Friday 2nd May 1975

Library, 19:00

Peter stared unseeingly at the bookcases in front of him. A dragon could pop out of it and he'd be completely unaware, that's how much he wasn't paying attention. Not even to the bit of parchment he'd half-heartedly pulled out of his bag to work on - his Charms homework. He had other, more important, things to think about and homework certainly wasn't one of them.

A rat. He was a rat. A rat. With the ears and the long, wormy tail and the stupid teeth. He hesitantly touched his own, they weren't that bucktoothed. A rat. Why of all things did he have to be a rat when James and Sirius got to be a stag and a dog? They were cool animals. A rat certainly was not. It just wasn't fair! Why did he have to be the rat? Why not James or Sirius? They got to be a dog and a stag! Ok, now he was repeating himself. But that's how unfair it was.

What was it about him that spoke rat? Not even a little mouse that at least wasn't ugly. No, it had to be a rat.

He kicked his foot against the table leg in frustration and immediately regretted it. That was stupid of him, Peter thought as pain blossomed in his toe. Just like his ability to turn into a rat. Everything he did was just so stupid.

Sure, James, Sirius and Remus had tried to make him feel better about it. Even going as far as saying that being small was actually pretty useful but he wasn't buying it. They were just trying to be nice and he wasn't having it. Especially since James and Sirius were all so excited about theirs. It felt like he just couldn't get that excited. Not about a stupid rat. What was exciting about a rat? Dogs were always cool and James even got the animal that was on his coat of arms. Of course, they were both exciting.

Which is why he was hiding out in the Library. So, he didn't dampen their excitement, it wouldn't be fair on them. It wasn't their fault he was a rat.

Monday 5th May 1975

Professor McGonagall's Office

Frank took a deep breath and squared his shoulders before entering his Head of House's Office. It was time for his dreaded Careers Interview. He really shouldn't be this nervous, it wasn't like he didn't know what he was going to do when he left Hogwarts. Actually, everything, for him, was pretty well laid out which was a lot more than what a lot of his friends could say.

But that was the problem, wasn't it? Everything was laid out for him except this. His NEWT subjects. These were do very, very important. Not for any career, that wasn't something he was going to have, but it was a way to demonstrate that he could make good, educated choices. How was he supposed to so that when he didn't know what a good subject choice was?

"Biscuit, Mr Longbottom?" she asked, offering her normal biscuits tin.

Grateful for something his mouth could do without having to talk, Frank took a chocolate digestive. Those were definitely the best biscuit.

"So," she began, threading her fingers together as she looked at him. "Have you given any thought to what you might like to do after you leave Hogwarts?"

Phew. An easy question. He could do easy questions.

"I'm going to be learning how to manage my Family's Estate and Accounts," Frank explained (and yes, they were capitalised in his head, they were very important).

Professor McGonagall nodded in agreement with this. Of course, she probably knew exactly which of her students were going to have to deal with that sort of thing. He was definitely not the only Heir in Gryffindor.

"I assume you will be leaving the school some days to do just that?"

Frank nodded. "It depends on my free periods, of course, but yes, Father has arranged lessons with our accountant, estate manager and solicitor for next year."

All very important people when it came to the smooth running of a House. It was going to be a lot of work learning from them. Father only hired the best, after all.

"Are there any specific subjects you need to do for those?"

Frank shook his head. Hogwarts didn't exactly offer accounting classes after all, which is why his father was getting him tutored in it.

"No, nothing specific."

"Well, what were you thinking?" she asked him.

What was he thinking? Frank didn't know, not really.

"I was thinking Defence would be good," he volunteered after a gulp. "Because being able to protect your family is important. Especially now."

Professor McGonagall's lips twisted into a sympathetic grimace for a brief second before she schooled her features.

"Indeed," she agreed. "The ability to protect oneself is always rather important. Though, it is not just Defence Against the Dark Arts that provides you with that ability.

"That's why I want to do Charms as well," Frank said. "Give myself a broader scope."

That got him am approving nod. "Good choice. Might I also recommend Transfiguration? You have extremely good marks there; you also are consistently in the top five in the year in it."

