Chapter Nineteen.

A Try at Animagi

"Shall I p-put a brew on?"

Peter asked hopping up from his four poster bed in the Gryffindor boys dormitory.

Thirteen year old Remus nodded drowsily at him and stumbled to his own bed without speaking. He had just appeared at the doorway; returning from another full moon night and lightly touching his throat with a hand.

It was an overcast Saturday afternoon and nearly the end of their second year at Hogwarts together. James was still at Quidditch practice and Sirius was out chasing after his latest love interest. Peter kindly started a kettle of water warming on their small stove in the center of the room remembering that his mate had a usual pattern of a sore throat after his painful monthly routine.

Remus had never thought his three best mates would want to continue their friendship with him once the big secret was divulged of his lifelong curse of lycanthropy. But it was revealed earlier that school year and... they still did. Not only did they surprise him with acceptance of his affliction, he was both humbled and grateful by their merciful support each month surrounding his transformations.

He pulled his legs up wearily onto the mattress with a silent grimace. It made him wonder briefly if he had just run up and down the stairs of the Shrieking Shack the entire night but of course he had no memory of it.

Peter soon brought him the hot water kettle; the spout puffing out swirls of steam. He was glad he could help provide his friend some relief after his regular vocal abuse that always occurred after a night filled with violent howling. Peter asked him if setting the kettle on his bedside table was okay.

"Yes. That's fine. Thanks, Peter," Remus whispered hoarsely.

Remus slowly yanked his shoes off; each one falling to the floor with a thud. Then he pulled the sleeves of his robe down to his wrists self-consciously making sure his arms were covered. Madam Pomfrey had just treated some embarrassing bite marks on his arms that showed up that morning when he transformed back.

She had gotten lots of practice by the end of his second Hogwarts year at treating werewolf bites with a mixture of dittany and silver powder. Sometimes smoke would rise up upon the application of the mixture depending on the severity of the bite wound. Though Remus had been exposed to it for numerous years, he still despised the putrid, metallic fleshy smell.

If there was nothing to hunt, the werewolf would turn the vicious aggression on himself. He apparently made shrieks in pain heard by others that earned the structure its name. Although Remus was extremely grateful for use of the Shrieking Shack for his monthly transformations, his one complaint was there not being anything for the werewolf to do within the building.

By the end of his second year at Hogwarts, all the furniture inside had been ripped apart, the stairway railing had broken parts, and wall paper hung down in strips from claw mark strikes. He wondered if he should make the suggestion to Dumbledore of setting loose a few rats in the building to deter the werewolf from harming itself.

Remus used the hot water kettle to start a small pot of herbal sage tea steeping next to his bed for himself. He dropped in a few tea bags his mother had sent him in a parcel through his owl, Cadbury. Then he dug around his belongings looking for a clean tea cup. He found a half eaten bar of Honeydukes chocolate, broke off a piece and quickly shoved it into his mouth.

Peter noisily shuffled through some parchments until he found one in particular. Then he floated it with his wand over to where it landed on the blanket next to Remus.

"There you g-go. You didn't miss t-t-too much yesterday," he reassured, "I wrote it all d-down on that list from each c-class. James c-couldn't do it, he was d-distracted thinkin' bout quidditch."

"Cheers for that, mate," he thanked him. Then started carefully looking over Peter's scribbled notes.

"So, how was it...this t-time? You alright?" Peter inquired glancing at him up and down worried.

Remus looked up from the parchment, appreciated his concern but didn't really feel up to discussing it in length. The recent memory of waking up to the ugly bite wounds on his arms flashed in his mind. But he pushed the thoughts away and tried to ignore the dull sting of them still throbbing with every pulse in his arms.

"Oh. Fine, thanks. I'm, I'm alright, Peter."

Remus went back to studying the list of what he missed from classes but Peter continued staring at him awkwardly. Remus looked up again feeling his stare and could tell Peter needed to say something more. Remus peeked into his little tea pot and asked,

"You fancy a cuppa'?"

Peter's anxious expression suddenly changed to disgust looking at his teapot. He walked over to Remus's bedside table and swiped the water kettle they all used. He twitched his nose and replied,

"B-b-blimey no, Remus. Never mind tha', I can't s-stand tha' repulsive herbal tea you drink this time of the month. Blech! You rest your feet up. I'll m-make my own, thanks."

Remus gave him a smirk and poured himself a cup from his small tea pot. Then he enjoyed a nice, long sip; slowly swallowing letting the warm liquid soothe his achy throat. Peter refilled the water kettle and started it warming in the stove again for himself. His eyebrows scrunched together in distress.

