Lucky for me fifth year wasn't as bad as that first day back was. Sure, we had more work than ever in our classes, since we were all preparing for our O.W.L.'s, but that didn't stop us from having fun every now and then. I normally had my nose in a book, seeing as I appeared to be the only one actually worried about how I did on those tests. I saw Peter studying too, but he was more so panicking about them, rather than studying. James and Sirius were too busy either planning pranks or studying other things.
It was November, I remember because it was cold out, but it hadn't snowed yet. Plus every time I came into the castle before hand I drug in wet leaves that had stuck to the bottom of my shoes. Well, one day in November I had been working on an essay for History of Magic, a terribly boring subject but it had to get done none the less. Anyways, I was sitting there when Sirius came up to me. I had been sitting on the couch and he came and plopped down next to me and flung his arm around me. He just smiled at me charmingly, not saying anything.
I finally set my essay down on the table and looked at him. "Yes? Can I help you?" I asked him, trying to stay polite. I was close to being done; I really didn't welcome the intrusion.
Sirius just smiled more and took his arm that had been resting around my shoulders back. "Got a surprise for you buddy," he said to me as he propped his head up on his arm, which was bent with his elbow resting on the back of the couch as he looked at me. He seemed rather smug about something, but I had no clue what.
"Well, what is it?" I asked him, not amused by his little games. I had work to do and he was wasting my time. Of course, I was also a little moody, seeing it was close to being that time of the month.
"I can't tell you stupid!" Sirius said rolling his eyes at me for a moment. "If I told you it wouldn't be a surprise. Stupid."
"Well, then what was the point of bringing it up even?" I asked him, sounding a little exasperated. I really wasn't in the mood to deal with Sirius's antics at the moment.
"Because, you have to see the surprise! I can't tell you or it will be ruined and it won't be any fun at all," Sirius said with a smile. "So, tonight, after dinner, we're sneaking out."
I groaned and hit my head on the back of the couch a couple times. Sirius just looked at me oddly for a moment with a raised eyebrow. "Remus? You ok buddy?"
"Do I look ok Sirius?" I asked him, growing short with him. "I am tired as hell, I have a stack of homework, which includes three essays, plus I have other shit to deal with ok? I really don't have time for your crap right now. So whatever you and James have planned, its gonna have to wait for a couple of days." I said to him.
Sirius just gave me a look of complete shock. I don't think in five years he had ever seen me just explode on him like that, but I was just so stressed out, I couldn't hold it in anymore.
"Jeeze Remus, calm down," Sirius said putting a hand on my shoulder. "Don't need to get your knickers all in a twist."
I just looked at him rather blankly; I was not amused by his comment. In fact, I was kind of freaked out that he even said anything regarding my underwear. "Sirius just let me do my work. Ok?"
"Only if you promise to come out with us tonight," Sirius said looking at me. "James, Peter and I have done a lot of work to put this all together. So the least you could do is come out and see it."
I just sighed and looked at him. I could tell that Sirius wasn't going to give up on this and one way or another I would end up being drug out there to see whatever it was they had planned. "Fine, I'll be there. Right after dinner and try not to make it too long."
"Great!" Sirius said jumping up out of his seat, smiling once again. "I'll tell the guys so we can finish the last few things. But you're gonna love it. I promise."
"Right, great, whatever," I muttered as I picked up the parchment with my essay once more so I could get back to work on it.
Sirius just rolled his eyes at me and ran off to do only Merlin knows what, and to be completely honest I really didn't care what it was.
I kept working diligently all the way up until dinnertime. I probably would have worked through it if I hadn't been reminded. I had my nose buried in a book as I was looking for an answer that I needed for my Potions essay. I was reading and rereading this paragraph over and over as I looked for my answer when I heard a voice.
"Remus? Are you coming to dinner?" My head snapped up from my book and I looked up at Rebecca. Of course, all I could think about was how I made a complete ass of myself in front of her on the first day back. But surely she didn't remember that day too well. Right? Oh well, can't change the past.
