Chapter 5 – Antlers, Tails and Teeth …Oh My!

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A.N. Sorry about the formating at the end - but was not being nice and it wouldn't upload the last 15 lines or so.

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"James," asked Remus, "are you sure that you're all ready? You're all prepared?"

"Oh c'mon Remy, stop worrying. It's not like we took Polyjuice with owl feathers or something stupid," James replied as he was pulling off his shirt.

Peter whispered, "Sirius, why do we need to be undressed for this?"

Sirius responded, "Because we don't want to ruin our clothes. This is a 20 galleon shirt Peter."

"Only you would buy a 20 galleon shirt Sirius," admonished Remus.

"What wrong with it?" asked Sirius from behind his bed curtains, "I happen to have very good taste in clothes. In fact, next Hogsmade weekend Remy, you should let me-"

"No."

"Oh c'mon."

"No Sirius."

"Please? I'll even pay."

"Sirius, you know I don't care about my clothes."

"Let me take you shopping. C'mon, you know you want to say yes."

"I'm serious, you are not parading me around all the shops in Hogsmade."

"You're not Sirius, I-"

"Sirius!"

"Alright," interrupted James, "Everyone ready?"

A chorus of yes's sounded from three of the four-poster beds in the 5th year Gryffindor boy's dorm.

Remus started talking, explaining once again to his friends what they should be doing, "Alright, now you need to concentrate on your inner magical core. Visualize it," he paused for a few minutes to let them adjust, "Now you need to let your magic flow through you and let it – Sirius, what in Merlin's name are you doing over there?"

"I did it! I did it! Look!" yelled Sirius as he bounded out of his bed, completely stark naked.

James peaked out from behind his curtains, "Sirius, you're still human. And you're still naked."

"What?" Sirius looked down, "Bloody hell!"

He covered himself up with his bedspread, "But I was sure something happened! I felt it...Peter, can you please stop touching me now? It's getting rather disturbing."

"Uh, Sirius, I'm over here," said Peter across the room from his own bed.

"Well, what in the hell is touching me?"

Remus looked quizzically at Sirius, then said, "Turn around."

"What!" exclaimed Sirius, "No!"

"Sirius," Remus threatened, "turn around or I will make you."

"Fine," huffed Sirius.

Three gasps were heard as Sirius turned around.

"What? What's wrong? There's nothing wrong with me is there? I didn't lose anything?"

"Shite Sirius. You have a…a…a…" stuttered James, "tail."

"What?"

"You have a tail Sirius," repeated James.

Sirius looked up at James in astonishment, then with surprise, "James! You've got horns!"

"Huh?" said James as he reached up and touched his head, "Well, shite."

"They're antlers, not horns," Remus told them as Sirius was reaching behind him to find his tail. When he found it, he jumped with surprise.

"How come it only partly worked?" asked James.

Remus sighed, "I'm guessing that when Sirius started his transformation he got so excited that it broke off, and in turn ruined everyone's concentration. So, you all had it right, but Sirius," he glared at his friend, "got too excited. On that note, are you even listening Sirius?"

Sirius hadn't heard a word Remus had said as he was still playing with his tail, "Huh? Whatcha say Remy?"

"Why do I even bother?" Remus said to himself.

James started talking, "So, my form is some sort of deer, a stag probably. Sirius, you have to be a dog or wolf," He suddenly realized Peter was silent and still hiding behind the curtains of his bed, "Peter, why are you hiding? Come on out so we can see what you're going to be."

Peter came out slowly, he was fully dressed, "Nothing happened. Like usual, I can't do anything."

"Peter," said Sirius, "what's wrong with your teeth? They look a little, well, odd."

Peter opened his mouth and James, Sirius and Remus saw that he had enlarged front teeth.

"You got rodent teeth Petey!" James said.

Peter looked elated, "You mean it worked?" His friends nodded.

"I can do something!" Peter was positively glowing with joy.

Remus suddenly realized something, "You all realize we still have to go down for supper, right?"

"Oh no," whispered Peter, "We are going to be in so much trouble."

James said, "Let's go see Professor McGonagall. She's an animagus, so hopefully she can tell us how to fix this."

The four of them clambered down the dormitory stairs. They received many odd glances and stares from their housemates as they walked through their common room and down the hallway to McGonagall's office. Finally, they were there. Remus knocked gently on the door.

As the door opened Professor McGonagall started speaking, "What is it? I am really quite – Good gracious! What happened?"

James spoke, "We're really sorry Professor McGonagall, but we were trying the animagus transformation and something went a little wrong."

"You four should have not been even trying it in the first place! Why, don't you know what can go wrong?"

"Yes Professor McGonagall, but we just wanted to try. And Remus wasn't a part of this. He didn't even know about it until he walked into our dorm room."

"Well," said Professor McGonagall, "you three are in serious trouble. You all have detention with me for the next two weeks starting tomorrow for this little, stunt of yours."

"Uh," said Sirius, "how do we change back?"

Professor McGonagall looked at Sirius, "In the half-changed form, you cannot change back. You have to wait it out. You should revert back to you're normal selves in 8 to 10 hours. Now, I believe it is time for supper."

With that Professor McGonagall began walking to the Great Hall, leaving the four boys standing in front of her door.

"Well," said James, "that was better, and worse, than I expected."

"James, stop talking in riddles," Sirius pleaded.