Frank bit his bottom lip. He knew for a fact that the Transfiguration coursework was brutal. It would be an awful lot of work...

"I think you are more than capable of putting the work in," she encouraged him.

That was quite nice to hear. A vote of confidence, even if she was a bit biased. But it was a positive remark directed at him, something he hadn't been getting recently.

"I kind of wanted to do Potions," he said.

That was a subject he was at least confident in himself in. He was never going to be a Potions Master or anything but he was pretty decent at brewing as long as he was given a recipe. But he knew that NEWT level Potions was a lot of work so it might not be a good idea if he was doing Transfiguration as well.

Professor McGonagall nodded. "You should be able to keep up with the work in that."

"As well as Potions?" He couldn't help but ask sceptically.

"I have confidence in you, Mr Longbottom, and I would definitely say if I thought you couldn't."

Oh. Well, that was rather nice. Frank perked up and suddenly felt a lot more confident.

"Are you keeping any of you Electives?"

Frank thought about how many subjects he already had down for his NEWTs. There were four. Which was about the standard amount to take. One more wouldn't hurt though, would it?

"I was thinking maybe Arithmancy," he said in a doubtful tone.

He really would prefer to do Care of Magical Creatures; it was more fun and he had higher marks in it but he'd better not. He had been pushing his luck even taking it for OWLs, his parents hadn't really approved of him doing such physical work. They thought it was beneath him. Frank thought it was extremely rewarding.

"Your Care of Magical Creatures marks are much higher."

Frank sighed as he thought of how he could explain why his family thought that was a bad idea.

Wednesday 7th May 1975

Fourth Year Gryffindor Boys Dorm, 12:15

Okay, he really couldn't help it. Sirius had made the excuse of needing to grab something from his trunk just so he could try it again.

A dog. He was a dog. A big, shaggy-furred black on that looked awesome. Really awesome. And it was the closest an animal could be to a wolf - though that would have been even cooler. But a dog was awesome. Much better than anyone else's, he was sure. Who didn't love dogs? Except those weird cat people but they weren't normal at all. He had thought so before his transformation but je definitely knew now. How could someone not like dogs? It was just a completely ridiculous notion.

Finally, he was up in the dorm and carefully shutting the door behind him, sealing it with a simple locking charm. Sure, no one was going to come in except for his friends but he didn't want to run the risk. How on earth would they explain a great big dog in the room?

But he just had to try the transformation again and see himself again. He could still hardly believe it. He was a full-blown Animagus! A dog one!

Okay, he was good. He could do this. How was he supposed to do this again? Oh yeah, visualise himself as a dog. Not just any dog. His dog. Him, even. A big, shaggy, black haired dog. An amazing, shaggy, black haired dog that was just smaller than the top of his chest of drawers over there. Yep, none of this silly terrier nonsense for him. He was a proper sized dog.

So, he concentrated and concentrated and... nothing happened. No double heartbeat, no shifting of body parts. Nothing. Maybe the magic was different when it wasn't the first time? The books hadn't mentioned how it would feel after that, just that it would get easier. Was it that easy? Sirius squinted open his eyes and noted he was still very much taller that the drawers. Still human then. Hmm. Well, the book did say it would be hard at first and then get easier with practice. He just had to practice then. And practice meant trying again.

Which he did. This time concentrating a little bit more. Letting all his thoughts just be about him being a dog. Which was pretty easy as that's the only thing he could think about right now.

Every single body part of his was tense and ready to transform. But they didn't. Not even a single sprout of dog hair.

Sirius sat on the floor and frowned. This was going to be harder than he thought.

Saturday 10th May 1975

Professor Flitwick's Office, 11:30

Okay, maybe he should have done a little bit more preparation before going into this meeting. That definitely would have been a good idea. And Kingsley had intended to. He always had the best of intentions. It just... didn't happen. There were just so many other things to research and know about. Career options were just boring in comparison. Not that Professor Flitwick seemed to think so of his exasperated look was anything to go by.

"Mr Shacklebolt, I do advise you to research possible careers more thoroughly," he was told in a disapproving tone. If you do not know what you want, I'm afraid I can't help you much."

