Author's Note:

I've been wanting to write how the Marauders reacted to discovering that Remus was a werewolf. I like to think that they were totally cool with it. As we know from JKR, the process of trying to become an Animagus is highly difficult and dangerous and we know that they found out about Remus in their second year, but didn't master the transformation until fifth year. And I don't know if it's true, but I read on tumblr about how they started off as baby animals and I thought that was the cutest idea, so I wanted to implement that.

Anyway, this is Remus in a slightly long chapter. Enjoy.

Reviews and Comments: To Mattelle: Thank you! I love when I have a chance to binge write too! I'm glad you're enjoying the pranks. To Claire Fraser: Thank you! That's exactly what Sirius and Althea are doing, steamy friends with benefits lol. I'm glad you thought Remus' reaction was justified as was Sirius'. Thanks for the review!

Thank you very much for reading and please, please review!

Your reviews give me life! They give me inspiration! And they make me want to keep writing for more than just myself! Thank you!

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT:

The One Where the Marauders Discover A Wolf

Remus did think about the conversation with Sirius the entire night. He didn't sleep a wink. He paced back and forth in the kitchen of his little cottage, dragging his fingers through his hair as he paced.

Everything Sirius had said to him made perfect sense and he knew that.

This WOULD help him.

This WOULD change everything about how he transformed.

This WOULD benefit him in every way.

So why was he protesting it?

Remus knew the answer wasn't completely about money.

Yes, he was ashamed that without the money that Sirius was paying him for teaching Harry, he would barely be able to keep the cottage his parents had left to him in their will.

Yes, he was ashamed that without this teaching job, he would barely be surviving at all.

Yes, he was ashamed that he couldn't take care of himself just because he was a werewolf, and therefore was untrustworthy and unreliable within the work force of the wizarding world, according to the rules set forth by the Department and Regulation of the Control of Magical Creatures. It was why he kept his condition a secret and did everything he could to make sure the Ministry didn't know that he was a werewolf.

He had always been ashamed, and maybe that was the problem.

He had held a dirty secret about himself. He was the creature that the other children feared and he had been for as long as he could remember. He barely remembered anything about his life before he had been bitten by Fenrir Greyback, when he had only been four years old. He had thought that he was going to be doomed forever, to be forced to hide away and suffer through terrible transformations all alone.

When he had first been bitten just a little before his fifth birthday, his containment during his transformations hadn't been too hard for his parents to deal with. A simple locked room and plenty of silencing spells worked fine, and in the morning his parents would find him a little beaten up, the walls scratched, and anything in the room with him shredded — but he had been contained. However, as he grew older, so did his wolfish tendencies, and by the time that he was ten years old, he was capable of pounding down doors and smashing windows. Remus knew that his parents had been terrified about how to control and contain him as he grew older and stronger.

But then something amazing had happened.

Albus Dumbledore arrived on their doorstep and his parents had been so flustered that they had tried to stop him from entering their humble home. But using his personable charm, he was not only invited inside, but less than five minutes later Dumbledore was sitting at the fireside, eating crumpets and playing Gobstones with Remus. He remembered how kind the Headmaster had been to him. The Lupins never had visitors so that alone was a treat, but nothing had shocked Remus more than when Dumbledore told him that he saw no reason why Remus wouldn't be able to attend school and he quickly described the safe precautions that he was willing to implement to allow Remus to attend.

But, he would of course have to keep his condition a secret from the rest of the school.

Dumbledore had explained how he would leave for a secure and comfortable house in the village of Hogsmeade, guarded by many spells and reached only by an underground passage from the Hogwarts grounds, where he could transform in peace, and safely away from everyone.

Remus had been beyond excited. It was his dream to meet other children and have, for the first time, friends and playmates.

He closed his eyes as he remembered that first day on the platform.

He stood on the platform of nine and three quarters with his mother's arm draped around his shoulders. His hands were nervously in his pockets as he stared up at the scarlet steam engine before him.

"There's no need to be nervous, Rem. Professor Dumbledore has promised that every precaution will be taken. You will be safe."

