DISCLAIMER: We do not own Harry Potter, the characters or anything related to it. However, we do own our imagination as well as our OC.
The doors to the girls' dorms swung open and Lily Evans entered The Common Room, her eyes glowing dangerously, wand raised. She quickly spotted an innocently snoring boy, who was lying on the couch with his nose stuck between pages of an open book. The redhead rushed toward him, muttering curses under her breath.
"Aguamenti." A stream of water flooded all over poor sleeping Peter Pettigrew, who woke up with a start, screaming and unsuccessfully trying to save his books from destruction.
"Where the hell is Potter?" Lily hissed.
"My potions essay, it's all ruined! And it's due to tomorrow!" whined the chubby boy. Seeing the work of his whole afternoon demolished didn't exactly make his day. And there were other places he should be right now, like with his friends. "What was that for?"
"I don't care about your bloody essay, Pettigrew. Just tell me where that idiot Potter is!" Lily shouted, tiny red sparks erupting from the end of her wand warningly. Peter for his part was too terrified to think clearly so he just kept staring at her with his eyes wide and mouth formed in the shape of an O."You will tell me, you little rat!"
At those words Peter shivered - how does she know? - but he muttered something incoherently.
"What? Speak up!" In the matter of seconds Lily's wand was on Peter's chest, what surely would leave some bruises, and he felt completely petrified, words stuck in his throat.
"In the Re-req-quirement Room," he managed at last, stammering. Lily ran out without even a word of apology.
A thought of warning James and Sirius crossed his mind for a brief second, yet the vision of their Potions teacher, professor Horace Slughorn, taking points from the House was too overwhelming. And so Peter had to work hard to recall all the Drying Spells they had learnt in their third year to put them into action. As the vision of starting to write the essay from the scratch wasn't appealing at all he sat there for a long time trying different spells to save his filled with book definitions composition.
When he finally managed to make the parchment look exactly as it did before the encounter with Lily he realised that it was much too late to run to his friends, to actually warn them about the storm that was about to hit, he felt a ping of regret in his chest. Yet he made no move towards the door; looking accusingly at the paper before him, he laid on the crimson and too comfortable to resist resting in sofa and closed his eyes. I'll lose my eyes just a moment and then do something more useful. A moment later loud snores filled the room.
Meanwhile, in the aforementioned room James Potter and his friend, Sirius Black, were practising their transformation into Animagi as they had been doing for the last three years. Every once in a while (and definitely more often than their teachers would hope) they used to skip classes and lock themselves up in the first abandoned classroom they could possibly find, spending long hours desperately trying to improve their abilities. But it's not like they remembered about their little private sessions only when the full moon was approaching for they didn't. Every spare moment was devoted to that, their most difficult and most highly-desired goal, despite the fact that numerous homework and exhausting Quidditch trainings effectively limited their leisure time. And being school's greatest pranksters also had its consequences.
Of course those were not the only problems they had to face. What was even more important, the whole transformation was extremely difficult and dangerous. One wrong move and they might have got seriously injured and it was not exactly their aim. Every time something went wrong they had to deal with the consequences of their actions as, for example, going around the school with animal limbs, which was not something normal, even in a wizardry school.
It all started quite a while ago, in the beginning of the second year, when they found out that their friend, Remus Lupin, was not only one of the brightest students in the year group but also a werewolf. They were fed up with his constant excuses that he was going to visit his sick mother, or attending his grandfather's funeral. After all, how many grandpas could one person have? And so, being the people they were, they started to observe Remus more carefully. Sirius even started a special "Padfoot's Notepad" where he wrote down all his conclusions.
***
One day, almost four years ago, Sirius dragged James and Peter to The Requirement Room in the middle of breakfast. Despite Peter's complaints about the fact he was missing out on really good food and James' quizzical looks he didn't say a word until they reached their destination.
"He's a werewolf," Sirius finally burst out.
"He's a - WHAT?!" James looked more lost than ever.
"You know, we-re-wolf, full moon and so on." When James only looked at him incredulously, Sirius pressed on. "He's got a little furry problem!"
