Where You Belong
The moon's a harsh mistress with a cruel, cruel song …
'I already told you, you don't have to do this.'
'Nonsense,' said the boy with glasses, running a hand through his hair in frustration. 'It's not about having to do it at all.'
'If it makes you feel better,' interjected the second black-haired boy, the carelessly handsome one, 'we're not doing it for your sake. We just really want to become Animagi – you know, for fun.'
'Sod off,' muttered the first boy, the werewolf. He seemed to shrink in on himself even more than usual. 'I'm being serious here.'
'Yeah, mate, which is why we aren't,' the Gryffindor-in-a-family-of-Slytherins retorted. 'I mean, we are – about this, just … just …'
'Not usually,' said the fourth and last, a round, small boy.
'But you do want to become Animagi.' This wasn't a question.
And all three boys nodded emphatically.
'No way.'
The shaggy black dog wagged his tail delightedly, then transformed into a handsome boy with an impish grin. 'How do you like them?'
'You look like the Grim,' said the brown-haired boy faintly.
'Yeah, it's a great party trick,' said the third, bespectacled boy, who had been a large stag until a few moments ago. 'Sneaking up uninvited … scaring people half to death …'
The brown-haired boy blanched.
'OK, scratch that,' said the boy with glasses hurriedly. 'Look, we've even sorted out the dorky nicknames. Prongs – 'cause of the antlers, you know – and he's Padfoot and he's Wormtail.'
'And you can be Moony,' piped up the newly-dubbed Wormtail.
Moony couldn't get any words past the lump in his throat to express his gratitude, but that was all right, because they understood.
'It was different this time,' Moony said, lying in bed in the hospital wing.
'How so?' asked Wormtail.
'Because we were with him, you dolt,' said Padfoot, casting Wormtail a disparaging, yet affectionate, glance.
'But how?' persisted Wormtail.
Moony shrugged. 'I don't know – I mean, I can never remember what it's like, but I just have the impression that I was … saner, like being a wolf didn't take so out so much. I – I can't thank you enough – you went to all that effort just to hang 'round me once a month …'
'Oh, shut up,' said Prongs bracingly. He slung an arm around the two boys beside him, grinning widely at the boy in the bed. 'We're friends, Moony. That's what friends do.'
Come back to where you belong