Rating:
PG
House:
Schnoogle
Characters:
James Potter Lily Evans
Genres:
Action Romance
Era:
Multiple Eras
Stats:
Published: 06/07/2003
Updated: 01/08/2013
Words: 389,988
Chapters: 59
Hits: 80,010

Lily Evans: A History

Bethany

Story Summary:
A story of Lily's life from pre-Hogwarts to marrying James Potter. How she coped with growing up with Petunia to her friendship with the four boys that would change her life - and eventually the course of history - forever.

Chapter 38

Chapter Summary:
Sirius makes a declaration that sends Kassie around in circles and sends the rest of the fifth years running. James figures out how to change into his animagus form and he and Sirius spend their first full moon with Remus. And Remus has a secret of his own.
Posted:
08/06/2004
Hits:
1,193
Author's Note:
There are important author's notes at the bottom, so please be sure to read them. Otherwise; on with this udpates quotes:

Chapter 38 - The First Full Moon
-----------@
~*~*~*~*~

Sirius gently rubbed his fingers into Kassie's shoulders. She sighed, closed her eyes and tried to relax. Lily was sitting across from her, legs curled up in her chair and staring at the flames in the fireplace. Suddenly the redhead turned to Kassie. "I'm really sorry about that."

"It's all right, I'll get you back," Kassie replied, not opening her eyes but grinning. "I'm ok, Sirius, you don't have to do that. Even though you are being an angel."

"I have to take care of you," Sirius replied, dropping his hands and hugging her around the middle. "Especially when Lily decides to curse you."

"I said I was sorry," Lily replied in a small voice. Kassie slapped Sirius on the arm and gave him a reproachful look. Lily went back to staring into the fireplace. "How was I to know that spell would do that? Professor Kittle sure didn't say so."

"Professor Kittle was shocked speechless by that amount of power," Remus said pointedly, coming around the sofa and sitting down. "You have to admit, for a spell that strong, and for your first time trying it, that was an amazing amount of power."

Lily said nothing, even though she could feel James' gaze on her. He was sitting on the floor, poking a salamander in the fireplace with a stick. Determinedly she stared into the flames. The fact was that it wasn't just that she had hit her best friend with such a strong stunning curse that she had knocked her very hard to the ground and out cold that was bothering Lily. Although that was enough right there. No, Lily found herself worrying about having that much power to begin with. Even though she knew she had some gifts, and even though she had discussed them briefly with both Dumbledore and James, to see it released that way had unnerved Lily.

What if that kind of power made her a target for Voldemort? What if, because of it, he came after her family in much the way he had those three families last night? Her parents weren't wizards, they were muggles, and had no way to defend themselves against the likes of Voldemort or his followers.

And even though Lily hated her visions with a passion; the lack of them was bothering her as well. She had received no warning of the attacks last night. And if she had stopped having visions and Voldemort attacked her family, she would have no way of knowing....

The portrait hole burst open, causing all of the fifth years to look up. Mundungus Fletcher came running in, scanned the common room and ran up to the fireplace. "Have any of you seen Brian?"

"No." Sirius replied. Everyone else shook their head. Mundungus exhaled deeply and ran his hands through his hair. "What's up?"

"McGonagall needs to see him. I was just talking with Dorcas Meadows..." Mundungus dropped his voice to keep a group of second years across the room from hearing, "...and she said his sister turned up missing last night. There was a Dark Mark over their home. They just now released the names."

Lily, Kassie and Madison all gasped. The boys were all sober faced now and James sat up from where he had been leaning against the table. "Who else got attacked last night? We read in the Prophet that it was three families in all."

Mundungus nodded. "Frank and Alice. But they're ok, I heard. Alice got cursed pretty badly, but she'll make it."

"Frank and Alice Longbottom?" Sirius asked, straightening up a bit.

Mundungus nodded gravely. "Look, I need to find Brian. If you see him, tell him McGonagall needs him."

As Mundungus left, Kassie sank back down into the seat and Lily went back to staring at the flames. Peter came down the stairs carrying a chess board and laid it out on the table. "Anyone up for a game?"

Everyone either shook their head no, or didn't answer. Remus stood up. "I'm going for a walk." Lily turned her head away from the flames and watched as Remus painfully made his way out of the portrait hole.

She waited until she heard the door shut behind him before speaking. "Shouldn't he be in the hospital wing?"

James snorted. "Try telling him that. We tried getting him to go last night, for all the good it's done."

