"You will not be permitted inside."

Professor McGonagall stood guard in front of the large Hospital wing doors, blocking the entrance of Peter, Sirius, and Remus.

"But professor-"

"There will be none of that, Mr. Pettigrew. Rules are rules."

"Professor, James is already in there, though," Sirius argued.

"And with good reason! He is, after all, the Gryffindor Quidditch Team Captain! I assure you, he will be out soon. Now run along."

They turned, dejected, around the corner, where Sirius began to grumble.

"I swear, we're going to have to find a secret passage into there," he stormed.

Remus was suddenly struck by an idea.

"The door's not the only way in, even if there is no secret passage," he said, grinning mysteriously. "And the best part is that it's not technically breaking any rules."

XXXXXXxxxxxxxXxx

As Rose and Ellie rushed into the infirmary, they made it in just before Hagrid, the Care of Magical Creatures professor and groundskeeper, left and shut the large doors behind him.

Rose took a deep breath. Nate would be okay. Madam Pomfrey had him now. Ellie had brought her back to her senses at the pitch. She had that kind of effect on people.

James, however was in no such state of calm. He was pacing back and forth, gesturing wildly with his hands and yelling loudly about how dirty Slytherin had played, and how they should be ejected from the house tournament, although he knew that what had happened often happened in Quidditch, and that it was even expected to happen during games against rival teams, such as the one today had been. He rejected a calming drought that Madam Pomfrey offered him, and continued his rant, clearly now just reacting to the shock of what he had just done, of how he had just saved a life.

Ellie had previously occasionally come to help Madam Pomfrey in the infirmary, (as she was once interested in the mental health wizarding profession) and was now rushing around with the other teachers and Madam Pomfrey, fetching various things or working on spells for health. Professor McGonagall had gone to fetch an owl to send to Professor Dumbledore, who had been in London for the day.

Only Rose was listening to James' rant, and it was growing more high pitched and panicked with every moment, as he began to kick the empty beds in anger and frustration.

She could hardly bear to drop her brother's limp hand, but James' situation was becoming more pressing.

She walked up to him and hugged him, tightly.

It seemed to do the trick and stopped him from talking, shocking him into freezing. He knew that she was cross at him, and was now incredibly puzzled as to how she could stand to be so close. It seemed his brain was moving a little sluggishly. After a minute, he lifted up his arms and hugged her back, almost robotically, as if by default.

"James, you've done it. Nate's safe now. You saved him. Now, I need you to calm down, alright?" She spoke carefully, trying to use a soft voice to calm him.

He just stayed frozen.

"James, listen to me. You're alright. Come over here," she forced his arms apart and took his hand, guiding him to the bed that Madam Pomfrey had left his potion next to.

"Sit." He obeyed, and sat on the edge of the bed.

"Now I need you to drink this," she told him, carefully putting the potion into his hands.

He looked up at her with wide eyes, looking bewildered.

"Drink it, James."

"I'm sorry." he said, still looking completely confused. She was startled by the sound of his voice, carrying no sarcasm or zeal, just a desperate, childlike need. He looked at the unconscious boy on the bed next to him and then back up at her.

"I'm sorry. I... I'm sorry." He looked incredibly confused and still panicked.

"No, James. Don't be. It's okay now. I forgive you," she told him, speaking genuinely.

He met her gaze, and then broke away, almost as though ashamed, and then brought the bottle to his mouth, swallowing a huge sip.

He handed it to her, and fell back onto his pillows, asleep in a matter of seconds.

The bustle suddenly died, as the teachers circled around Nate. Madam Pomfrey carefully propped him up on a pillow and spooned a thick liquid into his mouth.

He sputtered, gasped and tried to sit up, suddenly regaining consciousness, Professor Carkson pushing him back down.

He looked up into the eyes of the professors, his sister and girlfriend's sister, and the school nurse, and suddenly felt small. His blue eyes opened widely as he stared at them. Suddenly, he realized that someone was missing.

"Lynn? Is Lynn okay?" He asked, alert and now panicked.

"Hush, my dear, I'm sure she's fine," the nurse replied, trying to soothe the child, gesturing for everyone to step back a little to give him space to breathe.

