Chapter 3 – Fall 1973
The group of 5 friends were seated in their usual compartment on the Hogwarts Express.
Maggie was keeping a close eye on Remus who had gained more scars over the summer. She and her other friends were waiting for him to admit what they had suspected most of the previous year, that Remus is a werewolf.
Maggie worked with her brother over the summer to get more information about werewolves and other magical creatures. She found that she was very interested in this branch of her magical studies. She had taken to borrowing books from some of Arty's friends in the Department of the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. While some of the information she learned was blatantly negative and heavily biased, she still learned a lot about the many creatures in the world. Newt Scamander quickly became her favorite author. Maggie has been looking forward to researching werewolves in more depth once she regains access to the Hogwarts library.
Maggie reached out and lowered the book Remus was reading.
"Remy how was your summer?" She asks.
"It was good. I visited my aunt and read a lot. How was yours?" he replies with a smile.
"It was great! I got to spend a lot of time with my nephews and Molly. Arty worked a lot, but he managed to borrow a few new books from Level 4. They kept me pretty busy." Maggie smiled.
"Marauders! We need a plan!" James states dramatically while jumping to his feet.
"A plan for what?" asks Sirius looking interested.
"We have been pranking on a small scale for the last 2 years. We need to think big. Something that will cement our names in Hogwarts History!"
"So maybe something that could affect the whole lot of Slytherin House in one fell swoop?" asks Maggie while tapping her chin.
"Exactly!" James yells while throwing himself between Remus and Maggie.
"Something like a spell to change all of their hair a spectacular shade of red and their skin a spectacular shade of gold?" she says while looking innocently at the other marauders.
"You have something like that?!" They all look at her surprised and excited.
"I have not been able to test it obviously, but I came across it over the summer and have been practicing as best I could. We could give it a go, but I will need a distraction so I can run to the kitchens before the feast begins."
"We can handle that." Sirius says while looking at her mischievously.
Once they arrived at the castle they split up, James, Remus, and Peter all headed to the Great Hall, while Maggie and Sirius ran quickly to the kitchens.
Once all spells were cast, they quickly reunited with their friends in the Great Hall. Upon entering they found the distraction was James loudly reciting a love poem, while avoiding teachers, to a bright red and angry Lily Potter. Lily Potter is one of the girls that shares Maggie's dormitory. She is not a close friend, but they are friendly.
Maggie quickly steps in and drags James back to his seat.
The headmaster steps up and thanks James for the poem, but asks he keeps his poetry from disturbing mealtimes in the future. James salutes him and he then goes on to ask for the sorting to commence.
The sorting takes so long that the Marauders begin squirming in their seats. Dumbledore then tells everyone to tuck in. The tables a quickly set and filled to the brim with food.
Maggie and Sirius share a look and watch as their friends look disappointed that the Slytherins did not change colors. Not even ten minutes later gasps and shouts start around the hall as everyone begins changing colors. Not just red and gold either. A rainbow of colors soon spills across the entire hall as anyone that touched a fork quickly changes colors.
Laughter erupts from all over the hall as students compare their colorful new looks. The marauders all look to Maggie and Sirius.
Maggie is now a green haired navy skinned beauty smugly eating her chicken. "I decided to be all inclusive and non-color specific." She states proudly.
Sirius with his neon pink skin and golden hair smiles brightly. "Gotcha!"
James, Remus, and Peter all laugh, and the year is off to a fun start.
The next day they are all seated in the Great Hall eating breakfast and comparing timetables.
"I have Care of Magical Creatures, Transfiguration, Muggle Studies, and DADA on Mondays and Wednesdays. Charms, Arithmancy, History of Magic, Divination, and Herbology on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Fridays I have Double Potions, Ancient Runes, and Astronomy." Maggie says while reading over the list.
The others look up startled.
"Aren't some of those classes overlapping each other? McGonagall has you double booked!" Sirius looks surprised.