"But who?" inquired Wormtail, but no one was actually listening to him, as his friends were excitedly consulting every thing they knew about werewolves and comparing conclusions.
When Sirius saw the oblivious expression on Pete's face he said quickly, "Oh, Peter, you little idiot, Remmy of course!"
"Bloody hell, that explains a lot. How did you figure it out?" asked the still-startled James, completely ignoring Pete's comment.
"That was simple, he's always tired and bruised after his little escapades, not to mention the fact he's always going out during the full moon, this little Moony of ours," said Sirius grinning. Giving nicknames to his friends had always come easily to him, and not even realising it, he made up a name that they would still use years after that conversation."Coincidence, of course, right?"
James smiled back at him knowingly, but Peter still looked quite amazed by the creative abilities of his friend. "So what are we doing now?" he finally managed.
"What do you mean?" asked James, already very excited. "We, my dear gentlemen, are going to help him!"
"But how?" Peter was as clueless as ever. How could he help his werewolf friend when he hardly managed to pass his exams...? Perhaps he should buy him some chocolate or something, he though and drifting into more pleasure dreams which contained lots of pumpkin pies, whipped cream and definitely no werewolves.
***
And that's how they ended up, three years later, practicing every weekend whenever none of them had a date, preparing their little Animagi gift for Remus. They had to be extremely secretive since they didn't want to spoil the surprise but when the next full moon approached they would finally be ready to accompany him to the Shrieking Shack where Remmy told them he went every month. That would be their birthday present for him.
All of a sudden there was a loud slam as Lily burst furiously into the room. Pure rage made her face glow and her eyes sparkle. Completely startled, James stared at her, taking in her beauty, completely oblivious to her current mood. His daydream of a cosy home, wild sex and lots of babies was shattered by the high-pitched voice of the redhead. This cannot be good, he thought.
"You filthy animal, you complete idiot, what the hell did you do with my..." Lily was well on her way to bursting her lungs simply from yelling but suddenly she stopped, struck by what was going on before her eyes. "Why the hell do you have antlers?"
James looked puzzled and shot a begging look to Sirius who was laughing uncontrollably. He's never much of a help when needed, thought James resentfully. "Oh, I do?" he asked with fake astonishment written on his face.
"Yup, don't act so surprised," said Sirius in between laughs. "After all, you are Prongs."
At first everyone was intrigued with those nicknames they had, asking all the time what was the origin yet they never gave the real answer. Even Remus after a while of inquiring where the names came from gave up, seeing he would not achieve a thing. A thought of his friends doing something as stupid as becoming Animagi did cross his mind. But who would believe in such a thing, even Sirius and James were not that irresponsible.
Thanks mate, that helps a damn lot. I hope you have a good reason for that, thought James angrily.
Obviously Sirius didn't as he was just improvising to get them some more time to think up a clever excuse. "Well, my dear Miss Evans," he finally started, "You caught us red-handed, what can we say to defend ourselves? Surely your call of duty will lead you now to one of our professors, to whom you'll sincerely confess our little secret, which turns up to be nothing more than a little gift to cheer up our recently so badly-experienced friend. Now, what do you say?" At this point Sirius lowered his head in fake sadness.
Lily shifted nervously, not really knowing how to respond to that one before reminding herself why she was there and saying, "If you would finally stop marauding and tell me what you had done with my bloody diary…"
James and Sirius exchanged a significant look. "Marauders," a sudden realization hit them at the same time as they both cheerfully shouted, "Lily, you're a genius!"
The emerald-eyed girl gave them a puzzled look and started hesitantly "As to my diary…" making the boys' smiles fade instantly.
"We don't have it." James' voice came hard and somewhat hurt.
"And even if we had it, we wouldn't tell you, would we?" Sirius logically pointed out, swinging his wand indifferently.
Lily just stared at them for a while then stormed out without a word, shutting the door with such a force that the mirror hanging on the nearest wall shuttered into millions of tiny pieces. Sudden silence in the room became awkward. Sirius thought about a little black book which one of Lily's friends had shown him earlier. "Quite an interesting read if you want to know. Very surprising…" she had said, grinning at Sirius.
