Chapter 3: Illegal Dealings

It was a couple of days later; the lunar cycle was over, and Remus had returned to the castle in his human form. Sirius made a rather grandiose effort to ask after Remus's mother whenever fellow students were in earshot, to which Remus would readily supply the answer he had rehearsed to explain away his monthly absences: the chemo treatment for his mother's cancer that she didn't actually have was progressing apace. Very little change could be observed in its effects one way or the other, which left her condition uncertain (and would thus leave his future absences from the castle very open-ended).

At first, James had decided it was probably best that he and Sirius not mention what had occurred with Snape down at the Whomping Willow, but then Remus had seen Lily walking with Severus… and had noticed the very faint, pearlized lines running down the left side of the Slytherin's face. The fact that Severus was now walking with a limp, his left ankle in a boot and armed with crutches, only piqued Remus's curiosity further.

"What happened, James? And please, for the love of Merlin, don't lie!"

Having spent much time researching a werewolf's condition, James shouldn't have been so surprised at Remus's ignorance over what had occurred the first night of the full moon. "You mean…. you don't remember?"

"Should I?" Remus frowned, ice continuing to settle into his stomach.

James sighed. Glancing up, he spotted Lily Evans and her close friend, Mary MacDonald, coming in for the lunch meal. Meeting his eye, Lily sniffed, turning up her nose at the Marauders as she flounced past, Mary copying her.

Remus looked saddened by Lily's cold response. She had always been a nice girl, though her specific interactions with him were more of a tempered cordiality, as opposed to the disdain she displayed towards the company he kept. Guilt by association really could be cruel. He turned back to James.

"Just tell me what happened with Severus, James – all of it."

James winced, appearing sheepish, even as he turned to Sirius. "You want to answer that, Sirius?"

"Me?" Sirius looked betrayed.

"Well, it's a right bonkers story, and seeing as how you started it, I figured I'd let you tell it."

Remus let out a put-upon sigh on Sirius's behalf. "What did you do?" he moaned dully.

"Well, Snivellus was being a right git, sniffing about round your business where he shouldn't have. Have to give the prat credit; he somehow manages to show a brain when he guessed at the truth…"

"About me?" Remus asked, turning pale. It was still one of his greatest fears – that, despite an inner circle vowing to keep it a secret, other students might be nosy or clever enough to work out the truth about where he went every month. After all, Sirius, James and Peter had worked out the truth themselves once upon a time. Remus had started out by lying to them as well, but the whole alibi had fallen apart by the end of their second year. To Remus's great surprise, his three friends – the first and only friends he had ever had – didn't turn him away, but rather accepted him.

"Yes," Sirius admitted.

"What did you tell him?" Remus feared the answer.

"The one thing I thought he would take to be as wild as any lie: the truth."

"You what?!" Remus's voice lifted close to a shout, and his body rose halfway out of his seat with it. James shushed him, glancing about as he noticed a few classmates giving Remus strange looks.

"Not about you," Sirius backpedaled. "I told him how to get past the Willow."

"And he believed you, even though you bet he wouldn't?"

"That isn't my fault," Sirius shrugged. "From how skeptical the bastard was, I figured Snivellus wouldn't believe me."

"But you made him curious," Remus pointed out. He could practically write the rest of the story in his head himself, but decided to make Sirius eat Flobberworm and tell him it anyway. His stomach was in knots as he listened to Sirius go on.

"James got right pissed with me, and went after the stupid arsehole. The Willow went for them, then they ran into you, and you…. attacked them."

Remus moaned, burying his face in his hands, digging his hands through his scalp. "So, to sum up: Severus knows who…. what I am?" Already, he could imagine Severus doing things he hadn't been able to try before, simply by virtue of being empowered with such knowledge: blackmail. Or worse.

"Snivellus won't go blabbing, not if he knows what's good for him," James shook his head firmly. "Dumbledore made him swear he wouldn't tell a soul."

