This Animal I've Become

“Wormy,” Sirius said, looking down at Peter with a stern look upon his usually happy face. “You are going to test it. You didn’t make the potion, you didn’t come up with the idea of it, and you certainly would probably be in the way tomorrow if couldn’t transform into a rat. Now be a good friend and just test it out to make sure it’s going to work correctly tomorrow. We do not need a repeat of last year when you refused to test the potion that was supposed to make people have clown feet; not grow an extra appendage or two.” Sirius then proceeded to thrust the small vial of clear liquid, filled with only less than half a swallow full, towards a slightly frightened looking Peter.

“It’s not going to work for another half an hour,” Remus tried to explain in a professional voice from beside Sirius, trying his best to coax Peter into trying out the potion. Remus had let Sirius and James make the potion over the summer and he certainly was not going to be the guinea pig of whatever those two had produced on their own without the watch Professor Slughorn or himself (even if the color turned out to be the way it should be). “And even then, this dose is so small it’s only going to last for about ten or twenty minutes, tops.”

Peter, who was sitting at the foot of his bed, glanced at Remus. He usually trusted what Remus said to him because he was generally the smartest one out of all of them; the conscience voice of the Marauders. But even then he was a Marauder, and even Peter knew that he was also trying to get Peter to test it because he didn’t want to himself. Peter sighed and took the vial from Sirius’ hands slowly.

James, who had been sitting next to Peter upon his bed, clapped him on the shoulder and commended him, “That’s a good mate there, Petey.”

Sirius smiled as he watched Peter down the small amount of potion in one swig. “Now, we wait,” he said cheerfully.

They had passed the time setting up their clothes, trunks, and books for the future. Sirius and Peter had taken showers (seeing how they did not like waking up extra early to take one) and everyone had gotten prepared for bed.

“I’m surprised Longbottom isn’t up here yet,” James mused as he lounged back against his headboard, reading one of the newest Quidditch magazines that he had purchased before coming to Hogwarts.

Sirius snorted, “He’s probably too distracted by Alice. He probably wouldn’t even know if his robes were on fire.” Sirius glanced at Remus’ alarm clock, whose bed was to the left of his, and upon seeing the time, jumped off his bed. “Alright, Wormtail, let’s see if it worked,” Sirius nodded with a large grin displayed across his face. He went over to Peter who sat down again at the foot of his bed.

Peter shrugged slightly as the other two boys went and flanked Sirius on each side, looking down on Peter expectantly. “What am I supposed to do?” he asked, staring up at his taller friends. “It’s not like I’m going to know when the po-” Immediately Peter’s mouth continued to move with no sound coming out, while his hands started to make different signs and his legs flung themselves around in different directions. Out of his mouth came sentences like ‘Your face looks like a hippogriff chewed it up and spit it back out’ and ‘Your broomstick never sees any action’. They floated over his head and stayed there for about a minute before disappearing with a pop.

The three boys not under the potion’s effects had cracked up at the sight of Peter doing dance like movement. It was an uncommon and comical thing to see. They also were relieved to see that the insulting charm they had placed on the potion was working wonderfully. It was tricky work trying to place a charm on a potion, Remus had spent three days trying to work out when and how to properly put the charm on. With the help of one of James’ cousins they were able to tell them what they wanted since they could not do the spell themselves, being underage and all.

When Peter had seen that they had had their fun, he promptly stopped trying to talk and stayed silent, knowing that the potion wouldn’t affect him if he was not trying to speak. He then laid back on his bed and smiled, knowing that the prank tomorrow was going to work wonderfully.

Like Remus had said, about fifteen minutes later Peter was able to start talking normally. And soon after, Frank Longbottom had finally detached himself from Alice long enough to make his way up to the dorms and into bed. The remaining boys had gotten themselves ready for bed and went to sleep with big plans for the morning.

At five-thirty in the morning, on September 2nd, Remus had woken up and immediately placed a silencing spell on Frank’s curtains with the notion that at least one, if not all three, of the other boys were going to get loud. The first person he woke up was Sirius, who woke up with a sleepy grin and went to wake up James who had the bed on the other side of him. Remus then went over to Peter’s bed, who slept on the other side of James.

