"Divination sounds terrible," Sirius said, flipping through the pamphlets they'd been given about the elective classes they could choose to take next year. "I can't imagine staring into a crystal ball all day."
"Same here," James agreed. "Care of Magical Creatures sounds cool, though,"
"Speaking as an actual magical creature, I agree," said Remus. "And Professor Kettleburn seems interesting."
"Oh, right," said Sirius. "He's the one missing an arm and a leg. We're definitely taking his class."
"What about Muggle Studies?" James wondered. "That's supposed to be pretty easy. And we've always got Remus to help us understand Muggle stuff."
"Are we all taking the same classes?" Peter wondered.
James and Sirius shrugged. "Probably," Sirius said. "I'm sure Remus will want to take more than the required two, though."
"I was thinking about Arithmancy," Remus admitted. "I'm sure none of you would be interested in that, though."
"Yeah, no thanks, mate," James told him. "I vote we go with Care of Magical Creatures and Muggle Studies. Re can take his magic math class by himself."
"Sounds good," agreed Sirius. The two of them bumped fists.
"It's one o'clock," said Remus, checking his watch. "We're going to be late for Defense Against the Dark Arts."
"Oh, no," said Sirius sarcastically. But they all followed Remus into the third-floor classroom where their class was held without a fuss. Now that they were in the last couple months of the school year, Defense Against the Dark Arts had gotten considerably more interesting—instead of learning about Red Caps and Fire Crabs, they were now talking about Dementors and vampires.
James took his usual seat in the back of the room, Sirius and Remus on either side of him. He pulled out his textbook and flipped it open, stopping when he reached the chapter that came after vampires.
"Oh, Re," he murmured. "I'm guessing you didn't read ahead this time."
"No," Remus said, his face flushed white. His textbook was open to the same page.
Professor Byrne swooped in in his usual raven-black robes. "Today, we're going to be talking about werewolves," he announced. "I'm sure this is one creature you all will have heard of."
James exchanged a glance with Sirius while the rest of the Ravenclaws and Gryffindors in the room nodded fearfully. This was definitely going to be an interesting class. Professor Byrne knew Remus was a werewolf—it was why he had disliked Re from the moment he first saw him—so how was he going to handle this? James looked back at Remus, who was now nearly trembling.
"Hey," James murmured to him. "It's going to be all right. Just calm down before everyone notices." Remus nodded, biting his lip and breathing in deeply through his nose.
"Werewolves," Byrne began, "are wizards or Muggles infected with a disease known as lycanthropy, in which their bodies are physically forced to change shape under the influence of the full moon into bloodthirsty, wolf-like monsters. This condition spreads when one's blood is contaminated with the saliva of a transformed werewolf—generally through a bite. Only transformed werewolves can spread their disease to others; but any bite or scratch from a werewolf, transformed or not, will be cursed and leave lasting scars."
James tried to picture the untransformed Remus Lupin biting or scratching someone, but the idea was too weird and absurd for him to wrap his head around. He would have laughed if he wasn't busy ensuring that Remus kept his head up and didn't faint.
"Transformed werewolves can easily be distinguished from regular wolves," Byrne continued. "A werewolf's tail is tufted rather than bushy, and its snout is shorter than a true wolf's. But most notably, while wolves tend to avoid attacking humans unless threatened or injured, werewolves attack and kill humans unprovoked, and ignore any other animals or life forms in their paths. Human blood is all they are interested in." In front of him, James saw Mary Macdonald shudder.
Human blood is all they are interested in. That gave James an idea, a crazy, brilliant idea. He raised his hand, causing everyone else in the class to turn around and look at him; James never raised his hand.
Even Professor Byrne looked startled. "Yes, Mr. Potter?"
"What about Animagi?" he asked.
Professor Byrne crossed his arms. "What about them?"
"Well," James said, "they're wizards, but they're in the form of an animal. Would a werewolf still attack an Animagus?"
"Good question," said Byrne, narrowing his eyes thoughtfully. "I don't believe that's ever been tested. But an Animagus is physically one-hundred-percent animal when he transforms, so my assumption would be that a werewolf would consider him animal, too."
James grinned at Sirius, then turned around to grin at Peter and Remus. "You're ridiculous, James," Remus muttered. "There's no way that's going to work."
"Do you even know me, Remus Lupin?" James demanded. "If I want something to work, it's going to work. Sirius, Petey and me are going to become Animagi, and we're going to spend full moons in the Shrieking Shack with you."