"It's not my safety that's a priority, Mum," Remus said softly, his eyes still on the train.

Hope Lupin kissed her son's cheek. "Every precaution will be taken, Remus. You can't worry about it. And you have a few weeks to get settled into your dormitory and make friends and enjoy your classes before you truly have to worry about it."

Remus scratched the small crescent shaped scar above his left eyebrow. He had somehow done it to himself a few years ago and it was hardly the only scar. He felt his mother squeeze his shoulders tight and he smiled at her. He knew how worried she was about him going off to Hogwarts and the last thing that he wanted was to give her something else to worry over when it came to him.

"You're right, Mum." He kissed her cheek. "It's going to be grand. Don't worry."

She beamed at him, hugging him tightly. "You write home at the end of the week and tell us everything! I want every last detail of your first week, okay?"

Lyall Lupin pulled his son close for a hug. "Don't think about hiding your secret; just be yourself and make friends. Have a grand time. Play a few pranks."

"Lyall!"

"What? You're the instigator of that, Hope!" he said with a laugh as Remus grinned at his parents.

"We love you! Don't forget to write!"

He smiled at his mother. "I won't. I promise. I'll see you at Christmas?"

At her nod, he let her hug him once more before he headed towards the train with his trunk in tow as his parents waved madly behind him.

He found a compartment to himself and settled himself into the corner by the window, watching the platform as it filled with students and parents and younger siblings all there to send everyone off. He closed his eyes, turning his head away from the window. Starting school with the secret that he was holding was incredibly terrifying to him. He reached into his book bag and tugged out the novel that he was reading. A wonderful work of Muggle fiction called Sherlock Holmes and settled himself for a quiet train ride.

It was ten minutes later as Watson was demanding of his friend how he had possibly come to his conclusions that the compartment door slid open and a small slightly chubby boy stood there, dirty blonde hair and watery blue eyes. He was holding a cage with a brown owl as he looked into the compartment.

"M-may I sit in here? Everywhere else is full."

Remus gestured to the empty bench. "Of course!"

The boy sat down, carefully placing the owl cage on the bench. He shifted uncomfortably for a moment and then he simply leaned back and closed his eyes as the train began to move.

Remus turned back to his book. He read two more pages before he realized the boy was staring at him. He lifted his head and looked over at him. "Nervous?"

The boy nodded, folding his hands in his lap. "M-my mum says I shouldn't be. I'm Peter."

"Remus," he said, feeling bad for the boy. He looked even more alone and isolated than Remus felt. "I'm a little nervous too. I don't know anybody."

Peter nodded, smiling in relief. "Me neither." He reached into his pocket pulling out the deck of cards there. "Do you like Exploding Snap?"

Remus closed his book and smiled. "I love it. In fact, I'm reigning champion."

Peter laughed as he tugged the cards out of the bag. "Well, champion, prepare to be dethroned."

Remus grinned back at him. "Bring it."

It took ten minutes for the cards to explode and Peter jumped as his eyebrow was singed off making Remus laugh.

"And I still hold champion!" he declared, standing up and taking a bow.

Peter grinned at him as he cleaned up his cards. "You're really good. Well played."

Remus nodded and leaned back in his seat. "So Peter, tell me something about yourself."

"Like what?" he asked, putting the slightly burnt cards back into their holder.

Remus held up the book that he had been reading. "Do you like to read?"

Peter shook his dead. "Definitely not. Mum always tried to instil a love of literature in me, but mostly I got bored. I like animals though and plants and Arthimancy, which I'm a little sad we can't take until third year. I'm kind of pumped to see what kind of neat things we'll get to do in Herbology though. And this is Owl."

Remus' scared eyebrow rose in amusement. "You named your owl, Owl?"

Peter grinned. "I did. Mum tried to get me to change it, but it stuck and now it's all he will answer to. I like it. It's original."

"Yes, it is," Remus said, biting back a laugh. "Well, I like to read. I read a lot actually. I like getting to disappear for awhile and become someone else, you know? It's rather liberating and exciting," he explained, crossing his feet. "Muggle stories especially."

