Chapter 19:

Over the next few days the boys tried to find information on Animagi. So far all they had to go on was the book Sirius had and the very vague things they found from books in the library. Remus kept his opinions to himself about it; he really didn't like the idea of his friends risking their lives, and their education, for if they were found out they would most defiantly be expelled, to become animals just to help him out. James and Sirius of course knew their friend didn't like it but they chose to ignore his silent protests and continued to search the library for more in depth information.

The two trouble maker's presences in the library didn't go unnoticed by the rest of the school though. It was odd enough to see them in the library but flipping through books, taking notes and everything were on a whole other level. Those who seemed to notice it the most? The Slytherins. Particularly Severus Snape, Regulus Black, who couldn't help but notice the intensity in which his brother looks through the books, and Lucius Malfoy.

One afternoon, about a week later, James and Sirius sat at a table in the library, an old looking book between them, heads close together reading it.

"We know all this," James mumbled quietly as he flipped the pages, "We read all this in that other book,"

"Wait," Sirius said placing his hand on the book, "This is new,"

James peered closer to the page where Sirius had pointed and read the page. He was about to flip the page when a hand slammed down on the table. Looking up, James came eye-to-eye with a sneering Severus Snape.

"Well, well, well," he drawled, "what brings two brainless gits such as yourselves to the library?"

"Bugger off Snape before I curse you," James said.

"I second that motion," Sirius said taking his wand out.

"Just try it," he said as Lucius, Narcissa and Regulus appeared from the shadows. Sirius eyed his brother and cousin with disgust and aimed his wand their way.

"What's the matter Snape?" James asked taking his own wand out, "Not man enough to take us on your own?" Snape scowled and raised his wand a little higher. "It's four against two Potter," he snapped, "You can't beat us."

"Correction," a voice said from behind Snape, "It's four on four," Remus and Peter appeared wands out and at the ready, one pointed at Narcissa and one at Snape.

"What is going on here?" the voice of the librarian brought them back to their senses, realizing where they were. The Slytherins glared at the four boys before turning and walking away. The Marauders watched them go before slowly putting their wands away. The librarian watched as they packed up their things and walked out, James and Sirius left the book behind knowing it would look suspicious to have too many books on animagi out at once.

They walked back to the common room and James and Sirius took a seat on the couch while Peter and Remus sat on two chairs.

"So what was all that about?" Remus asked taking out his Defence text book and a piece of Parchment.

"Snape was just being a git again," James said staring into the fire.

"Did you find anything else out?" Peter asked. Sirius shook his head.

"Most of it was the same thing we knew… although that book we were looking at did have something new… but I missed what it said."

"Yeah, bloody Slytherins," James mumbled. They sat in silence for a few moments, Remus scratching away with his quill while James and Sirius stared into the fire. Peter looked between the three but not saying a word. Finally James spoke.

"I think we should try the restricted section,"

"I was thinking the same thing mate," Sirius said.

"But how do you plan on getting in there?" Remus asked looking at the two, "You need a signed permission form and no teacher will sign something like that for second years. Beside's you don't even know what you're looking for."

"True," James said, "But it's not hard to find."

"What do you mean?" Remus asked.

"Johnny would know a good book and he wouldn't ask questions,"

"Brilliant mate," Sirius grinned.

"I don't think that's wise," Remus said, "If the owl was intercepted or if someone were to find the note to him then we'd be found out."

"No we could code it," James said.

"I don't like this idea," Remus said.

"That's because you don't like the idea of us becoming Animagi," Sirius said.

"No I don't," Remus said getting angry, "it's dangerous and not safe."

"Remus," Peter said but no one heard him.

"You could get hurt, something could go horrible wrong!"

"Remus," Peter said a little louder but still, he was not heard.

"I am not going to watch you guys go and…."

"REMUS!" Peter yelled.

"WHAT?" Remus yelled back.

