"He looks so good," A Hufflepuff girl whispered to her friend.
"I know !" the other one replied, "I mean, I always knew he was attractive, but this is something else..."
Those were the types of comments that had followed Sirius around school ever since they got back from summer break and began their fifth year at Hogwarts. Like every other teenage boy, he enjoyed the attention and the constant comments that girls would say about him, but after a while, he got tired of everything. It hadn't been twenty-four hours since they returned and three different girls had already asked him out.
"I don't understand how you're not taking advantage of this, Padfoot," Remus said taking Sirius' mind off Esmeralda, "If I got that type of attention I would -"
"Oh, please !" Peter said, "What would the nice and polite Remus Lupin do with all of that attention ?"
"You're too pure to know that sort of information," he replied.
Sirius chuckled and shook his head.
"Moony, be my guest," he said, "I would rather you snog them than Peter."
"Oi "!
"Sorry, Wormtail. I'm just stating facts,"
"Whatever," Peter replied, "Where's James ?"
"Probably stalking Lily again," Remus said as he shook his head, "Is he not going to get that she is not interested ?"
"How do you know that ?" Sirius asked, "People change all the time."
Remus scoffed at his friend's ignorance. For five years James had been nothing but arrogant and, honestly, rude to Lily Evans. He had no sense of respect for the girl's privacy and personal space.
"We haven't been here for a full day and I just know that he has asked her out at least six times," Remus said.
"Actually," James said as he caught up with his friends, "It's been eleven times already."
Sirius high fived him and Remus rolled his eyes. Peter tried to get a high five from James, but he was too slow so he quickly high fived himself.
"Would you leave the poor girl alone ?" Remus asked as the four of them turned the corner of the corridor, "She is a human being."
"Oh, you're the one to talk !" Sirius said, "Two minutes ago you were saying that you would love getting the attention I get from girls."
"Exactly," Peter agreed, "We didn't let you finish, but Merlin knows what you would've said if we would've let you."
"That's different," Remus argued.
James and Sirius raised their eyebrows at him and pursed their lips. Peter shook his head and patted Remus' back sarcastically.
"Sure, mate," Sirius said.
"Whatever you say, Mr. Prefect,"
After all of their lessons, the Marauders were in their usual Seats in the Common Room. It was their first full day of classes which was always tiring due to the fact that they hadn't done magic in months. The only spell they performed during the summer was the Animagus spell that they had to do in order for the potion to work. Since all of them lived with other witches and wizards in the house, the Ministry did not notice any underage magic in any of their households. Also, the Animagus spell was so rare and controlled by the Ministry that Animagus spell activity was not monitored outside of the Ministry.
James looked at his watch and got up from the couch that he was sitting on. He took Remus' book out of his hands and closed it and smacked Peter and Sirius on the back of their heads.
"What did you do that for ?" Sirius exclaimed as he rubbed the back of his neck.
"It's dinner time, bitches," he said.
"Yum," Peter said sarcastically as he stood up and straightened his clothes.
"I have to go get something from our room," Sirius said, "I'll catch up in a bit."
"You sure ?" Remus asked, "We can wait for you."
"Go," he said, "I'll be fine."
His friend eyed him suspiciously and left the Common Room.
Sirius ran upstairs to their dorm and went straight for James' trunk. He didn't do this normally, but desperate times call for desperate measures. He opened the trunk and grabbed the Invisibility Cloak from underneath James' clothes. He hid it in his robes so he could use it after dinner.
He ran towards the Great Hall and sat down beside James, across from Peter and Remus.
"What did you do ?" Remus asked.
"Why the curiosity ?"
"Bloody hell, mate," James said, "Did you stay up there and snogged someone ?"
Sirius hit him in the arm. James let out a wince of pain and rubbed his arm.
"Sorry,"
"I was not snogging anyone," Sirius said, "If you must know..."
The three boys leaned in closer to him with interest.
"I had to drop a massive deuce before dinner," Sirius said.
They all groaned.
"That's disgusting !" Peter said.
"We're having dinner, Sirius," Remus said.
"How big was it ?" James asked.
Remus and Peter looked at him with troubled expressions on their faces.
"It's for research purposes," he said.
"Let's just eat," Sirius said, "I'm starving."
There was no shortage of food; there were multiple plates of roast beef, chicken wings, potatoes, vegetables, etc... Everything that a teenager would want to eat was there. Sirius had piled a bunch of meat unto his plate and was eating really fast.
