James Potter
Saturday, 24th March 1973.
Hogwarts
"So... do we have a deal?", James whispered in a dark tone.
The boy in front of him looked around them to make sure that nobody was watching. Then he hunched over the table and shook James' hand, "We do, boss. I'll try my best.", he said in the same tone as James.
"Don't disappoint me or there will be consequences.", James gave him an intimidating look and squeezed his hand a bit harder than he needed to.
"Can we stop this dark theme you two got going on.", Remus said, unimpressed, "It's just a cake."
William and James both gasped dramatically, "Just a cake?", James said in a disbelieving voice, "It's not just a cake!", he whisper-yelled at Remus who facepalmed. Peter's head was already on the table.
"It's a payment, my innocent child.", William stated as he placed a hand on Remus' shoulder while giving him a disappointed look.
Remus slapped the hand away, "Payment for what?", he raised an eyebrow at William but it was James who answered, "When Sirius and I hid those Diricawls from Kettleburn, he didn't check to see if they were back until tomorrow, so the Ravenclaw's Care of Magical Creatures class was cancelled as well.", he then turned to William, "So the Ravenclaws have a debt to pay.", the dark tone was back in place.
William nodded, "It will be done.", he said and then patted Remus and Peter on the back, "I have to go now, Sophia's waiting for me. When did you say you needed the...", he looked around them to check if the coast was still clear "Thing?", he whispered mysteriously.
"The dusk of the twenty-seventh."
William nodded, "Consider it done.", he said dramatically and then he walked away and got lost in the bookcase labyrinth.
"Well, I'd say that we can check the birthday planning off of our to-do list.", James announced satisfied, "We can have a small party in our dorm and—", but then his eyebrows furrowed. Sirius was running towards them with a huge book in hand.
"Guys! Guys!", he whisper-yelled at them which caused Madam Pince to rise from the dead again, "No running in the Library!", she hissed.
Sirius stopped immediately and gave her an apologetic smile which seemingly did nothing to ease the scowl on her face. Merlin, and James really thought that he had made some progress with that woman...
"What's gotten into you—", James started, but was cut off with a thud that was caused by Sirius dropping the big book he was carrying on the table. The curly haired boy started his rapid explanation accompanied with erratic hand gestures, "I found it! I finally found it! After a whole year of research, I—"
"You know how to move the map?!", Peter asked excitedly. It was no secret that he hated researching even though he was quite descent at it, so he immediately closed the book in front of him before Sirius even answered.
Sirius gave him a funny look while he pushed hair out of his face, "No! I found—", but he was cut off by groaning sounds from the rest of the Marauders. James saw Peter burying his head in his hands before James' own head dropped on the book in front of him, causing a small cloud of dust to lift into the air.
"Shush, you idiots! This is way more important! I—", but James cut Sirius off, "What could possibly be more important than the map right now?", his voice was muffled due to the old pages of the book. He could literally smell the dust, but he just didn't have the strength to pull his head up.
Sirius flicked him on the back of the head, but James didn't move an inch. Nonetheless, Sirius continued with his explanation, "I found a way to help you!"
James didn't know what Sirius was talking about, so he slightly tilted his head so that his chin still rested on the old book. This gave him a view of his friends and he saw Sirius pointing a finger at frozen Remus.
Wait... Does he really mean...
James' eyes widened in disbelief. Remus had the same expression as he and Peter still seemed oblivious behind his hands. James straightened his posture in seconds and quickly removed Peter's hands from his face to grab his attention, "Hey—", Peter tried to protest but James' eyes were on Sirius, "Shush, Pete. Sirius. Speak."
A wide smile spread across Sirius' face as he started explaining everything. He told them about the encyclopedia he found and then about the passage about werewolf transformations...
"So, you see here.", he opened the huge book excitedly, "Here.", James watched as Sirius followed the words in the book with his finger while reading everything out loud, "A lot of werewolves have reported that living in a pack has helped them during transformations...", he continued to read in a hushed voice, "Since werewolves are only dangerous to humas and a human becomes an animal after the transformation, keeping such company during full moon doesn't put anyone in danger.", he finished and then looked at all of them with twinkling eyes, "You see. We can just—"
"Sirius there is more here.", Remus stated as he took the book away from Sirius and continued to read in a whisper, "There are some safety protocols that need to be followed. It is recommended for the first night to be supervised by an educated Ministry of Magic worker due to the pack choosing a leader. This common process can result in a lot of injuries—"
"Who cares about that?", Sirius said as he slid the book back in front of him, "It isn't a must, it's just recommended.", he tried to convince Remus, but James saw that the tall boy looked apprehensive, so he tried to change the topic for now, "But how do we find another werewolf at Hogwarts? If there was another, Remus would know for sure—"
Sirius cut James off, "We don't need a werewolf! Look here. It says that werewolves are only dangerous to humas, so any animal could do the trick.", he said with a smug smile.
