Deer to Me

Chapter Thirteen

It felt like James had just laid his head down on the pillow when the light from the sun blinded him in the eye. Normally, James lazed about in bed for a few more minutes and then sidled towards the bathroom, but today he was on a mission, and he needed to be out of his room quickly.

He plopped down on the big chair in front of the dead fire and watched the girl's side of the tower. One by one, the girls walked down, some wide-awake, some half-asleep, and the last ones hurrying to put on their make-up and make it down to breakfast on time.

However, James did not see the one person that he wanted to talk to this morning. Lily was either a very late sleeper (which did not coincide with James' picture of her) or she was a very early waker. His grumbling stomach told him that if he missed breakfast, there would be hell to pay, so James made his way down to the Great Hall. Sirius had saved him a seat, and he plopped down it. He looked down the table for his red-headed love and realized with a jolt that she was no- where to be found.

"Looking for Lily?" Remus asked, seeing James confusion. "She's over with Emmeline Vance at the Ravenclaw table." He nodded behind him. James looked past Remus' shoulder and saw Lily, indeed, sitting with Emmeline and other Ravenclaws. He frowned.

"What's she doing over there? Is she switching Houses or something?"

"I'd imagine that they're preparing for the Auror classes tonight," Remus said. James looked confused and Remus clarified, "You know, the book that was assigned to us to read over the break. Did you even read it?"

James laughed and ruffled his hair. "Of course I did, Moony. What do you take me for?" he laughed. "Sirius read half and I read half."

"And you think that's good enough?" Remus asked.

"So why's Lily sitting over there at the Ravenclaw table?" James diverted the subject.

"I would wager because that's the only other girl that's doing the program."

"Really?" James thought of Sirius and the fact that the only other girl in the program turned him down and smiled. "Sucks for you, Padfoot."

"Why?" Sirius broke his attention away from his breakfast.

"Because you won't touch Lily," he gave Sirius a knowing glance, "and the only other girl turned you down."

"Huh?" Sirius looked at Emmeline and recognition dawned on him. His face darkened. "Oh yeah, I remember her. She said that she didn't want to get a disease. Stupid tart." He looked to James. "But I didn't tell anyone about that."

James pressed his finger to his nose and winked at his buddy. "Lily and I had a conversation about it."

"Oh," he snorted, going back to his breakfast. "So, when's the next ‘meeting?'"

"Hopefully, tonight," James shrugged. "But, I usually take my cue from her, so who knows." Remus shook his head.

"Can't do it tonight, we have class."

James looked to Remus and then bit his lip. "And how often do we have these classes?"

"Every night from 5-10."

Sirius choked. "What about dinner!?"

"We have a special dinner prepared at 4:30," Remus explained. "So that means that right after our afternoon class, we head straight for the Great Hall, eat quickly, and then head to the fifth floor until 10."

"B-But that means I won't be able to talk with Lily!" James exclaimed.

"Don't worry, we still have weekends off. You can talk to her all day." Apparently, Remus still did not approve of James' method, as evident in his voice.

"But, that's only once or twice a week!" James slumped. Remus shrugged.

"That's the breaks, I'm afraid."

James had never seen so few people sitting at the tables in the Great Hall. It was almost eerie, especially since there was only one long table filled with 8 people, eating quietly. James noticed that the two girls sat apart from everyone else, still looking through the book and practicing wand movements and such.

"Potter." He looked up and saw one of the Prewitt twins (Gideon or Fabian) looking down at them. "Can we join you?"

"Sure," James said, offering a seat for the two next to Peter and Sirius. He didn't know anything about these two because they had never had any classes together with Hufflepuffs. They weren't even on the Quidditch team.

"Um." Sirius was looking at the two back and forth with an eyebrow raised. "Can we put a bell on one of you?"

They exchanged glances. "Why?"

"So we can tell you apart." James snickered and Remus blushed from embarrassment. Sirius could be so blunt at times.

"I'm Fabian," the one on the right said.

"I'm Gideon," the one on the left said.

"Well, a fair judge that is," Sirius grumbled. "Don't you have some other distinguishing features?"

They shrugged.

"Oi, this is going to be troublesome." Sirius ran his hand through his hair. James looked down to the end of the table and caught Lily's eye looking at him. She blushed and turned away.

"I'm sure you'll get used to it after a while," Gideon said. "We do."

"Can't you get some sweaters that say ‘G' and ‘F' on them?" Sirius asked. "I'm sure we can find someone who can make sweaters. Or maybe we could color coordinate. Gideon, since your name starts with a ‘G,' yours can be green. Fabian...Prongs, what color starts with an ‘F?'"

"Fushia?" James shrugged.

"Do you have any fushia-colored sweaters?" Fabian looked like he was going to protest deeply to wearing pink, but they were interrupted.

