Black Lily

"I heard that."

"I didn't say anything." Marlowe glared at her, then walked away, swirling his cloak in what he thought was a menacing but really just silly manner. Lily bit her lip hard, and as soon as he was out of sight, burst into laughter. The Gryffindor students around her shook their heads, the Slytherins looked only mildly irritated, but the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs looked at her as though she was a lunatic. Sev' rolled his eyes.

"Ok, nothing to see here, move along now people-" He stopped, looking over to one side.

"Lili, I'll see you in a while, I left a book in the library." He vanished. Lily stopped laughing.

"S... Sev'? Where are you?"

"He's gone." She sighed, and pushed her hair out of her eyes. The Ravenclaw boy swallowed a little nervously.

"May I make a suggestion?"

"Be my guest."

"Why don't you try tying your hair back?"

"You got a bobble or ribbon on you?" The boy grinned, and pulled a length of black ribbon out of his pocket. Lily laughed.

"I'm not going to ask why you have that, but may I borrow it?" he handed it over.

"Thank you... what's your name?"

"Falcon. Falcon Carlisle." She smiled, and pulled her hair into a pony tail at the nape of her neck, and tied it deftly with the ribbon. A few strands came loose, and hung over her face and curled on her neck.

"You know who I am, right?"

"Sure. You're the Head girl." Lily laughed with delight.

"That's a first! Mostly its cowering and mad stuttering about Morgan Le Fey, but with you it's 'Sure, you're the head girl.' I like you Falcon. But do you know my name?"

"Full name, abbreviation, or nickname?"

"Try all three.

"Lilith Morgan Le Fey Evans. Lily. Lili." She laughed again. Falcon smiled, and tossed a lock of chestnut coloured hair out of his eyes.

"Hey, why didn't you tie your hair back? You had a ribbon."

"Why else did you think I had it?"

"I see..." she raised an eyebrow. She pulled her robes about her a little more tightly as a blast of cold air rushed through the castle.

"So... Lunch at the Prefects table?" Lily grinned.

"I don't normally sit there. It's too... snobbish. But ok, just so I can eat with a friend." Falcon smiled. Lily looked around for Sev' once more, then slipped her arm through Falcons.

"To lunch?"

"To lunch."

~

"I don't believe this. First, it's a Slytherin. Now it's a Ravenclaw. Does she have some objection to Gryffindors?" Remus looked up from his meal, and looked over to the door. Lily had just walked in, smiling brilliantly, talking animatedly with a long haired Ravenclaw boy.

"James, enough of the jealousy, please. There is only so much a guy can take."

"Shut up Padfoot." James watched moodily as lily pulled a small, silver coloured badge out of her skirt pocket and pinned it to the front of her robes. Remus chuckled.

"Now there's something you don't see every day; Lily wearing her Head girl badge." Sirius nodded absent mindedly, and continued to turn his lasagne into mush before eating it. James shuddered slightly.

"Honestly Padfoot, can't you eat normally for once in your life?" His three friends looked a him, eyebrows raised. James waved a hand. "No, actually, don't bother answering. Ask a silly question..." he smiled and went back to his sausages. Peter looked at his now empty plate, then glanced sideways at the lasagne that Sirius hadn't mushed.

"What do we have next Moony?"

"Free session, luckily for you." Sirius's eyes glazed over, and he didn't notice when Peter stole the lasagne that didn't look like regurgitated sludge off his plate.

"Yeah... Who's up for testing what happens when you swallow a dung bomb on Twiddles?" Remus swallowed his mouthful of food.

"Actually, I meant lucky because you can now finish all the homework that you need to do. I couldn't help but notice that you all have rather a lot of work to be done." Sirius pouted.

"Aww, Moony..." Peter gave a muffled wail as Sirius glared at him and took the lasagne back. James looked at Remus's face closely. A muscle beside the werewolf's mouth twitched.

"You're joking, aren't you?"

"... No..." he snorted, and then started laughing. James raised an eyebrow, and scooped up some of the peas on his plate with a serving spoon. Remus saw and ducked, so the peas almost missed, just clipping his ear and cheek.

"Now, what have we here boys?" they looked up. Lily and the Ravenclaw boy were standing over them. One corner of Lily's mouth was raised in a smile, and her eyes sparkled.

"It looks rather like a food fight to me. What do you think Fal'?"

"Food fight. Definitely." Lily nodded sagely, and calmly sat in James's lap.

"Now, let me give you a tip," she whispered, her lips close to his ear, "When you're aiming for him, try tilting the spoon a little more. Like this." She wrapped her fingers around his, scooped up more peas, and aimed at Sirius. Before he had time to duck, she had sharply flicked her wrist and the peas hit him in the face. She smiled.

"Oh yeah, and you can always feign which way you're dodging, so he aims the wrong way." She winked at Remus, smiled at Sirius, and raised her eyebrows at a still gorging himself. "...Each to their own. If you want to eat asparagus and lasagne, do so Peter. I won't remind you of a little thing called stomach ache." She kissed James on the cheek, patted his head, and stood up. She and the Ravenclaw boy went straight back to the prefect table, where she sat side ways on in the Head girl chair, her legs hanging over the arm. Sirius shook his head, smiling.

"Utterly mad, isn't she?" Remus nodded, rubbing his eyes. His face was haggard, his shoulders slumped; the full moon was coming up. James grinned.

"You need a pep up potion. That time of the month, eh Moon?"

"Shhhh." A girl next to Remus gave him an odd look, and shifted away from him slightly. The bespectacled boy received a glare that would have burnt him if that was possible.

*

"Prongs."

"Mmm?"

"Prongs?"

"Mm hmm?"

"PRONGS!"

