CHAPTER ELEVEN

Ugg…so sorry for the serious FanFic neglect. My life is unfolding, and there just wasn't time. Now, however, there is, and for my own pure enjoyment, I'm updating again, and hopefully regularly. Onward!

Sirius and James wasted no time in their quest to become Animagi for Remus. Determined to not let their friend down, spare lengths of time were spent in the library researching, or brushing up on Transfiguration so as to perfect the necessary method. Peter helped when he could, but they all knew there just wasn't getting around the fact that Peter wasn't quite up to par in his magical abilities, and needed all the help he could get from Sirius, James and Remus.

Over the course of the next few weeks, James and Sirius were certain that they had the incantation down, and all that was left was the final test, and of course, making sure Peter wouldn't hurt himself in the attempt.

Winter coming to a close, Spring crept in, and with it, the teacher's obsession with getting their students ready for examination.

"A two-foot essay on gillyweed?" exclaimed James one day after being released from a Herbology lesson, to Sirius, Remus and Peter. "She's insane! How the hell are we going to come up with two feet of information on a slimy ball of rat tails?"

"Make it up? I dunno," Sirius replied casually. "Mate, you can't let this sort of end-of-term bull get to you, we just have to make it so we please the teachers and we're good. We know all this stuff." James sighed.

"I know but it's just more work that I don't want to do," he said resignedly as the four of them set off back toward the castle. "You know… time better spent on...oh…say… becoming Animagi or something…"

"We're close enough now, though," Sirius pointed out. "Just need to get old Petey here on the right track and we'll be good to go."

Raven was crouched at the bottom of the spiral staircase when Sirius, James, Remus and Peter all entered the castle. She was helping Lily gather her fallen books, quills, and make-up that were scattered around their feet.

"Thanks, Raven…" Lily said in an exasperated voice as she repaired her bag with a flick of her wand.

"Ah, no problem, Lil," replied Raven. She was angry that Bellatrix was toying with the Muggle-borns still, but had refrained from retaliating with a couple of good hexes because a fight right before class would've been messy to clean up, plus, Lily hated confrontations with the Slytherins.

Raven turned and glanced at the four new figures approaching from the doorway and recognized them all at once. She straightened herself up as James looked down at the mess and asked what they was going on.

"Oh it was just more Slytherin run-ins, James," Lily said idly, using magic to pick up the rest of her things, "nothing you would be interested in. We took care of it."

James raised his eyebrows.

"You 'took care of it'?" he said in disbelief.

"That's right," Lily said with placid superiority. "I know that's hard for you to understand, but we know more efficient ways to handle our differences other than just cursing people." She turned on her heel and stalked off up the marble staircase.

James' expression was one of such disbelief and confusion that it made Remus, Raven and Sirius burst out laughing.

"Listen James," Raven said, "I know you like Lily and all, but you're going about it the wrong way."

"Yeah and furthermore, she utterly detests me," said James dully.

"Well, it wouldn't hurt you to actually be nice instead of so arrogant sometimes…" Raven said gently. James frowned.

"I'm not arrogant," he said resolutely. Raven sighed, "Right…" and turned to follow Lily up the stairs to Transfiguration. Sirius, James, Remus and Peter followed, though a little slower behind her.

"I'm not arrogant, am I?" James asked the other three. Remus was looking determinedly at the floor, but Sirius spoke up.

"Of course not, mate, girls say weird stuff like that all the time."