Chapter 3: 1975

Kim lay down on her makeshift bed in the corner of Diamond's room and closed her eyes. As she tried to calm her mind down enough to sleep, images of the ring kept flickering back into her mind. She didn't know why but she felt obsessed about finding the ring's previous owner. An image of a lion kept jumping into her mind just as she was about to fall asleep. She pondered taking the ring off but then realized she might lose it of she misplaced it in the dark. Finally her mind relaxed enough that she slipped into dream.

Kim was falling, but not like she usually fell when she was asleep. She really felt like she was falling through high definition clouds and when she landed, everything around her felt more vivid and alive, like she was actually there instead of dreaming. Kim was back at Hogwarts which made her happy at first but she soon realized she wasn't in her own body. For some reason she didn't scream when she looked down and saw the body of a boy dressed in shabby robes. The body didn't really feel like hers anyway, it moved on it's own and Kim was kind of just looking from it's eyes.

"Moony grab my trunk would you," said a messy black haired boy with glasses.

Kim assumed she must be 'Moony' because the body responded by doing just that. That name stirred a memory of her own. She remembered the marauder's map that Liesel had nicked from Harry Potter's son and the inscription it had read 'Messers Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs'.

They were on the train that had just arrived at Hogwarts and judging by the ages of the other three boys Kim was sitting with, this was about the boy's fifth year. The boys made their way off the train and Kim/the boy hurried after them. Soon they were at the feast and the glasses boy was talking about some girl who was sitting at the Gryffindor table with them.

"She totally broke up with Winchester this summer," said the boy. "Which means she's all mine."

The girl who James was referring to was very pretty and had long, ginger hair and something about her eyes looked familiar. She was talking to a boy with dark greasy hair and a hooked shape nose who was hovering around the Gryffindor table. Everyone seemed to know the girl as Lily.

"Just ask her out already James," said another boy with fabulous shoulder length black hair and a wicked grin.

"I should shouldn't I," said the glasses boy, James.

James stood up confidently but just then the entire hall quieted down as the deputy headmistress came through with the first years. This must have been a long time ago, Kim realized as she scanned the teacher panel. None of her current professors were up there. Not even Flitwick or Bins, who were her oldest professors. Just then, Kim caught a glimpse of someone she did recognize, Professor McGonagall who was also sitting at the Gryffindor table, only she looked maybe 16 years old and Kim knew her to be in her eighties. She had rosy cheeks and flowing brown hair that wasn't in a bun. How far back in time had she traveled?

The man who must be the headmaster had a greying, long beard and a twinkle in his eye. The students seemed to know him as Professor Dumbledore. Kim had heard that name somewhere before, probably from one of her textbooks during Professor Bin's history class but she mostly tuned out everything he said. Dumbledore welcomed all the students and wished them all a good year before sitting down again and letting the room grow into a splendid feast.
After the eating, James and the other two boys who Kim had learned were called Padfoot and Wormtail or by others, Sirius and Peter. Another memory flickered in Kim's mind as she remembered the chapter entitled 'The Woe of Wormtail' from her reading by Rita Skeeter. Wormtail became a death eater and ended up betraying his friends. Kim wanted to speak and warn the other boys but no words came out of the mouth that wasn't hers.

"Ready for the moon tonight Moony?" James asked.

"Ready as I'll ever be," said Kim/the boy's mouth dryly.

Kim's mind paused for a second. Was James implying that the boy she was inhabiting was a werewolf like herself? Apparently so. That night all four boys snuck out of the castle and made their way down the familiar path to the Whomping Willow only the crazed tree looked younger than it usually did. As the boys approached it's wicked wines whirred into action and became attacking them and Kim knew they would have to make a run for it. Instead, Peter the smallest of the group began to change. He shrank into the size of a rat and scuttled away towards the root of the tree. The boys followed only James and Sirius changed too. They became a big black dog and a Stag. That's when things got weird.

Cherokee's patronus was a stag, the same stag that James became. Diamond's so called 'Grim' was really just a big black friendly dog and Liesel whose patronus was a rat was the same rat that Peter became when he changed into his animagus state. They were all animagi, Kim realized. Everyone but her/the boy.

Kim didn't like the feeling of being back in the Shrieking shack, especially knowing what was going to happen but for some reason the presence of the other three creatures relaxed the boy whose body she was in and made her feel more comfortable as she sat and waited for the moon to arise. The black dog waged its tail next to her happily and the stag knelt patently across from her. Even the rat who zipped around the room would stop and look up her her once and awhile.

Even though she wasn't in the boy's mind she felt it when the moon took over but instead of transforming, she felt herself rising. She was looking down at the four boys, three of them animals, one of them twisting into a sickly shape. Kim's head flew through the roof of the Shrieking Shack with ease and she flew high up into the clouds before returning to her own head in her own makeshift bed. Kim stirred as Diamond turned on the lights. It was a new day, she realized. She'd stared at the ring on her finger in awe. Had she really just gone back in time and relived another boy's life or was it all just a dream? RJL, RJL, what did those three initials stand for?