"Black, you're eating like a dog," Lily, who was sitting two people away from Peter, said to him.
The four boys snorted. James poured a bit of his pumpkin juice of himself, Peter dropped his fork, Remus spilled his water, and Sirius started to choke on his food. Lily just looked at them and waited for them to calm down.
"You really have no manners," she said to them.
"That's why you're going to educate our children and I'll make sure they have fun," James said shooting her a smirk.
She rolled her eyes and returned to the conversation she was having with her friend Alice.
By the time the boys had finished their second serving of food,, almost everyone had left the Great Hall.
"Shall we ?" Remus said as he stood up.
Peter and James stood up.
"You coming, Padfoot ?" James asked.
"Nah, mate," he replied, "I'm going to have more carrot cake. It's my favourite kind of cake, you know ?"
"I'll stay with you," James said sitting back down.
"No !" Sirius half-yelled, causing his friends and the rest of the people in the Great Hall to turn in his direction, "I mean... you guys must be tired. I'll catch up after I finish the cake."
James, Peter, and Remus exchanged a look of concern.
"I really don't mind," James said, "I'm gonna stay until you finish the bloody cake. Moony, Wormtail... you can go ahead and head to the Common Room. We'll catch up."
Remus and Peter shrugged and left the Great Hall. James turned to Sirius and raised an eyebrow.
"Now," he began, "Will you tell me what the fuck is going on ?"
Sirius looked up from the piece of carrot cake sitting in front of him. He knew that James was not going to fall for his act and gave a big sigh. He reached under his robes and took out the Invisibility Cloak carefully so that only James could see it.
"You bastard !" James whispered, "Are you planning on pranking someone without me ? I'm hurt."
"I would never do that Prongs," he replied, "I was going to use it to go to the Room of Requirement to - erm - check on the Animagus potion."
"Right," James said crossing his arms, "And you couldn't tell us that. Drop the bullshit, Padfoot. You want to see that ghost in the Mirror you wouldn't shut up about last year."
Sirius looked down and let his long hair hide his blushing cheeks.
"I didn't talk about her that much..."
"Mate," James said in a serious tone, "You would talk about her in your sleep. I would know because I sleep on the bed next to yours."
"Why did you not say anything ?!" Sirius asked.
"And miss out on the fun of you dreaming about some dead girl ?" James asked, "Never."
Sirius let out a sad laugh. He knew that Esmeralda was dead. He had researched everything he could about her during the summer. It would've been inappropriate to ask her about her death, but he wanted to know to avoid saying something insensitive and making her cry. He hated seeing her cry.
"Prongs," he said after a minute of silence, "She's my friend. I know it's bizarre, but she is. I have no other way of talking to her other than through the Mirror. Even I find it strange, but it somehow feels right. Please don't make fun of me."
James put a hand on Sirius' shoulder and gave it a squeeze.
"I think that if there's another person, dead or alive, that can understand you and make you happy other than me, then it's not strange or bad at all," he said, "I'll never make fun of you because of this."
James stood up and began to walk away. He turned around at the last second and made eye contact with Sirius.
"Go get her !"
Sirius smiled at him and most of the girls that were still in the Great Hall let out a sigh of disappointment.
Esmeralda was once again laying on the ground facing the ceiling. All those years she had spent inside the Mirror seemed shorter than the two months she had been waiting for the doors of the Room of Requirement to open and have Sirius Black step through them.
She was whistling, just whistling. She had forgotten most of the songs she knew, so she was just letting the air escape in whatever tone she liked. She folded her legs so that her feet were touching the ground. Her feet began to tap along with the off-tune whistling happening simultaneously. She was so lost in her head that she did not hear the door opening.
Sirius stepped in and looked at her. She was just as he had left her; inside the Mirror. He didn't expect her to be outside of the Mirror, but it would've been a nice surprise. Of course, he thought that it would be impossible because he believed that she was a ghost, but she was not.
"Where can I get the record for that song ?" Sirius said after letting her keep whistling for three minutes.
Esmeralda opened her honey eyes and sat up straight. She locked eyes with Sirius and a giant smile spread across her face.
"Sirius !" She said as she stood up quickly.
She ran towards him to hug him but instead of being greeted by his arms, she crashed into the Mirror and fell down hitting the back of her head in the process. Sirius dropped the Invisibility Cloak and ran towards the Mirror. He ran towards the Mirror and put his hands on it.
"Are you alright, Mer ?!" he asked.
She smiled and raised her head to look at him.
"Never better," she replied.
