A/N: Wow guys! Thank you all for your reviews! Made my day! Hehe! I'm glad I stuck to my idea and let Lily run away!
TO: LilyProngs. The dreams are definitely trying to get Lily somewhere...to where exactly and the reason will come up in later chapters! XXx
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DARKEST SECRET
Lily tore down the corridors trying to scream at the top of her voice. She needed to let McGonagall, Dumbledore, anyone know! James was outside fighting off a werewolf. It didn't matter that he could turn into a stag, he was...just James! A regular albeit irritating guy she was in the same House as and shared her lessons with. Sure he was bright and excelled easily in most of his subjects but he was just a student, and now he was left outside fighting against a werewolf. If anything ever happened to him…Lily couldn't let herself think like that, nothing would happen to Potter.
Her frustration against herself made her want to scream again except...she wasn't making any sound. Her mouth was open, her vocal chords vibrated but all she could hear was the pounding of her own feet and the pumping of blood rushing to her head. She skidded to a stop her hands flew to her throat as it contracted.
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James lowered his great antlered head and charged, this time catching Remus up between the forked ends. Keeping his head low he galloped at full speed back to the gap in the trunk and tossed the snarling werewolf in with a huge swing of his neck. Sirius leapt straight into the hole after Remus, his wide maws snapping to chase him back down the tunnel.
James waited head lowered, dutifully guarding the exit in case he managed to get past Sirius. Adrenaline pumped around his stag body and sweat steamed off his great flank. The underside of his stomach hurt, as did the side of his neck where Remus had dug his claws in attempt to get around him. Were it not for his thick hide the wounds would have gone deep and would have certainly killed him had he been in his human form.
Several pounding minutes later a human shaped Sirius emerged from the gap. He was bleeding slightly on his forehead where a cut snaked into his hairline but that was his only visible wound. Seeing Sirius signalled that Remus was safe back at the Shrieking Shack and James collapsed. Unable to stand up on his four legs any longer he fell, hitting the floor on his two knees in his original form. He got up again almost immediately; staggering to his feet as Sirius handed him the Invisibility cloak and the map.
He knew what James had to do, it wasn't just a personal matter now; Dumbledore would get into trouble if anyone found out that he had accepted a werewolf as a student, Remus would most likely be expelled along with the rest of the Marauders for being illegal Animagi. The Ministry of Magic will undoubtedly be involved; the list was endless and Lily had seen it all. There was no knowing what she might say and to whom and now the responsibility lay with James to stop her.
"We won't need the map." He said to James. Remus, Peter and himself would return shortly before dawn when most of the castle was still fast asleep. "Don't worry, I'll stay with Moony tonight."
"Thanks, Padfoot." James turned to leave, his wand pointed at the map while he muttered, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." "
"Oi, Prongs!"
James turned around. "What?"
Sirius grimaced and gave him a once over look. "Have the decency to clean up before you meet your girl. You look terrible!"
James forced a grin. "Go chase your own tail."
Sirius returned the remark with a grin that lit up his battered face and began to shout for Peter to return. "Hey, Wormtail! Get your ass back here! The fun's all over!" James heard rustling leaves in a nearby bush in response to the call and shook his head as he quickly jogged off to the castle following the tiny ink dot that was labelled Lily Evans.
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Lily gagged. Out of breath and scared she leaned heavily against a stone wall. For the first time in her life she questioned something she thought she would never care for. Where exactly did the teachers sleep? Ridiculous as it were, she did not know. She had tried McGonagall's office but it was empty and dark as were several others she had burst into. Her voice had not returned and the need for haste was urgent. In a sudden rush of memory Lily started making her way to Dumbledore's office; the Headmaster had his own tower that had to be where he slept!
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Hidden in his cloak James headed straight for the dot that floated across the map erratically. However, he and Lily weren't the only people who were up and about at this time of night. Two familiar dots labelled Filch and Mr. Cronks was also prowling the corridors, unfortunately they were prowling on the very same one as both James and Lily. James quickened his pace. He could see the vague outline of Filch ahead of him, the caretaker's feet shod in worn slippers padded silently. Mr. Cronks, his cat was sniffing the air as it walked next to him. Lily was just around the corner and if she kept walking she would be caught head on. Clutching the cloak so that he was fully concealed he brushed past the cat and man as quietly as he could but Mr. Cronks' hair prickled at the smell of blood and sweat. Filch noticed this immediately and began to look around him.
"I know you're here." He warned. Hurrying down the darkened corridor James ran into Lily and plucked her away from the centre and pressed them both against the wall. She struggled with the unseen force that had suddenly grabbed her.
"Shh! It's me!" James whispered sharply. "Filch is coming down." Lily blinked into the emptiness in front of her just as Filch turned the corner. "Don't move. Need to get this over you." A brush of soft material swept around her body and fell over her face.
All at once she saw the shaded white of his shirt and before her face met up with his chest where the material muffled her ragged breathing. Pressed into James Lily held her breath as the Mr. Cronks suddenly appeared right beside them and looked straight at her. It took her a few seconds to understand that the cat was looking at her but not seeing her. Then she realised that she and James must be hiding under the infamous Invisibility Cloak that was rumoured to be in James Potter's possession. If she wasn't so scared about being caught she would have marvelled at the cloak a bit more but Mr. Cronks was approaching closer them, sniffing the air.
