#james-lily

"Look, Sirius!" James muttered to his best friend, crouching behind the density of leaves that made up the fig bushes - proudly preened every morning by Professor Sprout.

"What?" Sirius replied absent-mindedly, inspecting a small caterpillar that was wriggling it's way towards him.

"It's old Snivillus, isn't it?" James giggled, quickly clapping a hand over his mouth as he finally caught Sirius' attention - and together, they watched the boy in the distance climb towards an old oak tree and settle himself against the bark, taking a book out of his bag as he did so.

"Always got his nose in a book, that one," Sirius smirked, a look of great distaste spreading across his face. "And isn't it against the rules for library books to be outside of school?"

"You know what? I think you might be right," James said slowly. "Perhaps we should teach him a lesson. Y'know, set him right." The two young boys shared a devillish look between them. Together, they crept forward, making sure to keep to the right so that they were out of Severus' eyeline. Finally, they stopped about two metres away from him; he still was not aware of their presence. Sirius turned to James and, pressing a finger to his lips to indicate that they should stay quiet, he bent down and scooped up a handful of dry mud, squeezing it as tightly as he could into a ball. James bent over double, trying to quell the laughter fighting to escape him. Sirius slowly threw his arm back, positioning it high enough so that the impact of the force would be greater - and then he flung it as hard as he could at the back of Severus' greasy head. The boy immediately jumped up, clutching the library book under his arms.

"Who done that?" He cried, his mouth falling open as he suddenly realised that James and Sirius were standing before him. "Oh," he muttered. "It's you."

"You know, Snivelly," James began. "I should think you'd talk to your fellow classmates with a bit more respect, don't you?" Snape backed away uncertainly, almost losing his footing on an uprooted branch. Sirius bent down to pick up another handful of mud, but was taken aback by shock as Severus spoke.

"DON'T! You'll get the book dirty," he protested, and James had to stop himself from letting out another bout of laughter.

"Shouldn't have brought it out then, should you? Greasy-haired git," Sirius taunted, but nonetheless dropping the mud which he had been going to throw; mainly because he'd spotted Professor McGonagall walking swiftly across the grounds. 

"Anyway, seeya." James and Sirius legged it in the other direction, hoping that McGonagall hadn't been coming over to them. 

"What is his problem?" Sirius said aloud, trotting beside James as they found a particularly shady spot to lay in. 

"Nobody knows," James shrugged in response, leaning back and resting his head in his arms. 

*

Meals in the Great Hall were always something miraculous. Food of all sorts could be found there; and James never had any problem putting away more than he could take. 

"Look, it's that Lily girl you like!" Sirius whispered to James, tapping him on his arm and pointing to the direction of the large mahogany doors gaining entrance to the Great Hall. A girl with long, red hair stood just inside of them, chatting to a girl whom neither boy recognised. 

"Think I've got a shot with her?" James said seriously, not taking his eyes off of the girl. It happened so fast that James almost wondered if it had really happened, but for a moment, their eyes met, and he was shocked to find himself gazing into the greenest eyes he had ever seen. 

"She's beautiful," he murmured, shocked.

"Hey guys!" A new voice met them, and two heads quickly turned back opposite them, where their friend Remus Lupin was seating himself. "Sorry about earlier. I would have joined you, but Flitwick kept me behind. Seems like I just couldn't master that darn levitation spell." He sighed, flicking a strand of brown hair out of his face. "What did you guys do, anyway?" 

James and Sirius shared devillish smirks, instantly arousing Remus' suspicion.

"You weren't annoying Snape again, were you?" He said, in a tone which was lighthearted with an underlying sense of concern.

"Oh, of course not, Moony," Sirius grinned, referring to his friend using the special nickname he'd been given. "He was asking for it anyway."

"I have to say, Sirius, I'm not sure I've ever seen him ask for mud in the back of the head." 

"Oh. You saw that, did you?" James asked curiously.

"I happened to be looking out of the window the moment it happened," Remus said, a wry grin on his face. "Nice shot, but I can't say I commend it."

"Ah, come on, Remus!" Sirius groaned. "The boy's a liability to himself. Maybe he wouldn't be picked on so much if he wasn't such a snivelling rat. He spends half his time spying on us, trying to get us in trouble with the teachers. You know what he's like!"

Moony was quiet for a second, gathering up a sentence which was least likely to offend either of his friends.

"All I'm saying is, perhaps if you didn't do things which he could grass to the teachers, then he wouldn't," he said simply. James and Sirius couldn't think up an appropriate answer to this, so they ate the rest of their meal in silence.

*

That night was an important night for the three boys. It happened once a month, and it was important that they were discreet and anonymous. 

