Chapter 2

"Hey! Look!" Sirius pointed to the distance, bouncing on his feet. "I think I see the train! Let's chase after it!"

Remus looked back and forth between what Sirius was claiming as the train, and the clearly delusional Sirius. "But, Padfoot, that's a-"

"Let the pursuing commence!"

Sirius ran at full speed with his arms flapping at his sides, not seeing the platform end as his eyes were glued on his destination. With a high-pitched scream, he fell off the platform and landed on to the empty train tracks.

His three associates and a disgruntled redhead quickly ran to the edge of the platform, peeking out their heads below to inspect the probably impaired boy.

"Are you okay?" Remus called down worriedly.

"You have no idea how much that hurt…" Sirius made an audible groan, trying to peel back his flattened face against a train track. "The train…" he mumbled painfully. "Can you still see the train?"

"IT WAS A BIRD!" Peter yelled, his hands cupped around his mouth. "A BIRD, IT WAS!"

Sirius groaned. "One, the drop wasn't that high so you don't have to shout as if you're at the top of the Astronomy Tower. And two, shit. I swear that was an effing mode of transport."

Lily massaged her eyelids. "How did this happen? I don't understand," she whined, stomping her feet. "We couldn't have missed the Hogwarts Express!"

"Why?" James questioned her.

"Because we couldn't have!" she continued lamely. "We're Head Boy and Girl! We're supposed to be on the train bossing around the prefects!"

Remus arched an eyebrow. "Bossing?" he echoed.

"Did I say 'bossing'?" Lily laughed shrilly. "I meant, enlightening."

"I'd like to enlighten someone that I'm still down on the train tracks! Hello? Pay attention to me, damn you! HEL-LO!" Remus finally poked a head out again and Sirius brightened. "Look what I can do, Moony!" He turned his eyelids inside out as he pulled an ugly face.

"That's nice, Sirius. It's nice to see you've learnt something productive," Remus spoke in an even tone. "Now, I'm just going to continue my chat with the adults and try and work out how we're going to get out of this situation. You be a good boy and stay put, okay?"

Sirius nodded obediently and sucked on his thumb.

Meanwhile James was trying to soothe Lily with a shoulder massage, involving karate-chop hand gestures.

"This cannot be happening. This must be some sort of bad omen, you know. We become Heads and we can't even make it on the sodding train." Lily stopped James' bad massaging and fixed him an annoyed look. "This is all your fault! You should learn self control." She flushed, crossing her arms.

James tried to calm her down. "Don't worry, Lily." He pinched her cheeks together so she looked like a puckered fish. "I'm Head Boy," he reminded her. "I'll save the situation! No worries everyone!"

Two minutes later of James thinking and Sirius climbing back onto the platform after being lured with a cauldron cake…

"I want Professor Dumbledore!" James whimpered, kneeling on the ground as if he were praying to The God's that the headmaster would arrive with a 'pop' and charm them with encounters of a room full of toilets and offer lemon drops. "Christ, even McGonagall will do! Any sort of authority figure!"

"But you are an authority figure," Peter pointed out plainly.

This statement only made James whimper more. "I was picked because I was pretty…"

"Oh, I bet Lily is so attracted to your sobbing right now," mocked Sirius.

Lily rolled her eyes. "Oh yes. I am full of sensual feelings right now..."

There was a pregnant pause until Sirius finally replied, "Really? Would you, um, like to describe these sensual feelings and what they are doing to your—ow!" He was cut off by Lily hurling her pointy shoe at him. "Christ, woman!"

"What are we going to do?" Peter questioned. He tried to occupy his nervous state of shaking hands and stuffed them into his pockets, but this clearly did not work as his hands were now moving on their own accord into the air, whilst still in his trousers.

"Watch where you're poking that pocket, will you!"

"Okay," Remus tried to breathe calmly, "Let's think this through rationally-"

"We can run back through the platform wall we came in through!" James butted in, obviously no rational thoughts going through his mind as he thought of the exact things people told him not think of, such as: is Sirius' mum attractive in any way?

Remus shook his head predictably at James' idea. "No, the opening wouldn't be-" he started.

"Oh, Moony, you're always nay-saying me! Trust me, once I get through wall I'll be laughing in your ugly, fat arse faces. Except Lily's because her face is as lovely as sponge cake and does not resemble an ugly, fat arse, in any way, shape, or form," he quickly rectified as Lily shot him an indignant look.

James took a runner up and sprinted full pelt at a platform pillar.

"No! James!" Lily shouted in warning.

