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October 19, 1977. Wednesday. For most students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry this day will simply fade into the background and become indistinguishable from all of the other days spent at their home away from home. Perhaps the evening was spent curled out by the fire finishing the latest potions essay, or down by the black lake enjoying what was sure to be the last nice day of the year; however the day was spent for most students at Hogwarts this day was nothing but ordinary. For James Potter, Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew and Remus Lupin today would be one for the history books.
Deep within the heart of Hogwarts, in an empty classroom three of the Marauders paced anxiously. In the middle of the room sat a cauldron with light blue smoke rising from it. The read headed girl worked on the potion with pointed intensity. Time was of the essence. James examined his watch for what had to be the 12th time in the last hour. Sirius glanced worried out the window and noticed the sun quickly fading behind the horizon. Peter mumbled, yet again, that they needed to hurry. Lilly somehow managed to ignore the boys as she finished the potion with three more stirs in the counterclockwise direction. Once the potion was finished to her satisfaction she took the ladle and carefully filled the small silver flask.
The three Marauders looked at the concoction skeptically.
“Will this really work?” Asked Peter.
Lilly just sighed. How was she supposed to know if this virtually untested potion would work or not? She shouldn't even be brewing it in the school to begin with. All she knew is that she had to help Remus and that doing it this way caused her to break about 100 school rules, not to mention having to deal with the ministry if she got caught. How was she to—?
James interrupted her thoughts, “Thanks Evans.” He said smugly.
“I didn't do it for you, Potter.” She tried to snap back as a quickly forming smile gave away her true feelings and James shot his new girlfriend a knowing smirk.
Sirius and Peter quickly filed out of the room. James bent down to pick up the flask filled with the mysterious potion. When he turned to leave Lilly quickly brushed his arm.
“Be careful, Ok?” She pleaded.
“Oh Evans, you know me. I’ll see you tomorrow. Promise” He replied with a smile as he quickly followed his friends out of the castle, past Hagrid's hut, just outside of the Forbidden Forrest, and towards the Black Lake where the Whomping Willow stood menacingly.
Sirius quickly pushed the knot by the base of the tree and ducked inside the passage. The other Marauders followed close behind. When the group entered the Shrieking Shack they were greeted by a quite ornery and very pale Remus.
“What took you so long?” He snapped, half agitated by their cheerful demeanor and half relieved that his friends had finally come to keep him company.
“We brought you something mate!” boasted Sirius.
“If it is ropes I don’t want it. I will not be tied up again. I understand if you guys are scared for your safety but if you don’t want to be here just leave. You cannot—“
“Shut up” demanded James “It’s not ropes”
“We all remember the last time we tried that. I don’t particularly want to rub any cream all over you ever again” Quipped Sirius.
“And I don’t want to have to nibble the ropes off of you again. That was too close for me.” Peter shuttered.
“We brought something useful mate!” James exclaimed as he pulled the flask out of his cloak pocket and took off the cap, the blue smoke cascading out of the opening.
A curious Remus got up and slowly began to make his way over to inspect the mysterious flask when suddenly the smell hit him. The blue smoke wafting his way smelled like some kind of horrid mix between swamp and rotten eggs. He really hoped that was some kind of cream or soap; not something he had to drink.
Noticing the look of apprehension and confusion on his friend's face, Sirius quickly snatched the flask from an oddly silent James and brought it over to the more-pale-than-usual Remus.
“It’s a potion mate, Wolfsbane.” said Sirius as he presented the flask to Remus.
“There’s no way in hell I’m drinking that sludge” groaned Remus who now looked more green than white.
“Oh come one Mooney!” replied an exasperated James. “Lilly made it and it is supposed to help you retain a human mindset during your transformation.”
“We’d really appreciate it if you didn't try to kill us this time” remarked Sirius smugly.
Peter nodded along in agreement.
“James, how do you even know if this is safe for me to drink? What if I begin growing extra toes or something?” questioned Remus
“Remus, Lilly made this potion for you. Do you not trust her?” A now aggravated James replied through gritted teeth.
