“SNAPE!”
James raced along the tunnel that led to the Shrieking Shack, hoping and praying that no harm would come of what Sirius had thought would be simple joke.
“DON’T GO ANY FURTHER!”
He held his wand over his head, but the beam of light it issued only carried on for ten feet in front of him as he sprinted as fast as he could. After what seemed like running for miles, he caught up with a skinny, pale boy with greasy black hair.
“Potter?” Snape attempted a sneer, but failed miserably. His look came off more as mingled confusion and loathing. “What do you think you’re”?”
“We need to get out of here,” James said, taking hold of Snape’s robes and attempting to drag him out of the tunnel. “If Remus comes out here””
“Get your hands off me,” Snape shoved James away from him and continued down the tunnel.
“Snape, don’t!”
Before the words were completely out of his mouth, a snarling was heard at the end of the tunnel that made both boys’ blood run cold.
“RUN!” James said to Snape as he kept his eyes on the wolfish form. “Just GO!”
Snape took off at a run down the tunnel, while James followed him up, wand at the ready in case they were attacked. The sprint back seemed even longer than the one to get inside. Finally, though, James and Snape made it back out on to Hogwarts grounds.
“Idiot!” James hissed as he caught his breath. “Can’t you just keep to yourself every now and again?!”
Snape shot a dirty look at James, whose gasps were heavily laced with swear words. “I’ll get you back for this, Potter… All of you…”
“Give it a rest, Snivellus,” said James, some of his usual haughtiness coming back. “Remus and I had nothing to do with this.”
Snape snorted in disgust. “Believe me, Potter, by tomorrow morning, everybody’s going to know about this. Dumbledore will get so many protesting letters he’ll have to expel Lupin.” He grinned morbidly.
“You wouldn’t,” James said, his eyes wide and vehement. “If you tell anybody I swear I’ll get you back even worse...”
Snape smirked at James. “You should’ve thought of that before you tricked me into going down there.”
“I DIDN’T HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH THAT!” James yelled. “How many times do I have to tell you before it gets through your greasy head?! I JUST SAVED YOUR LIFE!”
Snape retaliated with a clumsy fist to James’s shoulder. “If it wasn’t for you, my life wouldn’t have needed saving in the first place!”
James hit Snape squarely in the jaw, sending him sprawling and moaning across the lawn. “Learn to take a punch, Snivellus!” James walked back up to the castle, shaking his head. His steps lightened when he realized there were no footsteps behind him. The bloody idiot! What did he think he was doing…
Once inside, he quickened his pace to get to the Gryffindor common room. No doubt Sirius and Peter had watched the whole thing from the window. Sure enough, they were there to greet him when he nimbly stepped out of the portrait hole.
“Nice going, mate,” Sirius grinned. “Old Snivelly’s going to have that bruise for at least a week…”
“Maybe even a week and a half!” squeaked Peter, excitedly wringing his hands.
“Shut up. Both of you,” James said as he slumped into a squishy red armchair in front of a dying fire.
Sirius and Peter exchanged looks. “What’s up with you?”
James snickered. “What did you think would happen when Snape went through the passageway?”
“Oh, we didn’t think he’d really do it,” said Peter. “You know, now that he’s a prefect and all… We thought he’d want to follow the rules…”
“Well, you guessed wrong,” said James, “And now Snape knows Remus is a werewolf.”
Sirius turned chalk-white and Peter let out another squeak.
“He wouldn’t... I mean, he’s not going to tell, is he?”
“Of course he’s going to tell,” said James acidly. “There’s no way he won’t. It’ll be everywhere tomorrow morning, and Remus is going to kill us for having told. That is, if he gets to stay long enough to do more than pack his bags…”
Sirius swore softly and stood up. “The only one way to prevent Snape from telling is to go straight to Dumbledore… Unless we do it the easy way and just kill him straight awa””
“C’mon,” said James. “You’re right. We have to go get Dumbledore.”
Not bothering to grab James’s invisibility cloak, the three boys all scrambled out of the common room and set off for Dumbledore’s office.
* * *
“It was my fault,” Sirius explained. “Well, it was Peter’s idea, but””
“Was not!” squeaked Peter.
“Shut up, both of you!” said James. “If you’re going to gripe like that, let me explain…” Dumbledore waited patiently for the story, but with such an austere figure that all three boys were gravely worried for their own wellbeing.
“Sirius and Peter thought it would be funny to see…” James looked nervously around. “To see if Snape would follow Remus into the Shrieking Shack. And he did. But I got him out in time!” he added quickly. “But”not soon enough to stop him from”from seeing.”
“I think it unnecessary to tell you how incredibly stupid that was,” Dumbledore said after a long, awkward pause.
“But considering the circumstances, I think you will all agree that finding Severus is of the utmost importance right now.” The boys nodded obediently. “Your punishments will be taken care of later. For right now, you may return to your common room.”
Dumbledore quickly rose and left his office, leaving them alone and still worried about what punishments they would face.
“He won’t expel us, will””
“Shut up.” James stood up and was the first to leave, followed by Peter and then a very moody Sirius. “If he were going to expel us, he would’ve done it already. Lumos.” The small orb of light illuminated the dark hallway, reminding James of the tunnel. “If he’s going to expel anyone, he’s going to expel Remus.”
He shot Sirius a dirty look, which was shot right back at him. They walked the rest of the way in silence, all contemplating the fate of their friend.
When they got back to Gryffindor tower, not a word was said to one another as they walked single-file up the stairs to the boys’ dormitory.
If Snape told…all Sirius’s fault…the idiot… James thought as he undressed and got into bed. Won’t…get a wink…of sleep… Anxious as he was, James was worn out from Quidditch practice and all the studying he had been doing for OWL’s. No sooner had he shut his eyes than he soundly fell asleep.
