By Zetta Zofia
Disclaimer: Characters are Not Mine!
Belong to the wonderful, fabulous, absolutely amazing genius J.K.
Rowling.
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The summer following forth year seemed to be quite short in comparison to those that had passed before. The four boys went from house to house again, though this time they spent the majority of the time at James' house. His parents weren't home, they were off working on getting Mr. Potter elected, so the Marauders had an especially fun time, specifically at the party they threw one Saturday night.
James was very happy when Lily was able to attend it, and even happier to find she was without a date. She ended up spending most of the night talking with him, and they danced together several times.
Of course, he did not know that during her dance with Peter, she'd agreed to go out with him.
He didn't find out until the middle of the feast the first night back. He wasn't too upset, as they hadn't gone out more than once, but he made sure to throw something extra messy at Peter during the food fight.
Mr. Potter had been officially elected Minister, and now James saw his father's owl nearly every day as he and Dumbledore spoke and discussed things. James never tried to find out what was going on, as politics were far beyond his interest.
Nonetheless, he had occasionally heard his father discussing things with his associates, and picked up enough to understand some of it.
He was the one to fill in Sirius, Remus, Peter, and occasionally Lily about the mysterious wizard who was out torturing and killing witches and wizards. He informed them of this wizard's actions, and they all shivered together as they learned more about him.
James was the first to learn his name as well, and it was a name none of them would ever forget, though many would try. Precious few days in their lives would pass without thinking of him, and though they would not understand the magnitude of his powers for years to come, they all knew that Lord Voldemort was a terrifying man.
But his name, while not forgotten, was pushed aside as they got further into their fifth year of Hogwarts.
The first of the good news about the year came when James got a letter that named him Prefect. His first reaction was more of shock than anything else, but then he found out that Lily was the Fifth Year Girl's Prefect and saw things on a much brighter note.
The Animagus potion was nearly finished, and the four boys were impatient to see it completed. The Potion would assist them in the transfiguring, and was highly recommended, though it was possible to do it without. But they had all read the books, and knew that it wasn't worth it to try without it, and they didn't dare to rush it. The potion was incredibly volatile already, and if they dared to try to hurry it, they were all afraid of what might happen.
Late one night, Sirius and Remus went out to check on the status of the potion, and Peter went out on a date with a Hufflepuff girl he'd met over the summer. James, having talked to Lily all day, could not get her out of his mind. He finally gave up, reached in his trunk and pulled out the picture he had of her. When he was at home, and knew that Sirius was unable to come over, he placed the picture on the table beside his bed. But he'd always been careful to keep a few other pictures of his friends on the table. His argument had been that it was just dumb luck that Lily's picture was more prominent than the rest.
At the moment, the picture was sleeping, leaned up against a tree outside by the lake. On the day that he'd taken the picture, they'd been out on a picnic. Lily's date for the event had been one of the other Gryffindor Chasers, and was a friend of Remus's. James had felt very uncomfortable with the whole situation, and though he'd tried his hardest to ignore it, he knew that at the Quidditch practice following the picnic, he'd been quite awful towards him.
He smiled sadly at it and set the picture on his chest, staring at the top of his bed.
Despite his fondest wishes, his feelings for Lily still hadn't changed. If anything, they had grown even stronger. He didn't know how everyone missed it. Between the way he acted about her boyfriends, and the way he acted whenever he saw her, or spoke to her, or participated in any activity that reminded him of her... It had to have been obvious that he cared for her a great deal more than as a friend. Every time he talked to her, he felt... weird. Like the entire world was a better place, and every time he was with her, all of the bad things going on seemed to fade into obscurity.
He was getting tired of pretending she didn't matter so much, and he was sure that his feelings about her had been fairly obvious.
At least, Synthia Raven had thought so. When she'd broken up with him after their three weeks of dating, she'd mentioned that he ought to just get over his issues and go tell her that he loves her.
When he'd argued with that, she'd just glared at him and told him that she was "not as blind as the rest of the world seemed to be" and he could deny it all he liked, but she knew better.
He'd been very grateful that she'd broken up with him in the privacy of the gardens, with no one around to hear the conversation.