Remus asked curiously, "You alright, Peter?"

Peter nodded and answered, "Yes, I'm alright. It's..."

He trailed off nervously looking at the doorway to see if anyone was around listening. Then just to make sure, he went to the doorway and glanced around both directions.

Peter unconsciously put one of his hands up on his cheek like he had a toothache. Then he turned around to Remus and then silently pointed to his cheek and closed mouth.

Remus frowned in confusion and didn't understand the gesture for a few moments. His brain still felt foggy and exhausted. Then it slowly dawned on him.

He took another quick sip of his tea, cleared his throat and then said, "Oooooh... I think I know what you're referencing."

Then Remus suddenly made a sharp inhale of a gasp and spilled a splash of his tea. He clenched the cup in his hand and with wide eyes he asked, "It's not still in your mouth, is it?!"

Peter shook his head, walked back from the doorway and said quietly, "No. No. We, we, um, it's just that, we are t-t-trying it for the first t-t-time late tonight."

Remus sighed heavily. He had such mixed feelings about it.

At the start of the second half of their school year, after they all had returned from their Christmas holidays, Sirius had come up with it. Remus initially told him it would be a ridiculously insane, dangerous idea.

It was the preposterous idea that James, Peter and him would secretly try and figure out how to each become an unregistered animagus. They wanted to do it to keep Remus company when he was in the lonely werewolf form during full moons.

Remus was completely opposed to the idea when Sirius first brought it up. Remus did not want to his mates to put themselves in such a risky, precarious situation. Although he was very touched that they cared enough to consider the idea - it was extremely dangerous on multiple levels.

Firstly, an unregistered Animagus carried the tremendous risk of the known penalty of going to Azkaban. It was common knowledge in the Wizarding world that Animagi had to register themselves with the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. The registry was available for the public to see in order to keep registered individuals accountable to not abuse their abilities. Remus wasn't sure how early in life the Ministry would sentence an underage Wizard to imprisonments in Azkaban. He certainly didn't want to see his mates be the ones to find out.

Secondly, at Hogwarts they wouldn't be learning about Animagi until their third year of Transfiguration class. It was difficult, advanced Magic that also required skills in Potions. Lastly, if they couldn't pull off their transformations successfully then there was the potential for disastrous incidents like getting stuck in a half morphed state.

Remus had pleaded with them to not do it. He tried. Merlin knows, he had tried. But again, they surprised him and stubbornly wouldn't let the idea go. They spent hours researching the process in the Hogwarts library despite his protests. They snuck ingredients from the greenhouses in Herbology class and the supply closet for Potions class.

When he saw that his attempts at deterring them were fruitless, his mind began to slowly entertain the idea that perhaps it might not be so bad to have his friends in animal form keeping him company in his werewolf state. Perhaps it wouldn't be so lonely and he wouldn't be as inclined to self-injurious behavior. He felt torn.

Peter whispered, "We a-a-all three put our leaves in our c-c-crystal phials last night. We added one of our hairs, t-too."

A mischievous smile quirked on the corners of Remus's mouth. He whispered back feeling intrigued, "What happened when you dropped it in?"

Peter shrugged his shoulders. "N-not much. Just a bit of s-smoke wafted out."

Since January, the three of them had attempted the process of becoming Animagi multiple times but each had difficulty with the requirement of keeping a single mandrake leaf in their mouth for an entire month from full moon to full moon.

Peter accidentally swallowed his leaf once in the Great Hall. James woke up and found it slipped out of his mouth in a puddle of drool on his pillow. Sirius simply had his leaf shoot out of his mouth unintentionally during a particularly explosive fit of laughter. Once the mandrake leaf left their mouth, they had to agonizingly wait to try again during the next full moon cycle.

Recently, the three had each tried the steps again with an extra mindful effort knowing that this full moon cycle would be their last chance to try it together their second year. The timing of the next full moon would be during their summer break at the end of June.

So tonight is the night, Remus thought to himself taking another sip of his tea growing a bit anxious about whether or not it would work.

I wonder which animal they will be. Perhaps Peter will morph into a toad and find more fun in playing with his own pet toad, Houdini.

Remus then suppressed a laugh at the thought of two toad friends happily hoping about in their room. He hid his smiling mouth shyly behind his tea cup. He had a strong feeling Peter would change into a smaller rather than larger animal.

Blimey, I hope James and Sirius turn into larger animals. Otherwise I could possibly eat them.