I looked at her, and then for the first time noticed the Common Room was completely empty, well, except for us. Of course, noticing this and being a teenage boy my head flooded with rather inappropriate thoughts about situations that could occur between us and my face started to slowly turn red. And to make things worse, as usual, my eyes happened to fall on a particular spot of her anatomy.
"What?" I asked her. "Oh, dinner, right," I said closing my book and putting it down with my other books and rolls of parchment. "Yeah, I probably should head down to eat," I said as I slowly pulled myself up off the couch. It took some effort, considering I had been in that spot for close to three continuous hours.
Of course, I went to say something about going down to dinner, and just as I turned to look at her and ask I notice that she had already left. I sighed to myself, but I figured that she was probably running late to meet up with her friends or something like that. I was sure that she had a good reason. Or perhaps she did remember how retarded I got around her and wanted to save both of us the time. Either way I ended up walking down to the Great Hall on my own.
I walked into the hall, which was full of people already starting their dinner. I went towards the Gryffindor table, scanning for my friends. The first thing I happened to see was James making another lame and desperate attempt at getting Lily to go out with him. I just laughed to myself and took the seat she had been sitting in, but had recently vacated and relocated down the table away from James.
"Strike out again there buddy?" I asked him with a bit of a smile.
James just looked over at me, glaring almost. Talking about his track record with Lily was a bit of a sore subject. "I'm telling you, she will say yes to me one day."
"Whatever you say James," Sirius said shaking his head.
"Really! She will!" James said nodding his head.
"Uh-huh. And one day pigs will fly," Sirius said looking at him.
James just smirked. "Ah! But my friend, you are forgetting, with the right spell you can make anything fly," he said pointing his fork at him.
"That is true isn't it?" Peter interjected with a nod.
"Yes it is," James said smiling brightly. "And one day you will see that the whole time I was right and you were wrong," he said poking Sirius with his fork gently.
Sirius just made a face and rubbed his arm. "Whatever you say James, whatever you say."
I just shook my head. I couldn't believe we were having this conversation, mostly because we seemed to have it every time that James asked Lily out, because each time he did she turned him down. It was getting to the point that Lily wasn't even being politely about saying no. Of course, I don't blame her. I would get annoyed if someone asked me out every time they saw me too.
Dinner was, well, it was dinner as usual; a small variety of meats, potatoes, vegetables, the usual spread. But it wasn't anything special, and neither was the dinner conversation. Normally Sirius and James talking about their plans for some great prank, Peter worrying about some assignment he still hadn't done that was due the next day or how he was going, or knew he failed some test, and me just sitting there. I was the quiet one around dinnertime. I liked to observe and listen rather than jump in. Of course, I did talk, yes, but not as much as say James did. If you wanted to know why he was so skinny most of his life, it was probably because he talked through dinner. I never saw him shut up, but yet every meal his plate would be clean. To this day I will never understand how that happened.
After dinner was usually the same too. Normally we would all wait until everyone was finished, let James watch Lily walk away from the table with this dreamy look on his face where as she did not even knowledge his existence unless she absolutely had to. It was starting to get rather on the pathetic side if you ask me. Then we would get up and head off to the Common Room to sit around and hang out for the remainder of the evening.
But tonight was a special case. As we got up, instead of heading for the Common Room I found myself being drug outside by my three friends. Apparently that's where my surprise was.
"You're gonna love it Remus!" Sirius said as he wrapped his arm around my shoulders.
"Yep, took us awhile, but we've finally got it right," James said with a nod. He was standing on my right side and now had his arm around my shoulders. Peter was walking on the other side of James and nodded.
"Yeah, you're gonna be so surprised to see it," Peter said looking down at me. I just shrugged and kept walking with them.
"I don't know what you guys are up to, but you really didn't have to do anything for me. I mean, Christmas is in a month and my birthday is in March," I said looking at them.
"Well, um, my birthday is this month, so…um…." James said trying to come up with some excuse for why they were giving me a surprise.
"We did it because you're our friend," Sirius finally said. "Now come on, let's hurry up. I wanna show Remus!"
