Chapter 7: The Animagi Project

When they returned from winter holidays, James, Sirius, and Peter were determined to begin working on fulfilling their ambition to become Animagi. They weren't quite sure where to start, as the only books they had found that mentioned Animagi in the library never went into detail about how to achieve the transformation, and the subject of human transfiguration wouldn't be covered in class until N.E.W.T. level. Still, they were certain that if they did manage the transformation, they would be able to keep Remus company during full moons based on the research Sirius had done before the break, so they were quite determined.

"This is useless!" Sirius exclaimed one day, as the three boys sat in the library pouring over promising looking books, which all ended up only having one or two sentences on Animagi. "We're never going to find anything practical in these."

"You're right," James said, closing the book he had been squinting at for thirty minutes with a snap and leaning back in his chair, ruffling his hair frustratedly. "None of these are any help at all."

"They probably don't want any students trying it, since it's supposed to be dangerous," Peter said, leaning back from the book he had been trying to concentrate on. "If there are any books on how to become an Animagus, they're probably either locked in the restricted section or in McGonagall's office."

James leaned forward, slamming the front two legs of his chair back on the floor loudly, earning them an admonitory look from Madam Pince, which he ignored as he looked from Sirius to Peter excitedly, his glasses glinting in the sun from the great windows. "That's an idea," he said slowly, beginning to grin.

"What's an idea?" Peter asked, raising his eyebrows as he peered at James. Then his meaning dawned on him. "You're not seriously suggesting that we break into McGonagall's office, are you? Do you know how dead we'd be if she caught us?" Peter asked incredulously, a horrified look on his face.

"Oh, come on, Pete," Sirius said, grinning, too. "This is the first brainwave we've had in a while. And you're right, they would never make the information readily available to us, it is probably locked away somewhere."

"If it makes you feel better, we can do the Restricted Section first," James offered, smiling and lowering his voice so that Madam Pince would not hear them. "Anyway, Pete, it's much easier than most of the stuff we get up to. I have the cloak, then we can split up and search. Piece of cake."

"Remus won't like it," Peter pointed out, raising his eyebrows as he looked from James to Sirius. They both rolled their eyes.

"What Remus doesn't know won't hurt him," Sirius said. "Anyway, we're doing this for him."

"And you want to be able to turn into an animal," James teased, laughing when Sirius shoved him. "But mostly for Remus, yes," James amended, grinning.

"Fine, I'll help," Peter conceded. "But breaking into McGonagall's office has got to be a last resort, I don't feel like being skinned alive anytime soon."

"I actually think Pringle catching us in the Restricted Section would be worse than McGonagall, if we're being technical," James pointed out, looking thoughtful. Peter groaned.

"That's not helping," he said, while Sirius and James exchanged amused glances. Nevertheless, Peter found himself sneaking out of the boys dormitory with James and Sirius after Remus had fallen asleep under James' invisibility cloak. They crept down the staircase and out of the portrait hole quietly, the Fat Lady calling after them in confusion, demanding to know who was there. They didn't answer her, however, moving as quickly towards the library as they could without being heard.

When they reached it, they noted that all the lights were out, and that Madam Pince's desk was vacant. Smiling to each other triumphantly under the cloak, they moved forward, stepping over the rope that separated the restricted books from the rest. Peter smirked, thinking how ridiculous it was that that was the height of the security surrounding the section. Surely there had been other students, just like them, who had snuck in a time or two before. There weren't even protective enchantments as far as Peter could see.

James drew the cloak off of them, bundling it up in his arms as he lit his wand deftly. "Okay, let's split up and search. If any title looks likely, grab it. We can bring them back later if we need to, but the sooner we get in and out, the better."

Peter and Sirius both nodded, lighting their wands, too, and they moved off through the shelves, scanning the spines. Every few moments, Peter looked up from his search, straining his ears to hear if someone was coming, but all he heard were his friends' quiet footsteps and the soft rustle of their movements between the shelves. He turned back to the shelves, continuing his search. After ten whole minutes, during which Peter was feeling more and more hopeless that they would find anything, thinking that they might have to break into Professor McGonagall's office, after all, James made a soft sound of triumph from two shelves over.

