Chapter Text
5th year
Early-October
“What… is up with you two?” Lydia Martin pointed an orange painted nail at Scott and Stiles during lunch in the great hall.
“Yeah it’s as if you two have some dark mischievous secret.” Allison smirked, keeping her eyes on her textbook.
“I-I we’re- we are not hiding anything,” Stiles said with a frown and raised eyebrows. He tried to casually eat a bite of an apple but juice spilled all over his chin as he tried licking it off with his tongue.
“It’s… it’s not anything important,” Scott said innocently. Stiles threw back his head and sighed.
“A likely story,” Lydia remarked. “I’ll be the judge of how important it is.”
“What if…” Stiles began, “we were planning an awesome surprise birthday party for you. Hmm?”
“My birthday isn’t till March.” Lydia offered a smug expression.
“All the more reason for it being a surprise.”
“Lydia, they probably just broke some school rules,” Allison said absent-mindedly. “And they’re nervous around me since my dad’s the headmaster.”
“Hmm. I don’t think so,” Lydia said.
“Hey, Allison,” Malia greeted as she joined the table, setting her bookbag on the table with a slam. “Did you still have time to help me study history later tonight?”
“Malia.” Lydia got the attention of the Gryffindor. She pointed at Scott and Stiles. “Do they seem… off to you?”
Malia looked over at the boys, who both offered her nervous smiles. She narrowed her eyes and puckered her lips slightly. “I’d say they’re sleep deprived.” She looked at Lydia and frowned. “And they both seem to be studying a lot more than usual.”
“See?” Lydia exclaimed as if that proved them guilty of murder. “Why would you two be so interested in studying all of the sudden, especially on magical creatures?”
Scott uttered an exasperated groan that sounded like a wheeze. Stiles started hitting his back as if he were choking, to which Scott faked a few coughs. “We’re not doing so well in Care of Magical Creatures,” Stiles offered.
“Scott is Deaton’s best student,” Lydia said with a skeptical frown.
“I’M not doing so well in Care of Magical Creatures. And Scott is helping me study. CLEARLY.”
Scott burst out laughing at that statement, then after a moment when he composed himself, he cleared his throat and added simply, “It’s true.”
“I’d take Scott’s word,” Allison said. “Stiles, not so much.”
“Ouch,” Stiles said with furrowed brows.
“It still seems questionable though.” She sighed. "I don't think they're going to spill, Lydia. So we might as well leave them be to whatever mischief they're trying to manage."
"For a headmaster's daughter, you are very…" Lydia tapped a finger on her lips as she thought of the appropriate adjective. "…ingenuous."
"Just trying to pass Charms is all."
It didn't take long for Lydia to fit together the pieces of the puzzle.
When Stiles rounded a corner towards the Slytherin common room there she was, startling him enough that he dropped his textbooks. Lydia had nonchalantly stepped aside to avoid any of the tomes crashing upon her feet, her stance and expression expectant yet triumphant like a teacher knowing they were catching a student breaking the rules.
"L-Lydia!" Stiles croaked. "You can't lurk around corners like a… like a… lurker. You practically took ten years off my life!"
"What are you planning, Stiles?"
"Nothing. I am planning nothing. There's nothing to plan."
"Are you sure you don't have any plans for the night of the full moon?" She took a step closer to him, her face only a foot from his own. "You are aware it's coming up in three weeks, right?"
He could already feel his heart beating faster. "What, like going skinny dipping out in the lake at night? I already did that last year." When she gave him a look he quickly added, "Okay I didn't actually do that-"
Lydia pulled on his emerald tie so he was down on her level, her voice barely above a whisper. "Then what are you planning to do for Scott?"
Stiles swallowed hard. "Ask him on a date?"
The strawberry blonde deadpanned, releasing his tie and whipping out her wand to cast a spell that provided a listening barrier around them, blocking out all sound as if they were now encompassed within glass. "Will you finally talk with me now that no one can hear us?"
"Talk about wha-"
"I know Scott's a werewolf."
"Okaaaay you do not cut corners." Stiles sighed. A part of him knew he couldn't play dumb with Lydia but he still felt uneasy having her know the truth, even if she figured it out for herself without any confirmation. "Yeah, Scott got bit. I kept him from dying… but I couldn't save him."
Lydia's demeanor changed. Her eyes, once hard and determined to know the truth, softened and glistened in the firelight. "No one can be saved from lycanthropy, Stiles… you did everything you could. And there's still more we can do."
"How do you mean?"
It was dangerous and would be near impossible. The Slytherin had an ambitious plan, but she couldn't possibly pull it off on her own. She needed at least one more kin of the cunning mind, but she reckoned she would need the help of all her friends to truly save Scott McCall.
"I have an idea. A crazy, dangerous idea that could possibly get us all killed, or worse, expelled." She looked up at him, her green eyes serious. "Are you game?"
"I think you may have your priorities mixed up, but… yeah." He offered her a nod. "I'm down. What, exactly, are you proposing?"
"We can't save Scott. He's cursed to always be a wolf on the night of the full moons. But instead of trying in vain to make him human, perhaps we are the ones that need to become animals as well."
The wheels began to turn in the boy's mind as he clicked the solution into place. "Are you suggesting we…"
"Become Animagi?" Lydia paused, the corner of her mouth turning into a smirk. "Yes, yes I am."