A/N: Thank you for the reviews! Here's the last chapter of first year, and it's dear to my heart, so I hope you enjoy! Please let me know what you think!

Chapter 10 - 1.10 or "To Be Friends Forever"

To Lily's utter surprise, the second half of her first year at Hogwarts was flying by so fast that she could barely even stop to consider it. Her days were full of lessons, homework, laughing with her friends, and trying to find small pockets of time to spend with Severus. Things had been so good between them until a conversation they had had in the library at the end of February, only a few weeks after the Gryffindor boys' infamous Howler prank.

She and Severus had been trying to figure out the best way to thicken a Pepperup Potion when Lily's book was snatched off of the table. She looked up to find Marshall Avery holding it above her head tauntingly. Wilkes and Mulciber, as always, lingered in the background.

"Looking for this, Mudblood?" Avery sneered.

Lily rolled her eyes at him. "Don't you think you could come up with a better insult, Avery?"

"Don't need one. There's nothing worse than being a Mudblood."

"Well I'd say that being an ugly, pig-headed dolt is much worse, but you know all about that, don't you?"

He seemed to have no response to this, as he just sneered at her and waved the book around above her head. Lily pointed her wand at him and he eyed it warily.

"Give me my book back now, or I'll hex you so hard you'll be crying to your mummy." She paused before adding, "Or should I say, your Valentine?"

Avery turned red, but Lily couldn't tell if it was out of embarrassment or anger. Behind him, Wilkes and Mulciber bristled. Slamming the Potions book down loudly on the table, Avery leaned his face uncomfortably close to Lily's.

"You tell Black and the rest of your little Gryffindor boyfriends that we'll get them back for their little game when they least expect it," he spat. "You can count on it."

Lily just grinned mockingly up at him.

"Thanks for the book," she said, before turning back to her studying. Avery let out a low growl before stalking away, his friends following closely behind.

"Sorry about that," she said to Severus once they were gone. "Pesky little buggers. Hard to get rid of."

Severus didn't answer her, though. When she looked up at him, he was staring at her with a strange look on his face.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"Did you think that was funny?" he said, and she was shocked to hear the anger in his voice.

"Did I think what was funny?"

"What Potter and Black and them did to us with the Howlers? On Valentine's Day? Did you find it amusing?"

There was an iciness in his voice that Lily had never heard before. She stared at him, her brain working slowly as it tried to keep up with his train of thought.

"Of course I didn't find it funny what they did to you," she said calmly.

"That's not what it seemed like, when you were throwing Avery's Valentine back in his face a minute ago."

Her mouth fell open. "I only said that to Avery to get him to leave me alone. If you didn't notice, Sev, he came over here and started insulting me for absolutely no reason."

But Severus did not look appeased. Instead, he slammed his books shut and threw his things into his bag before standing to leave. Lily stared at him, dumbstruck.

"Sev, what are you –"

"I have to go," he cut in. The anger was still in his voice. "And for the record, they shouldn't treat you like that. But what Potter and them did to us…"

"I'm sorry, Severus. Really. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. I was only…" She trailed off, still feeling as if she were two steps behind his thought process. "Please sit back down."

He seemed to relax a little, but he didn't sit back down.

"It's okay," he said quietly. "But I'm just going to finish this homework later. I'll see you in class tomorrow. Really, no big deal."

But apparently it was a big deal, because he had been acting coolly toward Lily ever since. She had hoped that they would have more time to spend together over the Easter holiday, since neither of them was going home, but the startling amount of homework that the teachers were piling on before exams kept her busy well into the evenings.

As spring grew into summer, a quiet hush seemed to envelop the castle. Everywhere she looked, Lily saw students studying diligently, poring over star charts and thick, dusty books, quizzing their friends in the corridors, and keeping their eyes glued to their notes until all hours of the night. She even spotted James and Sirius studying quietly once or twice in the common room, which was a rare sight indeed.

The days before exams were torture for Lily. Growing up, she had always been top of her class, had always found that succeeding in school came naturally to her; now, she was determined to prove that she could be just as good at Transfiguration, Herbology, and Astronomy as she was at science, literature, and maths. The Slytherins could tease her all they wanted for her Muggle blood, but she would leave them no room to claim that she was not as qualified as anyone to study magic. And yet, her anxiety was so bad that she barely slept for the nights leading up to the exams. The night before her Transfiguration final, she awoke in a panic, having had a nightmare where she had forgotten her wand and had tried to turn Professor McGonagall into a teacup with only her quill.

