Chapter 148

Success

Getting kicked off the quidditch team was probably the best thing that could have happened to Sirius. He still missed playing the game, but after seeing how much time and effort James had put into practices, he couldn't help but wonder if he would have started to resent the stag if he had stayed.

The caption was scheduling practices almost every other day, sometimes several days in a row. It was crazy.

Sometimes Sirius came with him, usually dragging a textbook or two with him, but mostly he was just glad he didn't have to stop everything to hit a few bludgers at some Hufflepuffs.

They were so close, he woke up some mornings swearing that he could feel his tail. He hardly left the great hall now. Alice could complain all she wants but he wasn't stopping for anyone. Even class was little more than a distraction right now. He still got the homework done and studied Remus' notes but the werewolf had, kindly, offered to do the bulk of the necessary school work, James went back and forth from helping Remus and helping Sirius, and Peter provided food and reminded them to sleep every once in a while.

Having someone who wasn't drowning in books constantly was surprisingly useful. Peter always seemed to know when they needed food or sleep or encouragement and was always eager to provide. It had taken him a while to feel comfortable with leading them to do things they needed to do, but when he realized that when he told them they needed to sleep they actually listened he sort of established himself as their nanny. He then started to branch out into making sure they were on time for class or to get James out the door in time for quidditch practice.

The week before the first game of the season was stressful for everyone, but James was taking it worse than most. He'd all but abandoned anything that wasn't necessary, only bothering with the animagus training when Sirius had everything figured out and they actually progressed to the next step, he even paid Peter to do his homework for him, not caring about the grade he got. That's when Remus took pity on them both and just let Peter copy his.

As a result, James was gone when Sirius made the biggest discovery of their school career.

"I hate my life," Sirius complained hanging half off the couch, book splayed on the floor beside him just an inch from his fingertips. A stunning picture of dramatics.

"That's nice," Remus said entirely apathetic.

"I don't know anything. I'm so stupid. How did I think I could understand any of this? I'm too stupid for this." He whined some more, complete with whimpering.

"Very true." Again Remus said just as apathetic.

Sirius glared at him. "You could at least try to care."

"Sirius, I gave up trying to care about your crap second year," Remus answered.

"James would care."

"No, James would pretend to care," Remus answered a grin appearing on his face.

"That's something at least." Sirius sighed picking the book up intending to throw it across the room.

"You want fake sympathy, fine. Oh, noes, whatever shall we do? Padfoot is too stupid to keep going, we might as well give up now." Remus didn't look up from his book.

Sirius sighed once again, choosing against throwing the book.

"I think what you guys have already done is really impressive," Peter added. "Most people couldn't have gotten half this far, your uncle didn't get this far and he's an adult."

"I guess."

"Look, just step back. Grab a different book, and try again. If that doesn't work you can do this and I'll work on that. Something new and fresh might do you some good." Remus suggested finally looking up from the book.

"I've read all of them."

"You have not, there are like a million books on animagi, You can't have read them all."

"Accio animagi book I haven't read," Sirius said pulling out his wand and waving it lazily in the air.

To the werewolf's surprise, only three books came at his call.

"Believe it. We've been doing this for about three years now." Sirius gave him a long-suffering smile at the look on his face.

"That's actually rather frightening."

Sirius picked up one of the three books and started to read, boring very quickly as he'd pretty much read everything in it a thousand times already, but as Remus had said, a fresh look doesn't hurt and he eventually found something new.

He sat up, reading more intently than before. It still wasn't entirely helpful, but it was something new,

He searched and searched, but couldn't find what he was looking for, much less how to find it.

The room was a mess by the time Sirius got frustrated.

"There's no need to take it out on the book." Remus laughed when Sirius finally gave into the desire to throw something across the room.

"I read it somewhere I just know it," Sirius replied rubbing at his temples.

"Read what? Maybe explaining it would help you remember." Remus closed his book and rested his chin on his crossed arms on top. Giving Sirius his full attention for the first time that night.

"The theory of skeletal transfiguration. Y'know…"

"That if you make the bone mass taller without changing the width it is impossible to return it to its original size?" He asks, interrupting him and making it so he didn't have to bother explaining. "McGonagall said it's rubbish."

"It is. But there's a similar theory about the muscles." Sirius continued, his topic confusing even him.

That's why he had to find that book. Telling Remus about it helped him remember some more about it, but the name of the book eluded him.

"So what was in this book that is so bloody important?" Remus asked when Sirius' explanation was over. "Is the muscle theory as worthless as the bone one."

"It went into a lot of detail about the theory, I remember because it confused me completely. I spent days trying to figure out what it was talking about. I dunno if it's any good do I? Cuz I can't find that stinking book."

"Accio book Sirius is looking for." Remus tried, but nothing happened.

"Yeah, I don't think the spell works like that. You have to actually know what you want to summon." Sirius laughed, dropping to the floor surrounded by books. He felt like a nerd.

"Worth a shot."

"I wonder if asking McGonagall would be a dead giveaway." Sirius rubbed his face, exhaustion taking its toll. It was annoying because he'd only just woke up a little while ago. Remus said it was stress, rather than actually being tired. Mental exhaustion, rather than physical exhaustion.

"Probably. Especially after that thing with the mandrake leaves, you guys have to be careful." Remus opened his textbook again. "What you need is a few books on muscular transfiguration."

Another bookshelf appeared out of nowhere… as though they didn't have enough of those.

There was only a single shelf of books.

He wasn't sure he would have been more discouraged by an overflowing bookshelf, so little information meant he wasn't likely to find anything useful.

