James DUMBLEDORE Potter (thechaser) wrote in _bollocks_, @ 2008-07-10 19:41:00 |
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Leaves crumbled under their feet, twigs snapped, and unseen things in the dark scattered this way and that as three boys made way through a forest. Not just any forest, The Forbidden Forest; it was forbidden to even venture into the area on any given circumstance, hence the name, but that was the reason entirely for the boys to venture. Never mind at this late hour they would certainly get into loads of trouble considering it had just breeched after ten at night, and of course it would do no good to be found out on the night of their secret plan; episode number two of this year where they would work on transfiguration of an entirely different kind. So they needed a place to go where no one would look for them, no one would dare to look for them, even the snooping kind, or of a good mate variety. Absolutely no one could find them out, or they’d risk losing years of research. Sirius would not let all his work go to waste. Not on his life. Another twig snapped loudly and it forced Sirius to stop dead in his tracks, pressing his hands toward his companions. “Sssshh,” he whispered to Peter and James, “Did you hear that?” Curiously, and a bit daringly, he removed himself from the cover of the invisibility cloak that had carried them this far without notice, to check out the scene. A few steps were granted as he looked through the dark, while his wand lit up at its tip from an unspoken ’Lumos’. Carefully he turned around, wide-eyed (yet out of excitement and anxiousness, mostly) and alert, glancing in the direction of his friends. “This is a good spot as any, yeah?” 'We are not going to be eaten. We are not going to be eaten. By the power of Merlin's feet, we are not going to be eaten.' The silent mantra pulsed through Peter's mind as the three companions edged their way through The Forbidden Forest. Every crackle underfoot caused him to jump a little in the air and Peter had spent most of the journey hoping and praying that- along with not getting eaten- his friends wouldn't notice quite how scared he was of entering the place. Normal people might see this fear as rational, but James and Sirius's version of rational thought made lunatics look sane. The only reason he had agreed to this was to stop himself looking like a complete girl, although he had conceded that it was necessary to keep the results and location of the excursion very secret from a certain friend of theirs. Thinking back on it, they could probably have got away with just setting up in one of the musty broom cupboards that littered the school. Then again, the spiders were huge in there. The loud snap of the twig sent Peter jumping higher in the air than before and his face whitened in terror and concern as Sirius left the cloak to check it out. "Sirius, no!" He whispered under his breath, standing paralysed as he waited for the danger to pass. Could monsters smell fear? Were they able to see beneath invisibility coats? Was Sirius enough to fill them up, or would they move on to him and James? He shuddered involuntarily at the thought. But Sirius declared the spot clear (he still had his head, didn't he?) and he felt a wave of relief flood through him. It wouldn't do to stay under cover and appear as scared as he felt, so slowly and cautiously Peter emerged from beneath the cloak to join his friend. They had better get this right tonight, he thought to himself. He'd hate to be dragged back here again to be mauled by vampires and trolls and unicorns. "This spot is... This spot is fine," he managed to squeak, "Er, no monsters here." He took his wand from his pocket and clutched tightly on to it, as though it was his one anchor to safety. Something fluttered in the trees above and he stood bolt upright, face the colour of parchment even by the yellow light of his wand. Normal forests could be rather boring. James discovered this at the age of ten when the somewhat infrequent and sporadic camping trips with dad started to lose their mystic and excitement. The Forbidden Forest, however, was an entirely different story. The mere fact that it was forbidden made it infinitely more exciting than your average old forest, and it was undoubtedly more exciting than the stuffy old castle. In fact, James was rather excited to be venturing off into the Forbidden Forest well past curfew. The adrenaline that went hand in hand with breaking so many school rules all at once while doing something so decidedly dangerous was brilliant. Nothing could beat it really. Besides perhaps Quidditch, but that, unfortunately, didn't break any school rules. James grinned when he heard the twig snap. His logical side knew that he should at least be concerned about this noise, but, well, James' logical side never really did get much of a say. Instead, James whipped out of his wand and waited eagerly to see what might appear. Naturally, James wasn't hoping for anything too life threatening, but a centaur or a unicorn or something of that nature would be wicked. "Relax Pete," James said coolly. "I could snap a twig and I'm hardly going to eat your face off, so I really don't think there's any need to get your kickers in a twist over a little twig snap," James said. "I'm pretty sure the real monsters are a bit deeper in the forest," James pointed out. "So relax, it's alright. We should be more worried about Filch or someone popping up behind us, which won't happen because as relentless as that prick is, I don't think he randomly checks the Forbidden Forest for students," he said. Which, for the most part, was most likely true. After all, not many students wanted to go into the Forbidden Forest in the dead of night."Alright," James said and clapped his hands together. "Should we get started?" “He’s right, you know,” Sirius commented after James, to the ever pale Peter. The poor bloke looked as if he