"I have something worked out with the professors. I think I can handle it." Maggie says smiling.
The others look at her like she is crazy.
When classes begin, they start to notice that she seems to pop up and disappear all over the school. She is constantly studying and doing homework. They are not sure what is going on, but she seems to have it handled.
James, Sirius, and Peter are sitting on the couch in front of the fireplace in the common room when Maggie comes in with a stack of books. She smiles and hurries over to them.
"I have been looking into Remus's fury little problem – "
"When?! You are constantly studying!" James interrupts quickly.
"I have a few minutes here and there! Anyway, I read something interesting. Werewolves are dangerous for humans – "
"Everyone knows that Mags." Sirius says looking bored.
"Would you quit interrupting! They are dangerous for humans not animals!" she says exasperatedly.
"Wait, so we should get him a pet?" Peter asks confused.
James looks thoughtful.
Sirius suddenly goes wide-eyed.
"You mean…but we…could we?!"
"I don't see why we couldn't besides it being illegal."
"Have you looked into it yet?"
"Wait, what is going on?" James and Peter ask looking completely lost.
Maggie pulls a smaller book off the top of her stack for the boys to see.
The book is titled The Dangers of the Animagus.
Over the next 3 weeks each boy reads the book while hiding it from Remus and the rest of the school. Maggie carries on with her studies and seems to be enjoying all the extra work even though she sees her friends a bit less. Remus has noticed that his friends are hiding something from him, but he is worried that they may be on to his secret.
In the second week of October Remus is feeling worn down and sickly like usual. The full moon is on Friday, and he is trying to take it easy. Usually, his friends would be all over him trying to make him feel better. This month however they seem to be giving him space. They are keeping an eye on him, but he notices that they push him to take more naps and spend more time in the library where it is quiet. For the most part he shrugs it off, but it does bother him a bit. Hopefully they have not figured out his secret.
The week of the full moon Maggie, James, Sirius, and Peter have been preparing for their special project. They began gathering the necessary items for the process. Sirius and James snuck out to the forbidden forest and collected four chrysalises of a Death's-head Hawk Moth. Maggie stole four mandrake leaves from the Herbology classroom while Peter created a distraction by severing a limb off the plant he was supposed to be pruning. This caused it to turn a violent shade of purple and begin spouting a thick pollen into the air. All the students that breathed in the pollen began floating around the classroom and bouncing off the greenhouse ceiling. Professor Sprout was not too happy about the calamity.
The night of the full moon the four friends gathered in the boy's dormitory and placed the mandrake leaves into their mouths with sticking charms. They then practiced speaking with them and quickly realized they could not control the amount of drool that the leaves caused. To say the next month went smoothly would be a bit of an exaggeration. They actively avoided speaking. It got to the point where the student body was getting paranoid that they had a huge prank planned and the staff were also on the lookout. Remus was confused and concerned when none of his friends seemed to want to talk. When they did, they seemed to have uncontrollable drooling. James said it was a prank gone wrong, Sirius said it was his new toothpaste, Maggie just gestured to her potions essay, and Peter sprinted into the dorms to take a shower even though he had just taken one.
Once the month had passed on the full moon in November, they finally took the leaves out of their mouths by removing the sticking charms and spitting them into four separate moon-struck phials. They then all added one of their hairs, a silver teaspoon of dew that they had been storing in a lightproof box in Maggie's school trunk for over a week. The last ingredient added was the chrysalises. They mixed them and put them back in the lightproof box and James cast a muffliato charm to keep it quiet. For the next 2 weeks they would chant a special incantation at sunrise and sunset daily. The final day there was an electrical storm. They all quickly made excuses to Remus and ran to the roof of the astronomy tower recited the incantation one more time and drank their potions.
