She never found out what Remus was talking about, so she guessed it had nothing to do with her.
"This is murder." The parchment in front of her blurred fuzzily. "What time is it?"
"One o'clock. I'm going to bed."
"I have to finish this tonight, Lily."
"Okay. Good night." Anna sat there a few minutes before her head dropped to the table.
"Shhh…" She kept her eyes closed and listened ferociously to Sirius' now-deep voice. "Peter, shut up," he said as the chubby boy slipped and thumped down the stairs. They stepped soundlessly across the carpet. She waited until they were partway through the porthole, then said a louder than normal voice:
"Where are you going?" They jumped a foot in the air.
"Damn, Roberts, are you trying to scare us to death?" James hissed softly.
"Depends on where you're going."
"None of your business." She smiled sweetly.
"Okay." They seemed to be waiting for more, but she returned to her essay.
After they'd left, she concentrated hard and shivered; it'd been a long time since she'd done this spell.
A few seconds later a glossy black Labrador Retriever trotted from the hole.
Remus wore the invisibility cloak while his friends transformed into their Animagus forms. Their plan was to jinx the Quidditch pitch so every Slytherin that came near it would develop a nasty rash. Halfway to the pitch, Sirius barked sharply and veered away at a gallop.
A black dog turned at the sound, but it was a second too late; Sirius plowed into its side, rolling across the grass in a black ball. They regained their feet quickly and growled at each other, hackles raised threateningly. The other dog circled to the left and bumped into Remus' leg. It swung it's head around and tried to find the obstacle.
Sirius took the moment of inattention and leapt. He wrestled the dog to the ground and held it by the neck, growling around his teeth.
It surprised everyone by transforming into Anna.
"I give," she said shakily, careful not to move her neck.
"Anna!" Remus pulled the cloak off, James snorted, Peter squeaked, but Sirius didn't move.
"Tell him to get off, Remus." She sounded frightened.
"Come on Sirius, let go." Growling, he backed off. After Peter jumped down from James' back, all three changed back into their human forms.
"You're an Animagus?" asked Peter.
"Duh, Peter. The better question is, why are you Animagus?" James narrowed his eyes suspiciously.
"Or how?"
"Um…4 years ago my sister Lucy was kidnapped. The gang operated on the back alleys of downtown London and it was either I dress like a…um, tramp-" she shuddered at the very idea- "or I become a Animagus; there's thousands of dogs on the street. It took a long time-almost three months-to gather enough information for the attempt."
Peter's mouth gaped an O.
"It took us almost two years." She smiled self-consciously.
"I have a friend in the Ministry of Magic. I asked him very carefully arranged questions until I had the whole spell."
"Does Dumbledore know about you?" Sirius asked; his eyes shone with anger.
"N-no." She was slightly put out by the force of his gaze. "You're not going to tell him, are you?" Her gaze whipped from one Marauder to the other. "I didn't tell on you."
"No." James.
"No." Remus.
"No." Peter. Everyone turned to Sirius.
"No." His words were a whisper and Anna suddenly felt scared.
"Thank you." Pause. "What are you doing anyways?"
"We're going to jinx the Quidditch field for tomorrow's game," Sirius said in a normal voice.
"How?" She was alight with happiness; at night something went SPRONGG! and she rebelled.
"Any Slytherin that goes near it will develop a…rash."
"Cool. Can I help?" James answered by returning to stag form.
"Sure," Remus voiced as he pulled the cloak back on.
"Change back first, Roberts," Sirius hissed as he walked past her, low enough so the others couldn't hear.
A stag, a rat, and two dogs raced across the grounds of Hogwarts.
"…and here comes Slythr-would you look at that!" The Gryffindor crowd was laughing hilariously at the red faces of their rival team.
In the stands, Anna smiled knowingly.
