The Patronus Charm- A Lily and James Fanfiction

Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Truth

I sit in the middle of the Gryffindor table. Marlene sits on the far side closest to the doors. Sirius sits with the Marauders on the other side of the table closer to the teachers' table, which seems abnormal considering the Marauders are always planning another prank.
"Do you want me to sit with you?" James mouths from where he's sitting.
I shake my head. "No, sit with your friends." I mouth back. I turn and notice Alice is stabbing a sausage with her knife. "Anger management?" I suggest.
"Be quiet." Alice mutters.
"If it wasn't for the fact that you would never drink on a weekday, I'd say you have a hangover."
Alice grunts and lifts her head slightly. Her eyes are half shut and she looks like she wants the world to shut up. She's barely eaten anything.
"You do have a hangover." I gasp quietly.
"Do not."
"Dear, I'm dating James Potter; I know a hangover when I see one."
"I wouldn't have had to get drunk if it wasn't for Marlene! She cried all freaking night about Black! It's been three weeks. I know that I sound harsh, but she needs a rebound."
I nod. "But we can't get involved. We're already stuck between two groups."
"Yeah." Alice nods. "How's James taking this?"
"He's not happy about this, but he understands."
"Careful, Lily. Don't hurt James by trying to help Marlene. She needs to get a grip first before we can help her. Don't push James away, just to comfort her." She frowns at me. "When was the last time that you spent any time with him anyways?"
"The night we had that Divination homework party thing." I admit.
"Lily!! That was almost two weeks ago. If you don't spend time with him, you'll lose him. It's not like there's a shortage of girls, who would date him, Lily."
I know that. If James wanted, he could dump me and date any girl that he wanted to. I trust him, but maybe he doesn't trust me anymore. I've blown him off every time that he's wanted to something.
Flashback
"Lils, do you want to go for a walk?" James asks. He has a huge smile on his face.
"I can't. I promised Marlene."
"Oh, that's cool. We'll spend time together another time." He looks dejected and a bit frustrated.
I don't even look at him again as I leave to go find my friend.
End of Flashback
I walk into class and sit down next to James. "Hey." It's fourth period.
He turns and looks mildly surprised. "Oh, erm, hi." He frowns a tiny bit.
"Is something wrong?" I ask.
"Well, I figured that since you'd be sitting with Marlene, I'd give your seat to Sirius."
"Oh." I say. "That's cool. We can talk later."
"Um, actually, I can't. I've got Quidditch Practice."
"Okay. Are you busy after that?"
"I think I am." he declares shortly.
I raise an eyebrow at him. "Okay, when you have time let me know."
"No promises."
"Bloody hell." I mutter as I sit down in the back of the class, far away from everyone else. I could use a quiet class without anyone.
"Can I sit with you?" Marlene asks.
"I'd like to sit alone for a change if that's alright."
"Why? What's wrong?"
"James and I are just having a minor issue."
"Ah, I'll leave you to your sulking."
Nice. Really nice, Marlene. Is today the day of everyone trying to be nasty to me or what?
"Miss Lily! What are you doing in the back?" Professor Slughorn demands.
"I have a headache, Professor. I was hoping that if I wasn't too close to the potions, my head would hurt less." I lie.
"Ah." Professor Slughorn looks disappointed, but doesn't question my story. "Today, we are going to be brewing a fairly common potion that will come up on your NEWTS. The instuctions are on the board. Get to it."
I grab the ingredients that I need from the cupboard. I lean down to reach the last ingredient, boomslang hair, from the bottom shelf. I feel someone's breath on my neck.
"Liar." James whispers in my ear. He plucks the ingredients from my hands and walks away. With my ingredients! What the hell is going on?
I grab more ingredients and walk back to my table, where all of my stuff is gone. I scowl and look around. This is the stuff that I expected from James a few years ago, not now. I stroll over to where James and Sirius are working. "Guys, do you happen to extra potion making equipment? Mine has disappeared." I shrug.
"Nope." James says cheerfully.
"James, just give me my stuff back." I snap.
"Don't have it."
"Right, then who does?"
"Dear Lily, why haven't you started on the potion?" Slughorn asks.
"My stuff disappeared, sir. I was hoping that James would know where it went, but it appears that he doesn't know either. Which is bloody helpful."
"Why don't you come in this evening and brew the potion for me then with some barrowed equipment? I know you're fully capable, but rules are rules."
"Of course, sir, thank you. I will look for my stuff." I smile and walk out of the classroom.
This is stupid. If James thinks that he can act like an immature prick, well he's in for a wakeup call.
I hurry down the hallways and back to the Heads Dorm. The common room is neat and tidy. All of James' prank stuff is finally off the floor. I grab a book off the table and start reading.
I borrow some equipment from Alice and make my way down to the dungeons.
"Davy?" a voice calls. "Did you manage to get the pitch?"
Martin Davy, the Ravenclaw Quidditch captain, grins. "Yeah, I managed to book it for the whole night. I figured that Potter would have it booked. He's had it almost every night."
"We better start practicing if we want to beat Potter then."
They turn the corner and bump into me. "Oh, sorry, Lily." Davy says.
I shrug. "No problem."