Sirius watched the portrait hole that Remus had just left through, glanced at his watch, then back at the door. Suddenly he stood up. "I'm going to go see if I can talk him into it." he said. He and James shared a look that Lily didn't miss; though she didn't understand it, either. Sirius leaned down and kissed Kassie quickly on the lips. "Can I see you a minute?"

Confused, Kassie got up and followed Sirius to the portrait hole and out of it. It shut behind them and Sirius grabbed Kassie's hand and pulled her down a few steps so that they were out of view of the Fat Lady. "Sirius?" Kassie asked when they stopped.

Not replying, Sirius grabbed Kassie and kissed her very hard. When finally they broke apart, he leaned his forehead against hers. "Do you remember what I said that day at the lake?"

Kassie swallowed. She remembered all too well that day, though she had been afraid to ask about it, and sure it had been a slip of the tongue since Sirius hadn't brought it up either. Until now. Slowly the black haired witch nodded, holding her breath. Sirius fidgeted a bit and squeezed Kassie's hand. "I don't expect anything from you, Kassie, but...". He swallowed, his nervousness growing. "I meant it. I... I love you."

Kassie felt like she was back in the courtyard beside the school, being thrown back from Lily's stunning spell. Sirius stared at her, waiting, it seemed, for a reaction. Breaking through her shock, Kassie gripped Sirius' hand tightly and looked into his blue eyes and felt her heart seemingly stop. Sirius' gaze seem to wilt as the seconds ticked by and his girlfriend said nothing. He hadn't expected her to, honestly, but the silence still stung. Smiling grimly, he leaned forward and kissed her cheek. "I'm going after Remus. I'll see you tomorrow morning, ok?"

Kassie barely nodded and watched him take a step away; then another. Just as he turned, she found her voice. "Sirius!"

He stopped, looking over his shoulder. Kassie had a huge smile painted across her face. "I love you, too."

Sirius smiled widely and closed the distance between them again, taking Kassie's face in his hands and kissing her quickly. "I really have to go, or I'll never find him before moonrise."

Kassie nodded, let go of his hands, and watched him run down the steps at break neck speed. Humming to herself, she went back up the stairs to the Fat Lady. "Hornbeam." She climbed into the common room just as James was leaving it.

James stopped, tilting his head at Kassie questioningly. She spun around on the tip of her toes, grabbed James' arms to keep from falling and proclaimed; "He loves me!" in a squeaky voice before running off into the common room.

Lily gasped as Kassie fell backward over the sofa back, grinning like a mad woman. "Do I dare ask?" she muttered, stretching her legs out and then crossing them. Kassie grinned at her cheekily in response. "Well?" Lily asked when Kassie did nothing but continue to grin and hum a little.

Suddenly Kassie flipped over, kicking Peter in the head. "Oops!" she laughed, rubbing her hand over Peter's blond hair and hugging him a bit. "I'm sorry. But it's ok because SIRIUS LOVES ME!" The last part was screamed out that Lily was very sure that everyone in Gryffindor Tower, whether in the common room or not, heard her. Kassie laughed at the dumbfounded look on every student's face. "That's right!" she proclaimed, jumping up and twirling around on the spot. "Sirius said he loves me! And I love him! And we--"

"Merlin, don't say it..." Alexis begged, covering her ears.

"--are in love!" Kassie finished, then stuck her tongue out at Alexis.

Shaking his head, James turned his back on the explosively happy Kassie, climbed out of the portrait hole and ran down the steps looking for the object of Kassie's love. He found him a few minutes later outside the steps to the infirmary. Sirius spun around when he heard James' footsteps. "She's about to take him down, I think," Sirius said by way of a greeting, his face very serious as he studied the door. "I don't know how I'm going to manage to sneak in."

"Like this," James said, pulling his invisibility cloak out of his robes. "Come on, let's get downstairs before we're seen."

Sirius nodded and the two of them hurried down several sets of stairs and out a side door. The Whomping Willow stood majestically before them, waving its branches in the wind as they grew closer. Sirius stopped, staring at the tree and swallowing. "Well, here I go."

James watched the tree as well, then closed his eyes. Since Sirius had been dating Kassie, James had spent a lot of time alone, working on his animagus transformation. He hadn't even told Sirius yet; but he had managed it. It had been difficult to contain his glee, even though it had only been for two days. But he knew if Sirius found out then Remus would too, and the fact that two of them would be joining him on this full moon would make Remus go mad with worry. Silently James motioned for Sirius to follow him behind a clump of trees where they could see the willow and castle, but not been seen.