Of course, the warning was too late and James smacked head-on into the bricks of the wall, possibly stupefying himself at such an impact.

"It's the other wall," Lily pointed to another pillar as she cringed. She gave him an affectionate ruffle to his messy hair and helped him to feet.

He took another step back as he ran at the other platform wall.

"No, no! James!" This time Remus shouted in warning.

Of course, the warning was too late again and James slammed into the platform with a cry of pain and very sore genital parts.

"As I was going to say, the opening would probably have locked after the train left," mentioned Remus too late.

James grumbled sorely as he was again pulled to his feet, massaging his groin area. "But what about our mums and dads? How do they get back home?"

"Most probably apparition, excluding Muggles," Remus guessed. "Wait…Apparation! Of course, we can't Apparate to the school itself but perhaps nearby…Can any of you Apparate?"

"Too young to take the test," James and Lily answered simultaneously. They looked at each other in surprise at answering at precisely the same time.

"You know what they say about people who say things at the same time?" James smiled coyly and gave Lily a slightly energetic elbow nudge.

"They spend too much time together?" she offered.

"No, Head Girl. They say they're soul mates." James smiled a sappy grin.

"Oh, God, kill me now," Sirius begged as he prayed to the clouds. "Please, just have another snogging session. Get it over and done with," he told the couple, noticing their lingering, starry-eyed looks.

They responded as maturely as possible by sticking out their tongues.

"Well, I failed my test," Peter mentioned. He reddened and looked down at his feet. "I just left something behind when I Apparated."

"Oh, what did you leave behind?" Lily asked curiously.

"His whole body," Sirius answered for Peter, snorting. "He didn't actually Apparate any part of himself," Sirius patted Peter on the back, "Never mind, Wormtail."

"Well, what about you two?" Peter said, turning on Sirius and Remus with a childish pout.

"I missed the test," the two boys answered simultaneously.

Much looking was focused on Sirius and Remus.

James snickered, "You know what they say about-"

"Shut the hell up, turd face," Sirius cut him off. "And I'll have you know, I missed the Apparition test because I was distracted in the company of a stunning woman."

"Madam Rosmerta," added Remus.

James and Lily grimaced, whilst Peter seemed to accept it with an impressed nod and a high-five in the air which was not returned by Sirius because he had declared it out of fashion two days ago.

"She's old enough to be your mother," Lily scolded him. "What is your infatuation for older women?"

Sirius smirked, "They're much more experienced…"

Remus rolled his eyes. "Sirius missed his test since he walked instead of Apparating to the Three Broomsticks, then proceeded to chat up the bar lady and get completely sloshed out of his mind. Which was why I also missed the test, trying to unpeel him off the bar floor after Rosmerta complained he was scaring off punters."

"Well, that's a lovely story and everything," Lily said, brushing the odd anecdote aside, "But what exactly are we going to do?" She reminded the boys back to their grim situation.

"Maybe we'll have better ideas if we talk whilst we walk?" Peter suggested ridiculously.

Five minutes later, the group were following the bare railway tracks, lugging their trolley limply along in their rather pathetic dragging of feet. Of course, Lily had the common sense to charm her luggage to the size of a keyring, slipping her bags lightly into her pocket.

"Okay, Pete. We're on ground level now, yet no refreshing ideas are coming to me."

Lily was rather suspicious to the fact that they were following the Hogwarts Express train tracks. "We're not seriously walking to the castle, are we?" she asked gravely.

"We're just walking until we get some inspiration," Remus said.

Inspiration was obviously rare to find.

Lily stopped in her tracks, whilst the boys walked ahead, only noticing she had stopped until five steps later where they had to turn back their heads.

"Move it, redhead," Sirius regimented. "You're holding us behind! Do you want me to tie you to a train track, missy? Eh?"

Lily ignored the name of 'missy' and took more attention to her throbbing feet. "My feet hurt," she stated to nobody in particular, though you could tell her tone of voice meant it was purely directed at James. Instinctively, the boys looked at him.

"What?" James asked, noticing their gaze on him. "What am I going to do about it? Cut off her feet?"

Lily pouted her lips and tucked her hands behind her back. "James, you couldn't give me a piggyback, could you?"

James did not look enthusiastic on her invitation. "We've had bad experiences with piggybacks. Remember the old biddy we fell on last year? And—mmmm…" he cut off into a moan as Lily was kissing him as a use of softening him up to get her way. She continued until he finally nodded and she tore away from him with a satisfied grin, grabbing his shoulders to spin him around.

"Why do I feel as if I'm Lily's bitch?" James asked his friends.