might faint, or something else rather unpleasant. It wasn’t as if they were in any extreme danger, Sirius figured. Sure it was the Forbidden Forest, but the way Sirius saw it was that there couldn’t be anything life-threatening in a forest that was so close to the school. Dumbledore wouldn’t let anything seriously dangerous take up residence here. That would be ridiculous. Not to mention if there were scary things in here, like a Minotaur, Sirius could handle it. Sirius, James and Peter could be a force to be reckoned with, even if Peter might wet himself, and James could well scream like a girl. Sirius would save all in the end. It was inevitable. “The only thing we have to worry about is getting caught, but that’s unlikely. No one is mad enough to want to come here willingly. That is why this plan is absolutely brilliant.” Sirius continued as he gave James a knowing smile, and patted Peter on the back for extra reassurance. “Should have thought about this last year. Could have done a lot more then.” When James decided it was time for business, Sirius nodded and pulled out a small blue handkerchief from his pocket. He placed the blue material on the ground at his feet, and then used the Engorgement Charm until it was at actual size. The blanket, when Sirius opened the folds, revealed a few books, a lantern, and assorted snacks because Sirius had been down in the Kitchens prior to this secret rendezvous. All of it had been resized accordingly to allow the sneak out of the castle. Who knows how long they would be, (though obviously they could not stay out all night) so it was important to have food at the very least. “Light the lantern, would you Pete?” Sirius asked as he stretched out one side of the blanket (which he obviously stole from the Ravenclaw supply closet, not bent about returning), and then quickly reclined on the ground. One hand snatched up a small bag of candies as he glanced up at the darkness that loomed. Best place in all of Hogwarts, he mused. “So, last time was pretty convincing that we might be able to do this. Should we just skip the reading bit and go straight at attempting the furry bits? What do you think we need to do to get more of it done, James? I was concentrating bloody hard last time. I don’t think I could do anymore without popping out an eyeball, or squeezing my brain out an ear.” Which was unfortunately true; it took every ounce of energy for Sirius to focus so long, and all he got was two furry legs from knees to ankles. Least he knew he was going to be something black, as ironical as that was. Sirius was relieved there were no feathers; he would hate life forever if he was to be some bloody bird. At James's reassurance, Peter exhaled loudly and began to calm down. Everything was going to be fine. Even if something did come out of the darkness, his friends wouldn't let anything hurt him. "I am relaxed," he mumbled, "I just like being able to see when something's coming to eat me." He smiled weakly and tried to concentrate on something other than the creatures that stalked the forest. Be it unicorn or minotaur, Peter did not want to see it. Perhaps it was better if something that ate humans came along, it was alright to be afraid of those. Pete really didn't feel like admitting his fear of unicorns to James and Sirius; they'd likely never let it go. If Filch did somehow stumble upon them, Peter wouldn't put it past him to try and get away with killing the three of them on first sight. People would undoubtedly miss their presence in school, but if their bodies wound up in the forest, nobody would suspect Filch at all. He generally didn't stray too far from the castle, after all, and there were any number of ways that he could hide them. He shuddered again, trying to quell his annoyingly over-active imagination. Filch might be mad, but he probably wasn't a killer. Probably. A bird fluttered in the treetops overhead and Peter was snapped out of his reverie as he took his place on the blanket and reached to light the lantern, glad for the distraction and the enhanced vision it allowed. Although the lantern did make the area considerably brighter, it was still dim enough to act as a possible excuse to skip the reading part. Reading could take them hours, Peter thought miserably, and he wanted to get out of here as soon as. Then again, it was pointless even being in the forest if they couldn't get anything done at all. If reading meant that he managed something more than the dull grey patches of fur then it had to be worth it. "Could we get away with not reading, do you think?" He asked tentatively, painfully aware that the question had instead been directed at James. "It's still fairly dark. Too dark for reading, maybe?" "Well, there's nothing to see because there's nothing in our vicinity that's going to eat us," James assured once more, though he was fairly certain Peter was starting to cool it. James couldn't really hold Peter's fright from being in the Forest against him. After all, James acknowledged the Forbidden Forest was frightening to most people, James just wasn't one of them. However, if Peter were to reveal his secret fear of unicorns, that would just be more than James could handle and he would undoubtedly laugh at him, and make many jokes at his expense because hey, that's what friends are for. James looked down at the books thoughtfully and flipped one open to a section that had proved to be rather helpful last time. "I think we can skip the reading," James said with a nod. "We did a lot of research last time and I don't think there's much more we can get out of these books anyway, but we'll have them open just for reference," he decided and then looked over at Sirius. "I don't know, exactly, but the books always seem to stress control, I guess they mean having control over our bodies and stuff like that," he said. "I think that might be what we're missing, but I don't exactly know how we can work on that," James