Chapter 17: Taming the Beast
"Nobody saw us, right?" asked Peter, as they crept out the front doors of the castle.
"Nope," said James. "Well, maybe Mrs. Lewis, but who's she going to tell?"
"I'm pretty sure it's just a rumour that cats can see through invisibility cloaks," said Sirius. "Otherwise, wouldn't she just pull the thing off and expose us?"
"Shut up nerd," said James. "We already filled that role when we made friends with Remus."
"Guys, we're here," said Peter, pointing towards the Whomping Willow.
"Okay guys, do we remember the plan?" asked James. "Everyone practice keeping their clothes on while transforming?"
"I got so good at using Reparo over the summer," said Sirius. "Seriously, my favourite shirt probably needed to be fixed about twenty times."
"Excellent," said James. "How about you Peter?"
"Umm…" he started. "Well, you see…"
"Come on man," said James. "Do you think any of us enjoy seeing your butt every time you transform?"
"Look, it's not my fault my animagus form comes with very little consequence when it comes to possibly destroying clothes," said Peter.
James gave an exasperated sigh. "Fine, whatever, just shut down the tree."
"Okay, just bring my clothes with you when you come after me," said Peter, as he began changing into his rat form. Once he was finished, he scurried out from under the cloak towards the knot on the tree's trunk.
"I'm not grabbing his clothes," said Sirius.
"Neither am I," said James.
"Guess they're staying here overnight then," said Sirius.
"Isn't it meant to rain tonight?" asked James.
"Yep," said Sirius.
"Thought so," said James, as Peter hit the knot. "Come on, let's go."
The boys followed Peter as he scampered down the tunnel as a rat, the two of them staying under the cloak. "Do you think he's already transforming?" asked Sirius.
"Hope not," said James. "I don't want to try turning into a stag while still down in here."
"Look, on the plus side, Peter's here. Maybe Remus will eat him first," said Sirius.
"He wouldn't be much of a snack through," said James. "At least we'd make up a decent meal."
"What would happen if Remus swallowed Peter whole, then Peter turned back into a human in his stomach?" asked Sirius.
"I don't even want to think about that," said James. "Okay, we're here. Let's do this." James pushed the trapdoor up a little, and saw Remus was on the floor, his body convulsing in pain. "Okay, he's still human-ish, let's go." James pushed the trapdoor up, and climbed into the Shrieking Shack, quickly followed by Sirius and Peter.
Remus heard the intrusion, and spun around in shock. "You…you guys…" he said, as his legs suddenly changed shape with a sickening crunching sound, causing another gasp of pain from Remus. "You can't…"
"Yeah, yeah, we know," said Sirius. "We just have something cool to show you."
"What…?" wheezed Remus, his arms snapping into place and hair beginning to grow everywhere. "Why…?"
"Watch this," said James, and all of a sudden James had turned himself into a stag.
Remus stared in shock, almost not even noticing his nose stretching out of his face. "When did…"
"End of last year," replied Sirius. "Cool huh? Well, maybe not Peter's form. That rat there is him. But I become this." And without another word, Sirius changed into his dog form, much to Remus's continued astonishment.
Remus was amazed with his friends. They'd gone to the effort of finding out how to become animagi, something that not even his parents would do. Werewolves often attacked themselves when there weren't people around for them to kill, or other animals to keep them company. The rest of his transformation was painful like always, but seemed more bearable with his friends around.
But then he could feel something was wrong. His werewolf mind knew there were other animals nearby instinctively, but after ten years of no companionship, his feral mind was resentful, angry. It knew there were people in the nearby village, and it wanted to rip them to shreds. Remus fought these instincts, but nothing could stop what was about to happen. 'This is bad,' he thought. 'The protection spells Dumbledore put on this place have been weakening, I'm not sure if they'll hold.'
As Remus finished his transformation, he howled loudly, and turned his attention to the front door of the Shack, and ran at it at full force. The building shook, and though the door managed to hold, it was clear it wouldn't take another blow like that.
The wolf backed up to take another run at it, when it was suddenly thrown back by the antlers of a stag. The wolf, angered by its foiled attempt to escape, leapt at the beast, only to be tackled by a huge black dog. The wolf growled at the dog, but the other canine just growled back. Meanwhile, the stag stood above it, looking ready to charge again if it had to.
The wolf looked around, trying to see if there was another weak point to possibly attack. Unfortunately, the windows had all been boarded up fairly recently, making them poor targets for an attack. There was a small kitchen to the wolf's right that neither of the big animals were blocking, though the door leading to the outside back there was blocked off too. Still, it was only as sealed as the front door, so if he hit hard enough, he might make it through.
The wolf made a sudden dash for freedom, and the dog quickly gave chased. Unfortunately, the wolf was faster, and managed to hit the kitchen door with enough force to smash a small hole through it. The wolf's snout was outside, causing it to start desperately clawing for freedom.
That's when the dog grabbed the wolf by the back of the neck and dragged it back in. The wolf growled at the dog, and pounced at it, bringing it to the floor. But the wolf had forgotten about the stag, that charged into the small kitchen and knocked the wolf onto the floor.
The stag pushed the werewolf onto its back and pinned it with its massive body. The wolf continued to struggle, but was soon realising that it was pointless. They had won. The dog calmly walked up to the wolf, even when the wolf started snapping at it. The dog took no notice of this as it bent down, and gave the wolf a quick lick.
The wolf stopped moving at the contact. This was some of the first contact it had ever had, and it was…gentle. The wolf started to relax a little, as the stag also leaned down and nuzzled the wolf. The wolf was starting to calm down now, and stopped trying to attack the two creatures pinning him to the ground.
Finally, a rat appeared on top of one of the kitchen counters. The dog and the stag seemed slightly concerned about this, as though the wolf was going to attack at the sight of such a small animal. However, when the rat approached, the wolf just gave an appreciative lick, much to the rat's disgust.
The stag took this as a sign that the wolf had calmed down, and slowly allowed the wolf to get up. The dog got ready to pounce, in case the wolf tried something, but when the wolf was finally standing again, it just stood up, and did nothing violent. Instead, it came up to the dog and gently nuzzled its neck. The other animals seemed relieved, now that the wolf was pacified.
Remus woke up the following morning, with the sound of rain pounding outside the shack. He shivered in the cold, and started making his way towards the exit…
…and saw James and Sirius sitting on the ruined couches of the living room. "What the hell guys?" snapped Remus, grabbing a ruined shred of curtain to wrap around his waist. "What are you…" Suddenly, the events from last night came rushing back to him. "You were here last night. And you…you became…"
"Animagi, yes," said Sirius. "It wasn't easy, you know. But we managed to calm down your wolf form, so that was pretty cool."
"I guess…" said Remus. "Hey, where's Peter?"
"Oh, he left early," said James. "Probably has something to do with the fact we left his clothes in front of the Whomping Willow, and now it's raining."
"Serves him right for not practicing keeping them on during transformations," said Sirius. "So yeah, last night was pretty cool. We should do it again, now that you're tame. We might even start going outside."
"Guys, do you have any idea how dangerous that…" started Remus, but James and Sirius were already climbing through the trapdoor to go back to Hogwarts. "Idiots," he muttered, before following them.