It was a relief, then, to say the least, when Professor Sprout announced that time was up during their Herbology exam. She had done it – had gotten through her first set of Hogwarts exams. She wouldn't have to study again for more than two months.

"Let's stay outside," she said cheerfully to Adin after they had turned in their papers to Sprout. "It's such a nice day and we have an hour or so until dinner. Let's go sit by the lake."

"All right," Adin said, but she was chewing on her bottom lip, clearly distracted. "I think I messed up that paper though. Were we supposed to be writing about a Devil's Snare or a Flitterbloom? Or was it a Flutterby bush?"

"Flitterbloom," Lily told her as they ambled down the sloping grass toward the lake. "Devil's Snare has vines and Flitterbloom doesn't."

Adin groaned. "My parents are going to kill me!"

"Don't worry about it. It was only one question, I'm sure you did fine on the rest," said Lily. She spotted Mary Macdonald and Gin Leigh already sprawled out in the grass. "Look, let's go sit with Gin and Mary!"

Adin seemed to cheer up considerably as the four girls sat in the grass, absorbing their newfound freedom and discussing their summer plans.

"I'm going to Spain with my family," Adin said. "For all of July, too! I wonder what the boys there are like?"

"I reckon they're Spanish," Lily quipped.

"I bet they're dark and dreamy," Adin sighed. "And romantic. I bet Spanish boys are romantic."

The others just laughed at Adin's starry-eyed expression.

"What about you, Gin?" Lily asked. "Do you usually go on holiday in the summer?"

Gin shook her head and picked at the blades of grass next to her. "No, not usually. I'll probably just stay at home and help my mum out. She owns a shop and always needs my help when I can."

"We're not going anywhere either," Lily said. "My parents have taken us to the coast a few times during the summers, but I don't think we're going this year."

"My mum said I can go and visit Raeanne," Mary chimed in. "Which'll be nice because then I can see Goomer too!"

"Where is Raeanne, by the way?" Adin asked, looking around as if she had just noticed that the fifth Gryffindor girl was missing.

"She and Goomer went back up to the castle. They were going on and on about a Gobstones match."

Adin didn't seem to be paying attention, though. She had apparently just spotted James, Sirius, and Peter, who were down the shoreline from the girls, lounging in the grass underneath a big beech tree.

"Did you all notice that Remus didn't sit the Herbology exam today?" Adin said suddenly. "I haven't seen him since the Charms exam yesterday."

"Yes," Lily said, also turning to look at the boys down the shoreline. "Apparently his mum isn't well and he had to go home to see her."

"Why couldn't he have waited until tonight to go home, once exams were over?" Adin asked.

"I don't know," Lily said. "I didn't want to pry. His mum has been sick for a long time, that's why he's always leaving and missing lessons."

"I hope she'll be all right," said Mary. "Remus is always so nice."

Down the shoreline a bit, James, Sirius, and Peter were having a similar conversation.

"I just think it's odd," said Sirius. "One night is all I'm saying. He could have waited one more night and left right now and he wouldn't have missed any exams. But he left yesterday. Now he has to come back to Hogwarts to sit his Herbology exam."

"He's been leaving every month," said James, breaking up a twig and tossing the pieces idly into the lake.

"Maybe his mum's about to snuff it," Peter said.

"Peter!"

"What? What else could possibly make Remus of all people miss an exam?"

"He's got a point."

"Well I sure hope he's wrong. That's…horrible…"

"Remus said he'd be back tonight, though," Sirius reminded them. "If his mum were about to croak, I think he'd stay home a bit longer."

"You would think."

"I still say there's something he's not telling us," said Sirius, brow furrowed.

"Well look who it is," said a rough voice from behind them. All three boys sprang to their feet and both Sirius and James drew their wands instinctively. Avery, Wilkes, Rosier, Mulciber, Snape, and four or five other Slytherin boys were moving to surround them against the lakeshore, wands pointed.

"Wow, Avery," Sirius said, voice mocking and fingers gripping the handle of his wand, "I didn't smell you coming."

"And that's saying something, considering you've got Snivellus right there with you," said James.

"Expelliarmus!"

James's wand flew out of his hand with Mulciber's spell. Peter squealed and jumped behind Sirius, who shot a hex at Mulciber. The jet of light hit the Slytherin in the stomach and Mulciber doubled over in pain. Unfortunately, Sirius's wand was no match for the eight others that were directed at him.