The other two just nodded and I found myself being pushed towards the Forbidden Forest. I looked ahead at the dark woods, then at my friends. "Why the hell are we here?"
"For your surprise! Jeeze, I thought you were the smart one," Sirius said with a slight roll of his eyes.
"Yeah, even Peter could have figured that one out," James said with a playful smirk.
"Hey!" Peter said looking over at him. "I don't think that was…"
"Oh hush. He was just kidding," Sirius said shaking his head as we all walked into the woods.
We walked a ways in before we finally stopped. Both Sirius and James dropped their arms from my shoulders and moved so that all three of them were standing in front of me. Sirius just smiled at me and gave me a wink.
I just looked at them with a raised eyebrow. "Ok, now, can you tell me why we are out in the middle of the woods?"
"Of course!" Sirius said with a smile. "We're here to show you your surprise."
"See, remember what we told you that one night in second year?" James asked.
"And what you've been helping us study since then?" Sirius added with a smile.
"Well, we did it!" Peter said looking rather excited.
I just looked at then all for a moment. "You….you did?" I asked, not sure what to say.
"Yep, here we'll show you," Sirius said, looking rather excited himself all of a sudden.
I just looked at my three friends, and before I knew it, they were gone. Well, not gone, but different. Instead of Sirius, James, and Peter standing before me I now had a dog, a deer, and a rat standing in their places. I blinked a couple of times before it sunk in what had exactly happened.
"Whoa…" I said quietly.
The dog that was now in Sirius's place was running around excitedly in a circle, barking rather loudly. It was making quite a racket, so the deer in James's spot poked him gently with his antlers to get him to stop. I just laughed and shook my head.
"I can't believe this! This is….wow! Well, I really am surprised," I said, still not believing that they managed to pull it off.
Sirius was the first to be back as his normal self and smiled at me. "Glad you like it. But, it means you get to have company on those special nights now."
I just smiled at him, then over at James and Peter who were back to normal as well. "Thanks guys, you have to be like, the best friends ever."
"Yeah, we are pretty cool huh?" James said with a sly smile. I just shook my head some.
"You know, we need like cool names now. Cause like, for when we're an animal and all," Sirius said.
"Why?" Peter asked with a slightly confused look.
"Because it would be cool, that's why!" James said looking at him.
"Hmm," Sirius said putting his hand to his chin. "Well, I've got Remus down easy. He can be Wolfy."
I just rolled my eyes. "Don't you think that's a little…erm….obvious?" I asked him.
"He's got a point," James said with a nod.
"Fine, fine," Sirius nodded. "Um…"
"Maybe something about the moon Sirius, that's a little less obvious," Peter said looking at him.
"Moony!" Sirius said with a smile. "You my friend are Moony now."
"Um, thanks then, I guess," I said with a shrug. At that point I thought it was the stupidest name, and that having these little nicknames was a pretty stupid idea. But then again, I had no idea how much they would come to mean later.
"Now, James. Mr. Pokey there," Sirius said looking at him.
James just rolled his eyes. "I only poked you once to get you to shut up."
"Nuh-uh! You poked me at dinner to with your fork. And frankly, I can't tell which was worse. Those stupid antlers and that fork."
"Well, whatever," James said to him.
"That's it! You're antlers; you poke people with them, like your fork!"
"So?" James asked.
"So you can be….Forky!" Sirius said with a nod.
"Forky?" James asked with a raised eyebrow. "That has got to be the stupidest thing I have ever heard in my life. I am not going to be Forky."
"Fine, fine," Sirius sighed. "Jeeze, you're so picky why don't you come up with a name."
"Fine, I will," James said. "If you want to go with the whole poking and fork thing why don't you go with something that sounds a bit less….stupid? Something, like…"
"Prongs," I said.
"What?" Sirius asked me.
"The part of the fork that actually does the poking," I said. "They're called the prongs."
"Prongs eh?" James said rubbing his chin. "I like it."
"Ok, so we've got Moony, and Prongs now," Sirius said. "Now on to Peter."
