Thanks to Canterwoodgames and bookwurm1612 for the reviews.

Chapter 58:

There was a beautiful waterfall in the north part of the grounds. The pool at the bottom of the waterfall ran into an underground spring that ended up in the black lake. This was one of Lily's favourite places in the Hogwarts grounds. It was her quiet place. Severus was the only friend who knew about it. "I really don't think you should be going out with him," Severus was complaining.

"Why? What's wrong with him?" Lily laughed, "he's a nice guy."

"He's a jerk," Snape replied, "he's not that much better than Potter."

"He's nothing like Potter," Lily responded angrily. "Can you just drop it?"

"Lily…"

"Please, Sev. Let's just make the most of our time together. I barely ever see you anymore."

"Ok Lils," Snape smiled, "I'm sorry."

James had read through the Animagi book twice already but was incredibly disappointed when he realised that it wasn't going to be very helpful. It was full of spells; simple human transformation spells. It explained that it was important to do the simple spells first as human transformation was a very difficult task. It didn't give any clues about how to become an animagus though, much to James' disdain. It's closing line was; "When you have finally achieved these spells (both spoken and non-verbal) you will be ready to move on to working on the more complicated spells and potions that are needed to achieve true human transfiguration." James sighed before trying the first spell in the book; turning one's ears orange. James said the incatation, "aurantiaco Auribus," whilst pointing his wand at his face. He quickly stood up to see that his ears had turned a bright orange colour. The other marauders walked into the dorm room to find James with orange ears, a blue face, a rather large nose and very long blonde hair, "what the hell happened to you?" Sirius asked, whilst laughing.

"I was working on some human transfiguration spells," James replied. "It's the first step to becoming an animagus. You guys give it a go. Try this one to give you orange ears; aurantiaco auribus."

The boys quickly began trying the spell. After several minutes both Sirius and Remus had orange ears. Peter however, was struggling with the spell, "aurantaso auribus."

"You're pronouncing it wrong, Pete. It's aurantiaco auribus." James corrected him.

Gradually Peter got the hang of it and soon they were moving onto the next spell. After a couple of hours they all looked completely different. "Apparently, once we've got the hang of the spells we need to go back to the beginning and learn them non-verbally."

"That's going to be tricky," Sirius frowned.

"I was thinking about asking Holly to teach me how to do non-verbals," James replied.

"She'll want to know why though," Remus grimaced.

"I don't know what else to suggest," James replied honestly.

"You guys worry about getting these spells sorted. I'll see what I can find out about non-verbal spells from the restricted section. I might have to borrow the cloak though James." Remus suggested.

"That might be the best idea you've ever had," Sirius nodded.

The boys got stuck in practicing the human transfiguration spells. James was clearly the best but Sirius wasn't bad and seemed to quickly get the hang of the spells. Peter however, took a lot longer than the other two boys to get to grips with the spells but even he was getting better rapidly. There was also evident change in class. They were currently working on transforming a white rabbit into a pair of slippers. James succeeded on his first attempt as always. Sirius only took two attempts. He had quickly taken Lily's place as the second best in the class much to Lily's contempt. Peter was no longer the worst in the class. In fact, he was regularly impressing McGonagall with his clear improvement. He was constantly red around the ears now due to Professor McGonagall's words of encouragement; "well done Mr Pettigrew!"

Charlus had finally been allowed out of hospital and had returned home. He was still not due to return to work for another month. Being home was boring him to no end; he was so used to being busy. He spent a good amount of his time reading in his study or out in the garden. He had finally had time to de-gnomed the garden.

James and Sirius were walking down the corridor with Holly a few meters behind them. "Dad's out of hospital," James began.

"That's good," Sirius replied earnestly.

"I'm bored, Si," James sighed.

"Well, look there's some Slytherins over there," Sirius pointed.

"Very well, come on." James pulled out his wand and cast a hex on them, "stinging hexes?"

"Sounds good," Sirius replied.

Both boys pointed their wands at the two fourth year Slytherins. There was a burst of white light and suddenly their skin began to inflame as they began to whimper in pain. James and Sirius walked away down the corridor giggling.

The next morning the Gryffindors sat at the Gryffindor table reading their papers. "Oh Sirius have you seen this?" James asked.

"Nah man," Sirius looked up from his breakfast, "anything interesting."

"Only your mother's cousin Araminta Meliflua is trying to pass a law to legalise muggle-hunting," Lily answered from her place slightly up the table.

"Sounds just like Meliflua – well the ministry will never pass it," Sirius replied.

"Too right they won't," a girl replied. None of the second years knew the girl, "I don't know where your family get off being so terribly prejudiced."

"You and me both," Sirius replied, laughing slightly at the pretty girl's anger, "who are you?"

"Felicity Gordon – muggle-born," she replied.

"I didn't ask for your blood status," Sirius replied.

"You were wondering though weren't you?"

"Not at all. I'm not like my family," Sirius replied, admiring the girl's beautiful long blonde hair.

"Bull shit," she stormed to her Ravenclaw first year friends.

"I think I've just met my dream girl," Sirius sighed as he watched her go.

"Well you've certainly met your match," Remus commented.

"I need to get rid of Louise," Sirius groaned.

Next chapter...

Sirius and Louise...

The boys begin using the map...

A couple of pranks...

An attack...

The spell literally meant... Orange Ears.

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