"'Cause you are," Sirius smirked.

Lily now sat comfortably on James' back, who was trying to control his hormones whilst balancing his bag of belongings on each wrist. She sighed happily whilst he tried to control himself as her breath kept tickling his ear.

"I'm so comfy I could just sleep…" she boasted.

"I'm so not comfy I could just die," Sirius muttered. He suddenly thought of an ingenious idea and stopped walking, making the others take attention to him. "Oooow," he moaned, rather theatrically. He put the back of his hand to his head and groaned again, hovering a foot in the air. "My foot hurts," he shot an inclining look at Remus, "Moony, could you be a doll and-"

"Don't even think about it."

Sirius stuck out his tongue. "Fine!" He turned to another Marauder. "Oi, Pete, give us a piggyback, will you?"

Peter purely thought this was some kind of ridiculous joke and laughed. He finally realised Sirius was, indeed, completely serious. "But," the boy began, startled, "I'm small. And you're-"

"What are you implying, papoose?" Sirius said in outburst. "That I am obese? Let me get on your back, Pete! Pete…? Oi, mork, get back here!" He shouted to Peter who had abruptly run ahead, wailing his arms in the air.

Remus watched with noisy exhaling the two run off with noise exhaling. "Don't run on the train tracks, guys! Guys! It's reckless and highly treacherous!" he yelled after them. "Treacherous!" he tried again. "Recklessness!"

As if the situation couldn't get any worse, the weather was not on good terms with the teens.

"Okay, either Moony just spat at me with his 'treacherous' and 'recklessness' explosion," James stated, feeling drops of water spatter at him, "Or it's beginning to rain."

Remus turned his head upwards to the dismal, gloomy clouds, where a drop of rain landed conveniently in his eye. "I think it would be the latter," he muttered bitterly.

"Rain!" Lily cried, jumping off James' back with a horrified expression.

"Don't worry. We'll use a water reflective spell to protect us from the rain, so your hair won't get ruined-"

"How dare you imply I was going to complain about the rain ruining my hair?" Lily cut James off with a scandalised look.

"But you were though, weren't you?"

"Yes, but that's beside the point!" Lily flushed. "Anyway, we don't need to use magic for every little thing. We can use my umbrella!" she announced, her features proud.

James instinctively massaged his forehead, which was now a little damp from the heavier rain. Remus was busy looking amused yet dry, already protected from the rainfall with a handy charm. "Not that Muggle thing, Lils." James shook his head in disapprove.

"Magic isn't the answer to everything," Lily reprimanded. She took out her minimized luggage from her pocket, saying the incantation to re-size it back to normal. She dug into one of her bags until she found the umbrella. With a triumphant smile, Lily opened the umbrella over her head.

A collection of belongings toppled on her skull, falling out of the Muggle contraption.

"Sirius!" Lily screamed, knowing fully well who the culprit was. The worsening rain did not help her fiery temper.

She grumbled painfully, eyeing her possessions of various underwear garments, quills, toiletries and other random objects which had fallen from inside the umbrella and clouted her head.

"C'mon, you've got to admit that prank is funny!" Sirius said, nearing towards her as he was perched on Peter's back in what looked like a highly uncomfortable piggyback. Peter appeared to be making unbelievable cries of agony, but Sirius talked over him. "I admit, it may not be so funny, this being the fourth time I've done the gag to you. But you were just asking for it, leaving your luggage trolley unattended in my presence."

James had to physically hold Lily back, tugging at her waist. "Padfoot, how many times do I have to say, Lily is out of bounds for pranking." He pulled her into a hug, and secretly shot Sirius an impressive thumbs up behind her back for it being a pretty good practical joke.

"Let's get some shelter under the trees," Remus suggested sensibly. He rolled his eyes at his friends who were lazy and had chosen to get soaking wet and on the verges of pneumonia, rather than cast a simple spell to protect themselves from rain water.

"You heard the Moony man!" Sirius told Peter. He was struggling to sit on his back as the boy clearly had no energy to hold him up, so kept slipping every few seconds. "Shelter is what we must seek!" Sirius gave Peter a kick to the back of the legs and pointed to a nearby by tree, their new destination.

Peter started walking at an exceedingly slow speed.

Sirius was an extremely impatient person. "God, you're the worst donkey ever, Wormtail."

Peter would have responded but he'd abruptly collapsed under Sirius' weight.

The five finally found a tree to huddle under on the edge of a forest along the bare train tracks.

"We need a new plan," Lily said in between teeth chattering. She rubbed her goose-bumped arms as she shivered.

