This Animal I've Become

“Snape?” she repeated incredulously. “As in, Slytherin, Severus Snape?” Remus nodded slowly as Addie sighed and ran a hand over face. “Oh my god,” she mumbled talking to herself. “He’s going to put two and two together. Not to mention he’s been trying to figure me out since I got here.”

“Figure you out?” Remus questioned, feeling a little surprised that Snape would be questioning someone in his own house. But then again he knew Snape to be suspicious of everyone.

“Well, yeah,” Addie replied. “I’m the new girl, I’m already one of Evan’s favorites, and I’m one of the top students in class. He’s trying to figure out why I’m here or what’s wrong with me. This is not good.”

“Snape’s sworn to secrecy,” Remus tried to reason. “He can’t breathe a word to anyone or else Dumbledore’ll expel him.”

“Oh right,” Addie said sarcastically, “that makes me feel loads better. How did he find out exactly? I mean shouldn’t of he have had time to tell someone else about it?” She was looking up at Remus expectantly, traces of anger and curiosity in her features.

Remus shuffled his feet a little and sighed. He did not feel like repeating the events and reliving what had happened in the past year. But for some reason he felt that she had deserved the truth, even if it meant making one of his friends look bad.

“Last November,” Remus explained with a heavy sigh and a low tone of voice, “Sirius thought it would be a good idea to lure Snape down to the Shrieking Shack on the night of one of the full moons. Sirius and Snape have never gotten along, they’re even worse than if it was only James and Snape together sometimes.

“Sirius was going through a rough patch at home that summer, so subconsciously this was some twisted way to get back at the people who represented everything Sirius hates. He wasn’t even thinking of me at the time. He was just really angry that night and Snape just happened to be there taunting each other like usual. Sirius had said he was insinuating that he knew that I was a werewolf and that got him even more narked off. Well, anyway, Sirius told him he’d duel him just after sun down in the shack. Somehow James had figured out what Sirius had told Snape and managed to pull him out of the shack before I could get to them. I guess Sirius had told Dumbledore what he had done and Dumbledore himself went down to the tree just in time to see James come out with Snape. Needless to say Dumbledore was furious with Sirius; threatened to throw him out of school.”

Addie’s face was blank as she listened to Remus’ story. She rubbed the back of her neck as she looked back up at him. “That was a very stupid thing Sirius did,” Addie noted.

“No kidding, I was mad at him for months,” Remus muttered.

“And you forgave him?” she asked with her eyebrows raised in surprise.

“Obviously,” he replied. “But I figured that he was torturing himself enough for what he did. James and Peter had sided with me, he received detentions for the rest of the school year, and he apologized numerous amounts of times. And apologizing is something that Sirius never does, so when he does it, it’s genuine. I also realized everything that he’s done for me over the years, and he’s like my brother so I couldn’t stay mad at him for very long.”

She was silent for a few seconds before saying quietly, “You’re a good guy, Remus.”

Remus smiled and said in a cheeky manner, “Thanks, I’d like to think so, too.”

Addie smiled and laughed, something that gave Remus a warm feeling throughout his body. “So is there anyone else that knows? Any other nosy teenagers or ex-girlfriends?” she asked. Remus shook his head. Addie sighed in relief. “Good, now can we speak somewhere else?” she asked and then joked, “As much as I love being in a broom closet with you, people may jump to conclusions if they see us together in here.”

Remus laughed and flushed slightly at her words. If only those conclusions were true…

“Right, well,” he said. “We need to talk to my friends, and they’re going to be in the Gryffindor tower right now. But I have no idea how I’m going to get you in there, because I doubt that I’m going to be able to get them out of there without giving them a good reason. Actually our dorm is probably the best room to discuss this and our room isn’t as disastrous as usual since we’ve only been here a week.”

Addie nodded. “If I put a Disillusionment Charm on myself, could you sneak me in?” she asked.

Upon Remus’ face was a look of surprise. “You can do the Disillusionment Charm?” he inquired astonished. They weren’t set to learn that until seventh year if they were lucky.

“Uh, yeah, I can,” she replied feeling a bit meek at her use of advanced magic.

“Okay, yeah that’ll work brilliantly,” he responded smiling.

Addie nodded once again before speaking, “I’ll just hang onto your arm so you’ll know where I’m at. Just don’t make it look like something’s on your arm or else people are going to look at you strangely. And don’t talk too much because then people are going to think that you’re crazy for talking to yourself.”

