Grace and Remus spent the next two minutes debating what exactly being 'an old fart' entailed whilst waiting for the other three to join them at the top of the seventh floor staircase.
"It's an old person's fart."
"But you said 'old fart'. As in the fart is old, not the person who did it."
"So, someone farted in a jar two hundred years ago and then set it free on the 10th of March in 1960, and then it morphed into you? Sounds about right."
"That's just-"
"Oh! I know! You're an old old person's fart. Two hundred years, ago an old person farted into a jar, and then-"
"Are you two seriously talking about farts?" James asked them as he, Peter and Sirius reached the seventh floor. "And Lily said that I was immature."
"That's because you are, Prongs. Remus and I, however, are very civilized young adults," Grace countered, getting up from the stairs.
"Yeah right," Sirius snorted as the five of them rounded the corridor and found themselves in front of the blank wall.
"Uh, magical room?" Peter called, standing in front of the wall. "We need to practise again, so if you could-"
"It's a room, Wormtail. It can't hear you," James cut him off.
"Well, it's working, isn't it?" Peter replied, motioning to the brown patch that had begun to spread across the wall, forming the same pair of doors that they had entered the day before.
Grace wasted no time in swinging them open and running in. "So, are we all going to do it at once, or take turns again or-"
"Can I try again first? I just want to make sure that last night wasn't just a one off," Sirius asked, and the others all nodded eagerly.
Sure enough, two minutes later, they were chasing a black dog around the room. Once Sirius had reverted back to a human, Grace, James and Peter got up, spreading themselves out around the room.
"All together?" Remus asked, watching them. Sirius sat down beside him.
"All together," James confirmed.
Grace let her eyes drift shut and began to think of what Sirius had said – she had to think about why she was doing this and how much she wanted to transform.
She had always wanted to become an Animagus for as long she could remember. How could would it be to turn into an animal? To walk, run and jump in a whole different body? To experience the world from the perspective of a completely different creature?
To an extreme lover of creature great and small, magical and non-magical, the idea was absolutely fantastical.
But it wasn't just about her any more. It was about Remus. About preventing him from tearing himself apart every full moon just a little bit less. About making him feel slightly more normal around every day wizards and witches. About being a good friend.
She needed to do this, regardless of how many rules it was breaking or how long it took.
Grace thought about these things as a deep ache spread throughout her body as it changed shape, moulding itself into something else entirely. It was an odd sensation, being aware of body parts in places and shapes they shouldn't be in.
When she opened her eyes, the first thing she noticed were to light brown paws directly below her face. She leapt back in surprise, only to come crashing back down to the ground. Sirius was right – it was going to take a while to get used to having four legs.
From behind her, she could hear Sirius and Remus laughing and cheering, causing her to break into the best smile she could do with her new jaw.
She'd done it! She'd turned into a mountain lion.
Grace turned her head to see James, in his full stag form, standing proudly in one corner, and a terrifying half rat – half human in the other corner. Peter's head had completely changed into a rat's, only it was gigantic, and his hands had transformed into sharp claws.
Remus was quick to pull out his wand and help Peter change back.
"That was so weird!" Peter cried, before catching sight of the other two "Merlins Beard!"
On four shaky legs, Grace pulled herself into a standing position and slowly made her way over to James and the others. After a few minutes of playing around with the others in their new forms, Grace and James reverted back to humans. A large group hug then ensued.
"I can't believe you guys have actually done it! We're so close!"
---
Eventually, after three more tries, Peter too ended up succeeding in his transformation, bringing even more joy to the group.
Over the next few weeks, Grace, Sirius, Peter and James spent every spare moment they could practising and perfecting their new skill until they could change from human to animal just as easily as they could blink.
The next full moon was the 20th of October, a Monday, so they decided to organise a practise run on the Saturday night beforehand. You could never be too prepared.
At seven o'clock on the Saturday night, Grace, Sirius, Peter and James huddled under the Invisibility cloak and headed out towards the Whomping Willow, whilst Remus stayed in the dorm room to read.
The four of them spent the majority of their night roaming the Hogwarts grounds, getting used to running in their new bodies and interacting with each other's animal forms.
They were finally ready help Remus.
---
YAY THEY DID IT
Also GUESS WHO'S GOING TO AMERICA IN A WEEK AND A HALF AHHHH! I've never been overseas before and I'm puMPED.
I'm gone for two weeks so I'll try to write and the plane and stuff and keep updated but we'll see.
- Grace