𝐿𝑎𝑑𝑑𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝐿𝑖𝑓𝑒

Chapter 30: Sneaking Out At Midnight

The door to Lily's room creaked open. Upon hearing the sound, her head snapped up to see James leaning against her wall.

"Let me guess, you haven't touched Flitwick's essay yet and now you're stress writing," he said rubbing the tiredness out of his hazel eyes.

"How'd you know?" Lily asked furrowing her eyebrows.

"Whenever you read your Charms textbook you get this delighted look on your face that nothing else can put there."

She had no idea how James had acquired that knowledge, but she didn't mind. In fact, Lily quite liked the fact that he spent so much time focused on her that he could tell which subject she was studying.

"Let's go outside," James suggested.

"Are you out of your damn mind? There's snow on the ground, James, snow!" Lily said incredulously.

"Yeah, but I need to show you something," he practically whined.

Lily sighed and grabbed her black fuzzy bathrobe to wear over her nightgown and a pair of slippers that hardly slid over her thick socks.

It was a clear night, not a single cloud had graced the sky, but when James gestured to the snow covered yard, Lily refused to step foot into the snow. Seeing this as an easy obstacle to get over, James threw Lily over his shoulder and ran towards the woods surrounding his house.

"James! Your feet are going to be freezing!" Lily reprimanded when he stopped running.

"You sound like my mum," he chuckled, walking the last few feet to a specific willow tree.

The willow tree had become a tree house many years ago after James had seen a muggle book with one in it. The thought of putting a house inside a tree had fascinated him to the point of him begging Euphemia and Fleamont to build him his own.

"I'll take that as a compliment seeing as she's proper smart. You can put me down now," Lily realized that she wasn't getting out of this 'adventure.'

She shivered as she climbed the tree house ladder. James noticed this and took off the quidditch jumper he had been wearing.

"James! You're going to get sick and it's going to be my fault! Put your damn jumper back on!" Lily's eyes widened when she realized he had only been wearing  t-shirt under his jumper.

"My immune system can take a little cold. Besides, I like it better when my last name is on your back," he replied shoving his jumper into her hands.

Ever since Lily had first borrowed James's quidditch jumper, he had made an effort to give it to her.

"Merlin..."

...

Remus had traveled back to his home for the full moon, by himself, even with James and Sirius's pleading that he didn't have to. He felt that if he asked the Potters for a place to stay during the moon that he was overstaying his stay at their house.

So, he once again flooed to the manor, battered and bruised, hoping against all odds that Euphemia wouldn't question him. James had already told her some stupid excuse, but she was smart and could probably see through it the moment he said it.