"What if you ask her?" Sirius turned back to the werewolf, who had a similar look of hopelessness on his face. "You don't get in trouble for anything, she wouldn't suspect you're up to anything this illegal."

Remus looked at him, considering his idea. "I dunno."

"You managed to get by with making all of her canaries dance the tango, Moony. I think you'd be okay."

Remus laughed a reminiscent grin on his face. "That was brilliant."

"That it was, but it proves my point."

"I suppose that it is true." Remus groaned as he stood, his body protesting his first movement in almost five hours. "But you have to find as much as you can while I'm gone, in case I can't get her to tell me anything."

Sirius nodded his agreement, summoning a book from the new shelf as he left. Peter continued to work on the essay.

Padfoot focused on the book in his hands, the information wasn't even familiar. It wasn't even close to what he was looking for, but he continued reading anyway, just in case he found something useful.

Hours passed, and Sirius went from book to book, Peter finishing his essay and moving onto practicing a charm spell, Remus taking longer than they expected.

"Found it!" Sirius exclaimed scaring Peter into successfully making his teacup sprout legs. Peter just blinked at it for a second before Sirius pushed it and everything else, off the table making it clatter all over the floor. "Look!" Sirius pointed to a section and Peter looked at the complicated graphs and charts with a confused expression. Sirius began to explain, talking fast in his excitement. Peter seemed to be following along alright anyway though so he didn't worry about it. The rodent wisely chose to not comment on the broken teacup.

"Which is how we actually change, y'know. The difference between animagi and transfigured humans." Sirius finished a huge grin on his face Peter read the whole page before answering, trying to find something that conflicted what they'd just learned. Sirius got irritated "What?"

"Too easy," Peter replied, and Sirius understood. This was the last major step, while it had been hard to find the information he needed, it wasn't difficult to understand once presented with the information, it should have been more confusing than this.

However, Peter couldn't find anything that confused him. "Maybe you're just getting more clever." Sirius shrugged.

"Or maybe it's wrong."

"It's not wrong."

"Are you sure?" Peter asked, nervous.

"I'm not wrong."

"Okay, so what do we do next?" Peter peeked at the stuff fallen on the floor, the broken teacup was attempting to walk away but each leg

"Just what it says, we focus on the transformation, now that we know how we just have to develop the state of mind required which just takes focus."

"So basically mediation."

"That just sounds stupid."

"Like intense focus sounds better."

Sirius shrugged picking the book up off the table. Peter started to pick up the stuff he'd knocked off since he didn't bother to offer.

"Reparo" the teacup fixed itself and immediately tried to escape, but Peter just removed its legs so he could return to his practice.

"Are you just going to sit there or…" Sirius asked him irritated by his lack of movement.

"I'm gonna just keep practicing this." Peter pointed at the teacup.

"You think I'm wrong, don't you?"

"Of course not," Peter smiled a reassuring smile at him.

"Yeah, you better not." Sirius grinned. He'd found Peter surprisingly tolerable lately as a result of his usefulness.

Sirius sat in the middle of the room and closed his eyes. He focused, thinking about the transformation and how it would feel. He got distracted every once in a while, his attention span didn't last long enough for this, but he always forced himself to return to his train of thought before too long.

The door opened and he heard Remus walk in. "McGonagall wouldn't tell me. She said there was no point since it was obviously codswallop."

"It's okay, Sirius found a thing." Sirius heard Peter reply.

"Oh, good. Where is he?" He didn't hear a reply so he assumed Peter pointed. There was nothing else. Both Marauders went quiet. "Um, Padfoot, you… might want to open your eyes."

Sirius growled at the interruption and then jumped at the sound that came out of his throat. He'd always sounded a little canine and it had had only gotten more so recently, but he'd never sounded that much like a dog.

He opened his eyes, his face much lower to the ground than it should have been. He looked himself over, instead on the slightly tan skin and the band tee he'd been wearing he saw a coat of thick black fur and, when he turned around to look, the long tail, wagging though he wasn't making a conscious effort to make it do so, that he'd felt so many times without it actually existing, he chased it because he could. He barked and looked back at Remus who was giggling at him. He barked again and jumped on Remus, startling the werewolf and knocking him over, and licked him. He fought but Sirius was too strong for him. Sirius was careful to not actually step on his ill friend, though.

"Stop it, Sirius. Get off. Cut it out!" Remus said, his words interrupted with giggles. Peter was laughing at them both. He got off Remus, too excited to stay in one place for too long, and ran around the room, knocking over stacks of books and making a mess in general.

He'd done it, he'd transformed into a dog… he'd actually done it. Sometimes he'd wondered if it were actually possible. If he could actually do it, or if he'd be studying and trying for the rest of his life, but here he was, the largest black dog he'd ever seen, an animagus.

He ran, and ran, and spun around in circles until his excitement became more manageable and then found himself sitting in front of his two friends, his tail wagging behind him. Remus had pulled himself up but was still grinning like an idiot. Peter pet him on the head and it felt brilliant.

"You can change back, right?" Remus said, sitting down in front of the Sirius. Sirius panicked for a second but forced himself to concentrate. This time he felt the change. It was a little uncomfortable, like a cold shiver that you just couldn't repress.

Remus cheered and hugged him. "You did it! I can't… I can't believe it. You actually…"

"Well, thanks for the vote of confidence, Moony." Sirius laughed, not really upset, just picking on his friend.

"Oh hush," Remus gave him a punch on the shoulder, it didn't hurt in the least. "You doubted it too I know you did."

Sirius just laughed, grinning up at Peter, "I told you I was right." Peter just nodded.

"Sooooo, how we gonna surprise James when he gets back?"