"No, you don't understand, the other seeker-the captain- told me that he was going to go after her and James, she's still out there with him," he said, talking quickly though moving like he was in pain and trying to get up.

"Oh, dear! I'll be down there in two shakes! Don't worry my dear I'll take care of it!" Professor Sprout dashed off, and after a quick word with Madam Pomfrey, Professor Clarkson was on her heels.

Ellie too leapt up to rush to her sister's aide, but Rose grabbed her arm, and held her back.

"Ellie, the whole school is watching, and the rest of the team had her back. They won't let you in again if you leave now. James will want you to be here when he wakes up. She'll be all right."

"Okay," Ellie only sometimes knew the truth when she heard it, but she could tell that James wasn't the only one who needed emotional support right now.

The other professors did not return, although Professor McGonagall did after manning the door, and apparently warding off a herd of admirers for both boys, she came in and gave an update. Lynn was perfectly alright, as Crutch didn't have the guts to go after her in front of the entire team. Because of his behavior, he was banned from the quidditch cup, and was given two months of detention (with the deputy headmistress herself), warned that if this behavior should occur again that he would be expelled. His parents were also sent an owl, along with Mr. and Mrs. Bennett detailing the day's events. Madam Pomfrey told her in return that James was recovering from shock, and would be permitted to leave as soon as he woke up, as long as he felt better, and that Nate had a minor head injury and a bad case of whiplash that would keep him in the hospital wing for the remainder of the weekend, until he had healed adequately.

McGonagall left just before James awoke. The moment before the knocking began.

Madam Pomfrey was gone for a while, at the apothecary to fetch something-or-other, when a mysterious tapping came from the window.

It just about terrified Ellie, who although was a Gryffindor, was not particularly brave in the face of strange knocks, especially those which came in a darkened hospital wing when there was no adult to ward them away.

Rose, however was always braver around others, whether they be strangers, or friends, and went immediately to investigate. Although she was not at all fond of looking out of darkened windows, someone would have to do it to be able to find the source of the rapping noise.

She cupped her hands around the glass panes in an attempt to see outside, and jumped back, screaming after a half second glance.

"Someone's out there!"

Ellie assumed that she was kidding. She would occasionally do this sort of thing late at night just to excite her friend and stop her from falling asleep. The mere mention of demons, banshees or werewolves was enough to terrify Ellie enough to keep her up for hours, as she often ruined the sleepover spirit with her tiredness.

"Rose. Be serious. We're at least eight floors up," Ellie argued, an edge to her voice that said it was not time for teasing.

"I am serious. You look," Rose replied, trying unsuccessfully to see out the window without getting too near to it.

"No way."

The knocks came, louder and more insistent this time, along with a muffled voice.

"It sounds like a person!" Ellie exclaimed, astounded.

"I TOLD you! It is!"

A wand illuminated on the far side of the glass, and it became clear that it wasn't in fact just anybody, it was actually Sirius, followed shortly by Peter and Remus.

"LET US IN!" He shouted again, through the glass.

Rose rushed to unlock the large window and swing it open.

"Bloody Hell! What are you doing!" She exclaimed, as the three boys flew in on brooms, dripping puddles across the pristine floor of the infirmary.

"Visiting the sick, of course. It's one of the ten commandments," Sirius replied, shaking off like a dog, and spraying water everywhere.

"Actually, it's not," Peter piped up from behind him, wringing out his wet hat and trying not to shiver.

"It's a work of mercy," Remus corrected, using a clever little spell to dry himself and mop up after his friends.

"Yes. And speaking of works of mercy, I've just done another one. I noticed that you lot skipped dinner, so I went down to the kitchens to see if I could scrounge up a meal. Feeding the hungry," Sirius said, pulling a basket of hot sandwiches from under his rain cloak and throwing it to the girls.

"Enjoy," he told them, taking a bottle of ink from his pocket, and dabbing some onto his finger. He then proceeded to smear it onto James' face, just above the upper lip, giving him a ridiculous ink mustache. He then cleaned his hand using a spell.