mused. "I guess we should just....keep trying to do it over and over," he proposed. "I mean, I think we all got the unspoken magic part down, so all there's really left to do is to keep practising the actual transformation," James said. After a moment of skimming through a passage they had probably read six times by now, James looked between Sirius and Peter. "Alright, so should we just start?" Sirius glanced over at Peter and tried very hard, though slightly failing, to not laugh at him. He pressed his lips tightly together to not allow the sound to slip, but a grin molded firmly in place. James seemed to take it in stride, but Sirius found his mate to be hilarious; worrying about what’s out there that could ‘eat’ them, and fretting over it was ridiculously silly. As if a dragon was living in the forest. The only thing in the forest that could possibly be large enough to eat three growing teenagers, Sirius figured, was a unicorn. Last time he heard, Unicorns were herbivores. He shook his head to try and stop himself from pestering Peter, opting not to feed the delusions at that point in time. Better left for the end of their meeting, Sirius decided. He’d let Peter get comfortable and then try and scare him when the time was right to leave the forest. Then Peter sided with Sirius about the books, and he forgot the whole ordeal of wanting to scare him as a wave of relief washed over. “Exactly,” He replied to Peter with a sly grin. “Isn’t it supposed to be bad on the eyes to read in the dark?” He turned his attention to James who, upon listening, seemed to agree that books were not important that night. Huzzah! Sirius could have kissed his mate, if- you know, he swung that way. Which he didn’t of course, but the general idea was that he was so very happy now that it was decided over. “Control? Makes it sound like we have some sort of bladder problem,” Sirius said to James with a snicker. What the bloody hell was he supposed to ‘control’ exactly? It wasn’t as if he didn’t have control of his own body already, what more did this whole thing want? “Yeah, keep trying, keep trying. I got it. Just wish it wasn’t so bloody difficult.” Sirius let out an exasperated sigh as he sat up and ‘prepared’ himself for the trial of control, or whatever. The good thing was that they did have the unspoken part down. That was also a bit of child’s play compared to this whole control ordeal. He crossed his legs, held his wand idly in his left hand, and closed his eyes. Nothing told him to close his eyes and assume some sort of meditative position, but he figured it would help to be in some sort of universal concentration pose. One time he did try and lay down to concentrate, and ended up falling asleep. Better to try and stay alert if he wanted results. His brow crunched down, and his head tilted to one side as he attempted to clear his mind. Only that was a chore in itself as he wanted to think of food. More specifically, he wanted to think about package of snacks in his right hand. And then promptly eat them. Peter felt a flush of relief and nodded, pleased, as Sirius and James agreed that reading any more would be obsolete. For all that Pince crowed over her books, she wasn't any good at keeping them up to date or even clean and their task was hard enough without throwing squashed letters into the mix. There wasn't anything that could make him feel entirely comfortable in the forest, but the chance to concentrate on magic might at least prove a viable distraction and poring over old texts would have him bored in looking for reasons to be anxious in an instant. "I don't think you're supposed to," he replied to Sirius's question about reading in the dark with an eager smile. "That's cool. No books, then. They stink anyway." He sniffed one of the books to prove it, wrinkling his nose in distaste at the musty scent. Trying the same thing over and over again until, somehow, one of them struck lucky seemed to be their only option and Peter set quickly into the task. Eyes squeezed tight shut he tried to concentrate on, well, nothing and attempted not to dwell on the fact that he looked severely constipated. He was getting this, he was sure. For a second or two it was as though he was floating around in the midst of nowhere and then, suddenly, he was disrupted from his quiet contemplation by the mention of... bladder problems? Peter smirked at the comment, not the least bit put out that he'd been disrupted. It was Sirius, after all, and it had been kind of funny. "Good luck, guys." He shut his eyes again and stretched out on the blanket, head lolling over the edge and onto the forest floor. Try as he might, Peter struggled to enter a state of concentration. A twig poked him in the back of the neck when he rolled over onto his side and he grimaced accordingly, shifting up into a sitting position. This was not working. Everytime he was just about comfortable, something would make a noise from the sidelines of the forest and he would have to look up and double check that no creatures were about to pounce. Finally, after too many attempts to count, Peter felt as though he was getting somewhere. The noise of the forest was no longer bothering him and he used this to concentrate even harder, forcing every ounce of concentration he had into performing the task. "Oh yeah, because I wouldn't want to ruin my eyesight," James smirked. "After all, if it got any worse I think I would be blind and then how am I supposed to play Quidditch? Or stare at Lily? So yeah, no books, there's too much at stake for me!" James said cheerfully. "And they do stink," he agreed. "They feel weird too," he added and wrinkled his nose in dislike. Perhaps all books didn't smell and feel weird, but the rather obscure books they had been nicking from the Restricted Section since second year always smelt and felt weird. It never failed. This was possibly due to the fact that no one ever took these books out and