A/N – Hey guys! Hope you are enjoying this so far. Please let me know what you think! I've also started adding dates :)


3rd January 1976

It was just less than a week later that we found ourselves back on Platform 9 ¾ to take the train back to Hogwarts. The clock hands read a quarter to eleven when the Potters and Sirius finally reached our designated meeting spot, where Remus, Peter and I were already waiting with our parents.

"James forgot his broomstick polishing kit," Mr. Potter explained as he approached. "He ran back to find it, when we could have summoned it. That took an extra ten minutes."

"I would have thought it was impossible for James to forget anything Quidditch related," Remus said, surprised.

"I'll explain later," James muttered to us, throwing Sirius some serious shade.

Soon enough the mums were ushering us into the train. Once our luggage was in a compartment, we went back onto the platform to say goodbye.

"Now, Bunny, I don't want any more detention notices," Mum said, giving me a hug. "At least, not for hexing other students."

"I have to hex them back if they hex me, Mum," I grinned.

"Yeah, it's called self-defence, El, haven't you heard of it?" Dad joked along, mussing my hair. Mum sighed.

"At least stay out of the Hospital wing," she pleaded as I got on the train behind Peter.

"I'll try!" I yelled back at them. The train was starting to move. "Love you!"

The five of us waved at the platform for a while before settling down. I pulled my rucksack out from behind my trunk and placed it carefully underneath the seat, so it wouldn't get jostled during the ride.

"Sirius forgot the mermaid tears when I was carrying the cauldron," James said suddenly. "I had to run back saying I forgot my polishing kit."

"I can't believe I left you guys in-charge of packing up and transporting," I muttered, sinking into the seat. "It's all Belle's fault, for turning up with Todd for dinner last minute yesterday."

"Cheer up, Pearl, we packed everything!"

"Oh yeah?" I challenged, "why were the tears left behind?"

"They're volatile!" Sirius exclaimed. "If we put it in the kit with the lacewing flies they'd have evaporated!" I opened my mouth to retaliate but then realised he was right. "I just forgot about it last minute, okay?"

"Well, I guess you were being responsible," I sighed. "I have to say, as much as I love spending time at home with Mum and Dad, let's never do it again while we're brewing illegal potions. Just the anxiety of keeping it a secret was killing me." I kicked up my feet and placed them in James's lap opposite me.

"How do you expect to keep quiet about being Animagi then?" Remus raised an eyebrow. "If you can't handle this?"

"That's different," Sirius brushed off. "We have conclusive proof right now. Once we're actually Animagi, there's no physical evidence."

"Sirius has been reading too many detective novels," James explained.

"It's better than reading that Princess stuff Rosebud reads!" Sirius shot back.

"The Princess Bride is not princess-y," Remus said haughtily as I shoved Sirius onto Peter. "It has elements of comedy, adventure, fantasy, romantic love, romance, and fairy tale!"

"Princess-y!" Sirius yelled as he started to tickle me in retaliation.

"No!" I managed to get out between breaths. "Stop!"

"Say it is princess-y!"

"I will – not!"

"Say it!"

"Fine! It – is – princess-y!" He stopped tickling me then, and pulled me upright in the seat. "You are one weird person."

"That's me, Sirius Black, eternal heart breaker and weird person." He spread his hands wide, effectively hitting Peter and me in the face.

"Heart breaker?" James twitched an eyebrow. His one eyebrow movement had improved some, but not nearly enough to have the same effect as Remus or me. "You don't date!"

"And that's why the hearts of the population above thirteen – both female and male, mind you – are broken."

"Our hearts aren't broken," Peter pointed out.

"Because you're family, Wormy. I'm talking about dates."

"That's probably why you don't get asked out as much though," Remus said, reaching for a bottle of water. "People think you're dating Rosie."

I turned to Sirius and he turned to me. And then we both laughed.

"Or you," Peter supplied. We turned to look at him. "I heard a rumour about Sirius and Remus."

The water which had been in Remus's mouth suddenly found itself sprayed on Sirius.

"So it's acceptable that Padfoot is dating me, but not you?" I raised an eyebrow, as James found himself laughing so hard he was currently on the floor.

"Har har, Shaz," Remus smirked, avoiding Sirius's hands, which were currently flailing around trying to hit Remus – unsuccessfully, as Peter got the brunt of the attack.

The compartment door opened, and Lily's face appeared in the doorway. "Who's getting murdered – oh, it's you guys."

"Does James's laughter sound like someone's murdering him?" Peter questioned as James looked at Lily upside down from his position on the floor.

"It's always a possibility when the five of you are concerned," Lily smirked. "I'll get going before Pott –"

"Evans! You look wonderful today! Is that a new haircut?"

