Disclaimer

I, obviously, do not own Harry Potter or any characters in this fic, I just write about these people for my own enjoyment, and hopefully yours.

Sitting, waiting, etching my name into the dust on the musty, creaking floorboards, it was all I ever did. Once a month, every month, I found myself back here, in this room, dreading the night and everything it brought to me. Hating myself for what I had become, and above all, despising the fact that there was nothing I could do about it.

I chuckled humorlessly to myself, remembering all of the grandiose plans I had, had for my Hogwarts years. The joy that was completely mine the night I had received my letter of acceptance, the feeling of finally belonging, of perhaps not being as big a monster as I had originally assumed. I remember thinking that for once, I may finally fit in, and not be judged for what was out of my control, but, all of that came crashing down around me…

I rubbed my wrists against my watering eyes, pushing the moisture that was threatening to escape my tear ducts back to where it came from. I had made a vow to myself that I would not cry, no matter what happened, I had been through much worse in my life, and all this was, was a little bump in the road trying to block my way to bigger and better things.

I was stronger than this, or, at least, I should have been stronger than this. A couple of adolescent boys (who were just like me) should not have had this much pull over my emotions, honestly, I had only just met them, and now, looking back on everything that had happened, I had no idea why I would have ever told them the truth about me. Especially because I still was not willing to let myself believe in the truth about me quite yet. It just didn't seem fair that the first people I had ever willingly told the truth about my condition to would up and leave me. Willing to forget about every other quality I had, besides my disease.

Presumably, the water that had been in my eyes had found another escape path through my nasal passages. Snot was disgusting, but this moisture that was threatening to drip down my nose did not seem like any snot I had ever seen before. As I rubbed the back of my sleeve across my upper lip, it appeared to be almost identical to the tears from before, except for the fact that it was coming from my nostrils.

Creeeeak.

I whipped my head around to the direction of the door, and the noises of the house, whispering my name, locking me in.

Then, suddenly, the creaking got louder, and along with it came the muffled patter of feet against the wood. The floor underneath my bottom started to shake, and I was afraid all of the movement may cause the house to collapse. The volume of the feet continued rising, coming closer and faster, until the door to the room I was in banged open, nearly being thrown off of its hinges. Surprised (and possibly a little scared) I jumped back, hiding myself underneath the nearest chair in the hopes that I wouldn't be seen, and that maybe, for once in my life I would not transform.

Holding my breath, attempting not to make any noise, I peered around the leg of the chair to get a good look at the legs of my possible attacker.

I froze.

For, instead of pants and trainers over a pair of human legs, there stood four strong hooves, pounding on the floor with what could only be described as impatience. Four jet black, scraggy paws that started digging at the floor as their master started to whine, and one little brown rat with a tuft of fur on his head staring straight at me with unblinking eyes.

Unblinking blue eyes…

Unblinking watery blue eyes…

"Peter?"

After mentioning his name, that little rat – presumably Peter – jumped onto my arm and crawled all over my body. Stunned, I hooked my fingers on a couple of loose floorboards and managed to drag myself out from under the chair, where the rat jumped from my shoulder back onto the floor, still squeaking wildly.

I stared in shock at the little rodent before I heard a low growl from one of the other creatures in the room, and looked up into the face of the largest black dog I have ever seen, and a magnificent stag, both of which were looking down at me, their expressions almost amused.

I gasped, I recognized those smirks!

"Sirius? James?"

At the mention of each name the dog gave one high pitched bark, while the stag snorted, nodding his head and stomping his hooves.

I sat there stunned into complete silence. What the bloody hell were these people doing here? These boys who had crushed my dreams of being a normal teenager, with real friends to my name, these boys who had been ignoring me for months on end, while they ran off to do their own thing, these boys, who were suddenly animals, who thought they owned the world and everything in it.

"What the bloody hell are you guys doing here? And why are you all like that?" I, being completely and utterly shocked, exclaimed in what was embarrassingly my highest pitched voice ever.

The stag, whom I thought to be James, rolled his eyes at me, in a manner which made me feel rather stupid. If James thought the reason was pretty obvious, then it must have been, all I had to do was really put some effort into it and think. What in the wizarding world could change into animals? There were were-wolves, but besides the fact that only one of the trio was a canine in any way, I knew for a fact that he was not a werewolf. I shut my eyes as tight as they would go, what else could change into animals?

My eyes flew open as the answer hit me in the side of the head, making me dazed, and even more confused than before.

Animagus.

And if I knew them as well as I thought I did then they were, in no way legal animagus, they must have done this on their own, in their spare time, to the knowledge of no one else. The next question I had was why?

Why would they put their entire wizarding life at risk in order to become illegal animagus? Sure, changing into an animal was cool, but they could have always waited until later on in life, when they were adults, and there was no legal risk for them.

Or they could have just asked me to bite them.

The dark thought surprised even me, and I was instantly glad that I had not said it out loud. These people did not need another reason to hate werewolves, especially since some part of me deep, deep down still hoped that they liked me, and accepted me, and wanted me to be their friend.

Then, once again, another idea tackled me, and held onto my brain, refusing to let go, forcing me to believe it, while every ounce of my being did not want to. I tried with every bit of power I had to keep my hopes down, and not let them be crushed by the same people twice, but the effort was futile. I could feel the butterflies in my stomach as the danced around, making me nervous as my hands started getting clammy.

Animals could not be infected by werewolf saliva, there was no risk of a werewolf attacking an animal. The only thing a werewolf went after was humans, and since these three, while in their animagus form, were not human, that could only mean one thing…

"Did you guys become animagus, for me..?" I urged my voice not to crack or die off, too nervous to truly care for anything other than an answer.

The rat let off a high pitched squeak, the dog bowed low on his front paws, wagging his tail in the air and letting off another bark, while the stag once again stomped his hoof on the ground and nodded his head, snorting, and getting excited.

I took all of that as confirmation, and that night, as my body started to transform in one of the most painful experiences any human would ever face, my heart swelled to twice its normal size. The butterflies in my stomach seemingly exploded and expanded, leaving behind a warmth that I felt throughout my entire being. Even as a werewolf, my head spun as it tried to wrap itself around this little, trivial fact.

These people were my friends, my true friends, and nothing anytime soon was going to change that.

AN: This story is for vicky199416's Happiest Moment Challenge, and was basically a challenge where we got a character and had to write about what we assumed to be their happiest moment. I got Remus Lupin, obviously, and almost instantly this little scene filled my head and refused to be replaced so I decided to make it his happiest moment, because, knowing Remus, it was probably one of them!

I'm kinda happy with how this came out, though there are a few things I don't like, but it will be like that with anything I write, so there is no point stressing myself out about it, anyways that's about it!

Sincerely,

Moll Short