The full moon was upon them. The entire day had been painfully awkward, Peter thought as the three Animagi trudged toward the Whomping Willow. For their classmates, it would have been impossible not to notice the tension between the four friends. But here they were, and they were forced to make the best of it. They entered the Shrieking Shack in silence until Remus let out a tell-tale moan and James said, simply:

"Let's do this."

The four transformed into their animal counterparts and quickly moved outside.

Something must have been in the air, or perhaps it was simply the release of all the tension he had been feeling, but Moony was more aggressive than he had been in a long time. Padfoot and Prongs were quickly exhausted, trying to keep him at bay. The animals had moved to the Forbidden Forest, wrestling ceaselessly. Wormtail loitered around the edges, intervening every once in a while to nip at Moony's feet, hoping to distract him for a split second so Padfoot and Prongs could regain their energy. But it was useless; nothing would deter Moony.

The werewolf swiped angrily at Prongs, knocking the stag to the ground. Padfoot growled and bit Moony's flank a little more roughly than he normally would have. Moony howled in pain and slashed deep into Padfoot's back without mercy, causing the black dog to whine in agony. Prongs was back on his feet and tried to enter the fray, but Moony only had eyes for the smaller dog he was attacking. He bit Padfoot's collar and Prongs thrust his small antlers into the wolf, tipping him over. Padfoot whined pitifully and limped away from the two to rest by a tree, but Moony wasn't so willing to give him up. He leapt on top of Padfoot, and the two rolled around on the ground. It was clear the injured dog was outmatched. Prongs attempted to intervene, achieving nothing but an angry slash along his face. Padfoot howled and tried to bite Moony, but Moony tossed him with bone breaking force into a huge tree. Padfoot fell painfully and whimpered again, before barking angrily at his approaching attacker. He raised his hackles and growled menacingly, but Moony was undeterred by this threat and went for him again. Prongs jumped in between the two, standing over Padfoot like a strange guardian. Moony's claws went for the stag's face again but Prongs' pushed his antlers forcefully into Moony's stomach and the wolf fell over. Wormtail ran over and nibbled the wolf's paws, enraging it further. It tried to trap the rat, but Wormtail was too fast. He dodged Moony's claws with surprising dexterity, buying the other two a little time to recover.

Prongs gently nudged the black dog, receiving a little whimper in return. The dog's strange gray eyes were filled with pain. Prongs nudged him again; Padfoot needed to get up. Padfoot whined and tried to nip at the stag's leg, but Prongs just pushed the dog away with his antlers. The dog struggled to its padded feet and went to find Moony again for another round of wrestling. The stag stepped over him gracefully, and the two returned to the angry wolf. Seeing its opponents had returned, Moony disregarded Wormtail and lunged toward the two once more.

The three Anamagi left their recovering friend in the Shrieking Shack and began the long journey back to the castle. Once they were clear of the Whomping Willow, they changed back into human form. They certainly were worse for the wear. Peter was covered in scratches from when he hadn't dodged Moony quickly enough. James face was dripping with blood, a long slash that began from just under his eye to his chin was smarting painfully, and he had deep welts on his left shoulder. He gripped his bleeding shoulder under his robes and glanced toward Sirius, who had crashed onto the grass, panting heavily. The back of Sirius' shirt was soaked in blood from the slash Moony had delivered last night, his ear was bleeding freely, and he looked like he was struggling to walk.

"Padfoot, we should get you to the hospital wing." James stated, wiping the blood off his glasses.

"Says the one with the bleeding face," Sirius grumbled from his perch on the ground, "I'm fine, but you look awful."

"You both should go." Peter added rationally.

"Too suspicious," James declared, "But Sirius can't walk, so it'll have to be him."

"I can walk!" Sirius snarled and got to his feet before letting out a yelp and tumbling over.

"Yeah, I can see that." James responded, rolling his eyes.

"Oh, alright, I'll go," Sirius gave in, "But let me rinse off all this blood, yeah? Then I can just say I fell down a staircase or something."

James nodded in agreement and bent down to lift Sirius to his feet, "We need to hurry. Pomfrey'll be along soon to collect Moony."

Sirius just grunted in response before falling sideways into James, who caught him with relative ease. James lifted Sirius and, ignoring his friend's protests, proceeding to carry him toward the castle.

"I feel like a girl." Sirius grumbled discontentedly.

