Entry for round 3 of the International Wizarding School Championship

Beauxbatons 3rd year

Theme: Elixir to Induce Euphoria

Prompts: Pointy Nose (main), Muffliato, Sirius Black

WC 2766

Nicknames – Until the quartet became Animagi in 5th year, their nicknames for Sirius, James and Peter would not have been Padfoot, Prongs and Wormtail. Likewise, before they learned that Lupin was a werewolf, his nickname wouldn't have been Moony. Yet, as I wrote this story, I was sure they'd have had nicknames for each other. Petty Peter seemed just right, and along the same lines Loopy Lupin and Potty Potter seemed pretty much inevitable. Sirius was more difficult. He had neither a name that lent itself easily to being corrupted, nor an outstanding quality to mock. However, being perhaps the top-dog of the four, and named after the Dog Star, I decided he was Dogs.
Potion Name and effects – I'm sure the potion has a much shorter name than "Elixir to Induce Euphoria", so I invented one. And since the use of peppermint to counteract the side-effects was devised by Snape and noted in his 6th year textbook, I assumed that peppermint would not have been part of the recipe in their 2nd year.

The Point of His Nose

Sirius and James, their heads close together, were whispering to each other behind their copies of Jigger's Magical Draughts and Potions, Book 2. James had one eye on Professor Slughorn, who was moving among the students' benches examining their work. As the professor bent to examine Severus Snape's potion ingredients a few benches away, Sirius hissed:

"Well, what did he say?"

"I told you, he didn't say anything. Just frickin disappeared again. But I think I know why."

Sirius looked questioningly at his friend. James took another cautious look at Professor Slughorn and, seeing that the teacher's back was toward them, put his mouth close to Sirius's ear and murmured a few quick words.

"What?"

Sirius's incredulous reaction was incautiously loud, and James clapped a hand over his friend's mouth. It was too late. Professor Slughorn wheeled around and glared at them.

"Black! And Potter! This is the second time I've had to speak to the two of you this lesson. Ten points each from Gryffindor. Perhaps," he added with gentle sarcasm, "you could postpone your enthralling conversation until my lesson is over? Unless, of course, you're so competent at preparing the ingredients for Euphorixis that you have no need of my instructions."

Sirius and James looked ruefully at their benches. Neither had the neatly-chopped ingredients Slughorn had requested, nor were they as far along in their work as the rest of the class. Even Peter Pettigrew, alone at the next bench since Remus, his usual Potions partner, was absent, was further ahead in the task than they were.

Snape was looking smugly across at them. As usual, his preparations were the farthest ahead of anyone's, and all of his ingredients were arranged in tidy piles. He whispered something to the red-haired girl sitting beside him and she spluttered with laughter. James flushed.

He muttered a perfunctory apology to the professor, and the pair bent their heads to their work again. But Sirius's thoughts were solely on the astonishing suggestion his friend had whispered to him. He thought carefully, then shaped his ingredients into a reasonable semblance of a crescent. He nudged James, and pointed to his creation with a question in his face. James nodded. Sirius then pursed his lips into a soundless howl, and James nodded again. Sirius looked stunned.

The remainder of the lesson was something of a disaster for the pair, especially Sirius. Reeling from the shocking thought his best friend had put in his mind, he was quite unable to concentrate on his work. He accepted zero marks from Professor Slughorn and the loss of a further ten house points without really noticing.

As soon as the class had been dismissed, he grabbed James by the arm and pulled him aside. Pettigrew followed, his pointy nose quivering with interest, but Sirius was not yet ready to share the astounding idea with their satellite.

"Muffliato," he cast, as they left the castle and went out into the grounds.

Pettigrew, hurrying along slightly behind them, whined as his idols excluded him from their conversation. He followed them anyway, hoping to hear a word or two despite the incantation.

As soon as the charm took effect, Sirius burst into speech.

"You have got to be joking!"

"Dead sirius, mate," punned James.

Sirius ignored the wordplay, although usually he objected to it.

"What in Merlin's name made you think of it?"

"Well, you know how Professor MacKenzie mentioned in Divination that our homework should be easier this week because of the full moon? And you said that Remus was lucky because he was ill and wouldn't have to do it at all?"

Sirius nodded.

"I suddenly remembered that when we had to do that moon chart last full moon, Remus was absent then too, supposedly because his mother was ill. And I got out last year's almanac and went through every full moon date, and compared them with the times he was away – sick mother, my foot! – and they matched. He's always absent for the full moon. Plus he comes back looking a bit ill and scratched. What else could it mean?"

"Maybe his mother is the werewolf?"

"Talk sense, you prune!" James looked pityingly at his friend. "If she were a werewolf, would anyone in their right minds think that a twelve year old should go home to look after her during a transformation?"

"Fair point. Oh, shut up, Petty Peter!" Sirius ended the Muffliato charm and snapped at Pettigrew, who was bobbing around them trying to hear their conversation. Pettigrew immediately burst into injured speech.

"It's not fair. Remus is away, and you two keep on talking without me. What were you talking about? What's the secret? Remus wouldn't leave me out if he were here."