Well, that wasn't very useful was it?

"I was thinking of becoming an Auror," he admitted, it was the most recent thing he had been fascinated with, after all. "But then there's also research for the Department of Magical Creatures."

Because that would be cool and there was the opportunity to travel. "And then there's becoming a Librarian."

Because then he would have access to all the books and Kingsley honestly thought that it would be fun. Today anyway. That might be somewhat related to the fact that Madam Pince knew exactly where the books he had been desperately searching for were. She was magic, in the most unironic way possible.

Professor Flitwick sighed at him. Kingsley didn't know why, surely it was good to keep your options open?

Outside the Library, 12:00

Severus watched as the Marauders walked past them, chattering in low tones amongst themselves. They had been doing that a lot recently which was odd for them. You usually heard them before you saw them. But not in this case. Which could only mean one thing.

"Do you think they're planning something?" He asked Lily.

"They're always planning something."

Why was she so unconcerned about this? Did she want to be pranked? He made a huffing noise and narrowed his eyes. He needed to figure out what was going on so he wouldn't get pranked. He'd had enough of them; it was so annoying. They just wouldn't leave him alone. The spells he shot at them (hexes really) should have told them to stay away but they seemed to take it as a challenge and prank him anyway. They were so childish. If they were Slytherins they would have known that his hexes were a warning not to do anything to him. A discouragement of sorts. But (thankfully) they were and (unfortunately) they didn't know or just didn't care. Severus was leaning towards the latter because although Black should have been aware of such things, he definitely didn't display such qualities (not like Severus did). No wonder his family disapproved of him. He was a mockery to Slytherin House made worse by James Potter, the ultimate Gryffindor.

"Come on, Sev," Lily ordered, giving his sleeve a tug.

A couple of first year Slytherins tittered at him. Embarrassed, Severus yanked himself from her grasp and strode ahead.

Wednesday 14th May 1975

Fourth Year Gryffindor Boys Dorm, 18:00

"I can't believe we have to research our animals," Sirius complained. "They're supposed to be a part of us so surely we should just be able to," he snapped his fingers together, "do it?"

"Well, none of us could do it the first time after the time when we took our potions," Peter reminded him, looking happy for the first time in a while. "You couldn't even do it your second time."

Sirius had tried to do the transformation with his friends as well as by himself. Something they hadn't quite forgiven him for.

"You shouldn't have tried it by yourself!" Remus scolded for what seemed to be the hundredth time."

James agreed with him. What if Sirius had gotten stuck as a dog when there was no one around? What would he have done when they were all in class?

"I won't, okay?" Sirius said in a fed-up tone. "I said I wouldn't."

"Good," James said before Remus could scold him any further.

The poor guy had probably had enough of being told off by now. Even though he definitely deserved it. Honestly, even having the thought of doing something so potentially dangerous was stupid. Sirius should know that! There were so many warnings everywhere for each step of the Transformation, in all of the books they read. That's how dangerous it could be! But of course, Sirius had to go and try it anyway. He was lucky not to get stuck with dog ears or something.

The books very clearly said that after the very first transformation, they had to research the animal they were - now that they knew what it was. They had to be able to picture it exactly in their heads to make the transformation happen. Which meant research. Lots of research. Research on anatomy and bine structure and habits. It was going to be a lot of work. Ut they could do it! James was always positive about these things.

"The books on animals are down here," Remus said, pointing down the bookshelves just in front of Sirius.

James jumped ahead of him. "I bet ill find mine first!"

Sirius shoved him away, "Not a chance. I will! Dogs are more important than deer after all!"

"As if!"

"Are so!"

Peter took this as an opportunity to slip past them and get ahead of them both.

"Hey!" James complained in a muffled tone from where he was now squashed against the wall thanks to Sirius.

He darted forwards, trying to get ahead of Peter only to collide with a student who was searching the shelves. Of course, that student had to be none other than Lily Evans.

The two of them fell to the ground, James tried to make it that he actually hit the ground and she didn't but only half managed it. Whoops, not very gentlemanly that.

