Chapter 12: Sirius's Idea
After that day, I was never the same person again. The three of them had given me a new outlook on life. I had friends. There were people who cared about me. I was never again the depressed, suicidal, little kid anymore. I guess you could say I found out who I really was for the first time in my life. I was happy, for the first time in as long as I could remember, I was actually happy. I didn't have to worry because I had nothing to hide anymore. I became a fun loving prankster like James and Sirius, only with a bit more common sense. I did try to talk them out of most of the pranks they came up with, but everyone, including myself, knew that I really enjoyed them too. I noticed that Peter seemed to act a little different when he was around me, sort of scared. I didn't pay attention to it, though. I was too busy with other things. I didn't dread the full moon as much anymore. It helped to just have people that I could talk to about it. They always expressed concern, and always came to visit me in the infirmary afterward. Madame Pomfrey wasn't pleased about this, because none of the teachers knew that James, Sirius and Peter knew that I was a werewolf. But they'd always find some way to sneak in, and finally she just gave up and let them come. Soon it was spring, and our second year at Hogwarts was coming to an end.
One day, we were having lunch in the Great Hall, as usual. James, Peter and I sprinted to our seats, starving and attracted by the smell of all the delicious food.
"Where's Sirius?" asked Peter, after we'd piled our plates high with as much food as they could hold.
"I don't know," I replied. "But it's weird that he's not here. He never misses an opportunity for food." We laughed. Just then, Sirius arrived, a book in his hand.
"Sirius? What are you doing?" James asked. "Put that book down right now! You don't want to be seen with it!" he scolded jokingly.
"Oh, shut up," said Sirius. "I have an idea. He placed the book on the table. It was titled Becoming Animagi. What was he thinking? He spoke quietly. "We could do this," he said to James and Peter. "We could become animagi." James' face lit up.
"Yeah, cool," he agreed. Peter looked pale.
"See, then we could go with Remus on full moon. Werewolves are only dangerous to…" Sirius began.
"Humans," finished James, understanding the plan. They were going to do something stupid and risk their lives for me? I couldn't let them.
"You can't do that," I objected. "You can't do that for me. You might get hurt or even worse!"
"We want to be there with you," said Sirius. "Plus we're going to do it whether you like it or not!" he insisted.
"Yeah," said James. "It's going to be fun." I couldn't help grinning at the idea, although I was really worried about them.
"I don't know," said Peter, flipping through the book. "This is a really complex potion.
"So," said Sirius. "We'll figure it out."
"Yeah," said James. "After all, potions is all of our best subjects, and Beaker is the best teacher ever!" We all looked at him, surprised.
"It's called sarcasm," he said, marveling at our appalled faces. We laughed. "But really, Sirius is right. We can do this." I shook my head. What if something went wrong? I was grateful that I'd found friends who cared enough about me to do something that dangerous for me, but if something went wrong I'd never forgive myself.
Finals came and went. They weren't much more difficult than first year, unless, of course you were Peter, in which case even first year finals were deadly. In early June, we crowded back onto the Hogwarts Express to head home for the summer holiday.
"We should visit again this summer," said Sirius. We nodded. "Addi says she'd like to see you all again." We spent most of the ride home discussing pranks, old ones, new ones, ones we could only wish to be able to pull off.
James mentioned the animagi potion once while we were on the train. He said that we should start to work on it over the summer if we could. I didn't like the idea of it. I'd been hoping that James and Sirius would forget about the whole thing. But that's the thing with those two, they forget what you want them to remember and remember what you want them to forget.
We were nearly back at King's Cross Station when Lily and Erin entered the compartment to say goodbye to us.
"See you next year," said Lily. "Don't forget to write often."
"Don't worry, Lily," said Sirius. "I'm sure James won't!" James slapped Sirius, who laughed. Lily rolled her eyes.
"I meant all of you," she said.
"Yeah, bye," said Erin, quietly.
"Bye," we chorused. The train pulled up at the station and came to a stop.
"Well, this is it mates," said James. "See you all soon, hopefully."
"Yeah," we nodded, collected our luggage and got off the train. I saw James call bye to Lily one more time as she went to find her family. She smiled and waved at him. Sirius and I, who were still standing together, shook our heads. We knew they'd be together someday, even then. They made it so obvious. And of course Peter was laughing hysterically at the idea, as usual. Peter, Sirius and I said bye to each other and went with our parents.
"Remus!" my mum shouted when she saw me. She gave me a huge hug. "How was it, dear?" she asked.
"Fun," I replied honestly. She smiled.
"Well, that would explain all the owls home then," I looked up to see my father smiling. I grinned and blushed a little.
We had gotten better with pranks that year, of course, causing more owls than ever to be sent home to our parents. James and Sirius had gotten 103 detentions, and they were very proud. I wasn't far behind with 87, most of which were their fault anyway.