The Misadventures of Padfoot and Prongs

The next morning Remus sat nervous, constantly looking to the doors of the Great Hall, waiting for the Ravenclaw to come down to breakfast. On occasion, James or Sirius would pat his back or verbally assure him that all will be alright.

Finally, Lyra walked through the doors. She looked around a bit, before her eyes settled on the very shaggy, dirty-blonde boy who was waiting for her very presence. When their eyes locked, she smiled and motioned toward the double doors.

Remus sighed, mumbling, "Well, here goes nothing," and began his journey to facing one of his greatest fears: hatred from a friend for what he is.

Lyra smiled as he met her by the entrance, allowing her to proceed before him, before following her out. The pair walked for a little bit until they reached an empty classroom. Lyra immediately hopped on top of a desk and began swinging her legs.

After watching Remus just shuffle his feet, the young girl spoke up, "Remus, whatever it is, you can tell me. I won't judge, I already know you to be too loving and caring to mind whatever it is you are hiding."

Remus nodded his head. "It's just better to get this out, I suppose," he said, pinching the bridge of his nose and shutting his eyes tight. "I'm a werewolf."

The boy only heard silence for the next few seconds, so he opened his eyes. Instead of seeing an empty classroom like he expected, he saw Lyra still sitting on the desk, looking as if she were immersed in her thoughts.

When she spoke, out of all the things Remus thought she would say, "Oh, so that's why they call you Moony," was not one of them.

"You're not freaked out?" he said shocked.

Lyra cocked her head to the side, "Why would I be?"

"Because I'm a monster," the conviction in Remus' voice caused Lyra's heart to break. How could someone so loving be cursed with what society has considered monstrous?

Lyra removed herself from the desk and made her way to the broken boy. Instinctively, she wrapped her arms around him and held him tight.

"Remus Lupin, I NEVER want to EVER hear you say that you are a monster ever again," she pulled away and looked into his eyes, "You are the farthest thing from it. In fact, you are more human than anyone I know! Do you understand me?"

Remus nodded stiffly, sniffling slightly as he held back tears, and said, "Thank you, Lyra. You don't know how much this means."

Lyra gave him one last hug and then said, "Come on, wolf boy, breakfast is almost done with and I would like to grab a couple pieces of bacon and a piece of toast before we have to get to class."

Remus chuckled, as relief finally overtook him and he followed the girl out and back to their friends.

Once they got to the table, the greeting wasn't one that either expected. Instead of a loving kiss from her boyfriend, or a "How did it go?" from James, Sirius grabbed ahold of Lyra as soon as she reached him and pushed her into Lily.

"Sirius! What the-" she said as she pried herself away from the redhead.

"Shush! No time to explain!" said James as he took out a vial of bluish potion and threw it as hard as he could to the Slytherin table as the house stood up to leave. However, it didn't quite hit the intended target, which was predictably Severus Snape.

In fact, it missed him altogether as they saw his retreating form practically run from the Great Hall.

Still, hysterical laughter erupted from students crested with a snake, but none where as loud as a boy with familiar black hair and grey eyes.

Yep, James hit Regulus Black.

"Good one, Prongs!" Sirius said, slapping his friend on the back. "This is way better than hitting that greasy-"

"Potter!" Lily's vicious voice sounded like a volcano to the boys' ears. "How many times- no- I can't believe- I thought you were going to-," Lily took a breath. "You think that you could just pick on someone because they are different, or strange, or just Slytherin. Well, one day that might be your boss-no, wait, it won't because people like you never amount to anything in life. You're nothing but a bully and that's all you'll ever be, James Potter!"

And with that, Lily Evans stormed off.

"Ah, Merlin's-" James didn't finish his sentence as he stood up to run after her, but a couple different hands on his shoulders prevented him.

"Let her cool down, mate," said Remus.

James nodded and gathered his bag for class and followed the rest out the door with his head hung low and Lily's words haunting his thoughts.

For the rest of the day, James couldn't really focus. Every time he would get his mind off of Lily's words, they would somehow come back and hit him full force.

