James led me up to their dormitory and, after rummaging around in a heap of clothes he assured me were clean, handed me a jumper and a pair of pyjama bottoms to change into should I want to shower. He assured me that he'd be back soon with the rest of them and made me promise I'd be ok on my own and not go on a head hunt for Tibbles. Then, he left.
Deciding that I did, in fact, want to shower, I grabbed the jumper and trousers and walked into their bathroom which was surprisingly clean and neat compared to the bedroom. My reflection in the mirror looked tired, with red, blotchy skin, my ever-present dark circles around my eyes, and small dried-out trickles of mascara streamed from my puffy eyes. I was pale, especially against James' black school robe, which I quickly proceeded to shrug off, shivering in the absence of it. I regretted not turning on the shower first.
The thing about living in a school, and a magic one at that, was that it took no time at all for the shower water to warm up and I stepped into the jets of water only moments after turning it on and only after having stood there for a second did I realise how cold I had been. I used the only shampoo there was there, which turned out to be Sirius'- I recognised the smell- then proceeded to condition my hair with something that smelled like the shampoo; coconutty and familiar. I smelled the four different shower gels lined up on the floor of the shower and picked one which by the smell alone seemed to warm me up from the inside. It smelt like many different spices; cardamom, ginger, and fennel the most prominent. After standing in the shower for a considerable amount of time, I heard the dormitory door open and Sirius yell out, "We're here with food, little precious!"
I turned the shower off and replied, "A'ight, I'll just dry myself off. Don't start eating without me."
Laughter echoed in the neighbouring room, "Wouldn't even dream of starting without you, O." Sirius called back.
I smiled a little and looked down at my feet. I then looked in the mirror again and marked a definite improvement in my appearance from the shower. I found a fresh towel in the cupboard under the sink and wrapped myself in it, still staring at my reflection. I dried away some remaining mascara from under my eyes and dried my shoulders and torso. I had some scars here and there, but on the back of my left shoulder were three prominent marks. I ran my fingers over the white marks and shuddered a bit, thinking back to when I had received them. One was a spiral, one was an eye and the third was larger and more intricate, and looked like a dragon. The dragon was a birthmark, something that had always fascinated me, and had been a source of ridicule for my bullies at elementary school. I made sure to wear something to cover all of them at all times.
Remembering that the boys were waiting with food, I hurried up to dry myself off and pulled on the pyjama bottoms and the jumper, both of which smelled of James and were warm from laying on the heated floor. I hung up the towel on a spare peg and glanced in the mirror one last time before opening the bathroom door. The boys were sitting on the floor in a circle around a large pile of food on different platters.
"Finally, I was just saying that if you took another minute I'd start eating." James said, reaching hastily towards the shepherd's pie.
I made a face at him and shook the jumper arms further up my arms so I could reach out of them - James was not the tallest or largest of the boys, but was still three times my size- to tuck my wet hair out of my face to get a better look at the food.
"You know, I'm surprised you weren't singing. You always sing in the shower." Remus said with a grin.
"Uh, my throat is kind of sore. And I'm too tired." I answered, sitting down and picking out different foods. I didn't notice the nervous look all the boys exchanged with another.
"The chicken was particularly good today, you should have some of it. I tried a little on our way up, sorry." Peter said, and passed me the chicken, looking actually sorry.
"Don't worry about it Peter. It smells extra good, yeah." I mumbled absent-mindedly, helping myself to it.
We ate in an unusual silence, all of us having been very hungry, but it was a comfortable silence. When we had all put our plates down and declared ourselves full, I looked at each of them in turn, "So."
"So," Sirius responded.
"A secret?"
"Yes," Said Remus, "The first half of which, you already know. You figured it out before all the others, who even shared dorms with me."
"Hang on, when did you find out about Remus' furry little issue?" James interrupted.
I snorted, "Furry little issue? That's what that is? All the girls think Remus has a particularly naughty rabbit."
The boys all laughed.
"I figured it out that first Christmas at Hogwarts, when did you all find out?"
"What?" They all exclaimed, "We didn't realise before halfway through our third year."
"Yes, well. I knew Remus for a while before you all did, I knew something was going on, I just didn't know werewolves existed before I started here."
At the word "werewolves", the boys all seemed to tense up and Sirius, James, and Peter all glanced at Remus.
"It is alright that I use the word werewolf, isn't it, Remus?"
He looked up at me softly, "Of course it is. Things should be addressed directly, even if they may be uncomfortable to talk about it. That's what you taught me."
I smiled a bit. "Hang on, what's the secret then? You're all telling me something I already know."
"Yes, well what you don't know is what we've done as a result of Remus' monthlies."
I scoffed again, "Monthlies, hah!"
"We realised it would be reckless even for us to join Remus as ourselves, to make sure he was alright, to calm him down. Then we thought that perhaps we could join him... not as ourselves." Sirius said mystically, and raised his eyebrow dramatically.
Different thoughts and ideas raced through my head, "And what do you mean by that?"
"We can show you!" Peter exclaimed.