He shivered in fright at the sobering thought. Sipping tea and laying relaxed on his dorm room bed made Remus feel increasingly drowsy. Soon his eye lids got droopy and he was nodding off into a snooze. Peter noticed his teacup and saucer clatter off his lap helter-skelter onto his blanket.

It was nearly supper time. Peter gently picked up Remus's sideways teacup and saucer off his bed for him and set it quietly on his bedside table. Then he gave a quick wave in front of his nose trying to waft the unpleasant herbal tea smell away he still loathed.

Remus's partially eaten Honeydukes chocolate bar was sitting by the teapot. Peter peeked at Remus who was snoring lightly. He snatched the rest of the chocolate, popped it in his mouth, and shoved the wrapper into his pocket. Then he decided to go down to the Great Hall alone and left Remus alone who had seemed to slip into a deep slumber.

"Is Remus not back from his trip home yet?" Sirius asked across the table when he saw Peter get seated by himself at the Gryffindor table. He munched on some rectangular fish fingers waiting for an answer.

Peter replied, "He's b-back, just sleeping."

A freshly fried batch of chips appeared on the table. Peter licked his lips at it. But Sirius quickly swished his wand and deftly made the dish of chips levitate over to a girl sitting next to him. He gave her a charming smile as it landed perfectly by her plate. She giggled and then said coyly, "Cheers."

Peter flicked Sirius a look of annoyance, spooned a dollop of mushy peas onto his plate and then muttered under his breath, "B-bloody show-off."

James was sitting further down the table oblivious to them; talking enthusiastically with other fellow members of the Quidditch team.

During supper, Peter managed to grab a large cloth napkin and pack up some fish fingers and chips to bring back up to the room for Remus. When the desserts appeared later, he packed up some rather sticky pieces of strawberry Jam Roly-Poly cake rolls in an additional cloth napkin. He hoped it wouldn't all turn into a mushy mess when he made it back to the room. Once he dropped a napkin full of food along the stairs trying to carry food back up to the dormitory. He ended up getting horrendous scolding from Filch over it despite observing Mrs. Norris nibbling on what was spilled across the stone floor.

"S-s-sorry it's not warm," Peter told Remus as he watched him unfold the napkin of leftovers from supper. He started gobbling down the fish fingers.

Remus had woken up when the three others came through the door chatting together noisily but he still heard his stomach growl amidst their chatter.

"It's quite all right, Peter. I don't mind that at all. Thank you for going to the trouble of bringing me all this, I think I was growing a bit peckish and didn't know it until my stomach just told me," Remus told him patting a hand on his abdomen.

"Welcome back, Moony! How was the Moony moon moon last night?" Sirius asked playfully and then flopped across the the end of Remus's bed.

Remus swallowed and replied, "Fine. I'm just tired. Hey, hands off. I do plan on eating that!"

He swatted Sirius' hands away as he was shamelessly trying to take a piece of the cake roll lying next to him in the unwrapped cloth napkin. Sirius pulled his hands away with an impish grin and then started licking the powdered sugar off his fingers.

James was standing in front of a mirror by his bed eyeing himself. He said, "Merlin, I've really got to get some new spectacles this summer, I feel like it'll boost me up from being a good Seeker to a brilliant Seeker. Do you think specs will make me look more clever?"

Peter teased with a slight tone of resentment, "You'll look more c-clever if you m-m-mind your classes better. I was the one who had to write d-down what Remus m-missed yesterday."

James rolled his eyes and then changed out of his smelly practice clothes.

"Speaking of being clever, it's sundown... have you two spoken your nightly animagus incantation yet?" Sirius asked.

Both Peter and James shook their heads.

Sirius took out his wand, pointed the tip at his heart and spoke the incantation that was required of them to say every sunrise and sundown:

"Amato Animo Animato Animagus!"

James and Peter each took out their wands and did the same.

"You sure you said 'Animato' and not 'Tomato', Peter?" Sirius quipped.

"Oh shut up!" Peter growled and then slightly blushed.

James, now changed into his pajamas, was standing in front of the mirror again admiring himself and messing about with his unruly hair. He stepped away from the mirror and strolled over to the window to peek outside. After a few moments of squinting thoughtfully at the sky, he declared,

"Our chances are looking good for our needed electrical storm before taking the potions tonight. I think I even heard some distant thunder during practice today."

Peter and Sirius dashed to the window and looked out through the glass in excitement. Remus wanted to get up to gawk at the weather conditions with them but decided to stay in bed. Given his sore limbs he opted to stay put and enjoy devouring the rest of the sugary cake roll.

