While Remus thought that Anjanette should be present for this conversation as she was obviously involved, she wound up having to ask Regulus to escort her to the hospital wing in order to remove him from the discussion. The tawny-haired boy was almost certain that it would involve information that he didn't want the younger Black brother to hear.

The boys were silent on their way up to the dorm room, but the moment that the door was closed, Remus whirled around, staring his friends down with more disdain than McGonagall when she caught them in the act. "I want to know what's going on, and I want the truth," he said. Peter was still shaking from his run-in with Anjanette, and James wouldn't meet Remus's gaze, which was now more gold than usual. The werewolf turned to Sirius expectantly, and the dark-haired boy flushed.

"Nothing's going on," he tried. Remus crossed his arms over his chest, frowning. "Alright, well…Something's going on. But we can't tell you what it is."

That was nowhere near good enough. "Why not?"

Sirius bit his lip, looking to James for help, but the messy-haired boy was still looking anywhere but at their interrogative friend. Peter was even less useful, as he seemed ready to pee his pants any moment. He sighed, bowing his head. "You weren't supposed to find out like this."

"Does it really matter anyway?" James finally said. "We were going to have to tell him eventually."

"Yeah, but when we were more ready," Sirius said.

"It's too late for him to stop us now," James pointed out.

"But I was hoping we could just show him when the time came."

"That could take years!"

"Lads," Remus interrupted. "Can you please just tell me already because contrary to your beliefs, I'm not a Legilimens."

Sirius went silent again, but James elbowed him in the ribs. He shot him a dirty look and rubbed the spot as he explained. "W-We…We're in the process of becoming…Animagi." He attempted a smile, eyes scanning Remus to try to read his reaction.

Remus, however, didn't know if he had a proper reaction for this information. He was torn between berating them for doing something so reckless and so illegal, asking them why they were doing something so reckless and so illegal, and what this reckless and illegal activity had to do with what had happened that day. His extended silence allowed Sirius to continue speaking before he could make up his mind.

"I told you I was trying to come up with a way to help you," he said quietly. Well, that answered one question. Remus remembered them talking about the presence of animals helping during the full moon. The idea was clever and thoughtful. That didn't make it any less troublesome.

"But I told you I didn't want you doing anything dangerous or illegal," he retorted. "How have you even done anything anyway? There's no information anywhere in the Hogwarts library about the process."

James bit his lip, and now Sirius elbowed him in the ribs. "Ouch! Merlin's beard…" He looked up and met Remus's eyes. "My parents…had a book. It has everything we need."

Remus pinched the bridge of his nose. He was still not sure what he should say, but then he noticed that Peter was still cowering behind James and he softened. "Here, Pete." He went to his trunk, pulled out half a Honeydukes bar that he'd been saving, and handed it to the pudgy boy. Peter accepted it gratefully and nibbled at the corner, his shoulders relaxing. "Look, Siri…All of you. I appreciate that you want to help me. Honestly, this is the most selfless thing anyone has ever offered to do for me. But there's a difference between helping and putting yourselves in danger. Becoming an Animagus is against the law for one thing, and you can permanently damage yourselves if you make any mistakes."

"It's too late now," Sirius said. "We already took the potion and found out what our animals are." He twiddled his thumbs in his lap. "That's why we were acting weird today. Side effects."

Remus put a hand to his head and closed his eyes. He wanted to be mad, and maybe he was a bit, but at the same time he was touched. His friends cared about him enough to put themselves through this laborious process and risk their safety, and it was the nicest thing that anyone had ever done for him. But he cared about them too much to let them follow through on their plans.

"Even if becoming an Animagus was easy and not illegal, I still wouldn't want you anywhere near me during my transformations. It's far too risky," he said. "I would never trust the wolf not to hurt you. It might even be able to tell that you're not real animals, and then what?"

This gave the other Marauders pause, as they hadn't considered this possibility before. "That's something we can worry about later," Sirius said, though he made a mental note to look into it when he had the chance. "Rem, this is the best idea we've got right now. We just…we want you to not have to suffer. As much." James and Peter nodded in agreement. "And we've already put too much effort in to give up at this point, so we're going through with this whether you like it or not."

