Chapter 3: The Niggling Marauders

Song: Animal I Have Become

By: Three Days Grace

The story picks up on the 1st of June, 1978. The 7th years have begun taking their N.E.W.T.S

-Remus' POV-

Remus bolted awake, immediately starting to panic. He began getting dressed. "Sirius, wake up!" Remus screeched this at one of his best friends. "We're going to be late for the Charms Theory test!"

Sirius didn't get up, he just grabbed his wand and said Tempus Temporis causing a magical clock to float in front of Remus' face. Remus immediately calmed down. It was only 5 A.M.; their test wasn't for 4 more hours yet. This had happened every morning for the past few days. The first time Sirius joined in Remus' panic until they had cast the time spell and seen they were early. Every day since then, Remus would wake up at around 5 panicking that they were late for a test, Sirius would then cast the time spell, and then Remus would get ready for the day and go to study in the common room for a couple hours until everyone else woke up and went to breakfast.

They'd already had their tests for Potions. Today, Wednesday, they had their Charms tests. Over the next couple weeks they had a course N.E.W.T. at least every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. They still had Transfiguration this week. Defense Against the Dark Arts, Muggle Studies, and Ancient Runes were all next week. There were, of course, other class tests, but those took place in-between the main N.E.W.T.S. Remus still had Arithmancy and Astronomy, both this weekend, to go as well.

Rina had begun to come down at about 6 to study with him. She had heard his and Sirius' shouting the first morning and come to see what the racket was. They had talked for a few minutes and when he said he would just wait in the common room for everyone else to wake up, she suggested that he utilize the time and study. When she had figured out that this same thing happened every morning, she insisted upon getting up to do some studying with him.

After showering and getting dressed it was about 5:30, so Remus got his books on advanced Charms theory and went to the common room to begin his study session while waiting on Rina. She came down right on time, only a short wait for Remus. And as had also happened every other morning, they snogged for a while before getting to the part of their morning that involved studying for that days exams.

-Remus' POV Cont.-

It was now Sunday the 5th and everyone had Defense Against the Dark Arts tomorrow so Lily, Rina, Rose, Holly, Sirius, Peter, James, Remus, Regulus, Frank and Alice had decided to have a group study session. Regulus had come along partly to help, partly to see what he had coming up next year when he took his N.E.W.T.S., and, most of all, to spend time with his girlfriend and his brother.

Lily decided to start the questions with some about werewolves; "ok, what is the difference between a werewolf and an Animagus?" The four original Marauders looked at each other and didn't answer, all of them with strange grins on their faces that confused all the others, as they didn't even answer the question. Frank, however, did answer.

"An Animagus chooses to change…"

"…but a werewolf has no choice in the matter." Alice finished, grinning broadly when Lily nodded that they'd gotten the answer correct.

"All right," Lily continued, "name some identifying features of a werewolf, when they are and are not in their transformed state."

Holly answered this one, "when they are transformed, they have a longer snout and they have longer arms and legs than a regular wolf. When they are in a non-transformed state, there aren't necessarily constant physical giveaways. But, around the time of the full moon, werewolves tend to look peaky and become angry easier."

"Good." Lily said. "now, can anyone name some benefits to being a werewolf?"

"A werewolf has a heightened sense of sight and smell, making it easier for them to identify specific people. As a con to the heightened sense of smell though, if a person wears a lot of perfume or cologne then the werewolf is likely to be overwhelmed by the scent." Rose stated matter-of-factly.

"Good, now can anyone name some more cons to being a werewolf?" Lily questioned.

"There are many, one is that when they transform, they go through extreme pain. Their bones are broken and re-grown into the form of a werewolf. Most go through the mental anguish of not wanting to change and not wanting to hurt anyone else. Namely, though, is the prejudice that follows them everywhere for their entire lives." Rina said this last with disgust at the thought that people could be so cruel to people who have been cursed.

"And you know what pisses me off," Lily started, getting off topic and sounding like she would lose control any moment, "is that werewolves are forced to register themselves after being bitten, giving them no chance what-so-ever of living normally because they're being forced to identify themselves and thus subject themselves to the cruel nature of bigots." Lily finished with a vehement tone to her voice.

"I agree that it's stupid. I mean, once a werewolf registers, they're pretty much doomed to a life of persecution. Once people find out, all they do is discriminate and ridicule people who had no choice about being bitten." Rina said this in a very passionate voice, as if she would strike down the next person who spoke in an ill manner towards werewolves.

This got Remus to thinking about his 'furry little problem' as Sirius had so aptly named it. He was beginning to think it was time to share his secret, so he did the only thing he could think of at the time, he called a meeting of the Marauders original four members.