Lily sighed. "Never mind. Rosie, join us for a few?"

So I went to sit with the girls for a while, incidentally, in the very next compartment, and indulged in some much needed girl talk.

Alice was dating a sixth year, Frank. They had known each other since they were kids, running in the pureblood circles, and he had finally asked her out to the first Hogsmeade weekend of the year.

"– and then, I snuck away to Diagon Alley, saying that Mary and I were going robes shopping, and spent the entire day with him!"

"For the record, if your mum asked my mum, she wouldn't cover for you," Mary added. Alice stuck her tongue out at her.

"Rosie, anything new with you?" Alice asked. I hesitated. Advanced potion making skills – no. Animagi transformations – no. Names relating to said transformations – definite no-no.

"Oh, you know, spent most of the time at the Potters. And we went to see Sirius's cousin Andromeda. She just had the most adorable kid –"

"Wait, Black doesn't get along with his family, right?" Caroline asked.

"This is the good cousin," I laughed. "Andy married a muggleborn after Hogwarts. But guess what! The kid, she's a metamorphmagus too!" The girls all squealed in delight, and I went on to tell them about the adorable Nymphadora Tonks.

"I;m disappointed, Rosie," Lily said after the excitement died down, shaking her head. "You see Potter and Black every day and yet you chose to spend Christmas at home with them," Lily said flatly.

I grinned. "And Lupin and Pettigrew." Lily sighed, and I laughed. "We usually jump between my place, Remus's and James's. There's also Amelia's place, but we don't go there much, just a short visit. And we spent Boxing Day at my sister's new flat."

"How is Isabelle?" Mary asked as all four of them leaned toward me. They had met Belle in the summer and she quickly became their hero-slash-lifestyle guru.

"She's doing great, really happy. Todd is very calm and quiet, so they balance out well enough." I turned to Lily. "What about Petunia?"

"Nothing new to report," Lily rolled her eyes. Petunia had not taken well to Lily's inclusion into the magical world. Isabelle had even tried talking to her several times, but the effort was futile. "She's still fawning over Vernon."

"I thought you were calling him Vermin," Alice smirked.

"I may have accidentally let that slip at dinner in front of Mum and Tuney. And Tuney may have refused to acknowledge me for the rest of the holiday. And Mum may have made me promise not to call him that again. And Dad may have high-fived me in secret when he heard about it." It took us a while to recover after that.

"So, Caroline, what's up with you?"

Caroline flashed a grin before assuming a more composed look, leaning back in her seat and examining her perfectly manicured nails. "Oh, nothing at all. Just had a quiet Christmas in Paris."

It took a second for her words to sink in before four shrieks sounded around the compartment.

"Paris!"

"Why didn't you tell us?!"

"Why didn't you take me?"

"J'aime le Paris!"

"Okay, calm down!" Caroline yelled above us all a split second before the door burst open and James, Sirius and Peter fell face first into the compartment.

"You were screaming."

"We thought something was strangling you."

Remus was standing at the door, shaking his head. "I warned you guys."

I met the gaze of the other girls. Caroline and Mary had pulled their legs up to the seat in surprise and Lily was rolling her eyes at Sirius, who was now dramatically rubbing his head.

"It's no wonder the girls think of you as childish," I said. "That was terrible."


28th February 1976

"Well guys, today's the day!"

Sirius groaned as I pulled apart the curtains to the window. It was late February, so instead of the blazing sunlight I'd imagined flooding into the room, a cloudy morning grumpily allowed a small amount of light in. Frowning, I cast a charm to mimic sunlight flooding into the dorm.

"I swear Rosie, you are too happy in the mornings!" James sat up and rubbed his eyes. Remus and Peter were still snoring. Remembering that the full moon was just two days ago, I walked past Remus's bed and jumped on Peter.

"Get up silly mouse! It's ten past eight already!" Peter opened his eyes in alarm.

"I'm up I'm up I'm up!" He pushed me off his bed and I landed noisily on the floor between his and Remus's bed. Huffing, I grabbed Remus's bedding and used it to pull myself off the ground, accidentally catching a hold of his hand and then successfully slapping myself with it.

Remus opened one eye. "Are you trying to slap yourself using my hand?"

"I'm not trying to, it's just happening somehow." I landed on him as I tripped on my feet, making him gasp as my elbow probably poked his ribs. "Sorry, Moony," I said sheepishly as I finally got to my feet. "It's Pete's fault."

"It wouldn't have happened if you weren't up so early in the morning!"

"Pete, we wake up at five every day, and it's almost time for class!"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm getting up."

"Why are you so excited anyway?" Remus yawned as he sat up and pulled out a set of robes from his trunk.

