It was a dumb idea. She knew she shouldn't have done it. Yet she needed to find out once and for all what was going on with those four.
So she followed them out to Hogwarts grounds, past the greenhouses, stealing a look at the lake, and finally stopping at the humongous tree that had been the subject of mystery among the students since first year.
It had been nicknamed `The Whomping Willow'. Two years ago some first years had tried to get past it, certain that it was hiding something beneath its roots. They had gotten had far as the second branch when it suddenly snapped out and flung the boys a hundred feet in the air. They landed by the front door to the castle, obviously in need of medical attention. But that wasn't what had gotten the attention of the entire school.
It was the screams. Their screams echoed throughout the halls for days. Screams of pain and surprise.
She shuddered at the thought of it all.
As they stopped at the willow she inexplicably lost sight of all four boys, blinking once and then seeing nothing. It was as though they had completely disappeared. She blinked a few more times, convinced that she was seeing things in the dark midnight sky, but the moon appeared from beneath the clouds, revealing what she had thought; they were all gone.
She stared up at the moon as if asking it for answers. It was round, an absolutely perfect circle and for a minute she forgot what she was even doing there, out in the cold in November. She instinctively pulled her cloak tighter around her even though she felt no chill against her skin. There was something so eerie about the moon that night. She couldn't quite put her finger on why.
It was silent on the grounds, a weird happening for such a busy place at night. Usually there was a bird flying overhead, the squid in the lake moving around, or at least the occasional critter trying to get by the willow.
That was it. The willow had stopped moving; a strange sight to see in the evening light. Why was the willow still? It was so unlike its nature, completely contradictory from its normal behavior.
She was suddenly aware of a presence behind her. She turned around slowly, her hair standing on end in fright. There was nothing there. Of course. Her overactive imagination was in overdrive again. She breathed a sigh of relief and turned back around to figure out what to do about the Whomping Willow.
There was a wolf standing in her path.
His fur was dark, a brown if she had to guess the color. It was long, shaggy and seemingly filled with static electricity. It stood on end, as if the wolf were nervous or excited. But it was his eyes that caught her attention first.
They were Remus' eyes.
That, however conceivable it may have looked, was impossible-not to mention improbable. She had been noticing his eyes a little too often lately, perhaps, and simply transferred his eyes onto something else. That was possible, right?
She didn't have time to think about it, though. The wolf suddenly began to growl, his mouth snarling upward to reveal his sharp yellowing teeth. His eyes narrowed and any semblance that the wolf had had to Remus was gone. It was a cold blooded killer and it was after her.
For a second she considered running, but it was obviously too late for that. Any step she took would be followed by the wolf chasing her and he was probably the faster of the two.
"Good wolfie…" she cooed nervously, barely twitching her fingers without his eyes flickering to her hand. She swallowed hard and felt the coolness of the night wrap itself around her arms and shoulders.
The wolf took a step forward and she bolted. She was running as fast as she thought she could go and already she felt winded. She knew it was a rash decision, but there wasn't much of an option to begin with.
He was nipping at her heels and she could feel herself beginning to slip. The grass was still muddy from the rain last night and her shoes were tripping on it. The mud stuck to the soles of her shoes and slowed her down when she ran in the wet grass. She knew she was going to fall soon and fall hard. It was only a matter of time.
She went down sooner than she thought; if anyone had been watching they would have seen the look of surprise on her face. Expecting the wolf to instantly jump on her and start devouring, she flinched in fright when she felt the ground beneath her. But he didn't bite her immediately. Instead, she could feel the wolf tugging at her right leg, pulling her pant leg toward him and trying to drag her along with him in the other direction.
She tried to pull away from him, but he was too strong and when she protested too much he stopped dragging her and bit down hard on her ankle. She screamed in anguish as his teeth sank into her skin, piercing it to the bone. If he had bitten any harder he probably would have broken her ankle. Tears streamed down her face as he pulled her by her bitten ankle and she didn't protest anymore.
When she finally dared to look up through the pain, she realized that they were heading towards a hole. She began to pull at blades of wet grass. There was no way she was going to fit into that tiny hole! However the wolf had other ideas and pulled her through it anyways, even though the sides of the dirt scrapped her stomach and her face.
The inside of the hole was actually a lot bigger than the opening, but she couldn't see anything at all. It wasn't until the tree roots began to hit her that she realized they were under the willow. The wolf pulled and she could only focus on the pain as he changed directions several times through the tunnel. In fact, she had forgotten all about being under the willow until the first root snapped at her.
Apparently after the wolf had passed through the roots of the tree it had woken up and was on the offensive. The first blow landed on her thigh and cut right through her jeans leaving a red welt. After that the attacks were much more painful.
