Chapter 9: A surprise for Lily
James was quite shockingly grown-up about the flourishing relationship, now that it actually existed. No-one quite knew how that had happened – James Potter had never been grown up about anything in his life before, and yet here he was, in a flourishing relationship, succeeding. He was polite and courteous to Lily in class; he never favoured her in prefects' meetings; he produced gifts seemingly at random. They snogged only when they were absolutely alone. Okay, they were a bit couple-y, but nothing overt, which was a relief for every single Gryffindor (except that Siobhan claimed to miss their fighting). For her part, Lily never asked how James got Honeyduke's chocolates when she was feeling down, nor where the flowers had come from just randomly one day, about a week after their breakfast together. She rarely asked about anything, reasoning that she probably really didn't want to know. Which is why it came as a shock when she asked the most fundamental question of all (to the Marauders, at least).
"James, what is it with your nicknames?" Lily asked as the couple relaxed one evening in the almost-deserted common room. "I get 'Moony', but…"
"What?"
"Oh please, James; I've known that Remus is a werewolf since first year."
"You were quicker than they were then," Remus commented dryly from the other side of the room. The only other occupier that evening sat across a chessboard from him, studying his available moves carefully. Sirius was actually rather good at chess, despite the game's reputation of being a game for geeks.
"It took them until Easter of second year," Remus continued.
"Girls are better at spotting these kinds of things," Lily said wisely. "After all, our lives are tied to the moon, too."
Remus looked up sharply, saw Lily's raised eyebrow and smiled. "Yes, I suppose they are. I never thought of it like that."
"We did," Sirius said, watching his knight beat up one of Remus' bishops. "We always called it your 'time of the month', Moony. He even gets PMT, Evans, did you notice?"
Lily nodded, flashing an apologetic, sympathetic glance at Remus.
"Why didn't you say something, Lily?" Remus asked, purposefully ignoring Sirius' PMT comment.
Lily shrugged. "You would have told me yourself if you wanted me to know, or if you had wanted to talk about it."
"Lily, I'm male; what makes you think I would ever do something that sensible? Let's face it, I didn't even tell these guys - they confronted me."
"Well, it's out in the open now," Lily said diplomatically. "What about the other names?"
"Go ahead if you want, Prongs," Sirius said. "Evans won't tell anyone."
James squeezed Lily gently. "We're Animagi," he confessed. "We did it for Moony."
Lily's eyes were as wide as saucers. "But... You have to register, and McGonagall would know, and she doesn't, because she wouldn't tell you off in Transfiguration for messing around if she knew you'd..."
"Breathe, Lil," James said gently. "We're not registered, and we know it's illegal. We couldn't risk the teachers finding out what we were doing."
"But... It was your idea, wasn't it, Black? It's too researched to be James or Peter, and too illegal to be Remus."
"Hey!" James objected.
"Am I wrong?"
"Actually, I'd like to know myself," Remus said. "You've never told me."
"You're far too intelligent for your own good, Evans," Sirius grumbled.
Lily looked just a little smug for a moment, just before she came to a realisation. "Oh, 'Prongs'! You're a stag, aren't you? Like your Patronus."
James nodded. "We'll show you later, when Pete's back."
"Are you a real padfoot then?"
Sirius grinned. "That would be something, wouldn't it? I'm just a black dog."
"And Peter is a rat," Remus said.
"And dare I ask who bestowed the name of 'Wormtail' on him?"
"I think you already know," Remus told her.
Lily sighed. "You're cruel to him, you know," she said to her boyfriend. "Poor Peter always gets the short end of the stick with you lot."
"It just stuck," James said in protest. "I didn't actually say 'Oh, I know, why don't we call Peter 'Wormtail'.' In fact, I think Pads was the first person to use it as a name."
"I… Okay, so maybe I was," Sirius said. He turned himself into the dog, just to distract attention away from the conversation, and bounded over to Lily, who giggled.
"It does suit you," she said, admiring his form.
Sirius laid his head in Lily's lap and looked up at her with big, hopeful eyes.
"He likes having his ears scratched," James said. "Don't ask."
Lily obliged somewhat hesitantly. "This is surreal, you know."
"You'll get used to it," James assured her. "It's just part of the weirdness that is Padfoot."
"You could stop if it's that weird," Sirius said, smirking up at her. He had changed form without anyone noticing. He still had his head in Lily's lap – a position that had seemed quite innocent for a dog was downright indecent now that he was a young man again. Lily shoved him away, scowling.
"Pull something like that again, and I'll make sure someone at the Ministry finds out," she threatened, only half-seriously.