"Did he make him take a Unbreakable Vow?" Remus asked anxiously. To his surprise, Sirius laughed at this.

"I don't think it would have been necessary to take it quite that far, Moony. Threat of expulsion will do the job right well enough."

Remus wasn't so sure. It wasn't as though he approved of how James, Sirius and Peter often subjected Severus to taunts and pranks, but he had never tried to stop the lot from having their fun either. And like with Lily, Severus acted coolly around him by mere association. Remus could envision a scenario in which Severus would throw away his entire education just to out him, a werewolf…. and with the inevitable uproar, would probably succeed in dragging Remus down with him out of sheer spite.

"You say I attacked him? There are lines on his face, Sirius – Oh, Merlin…. He's going to be a werewolf, just like me."

"No, he won't," Sirius countered. "Though I admit, it might be good to let him see how the other half lives. Werewolves have to be bitten, not scratched."

"But the venom from my claws…."

"Was taken out before it could seep in! We got him to the hospital wing in time. The staff will be watching Snivellus for any werewolf tendencies, but I have a feeling nothing will manifest. You need to relax," James talked Remus down from the ledge. "And as for your other worry, Snivellus isn't that much of a tosser to piss away a Hogwarts degree just because his wand's in a knot."

Remus let out a long breath, glancing to the empty seat beside them. "Where's Peter?"

"In the kitchen tending to the roast," Sirius winked. Deciphering the code, Remus nodded.

"I told him to just watch it, and not touch anything. When we get there, we'll see how much progress has been made," James promised, as the three cleared their plates. Gathering his bag, Remus happened to meet Lily's eyes. He gave her a tiny wave, trying to be friendly. She pursed her lips in a grim line – not quite a frown – but she waved back, albeit half-heartedly.

Exiting into the Great Hall, close to empty during lunch before the fourth-year's free-period, Remus, Sirius and James hustled up the stairs, heading down the passageways towards Moaning Mrytle's bathroom. "You lot have been working on this potion for close to two years – how much more is there left to do?" Remus questioned.

James sighed. "A lot. The summer's going to set us back a bit, but once we come back for next term, I say we'll be close to testing it. Probably by Halloween, it will be ready."

"James, this is the Animagus potion – the most dangerous magical proceeding ever attempted in the wizarding world! You can't just test it! Why do you think the Ministry keeps an eye out for any attempts?"

"OK, wrong adverb," James conceded. "We'll be ready to take it, come what may."

Remus shook his head, still as amazed by their intentions as he had been when they had first approached him with the idea close to a year-and-a-half ago. "You don't have to do this…."

"We know, prat. We want to," Sirius smirked. "If it works…"

"…. It'll be a miracle. If three students who haven't even taken their OWLS yet manage to become Animagi after concocting a homemade-brew potion in Hogwarts itself…. It'll be a right bloody miracle," Remus couldn't help but smile at the thought. He shouldn't doubt them so much – Sirius and James were among the cleverest students in the school, and true friends besides. Their biggest concern seemed to be less about the brewing and more about holding Peter's hand through the process.

Entering Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, the trio could hear moaning coming from over by the sinks. Though they couldn't see the ghost, Sirius smirked.

"Myrtle has types of moans, though bugger it if I can't tell what they are. Think there are any that tell if the Bloody Baron is shagging her?"

James hooted. "Who would want to shag her, even if she wasn't a ghost?" Glancing down the far end of the rows of stalls, James's mirth vanished when he saw smoke billowing out from the corner cubicle. "Oh no…. Oh no, no, no…." He, Sirius and Remus dashed forward, throwing the door open.

Peter Pettigrew jumped nearly a foot in the air, letting out a squeak, from where he was crisscrossed over a bubbling cauldron. Behind him was a displaced floor tile, revealing a gaping hole in the floor; this was where the Animagus potion was hidden when not being worked on.

"Peter!" James snapped harshly, sounding like a disciplining father. "What are you doing? I told you not to touch anything until we got here!"