"Shall we tell him, do you think?" James looked quizzically at Sirius.

"I've got a better idea!" exclaimed Sirius, and much to Pettigrew's disgust he recast the Muffliato. "Petty Peter is always whingeing about something. Let's fix him and practise those potion ingredients at the same time. We'll give him some Euphorixis."

James roared with laughter. "Fantastic idea. But can you make it properly? It's a pretty advanced potion – we only had to prepare the ingredients. And it's not as if we could get Snivellus or Evans to help us."

Sirius snorted. "I wouldn't ask either of those teachers' pets for help if you paid me! I'll tell you what," he said, struck by a sudden idea, "I'll go and grovel to Slughorn, tell him I'm awfully sorry about this morning, and ask him if he'll help me to make it. He loves that sort of flattery."

"Genius! Let's do it."

~~~ooo~~~

Remus Lupin walked wearily across the lawn and into the castle. These episodes always left him drained and sore, and he shrank from the thought of the noise and laughter in the common room. He paused at the Fat Lady's picture to brace himself, then gave the password and entered the room. Without a glance to either side, he walked straight across and climbed the tower staircase to the dormitory. He flung himself on his bed and lay staring up at the ceiling. Was it all really worth it? Wouldn't it be easier to go back to his former life of isolation, instead of trying to fit in whilst always feeling set apart in the middle of a crowd?

The door opened and his friends entered, James and Sirius leading with Peter trailing along behind. Sirius seemed to be bubbling over with amusement, and James's eyes were twinkling, but they sobered as they came across to Lupin and sat on either side of his bed.

"Feeling all right, Loopy?" James's voice was concerned.

Remus tried to sound his usual self. "Oh yes, just a bit tired from the journey, that's all."

"Journey? I thought you were in the hospital wing, ill."

A look of fear crossed Lupin's face. "Oh – oh, yes. I meant – "

James cast the Muffliato charm again, excluding Peter. "It's all right, Remus. We know where you were." He corrected himself. "At least, we know why you weren't here. We don't know exactly where you went."

Lupin stared at him, aghast. He opened his mouth to speak, but no words came.

Sirius broke the silence. "You're a werewolf, aren't you?"

Lupin, stunned by the suddenness of his unmasking, nodded dumbly. He thought to himself that it had all been too good to be true. The first real friends he'd ever had, and they were about to turn from him in disgust He closed his eyes, unwilling to see the revulsion he expected in theirs.

"H-how did you find out?" he managed to ask, huskily.

"James was the genius," said Sirius. "He realised you were always absent at the full moon, and that you were often scratched when you came back, and he put two and two together."

"Does – does everyone know?"

"Only Sirius and I," replied James. "Not even Peter."

"Hence the Muffliato," added Sirius.

Lupin looked at Peter. He had always felt that in a strange sort of way they experienced the same isolation – he because of his condition; Peter because of his unpopularity. That sense of fellow-feeling frequently made him kinder to Peter than James and Sirius were, and he decided that it was only fair for Peter to know about his condition too. He was about to tell Sirius to remove the charm when he realised that Peter was behaving extremely oddly. His pointy nose was twitching from side to side more extremely than Remus had ever seen it do before. The next moment he broke into song:

Oh, the delightful sense of euphoria

Is coursing right through all my veins

I will dance as if I have chorea

Till there's nothing of me that remains.

Lupin stared, astounded. James and Sirius burst into hysterical laughter. They rolled off Lupin's bed onto the floor, where they laughed, and crowed, and clutched their stomachs as they gasped for breath.

"Oh – oh – OH!" gasped James, between bouts of hilarity. "I can't laugh any more. Oh, my goodness!" He burst into a fresh paroxysm of mirth.

Sirius fought for breath and wheezed ecstatically, "'Dance – as if I – have – chorea'," before he, too, lapsed back into gurgles and could no longer speak.

Lupin's frown of perplexity was clearing. It was obvious that James and Sirius had cast some spell on Peter, and he could only wait until they came to their senses to find out what it was. Until then… He reached for his wand and removed the Muffliato charm.

Peter's nose was still tweaking violently back and forth. He seemed not to have realised that he was behaving at all strangely. He burst into another song:

The joyfulness stirring inside me

Is there from my head to my toes

If I keep my feet still

By an effort of will,

Then I dance at the point of my nose.

At that even Remus's lips twitched, although he was trying hard to look sternly at James and Sirius. Both had tears running down their cheeks and were still gasping for air, but they were wheezing far too much to have breath for more laughter.

"What," asked James unsteadily, as he tried to control his mirth, "is the – point – of Peter's nose?"

"Who – nose?" chortled Sirius.

Lupin decided they were calm enough to explain.

"What was it?" he asked.

Sirius took an unsteady breath.

"A – Euphorixis potion," he managed to say.

"But why?"

"Because," returned James, still struggling for self-control, "he was whingeing so much – about you being gone, and – being alone, and us talking about you being a werewolf – under the Muffliato."

"So we thought – " Sirius took up the story.

"You thought," corrected James.