Seeing the earnest intent and determination on his friends' faces, Remus couldn't hold up any longer and he let his shoulders droop in defeat. They had already put in all this work, and he knew that his friends were too stubborn to give up just because he told them to. "Fine," he conceded. "You can go through with becoming Animagi, as long as you're incredibly careful. I know you'd probably do it behind my back anyway if I said no."

Sirius immediately brightened and he jumped forward to hug Remus. "You're absolutely right, so I'm glad that you're not arguing about this."

Remus hugged him back with a fond smile. "I only said you could become Animagi. Coming with me on the full moon remains to be seen," he pointed out.

Sirius pulled away and grinned. "I think I can find ways to convince you," he said with a wink. Remus tried to ignore the little flutter in his chest.

"It's probably good that we don't have to hide anymore. We might need Moony's brains later on in the operation," James said.

"And he'll know what to do next time if Anjanette attacks," Peter added, shivering but having gained back some color after eating the chocolate.

"Is anyone going to give me more details about that?" Remus asked.

"Ah, yeah…The book said that the potion would have the possible side effect of making you act like your inner animal at random," Sirius explained, scratching at the back of his neck.

"I'm a rat and Anjanette's a cat, so I guess we're kind of like Tom and Jerry," Peter said.

"Who?" James and Sirius asked simultaneously, and Remus shared a grin with Peter.

"So Anjanette's doing this too? She knows about me?"

"She figured it out on her own," Sirius said. "Smart and observant and all that she is. But she didn't know about our plans until she caught us in the bathroom about to drink the potion. She said some lovely things about you when she said she was willing to do it."

James smirked a bit. "And you two try to make it like you don't fancy each other," he teased. Sirius sent a sidelong glance to Remus who glared back at him for having ever started the idea that he and Anjanette were romantically involved.

"Trust me, James. She's not my type." He knew that for sure now after not having smelled anything remotely similar to her scent in his Amortentia.

The bespectacled boy shrugged. "If you say so." But he still had a knowing (or believing-that-he-knew-something) expression on his face. Remus just rolled his eyes.

"I'm so glad that I have such supportive and invasive friends," he deadpanned, although there was much more truth to the words than he was implying. He had never guessed that when he started at Hogwarts he would wind up meeting people who not only accepted him, but were ready to go above and beyond for him, and it made his chest swell in affection. And while he might outwardly try to discourage them from coming with him on the full moon, the promise of some kind of relief during his transformations was something to give him hope in the months ahead.

.:~I~S~S~:.

The next step in the process of becoming an Animgaus was for each of the prospectives to keep a Mandrake leaf in their mouths for a solid month. However, the only way to obtain the fresh leaves was to pick them off the Mandrakes being grown in the greenhouse, and they wouldn't be ready until the end of the school year. Sirius had spoken with Regulus about getting some for them, as the second years were the ones cultivating the Mandrakes. The younger boy was curious, but he didn't think that his brother could get into too much trouble with Mandrake leaves, and so he agreed.

With their Animagus plans thus on hold, the Marauders decided to turn their efforts towards developing the map. It was a daunting task to say the least, if only because of how large Hogwarts was as a building. But it was one that all four of the boys were actually quite enthused over, and they were willing to put in the work needed to get it done, even if it wasn't done before they graduated.

It was on the train home from Hogwarts that Regulus finally presented the group with Mandrake leaves, freshly picked just two days earlier during his last Herbology class of the year. "So, what exactly are your plans for these?" he asked, eyeing Sirius warily.

"Just a little project we're working on," the elder Black said with a grin as he passed them out to James, Peter, and Anjanette. This made Regulus even more confused, as he had expected Remus to take one over the Ravenclaw. "Don't you worry about a thing. This won't have any effect on you."

Regulus shared a quick glance with Remus, who shrugged and shook his head, pretending he had no idea. "Right. Well, I'll see you when we get off the train," he said, and then headed back to his compartment where Severus and Lily were waiting. Anjanette stayed with the Marauders to discuss the next steps in the Animagus process.

"Alight, leaves in," Sirius announced, and everyone pressed the leaves into their mouths. Immediately, their faces contorted in response to the flavor. Even Remus looked disgusted. "Oh, that's bloody awful! I bet this is what Snivelly's hair tastes like."