Remus opened up the curtains and laughed when he saw that Peter was tittering on the edge of the bed, lying on his side with his back facing the edge. “Pete, time to wake up, mate,” Remus said, shaking Peter’s shoulder in attempt to wake him up. Peter had mumbled in his sleep and turned to look at Remus. Upon turning to look at Remus, he had not realized that he was on the edge of his bed and ended up falling to the floor with a squeal and a loud thud.

Remus started laughing and then asked, “Are you okay?” Sirius and James had both seen Peter fall out of his bed and started laughing along with Remus. Peter blushed lightly with embarrassment and then nodded in response to Remus’ question. “Come on,” Remus said with an outstretched hand towards Peter who took it quickly. “Up you go,” he then said as he pulled Peter off the ground.

“Have a good fall, Pete?” Sirius joked as he opened his trunk.

“Shut up,” Peter grumbled as he flicked off Sirius and his friends laughed even more.

Both Remus and Peter got dressed in some muggle clothing as quickly as possible and did the minimum amount of prepping knowing that they had to come back and pretend that they were just waking up along with Frank. They had to have some surprise for their own roommate.

James and Sirius quickly followed after Remus and Peter in getting changed and soon after, all four of them had gotten all of the supplies together. Peter transformed himself into his animagus form, a rat, and was put on James’ shoulder. Quickly James, Sirius, and Remus threw the Invisibility Cloak over their heads and made their way out of the common room and down to the kitchens.

“You guys, slow down,” Remus pleaded in a whisper, “Our feet are showing.”

James scoffed and replied in a normal voice, not bothering to whisper, “You worry too much, Moony. We have the map. As long as we watch out for what’s ahead and behind us, and keep an eye on Peeves, we’re golden.” He slapped at the open parchment in front of him with a smile on his face.

“Besides,” Sirius chipped in, “If you hadn’t taken a growth potion during the past year, the three of us could have fit under the cloak easily anyway. So technically it’s all your fault.”

Remus sighed in defeat. What they were saying was true in all aspects, but the guilt that he was a prefect again and that it was the first day of school made Remus feel as if they had to be more careful about doing their pranks and sneaking around. He was not doing his job as prefect well in letting his friends reek havoc on the school. Although, ever since he was little he was always one for adventures, and these pranks was a way for Remus to feed that desire. He loved the rush of adrenaline from setting up and almost being caught and loved the laughter he felt with his friends after seeing the prank being successful. Doing pranks with his friends made him feel more normal and human. Remus reveled in the mayhem he caused with his friends, knowing that at any possible moment he could lose them. His friends were his world. He was always afraid he would lose them. As nice and selfless as he may seem, Remus was selfish whenever possible; though with his personality, he tried to not be at many times. Remus would always put others before himself.

They arrived at the kitchens without a hitch and James and Sirius worked their charm with the house elves as quickly as possible. After a few complements and smiles, the elves had allowed the boys check out the drinks because they had told the elves that they wanted to see if the pumpkin juice had the same taste as last year…they had told the stupidest lie to get to the drinks, but it didn’t matter how stupid the excuse was, as long as it worked. Though they did advise James that he should put his rat down first before going any further, but he implored that the rat was clean and house trained and would not be getting anywhere near any of the drinks or food.

Peter was aware from the night before that he would be staying a rat during the set up of the prank. Since three boys could barely fit under the cloak, it was hard for Peter to be able to shove himself under, and since he could transform into a rat (being an illegal animagus like James and Sirius), it was easier for everyone if he just stayed in his small, easy to carry, animagus form.

The boys set straight to work with adding the potion to the large containers filled with each type of drink. They took out their six shrunken cauldrons and enlarged them all to their normal size. Slowly they began adding their clear concoction to the breakfast liquids. They were careful to not add any to the containers that were set aside for the professors.

“I can’t wait to see the look on their faces,” Sirius snickered as he cleaned out the remnants of two cauldrons that he had with the flick of his wand.

“Ah, to not be able to hear the voices of those gits in Slytherins for a day,” James said wistfully with a small grin spread on his face. The three boys had successfully put the potion in the drinks and were now shrinking the cauldrons and pocketing them.

