How It All Happened

James was sitting in the common room, staring intently at his wrist watch, he'd look up occasionally... just to see if the someone was coming down the girl's dormitory stairs, preferably some red headed beautiful girl who just happened to be his date to Hogsmeade...

He sighed and looked at his watch

"three past three..." he muttered and sighed again, she isn't coming... he thought, feeling pretty downcast.

Looking up one final time, he stood up and walked towards the portrait hole.

"James!" someone called.

He turned around, please let it be her, he couldn't help hoping.

"Hi Lily" he greeted as he released the breath he hadn't noticed he was holding in. Wow, she looked pretty with her hair like that, her eyes are pretty too...

"Hi..." Lily whispered timidly

"You look really nice"

"Thanks"

"shall we go?"

"Okay!"

They left the common room together.

"So, what do you wanna do first?" James asked when they had reached their destination.

"Um... Honeydukes?"

"Yeah! Let's go there, I heard they had this new sweet... Fizzing Whizbees or something..."

"Really?" Lily said and smiled, "What's special about them?"

"They make you fly according to Sirius"

"Are you sure that's... safe?" Lily mused furrowing her brows.

"We'll I'm not sure, I guess I can try it before you and then we'll stand back and see if I die!" James joked.

Lily laughed and swatted his arm lightly, but he pretended that it hurt, they continued to laugh and joke until they reached Honeydukes...

They spent the whole day in Hogsmeade, well until four, kids under eighteen weren't allowed to be out longer, James thought that sucked but he knew why it was necessary. Because of that Voldemort. James wondered briefly if You Know Who knew exactly how much he sucked as a person. James decided that if he were ever to meet that guy he'd tell him he sucked.

"I had a lovely time James" Lily told him as they entered the Entrance Hall. James was pulled out of his previous thought and was now plunging into thought of a completely different sort.

"Yeah, me too" James agreed. Lily was so cute. Her nose was cute, her lips... he wasn't even going to get started on her lips or he'd probably end up embarrassed.

Then there was an awkward pause, he was looking deep into her emerald eyes, he leaned in, she parted her lip and...

"Hey you guys! Where have you been? I've been looking all over for you!!!"

James and Lily broke apart.

"Hi, Sirius" James greeted with an edge to his voice. James thought about the different ways he could kill Sirius.

Lily settled for waving.

"James come on! You won't believe what Peter did!" Sirius continued totally oblivious to what he'd just ruined.

"Do you mind?" James asked Lily gently. He didn't actually want to leave. He just wanted to stay here with her. Or go somewhere private with her.

"No, go with Sirius... I'll see you around" she answered, smiling weakly at her crush.

"Thanks Lily, you're the best!"

And with that James left with Sirius.

*

::A year later::

"Seriously Celestina! I think I love him!" Lily said, they had just woken up at Hogwarts... Grace had left and they were both sitting on Celestina's bed with the curtains closed around their pajama clad sleepy forms.

"You've said that before" Celestina said and rolled her eyes, pretending to be annoyed.

"No really! We've gone to Hogsmeade a few times, and every time we go I like him more and more..."

"Of course you love him! Every time you see him you smile and get these stars in your eyes!" Celestina somehow managed to giggle out.

"Oh why do I even bother with you? Come on, let's go down to breakfast"

*

"I think we're ready" James mused in a quiet voice, braking the silence that had been drowning them before.

"Yeah... let's do it next Friday" Sirius said, trying to behave like it was no big deal, but he was really shaking with excitement, fear and doubt.

"Why Friday? Can't we wait a bit longer?" Peter said looking scared to death.

"What happened to 'I know what loneliness is like blah blah'?" Sirius asked mockingly.

"All right! let's do it Friday!" Peter said looking annoyed and scared and at the same time angry.

"All right, full moon is Sunday so where do we do it?" James whispered, he felt something inside him, it was like his stomach had turned to lead but he had butterflies in there too... he just felt... strange, like you had been waiting for something your whole life and now it was happening.

"Well the Shrieking Shack should be safe..." Sirius said, his expression looking (oddly) like his name.

"So, next Friday we'll go to the Shrieking Shack at eight?" James said, suddenly all business-like.

"Sure"

"Okay... I guess..."

Where his answers.

"You're going to help me too" someone said.

All three guys turned around to face-

"Rita Skeeter?" James asked.

"Yes, I've been watching you since first year, and I want to become an Animagus too, I've been doing the adjustment things and they hurt a lot, and now your gonna help me." She stated, looking proud of herself.

"Why you..." Sirius started and tried to beat her into a pulp, but James and Peter held him back.

"Why should we help you?" James asked suspiciously.

"I'll go to a teacher, and tell on you if you don't help me!" Rita said triumphantly.

"You don't have any proof!" Sirius yelled furiously.

"Oh yes I do! I've taken plenty of pictures of you in here doing research and stuff!" she yelled back.