"Are you Muggleborn?" Peter asked, his watery eyes staring at Remus in surprise. "I mean, how else do you know about Muggle stories?"

Remus laughed. "No, but my mum's a Muggle. My dad's a half-blood. Mum loves stories and she was always sharing them with me from the time I was a baby. Dad worked in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures."

Peter nodded, grinning. "That's aces! That's where I think I'd want to work, at the Ministry I mean. Dad's job is terribly boring. He's in the Department of Magical Transportation. He runs the testing for Apparition though, so that's pretty wicked. My mum works at a flower shop in Diagon Alley."

"My mum used to work in an insurance office, you know in the Muggle world. She said that she might go back now that I'm in Hogwarts and not home for her to take care of."

"How do you live between the two worlds, mate? Like with your mum knowing all about magic and stuff?" Peter asked, leaning forward in curiosity.

Remus shrugged. "It's not hard. Mum tells the Muggles that Dad works in M15 so his work is always classified. That's like the Muggle version of the Department of Mysteries. Even my grandparents don't know that Dad's a wizard. Your parents are both a witch and wizard then?"

"Yeah. Mum's a pureblood, comes from a long line of witches and wizards, but my Dad's a half-blood too, so they were pretty certain I'd be magical. Mum says that I'm going to be in Hufflepuff like my Dad was, but I don't know, I feel like that's not where I belong, you know? Do you know what house you'll belong to?" Peter asked him, stretching his legs out on the bench.

Remus shook his head. "No. Dad wouldn't give me any clue as to how they pick the house either. He just said that it was like a test of the mind. He was in Gryffindor though."

Peter smiled. "The House of the Brave. That's Dumbledore's house, you know? Dad always told me stories about how Dumbledore defeated Grindelwald. He could have been Minister of Magic and instead he's all about running a school. He must be weird."

"Actually he's really nice," Remus told him honestly. It was Dumbledore after all who had come to visit him and to personally assure him that he would be allowed the finest magical education that he could provide him. "I met him over the summer. My parents had questions about Hogwarts and well, I guess he was more than willing to answer them."

"Wow," Peter said, grinning widely. "That's wicked, mate!" He crossed his arms in front of him. "Be brilliant if we were in the same house. It'd be nice to know someone right away."

Remus smiled back. He had to agree with Peter's assessment. "Yeah, that would be pretty great. Hey, how do you feel about wizard's chess?"

Peter grinned. "I am the reigning champion of that. No one's ever beaten me."

Remus stood up and reached for his trunk. "Well, it's about time someone did."

The memory made him smile. Peter Pettigrew had been the first person to speak to him and then they had ended up in the same house along with James and Sirius. They had all become such great friends. He still couldn't believe that little Peter had been the one to betray them; the one to take James and Lily away from them.

He should have seen it coming. He should have known something was off about him.

But even looking back, he still had never seen it coming.

Peter had been so kind and funny and he had loved having him as a friend. Remus moved to touch the photograph he had framed on the shelf in his kitchen. Lily had taken it when they weren't looking in their seventh year. They looked so young and carefree here, he thought. How could Peter have done it? He had been so supportive the moment that he had learned that Remus was a werewolf.

All of them had been so supportive. He stared down at the photo someone had taken of them at the end of their sixth year, all so carefree and young.

"Rem? Can we talk to you for a minute?" Peter asked, taking a seat at the large table his friend was sitting at in the library, books strewn around him.

Lily Evans was studying next to him and she looked up at Peter, her eyes unfocused for a moment as if she was still very much lost in the History of Magic text that she was trying to rather unsuccessfully memorize. "Hi, Peter."

"Hey, Lily," he turned back to Remus. "So can we talk?"

"Of course, Pete, what's going on?"

Peter shook his head. "No, privately."

Remus looked up from his Transfiguration homework. "I still have thirty minutes before curfew, Pete, can't it wait?"

"Please, Remus."

Remus sighed and began to pack up his stuff. "Sorry, Lily."

She waved him off, yawning as she stared at the pages blankly. "Bye."

