Chapter 2 –
Sirius let out a loud cry of pain. He was on the floor, on his hands and knees, and quite a distance away from where he had just been. He could feel his heart racing in his chest and was breathing rapidly. Wondering how he got there, he tried to stand up, but discovered that his legs would not take his weight. Resisting the urge to vomit, Sirius grabbed onto a nearby table to steady himself. Leaning on the wall he finally looked towards his friends who he now noticed were staring at him in awe.
"What the hell happened?" he asked, between deep breaths, "You look like you've seen a ghost!"
James, Remus and Peter continued to stare at Sirius, as he concluded that if they had indeed seen a ghost, they definitely would not look as shocked as they were now. Finally Peter spoke.
"Don't you remember?"
Sirius' brain felt fuzzy. He was finding it hard to focus his eyes and his limbs felt wrong.
"Huh? Remember what?" he said thickly.
"You transformed." said Remus.
Remus grabbed hold of Sirius' arm and guided him to his bed. James was looking at him apprehensively behind Remus. He had never seen Sirius look so ill before. His skin was sickly pale. Remus sat him down and squatted down to look at him.
"How do you feel?"
"Weak." came the mumbled reply, "What'd I turn into?"
"A dog."
Sirius smiled. He seemed pleased, but still distant, as if he was only half hearing their words. "Cool. I've always wanted a dog."
"Hold on," said James, looking away from Sirius and bending over his bed-side drawer. He emerged with a large bar of Honeydukes chocolate. "Here you go."
Sirius took the bar gratefully and broke off a piece and put it in his mouth. Remus was still looking worriedly at him. He did, however feel better after the chocolate. He had a little energy now.
"So?" said Sirius, a little more himself, "What actually happened?"
"Well it's a good thing we put a silencing charm around the door," began James "because you screamed awfully loud when the spell hit you."
Sirius nodded. He remembered the heat and the pain. It felt like being pulled apart.
"Then you turned into this big black dog." continued James, "It looked like you, and more than I thought it would. Or rather, you looked like you. There was just something about the eyes."
"Then you pretty much just ran around the room until we changed you back. You won't retain memories from your transformation until you've had some practice" explained Remus.
Sirius made a face. "Shit! How much of that potion am I going to have to drink? It doesn't really agree with me."
James and Peter smiled.
"Sorry about that," said Remus, "but it only comes in one flavour. The pain that comes with the spell and transforming will stop though after another try or two."
"Well at least that's something."
Sirius wrapped up the remainder of the chocolate bar and put it on his bed-side table. The nauseated feeling that he had before was gone.
"So who's up next?"
James beat Peter to it. He took the knife and made a cut along his forearm rather than the palm of his hand. He was giddy with excitement. Somewhat sloppily, he let his blood drip into his phial and all over the floor, watching the colour change. When his phial was empty, he stood back, giving himself plenty of space. Then, when he had braced himself, Sirius shouted the spell: "Verostend Animam!"
Even after Sirius' transformation, the boys were not prepared for what happened next. The spell hit James in the chest and he fell to his knees with a muffled cry of pain. Then, the transfiguration seemed to come over him like a wave. His body grew in bulk and height. Thick, short hair grew over his skin. His skull morphed as great prongs rushed from his head. All of this happened before the echo of James' cry had time to lose itself in the walls.
Sirius, Remus and Peter stared in amazement at the grand stag which now stood proudly in front of them, like a king before his servants. Peter's eyebrows had shot up into his dirty-brown hair and his jaw was practically on the floor.
"Perfect representation of his ego if you ask me." said Sirius.
At the sound of his voice, the stag seemed to come out of a daze and backed up sharp to the left, knocking over a large chest of drawers, spilling many of the boys' belonging out on the floor. Startled and scared, the deer adopting an aggressive stance, antlers pointed at the boys.
"Not good." gasped Remus, who looked awfully nervous at being presented with such a large animal in their dorm. "Not good at all."
Peter, however, was still drooling on his shoes in awe and Sirius, had arranged his expression into one of immense curiosity and interest, like a dog who had just been presented with a new chew toy. He took a step forward and stretched out an arm as if he might stroke the stag.
"Sirius wait!" shouted Remus, but it was too late. As he had feared, the stag interpreted Sirius advance as an action of aggression. It bowed its head and took a wider stance as it prepared to charge. Sirius' face turned pale as he looked at the long, sharp antlers that could easily cut through his flesh.
"Woah man," he stammered, "James? It's me!" But of course the stag wasn't listening. It started to charge at him. He started to panic.
"Reverto Forminnatus" he shouted. A bright red light shot from the end of his wand and missed the stag by a hair. The stag was now advancing at quite a speed. Sirius backed up quickly until he could go no further. His back was to the wall and his four-poster bed. He was trapped in the corner like a mouse from a cat.
"Remus do something for fuck's sake!"
His eyes were wide with fear. The stag was now a few feet away only and now time seemed to slow as the adrenaline pumped through their veins. Remus clumsily grabbed his wand off his bed-side table and raised it at the stag. It was really close now, it s antlers scraping into the bed frame. Remus shot the same spell at the stag, hitting it in the chest. The animal let out a small noise, then transformed. Antlers receded back into the skull, and the body became smaller. Suddenly, James Potter was in front of them. The momentum from the stag's charge however, flung him forward through the air. Sirius stretched out his arm in an attempt to catch his friend. James flew straight into Sirius' arm but the force of the charge was too much. Sirius was knocked back into the wall with a shocking force and crushed by James' body. He could feel all the air leaving his lungs. James' head missed Sirius' by millimetres, but his forehead crashed into the wall. Both Peter and Remus rushed toward them as they seemed to slowly un-stick from the wall.