He picked himself up and instinctively offered her a hand which she looked at suspiciously before taking. Soon they were standing face to face and James suddenly lost the ability to speak. Again.

"Oh, uh, hi, Evans," James stuttered out.

She looked him up and down and nodded. "Potter."

James just knew he was doing that crazed looking smile Sirius said he did around her. He tried not to but he really couldn't help it.

"Hi, Lily," Remus greeted.

Lily's whole demeanour changed when she saw Remus. She smiled, for one. It was a really pretty smile.

"Oh, hi, Remus! Why have you brought this lot to the Library?" she asked, nodding at him, Sirius and Peter.

"Hey!" Sirius complained but was ignored.

"We're just here to do some research on animals," Remus explained.

James nodded. Yeah, that was a good explanation. Wait, that's exactly why they were here.

A perfect eyebrow of hers went up. "Oh?"

"Yep, that's what we're doing," Sirius broke in cheerfully.

Lily did not look amused at this. In fact, she crossed her arms to show her displeasure. James felt like he should say something, he just didn't know what. He was kind of afraid that if he did talk je would blurt out something about being an Animagus and, as impressive as it was, he didn't think that would go down too well. She would probably think he was crazy or something and he couldn't have that!

"You better not be thinking of turning everyone into animals," she warned him.

"Uh, yeah, I mean, no. No, we're not," James stumbled over his words to reassure her.

Why did he get all tongue-tied around her? Was it her hair? The sunlight in the Library was making it glint really prettily.

She gave him a suspicious look before shrugging and walking away. Her hair swung around and he could smell lavender.

"James."

"James!"

"Shhh!"

All four of the boys instinctively looked apologetic. They did not want to be thrown out just yet.

Peter tugged on his arm and James finally turned back to his friends.

"What?" he hissed, keeping a careful eye on the Librarian.

"Are you done staring at Lily?"

James blushed hard at Peter's question. He hadn't been that obvious, had he?

"I'm not staring," he mumbled, ducking his head down.

"He's blushing!" Sirius crowed.

James gave him a shove. "Shut up."

"Stop it, you two," Remus scolded. "Don't get us thrown out before we can get our books."

"I would really prefer not to be thrown out at all," Peter put in."

"So, would I but let's be realistic with these two."

Surprisingly, they were not thrown out but it was a close thing. Especially when he and James decided to have a competition on who could find the weirdest animal. Remus had threatened to cast a Silencing Charm on them both, despite it being a rule that no magic was to be cast in the Library. Tsk, tsk, Remus. But they had obeyed for two reasons, Remus and Madam Pince being annoyed at them was more than a slightly scary thought and two, they really didn't want to be in the Library any longer than necessary. It was only good for researching pranks and nothing else in Sirius' opinion.

Thankfully, Remus was an expert in navigating the Library and soon had plenty of books for then. Almost too many. Sirius was convinced his arms were going to snap in two under the weight of the books he was holding. And these were just his! Peter, Remus and James had similar stacks. Though, not all the books he, James and Peter were holding were about their animals. Remus insisted on making it less obvious about what books they were checking out by adding a few completely unnecessary books. Like the 'Life and Times of Merlin' and 'Jimminy, I've turned into a cricket', both of which were stupidly heavy books by the way and he somehow was given both!

"We would just like to check out these," Remus said in a charming voice that they rarely got to hear unless they were trying to get out of trouble and gestured at the stacks of books.

It actually got a raised eyebrow from Pince, the stacks were that impressive.

"You have your friends research just as thoroughly as you?"

"My good habits had to have rubbed off on them at some point."

Okay, that was just insulting. They had plenty of good habits! Pince snorted, actually snorted, disbelievingly at him as she started the long process of checking out all the books. Sirius knew they had got too many.

Way too long later, they were all leaving the Library with their far too big and far too heavy stacks of books. Poor Peter was nearly getting squashed by his. This was just inhumane of Remus. What had they done to deserve this?

"Why did you get a load of animal books?" Sirius asked peevishly.

He already turned into an animal that he didn't even need to research! Remus could have helped them with their books!

"To keep up the facade."

