The Houses Competition Round 7: Feel it Now
House: Hufflepuff
Position: DADA
Type: Standard
Prompt: [Speech (Multiline)] "No way!" / "I'm in!"
Word Count: 2272 words
The three second-year boys in the Gryffindor dormitory clustered around each other. Sirius was splayed out on his bed, the blankets and pillows scattered around the floor and the chest sat ajar with piles of school supplies and robes peeking out. James perched with his feet resting on the top of his chest and his immaculately maintained broomstick leaning against the bedpost in stark contrast to the clutter of the rest of the room. Peter stood against the wall between the two beds, nervously casting his gaze to the doorway. Remus's bed was neatly made and unslept in, awaiting its owner's return from the infirmary. The sun had long-since set and the waning gibbous of the moon supplemented the light of the candles.
"I don't know guys, what if he attacks us?" Peter asked, glancing at the door again.
Sirius scoffed, "It's not like he became a werewolf yesterday and he hasn't attacked us so far."
"Yeah, but we didn't know then," Peter objected.
James removed his elbows from his knees and looked up from the astronomy chart that he had marked up with the dates of the last year's full moons as he had been working out his theory.
"He was probably worried we'd hate him for it, I sure would. So maybe stop looking at the door like a grindylow is about to grab you through it, Peter?"
Peter squeaked and started looking at his shoes instead.
The silence stretched out awkwardly, forcing Sirius to intervene, "Extreme Exploding Snap anybody?"
The trio made it through three games of Exploding Snap when the door opened slowly. Remus came in and stopped, surprised to see his roommates up at such a late hour. James was the first to jump to his feet, it would be kindest to reveal what they knew quickly. But Sirius was closer to the door and beat him to the punch and threw an arm around Remus's skinny shoulders.
"Welcome back Remus, how was the full moon?" he asked.
"I, oh, I uh didn't realize it was a full moon. Was that part of our astronomy homework?" Remus failed to hide his alarm. Peter had meanwhile forced himself back so far that he practically blended into the wall.
"Remus, sit down," James ordered, when it became clear none of his friends wanted to be direct about this. Sirius guided Remus to his bed and both boys sat on the side, Sirius leaving his arm around the smaller boy's shoulders. James sat on his own bed across from them.
"You've been in the hospital wing or visiting a sick mother every full moon for the last year," he explained, trying to speak quickly as Remus sat increasingly stiffly under Sirius's arm, "and otherwise you've been perfectly healthy. Nobody's that consistently unlucky, we know you're a werewolf."
He paused to see how Remus reacted. Remus shook his head rapidly,
"No no no, I just got hexed by Emma Vanity. It wasn't serious. I'm not –"
"Hey, calm down Remus," Sirius interjected, "It's all right, we don't think any differently of you for it."
Remus buried his face in his hands and James took the opportunity to settle on his other side on the bed. Even Peter moved to sit a bit closer on the trunk beside James.
After a few minutes, Remus seemed to compose himself somewhat and looked up,
"I was only five," he volunteered, "I was asleep when I was attacked. I've always been safe. I've never bitten anyone."
James rubbed his back, "Course you haven't. We can't even get you to hex Snivellus when he's asking for it."
"We won't tell anybody," Sirius added.
"Does it hurt?" Peter asked, his voice still timidly quiet.
Remus paused for a second as if considering whether he should trust them, but then continued.
"Yea, it hurts. Madame Pomfrey has some good potions for afterwards, but they don't work on my wolf form. That's – that's why the shrieking shack sounds so horrible during the full moon. I hide in there."
"Wow, Remus, that sucks," Sirius interjected, "You'd figure McGonagall could at least get you a dog or something for company."
Remus opened his mouth to object, but James beat him to it.
"That's not actually a bad idea Sirius, we could get Remus a dog."
"There's no way McGonagall would let a werewolf take a dog to transform with," Remus forced his way into the conversation, "the poor animal would be terrified."
"Who said it had to be an animal?" James responded, a self-satisfied smirk on his face, "We could transform into animals. I'd bet we'd be big enough." He stopped to think, "Well, Sirius and I would be. Peter's probably a bug or something."
"No way!" Remus insisted.
"I'm in!" said Sirius at the same time.
"Guys, you're proposing becoming animagi, you realize how hard that is? You could screw up and get stuck with a set of talons instead of fingers or a cat's head. Not to mention you'd have to register with the Ministry, and don't you think they'd ask why three Hogwarts students decided to master complicated magic?"
"We don't have to register," Sirius reasoned, "Are you a registered werewolf?"
"That's different," Remus insisted, although not without some guilt and fear surfacing in his voice, "The werewolf registry isn't nearly as well maintained as the animagus one."
"I bet I'm something cool," James took advantage of the opportunity to keep the conversational momentum rolling, "probably a lion or a tiger or some other carnivore."
"Yeah, right," Sirius slid right into the banter to cut off further objections from Remus, "I'm probably a bear or something cool. You're probably a bouncing bunny or prancing deer or something."
"As long as the bear doesn't have your face," James clapped back, "Imagine forcing that on poor Remus every month."
Peter laughed at that one, earning himself a good-natured glare from Sirius. Remus responded,
"Yea, that would suck." As they continued their good-natured argument of who would become what, all four boys understood this to be an agreement to proceed with the plan.
James completed a transformation first. It was early December of their fifth year. The full moon had been two weeks previously and Remus was healthy enough to sit in the abandoned transfiguration classroom behind a pile of books as he tried to coach his less-studious friends through the transformation.
"Sirius, stop distracting him halfway through, this needs utmost focus," he reprimanded after Sirius had cracked a joke that resulted in James standing in fully human form with hooves where his hands ought to be. He smiled and moved his arms to imitate prancing.
"Watch me be a cow," he quipped, "Do werewolves like beef, Remus?"