"Okay... maybe Filches' cat can help?", Peter suggested, but Sirius shook his head, "No, Pete. Don't you all get it?", he looked at James, but James had no idea what Sirius was talking about. Not even their telepathic connection was of any use now, so he raised an eyebrow at the boy.
"We will become animals!", Sirius whispered in excitement, "We can learn some transfiguration spell and just do it before the full moon—", but the groaning sounds from everyone seemed to stop Sirius' explanation.
James threw his head back on the old book and Peter's hands were back in front of his face. James suspected that Remus just looked disappointed. He could literally hear it in the tall boy's voice as he explained to Sirius what was on all of their minds, "Sirius, it doesn't work like that. Transfigurations are like what they are called. Transfigurations. The real form of the object doesn't change...", James heard Remus sigh, "It just changes its appearance. The wolf would still feel the human behind it."
"It's a transfiguration, not a transformation.", James added in a muffled voice which caused some dust to enter his mouth.
"Oh...", Sirius whispered quietly and James lifted his head to look at him. Sirius looked like a thunderstorm had just hit him or like he got pushed into the Black Lake during winter. It made James feel bad for him, "It's okay, mate.", he patted his friend on the back and then gave Remus, who also looked pretty down, an encouraging look, "We'll find something. You'll see there will be some new information like this one. It'll just be more... useful for our situation.", he tried, but the two Marauders still looked down.
Sirius sighed and closed the encyclopedia carefully, "Guess I'll return this.", he said, but just as he was about to stand up, the Marauders heard someone cough from behind them.
When they turned, professor McGonagall was near their table, "Mr. Potter. Mr. Black. I assume you didn't forget about the detention you have received?", she gave them an unimpressed look.
Needless to say, James completely forgot, "Of course not, professor. It's at...", he gave Sirius a panicked glance, but Sirius seemed oblivious as well, "It's at...", James repeated and McGonagall sighed, "In ten minutes.", she raised an eyebrow at James.
"Yeah. We knew that, didn't we?", James turned to Sirius who nodded before he turned to McGonagall, "We were just... testing you, professor. To see if you maybe forgot.", Sirius tried, but McGonagall just turned away from them, completely ignoring Sirius.
"Five minutes, now.", she said in a stern voice, "And for every minute that you're late, Gryffindor will lose five points."
"No running in the Library!", Madam Pince yelled after James and Sirius as the two jumped up from their seats and ran towards the exit and their Transfiguration classroom. They informed Remus and Peter that they'll be back in an hour and to keep researching before they started sprinting away.
"How does she do that?", James asked as the two ran towards the Grand Staircase. They needed to go down to the ground floor since the Transfiguration Department was there.
"Do what?", Sirius was running couple of meters in front of him and his yelling echoed in the corridor.
James tried to speed up so that he could grab Sirius' bag and make him run with him, "Just disappear like that and then wait for us in the stupid classroom.", he said as he slowed Sirius down to his speed of running by tugging his school bag.
"Merlin knows. Probably some spell."
They ran as fast as they could, but they were still two minutes late. James bursted into the second year's Transfiguration classroom and found it empty. Empty besides a random cat sitting with perfect posture on McGonagall's desk. James figured she was probably part of some transfiguration exercise.
"Okay...", James panted, "Maybe the spell she uses malfunctioned.", he hunched over and propped his palms on his knees, catching his breath.
Sirius did the same, "Not so perfect after all, eh?"
But then the cat jumped from the table and literally transformed into their Transfiguration professor in front of their eyes. James' mouth was hanging open and Sirius just kept on saying uncompleted words like but and you and the cat.
"Mr. Potter. Mr. Black. You are two minutes late if my calculations are correct?", she raised an eyebrow at them, but James and Sirius were still just standing there, "Shall I, perhaps, transfigure your tongues since you don't seem to use them?"
"What you did just now... It was...", James started but he just couldn't find the right word, so Sirius finished, "Wicked."
"Well, thank you Mr. Black. Maybe I'll start showing that skill more often if it gets students to be silent."
"What spell was that?", Sirius asked in awe, but McGonagall's answer surprised both of them, "It's not a spell, Mr. Black. Please take your seats so that we can start.", she said in a calm voice.
"But what is it then?", James asked as he and Sirius sat down in first row, right in front of the chalkboard. McGonagall sighed, "It's a skill not many wizards can accomplish. I am an Animagus."
James practically felt Sirius' eyes widened just like his. There was only one very important thing they needed to know, "So... it's not a transfiguration?", James asked, voice full of hope, "It's a transformation? You literally become the cat? Not just change your appearance?"
