Chapter 103

MWPP

"But this book says you have to have the fir," Peter pushed the book in front of James, pointing out the paragraph with the contradicting information. He sat crossleged on the floor of the now ruined tree house with James and Sirius, books surrounding the group and in between them was the cause of the confusion. In front of Peter was a small worm-like tail and James had the pronged end of a stag's antler. Sirius' item was the strangest of them all. Peter had never had a pet before, he hadn't even known dog's feet had those little pads on them. Thankfully it was just the pads not the actual foot.

"Well there are more books that say it can be any part of the body." James answered sighing and running a hand through his messy hair.

"Do you have any idea how hard it is to get stag fur? They barely have fur!" Sirius snapped, "I took it from the Potter's potion ingredients, it had to be stuff they wouldn't notice was gone."

"But what if it's telling the truth?" Peter peeked back at the book. He didn't want to irritate the already peeved Black but the thought of ignoring the instructions of the Minastry approved textbook made him feel queasy.

It didn't help that the floating flames surrounding them that James had summoned to keep out the winter night chill and light the room was casting a blue glow that made the entire Treehouse look haunted and sound worse. The cackles of the fires brought images of ghosts to his mind. And considering that a single skrew-up could end with the Potters finding three dead teenagers in the morning. He wasn't comfortable cutting corners.

They cut corners a lot. Sometimes it was due to a lack of official resources, other times it was to avoid getting caught. Most of the time, however, like now, it was both. It was never to save time or from laziness. When they took short-cuts it was from nessesity.

That didn't comfort Peter any.

"It isn't, any animal has the potential to be a person's animegi, if you could only use fur than no one would be able to change into a bird or bug or fish. There has to be other things you can use, Peter." James explained fiddling with the point of the antler.

"But…" Peter began but backpedalled when Sirius gave him a glare.

"Pete, don't. Siri has spent all day on this and he's already pissed that blackberries are a required ingredient in all the recipes we can trust. He's allergic."

Peter winced, glad that he was goinghome directly after this. James would have to deal with a whiny Sirius for the rest of the holiday.

Sirius turned his glare back to the bowl in the center of their circle. Peter liked to imagine it was a normal soup, since he didn't know the ingredients in it. Whatever 'it' is, Sirius swore up and down that it wasn't a potion since it was cooked like food rather than heated in a cauldron. Peter didn't see a difference but he went with it anyway.

"At least you don't have to eat this." James picked the little tail from in front of Peter, wiggling it in front of Sirius. The younger boy reacted predictably by smacking the hand away and growling at James. Peter groaned realizing that he was the one that had to do just that.

"I'm going to be traumatized for life." Peter whining, covering his face with his hands.

"Trust me, we all will." Sirius agreed, still holding James hand far away from him. "I think I know how Moony felt before eating our cooking."

"Moony…" James repeated, dragging the word out longer than necessary. His brows furrowed and his eyes narrowed at the rat tail in his fingers. "Moony! We need nicknames too!"

Sirius groaned at James' enthusiasm, not at all in the mood. "We already have nicknames, Jamesy-poo."

Peter considered it, he'd never really liked calling Remus Moony. It was a constant reminder of his friend's condition, and he didn't like to remember that his smart and generous friend was a monster.

He did like nicknames, however.

"Wormtail." James smiled, no longer hearing what came out of Sirius's mouth and waving the little tail around some more.

"You're stalling. Your stalling and you've only got to eat that. Really, James?" Sirius punch James in the side when the future-stag waved the tail in front of him again.

"C'mon, don't tell me it doesn't look like a worm." James directed at Peter this time, not wanting to get hit again.

"Well, yeah. I guess." Peter took the tail from him and put it back on the floor. James wouldn't be able to resist the temptation to throw it at the resident drama queen for very long.

"You're not worried someone will figure it out?" Peter asked his head turning, peeking out the tree house as though there was someon

e eavesdropping. There wasn't, of course. James' parents were at the Ministry's annual Christmas party and wouldn't be back until morning.