"We just need to think of a new mode of transport," Remus suggested logically.

Sirius shrugged, not looking too stressed about being stranded in the middle of nowhere. "Hippogriff?" he suggested.

"Oh yes," Remus spoke dryly. "Because a Hippogriff is really going to pop out of nowhere and let us ride her." He rolled his eyes.

Peter stared past the trees of the forest, as if he were expecting the arrival of something.

Remus was the only one to notice this. "What, Peter?" he asked, looking worried. "What are you looking at?"

"Well, this is just the part where Hippo the hippogriff suddenly pops out of a bush, isn't it?" Peter questioned.

The group gazed at a bush for exactly three minutes and decided Hippo was not coming to their rescue.

"Wait!" Sirius put a hand to his ear, hearing rustling from the bush. "I told you she would come!" he said triumphantly.

A black crow tumbled out of a bush, looking startled, and clearly not remembering entering the bush in the first place.

"False alarm, amigos," Sirius said dejectedly. "Unless we use a spell to enlarge the crow so it's like GIGANTIC! And then, we ride this GIGANTIC crow to Hogwarts and spread out our arms whilst riding the bird which is really quite dangerous because you could fall off but it looks impressive and the crow is GIGANTIC-"

"Quidditch! Quidditch is always the answer!" James butted in.

Lily looked back and forth between James and Sirius, baffled. "How short are your attention spans? I cannot keep up with you two! One is talking about a giant crow and one is talking about Quidditch, for goodness sake…" She slammed her head against a tree trunk.

James looked pretty annoyed that his idea of 'Quidditch' was ignored. "Quidditch, people?" he reminded them. "Quidditch brooms." The teens all brightened and slapped their foreheads for not thinking of something so obvious. "That's right, morks. Head Boy saved the situation," he stuck up his fingers into rather rude hands gestures and displayed to each person, "Screw you all…Except for you Lily, I mean, though I'd like to, but…never mind."

Lily brushed aside his perverted declarations before she lost her line of concentration. "So, how many brooms have we got?"

She looked at Peter who snorted, whilst Remus reacted the same along with the words, "You have got to be kidding me! Me, be in the possession of a broom?" and doubled over with laughter.

"I've got one," James and Sirius answered in unison, raising their hands.

"So," Lily got herself into mathematical thinking, "roughly two people can fit on one broom?" The boys nodded. "So there would be two on each broom, which leads to a grand total of four…oh, wait, there's five of us…" Her face fell. "One might possibly have to stay behind-"

"Oooo! Oooo!" Peter jumped up and down, waving his hand like a classroom swot or possible embarrassing relative. "Pick me! Pick me!" he shouted, as though they were choosing sport teams. Peter froze when he received startled looks. He pulled his hand down. "No, wait, this is something bad. I take it back! I didn't hear the question!" he revealed his poor listening skills.

"No, no, Pete," Sirius patted him on the shoulder, "We'll definitely come back for you."

James tried to hide his panicked state. "Er…we will?" he murmured to Sirius. "Really?"

"Suck up to the rat, Prongsie."

Lily heard the exchange between them. "We can't leave him behind!" Her firm eyes made the two boys cower in guilt.

Peter looked heartily surprised that Lily had stuck up for him. "Wow, thanks, Lily. I mean, I never knew-"

"I don't like you."

"Lily!" James hissed. "What did I say about making an effort with my friends?"

Lily looked apologetic. "Sorry, Peter. I find you…tolerable, and you seem like a nice enough lad… Just, stop looking at my legs."

"Wormtail!"

"Sorry…"

"Guys, you're drifting off into the realms of babbling and insanity," Remus interrupted them. He waved his arms towards his chest. "Come back to me."

James' eyes widened, indicating he'd just thought of another ingenious plan. "Peter could trans-" he clamped his mouth shut, realising what he nearly revealed to a particular person in the group.

The Marauders took intakes of breath.

"What?" Lily said confusedly. She looked each boy in turn. "I don't understand. 'Trans'? Trans-what? Become a transvestite?" She angered more when she received only silence in reply. "WHAT?"

James exchanged silent but meaningful eye contact with Remus, as though they were having a conversation in Marauder Language of facial features.

James raised his eyebrows, which meant, 'Shall I tell her?'

Remus looked hesitant but eventually nodded.

James twitched his nose, meaning, 'Are you sure?'

Remus nodded again, more certain, but looked away.

Sirius elbowed him and did a double twitch of the nose. 'Are you really, really sure?'