"Don't you think you should head back on up?" Sirius asked, changing his weight from foot to foot more often than was necessary. He looked up at the sky where the sun had just completely disappeared.

"Actually, I'm going with you," James replied, checking to make sure his wand was still in his belt and unfolding the invisibility cloak.

"WHAT?!" Sirius yelled. James hurried threw his hand over Sirius' mouth and looked towards the castle. Madam Pomfrey and Remus hadn't come out, yet, though. Sighing, he took his hand off Sirius' mouth. "Are you mad?!" Sirius demanded in a loud hiss. "Hello James! Werewolf? Human? Is it ringing a b---oh." Sirius found himself speechless in mid-rant. Because his best friend was no longer in front of him; instead there stood a very large, white and tan stag. The animal was easily ten feet tall from hoof to the top of the huge antlers. With a pop the stag disappeared and James was grinning at Sirius. "Bloody hell!" Sirius exclaimed.

"So do you still think it's a bad idea?"

"Why didn't you tell me?" Sirius asked, looking very impressed, though more than a bit hurt at the secrecy. "Who else knows?"

"No-one," James replied quickly. "Remember how Remus reacted to you going with him tonight? I didn't want him worrying about me, too. You know it can make his transformations worse. Besides, I only managed it for the first time on Saturday."

Sirius started to say something but instead he suddenly ducked down behind a row of bushes, then reached up and yanked on James' collar to bring him down with him. Hurrying across the lawn towards the Whomping Willow was Madam Pomfrey and Remus. This close to moon rise, Remus looked terrible. Much like he had the night they had all been at his house over the summer. James shivered in memory as he watched the matron prod the trunk of the tree with a long stick and then disappear with Remus.

Sirius sat back against the trunk of the tree, holding a branch down so he could see the willow. "Are you scared?" he asked without turning or looking at James.

"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous. You?"

"A little," Sirius replied.

The silence stretched for several long moments while the wind rustled the leaves on the trees around them, and grasshoppers chirped noisily. Suddenly the Whomping Willow's branches stopped moving and the matron came back out of the hidden entrance in the trunk. She hurried away from its reach, then watched as the branches started flailing around again. Satisfied that Remus was safe, or rather, that everyone else was safe from Remus, she headed back into the castle. Neither of the boys moved until the door had shut behind her. Sirius looked up at the sky. "Come on, we only have a few minutes."

As fast as they could run under the invisibility cloak, James and Sirius made their way to the tree. James picked up the stick and prodded the bottom of the trunk. The branches stopped and taking a deep breath, they went in.

Remus had only told them about the tunnel, so neither James nor Sirius knew what to expect. So it was with a huge surprise when suddenly Sirius let out a small grunt as he lost his footing and slid down a very dark murky incline and landed hard on a dirt and rock floor. James came sliding down after him, landing on Sirius’ back. "Ow," James muttered, rolling off of Sirius. "Lumos."

Sirius straightened up as best he could. The tunnel wasn't quite tall enough for someone of their height to walk through normally so they had to run at a crouch. Behind James, Sirius lit his wand and they took off as fast as they could.

The tunnel seemed to go on forever. Sirius wasn't sure he would ever be able to straighten back up when they got out. His back was protesting painfully. Then something occurred to him. "Oy!" Ahead of him James stopped and turned, but his wand light didn't land on Sirius. Instead it lit up a large black dog that fit in the tunnel perfectly.

James rolled his eyes. "Brilliant."

Sirius barked in reply, squeezed between James and the wall and took off at a run. James followed, grumbling and cursing under his breath about lousy friends.

By the time the tunnel straightened out and they could see a door, James was almost certain the moon was up. Cautiously they slipped in the door and James peeked out of a boarded up window. "Not yet. Hurry." Sirius turned back into his human form and the two of them ran up the stairs.

In a bedroom on the first floor they found Remus sitting on a large four poster bed, staring through a boarded window to the sky outside. He turned when they came in, but upon setting eyes on James, jumped up. "What are you doing here?!"

"It's ok," James said, waving his hands in a peace offering. He stowed his invisibility cloak in an old set of drawers. "I can change."

Remus looked at him sceptically. "Into what?"

