.

"Sirius is in there." James growled simply.

Remus nodded his head resolutely and entered the house quietly. They looked at each other and James nodded towards the stairs. Quietly creeping up, they entered Alice's room, where they knew they had left both girls sleeping.

"Stay here with them." James ordered.

"No, we can't separate, we take them with us. We have to try and wake them up."

James huffed, knowing that the girls were going to be out of it and groggy, they would have a hard time getting around with them. It took time to wake them up, Alice was a bit more alert and was standing by the door, Remus had her by the hand and was clutching at his ribs, he was having trouble breathing. Merlin please don't let me have punctured his lung. James was thinking as he was trying to get Lily to stand up. He was bleeding quite a lot and was it a lot of pain. Either way, he wasn't leaving her. He grabbed Lily and pulled her into his arms where she was giggling lightly looking into his face.

"Hey James. Are we going somewhere." She asked, as if she found herself in James Potter's arms on a daily basis.

James winced as she wiggled in his grasp.

"Shhhhh, you have to be quiet" he said as he let Remus lead the way out of the room and back downstairs.

Their goal was to get the girls out of the house if they couldn't find Sirius right away. Chances were, no one knew Lily and Alice were even here. They were walking slowly, James felt his energy fading as a curse flew so closely by his cheek he felt the residual burn that it left there.

"Shit!" he shouted as he spun around.

At his back he was faced with four masked cloaked figures. One was holding a terrified and bloody Sirius by the throat. James sat Lily down beside him and held his wand up high, pointing it at their attackers faces.

'Jamie no! Just go, they want me not you, just go!" Sirius shouted.

"Aren't you a big headed prat, why are you so important little one? You do not know who this is? Why this is James Potter. The last heir of the Potter family estate. The last of a dying line. We want him, our Lord desires him nearly as much as he covets you. He will come too. The rest…They can die."

"No!" James shouted as he and Remus began firing curses and hexes as fast and furiously as they could.

He leaned down and grabbed Lily by the arm, shielding her behind him as much as possible. The crashing and banging seemed to bring both girls around, as there was an inordinate amount of screaming going on.

Just as James was his with a blue light that lifted him from his feat, pulled him from Lily's shaking arms, he saw a sight that made him breathe in relief. The furious , irate face of his mother. And all went black around him.