Somehow, I passed the test. I was confident that if they hadn't called me out on being a registered werewolf I did well enough for them to pass me, but I was unsure after they'd tried to not let me even try to take it.

Sirius and James passed as well, both with no complications of course. No one told them they couldn't do it.

They're not freaks like you.

I tried to push that thought out of my head and listened to James talk about a party in the common room for celebration.

"But what about the people who were too young to do it, and people in younger years? And even worse, what about the people who failed?" I said.

"The only year that did it was ours," said Sirius. "We all passed except Wormtail but he didn't have a choice, he's too young. And everyone else, they'd just like the excuse for a party. So let's get wasted."

"Padfoot..." I said. "It's a school night."

"'It's a school night'," James mimicked.

"I'm serious. We only have a few months left of sixth year, we don't want to go to school hungover when we're at one of the most important points in our academic lives!"

"God, you're such a nerd, Moony," Sirius said as the three of us came into the dormitory to tell Peter the good news.

"Plus, it's fine," said James. "We're all of age except Wormtail. And the kids in younger years, but that's their choice."

"What's their choice?" Peter asked. He was plopped onto his four-poster, looking at the marauder's map. "How'd your tests go?"

"We all passed," said Sirius. "So, we want to throw a party tonight. But Moony's being a bit of a worry wart."

"Well, I am a prefect," I said.

"Well... it's just in the comfort of our common room," said Peter. "Nothing overly terrible could happen, Moony."

"He's not worried about that," said James. "He's worried about our academic lives."

Peter stifled a laugh. "Well, I'm a lost cause for that. Let's do it. Let's have a party."

"Three against one, then, Moony," said Sirius, giving me a stupid smile.

I just rolled my eyes and said, "Whatever."

I wasn't seventeen and a half yet, which the original agreement around drinking with my parents was, but when Sirius, James, and I snuck into Hogsmeade to buy several huge bottles of Firewhiskey, the guy behind the counter looked at us all questioningly, then asked for all our names so he could search us in the wizarding system.

James and Sirius happily told the guy their names, but I found my stomach flip at the thought of that, after all, that had happened in the past month. So, I just muttered, "Sorry, it's not for me... I just accompanied them. I'm sixteen."

I wasn't sure if the guy believed me or not, but he let my friends and I go, and we went back towards Honeydukes and our entrance back into school.

"Wait," said James as we passed a store that sold flowers and chocolates. "Remember that girl Cynthia Baxter? She was getting something for her crush for Valentine's day, and well, look at this shop."

I looked to the side of it. There indeed was an alleyway down the side of the shop that a person could fit.

"You don't think...?"

"It looks like it," James said. "Let's check it out."

"Check it out!?" Sirius cried. "Prongs, are you insane? A girl died down there."

"Maybe she didn't die," said James. "Did they ever find her body?"

"Yes, they did," I said through gritted teeth. "Come on, let's go."

"We've got the invisibility cloak," said James.

"Prongs, no," I said, stuffing my hands into the pockets of my trousers to hide that they were shaking.

"But we could catch who killed her."

"No." Sirius gripped James's arm and dragged him towards Honeydukes. "We came down here for one reason and one reason only. And that reason was not to become murder mystery detectives."

I threw the invisibility cloak over the three of us and crouched down so our feet wouldn't be seen, then Sirius and I took James into Honeydukes, then past the counter and into the cellar.

Once again, I was right, and my friends were wrong. The morning after the party, some of us could barely even walk to the Great Hall for breakfast. As we finally sat down, Peter and James began complaining that they felt too sick to go to class.

"What did I tell you?" I said, laying my head on the cool table.

"Why don't we listen to you more often, Moony?" Sirius groaned, circling his cereal around with his spoon.

"I don't know, why don't you?" I said, not lifting my head to face him.

The bell rang, and almost everyone in the older years at the Gryffindor table groaned and got up, trudging slowly toward our classrooms.

As we began May, all the focus of the school was on the upcoming exams, and, of course, the final Quidditch game of the year, Gryffindor against Ravenclaw, which would take place at the end of the month.

While James and Sirius trained with the team, and Peter once again slacked off from studying for the exams, I spent countless hours with Lily in the library, helping each other revise everything we'd learned over the year.

"Do you want to be Head Boy?" Lily asked me as we did a practice exam for Transfiguration together, which I was not enjoying at all because it was the afternoon of a full moon and I was struggling to concentrate.

"I don't know, I haven't really thought about it," I said. "Why?"

