The cold wind howled outside the small, decrepit house. It was the night after Halloween, and dark clouds were beginning to roll in over the blindly full moon. The little house sat on a hill, it's shutters banging in the wind, its rotting front steps covered in moss. The air around it crackled with magic, as autumn leaves hit the magical barriers surrounding it.
This house did not want to be disturbed.
Rain began to come down softly at first, then hard, lashing the window panes. An unearthly sound filled the night from inside the tiny cottage, an animal sound, one of misery.
Remus Lupin slammed his hands into the already damaged walls of the house, and threw back his head. Claws were already beginning to protrude from his human hands, and he could feel his teeth grinding as they lengthened as the full moon seeped into his blood.
"NO." He bellowed, and he threw himself into the book case.
Lily and James. Dead. His best friends. And Sirius. How could he? He betrayed his best friends. BETRAYED THEM TO THE DARK LORD AND THEY WERE DEAD. Hot molten fury bubbled within him, and he clenched his hands, causing blood to flow from the cuts made by his claws. Yesterday it had been just another day, and now….nothing. There was nothing left. His friends were gone. Which meant he might as well be too.
James had protected him, helped him, Lily too. Lily was gone too…. Tears began to flow down his cheeks, and he gritted his teeth, a racking sob breaking out of his chest. He slid to the floor in front of the bookcase, sobbing into his hands.
Remus' could feel his mind warping with the strength of his sadness, his rage, and the strain of the wolf fighting to get out. A growl loosed from his throat, and with superhuman strength, he catapulted to the opposite wall, landing halfway up it, his hands digging into the wallpaper. He was losing the battle. The ancient scar on his shoulder where Greyback had bitten him so many years ago was pulsing purple, his vision was narrowing.
Shaking his head to clear his eyes, Remus cried,
"LET ME GRIEVE FOR GOD'S SAKE." Not tonight. He refused to lose tonight. His whole life he had fought the wolf inside, taken Wolfsbane potion to ease the pain of transformation. But tonight he had no Wolfsbane, and no friends to help him. And tonight, he refused to transform. For once in his miserable life he had to have human feelings when they counted. Nothing was going to prevent him from mourning Lily and James. They deserved respect. Not a vicious dog.
But it was difficult. He fell to the floor, feeling his bones expanding. The pain was intense, but he fought to keep his own mind.
Think of them. He thought. Think of something human. He closed his eyes and lay back against the threadbare sofa.
"It's not that big of a deal, mate." Said Sirius as they walked along the shore of the lake, the four of them. "I mean…yeah being a werewolf is a bit scary, but not for us, more for you I would think."
Remus hung his head. "I dunno. It's not so bad. It could be worse."
"Yeah, you could look like Peter!"said Sirius, nudging Wormtail.
"Shut up, Padfoot!" Peter said, pulling away from Sirius. "I'd rather have Dragon Pox than have your face!"
"Shut up!"
"Make me!"
"Guys, stop it."
"Fine, James."
"Whatever happens, Remus, we'll probably always be friends. We are the most handsome people ever to walk the noble hallways of Hogwarts." Said James, rumpling up his black hair, and looking haughty.
"Except for Wormy!" added Sirius, nudging Peter again, who glared at Sirius.
"Agreed, except for Wormy!"
Remus opened his eyes, and convulsed in agony. It was getting harder to stay human. His vision was twisting so all he could see was red, and then it would fade in again. His brain felt explosive, like it didn't belong in his body.
Suddenly, in a flash of red, he lunged, and ripped his right arm open with his fingernails. He cried out in pain and sadness because he couldn't control it. Blood trickled down his arm and into his lap. He weakly removed his shirt to staunch the bleeding. It was amazing how deep human nails could go. Breathing heavily, he leaned back once more, and struggled to stay himself.
"Well then it's simple." Said Sirius, running his fingers through his black hair. "We can go with you to transform."
"No." said Remus shaking his head frantically. "Absolutely not. It's too dangerous. You'd be killed."
Sirius seemed not to have an answer to this, but he sat in silence, thinking hard.
"As humans, maybe" said James, his eyes lighting up, a maniac gleam coming to his green irises. "But what about animals? Do you attack animals when you transform?"
"I don't see what this has to do with anything." Said Remus, looking dismally at his three friends. "No, I guess not. It's usually just…"
"People." Finished Sirius. Remus hung his head.
"Then we'll be fine!" said James, jumping to his feet. He was pacing now, walking back and forth, rubbing his hands together.
"What are you on about?" demanded Remus. "You can't send your owl or something. I don't—"
"Yes" said Sirius, also getting up. "It'd take a while…but I think we should give it a shot."
"Give what a shot?" asked Remus, getting to his feet. "I don't know if any of you have realized, but this is dangerous on any level! You probably shouldn't even be my friends! I could kill any one of you at any time!"
"We'll become Animagi." Said James. Remus' eyes widened.