There was pain coming from every inch of her body; the tree attacked her everywhere. She tried to cover her face with her hands, but in addition to getting her arms cut all over, her face still sustained considerable damage as well as parts of her neck. Her body was on fire and she cried out in anguish, twitching violently in response to the throbbing welts now creeping up anywhere the roots had touched her.
Then it was all over. As soon as the damage had started it was done. She was in much, much more pain, yes, but at least the attacks had stopped. She was dimly aware of the wolf still dragging her, but she was in too much pain to care anymore where they were going.
Then she suddenly realized that she wasn't being drug anymore. The wolf had dropped her where the path had narrowed and sloped upward. There was a little light coming from above her head. Moving slowly to avoid using her ankle, she twisted around in the tunnel and pushed up on the wooden panel above her.
She came up through the trap door and discovered that she had come through the wooden floor of a house. Pulling herself halfway out, she lay down on the floor and collapsed, her feet still hanging over the edge of the hole.
There were footsteps hurrying toward her, but she didn't open her eyes. She let unconsciousness seep over her like a blanket, feeling a sense of numbing strike her body to let the pain go away. The very last thing that she could remember was hands turning her over and someone saying her name.
"Lily? Oh Merlin, someone get some help!"
The library was silent except for the scratching of Remus' quill on the page. Lily was too distracted by his quick scribbling on the parchment to write her own paper. She was watching the ink in a desperate attempt not to look at his eyes. For being alone with him today had confirmed what she was already afraid of.
She had a complete and total crush on Remus Lupin.
It made sense, in a way. They were both bright and were at the top of their class. They got along very well and could even be considered friends. The only thing that, in Lily's eyes, didn't add up was why Remus hung out with those complete morons that he had deemed as friends; Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew, and the worst of them all, James Potter.
This fact alone almost made Remus a little less perfect in her eyes, something that she definitely did not want to admit.
"Lily?" Remus asked, not picking up his quill for a second.
Lily blinked and her eyes felt normal again. She had been staring for far too long, she realized. "Hmm," she muttered, comprehending that she held a quill in her hand too and trying to form a comprehensible word on the parchment.
"Are you staring at me?"
Her eyes went wide, but she held her head down so he wouldn't see. It wasn't necessary; Remus was still fully involved with his essay for Potions.
"N-no," She stuttered and wrote the words `Potions Essay' at the top of her blank page.
Suddenly the opened book in front of Remus slammed shut. Lily jumped at the loud noise in the hushed room. She looked up, startled to find Remus' hand on top of the closed book, his eyes cold.
"I know you were." He stood up and shoved the book in his bag. "Don't confuse your feelings for me with the truth, Lily. I'm almost certain that you're displacing me for someone else."
He left the room with Lily's cheeks burning, her mouth slightly open. She watched him walk out, meeting James and Sirius at the doorway. James saw her look of utter shock and almost managed to look concerned. Lily was certain he did not mean it.
Sirius also noticed what James did. "Oh, don't mind Remus today," He snickered, his trademark smile plastered on his face. "He's just a bit moody right now. It'll pass, right Mooney?" He looked over at Remus, who muttered something under his breath Lily was sure he wouldn't have muttered under normal circumstances. Sirius just laughed. James glared at him. Lily shut her mouth and narrowed her eyes.
There was something going on here.
"You two go on ahead; I'll catch up." James said and he moved closer to Lily, sitting down in the seat Remus had just vacated.
"What do you want, Potter?" Lily snarled, setting down her quill and readying herself for battle.
James smiled. It was not his usual full-of-himself smile. There was something different about him with he smiled like that, Lily decided. It was almost…human. She chose not to be fooled.
"Listen, I'm sorry if he came off as a bit…off today." He said, leaning back in the chair a bit, completely relaxed.
This caught Lily off guard. She had never heard James Potter apologize before, especially to her. "I-it's all right." She stammered, looking back down at her blank potions paper.
James smiled again and for a brief and fleeting second she thought he might reach out and touch her reassuringly. He didn't.
"He'll be better soon," He told her, standing up from the table. He opened his mouth again and then closed it. She could see the hesitation in his eyes. He wasn't able to resist.
"Then you can go back to staring at his eyes as much as you like, Lily. I know he really appreciates it."
Lily's face burned with anger and she could feel her features contorting into a mask that was only reserved for when she was extremely angry. She was too mad to say anything else, gathering up her things in record pace and stomping out the door in four seconds flat.
She was so angry with James for tricking her like that, mad at Remus for pointing out her obviousness. But mostly she was mad at herself for letting her get wrapped up in James' apology and believing him.
She was angry for chastising herself for making a mistake; for a moment she couldn't remember why she had given up on liking him in the first place.
-->