* * *
“Moony? That you?” The early morning light had just begun to creep through the eastern window of the boys’ room, and someone was standing at the door. James rolled over and put his glasses on, trying to shake himself out of sleep and remember exactly what had happened the night before.
“Yeah,” Remus replied shakily. “What’s going on?” Though it was normal for his friends to be concerned about him, hardly ever did all three find it necessary to get out of bed at four in the morning to check his health.
“Dumbledore didn’t”I mean...” Sirius stuttered. “You don’t know?”
“Know what?” Remus asked curiously, sitting on his bed and yawning.
“Snape saw you,” James said, pulling his hands through his hair. “Because of those two geniuses over there.”
Sirius scowled and Peter looked extremely guilty. “It was only meant to be a joke Moony… honestly…”
But Remus had gone white. “He saw me? I could’ve killed him, don’t you know?!”
“We know!” Sirius yelled groggily. “So we’ve been told many times already. Look, we’re sorry, OK?”
Peter nodded. “You know Sirius wouldn’t do anything like that on purp””
“ME?!” Sirius jumped up. “You had just as much a part in it as I””
“STOP IT!” James shouted. “You’ll wake the entire school arguing like that!”
He looked at Remus, who was now sitting on the foot of his bed. “We went straight to Dumbledore, Snape couldn’t have gotten too far… Don’t worry Moony, things will turn out OK…” He glared again at Sirius, who was now looking quite drained.
“I can’t believe you would do that,” Remus said quietly. “You know what it means to me to be here? You know what would happen to Dumbledore if someone else found out what I am?” He put his head in his hands. “What I am…” he repeated woefully.
James found it hard not to exchange commiserating looks with Sirius. It wasn’t often that Remus let his situation get the better of him, but when he did it could go on for days.
“We’ll always be here f””
“How can you say that?” Remus interrupted quietly. “What if I get expelled? What if I end up killing someone? What then, James? What about all those nights I spend alone in the Shrieking Shack? Face it, James, there’s just no way.” He pulled the hangings shut on his bed, leaving the others more worried than before. What if Dumbledore didn’t get to Snape in time? What if half the school already knew?
* * *
“It’s all right,” Remus said the next morning as he returned from a small discussion with Dumbledore. “Dumbledore got to Snape before he told anyone.”
Sirius let out a deep breath. “So we’re not going to be””
“Oh, you’ll still be punished,” Remus said, sitting down. “James too. For fighting.”
“After I saved him?” James asked incredulously. “I swear, I’m going to””
“You’re going to do as you’re told,” said Lily Evans, taking the seat across from Sirius.
“You told her?” Sirius looked disapprovingly at James, who coughed and stopped running his hands through his hair.
“It wasn’t me!” he protested.
“I told her,” said Remus moodily. “I’ve got to have at least one friend in the world who won’t betray me on a whim…”
“Why does everyone keep forgetting me?” James lamented to nobody in particular. “I was the one who fixed everything!”
“Guilty by association,” Lily said frankly. “Everybody knows you four always do everything together.”
“I don’t see any chains!” James snapped. “I hope Snape’s getting punished too…”
Remus shook his head. “Twenty points from Slytherin, but no more. His only offense was being out-of-bounds after hours.”
“He hit me!” James said.
Sirius snickered. “Sure you want to be broadcasting that to the world, mate?”
“Well, not hard enough to leave a mark…” James added defensively.
“In any case, we’ve got Transfiguration next, and I have to go get my books,” said Remus. “I’ll see you guys there.”
He left, without taking a bite of food.
“I think I’ll get going too,” Lily said, standing up.
“Wait!” James said quickly, throwing down an unfinished piece of toast. Sirius snickered again. “I mean, I’ll come with you, if you don’t mind…”
Lily rolled her eyes and waited while James untangled himself from the bench.
“He’s really upset,” she said as they left the Great Hall.
“Yeah,” James said, putting his hands in his pockets. “Yeah, I know. But I just wanted to make sure you knew that it wasn’t my fault…”
“Of course it’s not your fault,” Lily said quietly. “It never is…”
“It isn’t, though!” said James. “Not this time, at least…”
She sighed. “That doesn’t matter to Remus. You don’t see that. He doesn’t care whose fault it was, he just thinks his friends care more about a good laugh than about him.”
“I do care, though!”
“No you don’t,” Lily said, shaking her head. “If you cared, you’d be with Remus right now and not here with me.”
“I…er…” James looked around, trying to figure out what she wanted him to say. “You’re right.”
Lily rolled her eyes again. “Then you don’t care about Remus after all.”
“Wait,” James winced. “I didn’t mean that!”
“Too late,” Lily said. They had reached the Transfiguration classroom. She continued in without him, and sat down next to Remus, who was still looking downcast.
James stood there for a moment, wondering if it would be a good idea to sit down behind Remus. He decided against it though, and sat a comfortable distance away, but unfortunately not close enough to hear what they were saying.
Well, I sure screwed up that one, he thought, wanting to bang his head against the wall. Echoes of what Remus had said the night before clouded his mind…
“We’ll always be here f””
“How can you say that? What if I get expelled? What if I end up killing someone? What then, James? What about all those nights I spend alone in the Shrieking Shack?…”
To while away the time until class started and give his brain a bit of a break, he opened his textbook to a random page and began reading.
Animagi (singular: animagus) are a special group of witches and wizards who can transform into animals at will. Animagi are supposed to be registered with the Ministry of Magic but there are unregistered ones around…
James sighed. The only difference between a werewolf and an Animagus was that a werewolf had no choice… That’s it! he thought suddenly. We have a choice...
“Remus! I’ve got an idea…”