"Quite right, mate," Sirius agreed auspiciously observing the ominous sky beyond the window pane.

They waited until the Gryffindor common room and all the dorm rooms were quieted down late into the night until moved forward with their try at becoming animagi together.

Remus had practiced a silencing charm that he had watched his father perform many times during his transformations at home over the years. They planned on Remus casting that spell in their dorm room just to make sure nobody heard whatever possible animal sounds that could happen after the transfiguration process even though none of them knew which animal they'd become.

Saturday night took longer to quiet down in the dorms than weekdays so it was well after midnight when they finally determined the students and Prefect were settled in. At last, it was time to give it another try. Thankfully, the sky still looked foreboding enough for their needed electrical storm conditions for the entire process to work properly.

Sirius, James and Peter had each taken out their crystal phials that were hidden underneath their beds. Each of them held their phials carefully that contained a mouthful of blood-red potion ready to ingest. They would drink it after one more incantation of 'Amato Animo Animato Animagus' spoken and their wand tips pointed at their heart.

"Ready?"

"Ready."

"R-r-ready."

Remus took a deep breath standing guard by the door. He tried not to worry about it going horribly wrong. He would never forgive himself if they were permanently stuck in a half-animal and half-human mutation form with no known cure. They had made Remus promise that he would not take them to the Hospital Wing but he wasn't one hundred percent sure he could honor that promise to them if that situation did indeed happen. He tried to push the frightening thoughts out of his head and hope for the best.

The three of them looked up to Remus with searching looks. Remus nodded his readiness with a big sigh. They each spoke the required incantation words and emptied the potion in their phials into their mouths.

They each had disgusted looks on their faces after swallowing the potion and glanced at each other reacting with mutual disgust of the taste. Remus cringed. He also felt a prang in his chest of compassion for them understanding what they were going through from the countless foul-tasting potions he had drunk over the years.

"Blech!"

"Ugh! That's the worst."

"Like, rotten flesh!"

Sirius suddenly put his hand over his chest and dropped his wand. Then his eyes brightened and he said, "Double heart beat!"

James's face started to painfully scrunch up and he put a hand on his chest, too. He said, "Damn, all I feel is… is like that potion turned into bloody fire inside. Ouch!"

Peter's face began to turn ghostly pale and he also had a grimace of agonizing pain. Remus felt bad for them and commented miserably, "I'm sorry."

Sirius slowly squeaked out, "Don't… be.. daft, Moony.. it's not your, Ow! Your fault, Oooow! Damn, that is like fire."

"Ooow!" they each begun to crumple onto the Gryffindor themed rug on the floor holding their chests with both hands. The fiery pain was intensifying. Remus was feeling extra glad he had placed the silencing charm around their dorm room as their cries were growing louder.

"Ugh!"

"When will it stop? Oooff!"

"EEeeeeek."

Remus moved away from the doorway and got down on the floor with them. He clenched his teeth and had his arms folded tightly as he watched them suffer. He hated feeling totally helpless and wish he could just wave his own wand and make their pain stop.

"Merlin!" Remus commented while staring at them in utter astonishment watching them beginning to change into an animal.

James's sprouted hair out of his face the same color as the top of his head. It even had messy tufts like he never seemed to be able to flatten down or ruffle the way he wanted. It was too early to see what type of animal he was changing into yet.

Sirius' limbs grew longer and his curly black hair began to meld into the fabric of his robe. The skin on his nose rounded into a wet, shiny bumpy texture. His tongue got longer, strangely drooping out of his mouth.

He looked up at Remus and asked with impaired speech, "Aaaah, thee-mus, thut am my?"

Peter's ears began to slowly bigger, pinker colored and round. Long white whiskers shot out of his cheeks. Then his front teeth grew downward. He gazed down at the whiskers and said anxiously, "Oh M-m-merlin, am I a c-c-c-cat?"

James suddenly screamed and reached for his head. The three others looked at him. Above each of his ears a single spiked antler grew up out of his skull.

"Crikey, mate… I think, I think you, you might be turning into a stag," Remus said shakily.

James felt carefully through his tufts of dark hair until his hands found the two unfamiliar antler spikes that had grown upwards.

"Antlers?" James asked. Remus nodded in confirmation.

Their transfigurations seem to pause for the time being.

They were not fully transformed and in some sort of limbo in-between the human and animal form. The three of them sat bewildered and looked pleadingly at Remus desperate for feedback on their appearances. Remus stood above them breathing quickly not sure quite what to say to them.