Remus gestured a finger to his teeth, most probably representing werewolf fangs, indicating to shut up because Lily was wondering what all this sign language meant.

Sirius pointed to Lily and twirled a finger towards his head.

"I saw that, wanker!"

James took Lily's hands in his. "Lily," he brought her hands to his mouth and gave them a peck, "If I…I mean, we," James corrected himself, and the boys did not look happy to be shared the blame, "tell you something, will you promise not to get mad?"

Lily smirked. "Well, it depends what that 'something' is."

James and Sirius exchanged a nervous look.

Lily laughed. "I'm kidding, James," she smiled warmly, "Just tell me." James looked unconvinced. "I promise I won't get mad." She rounded her eyes in innocence.

Two minutes later…

"I cannot believe you, JAMES POTTER! Aaargh!"

James ducked, avoiding the luggage that was hurled at him. "You promised you wouldn't get mad!" he reminded Lily, hiding behind a tree trunk.

"YOU-" Lily threw a bag which hit the tree trunk and exploded open all its contents "-CAN STICK YOUR PROMISE UP YOUR LYING-" she grabbed a bag Sirius was holding and aimed it at James, managing to hit his shoulder "-SODDING ARSE!"

"Christ, Lily!" James used a tree branch to block another incoming bag which proved to be unsuccessful when it came to shielding.

Sirius, Remus and Peter watched the exchange with bemused expressions; this simply could not be the same couple that was snogging each others faces off barely half an hour ago.

"Aaargh!" Lily hurled another bag. "How could you keep such a secret from me? When we went into this relationship, we promised there were would be no lies!"

"Well, technically I didn't lie. I just failed to mention-" he broke off as another luggage piece collided with his arm, possibly dislocating it.

"How could you not tell me something this big?"

James forced a chuckle to lighten the situation. "It's not that big of a deal-"

"You're illegal Animagus! Not to mention Remus is a werewolf!"

Said boy looked down at his feet.

"How could you not tell me, Remus?" Her face showed a hurt expression. "I mean, we're pretty close, right? We're prefects…Slug Club members…"

"I don't exactly what to broadcast it," Remus spoke barely above a whisper, flustered.

Lily softened and rubbed his arm reassuringly. "I don't blame you," she turned on James with a glower, "I blame him."

"What? What the bloody hell have I done?"

Remus looked clearly uncomfortable with the current situation and subject topic. "Don't blame James, Lily, I forced him not to tell you," he said in a voice that was tired and embarrassed.

Lily was busy directing her anger at her boyfriend. "Were you just never going to tell me?"

"It wasn't my decision!"

Remus voice broke in and everyone silenced. "This is why I hate everyone knowing what I am!" He recognized his sudden heavy breathing as his voice shook. None of them had seen him like this before. "Everyone argues and shouts at each other and I hate it!"

He stormed off into the forest, pushing the tree branches away of his path.

"Moony?" Sirius called after him. He stopped James who was about to go after him and indicated he would instead. "Moony!" he called again, chasing after him.

The couple stared at each other, unaware on what to say, until Lily figured the best option would be to blame James for Remus' outburst.

"Now look what you've done!"

James almost laughed. "Me?"

Peter stood uncomfortably between the couple and whistled. "I think I'll just, er, go for a walk," he suggested, thinking the safest option was to leave the two alone.

"Lils, will you calm down," James pleaded.

"Aaaargh!" She continued back to her enraged state and grabbed the nearest luggage, which happened to be an owl cage with her owl Hizzy inside, and lugged it at James' head.

There was a sound of crash, clang, a defiant owl hoot, and a bellowing of, "OW! BUGGER!"

James howled in pain, clutching at his face that now appeared to be bleeding.

"Oh God, are you okay?" Lily gasped, running to his side.

James clutched his chin. "You just hurled at owl cage at my jaw!"

"I'm sorry," she cringed. She used her wand to magic the blood away and began to stroke his chin better as if it were a pet rabbit.

James closed his eyes relaxingly at her touch. "You shouldn't be apologizing to me…"

"You do trust me…don't you?" Lily asked uncertainly, though quite out of the blue.

James stopped her stroking hand and held on to it, holding her with a fixing look. "Of course I do," he insisted.

"Then why didn't you tell me?"

James ran hand tiredly through his hair. "You have to understand…It wasn't my decision to tell you. It was Remus'. I had to respect his wishes."