Remus smirked at the thought and nodded as Addie waved her wand over herself, and Remus watched as she disappeared before his eyes. He jumped slightly when he felt her warm hand come into contact with his skin just above his wrist. He hoped the slight shiver that passed through him went unnoticed as he turned off his light and led her out of the closet with her left hand holding his right arm. He made sure Addie was fully out of the closet before closing the door.

“Finally coming out of the closet, eh, Lupin?” a voice taunted.

Both turned to see a seventh year Slytherin boy walking down the hallway with his arm casually draped over the shoulders of a Ravenclaw girl, who had slapped the boy in the stomach after his comment. Addie remembered this boy as Antonin Dolohov. He was one of the few Addie tried to stay away from; he was worse news than Rosier. Dolohov was the slimiest creature she had ever met, and she’s met a lot of slime balls in her lifetime.

“Only for you, Dolohov,” Remus replied with a smirk as which the girl under Dolohov’s arm had actually smiled at.

“Disgusting fag,” Dolohov said with a glare as the couple passed them by.

“Stop it, Antonin,” the girl chastised.

Once Dolohov finally faced forward, Remus jerked his arm a little. “Come on,” he muttered and started heading down the opposite direction of where the couple was headed. “Nasty piece of work that bloke is.”

“No need to tell me that,” Addie replied quietly. “I swear he was hitting on me last Friday. It’s an experience I hope to never repeat.”

Remus chuckled, but felt a little jealousy and disgust when he heard that even Dolohov was sweet talking Addie. Couldn’t Dolohov see that this girl was too good for him? According to Remus, he himself, unfortunately, wasn’t even on the radar either.

It was only a few more turns down nearly deserted hallways when the entrance to the Gryffindor tower came into view. “Promise me you won’t abuse the rights of knowing our password,” Remus muttered, trying hard to not move his lips much as they were now reaching a more populated area.

“I’ll pretend like I’ve never heard you say it,” Addie whispered back with an obvious smrik on her lips as Remus stopped them in front of a large portrait. On this portrait was a picture of a fat woman in a pink dress.

“Password?” the woman asked in an old English tone.

“Evanesco,” Remus said clearly.

The woman nodded and automatically the portrait swung outwards as if it were a door, revealing a round hole in the wall as the entrance to the Gryffindor Tower. Remus led Addie into the common room before the portrait could close. Inside the common room was round and decorated in the colors red and gold. There was a fireplace, like the Slytherin common room, but there was no green tinge surrounding the flames. The arm chairs and sofas were a deep red color and there were various tables along the walls for people to do homework at. Along the walls were large windows that overlooked the grounds. On opposite side of the room were staircases that led upward. In the room were many students finishing up their homework assignments or lounging in the armchairs, not taking a chance on the hot weather outside. All in all the Gryffindor common room seemed so much brighter and happier than the gloomy Slytherin common room.

Slowly Remus led Addie through the busy common room, mindful of what path he took, towards the back corner where Addie finally spied the three boys together. Sirius was the first one to look up and quickly flipped open a closed book on the table, acting as though it had been open all along.

“Moony!” Sirius greeted with a large guilty looking grin. “So what took you so long?”

“You guys didn’t even start the essay did you?” Remus replied with his head tilted to the side a little, ignoring what Sirius had asked.

“Now, why would you go and say a thing like that?” James questioned with a slight sarcastic tone.

“Usually I would take the time to argue with you three, but not today,” Remus answered back a little sardonically, and a little bit of tiredness apparent in his voice. “We need to talk, now.” He then jerked his head in the direction of the stairs on the left. Before the boys had time to question him, Remus had turned and walked towards the staircase, leaving the boys to scramble to catch up. They concluded it must have been something important for Remus to want them to speak in private.

Remus had made it up to their room, opened their wooden door and was happy to see the little mess in there. Sure Peter had his socks from who knows how long ago still sitting next to his trunk along with a pile of wrappers next to his nightstand, and Sirius’ boxers were strewn all over the room, and some of James’ Quidditch gear was in a stinky, messy pile underneath one of the windows, and Frank had his clothes scattered around his trunk; but this was as clean as it was going to get all year.

Addie noted the little differences between their dormitories. Their room was round with the beds making a circle themselves. Each four-poster bed had deep red curtains and sheets, matching the Gryffindor theme. There were windows between each bed that let in a massive amount of light. Each boy's trunk's were placed at the foot of their bed and had a small nightstand next to their beds. Just next to the door was their bathroom, which was obviously enchanted to exceed the size of the tower.