"Hey, come here! I found something," he said in a stage whisper, and Peter hurried over to him, Sirius joining them at the same time. James was holding a thin tome in his hands, the cover dusty and old-looking. As he held it up, Peter saw the illustration on the cover, which depicted a witch, half-transfigured between her normal form and a dragon. The title read: Animagi Transformations, A Practical Guide.

"This is it! This is exactly what we need," Sirius said in an excited whisper, grinning down at the book. Just then, they heard a sound from the door that shouldn't have been there, and James dropped the book with a thump as he started in surprise. It fell onto Peter's foot, and he yelped, grabbing onto Sirius' shoulder to steady himself, which caused Sirius to step back into a bookshelf, letting out a swear word as he knocked another couple of books to the floor. Peter cursed his reflex: for some reason, Sirius had been unusually jumpy since the holidays, and started whenever anyone even brushed against him unexpectedly. Every one of these sounds echoed in the darkness, loud in the empty library. The three boys looked at each other with wide, scared eyes, and quickly extinguished their wand lights in unison, James grabbing the book off the floor quickly before throwing the invisibility cloak back over the three of them.

As they snuck around the shelves, stepping back over the rope that separated the restricted section from the rest of the library, they noticed the shadow of a stooped man against the wall behind the shelves at the far side of the library. It was Pringle for sure, the old, vicious caretaker who took an indecent amount of joy in dolling out extreme punishments to students caught in wrongdoing. Luckily, he was looking the other way, and James, Sirius, and Peter hurried out the door, breaking into a run under the invisibility cloak once they thought they were out of earshot from the library.

They ran the whole way up to the Gryffindor common room, where James finally pulled the cloak off to give the password to the very disapproving Fat Lady portrait, who swung open to admit them nonetheless. Luckily for them, the Fat Lady never snitched on wayward students, though she often gave them tellings off almost as bad as those of Professor McGonagall.

They strode into the common room, sending each other relieved looks as they still worked to catch their breath. At first glance, the common room looked deserted, so the three boys stopped to catch away their breath.

"That was close," James said, grinning. Peter shook his head disbelievingly, his heart still beating out of his chest. He knew that James and Sirius both loved on the thrill of doing risky things and nearly getting caught, but they just made him anxious. He wiped his brow, looking around the room absentmindedly. He froze as he saw a figure rise from a chair, his mind going blank with terror. He nudged Sirius and James, and they followed his gaze, both freezing, too. The figure turned around, and they realized it was Remus.

"What do you think you're doing?" Remus asked, raising his eyebrows at them as he moved nearer, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Fuck, Remus, you scared the shit out of us," Sirius laughed, huffing out a sigh of relief at the sight of his friend. Remus didn't smile, his eyebrows moving further up his forehead as he gave Sirius a stern look.

"You didn't really think you were being stealthy, did you? I heard you leave the dormitory."

"We tried not to wake you," Peter said, looking at Remus guiltily.

"Oh please, one of you knocked Caspian's empty cage over on your way out," Remus said, rolling his eyes. Caspian was Sirius' barn owl, who was spending the night in the Owlery. James shot an annoyed look at Sirius, who tried to look innocent. Remus narrowed his eyes at James. "What's that you're holding?"

"Oh, fine, you might as well know," James said, shaking his head and holding the book out to Remus. Remus took it and looked down at the cover, then back up at them.

"Where'd you get this? I thought you said you couldn't find any books specifically about turning into Animagi in the library."

"Well, as it turned out, we weren't looking in the right place," Sirius said, smiling shiftily at Remus.

"Oh, for heaven's sake," Remus said, shoving the book back towards James, who took it with a smile. "You broke into the Restricted Section?"

"It's really not as hard as it sounds," Sirius said cockily.

"It's a wonder you weren't caught," Remus remarked, trying to keep the look of annoyance on his face though Peter could tell he was trying to suppress a grin.

"We almost were, by Pringle," Peter admitted. "Thank Merlin for James' invisibility cloak, or we'd be hanging from our ankles in the dungeon right now."

"Well, let's hope that no one realizes what book you took," Remus said. "I expect McGonagall would be quite keen to figure out who was messing around with the Animagus transformation, since it's so dangerous."