"Peter, um, I think you may be some sort of rodent, not a cat," Remus explained hesitantly. Peter's eyes grew wide in shock. He scrambled up from the floor and ran to the closest mirror on the wall.

"Thee-mus!" Sirius pressed a bit frantically, "Thut the hell tham I?"

Remus looked him up and down. After he observed Sirius' bodily changes, he said, "Uh, perhaps some sort of canine?"

Sirius started laughing. Then said still having difficulty articulating his words clearly with his long tongue, "Aaaaaah, tha' eksplains my thong tung!"

James slugged him and repeated teasingly, "Thong? What the bloody hell?" Sirius started growling a deep rumble from his throat none of them had ever heard before. Then James & Sirius rolled over a laughed on the carpet.

"A rat! I think I'm a b-b-b-bloody rat!" Peter cried from across the room after he stood in front of the mirror examining his appearance. They all turned and saw something behind him that made them stare in shocked silence.

Peter noticed their stunned expressions and asked, "What?"

Remus, James and Sirius were all three looking at his backside. James pointed and said, "What in the bloody hell is that???"

Sirius tried to comment but still struggled, "Tha luks like a thurm."

James looked at Sirius in confusion and repeated, "A what? A thumb?"

Sirius shook his head and tried again, "A waarm."

James frowned and broke out into a fit of laughter again, "Huh?"

Remus tried to kindly translate, "Are you trying to say… a WORM?"

Sirius nodded emphatically, pointed at Remus, and said, "Yeth! Tha'!"

James replied, "Ooooh, a worm. Like a worm tail!"

Sirius kept nodding and said, "Yeth. Wam thail!"

Peter had a long, skinny pink tail coming out of his trousers about the diameter of a small broomstick. When he slowly realized, they were referring to him regarding the worm tail he gasped. Then he quickly looked down in horror behind his waist and saw the long tail flopped down popping out of the backside of his trousers and hanging a bit past his bum with a pointed end. He frowned and cried,

"Aaaah, M-m-m-merlin, it's horrid!"

"Wam thale! Wam thale!" Sirius sung out at him.

"Worm tail! Ha! I think he found you a brilliant new nickname, Peter," James said.

Peter shrugged and then squinted at James. He said, "M-m-maybe we should c-call you 'Prongs'" eyeing the two antler spikes slightly curved and pointing up to the ceiling.

"Fine by me," James smiled and then ran to the mirror by Peter to see his new antler spikes.

"Thuck! Luk at my theet!" Sirius tried to say to Remus pointing to his feet.

Remus sat down below Sirius' feet and gazed at them curiously. The top of his feet were an odd mixture of human skin and tuffs of fur. His toe nails had narrowed into four pointy claws on the front. The bottom of his feet had five distinct black dog paw pads.

Remus looked up at Sirius and said, "Those are paw pads. I've made prints from ones like that myself…" Remus looked thoughtfully at him and added, "And perhaps we should call you, 'Padfoot'?"

Sirius laughed in agreement and began making intentional dog barking sounds, yips and yelps, just to be silly.

"Ssssh! I don't think my silencing charm is 100% sound proof. Settle down," Remus told him.

Hearing Sirius making the canine noises, Peter tried making a rat sound and made a high pitched, "Squeak!"

James turned from the mirror with a huge hairy smile and tried to make his own noise. It was an odd mixture of a banshee-like wail and a grunting sound. Remus looked nervously towards the doorway half expecting the Prefect to come barging in to investigate the peculiar cacophony of animals sounds. But no one was there. Remus whispered the door locking spell *again* Colloportus for a second time just to make himself feel better, even though he knew the Prefect was probably more skilled at unlocking than he was at this point. At least it would slow him down a little.

Soon Sirius got on all fours and starting making somewhat quieter woofing sounds. Then he started prancing in a circle around the Gryffindor themed carpet. James decided, what the hell, and got down on all fours and started following him making his grunting noises. Peter followed and made repeated little rat squeaks in the animagus parade.

Remus slide down with his back against the door and snickered at them. He didn't know why, but he had a feeling they wouldn't get stuck in their half-transformed states. Sure enough, by the end of the next 24 hours they each luckily returned to their full human forms.

Thankfully, the next day was Sunday and they did not have to hide in their beds from their classes. It was in contrast Remus's turn to bring food back to the dorm for the three of them from the Great Hall.

When others asked why James, Sirius and Peter never left the dorm that day, he simply used the excuse that they were ill. They were indeed lucky to recover fully from their failed attempt at becoming animagi but unbeknownst to them…it was due to their motivation out of love for their friend that allowed for them to not get stuck.