"Expelliarmus!" Rosier yelled, and Sirius's wand followed James's.

"Well, well, well," said Avery. He stepped out from the line the others had formed and paced obnoxiously in front of where the seething Gryffindors stood. "Three little Gryffindors, all unarmed. Well, Pettigrew still has his wand, but he hardly counts."

There were a few sycophantic chuckles from the Slytherins, but Avery was right. Peter was cowering behind them, and Sirius knew that he'd be no use in a fight.

"What do you want?" he spat at Avery, his eyes flickering toward the ground on the other side of Wilkes, where both his and James's wands lay uselessly in the grass.

"Revenge," said Avery, stopping his pacing directly in front of Sirius. "For the Valentines."

James let out a snort and Avery turned toward him, evidently annoyed that James would dare to laugh when he was being so very intimidating.

"Something funny, Potter?"

"A bit funny, Avery, yeah," said James, looking quite casual. "Valentine's was – what – four months ago? It took you that long to come up with your grand revenge of ambushing us ten against three?"

Avery flushed and, despite their precarious position, Sirius could not help join in on James's needling of him.

"Oh but James, that's the thing, isn't it?" Sirius said, allowing a chuckle to slip past his lips just to infuriate Avery even more. "It must have taken them the four solid months to learn that one, big, scary Expelliarmus spell."

"Shut up, Black," Avery spat, the tip of his wand now uncomfortably close to Sirius's forehead. "You and your mates think you're so clever, but you won't be thinking that for long."

"Well it's not hard to be cleverer than you, Avery," said Sirius.

"Yes," said James, "a tree stump has you beat there."

This was apparently one jibe too many for Avery's patience. He shot some sort of hex at James that made him fly through the air, landing about ten feet away with a thud. Sirius growled low in his throat and made toward the Slytherin – he didn't need a wand, he'd strangle him with his bare hands – but the next second, he was hit from behind with a Stinging Hex and collapsed to the ground. Someone was yelling something at James, but Sirius was blinded for a moment by the pain of the stings. When he was able to regain his senses, he looked up to find that James had also been on the receiving end of a Stinging Hex.

"I'll kill you, Avery," Sirius gritted through his teeth. "I'll rip your bloody head off."

Mulciber stepped up next to Avery and sneered down at Sirius with amused viciousness on his twisted face. "Like we're really scared of a blood-traitor Gryfffindor," he said. "You know, you being sorted into Gryffindor may have been the best thing to happen to Slytherin, Black. Slytherin doesn't want anything to do with pansies like you."

"Right, they only want slimy bastards like you," Sirius spat, still unable to stand up due to the stinging in his legs. A wobbly moan sounded from somewhere behind him, and he turned in time to see Peter also get hit with a Stinging Hex from a Slytherin outside his periphery.

"Leave him alone," Sirius snarled to no one in particular, but the laughter from the surrounding Slytherins drowned him out.

"Come on," said Rosier, stepping forward to nudge Avery in the shoulder. "Let's get out of here before the teachers come out."

"Just one more thing," said Avery. Sirius watched in horror as he and Mulciber both pointed their wands at Peter, who was still twitching from the Stinging Hex. "Wingardium Leviosa!"

The laughter hit a crescendo as Peter was levitated out over the lake. "Are you going to run after him like you did that Muggle bint in London, Black?" Mulciber's soft voice cut through the jeering and Sirius felt his insides turn cold. "I don't think there's any blood this time…what a pity…" And with a great splash, Peter was dropped into the middle of the water.

Sirius ignored the taunts about London and focused on struggling to stand, despite the pain that had by now migrated to the soles of his feet. He glanced over at James, who seemed to be struggling with the same pain, and knew that James was thinking the same thing – that Peter couldn't swim.

By the time the pair of them made it to the water, Peter's shouts had almost completely faded, though he could still be seen splashing and flailing. They did not have much time before he would go under. He and James didn't say anything, but immediately ran into the water and began swimming as fast as they could out toward the sound of the splashing.

Even in the warm June air, the water felt like ice against Sirius's skin. His robes and shoes were weighing him down, but he swam as hard as he had ever swam in his life, James by his side, propelling his arms forward and hoping that Peter could stay above water long enough for them to reach him. Peter was flailing and yelling, but Sirius knew that he wouldn't be doing that for long.

It felt like forever, but in reality it was only a minute or two before they reached Peter, who barely had his head above water and was choking and coughing. James grabbed one of his arms while Sirius took the other.

