Chapter 8

"Are you done eating?" James asked Peter and Sirius around six o'clock that evening. Peter grumbled a little, not liking to have to leave his food behind. Sirius shoved his half empty plate away and nodded.

"Come on," Sirius said. His voice was low and sounded very mature and male. It had that ring to it that made girls faint with 10 at the time. But James could see his friend's hands shaking. He was surprised, if he was honest. Sirius had always been the one who was the least afraid of Remus's monthly changes.

"You alright?" James whispered, as they walked out of the kitchen. Sirius cocked an eyebrow and watched him strangely.

"Why wouldn't I be alright?" he asked defensive. James bit his lips and shrugged. They stood in silence for a moment, eyeing each other.

"Are you coming?" Peter asked nervously. James and Sirius nodded, and followed their smallest friend out of the castle and to the Whomping Willow. There, they changed in their animal forms. The rat crawled to the Willow and prodded its bark. The tree stood silent and the stag, the dog and the rat could enter.

A horrible growl sounded through the corridor. James gulped and made a run for the sound. Sirius and Peter followed quickly.

Inside the Shrieking Shack, their fourth friend laid moaning in pain on the ground, seconds from being fully changed in a werewolf. His eyes looked unseeingly right through them and he growled and scratched himself. James gently pushed his hands away from his face with his antlers.

Then, Remus was no longer Remus, but a huge werewolf, looking hungrily at the three animals. Sirius bit him gently in his paw and led Remus to the door. Tonight was outdoors night. Locking a werewolf up in a shack was no fun after all.

They ran through the forest for hours. Playing, enjoying their freedom, not having to worry about things for once. Not having to worry about Lily.

Lily.

Shit.

James changed back into his human body and was relieved to see it was a couple of minutes before nine. Lily would kill him if he was late again. He looked up to his friends and met hungry, yellow eyes. Food, the eyes said. James opened his mouth in a silent scream, realizing he had no time to change into his stag form. The werewolf jumped and James closed his eyes, awaiting the final blow.

The final blow never came, of course. Something did hit him hard in the chest and he stumbled to the ground, but there were no razor sharp teeth and claws.

He opened his eyes and saw the shaggy dog biting the werewolf away from him. They fought and Sirius was able to get Remus away from James again. Peter bit Remus's ear and the werewolf's full attention was needed there. Sirius changed back as well.

"What the bloody hell were you thinking?" Sirius yelled.

"I have rounds," James answered shakily. Sirius seriously looked as if he was going to punch James hard and good. But he didn't. He changed back into a dog and ran away from James, leaving him on the ground.

He wasn't able to get up at first. His knees were wobbly and his teeth chattered like mad. After a few tries, he got up and stumbled out of the woods. He brushed the dirt of his clothes before he entered the castle and walked up to Lily.

"Hi," he mumbled. His teeth still chattered and he still was shivering. He felt a bit feverish, but knew he was just scared. He always felt like this when something had really scared him.

Lily didn't even look at him, but stalked away. He lingered behind her, wanting to touch her beautiful hair. He brought his hands to his own hair in desperation, knowing he would never be allowed into Lily's perfect world.

The silence weighted heavily on his shoulders and on his heart. Should he say something? Or should he just shut up? He desperately wanted to say something, but he was afraid it would ruin her mood even more. She would just yell at him if he tried to make conversation.

He didn't know what was worse: her yelling at him or her saying nothing at all. If she yelled at him, at least she showed him that she knew he existed. Now he could have easily been invisible to her. She didn't acknowledge him whatsoever.

He looked at his watch. They'd only been walking for a couple of minutes. He felt that this was going to be one long night.

A little later, the sound of running footsteps sounded not too far from them. Lily stopped and listened and James tried to figure out where the sound came from exactly. Before he had the chance to decide where it came from, Lily was already running towards she thought it came from.

"Hey!" she yelled, when she spotted a rustling robe turning around a corner, "Hey! Stop!"