“If only we can make it last a lifetime,” Sirius replied in an airy tone.

“That’s the least violent thing I’ve ever heard you wish upon the Slytherins,” Remus commented giving Sirius a look of disbelief.

“You’re right, Moony,” Sirius replied with a knowing smile. “I must be getting soft…I’ll be sure to make the next wish as brutal as possible.” Then he shot Remus a smirk along with a chuckle.

“Remember, Pinky, no telling any teachers or anyone else that we were in here this morning. And, thanks again,” James said with a quick smile flashing across his face, thanking the house elf who they had befriended when they first found the kitchens.

Pinky smiled and nodded, “Pinky was glad to help out Mister James Potter and his friends, sir.”

The three boys thanked the short house elf again before James threw the Invisibility Cloak over their heads and took out their map. With his wand he muttered the password and looked around the dungeons and the kitchen entrance to make sure the coast was clear. “All clear,” he told his friends as folded back up the map and shoved it haphazardly into his pocket.

An hour later the boys were fully dressed and making their way into the Great Hall. Each one had smiles on their faces, albeit James and Sirius held smug smiles instead on ones of excitement and anticipation.

Sirius was eager to see Snape, Rosier, and Dolohov dancing around like clowns. He glanced at the Slytherins table to see who was sitting there already. His eyes darted from the beginning to the end of the table, but went back to the new girl who was now sitting alone. She held a goblet filled of some sort of drink; Sirius smirked at the thought of her getting a taste of what they had cooked up. Sirius turned back around and nudged Remus, who was walking beside him, with his elbow trying to get his friend’s attention. “Ferrari’s finally going to see what the Marauders are made of,” Sirius chuckled.

Remus had turned to get a look at Addie. It only took a second to find her with a goblet in her hand propped up near her face, ready for a drink. He did feel a little bad that one of her first experiences at Hogwarts was going to be on the receiving end of one of their pranks.

“Hey!” Sirius scolded, slapping the back of his head. “Don’t give it away. Your guilty, worrisome eyes will warn her, you dolt.”

Remus yelped when Sirius’ hand had come into contact with the back of his head. “Sorry,” he muttered with a sheepish expression on his scarred face.

The four boys sat down in their usual seats and began to scramble to get their food. Then each Marauder had subtlety filled their cups with water with their wands. James struck up a conversation with Sirius about the Gryffindor’s Quidditch team this year, seeing how he was made the captain this year. They had to act natural; act like they usually did every morning. Every morning usually James and Sirius talked about a certain subject with Peter piping in a few moments with his own thoughts and ideas. Remus usually spoke whenever they asked for his opinion or if he wanted to make a comment or correction about what they were talking about. He wasn’t usually included in the morning conversations mainly because they were light and friendly. James, Sirius, and Remus could get rather opinionated and harsh about certain subjects, so it was unconsciously made that more serious conversations would be saved for later meals.

“Good morning, boys,” Professor McGongall greeted as she stood behind Sirius and Remus, a stack of parchment in her hands.

The four boys had greeted her back. Remus and Peter had replied politely with a ‘Good morning, professor’; James had opted for, ‘Morning, McGee’; and Sirius, the worst of all, had replied with, ‘My you look lovely this year, Minnie.’

“I see the summer has done nothing for your maturity, Mister Black and Mister Potter,” McGonagall reprimanded gently. It was the first day of school; she had the whole summer to recover from these four boys who had quickly put many gray hairs on her head. “Mister Lupin, I had best start with you since it will be the quickest.”

Remus’ corners of his mouth had quirked up as James and Sirius had cried out in indignation at how well they had done on their OWLs. Remus handed her his results and waited patiently for McGonagall’s conclusions.

“Excellent, Mister Lupin,” McGongall praised with a smile as she handed Remus back his results, proud to see that one of her houses’ students had done particularly well on the OWLs. “You are qualified for every NEWT level course. Are there any classes you wish to not take this year?”

“Yes, please, I don’t want to take Astronomy, History of Magic, Care of Magical Creatures, and Dinivation,” he had replied politely. Professor McGonagall nodded before she started waving her wand over the parchment and quickly set up his timetable. She then handed back his schedule before turning to Sirius.