the faculty presumably did not want the students taking these books out. Well, that was just too bad really. James had good reason to suspect the faculty wouldn't want students wandering into the Forbidden Forest to practise their illegal animagi transformations either, but that wasn't stopping them. James grinned and shook his head in amusement. "Well, there's a bit on that in here too," he lied. "A bit on how having a bladder problem really impedes upon the transformation, and you need to remedy that issue in order to successfully become an animagus," James joked, but he did so in a very serious, matter-of-fact tone. However, the ridiculousness of what he was saying made it quite clearly just messing around. "Right," James said in response to Peter's good luck and fell suddenly quiet, closing his own eyes. James felt a bit stupid at first really, just sitting there on the blanket with his eyes closed, not really doing much of anything. However, after a few moments James stopped feeling stupid and stopped feeling much of anything at all. Once he felt rather in control of himself, rather 'Zen' if you will, James mentally started going through the incantation he had memorized many years ago. He began to feel a tickle on his arms and legs and he knew the light brownish fur was appearing. That was nothing new, really, he had been getting a bit of that since last year, though it did come in more distinctly and in larger splotches last time they tried this up in the dorms. Suddenly, however, James began to feel a new sensation, his head began to feel funny. James didn't immediately recognize it as being part of the transformation, however, and he merely scratched the top of his head, thus breaking his concentration. James let out a sigh of frustration and looked at his arms, which looked very strange indeed covered in fur like that. Opening one eye, Sirius gave Peter a look-over. The sorry sod actually sniffed a book. Not Sirius’s bag, not at all. One sniff would guarantee the result of boogies sprayed in many directions, but watching someone else attempt the feat was amusing, though slightly disorienting because even just watching Peter do the action make Sirius’s nose itch. He stopped his ‘still’ performance and rubbed at his nose decidedly. There should be absolutely no sneezing. That’d definitely give their position up. Sirius was known to be one of those explosive sneezers who, upon sneezing, could contribute to all sorts of horrible disasters. Avalanches were born under less extreme measures, after all. “Luck’s got nothing to do with it, Pete. This is entirely based upon awesomeness, and since we are all awesome, it should only be a matter of time.” Sirius said after his nose stopped itching, while closing his eyes once more. Then the snacks started nagging him. That was until James mentioned the bladder issue. “And did we remember to go before we left?” He asked James with a sneer, as idle hands went about opening his bag of sweets. “Not that, you know, it’d be a problem. All one would have to do is find a vacant bush, or large tree. Nature is quite accommodating.” Sirius chuckled lightly before popping in a small red candy into his mouth. The joke stopped dead in its tracks as he now had food in his mouth (not that would stop him from talking; it just gave him something else to think about). Cinnamon candies were so very awesome. Sirius sighed deeply as the need to concentrate once again reared its ugly head. Since the three boys weren’t speaking, it was easy to relax and focus, especially now that Sirius was pacified with candy. It was just the idea of the immense focus this project needed that made Sirius agitated. Another deep breath came and went, helping him soothe into a restful, and less resentful disposition, when suddenly his stomach fluttered like it had too much gas stored within. It wasn’t the usual stomach growl he was trained to answer, but something else entirely that began to surface ever since they all started the animagus project. It was a gut instinct (ha ha) at that moment to say the proper incantations in his head and really step up to perform a fierce concentration of his mind. As the feeling fluttered, he squeezed his eyes tightly, gritted his teeth (wedging the candy into a cheek so he didn’t choke on it- which was known to happen), and thought of nothing else but the words he knew would progress this spell. Each word forced a picture in his mind, as if he were seeing them etched into parchment. Suddenly, and without warning, the ‘feeling’ in his stomach flung outward and jolted straight through his right arm all the way down to his fingertips. He wanted to open his eyes and gasp, but instead persisted to hold on as long as he could, just to see what would happen. The feeling, which could only be described as a very awful case of pins, needles, and poison ivy mixed into a mutated version of a hybrid, crawled over and under his skin something terrible. Before he could stop out of sheer curiosity, and peek around at any progression, his nose itched again! The subconscious action of scratching his nose prevailed, and instantly ceased any concentration on the spot. The reason was obvious; his right hand, and his fingers, did not grace his nose to relief the sensation. Something fury, something alien, something all-together not human had rammed against his nose and nearly had him jump from his seat on the blanket. With two rather wide and startled eyes, Sirius looked at his right hand. Or rather, a right, black paw. Before he could say two words, as his eyes sought out James to express his excitement and shock, something else greeted him instead. He stared blankly at the protrusions growing up from James’s head. “What the bloody hell are those?! Sirius finally asked in a rather altering voice as his right paw jotted out to point, which then reminded him of his revelation. “I’ve got a paw!” He finally mustered to say. It was unknown