Lily gave him an understanding nod. "You're too much of a good person," she acknowledged, her tone almost scolding. "I can't believe I didn't figure it out though…" She shook her head, slightly annoyed with herself. "I mean, those odd nicknames …'Moony'... Though people could think Remus was called that because he was an expert at mooning people, but somehow that image doesn't fit…"

"He did do it once," James said conversationally, playing with Lily's fingers in his hand, "Involuntarily though. Sirius pulled down his trousers in front of a group of first years."

Lily chuckled and then examined James' jaw again, it looking painful. "Sorry," she apologized again. "I think I may have killed my owl in the process of hurting your jaw if that makes you feel better."

"You kissing my jaw could make me feel better…"

"Don't push it, James."

Remus leant against a tree after winding his way through the maze of the forest. Panting, he tried to catch his breath back.

He'd never let himself get like that before, to a situation where he was snapping at the only friends he had. Almost…ferocious. It was characteristics like that which could link him to the creature that he turned into every full moon…

It couldn't happen again.

"Woah, Moony. Got a bit angsty back there, didn't you?"

Remus didn't turn to face the voice and stared fully at the bark of the tree, whilst leaning an arm against it to support himself. "You…you don't think she'd tell anyone, would she?" he asked, his voice laced with fright.

"Of course not!" Sirius reassured him. He was startled he had even asked such a question. "This is Lily we're talking about here."

Remus breathed a sigh of relief, grateful for the comfort from his friend; he continued to look at the bark as if it held all the answers.

"Stiffie upper lippie, mate," Sirius consoled him, both hands in his pockets.

Remus made a puzzled look to the tree trunk. "I have no idea what that means," he clarified.

"It's just my modified version of the saying 'stiff upper lip'."

Remus nodded to the tree again.

Sirius was getting slightly annoyed as eye contact during conversation was one of his morals and he was worried about his friend talking to tree bark.

"Moony?" Sirius reached out a hand to Remus' jaw and turned it so he was looking at him.

Almost simultaneously, they both jumped back away from each other, as if they were burnt by fire.

"Oh dear God…" Remus muttered, shielding his eyes for unknown reasons.

Sirius massaged his forehead. "Room of requirement flashbacks there…" he cringed.

It took a couple of seconds until they burst into laughter, whether it was real or false was unidentified.

"Seriously, Moony," Sirius stopped his laughing to show that he was subdued. "You shouldn't hide what you are, you know," he spoke with sincerity.

Remus again was uncomfortable by the matter of the conversation. "Sirius, I couldn't even tell you guys that I was a werewolf, you had to find out for yourselves."

"Well, one does get suspicious when a different relative dies every month…"

Remus turned crimson. "One does run out of ideas…"

Sirius finally noticed his discomfort and got back into Insane-o Sirius Mode. "You should just stand up and say, 'I'm fanged and I'm proud! And if you don't like it, screw you, or I'll eat you because I got the werewolf munchies!'"

Remus hid the chuckle which threatened to escape from his mouth and fixed him with the usual unimpressed look.

"Too soon for jokes, eh?"

"Too soon," Remus confirmed.

"Let's get back to Mr. and Mrs Potter then," Sirius said, dragging Remus was away from his newly claimed sanctuary tree.

Remus let him pull along and even hummed along a little to Sirius' singing of, 'I see a little silhouetto of a Moony man, Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the Fandango! Snape's oog-ley face, very, very fright'ning ME! GALILEO! GALILEO! GALILEO! GALILEO FIGARO, FRICKIN MAGNIFICO!'

"You won't tell anyone, then?" Remus asked awkwardly, ten minutes later after returning back with Sirius to face James, Lily and Peter. Lily looked shocked that he'd asked her something that he already knew the answer to.

"Of course I won't, you walking-talking-dictionary," she pulled him into a friendly hug and patted his back in reassurance.

"Must you insist on calling me that?" Remus spoke shamefully. "I may have a wider range of vocabulary but it's embarrassing…"

"Okay, people!" James intervened, feeling mightily neglected. "Enough with the Lily Cuddles…"

Lily rolled her eyes and gave James an equal embrace, kissing him on the cheek.

"See," James made his friends observe them as he was pulled into a hug and Lily's back was facing the boys, "Only in my Lily cuddles do I get access to the bottom." He gripped a hand to her right buttock.

SMACK.

"Too soon for groping after a fight, wasn't it?"

"Too soon," Lily confirmed.

"Have you written the letter to Dumbledore yet, Padfoot?"

A sensible plan thought by Lily had prompted them to write a letter to Professor Dumbledore about their situation, safety, and their 'probable' arrival by quidditch brooms.

Sirius had volunteered to write the letter.

Yes, he can write.