Peter was now holding James steady, as his transfiguration ordeal along with a concussion from the knock to the head had left him unable to hold himself upright. His glasses had smashed and he was bleeding just above his left eyebrow. Sirius had broken a rib and was struggling to breath.
James blinked and looked around the carnage of the room curiously. "I guess I wasn't a cockroach then? Now I can tell Evans that's one thing she can't call me."
"Yeah but arrogant git still applies." wheezed Sirius.
"It's too late to go down to the hospital wing now," said Remus, ignoring them both, "Madam Pomfrey will throw a fit. We'll just have to patch you both up ourselves. Besides, Peter still has to do his transfiguration."
Remus was able to fix up James in a few seconds while Peter and Sirius explained what had happened. James was extremely pleased when he heard that he had transformed into a stag. Sirius however, was worse than they had previously thought and Remus was reluctant to do more than a temporary job on Sirius as he wasn't confident enough to mend his ribs without accidentally puncturing a lung.
"I'll go down to the hospital wing in the morning" said Sirius, but he was wincing and clutching the side of his chest. Peter was looking at him doubtfully.
"I don't know Sirius, I think you should go now. I mean you won't be able to sleep like that!"
James nodded in agreement and stood up. "Here, I'll bring you down."
"No. You're still in no state to be walking around the castle James," said Remus, "I'll bring Sirius and you help Peter with his transformation. You do the spell better than me anyways."
James looked for a moment as if he was about to argue, but seemed to decide against it and sat back down. "Alright."
Remus helped Sirius to stand by allowing him to put an arm over his shoulder and they made their way towards the door.
"You better not turn into a bear and maul me though. That one will be hard to explain to Madam Pomfrey!" was the last thing they heard as the door closed behind them.
The Gryffindor Tower was all quiet, clearly no one else had heard the ruckus they had been making in their dorm. Sirius was very grateful for Remus' competence with charms. Hinges squeaked as they opened the portrait hole, but the Fat Lady remained fast asleep. The pair quickly maneuverer their way through the castle halls, cutting corners and stepping through tapestries without even having to think about it. After five years of midnight wanderings, the boys of Gryffindor Tower's westmost dormitory had learned to navigate the castle's corridors even without wandlight. Soon, they had skipped down to the first floor and found themselves out side of the Hospital Wing. With Sirius still trying to hide his wincing, the pair hobbled through the doors.
It was all dark inside the Hospital Wing, where several students were spending the night. They approached the nurse's office, and Remus knocked sharply on the door. They heard grumbling from the inside before the door flung open and they were greeted by a grumpy and dishevelled Madam Pomfrey. Only in her late twenties however, she was a beautiful woman even this early in the morning.
"Hiya Poppy!" piped Sirius
"That's Madam Pomfrey to you, Black," she replied coolly. "What have you done to yourself this time?"
"Cracked ribs," Sirius said. "You know how violent Exploding Snap can get."
"Hmm, indeed," the nurse said knowingly. Madam Pomfrey was not one to ask too many probing questions, something for which the boys were very grateful.
"Come on inside then," she grumbled "I haven't got all night!"
Remus helped Sirius into the office and sat him down on a chair, while Madam Pomfrey searched for wand.
"Sorry for bothering you so late, Madam Pomfrey," he felt obliged to say, "I would have patched him up myself, only I haven't mended ribs before."
"That would have been a foolish decision, Remus," said Pomfrey, "Student wellbeing is far more important than my own sleep, of course. Best to bring him straight here."
She turned towards Sirius now examining his ribs.
"Although the further sense to not break your bloody ribs would go a long way," she added, tutting, "I really don't understand how you boys manage to end up in here every other week."
"What's life without a little risk, Pops?" Sirius said
"Well for starters it would mean more peaceful nights for me!"
"Ah you love us really though. You'd hardly have a living if it weren't for us!"
"Just lie back and keep your spine straight so that I don't puncture your lung."
Sirius did as she asked and kept his mouth shut this time. Poppy Pomfrey flicked her wand lazily, and they heard a loud "Crack!".
"There you go, good as new," said Pomfrey, "now clear out so I can get to sleep!"
"Cheers, Pops, you're the best," said Sirius, standing up with a smile.
"Just try and be a little more careful," she replied "I don't want to see any of you boys in here for another month"
"I can only promise that we'll do our best, Madam," said Remus.
Thanking the nurse once again, the boys made their way back to their dorm, chatting in whispers. They climbed through the castle until they finally reached the portrait of the Fat Lady, who was even more displeased to be woken than Madam Pomfrey. Once they had climbed through they began to speculate as to what Peter's animagus might be. Sirius suggested a hare, while Remus simply hoped he wasn't something too exotic like a monkey, which would stand out roaming the grounds. Laughing, they made their way up the staircase and walked into their dormitory.
There, on his four-poster bed, was James, shouting and cursing in between the spells he was firing at the rapid shadow which was zipping along the ground.
"Finally!" he shouted, "Will you help me catch this bastard? He's been running around for the past hour!"
