Looking through the window
To see which way the wind blows
It seems as though a hurricane is due today
Sunny on the outside
Stormy on the inside

Stormy weather's always best for making hay

Fairport Convention, "It's Alright Ma, It's Only Witchcraft"

Of course, I don't think James or Sirius would have told anyone at that point even without a geas. Secrets are addictive. And oh, did they ever think it was cool to know a real live werewolf! Remus became cool by default, braininess nonwithstanding. He basked in it most of the time.

Other times, he talked to me.

"Sirius asked me to bite him," he confided once while James and Sirius were at Quidditch practice. "Twice."

"It figures," I snorted. "What did you tell him?"

He rolled his eyes. "Told him to study his astronomy. Sirius is the dog star, not the wolf star."

I chuckled. "He's not going to give up, you know."

"Don't remind me. I'm running out of excuses."

"Yeah, like being locked in St. Mungo's Criminally Dangerous ward isn't a good enough reason?"

"Only if it was Sirius being locked up." He sighed. "He's persistent."

"There's got to be some other way to get him off your back," I said.

Remus shook his head. "He's got his heart set on being a shapeshifter." He looked thoughtful. "Maybe..." He scrambled to his feet.

"Maybe what?"

"I'm going to the library," He sounded very serious, which usually meant he had an idea. "I'll try and talk to you after dinner."

As it turned out, it was all of us he talked to after dinner. We crouched in an oddly-shaped room I'd found behind a broom closet. Remus' eyes were glittering as he explained. "All you have to do is master the Animagus transformation and then you can change whenever you want, not just at the full moon."

"But I wouldn't be able to choose what shape I'd be," Sirius whined.

"Sssh!" hissed James. "Let him finish."

His optimism faltering, Remus went on. "Well, that's sort of the point of the spell. It turns you into the animal you have the most affinity with. So I'm sure you'd turn into something really neat, right?" He was starting to sound a little desperate. But I could tell that James, at least, was beginning to like the idea.

"You're right, that would be a lot more useful than being a werewolf. An Animagus can still think for themselves and everything, even in beast-form, right?"

Remus nodded.

Sirius looked like he still hadn't given up on the werewolf idea. "But it'll be hard," he complained. "It'd be like extra Transfiguration homework!"

"But it'll be worth it, right?" I ventured softly.

Remus shot me a quick, grateful glance as he pulled a thick book from under his robes. "It'll absolutely be worth it." He flipped to a chapter on shape-shifting spells. "This says it's like meditating, it gets easier with practice and," he grinned, "There's a sort of chant to help. I can read out the chant for you three and you can follow along until you have it memorized. After that it's just a matter of practicing."

James looked excited. Sirius still seemed dubious, but he'd been overruled.

Me, I thought it was neat.

And that was our third big secret.