"You didn't need to get that many!" Actually, none of them needed to get this many! Who needed twenty books on dogs? Sirius really wasn't looking forward to dragging all of these up to Gryffindor Tower. Just the thought of how many stairs they were going to have to climb made him want to dump them out a window.

"Why do reference books always weigh so much?" James puffed, his face bright red from the strain, his arms trembling.

"Because they contain knowledge?"

"Oh, ha, ha."

Sirius chuckled as James rolled his eyes at Remus. Which he almost immediately regretted as that used up more breath than he had available right now. Stupid books. They were good for absolutely nothing except jamming doors shut.

"How come you aren't struggling?" Peter asked accusingly.

"Unnatural strength," Remus answered pointedly.

The three of them all went "Ahhh," and nodded. Oh yeah, werewolf strength.

"That and I know how to cast a featherlight charm," he added with a smirk.

Friday 16th May 1975

Slytherin Common Room, 19:00

Leila didn't go to her Careers Interview with Slughorn. In fact, he hadn't even arranged one. What was the point when she was going to get married straight out of Hogwarts and managed her betrothed's household? Absolutely no point.

Actually, she probably wasn't even going to stay and do NEWTs because they were also pointless. What man wanted an overly educated wife? No one, that's who. At least no one of proper breeding. Well, the Potters and the Longbottom's were inexplicably the exception to that. Leila idly wondered how the Smiths were going to deal with that, they didn't usually have their girls stay at Hogwarts past fifth year. They weren't mudbloods, after all. No, they were of high status and good breeding, even if their leanings were a little off the mark. Why they organised a contract with the Longbottom family, Leila didn't know but then again, that branch always was looking to improve their standing. And marrying into the Longbottom family would definitely do that. They were pretty much on par with the Blacks and the Selwyn's and the like. The question was why would the Longbottom's let their Heir be betrothed to a cadet branch of a family like that? They would have easily been able to snag a far higher ranking girl but know, they had chosen Alice Smith. Which was very intriguing...

Monday 19th May 1975

Gryffindor Common Room 20:30

Alice did not know why she always tried to revise for exams in the Common Room when it was always too noisy but she did. And eventually gave up because of aforementioned noise. That's what she was trying to do now, having not quite gotten to the giving up stage yet though she was getting close. Did everyone really have to talk like they were shouting at one another? She was pretty sure the Hufflepuffs down in their basement could hear everyone up here.

With a sigh, Alice turned the page in her Ancient Runes textbook, determined to at least get this chapter finished before she gave up. She hated stopping halfway through a chapter, it always took more time to remember what had been said up to that point than it did to finish it.

Unfortunately, it wasn't to be. And not because of some obnoxious first years like it normally was or even one of the Marauders shouting at the others from across the room (because apparently everyone needed to know their business). The Marauders were just on the opposite sofa from her anyway, talking animatedly about... who knows what? No, the disruption was from her so-called friend.

"Did you hear that?" Mary asked suddenly, looking up.

Alice raised an eyebrow at her. She hadn't heard anything. Well, except the aforementioned noise in the Common Room but that was really all noise in the background by now.

"Hear what?"

"A growl!"

A what? Mary had heard what? No, Alice shook her head. There was no way she had heard Mary right. A growl? Really? No, that couldn't be it.

"You heard... a growl? Like of frustration?"

Because that would make sense. She wasn't the only one trying to work, after all. Poor Remus was too despite Potter's overly dramatic gestures nearly smacking him in the face.

"No, like an animal! A dog."

Alice stared blankly at her friend and then shook her head.

"We aren't allowed dogs at Hogwarts, Mary."

Which was odd considering of all the other animals they were allowed. Really, an owl but not a dog? Some people even had snakes apparently. Alice gave a delicate little shudder. Snakes were awful creatures. Yuck. One very good reason to be happy about not getting sorted into Slytherin.

"I know that! Good thing too," Mary also shuddered, "Dirty creatures. But I meant it came from a human."

"A human. Growled. Growled like a dog?"

"Exactly!"