"I don't think that a simple Reparo can fix that," James said hesitantly. And he didn't mean only his prongs.
It was a rollercoaster ride, with the two of them. One day she would actually praise him with a smile, and those days were the best ones in James' dictionary, and the other time she would shout at him all day long, just because of a single glance he dared to have at her. Yet whenever he came to talk to her, no matter what he would do, James always did something wrong, grinned at her too cheekily or what he said had a wrong note in it, a tone of conceitedness, and Lily just couldn't stand it. Still, James wasn't willing to give up on his favourite redhead and kept trying to win her heart over.
Sirius considered something for a moment then he looked up. "I'll be right back," he said and sprinted out of the room.
James just shrugged. "Sure, why not. I'll stay here all alone and search for some cure for my poor prongs," he sighed and scratched the antlers that were now adorning his head.
Sirius reached the Gryffindor tower in barely two minutes, beating his own personal record by thirteen seconds, and hoping that the girl he was looking for was inside. To his great disappointment the only person present in the Common Room was sleeping Peter, again.
"Pete," shouted Sirius, already impatient, his breath ragged from the run. The sleeping boy covered up his ears and mumbled something about, yes, you got it right – sleep, incoherently. Slightly irritated Sirius tilted his head shooting Peter an apologetic look. "Rictusempra."
If there was any way of waking worse that being tickled to death, Peter didn't know about it. His body was suddenly twisting on the couch, taking sudden breaths in between bursts of hysterical laughter. "Stop," he cried at last and the charm stopped at once. "Why always me?" he grumbled unhappily. "Isn't it possible to get same well-earned sleep in this damn castle?"
"Where's Isabelle?" Sirius ignored Peters' nasty comment and looked at the poor boy impatiently. He could deal with Peter later: now the most important thing was to find Isabelle. And Lily's diary, of course. There must be something good written in it and perhaps… if Lily's so determined to get it back, so was he. Peter glared at him and muttered. "Try the library."
When the words came out of Peters' mouth Sirius was already by the portrait hole shouting "Thank you, mate," in Peter's direction. This time he didn't have to flee as if a Dementor was chasing him. After all she was just a girl, and damn right, he knew to deal with them all. With an already planned conversation in his mind he slammed the library's door hard against the frame and many heads shot up, hushing him with accusing looks in their eyes. He searched through the tables looking for a certain chestnut-haired girl. When he spotted her he walked slowly, until he was just a few steps away and grinning slightly.
Girls definitely weren't anything new to him. Thanks to James' obsession with Lily, which he developed in their first year, Sirius started to value females' features quite early. The feeling seemed mutual. He couldn't fail to notice their reaction to him, which included delighted sighs when he was looking at them, fluttering eyelashes and sudden clumsiness. Sirius knew he had some amount of power over girls and also knew how to use it well. Despite all these facts he took a deep breath before stepped forward.
"Why, hello Isabelle," said Sirius in his special low 'mature' voice, reserved only for girls. "Mind if I take you a minute?" Isabelle jerked her head up from the book she was reading. When she saw the raven-haired boy she set herself up and smiled.
"Course not. What is it?" she asked.
"I was wondering if you still have this diary you showed me in the morning. I think I might be actually interested in reading it." He placed his hand on the table just behind the girl and leaned closer towards her.
"You came around eventually?" Isabelle turned to look Sirius in the eyes. He nodded. The girl has a temper. "Okay, but you'll have to give me something in return for the favour," she winked at him, "A date. Next Hogsmeade weekend when we don't have such a freaky amount of homework to do." The girl tilted her head toward the table, which was groaning under the weight of thick dusty books and unrolled parchments.
"I'll let you know," Sirius replied, a bit uneasily. Why that could be, he didn't have the slightest idea. Isabelle didn't seem to notice the change in his tone and added:
"As for the diary. Let's meet at midnight in the Common Room."
"Very well then. I'll leave you now." The girl threw him a surprised look. "I'm sure you have a lot to do and I won't disturb." Sirius said by way of explanation and with those words he left the library.