"Are you okay, Peter?" James asked through chattering teeth.

Peter just nodded and sputtered. Sirius looked back to the shore, where a small group of students had gathered, watching. He tried to ignore the cold that was piercing his skin like knives.

"Come on," he muttered to the other two.

Supporting Peter between them, it took James and Sirius three times as long to get back to the shore as it had to get to the middle of the lake in the first place. When they finally collapsed, sputtering and coughing, on the dirt next to the lapping water, the small group of spectators converged on them. Sirius was relieved to see Lily, Gin, Adin, and Mary. At least it wasn't more Slytherins.

"Are you okay?"

"We saw everything!"

"We'll go to McGonagall!"

"You're freezing!"

"You should go to the hospital wing!"

With some difficulty, Sirius pulled himself into a sitting position and looked over at James and Peter, who were both still panting in the dirt.

"A little different from our last swim in the lake, eh?" he said to James, who sat up as well and gave him a wry grin.

"Just a touch," he said. "You all right, Peter?"

Peter nodded, but did not seem to have regained his breath enough for speech.

"I think he should go to the hospital wing," said Lily, who looked pale. For a second, Sirius remembered that many of the same Slytherins who had just attacked them had also attacked her once in the corridors, many months ago.

"N-no, no…I'm fine," Peter wheezed. "Just…have to catch…my breath."

Gin handed James and Sirius's wands back to them.

"Thanks," Sirius said. "I'll need this now to go track down those bastards and hex them to next year."

"D-don't!" said Peter, eyes wide. "It'll only make them…angrier."

"Like I bloody care!" said Sirius. "They bloody well could have killed you, Peter!"

Lily extended a hand to help Sirius to his feet. "Come on," she said calmly. "I think you should get changed out of those wet robes before you do anything else."

Sirius obliged reluctantly and the group of Gryffindors trekked back up to Gryffindor Tower. The girls walked silently behind the boys, unsure of what to say. None of them had ever seen James and Sirius so angry before.

Remus had only just arrived back in the dormitory moments before James, Sirius, and Peter came storming in. He had spent the majority of the day hidden behind Madam Pomfrey's white curtains, recovering from the aftermath of the previous night's full moon. He was achy and weak, and he was sporting a rather nasty bruise that stretched from his hip all the way up his ribcage, but as much as he wanted to crawl into his bed at that moment, he knew he had to spend the evening studying for his Herbology exam, which he would be making up the next day. Despite having already prepared for it ahead of time, Remus had a few more notes to review on the properties of fluxweed. The wolf could cause him to postpone exams, but it would never – he stubbornly insisted to himself – never cause him to perform poorly on them. And so, exhausted though he was, he would study.

That was the plan, at least, until he saw the state of his friends.

"What in Merlin's name happened to you three?" he gasped, taking in the sight of their sopping, dirty robes and the fury on James and Sirius's faces.

"Remus!" Peter said. "You're back!"

"Oh…I just got back a minute ago," Remus said distractedly. "What happened to you?"

"Bloody Slytherins," Sirius growled, pulling his drenched robes over his head.

"Attacked us," said James. He removed one of his shoes and turned it upside-down so that a cupful of water streamed out of it and splashed onto the floor. "Levitated Peter into the lake."

"He could have drowned."

Remus stared at them as they finished stripping out of their sodden clothes, a merciless guilt creeping up into his stomach. Forget missing Herbology exams, his friends had been attacked and he hadn't been there to help. Peter could have drowned. He should have been there, not hiding uselessly behind white curtains in the hospital wing.

"Are you all right?" he asked Peter, who was pulling on a warm jumper.

"Yes," he said weakly. "Thanks to James and Sirius. They saved me."

Remus was silent as the others finished changing into warm, dry clothes. He felt horrible – his legs were trembling, his side aching, his head pounding, and the guilt on top of all the rest made him suddenly rather nauseated. He sunk down on his bed and tried to calm himself.

"How's your mum?" James said after several minutes of tense silence.

"She's, erm, she's okay."

"She must have been really sick to make you miss an exam," said Sirius, looking at Remus strangely. His voice was rough, and Remus didn't know if the anger was directed at him, or if it was simply a carryover from his rage at the Slytherin attack.

"Y-yes," Remus said, not meeting Sirius's eye. "They…they thought she might not make it through the night." How had it come to this? To him pretending that his mother was knocking on death's door? Were there any levels to which he would not stoop?

