I am so sorry this took so long getting out. I've had a lot going on. School is almost out, which will give me a lot more time to write (I say that now). But I've already started the 4th chapter, so that should be out fairly soon! Again, I'm so sorry! Please forgive me. ~disclaimer~I will never ever ever own the Harry Potter series, as much as I wish I invented all these characters, I sadly did not. Though I did invent Camille, so stay away from her. ;)
Chapter 3:
The next two weeks went by without anything extra important happening. The nine teenagers fell into a pretty standard routine. The boys would always wait for the girls in the morning, if Sirius didn't hold them up with his hair drama. They all had classes together, so they did homework every night together, either in the library, the common room or the Room of Requirement.
When the boys had showed the girls the Room of Requirement on that first day, they were amazed. It was the best room Hogwarts had to offer. Anything you wanted, the room changed itself to fit your need. When the boys had first shown it to them it had bookshelves, and one table with exactly nine chairs around it. Lately there had been certain items needed for Transfiguration practice, or Charms practice.
Cam adjusted easily to being with at least one of the boys nonstop. She had grown accustom to their jokes, and usually laughed right along with them. Mary and Emmeline had fit in easily with Remus, though some of Sirius' jokes still got them quiet. Lily and Hestia had even begun to let down their stone cold walls, and started talking to the Marauders. After a few days of pestering, Lily had accepted James' help with Transfiguration. When they were practicing, they seemed to be getting along. James asked Cam for advice during Arithmacy about what to ask her about. Cam always smiled, and told him everything she knew.
Remus. Remus was a whole new universe for her. She had never been that great with boys. She was fine talking to them, being friends with them, making jokes. But flirting with them? She was hopeless. She didn't even really know what she wanted from her relationship with Remus. She needed to figure that out before she talked to any of the girls.
About a month into the term, the boys started to act very strange. Remus started missing classes because "his mum was ill". Everyone was used to this, he had been using that excuse for the last six years. The girls all knew what was really going, though it was funny that he thought he was being discreet. But none of us could pinpoint why the other three were acting strange. It seemed like they were being really careful and cautious around us.
"Hey girls, we can't study tonight. Guys night." Sirius told us over breakfast, the night of the full moon.
"Oh, is Remus coming back tonight? That'll be fun." Lily asked, knowing the answer. As expected they froze up, and looked around at each other, helplessly.
"Calm down," Cam laughed, "We know about Remus, and his wolfish tendencies." She said the last part quieter. "But what I can't figure out is why you three can't study."
"How did you guys find out about Remus?" Sirius looked like he was about to explode.
"No, Severus did not tell us," Lily rolled her eyes. "He's not very discreet about it. I mean leaving once a month, around the full moon, using the same excuse he's been using for six years, it's easy to piece together"
"Now, what's your secret?" Mary asked, looking back and forth between the three boys.
"Secret? We don't have a secret." Peter stammered, earning glares from Sirius and James.
"Boys, just tell us." Cam gave them a look, that she knew the would see right through, though she didn't care.
"Should we just tell them?" James whispered, or what Cam assumed he thought was whispering, to Sirius.
"Yes, yes you should tell us James. Thank you for asking everybody in this conversation." Hestia said, quite sarcastically.
"We might as well, we don't need to talk to Remus really, since they already know about him," Sirius agreed, looking defeated.
"So what's the big secret?" Emmeline asked, leaning in a little.
"We're not going to tell you here, meet us down in the kitchens for dinner, we'll tell you then." James said, Sirius nodding in agreement.
"And the kitchens are where?" Mary asked, looking confused.
"Fine, meet us in the common room, we'll walk down to the kitchens and tell you." James rolled his eyes.
The day passes slowly, Cam had Muggle Studies first, but with Remus' "furry little problem", she had no one to talk to. She should've been used to it by now; she'd been dealing with it for the past three years. But this time it felt more lonely than normal, she could actually call herself a friend of the Marauders. Remus and her would talk nonstop throughout the class, throwing questions at each other, back and forth. He was quickly becoming her best guy friend, James following closely behind him.
After Muggle Studies, came Charms. That was a little more enjoyable, though with no Remus, and the boys' secret still untold, nobody was in the mood for joking around.
"Lily, I feel like we've hardly talked all year." Cam said, as the two of them walked in front of the other six, on the way to lunch.
"I talk to you every day," She laughed a little, and rolled her eyes.
"I mean really talk, like about boys and friends and such. Speaking of boys, I've noticed a certain dark-haired, glasses wearing boy has sparked you interest." Cam smiled at her friend, noticing a slight blush in her cheeks.
"If you're talking about James Potter, I'll have you know that he is just a friend."
"Wow, I'm surprised you've come that far, I mean on the train ride home last year you wouldn't stop talking about how much of an idiot he was." Cam smiled knowingly at her friend.
"Yeah, well people can change."
After a terribly boring Arithmacy class, where James sat silently taking notes, and hardly looking in Cam's direction, the two walked, again silently, towards the common room.
"Ok, this is ridiculous. You just spend a whole two hours not talking. What's going on James? Is it really that big of a secret?"
"You don't understand, Cam. If this got around, we would be ruined." James looked desperate. She could tell he didn't want to tell them, but he felt like he had too.
"James, we're not going to tell anyone. And that is a promise. We've known about Remus since second year, and not even he knows we know." James just looked down, and continued the silent walk towards the common room.
After, yet another long, silent walk, though this time to the kitchens, the eight teenagers finally arrived at the long awaited destination.
"So what is this huge secret, that we had to come all the way down here to hear?" Hestia demanded, as soon as everyone had given their orders to the house elves.
"Well you guys already know about Remus, but what you might not know, is that those transformations are one of the most painful things, even just to watch," Sirius started, looking at James for help.
"So once the three of us figured out about his 'furry little problem', Sirius and I immediately started researching all we could."
"Though with our stellar reputations being what they are, we couldn't study in the library, so that's when we found the Room of Requirement." Sirius cut in, showing off his Marauder grin.
"Right, anyway. So we found out that werewolf bites aren't harmful to animals, so naturally.." James trailed off.
"You guys didn't," Cam's eyes widened, she looked at Lily and noticed her friends expression was the same as her's. They were piecing it all together, the nicknames, all the boys looking tired after a full moon, Sirius' weird dog-like characteristics. Everything pointed to this, how could the two of them been so dumb.
"If you tell anyone, we could get expelled." Sirius glared at the two girls.
"Boys, you could go to Azkaban if anyone found out about this. This is so dangerous." Cam said, "but I'm so proud of you three."
"Could someone please explain to the three normal people here, what just happened?" Mary asked.
"Padfoot, Wormtail and I, are all illegal animagi. And we have been since the beginning of last year." James said, now looking down, avoiding Lily's eye.
"What?" Hestia screeched. "You boys could go to jail, for life."
"Please, we don't need the lecture. We got it from Remus everyday for three years." Sirius rolled his eyes.
"Speaking of being illegal animagi, we need to go. Remus will be transforming any minute. See you girls tomorrow. Don't worry too much about us." James said, grabbing Peter and Sirius, before running out the kitchen door. He was obviously oblivious to the state he had left the five teenage girls.