"I didn't!" Peter simpered. "It's supposed to smoke like that; I found it this way when I took it out! See? It says so in the book!" He held up a textbook that James and Sirius had swiped from the Restricted Section at the middle of last term; it was downright incredible that Madame Pince hadn't found it gone yet. That was what much of third year had been: research on how to help to Remus. The Animagus solution hadn't been proposed until just after Winter Break, and even then, the suggestion had been casual from Sirius when first floated.

Sirius snatched the book from Peter and squinted at the print on the pages of papyrus parchment. After a long moment, he nodded.

"We're still OK, James."

James heaved out a sigh of relief and sank down to the floor to face the cauldron. It was fortunate that no one ever came into Moaning Myrtle's bathroom – making this the perfect place to concoct an illegal brew in total secret. Wordlessly, Sirius handed him the brewing text, and James studied the remaining ingredients. There were close to a dozen of them, which only proved his theory right – no way they'd be able to finish it all by the end of this term!

"There's shit in there I haven't even heard of!" Sirius tssked, glancing over his best mate's shoulder.

"I have," James quipped firmly, mouth in a grim line of concentration, his glasses pushed down to the bridge of his nose. "From my dad." Fleamont Potter was a Potions Master and investor working on new magical drugs for St. Mungo's. "I bet I can nick all of these from my dad's stores over the summer."

"Would he have that stuff at home?" Remus asked curiously.

"Yeah, why couldn't you swipe it from St. Mungo's?" Peter wondered aloud.

"I'm not that bloody mental," James snorted. He figured he was probably daring enough to try it – it was not his wherewithal that was in doubt. But there were some moments in life, this being one of them, where the risk was too great even for him.

"Why can't we just try and raid Slughorn's stores?" Sirius whined.

"Again, too risky," James dismissed. "We don't know which of these ingredients he has, and wouldn't until we got in there. And even if we could get in and out with however much was there without getting caught, Slughorn's too meticulous. He'll know that ingredients are missing."

"So the dodger notices – who cares?" Sirius shrugged flippantly. "You think we're the only students who nick Potions ingredients?"

"Perhaps not, but that's not a risk I'm willing to take!" James voice rose a few decibels in emphasis. "We've laid low so far, and we're so close, Sirius… I don't want to muck it up at the end because we get careless. Besides, a heist like that would be incredibly complicated – we'd have to swipe Slughorn's key to his store without him noticing, falsify records of students who are allowed to take from the store with his permission… Slughorn keeps a registry, remember?"

"How do you know that?" Peter gawped, almost in awe.

"Evans told me," James shrugged, though he turned a noticeable shade of pink. "She's in that Slug Club of his…"

"In that case, why not just ask him?" Remus floated. "Present him with the list of what we need and…."

"Are you mad, Moony? He'll brew the potion in his head, and know what it's all for! Trust me, I've got it all worked out – Slughorn might notice if a newt's eye went missing here or there, but my dad definitely won't. He's being overworked as it is."

Sirius exhaled a long breath and nodded. "So, we're all in agreement – James nicks the rest from his dad's stock over summer holiday, then we come back here, finish her off, and…."

"…. And we review the research linking Patronus forms to potential Animagi forms!" Peter crowed, thrusting another book into James's hands.

James smiled. "Very good, Peter." Peter looked like he was about to have a stroke of ecstasy.

"But that report is new, unproven," Remus protested.

"So?" James shrugged, clapping Your Patronus, Animagus Form, and You: A Thesis by Sylvia Richardson shut. "Sirius and I have read it; it makes sense."

"But we don't even know how to cast a bloody Patronus yet!" Remus chided.

"We will come next term," James sing-songed. "Like all the fifth years do."

"OK:" Sirius summarized. "Steal the last of the stuff, come back here, finish the potion, learn how to cast a Patronus to see what the hell we'll probably turn into and then…."

"And then…. we take it," James concluded seriously.