Remus chuckled at Lily's struggle before he followed his friend out of the library. To his surprise, he didn't lead him to the dorm, but instead behind a mirror on the fourth floor. Remus gasped in surprise to find himself in a large cavern that seemed to lead out of the school before he grinned at James and Sirius.

"Did you guys find this?"

"I did," Peter said with a grin, dropping his own book bag on the ground. "It leads to Hogsmeade."

"Brilliant," Remus said, smiling at his friends. "Is this what you wanted me here for?"

James sighed, dragging his fingers through his hair. "Partly. We did want to show you Pete's new discovery, but also we want to talk to you. Rem, we wanted to talk to you about how you've been feeling lately."

"I'm fine," he insisted, scratching his nose. "A little tired I suppose. I have been studying extra hard lately."

"To make up for the school you've missed," James supplied. "Yeah, we get it. That's what we want to talk to you about, missing school."

Remus shifted uncomfortably. "Look, my parents need me home quite often. My grandmother is a handful and her memory loss is getting quite severe."

"You're grandmother died last year, Remus," Sirius pointed out. "Or that's what you told us."

"No, this is my other grandmother," Remus said.

Sirius rolled his eyes. "She died over the summer."

Remus opened his mouth to speak, but no sound came out. He hadn't realized that he had used some of the same lies, but obviously his friends had been paying closer attention to him than he had realized.

"The scars on Sirius' back, we know those are from his insane mother and father. But you seem to collect more scars on a regular basis," James said, gesturing to Remus' eyebrow, neck, and then encircling his chest and back with his finger.

"Not to mention that you seem to keep gaining and losing weight with an incredible frequency that seems to always correlate when you have to mysteriously leave the castle," Sirius added, leaning back against the wall of the cavern, arms crossed in front of him and one leg up, foot against the wall.

"Plus I saw Madam Pomfrey hide you in a cloak and hurry you across the castle grounds the other night," Peter said. "My dad works for the Department of Magical Transportation, Remus. If you needed to go home, that is the last way you would be getting there."

James stared at his friend's large slightly panicked eyes now. "The new scar on your neck still looks fresh like you were scratched by a wild animal."

"It's only the end of November, mate, and you've already been out sick nine days!" Sirius exclaimed. "And it's been almost the same days each month!"

Peter slid down to the ground of the cavern, stretching his legs out in front of him. "We're just worried about you, Remus."

"Don't be," he said quickly. "It's nothing to be concerned about. I appreciate the fact that you're worrying about me, but I'm fine. Honest."

"When you came to stay with me that last week of summer, Rem, even Mum was worried. She said that you looked much too peaky!"

Remus smiled at James. "Your mother is the nicest person that I have ever met. But in August, I came down with one of those terrible summer colds and I was just coming off of the end of it when Pete and I came to stay with you."

Sirius glowered a little. Remus knew that he was still sad he hadn't been able to go. His parents had absolutely refused to let him go visit his blood traitor friend.

"You blokes are worried for nothing."

"What about the fact that last night at dinner, the house elves had a special plate of food prepared for you which was a steak and kidney pie with the steak made rare?" Sirius asked, eyeing Remus carefully.

Remus chuckled now. "Siri, I just like my steak rare and asked the house elves if they wouldn't mind preparing me my steak as so. Jamie does that ALL the time with his requests of treacle tart at every meal — including breakfast!"

James grinned. "It was probably a bad thing when Siri and I discovered how to get into the kitchens last year."

Peter laughed, scratching his cheek. "But worth it."

"Look, I think you blokes are grand for worrying about me, but I'm fine, really! Can we just go back to Gryffindor Tower now?" Remus asked, grinning at them.

"Only if you answer a few more questions," Sirius insisted.

Remus sighed and unbuttoned his cardigan. "Fine."

James nodded at the fact that he was unbuttoning his jumper. "You rarely get cold."

Remus shrugged. "I'm hot-blooded. Dad's like that too; poor Mum is under three blankets and by the fire and Dad and I are just fine in a tee-shirt."

Sirius looked skeptical before he spoke. "Two weeks ago in Potions, Davies' potion exploded, and when he jumped back in shock, he fell back into the shelving unit and the whole thing came crashing down — until you grabbed it and held it in place, pushing it back to the wall."