"Down to the shrieking shack we go," James murmured, pulling the old invisibility cloak out of his suitcase. It had once belonged to his grandfather.

"You guys don't have to come, you know," Lupin said cautiously. "It's just- I always worry that something's going to go wrong. Your transformation could go wrong, or I could attack you-"

"Moony," Sirius said gently. "We're your friends. We stick by you no matter what, right?"

"Right, said Moony nervously. "But-"

"No buts," James grinned. "Come on, it's once a month that we get to have an 'adventure' like this. It's a laugh and you know it!" Remus eventually gave in. James flung the invisibility cloak over the three of them, and together, they crawled through the hole leading out of the Gryffindor common room.

"Who's there?!" The old knight guarding the entrance within a painting hissed. They kept quiet, stifling laughter at his obvious confusion as they made their way down countless corridors and stairs until at last, they were in the grounds. 

The Whomping Willow always looked ten times more threatening at night. It's branches swung back and forth maliciously, like long, brown boulders just waiting for a knock out. 

"Who's first, then?" Sirius grinned. 

Remus had long ago been unfortunate enough to receive a werewolf bite during a childhood expedition. This had led to his own becoming of a werewolf; and incidently made him one hundred times more dangerous than when he was in his human form. Madam Pomfrey - the school matron - had kindly made arrangements with Professor Dumbledor to indeed plant the Whomping Willow in the school grounds in his first year at Hogwarts; covering the entrance to a place known as the 'Shrieking Shack' by locals. Here, he would be able to transform and stay, preventing himself from being a danger to anyone else. Unfortunately, James and Sirius had found out, and undoubtedly found a way to accompany him whilst he was a werewolf. Together, they became Animagi and learnt to transform into an animal at their will. Sirius, of course, was a large, shaggy black dog; whereas James had taken the form of a stag. Now, instead of being miserable about his transformations every time there was a full moon, Remus could be happy about it. 

"I'll go," James grinned, already beginning to transform into his stag-form. Within seconds, a teenage boy no longer stood before them; instead, in place of him was a beautiful stag with silver-coloured fur, large hazel eyes blinking at the two other boys. The clouds were still covering the moon; Remus was safe enough that he wouldn't transform just yet - not until they were inside the Shrieking Shack. 

Next went Sirius. The shaggy dog stood companiably in between James' stag and Lupin, whom received an affectionate lick from his friend. He grimaced, wiping his hand on his trousers and stepping aside to allow Sirius to creep underneath the branches of the willow and press his paw to the knot in the trunk; which would consequently freeze the tree for a few moments. The tree incidently froze, and Sirius slid down the small chute, closely followed by James and human Lupin. They walked through the tunnel until they came to a door, which was missing a hinge and looked like the corners had been gnawed. Noticing the bemused expression on the shaggy dog's face, Lupin let out a laugh and said quickly: "I was hungry, okay?!"

Once all three boys had transformed and Lupin was safe, they crept our of the shack, making their way across the grounds and through to the Forbidden Forest. Twilight shone through the leaves, and the three creatures bounded happily together; Lupin no longer a threat providing that he was in the company of other animals only. This time of the month was a particular favourite of James; what could be better than feeling the energy and freedom of an animal whilst being alongside your best friends? Nothing, as far as he was concerned.

By the time dawn began to set, the creatures sat themselves at the edge of the forest, waiting for any signs of life at the castle. James knew that he and Sirius should really be making it back to their dormitories now; but they couldn't face leaving Remus to transform alone.

Finally, they were in broad sunlight, and at last, Moony was no longer a werewolf. He grinned, leaning back on the tree he was sitting against; breathing heavily after all the running they'd been doing around the forest. They weren't aware of the fourth pair of eyes watching them. James and Sirius transformed back to their human forms quickly and expertly, stretching as James propped his glasses back on his nose. 

"Gets better every time, doesn't it?" He grinned, and the three of them burst out laughing. 

"I knew it." A voice said behind them. "I knew you were animagi." They turned around. Standing beside them was Snape, who appeared to have just stepped out from behind a tree.

"What are you doing here?" James growled, getting to his feet; closely followed by Sirius and Remus. 

"I watched you leave your dormitory last night. You didn't put that stupid cloak on properly; your feet were showing. And I knew it wasn't the first time either. So I followed you. Turns out, my suspicions were right." A victorious grin was spreading across his face. "I wonder what Dumbledore will say when he finds out that there are three unregistered animagi roaming the grounds at night." 

"You worm," Sirius said slowly. "You absolutely despicable excuse for a wizard. How dare you?" He grabbed his wand from within his robes, drawing it out in front of him. Snape suddenly didn't look so sure of himself anymore; but nonetheless grabbed desperately at his trouser pocket for his own wand, drawing it and bringing it in front of himself as if it would act as some sort of a guard.