"But she did?" Sirius asked.

"Yes. They think she'll be all right for a little while, at least."

"Well that's good," Sirius said, but he didn't sound remotely sincere. "I'm going to dinner."

He pulled open the dormitory door to exit, James and Peter following closely behind him.

"I think I'm just going to stay here," Remus said, trying to sound calm as the bile rose quickly in his throat. "I'm not hungry."

Sirius shrugged and left the room. James, however, turned and looked at Remus.

"I'm glad your mum's okay," he said quietly, before turning and following Sirius, Peter close behind.

The door had barely snapped shut before Remus was on his knees in the lavatory.

The next twenty-four hours were horrible for Remus. He tried his best to put the attack and his friends' anger out of his mind while he attempted to study for his Herbology exam, but it was impossible to do. The guilt of lying to them, of pretending that his mother was dying, and of not being there when they needed him weighed on him heavily. The past year had been the best of his life, but he was beginning to dread the six he had left at Hogwarts. Six more years of lies. Six more years of deceit. Six more years of Sirius's suspicious questions. How could he possibly keep it up for six more years?

Sirius and James remained subdued throughout the next day, barely speaking to Remus and whispering furiously to each other at mealtimes. By the time he had finished his Herbology exam, Remus had convinced himself that they no longer wanted to be friends with him. They would be leaving Hogwarts the following day and Remus was certain that when they returned in September, his friends would have moved on from him. Perhaps, as his father would have said, it was for the best. It was easier to keep secrets when you had no friends to keep them from.

So why did it make him feel so gutted?

His fears vanished, however, that evening while he sat reading by the common room fire. James and Sirius bounded through the portrait hole and made straight for Remus, their spirits obviously much higher than they had been earlier that day, and their robes slightly singed.

"Where's Peter?" James asked him without preamble.

"I'm here!" said Peter, appearing seemingly out of thin air by James's side.

"Great, we're all here," Sirius said, throwing himself into the chair next to Remus. "James and I have had an idea. Tonight's the last night of term and we're going out."

"We're going exploring," said James.

Remus felt the knot in his stomach unclench faintly. They wanted him to come along! They didn't hate him after all! He grinned at them, relieved, and sat up a bit straighter.

"We're exploring the castle?" he asked.

"Wait a tick," said Peter, frowning at them. "What happened to your robes?"

The pair exchanged a glance but then shrugged as if the answer was of no consequence.

"Oh, we ran into Avery and Wilkes in the corridor…"

"Got into a bit of a duel…"

"Nothing major…"

"A few hexes, of course…"

"One curse from Avery, but that missed…"

"There may have been a bit of a fire…"

"But Pringle showed up to douse it and we scarpered before we could get a detention…"

"Because getting stuck in detention on the last night would ruin all of our plans."

"Right, because as we said before, we're going out tonight."

"Yes, exploring."

They both fell silent at this point, grinning gleefully and awaiting some sort of response from either of the other two boys, who were staring at them with raised eyebrows. Remus cleared his throat and shifted in his seat, doing his best to keep the smile on his face from becoming too crazed. The idea that he could have been all right the following year if James and Sirius were no longer his friends was suddenly absurd – pathetically hopeful. Now that he had tasted their friendship, being deprived of it would be nothing less than torture. How could he have ever imagined a life at Hogwarts without them?

At length, he repeated his original question. "So we're exploring the castle?"

"Nope," said James, as though he had been waiting for this reveal from the moment they had entered the common room. "The forest."

Peter let out a yelp. "The forest? There's supposed to be all sorts of horrible monsters in there!"

"Don't wet yourself, Peter, we'll be under the Invisibility Cloak."

This did not seem to convince Peter of anything. "B-but I heard there are giant spiders and trolls and werewolves in there!"

Remus about choked on his own tongue. They all looked at him.

"Sorry," he said quickly, the elation he had just reveled in now dissipating.

"I don't care if you're scared, Peter," Sirius said. "We all have to go. All four of us. That's the whole point."

"We're going to make a pact," James explained, lowering his voice to a whisper.

"A pact?"

"Yes, Sirius and I have it all figured out. Come on, let's go get the cloak on. We'll it explain it all once we get down there."

Remus understood Peter's hesitation at going into the forest, but he couldn't deny James and Sirius. His relief at having been included was so great that it trumped any lingering tiredness from the day before as well as any instinctive wariness about the task before them. They weren't asking him prodding questions about his sick mother, or about his whereabouts, or about why he had to miss an exam. They were treating him as they had always treated him – as Remus, normal Remus, their friend.