They both ran and James drew his wand. You never knew if it was a Slytherin. When they turned around the corner as well, they first saw no one. Lily was slightly panting and they both looked around fiercely. James felt anger radiating from Lily and was happy that for once, she was not angry with him but with someone else.

"Oi!" James yelled when he spotted two figures in the distance. When James and Lily ran towards them, they didn't run away, so they caught up with them easily.

"It's past nine," Lily said strictly, "You're not allowed to be out of your common rooms."

"We're very sorry," the girl squeaked. James sighed and slightly smiled. She somehow reminded him of himself and the Marauders when they were younger.

"What house are you in?" Lily asked and tried to see their badges.

"Gryffindor," the boy whispered. Lily gasped and James nearly snickered.

"It's not because you're in my house, that I won't punish you," Lily threatened, "I demand your names, right now. I will make sure that you both lose points and serve detention."

"Oh, come on, Evans," James interrupted, "They did nothing really wrong. Let them go with a warning or something."

"You!" Lily yelled at him, "Shut up! I will not have you undermining my position!"

"Just go," James told the first years, "Don't let us catch you in the hallways again."

"Potter!" Lily screamed frustrated, "What did you do that for? If that had been Slytherins, you wouldn't have thought twice about punishing them."

"True," James admitted, a little angry himself, "But they weren't. They were Gryffindors and you should be loyal to your house."

"Look who's speaking," Lily snorted, "The great Marauder who cost Gryffindor over 100 points at least."

"I think it comes closer to over 1000 points really," James grinned.

"Unbelievable," Lily cried, "You're proud of it! Merlin, just… just shut up! I don't want to hear a sound from you for the rest of the night! And I don't want to see you anymore either, so walk behind me and don't come any closer than two meters, understood?"

James nodded and stared at the floor. Seriously, was he being punished now for being loyal to his house? If she blamed him for losing so many points, then why did she want to deduct any more points from those first years? It didn't make much sense, did it?

He listened to Lily muttering under her breath, and he was certain he heard his name a few times. Usually combined with words like 'idiot' and 'fool'. He wondered if she'd been nice to him now if he hadn't told those kids to go. If he'd ran to McGonagall and blabbed. Probably not.

He wanted to hold her, tell her it wasn't such an awful thing he'd done and that she'd live. He wanted to laugh with her and to tell her all kind of stories of the adventures the Marauders had had in their first years. The adventures they still had, occasionally. Rounds could be so much fun, if only she'd let them be fun.

He checked his watch. It was nearing ten, so he guessed it was okay if he left her alone now. She'd live through another hour of rounds without him. It was not like she needed him anyway and he felt a lot more for being with his friends right now.

"Evans," James mumbled, wrapping an arm around his stomach, "I don't feel so well."

Lily looked over her shoulder and gave him an annoyed look. They were close to a gent's room, he could easily take this to the next step.

"I think I'm going to be sick," he fake choked and clamped his hand over his mouth, running to the bathroom. He locked the door of one of the stalls behind him and made retching sounds. If she came after him, it should sound real and convincing. He waited a moment and sighed. She didn't even bother to check on him.

He flushed the lavatory and came out the stall again. He washed his hands and threw some water in his face. He stared at himself in the mirror for a couple of seconds, and stumbled out of the bathroom. Lily looked at him for a second and turned her head.

"Do you mind if I go to bed?" he croaked. Lily made a gesture with her hand that James interpreted as 'whatever' and turned fully away from him. He dropped his eyes and shuffled away from her.

"Potter?" she asked, when he'd nearly turned around the corner, "Are you going to be alright or should I be afraid that you pass out somewhere in a deserted hallway?"

His heart skipped a couple of beats, happy that she cared at least a little for him and he gave her a reassuring smile. He wanted to give her a megawatt smile, but knew that that would be a little suspicious if he pretended to be ill.

"I'll live," he answered and turned around the corner. He sighed and kept his pace slow until he was certain that she couldn't hear him anymore. Then, he made a run for his friends.

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