"Expelliarmus!" Sirius hissed, and the wand flew from Snape's own hand and landed safely in his own right one. 

"Sirius, don't-" Remus began, but he was cut off.

"He's going to tell Dumbledore, Remus," Sirius interrupted. "It may not affect you, but we could get in serious trouble for being animagi." Remus said nothing after that, but scooted back to the tree that he had been leaning on; determined not to get involved. James stood beside his best friend, but left his wand in his pocket.

"Fifty points if you get him in the face," he whispered to Sirius, and the boys let out a series of giggles. Snape took their momentary lapse in attention as his chance to run. He'd only got several metres into the ground before James had pulled out his own wand and yelled: "RICTUSEMPRA!" Snape fell to the ground in a histerical fit of giggles, buckling up and drawing his knees up to his chin as he fought to catch his breath. Sirius watched in amusement as the greasy-haired boy writhed on the ground. 

"James?" James pulled his wand away, and instantly Severus lay flat on the ground, breathing but grateful that he had relented. 

"Lily!" He gasped. "Hello."

"What were you doing to Severus?" She asked, a look of shock horror on her face which James would have found comical had it been any other situation.

"He was spying on us. I was teaching him a lesson," he said simply, as if this was a good enough excuse to cast a spell on someone.

"You're foul! I thought you were nice, but you're just as bad as him," she gestured to Sirius who was standing beside him. The three boys watched in silence as Lily bent down towards Snape, holding her hand out. He took it gratefully and allowed himself to be pulled into an upright position.

"Let's leave these losers," she murmured to Snape. "Don't worry about them."

James watched as they walked across the ground, Snape slightly hunched over and Lily walking closely next to him, putting an arm around his shoulder for comfort. A red-hot rage burned inside him as he watched.

"He's the one who spies, yet he gets my girl!" He roared, pummeling a nearby tree as if this would suffice for what Snape did.

"Technically, she's not yourgirl yet," Remus butted in helpfully, but a scowl from Sirius told him he'd said too much.

"She doesn't know what he's like. If she knew, then she wouldn't think twice about butting in like that."

The rest of the day was rather moody for the three boys. James had still not relented in his anger towards Severus for 'stealing' Lily; and Sirius was het up about Snape's very existance. Remus walked behind them, hands in his pocket and not daring to offer any 'helpful' advice.

"I've got to go and do my Charms homework," Remus said suddenly. "I just remembered it's got to be in by tomorrow." 

"Crap. I've got Potions homework," Sirius grimaced. "Thanks for reminding me, Moony. James, are you coming?" James stopped in his tracks and looked up at them. 

"I think I'm gonna go and lie by the lake for a while. I'll join you in a bit." He gave them a grin to show that he was really okay, and to his relief this seemed to be sufficient for them to begin walking back to the towers. He fancied being alone for a while.

He made his way slowly towards the lake. The sun was shining; the sky was blue and the clouds hung low above him. Really, it was a perfect day for some Quidditch practice, but James couldn't say he really felt like it. Since the incident with Snape this morning, it had really put a dampener on his mood. 

He was nearly at the edge of the lake when he heard a couple of voices coming from nearby. Taking position behind a tree, he listened closely.

"...and then dad left, so I ended up living alone for a month. Nobody knew, of course, I couldn't tell anyone. It seems like everywhere I go, I get bullied for being me." It was obviously Snape's voice. The voice which he heard next send a jolt of hatred through his heart.

"That is so horrible! And I can't believe James of all people was the one bullying you..." Lily was heard clearly.

"I don't mind. He's worse when he's with Sirius, on his own I can handle him." James didn't want to listen anymore. He stepped out from behind the tree, aimed his wand straight at Snape and shouted "LEVICORPUS!"

Within seconds, Snape was suspended in mid-air by his ankles. Lily jumped up and shock, and raged expression formed on her face.

"I should have known it was you! Put him down, now!" She screeched, as Snape's robes fell over his face and he writhed desperately to free himself. 

"Why should I?" James retorted. "Do you think I was just going to sit there while you let him talk badly of Sirius and I?" 

"Perhaps if you weren't such tight, miserable gits and had a shred of decency in you, then poor Severus wouldn't feel the need to tell me!" She yelled. 

"What's happening?" A group of second-years had come over to watch what was going on.

"Just teaching Greasy here a lesson," James said, not bothering to look back. His eyes were directed towards the suspended figure with a look of such hatred that it was almost murderous. 

"James, just put him down!" Lily said again, but her voice was weaker this time. James glanced around him. The pounding in his head was aching; his brain felt like it was going to burst.