“Mister Black, your scores, please,” McGonagall asked with an outstretched hand. Sirius quickly handed her the paper and watched as she looked over his scores. “Well done, Mister Black, you’ve surprising done well-”

“Surprisingly?” Sirius had cried out, feeling offended. As Remus had chuckled and James laughed loudly in his face.

McGonagall had ignored his interruption and continued on, “-although your History of Magic and Dinivation were not good enough to qualify you for the NEWT classes. I’m assuming that you are not too upset with dropping those two classes…I will be signing you up for Transfiguration, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Herbology, Potions, and Charms. I highly suggest you sign up for two other classes.”

“Now, Professor,” Sirius began with a serious face, “why would I want to take two more classes when I could be gracing you with my presence with all my free time?”

“Two classes, Mister Black,” McGonagall said sternly, glaring down at the black haired boy. “I do have other students to get to.”

“But Professor I think that-”

“Astronomy and Care of Magical Creatures it is then, Mister Black,” McGonagall quickly interjected before waving her wand over the parchment before her.

“Wait! No! I want Muggle Studies instead of Care of Magical Creatures,” Sirius exclaimed in a panic.

“Too late, Black,” McGonagall replied before handing Sirius his schedule with a strong stare down into his gray eyes. She then turned to Peter, “Pettigrew, you next please.”

As Peter obediently handed over his scores, Sirius had quickly snatched up Remus’ schedule to compare their classes. Unfortunately, since the classes were now combined with all houses and not just split up into two, Sirius was not put into two of the same classes as Remus. Sirius would be spending his Charms and Herbology periods away from his werewolf friend.

“Oh, bugger,” Sirius muttered. “Our Charms and Herbology classes are switched.” He then handed Remus his schedule back over. Remus wordlessly took it back, thinking the same thing that Sirius was: McGonagall was splitting them all up on purpose.

“Alright, Mister Pettigrew,” McGonagall spoke as she looked over Peter’s scores, a soft frown on her face. She knew that Peter was not one of her more gifted students, and was not as smart as his three friends, but she had recognized his effort in trying to get good grades. “You were able to qualify for Transfiguration, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Herbology, Astronomy, Charms, and Care of Magical Creatures. I suggest on taking all six unless you do not think you will be able to handle them.”

Peter had blushed lightly as Remus sent him a sad, but reassuring smile. He didn’t like being singled out as the stupid one. He was not stupid per say; he had passed mostly all of his OWLs (the only ones he didn’t pass was Divination and History of Magic), but most of them he had received an Acceptable instead of the Exceeds Expectations that was required for the course. Potions and Muggle Studies had fallen under this category. “Six if fine, Professor,” he replied in a quiet voice.

Professor McGonagall gave Peter a small smile as she quickly made his schedule and handed it to him. “Now, Mister Potter, your scores, please,” she said as she turned to the final Marauder with an outstretched hand. James nodded politely as he handed the professor his OWL results.

Peter had taken Remus and Sirius’ schedules and compared them to his own. He would be in their Transfiguration and Defense Against the Dark Arts class, but would be with Sirius only in Herbology, Astronomy, Charms, and Care of Magical Creatures. At least they would have one friend in each class, which could be worse since they could be alone in each class.

“Good job, Mister Potter,” McGonagall congratulated, in which James grinned wildly and puffed his chest out more. Sirius glared at his friend as Remus sighed. “I will sign you up for Transfiguration, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Charms, Herbology, and Potions. And like Mister Black I want you to sign up for two other classes as well. You can choose among Astronomy, Care of Magical Creatures, and Muggle Studies.”

“Astronomy and Care of Magical Creatures, James,” Sirius cried out, his face showing desperation.

James stroked his chin thoughtfully, trying to put his friend on edge about his decision about which classes he would choose. Truthfully he wanted to take Muggle Studies because it was easier than Care of Magical Creatures, but at the same time he wanted to be with his best mate. James signed as he came to his decision. “Astronomy and…Muggle Studies please, Professor,” he replied with a polite smile.