That was part of what bothered James. How was it that she had gone out with him for only three weeks, but knew what even Sirius didn't?
He heard someone coming upstairs and quickly stuffed the picture under his pillow and snatched a book off the table, pretending to be reading.
Sirius walked it, whistling softly and happily. "Only a few more weeks," he informed James immediately.
James set the book down, glancing at the cover to see what it was he was supposedly reading. It was his Charms book, and that made him think of Lily, but he looked at Sirius anyway. "Remus agrees?"
Sirius snorted and rubbed the goatee he was trying to grow. He thought it made him look more mature, and the other three weren't about to tell him that it really didn't. Besides, they were all trying to grow one, and they were afraid they'd hear the same thing back about their own. "You doubt my word?"
James just gave him a patient look.
Sirius rolled his eyes. "Yep."
James set the book back down on the table beside his bed. "Did we have homework in Charms today?" he wondered.
Sirius shot him an incredulous look. "We didn't even have Charms today. We had it yesterday. Today we had Potions and Transfiguration, and you had your Arithmacy class."
James suddenly remembered being in those classes. Lily had sat with them the whole time, as Ravenclaw had been hit by a flu bug, and her friends were all out of class except for him and the rest of the Marauders. "Oh yeah."
Sirius was frowning at him though, and went over and sat on the edge of his bed, looking at James worriedly. "Is everything okay James? You're really acting weird."
James sat up, leaning against his pillows. "I'm fine."
Sirius nodded slowly. "Right."
The door opened then, and Remus and Peter entered, still laughing hysterically over something that had happened. "What's so funny?" Sirius asked, leaning back.
Peter snickered. "You missed it. It was great. S-Severus was harassing some little Hufflepuff about something. Frank Longbottom comes up to him." He started laughing again, and Remus leaned against the wall for support. "H-he grabs him by the neck of his shirt and drags him back, starts yelling at him, and Snape says something rude back. Frank turned him into a donkey."
"Snape's a donkey?" Sirius said, jumping up. "Where? Where is he? I gotta see!"
Remus let out a laugh. "Filch found him and took him to Dumbledore." He snickered again. "And the whole time, Snape's braying..."
"He-haw!" Peter said, and the two doubled over in laughter again.
James and Sirius exchanged amused looks. "Don't suppose you got pictures?"
Remus snickered. "That's the best part. You know how Christie's been talking about doing a school newspaper, like the Muggles do? Well, she was there with a camera. It'll make the front page!"
They doubled over in laughter again, and James grinned and stretched out on his bed. The pillows shifted and the corner of the picture frame was uncovered, but no one noticed.
Peter and Remus were still laughing over Snape's condition, but were settling down.
Remus snickered once more though as he took a seat at his desk, then looked over at James. "That reminds me. Lily asked me to ask you to go see her when you get a minute. I think she wants you to write the Quidditch column for the paper."
James sat up, frowning. "I didn't know she was part of the paper."
Remus snorted. "She's Christie's friend. She got suckered into it just like everyone else who knows her. She's trying to get me to write a column of some sort, but I think I managed to convince her I haven't the time to."
James shrugged, thinking about it. "I think I could do a Quidditch column." Especially if it meant he'd get to see Lily more often, or even once more than normal. He slipped off the bed. "Guess I'll go find out if that's what she wants."
"Adios," Sirius called lazily. "But isn't it kinda late?"
James shrugged, looking at the clock. "It's only ten. I'm sure she's still up."
Sirius waited until he'd left the room. "He's been acting odd, lately."
Remus shrugged. "I haven't really noticed it, but I've been rather out-of-touch." The full moon had just passed, and he'd been in the hospital for a day and a half after. There'd been a terrible lightning storm, and Moony, as they all now called the werewolf, did not particularly like storms.
Peter shrugged. "He just broke up with Synthia. Maybe that's what making him weird."
Sirius snorted. "I doubt it. He'd been complaining about her for the week before she broke up with him. He wasn't that emotionally attached to her." He frowned, lying down on his bed. "And besides, it's a weird sort of odd. He's been daydreaming a lot. Can't tell you how many times I've been able to sneak up on him lately too. And he's got a funny look on his face half the time. He had it when I came in. And he was reading his Charms book."