“Don’t mind the mess,” he muttered to Addie who scoffed softly.

“I’ll put a silencing spell and ward on the door so no one can get in,” Addie told him quickly and softly as the rest of the boys finally made it up the last few steps. Remus nodded as he stood by the door, ready to close it.

“What’s the matter, Remus?” James asked in a concerned voice as he walked in first, eyeing his friend.

“You’ll know in a second,” Remus replied as Peter walked in with Sirius right behind him. All three were quiet as they all sat on the closest bed, James next to the headboard, Sirius in the middle, and Peter sitting at the foot of the bed; the bed happened to be Frank’s, but they were sure he would not mind. After all they were only sitting, they could do much worse damage to a bed. Lord only knows how much torture he’s gone through the past five years.

As soon as Remus had closed the door, he felt Addie’s warm hand leave his arm. Almost right after he heard the door lock and all small chatter noises from the common room deadened.

The three unknowing teenagers sitting on the bed were looking at the door with the curious look, wondering what happened to the door. Soon enough their questions were answered when Addie had materialized out of thin air.

“SHIT! Oh! Merlin,” Peter yelled at first, but then brought down to a mumble, a hand on top of his chest as his pulse raced rapidly and his breathing tried to even itself out.

James had a surprised look on his face as he scooted back on the bed slightly with a manly yell, “Ahh!”

“What the fuck?!” Sirius yelled as his eyes were wide, trained onto Addie, as he sat back up straight from falling back on his elbows, his heart rate slowly decreasing from the scare.

Remus was amused at their reactions whereas Addie wasn’t the least bit surprised by their response. She’d be scared and surprised too if someone appeared out of nowhere in front of her. Not like that has ever happened before, or ever will.

Sirius was the first to recover. “What the bloody hell is going on here, Remus?!” Sirius all but yelled. “You shouldn’t even be in here, Ferrari.” He then drew his wand and pointed it at Addie who merely raised her eyebrows in response.

“Sirius, put your wand down,” Remus pleaded Sirius as he stepped in the space between Addie and Sirius with his arm stretched out, almost as if he was going to push Sirius’ wand down physically.

“Remus, mate, what’s going on?” James asked quickly, as Sirius hesitantly dropped his arm, but kept his wand ready in his hand. James’ eyes were filled with confusion behind his round glasses.

“That’s what she’s here for,” he replied slowly as he walked back over to where he was standing before by Addie’s right side. He then asked the girl, “Are you telling them or should I?”

“They might take it better from you,” she said with a slight smirk.

Remus smiled slightly and looked at the faces of three curious, yet apprehensive boys that he called his best friends. “Well, I went to Dumbledore’s office, as you know already, and he told me something rather…shocking,” Remus told them, leaving them in suspense. The three were oddly quiet as they stared at Remus, waited for him to finish what he needed to tell them. “He told me that Addie is a…werewolf, too.”

James gaped, as Sirius stared disbelievingly with wide eyes, and Peter gasped and looked from Remus to Addie and back to Remus again, repeating the pattern several times.

Suddenly Sirius began laughing, “Very funny you two, now what’s really going on?”

Addie’s eyes narrowly slightly, “This isn’t a laughing situation.” The smile from Sirius’ laughter had dropped off his face smoothly.

“So you really are a werewolf, like Remus?” Peter clarified in a small voice.

Addie nodded at him.

“I knew something was wrong with you,” Sirius commented with a small, teasing smile on his lips.

“And that’s supposed to mean what exactly?” she asked, her head tilted to the side, and false expression of curiosity on her face when she was actually starting to get annoyed with the egotistical Gryffindor.

“Every pretty girl has a snag to them,” Sirius replied looking smug. “And we just found yours.”

Addie stepped forward slightly, and a little slowly, her eyes never leaving Sirius’ face. “Are saying my lycanthropy is a defect?” she asked quietly, as she stared into his eyes.

The hard look in her eyes made Sirius back down a little. She looked ready to pounce on him at any second. “No, of course not,” Sirius replied back haughtily. He then chuckled, “I mean you must be an animal in the sack then, huh?” He’s had a feeling, for a while now, that Remus became more randy than usual before the full moons, which gave him credibility for his statement. Sirius was always good at thinking on his feet.

