I Loved You More

Chapter #13

Meeting Moony, Wormtail,

Padfoot, and Prongs

Lily saw her and suddenly felt dizzy. Her world was spinning out of control and it was creating a nauseous feeling in her stomach. She stared at her McGonagall with anxiety building, waiting to see what was to happen to her. Her mind seemed to fill with all the most terrible possibilities yet wipe clear at the same time. First she thought of the four of them getting expelled. Then it dawned on her that Hagrid would get in trouble too. Dread stabbed at her.

"Hagrid, there's been another attack. Professor Dumbledore has asked for your assistance. You must go to his office immediately," McGonagall said with worry in her sharp dark eyes.

Hagrid was off, ready to help the Headmaster in any way he could. Lily watched him bound up to the castle through the doorway. Then Professor McGonagall turned to her four nervous students.

"It's nearly past curfew. I want you four to go straight to the Gryffindor tower! Do not tell anyone of what you heard here. They will find out tomorrow if we have all the facts," she told them sternly. "Let's go."

In a daze, Lily followed Summer, Sirius, and James as McGonagall hurried them out of the hut and marched them to the castle doors. Along the way, James and Sirius pestered her with questions about the attack but she flatly refused to relinquish any information.

"Where did it happen?"

"Mr. Potter, don't bother. There are no details that we are sure of at the moment so I will certainly not be telling you."

"Did anyone die?"

"Mr. Black," said McGonagall warningly.

"Professor McGonagall," mimicked Sirius.

"Who was attacked?"

"Mr. Potter! That will do."

"Come on, Professor!"

"I suggest you stop now, boys."

Lily wondered about their nerves in awe. They were already on tenterhooks as it was without them harassing the professor.

Once they were inside the Entrance Hall, McGonagall pointed in the direction of the Gryffindor tower.

"Now go to bed and get some sleep. Remember, keep the news to yourself," she ordered, looking straight at James and Sirius who gazed innocently back.

"Can't you just tell us how many people were involved?" asked James sweetly.

"Goodnight," said McGonagall sharply with finality in her tone.

James sighed reluctantly and they all turned to make their way to the Gryffindor tower as McGonagall flew off in another direction.

"Snidget," Summer said the password when they reached the portrait hole. They scrambled through where the dying sparks of a fire greeted them wearily into the common room that was only occupied by a few students slumped in the armchairs.

"Well, I suppose we should go to bed like she said," remarked Lily dully, though she wasn't tired.

"No, maybe we'll hear more news about the attack if we stay up," opposed James.

"Are you just getting back from detention?" Lily turned to see Tara standing up from her chair by the fireplace. She strode over to them with Di following. "How was it?"

"It was," Summer began slowly, looking from side to side at Lily, James, and Sirius, "fun."

Tara and Di gave them bemused looks so Lily and Summer briefly explained their time in detention that hadn't gone quite the way their professors had planned. Tara looked as though she was going to inquire further but Sirius distracted her.

"Where's Moony?" he asked.

"Remus? He left a while ago with Peter...Hasn't been back since," shrugged Tara indifferently.

Dawning expressions swiftly appeared on both Sirius and James' faces as though they had just remembered something.

"Okay, uh, goodnight then," said James before bounding up the boys' dormitory staircase with Sirius.

The girls exchanged bewildered looks.

"Well," said Tara uncertainly, apparently deciding it was best to simply ignore the boys. "I'm going to bed now."

"Yeah, me too...long night," said Summer, trailing Tara as she headed for the staircase.

"Are you coming, Lil?" Di asked before she began ascending behind them. She wore a calculating look as she stared at Lily who hadn't moved from the spot on the rug where she stood.

Lily turned to Di and hesitated.

"I have some work I want to finish up first. I'll be up in a bit," she replied.

"Don't work too hard, Lily. 'Night."

"Goodnight Di," Lily nodded and Di disappeared up the stairs, leaving Lily alone in the dimming common room.

Lily did have some work to do. She found her bag and pulled out a notebook and a quill and curled up in an extra squashy armchair. She didn't want to do the work, though. That had been a little lie. What she really wanted to do was watch for anyone sneaking out late from the common room...James and Sirius to be specific. Lily was sure they hadn't rushed up to their dormitory to go to bed. They had something planned in the mischievous heads of theirs and Lily was very interested to know what it was. Wasn't it enough for them to have four detentions ahead of them?

She waited for a long time in the dark empty room with her back to the boys' dormitory staircase and her ears braced for the sound of footsteps.

Then she heard it. Slow footfalls, coming carefully down the stairs one-by-one.

Lily poked her head around the back of her chair, anticipating James and Sirius' appearance in the stairwell entrance.

There was a small feathery squelching noise and the footsteps stopping.