"All right – I thought – that he needed cheering up. And we'd just had a lesson on preparing the ingredients for Euphorixis, so…"

Throughout this explanation, Pettigrew was humming snatches of song as he watched his nose twitching in the dormitory mirror. He appeared oblivious of what was being said, although Lupin thought he had detected a note of surprise on Peter's face when James had said the word 'werewolf'.

By this time, Sirius had almost regained normal speech, and he remembered what James had said earlier.

"So go on, Loopy, where do you go? Is it the hospital wing? I'd have thought Dumbledore wouldn't risk it."

Remus flinched at the casual reference to how dangerous he was while transformed.

"No, absolutely not," he said hastily. "Have you heard of the shack in Hogsmeade that people have been saying has become haunted?"

"The one they call the Shrieking Shack? Yes."

"It's not haunted," confessed Lupin. "Those shrieks and cries are me. Dumbledore arranged for me to go there."

"But – how?" demanded James. "I mean, they say it's all boarded up. How do you get in and out?"

"There's a secret passageway that leads from the grounds here to the shack. It's covered by the Whomping Willow. The tree was planted to protect the entrance to the passage," Lupin explained.

"How cool is that! Tell us how to get in," exclaimed Sirius.

Lupin swallowed, and shook his head. "I can't possibly. You – you don't realise how I am when I'm transformed. You couldn't go near me."

"But – "

James had been looking very serious, and now he broke in. "Don't badger him, Dogs. Loopy, what are you going to do now?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I'm assuming Dumbledore told you not to speak of it to anyone, didn't he?"

"Gosh, yes, so he did!" exclaimed Remus, looking dismayed.

"Are you going to tell him we know?"

"I – I don't know."

The three looked at each other. After a pause, Remus said slowly, "I should tell him, because he's trusted me. I can't tell you what it meant to me to have him visit my home and tell me I could come to school. It seems wrong not to be honest with him."

"What d'you think he'll do if he knows we know?" asked Sirius.

"I don't know." Indecision was strong on Remus's face. His natural feeling of gratitude toward Dumbledore for the opportunity he'd been given warred with his fear of losing the unreserved companionship his friends had just offered, and he could not bear the thought of forsaking either.

As they considered the dilemma, the effect of the Euphorixis had been gradually wearing off Pettigrew, although he was still having spasms of vigorous nose-twitching and an occasional burst of melody. He had drawn nearer to the other three as they talked, and at this point he interrupted with a further song:

A werewolf is awfully dangerous

It bites and it scratches its friends

Unless each becomes Animagus

And that's how their safety depends.

"Not up to his earlier standard," murmured James, disappointedly. "Not nearly as funny. I suppose the potion is wearing off."

"Wait, that's it!" said Sirius excitedly.

"What's what?" asked Remus.

"Petty Peter has given us the answer. All we have to do is become Animagi, and we can keep you company while you're transformed, without any danger, because werewolves are only dangerous to people."

Lupin looked horrified. "But you can't – "

"Yes, we can," retorted Sirius. "It's the obvious solution. You want company, don't you?"

Did he want company?! Lupin's eyes moistened at the thought of not being alone during those terrifying days each month, when the madness took hold of him and he bit and tore at his own flesh while he was locked away for the safety of others. He could hardly believe that his friends not only hadn't turned from him in revulsion, but were offering to become even more closely involved.

"Well, if that's what you're suggesting," said James decisively, "we'd jolly well better not tell Dumbledore! He'd forbid it straight away."

"The thing is," mused Sirius, frowning, "what do we do with Petty Peter?"

"Huh?"

"Well, Loopy removed the Muffliato, so he's heard all this, but can you really see him being able to become an Animagus? He can barely cast Expelliarmus without someone helping him with the wand movement."

Remus looked at him earnestly "That's true, but…please don't leave him out. After all, you're doing this so as not to leave me out."

"And it was his suggestion in the first place," added James.

Sirius heaved a sigh. "Logical as usual. Sometimes you two are real spoilsports. All right, we'll just have to help him, I suppose."

"We'd better go to the library and start figuring out how to do it. Do either of you know if we can choose the animals we become?" asked James.

"No idea, Potty. Why?"

"I was just thinking it'd be good if we could turn into big ones, that could restrain Loopy if necessary."

"Good point; we'll check. And maybe we could ask McGonagall a few questions."

"So long as she doesn't guess why we're asking," cautioned Remus, who had a healthy respect for Professor McGonagall's perspicacity.

"What d'you reckon Petty Peter should be, if we can choose?" Sirius asked. "I mean, do we really want something huge and daft blundering around?"

"With a nose like his, he's more likely to become a rat!" quipped James.

"If he were a rat, that would actually be quite useful," Remus informed them. "He could get under the Whomping Willow's branches to press the knot in the trunk, that opens the passage."

Sirius burst out laughing, and the others looked at him in mystification. He subdued his merriment, but chuckled as he said, "There you are, James – there's your answer. THAT is the point of Petty Peter's nose!"

.

~ o ~ o ~