"Everyone's staring," he said. Remus looked around the common room. Sure enough everyone had stopped talking and were staring at the four sitting around the fire. Remus's face went beat red and he gathered his things quickly and fled off to the boy's dorm. Everyone watched him go. Sirius and James exchanged looks and the three of them quickly gathered their own things and went off to the boys dorm as well.

Opening the door to their room they found Remus's curtains around his bed closed and no matter what they said to him, he ignored them. Finally they just gave up and crawled into their own beds and went to sleep.

The next day Remus spoke to them but it was hesitant. He watched what he said but he seemed to be ignoring the little dispute they had the night before. It seemed everyone from Gryffindor thought the boys were planning some dangerous prank that Remus didn't agree on and they helped spread the story, making sure no one guessed the truth. But that meant either the boys had to come up wth some brilliant prank so spread the story that they weren't going to pull off something that dangerous. They chose the latter for the time being. They wanted to focus their attention on Animagi rather then pranks and getting detention. They wanted to be able to turn into animals quickly for the faster they did, the safer Remus would be each month.

Still, another week passed and they had yet to find out more information. They were running out of books to look at the public part of the library. James had been hesitant to send anything to Johnny yet, thinking of what Remus said about it being intercepted and someone finding out about it. But finally they realized they didn't have a choice and Sirius and James sat together huddled in a corner of the common room trying to think what to write.

"What if we say it's for a project for Defence?" James asked.

"But wouldn't Johnny know that Second Years never study Animagi?"

"Well it's been a few years since he was here, we could say things changed."

"I'm pretty sure they study it in like third or fourth year," Sirius said rubbing his eyes with his palms.

"Then what do we say?" James asked a little harshly. Sirius hadn't been helping only rejecting every suggestion James came up with.

"I don't know," Sirius said just as angrily. "Why don't you figure it out yourself,"

"Maybe I will," James said getting up angrily. He went to storm away and ended up walking into someone, dropping his parchment and quill. "Sorry," he muttered. Looking up he saw red hair. Lily looked with the parchment and quill in hands to see James standing there.

"Watch were you're walking Potter," she said shoving his things in his arms and walking past him, bumping his shoulder as she went by. James rubbed the spot she hit as he continued on his way to the boys dorm. When he got there he saw Remus sitting on his bed reading a book.

"Hey Remus," he said tossing his things on his bed.

"Figure out out yet?"

James sighed, "No, we just can't word it properly."

"Here," Remus said handing him a piece of parchement. James peered down at it and saw a note for Johnny.

Johnny,

How's it going mate? How is Olivia? School's going good for us, we've found a few new passages at the school and we've checked a few of your out and they are brilliant. The reason I am writing is because a few days ago I was reading through a book in the library and came across Animagi. Now, I know it is abnormal for second years to study it but I was hoping you could give me some insight on the subject, that or point me towards a few books that could give me more information. It would really help me in understanding it. James, Sirius and Peter wish you well as well and say hi.

Remus

James stared at the note for a moment and then looked at Remus. "I thought you weren't going to help us out mate," James said.

"I've been thinking about it," Remus said, "Although I disapprove of it and still think it's dangerous, it has made you read books and do actual research." James laughed.

"Don't get used to it mate."

"Beside's, Johnny would be far less suspicious of a note from me for a book and information then from you mates,"

"Alright you have a point there mate," James said, "Thanks."

"Just be careful, alright mate." James nodded.

"I'm going to go send this," Remus nodded and turned back to his book as James turned and walked out the room.

They had to wait a week but eventually Johnny got back to Remus.

Remus mate,

Good hearing from you. Missed you at Christmas Break, you missed out on some good fun but I'm sure my dear cousin and Sirius has told you all about it. Olivia and I are doing good, thank you for asking. As for Animagi I don't know too much about it myself, save for what I studied at school, but there was a book mentioned in class, in Sixth Year NEWT Transfiguration called Animagi, the art of it has everything you'll need to know. It will most likely be in the restricted section though, so if you can' get to it mate, then I don't think there's anything else I can help you with.