"It's McGonagall!" a whispered voice exclaimed.

Lily jerked her head toward the portrait hole. Professor McGonagall was emerging from it. Lily froze and watched in wonderment as her professor headed straight for the opposite side of the common room, taking no notice of Lily, and climbing the girls' staircase.

"What do you think she's doing?" came the whispered voice again from behind.

"No idea. Let's wait for her to come back down," replied a second voice. Lily couldn't determine which belonged to James and which to Sirius.

So the three of them waited.

A few minutes passed before they heard someone in the girls' staircase. McGonagall appeared and led someone across the common room. Lily's bewilderment increased when she recognized the curly mop of hair on the head of McGonagall's new companion.

McGonagall and Di exited through the portrait hole, both oblivious to the three figures watching them with confusion.

"Wasn't that Diana Kendel?" hissed James or Sirius.

Lily felt the urge to respond but wasn't sure if she should make her presence known yet.

"I think so...I couldn't really tell. Wonder what's going on," replied his friend.

"Well, anyway, let's get moving."

Lily looked over her shoulder and expected to watch James and Sirius walk by on their way out.

However, she never did.

She distinctly heard the shuffling of their feet passing behind her chair but she never saw them. Lily squinted in vain to see in the dark.

The bodiless scuffling was getting closer and closer to the portrait hole. Then the voices became audible again.

"I can see your foot!"

Lily peered though the darkness and had to restrain a gasp. To her amazement, there was foot, unattached from the rest of its body and adorned with a long sneaker.

"I think we're getting too big for this thing," grumbled James or Sirius.

"Just make sure you're all covered! The last thing we need is to get caught. Wormtail's alone with Moony."

The foot vanished.

"There, I'm all covered."

Then there was some scrambling and the opening and closing of the portrait.

Lily's blankly befuddled mind began racing.

They were invisible? Then she remembered something Summer had told her about sometime in their first year. They must have an Invisibility Cloak! Wow, Lily thought. Where were they going in it? Maybe were they going to find out about the attack! Maybe they'd find out what was going on with Di! But...Wormtail's alone with Moony?

What could they be doing?

Lily flung her notebook onto the floor and flew across the common room. The portrait creaked open and she jumped down into the quiet corridor and stood motionless, waiting for a spark of a sound. The bright gleam of the great moon through the windows cast long eerie shadows all over the stone of the castle.

There it was...she heard it from somewhere far down at the end of the corridor.

"Watch it! That was my head!"

"No, that was my head!"

The idiots.

She crept down along the wall, moving furtively from shadow to shadow toward them and followed the sound of their footsteps and occasional whispers. Slowly they stole down a staircase, then down a corridor and down another staircase. Lily stealthily pursued them from a safe distance and wondered vaguely why they were heading toward the Entrance Hall.

They entered a large corridor and began descending the enormous marble stairs leading to the Hall. Lily was so focused on following them that she almost forgot to skip the trick stair. At the bottom, they crossed the Hall and yanked open one of the double doors. A gust of icy wind burst through. Lily tiptoed closer and slipped out the door before it could shut behind them, her curiosity growing to an overwhelming size.

Across the moonlit grounds the boys walked, faster now. Lily cautiously placed her feet in their footprints, gently making her way after them through the cold.

It appeared as though they were tramping in the direction of the Whomping Willow. Strange. Lily remembered playing by the thrashing tree in her first year with the other students, trying to get as close to the trunk as possible without darting away to avoid being knocked out by one of its flailing branches. Lily still had the scar on her shoulder from when it had whipped her during one particularly daring try at the game before it was prohibited.

Lily was sure that this was where they were going now. What were they going to do at the Whomping Willow? She couldn't have turned back if she wanted to, so strong was her desire to see what they were doing.

The footprints stopped just outside the reach of the raging tree. Lily inched near enough to hear them.

"Shit. I forgot all about this part," groaned Sirius, throwing off the cloak, finally making both himself and James visible again.

"The one thing Wormtail's useful for and he's not here to do it," said James.

"Damn it! We could have been on time and gone in with Moony and Wormtail if we hadn't had detention! Last time I had to do this, I nearly broke a rib!" Sirius growled, turning to James and saying dully, "I'm going to have to do it, aren't I?"

"Sorry Padfoot," replied James matter-of-factly.

Lily was out of her mind with curiosity at this point.

"Okay," said Sirius reluctantly, taking a massive, long sigh. "Shut your mouth, I need to concentrate." James remained quiet though he hadn't been talking.

There was silence. Then Sirius transformed.

Lily's mind whirled out of control as she gaped at the huge black dog that had, just a moment before, been Sirius. She couldn't think or try to reason, she just stared.

