Disclaimer: Anything or anyone you recognize belongs to the wonderful author J.K. Rowling. Anything or anyone you don't recognize is mine.
Those few minutes were the worst minutes of anticipation Lily had ever felt in her entire life.
Finally, they got to the bedroom that Mioni and Mark shared, and the Marauders proceeded to explain everything to Lily.
Remus began. "When I was very little, I was bit by a wolf, a wolf that would turn me into one of its kind once a month. My parents did everything they could think of to get rid of it, but nothing helped. We still don't have a way to cure it."
"When Remus met Peter, Sirius and I, we decided that to keep him company when he changed, we would study to become Animagus." Seeing the puzzled look on Lily's face, James decided to explain. "Humans who can turn into animals."
Lily nodded.
"Werewolves are only attracted to the smell humans give off, so they wouldn't hunt out animals," Sirius continued.
"So, when Cassie, Cathie and the others found out, they decided to become Animagus too. We were wondering if you would like to become one with the rest of us," James finished.
"Possibly, but only if you can prove that this is real. I know Remus can't do it, since he only changes during the full moon, but maybe one or all of you."
James nodded at Peter who nodded back. Peter suddenly started shrinking while James grew bigger.
Lily watched in amazement as Peter transformed into a rat and James into a stag.
"Welcome back Prongs," Sirius greeted the stag as if he had just returned from being tracked by hunters. The stag nodded at Sirius who also started to transform. When he was done, in the place of Sirius the boy, Lily saw a big black dog.
"Hello, Padfoot," Remus said, nodding at Sirius.
Cassie greeted Peter as Wormtail, and then started to transform into a cat. Cathie proceeded to turn into an owl, while Mioni turned into a phoenix, Mark into a dragon, Mary in to a wolf, Molly into a falcon and Arthur into an eagle. Soon, Lily and Remus were the only ones who hadn't transformed.
"As you know, I'm a werewolf, but we have no idea what you might turn out to be. So, do you want to become an animagus, even if it is illegal?"
Before Lily answered, the others turned back into their normal selves so they could help her get started right away, if that was what she chose to do.
"Yes," she said at last. "I would love to become an animagus."
The others helped her get started on becoming an animagus so that when they returned to school, she would be a fully fledged one. They got as far as seeing the shadow of what she was about to become before they had to go to bed.
Lily decided to bring up the subject of going to stay with James and the others in the morning, as her parents were already asleep. She slept quite soundly that night, and got up at her normal six o'clock, despite the fact that she and the others had stayed up past midnight.
She got dressed and put her floor-length red hair up in one of her less elaborate fashions, braids twisted into knots on either side of her head and crisscrossing across the back of her head. At least it keeps the hair out of my eyes, she thought to herself as she walked towards her parents room.
She knocked on the door to her parents room, and her mother came to answer it at once.
"What is it, dear?" she asked, smiling.
"Uh, Mum, I was wondering if I could stay at James' house for the rest of the summer."
Mrs. Evans pondered this a while, then went to ask her husband what he thought. When she returned to the door, she had a smile on her face again.
"Of course you can, dear. When are they leaving?"
Lily thought about this for a few minutes, then said, "Probably today, since everybody's got all their stuff from Diagon Alley."
"That's fine with us, dear. Just behave yourself."
"We don't mind if she behaves herself or not, just as long as she can come," said a sudden poorly disguised voice from behind Lily, making Mrs. Evans jump.
"Hello, James," said Lily, as she calmly turned to face him. She was pleased with the surprised look on his face. "You don't disguise your voice very well, you know."
"Why you littleā¦."
"What? What am I, James?"
She started to run away, but before doing so, mouthed 'Thank you' to her mother, who mouthed 'Your welcome' back. James ran after her. Lily had no idea what James would do to her once he caught her, but she wasn't about to find out. She ran all the way back to her room, with James hot on her tail, hurried into her bathroom and locked the door. James started to pound on the door. There was a moment of silence, in which Lily knew James was pulling out his wand. Lily used this to her advantage.
"No magic outside of school James. You don't want to be expelled before you even get there," she called through the door. There was another moment of silence, then a rat came scurrying under the door. Lily saw James' plan and hurried to pick up the rat, which she suspected was actually Peter. He hurried away from her hand and transformed into himself, then unlocked the door, and James came barging in.
"Good work Peter!" he beamed.
"Always glad to be of assistance in creating a diversion, or helping with the actual plan," Peter smiled back. "So, what did your parents say?"
"They said it was fine if your parents said it was okay," she replied.
"I never heard them say that," Peter argued.
"Nice little way to eavesdrop isn't it? Well, they said it was fine. So, how are we getting to the house?" she asked. She moved out of the bathroom and found everybody else waiting in her bedroom.
She heard Peter mumbling, "Please not Floo powder, please not Floo powder."
"We're going to travel by broomsticks. Mioni wants to test out your Quidditch skills," James said mischievously. Mioni gave him one of his own death glares, and started chasing him around the room. Lily and the others watched, laughing. It was the best time Lily had had in her life.
As soon as Mioni came back over to them, dragging James by the ear, Lily said, "Mioni, you never told me what Quidditch is."
"Yeah, Mioni," James said.
"I'm going to give you a good beating when we get back to your house. Maybe I'll try to outrun you again on our broomsticks." James smiled a wicked smile that unnerved Lily.
"Better try to outrun Lily first. The way she was running around trying to get her shopping done in time to do a little Marauder work she would have you beaten by the time you climbed onto your broom." This earned him a smack from Lily and Mioni, but they decided to give Lily a go against Mioni, and that added one more thing to Lily's 'Things to Look Forward To' list.
James was fortunate enough to have been able to get twelve prototype Sphinx Stripes. "There not supposed to come out until 2003," he told the others, excitedly.
"I trust that you didn't have to smuggle them into the country," Lily said, frowning.
"And why, dear lady, would we do that?" asked Sirius.
"Because that's obviously what Marauders do. You should be on your guard more."
Lily suddenly got a sad look on her face.
"What is it, Lily?" asked Mioni in concern.
"Nothing. I just feel like something bad is going to happen this year at school. Something that has to do with You-Know-Who." The others looked at her in alarm. "Don't worry about it. Lets go take a look at those broomsticks." she said.
