Polyjuice Proves It
"Oh, come on Remus, it would be great fun!" James declared excitedly.
"There would be no point," Remus protested.
Sirius and James rolled their eyes, almost in a synchronized fashion. Peter just leaned in and nodded. They were in the Great Hall, eating dinner, and discussing various pranks to play on one another, or just the other students, teachers, or even the ghosts. Since it was the Christmas Holiday, and the four of them were really the only Gryffindors remaining in the tower, leaving it free for all sorts of madness. It was their second year, but their first such lack of… victims. The first year, all of them except Peter had gone home for Christmas, so there was no real hunger for pranks; besides, Peter wasn't really capable of performing any interesting tricks all on his own.
But now all four of them had remained at school… and there was nothing to do. No Snivellus to hex- he was spending all of his time other than meals in the Slytherin Dorms, wherever they were. So no opportunities there. No other Gryffindors to flirt or fight with. This was madness. So Sirius, working on his holiday Potions essay, and it came to him that they could learn to make Polyjuice Potion- just practice during the holidays. When other people needed revenge upon them, sometime in the future, they could just brew up a batch of the potion and humiliate themselves as someone else.
Pure brilliance. Of course, they would need Remus to help; Peter wasn't good for… academic aims, and Remus was of equal talent to James and Sirius in the potions area. James and Sirius also needed Remus' ability to twirl the teachers around his pinky finger. The teachers were really weird about Remus Lupin- they either loved him like their own, or they hated him fiercely. But James had gotten it into his head to brew that Potion, with Sirius right beside him, and it had become their major goal to brew up a batch. But how, they had wondered briefly. How does one get a copy of Most Potente Potions from the Restricted Section of the library? Either steal it, or get a teacher signature. And what teacher would expect malicious intentions of the golden Remus Lupin?
You know, other than Professor Tyral of Defense Against the Dark Arts, Slughorn (a fact which greatly confused the others- Remus was a brilliant student, why wasn't Slughorn as positively kind to him as others?), and Kettleburn, who's animals always seemed aggravated around Remus.
"Come on Remus- you've just got to ask McGonagall, or Sinistra- they love you!" Peter implored him.
Remus sighed. He didn't like Potions much. Being good at something, and enjoying it, were very, very different. But if he wanted to keep his friends….
"Fine," he sighed. "I'll go ask her right after dinner."
And he did.
The Next Day:
"Blimey!" Sirius moaned. "We've got to pick fluxweed on the full moon-and we had better fetch the lacewings now, so that we can stew them…." He was cradling the potions book as though it were his firstborn.
"Well, we'll just sneak out under the cloak and fetch it- they've got some in the greenhouses." James said matter-of-factly. Remus was slightly pale.
"Full moon's next week," he said quietly.
"Well, term won't have started, so that'll be fine," James said absentmindedly.
"But isn't being outside during the full moon dangerous?" Peter asked shrilly. Remus paled even more. He did not want them to notice he wasn't there- but this cursed potion bloody called attention to it!
"What is it Petey?" Sirius asked in a babyish voice. "Scared of the big, hairy werewolves?"
Remus bit his lip.
They had begun the potion, in their dorm- who else was there to complain or notice? Most of the ingredients weren't a big deal- James or Sirius could get anything they wanted, stolen or earned. Boomslang skin- anything else can and was stolen.
"N-no." Peter said quietly.
I am, Remus thought. I will always be scared of werewolves.
The Following Week:
"Guys," Remus said slowly. "I'm feeling kind of ill."
He looked it too- all pale and shaking. Sirius sighed. "Again, Remus? Are you going to be okay for tonight? Or should we leave you to stir the Polyjuice?"
Remus closed his eyes briefly, sagging against his bed, freckles standing out against his near colorless skin. "Actually," he said hoarsely. "Could you let me go to the Hospital Wing? I've got a headache fit to wake the dead."
"Wake the dead?" James said, glancing up from the cauldron in the corner.
"We're taking Remmie to the infirmary, be back."
"What?" Peter said. "You aren't coming? Can I go to the infirmary too?"
Remus didn't like lying to his friends, they deserved honesty from him. But he wasn't willing to risk the only people who had ever associated with him since the age of 5. Not so soon….
Madame Pomfrey led him down the snowy path, an hour later, and he shook her hand farewell, venturing down, down, down, the path into the rickety house, the Shrieking Shack.
Why the Shrieking Shack? Remus wondered, beginning to strip his clothing off, to hide it and prevent it from being destroyed, as usual. But he paused- it was cold, he didn't want to strip. He shivered. Come on, you're a werewolf, you aren't even human, why bother complaining to yourself? So he took his clothing off, folding it, and stuffing it under a chair, then moving into the corner, deep in pointless thought, to distract him from what was coming.
