Year of the Wolf

7. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs

Remus woke with a pain in his back as Peter lightly kicked his feet.

'Moony?' he whispered delicately.

Remus opened one eye but saw nothing but curtains. It felt like there was a hand resting against his head, but that was just too weird.

The curtains were pulled back and he wasn't the only one who groaned. Too much light and too little sleep. The hand on his head moved and so too did he, helped to his feet by Peter.

'What happened to you guys?' Peter asked. He seemed torn between concern and amusement and when Remus turned he could see why. Sirius propped himself up onto his elbows, struggling to open his eyes. James had sat upright, his hair a worse state than any of them had ever seen it, glasses so askew he was almost wearing them sideways.

'Mornin', Pete,' James croaked.

'Did you go out last night?' Peter sounded a little offended that they had not called upon him to join in their adventure.

'It was kind of an impromptu thing,' Remus explained with a yawn. 'What time is it?'

'Half seven,' said Peter. He looked at Sirius and James as the former tried to rescue the latter's glasses since James seemed to be doing nothing about them. When Peter spoke again it was in a quiet voice. 'Are things...back to normal?'

Remus turned to look at the others, as Sirius put James's glasses on himself and laughed, prompting their rightful owner to snatch them back and administer an elbow to the chest.

'Were they ever normal to begin with?' he asked.

The mead seemed not to have any lingering effects, save for a bad taste in the mouth and the reminder of a bad night's sleep, but it still took them longer than usual to change into a fresh set of robes. Sirius ended up absent-mindedly changing into his pyjamas and didn't have the patience to change back, so that was how he attended breakfast.

They had almost forgotten the charming of the dungeon suits of armour, until the entirety of Slytherin House shuffled into the Great Hall in varying levels of moodiness. Some students from the other houses were snickering into their cereal and when McGonagall approached them at their table she looked perhaps the least sure that she had ever been that they were behind this.

'I don't suppose you know how this happened?' she asked.

'How what happened, Professor?' James sounded so innocent Remus almost believed him.

'Someone, Mr. Potter, charmed the armour in the dungeon to shout insults at passing Slytherin students,' she explained stiffly. She then told them of the time it had taken Professor Flitwick to return the suits to normal, made increasingly difficult by one stubborn suit which, it turned out, was not in fact charmed, but rather host to Peeves, who had hidden himself within said suit and decided to join in the "fun".

At this, James and Sirius collapsed against each other in hysterics, barely able to breathe let alone defend themselves. Remus saw McGonagall puff herself up, ready to deliver punishment.

'Please, Professor,' he said. 'They were with me all night.'

It wasn't even a lie. The fact that Professor McGonagall decided to accept that and not even suspect that the Prefect could have anything to do with it wasn't exactly his fault.

She breathed deeply and nodded at him.

'Very well,' she said. 'My apologies, boys.' The others seemed so taken aback by this apology that they suddenly stopped laughing and sat up straight. McGonagall did a little double-take and narrowed her eyes at the oldest boy in the group. 'Mr. Black, is there a reason you are wearing pyjamas in the Great Hall?'

Sirius looked down at himself, and James and Peter laughed.

'I'm sure there is, Professor,' he said. 'I bet it's a good one too.'

Professor McGonagall simply rolled her eyes and gave a quiet sigh.

'Just be sure to change before you enter my classroom,' she suggested. 'Otherwise I may have to find something from my own collection for you to wear.'

Remus choked back a laugh as she swept away.

The rest of breakfast was fairly uneventful, though Sirius left early to change and James and Peter followed him once Remus assured them he would be fine on his own. Truthfully, the morning and night that preceded it were the best of their kind he had had in some time and they could not possibly have found him in a better mood. Was it the falling out that made him appreciate them all being friends again? Or was it just that he had not taken time in so long to just appreciate the friends he had?

'I know it was them,' whispered a voice in his ear before someone occupied the space beside him. 'Why did you lie for them?'

Lily look at him accusingly. Of course she would be angry - her best friend was a Slytherin and very likely one of the "victims" of the beautifully obnoxious suits of armour.

'I didn't lie,' Remus said. He knew what her reaction would be, yet it still seemed important to tell her this. 'They were with me all night.'

Lily opened her mouth, but no sound came out. Perhaps, at war with her image of Remus Lupin and the reality before her, it was too much for her to process?