"Today is the day the potion finally gets ready!" I danced around the room and theatrically fell on Sirius. "Just two more rounds of stirring and the addition of mermaid tears and we're done with it!"

"I would appreciate this day much more if you weren't currently trying to bury me in my own bedding."

"There!" I declared, stoppering the bottle of mermaid tears and setting it down. "That's the final ingredient!"

The boys shuffled over and joined me in peering into the cauldron.

"What are we looking for?" Peter whispered.

"It should turn golden," I checked my watch, "in about sixteen seconds."

I could hear Sirius counting the seconds with Mississippis. James, who was closest to me, squeezed my hand. This was the final test. If it turned golden, then we could finish with the potions and finally start on the transfiguration section of animagi transformation. Seven months of careful potions work had gone into this, so much that I started avoiding potions classes as of late. Slughorn was certainly not amused, but if he knew what I was doing, he'd give me my NEWTs Potions grade in an instant. He would also expel me from Hogwarts, but that was a different matter.

"It's changing!" Remus whispered, eyes wide.

And it was - dark purple until just a second ago, it suddenly lightened to a glimmering golden.

My face broke into the widest grin imaginable as the boys hooted and started jumping around. Sirius lifted me by the arms and - once he dragged us away from the cauldron - started spinning me around the room.

It took another fifteen minutes for us to calm down.

"So, what now?" Peter asked.

"Now, we forget about the potion for two months while we develop our spells," James said.

"And since I'm the only one who knows Latin, you just have to write them in English and then I get to translate them," I said. James and Sirius turned to stare at me. "What?"

"You think we've just been sitting around waiting for you to finish the potion, don't you?" Sirius mussed my hair.

"What do you think we are, freeloaders?" James said with an affronted look.

"You've been working on the spells?" I asked, eyes wide.

James and Sirius glanced at each other.

"Err, no," Sirius was sheepish. And then he straightened up and cleared his throat. "Quae est scire Latine."

Remus, Peter and I looked incredulously from Sirius to James.

James just grinned. "Quis 'in a nomen? Quod dicimus Rosa alio nomine, ut suavis, ut odore illius perfruatur."

"Are you quoting Shakespeare, in Latin? You know that Shakespeare wrote in English right?"

"Pish posh, Moony, we're just doing it for the – Pearl, are you crying?"

"No," my voice hitched, and I pushed a traitorous tear out of my eye.

"Well this sort of ruins my surprise," Remus sighed theatrically.

"There's more?!" I exclaimed.

Remus got up and walked to his bed. He picked up a small notebook and tossed it to us. James caught it deftly and started flicking through it.

"No way..."

"What? What is it?" Peter was jumping in spot.

"He's been working on our spells!"

We all crawled forward for a closer look. The page James had open said 'Prongs' on the top. There was a detailed drawing of a stag, painstakingly drawn, every detail similar to the illusion we had conjured. Under it were words, lots of words, all descriptive of a stag. There were at least two pages worth of descriptors for each of us.

We looked up at Remus at the same time. He looked sheepish and embarrassed.

"It's just for reference. I haven't started on the actual spells. I'll help you on those, if you want."

"You know what this means, Rosebud?" Sirius asked.

"What?"

"Remus has finally, whole heartedly given us his consent to become Animagi."

We all looked at Remus, who looked a little sheepish. "Yeah, well, if I didn't want this happening, I'd have told Dumbledore before you made the potion."

"You wouldn't dare!" Sirius exclaimed in mock-horror, eyes going wide, hands to his mouth.

"Har-har," Remus said flatly, "the point is, as much as this may blow up in our faces, if you're willing to do this for me, I want it to work. But – " he held up his hand as James and I stopped in our tracks – we were halfway to hugging him – "anything goes wrong, and I mean anything – then we stop. Deal?"

I jumped on him anyway and held him tight. "Deal."


Lily Evans – 27th March 1976

It had been a beautiful Thursday; we had Care of Magical Creatures and Herbology, and the weather had just started clearing up, so spending time outside was not quite as daunting as it had been for the past few months. The free afternoon we had was also spent in the brisk afternoon sun, by the lake. Rosie and her boys managed to dare seven Slytherins third years to jump into the lake, all the while remaining dry themselves.

"You're the sensible one, Remus," I told him later in the common room, "you should say something!"

"I didn't see you interfering," Remus smirked, "and besides. It's full moon. I honestly didn't have the energy."

Remus had told me about his condition in third year, when we were studying werewolves in Defence. Truth be told, I had already figured it out – he disappeared on the nights of full moons, he was tired all the time, and a subtle conversation with Rosie had confirmed my suspicions – and not two days later, Remus confirmed them himself. I was glad he trusted me with his secret, but then I had to convince the idiot that I wasn't going to report him or something like that.