Remus looked at the book on the table. "Well, maybe he's doing homework."
"We didn't have any," Sirius informed him. "Flitwick had us do it in class, except for you, who missed class."
"And James and Lily were the first ones done," Peter added. "But I think she did all the work, because otherwise they'd have taken longer than me and Sirius did."
Sirius snorted. "James isn't as incompetent as you are, Pete."
"Hey!" Peter complained. "I'm not incompetent. I'm just not good at Charms."
"Or transfiguration, or Potions, or Divination, or much else."
Peter glared at him, and Remus sighed. "Peter's good at some things," he said. "And you're good at others. Leave it at that before I have to bite you."
Sirius snickered. "Well, someone's in a feisty mood today."
Remus shrugged. "I've got a lot to do," he said as explanation. "Now shush up and leave me be."
Sirius made a face at him, but rolled over on his side, facing away from the Remus and door, towards James's bed and the window between them.
He saw the corner of the picture frame. "Does Jim have any girlfriends that I don't know about?"
Peter frowned. "We just went over this, remember? He just broke up with Sylvia. Er, she broke up with him or something."
Sirius frowned. "And he hasn't mentioned anything about a girl he likes, has he?"
Remus looked over at him. "What's your point?"
Sirius sat up. "Then whose picture is that?"
Peter and Remus looked over at the bed. "Where?" Remus asked.
Sirius stood up. "Right here." He reached for the picture frame.
"Accio picture," James called from the door. It flew across the room and into his hands, and he slipped it out of the frame, careful to keep his friends from seeing it. "Incendio."
The picture caught fire and he dropped it, watching Lily-of-the-picture burn with some regret. But it was better than having Sirius figure it out.
"That's not fair," Sirius complained crossly. "You're supposed to be off with Lily."
"She's not in her room," James explained, stepping on the flames.
Remus nodded. "That's right, she was going out tonight. I forgot."
"With who?" James wondered, frowning a little.
Sirius noticed that and frowned as well. "Frank, I think. I thought I heard him say she was helping him with Charms in the library. They'll probably be back soon and you can ask."
James, oddly enough, looked relieved.
Sirius laid down again, his eyes on James. "Why are you so curious?"
James shrugged as he lay down on his own bed. "Just surprised that she'd ask me to see her when she's not even going to be there."
Remus glanced at Sirius, wondering at the tone in his voice, but Sirius sent him a warning look and Remus stayed quiet.
"I'm off to bed," Peter said. He'd seen the looks that had passed between Remus and Sirius, and he wondered about them, but didn't ask. They'd have just told him not to worry about it, as if he couldn't handle the truth of whatever was going on. He bit back a sigh and crawled into bed. He'd find out eventually, he was sure.
And he went to sleep.
Sleep did not come so easy for the rest of the Marauders. James was plagued by visions of Lily and Frank, locked in a passionate kiss, and holding hands and smirking at him, and wearing wedding clothes and getting married. The last one was the worse, as it was a bit too extreme for them to even consider this early in their relationship.
Sirius and Remus were considering the possibilities of James having a crush on their red-haired friend, and finding it somewhat surprising. Even more surprising was the thought that they would make a good couple. After an hour of tossing and turning, Sirius decided that he'd first try to find out if James really did like her, and then, whether he did or didn't, he'd try to set them up.
Remus decided the same.
* * *
Lily got the flu from one of her Ravenclaw friends, and spent the night up in the hospital wing.
James, worried to pieces but not daring to show it, snuck up in the middle of the night and brought her some candy and one of the most adorable little stuffed animals he'd found in Hogsmeade, and picked up for her. It was no coincidence that it was a little stag, nor was it a coincidence that the next two days he brought her three more, a rat, a dog, and a wolf. Lily did not understand the meaning of it, of course, and James wasn't about to tell her that he and his friends were hoping to become the Animagus version of those animals, no matter how much he liked her. His friends had seen the animals and had found them quite amusing, and had agreed that they were quite appropriate to give as gifts.
