Peter had been uncharacteristically silent during the Marauders' late night conversation. They were all piled up on Remus' bed, various half eaten foods filched from the kitchens around them, and although it was the middle of the week and they had class early the next morning, they were re-living the best pranks they had pulled so far, retelling stories so overly dramatized, they were basically fiction.

Peter wasn't really the brains behind their pranks (James was the brilliant brainstorm-er) and he wasn't the planner (Remus organized James' crazy ideas and made them possible) and he really wasn't good at collecting whatever material they needed (Sirius could smooth talk anyone into giving him anything) but he participated in the pranks and had a gift for impersonating people making him hands down the best story teller.

He was oddly withdrawn that night, absentmindedly nodding, saying a few words here and there and then just eventually stopped paying the other Marauders any attention. The weirdest part of his behaviour was the fact that he hadn't touched any of the food and he was known for always eating.

Remus was the only one to notice Peter's silence and as James prattled on about the time two Christmases ago when they charmed the trees to be genitalia shaped, he was torn between bringing attention to the situation and giving Peter some space. His curiosity was getting the best of him, as Peter was fine and acting normal the entire day and Remus couldn't quite think of a reason for the sudden change. He opened his mouth to ask Peter what was going on when Sirius suddenly let out a loud bark of laughter and startled Remus so much, he tumbled off the bed. He heard James grumble "son-of-a-bitch" and Sirius kept repeating "I called it!" between his laughter as Remus climbed over the bed to see a small rat in the spot Peter had been in moments before.

The rat transformed back and there sat Peter, so ecstatic he burst out laughing. Remus joined in on the laughing (it was very late at night and he was tired and he had no idea what was going on anymore). James whined that not only was he the last one yet to transform but he also owed Sirius five galleons because the divination fiend had successfully predicted Peter's animagus form and that sent the other three into new waves of laughter.

An entire year… that's how long it took the other Mauraders to figure out Remus was a werewolf. It was mostly luck. If he hadn't been assigned that damn astronomy calendar, James wouldn't have noticed Remus always left during a full moon. Of course, he didn't come to the conclusion that Remus was a werewolf right away. He chalked it up to weird coincidence and completely forgot about it until a couple months later when Sirius made a comment during dinner about how strange it was that Remus always returned looking sick when it was his mother that was sick so maybe she was contagious and Remus could 'give them all the disease'. Out of nowhere, Remus punched Sirius right in the nose, screamed that 'he had no idea what he was talking about' and stormed out of the Great Hall. Peter made to go after him but James held him back, saying it was best for him to vent and cool down and anyways, they had to get Sirius to the hospital wing to fix his broken nose so his beautiful face wouldn't be ruined.

After his nose was fixed, the Marauders discussed the situation and agreed they needed to keep a close eye on Remus. During the next few weeks, they took note of how he became restless and less calm and collected right before he left to see his sick mother. It was then James remembered he was always gone during a full moon and they went off to learn about the effects the full moon could have on a person.

Unfortunately, researching wasn't really their forte and they came to the conclusion that Remus' mum was the werewolf, prompting the Marauders to confront Remus in the dormitory late one night with James announcing "We know about your furry little problem." Remus stood frozen in the doorway, trying to play it off like he had no idea what James was talking about but the looks on his best friends faces said they knew everything and weren't about to put up with lies. His worst nightmare had finally happened and he was about to turn around, bolt out the door and never return or even look in the direction of Hogwarts again, when he found himself in the middle of a Marauder sandwich and were his friends (ex-friends?) trying to squish him to death for being an ugly, vicious monster and it was the least of what he deserved for what he was but NO, THEY WERE ACTUALLY HUGGING HIM, they were… accepting him.

They stepped back and Remus dropped to his knees, sobbing, and repeated 'thankyouthankyouthankyou' over and over. It took Remus an hour to finally calm down and when he muttered something about being glad he didn't have to keep his lycanthropy a secret anymore, Sirius burst out laughing.

"James thought- hahaha- your mother- hahahaha- he's such an idiot I can't believe and the moon- hahaha."

"James, why is Sirius-?"

"hahah- actually did the stupid journal- Remus is- haha- moon he…"

"MOON. HE. MOONY… that's the nickname we gave you when we totally figured out that YOU'RE the werewolf, right, Peter?"

"Uhhhh, yeah. We figured it out by ourselves."

Remus never found out his friends hadn't actually figured out his secret and, technically, he had told them.

After figuring out Remus' 'furry little problem', it took another year for them to figure out how to help him.

