Chapter 1: Transformations

"Moony is going to be so surprised!"

"I know, I can't wait to see the look on his face…"

James Potter, Sirius Black, and Peter Pettigrew spoke in hushed voices as they rushed down an empty corridor, paying no attention to how the Invisibility Cloak (which was much too small for three fifth year boys) was flapping about their ankles, showing off their feet for the school to see. They were fortunate that everyone was asleep in their dormitories (which is fitting for eleven o' clock on a school night), or they would have been discovered. Snickering, they approached the infirmary.

"Okay," James said, yanking the Cloak off his friends and himself. "Let's change and walk in." Peter and Sirius held back their laughter as James folded the Cloak into a hasty square and tossed it in an alcove next to a shining suit of armor. Silently, their bodies shifted and each became another creature: Peter, a rat, Sirius, a dog, and James, a stag.

"Ready?" Sirius barked, walking on enormous black paws to the Hospital Wing doors. Somehow, the others understood him; they assumed it was just the ability of animals to communicate with each other. Peter nodded his small, gray snout, his whiskers twitching. He scurried up James' hindquarters and took a perch on his back.

"Watch it, Wormtail!" James snapped. "Jeez, trying to climb on my butt or something?"

Peter blushed through his whiskers. Sirius snickered and shoved his snout into the tiny crack in the doors, wedging them open further. He padded inside, like a jaunty, overly pampered dog, tail high in the air, wagging. He looked nothing like the part he was playing, being a huge, mongrel, fur coal-black and matted from their first adventure the night before…

It was the first time any of the boys tried to transform. They were scared out of their minds, but no one would admit it. The teens stood, shivering in the dim light of the Common Grounds, just outside the giant front doors of the school. "You ready?" Peter had asked, taking a deep breath to prepare himself. James and Sirius nodded, and just like that, they slunk into form.

"Are you serious?" Peter cried, pawing down the long grass that masked him.

"Yes," Sirius said automatically.

"Shut up, Sirius," James said, rolling his big brown eyes. "How many times are you going to use that?"

"As many times as I can before it gets old," Sirius yawned, stretching out his huge hind legs one at a time.

"Well, it's way passed old, mate," Peter said.

"Peter, what the heck?"

"I'm just saying…" Peter began.

"No, I mean, you're a rat!" James said incredulously.

"That's not very nice," Sirius said nonchalantly as he turned around. He froze on the spot. "Oh," he said slowly. "You meant he was… really a rat." He paused. "Oh."

"You know, I don't think this is very funny," Peter said angrily.

"I do," James said.

"James, you're a doe!" Sirius laughed.

"I'm a buck!" James said indignantly. "A buck, not a doe."

"I don't know," Peter joked slowly. "Pretty girly buck, small antlers."

"Cute whiskers, Peter," James snapped as Sirius roared with laughter. Peter immediately sobered up.

"I seem to be the only one here with the upper hand," Sirius said, calming himself down. "Both your animals suck."

"Hey, at least I'm not going to get fleas," James said.

"I'm not going to get- crap!" Sirius said, realizing that it was true. "Shut it, Peter, unless you don't want me to save you from the cat that's sure to try to eat you," Sirius snapped at Peter who was snickering in the grass. "And you know what, James, I can eat you, so I'd be quiet if I were you."

James laughed and shook his large head. He shifted back into human form. "Come on, guys. Let's go back in before someone sees a dog, a deer, and… well, they won't see you, Peter, you're too little." Peter skittered over in the grass and nipped at James' shoe. "Peter, I can kick you right now and send you flying into the Dark Forest; don't push it." Peter shifted and straightened his clothing, rolling his eyes.

"You guys are never going to let me live this down, are you?" he asked his friends.

Sirius, who had already changed form again, exclaimed, "I can keep you as a pet!"

"I'm going to take that as a 'no'."

"You should, yes," James laughed.

Together, they headed back into the castle.

Sirius trotted into the Hospital Wing, searching for the correct bed. He saw his friend fast asleep in his bed, his hair thrown into a mess about his scratched face. It was no hard feat, finding Remus, considering the infirmary was completely empty aside from their friend. Sirius cleared his throat, backed up a few steps, and leapt onto Remus' bed, immediately slathering him in dog licks. Remus jolted awake, eyes widening in terror, as he didn't recognize who, or what was in his bed. "Get off me, dog!" he cried, trying to shove Sirius off his bed. Sirius just bounded forward again, jumping repeatedly on Remus' mattress. Remus tried once more to shove the dog away when he paused, jaw slackening in awe.

A huge stag walked into the room, its hooves clacking on the stone floors loudly. Remus was stricken by wonder, completely frozen in his bed. A rat then climbed over the deer's head and perched himself on its antler. Remus blinked, making sure he wasn't dreaming. "What the…?"

At that moment, Sirius shifted form, and the huge dog that was lying on the foot of the bed was a fifteen year old boy, lounging against Remus' feet. "Mate, you should've seen your face."

"Jesus Christ, guys, you scared the crap out of me!" Remus said, throwing himself against his pillows. Peter slid off James' head and scampered on the ground, shifting into human form. James shifted last, smiling broadly. There were a few bursts of laughter from the three Animagi, and Remus smiled, relaxing against his headboard, impressed. "So you finally managed it?"

"Huh?" Peter asked, almost falling off the bed in surprise.

"You mean, you knew?" Sirius asked. "Well, that takes the fun out of it!"

Remus laughed. "It's not like it took a lot of investigating!" he said. "You guys only had books on how to become Animagi all over the dorm."