"Mr. Prongs, Mr. Padfoot, Mr. Wormtail…Mr. Moony would like a word in the corner, if it's not too much to ask. Sorry to our honorary members, the Misters Black and Longbottom, but this is of top priority and if my assumption is correct you shall find out soon enough what we are to discuss now." Remus said this with a very formal inflection in his voice that spoke of utmost urgency, but held a strong note of courtesy along with it that could leave no one doubting his good intentions.

The four original Marauders went to a corner and began their meeting.

"Mr. Prongs will now call this meeting of the Marauders to order seeing as our usual secretary is the one who called the meeting." James began the rest of their friends all looking on in extreme interest. All four Marauders were sitting up straighter than any of their other friends had ever seen. They were also giving their undivided attention to the current speaker. Remus, who noticed the onlookers, cast a spell to prevent their conversation from being heard by anyone but the four intended to hear it. "All are present," James continued, "ok then. What was the purpose of calling this meeting Mr. Moony?"

"Mr. Moony would like to proclaim his intent to tell the honorary members of this group, the Marauders, as well as the group titled Moonstruck of his 'furry little problem' as he believes they are trustworthy candidates for receiving the knowledge. He would like to ask for his fellow Marauders opinions on this matter of utmost importance and, at the moment, secrecy."

"Mr. Padfoot would like to give his assent to the divulging of Mr. Moony's secret to those aforementioned peoples. He would also like to add that it is about time."

"Mr. Wormtail would like to also give his assent, but would like to be assured by Mr. Moony that he is absolutely confident in his decision."

"Mr. Moony assures Mr. Wormtail that he has the utmost confidence in his decision and would also add that he would trust all the aforementioned persons with his life as well as his secret."

"Mr. Prongs would also like to give his assent and adds that he is happy to support Mr. Moony's decision on this matter."

"Mr. Moony then concludes his statements and gives his especial thanks to Misters Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs."

"Mr. Prongs would like to ask Misters Padfoot and Wormtail if they have any other comments to be shared or any other business to be addressed at this time."

"Mr. Padfoot would like to discuss the matter of the honorary members becoming fully-fledged Marauders at this time, as they shall soon know of Remus' 'furry little problem'." Sirius started off the new topic with fervor.

"Mr. Prongs would like to give his approval to this choice, he would however like to point out that though Misters Black and Longbottom are well on their way to becoming Animagi, they have not yet achieved a transformation."

"Mr. Moony would like to say that he believes they will have achieved the transformation by the time of the next full-moon, which is the time they would be initiated in full. He would also like to give his consent to the full initiation of Misters Black and Longbottom."

"Mr. Wormtail will also give his consent to this decision, and support Mr. Moony's statement of confidence in the abilities of Misters Black and Longbottom to achieve their transformations by the initiation."

"Mr. Padfoot also agrees with Mr. Moony and Mr. Wormtail. He thanks Mr. Prongs for his opinion on the matter and would now ask Mr. Prongs if he also agrees with Mr. Moony."

"Mr. Prongs does agree with Mr. Moony and would like to extend the invitation of full membership to Misters Black and Longbottom." James agreed. "Now, seeing as all have agreed, there is no need for a vote. Is there any other issue that needs addressing at this time?" Everyone shook their heads no. "Then I declare this meeting of the Marauders to be concluded and thus adjourned."

Remus took down the silencing charm and the four returned to their seats, all of their friends looking at them curiously. As they were still in the common room, Remus cast another charm to prevent unwanted listeners from eavesdropping before speaking.

-Regulus' POV-

Regulus' curiosity was very high when the Marauders returned and Remus began to whisper hurriedly to Rina. His curiosity spiked again when her eyes widened and she kissed him. She then began to whisper back, also hurriedly. Whatever she said, it made Remus visibly relax.

"Ok," Remus began, "I wanted to tell Rina first. It's about my 'furry little problem'. I've decided to tell you what it is. Now, I've heard all of you discussing this at various times and with various levels of accuracy, no one has it completely right. I guess the closest to actuality was when Lily and Rose guessed that I must have a very hairy chest as the logical explanation." Lily and Rose looked at each other. It seems that they didn't know that Remus had overheard them. Now they looked rather bashful, they were both blushing unnatural shades of red. "First, I know I can trust you all, but I need you all to promise you won't tell anyone. Just call it my 'furry little problem' like Sirius, Peter and James do, if you feel you must talk about it." Regulus was sitting up straight and listening intently now.

"Sure Remus, whatever you say. We would never share something that's so obviously personal." Alice said, reassuring Remus of their trustworthiness. When everyone nodded their agreement to Alice's statement, Remus went on.

"This is more difficult than I thought-" Remus said trailing off for a second, only to be interrupted by Frank.

"What is it mate? You're starting to worry me."

"Sorry, ummm… Right, well…Here goes…I'm a werewolf." Remus paused to give this time to sink in to his friend's perceptions of him. "I was bitten by Fenrir Greyback when I was about 5 years old."