He headed to the Requirement Room planning to help James to get rid of his deer form's resemblance. On his way up there he ran across - what a coincidence - Remus and a slightly irritated James, unfortunately or fortunately, he couldn't decide, without prongs. They were discussing something, the boy in glasses gesticulating furiously while the other shaking his head in an I'm-sure-you-did manner. Whatever James was up to couldn't be good, at least for Sirius if not for himself. The last time Sirius saw him so hyper they all ended up getting a detention. One full month of detention. Cleaning up bathrooms without magic wasn't exactly his favourite activity in the world. No excuses, no mercy. Not again!
He walked to them waving and smirking, trying not to look suspicious. He failed of course, as his friends knew him better than he knew himself.
"Sirius, where were you?" exclaimed Remus as he approached. He seemed to be annoyed and looked as if he wanted to hit Sirius with the book he was holding in his hand. A very thick book, I might add. "We've been looking for you everywhere!" Oh, obviously, thought Sirius, meaning James. The golden-eyed boy continued, pure sarcasm in his voice, "Some bloody Slytherin had grown antlers on James' head and I had to remove them."
Slytherin? I wouldn't accuse you of such creativity, Prongs. Sirius grinned at the black-haired boy at what James could only shrug. It wasn't a particularly good excuse, at least not for such a smart person as Remus. He suspects something's going on. Sirius wasn't happy with that thought. Now they would have to make up another story to quieten his suspicions. But to Sirius' relieve or perhaps disappointment Remus dropped the subject. That again was strange.
"Anyway, James just told me about some diary. What's going on?" Remus asked, curiosity in his voice.
"How much do you know by now?" As the golden-haired boy answered Sirius started to tell the whole story, of course skipping the part when they were practicing in the Requirement Room, as they continued through corridors toward the lawns.
And later, when they reached the lake he told them about his genius plan, omitting such unimportant details as his upcoming date. Sirius expected James to be at least happy, if not exhilarated. The scolding look he received from Remus didn't surprise him at all; it was James' face that suddenly made him stop speaking.
Bewildered, James looked at his best friend disbelievingly, not knowing whether to jump for joy or smack his friend's head with en extremely heavy object. Sirius' words were still ringing in his ears as clearly as if now spoken and would haunt him for the next weeks.
"You did... WHAT?"
James must have picked the second option. An hour ago he was convincing, or rather miserably trying to convince, Lily that he had absolutely nothing to do with disappearance of her diary and now... "She's going to kill us, literally kill us, when she finds out!"
"If she finds out, Prongs. Don't be such a drama queen," mocked him Sirius. "Oh come on!" He was practically dragging the black-haired boy back to the Common Room even though they still had plenty of time to get there. Five hours, to be exact.
"James is right," Remus said, looking up from behind his book. He needed to stop them before the situation had a chance to get out of hands. To be honest, he did it quite often. "Sirius, don't you think that James' chances to actually ever date Lily would drop quite drastically if she caught him red-handed?" If he has any, this unspoken sentence was hanging in the chilly autumn air.
"Why do you care so much, Prongs?" The question was out of Sirius' lips before he could think twice. He almost suspected James, today's edgy and unpredictable James, to pounce on him or at least hex him. But none of it happened. "Why is she so special?"
James' voice was unsure when he finally spoke, yet somehow more mature and deeper. Just as every single time he was speaking about her.
"I don't know, Pads," he answered the question that his friends kept asking him through years, "It's just - I don't know, she's beautiful. Not that it really matters after all, but still, nice to have a pair of decent legs around," Remus sent him a disapproving look from over a thick book he had been reading all the evening. "And she's smart. She's the smartest person I've ever met, excluding the company of present here Mr. Moony, of course," he added with admiration in his voice. Remus looked up and sent him a sheepish yet grateful smile, then came back to his book. "There's a lot of small things that make her so special..." James' voice trailed off.
"Ok, I can understand that," said Sirius, shifting himself to a comfortable position on the grass. "But why do you keep chasing and teasing her at every possible occasion? And, no offense," James looked at him warningly, but the raven-haired boy just waved it off and continued, "If I was to experience, regularly, her answer to your attention, I would seriously consider changing my object of admiration."