“What?! James!” Sirius yelled. McGonagall had finished making James’ schedule and handed it to him over Sirius’ shoulder. “How could you betray me like that? I can’t be stuck with Pete during Care of Magical Creatures, who in the world knows what could happen with just the two of us!”

“Come on, Sirius,” James responded after he took a gulp of his water. “Someone has to keep Remus company during Muggle Studies.” Remus shot his friend a grateful smile in which James he returned quickly. As much as Remus wanted to admit that he could stand being in a class by himself, he had always counted on one of his friends being there with him. It gave him assurance that his friends were there for him; it left no room for doubt. Besides, he wouldn’t have to worry about who to sit with during classes. He was not as outgoing as the rest of his friends, minus Peter most of the time, and sometimes felt uncomfortable sitting near people he did not really know.

Sirius glared at his bespectacled friend and muttered, “Yeah, yeah.”

Peter handed James all of their schedules as he compared his to theirs. “Mine is the same as Moony’s. Except for the obvious classes,” James stated smiling, handing his friends back their schedules.

Professor McGonagall had split them up in the best ways possible. James always talked too much sitting with Sirius or Peter and Sirius easily distracted both James and Remus’ attention away from the teachers, so McGonagall had placed them with who she thought would cause little distraction for her colleagues. James never talked too much to Remus during class, knowing that Remus liked to pay attention and Sirius gets impatient with Peter’s slow grasp on things and quickly shuts up when he feels himself getting agitated. These pairs were the ones McGonagall felt best suited everyone.

Not a minute later after receiving their timetables, James had felt a rapid tap on his shoulder. The tap also was made hard enough that he may have a bruise showing later that day. James made a ‘hmm?’ noise, as he turned around in his seat. All three of his friends turned to see who was vying for James’s attention.

Behind James stood a furious red head whose cheeks were flushed from anger. Her bright green eyes were staring daggers into James’ eyes and her lips were pressed into a firm line.

“Good morning, Evans,” James greeted with a nod and a smile.

“You look radiant as ever, my dear Lily,” Sirius said with a large grin, knowing that she hated when he tried to flirt with her. Lily’s eyes narrowed in on Sirius who merely grinned and turned his attention back on his breakfast, away from the red-head’s cold stare. If there was one girl Sirius would never be able to wrap around his finger, it was Lily Evans (and maybe that new girl, but he would never admit defeat so easily with her if she had been in any other house besides Slytherin). Lily was a stubborn and determined girl.

Lily turned her attention back to James who was still looking up at her with an innocent look on his face. “How may I help you this fine morning?” James asked, a grin never letting up on his face.

The girl didn’t say anything, she just pointed at James then to the red words hanging above her head. “Oh, no, that says Snivellus,” James commented lightly, “I’m James Potter.”

Lily glared once more before jabbing James in the shoulder with her fingers and then swiping at the insults above her. She then stomped on the ground with her finger pointed downward.

“I’m sorry, Evans,” James feigned innocently, “I have no idea what you want. Why can’t you just tell me?”

Lily huffed angrily and she moved to grab her wand, but before she could snatch her wand from her robes, another girl had shown up and started pushing Lily away from the Marauders. The same girl also gave them a hard glare as they left the Great Hall.

James sighed and slumped into his balled up fist that was propped up on top of the table. “She’s even beautiful when she can’t scream at me,” James mused as he stared at the Great Hall’s doors.

“Riiiiiiight,” Sirius then said with a raised eyebrow as he glanced at his other two friends, all three of them thinking that James was insane for falling for a girl who never gave him the time of day. “Anyway, it’s time to leave before the professors start hunting us down.”

They all nodded and then got up quickly, all the while laughing as they saw the beginning of their prank take place. They rushed out of the Great Hall and headed back up to their dormitories to grab their books. Once it was time to get to their first class, Transfiguration, they all left the safety of their dorm room and into the halls.

The halls were filled with many people dancing; most of the dancing students were the younger years who hadn’t caught onto how to stop the potion from working. Even though the Marauders knew that once everyone had learned how to stop the effects no one would be dancing anymore, but just to see people dancing or have the whole entire school not be able to talk was an entertaining idea.

Soon enough they entered their first class of the day, Transfiguration.