“Sirius!” Remus cried, while James and Peter laughed alongside their friend. James even nudged Sirius with his elbow who turned his head and wiggled his eyebrows a tad. Remus was appalled that Sirius had blatantly called her and animal. When he spent time telling Remus he was anything but, here he was throwing the word around at her like it was everyday knowledge. He sincerely hoped that Addie wouldn’t become offended by Sirius’ crude words.

“Ha-ha,” Addie laughed mockingly then said with evident repulsion, “you’re disgusting.” She then rolled her eyes. Addie was not too bothered by the ‘animal’ comment because she that’s what she was, at least once a month so why deny it?

“Can we get back to the situation at hand, please?” Remus asked a little irritated at his friend’s immaturity.

“Okay, okay,” James said as he opened his arms with his hands perpendicular to ground a grin never leaving his face. “Please continue.”

“Thank you,” Remus exasperatedly replied while Addie nodded gratefully.

“He told me that you guys were all animagi and that I should speak to you about the full moons,” she said in return.

“There’s not much to say, really,” James said, adjusting his glasses.

“I get that, but what do you guys do exactly?” she asked as she moved over to a closed trunk, which happened to be Remus’ and the cleanest area that she felt comfortable in, and sat down smoothly before crossing her legs.

Not feeling comfortable sitting next to Addie, as if there was actually enough space on his small trunk, Remus moved over to the other side of Frank’s bed and made himself comfortable.

“Usually we go down sometime after curfew, so no one thinks that we’re up to no good,” Sirius explained smirking. “Then we found a way to get Remus out so that Moony can run around the Forbidden Forest without having to be cooped up all night. James and I are usually enough to handle Remus by himself, but with another werewolf, we might not be able to handle it.” Sirius shared a knowing glance with James.

“Oh, that won’t be a problem,” Addie said. She paused for a second after looking at the confused faces of the boys. “I’m actually a lykánthrōpos epikefalí̱s, which is Greek for chief lycanthrope or chief werewolf. We’re actually nearly extinct, which is why you’ve probably never heard of us. I could get into the whole history of it, but I’m afraid it might bore you to death.

“Anyway, we are actually the origin of the werewolves today, the kind Remus is, I’m guessing at least. I won’t get into the technicalities, but as an epikefalí̱s, I have full control over myself during the transformation, so you guys won’t have to worry about me really.”

All the boys stared at her, not believing what she was saying. A werewolf that could control themselves during a night of totally brutality? That was unheard of.

After the pregnant pause, the four boys broke out into questions and comments all at once.

“You can do that?”

“How come Remus isn’t like that?”

“What makes you so special?”

“How does it work exactly?”

“Isn’t that unfair to other werewolves?”

“That is pretty cool.”

“I’d go scare the living shit out of Hogsmeade.”

Addie held her hand up and the Marauders stopped talking. “As I told you, I am part of what originated werewolves like Remus. To make a long story short, a couple hundred years ago, werewolves had to evolve to survive. The numbers were dwindling and some of the werewolves took it into their own hands to change the way of the elders, and eventually they started changing and turned into what everyone fears today.” Thankfully the boys had listened to her and had not interrupted her story. “Get it?” They all nodded in response.

“So, do you guys stay for the whole time?” she asked.

“It all depends on when the moon rises and sets,” James replied scratching his arm unthinkingly. “But we usually get him back after we see the moon near setting or if the sun if due up before, we get an idea of how many hours we have before we need him back in the shack. We play the sunrise by ear usually. For some reason as animals we have a better capability of knowing when the sun rises. And we also need to be back in time for classes so that no one’s suspicious of where we run off to every full moon.”

Addie nodded thoughtfully. “Kind of dangerous don’t you think? What you guys have been doing? I mean what if you never got him back on time?”

The three boys glanced at each other, not knowing how to explain exactly. Remus stared at his lap, knowing full well about what had happened that night. It was not anything bad; it was just a close call. At that one time, it was either run like the wind back to the shack to collapse in the rickety bed or take refuge on the forest floor and take some time to get up before having to make his way all the way back to the Shrieking Shack; if he had not made it back in time. Remus made the boys tell him about every full moon.

“There was one time where it was close,” Peter confessed.

“Thankfully we were near the edge of the forest so I saw the beginning of the sunrise,” Sirius quickly cut in. “We got him back just in time for him to change back. Since then we took more precaution about how long we keep him out.”