At the same time, James was also thinking about the cloak, in their early years the cloak had managed to conceal three of the four Marauders at best but as the years went on it's usefulness dropped. There simply wasn't enough of the amazing material to cover the full-grown boys. Now at a stretch it just about covered James' tall frame and Lily who was considerably smaller.
Another thought occurred to James as Lily's arms tightened around him; under different circumstances he would have died a happy man to have had Lily in such close proximity to him, namely in his arms. However, her tightened grip alerted him of two things: he needed oxygen now and that damn cat was practically sniffing his foot!
Mr. Cronks let out a long yowl and Filch came running towards them to investigate already shouting "Ah Ha! I've got you!" He stopped when he saw Mr. Cronks 'pointing' at nothing. James seized on Filch's momentary confusion and leapt over the cat taking Lily with him.
The older man chased after them immediately spurred by the definite movement of someone passing right under his nose. They ran as fast as possible not caring that Filch could see and occasional arm or leg when the cloak fell away with movement. He ran and shouted obscenities that even Peeves wouldn't dare use but his shouting soon grew faint as they easily outran him and were back safe in the Gryffindor Common Room in no time.
Once the door was closed James pulled off the cloak and sat Lily down in front of the embers of the fireplace. She opened her mouth immediately as she tried to wordlessly speak.
"Before I remove the spell, I need you to promise me one thing." James said, willing her to listen to him before the worse could happen. The stakes were high and James would never do anything that would hurt Moony. He gripped his wand, if need be he would use a memory charm, even on Lily but only as a last resort.
Unaware that she may soon lose a certain part of her memory Lily arched a brow at the word "spell" but nodded to let him finish.
"I will try to tell you what's going on as much as I can but I can say now that it won't be much." He took a shaky breath and swallowed, feeling the soreness on his neck. "I want you to promise me that you won't ask me any questions." She stared at him eyes narrowed as if sizing his words up. To his relief she gave another small nod. He raised his wand and muttered the counter spell to release her of the hex that had been automatically cast upon her when she saw him transform. It was one of the many precautions the Marauders had employed in case they were discovered. It wasn't a long-term solution but it offered enough time for them to fix things in worst-case scenarios; tonight being a prime example. It was known amongst the four friends as 'damage control', the spell itself was by James' own design and wand.
Lily let out a deep breath as her throat unclenched. That was one mean hex. It was much more than an average Silencio spell and definitely not one that had been taught in a classroom. Just how much 'out of class' spells did James know?
Without warning she seized the front of his shirt in both fists. "I thought you was going to die!" She yelled heatedly. "What the hell were you thinking? Does your ego addle your brain so much that you want to test yourself against a werewolf?"
"No!" James hurt because her suddenness was jarring his wounds and also hurt that she would think him to be that stupid. So maybe he often did some pretty stupid things but he wasn't quite suicidally stupid yet.
"You scared the life out of me! I was so certain that by the time I managed to get help it would be too late." To her horror she found herself sobbing angrily. Thankfully she wasn't quite crying, though she was humiliatingly close. It was the worst feeling in the world, to know that every second longer that she took could be someone else's last. She blamed herself for not being able to do anything and she blamed Potter for being so completely stupid in putting himself in that predicament.
James sat back as far as his hostage-held shirt allowed, he was stunned to say the least at seeing Lily teary eyed and so completely distraught. It had never occurred to him that she would even feel bad if he were to die but he knew that was silly. This was Lily, who cried when she read books, cried when she found a hurt animal and cried with her friends when they were upset! Of course she would cry if she thought he was going to die even if she did think he was a toerag. It was strange but to know that she would cry for him was somehow comforting.
"Why didn't you run away with me when you still could?"
Because I'd never leave Moony and Padfoot like that.
James' throat went dry. "I was doing what I thought was best."
"What fighting one on one with a werewolf? Potter, are you crazy?"
"How far away do you think that we would have gotten? Werewolves run bloody fast, there was no way we could have outrun him."
Lily wanted to throttle the guy. The crazy idiot was not only egotistically mad enough to think he could take on a werewolf but now he was also gender assigning them. "You don't know that!"
"Yes I do! You haven't seen the way he outruns deer or seen him jump either."
"Oh and you have?"
James opened his mouth but thought better than to answer. He'd already said too much. "Oi! I said no questions!"
"Hmph!" Lily released his shirt but almost instantly he grabbed hold of her wrists. "Hey! Get off-"
"You're bleeding!" Both she and James stared at her red stained hands.
"No, you're the one bleeding!" She gasped, unable to understand how she hadn't noticed the great splash of blood across his shirt earlier. "We have to get you to Madame Pom-"
James cut her off. "I can't go to Madam Pomfrey because she's going to have a lot of questions I won't be able to answer to."
Lily looked like she was about to argue but decided against it. James could almost read the logic that she was quietly forming in her mind. What was the point with arguing with someone as stubborn and dim as a troll?