"Okay, you guys, just calm down" James said, in the process he let go of Sirius, and Peter couldn't hold him alone, so Sirius punched Rita right in the face, knocking out one of her teeth.

She screamed in pane, then she attacked Sirius, biting and scratching him.

After a few seconds James had managed to get a hold of his wand, then he put Rita in a full body bind.

"Sirius! You idiot! What'd you do that for?" James whispered in an angry tone.

"It was her fault!" Sirius yelled heatedly, pointing at the stiff Rita on the floor.

"let's just help her and she'll be out of our hair!" James suggested and shrugged.

"Are you insane?" Sirius yelled, "We cant help that pathetic excuse for a human being!"

"We have to, no one can know about us, think what happens if Dumbledore finds out! She might even know about Remus!" James said trying to be logical.

"I side with James, let's just help her and then we won't have to see her again!" Peter - who had been quiet until now - said, turning a bit red.

"Fine! Whatever! I don't care! But if something goes wrong it'll be your fault!" Sirius said and kicked one of the bookshelves.

James revived Rita and helped her up.

"Do you know about Remus?" he then asked.

"The werewolf? Of course I know, I haven't told anyone though... but I might" she said the last part while shooting an icy glare at Sirius and wiping her mouth, which was bleeding.

"You'll keep that a secret and we'll help you become an Animagus, if you tell anyone we're Animagi, we'll tell on you! Is it a deal?" James asked and stuck out his hand.

"Deal"

They shook hands.

"One question, how do you get into the Shrieking Shack?" she then asked as an afterthought.

"Just meet us at eight in front of the Whomping Willow" James said, flashing a Marauder grin.

"Okay" she agreed and left.

"I can't believe this" Sirius muttered under his breath.

*

"Everyone here? Good, Sirius, go get a stick"

"make Peter do it"

"I don't wanna"

"I'll get it!!!"

Rita went away, looking for a stick.

They were all gathered around the Whomping Willow on the bitterly cold Friday night.

"Here's your stick, now what?" Rita thrust the stick at James, who took the stick and skillfully stopped the Whomping Willow in mid punch.

"Quick! let's go" he called at the others.

They walked in quiet through the musty, foul smelling, dark tunnel, each thinking their own thoughts, each imagining what sort of painful death they were about to experience.

When they reached the trap door leading into the Shack they paused and looked uneasily at each other.

Sirius pushed the door open and they all followed him in, rather resentfully.

James looked at Peter, "Give me the book please"

Peter who had been carrying the book handed James the book, looking rather relieved to be getting rid of it, (It was a heavy book)

"OK, the book says sit down and clear your mind of all doubt" James informed the others, "We should sit in a circle..."

"Why?"

"Because I say so Skeeter"

"Fine"

They all sat down in a circle like James had ordered.

They sat there for a minute with their eyes closed.

"now we have to think about what we want, like our goal in life" James recited.

There was some more silence, and they could hear it begin to rain.

"Now we have to repeat this, until we feel the changing begin, 'latnas dyrtnar loknam syrtum fethlin igno' to change back... it says you have to think about human things... really want to human..." James said furrowing his brow, apparently deep in concentration.

They heard a huge thunder

"Let's just get this over with" James said, not really managing to hide his uneasiness.

They began to chant, slowly at first, but then faster and faster, until there was another big thunder.

James opened his eyes, he felt somehow different... more powerful... he looked down at himself and screamed, well tried to scream, It came out a animal sound... then he thought, I'm a STAG! He looked around, but all he could see was a big black dog, where are the others? He changed back to his old self... it was easy, he really wanted to be able to speak again...

They others were changing back too, the big black dog turned out to be Sirius, and the others he wasn't sure about.

"I'm a bug!" Rita wailed hysterically.

All three boys snickered at her distress.

"What are you?" James asked Peter

He stopped sniggering and blushed scarlet.

"A rat" he whispered, so quietly that they almost didn't hear.

"It's not fair! I think you should be able to choose!" Rita said, fuming.

"Now, now I think it's fine just like this!" Sirius said, rubbing it in.

"Well yeah! Says the one who got to be a cool animal!" She answered heatedly.

"Let's get out of here..." James said, sensing that this conversation wasn't heading for anything good.

"Yeah! I wanna check these new powers out!" Sirius breathed excitedly.

"Okay" James agreed and shrugged.

"well, I'm going back to my common room, I'm tired" and with that Rita left in a huff.

"let's go!" Sirius whined

"can't we go to bed? I feel drained, and we shouldn't leave Remus out" Peter begged.

"yeah, I think Peter is right, we shouldn't leave Remus out..." James nodded

"aw, I wanted to go explore" Sirius pouted.

"Whatever, let's go back to school"

The group of three headed for the school, some looked excited, some a bit down and some a little thoughtful... after all, it isn't every night you turn into an animal and back!