'You were a part of this?' she hissed angrily. 'I can't believe you'd fall to their level!'

Remus shook his head sadly. There was no falling to any level. She disliked James and Sirius - how could he ever hope that she would understand? And really, she was no saint herself, and was definitely no stranger to mischief.

'Nobody got hurt,' he said with a sigh, cutting up the last of his eggs. 'It was just letting off steam. We're allowed to do that every once in a while.'

She seemed unable to disagree with this and sighed quietly. He could almost hear her thoughts, hear her wondering why he defended them.

'They're my friends,' he said, pre-empting a question she would probably never ask.

'Remus, you're so different to them...'

'No, I'm not.' He smiled at the naïvety of her words. 'Not really. They're just a lot different to your perception of them.'

She looked at him with those big, green eyes, intrigued but not quite enough to ask him to elaborate.

Remus looked at her, tried to analyse her silence. What was it about James Potter that got so badly under her skin? There was not a prank James was a part of that did not heavily involve Sirius Black, and yet she was far more lenient on the latter. Quite often, Sirius would be stood at James's side as Lily let loose at Potter. It annoyed him sometimes. He thought that James was getting all the credit. But she could still talk to Sirius without looking as though every inch of him irritated the life out of her.

Because she did laugh at their pranks, no matter what she might claim afterwards. Her moral centre was simply a little more vocal than his.

He considered for a moment pointing this out, and telling her that they were a lot more similar than she thought. But then he realised that yes, they were a lot more similar than anyone thought, so perhaps mentioning such a thing was not a very wise idea.

'I suppose it explains why you stumbled in drunk at one in the morning,' she said with a wry smirk. 'Oh don't look at me like that. I couldn't sleep, was in the common room - and you were hardly being quiet!'

Remus turned a deep shade of pink and shoved the last forkful of food into his mouth.

'I take it this means you're all friends again?'

'You sound almost relieved.'

She smiled, warmly this time.

'I'm just glad you're smiling again,' she said. 'And that I don't have to survive another lunch with Sirius Black as our guest of honour.'

'You seemed to get along pretty well.'

'He's surprisingly tolerable when he's not being an arse.'

'Which is approximately two thirds of any given day.'

'Remus!'

'He's my friend - I'm allowed to talk about him like that. Besides, our re-friending was based on the mutual acknowledgement that he was an arse and is very sorry for it.'

Lily stared at him.

'Bloody hell.'

The Hogsmeade visit was very much appreciated at that point. O.W.L. year was proving to be just as stressful as everyone had claimed, and Peter was almost tearing out clumps of his own hair in stress. James and Sirius had asked to meet them later, so for the first part of the day Remus took him to Honeydukes and the Three Broomsticks and even to the Post Office to look at all the owls - something he always loved to do.

By lunchtime he was smiling and had stopped his anxious tremors. Remus couldn't blame him, really. They had not yet talked about their N.E.W.T. options, but in all likelihood Peter would not be able to take some of the classes they did. Potions was likely, but his Defence Against the Dark Arts grade was barely passable, and though he was growing remarkably better at Transfiguration, the less said about Charms the better.

'Why do they want to meet so far out?' Remus wondered aloud. Peter shrugged, sucking on what was left of his lolly.

'More to add to the map?' he wondered.

That was just silly. Their map, which was currently little more than scribbled notes and diagrams, only charted the school grounds, and very crudely at that. It was the only way they could get around the enchantments that made Hogwarts unplottable.

They were heading up into the mountains as they reached the spot in which they had agreed to meet and Remus's heart sank. They had something planned, for sure. Why else would they want to be so far out of the village and away from wandering eyes? As much fun as he was having lately, he didn't much feel like getting a string of detentions with the amount of homework he had to do.

'It's too cold,' Peter complained as he drew his cloak further around himself. Remus had to agree; Scotland was not warm at the best of times and with winter fast approaching the mountains were hardly a good place to be.

They waited for about ten minutes when the distant shifting of rock could be heard. Remus glanced over his shoulder, squinting against the chilly breeze, and for a moment thought he saw...

'Must be losing my mind,' he muttered, turning back to Peter. Only, Peter wasn't there.

He jumped to his feet.

'Peter? Peter!'