to him at that time that he also had two small ears poking out of his brushed back black hair that were almost disguised entirely from their colour. Personally, Peter was certain that it would take more than awesomeness for him to pull off the transformation. Transfiguration was one of his better subjects, but didn't excel at it and sometimes he doubted that he was even half as good as his friends. Luck would have to help him out if he was going to get anywhere near to pulling this off. Still, he was willing to say anything to agree with Sirius and so he nodded. "Yeah, you're right. I guess we are all awesome enough." They did have time on their hands, but Peter would hate for the others to manage the spell without him; he wasn't sure if he could manage anything tonight, especially here. What happened if he turned into something completely pathetic? Like a cockroach. He might be eaten by an owl overhead or, worse than that, his friends would doubtless laugh their heads off at him. What if he panicked and forgot how to change back? Peter shuddered and shut his eyes again, trying to reach a state of calm that would leave him above worrying. If something happened then his friends wouldn't desert him. Sirius and James would know how to fix things, and if they didn't Peter could always try and get help from McGonagall. Assuming she wasn't too angry to fix things, that was. He shut his eyes again and went back to clearing his mind, nothing in his thoughts but the incantation. Why did this feel so much like divination? Perhaps it was because Peter was reaching for the impossible. He had about as much of a chance at succeeding in this, Pete reasoned, as his inner eye suddenly showing itself and allowing him to predict the results of the next Quidditch World Cup. It might, however, just be that both things made him feel incessantly sleepy. He had to stifle a yawn as he chanted the incantation over and over again in his head and Peter wished he did have an 'inner eye', if only so that he could've predicted that bringing pillows would be a good idea. Nothing seemed to be happening and he felt secure in the knowledge that this was all futile. He wasn't going to become a cockroach tonight. One last ditch attempt, Peter decided, was all he was going to try for. If put every ounce of concentration he had into this one last try then maybe, just maybe, he'd be a small step closer next time. He sighed and then focused, not paying attention to Sirius and James as he struggled to keep going. And then, suddenly, he began to feel a bristling feeling as though an itch, though somehow sharper and under his skin as well as over it, running down the bottom of his back and around his nose. It took all he could muster not to shriek out. He'd felt the sensation before, but never on his face, and it was extremely unpleasant. Try as he might, Peter could not keep the spell going. Instead he opened his eyes to babble excitedly to the other two. "James, Sirius, I-" He stopped in his tracks, staring wide eyed at James, completely lost for words. "Wow," he eventually managed, still looking at the antlers. "Just... wow." Then he turned to look at Sirius and was equally surprised by his paw. On glancing up at his friend's face, Peter couldn't hold back a smirk as he spotted his barely visible ears. "Sirius, I think you have ears." He looked down at his own arms and felt a bit put out that nothing seemed to have happened to him, despite the sensation. He moved to rest his chin in his hand and missed completely, knocking into his nose in the process. It felt all wrong, misshapen and furry. He jumped to his feet in surprised and turned, to reveal something worm-like clinging to the back of him. He jumped again and shoved a hand in his mouth to stop himself yelling, trying to brush the thing off as he did so. It was refusing to budge and Peter looked pleadingly towards his friends for assistance. He hated bugs, snakes and all things like them and in a place like this- the thought made him feel ill- they might even be venomous. What if it had latched on to him while he was trying to lie down and had been poisoning him for ages? It could even kill him. "H-help," he stuttered, freezing to the spot. James' head suddenly felt heavy, very heavy and very strange as the antlers began to reach their full height. Before he got a chance to really go and investigate, however, Sirius was asking him 'what were those' indicating that their was indeed something on his head. "What?" James asked. "What's on my head?" he asked but was then distracted by Sirius' right hand, or rather, lack thereof. "Sirius!" he burst "Sirius you have....you have a paw!" he said and then lifted his hands up to feel around on his head when he suddenly discovered on either side of his head something very hard. They felt almost wooden, but the texture was a lot smoother and Merlin's balls were they big! James kept running his hands upwards on whatever the things were, feeling for where they ended, but with each touch he kept finding more of them. Towards what James could only assume was the top without the benefit of a mirror of some sort, the things began to jut out, branching off a bit and with his arm stretched all the way upward towards them, James could run his finger through the contour of one of the things, curve his finger down inward, and then ride it up the contour of another one. James looked over at Peter when he said 'wow'. "What are they??" James asked, looking between Peter and Sirius for an answer. "They weigh a ton!" he told them, and he would have said it in a complaining sort of tone, but he was so amazed by the heavy things on his head that he could scarcely complain about them at the present moment. Nonetheless, it was still rather difficult to hold his head up. James continued to feel around them, trying to imagine what they could be, what animal had something that felt like these. "Are they....are they antlers?" James