"Nearly finished," Sirius answered, poking his chin with his quill. He sat cross legged on the forest floor, using the ground as a table as he made another crossing out of a mistake into Dumbledore's letter. There was already a mountain of crumpled up pieces which were declared as 'drafts' and had been tossed over his shoulder.

"All done!" Sirius jumped from the floor and marched towards Herpes the pigeon, ready to tie the scrolled parchment to its leg.

"Wait a second, dung brain." James snatched the letter from Sirius' hand and unrolled it.

Yo, Dumbley-door!

Just writing a note to tell you we are cool (teenage slang word for fine and well).

No need to worry about us, especially me since I am exceedingly missed, mostly by Professor McGonagall who is probably reading this over your shoulder and was in your office because she was giving you a spanking! OH YEAH, SIRIUS BLACK KNOWS ALL, MATE. Don't think that I haven't seen you two do footsie under the teachers' table in the great hall, you two! If you don't give me a million galleons by tomorrow evening at seventeen hundred hours, I will be forced to declare your TEACHERS SEX to the ENTIRE SCHOOL at the breakfast table. DON'T THINK THAT I WON'T DO IT, MATEY-

"That is enough!" James scrunched up the piece of parchment, too revolted to read on. "For Christ's sake, Padfoot! That was our bloody last piece of parchment after you made about a bloody hundred drafts!" He threw the parchment in anger and it bounced off Peter's head.

"How did you manage to change a letter to Dumbledore explaining our safety to a letter of blackmail?" Lily asked exasperatedly.

"Don't worry, I wrote back up-letter in case Sirius did something like this." Remus revealed his own version of the letter to Dumbledore from behind his back and went over to Herpes, tying the parchment to her leg. Sirius noticed Remus received no halting as he had gotten earlier.

"Hey, why aren't you checking what he wrote?"

"Because he wouldn't write about bloody teacher's sex, butt pirate!" James pointed out.

Remus stopped tying the parchment to the bird and brought a hand to his mouth. "Oh dear. On that note, I'll have to re-write it," he informed.

"WHAT?"

Remus didn't expect such an outburst of a reaction. "It was a joke!" He put up his hands in defence. "I was kidding…What? Aren't I allowed to make a joke?" He stared at the gaping mouths. "Oh, for the love of…never mind, post the damn letter, already!"

The group watched as Herpes descended into the air, flapping her wings with much force as she tried to balance such a large scroll of parchment on one foot.

"Maybe we should have made Lily's owl go instead," Peter said, wincing as the pigeon seemed to be pulled by the recent heavy wind.

"But Herpes hasn't posted a letter since she was permanently transfigured. She needs some work," said James.

Lily observed him. "But she's very likely to get blown away because of her small size…" James grinned, informing Lily's suspicions. "James! That was your plan, wasn't it! You wouldn't mind if Herpes gets blown away, as long as you get a new owl! How can you be so heartless?"

"Do you know how embarrassing it'll be for Head Boy to get letters delivered by a pigeon? Everyone knows people buy pets to show them off! The bigger the owl, the bigger-"

"Size banana?" Sirius finished, wanting to join in the conversation.

"I was going to say importance and position," James shrugged, "but banana will do."

Remus held a blank expression. "Is the word 'banana' used for some kind of vague reference to the-"

"Penis!" Peter shouted, and clamped his mouth at once, trying to control his giggles.

James noticed Lily's fed up appearance because of the typical Marauder conversation. "Okay, let's get going," he said, taking Head Boy leadership. "The luggage has been resized and everything seems to be in order. Pete, you ready to transform?"

Peter replied with a nod. Lily watched with an awed expression as Peter's body morphed, gradually getting smaller until he had transformed into his animagus form of a rat. Sirius picked him up by the tail and pocketed him into his jacket.

"Wait, what about the Muggles?" Lily questioned, remembering that flying on Quidditch brooms was not part of normal scenery.

"The invisibility cloak? But that would only cover one and wouldn't really work flying-"

"INVISIBILTY CLOAK?" Lily cut off Sirius with a fuming face directed at James.

Sirius shot James an arched eyebrow; it appeared James had neglected to tell Lily things…

"Did I not mention the cloak?" James raked a hand through his hair and looked pointedly at the ground. "You're super pretty, Head Girl..."

Lily clamped her hands together which had threatened to strangle James.

"The Disillusionment charm should fix our visible problems," Remus said, trying to distract Lily's anger. Just as Sirius was about to ask what the Disillusionment charm was, Remus had tapped his wand on top of his head.