By the time the boys had assembled themselves under the cloak, sneaked out of the castle, across the grounds, and made it to the edge of the forest, darkness had fallen so deeply that they were continuously tripping over one another. They had decided to wait to light their wands until they were under tree cover, just in case any nosy students were looking out the castle windows at this time of night.

"I think we can take off the cloak now," James said once they were deep enough in the forest to be covered completely by the trees.

"I thought we were going to leave it on?" said Peter, his voice about an octave higher than usual.

Someone – in the darkness, Remus couldn't tell who – pulled the cloak from their heads.

"Lumos," he heard James whisper. The rest of them followed his lead and soon their faces were glowing in the light of their wands.

"Don't be stupid, Peter," Sirius said. "Anything that lives in here will smell us before it'll see us."

They started walking deeper into the forest. After a few minutes of winding their way through the dense trees and thick branches, Remus let the small bubble of fear that had pitted in his stomach reveal itself.

"Guys?" he said. "Er, maybe we shouldn't go in so deep. We might not be able to find our way out."

"We won't get lost," Sirius said, pointing upward. "The moon is practically full. You can see it through the trees there. We just have to follow it back out."

Remus gulped. In the distance, a twig snapping made all four of them jump. Remus saw James and Sirius look at each other and was relieved to see that they, too, seemed less confident. They began walking again, their progress slower as the path narrowed. Remus did not know where his friends were leading him, but he did not ask. He had already betrayed his fear with one question; it would not do to ask another.

And then, out of nowhere, James started singing.

"There was an old witch who swallowed a fly," he sang, his voice quiet and wobbly. "I don't know why she swallowed that fly. Perhaps she'll die!"

"What are you doing?" Sirius hissed, shining his light on James as they climbed over a thick fallen tree.

"Singing," said James easily. "My mum always says singing is the best way to distract from your own nervousness."

"You're nervous then?" Sirius prodded.

"No! I only…well, I figured one of you might be nervous and I could distract you."

"Right," said Sirius.

They were quiet for some time as they walked, their beams of wandlight casting eerie shadows against the trees, and Remus was starting to get the feeling that they were being watched by something or somethings. And then…

"There was an old witch who swallowed a billywig," sang Sirius this time, and Peter tittered. "It caused her to jig, that old billywig. She swallowed the billywig to catch the fly. I don't know why she swallowed that fly. Perhaps she'll die!"

James joined him on the next verse, their quiet lilts drifting together in the darkness.

"There was an old witch who swallowed a flobberworm. Boy, did she squirm when she swallowed that flobberworm. She swallowed the flobberworm to catch the billywig. She swallowed the billywig to catch the fly. I don't know why she swallowed that fly. Perhaps she'll die!"

It was ridiculous, but James's mother seemed to have been onto something, because by the time Remus and Peter joined in, Remus had all but forgotten his nervousness.

"There was an old witch who swallowed a horklump. It makes a great thump when you swallow a horklump! She swallowed the horklump to catch the flobberworm. She swallowed the flobberworm to catch the billywig. She swallowed the billywig to catch the fly. I don't know why she swallowed that fly. Perhaps she'll die!

"There was an old witch who swallowed a doxy…"

"Wait, no, it's a clabbert before the doxy!"

"Don't be daft, a doxy can't eat a clabbert…"

"Oh, it's daft to think a doxy can eat a clabbert but not that one witch can eat all of this rubbish?"

"She's a fat old witch! Isn't that the point?"

"SHH!"

Remus held up a hand to silence James and Sirius's bickering and they all froze, looking around. Another twig had snapped nearby. They stood, waiting for some terrible creature to spring out at them from the darkness, but nothing happened. After a few tense moments, they all relaxed.

"Maybe…maybe we should be getting back?" Peter suggested.

"What? No!" James said. "We have to find a spot to do the pact."

"Why are we doing a pact?"

"We decided that after what happened yesterday, with the Slytherins," James's voice lowered angrily when he said the word 'Slytherins,' "that we have to make a pact."

"In blood," said Sirius.

"In blood?" squeaked Peter.

"Yes. In blood."

"That we'll be friends forever."

"The four of us."

"And always protect each other."

"And make the Slytherins' lives hell."

"Especially Snivellus's."

"Yes, especially Snivellus's."

"And that we will always stand by each other."