"We only got detention-"

"What do you mean we ONLY got detention? That's horrible!"

"We could have been expelled Sirius. We were trying something dangerous that could potentially harm the other students."

"Well, when you look at it like that. And did you swallow Remy's rule book or something?"

"No, I used something called my head Sirius."

"Hey now, there's no reason to be demeaning."

"I'm not being demeaning, it's true. You don't think with your head. You think with something decidedly lower."

"I do not."

"Alright then, what do you think of Felicia Abbott?"

Sirius' tail started wagging and he started drooling, "Mmmmm, Felicia. Nice legs, perfect Quidditch player, a beautifully big set of-"

"SIRIUS!"

"Oh, sorry."

"My point."

"Fine. You win."

Peter asked James, "If getting detention was good, what's bad?"

James replied, "That McGonagall couldn't fix us."

"Oh."

"Let's just go down to supper," Remus told his friends.

"Well," said Sirius, "looks like we get to be the center of attention."

"Again," added Remus.

The four of them set off for a supper that would go down in the history of Hogwarts. As soon as they entered the Great Hall, everyone stopped talking to stare and whisper. The four walked to the Gryffindor table, with Sirius' tail wagging when noticed a group of Hufflepuff girls (including Felicia Abbott), giggling and pointing at his tail.

A couple of minutes into supper, the antics started.

"Sirius, don't you have any manners at all?" questioned Remus.

"What? There's nothing wrong with how I'm eating."

"There's juice dribbling down your shirt."

"You're right Remy," said James, "and it's making me absolutely nauseous."

"Well, deer are vegetarian James."

"But I like meat!"

"Too bad for you."

"Shut up Sirius."

Sirius noticed Peter gnawing on his food, and saw that there was almost an entire loaf of bread on the plate in front of his friend.

"You okay there Petey?"

"Perfectly. This stuff tastes really good."

There was a screech from the girls sitting next to James. It appeared that he speared some food onto his antlers and was now picking it off to eat it.

"James," said Remus, "that's almost as disgusting as the display Sirius put on earlier."

"Hey!" "That's not true!"

"I think it's rather clever."

"Why do I even bother?"

"Those could be quite useful, Prongs."

"What did you call me Sirius?"

"Prongs."

"I like it."

"Som du is."

"What was that Peter?"

Peter finished chewing and swallowed, "So do I."

"Alright, so I'm Prongs. Sirius, what could we call you and Peter?"

"What about Tails? And Whiskers?"

"No."

"Why not Remy?"

"Can you even hear yourself?"

"Yes, and I sound quite fine."

"Why do I even bother?"

"How about Padfoot? Because of, you know, soft feet, and the sneaking."

"Hey, that's actually a good idea Peter. Good one."

"Thanks James."

"Hey, what about Peter though?"

"Teeth?"

"Sneak?"

"Small?"

"Nah."

Sirius thought for a minute, then he got a look on his face reminiscent of the one he had after being on a broom for the first time, "What about Wormtail?"

"How does that work Sirius?"

"Well, rats and mice have ringed skinny, hairless tails. Worms are ringed, skinny and hairless. So Wormtail."

"It's the best they've come up with so far Remus."

"I know Peter but still…"

"It's not that bad."

"So, Prongs, Padfoot and Wormtail."

"Hey Remy, you need a name."

"I do not need a juvenile name Sirius."

"You know, you're right Padfoot. Remy does need a name."

Sirius started to snicker.

"What Sirius?"

"How about Moony?"

"That is not funny Sirius."

"Oh c'mon Remy, it's descriptive."

"Ya Moony, stop being a spoilsport."

"Fine."

"So, we each have names. But what should we call ourselves as a group?" said Peter.

"Hm," James scratched his antlers, "What about the Adventurers?"

"Nah, sounds lame Prongs. What about the Enterprisers?"

"We should have never let Lily introduced you to that muggle television show Sirius."

"What? There's nothing wrong with it."

Remus sighed, "Oh Sirius. What about we call ourselves 'The Marauders'?"

"What's a marauder Moony?"

"It's a person or a group of people who go out on a quest for plunder."

"What's plunder?"

"Good grief Sirius, you don't know what plunder is?"

"No, I don't know Moony."

"Plunder, riches, loot, booty-"

"Booty?" Sirius said wide-eyed, with his tail wagging at a furious pace, "Where?"

"Oh for the love of Merlin! You've set him off again Remus!"

"Sorry James."

After they had gotten Sirius calmed down, the four 'marauders' went back to Gryffindor Tower . They settled into the common room to play some Exploding Snap to pass the time until they became fully human again. However, things didn't exactly go that smoothly. In other words, most of the female Gryffindor population wanted to see Sirius' tail.

"Oh, it's so cute!" gushed a couple of third-year girls. Sirius preened and his tail started wagging again, bringing with it a chorus of 'ooohs' and 'ahhhs'.

"Alright Waggy, that's enough for you," said James as he hauled Sirius up to their dormitory, with Remus and Peter left to fend off the masses of girls trying to follow Sirius up to his bed.

Remus, James and Peter finally convinced Sirius to just go to sleep after half an hour. After the others were sure Sirius was sleeping, (his tail was wagging yet again), they went to sleep.

The next morning, the whole of Gryffindor House was awakened by a yell from James, "SIRIUS!"

Sirius just walked down the stairs to the common room, with his tail wagging.