"But what can I do? I've tried everything but she still despises me," James looked somewhat like a little lost puppy. It was one of those rare times when he realized the idiocy of the situation he had dragged himself into.
"That's what we're going to find out," said Sirius mischievously. And that moment James' face lit up, all his doubts forgotten, agreeing on Sirius' plan happily.
James, Sirius, Remus and Peter were still sitting in their dormitory when the old clock announced half past eleven.
"We can't do it! It's a private thing and we have no right to open it. Moreover, we don't even have the smallest excuse to read Lily's diary!" Remus was whispering angrily, although only their four was sharing this dorm and none of them was sleeping. Maybe it was just the atmosphere of Hogwarts at night. Streams of moonlight spilling on the cold stone floors through great windows, high ceilings, distant echoes of portrait's whispers… Yeah, that could make one intimidated. Nervous even, considering all those ghosts floating in the corridors.
Still, they were lying comfortable on their beds, torches in the walls dimmed, and the four of them had been discussing their current situation for some time now.
"But Moony," whined Sirius shifting impatiently. "Who said we are going to read it? We'll just have a little look at the front page." Remus sent him doubtful look, so Sirius hurried on. "Just to make sure it's Lily's."
"But earlier you said we would read it," complained Peter before Sirius could stop him. They had told him the whole story a few hours ago and he still seemed excited about it.
"What?!" shouted Remus, now furious. "We do no such thing!"
"Course not, Mr. Perfect," Sirius assured him, smiling brightly, though inwardly struggling to keep himself cool and not kill Wormtail on the spot. "Peter obviously didn't mean it, right Pete?" He looked at the chubby boy meaningfully. "He's just had too much for dinner and now has problems with his stomach."
"I don't." grumbled Wormtail and folded his arms, yet said nothing more.
"We'll do as I said," continued Sirius and looked at James, who was suspiciously silent all evening. He was flipping through some Quidditch magazine pretending not to listen to them but Sirius could tell that he seemed concerned, if nothing more.
The clock tolled midnight. "We'd better be going," said Sirius getting to his feet. The other boys followed him, Remus frowning, Peter giggling excitedly and James, well, with a blank expression on his face.
When they reached the Common Room the girls had already been waiting for them, impatience written on their faces. If Lily saw them now, with her diary in hands, she would hex them, surely. The last time when Lily was cross with Isabelle, it took her a week to turn her hair back to brown. And she had been telling Lily that bubblegum pink was not really her colour!
Somebody who didn't know her well would say she was calm and certain that her choice was right. After all that was just a diary and the information inside couldn't harm anyone, could it? She was nervously playing with her chestnut locks, pacing room back and forth, shooting anxious glances at Angela, every five seconds. Was it because of guilt or fear that Sirius backed out from their deal, I cannot tell. She didn't usually act like that around guys, using her best friends' secrets as bait. It seemed hardly fair. Okay, it didn't sound fair at all! But she had an eye on Sirius since like, forever, and she was determined.
"Sit down," groaned Angela with pure boredom in her eyes. "You're making me dizzy," Isabelle sat obediently on the edge of the armchair, glancing at the door. When she finally heard them crack open she jumped to her feet automatically.
"I almost thought you changed your mind," said Isabelle smiling shyly, still unsure of her actions. She saw Sirius' questioning look and her fingers wandered to the pocket of her dressing gown and pulled back the little black book. The girl looked at the diary hesitantly, suddenly all her doubts flooding her.
"Do you need…" His eyes grazed her figure hungrily. Damn, I've not had a girlfriend for a really long time if I'm saying this! "Reassurance?" His friends looked at him questioningly, yet Isabelle seemed to be contemplating the offer, biting her lip.
"Your proposition's really tempting," she said, laughing sweetly. "But I don't think it's necessary." Sirius shot her a bewildered look. Since when did any girl say 'no' to him? To Sirius? The concept seemed rather ridiculous. Irrational even. Damn it, impossible! With another sweet smile she added,"Well, if anything goes wrong I am not to blame." But yet she didn't make any move to give it to the boy.