Peter was the one who had the idea but he was afraid to voice it because it sounded ridiculous, even to him. James and Sirius were working so hard on figuring out a way to help their friend, they were even doing homework and paying attention in class (their professors were convinced it was a prank at first) just in case they came across information that could help them. Between the two of them working on it, there wasn't much Peter could help with, every idea he had, James and Sirius had already had and trying to outsmart them wasn't an easy task. When the two of them disappeared for hours, he hid in the library, too afraid to hang out with Moony alone for fear of spilling the beans, since the three had decided to surprise Moony with… whatever they were looking for. They didn't want to get his hopes up in case there really was nothing they could do.

One evening, Peter found a book someone had left about the Middle Ages on one of the library's tables. He wasn't normally very interested in history but the cover was appealing and he leafed through it. There was born a fascination with the Middle Ages which led to Peter reading all he could about it which lead to his obsession with Morgan Le Fay. She was a monarch, an enemy of Merlin and King Arthur's half-sister, extremely talented at healing spells and had mastered the art of self-transfiguration, becoming an Animagus. Being able to turn into a bird was just BLOODY BRILLIANT.

Peter started to wonder. Could any wizard be animagus? He started doing his own research, learned that becoming Animagus was hard work but achievable and that the animal form someone took depended on the person. He also learned werewolves weren't dangerous to animals. It was a perfect way to help Moony, to actually be around him while he was going through his transformation. But voicing his idea took almost half a year. James and Sirius were starting to become… hostile. They were disappointed that so much research was yielding no results and although they remained their charming, popular selves to the rest of the castle and blew off a lot of steam with various pranks, they were more likely to snap at little things when the four of them were alone in the dormitory. Peter didn't even know how to go about presenting his idea so they didn't write it off right away. He couldn't exactly be like, "Hey, what if we turn into animals?" without James and Sirius thinking he was mad.

He finally found the courage to share his idea one night when Remus returned from his transformation looking like an Inferius. Peter offered to make a run to the kitchens for some butterbeer and chocolate and he dragged Sirius and James with him. He only waited for the portrait of the Fat Lady to swing shut before exploding, trying to quickly explain everything he needed to say before either friend shut down his idea.

After deciding to become Animagi, it took them three years to finally accomplish it.

The first thing Sirus, Peter and James did the morning after Peter shared his brilliant idea was hit the library, classes be damned. James and Sirius went over everything Peter said, double checked that there wasn't anything he had missed and were so over-joyed at finally having something to share with Remus that they promised to treat Peter to the best Hogsmeade of his life next time they went.

Convincing Remus to agree to the idea turned out to be the hardest part as he was dead set against them risking their lives for him. When Sirius pointed out that they all risked their lives living with James as he was a SLEEP STUNNER, he couldn't keep arguing and hesitantly agreed on the condition that they not completely drop their school work to focus on becoming Animagus.

(o o o )

Fifth year was when a black, shaggy dog burst into the Marauders' dormitory, scaring the shit out of everyone.

"MERLIN'S BEARD IS THAT DOG… LAUGHING AT US?"

The dog was suddenly Sirius and it took a couple moments for the Marauders to realize what was happening. Remus was the first one to react, giving Sirius a clap on the back and congratulating him. Peter was too in awe to say anything but James said enough for the two of them.

"Sirius, mate, you're a DOG. You know what this means, right? THIS MEANS YOU'RE MY BITCH."

James didn't have enough time to react before the black dog jumped onto his bed and peed.

(o o o)

James finally became an Animagus about a month before summer break, and it was an event he would never forget. Or rather, Sirius would never let him forget. He turned into a stag one night when the Marauders were (not supposed to be) galavanting through the Forbidden Forest. A beautiful stag, strong, powerful, proud. And then he turned back into James, tall, skinny, horned.

James sported horns for nearly a week after his transformation and as much as he wanted to go to McGonagall, he couldn't exactly tell her he had, along with Peter and Sirius, become an illegal Animagus so he went to Madame Pomfrey with a lame story about fooling around with Polyjuice Potion and was told that he would just have to wait for the effects to subside. That week was, hands down, the worst week of James' entire life because regardless of how popular or good at Quidditch he was or that he was one of the Legendary Marauders, it wasn't enough to keep his classmates from making fun of him, especially Sirius because if Sirius had one purpose in life, it was to mock him. James was sure he was going to die of embarrassment since Sirius kept shouting things at him in the hallways like, "Oh, Jamesy, PRONG ME! I see how horny you are for my hot body! We can do it... DOGGY style."

There is no real plot, just a collection of headcanons.

If there are any headcanons you have that you'd like me to write, feel free to share!

love and reptar bars;; lii