1974-- Early Fifth Year

“Hey, Remus!”

Remus glanced up from his book as James came bounding through the portrait and headed up to their dorm. He was positively glowing with delight, so much so that it hurt his eyes to look directly at the boy’s beaming face. The other inhabitants of the Gryffindor common room looked at them suspiciously, knowing that a happy James meant either that Lily had decided to go out with him (though they all knew it wasn’t that) or, in all probability, the Marauders were up to their old tricks.

Remus squashed the sudden feeling of curiosity rising in him and turned back to his book. He was a prefect now, if James wanted to ignore his half-hearted advice and continue to rampage around the school making mischief than it was probably better if he didn’t have anything to do with it.

Still, he couldn’t help but wonder why James was feeling so chipper as of late.

After a few minutes of careful deliberation he closed his book and made his way up to their dorm.

---

“Ha, it’s funny; I could have sworn you just said you actually did it.” Said a voice Remus recognised as Sirius’.

He was standing at the door, speculating wether he should go in, or just stand there listening. Whilst he was considering all the possibilities he stood there and listened.

“Yeah, that’s because I did.” Said James, sounding incredibly pleased with himself.

“What? You-- you mean-- I can’t believe-- You fully-- How did-- How did you do it?” Stuttered Sirius.

‘Do what?’ Remus thought exasperatedly before remembering he was supposed to be debating wether to go in or not.

“Wow, that’s amazing. That’s really-- Wow.” Peter seemed at a loss for words.

“ It is isn’t it?” James said proudly.

Remus couldn’t stand it anymore; only those three could go on for so long saying “it” without actually saying what “it” was. He grasped the doorknob in his hand and turned it, noticing the voices inside suddenly quiet.

“Hello,” He said cheerfully, “What are you all talking about?”

“Who says we were talking about anything?” Sirius said defensively.

Remus just rolled his eyes and looked towards James for an explanation.

“I wouldn’t worry your wee little prefect head over it,” James said dismissively, “It has nothing to do with you.”

Anyone else would have believed him straight off, but anyone else hadn’t been living with him for a good part of over four years. To Remus, it was perfectly obvious that James was lying. He thought perhaps this should worry him, but it only intrigued him further.

---

An eventless two weeks later, everyone had finally dropped their guard, dismissing James’ gleeful mood as something completely harmless. The relaxed atmosphere disappeared when the peace of the common room was abruptly disturbed by the sudden appearance of Sirius Black.

He charged into the room whooping with sheer joy. Jumping onto a low table in front of the fireplace he pumped the air with his fist with a loud exclamation: “YES!” He then proceeded to run around the room high-fiveing anyone who would high-five him. When he came across Remus he grinned manically before dashing up the stairs to their dorm.

Now the inhabitants of the Gryffindor common room we really worried. They had never seen Sirius Black so happy before; it was not a good sign. They resolved not to leave their dorms without the proper protective gear and to have their wands ready at all times.

Sirius thudded back down the stairs, composing himself as much as possible and asking if perhaps anyone knew where James and Peter were. Remus wordlessly pointed out the window towards the Lake watching as Sirius spun around and headed through the portrait chanting, “I did it! I did it!” jovially over and over.

Remus frowned with frustration but continued to work on his essay for Transfiguration. Why were all his friends suddenly so ecstatic? It was maddening.

---

A month passed. An incredibly action-packed month, in which Remus wrote essays, alphabetised his extensive collection of books and balled various coloured socks. James and Sirius indulged in minor acts of mischief and snuck food in from the kitchens at least twice a week in order to “celebrate” an event they did not care to share with Remus. And Peter… actually Peter didn’t seem to be about all that much.

---

It was a Thursday when Remus’ life changed.

It hadn’t been a particularly enjoyable Thursday, in fact it had been rather miserable. They’d had Potions with the Slytherins, and that was usually enough to put him in a bad mood. He wasn’t very good at Potions; some people would even go so far as to say he was bloody hopeless.

In addition to this he had two rolls of parchment to write on Animagi for Transfiguration and when he’d gone to the library, he was told the book he’d been looking for on the subject had apparently been missing since 1971. It was infuriating to say the least.

Remus sat on his bed dusting the piece of parchment he intended to write his essay on with the end of his quill. James and Sirius were sitting on the floor playing a distracting game of exploding snap and just, overall, making a lot of unnecessary noise.

Suddenly Peter burst into the room wide-eyed and looking very surprised.

“I did it. Me. Me! How… Me! I did it!” Peter’s face lit up with a smile and he did a little victory dance.

“Did what?” Asked Remus hoping for a straight answer.

“Well done Pete!” Exclaimed Sirius as the pile of cards exploded once again.

“Congratulations, I knew you could do it!” Said James straightening his glasses.

“Do what?” Asked Remus exasperated.

“I worked really hard, because I knew you two could do it and were waiting for me and I finally did it!”

“Did what?” Remus repeated, irritably.

“Yeah,” said Sirius standing up, “I’ve been waiting years for this moment.”

“Now we can finally tell Remus.” James said happily.

“TELL ME WHAT!?” Remus cried out glaring at the three boys who had suddenly remembered he was in the room.

“Oh, right, sorry ‘bout that.” Sirius said, “It’s just we’ve been working on it for years, like, since Second Year and we’ve finally managed to become fully fledged Animaguses.”

“I believe the correct plural form is Animagi,” Remus replied, then, “What? You-- what?”

“Yeah, when you told us about your furry little problem we weren’t really sure what to do about it.” Said James, “Then I realised that you can’t hurt other animals. I mean, you can scratch them and bite them and throw them out windows and stuff but you can’t, you know, give them a furry little problem of their own. So I thought it’d be a good idea if we became Animaguses-- Animagi so we could come with you to the shack on full moon and keep you company.”

Remus blinked at him. He opened his mouth, closed it, and blinked at him again.

“The reason we didn’t tell you was because you’d tell us it was dangerous and try to talk us out of it.” Peter said in a matter-of-fact voice, “And Sirius said you’d like this surprise more than the book.”

Remus looked at him, “It is dangerous, incredibly danger-- book? What book exactly?”

Sirius grimaced and pulled a huge old book from under his bed. “This book.” He said, “You wouldn’t like it Remus, it’s evil.”

Remus thought he recognised it from somewhere and said, “Sirius? Is this the book you got detention for throwing at Snape?”

“Er, yes. Yes it is.”

“I didn’t see the title, you threw it pretty hard after all, I-- wait. I was looking for this book! Not a moment ago! I went to the library and was told it had been missing since…” Remus realised something and looked at them all, shock written all over his face, “You stole a book from the library!?”

“Hey,” said James defensively, “we had good reason!”

“But still,” said Remus, “Madam Pince will kill you. She’ll murder you in your sleep. I can’t believe you stole…”

“I can’t believe you care more about us stealing a book than us becoming Animagi for you.” Said Sirius tersely.

“Oh.” Remus said blinking, it hadn’t really sunk in until now. “Oh. I… oh. I don’t know what to say, I just… oh.”

“How about ‘thank you’?”

“Thank you.”