James, Sirius, and Peter all stood up and then did something I had not been expecting. They started to shift, to transform. Their features stretched and contorted, all of them sprouting fur. Peter and Sirius started to shrink, and James began to grow, something seemed to be growing out of his head- antlers?- and his arms were growing longer, thinner, and hairier.
After a few seconds, their transformations were complete. Before me stood a stag, a dog, and a rat.
"You're animagis!?" I exclaimed and laughed, quite impressed. I looked at Remus who was watching them with a sort of guilty amusement. "That's brilliant!"
They all turned back, grins plastered on their faces, seemingly pleased with my reaction.
"How did you manage to do it? How long have you worked for it? Why didn't you also learn how to transform, Remus?" Questions burst from my mouth, and I couldn't help myself from asking them one by one.
"Well, we did some research, I think Minnie was quite suspicious for a while, especially that period of time where we had to have those wretched leaves in our mouths." James told me, and I scoffed, imagining those three being silent for that long so as not to reveal what was going on.
"We've been trying to manage it for quite a while, but we finally managed the transformation just a couple of weeks ago." Peter said.
"We wanted to tell you," Sirius said, looking worriedly at me, "But you've been so busy and, well, we though maybe you'd disapprove."
"Hey, don't worry about it," I said with a soft smile, "It's not something you just say out of the blue. And, I mean to say, I would probably have disapproved if you'd told me you were planning to become animagi, as it's so dangerous, but I suppose now that you've managed it, there's not much I can do except congratulate you. It's very advanced magic!"
Sirius sprang up and bowed deeply, "Thank you m'lady."
I then looked at Moony, who had remained silent, "I would have thought you would have wanted to try it as well, Remus."
He looked sideways at me, then said, "It doesn't work the same way on werewolves. It would have been too risky to try when we weren't sure what would happen."
I nodded, and brushed his arm softly in an attempt to make him feel better.
"Well, this was quite a juicy secret. Maybe you'd all like one in return?"
All four boys looked at me wide-eyed and nodded enthusiastically.
I took a deep breath. "When I was with my father, I learnt quite a bit about my- my heritage." I paused and looked at them. They were staring at me expectantly. I tried not to feel too affected by Sirius' eyes watching me so carefully. "And, well, as it goes- um, I found out- er..."
"Come on then, spit it out!" James encouraged, seemingly to impatient to wait.
"Alright, alright. Apparently, I am a descendent of Merlin on my father's side."
They all gaped at me, not having expected that at all. Silence pursued my words, and I was afraid that I shouldn't have told them. Maybe they thought I was some sort of freak?
"Is that why you're so good with magic?" Remus asked, a tone of sensible curiosity in his voice.
"Oh, well. I don't know, I'm not that-"
"Yes you are," He replied, "You're way ahead of all of us- no, it's not just because you were personally taught," He said, as I opened my mouth, "And I've seen you do wandless magic easy as can be."
"He's right!" Squeaked Peter, "It's like you've got- like you've just got more magic in your veins than the rest of us."
"I suddenly feel a hundred times better about all the times you've been right and I've been wrong." Sirius said.
"No, don't think that. I'm not any better than you guys, it's just someone who was alive a long time ago who happened to be good at magic and who happened to impregnate someone, who had a child who had a child who had a child and so on until I was born."
"Nah, you can't fool us," James said with a tone of superiority, "You're a child prodigy with extraordinary magic and the mind of a genius. You'll be the next Dumbledore!"
"Shut up, you idiot. I'm not that smart." I said, feeling rather overwhelmed.
"Leave her alone, can't you see how red she's going. She's all flustered, little icky genius girl." Remus said, booping me on the nose.
I groaned as all the boys guffawed and I hid myself under a stray pillow.
"Alright, alright. We'll leave you be, yeah?" Sirius said, grabbing the pillow off my head and snatching it from my grasping hands.
"That's not all." I said, now feeling nervous.
"You can tell us." James said, looking at me encouragingly.
I remembered him coming up to the owlery just a few hours before and helping me to calm down.
"You know how Merlin was a Slytherin?" They all nodded, and I went on, "Earlier this year, when I was in Dumbledore's office, I tried on the sorting hat. It said- it said that it thought I belonged in Slytherin much better than in Gryffindor now, that something in me had changed." I rushed the last sentences out, and looked hesitantly up at them to check whether they had even understood what I said, though I found I could not look at Sirius. It seemed they had.
"It said you were a Slytherin?" Remus asked.
"Yeah." I looked down.
"And so?" James asked. I looked at him to see that he was looking at me with a sort of fierce protectiveness.
"Did you think that we wouldn't like you any more just because a hat says that you've changed over the course of some very intense years?" Remus asked.
"Well, you seem to have quite a lot against the Slytherins, so I thought-"
"We don't like those Slytherins because they're a bunch of fascist idiots who think they're better than everyone else because their blood is 'pure', not because they're Slytherins." Sirius erupted suddenly.
I looked at him cautiously, I had been most worried about how he would react and felt slightly relieved.