"Well, you sure weigh more than one." James responded with a sly smile.

Sirius then lifted one of his arms suddenly, cuffing James' head with his elbow and then promptly declaring that it had been an accident. When they had gotten back to the common room (thank Merlin for secret passages) James deposited Sirius on his bed, none too gently. Sirius got up quickly and winced noticeably, putting his hand on his back.

"That looks pretty bad. Let me see it." James reached for the back of Sirius' shirt and pulled on it.

"NO!" Sirius cried and jumped away, nearly falling over again, "I mean, it's fine, I just want to clean it out." He hurriedly went to the showers, still fully clothed.

James frowned a little. When Sirius was a first year, he refused to change in the dormitory, and instead would bring all of his clothes into bathroom with him, undressing and dressing in the shower. The other boys had just thought him extremely modest and ignored it. He loosened up eventually and became less and less bothered displaying the marks on his back , never too noticeable unless he'd just come back from summer or Christmas break. Of course, nobody had mentioned them, thinking that a troublemaker like Sirius was sure to have his share of scars from endless fights and adventures. But of course the Marauders had eventually discovered the origin of the marks, and Sirius had never gone into the shower to change again. Now that he was regressing into the old habit, James couldn't help but wonder what kind of treatment Sirius had endured over the course of his suspension.

Sirius returned from the shower more quickly than usual, his hair already styled perfectly. He'd already fixed his ear and his clean white shirt appeared free from blood. But he was still limping.

"Come on, let's go to the hospital wing." James said authoritatively and motioned for his friends to follow.

Sirius sat down on his bed and lay back, stretching out and looking at the ceiling, "Let's just wait for Moony to get back and he can fix me. I feel fine."

"Or we could just go now." James argued with a frown.

"Seriously, Prongs, I'm fine. It doesn't even hurt anymore and I don't want to answer a bunch of question or come up with a ridiculous story. Let's just wait. I'm exhausted anyway." And he flipped over on his stomach and didn't say another word. James knew he wasn't sleeping, but he also knew that there was no point in arguing with Sirius once he had made up his mind about something. And they all were exhausted. He heaved a sigh and lay down to catch some sleep before class.

Sirius opened his eyes very slightly and glanced at his watch. 8:00. They were going to be late. He groaned audibly, but couldn't make himself move, "Prongs," he moaned into his pillow, "Wormtail! We have to get up."

Neither boy showed any sign of moving. Sirius grabbed his wand off the nightstand and wordlessly twirled it in the air.

James crashed onto the floor and made a dangerous noise. He got to his feet and stomped toward the bathroom grumbling. Sirius could only pick up his own name a couple of choice words he would not repeat in front of any adults.

Sirius forced himself to sit up and stretched considerably, releasing a loud half moan/half yawn, and causing Peter to stir.

"Are we late?" Peter asked tiredly.

"We will be in ten minutes or so."

James emerged from the bathroom, and catching sight of his hair, made a valiant attempt to comb it before throwing in the towel as he had many times before. Sirius ran a hand through his own hair, and it all fell perfectly into place, causing James to sigh in slight envy.

"Can we still make breakfast?" Peter asked.

"If we run, maybe." James answered with a yawn.

"Forget about it," Sirius said, "you can go on, but I'm not hungry. I'll just see you in class."

James nodded and he and Peter raced out the door.

Sirius took advantage of his alone time by spraying on a bit of his cologne and investigating the wounds on his back. The marks from the wolf still looked angry and red, but his new "tattoo" courtesy of his father was fading rather quickly into a scar. Suspiciously quickly, Sirius thought. He counted the days in his head since he'd sustained the injury, and decided that it was, in fact, too early for the cut to be closed up. This ought to have worried him more, but he glanced at his watch again and hurried out the door.

He walked through the halls with purpose, trying not to think how he'd just gotten back to school but Christmas break was still closing in on him. He rounded a corner and almost ran into the last person he wanted to see: Regulus.

"Sirius!" Regulus exclaimed.

"Nope." And Sirius kept walking. Predictably, Regulus chased him.

"Wait, Sirius, let me explain."

Sirius kept walking and did not respond.

"Please, Sirius, just listen to me!"

Sirius continued to say nothing.

"I'm sorry!"

Sirius halted and turned so quickly Regulus nearly tripped over him, "I don't believe you."