Sirius laughed, "Yeah, right. No one's that clever, though Moony might get suspicious."

"He's right, Pete. I'll be fine." James smiled, as though his worry was funny. Sometimes Peter wondered if he was the only one who had any common sense.

Watching his silly friends skirt Azkaban like it was a game made Peter feel sick. If they were caught, there was no doubt that he would go down with them.

If they went to Azkaban it would be their own fault, but he'd do whatever it took to not follow them there. He wasn't stupid, nothing is worth dying for, and Azkaban was worse than death.

"Sirius could be Padfoot." Peter offered. Until they got themselves locked up, hanging with them kept the bullies away, so he'd keep them around. James had always been there to defend him, assuming that since they were raised together they were best friends. Sirius wasn't so nieve but so long as James trusted him Sirius wouldn't raise a hand against him. It wasn't ideal, but he almost felt safe, almost.

James laughed and even Sirius in all his moodiness cracked a smile.

"Fine, but James has to be Prongs." Sirius said teasing.

"What? That's not even creative!" James pouted. Sirius laughed his smile widening to a smirk.

"Uncreative name, for a uncreative person." Sirius shrugged leaning back on his arm the light from the fires flickering over his face. Peter repressed a shiver at the sight of his mishevious facial expression that looked even scarier in the blue half-light.

"I came up with wormtail!" James defended his voice a higher pitch than Peter was used to.

"Yeah, and it took you ten minutes to think of it too."

"Did not." James argued. They looked like they were going to go on for a while, so Peter decided to stop it before it had the chance to start.

"Now you're both stalling." His voice was light, but he was good at that façade. He was still terrified whenever they even started talking about animegi, he'd even started wincing when ever he saw a rat. The rodents were now a symbol for danger to him. They reminded him of how close to death he's been and how he was almost guaranteed to get even closer before James and Sirius finally wrote the whole thing off as a bad job. And it was all for Remus, a werewolf. He didn't hate Remus for what he was of course, James had rubbed off on him a little growing up he supposed, but no one was worth dying for. Especially not someone who was likely to get hunted down in the future anyone, that is if he didn't accidentally (or maybe purposely) kill himself before he had the chance.

It wasn't like he was hoping for it or anything, but he seemed to be the only one of them that were willing to accept the inevitable rather than killing themselves to change it. Remus was doomed, that was all there was to it. Why should he risk his life to prevent it?

"Pete's right, let's just get this over with." James sighed glaring at his nickname-sake.

Sirius groaned.

Peter was very glad he was going home immediately after their little snack, both because he felt sick and because Sirius was sick. It time it took for them to get inside he was already I'll and Peter had no desire to stick around and see it. It wasn't even the parts of the animal that was the potion, or whatever Sirius decided it was, that was nasty. Adjectives like slimy, sticky, foul-smelling, and horrible would have been generous. Sirius used words like foul, vulgar, and putrid, but Peter usually tuned Sirius out when he started on one of his rants.

A handful of powder and some ash stains he'd have to wash himself later and he was safe at home, wishing he'd never had to leave.

A/N) Sorry about the editing problems with this one, it was done on my smartphone, and touch screens aren't compatible with long periods of writing. I wanted to get this out there though to let y'all know that I am doing this story for Camp Nanowrimo. Which means I'm going to be spending all next month work towards my own personal goal of 25,000 words in a month. I haven't decided if I'm going to post them when as they get completed or wait till I get a chance to do some actual editing, what I normally do isn't considered actual editing. Admittedly I usually place quantity over quality with multiple chapter stories, I plan on doing some major editing when it's all over. (I've already got the first chapter completely rewritten) but for now what do you guys think would you rather wait and have nicely edited (but still mostly the same) chapters, or would you rather them on an as they get done basis with a possible rewrite later? Let me know. It might change how I handle the writing process as a whole.