"I hate to break up this interesting conversation, but it's time to go." A deep voice said above them. James turned around and recognized the person as the one talking with Professor McGonagall during the meaning. His name had to do with his ass or something.

"Professor Longbottom," Remus nodded respectively. To their surprise, ‘Professor Longbottom' made a disgusted noise.

"Please, don't ever call me that." He shuddered. "Makes me sound so old."

"What should we call you then?" Sirius asked.

"Frank. Just Frank," he said. "But really, we need to get started, I want to cover a lot in our first night, if we're going to get things underway." He looked around the table and pointed them out. "Let's see, obviously the Prewitt twins, James Potter, your father sends his regards," James grinned, "Sirius Black, James' father also sends his regards," Sirius grinned like James, "Peter Pettigrew, and Remus Lupin." Remus was sure that he could tell the difference between him and the rest because he was rather peaky this time of the month, the full moon was three days away. He looked down at the end of the table where the girls were still up to their ears in the book.

"And Lily Evans and Emmeline Vance." James' eyes narrowed at the way ‘Frank' paused to look at Lily longer than the other girl.

"All right then, I'll go round up the girls and we'll head off." He strolled down to the end of the table and called to them. James didn't take his eye off of ‘Frank' as he sat down next to Lily. He made both the girls laugh and James realized it must have been because he'd mistaken their names.

"James, you coming?" Sirius asked. James stood up and followed, but only after Lily and Emmeline got up as well.

"All right? Everyone here?" Frank looked about the room. Emmeline was sitting on one end, with Lily next to her, James plopped down next to her, followed by Sirius, Remus, and Peter, and finally the two twins (nobody'd been able to tell them apart yet). James wanted to be next to Lily just in case he spotted ‘Frank' watching her again.

"I hope that you have all read the book. As it turns out, that book is usually taught over the course of six months, but, as our time is limited, we are going to be going faster than most classes and we will be done in three months." He surveyed the room. "How many of you are seventeen?"

Only James, Remus, and the Prewitt twins raised their hands.

"How many of you will be turning seventeen by June?" They all raised their hands.

"Good. After finals, you should all head straight to the ministry and get your Apparating licenses. Our class, which usually is let out for the summer, will continue, and the best, and cheapest, way to get to the site of classes will bet to Apparate."

He stood behind the podium and cleared his throat. "Now, just because we're moving so fast doesn't mean that I don't think that some of you might fall behind. That's why any time that you are having trouble with anything, I want you to come to me or any of your other teachers." He gave a short laugh. "Trust me, even I'd have a load of trouble doing it this fast."

James noticed that his eyes darted to Lily, who seemed completely unaware. His heart leapt into his throat. She looked so cute concentrating like that....

"Now, let's begin," Frank continued. "Seeing as there are a multitude of items that we can begin with, I picked my least favorite subject in school. Potions. Now," He leaned on the podium so it rocked back and forth. "Can anyone tell me why an Auror would need to learn about Potions?"

Lily's hand raised slowly.

"Yes, Lily?" James didn't like the way that he said her name.

"Well, I've heard about them in passing, but aren't there certain potions that only take effect when other things are added after they are taken? So that the people don't know that they've been poisoned until it's too late?" She blushed a little bit. "I don't know if that made sense."

"No, it did." He flashed her a winning smile. Lily's blush deepened. James growled silently. "Lily's right, though. They're a select group of potions called the Polyplenus group. They are the ideal weapon against people because of the way they take effect. They consist of two or more completely different potions administered at a different time."

"Excuse me, but I don't quite understand," Emmeline raised her hand. Frank thought for a moment.

"Maybe if I give an example. The Trifalsus potion is one of the more deadly, because a person doesn't even realize that they are dying until it's too late." That made a few of them uncomfortable. "The first element is a vapor version of a Swelling solution. It is very diluted so that it causes little damage, and, when sprayed, the victim may feel a little uncomfortable and feel like they have a cold. The second element is Alihotsy, anyone know what that is?"

Remus raised his hand. "It's a plant. The leaves cause hysteria. But why would anyone eat it?"

Frank nodded. "The Alihotsy leaf looks similar to a regular iceburg lettuce leaf, and it can be easily confused. But, when combined with the Swelling solution, the plant does not react. Oh, there might be some nervous tension, but nothing compared to what normally happens. So, the victim is still blissfully unaware of what is happening to him or her."

"But why is this potion so dangerous if the ingredients keep it from harming you?" Sirius asked.

"Well the final ingredient does much worse than it's intended to," Frank said, solemnly. "The Drought of the Sleeping Death is not hampered or hindered by either of the other elements, in fact, it awakens them both. The drought puts the person into a very deep sleep, that they won't wake from easily. But then Alihotsy begins to take effect and the victim's blood pressure goes through the roof, spreading around the Swelling solution, causing the arteries and veins to swell, as well as the wind pipe. The victim suffocates in their sleep."