"You say that almost as if you disapprove," Sirius said, pouting at Remus. "Come on, Remus, you don't have to pretend to be all scolding. It's only us here." Remus stared at Sirius for a moment, then broke into a grin, shaking his head amusedly.

"All right, I won't pretend, then," he said. "Come on up to bed, though. McGonagall already suspects us four for most of what goes wrong around the castle. If you look extra tired tomorrow morning, it'll be obvious that you were out of bed."

James, Sirius, and Peter all grinned at one another before following Remus back up the boys' staircase to their dorm.

...

The acquisition of the book helped them considerably, and they spend the following few weeks passing it between them to read. After the three had all skimmed it, they decided that the first step was the acquisition of the ingredients for the potion that they needed to drink to start the process. Unfortunately, that meant stealing from Professor Slughorn's private stores. This time, they devised a scheme that would occur during daylight hours, as they knew that Slughorn would have his office and store cupboard locked up tightly after curfew.

"There are so many things that could go wrong with this plan," Remus said as they made their way down to the dungeons one Friday afternoon in February.

"You're the one who planned it!" Sirius said, rolling his eyes at his overly anxious friend.

"I know, and it's still extremely risky," Remus exclaimed. "Usually it's only your dunderheaded plans that have the potential to get us caught, but—"

"Hey, I take offense to that!" Sirius interrupted. "James is equally bad at planning as me. Anyway, you have nothing to worry about. It's not you that'll get caught if it goes awry. It's Pete, or possibly James and me."

"You're sure you want to do this?" Remus asked Peter. Peter smiled, nodding.

"Don't worry, I'll be careful," he assured his friend.

"Pete's the best one for the job, anyway," James insisted. "He's sneaky, and Sirius and I are much more suited to causing a diversion."

"So I guess I'll just be sitting around, waiting to see if you get caught," Remus said.

"If you wanted to have a more active role, you should have said," Sirius said, smirking at Remus. "But you're always the one that the professors least suspect, so you're best where you are in the plan."

Remus didn't respond, but peeled off from the group, making his way over to the statue that he had promised to wait beside. James, Sirius, and Peter walked down a few more corridors before James pulled out his invisibility cloak from his bag, handing it to Peter, who slipped it on. Sirius and Peter walked together towards Slughorn's office while James hurried past them, off to start the diversion further down the corridor.

Sirius knocked on the door, and when Slughorn appeared he immediately began to rant and rave about something he had run into down the corridor. Slughorn looked wary for a minute, but when they all heard the sounds of an explosion in the distance, reluctantly followed Sirius towards it, allowing Peter to slip, invisible, into his office. He hurried over to the potions cabinet, opening it and slipping inside, looking around for what they needed and slipping a few glass vials out of his bag, measuring out ingredients roughly and pouring them into the containers.

He had some difficulty getting to the mandrake leaves, which were on a higher shelf, but he eventually used Wingardium leviosa to get the vial down, all the time conscious of his rapid heartbeat and the clock ticking on the wall behind him. Finally, he had gathered everything and he shoved the vials back into his bag, slipping out of the cupboard, closing the door carefully behind him, and dashing out of the office. When he reached the open corridor, he looked both ways, relieved to find it deserted. He figured that the distraction was still in progress, as he caught the smell of something burning from the direction that James, Sirius, and Slughorn had all went off to, and grinned to himself slightly before taking off the other way.

He ran into Remus, still standing beside the statue, trying to look casual, after only a minute. Still under the cloak, he passed the little vials to Remus, who shoved them into his bag. They had figured that if the four were all caught, Remus would be the least likely to be asked to turn over his belongings, so the ingredients would be safest with him. It seemed that there had been little need for this precaution, however, as the other two boys were thoroughly occupying Slughorn's attention with whatever they had decided to to as a diversion. Peter had not asked what it was going to be, as it was usually better not to know.

Remus began to walk away up the corridor, keeping his walk slow and casual, and Peter followed him after a second, turning left instead of right at a split in the corridor to take the long way back to the Gryffindor common room, ensuring that if either he or Remus was caught or questioned, they were on their own. Teachers always seemed more suspicious of the four when they were together, which was funny because they were almost always in a group, and when they were without one another it was more likely that they were orchestrating some plan that involved splitting up.