Suddenly, the diary was out of her hands and Angela handed it to Sirius throwing Isabelle a long annoyed glare. "If you two wanna flirt, or rather snog, from what I see, then nobody's stopping you. Just cut the act already." All the Marauders except for Sirius were astonished and looked at Sirius and Isabelle, confused. Was there something going on and they didn't know?
Sirius for his part had pure bewilderment painted on his face. Did she really say it out loud? After a second or two he regained his composure and grinned cockily at Angela. Nobody messed with Sirius' head, especially not a girl.Without even realising it his eyes shifted on Isabelle, who was laughing a chime-like laughter, her eyes sparkling playfully.
"Hmmm… A snogging session would do you some good, Pads," James shot him a cheeky grin. The raven-haired boy couldn't believe it; even his best friend was against him. He's so ungrateful, Sirius thought angrily. I get him Lily's diary, risk my reputation and…
All of the sudden the book left his hands, as if summoned. He looked around in utter confusion and spotted an extremely furious redhead standing in the doorway, practically fuming. Nobody dared to move, to breathe even. Lily was glaring at them, her wand sparkling threateningly. A stream of pink light reached Isabelle turning her brown hair to rich purple shade. The girl raised a strand with slightly trembling fingers. When she saw the colour, she sighed, relieved. It could have been worse. Much worse.
"Hey, it's damn much better than the last time," she shot her just a bit annoyed friend a brief smile, trying not to push Lily too hard. "So, who's next?" a cheeky smile appeared on Isabelle's lips. "Just please, keep your voice down. You'll wake everyone up! And besides, I really don't want to see McGonagall now, no matter what." At this one, Lily lowered her voice considerably.
"I could expect that much from her," she threw an accusing look towards Isabelle, the retort ignored, anger in her voice rising a little. "But I didn't expect it from you!" She was pointing her wand, still sparkling dangerously, at Angela.
"Stop waving that stick at me," Angela said her plea in mocking tone. "It's freaking me out!"
"It damn should," the redhead growled, though not with as much force as before.
It might have looked as if Lily's friends didn't care, as if they thought that the situation was insignificant, trifling with her. True, they were playing with fire but it wasn't the first time they had seen Lily that irritated. The only way to save themselves was to make her laugh so that she would forget the fight. But she just brushed their efforts away, turning to the four boys.
"And you," she shouted at them. James looked pleadingly at Sirius, his eyes begging for some kind of excuse. No matter how lame, just one single little excuse that would save his butt. "You promised. And you know what?! I damn believed you!"
James shuddered a bit at that. She trusted him? This much he had achieved and now it's all ruined. For nothing! Damn, if I at least took a peek, the boy thought. But losing the little trust she had for me – it was worthless.
A high-pitched voice interrupted his thoughts. "I should've known better, Potter."
"Hey, don't pick that tone on me! I didn't even touch the bloody diary," Sirius shot him a disbelieving look but James just shrugged it off. "We found it and wanted to give it back first thing in the morning." His voice was dripping with bitterness. "And stop accusing me about every thing that goes wrong in your life, Evans. It's hardly fair."
"But…" Peter yelped when Sirius' shinned him with an are-you-trying-to-get us-killed look. Isabelle and Angela seeing the confusion written on Lily's face knew that was their cue to go. They muttered quick goodbyes; Isabelle mouthed a "Good luck" to the boys and left as quickly as possible.
"What's up with this diary, anyway?" asked Remus with a questioning look.
"Since we've got it back for you, you owe us that much," Sirius added, grinning, already waiting with anticipation for a story. A really good story as he hoped.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: It's Carol this time. First of all, I take all the blame for the delay on me, as being a NaNoWriMo fanatic I dedicated all my free time to the contest. But as I can call myself winner now I solemnly swear there will be no hold backs now. I am done with the 50000-word novel. Well, to tell the truth I only finished the 50k part and the novel is still in progress but...
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. If you did, press the button below and write a piece of constructive criticism. Our offer, a cookie for a review, is still on. Who wouldn't want a free muffin?
Carol.
PS. As always THANK YOU Danielle, you're the best!