"Of course, Mr. Potter. That's why it's a highly complicated process which can only be done by wizards who come of age with strict supervision from the Ministry of Magic.", she said as she rummaged through the perfectly stacked papers, "Now. You will be redoing your essays on Transfigurational Liquids since these ones...", she lifted two very familiar papers, "Were written by Mr. Lupin."
"But does anyone know that you are an Animagus?", Sirius completely ignored the two papers that flew towards them.
"Oh, yes, they must. It's the law, Mr. Black. Every wizard who becomes an Animagus has to be registered. If someone breaks the law, the sentence will be passed. Usually couple of years in Azkaban. Now. The essays.", she made a movement with her wand and two ink bottles and quills appeared in front of them.
James only glanced once at Sirius, just to make sure that he wasn't the only one with a huge grin on the face.
And James was right.
* * *
"Do you really think that we can do it?", James asked Sirius as the two walked towards the common room. They went back into the Library as soon as the detention with McGonagall ended, but found their table empty. Remus and Peter must have retreated back to the common room as more students came to study in the Library.
"Yeah, for sure, but we have to do it illegally. Remus can't wait for us to come of age. Plus, the Ministry can't know that he is a werewolf, so we don't have a justified reason to do it. And we'll have to do the research and find out how to actually do it. That part will be much easier with Remus' help—"
James coughed with the purpose of stopping Sirius' ramble. Sirius gave him a funny look before James started talking, "Maybe it's best not to tell Remus.", now Sirius' eyebrows furrowed, so James quickly clarified, "For now I mean. You saw how disappointed he was today after you told us about the transfiguration thing. Maybe it's best to keep it a secret until we are sure that we can actually do it."
Sirius thought for a moment and then sighed, "Yeah, you're probably right. But we have to tell Pete. He has to do it with us. Knotgrass."
James watched the portrait of the Fat Lady swing open as Sirius said the password, "Yeah, definitely. We are doing this as a team.", but then James' gaze caught something red as they entered the common room, "Hi, Evans.", he greeted her with a smile.
She lifted her head from the book she was reading and smiled back at him, "Hi, Potter. Hi, Black."
But Sirius said nothing which made James look at him with questioning eyes. Evans also seemed confused, maybe even a bit hurt by Sirius, but she went back to reading in no time, the smile gone from her face.
"What was that all about?", James asked him as the two were climbing the spiral stairs to the boys' dormitory.
"She doesn't like us.", Sirius said simply.
This confused James. Yes, Evans didn't like them at first, but he could swear that the initial dislike was almost gone. After all, she was hanging out with them, Marlene and Greenford for almost 4 months now. He would even catch her eye sometimes in class and send her a smile, and she would return it with a playful eyeroll.
"What are you talking about? Why is she nice to us then?"
"Because she has no one else to hang out with besides McKinnon and Greenford who actually like us and hang out with us.", Sirius clarified.
James snorted at this. Maybe Evans just didn't like Sirius, "She's nice to me. I think if you maybe give her a chance—"
"She doesn't like any of us, James. I know that you like her, but I heard her talking with Snivellus when we were at the Library. She's just a fake."
James didn't even try and defend himself from liking Evans, he had other things occupying his mind, "But... that doesn't make any sense. She smiles when I talk to her and she started studying with Remus—", he tried to defend Evans, but Sirius cut him off, "She said I'm not friends with them, Marlene and Helen are so I just tag along.", he imitated her girly voice.
"But maybe we aren't still that close for her to call us friends—", but Sirius continued, "And then Snape asked her why would she even want to tag along with us and she was like I don't. Do you want me to walk by myself to classes and common room.", his imitation made another appearance.
Wow... James thought to himself. She really was a fake.
His face must have given his disappointment away since Sirius gave him a sympathetic look and then patted him on the back. He then opened the door to their dorm, "She was just using us since she didn't want to be a lonely loser."
"Who?", Remus and Peter asked from their beds that held a couple of library books and Sirius retold the story.
James didn't really listen to it for the second time. For some unknown reason he felt really hurt by it. All the smiles she threw his way were fake and the thought of that stung a lot.
He didn't understand what he did for her to dislike him. Yes, they did pull a lot of pranks and maybe they were annoying sometimes, but still... Every prank they did was harmless and even some were quite enjoyable like the fireworks which became a staple for the Marauders.
The worst part was that James didn't know why it bothered him so much. He never cared about what other people thought of him. For Merlin's sake, the Slytherins called him a blood traitor and he just didn't care. But this, for some reason, really hurt him.
He felt used and fooled.
"I think I'll take a nap.", he said to the Marauders once Sirius finished the story. Remus looked as equally confused as James was back on the stairs, "Sirius and I only got two hours of sleep and it's catching up to me.", he tried to justify, but the real reason was far from tiredness.
Quite the opposite, James felt very much awake. Even when he changed into some more comfortable clothes and when he laid down in his bed.
He just kept on thinking about Lily and all those smiles she threw his way which he now knew were fake.