“I’ll probably be able to tell you, or signal you, I guess, when it gets close to the time when we transform back or something,” Addie added with a nod. There was a silence where no one had said anything.

“Good, at least that’s settled. Now, I’ve got to admit that I am very surprised that you guys are animagi,” Addie admitted with a kind smile on her face. “I mean that’s supposed to be very, very advanced magic and highly dangerous as well.” Truthfully, she thought that Peter probably must have struggled though it more than the other two boys.

“Well, you know us,” Sirius boasted in an arrogant manner as he sat up straighter, “we’re the best at everything we do.”

Remus snorted unattractively, “Yeah, only took you three years to do so.”

“Oi!” Sirius cried indignantly. “I was the first one to fully transform, if you don’t remember correctly.”

Addie merely raised her eyebrows uninterestedly, “So, what’s your form hot-shot?”

“A big, black dog,” he grinned.

“How fitting,” she drawled with a small smirk.

“You better not be insinuating anything,” Sirius countered as he pointed at her.

Addie ignored him and quickly asked the other two boys what their animagus forms were.

“I’m a rat,” Peter replied timidly. He knew his form wasn’t as strong as Sirius’ or as majestic as James’, but he did help them get into the Shrieking Shack. If he wasn’t so small, Sirius would more than likely be the one to try and dive out of the way of the branches of the Whomping Willow.

“Small and sneaky,” Addie gently responded with a small smile after seeing Peter’s tentativeness. “I like it.” Peter smiled with a bit of happiness from her approval. She then turned to James expectantly.

“I’m a stag,” he boasted while beaming.

“Masculine, smart, and compassionate,” Addie noted grinning slightly. “Quite the catch there aren’t you, James?”

James laughed. “If only Evans knew.”

Addie nodded. “Okay, well, that’s all I needed to talk to you boys about,” she told them, smiling softly.

The three boys nodded and got up slowly. Sirius had turned around towards Remus, “So, Moony, about that essay…”

“No, Sirius,” Remus retorted with a small glare which made James pat Sirius on the shoulder with a snigger and as Peter chuckled.

Sirius made a ‘hmph’ing noise before turning to Addie, “Oh yeah, Ferrari, remember when I told you you’d never find out about our nicknames?” She nodded. “Well, they were based off our animagus form, which was why we were all hushed up about it. So, I’m Padfoot, James’ Prongs, Peter’s Wormtail, and Remus is Moony.”

Addie laughed quietly, “Please do not give me a nickname.”

James scoffed jokingly with a smile, “Why would we do that?”

“Besides, if we gave you a nickname, we’d have to induct you to the Marauders,” Sirius tagged on. “And we don’t let girls into our group. That’s rule number seven.”

“You guys have rules?” she snorted.

“Why not?” Peter piped in.

“It’s what makes us elite,” James bragged slightly with a wink as he moved towards the door, Peter following behind him. “Moony, you gonna help us with our essays?” James suggested more than asked, as he turned his attention back to the silent Marauder.

Remus shook his head and said, “No, you’ve gotta do your essays by yourselves. Anyway, Addie and I still got to talk about some things.” He looked over to Addie and she nodded in confirmation.

“Oh, alright,” James pouted as he opened the door. Before he stepped out, he turned his head back to Addie and said, “You know, you aren’t half bad, Ferrari.” Peter and Sirius nodded along with him.

“Thank you,” she replied lightly with a grin making its way across her face.

“But don’t think that since you have some sort of connection with us that it’s going to change the fact that you’re still a Slytherin,” Sirius warned. He had his hand up and his index finger pointed out towards her.

“I get it,” she said, a small smirk flittering on her lips as she raised her hand in acknowledgement. “Don’t trust the new girl who ended up in your rival house. I also didn’t refute your statements that I would be in Gryffindor when we had befriended each other earlier, but in my defense, you all had just assumed where I would go without knowing me…I wouldn’t trust me either. Smart move, Black.”

Sirius smiled in understanding, and also liking her quick wit, and gave her a curt nod. “Alright, boys,” he said turning his attention to the two boys next to him. “Let’s have the little cubs have their play time.” The three laughed and walked out the door as both Remus and Addie rolled their eyes at his comment. Sirius poked his head back in quickly and joked with a wink, “Don’t do anything that I would do.”

Addie laughed as Sirius had finally closed the door, leaving Remus and Addie alone in the dormitory to talk.