"A huge stag," Sirius replied for him. "With a huge set of antle--wait!" Sirius spun around, grinning from ear to ear. "Prongs! Ha!"

James and Remus both turned to Sirius incredibly. "What?" James asked, clearly confused.

"You know how we call Remus “Moony”? Well, “Prongs” is what I'm calling you."

"Prongs?" James rolled the idea around in his mind for a second, thinking. Finally he grinned. "I can live with that. What about you?"

Sirius shrugged. "Dunno, but," he turned to Remus who had suddenly went very rigid, "I doubt we have time to talk about it right now."

Remus' eyes were no longer the soft hazel that usually laughed and joked with them. Instead they had turned a deep red, pain written all across his face. Not wanting a repeat experience like that over the summer, Sirius and James quickly turned to their respective animagi forms and through animal eyes watched in horror as their friend turned into a monster against his will.

-------------

"Good morning!"

Lily groaned and flipped over on to her back, glaring up at the person standing above her bed. Kassie grinned widely and yanked back the bed curtains. "Rise and shine, Lily!"

Lily glared. "Kassandra Leigh Phillips, do you have a death wish?"

"Not on this glorious day!" Kassie replied. She bounced over to Gabrielle's bed, yanked the curtains back and inflicted her cheerful mood on the brunette. "Up you get, Gabrielle!"

"Ugh..." came the muffled reply.

"Kathleen!"

"GO AWAY!"

"Madison!"

"Kassie! Stop!"

Lily lay on her back, listening as each girl in their year was subjected to what could only be fondly called 'Kassie-in-love'. After being dragged out by Sirius the previous night, Kassie had returned to the common room to let everyone under God's blue skies know that Sirius had said he loved her. And it had been sweet for the first fifteen minutes. It was old news by half an hour later. And by the next morning it was pure and utter torture. Lily would curse Kassie where she stood, but that would mean she would have exert the energy to roll out of the bed at the god-forsaken hour of six am. "Kassie, you do realise that we don't have to be in class for three hours?" Lily asked.

Kassie laughed and ripped the curtains back from Alexis' bed. But it was empty. The black haired girl stopped dead, confusion written all over her features. "Well, I suppose you aren't the only mad person in the room. I wonder where Lexie is?" Kathleen muttered, sitting up on her bed as if Alexis would suddenly jump out from under a bed or from behind a trunk.

Kassie shrugged and looked around. Every girl had lain back down in their beds; Gabrielle was even snoring softly. "You are no fun!" Kassie accused in such perfect imitation of Sirius that Lily groaned and buried her face in her pillows.

"Go wake up Sirius, or James, or Peter, or, hell, just anyone else!" Kathleen muttered and fell back down on her pillows.

"Good idea," Kassie replied and the next sound was that of the door shutting behind her.

"Oh God, what have we done?" Lily grumbled and tugged her curtains closed.

Elsewhere Kassie was doing just as Kathleen had suggested. Grinning to herself, she gently eased the door open to the room that housed the Gryffindor fifth year boys. As quietly as she could she tiptoed into the room and made her way over to what looked like Sirius' bed. Well; it obviously had to be. No one else was quite that messy. Kassie started to part the curtains when it occurred to her that she didn't know what Sirius slept in. Most guys she knew slept in pyjama pants or something similar; but her own father had slept in the nude and the last thing Kassie wanted was to pull the curtain open on that. "Sirius?" she whispered.

No reply. Kassie nudged the side of the bed. "Sirius?" she repeated, louder.

There was a groan in the bed across from Sirius' and a blonde head pushed its way through the curtains. Peter blinked groggily. "Kassie? Something wrong?"

"No," Kassie replied. "I was going to wake Sirius up."

"Oh, you'll have to be a bit louder. He sleeps like the dead," Peter replied and disappeared behind the curtains. He continued, a little louder; "You can open the curtains. It's fine."

Kassie ignored what he was implying, though she had been thinking it herself, and ripped the curtains back. But it was empty. Shocked, Kassie blinked and looked around the room. The bed was untouched, though it was hard to tell since it wasn't made. Kassie stepped back. "Peter?"

"Eh?" Peter muttered, his head falling out of the curtain again and green eyes squinting at Kassie. "What?"

"Sirius isn't here."

Peter blinked and shrugged. "Maybe he's in the loo. Check James' bed." And with that the blonde head disappeared for a second time.