"Honestly Remus, you'd think I don't know what it's like to be different."

"I turn into a monster once a month, Lily. How can you be okay with that?"

"And I'm abnormal because I don't come from a long line of magic. Come on, Remus. For me, you'll always be the kid who matches socks with your cardigan and takes amazing notes."

I nodded in understanding. "Fine, Remus, but it shouldn't keep happening. Black and Potter already have detentions for tonight."

"I know, Lily," Remus sighed, and then his face tightened. "I'll tell Rosie to handle it. I think I might skip dinner," he said thoughtfully.

"Will you be alright?" I asked, concerned. "Should I get Rosie?"

"Rosie's here, what's up?" she had snuck up behind us, with Peter in tow.

"I'm going to the Hospital wing now," Remus said, wincing as he stood up. "Dang. Tonight was roast beef night."

"I'll walk with you," Peter offered, and they headed out slowly.

"I worry about him, Rosie. He looks so bad this month." I bit my lip.

"Really?" Rosie thought. "It's one of the easier months. Maybe I'm getting complacent. Come on, we're gonna miss dinner."

I packed up my things and left them there, heading down to the Great Hall. "How long have you known?"

"Since first year," Rosie said, jumping a trick step. "But last break, we –"

"We what?" I asked when she hesitated. She sighed.

"We spent the full moon in his house. We heard everything – it wasn't good." Her voice had turned to metal, and she was shaking. Her hair had turned a dangerous red, and her eyes were lightening.

"Rosie," I shook her out of whatever thoughts were running in her head. We were almost at the marble staircase, it wouldn't do face the students like that. "He'll be fine. I don't know what I'm saying, you've been observing him longer."

She threw a small smile at me, controlling her appearance as we entered the Hall and sat at the table. "I really want to do something to help him. Really help him. Find a cure. A potion that helps. Something."

"Hasn't there been any research on this?" Lycanthropy was an old condition, someone somewhere must have done some work on it. Rosie just shook her head.

"Remus says he's tried every herb, every potion out there. Nothing has helped."

"Well, then, we'll do it," I said decisively. "We'll find the cure, Rosie. You and I together."

Rosie looked up from her plate. "You mean that?" she asked hopefully. "I've wanted to do something about this since I found out. It's the reason I'm considering becoming a healer when I graduate."

"I always wanted to be a doctor," I grinned. "A healer is my best bet. And if we get into research – oh Rosie, it would change everything!"

"We still have a long time before we actually graduate," Rosie grinned, but her eyes sparkled a bright blue.

"We have something to look forward to," I argued. "And maybe we could take healing lessons with Madam Pomfrey. I've read that if there's enough interest they have a NEWT course on it."

"I'd definitely be interested," a yellow haired Rosie said, now almost jumping in her seat.

"Rosie, whatever you're excited about, calm down," Peter said, having just joined us. "People are staring."

We both looked around – indeed, some students were looking our way warily; knowing Rosie was one fifth of the infamous pranksters, it wasn't a good sign for everybody else when she looked so excited. Generally.

"Whoops," she smiled. "So Lils, it's a deal." Then she frowned. "I also want to be an Auror. Damn, this is tough."

"You have a few years to decide," I smirked. "And you can do research even if you're an Auror, no?" she laughed at that.

"We have good times coming."

I smiled, and we went back to dinner. Rosie and Peter excused themselves early – 'we usually spend full moons in the dorm, don't want to break tradition – so I joined Amelia from Ravenclaw when I finished dinner.

Once we parted ways on the way back to our respective towers, though, I was ambushed by Severus.

"Severus, what –?"

"Lily," he whispered, looking frantic. "I need to tell you something –"

"Come on, Severus, you haven't spoken to me in a month, and now – let go, Sev, you're hurting my arm." He let go immediately, looking as if I'd electrocuted him.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry Lily, I didn't mean to!"

"Relax, Sev. It's fine, what's going on."

He went back to looking frantic. "You remember when I said there was something wrong about Lupin?"

I frowned – ever since I found out about Remus, I'd tried to dissuade him from this theory of his. No matter how good a friend Sev was, Remus wouldn't want him to know. "Sev, I've told you, he goes home to see his Mum."

"Then why does he look sick all the time?" Sev challenged. "He just went out with the nurse, why would she accompany him home?"

"Sev, I don't want to hear it," I said stubbornly. "You've been going on about this forever. There's no proof."

"But I can get proof –"

"And after a month of not talking, this is what you want to talk about? I know your friends don't like that you hang out with me, but Sev, we're friends."

He looked stricken. He knew I was right – the last time we were talking Mulciber and Avery had made some comments, and Sev had avoided me since.

"I'll talk to you when I feel like it, Sev. Goodnight."