When Peter reached the bottom of the Grand Staircase, he ducked into an alcove and removed the Invisibility Cloak, shoving it in his bag and making his way back up the stairs. He was far enough from the scene of the crime so that if he were spotted, he was unlikely to be detained. Even if he was, however, it was Remus who had the evidence, and he was sure to have reached the dormitory by then.

Sure enough, when Peter entered the Gryffindor common room, Remus was there, sitting at a table with a sheet of parchment in front of him and a quill in his hand, his Defense Against the Dark Arts textbooks open next to him. Peter immediately went over to him and sat down, giving him a small, crafty smile. "I got away easily, how about you?" He asked in a whisper. Remus smirked and nodded.

"No trouble at all. James and Sirius obviously pulled off their distraction well," he said. "I stashed the ingredients upstairs when I got in, but I came back down here since I thought it was a good idea to be somewhere with witnesses, in case James and Sirius get caught."

Peter laughed. "Good thinking," he said. "Honestly, they might get caught, though I doubt they'll get in as much trouble as I would have if they knew we were actually stealing. I heard an explosion."

"That's why I never ask for details," Remus said, rolling his eyes exasperatedly. "Plausible deniability, and also I don't want to have to deal with the ridiculousness of whatever they came up with."

"Talking about us, were you?" Asked a voice behind them, and Remus and Peter turned to see a grinning Sirius and James. James' face was a bit sooty, but they were both beaming with a familiar delight, which Peter recognized as their post-prank satisfaction.

"You got away alright?" Peter asked, unable to keep the note of disbelief from his voice. Sirius smirked, sitting down across from them, James at his side.

"Hardly," he said, still looking satisfied with himself. "Jamie here decided to set off a filibuster firework, which bounced off the walls of the corridor before escaping into a classroom and blowing up all over the desks. Of course, Slughorn knew I was involved, though I think he just thought that it was a prank gone wrong, not a distraction. We both got detention, we have to clean the classroom tomorrow night. Still, it was funny."

"It was pretty spectacular," James said reminiscently, smirking, too. "You should have seen the mess it made. I didn't know those fireworks could do that."

"I see you got a bit singed in the process, too," Remus said, grinning at James' grubby appearance.

"Oh, yeah, it kind of blew up in my face," James said, shrugging it off. "No missing limbs or injuries, though, so I count it as a successful mission. You got the stuff, right?" He asked, turning to Peter. Peter smiled and nodded.

"It was easy, in and out. Remus already put them upstairs."

"Good," James said, looking pleased. "Now we just have to figure out how in Merlin's name we're going to keep those leaves in our mouths for a whole month. I mean, how do we eat?"

"Oh, I've got that covered," Sirius said, giving them a mischievous smile. "My family's quite fond of putting sticking charms on things that they don't want their descendants taking down, you know. That's why we've still got that lurid painting of my great-great-great Aunt Elladora hanging in the hall; everyone hated her but she made it so that no one can ever take it down." He looked rather amused thinking about it.

"But, uh, Sirius?" Peter said, raising his eyebrows doubtfully. "We don't want them there forever. Just a month."

"Oh, sticking charms aren't all permanent," Sirius assured him, snapping out of his reverie. "There are temporary ones, too, and I'm quite good at them, if I do say so myself, so I can fix them to the roofs of our mouths, and voila! Easy."

James looked doubtful, too. "No offense to your spell-casting skills or anything," he said, his tone of voice already verging on offense. "But I don't particularly want your wand anywhere near my mouth."

Sirius laughed. "Well, it's that way or you don't eat for a whole month, Jamie," he said cheerfully. "The choice is yours."

In the end, both James and Peter reluctantly agreed to let Sirius stick their leaves to the roofs of their mouths. Sirius "accidentally" cast the charm so that James' lips stuck together at first, so that James was left making angry noises at Sirius for a few minutes while Sirius laughed uncontrollably. Finally he unstuck James' lips and fixed the leaf in his mouth, doing the same for himself and Peter. The leaves tasted bad, and Peter knew that they would likely ruin the taste of food for a little while, but it was a necessary evil.

