I stood impatiently in the common room waiting for Remus, Sirius, James, and much to my dismay Peter Pettigrew. I never fully understood why the other three kept Peter as close as they did. They confided in me that they never actually liked the boy. It seemed ridiculous to me.
I was examining the time on the clock with my wand lit. Quarter to midnight, the time we had set to meet down there. Yet, they were nowhere to be seen. Suddenly, I heard a dull thud coming from the stairs to the boys' dormitories, as if someone had landed badly on the bottom step. I whipped around, but saw nothing. Just my imagination I thought to myself, turning back around.
About two minutes later, someone poked my sides. My wand fell to the floor with a clatter, but I had barely opened my mouth to scream when someone put their hand over my mouth. "Do you want us to get caught?" Sirius growled into my ear while Remus pulled a…
Did he really pull off what I thought he did? "Where in the world did you get your hands on an invisibility cloak?" I asked, blinking rapidly to make sure I wasn't hallucinating.
"My dad gave it to me last Christmas," James said, almost triumphantly, "I've been waiting for a good excuse to use it."
"I suggested sneaking into the girls' bathroom," Sirius murmured. I shoved him playfully.
"Sirius Pollux Black, you are an awful person!" I giggled.
"Rebecca Lycoris Black," he joked, mimicking me, "What's your point?" I let out an aggravated sigh.
"Apparently I have none."
"There you go."
"We should get going," I heard Peter say from behind Remus. I peered around Remus, glad that he couldn't see my pointed glare.
"Peter's right. We have to be done with this before morning," Remus said briskly, picking up the cloak again, "Alright under." We all followed his instructions and grouped under the cloak.
"Where are we going?" I asked, annoyed that they hadn't told me in the week since I found out about this plan.
"The room of requirement of course," James replied.
"Of course," I repeated sarcastically, rolling my eyes.
Before I knew it, we were in the room of requirement, each sitting in front of a cauldron. "Okay, what first?" I asked.
Remus was going to be giving us instructions, since he wasn't performing the spell himself. "First, take out the vile with your animal blood in it," he started. We all did as we were told.
"A stag," James said, obviously very pleased with himself.
"A cat," I continued.
"A dog," Sirius laughed.
"A rat," Peter said annoyingly.
"May I add something before we start?" I asked Remus.
"Of course Becca."
"I suggest we use codenames now. You know, a name that represents us as individuals and as a group?"
"That's a great idea," James said, "I'll be… Prongs."
"I'll be Padfoot," Sirius decided.
"Tails," I said simply.
"And I'll be… Moony," Remus nodded.
"And together, we'll be the marauders," Sirius nodded.
"What about me?" Peter piped up.
"You can be wormtail," James suggested. Peter quieted down, obviously pleased with his new name.
"Well then, let's start, shall we?" Remus continued. It took us about fifteen minutes to make the actual potion. "Now," Remus instructed, "You'll need to break the skin somewhere with an atheme." I grabbed the knife near my cauldron and made a cut, about an inch long, in my palm as the others did. "Then dip your cloth in the potion and use it to dab the cut."
I continued to follow instructions. I could feel the potion enter my blood stream and begin to take effect. It burned. "How long until we can actually use our animagus form?" I asked through the searing pain.
"About a week. That's the night before the next full moon," Remus informed me, "And two weeks until holiday." I nodded. There was no turning back now.