Sirius let out a sigh of relief and smiled back at her. He had missed that smile more than he wanted to admit.
"Just never sneak up on me like that again," she said as she stood up, "It's not fun."
"It kinda is," he replied with a smirk on his face that drove Esmeralda crazy.
"How long was the break ?" she asked him.
"Exactly two months," he replied.
"Huh," she said as she shrugged her shoulders, "Didn't realise that two months felt like such a long time."
Sirius smiled at her.
"Maybe it felt like that because you were aware of time passing by and the amount of time it was," he said.
"Touché..."
They spent an hour catching up. Esmeralda mainly listened because, obviously, she had no new things to tell Sirius. Or at least not things that she wanted to share with him just yet. She had no idea how he would react to the story of her being pulled into the Mirror and all of that, so it seemed like the best thing to do was to wait until she felt safe in telling him.
She was listening to Sirius but zoned out every now and then. Esmeralda could not help but admire him. He had grown up so much during those two months. He looked much more mature and attractive than he was before. But she also saw something that other people didn't see, he was a little bit more broken and sad than he had been last year. She caught a glimpse of that every now and then when he would look at his hands and his expression would drop. It broke her heart.
Around midnight Sirius stood up and stretched.
"I should probably go," he said, "It's getting pretty late."
Esmeralda fought back the urge to tell him to stay with her and just smiled.
"Of course," she said, "You've got class tomorrow. You better get going."
"Good night, Mer," he said as he put on the Invisibility Cloak.
"Forgot to tell you that the Animagus potion is behind the Mirror !" Esmeralda yelled, "Your friend, Remus, left it there before the break."
Sirius stuck a hand out of the Invisibility Cloak and gave her a thumbs up. He opened the door of the Room of Requirement and closed it as he stepped outside.
Esmeralda let out a sigh and pressed her back towards the Mirror. She let gravity pull her down and buried her head in her legs. She jumped and turned around as a loud bang was heard from the other side of the Mirror.
Sirius had burst through the doors again and was leaning against a column. He was trying to stay on foot.
"What happened ?" she asked him with a touch of worry in her voice.
"There's a thunderstorm outside,"
Ten minutes later, all of the Marauders were in the Room of Requirement.
"Thank Merlin you came back in time, Padfoot," James said as Remus poured him a glass of the Animagus potion.
"No," Remus said, "Thank Merlin that the thunderstorm is still going on. If not, then we would've had to wait for another thunderstorm to happen."
"Fuck that," Sirius said, "We wouldn't be able to forgive ourselves if we failed the first time because of bad timing."
Remus gave him a sympathetic smile and poured the potion into Peter's glass.
"Bottom's up ?" Peter asked.
"WAIT !" Esmeralda said, "You have to recite the incantation one more time before drinking the potion. Otherwise, it won't work."
Sirius looked at her and raised an eyebrow.
"Are you sure ?" he asked her.
"Who became an Animagus when they were twelve ?" she asked him as she crossed her arms.
"You..." he said looking at the ground.
"Exactly," she replied smirking, "Now please tell them to do it before the storm ends."
Sirius turned to his friends who were looking at him in expectation.
"We have to recite the incantation one more time before drinking the potion," he said.
"Are you sure ?" Peter asked.
"Yes, you bloody wanker," Sirius replied.
James, Sirius, and Peter got their wands out and pointed them at their hearts. They exchanged looks and let out a simultaneous breath.
"Amato Animo Animato Animagus," they said at the same time.
They drank the potion and closed their eyes.
James began to grow antlers, but they were not that big. Peter was now the size of a three-year-old and had a tail. Sirius had black hair all over his body. Remus stared at his friends as they went through the transformation and couldn't help but to start crying. Three minutes later, James was a fully formed stag and Sirius a big, black dog. Peter was still struggling, so James and Sirius were trying to help him transform by pushing him a little with their respective animal legs. It took Peter ten more minutes to transform completely, but he achieved it at last.
Remus ran towards his friends and hugged them, trying really hard not to step on Peter. He had not stopped crying and muttering how thankful he was to them.
They had finally done it.
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a/n:
i know i left you guys hanging for a while, but i was dealing with some mental health issues that i needed to sort out before writing anything else. i didn't want the story or the characters to be affected by that.
ANYWAYYYYYYY... please tell me what you think, it really helps me get a sense of my readers. plus, i want to get to know you guys better.
thank you for all the comments and votes, they mean the world to me.
ily, stay safe.
x, isa