"That's crazy" he said slowly. "You can't. It would take years, and it's illegal unless you're of age."
Sirius and James looked at each other. "We could do it." They said together. "Come on, Remus. We could make it work. We're both dashing intelligent young lads." Said Sirius.
"Yeah, our brains are bigger than most things on our bodies!" said James with a laugh.
"Most things." Repeated Sirius. Peter laughed.
"You guys, I don't think it's a good idea." Said Remus. "You laugh like it's a big joke, but it's not. Animagi are rare mainly because it's so difficult to become one. You're not even fifteen yet. Full grown wizards have a hard time with this. You do get that, right?"
"Remus, if we didn't get it, we wouldn't try it." Said James firmly. His eyes were bright like they always got when he was onto something big. "And you can help us! You know more about the science of it than any of us."
"That's true" said Peter. "You've got the gist of transforming down."
"Not the same thing in principle of course." Said Sirius. "But in theory…"
Remus smiled.
"What do you know about theory?"
"Well it's uhm….it's that thing where…"
Remus sighed, and pushed his dirty blonde hair out of his eyes, closing the book that he was looking at. "All right. I will help you. I don't know why this is so important to you" He said, his eyes narrowing. "But you have to understand that becoming an Animagus is a difficult and study-heavy process. We're going to need a lot of time outside of classes to work on it. We're also going to have to be very careful. Animal transformations are extremely tricky. I recommend we don't try transforming until we're absolutely sure. And we'll need books. Lots of them. Probably from the Restricted Section of the library.
"Done" said Sirus with a grin. "We can sneak in there any time."
"It's going to be a lot of sneaking around…" said Remus nervously. "Maybe we should think up a system. Some way of warning each other when teachers or Filch is coming. Remember, it won't be just the library. We're going to need a large unused classroom to practice in for large amounts of time, and I don't really see Professor McGonagall letting us use one if we tell her the real reason. Which means it'll have to be at night."
"I love how Remus is mapping this out for us" said James with a smile. "But yeah, I think we will need a system of some kind. We could get caught, and I could get thrown off the Quidditch team." He frowned.
"James…that's it!" said Sirius excitedly.
"No, I don't want to be thrown off the Quidditch team, mate."
"No, not the Quidditch team! Mapping! We should make a map of Hogwarts!"
"That's impossible." Said Remus immediately. "There are too many secrets, too many rooms. We'd never be able to account for them all."
"So pessimistic, Remus." Said James, grinning at Sirius. "We have been everywhere in this castle. And the places we haven't been, we can write down as we go! And weren't you bragging the other day, Remus, about how you could perform a locator spell?"
Remus shrugged.
"It could show everyone in this castle." Said James. "That way, if we were worried about getting caught, we could just look and see who was on our tail."
"And we could use your cloak!" said Sirius. "For emergencies."
Remus was looking puzzled, but inside he was glowing. They were going to do this for him. They were actually going to try and make this work. He had friends…
"Let's start with the front cover." Said Sirius, rummaging inside his bag for some parchment. "And of course, we'll have to enchant it so that others can't read it."
"Good idea." Agreed Remus.
Sirius had begun writing on the piece of parchment.
"Let's see…it needs a name."
"Huh?" asked Remus.
"Well if it did fall into the wrong hands, we don't really want it to read 'Hello, We're a group of Underage Wizards Trying to Turn Ourselves Into Animals So We can Run Around With a Werewolf.'" Said James rolling his eyes. "Honestly, Remus, you're supposed to be smart."
Remus frowned.
"Ok, so…any ideas?" asked Sirius, looking to his three friends.
"The Map of Mystery!" said James.
"Boring," said Sirius.
"How about 'The Marauder's Map' said Peter."
Sirius looked amazed.
"That's bloody brilliant, Peter. Who knew?"
"All right, so 'The Maruader's Map'" said Remus. "Now what?"
"Now, I start drawing." Said Sirius, running his fingers through his hair again. "For a long time."
"No, I mean, when do we start?" he asked eagerly. The three of them looked at him.
"Anytime." Said James. "I think we should wait for Sirius to finish at least some of the map, and then we'll do it as soon as we find out where we're practicing."
"Sounds good." Said Sirius.
"I'm starving" said Peter, getting up from the step he was sitting on. "Let's get dinner."
"Yeah, ok." Said Sirius, and he and Peter walked down the stairs towards the Great Hall.
"Are you coming, Remus?" asked James. Remus was still sitting on the steps, his knees drawn up to his chest.
"Why are you doing this for me?" he asked quietly. "You know how dangerous this is, James. Maybe Sirius doesn't, but I know you do. You've seen me come back. You know what I'm capable of."
James looked thoughtful, but still smiled."
"You're only dangerous when the moon comes out. And I think we're all kind of sick of seeing you suffer so much, Moony."
Remus frowned "Moony?"
James laughed. "I like it. Let's eat."