It was another week before Lily was completely better, but James was fairly certain that she'd passed it on to him. During the Quidditch match over the weekend (Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff) he'd only scored twice, and had been fouled three times, a sure sign that something was amiss. Even so, Hufflepuff was easily defeated, and everyone shrugged it off as just a bad day for James Potter.
He refused to go to see the nurse though, because that night the Animagus potion was completed.
Very tired, feeling dizzy, ready to vomit, and sick with a fever, James hid his illness and went down to the empty classroom with his friends.
They drew straws to see who would go first, and James won, though for once, he wasn't entirely thrilled about it.
Remus, already worried about what could go wrong, was reluctant to give James any of the potion.
James, who was never the most pleasant person when he didn't feel well, finally gave up and just took the cup and got his own.
However, he raised the cup, got a good smell of the potion, and finally couldn't hide the fact that he was sick. He spent a good amount of time kneeling over the trash can in the room, with his friends standing around and watching with humor, shock, and relief that he hadn't gotten sick from the potion, but from the fact that he was sick.
Following his bout of vomiting, Sirius and Remus helped him up to the nurse, Peter trailing behind them with the garbage can, just in case.
Though he felt rotten for much of the next week, he wasn't too upset. Lily visited him every day, and even though she brought him his homework, he didn't really complain, because it gave him the chance to be with her. She also brought him candy, but informed him that she didn't think he'd want any stuffed animals, so she hadn't gotten him any. Instead, she'd given him her homework to copy from. He didn't complain.
Sirius, Remus, and Peter visited him every day as well, though they were constantly teasing him about his reaction to the Animagus potion. Sirius claimed that James was so afraid to try it that he'd gone and got sick on purpose, and the other two agreed. James, getting annoyed with them all, threatened to breath on them and get them sick so they'd find out exactly how it felt to have the flu. In response, they just stood further away from him.
Finally, he was released. Thursday night, they practiced their exercises, and Friday they gathered in the classroom again, jokes flying about how James would react this time.
Again, they drew straws to find out who would go first.
Sirius got the honor, which irked James to no end.
The room they'd chosen to brew the potion in was located on the lowest level of the castle, beneath the Gryffindor tower. They'd found the room in their second year and had debated making it public knowledge, but then decided that it would be more enjoyable to keep it a secret. And it had worked out for the best, as the boys now had a private place to create the potion in.
They were all in there now, gathered around the bubbling orange brew. Sirius was wearing only his jeans, and they had all brought a change of clothes in case something happened. None wanted to find out that when they changed back they would be naked or something embarrassing like that, and be forced to return to the tower in their birthday suits. Remus had already informed them if something went wrong and they didn't have their clothes, he was not going to miss out on humiliating them for it.
Sirius, while trying to act calm, was quite obviously nervous. He joked non-stop even as Remus poured him a cup full of the stuff. But when he took it from him, he went completely pale. He wouldn't look at the others, just stared at the cup for a long moment, taking several slow, even breaths to steady himself.
"Drink the potion," Remus said. "Then slowly- very slowly!- start to think about the shape you want."
"And don't start vomiting," Peter suggested, then ducked out of the way as James tried to hit him.
Sirius stared at the potion, not even hearing Peter's comment. "Bottoms up," he managed to say, then began to drink it.
He grimaced immediately, looked ready to be ill, but continued to drink the potion.
He set the cup down on the table then sat on the floor and closed his eyes in concentration.
It seemed like hours passed like that, but it was only five minutes.
Then he began to grow hair.
Peter whispered something under his breath and James and Remus tensed in anticipation.
His face began to change, and his arms and legs and body.
Thick black hair covered him, and his face began to grow outwards.
"He's a dog," James breathed slowly, as the shape became clearer. And he was.
But not just any dog.
He was the Grim, as depicted in their textbooks, and as seen in nightmares, with long shaggy black hair, a long snout, and stood tall enough to reach James's midsection. "Son of Merlin," James whispered, then grinned. "He did it."