"So?"

"So, that shelf was full of ingredients and textbooks and weighs a ton! You have to have super strength to hold it in place and put it back the way you did."

"I hardly have super strength, Sirius," Remus said with a laugh.

James' eyebrow rose. "You are freakishly strong, Lupin, you must admit."

Remus shrugged, a small smile on his face. "Okay, so I'm a little strong, is there something wrong with that?"

"No, it's just weird," James said, his eyes moving over his friend's rather skinny arms and long legs. "Considering how skinny you are."

"And pale!" Sirius added.

"Sirius, you're paler than me!" Remus exclaimed, rolling his eyes now.

"Every single time you have to leave for some family thing, the day before you have a headache and you move slower like your muscles and joints hurt!" James exclaimed, trying to make his friend take him seriously.

Remus simply stared at his friends. He couldn't believe how much they noticed about him. "Just spit out what you blokes are trying to say!"

"You're eyes are the colour of golden whisky, but when the moonlight hits them they turn almost a feral amber," Sirius said softly.

"You always have nightmares after you come back to school," James added.

Remus paled now. He thought about how last night he had dreamed he had transformed in the middle of Defence Against the Dark Arts class and Professor Kincade had instructed the whole class to kill him. He had woken in a cold sweat to James standing over him, looking concerned. He remembered how James had simply crawled into bed with him and started rambling on about some crazy dream he had where his broom was stolen by a centaur. The three of them were always doing stuff like that, Remus thought. Every time he had a bad dream, it was like they took it in turns. James, Sirius, Peter… one of them would simply be there.

They never asked him to talk about it.

They never questioned it.

Now it was November of second year — and they were questioning it.

He closed his eyes and let out a slow sigh. "Everyone has nightmares. Sirius has nightmares almost as much as me."

"Um, rude!" Sirius said, making James laugh.

Peter spoke up then. "And Sirius said the other day, the one that really made us worry, Rem, those days you leave always correspond with the lunar cycle. It was a full moon."

Remus' fists clenched tightly at his sides and he grabbed his bag, turning to leave. Sirius grabbed his arm and he shoved him back, the strength surging through him. Sirius stumbled and James grabbed him.

"I'm fine!" Remus exclaimed.

James grabbed Remus' arm now, but to Remus' surprise he simply pulled him into a hug. Sirius wrapped his arms around both Remus and James and Peter hugged Remus from the back.

"You're not fine, Rem. You're not. And lying to us all of the time can't be easy," James said, his voice low by his ear. "You're our best mate and we love you."

"We really do, mate. Not to mention that you are the genuine to our genius!" Sirius supplied, with a smile and Remus chuckled into his shoulder.

"And we don't care if you howl at the moon," Peter added from behind.

Remus froze in their grasp and the three of them held him tighter.

"We know, Rem," James whispered.

Remus shook his head. "You — can't!"

Sirius pulled back and gripped Remus' face between his hands, holding him still. "We've known since the end of last year. Well, we suspected at the end of last year, but we confirmed it this year."

Remus pulled away from Sirius' grasp, but then James' hands replaced Sirius' on his face. "Let me go!"

"No," James said. "You're our best mate and we don't care that you're a werewolf."

The tears spilled down Remus' face before he could stop them and the sob that slipped out was so loud that he startled himself. His three friends engulfed him in a hug again and he clung to them, crying. When he finally managed to control himself, he pushed them away.

"How did you know?"

James grinned. "From all of the signs listed above, Rem." He pulled Remus down to the floor of the cavern and the three of them sat around him, a solid unit, each holding him. James held his left arm, Peter his right, and Sirius his ankles. "Right after exams last year, Sirius mentioned how it was kind of strange that you always seemed to have to leave suddenly around the full moon. Then after exams, the full moon came and you left early to go home. Over the summer, you looked peaky, according to my mum, and I remembered that the full moon was three days before you came over."

Sirius smiled, squeezing Remus' ankle gently. "We started looking closer at you for more signs and sure enough, end of September, the full moon, you had to go home because your dad was sick."

