Disclaimer- see any chapter before this one, I'm getting bored of writing these.

Chapter 7

Lily flopped down onto her favourite sofa in the now empty Gryffindor common room, almost every other student had returned home for the Christmas holidays. The only ones left in Gryffindor were her, Sirius, Remus, James and a couple of first years, Peter had thankfully gone home.

Leaning back in the chair, she took a quick glance out of the window, it still snowing out side. It had done so since a few weeks before the students were set to break up and it had continued on and off till today, which was January fourth, three days before the other students were set to return.

The three remaining Marauders were outside attacking those who had stayed behind in Slytherin with enchanted snowballs. They'd asked her to come but she had politely refused.

She had been using her free time recently to work on a secret project, becoming an animagus. As she was so frequently told she was good at transfiguration, so she should be able to do this.

Checking that no one was in the common room, Lily pulled a heavy volume from her bag. It was one that she had 'borrowed' from the restricted section of the library.

Settling down to her studies she didn't notice the portrait door swing open, or the fact that anyone had failed to enter.

"Not doing anything illegal I hope?"

Lily shrieked and the book went flying, spinning around she saw James, Sirius and Remus appear from under an invisibility cloak.

"You could have given me a heart attack!" She yelled, Remus was the only one who had the grace to look guilty about it; Sirius just stood their grinning, whilst James retrieved her book from the floor.

"Well, Mr. Prongs? What has Miss. Lily been studying when she should have been out in the snow?" Sirius asked with a grin.

James read the book title and raised an eyebrow; he didn't think that Lily would be the type to do something like this without teacher's permission. "How to be come an animagus."

Remus and Sirius looked at Lily in surprise; "You want to become an animagus?" Lily shrugged indifferently; it was getting harder to pretend that she did not know about their little secrets. "So what? Everyone's always saying that I'm good at transfiguration, this is just the next step."

"But an illegal step!" Exclaimed Remus, surprised that she would even consider it. Lily just shrugged her shoulders and reclaimed her book form a shocked James.

"How long have you been trying?" He stuttered after a few moments of silence.

"Not long, I haven't tried practically yet, I've just been reading up on it." A slight lie, she had been interested ever since Charlie had told her about them when she was seven, she'd been researching since she joined Hogwarts but it had always been a pipe dream. Only now she was in the company of a group of boys her age that had achieved the transformation not only by themselves but had managed to keep it secret from Albus Dumbledore of all people.

"Are you serious about doing this?" Sirius asked regarding her determined face. "Yes." At her answer the three marauders looked at each other and nodded, a silent agreement passed.

Cautiously James suggested, "Maybe we could help you then." Pretending to be surprised Lily asked; "You? How?"

"Well we're animagus." She didn't feel shocked, she already knew but she couldn't help feeling a sensation of pride that they had chosen to tell her one of their biggest secrets. "This is a joke right?" She asked playing her role.

"Nope."

"Okay so what animals do you change to?" She asked, keeping a sceptical tone locked into her voice. James answered, "I'm a Stag and Sirius is a dog, oh and Peter's a rat."

Nodding thoughtfully, Lily turned to Remus. "What about you Remus?" She knew he wasn't an animagus and she new exactly why. But she was tempted to see how far their trust would stretch. "I.I'm not a.an animagus." He stuttered, suddenly finding his shoes fascinating.

"Couldn't do it?" Lily prompted gently, she didn't want to make him uncomfortable, if he lied to her now she wouldn't push, and it was his choice to tell her. "No, he decided not to try." Sirius interrupted, ever protecting his friend.

Remus shook his head and said softly, "It's okay Sirius, w-we should te- tell her." Sirius and James looked up at Remus, their faces clouded in surprise. "You sure?"

"Tell me what?" Lily asked but was completely ignored, a first from James. "Yes." Remus nodded again, his tone firmer

Silence stretched for a moment, "What's going on?" The two animagus' waited for Remus to answer, after a few minutes James asked softly; "Do you want me to tell her Moony?" Remus nodded again and sat down heavily in one of the armchairs.

"Okay, well you know that Remus isn't here for a lot of the time?" James asked, checking that the common room was empty of any other students. Lily cocked her head to one side, "Yeah, because of his sick aunt right?"

"No, have you noticed what time he disappears for?" Lily shook her head, another lie; her eyes were fixed on Remus as he cringed at what James said next. "The thing is Remus is a werewolf."

Lily continued to watch Remus in silence, oblivious to the wary boys standing beside her. Remus refused to look up at her, his hands were curled into tight fists, and he was waiting for her rejection. "Okay, what does this have to do with you not being an animagus?"

At that the werewolf's head snapped up, he starred at her in awe and confusion, wondering if she had misheard what James had said. "I.You.it doesn't bother you?"

Lily raised an eyebrow as if that was the most ridiculous question that she had ever heard. "No, why would it? It's not as if you're a death eater or anything!" Remus's expression was close to that of a fish, his mouth gaping attempting to form some kind of response. Eventually he spluttered out, "But I'm a dark creature!"

Sighing slightly, she edged closer to Remus and asked softly, "How old where you when you got bitten?"