Sirius the dog shook himself all over, rolled his neck and looked behind him, at the lower portion of his body. His tail wagged wildly, and for a minute it looked like he was chasing it. Then he barked and jumped up on James, then Remus, then Peter, then began to chase his tail again.
"That's incredible!" Remus said, beaming. "That's bloody marvelous!"
"Change back," James said, chewing on his lower lip. "Just to make sure you can."
Sirius stood still for a moment, then slowly changed back into himself. He was beaming. "It worked!" he said, thrilled. He grabbed Remus and hugged him, then James, and then Peter. "It really worked!"
James slapped him on the back. "Bloody fantastic!" he said.
"Who's next?" Remus said, looking between Peter and James.
Peter pointed to James, who grinned. "What's it like?" he asked.
Sirius just shook his head. "It's... It's impossible to explain. It's weird, but... it doesn't hurt much, but it's impossible to explain. It's awesome!"
James grinned crookedly. "Great."
Remus poured more of the potion in the cup and handed it to James. "Good luck," he said, but his eyes were shining with excitement.
James nodded and swallowed the potion. He set the cup down, shot Sirius an annoyed look for not warning him about the horrible taste, closed his eyes, and began to concentrate.
And within a few minutes, he had taken the shape of a stag.
Sirius let out a hoot of laughter. "Incredible!" he exclaimed. "Absolutely incredible!"
James changed back and then he and Sirius looked at each other and grinned widely. "That's... it's..." James threw up his hands, shrugging and laughing. "It's bloody brilliant!"
Peter, his confidence in the potion and the help of James and Sirius high, took a deep breath and took the cup from Remus.
Sirius and James were giving him encouraging grins, and Remus was looking at him with such hope in his eyes that Peter knew he couldn't even dare to fail.
He looked down at the cup and swallowed. It tasted so dreadful that he almost spat it out at once. But he managed to swallow it, and squeezed his eyes shut to finish off the rest of the cup.
Then he felt Remus take the cup from him and kept his eyes closed and began to concentrate.
Think Rat, he thought sternly. Rat rat rat rat rat rat rat rat rat.
Rat.
He pictured the rat that James and Sirius had caught for him the other day, imagining what it would feel like to be that rat. It had lots of fur, and it's nose was pale and stuck out far from it's face...
Think rat, he thought again, and felt something strange go over his skin. He was growing fur, he realized with giddiness, but forced himself to concentrate.
He pictured its mouth, its teeth, its feet... and then drew a blank on what the tail was supposed to be like exactly. He remembered it had reminded him of a worm a little bit, so he tried to picture a worm with fur over it, and hoped for the best.
And then he heard himself squeak and opened his eyes, surprised.
All he could see was a big pair of feet.
He followed the legs up, very high, and saw Remus and James and Sirius looking down at him, big grins on their faces. Remus knelt down and Peter crawled onto his hand.
He felt dizzy when Remus lifted him up so quickly, but it was worth it. James, Remus, and Sirius looked so excited, and Peter was so proud of himself.
It was probably the best day of his life.
* * *
They went out on the night of the next full moon and to their great joy, found that Moony enjoyed their company.
Peter was small enough that he could touch the knot in the tree and get it to freeze, and then James and Sirius could hurry inside behind him, change into their forms, and then go get Moony.
On that first night, they went all over the grounds surrounding the castle.
When morning came, they were all too giddy still to sleep, and to everyone's surprise, Remus was too.
The teachers were stunned, the students were stunned, but everyone liked it. Except the Slytherins, but no Marauder would ever really care what they believed.
They sat down immediately after that and began plotting out their next adventure. It was at that point that the idea for a map was created, and the first sketches were drawn, by Peter who had surprising skill. They created their nicknames- Peter, having told them about his tail, earned the name Wormtail. Sirius, who resembled the Grim, took the name Padfoot, which was what the Grim was called around where Remus lived. James took the name Prongs, because Sirius seemed to find it quite amusing that his best friend had antlers, and had begun calling him that without giving him a chance to protest.
They became Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs.
Being pranksters, the map was not their only project, and they continued to wreak havoc on the school for the rest of the year, even going so far as to sneak inside on one full moon and create havoc.
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