"Then when the October moon cycle came around, that's when we noticed the new scars and we started researching in the library," Peter said. "James said werewolf right away, but I told him you couldn't be because werewolves are vicious and dangerous creatures and you… you're nothing like that."

The tears spilled down his cheeks again and he wiped them away hurriedly.

"After my birthday, we kept a close eye on you," Sirius said, watching his friend. "We watched for all the signs. Your strength, the headache and slow movements - and when sure enough right before the full moon, you went 'home': We knew."

"We snuck under my invisibility cloak and we followed you to the hospital wing. We followed as Madam Pomfrey bundled you under this large cloak and led you across the grounds to the Whomping Willow tree. She immobilized the tree with her wand, hit something on the trunk and the two of you disappeared beneath it. Fifteen minutes later, she came out alone," James explained.

The tears streamed down his cheeks now and he tried to break free from his friends but they tackled him, lying on top of his body to hold him in place.

"I'm sorry I lied to you!" he exclaimed, struggling beneath them. "I'm a monster! Dumbledore knows. He planted the tree for me so that I could get away from people to keep them safe! I'll… I'll see if I can get a new room. Get — off — me!"

"A new room?" Sirius asked in confusion. "Why would you need a new room? Is that what's beneath the Willow?"

James glared at Sirius and turned back to Remus. "We still want you to be in our dorm, Rem."

Remus stared into James' hazel eyes. "What? You want to room with a disgusting, vicious monster?"

James looked shocked. "Remus! How dare you say something so rude about Pete! You know how sensitive he is about his anger issues!"

Peter shrugged good naturally. "Don't make me cross. I'll turn into a big green killing machine."

Sirius laughed. "Hulk reference, nice," he said, grinning at Peter. "Which we would never know about if you hadn't shown us your Muggle comic book collection, Rem."

Remus stared at the three of them. They were just joking around as usual. As if a huge bombshell hadn't just been dropped.

"What the fuck is wrong with you three?" Remus exploded, pushing them away and climbing to his feet, his eyes flashing in anger. "You just found out that I'm a bloody werewolf! Do you have any idea how dangerous I am? I'm a fucking monster!"

"You just look like Rem." Sirius said simply.

Remus' anger deflated instantly. "You… you don't care?"

James grinned at him. "We already know how great you are and funny and smart and seriously mate, a right genius at pranks, but now we know your secret too. So you can be dangerous sometimes. You're a werewolf. So bloody what?"

"But… but, I'm diseased!" he spluttered.

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Are you planning on biting any of us in our sleep?"

"What?" Remus said in confusion. "No, why would I —"

"Exactly," Sirius said, grinning at Peter. "Didn't Jamie just say that he was smart?"

Peter shrugged. "Maybe he lost a few brain cells when we tackled him to the ground."

James grinned widely and pulled Remus back to the cavern floor and the four of them huddled together. "And for the record, Rem, we don't think that you're a monster. You're just Remus. Our best mate."

Sirius suddenly cackled, holding his hand over his mouth in surprise. "Merlin! Rem, I just realized!"

"Realized what?" Remus asked carefully. He was still in complete shock over the three of them just accepting him as if he was normal.

"Your name… mate, you were meant to be a wolf."

"What?"

"Remus Lupin, the werewolf! Mate, your name practically means Wolf John Wolf!" he said as he laughed.

Peter grinned, laughter escaping him. "Merlin! Sirius you're right!"

Remus simply stared at them as they all busted into laughter. "My name is Wolf John Wolf and I howl at the moon," he said, grinning widely. "Son of a bitch."

James' eyes turned serious as he draped his arm around his friend's shoulders. "Hey Rem, are you, I mean, when you, you know transform and whatnot, are you always alone?"

"Of course I'm alone!" Remus exclaimed, eyes wide in shock. "I would hurt someone, Jamie! I'd probably kill them! I don't even… I wouldn't even remember it!"

James nodded. "But only people, right?"

Remus looked bewildered. "What? What are you on about?"

A small half-smile formed on Sirius' face as he looked at James. "James, you really are bloody brilliant!"