"Don't joke about that," Remus came over and waved his wand. The hooves slowly divided back into fingers. "If you guys are going to insist on doing this, you need to focus."
"Ok, ok." James waved him off and screwed up his forehead up as if to demonstrate intense concentration. "Let me try again."
"Oh!" the teenager let out a yip of surprise and bent over under a force he couldn't control. Remus, being very familiar with the sensation of losing control of your own body, winced in sympathy and held himself back from distracting James by asking if he was ok. A moment later, a large chestnut stag with 10-point antlers stood in the middle of the transfiguration classroom.
The creature walked around the room, hoofbeats sounding against the stone floor. From his guard post, Peter glanced in both directions for any sign of a professor or Filch who might have been summoned by the sound, but the corridor was empty. The stag approached a mirror and seemed to examine itself, lowering its head to show the antlers in the mirror. Once it was satisfied, it turned to the other boys in the room and wandered over, waiting until Sirius reached out a hand to touch the fur on its neck. James chose that moment to rear onto his hind legs, causing Sirius to fall to the floor in surprise. The stag quickly transformed back into a boy and James joined Sirius on the floor laughing.
"The ladies will love that!" he crowed, "I'm nicer on the eyes than even the unicorns."
"You can't let anybody know," Remus reminded him.
"I won't, I won't," James waved him off, "but they don't need to know it's me."
"James –" Remus warned,
"Ah, alright, Sirius it's your turn to try."
It took Sirius another six weeks. He managed some partial transformations and the boys determined that whatever he would transform into was covered in dark fur, but a full transformation eluded him. It was nearly midnight in mid-January as the group was sneaking back to the common room under Jame's invisibility cloak.
"I hope whatever you are is small," James groused, "this thing wasn't meant to hide four people."
"You're the one who sprouted 6 inches since August," Remus pointed out reasonably.
James' response was cut off by the appearance of Filch turning the corner, his cat at his side.
"I know I heard somebody," he told his cat, "students out of bed at this hour. If I was still allowed to hang them from their thumbs –" his head jerked up to the sound of Peter letting out a squeak when Sirius elbowed him trying to move close enough to keep their ankles hidden under the cloak. The caretaker started to move closer. None of the boys spoke, hoping to conceal their identities, if not their presence. Sirius screwed his face up in concentration.
A moment later a large shaggy dog darted from under the cloak and gave chase to the cat who let out an awful yowl and darted down the corridor with Filch following. The remaining three boys used the distraction to bolt away from the danger, safe under the cloak.
Sirius, having apparently given Filch the slip, slid through the entrance into the common room about a quarter of an hour later.
"Well, she won't bother us again," he announced.
"You didn't hurt the cat?" Remus asked, concern in his voice.
"Nah, just scared her a bit."
"She didn't see who you were?" Peter asked.
"Nah, she bolted for the dungeons and I came up here before I transformed back. Even if she did, who's the cat going to tell?"
"Just, be careful," Remus requested, looking up from the homework he'd been too worried to focus on.
"Marauder's honor," Sirius promised, bowing ostentatiously.
"Guess it's your turn then, Peter," James interjected.
It was mid-April by the time Peter followed his friends. They had finished in the empty classroom and returned to the dormitory. Peter was growing visibly frustrated and kept screwing up his face in concentration, but to no effect.
"You look like you need the bathroom," Sirius teased as he tossed and caught a Remembrall from his bed, ignoring the magenta color blooming within it.
"I'm fine," Peter insisted.
"I hope you don't turn into anything too big," James warned, "I'll be ticked if you knick my broomstick. I just had the loose straw fixed."
"Squeak!"
"What was that?" Sirius asked, his eyes focused on the Remembrall. Meanwhile, Remus and James stood up and walked over to Peter's bed. Remus reached into the crumpled red blanket and picked up a rat.
"That's not -?" James asked
"I think it's Peter." Remus explained, "Look, he's got some dark fur in that spot where his mole is."
"Ahh, he's cute." Sirius had gotten up from his bed to walk over. He took Peter from Remus's hands. "Who's a cute rat? You're a cute rat." Peter bit him.
"Ow!"
"You deserved that one," James laughed.
"Can you transform back?" Remus asked the rat, who chittered in a way that sounded affirmative. It took a moment, but Peter reappeared on the bed.
"I Can't believe you're a rat," Sirius crowed.
"You're a dog," Peter pointed out, "Last time you transformed you practically begged James for belly rubs."
Sirius didn't deign to respond to that. James interrupted the silence.
"So, full moon is next week, we gonna do this?"
Remus looked paler than the prospect of a full moon merited, "Just, be careful guys, alright?"
Sirius slapped him on the back, "We've got this, Moony."
It was two days after the full moon when Remus was released from the hospital wing and could return to the dormitory. Madam Pomfrey had been pleased to see him only minimally injured this month and Remus's insides had twisted with guilt as he hoped she wouldn't ask why. Fortunately he was released with a minimum of questioning.
"That was great!" Sirius crowed, "Can't believe Peter was fast enough to get in there and stop the tree."
You're pretty fast yourself Sirius," James interjected, "remember how we kept him from going for a swim in the black lake?"
"Hey, you remember that Moony?" asked Sirius.
Remus thought about his answer, "I don't usually remember what happens when I'm – when I've transformed. I feel better this time, like I got to run through the forest with other animals. I didn't hurt any of you?"
"Nah," Sirius waved him off, "You growled a fair bit and scared Peter pretty good , but there's not a scratch on any of us."
"Next month, then. Same phase of the moon?" James quipped, as if Remus had any choice in the day.
"I'm in," Peter said, seemingly recovered from his fright.
"You won't have to do this alone anymore" James smiled as he slapped Remus on the back, "not as long as we're around."