"Fine. Wait here." She said curtly and disappeared up the stairs that lead to the girls' dormitory. A minute later she reappeared carrying a small green case. James watched mesmerised as she unscrewed a small bottle and tipped some strong smelling liquid on a cotton pad.
"What are you doing?" he edged back as she leaned over with the pad.
"Cleaning the cuts out." Lily said exasperated. "Come here, it won't hurt." James obediently moved back in front of her offering her his neck but still highly suspicious of the moist pad.
"Gah! What the hell is that stuff?" James cried out as she wiped it liberally on the now stinging cuts. "That hurts!"
"You've got to get these cleaned out or it will get infected. Get back here!" She yanked him back to her as he pulled away. "It's antiseptic. Muggles use it." She said and applied the offensive pad straight back on his neck. After that she unceremoniously tugged his shirt open to attack the claw trenches across his gut. James tried not to whimper as she went about with her task. Never in his life had he ever imagined that this would be how Lily stripped him of his shirt. There was no regard for his dignity or any remote sign of the gentleness he had seen her treat every other living creature with; it was like James Potter was the only one who did not merit such compassion.
"Ow!"
"Stop moving!"
James continued to complain as she cleaned out the clawed flesh and bandaged it. "Why does it still hurt?" Even after she finished with his neck and stomach it felt like he was on fire and the pain refused to go away. The Marauders made many trips to Madam Pomfrey throughout their years and many a time it hurt when she healed them but afterwards they always felt as good as new, this Muggle healing seriously needed some tweaking.
"Of course it will, it will also itch while it heals and you are not to scratch them!" Lily snapped as she returned all the bottles and unused bandage to her first aid kit. "Now, tell me what the hell is going on?" She crossed her arms. "And no more shirking. Why were you at the Whomping Willow and why on earth was there a werewolf and a dog there?" She demanded clearly ignoring her promise of asking no questions.
James squirmed suddenly feeling more uncomfortable than while he had his wounds cleaned. He wanted to tell Lily everything and explain properly to her but he absolutely refused to break his loyalty to his friends in order to do so.
"I am an illegal Animagus." He said simply after coming to the conclusion that he could not explain anything else to her without dragging everybody else in.
Lily waited, expecting that there would be more but he looked away. What about the werewolf? The dog? Or were not important enough to be mentioned? Moments passed, as she stared at him until he returned her penetrating gaze unflinchingly. As he did so Lily could see that on this matter he would not give way.
"I'm sorry but that is all I can say."
"There's a werewolf loose on the school premises, Potter. This is serious."
"I know this is serious! But he isn't-"
"James, I don't care what it is that you're hiding but I'm going to have to tell Dumbledore-"
Something of absolute horror worked itself onto James' face. "Lily, don't!" He pleaded and took hold of her wrist as she tried to stand up.
"You've got to believe me on this; the werewolf isn't running free."
Lily bit her lip, she was scared and confused and had no idea what to think. The Head Girl in her told her to march straight up to Dumbledore's office and tell him everything that she had seen but deep down she knew that in an odd manner she believed James. He could be foolish at times but this time she could see that he was sincere.
"Are sure that it won't hurt any more people?" She asked at length.
"Positive."
"And tonight's incident will never happen again to anyone?"
"Never again." He promised. "Lily, I swear on my head that the werewolf would never hurt anyone. You can tell Dumbledore about me being an illegal Animagus, I don't mind. Just don't mention anything else. It's all my fault and I never meant for any of this to happen."
Whatever Head-Girl-duty-driven resolves that Lily had crumbled. She had never seen Potter like this. Whatever it was that he was protecting it must mean a lot for him. Before this night she would never have thought someone like Potter to be selfless. If people found out that he was an illegal Animagus he would be expelled on the spot and the Ministry would not take kindly to him either.
Lily was begrudgingly impressed; firstly becoming an Animagus was no small feat and secondly to willingly accepting the vast consequences was not something everyone could do. "What were you doing out there tonight?"
James looked down. "I can't tell you."
She had a million questions but if this was all that he was willing to tell her there was nothing else she could do. Admittedly, she was as curious as anything as well as a fair deal worried but she couldn't be unreasonable when he was clearly adamant about not telling her.
"Fine." She stood up and headed towards the stairs again. Her mind still racing with questions she found herself recalling odd moments about the four guys. They had a strong bond that did not extend to others. Highly popular the foursome was strange, full of bizarre and often dangerous ideas. Sometimes blowing things up or setting off a fireworks display in a classroom and called them exotic names...names...they even called each other strange names. Padfoot, Wormtail, Moony and Prongs...
Everything became crystal clear, or as clear as it was going to get for her. A huge dog, Padfoot! A stag, Prongs! A werewolf...Moony... Now sense began to fall in with the clarity. So this was their darkest secret, this was what he was protecting. Lily turned just as she reached the stairs and met James' dark eyes once more.
"Goodnight, Prongs."
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A/N: Just to say that Mr. Cronks is actually Mrs. Norris predecessor. I've decided that Mrs. Norris' time takes his place sometime before Harry joins Hogwarts but after James left.
