Chapter 7: The Moon Rises
It was cold and still dark when Lily awoke. Someone had left the window open. She shivered and rose to close it. Looking out over the Hogwarts grounds, the night was calm and the moon was dazzlingly bright. It was full.
Someone started snoring in her sleep behind Lily. Probably Yves, she thought. She looked back at the night, so inviting, so still, and went to climb up on the windowsill. Her foot landed painfully on some sharp object on the floor.
“Ouch!” she whispered, rubbing the painful spot. She stooped to pick up what she had stepped on, and found it was the locket James had given her yesterday for her birthday. She had discarded it without a thought with the excitement of Yves’s gift. Lily looked closer and found it had a catch on one side, and as Yves had suggested, it opened. What she found inside made her gasp. It was a photo of her sister Rose, smiling back at her.
“How did he…?” she wondered.
Yves snored louder. Lily decided to take a walk. She was beyond sleep right now. She grabbed her cloak and snuck down to the Common Room and out the door. The Fat Lady gave an annoyed grunt in her sleep, but Lily shut the portrait door shut quietly and made her way down the many flights of stairs to the big oak front doors without any disruption. It was beyond duty time for the prefects, there was no one about. Not even Bella. Leaving the comfort of the castle, Lily ventured outside into the cold night. She wrapped her cloak tighter around her shoulders and walked towards the lake, thinking all the time about that blasted James Potter. Why was it that he was so irritatingly irresistible? Everyone seemed to think she hated him, and sure, he was a prat most of the time in front of her and came up with ever annoying ways to ask her out, but really, deep down, he had good intentions, as he showed in the locket. That, more than anything else, had touched her. Her sister was becoming a distant memory, but this photo, of her smiling blue eyes and her short, funky auburn hair brought back all Lily remembered of Rose. And James had done this for her.
She reached the lake, and began to walk around its edge, picking up stones and skimming them along the water. Occasionally some water creature would break the surface briefly before sinking back into its gloomy depths. And all the time, Lily thought of James.
By the time Lily had reached the Forbidden Forest, she was shivering with the cold. Perhaps it would be warmer in the shade of the trees, she thought. Or back in her bed…
At that instant, something hurtled into her, knocking her sideways onto the hard ground. The wind was knocked out of her, but she managed to catch a glimpse of a huge, white beast standing over her, before it grabbed her by the arm and dragged her into the forest. Somewhere nearby, something howled, and she heard menacing growling. But the beast was dragging her ever deeper into the forest, and all she could think of was the searing pain in her right arm.
Eventually, the creature stopped and let go of her arm, breathing heavily. Lily pulled herself up to stand, and backed away from what she realised was a massive stag.
She opened her mouth to scream but was silenced by what she saw next. The stag was becoming disfigured, its antlers shrank, and as it reared up on its hind legs, the front hooves became human hands and the legs shortened and thickened into arms. Standing in front of Lily was no longer a stag; it was-
“James?” she whispered, her breathing heavy and shallow. He smiled, but did not speak.
Lily reached forward the hand of her uninjured arm and gently touched the boy’s cheek.
“You’re real,” she said. “What-?”
He shook his head. “Sorry I never told you before…”
“Told me? What the hell was that? Some weird creature nearly tears my arm off whilst pulling me deep into the Forbidden Forest, and then you appear out of nowhere!”
“Lily, I’m the creature. It’s me, I’m a stag.”
Lily looked confused. “No, James, you’re a boy. Are you telling me you know advanced magic? You’ve learnt a spell that changes you into an animal?”
“Its not that simple, Lily, I’m an unregistered Animagus.” He paused for effect. Lily just looked shocked. He decided to fill the blanks.
“We managed it in our Fifth Year. It took such a long-“
“We?” Lily asked.
“Oh, I guess there’s a lot you don’t know.” He looked up to the small section of sky that was still visible through the trees. “The moon’s bright tonight.”
Lily looked puzzled. “Well yeah, it’s the full moon. Don’t change the subject, James!” She groped around in the semi-darkness and found a stump to sit on. James joined her.
“Well ok,” he began. “But first you have to absolutely swear that you won’t tell anyone, not even Dumbledore, without my, or especially Remus’s, say so.”
“Remus?” Lily asked. “What’s Remus got to do wi-?”
“Swear, Lily, or I can’t tell you.”
“Ok, ok, you have my word,” she said.
“The thing is, it has everything to do with Remus.” He took a deep breath. “We, that is, Sirius, Peter and I, found out in First Year that Remus is a werewolf.”
Lily stared. “A…a werewolf?” Whatever strange events she had experienced from the Marauders recently, she had not been expecting anything on that level.