"And never, ever lie to each other."

Remus didn't know what to say. James and Sirius wanted to be friends, with him, forever. He couldn't say no. The three of them were not only the best friends he had ever had, but the only friends he had ever had. But his elation at inclusion was tempered by the reality of his situation. He would be swearing to protect them; but in order to protect them, he had to lie to them. He had no choice about that. Dumbledore had sworn him to secrecy before he had even stepped foot in Hogwarts and before he even knew that James, Sirius and Peter existed. His father said that if anyone found out, he would be kicked out of Hogwarts. His secrets were just something he would have to live with.

"Okay," he said. "What do we do then?"

Sirius and James then turned to Peter, who looked very pale, but nodded his agreement.

"Brilliant," said James.

"We're looking for a good spot to do it," Sirius said. He had just raised his wand above his head, trying to see around them in the darkness, when there was another noise, not too far from them. All of them started.

"Or we could just do it here," said James quickly.

"Yeah, that works just as well."

Sirius took a small pocketknife from inside his robes. He looked at each of them once before slicing a small cut in the palm of his hand. Remus saw a bubble of blood emerge immediately. Sirius didn't even flinch, but passed the knife to James, who followed suit. When it was Remus's turn, he tried his best to look as unaffected as James and Sirius had, and bit his tongue to make sure he didn't make a noise as he slid the blade over his palm.

Peter wasn't quite as adept at hiding his pain as the other three. He was shaking so badly that the cut he made on his skin was rather ragged.

"Ouch!"

"Okay," said James. He held out his bleeding hand. "Now, everyone place their hand on top of mine, and repeat after me..."

They all piled their hands on top of James's and looked at him expectantly.

"I, James Potter..."

"I, Remus Lupin..."

"I, Peter Pettigrew..."

"I, James Potter..."

"Sirius, you prat, you're supposed to use your own name."

"Well, you said to repeat after you!"

James glared at him.

"Okay, okay. I, Sirius Black..."

"Hereby vow to always fight against smelly Slytherins..."

They all repeated his words.

"And to always protect my friends from harm. To never reveal our secrets to anyone. To never lie to one another. To be friends forever. And to never stop pulling pranks or exploring the castle, because that is what makes life fun. I swear this with my blood and if I ever break this promise, I acknowledge that I will be the subject of great torment and humiliation from the rest of us."

Remus, Sirius and Peter repeated the words, line by line, after James. When he was finished, they all just stood there looking at one another.

"Now what?" asked Sirius.

"My hand hurts."

"Oh stop whining, Peter, haven't you ever had a cut before?"

"Yes, but that doesn't make it hurt less!"

"Shh!" Remus said, his ears pricked. "I hear something!"

Indeed, there was a loud rustling nearby. It seemed to be getting closer. And then, quite clearly, they saw something large and black move between two trees.

"RUN!"

The boys took off, dodging between trees and sprinting as fast as their legs would carry them. Remus wasn't entirely sure they were going the right way, but he hoped they were at least moving in the general direction of the castle. Sirius was in front of him and Remus supposed he was going toward the moon. The thought made Remus shiver. He had no idea what that creature had been – it could have been an oversized rabbit passing by, for all he knew – but he really had no interest in finding out. The din the four of them were making as they ran made it impossible to hear whether or not they were being pursued.

Fortunately, they met no giant spiders, trolls, or other terrible inhabitant of the forest; after about five minutes, and just as Remus was worried that his achy legs would give out on him, they crashed their way out of the trees and onto the lawn, collapsing onto the grass in exhaustion. By the time they had covered themselves once more in the Invisibility Cloak and made their way back up into the castle, all of them were feeling elated at having successfully explored the Forbidden Forest and having lived to tell the tale.

She had been avoiding him, that much she could admit to herself. It wasn't difficult to do, what with exams being over and there being no lessons to prepare for. She supposed she could have sought him out after a mealtime on the last day of term, but she found herself inexplicably buoyed away by her other friends, and she didn't resist.

But the sight of him sitting alone in a compartment on the Hogwarts Express was too much for her unintended stubbornness. She paused on her way back from the lavatory, quickly debated her options, and then slid open the compartment door. He looked up from his book.

"Hi Sev," Lily said, not waiting for an invitation before slipping into the compartment and snapping the door closed behind her.

"Hi," said Severus. "I was wondering when you'd show up."

"Oh?"

"I thought we were going to sit together."

The train swayed around a curve and Lily almost lost her balance, so she instinctively took the seat across from Severus.