-Remus' POV-

Well, it could have gone worse, Remus thought to himself, no one ran off screaming, and no one looks afraid or disgusted. He did notice, however, that all the girls were looking at him with tears in their eyes at his tale of how he was bitten. He wasn't sure, but he thought he noticed some pity coming his way from Regulus…but then Regulus took pity on everyone, and his expression was very hard to read. Remus decided to put it off as shock. Frank had a similar look of suddenly understanding many things that had been unclear before.

"So, all your relatives aren't really dead, are they?"

"Nope, I don't think there has actually been a death in my family for the past nine years."

"And, just a hunch here, your mother isn't deathly ill with a recurring disease, is she?"

"No, she's probably healthier than most people in Hogwarts. Sorry for lying to you guys, but I couldn't tell you. Dumbledore warned me against sharing my secret, and most people wouldn't react this well. I was afraid of what you would all think of me when you found out."

"Nothing's changed mate," Frank said, "if you need anything though, just let us know."

"Remus, is this how you got the nickname Moony?" This last was asked by Regulus.

"Yeah, Sirius started calling me Moony when he first found out as a joke and it kind of stuck."

"So then, how did Sirius and James and Peter get their nicknames of Padfoot and Prongs and Wormtail?" Regulus was again the one inquiring.

"That's for them to tell you if they want to. But I'm sure you'll find out soon enough, even if they don't tell you now."

-James POV-

James had been thinking this whole time about how they were going to tell Frank and Regulus of their Animagi selves. And then, inspired by Remus' earlier actions, he said, "Mr. Prongs would like to request a meeting with Misters Moony, Wormtail and Padfoot immediately."

Again the four walked to the same corner and Remus put up a second silencing charm, having left the one up around the others guessing that they would shortly be in need of it again. After the charm was protecting their conversation, James began. "Mr. Prongs would like to apologize to the Marauders for not thinking of this before. He would like to propose the idea of also sharing the secret about the Marauders Animagus selves with the honorary Marauders and the Moonstruck. He believes that they shall all know soon enough anyway, and that the air may as well be cleared whilst we are already confessing secrets."

"Mr. Padfoot agrees wholeheartedly with Mr. Prongs and gives his support to the idea of sharing the Marauders secret of their Animagus selves with the honorary Marauders and the Moonstruck. He would also like to apologize for not thinking of this at the last meeting."

"Mr. Wormtail would like to say that he has no disposition against revealing the Marauders secret about their Animagi forms, but he would like to point out that then the two biggest Marauder secrets would be known to many, including five who are not to be Marauders. He does however, as stated before, not disagree to the release of said information."

"Having no Animagus form myself, and having already told of my own 'furry little problem', Mr. Moony will give his consent to the release of said information to said people, he also would like to encourage said release of information as it feels wonderful to get a secret like that off of one's chest."

"As a unanimous decision has been made, Mr. Prongs calls this meeting to a close unless there is any other business to be addressed." All shook their heads no for the second time in about twenty minutes. "Then Mr. Prongs determines this meeting to be adjourned."

The four, again, walked back to the group of friends that they had left, again, to share some more. James began to think, which only happened when it involved Lily, pranks, or Quidditch. He was thinking about number one on this list, Lily, and what she would think when he told her he was an un-registered Animagi. Odds were that she would reprimand him at first, and then ask to see his transformation under the guise of wanting to learn about it. She always did that with their more clever pranks, first reprimanded them for pranking people and then asking how they'd done it. She never failed in her insatiable desire to learn more so that she could excel at everything she did. It was one of the things that he loved about her. Sirius was the first to talk.

"Remus' recent confession has inspired us…"

"Oh no, what have you done now? Merlin I hope it wasn't stupid or dangerous!" Lily said in a tone of disapproval, not even needing to hear what it was to know that it couldn't be good, without thinking about what she'd said. When she interrupted, Sirius paused to glare at her and got temporarily sidetracked.

"You know, not everything we do is bad or stupid or dangerous."

"That's right," Remus continued for him, with a feral grin on his face, "just most things."

"Oh for crying out loud!" Rose, who had gotten impatient, exclaimed rather loudly. "Just get on with your 'confession' or whatever it is you have to say."

"Oh, right." James continued the conversation. "Well, as Padfoot said, we were inspired by Moony's confession and we've decided to make one of our own."

"That's right. We decided that if Remus could trust you, then so could we. We are going to tell a little known fact about the Marauders." Peter put in his two-cents.

"Right, well, no point in dithering on about it," Sirius began. "We, we being Prongs, Wormtail and Myself, are Animagi."

"Of what sort," Rina asked this with half curiosity and half suspicion in her voice.

"Of the illegal sort," said James with a grin on his face that would have looked to anyone outside their close-knit group of friends to be one of childish innocence. To anyone in said close-knit group of friends, it was a devilish grin which was shared by Sirius and Remus. Peter just looked afraid that someone would tell, he was always afraid of something or other.