asked, positively stunned. James had never felt a stag's antlers, or a deer's for that matter, but James suspected they would have to feel like this, and after having felt out the shape they seemed to match up with what he knew antlers should look like. Did this mean he was a stag? It had to! What other sort of animal had bloody huge antlers? Well, deer had antlers, but they were female, and James wasn't an expert on the differences between deer and stags, but James was fairly certain that a stag had larger antlers, and the things coming out of his head felt enormous. "Yeah, I think you do have ears!" James said, although it was sort of hard to tell because from what James would see, they seemed to mix in with Sirius' hair. James looked back over to Peter and squinted his eyes a bit at him "You have grey fur..." he said. "And your nose...it's weird looking it's like, what? A cats'? A rodent's?" James questioned looking over at Sirius to see what he thought. "What?" James asked looking at Peter in surprise. "What's wrong?" he asked him, and raised his eyebrows at the way Peter was brushing at his backside. Not one to sit and just stare at things that interested him, Sirius immediately got up onto his knees and crossed over to James as curiosity and amazement controlled his every muscle. His normal hand reached up and carefully poked at one of the weird things coming out of James’s head, thinking that if he felt one, he could tell what they were. “Yeah mate… I think you’re a moose.” He said softly, and hesitantly; the idea that James would be a moose was kind of hilarious and it took every bit of him to not laugh. Though, Sirius did realise that the antlers growing out of James’s head were a bit thin, so perhaps not a moose. Still didn’t stop him from poking fun. “Could use you for a coat rack.” He added with a grin that only meant he joked out of happiness. This was a complete and utter improvement over all their other attempts at this animagus gig, and he couldn’t help but feel ecstatic by the prospect. Even if it did mean his best mate in the whole world was a moose. He could live with that. Sirius leaned back on his heels to look at his furry hand once more. It was the same size as his real hand, completely covered in think black fur, and even a bit of claw hiding behind the forms that his fingers now were. It was hard to look at it because his hand felt normal altogether. If he moved to spread what he felt were his fingers, the forms spread a part as far as they could, and the nails extended a bit. His other hand had removed itself from James’s head to roam on top his own. Just as Peter had said, he felt two oddly shaped ears poking out of his hair. They felt oddly familiar to him, but the idea of where, or what animal had ears like that was alluding him, possibly because he was overwhelmed by the surprise that he successfully had ‘parts’ now. When he flipped his paw over, to look at where his palm would be if he had a hand, it all clicked. “I think I’m part canine.” He muttered to no one in particular as he looked at the paw’s underside. Peter’s mutter made Sirius snap out of his trance and look at him. The bloke had a new nose! Not that there was anything wrong with his old nose, of course, but the new one looked very distinct! Again, Sirius moved closer to the thing that interested him most, propping to sit beside Peter and stare up close and personal at the other boy’s face. “That’s not a cat’s nose, James. I don’t see Mrs. Norris looking like that.”Before he could poke Peter in the nose, the poor boy was mumbling again and wiggling. “Hold still, I think I see something” Sirius said as he looked around where Peter was paying attention to. Something was indeed moving about behind his mate, and at first Sirius thought he saw something of a snake. It was hard to see very well in the dark, especially when the light from the lantern wasn’t shining at Peter’s backside. Quickly, with both paw and hand, Sirius slammed down on the moving thing as if he meant to both capture it, and squish it. “Got it!” "A rodent? Are you sure?" He frowned and went cross eyed, trying to check out the nose for himself. A cat wouldn't have been so bad, aside from the Mrs Norris jokes that his mates were sure to make, but Peter wasn't exactly settled on the idea of being a rodent. They weren't renowned for being noble, or brave, and on top of that they were tiny. James and Sirius got to be cool animals- alright, so being a moose wasn't that cool- while he was going to be stuck looking, well, pathetic in comparison. It was just like when they were human, only even more obvious. His spirits wouldn't allow themselves to stay down over this, though. This was still a gigantic achievement and more than he had ever hoped for. He was some sort of animal, at least, and hadn't he been considering the possibility that he might turn into a cockroach earlier? This was a million times better. Well, from Peter's point of view it definitely didn't look like the nose belonged to some sort of cat. It was somehow pointier, more defined than that of Mrs Norris and her kind. And on the subject of Mrs Norris, if he was a rodent then would she try to eat him? Or would he strike lucky and be slightly larger than your average pest? He sincerely hoped that it was the second option, Peter didn't want to spend the rest of his time at Hogwarts hiding from Mrs Norris; by cat standards she was scary enough as it was. Then again, if Sirius was part dog, as he had said, then maybe he could eat Mrs Norris for him. The thought was enough to cheer him up. "There's something stuck to me! A snake or something!" Peter squeaked when James asked what was wrong. He was still trying frantically to get rid of it, but the thing just wouldn't budge. It felt all slithery and it was wriggling around as it tried to escape his hands. Sirius looked like he was about to intervene and Peter was preparing to thank him