There was no sign of his friend. The area was fairly open and, no offence to Peter, but he was hardly the fittest student in the school or the easiest person to hide...where on Earth had he gone?

He jumped as a rat scurried past the rock on which they had been sitting. He didn't like this one bit.

More rock fell and he glanced over to an animal slowly picking its way across the rough terrain. It was a deer, likely a juvenile stag, and it seemed to stare directly at him. He had never seen a stag outside of the zoo before, and suddenly realised that he was very unaware if this was natural or if he was in any danger at all. The antlers seemed rather well developed and the fur around its neck was rather ruffled - it looked unnervingly wild.

Fingers traced the outline of the wand in his pocket – those antlers could do some damage if it decided to charge.

'Shoo!' he hissed. 'Go away! I haven't got any food, if that's what you're after.'

The stag did not move. It just...stared.

And just then, the strap of his bag pulled gently against him. He had barely managed a half-turn when it was wrenched from his shoulder, and an enormous black dog was bounding off with it.

'Hey!' he yelled, taking off after it. At the sound of his voice, the dog slowed. He reached out, fingers mere inches from the tail.

It changed direction and he fell face-first into the sparse grass of the mountainside, groaning as paws pressed him into the ground before thudding off into the near distance. When he looked up, the dog looked back at him. Its pale eyes seemed to glisten as it held the bag between its teeth.

'Drop it!' Remus said. And the dog obliged. But a moment later, it was not a dog, rather the laughing form of Sirius Black.

'Remus, your face!' he howled.

Stunned into silence, Remus remained frozen on the ground, turning only at the laughter of James Potter, standing where the stag had once stood, clutching his sides.

'We're sorry,' he said with a smirk as he approached and held out a hand to help his friend to his feet. 'Couldn't resist.'

There were many perfectly reasonable explanations for this. He was going mad, definitely. Better go back to the castle and pack his things, because animals didn't just turn into friends all the time. Maybe he had gotten too cold and passed out and was now lying in the nice warm hospital wing nursing a concussion?

'Surprise!' Sirius said. And a moment later, he was a dog again and was chasing the poor rat that had crawled out from under the rock.

Only, a moment after that, the rat was now Peter and he was holding his hands up towards the dog.

'Stop!' he wheezed. 'Sirius, mate, no! That was...that was...' And he collapsed in laughter, clutching his sides.

'Gonna have to be faster than that, Wormtail, if we're going to outrun a wolf!' The dog was a sixteen-year-old boy again.

And suddenly, it all clicked into place.

It had been a brief suggestion, really. A moment of madness in second year after they had discovered his secret. They had tried for weeks, months even, to find a way to help him, to ease the pain of his transformations and just help him cope. Of course, Remus had shrugged off the animagus idea rather quickly; it was a long shot and it was too dangerous, required too much effort, and he didn't want them to go through all that just for him. They had done enough just by accepting him for who and what he was.

He really should have known by now that they never really listened to him.

'Moony?' James asked, stepping closer.

Remus was speechless. He wanted to say something, wanted to express this strange warmth that seemed to blossom within. But he couldn't. And in the end, he just threw his arms around James and squeezed him hard.

'You're not angry?' He sounded relieved. 'He's not angry! Told you!'

How could he have possibly been angry? The work, the struggle...and they had done it all for him.

'It's brilliant, really,' said Sirius. 'Peter here is small enough to press the knot on the tree. And I'd like to see a wolf take on James and I.'

He agreed - the dog was roughly the same size as the wolf, and the stag was bigger than them both.

'How...how long?' The thoughts in his mind didn't seem to translate well into words.

'About three years,' James said, peeling himself away. 'We started pretty much as soon as we found out.'

Three years? And they hadn't said a word.

'We didn't think you'd agree if you knew,' said Peter apologetically.

'And to be quite honest, we didn't care if you agreed with it or not,' said Sirius with a smile. 'We did our research - werewolves are harmless to animals, including animagi. And even if you do bite or scratch us, it won't affect us at all - it's been documented. Only if we're human at the time.'

They had really thought this through. It wasn't just a casual venture.

He took it in turns to hug Sirius and Peter, not knowing any other way to express his gratitude. He felt like he was twelve all over again and hearing them tell him to shut up and stop overreacting, that they didn't care if he was a werewolf and could they do anything to help?