Despite the fact that Sirius was perfectly capable of ignoring why James was nearly in a coma to play a prank on him, his other two companions seemed properly concerned. After saying hello, they descended upon James like a wake of vultures.

"What's happened? Is he dead?!" Peter asked, visibly fretting and wringing his wet hat stressfully. Lupin seemed to be amused for a moment as he looked at the remnant of the potion James had consumed on the bed stand.

"Of course not, Peter. The pansy just went into shock. It's just a temporary potion, correct?" He asked. Ellie nodded in reply.

They began to speak of Madam Pomfrey's various potions and her skill in health, and Ellie realized that Remus really did spend quite a bit of time in the hospital wing, although he was almost never there when she had acted as an assistant. Strange.

Meanwhile, at the adjacent bed, Sirius had sat down next to Nate, who was fighting sleep in an attempt to stay up and talk.

"How you feeling, old chap?" Sirius asked lightly.

"Like my neck's been replaced by a flobberworm. But other than that, alright, I suppose," Nate replied. They began a conversation regarding quidditch and practice times, but were cut short in only a few minutes by an older sister trying to get her brother to bed on time.

"Awh, Roo. Ten more minutes?"

She shook her head sternly as Sirius got up and she arranged the sheets.

"You heard what Madam Pomfrey said. The more sleep you get, the sooner you'll heal." She tucked him in, and kissed him on the top of the head, just as their mother always did. "I'll stay a while longer, but not all night. Will you be alright?" She asked.

He nodded slightly, indicating he would be fine for the time being.

"All right then, sweetheart. Goodnight."

"Sleep tight," he replied.

"Don't let the vampires bite," she replied, closing the curtains so that he could rest in peace.

Meanwhile, James had just woken up.

"Wassamatter?" He asked, rubbing his already scruffy hair and looking around.

The mustache drawn by Sirius looked so ridiculous that Lupin and Sirius had to cover up their laughter with false coughing so as to not give their work away.

Suddenly, Madam Pomfrey burst into the infirmary, absolutely livid.

"What exactly do you think you're doing here, gentlemen?" She asked, clearly beginning to start the process of shooing them out.

"Professor Dumbledore sent us," Sirius replied, trying to think quickly and let them stay a little while longer.

"I'm sure!" She responded. "I've just come from his office, and he mentioned nothing of you!"

"We'll just be going then," Sirius replied, almost as though his tail had gone between his legs at being found out.

"And quickly, as long as you don't want to have to serve a detention!" She called after the three boys, as they began to shuffle out, conjuring a wet rag for James to clean the ink off his face with.

Rose and Ellie thanked her, and then proceeded back to their dorm for the night, first stopping to check on the animagus and liquid luck potions, which were coming along nicely.

XXXXXXxxxxxxx

I have some interesting ideas for the next section. Very danger. So adventure. This has been a lot longer than I thought it was, and so far there has been less character development than I would have hoped for. Especially for Peter. I think the next bit might involve him. I knew someone who reminded me of him so I might use him as a template or something. Whatever works. Also, I really love Remus a lot. I feel like he's one of those people who you sort of just naturally get along with. Sirius has sort of taken a more dignified route than a lot of people like, but I think that it makes sense, as far as his family history goes, with him being all noble and stuff. James... Well, I thought of James a lot as sort of being mother to the rest of the group, sort of being a better person when he wasn't being a jerk to Snape, especially after I re-read the Prisoner of Azkaban, and it talks so much about how he would have taken pity on Peter, and a whole bunch of other nice stuff that grown up Sirius and Remus say about him. As far as Ellie and Rose are concerned, I sort of wanted two best friends, and I didn't really mean for everyone to pair off the way that they did. Whatever works. They were both based on two people who I know really well, and chances are that if you threw those two real people into this work instead of Ellie and Rose, that they would act almost the exact same way. Wow. That got really long. Thanks for reading and reviewing, and it might be a little while before I post again, as school has officially started. I have more prewritten, but I'm not sure that its ready for posting yet. Don't let the muggles get you down!

post edit: SO IM GETTING YELLED AT TO GO TO BED RIGHT NOW, so ill edit tomorrow, but in the mean time, thanks so much for reading and reviweing and for bearing with me while i edit!