"Told you we should clean up that place every once and a while instead of making Remus do it!" James said with a sigh as he sat on Remus' bed.

"Yeah, why do I clean it again?" Remus asked.

"Well, it's not like it's going to clean itself!" Sirius said, rolling his eyes. "And it's not like we'd clean it either!"

Remus shook his head. "This is a bad idea, guys," he said worriedly.

"What do you mean?" James asked. "We sneak to the infirmary all the time!"

"No, I mean…" Remus sighed and looked at his friends. "I appreciate what you guys are trying to do, but this is illegal; you have to be registered to do this kind of stuff."

"Yeah, right," Sirius said, waving his hand. "There's thousands of unregistered Animagi running around everywhere."

"And it would be great if you guys weren't among those numbers," Remus said quickly. "And there aren't thousands. More like hundreds. That the Ministry are finding and jailing every other day."

"How would they do that?" James asked. "I mean, if the inmates were like Peter, they could just climb out from between the bars…" Sirius laughed and even Remus chuckled at this jab. Peter, crossed his arms in front of his chest and opened his mouth to retort, but Remus cut him off.

"What did you guys expect to do? Go with me during the full moons?" He laughed. Then he looked at his friends, who had fallen completely silent.

"Err… yeah."

"No," Remus said automatically. "No. No way. Not a chance. You guys can't comewith me; are you crazy?"

"Well, you couldn't catch Peter, he's so small that he could hide really easily," Sirius said. "And James and I could keep you in check, make sure you don't eat Peter or anything."

"And what happens when I bite you guys?" Remus asked, now furious with his friends for being so stupid about this.

"We'll bite you back!" Sirius said immediately. "Like hell if I let you bite me and get away with it!"

"No, I mean…" Remus took a deep breath. "I'm not going to do that to you guys. I'm not going to curse you like that. You're being stupid."

"No, we aren't, mate, you are," James said immediately. "Listen, if a werewolf bites an animal, nothing happens. We'll be safe."

"You'll be safe with a full grown, uncontrollable werewolf in a tiny shack?" Remus asked sarcastically.

"Number one: don't credit yourself. You're not full grown," Sirius said. "Number two: who said we'd stay in the Shack all that long?"

"Guys..." Remus looked from friend to friend. "You can't seriously think of taking me out of the Shack! No! Are you idiots? I'm not going!"

"It's not like you have much of a choice, mate," James said, smiling. "Once you're a werewolf, you're in our hands."

"Oh, shit," Remus said, burying his head in his hands.

"Hey, where did Peter go?" James asked, looking around for his friend.

Sirius slid off the bed and looked under it. He shrugged when he didn't find him. "You sitting on him, Moony?" Remus still had his head buried in his hands. "Oh, come on, mate, it's not that bad."

"No, you guys don't get it," Remus said, looking up. "You guys don't know how dangerous I am. You guys think this is some kind of joke, a fun prank you can play on the school. I can seriously hurt people; I can kill someone."

"Oh, come off it, Remus, you wouldn't kill someone," James said, rolling his eyes.

"You guys have seen the state I come back in," Remus said, looking from James to Sirius. "You guys know I could." Sirius and James couldn't argue. "I don't have any control. I would kill someone, guys. I would."

"Not if we stop you," James said seriously.

"How do you plan to do that?" Remus asked sardonically.

Sirius rolled his eyes, stood up, and transformed into the giant black dog. He looked threatening, almost deadly, his dark eyes gleaming in the dimmed light of the Hospital Wing. He raised what would be an eyebrow if he were human at Remus. The boy still didn't look convinced. Sirius rolled his eyes again and leaped on the bed, pinning Remus to the mattress. He snarled. "Okay, okay, I get it!" Remus choked out. "You're big!"

Sirius shifted back to human form, sitting on top of his friend. "Now, admit that we can control you."

"I really don't know, Sirius," Remus said, trying to push Sirius off of him in an attempt to breath. James came over and sat on Sirius, crushing Remus under their combined weight.

"Say we can control you, Remus," James said dully, examining a tear on his sleeve, as if this whole show of sitting on Remus was boring him. Remus started choking.

"I… can't… breathe…"

"Say it, Remus!" Sirius demanded.

"You can control me!" Remus gasped. "Now… get… off."

Sirius shoved James off him; James rolled off Sirius' lap and onto the stone floor. Sirius gathered himself and brushed off his shirt. "Okay, now that we've got that settled," he said. "Is there a cat in the infirmary?"

"No," Remus choked, rubbing his ribcage, eyes watering. "Why?"

"Just making sure Peter wasn't eaten."

At that moment, a snore erupted from a far away bed. The three boys froze; were they mistaken? Was there someone else in the Hospital Wing? Someone who had just heard their entire conversation? James craned his neck and approached the bed. He rolled his eyes. "Don't worry, guys," he called back to his friends. "It's just Peter." He shoved Peter, who rolled off the bed and onto the floor. "Come on, mate! Let's get you to bed!"

"Ow, stop kicking me, James!" Peter cried, putting his arms in front of his face to protect it from getting crushed by James' prodding foot.

"Then stand up!" James said, nudging Peter again. "Come on, Peter, time to go to sleep!"

"I'm up! Stop kicking!" Peter yelled. Sirius roared with laughter and walked over, lifting Peter by his shirt onto his feet. Peter stumbled forward, and all three boys headed towards the door. "Night, Moony. Sleep tight, and don't worry; we'll have you under control." Then they walked out the door.

"That's exactly what I'm afraid of," Remus said, leaning into his pillow.