Disclaimer - I own nothing you recognise.
A/N - Written for the Hogwarts Transfiguration class, assignment 1 (a character jumping to the wrong conclusions) using the prompts Laughter / Animagus / Prank.
Friends Like These
Remus wandered the halls, chewing at his bottom lip with worry. His friends had been weird for the last few weeks, and he was scared they didn't want to be his friend anymore. Maybe they had decided that he was indeed a monster, what with his 'monthly problem'. It was his fifth year at Hogwarts, and he should be concentrating on OWL's, yet instead, he had managed to work himself up to the point where he wouldn't even be able to concentrate on a book, never mind study it.
He wondered where the other three were, and if he should even want to find them. After all, why should he make it easier on them if they wanted to ditch him after five years of supposed friendship? He walked slowly, meandering the time away as he climbed the stairs to the portrait hole where the Fat Lady greeted him happily. The common room was fairly empty, most people spending time in the library, or in the case of the younger years, outside enjoying the last of the sunshine before winter descended on them.
Not bothering to pay attention to his surroundings, he entered the dorm he shared with the others, and sat down on his bed. Only then did he see it. A stag. A stag in his dorm room. A stag in his dorm room, looking at him with a cocked head and curious eyes.
What?
Remus stared at the animal, transfixed and not a little afraid of the giant antlers sitting upon it's head. He was still sitting there when Sirius entered the room.
"Remus?"
"Why is there a stag in our room?" Remus asked calmly, as though this was a weekly occurrence and nothing to worry about.
"Oh, I thought it would make a nice decoration," Sirius snorted in reply, throwing himself on the bed. He sounded unconcerned, but to Remus' already insecure mind, the teasing lilt in his voice sounded more like malice.
"You're a funny one, aint ya," he replied sarcastically, still refusing to take his eyes off the stag. "Seriously, why is there a stag in the room?"
"Have you really not worked it out yet?" Sirius asked. "I thought you were supposed to be the smart one?"
"What can I tell you, I've been distracted," Remus muttered darkly. Finally drawing his eyes away from the animal, he stood up, moving to the door. Turning back to Sirius, he said, "I thought you would have had the guts to just tell me the truth. You didn't have to make me feel like shit in the process."
Leaving the room, he missed the confused and slightly hurt expression on Sirius' face, and the stag suddenly changing into a man that very much resembled James Potter.
"That didn't go as planned, did it?" James muttered, sitting on Sirius' bed. "What on earth was that about? What truth are we supposed to be telling him?"
Sirius thought for a moment before the hurt behind Remus' words dawned on him. "We've been concentrating pretty hard on finishing the Animagus transformations for the last few weeks, right?"
James nodded, still looking bemused.
"And we wanted to keep it a secret from Remus, right?"
James nodded again.
"And we might have neglected Remus in the process and now he feels left out and like we don't want to be friends anymore."
James eyes cleared as he realised what Sirius was saying.
"Bloody hell. Come on, let's get Peter and go and find the berk. I'll knock some sense into with my new antlers if I have too."
Getting off the bed with a chuckle, Sirius gestured out of the dorm room with a hand. "After you, good sir. I don't trust you not to change and ruin my perfect posterior with those same antlers. You're a menace, I tells ya. A menace to society!" With a dramatic hand held to his head, Sirius followed the laughing James from the room.
xxxx
Remus sat under the oak tree that the four of them had favoured since first year. He didn't know what had gone wrong, nor what he had done to make his friends suddenly abandon him. It could only be the werewolf in him that had driven them away. He wished... well, he wished a lot of things, none of them would ever come true. More than anything though, he wished he could be a normal boy, with a normal life.
Glancing up at the steps of the castle, he saw three people coming towards him. He steeled himself for the impact they were sure to hit him with. This was it. They were going to tell him they didn't want him around any more. As their faces came into focus, he saw they all, especially Sirius, looked determined and a little mad. This wasn't going to be pretty.
Peter flopped down beside him, and James sat down in front of him. Sirius stayed standing, looking down upon him with a raised eyebrow.
"You, Remus Lupin, are an idiot. You're a nag, you stop us from pulling the better pranks, you force us to study, you won't help us get get girls, not that I need the help, and you always tell us off for arguing with the Slytherins. But more important than all of that, is that you are our friend. Our best friend. You don't get to feel like we're going to ditch you, because let me tell you, that isn't going to happen. Yes, you annoy the hell out of us, but so does Peter, and James. I'm perfectly perfect, so of course I don't annoy you, but I still understand. Never forget that we are your friends, Remus."
Remus looked up to meet the eyes staring at him, and he nodded, unable to speak for a moment because of the protesting lump in his throat. James looked up at Sirius with an affronted yet amused look in his eyes.
"If you're perfectly perfect, I'm a crup's uncle," he said, knocking Sirius' legs from under him so he ended up sprawled in a crumpled heap on the grass.
"You didn;t mention that, James, you'll have to introduce me to the little guy," Sirius replied with a cheeky grin. "I love crups. Oof!"
James laughed as Sirius held his head where James had just hit him. "You, my good friend, are a world class idiot."
Remus watched them fighting, laughing half at them but mostly in relief. When he stopped, a thought come to him.
"Are you going to tell me why there was a stag in our... you didn't?" He looked between them, shock colouring his expression as he begged them to tell him they hadn't done when he thought they had.
Sirius elbowed James in the side. "I think our Remus has got his brain back," he stage-whispered with a grin.
"All of you?" Remus asked, looking between them.
"Should we show him?" James asked, to which the other two answered with excited nods. "Come on, we'll go back to the dorm. At least we won't be seen there."
The four of them walked, admittedly it was more of a light jog, back to the school. It took them no time at all to return to the dorm room, where Sirius had the presence of mind to ward and silence the door.
"I'll go first," James said with a grin, "Since you know, I was the first one to perfect it."
"By twenty minutes!" Sirius complained as James transformed into the stag Remus had seen earlier.
"Meet Prongs," Sirius said, holding a hand out to James, who took the opportunity to strut around as much as was possible in the small space.
"More like Prancer," Remus muttered with a smile. James turned back into himself and hit Remus with the nearest available item, which happened to be a pillow.
"Sirius, your turn," Peter said, his watery eyes lit up in anticipation for his own turn.
Sirius transformed into a black dog, his eyes dancing with happiness, as he jumped from bed to bed with a giddy bark.
"We called him Padfoot," James informed Remus, rolling his eyes. "I was all for Fido, but he didn't like it."
Sirius transformed, and before anyone had time to say anything, Peter changed into his form, a rat. Remus raised an eyebrow at the rat on the bed, suppressing the shudder that was longing to go through him. He bloody hated rats.
"We couldn't think of a name for him," James admitted, as Peter turned back. He didn't realise he still had a tail, and looked around confused as the other three boys burst into fits of laughter.
"Wormtail," Remus gasped out, clutching his sides.
"Wormtail," Sirius repeated, trying the nickname out. "Wormtail it is."
Calming down, Remus looked at his friends. "So we have, Prongs, Padfoot and Wormtail. What about a nickname for me?"
"Come on, Remus, that's so far beyond obvious, you shouldn't even have to think. Moony!"
"Don't you think that would make things a bit obvious?"
"Nah. It'll be fine. Besides, Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs, kinda has a ring to it, don't ya think?" James said, finally stopping laughing.
Remus grinned. "It does, doesn't it."
Looking at his friends, Remus realised just how lucky he was. With friends like these, he would never be alone. He would never doubt them again.