*

It was a few months later and the Marauders had a lot of fun every full moon, although Remus had been furious with them first, for doing something so dangerous, then he had been flattered and thanked them... well, the gang were sitting at the breakfast table, eating talking and laughing, when (as usual) the morning post arrived.

There were a lot of ministry owls this morning, everyone stopped eating, there was dead silence, except from the flutter of wings.

Then whispers broke out, "another attack?" "oh my god" "no! I can't believe it!" "You Know Who?"

James looked down at his plate and almost had a heart attack, there was a ministry owl sitting on his plate.

With shaking hands he opened his letter, then he dropped it and gasped, soon the room was filled with gasps and screams a few girls started sobbing, He also noticed Lily running out of the Great Hall.

His letter read:

Dear Mr. Potter

We are sorry to inform you that your parents (Mr. And Mrs. Potter) were killed in a mass killing at Diagon Alley.

We have the key to the family vault and the key to your house here at the ministry of magic, you will receive these keys when you are eighteen. Until then you will stay with the Black family.

Have a nice day

Cornelius Fudge

Department of Magical Catastrophes

He felt like crying, his mom and dad were dead, and there wasn't even a reason! You Know Who just killed them because they were there! It's so unfair...

Oh no! Lily must have lost her parents too! But they're Muggles! What were they doing in Diagon Alley?

James ran all over looking for her, but he couldn't find her.

He ended up in his common room talking to his friends.

"I'm sure she's okay" Celestina assured him, but she looked like she was trying to convince herself as well.

"Have you checked in the library, she goes there a lot" Sirius suggested.

"It was the first place I looked!" James snapped, getting a bit frustrated.

"James! I have an idea!" Remus said, his normally tired looking eyes lighting up.

"It better be good..." James muttered following Remus upstairs to the boy dormitories

Remus went straight to James's trunk and fished the map of Hogwarts out.

"I've been in the book room a lot and I found this spell accidentally, and I've been wanting to show you..." Remus whispered excitedly.

He got out his wand, and then he got a heavy old looking book out of his trunk. He put the book down on the floor next to the map, and started turning the pages furiously.

"Call the other two" he muttered as he looked for the right page.

James went downstairs and told Sirius and Peter to come up to their dorm.

"Okay, this is a really old spell, and I don't think I can do it on my own..." Remus started but was cut off by Sirius.

"Professor Moony, what does it do?"

"I was about to tell you, it pores our personalities into an object, in this case this map, then the map will become alive, well sort of... and after that it will be easy to make whatever changes we want to!" Remus explained, he still had this glint in his brown eyes, which after the full moon took on a yellow/golden shade.

"How does that help me find Lily?" James wondered.

"You'll see, now gather around!" Remus ordered.

They all sat in a circle around the map, Remus moved the book on to his lap, he also lit a few candles and told Peter to draw the curtains.

"We have to put one finger on the map, then we have to think about what means the most to us..." Remus said but got cut off again by Sirius

"Why does this sound familiar?" he joked.

"As I was saying, we have to say, 'persona poratus' OK?" Remus read from the book.

They put their fingers on the map, then there was a moment of silence.

"persona poratus"

"persona poratus"

"persona poratus"

"persona poratus"

James gasped as he opened his eyes, he could see a golden sphere coming out of himself and the others, the four spheres united into one and disappeared into the map.

Remus was the first to get over the shock.

"I want there to be a password... you know so no one will know how to use this except for us, then we wont have to hide it in your invisibility cloak!" he said excitedly.

Words began to form on the map

"password to open map: 'I solemnly swear I am up to no good'

password to wipe map clean: 'Mischief managed'"

"Cool!" Sirius exclaimed.

"I solemnly swear I am up to no good!" Remus whispered, his eyes as round as their food plates.

Letters began to form on the map

Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs

Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers

are proud to present

THE MARAUDER'S MAP

Then the map started forming like a spider-web in front of their eyes.

"Ask it where Lily is" James ordered.

"No, I have a better idea" Sirius whispered.

"I want you to show us where every single person inside this school is" he said to the map.

Dots began to form all over the place with small names beside them.

James scanned the map for Lily and ran off as soon as he found her dot.

*

"Lily" He sighed in relief, when he had made sure the door behind him was closed.

"How'd you find me?" She asked.

Her eyes were red and puffy and she was sniffing a lot.

"I know what happened" he stated.

"No you don't! It's all my fault! They were in Diagon Alley buying a birthday present for me! If it weren't for me they'd be alive!" She said that and started to sob hysterically.

James hugged tightly.

"It wasn't your fault" he told her soothingly.

"Yes it was" she said, she had stopped sobbing and was just looking really downcast.

"Lily" He said working up his courage.

"Yes?" she answered.

"I think I love you" He said and blushed, I shouldn't have said that... stupid stupid, now I scared her away...

She looked at him, with her red and puffy eyes, she was opening and closing her mouth like a goldfish.

Please say something! James begged her in his mind.

"I think, I think I love you too"