Feeling slightly apprehensive now, Kassie walked over to the next bed and eased the curtains back. Empty. Her hand shook slightly. The last she had saw either of them; they were trying to find Remus... "Peter?" Kassie said, her voice sounded strangely thick.

This time Peter pulled the curtains back all the way and got out of the bed. "Not there?" he asked.

Kassie shook her head. "Doesn't look like he's been here, either," she added. "Where do you suppose..?"

Suddenly the blood drained from Peter's face, making his green eyes contrast harshly with his skin and hair. "The full moon," he muttered, more to himself than to Kassie. He ducked down in search of his shoes, pulled them on, grabbed a cloak and his wand. "C'mon."

-----------

Remus Lupin was fairly sure that he must have felt worse at some point in his life, but at that moment it was hard to tell. Mentally he could sense that there was no broken bones. That was always a good sign. Perhaps a sprained wrist, definitely some blood in his mouth - Merlin, let it be my own! - everywhere else on his body just seemed to ache. Groaning slightly, Remus turned over and blinked at the rays of the sun slowly coming up. "Damn," he muttered, his back screaming in protest.

"I've never heard you curse," a voice said thoughtfully. Remus spun around, despite the ache in his back, to gape at the person sitting in a chair opposite the bed. "First time for everything, I suppose."

"James?" Remus asked, blinking groggily. "Wha--oh. Never mind," Remus muttered, his memory coming back to him slowly. "Where is-"

His second question was cut off by a black furry head sticking up over the side of the bed and a wet tongue licking Remus all over the right side of his face. "Arg! Sirius!"

The dog barked irritably before turning into Sirius Black. "Moony, you are very grumpy this morning."

Remus smirked, reaching for his robes. "You would be too, if you felt the way I do." Ignoring the pain in his wrist he quietly got dressed. "You two should head off, Madam Pomfrey will be after me soon." The words had no more left his mouth when the sound of footsteps reached their ears. Remus opened his mouth to tell them to hide, but his friends didn't need prompting. Without so much as a sound, both Sirius and James disappeared. Remus took the few seconds until Madam Pomfrey reached him to analyze his hand.

Madam Pomfrey creaked the door open slowly and peeked inside. Remus gave her a weak smile. "Morning."

The matron let out an audible sigh. "Anything broken?"

"No," Remus replied, getting up. "Maybe a strain or two. Bruises, of course. Nothing serious."

"Come on then, you need to rest." Remus followed silently, glancing back in the room where he could see James and Sirius coming up from under the bed. Grinning a bit to himself, he followed Madam Pomfrey out of the house.

James stretched, yawning. "I need a shower and food." He pulled open the chest of drawers and removed his invisibility cloak.

Sirius looked at his watch as the two of them headed out of the Shrieking Shack. "I might have time for a shower before Kassie wakes up."

Remembering the night before, James punched Sirius in the arm. "Tied down to the ball and chain now, are we? She told the world what you said last night."

Sirius grinned, fighting a blush. "Really? I'll have to tease her mercilessly for that."

"Or snog her senseless." James muttered.

"That, too," Sirius added, turning back into a dog and taking off at a run down the tunnel back towards the school. Shaking his head, James followed. He would have to prod Sirius for information later. His best friend was the last person in Hogwarts he thought he'd ever see taking a relationship this seriously.

Sirius climbed out of the tunnel, pressed the knot to freeze the tree and waited impatiently for James to emerge. A few minutes later James appeared, rubbing his eyes and squinting at the sun light. "Did the full moon have to be on a Monday?"

Sirius didn't answer, only shrugged and silently the two friends headed into the castle and towards their common room. Trying to make as little noise as possible, they turned up the marble staircase onto the first floor and were promptly met by the last person they wanted to see outside of Professor McGonagall.

"What do we have here?" Severus Snape asked, pulling his wand and causing the other two boys to pull theirs, as well.

"A nosey little git, it would seem," Sirius replied, eyes narrowed. "Get out of the way, Snape, before I curse you just for ruining my morning with your presence."

"Now, now, Black. You are speaking to a Prefect. Perhaps I should make that five points for every word that leaves your mouth?"

James smirked. "Perhaps I should save you the trouble of talking at all?" He pointed his wand at Snape. "Let us be, Snivellus. I'm in no mood to exchange curses with you."

Sirius blanched slightly at the name, but managed not to laugh. Snape looked ready to explode. "Imped--"

"Expelliarmus!" James said, causing Snape's wand to fly from his hand. Sirius caught it, twirling it between his fingers. Snape opened his mouth, a string of threats and curses exiting.

