Chapter 13

Lily was frozen with sheer terror as the werewolf leered at her, revealing large, pointed teeth. She winced and closed her eyes and waited for the bite. It never came. She heard the wolf snarl loudly and felt its weight lift off her body at the same time she heard a high-pitched, whining sound. She opened her eyes.

A great stag was on its hind legs, violently kicking at the wolf. The wolf growled at launched itself at the stag. The unlikely pair rolled over and over themselves, the wolf scratching and biting and the stag retaliating with ferocious kicks and well-aimed jabs with its antlers.

Lily tried to scramble back towards the castle, but when she stood up, eyes still on the battling animals, a searing pain went through her right leg. A long, bloody gash went down her calf. The werewolf must have scratched her. She felt slightly faint watching the two animals battle. Shakily, she sat down on the bottom step of the steps leading up to the front door of the castle. Luckily, the cut didn't look too deep but Lily couldn't be sure in the half-darkness.

Suddenly, a loud bark made her momentarily forget the pain. Lily jerked her head up in time to see a huge black dog sprint effortlessly out of the Whomping Willow, followed by a smaller creature Lily couldn't make out. They hurried over to where the werewolf and the stag were still fighting. Distracted, the wolf was caught off guard and the dog clamped its teeth around the wolf's hind leg. Shaking itself free, it bounded into the Forbidden Forest, closely followed by the dog and the small creature. The stag lay, twitching slightly, its large chest rising and falling with heavy breaths. It looked injured, maybe badly. Tentatively, she began to cautiously stumble over to where it lay in the moonlight. There was a knot in her stomach, though Lily had no idea why. She'd seen plenty of injured animals before, her Muggle neighbour was a vet. She was about arms length away now so she stretched out her hand to touch the stag. It looked mournfully at her with strikingly familiar large, brown eyes. It let out a small whine, trying to tell her something. Lily nervously withdrew her hand.

Just then, there was a flash of light and Lily stumbled backwards in surprise. Where the stag had lain, seconds before, there was a boy. A boy in shredded Gryffindor robes. He let out a loud groan and hoisted himself up onto one elbow.

No, Lily thought. No. No way. It was impossible.

"Lily!" James said, instantly alert when he noticed her there. "Lily! Lily, are you alright?" He painstakingly pulled himself to his feet. There was scratches on his face and it looked like a large chunk of his right shoulder had been ripped off.

"Get...get..get a-away from me!" Lily cried and turned and half crawled back to the castle, her leg forgotten and all thoughts out of her mind except that she had to get away from James Potter.

Lily sat down on the couch in the Head's Common Room and put her face in her hands. She was shaking. What had happened? She couldn't think straight. She had so many questions but she couldn't quite form them in her mind. Frightened tears gushed out of her eyes and she impatiently brushed them away. She was going to find out what was going on, she had to. But her mind was blank. The pain in her leg had returned and she lowered a shaking hand to gingerly touch it. Most of the blood had congealed but it was deep enough. It had looked worse in the dark.

Lily shook her head. All she could picture was a grotesque wolf. She stood up and began pacing. The wolf...yes, the werewolf had appeared out of nowhere. Momentarily, she marvelled at Dumbledore and how he hadn't noticed a werewolf roaming around the castle grounds once a month. She had been attacked by the wolf. And then...then a stag, of all things, materialised, also out of seemingly nowhere. The stag had fought the wolf off. And then...and then... Lily closed her eyes and stopped pacing. How could James have been there? Lily was sure it was a dream. In no reality could James Potter have been a stag. But it had felt horribly real...

Lily gave a great ragged sigh, opened her eyes, and found herself centimetres away from a mangled shoulder.

"Lily." James whispered, hoarsely, wincing in pain as he reached his right arm out to her. Lily staggered backwards, hurriedly, and tripped over the rug. James grabbed her hand in time before she crashed onto the coffee table. She yanked her arm out of his grip. "Wha...the wolf...stag...you..." was all she managed.

"Lily you mustn't tell anyone what you saw tonight, ok?" James said, pleadingly. Lily looked at him, incredulously.

"Tha...That's all you can say?"

"That's all you can say?" James almost laughed. "Blimey Lily. Of all the people who-"

"Shut up!" Lily began to shake again. "And I told you to never call me that!"

"I'm sorry, I forgot." James said, quietly. "Come on, sit down." He held his hands out.

