CHAPTER THIRTEEN Missed Calculations

It was decided that the first batch of Potions would not be created until the summer. The following months, which should have been spent catching up on the classwork they had shirked off earlier, was now spent devouring anything they could find on Animagus transformations.

From a desire to push things along, they dubbed themselves the Marauders, even after Lily pointed out that they hadn't really pulled any pranks in the last year, unless they counted hexing Snivellus on a weekly basis, which she didn't.

They had completed their exams in less time than the year before, or so it felt to them. Oddly enough, Sirius and James had managed to snag half-way decent scores.

After a brief visit with their families, Sirius, James and Peter headed for the Lupin Manor to begin their transformations. As the title of the book hinted, becoming an Animagi was a long and complicated procedure, which involved a lot of precise potion making. To reduce the risk of mistakes and failure, everyone was given a task.

Talia, who excelled at potions far more than the others, was assigned to oversee the quantities and mixing, to ensure nothing blew up in their faces. Or that James wasn't permanently changed into a walrus.

Ophelia and Remus were put in charge of the rare ingredients, like the tail hair of an elder male unicorn who was born during the Autumn Equinox of a leap year. This particular component was only ever used in an Animagi potion, so the market witch who sold it to them was suspicious. When asked, they gave the names of Barrie and Jean Caufield.

Lily, once she was told of Remus', agreed to help out in any way she could. James personally gave her the job of recording their daily activities. He insisted on lecturing her about keeping extremely detailed notes, until she broke a candlestick over his head. After that, James trusted Lily to efficiently keep records on her own.

As September was approaching, they found that there was nothing more for them to do. The instructions called for the potion to ferment for four months, which meant it would be ready over their winter break.

Talia was fretting over a potential mistake they had made. She paced the length of Ophelia's bedroom, scratching her head.

"Lily?" Talia called, "Lily. Can I see your notes for 18 July? Lily?"

Ophelia leaped out of the armchair, eager to get away from Talia's tense mood. "I'll go find her, alright?"

Following an exhaustive search of all the rooms in the manor, Ophelia found Lily outside. She was riding Remus's old rocket, her hair completely wind-blown and a smile creeping upon her face.

"It's not that bad, really." she said, avoiding James' I-told-you-so glares. "Bit fast, though."

Ophelia repressed a smile. "Remus go that broom for his sixth birthday. Probably a good idea to stay away from James' Sliverflash."

"Right." Lily grinned. "Oh. Do you need something?"

"Yes. Thank you for reminding me- Talia would have had my head. She's going mental. She wants to see your 18 July file."

Lily dismounted her broom and followed Ophelia back into the house, where Talia was now wandering the halls muttering to herself.

"Lily!" she cried upon seeing her friend. "Do you have the--"

She pushed the pages into Talia's hands. "That's all of them." she said, "Just make sure they're all in order when you return them."

Talia collapsed into a rocker and began studying the records. Ophelia and Lily made their way into the kitchen to pig-out on hot caramel cobbler, but were interrupted a few minutes later when a loud shriek echoed from the sitting room. Talia trudged into the kitchen and slammed the notes down onto the counter. "Right, well, the potion's crap." The Marauders came in after hearing the scream.

"What's wrong?" asked James, immediately helping himself to some cobbler.

"We might as well throw out the potion, because I royally screwed it up." said Talia. "I added the mink whiskers at 6 o'clock pm, rather than 6 o'clock am, like I was supposed to."

"No, Tal, it's not your fault." said Sirius. "We didn't really expect to get it right on the first go."

"But if you mess up next time..." said James, shaking his fist at her.

Talia laughed, easing up a bit. "Right. So when do we want to try again?"

The kitchen went silent. They had all worked so hard and it had completely drained them in all meanings of the word.

"Tomorrow." said Peter, eager to start again. "If we start tomorrow, we'll have just enough time...won't we?"