"WHAT??"

"It's time. Come on." James pushed his glasses up, rubbed his eyes and nodded. He put down his quill, pushed his chair back from the table and stretched languidly, hiding a grin at the longing sigh of a girl on the next table. Peter rolled his eyes, and Sirius hit him over the head with a thick book.

"HEY!" His friend shrugged, and dragged him out of the library.

"I don't get why people go in there. I don't understand why you even think about going in there! You never used to go in there, what's wrong with the common room?" James shrugged, and yanked his arm out of Sirius's grip.

"Too noisy."

"I swear, you are not James Potter." Peter hid a grin.

"Except he has the same hair, same nose, same glasses, wears the same clothes, is just as arrogant-" James frowned.

"Arrogant? Moi? Surely not."

"Yes, actually, you are."

"Oh..." they began to walk toward the doors.

"So, Moony's out already?"

"Yeah. He'll be in the Forbidden Forest."

~

Sev' turned a page in his book, and Falcon carefully severed the end off another clump of his hair. Lily punched the wall.

"For goodness sake Lili, if you're so restless, go find something to explode or paint." Lily glared at a vase. It shattered. She sighed.

"I'm going to go for a walk."

"It's after dark, why would you want to do that?"

"Restless. I guess the Forest is a good a place as any." She headed to the archway, then paused.

"Don't blow up my common room, will you?" She left, laughing at Sev's indignant face, and the long lock of hair that Falcon had accidentally severed.

~

Even with his eye tightly shut, James's stomach was churning as he listened to his friend whimper and moan as he turned into a werewolf. When a low growl reached his ears, he opened his eyes and blinked. Burning yellow eyes glared out of the snarling face that was his best friend. Quickly, he pulled off his glasses, slipped them into his pocket, and transformed.

Prongs shook his antlers at the werewolf.

"Don't bother Moony; you know you can't hurt me." The werewolf's lip slowly covered his fangs, and his ears picked up from where they had been lying flat against his skull. Padfoot panted happily, his thick tail sweeping the dust around his up into the air, a huge black paw hitting the ground.

"What are we gonna do?"

"We are going into the Forest tonight. We promised Moony." Wormtail scrambled up Prongs' leg, up his neck and perched between his antlers.

"Don't drop me Prongs."

"I won't." With Prongs and Wormtail on one side of Moony and Padfoot on the other, they left the tunnel and headed into the woods. Prongs could hear Padfoots' human side whistling in his head.

"You're tone deaf mate, you know that?"

"Aww, I thought you liked 'Witches Ghost'."

"That, my friend, wasn't 'Witches Ghost'. That sounded like a cross between two muggle songs' the Moonlight Sonata and Colonel Bogie." A snigger drifted through his mind, but Padfoot did stop whistling. Shaking his head and ignoring Wormtail's squeak of indignation and fright, Prongs stretched out his legs and began to canter. With a howl, Moony followed, 'hunting' his friend. A picture came into James's mind. It was of a dog with a large, meaty bone, licking its chops.

"Happy are you Moony?" he always felt a little sorry that he had a telepathic connection with the others when they transformed. Moony could only send pictures to symbolize how he was feeling. Padfoot was only just beginning to catch up with them.

"That's right, leave me behind, see if I care."

"I'm not seeing." He skidded to a halt, staggering as a large werewolf and then a bear sized dog rammed into him.

"HEY!" Padfoot lay on the ground, grinning, his tongue hanging out of his mouth. Moony pushed the picture of two cubs wrestling and an old wolf watching, grinning.

"Oh yes, because you two are so amusing." Wormtail scrambled up from where he had been thrown off.

"I don't feel so good... I'm going back to the castle, ok?"

"Oh... fine."

"See you Wormtail." The rat scampered into the darkness, tail whipping about it.

A twig snapped, and a soft voice swore. Moony's head snapped up. Prongs' eyes met Padfoots'.

"Oh shit. Padfoot, help!" The werewolf's hackles rose, and it began growling. A bloodcurdling howl chilled Prongs' blood. Padfoot grabbed the ruff of fur around Moony's neck with his teeth, and held on.

"Moony, NO!!" But not matter how big an animal is, it is never really a match for a fully grown werewolf. Moony tore off into the trees, and Prongs practically flew after him. A figure, silhouetted against the moon, spun around, and Prongs felt an icy hand squeeze his heart.

Lily.

Moony growled, and Lily's green eyes widened as the werewolf began stalking toward her. Prongs stood frozen to the spot, staring as she cupped her hands, slammed them together, twisted them, and then opened them again. A bolt of crackling blue fire flew at the wolf and sent him flying backward, howling with rage. Lily turned and fled into the woods, the werewolf following within a second, snarling angrily.

"Lily..." Prongs suddenly regained the use of his legs, and dived after the two.

"Lily, Lily... oh god Lily!! Don't run; you can't escape! Hide! Climb a tree! Anything but run! What are you doing in the forest at the full moon??"

For once in his life, all the trees looked the same. Every path, every leaf, every gnarled, twisted trunk was identical. Panic began to claw at Prongs' mind, and he plunged into a different clump of trees, following the ragged, hungry breathing of the werewolf and the sound of breaking foliage. He skidded to a halt. Lily was backed up against a rock, panting and gasping for breath. Her eyes were fixed on the werewolf, and her lips were moving constantly. Prongs felt himself loose his grip on his stag form.

James fell to his knees.

"Lily..." he tried to scramble up, but his knees kept giving way. He watched helplessly, angry tears pouring down his face as Moony sprang forward, jaws open and salivating.

"NOO!" James cried out as the werewolf pinned her down...

... And clamped his jaws around a wolfs' foreleg.