Mary was now looking more than a little hysterical. Alice peered over to her friend's lap. Just what exactly had she been reading? Huh, it was just her Defence Against the Dark Arts textbook. Certainly nothing to make you take flights of fancy. Actually, it was something that was more likely to bring you back down to earth with a bump. It always shocked her just how nasty magic could be. Alice decided to humour her.

"Well, who did?"

She decided to play along because she really didn't want Mary to start shrieking. Which it looked like she was going to do at any moment. Thankfully, she didn't but apparently, she had lost the ability to speak as she just gestured across the room. Alice pinched the bridge of her nose, a gesture she had picked up from Frank that was most effective.

"None of the Marauders are werewolves, Mary."

Of course, Mary was not convinced by this. She never was once she got something in her head.

"I bet it's Black. Seems like something his family would cover up."

Alice just sighed.

Saturday 24th May 1975

Fourth Year Gryffindor Boys Dorm, 16:00

"What's that?" came James' voice.

Sirius looked over what he had been reading to raise an eyebrow at his friend.

"What's what?"

"What you're reading."

He looked down at his hands and then back at James, "A magazine."

"I can see that. I meant what's on it."

Ah, yes. The subject matter of what he was reading would draw curiosity, wouldn't it.

"It's a motorcycle," Sirius said proudly.

This was meant to be something that was really cool by Muggle standards and Sirius was nothing but cool. He may as well be so in both worlds. And motorcycles did look pretty interesting. Very different to anything in the magical world, all shiny and loud.

"A what?"

"A motorcycle," Sirius repeated slowly, holding up a page with one on it. "It's a muggle method of transportation."

"Like an automobile?"

Sirius thought of his Muggle Studies lesson for a moment and nodded. The magazines never really explained how the motorcycles worked but surely, they would be similar to cars? They both had engines...

"Yeah, but motorcycles only have two wheels."

James' eyebrows shot up. "Two wheels? How do you stay upright with only two wheels?"

"Very good balance?"

To be honest, Sirius wasn't too sure about that either. How did you stay up on one of those machines (it was a machine, you see) without magic? Muggles really were ingenious. Or just really stupid about their safety. He hadn't made up his mind about which one it was yet.

James sat next to him without wanting and looked closer at the picture.

"There's no roof like on those automobiles."

"Car," Sirius absentmindedly corrected, he'd learnt that much in Muggle Studies.

"Car," James repeated. "Automobile sounds better."

"Either way, a motorbike is not a car or an automobile. It's a motorbike."

"Is that only one seat?"

"Yeah, only one person can drive it."

Oh, Sirius knew there were sidecars and stuff. The magazines told him all about those but that would probably just confuse James.

The explanation was interrupted by Remus all but flying into the room and onto his bed, facedown. Okay, then.

"Hi, Remus, Sirius has-" James greeted their friend but was interrupted by said friend's hand going up.

"Don't care," Remus grunted. "Need to sleep."

James exchanged a worried look with Sirius.

"Do you want to go down to the Hospital Wing early again?" James asked.

"Not sore. Just tired."

Yeah, Sirius didn't believe that for a second.

Hospital Wing, 18:30

You know what? Sometimes it was a good thing that Remus had better strength than all of them put together and sometimes it was a bad thing. Now was the latter. Did you know that it was incredibly difficult to manhandle someone down to the Hospital Wing when the person was fully capable of shoving you ten feet away from them without magic? And that was only a little bit of an exaggeration.

James winced as Remus shoved one of his bruises. Remus was not happy with him and Sirius but at least he had stopped struggling. He wasn't talking to (or swearing at) them either but they were heading to the Hospital Wing, even if Remus did feel the need to barge past them in order to prove some stupid point. He was not well and he was all wobbly and tired. To prove James' point, Remus staggered in front of them.

Sirius dove forwards to steady him. James caught up and soon both of them had Remus' arms slung over them as they made their way through the school.

"One patient, Madam Pomfrey," James did the announcing as Sirius wrangled Remus onto a bed.

Why did he have to be so lanky?

"Remus Lupin!" she scolded, bustling past them.

Remus automatically shrank back into the bed. Sirius and James looked at each other and nodded. Their work here was done.