“Well, yeah,” said James. “Look, its not really my place to tell you any more than that on the issue. We’ve never told anybody else, and while I know Remus would be cool with you knowing, if he wants to tell you anymore about it then I’ll leave it to him.”
“Sure,” Lily said, her eyes still wide with shock.
“Anyway, when we found out, the three of us decided to learn how to become Animagi, to, you know, keep him company at the full moon. He’s really dangerous as a werewolf, and, for obvious reasons, we couldn’t very well keep him company as human boys. We did it illegally. There are all kinds of restrictions. As you know from Transfiguration, not just anybody can do it. It’s all monitored by the Ministry.
“It took years but we finally managed it. Sirius and I became large animals, so we could keep Remus in check, and Peter, being the scrawny, twitchy one, is a mouse: That’s why he was able to get into the Whomping Willow without you seeing him yesterday. He freezes the branches by pressing a knot at the bottom of the tree.”
“So... so that’s why you were out tonight? Because it’s the full moon, right?” Lily asked.
“Yeah, Remus is supposed to be locked up all night in the house at the end of the tunnel. But when he transforms we let him out and run around the grounds with him, keeping him away from danger and humans. Like you. That’s why I had to drag you into the forest. I hope I didn’t hurt you.”
“No, I don’t think so… just a scratch on my arm.” She had completely forgotten about it, but suddenly a dull, aching pain spread through her arm as it was brought to the forefront of her mind. She rolled up her sleeve and held her arm out into the moonlight.
“Oh my God! Lily, you’re bleeding! It’s really deep; I didn’t mean to hurt you. We’d better get you to the Hospital Wing.”
“No, its not that bad, James.”
“Yes, look! That gash is over an inch deep. I have very sharp teeth, you know. I’m taking you to Madame Pomphrey. No arguments.”
“I guess,” Lily said. “Besides, I should probably get back to bed soon, I need time to digest all this.”
James stood and helped Lily up. They made their way back through the trees, which slowly began to thin out as they reached the Hogwarts grounds. In the distance, somewhere just beyond the Quidditch pitch, the pair could see the silhouettes of two large animals racing along in the night.
“Is that…?” Lily asked.
“Yeah, Sirius is a massive dog.”
“Padfoot!” Lily said, the pieces fitting together. “I get it: Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs. Inventive. I always wondered where those bizarre names came from.”
Once they reached the Hospital Wing, James went to wake Madame Pomphrey while Lily sat down on a spare bed.
“Bitten by a stag you say?” Madame Pomphrey said as she followed James out of the chamber at the far end of the Hospital Wing. “Well I won’t ask why you two were out at this time of night, I’ve had more business from you and your little friends than anyone else in all my time here, Mr. Potter, but a stag bite can be very nasty. They have extremely sharp teeth, you know.” James nodded knowingly, and then quickly changed his expression to one of concern.
They reached Lily, who extended her right arm for inspection. Madame Pomphrey took her arm. “This is fairly deep, but its nothing I can’t clean up in a flash. The paste I will give you causes drowsiness so take some pyjamas and get changed; you’ll have to stay the night. I won’t have Mr. Potter carrying you up to Gryffindor Common Room asleep!”
She bustled away, while Lily fetched some pyjamas from the clothes cupboard. James put up a screen around her bed so she could get changed. By the time she was settled, Madame Pomphrey was back with a large pot of purple paste, which she began to dab onto Lily’s injury.
“Potter, pass me that bandage,” she said, and then proceeded to gently wrap it around Lily’s arm.
“It’ll take a few minutes for the paste to enter your blood stream and cause the drowsiness,” Madame Pomphrey said, as she tidied up. “So say your goodnight, Potter, and then off to bed with you. She’ll be right as rain in the morning!” she added to looks of dejection from James.
James ruffled his hair, then put his hands in his pockets. “Well, night then," he said, “and sorry. Again. For all this.”
“Its my fault for wandering around outside in the middle of the night.”
“What were you-“ he began to ask, but Lily held up her hand.
“I’ll tell you another time, James, I’m sleepy.”
“Yeah, your eyelids are drooping, I’ll leave you to sleep now.”
He seemed to hesitate for a split second, then leaned in and swiftly kissed her on the cheek. As he left the Hospital Wing, Lily felt herself falling into a deep sleep, and the last thing she remembered was laying her finger on the place where James had kissed her.
“He’s not so bad,” she thought, as she drifted off to a deep sleep…
Love Conquers by dumbly_dorr
Chapter Notes: Lily takes a late night walk during the full moon. We all know what happens at this time, but does Lily? She's about to find out...