As for talking to the girl, that was pretty much an impossibility as she was blatantly ignoring him. That and her friends who she had semi-abandoned to hang out with him, would shoot James a glare every chance they got, and even went so far to create a barrier around her.

Many would say that this would be a good way to humble James Potter. Those people fail to realize that not only is he human, but also a teenage boy with raging hormones. So, instead of humility, James just kept getting more and more angry.

By the time everyone else had gone to bed, James was still up, thrashing in his sheets. His anger had hit an all-time high and he couldn't just lie there anymore. He had to go for a run.

James untangled himself from the coverings, grabbed his invisibility cloak and the map, and made his way quietly out of the dorm. He continued on, finally making his way to the end of the hidden passage on the fourth floor.

James quickly stripped down, made sure everything was in a neat pile, and then shifted and took off into the night.

Running faster and faster, the stag headed off into the Forbidden Forest, not caring about the dangers he could encounter. James ran deeper and deeper into the dense trees until not even the Waning Moon's light kissed the ground.

He breathed rapidly, stopped, and looked around. He had no idea where he was, but that was alright for him. Another second more, when his breathing had slowed, James felt the sting of tiny cuts all over his body. Luckily the branches that caused them only left shallow lacerations that he knew Madam Pomfrey could fix in a jiffy.

Taking one last look at his surroundings, James turned back around to the way he came and started off on a gentle trot. Occasionally, he would pause and listen to the sounds around him, waiting for danger to pop up at any second. However, the night stayed silent, besides a couple crickets, and James easily made his way back to the passage way unseen.

After dressing, James quickly made his way back up to the portrait of the Fat Lady. He shoved the cloak in his pocket then whispered the password. The portrait swung open and James hastily crawled through.

But instead of the silence in the common room that he expected, James heard a very audible 'Humph' from the couch. Groaning he turned around and met fiery emerald eyes.

"So throwing that Alihotsy Draught at the Slytherins wasn't enough?" Lily spoke through gritted teeth. "What did you do now? Trash the Hufflepuff common room? Grab a first year and throw him off the Astronomy Tower? Destroy the Great Hall? Or maybe you decided to burn down the Forbidden For-"

"Just shut up, Evans!" James yelled, finally cracking. "If you really wanna know, I just went out for a run!"

"In the middle of the night?!"

"Yes! Do you have a problem with that?" he said, throwing his arms up for emphasis. "Honestly, Lily, not everything I do results in a prank! As much as you wish it does, it doesn't! And I am so sick and tired of you always on my case about it!"

"I wouldn't always be on your case about it if-" she started, but James interrupted her.

"If what? If I stopped bullying Snape? I've sent one hex his way this year, and that was after he tried to hex Sirius behind his back. If I stop playing pranks? There has never been a time where I have played a prank and someone has gotten physically injured besides one of us. And most of the time we prank to liven up this place!" yelled James.

Lily stopped and considered this for a moment. She knew he made some good points, but the redhead was not going to back down that easily.

"Yeah? Well what about that unnecessary kiss a few months ago? And how about how you always ask me out!" Lily paused but sent the next words to him laced with venom. "Honestly, how could anyone expect me to ever be with an egotistical ass like you."

James stepped back for a moment, then narrowed his eyes and spat back, "You don't have to worry about that anymore, Evans. Obviously you think you're too good for me, and I would never be caught dead with a narcissistic tattle-tale like you."

With those last words, James turned around and stormed up to his dorm, slamming the door shut behind him, which woke Sirius and Remus up instantly.

"All right, mate?" asked Sirius sleepily.

"Yeah," James replied shortly.

"You sure?" said Remus, looking to his friend worriedly.

"Yes!" James practically yelled. "Now shut up so I can go to sleep."

James flopped down on his bed and pulled the curtains shut, cutting him off from the rest of the dorm.

Remus and Sirius shared a worried look, but decided silently that it would be best to ask him about it later, and quickly laid back down. James was thankful for this, as he rubbed the few betraying tears from his cheeks.

Out of all the stupid things he has done, yelling at Lily like that had to have been the worst.

But was it really his fault alone?

Little did he know that the emerald eyes that captured his heart were shedding their own tears, and Lily's thoughts were running the same course.

Would they ever be able to fix this?