"Erm, did you happen to overhear our conversation?" the smaller boy asks nervously.
"Please don't tell Potter." Davy begs. Oh, they think that I would tell James about their strategies.
"Don't worry. I wouldn't sell out your team like that." I smile. I walk past them into the dungeons and begin brewing my overdue potion.
"Simply brilliant!" Slughorn declares as he leans over my potion. "Ten points to Gryffindor."
"Thank you, Professor."
"Not a problem, Miss Evans. Did you happen to find your stuff?"
I shake my head. "No, but I'm sure it will turn up. It always does eventually."
The clock strikes three in the morning and I lean back in my chair. James should be back anytime and then he'll get it. I'm sick of this. If this is revenge for Marlene, I get it. What's more is: he lied to me. He wasn't at Quidditch Practice. I can't believe he lied to me.
The door opens and in walks James. He frowns when he notices me sitting in the armchair in the corner. His face is bloody and there's a long gash across the side of his face.
"Future reference, James, if you plan to lie to me, have a better cover story. And don't steal my stuff." I say coldly.
"Were you spying on me?"
"Hell no! I overheard the Ravenclaw Captain telling his team that they had the pitch all night."
James says nothing. He just watches me with those hazel eyes.
"You didn't have to act like a jerk to prove something to me either. I know that I've been spending a lot of time with Marlene. I get that! I'm sick of hearing her sob story. But as her friend, I need to be there for her. She was there for me a lot in the past."
James frowns. "You could have made time for the rest of us. Besides, I don't have your stuff. Peter stole it. Third: I had good reason for why I lied, just leave it alone."
"You know, secrets aren't going to help us. Why should I trust you if you're gonna lie to me anyways? I love you, but this is stupid. I hope you know that. I can't believe y-"
James leans forward and kisses me. I let him. I've missed him more than I realized. I taste blood on his lips. I lean back and whisper, "James? Why do you always come back hurt?"
"Lils, please left it alone."
I frown at him. "Why won't you tell me?"
"It's not just my secret to share."
"Look, I know Remus is a werewolf, if that's what this is about then you can tell me."
"I want to tell you. Don't think that I'm perfectly fine with lying to you, cause I'm not. I don't want to lie about this, but it's not really my secret to tell."
I sigh. "Fine. I get it. It's not like I don't know that feeling. I get it, James. Next time, just don't lie about where you're going."
James nods. He grimaces as blood trickles down the side of his face.
"Do you want me to heal those?" I ask.
"Sure."
I grab my wand and point it at his face. I wave the wand and the cuts start to heal slightly. I gently inspect my work. "They're not healing half as well as they should be." I admit. I place a finger next to the cut. "It's pretty deep. You couldn't have gotten this from a tree branch."
"Lils." James begins.
"A cut like this should easily be healed though. Normally, only an injury caused by a were-" I stop and drop my hand. I sprint over to the calendar and read. January twenty-sixth. Full moon. "You didn't." I gasp.
"Lily, let me explain."
I bite my lip and nod. "Okay, explain."
"We found out that Remus was a werewolf during our second year at Hogwarts. We wanted to help him. So, we found a way. We read about Animagus for months. We worked at the spells for years. Finally, during our fifth year, we successfully transformed. We did it for Remus. We knew that we couldn't help him as humans, so we became animals for him."
I stare at James. He's an animagus. An illegal one too. "You're an illegal animagus." I whisper.
James nods. "I've been wanting to tell you since we started dating, but I didn't want to break my friends' trust."
"Sirius and Peter too?"
James nods, looking more serious than he ever does. "Guess what we are. Our nicknames should help you."
"Peter is Wormtail. Wormtail... He's a rat."
"One down."
"Sirius is Padfoot. Oh that's easy. Sirius must be a dog."
"A big shaggy black dog," James adds. "He looks like the grim."
I roll my eyes. Divination. "You're Prongs. Hmm... Prongs."
"Why don't I just show you?" James offers. "We'll have to sneak out."
"At this hour?"
"Love, have a little faith." He grabs my hand and says, "besides, I have a few tricks up my sleeves."
I glance at James' watch. If we get caught out at this hour, regardless of our Headships, we'd be in trouble. I glance at James and suddenly I remember: he sneaks out all the time. What are the chances that we'd get caught? "Okay."
James grins. "After this, you'll want to sneak out all the time. I need to grab some stuff."
"Um, sure."
James hurries up the stairs into his room. I'm tired, but at the same time I feel wide awake. I can feel a rush of energy. I stare at the wall. James is an illegal animagus. The magic to become an animagus is incredibly challenging and dangerous. If anything goes wrong, you would be stuck as a half animal human creature. James and Sirius are brilliant if they managed this by fifth year. They must be some of the youngest wizards to successfully become an animagus.
"I'm back. Now to tell you about the rest of the Marauders' Secret."
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Thanks for all the votes and comments! I really appreciate it! I've noticed the formatting problem, unfortunately I am not able to fix it at the moment since I am using a phone to update. Anyways, my birthday is this weekend, sooo if you wanna make me a really happy birthday girl, you could vote and comment. Just an idea! ;)
Thanks guys! Hope u liked it. Next chap, Lily will find out the rest of the Marauders' secrets.