"Me?" Peter asked looking at him.
"Yes. Now, you are a rat, so, hmm," Sirius said rubbing his chin. Peter looked at Sirius nervously, wondering what name he was going to come up with.
"You're tail," Sirius said pointing at him. "It's really long. You can be Longtail."
"Um…ok," Peter said, not really caring what name was picked for him.
"Once again Sirius, that is stupid," James said looking at him.
"What?" Sirius said looking at James. "He said its ok."
"Well, then he's an idiot too," James said as he put a hand to his head and shaking it some. "Honestly, who put him in charge of handing out names?"
"He did," I said with a slight laugh.
Sirius just crossed his arms. "I do not appreciate you two picking on me. I am trying here," he said to us all.
"Well, I'm sorry, but you're coming up with stupid names," James said looking at him, putting his hand down. "I mean, Longtail? Forky? Wolfy?" James said shaking his head.
"What? I like those names!" Sirius said frowning. "Forky was my personal favorite."
"Well, think of something more descriptive about his tail if you're determined to talk about it," I said looking at Sirius. I felt kind of bad for him. You could tell he wanted to come up with the names, he just, well, kind of sucked at coming up with good ones. So, I tried to help him some.
"More descriptive huh?" Sirius said rubbing his chin.
"Yes, like, what does it look like?" I asked him, trying to help him come up with something.
"Well, it kind of looks like, well, a worm," Sirius said making a face as he tried to come up with something.
"Yeah, it does," James said with a nod.
Peter just looked at them both for a second, kind of confused. "So…what's my name then?" he asked.
"Wormtail," Sirius said with a nod. "I have decided and no one will contest it!" he said putting up his hands.
James and I just exchanged glances. We still thought the name was kind of dumb, but Peter didn't care and we didn't want to hurt Sirius's feelings too much.
"Now it's my turn," Sirius said with a smile. Of course, then he frowned. "But, wait, how can I come up with my own name if I've never seen what I look like?" he asked looking at us.
I just shrugged. "Well, we could make up a name for you."
"No! I want to do it," Sirius said, pouting about it as if he was five.
"Fine then," James said with a sigh. "Can we just hurry it up? I didn't grab the cloak and it's gotta be getting close to curfew."
"I'm thinking!" Sirius said looking up at the tree branches over our head. "Let's see, um, Barky…"
"Get off the things that end in 'ee' thing Sirius," James interjected. "It's stupid."
Sirius just looked over at him, then down at his feet. "Hmm, what about Pawfoot?"
"Pawfoot?" James asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Yeah, cause I have paws instead of feet," Sirius said looking down at one of his paw prints on the ground.
"How about, um, Padfoot," I said looking at him. "Cause you have pads on the bottom of your feet rather than just saying their paws."
"Nice one Remus," James said with a smile.
"Yeah. But call him Moony now," Sirius said. "So, we have Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and…"
"I'm Prongs," James said looking at him. "And don't think about trying to change it to Forky."
"I liked that name," Sirius pouted.
"Whatever," James said laughing. "Come on then, let's go," he said as he started walking out of the forest.
I just laughed and followed him out. I was so grateful for what my friends had done for me. I knew becoming an animagus had to be lots of hard work, but they did it. And they did it just for me. I really did have the world's best friends, even if they were a bit…eccentric at times.
We all headed out of the forest, all four of us walking, talking, and laughing together. From then on we were all different people, we were now Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongsand we had plans on staying that way forever. I really miss the times when I was Moony. Sure, at first I wasn't too keen on the name, it made me paranoid that someone would figure out the meaning behind it, but Sirius and James really got into using the names I just let them call me that. But now that no one calls me that, I kind of miss it.
That night when we all went to bed, the night time ritual changed, and it was going to be a permanent change. Now instead of saying "Goodnight Sirius" it became "Goodnight Padfoot" and "Goodnight Prongs" and "Goodnight Wormtail". I laid there on my bed with a smile on my face as I went to bed, because I knew we were all going to be friends forever from that moment on.