"The taste will probably wear off after a while," James said, though he looked close to gagging.

"We rully con't take dese out for a who' monf?" Peter asked, seeming less perturbed by the taste than the feeling of the leaf taking up space in his mouth.

"That's what the book says," Sirius responded, and pulled said tome out from under the seat where he'd slipped it when they first got on the train. "If we even take it out for a second we'll lose all possibility of ever becoming an Animagus."

"This seems extreme," Remus tried, as he felt guilty for his friends having to do this for his sake.

"Don't even start to argue, Moony," James interrupted. "I didn't just taste this nasty piece of foliage for nothing. I'm following through to the end."

"What's next?" Anjanette asked, having been quiet since putting the leaf in, presumably to try to hold back bile.

Sirius skimmed the page in front of him. Remus, to his left, was peering down as well, and the other three leaned forward on the opposite bench to read upside down. "It says that once we've finished with the Mandrake leaves, we have to…Ew. Feed them to a live animal most closely matching our inner animal." All parties grimaced. "And then we have to spend at least a 100 hours with that animal to learn its subtle characteristics and the inner workings of its mind."

"Works for me," Anjanette said, scratching Harlie behind the ears.

"Not for me," James said. "How am I supposed to spend time every day with a stag?"

"Run off and join the herd," Sirius teased, earning himself a glare.

"There must be a petting zoo somewhere that has deer," Remus suggested, holding back a chuckle. "Good thing you're doing this part over the summer."
"Yeah, and a stag will be much easier to track down than a dog," Sirius said. "I could never ask my parents to get me one. I think my Uncle Alphard has a dog, but I'm always on implied house arrest over the summer, and they hate his guts anyway."

"Get a job at a pet store," Anjanette said. "Maybe your parents will appreciate you being responsible."

Sirius rolled the leaf around in his mouth for a moment, pondering. "You know, that might actually work. And it might not be so bad to have some money to myself. Maybe I can finally buy myself a broom!"

"Oh yeah, your parents will absolutely love that," Remus said with a smirk. "If I were you I wouldn't be coming home with any long, broom-shaped packages."

"Remy, you don't have enough faith in me," Sirius said, not at all worried. "I know exactly how I can sneak a broom past my parents. They won't know what hit them when I start flying up and down the corridors." He sighed dreamily, the idea of his very own broom and his parents being miserable giving him something to look forward to.

"So whut happens afte' we spen' time wiff the animals?" Peter asked, words still garbled because he hadn't found a good spot for his leaf yet.

Sirius turned the page. "I think that's the last weird thing we have to do. After that we just have to start trying to transform." He scanned through the paragraphs. "It says we need to meditate to allow ourselves to unlock our…chai? What the hell is that?"

"Chi, Sirius," Remus corrected, looking at the word. "It's an inner energy. Wizards in Asia believe that chi is what allows us to use magic, and that Muggles are people whose chi is permanently locked. Mum's very into Eastern magic."

"Well, apparently we need to find our 'chi' and control it so that we can change the shapes of our bodies." Sirius's mouth dropped open as he continued reading. "We have one year to figure that out and if we don't transform by then, we never will. It says that this is the hardest part because some people's chi is more free flowing than others."

James waved a hand. "I wouldn't worry. We're awesome at magic, I'm sure our chi is flowing free like a river."

Sirius, however, was concerned by the time limit. A year seemed like a long time but in theory they wouldn't be spending all their time meditating. Their raw talent may have been potent, but there had to be a reason why this was considered master-level transfiguration. What if they simply didn't have the skill yet to finish the process before it was too late? He glanced towards Remus. If this didn't work, they were out of options.

Remus seemed able to read his concerns in his expression, because he touched his shoulder. "Don't stress too much over it, Siri. Just take it one step at a time for now." But when Sirius still looked uncertain, he gave his shoulder a light squeeze. "Hey, I've never thought there was even a remote possibility that someday, something might ease my transformations. I don't doubt that any of you will be able to do this, but even if you don't…Just the fact that you're willing to try is so much more than I could have ever hoped for." He gave him a smile that warmed Sirius's cheeks, and he couldn't help but return it.

"You deserve it, Remus," James said, grinning as well, and all nodded their agreement. The werewolf flushed. He couldn't ask for more amazing friends.