"So you- you don't hate me? You don't want me to slither away from you all?"
James, Sirius, and Remus laughed, "Of course not, silly!"
Peter spoke up once the laughter had died down, "I thought we didn't like Slytherins."
"It's Olimpia, idiot, not some prat like Mulciber." Sirius said, hitting him lightly over the head.
I smiled, feeling incredibly relieved. I hadn't known just how much that had weighed on me over the last months.
"Oh, we almost forgot!" James exclaimed, getting up and starting to rummage around a very messy cupboard. After a few seconds, he drew out a piece of parchment.
"What's that?" I asked.
"Something we've been working on over the few past weeks," Remus said.
James handed it to me and I peered over it. It seemed to be a map over the grounds of Hogwarts. I saw the Black lake, the womping willow and Hagrid's hut, the Dark Forest and everything else on the grounds.
"We're thinking of starting with the castle soon, put on all the secret passageways and stuff."
"Brilliant!" I said, smoothing my finger over it.
"We're also planning to put some enchantments and stuff on it too, so that it shows people and where they are, and a sort of lock enchantment to keep nosy gits from being able to use it," Sirius said. He had moved behind me, and I felt some of his hair tickling my neck.
"We thought you could help us with that!" Remus exclaimed.
"I might have some ideas," I said, thinking about different charms I knew, "My father had a similar sort of charm to see if anyone was approaching the house."
"Jolly hockey sticks!" James said, rubbing his hands together and bringing out a large bag of sweets out of nowhere, "Sweets to celebrate a night of secrets and friendship!"
"You're so corny, James," I said, laughing, "But I will not turn down the sweets."
James and Sirius were discussing some of the new tactics they were trying out in the Quidditch team, when I thought of something in the middle of taking a large bite out of a chocolate frog.
After swallowing it down a little too hastily, coughing violently and taking a large gulp of water, I managed to take a deep breath.
"I can't believe we called you a genius less than an hour ago." Sirius said, hitting me softly on the back. When I could breathe normally again, however, he let his hand rest on my back.
"I had an idea," I said, after shooting a look at Sirius for the little jibe, "Why don't you all have nicknames?"
They looked blankly at me for a moment, until James said, "Why don't we have nicknames?"
"You haven't even considered it?" I asked, slightly surprised.
James and Sirius looked dumbstruck at each other, "We've lost our touch. Why didn't we think of nicknames?"
"Well, you can think of them now. What do you think? It should have something to do with your animals. If you're going to be secret animagi and have a secret map, you should have nicknames, you know?"
"Peter'll be Wormtail!" Sirius exclaimed, "Cus his little rat tail looks like a little wormy!"
I leaned backwards and laughed, before realising that Sirius was still behind me. Before I could jolt up and away, however, Sirius put an arm over my stomach and trapped me against his rather solid torso.
"You're not going anywhere, you're still icy cold."
"If I'm Wormtail, James is Prongs." Peter said, "'Cus I always think of forks when I look at your antlers."
"Forks? My antlers are majestic! Not cutlery." James said, but seemed quite pleased with the name.
"Remus, you can be Moony." Said James, smiling at Remus.
"Yeah!" Chorused Peter and Sirius, I could feel the latter's laughter rumble through his, and my, body.
Remus seemed to glow up, I reckoned he felt more accepted by his friends by them choosing a nickname related to his lycanthropy. "I think I quite like that."
"And I'll be... Padfoot." Exclaimed Sirius.
"Padfoot? Nah, you're more of a Snuffles, I think." I retorted, and he squeezed me with his arm.
"Nope," He said, "It's got to be Padfoot. It sounds more proper, mysterious-like."
"You'll be Snuffles to me."
"We'll need a group name, too." James said.
"Like the Scalliwags!" Peter said.
"No, not the Scalliwags. Too common. We need a fancy name." James replied.
"What should Ollie's name be?" Remus asked, considering me.
There was silence.
"Well, you're not an animagi, but as a metamorphmagi I suppose you can be anything. What's your patronus?" Asked Sirius from behind me.
I tensed up at the thought of patronuses and felt momentarily wordless. James picked up a shoe from the floor and threw it at Sirius, "Were you listening at all when we were getting dinner? You insensitive prick!"
Sirius flinched away from the shoe, bringing me with him, then straightened up again, his arm still around me. I was feeling much warmer now.
"Well, we were holding food, and I was hungry, and the smell kept wafting over me-"
"It's ok, James, Sirius," I said calmly, "To summarise, I can't produce a patronus and Tibbles tried to make me produce one in front of the class and I couldn't and- and I felt humiliated."
"Well, there's nothing wrong with that," Sirius said, stroking my arm a bit. Little did he know that it sent shivers tingling all the way up my neck, and I caught myself imagining his fingers trailing over it. "I can help you cast one, then you can show that dimwit, and we can find you a nickname!"
"Yeah, Sirius helped Remus with his patronus!" James contributed, and Remus nodded enthusiastically.
"Thanks, Sirius."