Why not the…Lycan Lodge? The Howl House? The Half-Breed Hovel? Werewolf Werehouse? Isn't there something more accurate than-
The ache in his head sharpened to feel like someone was forcing an iron hot nail- but a big, wide nail- into his skill. Other than his head, his entire body went cold. Hair sprouted from his skin, tickling him, like someone was softly brushing his hands, for no reason. And then his spine contorted- it took a different shape, almost breaking through Remus' skin, but taking it with him.
And then Remus shrieked, and shrieked, and shrieked.
That's why it was called the Shrieking Shack.
"Shame Remus couldn't be here." James said, before throwing the cloak over all of them, and walking slowly and quietly out of the common room, and out to the greenhouses.
As they all crouched down, inside house number 2, allowing Sirius to hurriedly pick the fluxweed and still remain hidden. As they walked in unison back up to the castle, they heard an unearthly wail- a scream, a howling shriek. They all glanced at the moon, through the fabric of their cloak, a disc of shining light in all that darkness in the sky. Peter shivered, not from the cold, they were close enough together, and all wearing enough clothing to ensure warmth. "Werewolf," Sirius whispered. Wow, won't Remus envy us- we got to hear a werewolf while he was sick in bed. Shame to miss these extreeeeeeme, once in a lifetime experiences! Sirius made his mental voice sound like a dramatic announcer. Who the hell are you?
Around 14 days later:
Term had started again, and the Marauders were lucky not to share the room with any others, or else someone would have been duly upset due to the Polyjuice Potion. But at last, it was complete. It was Saturday, and James had been adding lacewings to the mix for nearly an hour.
James clapped his hands, rubbing them together in happy anticipation. "At last! Tis complete!"
"Gee James, sorry you can't make yourself more excited about that." Remus observed.
"Come on," James said, pulling four glasses out from under his bed. The others decided not to ask where he had gotten them
He spilled some of the nasty brown liquid into each glass, handing them out.
"Now, who's who?" Sirius asked.
James looked at them. "Well, uh, lets just go with who is to the left of us. That means, Remus is me, Sirius is Remus, Peter's Sirius, and I'm Peter. That okay for everyone?"
They all shrugged, feeling slightly apprehensive. It wasn't exactly an enticing potion. Remus plucked a gingery hair handing it to Sirius, then took James' jet black strand, dropping it into the cup.
There was a very loud squeal emitted from each glass, almost at once, and then Remus' cup turned amber, Peter's turned black, James' turned brown, and Sirius' became dark grey.
"Well, that was interesting." Remus observed. He raised his glass. "On the count of three then? One… two…three! Cheers!"
And they all chugged it down, all gagging at the taste.
Remus shut his eyes tightly, and felt pain- nothing compared to the monthly transformations, but it stung nonetheless. But that's all he felt, stinging, he couldn't feel his face shift or anything.
He opened his eyes to see that he was about a three feet tall. He was still normally proportioned, but he was looking up at them all. "Oh, dear." He said, feeling his face. Nope, still Remus.
The other three lay on the floor, gasping for air. An exact replica of Sirius Black was laying where Peter had been, and James looked like Peter- but wearing glasses. But Sirius- the real Sirius had dark grey fur all along his face, up and down his arms. Remus could see a tail peeking through the top of his trousers. His teeth looked sharper, but Remus didn't have a clear view, since he only gasped for breath every few seconds. His nose looked like Remus, and his eyes had faded from grey, to a soft brown- but ringed with yellow. There was reddish hair mixed in with all the stone colored fur.
Remus' eyes widened, and he felt himself fall, hand over his mouth. He shook his head, pushing himself up, and wandered over to serious, who hunched over, had his face even with Remus'.
"Sirius, you okay? Sirius?" Sirius nodded, looking thoroughly annoyed.
"What the hell happened!" He demanded.
"Animal transformation…." Whispered Remus quietly.
"What?" Sirius asked.
"A malicious transformation." Remus said hurriedly. Sirius shook his head, picking Remus up by the arms and placing him on the bed so that he could see. By now, the other two had gotten up.
"What the…?"
"Wow,"
"What's wrong with you Remus? Bad transformation with your hair- and you've shrunk!"
Remus just shook his head.
"Did we mess up the potion?"
Remus shook his head again.
They had done the potion fine, great, in fact….
"Can you two go to the hospital wing yourselves? I'd rather not explain why Peter and I aren't…. ourselves, right now."
So Sirius and Remus trekked out of the dormitory, attracting a lot of strange glances.
And Remus never used Polyjuice again.
And he never thought himself human either. Because a human would look like James Potter, and wouldn't make his friend look like a wolf, and wouldn't be shunned from society, and have to turn into a raving animal monthy.
And it took another month for the other Mauraders to figure out what went wrong, though they never spoke of it again.
A/N: Don't own Harry Potter or any of them, never did. Uh, sorry if this sucked, but please review. It's only a few seconds of your life….