James immediately fell over as he sprouted two large antlers, Sirius began growing black fur all over his body. Peter's ears started to grow and reshape to large round rat ears. Maggie gasped as 2 silver wings shot out of her back. James swiftly completed his transformation into a proud and muscular stag. Sirius quickly spun in a circle chasing his new tail as a dog. Peter had shrunk down to a rat and was squeaking and shaking trying not get trampled by Sirius. Maggie was still transforming into something. She had grown grey and silver hair all over her body and she has four hooves but seems to have stalled. The others quickly notice and approach her concerned, but not sure what to do. She is panting and shaking all over. She shakes her head, and her face starts to grow outward. A long silver tail starts to grow and then in the blink of an eye she is laying on the ground as a stunning silver and grey Pegasus. She shakes out her mane and looks at the others. She stands up and stretches out her wings. She gives a test flap and then folds them up to her sides. They all play for a few minutes until their body shift back on their own. They are all exhausted and trudge back to Gryffindor tower quietly praising each other for their new forms.
For the next few weeks, they take time to find secluded spaces to transform and explore their new forms. Remus is still watching them closely trying to find out what they are hiding. He finally can't take it any more in the second week of December. He is feeling the effects of the approaching full moon and has grown more and more irritated that his friends are hiding something from him. He determinedly drags them all out to the quidditch pitch one blustery evening.
"Okay what are you guys hiding from me?" Remus asks in frustration.
"What makes you say that?" James asks smoothly.
"Cut the crap. You guys have been acting strangely for the last two months. What is going on?"
"We will tell you our secret if you tell us yours." Sirius says while crossing his arms.
Remus sighs. "Fine." Turning to leave, he only stops when Maggie grabs his arm.
"Remy, we know."
Remus pales. "W-what do you mean?"
"We know you are a werewolf, mate." Sirius says.
"How did you find out?" Remus asks looking tired.
"We have known since last year. You are always sick before and after the full moon. You also didn't visit any of us around the moons during the summer. We were not sure until we did some research during the summer." James explains.
"But we can help you now!" Peter pipes up.
"You can't help me. There is nothing humans can do to help a werewolf." Remus states sadly.
"Ummm… we kind of did something. We can show you, but you can't freak out." Sirius says while looking sheepishly at his friend.
"What did you do?!"
They take him to the vacant locker room. Once they are all in the large room and the door is locked, they all transform.
Remus stares at his friends in shock.
"How did you hide this from me? This is so dangerous!"
"Apparently we did not hide it very well." James says after changing back.
"We wanted to make sure we could do it before telling you. We didn't want to get your hopes up if it didn't work." Maggie says.
"You are a Pegasus. Do you know how rare that is? You must be incredibly strong to change into a magical creature." Remus says looking at Maggie.
"Yeah, it was a bit hard to finish the transition the first time."
"We thought you were stuck for a minute there." Peter says.
"Yeah, me too."
"So, you are all animagi? How did you do it and does it hurt?"
They all head back to the castle talking about their new abilities and how they will help during the upcoming moon.
That Monday the group head to the shrieking shack and settle in waiting for the moon. Remus is getting antsy and has asked them if they are sure that it is safe several times. They confidently reassure him that it is even though they are all a bit nervous too.
The moon turns full, and they transform. The friends watch Remus change worriedly as he seems to be ripping apart to let the monster loose. Once it is all done the werewolf makes eye contact with James since he seems to pose the most threat with his large antlers. James bows his head, and the wolf looks next to the Sirius. Sirius lays on his back belly up in submission. The wolf glances at Maggie and Peter but snorts and looks away. They soon find themselves distracting the werewolf from hurting himself by luring him into a rousing game of tag. The rest of the night goes by with lots of physical activity. The next day they all rest and recover while knowing this is how it will be from now on. Remus was worn out but in much better shape than any of them could remember seeing him after a full moon.
AN: The next one should be up next week. Hope you all have enjoyed the beginning of the story.
All feedback is welcome. Thank you for the follows. See you next time. -A.