"Well, Head Boy and Head Girl are ninety-nine percent of the time the prefects, and I've asked the girls who are prefects in our year from other houses, and none of them are interested. Which means it will probably be me. And I don't want to be working with... with Snape."

"Yeah, that'd suck," I said. "I dunno, to be honest. Being a prefect was alright, I wasn't too fond of having to stay up late to walk around the school, besides the fact that I just got to talk to you, it was tiring."

"Head Boy would be pretty much the same, but you're in charge of all the prefects and pretty much the whole student body, not just Gryffindor," said Lily.

"Oh, god..." I said. "Maybe not then. It sounds like a lot of pressure."

"Maybe," Lily shrugged. "It would be good to have up your sleeve when trying to get a job in the future."

"Oh, yeah..." I said. I knew it wouldn't change my chances of getting a good job.

"Anyway, we got distracted," said Lily. "I'm going to fail this exam at this point..."

"Yeah, right."

Tears were pouring down my face, and I couldn't control them or stop them, nor could I control how much I was trembling. I'd locked myself in the dormitory bathroom as soon as I'd finished studying with Lily. There was less than an hour left before I'd have to go down to the shack. I'd thought that everything that had happened during that course was behind me thanks to my friends, but now they were circling through my head because the other marauders would be there with me, and I was so scared that I was going to hurt them, and I knew I was going to hurt them because I was nothing more than a dangerous beast, especially on a full moon. Hence why I couldn't stop myself from uncontrollably sobbing, locked up in the bathroom of my dormitory.

The other three would be back soon, and they'd expect me to be here, so we could all leave at the same time, me to Madam Pomfrey, them straight to the Shrieking Shack. So, I had to calm down. They weren't going to see me like this if I could help it.

It's OK, I thought to myself. Just because you've been told that you're dangerous, which you are, if it's been fine in the past, it will be fine this time.

I circled those words around in my head over and over until I'd calmed down enough to stop myself from shaking. Feeling ridiculous, I washed the tears off my face.

So dangerous, I thought to myself, I'm so dangerous that I'm crying like a baby.

When I was sure that the other marauders wouldn't be able to tell that I'd just had a mental breakdown, I came out of the bathroom to see them waiting for me.

This will be fine.

A few days after the full moon (which went completely fine), we began to learn the Patronus Charm. When the teacher told us at the start of the lesson, James couldn't contain his excitement.

"The Patronus charm! YES!" James screamed out. Lily laughed, which caused James to go red.

"Yes, Mr. Potter," said our teacher. "We are beginning to learn the Patronus charm today. So, to cast the Patronus charm, you need to think of your happiest memories. The incantation is Expecto Patronum. Now, a fully formed Patronus is the most powerful. That will be your animal. But don't expect to be able to cast that even this year. If you ever are able to cast a fully formed Patronus charm, that will happen well into your seventh year. But many witches and wizards are never able to do that. It is one of the hardest spells to master. So, everyone pair up and take turns pretending to be a dementor, and trying to cast it on each other."

"I should pair with Evans..." James said, but Lily was already pairing up with Amy Stebbins. "Oh..."

"Should've been quicker, Prongs," said Sirius. "Come on, be with me."

"Ew, no," James said sarcastically. "Not you. I want to partner with Moony."

"Fine, I'll be with Wormtail, then," Sirius said, his sarcastic tone matching James's. "Didn't want to be with you anyway."

So James and I walked away from the other two, both pulling our wands out. James said, "You can go first if you want."

"Prongs, I'm not the one pissing myself," I said. "I know you want to."

James didn't hesitate for a second. He pointed his wand at me and bellowed, "Expecto Patronum!"

A silvery mist appeared from his wand and flew towards me. My jaw dropped at the sight of it.

"What the hell!?" I cried. "You did it! First go!"

"You try," he said.

I drew my own wand and tried to think of a happy memory. I imagined the day I'd been told I was allowed to go to Hogwarts despite the fact that I was a werewolf, then said, "Expecto Patronum!"

Nothing happened, and I felt my heart fall a little. Of course not. Nothing worked for my first go.

"Hey, most people don't get it the first go, remember?" James said. "Try again. Maybe try a different memory."

"Alright..." I said, then pictured the day I'd met the other marauders. "Expecto Patronum!" Nothing. "Do you want to just try again?"

By the end of the lesson, James hadn't formed a full-form Patronus, but he had, however, got pretty damn close. Meanwhile, me and the rest of the class had achieved nothing.

Typical James Potter.