The abandoned classroom was badly lit by two shabby lamps, a wide bar of moonlight slanting through the tall window. It wasn't the best hiding place the boys could find, but having narrowly escaped Peeves, it was good enough.

"Alright, full moon is on Friday, which gives us only three nights to get this sorted." Said James, loosening his tie to get straight to business.

Sirius was already rolling up his sleeves up to his elbows, while Remus remained hunched over a large piece of parchment, working on their brand-new side project. Meanwhile, Peter who was perched on a desk, looked positively terrified.

"Okay, so who wants to go first?" asked James, glancing at Sirius and Peter. When both of them averted their eyes, he said, "Fine, I'll go first."

James walked to the center of the classroom, where they had created some sort of arena my moving around the stray desks. Remus looked up from his arduous work in anticipation, while Sirius and Peter watched rather apprehensively.

James sighed nervously, and with one last look towards his friends, muttered the incantation with his wand poised above his head, praying to his lucky stars that he didn't remain stuck mid-transformation. For a second, nothing seemed to change, and he felt a pang of disappointment, thinking it was another failed attempt. However, he felt as if something was pulling him from the inside and he was brought down to his knees. For one terrifying second he only saw darkness, and then he finally blinked to see Remus, Sirius and Peter staring down at him with their jaws hitting the floor.

"You—you're a…stag." Sirius said in an uncharacteristic trembling voice.

James saw a dirty mirror lying in the corner of the classroom and through the grime he managed to see he in fact was a stag. With light brown fur, that seemed to darken into two round circles around his eyes, resembling his glasses, (he had read that in one of the approximately 150 Transfiguration books) and huge prongs on either side of his head. He gave a cry of success and started prancing around the room, making his three friends laugh. With only a little difficulty, he turned back to his human form and bounded into the arms of his three best friends, embracing to celebrate the success.

"I can't believe you really did it, James!"

"That was mental!"

"Alright, I'm up next!" cried Sirius, bouncing with excitement. The three other boys gave him an encouraging look and he muttered the incantation, just as James had moments before. Like him, Sirius was pulled down to a crawling position and the silky black hair on his head seemed to sprout all over his body.

James, Remus and Peter were surprised to see "He's a dog!"

Sirius, now as a well groomed, black-furred dog barked in delight and let his friends pet his soft fur. Peter threw a small block of wood across the room jokingly, and Sirius ran after it jovially, causing hysterics from the three boys. Sirius came back obediently with the small block clutched in his snout, and turned back to his human form, smiling smugly and ruffling his hair.

"Looks like your turn is up, Peter." Remus said expectantly.

Peter's smile dwindled when he heard this, and gulped loudly as he walked to the center of the classroom. With notable less amount of enthusiasm than his predecessor, Peter raised his wand above his head and mumbled unintelligibly the incantation. His body coiled into itself until he was in a fetal position yet he kept getting smaller and smaller. The boys had to lean over to see his transformation, and chuckled in delight to see he had transformed into a small grey rat.

"That's perfect!" Remus cried. "He can fit anywhere!"

As if to prove this, Peter dived into Remus' bag that leaned against the foot of is chair and emerged pulling a tattered quill. He transformed back to his chubby human form and gladly accepted the high-five James was offering him.

"Looks like it your turn, Remus." Sirius said jestingly.

Remus let out a sharp but genuine laugh. "Yeah, you'll have to wait until Friday for that."

"Lads," James said ceremonially. "We've finally done it."

The four friends smiled in solemn silence, as they completed the four-year feat of becoming Animagi. In the wee hours of the morning, they crept back towards Gryffindor Tower, leaving behind the squalid classroom, where a dog, a stag, a rat and a very amused boy spent the rest of the night joking about.

"She's a Mudblood for crying out loud. How can you not be embarrassed to be seen with her?"

Severus was walking across the grounds towards the Herbology greenhouses along with Milton Avery. Moments before, they had just finished breakfast in the Great Hall, where Severus had waved discreetly at Gryffindor Lily Evans, to which she responded with a small smile over her shoulder, much to Avery's disgust. Severus sighed as he always did whenever he was being reprimanded by one of his Slytherin colleagues when they caught him sneaking the smallest of glances towards a certain Gryffindor redhead.

"It's just…she's a long-time friend." Severus said quietly, knowing perfectly well this wasn't a good enough excuse for Avery.

"Long-time friend? Really?" Avery said with a raised eyebrow, as if this were the most absurd thing he'd heard all week. It had never even crossed Severus's mind to tell his Slytherin friends what he felt towards Lily. He shuddered at the thought of what they might do if they found out. However, Avery's cocked eyebrow said that they probably had their suspicions. Severus remained with his head bent down, his greasy hair at its side, refusing to let his friend see his burning cheeks.

"Well, listen up, Snape," Avery said, taking Severus by the arm and brusquely facing him. "There's a war boiling and you know it. Sorry to break it to you, but soon enough you will have to choose between your long-time friend and the Dark Lord."

After a few quiet seconds where they looked at each other sternly, Avery concluded. "Actually, I'm not that sorry to break it to you."

And without another word, he let go of Severus's arm and stalked off towards the greenhouses. Severus was left senseless, for he knew that every single word of what Avery had just said was absolutely true. He got this horrible feeling at the pit of his stomach, and even though Severus tried to convince himself that he was just panicking, he knew that he was slowly losing Lily, whether he liked it or not.

Emmeline Vance waited outside her first fifth-year Potions class with the smuggest of smiles. The bell rang and the previous class, consisting of fifth-year Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs, started filing out of the dungeon. Emmeline's friends walked past her and Alice, wishing them good luck and blowing them kisses, but it was another person's reaction that Emmeline was eager to see. Finally, the Marauders emerged, Sirius bringing up the rear. He revealed a slightly amused grin as he zeroed in on Emmeline and said, "Looks like you've escaped me this time, Vance."

Emmeline still kept her smug demeanor and responded sardonically. "I'll try not to die of disappointment, Black."

Sirius let out his barking laughter, just as sarcastic as her response, and continued on to his last-period class with his friends. For the first time in five years, Emmeline Vance found the silver lining in having a class with the Slytherins.

AN: Hey guys, excuse the absurdly long time it took me to upload content again. I just wanted to let you guys know, that I changed the name of the story. I wasn't feeling the old name, since I had decided on it so long ago, so decided it was time for a change. It's still the same story, same characters, just different name. Hope you guys have been enjoying it so far, and make sure to leave your thoughts/recommendations! .xx