And just like that, he was gone. Regulus was left standing alone. Sirius had finally given up on him.

Sirius wasn't contemplating if he had been too harsh or not as he rounded another corner. He was out of patience with Regulus. His brother had to grow up sometime, and Sirius couldn't defend him if he kept acting more and more like their parents. Instead, he skidded to a halt outside the Transfiguration classroom just in time. Professor McGonnagel threw him a look like she was trying to decide whether or not to scold him. Sirius quickly took his seat next to James and feigned attention.

"Today we will begin to learn about human transfiguration. This is a serious and dangerous art. If I catch any of you making light of it, you will be dismissed from class. Is that clear?" She looked directly at Sirius and James. They nodded in unison.

Once they had finished listening to McGonnagel's discussion, James turned to Sirius with a grin.

"You should transform into Padfoot, and we can pretend that I did it on my first try!"

Sirius rolled his eyes, "That is an unbelievably stupid plan."

"Why?"

Sirius decided not to dignify that with an answer and pointed his wand at James, waving it in the same way McGonnagel had.

James looked down at himself and snorted, "That didn't do anything."

"Oh yes it did. I was transfiguring you into a big oaf. Looks like it worked to me."

James kicked him under the table, "I wish I could transfigure you into somebody who was nicer to me."

"The only person nice to you is your mother, and that's because she's your mother."

James responded by trying to transfigure Sirius into a puppy. He waved his wand and tried with all his might, but nothing appeared to happen.

*POP*

A familiar black tail emerged from under Sirius' robes, wagging ferociously.

"Look! I did it!" James cried triumphantly.

"Change me back!" Sirius demanded, but McGonnagel had already descended on them.

"Very good, Potter! That is an excellent start!" She was practically beaming at him.

James grinned smugly at Sirius and Sirius glared back at him. James waved his wand again and a pair of perky black ears popped out of Sirius' head.

"Hey!"

"Well done, indeed, Potter. Twenty points to Gryffindor!" McGonnagel walked away to critique another student's work.

Strangely, Sirius could almost feel his dog-senses taking over. He suddenly contemplated scratching his ear with his foot. He opened his mouth to ask again to be changed back to normal, but all he managed to get out was:

"BARK BARK!" Sirius clapped a hand over his mouth in shock and James roared with laughter.

McGonnagel hurried back over, "See if you can complete the transformation, Potter. Class, pay attention to this!"

Sirius felt his face heat up a little as everyone turned to watch him. But another, growing part of him was excited for all the attention and wanted more.

"BARK!" Why couldn't he stop himself from doing that? "GRRRR…" He growled as James pointed his wand at him again.

He dropped down on all fours. Walking this way was much more comfortable. Why hadn't he realized that before?

"Who's a good boy?" James asked and in spite of himself, Sirius felt his tail wag and his tongue left his mouth as he started panting in excitement.

James couldn't help but laugh at his half-dog best friend walking around on all fours and panting for the entire class to see. Sirius would surely kill him for this later, but suddenly Sirius was no more and a small black puppy with gray eyes was looking cheerfully back at him.

The class applauded and James gathered the puppy in his arms and began to pet him; perhaps he'd keep Sirius like this forever. The puppy yipped for freedom and James released him. The puppy ran to the other side of the room and began licking the girls now fawning over him. James rolled his eyes and leaned back in his chair, wondering if Sirius was conscious and in control of his actions or if he was just the same way as both human and puppy. The girls squealed and giggled as they let puppy-Sirius sniff them with his damp nose.

"That was very impressive for a first try, Potter!" McGonnagel had never praised him so much. The puppy returned to James and James picked him up and looked into his curious gray eyes, trying to determine if Sirius was in there. He briefly wondered how long the effects would last until a sixteen year old with identical gray eyes was straddling his lap. He shouted in surprise and they both toppled to the ground.

"I hate you." Sirius said simply, getting up and brushing off his robes. He didn't offer James a hand up, he just sat back in his seat and stuck his tongue out at his best friend.

"You're just jealous you couldn't do it first." James replied smugly, pulling himself back into his chair.

"Whatever. I'm going to turn you into a bug and squish you."

"Please. You love me too much. Who knows what you'd do without me?"

"Get a full night's sleep for once. Your loud snoring keeps me up all night."

They continued to bicker, not noticing that the class had been dismissed, and that Peter was standing at the door, tapping his foot impatiently.