Chapter 58

Insanity

"ARE YOU NUTS!" James yelled pacing across the room. He'd been pretty much on a rampage ever sense Sirius had suggested the crazy idea. Peter looked just plain shocked and scared. "ILLEGAL ANIMEGI? Have you lost you're mind? Please tell me you're joking."

"You said anything." Sirius reminded him, surprisingly quietly.

"You are nuts. You realize what would happen if we were caught right. Azkaban, that's what."

"You said anything." Sirius just repeated.

"Even if we were actually able to pull it off, what in the world makes you think it would help?"

"You said anything."

"But... But!"

"You said..."

"Anything, yes I know!" James growled knowing he was stuck in a trap. Either he admitted he wasn't willing do anything for Remus, or he risked Azkaban for Remus. "What in the world makes you think it'll help?"

"Werewolves are only dangerous to people. They have no problem with other animals."

"Did Remus tell you that?"

"I read it and Remus confirmed it."

"And what makes you think we'll actually be able to pull this off?"

"We have too. For Remus." Sirius looked at James. James looked as though he was signing his own death certificate.

"For Remus." He repeated and Peter squeaked, though they didn't here him. He knew he was going to get dragged into this as well. He probably wouldn't even be given a choice.

"We can't tell Remus." James said after quite a long period of silence.

"We have to." Sirius said with the most volume he'd had all night. "I kinda made a promise."

"He won't let us. You know he won't, he'd probably tell on us if he thought he had too."

"I know, but I can't break my promise." James paced again. There had to be some way. "What if we tell him after we do it, but before we follow him to the safe house. Would that break you're promise?"

"I suppose not." Sirius thought about it before smiling.

"This is going to be a lot of hard work. Especially with how bad you can get at transfiguration."

"There's more to it then just transfig. I think."

"How are we going to figure out how to do it? They don't just hand out How to Become an Animegi books."

"Actually they do, but only to those going though the process legally."

"Whatever."

"Getting a hold of the information won't be much of a problem, I can think of a hundred places I can get the books from, but I can't get them from here."

"Do I want to know how?"

"Probably not."

"Why can't you get them from here?"

"None of them does owl mail. You have to go into the store. Too much risk of getting caught."

"Is it a good thing that I'm friends with someone who had criminal connections or really really sad that I am friends with someone who has criminal connections."

"Probably both."

"So there's nothing we can do till summer?"

"We can still do some research. There's some books in the library about it but they skip a few important details. It's not too hard to sneak in and grab some. We also might be able to find some in the restricted section." James nodded and headed for his invisibility cloak.

"Let's go now." He suggested and Sirius nodded. "You want to come, Peter?" Peter just shook his head quickly and muttered something about going to bed, not that James was surprised.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Remus heard them before he saw them. He didn't really want to open his eyes and see their worried looks. The happiness that they cared enough to worry about him had worn off a while ago. Now he just felt guilty.

"Moony, we know you're awake." Remus could hear the smirk in his voice and moaned. Sirius was in a teasing mood. This wasn't going to be fun. Alright that was probably a lie, but he'd never admit that to anyone.

"Speak for yourself, how'd you know." James asked and Remus opened one eye and peeked at him before closing it again.

"He started holding his breath." Sirius answered. Remus pulled the blankets over him and complained about the light, hoping they'd think that was the reason, instead of the fact that he was self-conscious about his cuts. Fat chance of that happening.

"Guess what, Remus." James said excitedly, they were in a surprisingly good mood, it only seemed to extenuate the bad mood he was in. All James got for an answer was some grumbling.

"Sirius actually managed to get a half hour of sleep last night." Sirius groaned and dropped his head into his hand, Remus peeked out of the covers.

"Really?" He almost sounded happy. Almost.

"It was more like twenty minutes. Twenty agonizing minutes. Full of nightmares and hardly any rest." Sirius said still holding his head. Remus gave him a sad look.

"Sorry." He said quietly, not looking anywhere but Sirius.

"Not you're fault. I have nightmares all the time, what makes you think that they were about you."

"Because I know you." He still didn't look him in the eye.

"That you do." Sirius smiled at him. "I'm getting better though. I'm sure everything will be fine, soon enough." James glared at him but Remus didn't notice he just gave a small smile.

"Sure it will." He said sadly. Sirius winced he sat beside Remus on the bed and hugged him, gently of course. Remus looked surprised, Sirius wasn't really the most huggy person, he preferred just an arm around the shoulder or a pat on the back or something, but no hugs. "We're kind of the rejects of the school when you think about it." Remus said trying to lighten the mood a bit.

"What do you mean? I think we're awesome." James said.

"Come on, you have to admit it. I mean, I'm a werewolf, Sirius is the white sheep of the Black Family." He began, Sirius laughed at the mental image that came from that phrase. "Peter is the only person in history that couldn't really fit into any of the house categories, if what he said the sorting hat told him is true." Remus wanted to continue, but fell silent and couldn't think of what came next.

"And James is only here because Peter is." Sirius finished for him.

"That's not true." James defended. Sirius just gave him an incredulous look. "Really it's not."

"James, admit it. If Peter hadn't accidentally sat by us you never would have given me a second glance and you'd probably hate Sirius." Remus told him focusing his concentration on fidgeting with his blanket to keep from looking at James.

"That's not true. We share a dorm, we would have met sooner or later."

"That doesn't mean you'd like us. You'd probably hang out with Frank and the others more than us." Remus replied.

"Forget that. He'd be hanging out with the seventh years, or at least the fifth years." Sirius leaned back on the bed, being careful not to put his weight on Remus' legs, which Remus really appreciated as his legs were both hurting quite a bit.

James looked away, he wanted to deny it, but he knew it was probably true.

"Does it really matter?" Peter asked. "If he'd have been friends with someone else he'd be the one missing out, not you guys." He shrugged but they both looked at him and smiled.

"Thanks, Peter." Remus said happily. Peter blushed a little.

"True. Glad I'm not missing out." James smiled.

"You better be. Your life would be so boring without me." Sirius smirked.

Remus laughed. "You're so humble Sirius."

"I know isn't he. Truly an inspiration to us all." James added.

"Thank you, Thank you." Sirius said pretending to be oblivious to their teasing. James laughed and messed up Sirius' hair, causing a yelp from the younger boy.

Remus laughed as Sirius pulled James into a headlock. Nothing could break up this group. Only death could bring the four of them apart.

THANK YOU! I've been trying to update for like ever now! My internet stopped working. Then stopped working. Then the internet stopped working again. Now I have to go to the library in order to upload anything. THE CONNECTION AT THE LIBRARY IS VERY SLOW! I'll try to keep updating, but I can't do it at home anymore, so it will be a slow process. I'll upload as many chapters as I have done now. Sorry 'bout this.