"I didn't know you were thinking that," she told him. "I thought you'd be sitting with your Slytherin friends."

Something in the tone of her voice must have alerted him to her anger, and understanding registered in his dark eyes.

"Lily, I…"

"You were with them," she hissed. "Avery and Mulciber and them when they almost killed Peter Pettigrew the other day. I saw the whole thing…I saw you."

"They didn't almost kill Pettigrew, Lily…"

"He can't swim! He could have drowned, Sev!"

"I didn't know they were going to do that. Honest! Avery started talking about revenge, and…"

"Revenge? Revenge for what, Severus?"

"For the Valentines, and the Halloween rubbish, and the bloody pink bubble, Lily, or have you forgotten?"

"I haven't forgotten, but I also don't think that any of those jokes warrants trying to murder someone."

Severus's lips drew into a straight line, echoed only by the straightness of his back. He looked stubbornly regretful, but about what, Lily could not tell.

"I didn't know," he said quietly. "I didn't know they were going to do that to Pettigrew. I thought it'd just be some jinxes…maybe send Potter and Black to the hospital wing for an hour or two…give them, I dunno, antennae or something…"

She sighed and turned her gaze toward the window. They were out of the mountains now, and bright fields flew past in blurred greens and browns. She was sad to be leaving Hogwarts, had been glum for the last day, and perhaps she was taking her sadness out on him. It was beautiful, the scenery, and Lily thought for the first time that she very much liked riding trains. She just wished that this particular train was headed in the opposite direction.

"Lily?" he said after a while, his voice tentative as though wondering whether she had gone into some sort of comatose state, watching the scenery fly by.

His voice snapped her out of her daze. She stood and gave him a small smile. "I'm going to sit with my other friends for the rest of the ride," she told him. He slumped a bit in his seat. "I won't see them for the rest of the summer…"

"All right," he muttered, turning back to his book. It was, she realized, the book she had given him for his birthday. He had scribbled here and there in the page margins.

"Tomorrow," she said as she slid open the compartment door again, "meet me at the swings? One o'clock?"

He did not take his eyes off of his book for a few seconds as he seemed to mull over her suggestion. Eventually, he looked up at her, and though she could tell he was trying to keep his expression impassive, there was a ghost of a smile on it anyway.

"All right," he said again.

Despite their glee at the thrilling excursion of the night before, all four of the boys were in slightly lower spirits the next day. James knew that they were all going to miss the castle, their adventures, and each other's company over the summer, but none of them more than Sirius. He was subdued for the entire train ride to King's Cross. James could tell he was dreading the next two months spent in his parents' house; he hadn't had to face them since the sorting, but there was clearly no way he could avoid them all summer.

So James spent a great deal of the train ride trying his best to cheer his friend up by recounting all of the brilliant jokes they had gotten away with that year, but Sirius remained sullen. As they were pulling into King's Cross, James voiced the best idea he'd had yet.

"You should all come to my house to visit this summer," he said. "It'd be great!"

"Really?" Peter said. "We can really come to your house?"

"Sure!" said James. "What else am I supposed to do all summer?"

"I'll try," Remus said sheepishly. He shifted in his seat. "I'm not sure if I'll be allowed."

"I'll get my mum to owl your mums making sure it's okay," said James. "What do you say, Sirius?"

Sirius just shrugged. "That'd be great. You know, if my parents don't lock me in the dungeon for two months straight."

James looked at Remus and Peter awkwardly, unsure as to whether Sirius was joking or not. When the train shivered to a halt, James said his goodbyes to Remus and Peter, and reiterated his promise to owl as they dragged their trunks onto the platform. He turned to Sirius, who was lagging behind in the compartment.

"Maybe it won't be as bad as you think."

"Maybe it'll be worse."

"I'll write you every week," James promised. "And I bet your mum will let you come. She let you come for Christmas."

"She didn't know I went to your house for Christmas."

"Oh yeah…"

Sirius stood up and grabbed the handle of his trunk. He looked as if he were steeling himself for battle. James supposed that was exactly what he was doing, in a way.

"Just think," James said as the two of them navigated their trunks – and in James's case, Ari's cage – through the narrow corridor toward the exit, "only two months and we'll be back at school. And we'll be second years! That means we'll have a whole new group of firsties to mess with!"

Sirius nodded and James thought he saw a flicker of a grin cross his face.

"Next year will be even better than this one, mate. I guarantee it."