'Thank you,' he gushed. 'So much, I-'

He had to stop talking. If he didn't he may just burst into tears, and that wouldn't be manly at all.

Life as a stag was rather odd, James would concede this much. The wolf had eyed them suspiciously at first, had even dared growl at them, until Sirius bared his teeth and growled right back. It did not seem too keen on the stag's antlers either, and eyed them warily for quite some time. But it did not begrudge their presence and it seemed, for now, that their plan was working. Sirius did get a little overexcited and bounded up and down the stairs for a while, and the wolf gave him a look that had James convinced that there was at the very least just a little bit of Remus peeking through.

Peter had cowered in corners for most of the night, and James didn't really blame him - he was a lot smaller than the others. It took an hour or so for the wolf to trust them. It was all about strength, James realised, and as soon as he and Sirius showed it that they weren't going to be bossed around - if anything, they were in charge here - it became less aggressive and when it realised that they meant it no harm either, it became much more welcoming.

They were exhausted the next morning, and surprised to find that Remus joined them at lunch.

'I feel fine,' he was still saying after dinner, as they sat on James's bed with parchment scattered all around them. 'I've never...'

James raised a hand, before he got into the gushing "thank you"s again. He wasn't sure how much more of them he could take.

Remus had no injuries that morning, and claimed that the only reason he was in the hospital wing so long was because Madam Pomfrey was a little too suspicious of his claims to be "feeling fine" and made him stay just to keep an eye on him.

'I remember you being there too,' he said. 'I usually don't remember much, I always block it out... It's really weird.'

It was worth being dead on their feet all day just to see the smile on his face.

'It was terrifying,' said Peter, and the others laughed.

'Don't know what you're talking about, Wormtail,' said Sirius. 'You were hiding most of the time!'

'I'm small!' Peter was blushing.

'That's the second time you've called him that,' Remus said, picking up on the unusual name. 'What is "Wormtail"?'

Sirius caught James's eye and they both grinned.

'We thought since you're "Moony", we need nicknames too,' said James. 'Peter has a tail like a worm, so he's Wormtail.'

'That's not a very nice nickname.'

'I like it!' said Peter proudly. He'd probably never had a nickname before in his life. 'I chose it, actually.'

Remus shrugged and turned to the others.

'So what about you two?'

'We figured it should reflect what we are,' James explained. 'Like "Moony" and "Wormtail".'

The truth was that he and Sirius had not thought about theirs. "Moony" and "Wormtail" had come so naturally. And what did you call a stag and a big black dog?

'So mine should be something related to a dog...' Sirius thought aloud.

'Snuffles!'

James was quite proud of himself, but Sirius shot him a horrified look.

'I don't snuffle! It makes me sound like I've got a bloody cold.'

Even Remus and Peter were laughing.

'You kind of look like the Grim,' Peter pointed out.

'Or Black Shuck!' agreed Remus.

'Oh yeah, I'm an omen of death. Thanks, guys.'

'Padfoot?' suggested James. Remus and Peter mulled it over, and Sirius didn't argue. 'It's another name for a Black Dog and...well a dog has pads on its feet.'

Sirius looked thoughtful for a moment.

'You know, that's not half bad. Padfoot it is!'

'And I'll be...' James paused. What did one call a stag, exactly? 'Well, I have antlers!'

Sirius laughed. 'Antlers? They're more like prongs, mate.'

He added to the mockery by wiggling his index fingers above his head, but James nodded seriously.

'Prongs is good.'

Sirius seemed heartbroken that his insult had been taking as a compliment worthy of remembrance. Remus had pulled a piece of parchment towards him, leaning over the one that mapped a very rough layout of the dungeons. Upon it, he began to ink something in his neat, looping handwriting.

'Moony,' he said, deep in concentration. 'Wormtail, Padfoot, and...Prongs.'

James looked at him, still dazzled by the smile and hoping that whatever happened, it would never fade.

AN - Filler chapter ahoy! Huge thanks to Kazo Sakamari and RodeoTown for the reviews on the last chapter - I probably sound like a broken record at this time, but I really do appreciate them! Apologies to those who got an update alert a few days ago...I uploaded the wrong chapter, oops.
For any Jily fans reading this, I recently wrote/uploaded a Jily oneshot, so please feel free to check that out if it's your thing :).

Thanks again, and please review!