Glad to hear you are still up to the mischief and passage finding. Just don't let my little sister get into any of them, r find out about any of them because she'll be sure to go to mum and then I'd be in big trouble and well, that's not something I want. Take care mates, give my best to James, Sirius and Peter.

Johnny

James read the note again and jotted the name of the book down. "We'll have to sneak into the Restricted section with the cloak."

"There's bound to be a teacher or two around there," Remus said.

"Then we'll do it at night,"

"That won't give you time to take notes and you can't take the book out, they'd notice it."

James sighed and lay back on his bed, "Well what do you think we should do?"

"Figure it out," Remus said gathering his things up, "I've got to go find McGonagall and ask her a question about our transfiguration essay." James watched as he walked of the room and turned to Sirius.

"What do you reckon?"

"I don't know mate," Sirius said, "What if we bought the book?"

"Yeah like we could get away with that. They'd never sell a book like that to us,"

"True," Sirius said sitting up a bit, "But they'd sell it to your dad,"

"What are you on about?"

"We write a letter under your dads name but have them send it here rather then to him,"

"You think that'd work?" James asked sitting up a bit more.

"Why not?"

"It could work," Peter said from his own bed, where he had been writing his potions essay. "You could say something like it's easier for them to send it here rather then to your house because it's a surprise for Mrs. Potter,"

"Peter that's bloody brilliant!" Sirius said.

"It really is mate," James said grinning. "All we need to figure out is how much the book is and if they have any in stock."

"We could get some third year or above to check Hogsmead on their next trip,"

"That could work, but if we do then we might as well have them buy it for us," James said.

"I guess we could always try that as well, but who do we ask?"

"What about the captain of the good old Quidditch team?" Peter asked.

"Ryan isn't too happy with me since I got suspended from the team,"

"Yeah, but at least we won the game against Ravenclaw,"

"Who's leading anyways?"

"Slytherin, bloody gits, but we're in second. If we win the game against Ravenclaw we have a rally good chance of winning. Slytherins are playing Ravenclaw next weekend and then we play Ravenclaw in April. Hufflepuff and Slytherin will play in March. Chances are we'll win the house cup, Ravenclaw's team is pretty good, I'm sure they'll win against Slytherin."

"Well all the luck to you," Sirius said. "But we lost track of what we were talking about, we need to ask someone."

"It's too bad no one has any family around here we could ask,"

"Well theres Narcissa but she'd never do something like that for me,"

"Exactly," James sighed, "What if we just asked someone in Gryffindor and say it's needed for some prank, I'm sure they wouldn't second guess it,"

"House elves!" Sirius suddenly said, "I'm sure we could get one of them to get it for us!"

"Why didn't I think of that before?" James asked smacking his head, "That will most defiantly work!"

"Let's go now!" Sirius said, "We haven't been down to the kitchens at all this year,"

"Well better late then never," James said and grabbed the cloak from his trunk. They hurried down to the kitchens, eager to see their little house elf friend.

A/N: Well I'm sorry it's been so long since I updated, the summer has started and I just… I haven't been inspired but then I took my computer outside with me and the words came to me, I have found my inspiration spot!! It's amazing what can be written when you find the right spot to write but anyways, the point I'm trying to make is that I'm hoping to write a lot more, I want to dedicate at least an hour a day to writing this story… I really wanna finish it before the end of the month so let's see how that works out… I realize this is almost as long as the first one and I'm only in the month of February… so I'm gonna try to end it sooner because I wanna get a start on the next one… which will be in their fifth year… yes I'm skipping 3rd and 4th because I don't have any idea what to write and I don't think it'd be as exciting… hope that's alright. Anyways I'm gonna stop this extremely long authors note and end it with "Please let me know what you thought… review!"