Deer in the Headlights of Love

Chapter 7

"Sirius, Peter, and I are Animagi."

These words rang in Lily's ears for a while. She knew that becoming an Animagus was extremely hard and only a few witches and wizards were Animagi. And how could people like James Potter and Sirius Black be Animagi? Let alone Peter Pettigrew.

"Now, you may not believe me, but I'll prove it under one condition," James said. Before nodding, Lily thought for a moment about if he'd ask her out again, but the situation was too sirius. So she simply nodded. "You can't tell anyone, ok?"

"Ok," Lily said, echoing the only thing James said in the Great Hall. James stood up and walked to behind the couch so there'd be enough room. Lily turned around and gasped as James Potter turned into a stag. He still had his hazel eyes as a stag and for a few moments, Lily stared at him. Then, James turned back into his human form, straightening his glasses while doing so.

"Ok... you're an Animagus..." Lily said slowly. "Merlin you're an Animagus..."

"You can't tell a soul," James said and she nodded.

"But, what does this have to do with last night?"

"Every full moon, Sirius, Remus, Peter, and I go to the Shrieking Shack," James began, sitting back down. "While Remus turns into a werewolf, Sirius turns into a dog, Peter a rat, and I a stag so we can-"

"Keep him company," Lily said.

"Right, since we can't keep him company as humans, we keep him company as animals. Last night was a full moon and Peter was sick and you and I had patrolling, so Sirius was alone with Remus, which isn't easy. We're usually all together during Remus's transformations and we each play a part to help, but if there's only one of us, we can get hurt. So when I heared a howl last night, I remembered that it was full moon and left to go help Sirius."

It took a moment for Lily to fully take in this information but when she did, she smiled.

"You're- you're such a good friend," she said. "I guess I underestimated you."

"Sorry for being so cold to you, it's just been our secret for so long and we didn't want anyone finding out," James said.

"How long?"

"We all mastered it in fifth year," James said.

"Wow," Lily said in awe.

The next day...

Lily walked to Defense Against the Dark Arts with Alice and Marlene. The three were excited - they were going to be producing Patronuses today. Or at least trying to. Of course, Patronuses were a particularly hard bit of magic, but since they were in their seventh year at Hogwarts and would soon be going into the world on their own, Professor Lowery figured that they should learn how to produce them. Plus, a war was starting, even if not many people wanted to believe it.

The girls got to class and sat in the front like they usually do. Professor Lowery was already there and told the students that were already there to hand in their homework, so they did. While waiting for class to start, the girls talked to each other as the room became more and more full of students.

"Alright class, take your seats... take your seats," Professor Lowery said when the bell signaling that class was starting rang. "Now, we will start producing Patronuses today, but first let's briefly go over last night's homework. Who can tell me a bit about what a Patronus symbolizes? Mr. Lupin?"

"A Patronus looks different depending of the wizard or witch that conjures it," Remus said. "It takes form of an animal that is similar to the owner."

"Very good, ten points to Gryffindor," Professor Lowery said. "What about mating? Ms. Evans?"