"Silencio!" Sirius jabbed his wand towards Snape and suddenly, though Snape's mouth was still moving, no sound escaped.

"Now, let's get something straight, shall we?" James said, moving closer. Snape looked desperate to do something and looked as if he were going to advance on James, but the Sirius was still holding his wand. "Locomotor mortis!" Snape fell to the ground, unable to move. "Stay out of our way," James warned, his face so close to Snape's that he could feel the other’s breath. "Your prefect badge won't stop what I'll do to you."

"That goes for your friends, as well," Sirius added, throwing Snape's wand to the floor by his side. "If I hear of my darling cousin near Kassie, or any one else I care about again, she'll be sorry."

"Sirius!"

James and Sirius turned to find Kassie, quickly followed by Peter, coming down the stairs. When she reached the landing, Kassie spotted Snape and pulled her wand. "What's going on?"

"Nothing," James replied, finally taking his gaze from Snape and putting his wand away. "We just had a little run in with Snivellus here, but I think we may have it all cleared up now."

Kassie put her wand away as Sirius did the same. The sound of voices drifted to them and Peter's face took on a panicked look. "We'd better get going."

"Finite," James muttered over his shoulder as they turned the corner. He doubted Snape would follow. James could still feel his heart thumping madly beneath his breast from the conflict. So much so that he barely caught Kassie's question.

"What are you two doing up so early?"

Sirius didn't answer, apparently he was trying to do some very quick thinking. "Going to see Remus," James said suddenly, making Sirius turn to look at him.

Kassie considered this a minute, but any questions she might have had didn't get asked. Peter, looking very disgruntled, crossed his arms. "Thanks for waking me up," he muttered. "You two do this every month..." He stalked off ahead, and James, scratching his head, jogged to catch up with him.

Sirius looked at Kassie. "You want to go with us?"

"Sure," Kassie replied, allowing Sirius to take her hand as they headed down the corridor. Kassie had started to point out that Sirius had on the same clothes he had the day before; but decided that she really didn't want to know. Besides; he probably just slept in them. They did look terribly messed up. Casting her thoughts from that, she snickered. "Snivellus?"

Sirius grinned. "James came up with that one. I'm fond of it."

Kassie rolled her eyes, smiling to herself. They entered the infirmary a few minutes later and quickly spotted Remus' bed at the left far side of the room, curtains drawn up around it. Madam Pomfrey gave them warning looks as they passed, but each of them ignored her. James stopped in front of them, tilting his head. "There's someone with him," he whispered.

Sirius, never known for side stepping the most obvious approach, let go of Kassie's hand and went around the curtain. For a moment he was very confused at what he was looking at. If his eyes weren't playing tricks on him, Alexis Wells was sitting next to Remus' bed. She jumped slightly when she noticed Sirius, her face turning several shades of red.

"Good morning," Sirius said as way of greeting, sticking his hands in his pockets and trying his best to act normally. "Fancy seeing you here."

"Alexis?" Kassie asked, coming around the corner and gaining a confused expression much like her boyfriend's. "What are you doing here?"

"Blunt, aren't you?" James muttered. Kassie kicked at him in response.

Alexis ran the palms of her hands over her robes whether in an attempt to dry them, or to straighten her robes, it was hard to tell. Nervously she pushed a strand of brown hair behind her ear. "I, eh, was just visiting Remus."

"Really? Now I would have never known had you not said so," James replied. Remus glared at him and Kassie rolled her eyes.

Alexis' face turned redder, if possible, and she pushed her hair behind her ear a second time. "I'll just go, shall I?" Alexis muttered to Remus. "I'll bring your work up later." Without looking at Sirius, James, Kassie or Peter, Alexis hurried out of the room.

No one spoke until the door to the infirmary had shut, then four sets of eyes that had watched Alexis leave turned in unison to Remus. "Well," Peter said, breaking the silence.

Sirius suddenly left Kassie's side, reached down and clapped Remus on the shoulder. "Something you care to share with us Moony?"

Remus raised an eyebrow, trying his best to keep control over the situation. He was losing it fast. He looked around at them all, then sighed resignedly. "It appears Alexis knows about me."

"How?" James demanded at once. "Who could h--"

"She says she figured it out," Remus interrupted, holding his hands up. "It's not too hard. You three figured it out. The point is, she knows and so she has been coming to see me the morning after."