The room was silent. James saw Lily put her hand to her neck and gulp.

"These potions are very deadly and an ideal weapon of the Dark Lord because they are so easy to administer to unsuspecting Aurors and political officials."

James suddenly was worried for his family and sunk lower in his seat.

"However, there is some good news," Frank grinned. "Once you know what's wrong, you can do a simple Engorgement Charm-"

"Engorgment Charm?" Remus asked. "Wouldn't that do the opposite of what you needed to do?"

"One would think so," Frank said, tapping his hand to his chin thoughtfully. "But the combination of the Alihotsy and the Drought make it so if a Reducing Charm is used, the effects will happen ten times faster, and death is almost instant."

They all gulped.

"Which is why you're going to learn the ingredients of all of the potions and be able to pick them out," Frank ended, cheerfully. "Now, open your book to page 357 and we'll start going over them."

When the 8 students left the room for the evening, they all had mirrored looks of horror and disgust on their faces. They had learned that there were a grand total of 15 Polyplenus potions, each with 2-8 ingredients that caused death ranging from simple suffocation to spontaneous combustion.

Once they had left Emmeline and the Prewitt twins (Sirius was annoyed to learn that they even changed the same color green) at their respective dormitories, the five Gryffindors headed back to their tower. Peter was the most anxious to get back, and cited that he would be the first to use the washroom, and that if anyone argued, they could say hello to the contents of his stomach.

James hung back with Lily and Remus. He could see the paleness of Lily's skin and looked over to Remus. He, too, had a white pallor, but, as James looked out the window, the full moon was two nights away.

They reached the door and Peter ran up the stairs as fast as his little feet could carry him, followed by Sirius who told them that he'd watch over Peter. Remus went slower and kept looking out the window.

Lily was about to walk up her staircase and (as James found out in his 2nd year) since he could not follow her, he called out to her.

"Lily!"

"Yes?" she turned around.

"Are you....are you ok?" he asked. She looked about two daggers at him, instead of the fifty million she usually used with him.

"Why wouldn't I be? Because I'm not some strong boy-"

"No. Because it freaked us all out." James folded his arms in front of him. "It's just that we're too manly to ask each other about it."

Lily's eyes seemed to soften a little. "If you want to know, no. I'm not."

"Me either," James admitted. "If this is just the beginning...I mean, what else can they throw at us?"

"Or our families," Lily admitted softly. James looked up at her.

"Are you worried for them, still?"

"Yes," she said.

"And you won't go talk with Dumbledore?" James asked. Lily shook her head.

"No. I'll....I'll get over it soon enough." She turned to walk back up the stairs.

"If...If you need to talk about anything," he stepped forward. "You can come talk to me, you know."

Lily smiled. James hoped that she was thinking about Prongs.

"I think I've got that covered, but thank you for the offer." She ascended the tower stairs. James turned and walked up his own stairway.

When he came into his room, he was greeted with the sounds of Peter retching. Remus was staring at the windowsill and looking at the moon with the same sad face that he always had. He looked around for Sirius and saw him pacing the room as Padfoot.

He could see that his friend was antsy from the way his muscles in his back were tense and the fast wagging of his tail. Bending down, James reached over and gave him a scratch behind the ears. Padfoot looked at him and then popped back into Sirius.

James watched as he continued his pacing as a human.

"How can they...who would...I can't even...." James knew that he was thinking of his family from the way that he couldn't even pop out a single coherent sentence.

"I know, Padfoot," James soothed. "Why don't you go run around some? Hey, I'll even go with you?"

"No. It's ok." Sirius sat down, but was still shaking. "James, who would want to inflict that on anybody?"

"That's why they're evil, Padfoot." Remus spoke up from the window. James knew that he was always cranky before the full moon. "And that's why we're becoming Aurors. To stop them from doing this to innocent people. So you can wallow in how terrible this all is, or you can suck it up."

"What if I don't want to suck it up?" Sirius replied back at him. Remus sent him a glare that could freeze boiling water.

"Then be glad that you have the option to fight against this injustice." He stormed to his bed. Sirius realized what he'd said and felt terrible. He had no room to talk about how horrible he felt, when one of his best friends turned into a man-eating monster every month.

"Moony-" Remus closed his bed curtains, glaring at Sirius. He stood up and walked to the bed. "Moony, I'm sorry. I didn't mean-" James put a hand on his shoulder.

"Just let him be for now," he said. "It's near the full moon, you know how he gets."

"Right," Sirius said, sitting down on the bed. "Should we go check on Wormtail?"

They exchanged glances and James stood up. "I'll do it."