She sat, but declined his offered hand. James sat at the other end of the couch, careful not to sit too close.

There was a long silence, broken only by the occasional creak of a floorboard or rustle of robes. Lily clenched her hands in her lap, eyes closed. James looked worriedly between her and the forever-roaring fire. The moon sank ever so slightly lower in the sky.

"Tell me." Lily whispered after an age. "Tell me everything."

James looked at her. The colour was returning to her cheeks and she had a curious glint in her eyes. James blew out a breath through his mouth.

"Well, I suppose I should start with; Remus is a werewolf." he said.

"I know." Lily replied.

"You do?"

"Se-I mean I guessed there was a werewolf around." Lily squirmed, thinking of Snape and when they were friends.

James looked at her in a mixture of surprise and awe. He gave a cough and continued his tale. He told Lily all about how Remus was bitten and how nobody knew except Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall, Madam Pomfrey and the Marauders. He told her about the passageway to the Shrieking Shack and that the Whomping Willow stood over it so nobody would dare go too close. Lily listened intently but she was also thinking rapidly.

"You still haven't explained what you were doing there." Lily crossed her arms and raised and eyebrow, her mind whirring. James shifted in his seat and didn't quite meet her eyes. He took a deep breath.

"I was there because we help Remus during his transformation." He fiddled with a ripped piece of his robes. "I'm an-"

"Animagus" Lily breathed, looking at him.

"Yeah." James returned her gaze, amazed at how quickly she worked things out.

"And Sirius and Peter too?"

"Yeah. But nobody knows, not even Dumbledore."

Lily furrowed her brow. "So you're a stag...Prongs!" she suddenly realised. She was astonished how relaxed she felt. James laughed.

"You're annoyingly quick at this!" he said. Lily shrugged.

James stopped laughing as he winced in pain. Lily looked at him in concern.

"Here let me look at that," James looked at her doubtfully, but moved into a position so she could see his shoulder. Blood was still spurting out and running down his arm. "We need to get you to Madam Pomfrey."

"No!" James said, hurriedly. "We can't. Nobody knows we run round with Remus every month, we're illegal Animagi." James looked nervously at his hands. "My shoulder can't have happened in any ordinary accident. You know Madam Pomfrey, she'll only ask questions."

Lily looked at him. This is James Potter, she had to keep reminding herself. It was so unlike him. He hadn't made a cocky remark for the half an hour they had been sitting there and he hadn't run a hand through his hair once. it had to be a new record. Realising she had been staring, Lily blushed.

"We have to clean it." she said "It's going to hurt" She waved her wand. James tensed up in pain. "So you're Prongs, a stag." Lily continued, her voice wavering as she began to process everything properly. "Remus is Moony, obviously."

"Sirius?" James asked, looking at her face, scrunched in concentration as she cleaned his wound.

"Padfoot...Padfoot.." Lily cast her mind back. What else had she seen? "Pad...foot...the dog!"

James chuckled quietly at her triumphant expression. Her emerald eyes were alight with curiousity.

"So that leaves-" he smiled. He was glad she was taking it so well. It seemed to have distracted her from her anger towards him. James shifted anxiously in his seat. How long would it last?

"Wormtail" Lily grinned. "That's easy, there was a rat or something, wasn't there?"

"Well done!" James laughed "That was quick."

"Well.." Lily replied, shyly, conjuring a bandage and securely wrapped it around his shoulder. "There" she said. "Sorry it's the best I could do." She realised he was looking at her, a softened expression on his face. Up this close, Lily could see every scratch he had received on his face and her own eyes reflected in his glasses. His deep, brown eyes bore into her own. She found herself studying them, noticing the little golden flecks and the long eyelashes that were usually obscured by his glasses.

"Lily, I-"

Lily's breath hitched and she stood up, stumbling and wincing in pain at her own leg.

"Will..will you tell the o-others that I know?" she asked, twisting her hands like she always did when she was nervous and looked at the floor, the table, anywhere but James' eyes.

"Yeah" James scratched the back of his head. "yeah, I will. They'll be okay with it. They...they trust you."

"Okay. I-I'll see you tomorrow, James" and with that she exited through the portrait hole leaving James' name ringing in his ears.

Sorry it took so long to update! We've been busy with school and all but we'll hopefully be updating more regularly! Please review, it's fantastic to hear feedback! :)