After They Disgraced Themselves

"God! Did you have to do that to Flitwick's office? When McGonagall finds out, she is going to turn us into cockroaches and use us as demonstration material for the class!"

"She won't find out. I, uh, accidentally left a lock of greasy hair on the desk."

"You are evil, Sirius! Using Snape as a scapegoat... pure brilliance!"

"Genius, isn't it?"

"Let's celebrate to Padfoot's aptitude!"

"My what?"

Lily got fed up with all the talk about "pure brilliance" and the like so she stepped out into their view.

"Had a nice excursion, boys?"

She felt like laughing at the response to her presence. James gaped at her, Sirius turned a bright shade of cherry and Peter's face became sickly green. Remus however grinned.

"Well, hello Lily. How are you today?" he asked jovially, walked over to the gawking James, and clouted him hard on the head.

"OW!" cried James.

"It's your entire fault! You were the one who decided to leave your brains behind and forgot to get an excuse person!"

"Whoa, you mean other people know about this?" Lily interrupted, holding up the Marauder's Map. All four of them froze and looked at her.

"Where did you find that?" demanded Sirius.

"Glad you asked, Black, because it was on your bed," Lily answered curtly, enjoying being above the four boys in this situation. However...

"Are those my socks?" James queried, pointing at her hand. Lily blushed. "What are you doing with them? Why are you here for that matter?"

"For your information, Potter, my puerile peers back in the girls' dormitory goaded me into their contemptible "Truth or Dare" game and I was coerced to pilfer a pair of socks. I intended to dissent but they declined to listen to me unless I had purloined the socks, so I..."

"Okay, okay, Evans I get your gist. But remind me again why you're not in Ravenclaw."

"That would be because the Sorting Hat put me in here, Potter. Now, may I go?"

"Not so fast, Lily. Now you happen to know a valuable secret of ours, right?"

"What valuable secret?" asked Lily naively. "Oh, you mean the fact that you four go out every night and explore the castle and you even have an entire map created by yourselves to prove it? Is that the big, valuable secret? I had no idea..."

"Now listen, this is serious, Lily, we're not really just wandering the castle..."

"Oh, you mean there's more to the 'big, valuable secret' than that?"

"Do you want to know why we go out or not?" asked James impatiently.

"Well, now that you mention it, Potter, I must say I am interested..."

"Good. Now delete that sense of humor and listen to me because this is no joke. How much do you know about werewolves?"

Lily frowned at James as tried to remember the DADA lessons of third year.

"Well, off the top of my head I can say they're half human and half wolf, they transform during the full moon and are very dangerous to humans, children especially. Why are you asking me this?"

"Do you solemnly swear that you will not repeat whatever I tell you to any other soul?"

"Do I have to solemnly swear it or can I swear it while laughing?"

"Evans!" three voices cried out.

"Okay, okay, I swear!"

"The reason we go out is because Remus is a werewolf."

There was a moment of silence as Lily was allowed to digest this piece of information.

"Okay, so Remus is a werewolf. Why must this be so secret? I mean, he's perfectly normal unless there's a full moon and his lupine self is not affecting his mentality or his intelligence or anything. I mean, Remus is practically my best friend. He's so lovable! Why does it have to be a secret then?"

"You're a Muggle-born aren't you, Lily?" Sirius asked.

"Yeah... why?"

"No wonder you don't understand," James explained. "You see, most wizards are prejudiced against werewolves. They forget that werewolves are human too. I mean, for God's sake, werewolves are listed in Fantastic Beast and Where to Find Them. That shows you what they think of them."

"Well, I don't care if Remus becomes a deranged manticore when he drinks pumpkin juice, I will always stick by his side!" Lily shouted, giving a startled Remus a hug and proceeded to exit out the door when she turned out and said, "Oh yeah, Potter, I forgot to tell you. Those were some interesting boxers that you have!" She sped out the door after the remark. James, just noticing his *mysteriously* open trunk with his gold boxers laid out on top, ran out of the dorm only to find the stairs empty.

"I'll get you, Evans!" he shouted to thin air. "You just wait!"

James stomped back into his dorm. Sirius grinned at him.

"James, you know, there's this one rule that says 'Never go to bed mad. Stay up and fight'."

"What are you suggesting?"

"I suggest you break that rule."

Chapter 4

The next morning, Lily woke up to find that she still had James's socks with her. Not knowing how to approach him after the boxer remark, she decided to leave it in his dorm, when it was empty. Waiting until everyone in Gryffindor Tower (or so she thought) had gone down to have breakfast, she crept into the boy's dorm. As she opened James's trunk, a voice behind her spoke.

"Well, Evans, quite the innocent ones aren't we?"

Lily jumped in her shock. She turned around and found the dorm room still empty.

"You should talk...whoever you are."

"Well, I believe that's my trunk you're raiding...for the second time, might I add?"

"Well, Potter, I come in peace..."

"Oh really? I thought you would have come in a spaceship..."

"Oh, shut up and show yourself. I came here to return your filthy socks!"

James grinned, slipped off his Invisibility Cloak and accepted the socks.

"Actually, they were just washed yesterday so they would be 'filthy'..."

"I said shut up!" Lily shouted and stormed out the door.

"Wait!" James cried, hurrying down to the common room after her. "I forgot to tell you something!"

Lily, who was about to exit through the portrait hole, frowned.

"What?' She asked impatiently.

"Meet me at the library after the classes."