Peter looked between the three of them completely confused.

James smiled at Remus. "Werewolves don't bite animals."

"What are you on about, Jamie?" Remus said in exasperation. "I turn into a fucking wolf! I can rip the throat out of any animal if I so choose to!"

"No," he said grinning widely. "I mean, if you bit an animal, say a rabbit for instance, they wouldn't turn into a rabbit-wolf hybrid."

"Well, obviously not," Remus said carefully, wondering why his friend was asking such a stupid question. "I mean, the rabbit would probably be dead, but no it wouldn't become a werewolf."

"Animals are safe."

Peter still looked confused. "So, Remus can be around other animals when he's changed into a werewolf, so what?"

Sirius slapped Peter on the back, squeezing his shoulder. "Exactly what James is saying, Pete." He grinned at Remus. "If we were all animals you wouldn't have to be alone."

James nodded. "Precisely."

Remus didn't know what to say. The three of them were grinning at him widely with love and admiration and he had never felt so good about himself in his entire life. "You… you want to be animals so that I won't be alone?"

James grinned. "Yes. We'll learn how to become Animagi."

"Sounds great! James, do you know if we get to pick our animal? I think I'd want to be something bloody fantastic like a mother fucking dragon!"

"Sirius, be realistic! How could we hang out with Remus in secret if you were a dragon?" James said, rolling his eyes. "That would be brilliant though!"

Peter grinned. "And you don't get to choose, Sirius. My Uncle Don is an Animagus and he's a raven. He said that flying is the best thing."

"Aces!" Sirius exclaimed. "I'm pretty sure that there's an old book on Animagus transformations in my father's study. I'll find it when I go home for Christmas."

James slapped his hands together with a grin. "Excellent! I can't wait to get started."

"You… you'd really do that for me?" Remus asked in shock, staring at them with wide eyes. "It's supposed to be incredibly difficult and painful to become an Animagus. It can take years! You didn't think this through," he insisted, his hands going up to his hair and making it stand on end as he looked even more frazzled.

Sirius and James simply smiled as Sirius spoke. "It's for you, Rem, we don't have to think about it."

James grinned at Sirius. "Maybe you could be a griffin, those are pretty majestic!"

Peter laughed. "Also hard to keep quiet about on the school grounds. I'd like to be a giraffe."

"You just want to be taller, midget," Sirius said as he opened up James' invisibility cloak and wrapped it around the four of them. As the oldest at thirteen, he was also the tallest of the four of them.

Peter sighed. "Yeah, more height would be great."

"We're only twelve, Pete, be patient," James said on a laugh. "Oooh, how great would it be to be a lion or a giant bear?"

"Wicked," Peter said, tugging Remus under the cloak. "Come on, Remus, we have to get back to the dorm, it's way past curfew."

Remus moved under the cloak with his friends.

His friends.

They accepted him.

He had never felt more like a normal boy in his entire life.

He stared at the sun rising in his back garden fourteen years later and he tossed his cold cup of tea. The three of them had changed their lives for him. They had worked so hard to do the research.

Sirius had found the book and brought it back to school with him after the winter holidays. They'd spent a month doing the research and Sirius had charmed questions out of McGonagall about what it was like to become a cat. Minerva had always seemed to hold a soft spot for Sirius. He'd even managed to get house points from her for his intelligent questions and extra-curricular school work.

It was the middle of February when they finally agreed to start the potion.

Peter, one of the best students at Herbology, had convinced Professor Sprout to give him some mandrake leaves. They had to keep the leaf of the mandrake in their mouth for an entire month including while they were eating and sleeping. Peter had been great at this, but Sirius had threatened to vomit at the first taste of the leaf upon his tongue. James had been indifferent, sucking on the thick soggy leaf as if it was a candy. They sucked their leaves religiously for the entire month, never taking it from their mouths.