"Has been? As in, more than once?" Kassie asked, narrowing her eyes in interest. "When did she find out?"

Remus swallowed. So far he hadn't told a soul about Alexis coming to see him; he certainly hadn't wanted to start now. And with good reason. He could see it shining in Sirius' eyes; the Marauders would never let him live this down. "Oh, about three months before the end of last term."

"That long? And you never told us?" Sirius demanded.

"It wasn't something that came up often," Remus snapped back, clearly on the defensive.

Kassie took the seat Alexis had recently vacated and crossed her legs. "Do you like her?"

Remus lifted his head off his pillow and gave Kassie a look that might have killed. Sirius grinned and winked at her as James bounded forward. "Does she like you because of you, or because it would be exciting to date a werewolf?"

"Alexis isn't like that James," Kassie threw in before Remus could. "She's a very nice witch." Remus looked like had he had the energy, he would have punched James for that.

James shrugged off Kassie's attack and plopped down in a chair on the other side of the bed. "You never know. If she hurts him...." his voice trailed off, leaving the rest of them to speculate on what he might have said.

Remus relaxed some, but still stared at James like he had just grown a second head. "She's just a friend. Nothing more," he said finally, laying his head back against the pillows once more.

"I--"

"Ok boys, time to go. Get out, all of you," Madam Pomfrey suddenly said, coming around the curtain with her arms crossed. "Remus needs to rest and you four need to be getting to your first classes. Go on with you."

Sirius, James and Peter whined and groaned, dragging their feet like five year olds all the way out of the room. Kassie shook her head. "Stop bellyaching," she told Sirius. "We have to get ready anyway." Sirius and James groaned louder at this. At this rate it was bound to be a very long day for everyone; full moon adventures or not.

--End Chapter 38.

Author notes: I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I won't know unless you tell me, so make sure to review or email(*hint*)

Speaking of reviews, I would like to say something and I'm going to sound very mean saying it. But if you would place yourself in my shoes for just a moment, this hopefully won't make too many people mad.

I am 24 years old. I have a full time job, a part time job, two dogs, a grandmother that I live with that is constantly nagging me to do this and that, a semi-social life and I write this story regliously. I'm sorry that I don't update every other day. I would love to. I push myself to get chapters finished and updated every other week. And sometimes things happen beyond my control that prevent this from happening. That doesn't mean I need ten or twenty people constantly harrassing me about the fact that I didn't update the second I said I was going to try to. Believe me, I know the second this story is posted on both fanfiction.net and schnoogle. I want to get my chapters out in a timely order so that I keep my readers. I know what it's like to wait and wait on an update. But if things happen that I can't help, getting hate mail and bad reviews doesn't help at all. In fact, it has gotten so bad that I nearly stopped writing all together.

The next subject of interest: I know that James and Lily hated each other in the cannon. I have said it and said it: This story is PRE-Order of the Pheonix. Which means that I started writing it nearly a year before that book came out and I had no idea that they hated each other because I can't read JK Rowling's mind. Please stop nagging me about this. I'm well aware of the cannon. And this is a fanfiction. Which pretty much means that if I want to kill off the lot of them and have Harry drop a house out of the sky onto Voldemort, killing him, I can do it because I'm the author.

That said; Yes, Sirius' eyes are gray. Amazingly enough JK Rowling said this only a few months back, and I think I may have started this story nearly two years ago.

*Whew* Now, those of you who aren't calling me every name in the book I hope you understand where I'm coming from. There are details in this story that I'm sure 99.9% of you aren't even aware of, so a little thing like Sirius' eye color, etc. is a very small thing on my list considering I had no idea what color his eyes was when I started the story and the effort I put into trivial things like the exact date of the full moon in 1975.

If you are still here and not mad, thank you. If you are still here and mad, sorry. But I have to get this off my chest before I explode (literally). If you have reviewed and not nagged me about any of these things, thank you so much. If you have reviewed and nagged me about any of this, I'm not looking for apologies, etc. I'm just looking for you to cut me some slack. My life is hectic enough as is.

Instead of boring you with more talk of reviews, etc. I'm very proud to announce that the LilyUpdate group (to join send an email to [email protected]) has morphed, so to speak, into a Message Forum, as well. If you are interested in joining and talking with us about anything and everything HP and not HP, LE;AH and not, you can visit us at [url}http://bethany212.proboards33.com[/url]

Hope to see you there!

Bethany
08.04.04