"Would you get off of me?" James demanded as he tried to stand up again but Pomfrey pushed him back down. He had been putting up one hell of a fight once he regained consciousness and realized Romi wasn't there. Peter had tried to hold him down but James lashed out, hitting the boy in the face so he was now keeping his distance. "I'm fine!" he exclaimed. "Now, I have to-"

"Let her do her job," Sirius suggested. Once Sirius left Remus, he waited a beat before showing up, timing it with Pomfrey's arrival. He had managed to hold James down and Pomfrey was trying her best to treat it.

"She didn't mean," he explained quickly, hopeful that his friend would understand what he was trying to say. He knew she didn't mean it. She didn't mean to hurt him. She would never hurt him. "She wasn't going to hurt me. She just wanted out. She was just trying to push me out of the way. She wasn't trying to hurt me."

Sirius frowned, struggling to find the words. He understood what James meant, and he was right. Romi hadn't meant to hurt him at all but that didn't change the fact that he was still hurt. "I understand mate but that doesn't change the fact that you need to let Pomfrey help you. The best we can do for Romi is get you and Moony healed up and get to class. We need to act like nothing."

"Have they found her?" he asked as he sat up. He was less hostile now, his energy slowly leaving him. The adrenaline crash was going to hit and it was going to hit hard. He lost a lot of blood and while Pomfrey was doing her best, his resistance was doing nobody any good. "Do they know where she is?"

Sirius hesitated, not wanting James to lash out again. James's eyes widened and Sirius was quick to raise his hands, "James, we can't do anything, okay?" He was careful with his words, calm and steady, "The best thing we can do for Romi right now, is get you both patched up and get you to class. You know this, James. Just think about it."

"Remus," James spoke and Remus looked over in surprise. He had slowly been getting himself together, his arm was in a sling and he looked like someone had run him over. He turned slowly, as James watched him with a wide - and rather terrified - expression. "What do you think?"

Remus looked between his brother and his- and Sirius. He knew what he wanted to do, which was to march out into the woods and find his sister, slaughtering anyone who dared to stop him. But he also knew that wasn't the right answer. Sirius had a point, there was only so much a group of kids could do to help her. Maybe the best thing they could do was to go about business as usual. "Sirius is right," Remus said after a moment and he could see the hope go out in his friends eyes. The normal spark had just had a bucket of water dumped on it. "If we draw attention to it, the wrong people may find out."

James stared down at his hands, defeat washing over him. He couldn't shake the fear that had encapsulated his body. He wasn't used to this, feeling completely and utterly useless. He wanted to help, it's all he knew. Helping was how he made himself feel better and the one person who could help him feel better without that was the one person he couldn't get to. "James..." Sirius trailed off, worry and concern laced in his tone.

"I know," James said, waving his hand so Sirius wouldn't lay a hand on him. Sirius sucked in a breath at this but obeyed. Normally, James was the last to shy away from physical affection as a means of comfort but right now the only person he wanted comfort from was Romi. "I got it. No saving Romi," he waved his hand in the air like he was checking an invisible box. He kicked his legs over the bed, with a wince, he forced himself to stand. "Fine, let's get to class."

"Er, James?" Peter spoke up from where he stood on the other side of the room.

James huffed, "What is it, Wormtail?"

"Your clothes," Peter explained and James looked down in surprise. His clothes would indeed be a problem. They were covered in his dry blood, which he now realized made him stiff and itchy. He lifted his shirt to see the bandage that was wrapped around his torso with a small puddle of blood where he had been hurt. "Pomfrey said it probably won't heal fully. You'll be left with a scar."

"A scar," he muttered, staring down at his stomach. It was odd, really, the more he looked at it. He couldn't even remember what it had looked like before. It was stupid, that he already missed something he couldn't remember. He had scars all over him, but those were small from something stupid he had done. This was different. It shouldn't have bothered him as much as it did, and yet, here he was.

"Here," Sirius said, passing James a bag. "Your robes and some stuff to...freshen up." He frowned slightly as James took the bag, "There's not much time to clean up. Being late would draw attention."

"Right," James said, raising the bag. "Got it."

The group parted from the infirmary a short while later. Poppy doted on James for a bit, giving him more painkillers and begging him to take it easy. James didn't say anything, he merely halfheartedly smiled at the woman before following his friends out.

Classes were the worst, and Sirius was the only one who seemed to be able to pay attention. Of course people noticed that. It wasn't until lunch that Sirius finally had enough and dragged James and Remus from the castle, Peter trailing behind them in confusion. "Pads, where are you taking us?" Remus asked with a frown, "I'm really not in the mood for a prank or anything right now."

"Wouldn't they have told us by now if they found her?" James asked, finally voicing his thoughts that he had been keeping inside the whole day. His mind had been racing with questions. He somehow kept jumping from bad scenarios to worst case scenarios, an onslaught of possible outcomes and none of them were good. Remus stopped, pulling Sirius back to them. "Are they even looking?"