"I figured as much," Rina continued, "I meant what form do you guys take?"

"Well, Prongs takes the form of a Stag. Wormtail changes into a rat. And I become a large black dog. I've been told I look like the Grim, but I don't buy into that crap anyway. I maintain that I am devilishly handsome in any form, including that of a dog bearing the resemblance to an omen that means nothing."

"James Henry Potter," Lily started, "I cannot BELIEVE that you are an Animagus and you never told me! I thought we shared everything! What else have you lied about? Hmmmm?" Lily said all this, slightly confusing James as it wasn't what he wasn't expecting a lecture on.

"Because, if I told you you'd figure out that Sirius and Peter were as well. It wasn't just my secret. It was theirs as well. Plus, it probably would have let Remus' secret go to if you found out why we did it!" James realized he'd just dug himself a grave having said too much. He saw the dawning realization hit Lily's face. Her face contorted into new depths of rage and disbelief and fear that he had never seen before. He figured that since he was already dead, he may as well go down fighting.

"You all go out running with him on the full-moon, don't you?" She said with mixed emotions in her voice, too many to choose the dominant place holder. "That is stupid AND dangerous! Do you realize that you could have been bitten or killed? DO YOU?" She shouted. She was starting to scare everyone.

"Lily, you need to calm down," James tried to stay calm himself, but he could see it was useless to try to calm her down with a calm tone. She wouldn't listen to anything other than shouting herself. Right now, he was glad that Remus was the one to have cast the charm as his didn't hold up against shouting yet.

"Don't you tell me to calm down."

"LILY! Listen to me, okay. Just listen for a few minutes. Let us explain. Yes, we go running with him on the full-moon. We are about as stupid as we ever have been, but that's never stopped us before. You know that."

"Don't take that condescending tone with me James Potter!"

"Sorry," he had the decency to look abashed, "We also realized the danger. We accepted it as a necessary part of helping Remus through his transformation. Plus, believe it or not, we did some research. We looked up everything there is to know about werewolves and we found that they don't hunt or hurt other animals, just humans. That's why we felt safe in running with Remus. Plus, if I do say so myself, it is quite an accomplishment to master this transformation so young…let alone at all. Now, go ahead and get that rant out of your system that I know is eating you up inside." James braved the risk of Lily's fury to give this cheeky response.

"I don't happen to have a rant prepared for illegal Animagus transformations that include running with a werewolf once a month, but trust me, you'll hear of it later." With that she sat down again and waited for someone else to talk.

"I expect I will. I'm looking forward to it love."

"Ok, so…when are you all gonna show us your transformations? Because I'd like to see them." It was Rina who said this.

"Not for a while, after the testing is done I would imagine." Sirius said this last, "besides, I think Moony would have a conniption if we did much beside study right now." Sirius finished with a smirk.

"Not true, I know when to take a break."

"Sure."

"Is that why you want us to learn about Animagi? So we can go with you?" Frank asked this with a hopeful look on his face.

"Yeah, we were actually hoping you'd be ready in time for the next full-moon. We were planning on making you fully fledged members then. What do you think guys?" James asked, trying to ignore Lily making huffing noises at the mention of the full-moon.

"It sounds great to me," Regulus replied, "how far are we from making it to the transformation?"

"Well, you know all the theory. Now you just have to figure out your animal. We had to guess ours, with the help of each other of course. You start to hear the sounds that that particular animal makes, then you start to see the ghost of whatever animal you're to become following you around. We had to guess because none of us knew of many animals. Mine was the hardest because it was so unrecognizable to me at first." James said this with a wistful expression on his face that clearly showed he was thinking about when he found out what he was to transform into.

"You guys should start hearing the sounds and seeing the ghosts any day now. When you do, tell us what you hear and see and we'll start researching what you'll change into." Sirius said this sounding overjoyed at the thought of getting to figure more animals out. He'd had a field day the first time round as he loved mysteries.

"Sounds good," Frank and Regulus said in unison. They turned and smiled at each other then burst out laughing.

James thought that all in all, this had been a wonderful day and he was glad that they'd told their other friends and their girlfriends about their secrets, even if Lily was going to lecture him later. He still loved her as much as ever, and now he had no secrets from her.

-Remus' POV-

Remus was so relieved that his friends had accepted him for what he was and not cast him out as he had feared would happen. He was glad not to have a secret that big anymore as well, he hated keeping things from his friends. It was torture for him the first year at Hogwarts to try and hide his being a werewolf form his friends. He had been relieved, too, when they had figured out that he was a werewolf and he no longer had to lie to them. Plus, all his friends had been so kind about it, not even freaking out for a minute. This, more than anything, made Remus feel as if he belonged with these people, his friends.