The month passed relatively quickly, and they all felt a feeling of great accomplishment when it was time to take the leaves out again to make the potion. It was exciting, the feeling that they were doing something big, something important, something advanced, and yes, something that they were not supposed to be doing. Peter was caught up in the exhilarating feeling, which James and Sirius were very vocal about, too. With their conviction in their own powers and confidence in their abilities, Peter felt rather bolstered as well. He knew that he was not as much of a natural at magic as his friends, but he also knew that they believed that he, as well as they, could do the transformation, and it was that belief that spurred him on.

Peter had felt rather out of place and confused as to why he had been included in the group when he first arrived at Hogwarts, a feeling which dogged him throughout the whole of his first year. Sirius and James were both popular and charismatic, and Remus was intelligent and crafty, but what was he? He had never viewed himself as exceptional in any way, just a boy who people's eyes often seemed to pass right over. He was average, and he thought at first that James' insistence that he hang around with the other boys would fade once he found other, better friends, and that it was due to the convenience of sharing the dorm. However, James and the rest of them continued to want him around, and after a while, Peter realized that they actually liked him. With them, he didn't feel average at all. Instead, they spurred him to greater heights, helping him with his classes and including him in their exclusive little group, making feel special for the first time in his life.

Still, it wasn't until they had all learned about Remus' lycanthropy that Peter had felt like he was solidly part the group. It seemed to reaffirm the bond that the four young wizards shared: the secret was a pact between them which no one else was included in, not even Marlene or Dorcas. The Animagi project was just another step to make them more united, so Peter was completely on board, even if it scared him sometimes. As long as his friends were around him, Peter felt brave.

The weeks flew by as the boys worked tirelessly towards their goal, as well as going to classes, and, in James' case, Quidditch practice. Disappointingly, Gryffindor lost to Ravenclaw by an inch in the final game as a bludger came out of nowhere just as Marlene was about to catch the Snitch, knocking her off her broom and allowing Natalie Wood, the seventh year Ravenclaw Seeker, to catch the Snitch instead. The atmosphere was dismal in the common room that night, though due to the combined talent of the Gryffindor Chasers, Ravenclaw had only beaten them by sixty points, meaning that Gryffindor would still be in second place for the cup. When the boys had gone to visit Marlene in the Hospital Wing, she didn't seem too run down about it, or perhaps she just hid it well. She had broken her arm in the fall and had several scrapes and bruises, which she appeared rather proud of.

When summer came, Peter was sad to say goodbye to his friends as he descended from the Hogwarts Express, but happy to be reunited with his mother on the platform. She hugged him tightly, beaming down at him before they set off, walking out of Kings Cross Station towards his mother's friend's house, where they used their fireplace to floo home, as his mother wasn't fond of apparition.

"Peter!" Exclaimed a little voice as he stepped out of the fireplace fifteen minutes later, and he felt his younger sister's arms around him even before he could get his bearings. He grinned and hugged her back, lifting her up from the ground and spinning her around.

"Nora! I've missed you," he said, putting his seven year old sister back down just as his brother, Jack came catapulting into the room as well, running into his older brother's arms.

"Was everything alright when I was gone?" Peter's mother asked, hanging up her bag on the wall as she dusted the ash off her dress.

"Yes!" Nora answered importantly, standing up straight and looking proud. "I kept an eye on Jack."

"I don't need anyone keeping an eye on me," the five year old Jack insisted, looking indignant, but Nora ignored him, jumping up and down in excitement as she turned her gaze back on her older brother.

"Peter, look what I can do," she said excitedly, turning her gaze to the potted plant on the table, which began to bloom under her gaze. Peter smiled and congratulated her, causing Nora to beam in delight and Jack to pout angrily.

"Don't worry, Jack, you'll be able to do stuff like that soon," Peter reassured his younger brother. Nora smirked.

"Unless you turn out to be a Squib," she said casually, and Peter could tell it wasn't the first time she had teased him this way.

"I am not going to be a Squib!" Jack exclaimed, his face going red with anger. Nora laughed mockingly, causing Jack to launch himself at her so that Peter had to pull them apart. He could already tell that it was going to be a long summer.