By Zetta Zofia
Disclaimer: Characters are Not Mine! Belong to the wonderful, fabulous, absolutely amazing genius J.K. Rowling.
Feedback Me: zettazofia@yahoo.com
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Thank you to my first and (alas!) only reviewer, Honest Deception. I've gone back and changed the first two
chapters around a little bit, adding some more on to them. I know it's not much, but hopefully you'll
like it better! (Note that I'll probably reload the chapters a few times while
posting this whole thing, to get it working better!)
This chapter is short, but I'll have Chapter Four up tomorrow.
The rest of second year passed by quickly, with the Marauders growing even closer as friends, with no secrets between them. Quidditch began with James and Sirius on the team, as Chaser and Beater respectively, and Gryffindor took the Quidditch Cup with incredible ease. By the end of the year, they'd all made plans to visit each other's houses over the summer.
And they did so, starting at Peter's house, then going to see Remus, as it was time for the full moon and he couldn't leave home until it was over. After that, they went on to see Sirius's house, and then James's. They owled back and forth with their other friends, Lily included.
Over that summer, the four boys discovered girls, and this new interest began to grow into an obsession, much like every other teenager went through.
When school began, Sirius had been owling Theresa Shamans of Ravenclaw for a full month. They'd gone out twice as well, once on a double date with Remus and a charming neighbor of his that had no idea bout his little secret. Sirius had become the most sophisticated of all of them, because he'd held hands with Theresa on the date, and when he and Theresa had gone back to her house, one time they'd even kissed each other on the cheek.
School started, and James realized with some great regret that Lily had become more interested in boys as well. She spent even less time with them now, choosing to go out with some of the other guys in the school, including, if he were to believe the rumor, a fifth year Ravenclaw.
Though it had taken him a long time, he'd finally decided to throw in his cards and admit to himself that he fancied her, quite a lot as well.
But if she was going out with other boys, it was clear confirmation that she did not share his feelings. James too began dating, but never even remotely seriously. He was, after all, still too young for a serious relationship, though it didn't stop him from trying to go as far as he could. One time he even got enough courage to kiss a girl on the mouth. He figured that was acceptable, as the girl knew he wasn't really serious about her, and that he wasn't ready for a real relationship yet. Sirius's break-up with Theresa was confirmation of their immaturity, as Sirius spent the next week pulling pranks on the boy she'd left him for.
That had happened a week into November. After that, Sirius had returned to going on single dates with girls, as many as often as he could manage.
It was shortly after the Christmas holiday that he went out with Lily, making James want to scream with insanity. What did she see in Sirius that wasn't in him? He and Sirius were incredibly similar, so why didn't she like him?
But Sirius and Lily's relationship wasn't meant to be anyhow, as they never went out on a third date, though Sirius did start to brag about how she'd kissed him a little. After that, James was careful to find all the differences between him and Sirius, and point out the positives to Lily, while trying his hardest not to give away his secret.
It was February when Sirius suddenly stopped hanging around with them after the school day was over. For an entire week and a half, he disappeared as soon as he could, without telling them anything about where he was going.
It was only by accident that Peter discovered him in the library one evening, and he reported this to James.
When James questioned Sirius about it, he just shrugged and asked them to be patient.
James, Peter, and Remus had no other choice, and figured he was working on another prank of some sort.
They found out differently on the last week of January, two nights after the full moon, when Sirius dragged them all up to their room a full two hours before lights out. His eyes were shining with too many emotions to understand as he dragged them up.
James nearly fell over in shock when he saw the stack of books on Sirius's desk. For one who never, ever studied, to see at least a dozen books piled up with page markers sticking out at odd angles, it was quite shocking, even if he'd known about Sirius's newfound interest in the library.
"What's going on?" Remus asked, turning his desk chair so that he could see Sirius better.
Peter sat on his bed, and James laid down on his.
Sirius laughed out loud. "It's ingenious!" he exclaimed. "Absolutely brilliant."
"You figured out a way to get rid of all the Slytherins?" James wondered, somewhat hopefully. He'd been extremely anti-Slytherin since discovering that Lily was going out with one. They were out on their second date tonight, and if James had happened to be sitting down in the Common room when she came in, what a coincidence that would be. He'd certainly tell her something about her choice in boyfriends, that much was certain.