"Doesn't matter," Sirius huffed and Remus glared at the boy. The former rolled his eyes before explaining, "Because we're going to look for her."

"But you said-" Remus began but Sirius cut him off with a wave of his hand.

"Forget what I said," he replied, turning on his heels. He immediately took off in the same direction as before - which the boys were now realizing was towards the Forbidden Forest.

"We have to find her," James huffed as they approached the edge of the forest. They definitely all knew that but James wanted to ensure that it wasn't an option anymore. Nobody seemed to care about where she ended up or why she hasn't come back yet. They needed to know she was okay.

Remus looked around, his head tilted upward, "She's definitely in there."

Without another word, James turned into a Stag and went after the girl. Sirius turned into a dog and followed after him. Peter turned into a rat and scurried forward leaving Remus to trail after them in human form. It was an odd sight, they were sure, but none of them cared. It was easier to track in Animagus form.

The woods were eerily quiet, as usual. There was never much going on unless something disturbed the creatures that hid amongst the green and most students were too scared to do so. The Marauder's weren't most students, that was for sure. Prongs was heading the charge, moving faster than his friends had ever seen him move before. Padfoot stayed behind him, keeping pace between Prongs and Remus while also trying to ensure that Wormtail wasn't going to slip off his fur coat.

Prongs came to a sudden halt, shifting back into James with ease. James stood there for a moment, as though he was cementing himself with reality. "I think she's up there." He stayed in place but the others didn't hesitate to move forward, Remus running ahead of him. James had this horrible feeling in his chest that he couldn't quite shake.

There was a gasp and this seemed to bring James back down to earth. He ran forward, joining his friends to see what they found. Or who they found. James stopped a foot away from the tree and he felt his heart drop in his chest. "Bloody hell," he muttered.

"Bloody hell is right," Sirius gaped.

Dangling slightly off the tree, impaled in the chest was an unconscious Romi. James could barely breathe, the air around him suddenly toxic, preventing him from taking it in. Remus stepped forward and the four of them were silent as he listened. He let out a breath of relief, "She's alive."

"Do we take her down?" Sirius asked, his eyes wide as he stared at the girl.

"No, no," he shook his head. Remus was trying his best to keep himself grounded. He wasn't sure what the proper reaction to this was but he was eerily calm. "You're fastest," he pointed out, turning to Sirius, "Go get Pomfrey and Dumbledore. Try not to draw too much attention to yourself."

James stared up at Romi, his eyes wide. She's not dead, he reminded himself, She's fine. Because she had to be, right? If Romulus had died, he would have known. He didn't know how he would know, but something would have been different. There was no way she could be dead. He wouldn't accept it.

Romi's lips moved slightly and she muttered something, blood dripping from her mouth as she did so. James swallowed, wanting so badly to help the girl but nothing came to mind. Blood spilling from her mouth had to be a bad thing. She was alive, but for how long?

"Shh," Remus tried. He moved forward, trying to bring comfort to his sister. "Don't try to talk. Just...stay still, okay?"

"Is she going to be okay?" Peter asked. He stood toward the back, not sure as to what he should do.

Remus shook his head, the boy looked rather pale as he spoke, "I - I don't know."

"This way," Sirius said quickly and the three turned around to see him approaching with Dumbledore and Pomfrey behind him. The tension was heightened and James wanted to turn and yell at them. See! he wanted to shout. If you had let us look for her earlier, it wouldn't be like this! In fact, it would have been worse. Had they not decided to break the rules, she could have been...he shook his head, dispelling the thoughts from his mind. She'd be fine. She had to be. And now Pomfrey was here so she would be fine.

Pomfrey blanched as she looked up at the girl, "Oh, dear."

"Can you help her?" James asked. He was surprised that he had managed to speak without yelling. He half expected to go ballistic but he managed to keep himself in check.

Pomfrey looked up at Dumbledore, "I need to take her to Mungo's."

Dumbledore nodded, "Go. We'll be behind you soon enough."

Pomfrey placed her hand on the girl's forearm and the two vanished leaving behind a bloodstained tree and forest floor. "We can go, right?" James asked quickly. He didn't care about anything else right now, "To be with her."

"It can be arranged," the man nodded. "But first I need you to answer some questions. Starting with what you were doing out here to begin with."

"We wanted to find her," Sirius explained quickly and James was grateful that his friend was able to explain. "We knew she had to be out here."

"You knew?"

He nodded, "Even if she had somehow ended up with the pack, she would have done whatever she could to get away from them when she was back in human form."

"How did you find her?"

"Me, sir," Remus spoke quickly. While Pomfrey had her suspicions, nobody knew that the other boys were Animagus. Especially not Dumbledore. "I just...followed her scent."

Dumbledore nodded, "That'll do, for now." He gestured for the boys to step closer to him, "Let's get you to Mungo's."