"Three." Lily winced, she hadn't realised he had been that young, it was a wonder he had even survived.

"Remus, you didn't choose to get bitten, to become a werewolf. It doesn't change the way I feel about you, except I admire you more now because I know what you have to go through every full moon."

Remus nodded and relaxed visibly, Lily heard both James and Sirius relax and tried to suppress a grin. They remained like that in a comfortable silence until Remus said; "They did it for me."

"What?"

"They became animagus so that they could stay with me during the full moon, I can't harm animals, only humans."

Another surprise, Lily nodded; "Oh. How long did it take you?"

"We started in our third year." Sirius answered, followed by James "We're still kind of new at it." They really did remind her of Fred and George sometimes, finishing each other's sentences. She ignored the pang of homesickness that hit her and returned her attention to the conversation.

"Do you really think that you can help me?" She asked timidly, James just grinned which prompted her to blush to the roots of her hair. "Of course." "If we could get Peter to do it, then we can get anyone to do it." Sirius added

"We could try in your dormitory, no one will go up there."

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Lily stood awkwardly in her dormitory, Remus was sat on the far bed watching the goings on with interest, James was leaning on the now locked door trying not to laugh and Sirius, Sirius on power trip.

He was circling her, nose up in the air (reminding her somewhat of Percy) claiming to be the authority on animagus and making a show of examining her and saying 'hmm' at regular intervals.

Eventually he stopped in front of her and said, "Just ignore everything that you've ever read about being an animagus."

She'd been studying for years "But." Sirius waved a hand, ending her interruption and James snorted with laughter. "Everyone has an animal within them, the trick to being an animagus is finding it and letting it surface."

Lily had to agree that made more sense than some of the methods she'd read about. "Okay, how do I find it?"

"Well.um, you." Apparently the resident expert on animagus' had no idea. "That's the hard part, you just have to find it." James added helpfully.

Exasperated, Lily sat down heavily on her bed "How did you do it then?" James looked thoughtful, "I guess we meditated?" Eager to remain in charge of the teaching session Sirius nodded; "You could say that." "Okay."

Two hours later Lily was still sitting on her bed 'meditating', as it had been called. When she finally managed to feel something, back down in the deepest recesses of her mind it was powerful, graceful not quite but almost a presence in her mind. Concentrating on it she can feel it stronger but still can't see it.

"I, I think that I've found it."

Lily's hesitant voice made Sirius jump to attention, Remus and James looked up, moderately interested from the game of exploding snap they had started about an hour ago. "Good, now just focus on that presence." Sirius instructed back in his teacher mode.

"Now what?" Lily asked, stifling a giggle, Sirius was starting to sound like a certain greasy haired potions teacher she used to know. "You just say, 'Transfigiro me'." Sirius answered unaware of the comparison.

Lily's eyes snapped open in disbelief, "That's it?" Sirius grinned, "That's it." Sighing Lily murmured, "Here goes."

Lily closed her eyes once more and focused on the presence, it was easier now that she knew where it was and what it felt like. Ever so slowly she felt her body start to pull, the sensation was defiantly the strangest thing she had ever felt.

The room was getting larger, or more accurately she was getting much smaller, looking around she saw that the room was also becoming sharper, soft edges were like knife-edges and the dim candlelight was blinding. Squinting she tried to look down at herself and see what she had become, but her new body didn't seem to allow it.

She heard an almost deafening voice say merely to concentrate on her old body and she would turn back, doing just that she felt the pulling sensation again.

When Lily opened her eyes she saw the three boys looking at her expectantly, with a strange expression of what appeared to be pride over there faces.

"You did it!" Sirius yelled as he flung himself at Lily, who had to grab on to the bed spread to prevent herself falling on the floor, this wasn't helping the queasy felling that transforming had given her.

"I can't believe it, that felt so weird!" She murmured after disentangling her self from Sirius's gangly limbs. Somehow she couldn't see professor Snape congratulating a student like that.bad mental image, she winced and started listening to the boys who were talking excitedly. "Well done, now we can officially welcome to the marauders!"

Curiosity getting the better of her Lily asked, "What was I?" Exited chatter stopping they turned and looked at her. "Huh?" "What animal was I?"

"You were an owl." Remus supplied helpfully.

Lily gazed down at the floor, an owl? Didn't that mean wisdom? She hadn't really thought about what animal she would be, or she had tried not to. But she guessed she'd either be something symbolic of her personality or a snake, another gift from Riddle. And a reason why up until recently the idea of them knowing she was going to try to transform was horrifying. She remained lost in thoughts for a few minutes, but she clearly heard Sirius saying:

"Do you have any idea how useful a flying animagus will be? She can fly up into Trelwany's class and drop a dung bomb and then fly straight out."

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AN- sorry I took to long getting this up, but as I wrote this I really should have been revising.

GO ME! GO ME!. Exams all done!!! woohoo! I think I failed but that's not the point! They're over and done with for another year!!! So back to fan fic writing.

Anyway, Thank you to anyone who has reviewed this story, I'm hoping to get at least three chapters done over the next few days so hopefully they'll be up in the next couple of weeks???

Anywho, please review!!!!