"Ow! What the hell was that for…EUUURGH! EUUURGH!" Sirius shrieked, feeling the compulsory feeling of an egg smashing on his head. He shivered as he felt cold trickles run over his body. "What did you just…AAAARGH!" Sirius did not give the impression of handling the charm well. He looked down at himself and discovered his body now coloured the same as the scenery. "Freaky." He opened and closed his fingers.

After Remus had performed the spell to the others and himself, the group was ready to go, but he kept staring at the dismal sky every now and then with a look of dread. The rain had stopped but was replaced by worsening winds and the approaching of…mist?

"Maybe this isn't a good idea," Remus said apprehensively.

"The quicker we get going the quicker we get to Hogwarts!" Lily said, looking desperate to get back to the castle.

James did not argue and kicked off the ground and into the air, whilst Sirius followed his lead, both having the unusual yet thrilling feeling of soaring the air whilst not really recognizing their hands gripping the broom.

James was controlling one broom with Lily holding on to his sides, whilst Sirius controlled the other with Remus grudgingly clinging on to him for dear life.

"This is a peculiar feeling of holding onto thin air," Remus stated, knowing he was holding on to Sirius but could only see his camouflaged skin.

"Hey, Moony?" Sirius had resorted to shouting since the wind was getting noisy as it blasted their faces, pushing their hair back. "Want to go upside down? We can do the loop-de-loop!"

"NO!" Remus shut his eyes, clearly not wanting to see the long drop below to their possible gratifying death.

Lily remained oddly quiet and diffidently held on to James' waist. "I'm still in a mood with you, you know." She tried to keep a brave eye open as she gazed at the ground below; passing the landscape and the railway track they were following to school. "Your flying is quite impressive, Mr. Potter," she mumbled reluctantly, and James chuckled in reply.

"I'm gonna be a big star! I'm gonna laaaay it on and go WOO-HA!" Sirius made an impressive slice into the air whilst holding the broom with one hand and jiggling. "Cos when the mood gets eeeeexciting, come on, when everybody's Kung Fu fiiiiighting! Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting! Come on! HUH! WOO-HA! Those kicks were fast as lightening. Hah! WOO-CHA!"

Sirius noticed Remus had stopped holding on to him. "Oi, Moony?" He peeked behind him whilst trying to keep the broom under control. "What the hell are you doing?"

"I swear, if you don't stop singing, I will jump!" Remus threatened, sticking an arm out whilst holding one hand to the broom handle.

"Fine."

Sirius silenced…then began humming.

"Padfoot!"

"Okay, okay!" Sirius tried to calm Remus down, dangerously glancing back at him whilst trying not to collide into passing birds or James' broom next to him.

None of them knew how long they had been flying for, but it had felt like hours. The weather had got considerably worse and the sky was darkening.

"Prongsie!"

James' head snapped at the sound of his name called and saw Sirius flying to his left, both his body and Remus' were flickering, one second camouflaged, one second normal.

"What's happening?" James yelled. He glanced down at his hands and chest and saw his appearance was suffering the same effects.

"I think the charm is wearing off!" Remus yelled, whose body was now completely in view.

James cursed. "Lily? Lils, you still with me?" He tried to safely peek back at her and still keep an eye on the path in front of him. Her body had also gone back to normal, no signs of camouflage from the glimpse he saw of her pale face.

"Hmm?" she answered faintly. Her tone of voice was tired as she rested her head on James' shoulder. "Yeah, yeah…"

James detected her grasp had loosened around him. "Lily, keep holding on to me tight. Are you feeling okay?"

"Hmm? Yeah, yeah…" she mumbled again. "Just feel a bit dizzy…"

James tensed. "Don't let go of me, alright? This wind is getting worse and I can barely see through these clouds." He zoomed past the foreboding mist and tried to find some kind of space of clear sky. He automatically thought Sirius was following him on the broom, but when he looked either side of him, he and Remus were not there.

"Sirius!" James shouted. He whirled his head left and right but was only surrounded in thick fog. "Remus!" He tried again. There was no answer, and he could still not fly out of this suffocation of cloudiness.

"Shit! Where are they?" James spoke aloud, thinking Lily was listening to him. He suddenly felt her release his stomach and her head lift off his shoulder. "Lily, how many times have I gotta say, keep holding on to my stomach," he spoke with annoyance.

He shot a look over his shoulder, confused to why she hadn't answered.

She was no longer on the broom.

"Lily?"

He glanced beneath him and saw the glimpse of red disappear into the clouds.

"LILY!"

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Well this was long over due...

Since you can get to 13, can you get 15 votes for the next upload? TRY!!!!

<3 Y