James had taken the responsibility towards the end of the month of finding fresh dew on the grass. The trick was that it had be fresh and not exposed to either human feet or sunlight for an entire week. After questioning Hagrid on where he might find such a thing, Hagrid had suggested the Forbidden Forest. James, invisibility cloak in tow, snuck out after Quidditch practice and found the stash in the middle of the forest. Peter had stuttered on about his bravery for four days afterwards while Sirius had rolled his eyes and mocked him for his hero-worshipping of James.

Sirius, who was on fairly friendly terms with Lily Evans, had convinced her to charm Professor Slughorn, the professor who adored Evans to no end, to let her borrow a few key ingredients from his potions storeroom. Sirius had avoided telling her what they were for, only narrowly, as she stared at him suspiciously when he told her they were practicing a few potions to get ready for exams.

James did the actual potion brewing. Of the four of them, he was the best at potions. They decided to keep it hidden in the cavern behind the mirror on the fourth floor. As far as they knew, no one else even knew about the cavern. It was dark and dank and the potion needed to be kept out of sunlight at all costs so it seemed the perfect location.

Finally, as the full moon came out in June and as Madam Pomfrey snuck Remus out beneath the Whomping Willow for his transformation, James, Sirius, and Peter had snuck up to the Astronomy Tower, under James' invisibility cloak, to spit their mandrake leaves into a clear phial, directly under the bright rays of the full moon.

Peter carefully poured the potion into three separate containers and they added their phials to each one.

The next part was the trickiest, Remus remembered how they had to wait for just the right kind of thunderstorm, specifically a strike of lightning.

Months passed, but they were still waiting when finally at the beginning of third year, the storm they had been waiting on came. They were in the middle of History of Magic when the sound of thunder shook the room.

Sirius had bolted to his feet immediately. "Professor, may I go to the loo?"

The professor had looked slightly bewildered, but had nodded and Sirius had hurried from the room. Peter stabbed his finger with his quill and showed his blood-dripping hand as an excuse to go to the hospital wing and James had merely insisted on going with his friend. Remus remembered how the three of them had come running into the dorm room just before dinner all grinning widely.

They had done it. For him. They were ready to transform.

James had succeeded first, two weeks later. Every day at sunrise they would repeat the incantation, 'Amato Animo Animato Animagus' and every night at sunset they would say the words again as they attempted to change their bodies and every day nothing happened. But then the signs had started. First James had gotten soft white fur that seemed to sprout around his arms and legs and along his neck; his ears pointed slightly as he muttered the incantation over and over. And then suddenly an adorable white fawn tripping over his own feet was prancing around the boys' dormitory.

It had taken him an hour and a half to figure out how to turn back. But after six more attempts, James had mastered it. He was a white fawn.

Sirius had been next, only a few days after James. His black hair seemed to thicken and become softer as it spread over his skin, his nose growing longer and more snout-like and his ears long and droopy before a tiny black German Shepherd puppy yipped in excitement and chased the fawn around the room.

Remus remembered how much he had laughed at the sight of them.

It had taken another two weeks for Peter to master his, but when he changed into an itty bitty pink baby rat, Remus had scooped him up into his hand in astonishment.

They had really done it.

And they had done it for him.

It took them almost six months to master the transformations. They practiced on a daily basis and the more they practiced, the more their animals grew into the boys they represented. By October of their fifth year, they had finally mastered the intense transfiguration of becoming a fully grown Animagus. James, a majestic white stag; Sirius, a scruffy black dog; and Peter, a brown fuzzy rat.

Remus leaned his head against the window pane. He hadn't asked them to do it, but they had. He hadn't asked for Sirius to be with him when he transformed since he had come back, he had Harry and he understood that. But now… the thought that he could be himself when the werewolf took over… it was terrifying. Did he want to be Remus Lupin when he could look at himself as the monster he feared he was, and truly remember every moment locked within the mind of the creature? Did he want that? But at the same time, if he could look like the creature, but be the Remus Lupin he wanted to be… he slammed his hand against the side of the window in frustration.

He had been chosen for Gryffindor, the house of the brave at heart. He would not be a coward. He would follow the example of his friends and he knew without a doubt that he was also doing it for Sirius as much as for himself.

He looked over at the photo of the four of them again and swore under his breath.

He would take the damn potion.

And he would see what happened from there.