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But we know that they knew how to get into the Shack and that part of Sirius' gripe with Severus was his spying on them during their nightly sneaking around that part of the grounds - he sent Severus in precisely for sneaking around after them near the Willow. Which argues to me that at least one or two of them (Peter, the rat who opens the tree, and Sirius himself) had in fact managed it. And we know of nothing to indicate that James got it any later than the others - he and Sirius were supposed to be the brilliant ones.
Plus, don't you think Sirius and Remus would have played up to Harry about how James was so brave and good that he rescued slimy Snivellus *before he could even transform,* putting himself in terrible danger? That they didn't say anything of the kind during their various attempts to paint James as lily-white as possible tells me that they simply *couldn't* because it was not in any way true.
And we know that it likely happened later, rather than earlier, in the year since it was *fifth* year and Sirius was *sixteen.* Nothing indicates that Sirius had a birthday like Hermione's in the first weeks of the school year. Not that it's impossible, but given the way the circumstantial evidence fits together I see it as far more likely that it was not early in the year, and that James had in fact managed the transformation beforehand.
As to the tunnel: given that it changes size at JKR's whim from one book to the next, from being so narrow that a small teenager has to crawl to easily accommodating a tall man walking along it and three people chained together, I don't personally see that we can really count it as a solid piece of canon evidence in trying James one way or another. (And a stag can also bow its head and fold its legs underneath it if necessary, and staying still that way wouldn't endanger it because as was pointed out the werewolf won't attack it - so depending on how one chooses to think of the tunnel at that time there are definitely scenarios in which it was possible for James to have transformed.)
RE James' character: it's one thing to want to be able to give him a good moment and say he did something good. But how then does one interpret the fact that SWM came AFTERWARD? Trying to attribute to James an awakening to the fact that Snape is a human being who doesn't deserve to be maimed/killed by a werewolf and who is worth *risking his own life and humanity for,* and then having him AFTERWARD continue to see him as so utterly unworthy of regard that he ought to be tormented for existing, creates a mental disconnect for me. A lot of people - myself included - originally assumed that something like what you propose must have happened with the Shack incident, in order to make sense of James' character. It all got turned on its head *precisely because* SWM came after it, and people generally don't work that way. The only way it plays to me if he wasn't yet an Animagus is that he did it purely out of fear of the consequences for Sirius and Remus.
Plus, don't you think Sirius and Remus would have played up to Harry about how James was so brave and good that he rescued slimy Snivellus *before he could even transform,* putting himself in terrible danger? That they didn't say anything of the kind during their various attempts to paint James as lily-white as possible tells me that they simply *couldn't* because it was not in any way true.
And we know that it likely happened later, rather than earlier, in the year since it was *fifth* year and Sirius was *sixteen.* Nothing indicates that Sirius had a birthday like Hermione's in the first weeks of the school year. Not that it's impossible, but given the way the circumstantial evidence fits together I see it as far more likely that it was not early in the year, and that James had in fact managed the transformation beforehand.
As to the tunnel: given that it changes size at JKR's whim from one book to the next, from being so narrow that a small teenager has to crawl to easily accommodating a tall man walking along it and three people chained together, I don't personally see that we can really count it as a solid piece of canon evidence in trying James one way or another. (And a stag can also bow its head and fold its legs underneath it if necessary, and staying still that way wouldn't endanger it because as was pointed out the werewolf won't attack it - so depending on how one chooses to think of the tunnel at that time there are definitely scenarios in which it was possible for James to have transformed.)
RE James' character: it's one thing to want to be able to give him a good moment and say he did something good. But how then does one interpret the fact that SWM came AFTERWARD? Trying to attribute to James an awakening to the fact that Snape is a human being who doesn't deserve to be maimed/killed by a werewolf and who is worth *risking his own life and humanity for,* and then having him AFTERWARD continue to see him as so utterly unworthy of regard that he ought to be tormented for existing, creates a mental disconnect for me. A lot of people - myself included - originally assumed that something like what you propose must have happened with the Shack incident, in order to make sense of James' character. It all got turned on its head *precisely because* SWM came after it, and people generally don't work that way. The only way it plays to me if he wasn't yet an Animagus is that he did it purely out of fear of the consequences for Sirius and Remus.