Sirius glared at him. "No. But this is even better."
They all sat up at that. Better than getting rid of the Slytherins?
"We're going to become Animagus."
They all stared at him, then James sat back, a little disappointed. "Why in Merlin's name would we want to do that?"
Sirius sighed impatiently. "Remember when we were reading up on werewolves last year? Remember how they bite humans?"
"Pretty sure I remember that part," Remus muttered.
Sirius shot him an annoyed look. "Just shut up, Moony."
Moony? James thought about it, then nodded. Good name.
Remus raised an eyebrow at the name too, but crossed his arms and said nothing.
"Well," Sirius said, tapping on the back of his chair to get rid of some of his energy. "It said that werewolves weren't inclined to hurt animals like they are humans. And even if they bite them, nothing happens. So," he said, his eyes gleaming. "If we turn Animagus, then we could go down with you on the night of the full moon, and..."
James was smiling. "Keep you company, and help you out."
Remus was shaking his head. "That's really tricky stuff," he said. "The Ministry keeps a close watch on Animagus for a reason."
James waved his hand, brushing that off as unimportant. "It's mostly Transfiguration, right? Well, Sirius and I are really good at it. We could help Peter out..."
"There's also a little potion," Sirius added. "But it's nothing we can't handle. But we'll need a bunch of special ingredients. That'll be the tricky part. But Peter's good at Herbology and he'll be able to snag some of the stuff from the Greenhouses."
"Isn't the spell highly dangerous though?" Remus asked patiently. "I don't want you to go off getting yourselves in trouble just because of one bloody night a month."
Sirius ignored him. "It took me a while to gather up everything that needed to be done. They really don't want people doing this stuff, so I've had to actually cross-reference things. Bloody terrible job. I almost called you in to help on it, but then I got help from the new librarian. Told her it was a Transfiguration project, and she was stupid enough to believe it. I hope Mrs. Silvermane is out for a while. The new one's a looker." He flashed them a grin and sighed with satisfaction. "Her name's Irma Pince, and she's still fairly young. What do you think my odds are with her?"
James was amused, but he was more interested in the books. "We'll all have to look over it," he mused. "But I don't think it's too bad. Nice job on research, Sirius."
He smirked. "I'm just so good."
James snorted, and sat down to start looking through the information.
It took them another week to determine exactly what they do, and, just to be certain, they all took one more week to decide that they really were willing to risk it.
Only two days after they'd decided to begin the process of becoming Animagus, James got his first real girlfriend, Muggle-born Hufflepuff Molly Margaret Mendelssohn, who adored Quidditch, Magic, and him. She hated Slytherin, schoolwork, and her name.
They quickly found that they both enjoyed visiting the Astronomy tower at night to look at the stars, and though they were in different classes, they met up often. Sirius was very proud, because he'd heard rumors about what went on in the tower at night. James wasn't about to tell him that all they really ever did was look at the stars. They hadn't even kissed!
They went out for an entire month, until James began to feel very uncomfortable around her, and broke it off. She was devastated, and he was a little depressed, but got over it quickly when a cute Ravenclaw asked him to join her on a trip to Hogsmeade.
He dated girls on and off, and Lily met up with new boyfriend all the time. James vowed that if any other boy hurt her, he'd have to kill them, and got Sirius, Peter, and Remus to agree, under the guise of liking her as a friend, and nothing more.
Remus took the idea of protecting her a little bit too far in James's mind, and began accompanying Lily everywhere, until they finally just admitted that they were going out. Remus too mentioned that he and Lily had kissed, and James suddenly felt as though life was completely wretched.
Somewhat furious with himself because of his confused feelings and jealousy towards Remus, James felt guilty and began to double his efforts on the Animagus project, figuring that he needed to get rid of the guilt by doing something good for Remus.
By the end of the year, they'd started the potion, begun to work on the transfiguration exercises that would lead up to the big one, and Remus had gone out with Lily for a full month.
James was not totally unhappy when they broke it off a week before the end of school.
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