James then patted the dog's head encouragingly. The dog slowly approached the tree. He bent into a crouching position, looking like he was bracing to pounce. He waited vigilantly for several minutes, eyeing the tree. Lily's heart thudded against her ribs.

Suddenly, seeing an opportunity, the dog sprinted toward the trunk. Lily gasped audibly. The animal skillfully dodged a swinging limb and brought a paw up to the trunk. The tree suddenly froze but it was too late: James had heard her.

He spun around and saw her standing, shocked in the snow.

"Evans? What are you doing here?!

The dog turned its head quickly, saw Lily, and growled.

Lily was trembling rather violently, partly of the cold and partly because of what she found herself facing.

"I...I...th-thought..."

"What?" cried James impatiently. The dog's throat rumbled with another heated growl.

"I thought you...were...go-going to find some-something out about...Di," Lily finally got out nervously. "What...?" she attempted, pointing at the black dog standing by the tree.

All of a sudden the dog became Sirius again. He was angry.

"Yes, so now you know, Evans! We're illegal Animagi! Yeah, that's right!" he shouted viciously. "Congratulations! Now you can go run off and tell the first teacher you see so you can get yourself some more brownie points to add to your famous collection. GO!

"I'm not go-going t-tell!" she yelled in return, tears swelling under her eyes.

Then she turned and ran.

"Evans!"

Lily twisted around to look back but a blood-curdling howl came abruptly from the area of the lake, echoing forebodingly. It was identical to the one she had heard at the top of the Astronomy tower earlier that night.

She screamed and fell into the sharp, jagged, snow. It bit into her hands like cold knives.

"What the hell?!" she heard Sirius exclaim.

She got up and looked back at them. He was peering in the direction of the lake where the howl had come from.

"That's a werewolf..." breathed Lily, "...I think."

"No, really?" shouted Sirius, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "That's REMUS!"

Lily didn't even possess the knowledge of how to react to this. She didn't have much time to, anyway. Something scurried lightly by Lily's feet and halted in front of James and Sirius. It was screeching and whimpering with all its might.

"Shut up, Wormtail! Just transform already!" yelled James urgently.

The rat looked back at Lily.

"It doesn't matter. She knows," James said in a tone Lily couldn't read.

It took several minutes but eventually, in the place of the rat stood Peter.

"W-what's going on? Why is she here?" he squealed, shaking slightly.

"First tell us why Remus isn't in the Shack!" demanded James.

Peter stumbled over his words in fear of James and Sirius' wrath.

"He...he was...re-really wild tonight and-and I...I thought...I thought I could handle...him till you...you got out-"

"You what?!" snapped Sirius aggressively. Lily winced as she watched. "You're nothing but a bloody rat! What made you think...JAMES!"

James had abruptly transformed into a magnificent stag and he was charging straight toward Lily at a startling speed. Lily tried to scream but nothing except a wispy little gasp came out. Her mind wiped blank with fear, making her unable to tell her legs to run or sense the movement from just behind where she was rooted to the ground.

"RUN, EVANS!" shouted Sirius in the background.

The stag was rapidly closing the distance between them. Lily finally managed to dive out of its path and back into the painfully crusty snow. With her face in the snow, she squeezed her eyes shut.

Lily heard James collide with something just a few meters behind where she had been standing a second before. There was a series of rumbling and breaking snow as the two creatures rolled around, growling ferociously and snaring teeth. Then Lily heard something else bounding toward her and she glanced up to see Sirius, as the great dog, leaping across the snow to help.

She finally dared to look back. Sirius and James were tangled with a snarling, frenzied, werewolf, trying to control and push it in the direction of the forest. The stag had a large gash on its neck but it didn't seem to notice and fought to get the werewolf's jaw off the dog's shoulder. Blood spattered everywhere.

Lily scrambled to her feet and backed hurriedly away from the battle.

"JAMES!" she screamed, frantically desperate. "SIRIUS! STOP! Stop it!"

She was shaking fiercely and the scrapes on her hands were bleeding and stinging. Her heart felt as though it was being strangled but all she wanted was for James and Sirius to stop fighting the werewolf before it killed them. That was the only thought that made it across her mind.

"Stop!" she panted persistently, hardly breathing because of her immense terror.

But the stag and the dog continued the struggle and soon they were slowly forcing the werewolf toward the forest. They disappeared into the darkness, leaving a trail of blood behind, so that Lily could only faintly hear the gnashing and snarling of the struggle.

Lily stared after them, gasping sharply for breath. Peter yelled to her but she didn't notice. It was a long time before the stag emerged, entering the glow of the moonlight so that Lily could see him.

The fur on his neck was soaked and stained with the deep red liquid that was glistening on the snow around where Lily knelt. She couldn't remember going to her knees, but her brain seemed to gradually begin working again as her eyes gazed upon him. He trotted up close to her and then...

He was James again.