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YOU HAD BEEN snowed upon during your two hours being lost, resulting in you barely being able to walk. Your legs were actually frozen— and not "omg I'm frozen" frozen, like they were actually covered in snow and a little ice— and it took you all about twenty minutes to get out of the forest, Lily had been marking landmarks. Smart. There was a reason you weren't a Ravenclaw, after all.
As soon as you emerged from the forest, Remus, who had been sinking further and further into the snow, jumped up, running towards the figures like a niffler to pennies. He pushed past James, who had been cuddling up close to you to try to keep you warm, and embraced you in a tight hug. It was surprising, although everyone knew that the two were close they never realized just about how close. It actually made James a little jealous, but he would never admit that.
The group, huddling up for warmth and fear of loosing someone again, made their way inside, where Lily volunteered to make everyone a cup of hot coco even though she was freezing herself. On the couch, your teeth chattered as you snuggled up close to James and Remus, who were on either side of you, Sirius and Marlene on the outskirts.
"J—James," you finally said, "what in Merlin?"
Realizing that no one had any idea what you were saying, you clarified, "You're an unregistered animagus?!"
Marlene jumped back in her seat with shock. There was a clatter from the kitchen— Lily had spilt the coco. Sirius, Remus and James all gave each other a look.
"Er, possibly," Sirius said.
"I thought I was just imagining things..." Lily trailed from the kitchen, making her way towards you all with the coco and shaky hands, "I thought that without Y/N I was slowly loosing my sanity... Sirius is a... and James..."
Lily put down the tray of hot coco, everyone simultaneously leaning forward and snatching one with hands as cold as ice. You took a sip, feeling the warmth fill your body up like a milk jug.
"Two things, one, Lily makes an excellent hot coco," you stated, everyone nodding in agreement as Lily blushed— or maybe she was still cold? You couldn't tell. "And two, y'all are animagus'? Unregistered, animagus'?"
"James, what did you do?" Both boys said, turning to a guilty James.
"She was bound to find out sometime! And, er, a stag can take the cold better than I can." James defended.
"Bruh," Sirius said, "we are unregistered. Illegal. This could get out of control!"
"Illegal?! What were you thinking?!" Lily exclaimed.
"We weren't! We just wanted to help Remus because he's—" James caught himself, glancing nervously at Remus.
Remus took a deep breath, before announcing, "You guys can't tell anyone what's being discussed in here today. We're having a truthful day, for Y/N's sake. I'm... I'm a werewolf."
Remus sank deep into his chair, ashamed, ready for all the questions and disgusted looks. What he didn't expect was for Marlene to rush over to him and give him a great big bear hug, Remus too surprised to hug back.
"I'm so glad you're ok," Marlene said, still hugging him, "and I'm glad you told us."
Remus glanced towards Lily, who gave him an encouraging nod. His friends meant the world to him, and for them to accept him like that... well, he couldn't be more grateful.
"Can I just ask why you're animagus'?" You deadpanned, focusing on the ground.
"Like we said, we wanted to help Remus. He's getting better, honestly. Y/N," Sirius said after a moment, "are you ok?"
"I can't believe the odds..." you murmured, face still unreadable.
You looked straight into James' eyes and said, "Me too."
That was just about when all hell broke loose. When everyone finally stopped talking over each other, you continued.
"Me and Remus... we used to be neighbors. By the time we got to Hogwarts, we found our own friends, we didn't hang out as much. I knew he was a werewolf. Those first couple nights... I helped him. It was rough. Soon enough, I decided to become an animagus so I wasn't at risk of getting hurt."
"Hurt?" Lily asked, and you nodded.
"It was accidental, of course, but..." You lifted up your jacket sleeve to show a scar. "Remember when I came back to our dorm with this?"
Marlene said, truly astonished, "Yeah. You said you went too close to the whomping willow."
"A lie in itself. I went too close to Remus, actually, but let's not talk about that." You said quickly, knowing that it was a touchy subject for him. "Anyways, by fourth year, I was an animagus, but I had taken so much time to become one that I forgot why I was doing it in the first place. I had stopped going with Remus at about Christmas, first year."
"That's when we started going!" James exclaimed.
"It all adds up..." You trailed.
"I thought you were ignoring me. I thought you forgot about me, or worse, you didn't like me anymore."
"You drifted apart," Marlene said.
"Yeah." You and Remus said in time, glancing awkwardly at each other. You hadn't really talked about it since.
"But now your friends again," Lily said.
"What're the odds?" You and Remus asked in time again, glancing at each other over the rims of your cups before laughing, whipped cream going up your nose when you accidentally inhaled over it.
You took a tissue and blew it out of your nose, saying, "Well, do a new thing everyday... can tick inhale and exhale whipped cream off my bucket list..."
The group laughed, happy to have their friend back.
"Anyways, what're your animagus forms?" You asked curiously.
"I'm a stag."
"I'm a dog."
"What about Peter?"
"He's a rat."
You snorted, but when James, Sirius and Remus all gave you a look you instantly quieted down.
"I'm a y/a/f (your animagus form), but I haven't been in my animagus form in so long... and I know you can't loose the ability, but it's definitely out of practice."
James nodded, "Yeah, if you don't go into your form in a long time, it can get a little rusty."
"So what did I miss while I was gone?"
"Miss? Miss? Miss?! Fucking hell, Y/N, we were fucking suffering without you!" Sirius exclaimed.
"That's not true," you insisted, "what did you actually do?"
"Suffer. S-u-f-f-e-r, suffer. It means to—"
"Ok, ok, she gets it, Sirius." Lily said, then turned to you and said in a softer tone, "It's true, though."
"Well, you wanna know what I did?" You asked, a sarcastic edge to your voice.
"What?" They all asked curiously in time.
"First, I got scared. Then, I got depressed. Next, I decided to become adopted by the woods. After I gave up on that, I accepted my fate as lost forever or I'd die of pneumonia."
"That... that sounds tough." James said after a while, his face blank.
"Really tough." Remus added.
"Brutal." Sirius deadpanned.
"But hey, I'm alive." You shrugged, a sliver of a smile escaping your lips.
Suddenly, everyone was surrounding you. Hugging you. It was some type of group hug except you had no prior knowledge of it, and you were awkwardly in the very middle.
"Umm, hey guys, group hug?" You stuttered a little awkwardly, trying to shrug but they were hugging you too tightly. You could feel all their arms wrapped around you, clinging to your shirt, as if they didn't want you to ever be lost again. Eventually, you gave in, and joined in (not to say you weren't already) in the group hug, feeling the true love of all your friends.
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