Chapter 15:

In Hiding

James had taken to avoiding the other Gryffindors. Every time they saw him they asked why Lily wasn't speaking to him and he was beginning to find it quite frustrating. He spent a lot of his time in the secret garden. It was without a doubt James' favourite place in the whole of Hogwarts, partly because he seemed to be the only student who knew of its existence. No one else seemed to know that you could access it via a secret arcade hidden behind a bookshelf by the rear hall. He liked to imagine there were many places within the castle that only he knew about. James wasn't the only one avoiding them. Lily was spending most of her time either in the library or at the waterfall. She'd had a run in with Snape two days after her fight with James at that very spot. "Lils, are you ok?"

"Get lost Snape," Lily replied coldly.

"I told you he'd hurt you," Snape whined.

"Shut up! Just shut up! I don't care what you think about James Potter… you don't know anything about him," Lily shouted angrily.

"He's just an arrogant jerk," Snape responded.

"He's twice the man you are!"

"He'll never love you the way I do," Snape told her.

"He's not a deatheater," she said in a deadly calm voice. With that she walked away, back towards the castle.

Everyone except James and Lily were sat together in the common room, "so what do you think happened?" Alice suddenly asked.

"Seriously, he won't tell me anything," Sirius replied.

"Neither will she," Kate nodded.

"Well… what do we know?" Remus asked.

"We know that they've been getting on really well recently…" Marlene answered.

"And we know that James has broken up with Adrianna," Peter added.

Kate gulped, "you don't think James stupidly asked her out again, do you?"

"No, surely not," Alice replied.

"You never know with James," Sirius shrugged.

"Do you think something happened between them?" Frank asked.

"No…" Kate replied, "She was always so adamant that she wasn't interested in James."

Remus yarned, it was almost the full moon and his body was getting tired, "whatever it is, they need to sort it out… I'm off to bed." He kissed Kate briefly before heading up the stairs.

"He doesn't look well," Frank commented.

"He's just worried about his mum," Kate responded, "She's a widow; you know how it is…"

Alice nodded, "you never stop worrying about them when they're on their own."

"Sirius will you try and get it out of James again?" Marlene asked.

"For you, I'd do anything," Sirius grinned.

If Sirius thought he'd get a chance to talk to James over the next few days, he had no idea. James was sat in the library when he finally found him two days later. "Alright mate," Sirius asked.

"Not bad," James answered. "You?"

"Not too shabby," Sirius went in for the kill, "so you and Evans?"

"What about me and Evans?"

"So what happened?" Sirius asked.

"Nothing much," James replied, "she got annoyed that I defended myself against Snape."

"Ohh," Sirius frowned. James went on to explain the whole story to his best friend.

With all the time James was spending in the library, his grades had drastically improved. He was now getting outstandings in all his homework. One afternoon in the library James ran into Emmeline Vance. "Alright Potter," Emmie smiled. "I don't think you've ever been in the library this often!"

"You might be right Vance," James laughed. He'd always gotten on really well with Emmeline Vance. He'd completely broken her heart in their first year but they'd somehow managed to become almost friends over the years since.

"The only time you're ever in the library is when you are mooning over Evans," she commented.

"Am I really that obvious?" James blushed, running a nervous hand through his hair.

"To me you are, yeah… remember I had a front row seat to watch you fall in love with her in first year."

"Ah… sorry about that," James had the decency to look ashamed.

"Don't sweat it," Emmie beamed. "I'm well over it. Do you want to talk about whatever's happened?"

"Not right now," James answered, "perhaps we could just do our homework?"

"What's this a marauder doing homework, as if!"

A day later, Madam Pomfrey escorted Remus to the shrieking shack. The boys had managed to get Remus to agree to a late night excursion into the Forbidden Forest again. He was incredibly anxious as he waited for his transfiguration; what if something happened? What if someone got hurt?

The boys soon joined Remus in the shack. They hated to leave him alone as a wolf for long. It was when he was alone that he'd get his worst injuries. He'd bite and scratch himself in boredom. They stayed in the shack until well after curfew; even the prefects would have returned to their common rooms. The wolf was anxious to escape the confines of the shack. They raced around the forest for what felt like hours. Moony and Padfoot were incredibly quick and strong but Prongs had something the others lacked. He had an elegance in his movements that caused the Stag's beauty to stand out. He would gallop ahead of the others, the leader of the pack, jumping over fallen tree logs and streams with ease. He found it incredibly relaxing being a Stag. He didn't have to think about everything; most importantly he didn't have to think about Lily.

Later that night, as James walked with the other marauders up to the castle he knew that Remus wouldn't fight him on his latest idea. Their forest excursion had been a complete success; there was no way he would say no to a little run around the mountains of Hogsmeade, so long as they stayed away from the town itself.

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