when pain shot up through a body part that Peter didn't recognise. An automatic reaction, he reached out and grasped the thing that was hurting and felt the worm. Only, it was really attached to him. And it actually hurt. Which led him to reason, what if it was him? Something that had grown with the transformation. He had a funny nose, didn't he, so what if he had a tail too? He turned his head to look behind himself in horror and cradled the throbbing thing. "Sirius, I- I think it's part of me." He winced again and looked over at his friends, hoping for some sort of confirmation. "No," James said and touched his antlers again. "I think I'm a stag," he told them both, though technically he could be a moose too? He didn't think of them before, but stag felt right, literally, because his antlers felt more like what a stag's antlers looked like than what a moose's looked like. They did indeed feel thinner than what James imagined a moose's should feel like. Besides, James thought a stag fit his personality better. Moose were rather slow, and James was not slow in any sense of the word. So it made sense, as stags were quite fast, weren't they? And they were cool and important looking! Yeah, he was a definitely a stag, and James refused to listen to anyone try and tell him otherwise. "Oh ha ha ha, well I'm not a moose," James countered, but there was still a prevalent tone of excitement in this voice that it made clear he was neither taking Sirius nor himself very seriously right now. James looked over Sirius once more and then nodded "I'd say so mate," he said. "A big black one too," James added, taking in the colour of Sirius' fur and the fact that his paw was quite large and prominent. "A hell hound perhaps?" James grinned. A type of canine really did suit Sirius well, James thought. They were energetic and typically had short attention spans, just like Sirius. "You know, you are rather dog-like," James commented. "And I do mean that in the best possible way, because dogs are rather ace," he grinned and then looked at Peter. James didn't really think of Peter as a rodent. I mean, he was easily startled like one, but James didn't really want to think of one of his mates as something people usually liked to squish. "Well rodents can get into tight places and such, that could prove to be dead useful, right?" James offered, realising it had to be a bit of a let down to turn into something as small as a rodent. "Oh, yeah, I think that's a tail," James said and let out a bit of laugh at how Sirius tried to kill Peter's tail. "You should probably put it down," James said to Sirius. "That looks like....a rat's tail," James said and made a move to stand up so that he could touch it, but James wobbled under the weight of the antlers. "Oh-woah," James said and plopped back down. "Probably best to just stay down for now," he said to no one in particular. “Oh, ha-ha… sorry mate,” Sirius said with a sheepish grin as he let go of the ‘tail’ Peter had and slunk back to his spot on the blanket. “I had thought snake, or worm at best.--I suppose you are a rat, yeah.” He added thoughtfully as he continued to look at Peter’s nose and tail. “You could get to all sorts of places that neither one of us can get to. When this is all said and done, creep into the girls dormitory, will you? I’ve wanted to get in there since third year.” Which was just his luck; Peter got the cool ‘spy-like’ animal, Sirius was stuck as man’s best friend. What cool thing could come out of being a dog…? “Oh! I can get that bloody cat now!” He exclaimed instantly as the metaphoric wheels in his head turned. Taking into consideration, now that he could remember what James said, a dog wasn’t so bad. It was definitely the archenemy of a cat, and that was the biggest plus of all. “And I can dig up buried treasure!” He gave his hand a look over one more time and nodded. Not so bad at all, he figured. Definitely related to a hell hound, and that was awesome. His eyes took in James’s trouble, and he leaned over to help steady his mate. “Careful, coat-rack. You just had to go on and show us both up, didn’t you?” He chuckled and shook his head. “You should really see yourself. Those things sticking out of your head like… forks. Hahaa. Though, that’s not as amusing as Peter’s worm tail, eh?” He glanced over at Peter and grinned wide. “Remus is going to piss himself out of excitement when he sees us. Which…reminds me.” Carefully he sat up and then gave James a business like expression. “Remus needs a codename, like we talked about, remember?” "You think the charm that keeps blokes out of the girls dorms will still work when we're, you know, animals?" Peter asked with a smirk, perking up considerably at the idea and James's suggestions. This rat thing could have its advantages after all and if he couldn't manage the girls dorm, it would still make creeping around the castle after curfew easier. "Do you think Snivellus is afraid of any animals?" Peter asked hopefully, wondering if there was potential to scare the meddling Slytherin. "Because I bet a big dog might look a bit scary to some people, and I bet he'd hate to be speared on a pair of antlers." Dogs and stags were, fortunately for Peter, two of the small number of creatures not on his very own blacklist and he was more than happy to make the most of this. Although Peter was certain that a niffler would be just as good at finding treasure, he elected not to say anything to this effect. Dogs were wicked cool and Sirius's stand on Mrs Norris suited him perfectly. "Eat Filch too, you look like you'd be big enough," he said thoughtfully. "And while you're at it, McGonagall could do with a scare next time she goes mad." He gazed, awe struck, up at James's antlers in quiet contemplation. "You know, though," he grinned at Sirius. "Dogs spend most of their time sniffing other dogs' arses." Peter bit back a laugh as James almost toppled over and Sirius beat him to steadying their mate. "Don't forget you and your foot pads," Peter commented. "Imagine the looks we'd all get if we never managed to get rid of them." In the excitement of it all, Peter had completely forgotten to think of Remus's reaction and the idea caused him to grin in amusement. "Remus won't know what's hit him," he chuckled. "Well, I reckon some of the girls have male pets, right? Like male cats and owls and such?" James said thoughtfully. "So it shouldn't, unless the charm can recognise a male animagus, but I doubt that because I don't think anyone counted on students being able to master the animagus transformation," James said and broke out into a grin, clearly very pleased with himself and Sirius and Peter as well. "Basically, I don't think anyone counted on having a group like us in Hogwarts," he said rather smugly. "I don't know," James said. "But I think most people would be pretty scared if they had a large dog or stag come charging at them," he said in amusement. "Oh, we should try that! Like one of us can come out of the Forbidden Forest and chase that bugger all around the grounds! How hilarious would that be?" James asked eagerly. James grinned over at Sirius. "We should make a hit list of people and animals we want to get in our animagus forms," he said. "So far we've got Snape, Mrs. Norris, Filch, and McGonagall, a good start to be sure," James snickered. "Ah, yeah scare some sense into the woman," James nodded and then burst into a hallowing laughter at Peter's next comment. "Oi! Pete! You're going to make me beckon the monsters towards us!" James teased and looked over at Sirius, still laughing a bit. "I'd have a right hard time walking with these things," James said and patted his antlers. "Right, because I don't know if 'that git' really suits Remus when all is said and done," he said and then looked over at Peter. "Yeah, that should be pretty soon but in any case we're going to have to wait until the next full moon," James said. "I wonder if we'll finish before that, it's going to be murder having to wait around until the next full," he pointed out. "Ah, so anyway, code names for Remus....." Sirius looked at Peter, and then at James as he considered how accommodating Peter’s form really ways. While they were going to be something a bit terrifying and mysterious, Peter’s rat like form was going to work in so many marvelous ways. This meant when everything was all said and done, Peter was definitely going to be the scout on many missions. Which suited well, since he usually was. More convenient now that he could get away with wandering about and keep watch so easily. When mention of the list of people and animals they would terrorize in their animal forms came up, Sirius let out a loud laugh. But was quickly interrupted by Peter’s comment about canine arses! Quickly he leaned over and socked Peter on the arm. “Bugger off!” James’s retort only make Sirius growl and relocate himself near James to give his mate a smack on the arm, too. “Just because I’m to be a dog doesn’t mean I’m going to act like one, wanker! Besides, it’s not like we’re going to be around other dogs.” He gave James another swat for good measure, though he started to smile to show he wasn’t really upset. Had the tables been turned, Sirius would have laughed at the idea of one of his mates being obsessed with animal arses. Then Remus was brought up again… “Yeah, it’ll be forever until the next moon. –Waitaminute. Is a werewolf a type of dog?” Sirius had lounged beside James and his prongy head after smacking him, but suddenly sat up and looked at Peter, who seemed to shrug, and then at James anxiously. “I’m not going to… that’d be absurd. He’s not even a dog thing until the full moon, anyways. So I don’t plan on sniffing his furry moony butt, or whatever. I wouldn’t anyways because I’m not really a dog!” Sirius was a bit distracted about this whole other side of a dog that, until Peter had said anything, he didn’t realise. Dogs were obsessed with crotches! He knew it. There as a stray dog in his neighborhood one time that wanted to do nothing but bite his balls off. This did not bode well. But, he could restrain himself in dog form, right? Though, he wouldn’t admit it, he wondered what it would be like to be a dog next to a werewolf. Would Remus try to sniff his arse? That wouldn’t be too bad, he figured. So long as his balls weren’t bitten off. “If Remus gets a code name… I want one, too. I vote for ‘Does not sniff furry butts’.” James continued to laugh even as Sirius hit him, though one of Sirius' pushes caused James to wobble a bit under the weight of the antlers. Obviously, James had never really thought of Sirius as an arse-sniffer, but it was still pretty damn fun to take the mick out of him for it anyway. James realised then that there was nothing stags did that could really be made fun of. Oh, but James supposed they could call him Rudolph or something, but James wasn't going to go on suggesting that they do. Upon hearing Sirius' question, James turned to him and raised his eyebrows upon detecting his anxiety. "Well, wolves are a type of canine so I guess a werewolf is too," James answered. "But they're not a type of dog, I guess they're a type of wolf then," he added. James snorted with laughter "I should hope that you won't be sniffing Remus' 'furry moony butt'," he smirked. "Not sure he would appreciate that," James said. "Furry moony butt...." James replied and then furrowed his brow for a moment. "Moony...." he said again and then his face alighted as if a lumos charm had gone off in his brain. "Hey! What about Moony?" James asked excitedly. "You know, for the code name! Moony! Remus can be Moony!" he said. "I want one too," James said instantly. "Though I think we're going to have to come up with something better than 'does not sniff furry butts' for you Sirius," James snickered. "Gentlemen, I believe this is a start of a whole new era," James declared. |