“Better drink up or you’ll upset lover boy” Sirius said with a smirk
He pressed the flask into Remus’ hand and headed over and sat on the couch smugly. Peter and James quickly followed and looked expectantly at their friend.
Remus looked out the window and noticed the moon coming up quickly over the horizon. He decided he might as well take the potion. After all, what could it hurt? Remus raised the flask.
“Bottoms up” he cheered unenthusiastically.
He quickly downed the potion. No sooner had he swallowed the last drop then he began to feel the potion affecting him. His brain became fuzzy and his veins flowed with the god-awful substance. Right when he truly thought the potion had settled in he felt a familiar sensation. One he had been having every 30 days for the last 13 years. His nose and mouth began quickly morphing and stretching, Pain was shooting through all of his joints, his entire body was elongating and he was feeling overall a lot fuzzier.
The boys looked over at their furry friend and noticed all of the usual signs. His teeth were sharper and more triangular. His nails had changed into razor sharp claws. Their friends normally unintrusive presence was now generally filling the room with a bit of terror. However, one thing was very different this time.
“Look at his eyes” whispered Peter
“They look almost… human” commented Sirius.
The boys quickly became ecstatic about their apparent victory and started cheering and high-fiving. The atmosphere in the room was electric. Sirius walked over to Remus so he too could celebrate and before he knew it his body was slamming into a wall half way across the room.
James looked over at his werewolf friend and noticed that his eyes no longer held the warm inviting glow of Remus’ but instead were black and beady. He was out for blood. The potions effect had not held. James and Peter reacted quickly. Peter changed almost instantly into his animagis form and tried to distract Remus while James hurried over to check on Sirius.
“My God Sirius, are you OK?” James asked with apparent concern.
“Yeah for now” Sirius replies with a groan. “But if we stay like this for long we will be joining Mooney next month, and not because we want to.”
Realizing what his friend meant James quickly took his animagis form, feeling the familiar feeling as he became the stag. Once he felt secure and safe James looked around and took in his surroundings. On his right he noticed the familiar big black dog and in the corner he saw his friend the fat brown rat being corned by a sneering werewolf.
“Oh shit.” He thought
He quickly jaunted over and pushed away the werewolf with his enormous antlers.
Just then the dog took off across the room and the werewolf followed. Right when it seemed like the dog would surely be captured the stag stamped his hooves catching the attention of the now enraged creature.
Events continued this way for several minutes. The stag occasionally had to use his antlers as a barrier against the werewolf. The werewolf occasionally got close enough to get in a scratch before he could be drawn away.
After what felt like hours the werewolf realized that there were no more people in the room and calmed down significantly. The stag, the dog, and the rat (who had been cowering in the corner) all breathed a sigh of relief. Except for the occasional short chase or worrisome snarl the rest of the night was rather uneventful.
Early the next morning the slightly battered Marauders headed back to the castle. Peter had a scratch reaching from his jaw all the way to his eye. Sirius had lots of bruises and a concussion. Remus had several broken ribs and plenty of scratches of his own. Regardless of the injuries the Marauders were in pretty good spirits overall, joking and chatting like normal.
When the bunch of bruised boys entered the hospital wing Madame Pomfrey looked at them and shook her head. The Hogwarts matron got right to work on her most regular visitors and quickly examined all of their injuries.
“You boys need to be more careful” She scolded.
“I told them to tie me up” Remus joked
“Alright, alright everyone to your beds. Potter, you can go.” She said as she scurried around the hospital wing to collect all of the necessary creams, potions and droughts.
James headed up to the Gryffindor Common Room.
“Canput Daconis” James whispered. His exhaustion evident.
The fat lady took one look at James and quickly began her rant as the door swung open
“WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? Waking me up at this hour and where did you--“
The door slammed before James lost it. He did not have enough energy to argue with a crabby old portrait. When he looked around the common room James quickly noticed his favorite fiery redhead curled up and half asleep with her copy of Advanced Potion Making by the fire.
She looked up from her book when she heard the door slam. When she noticed James was back, and unscratched a huge smile quickly spread across her face.
“Have a good night?” she asked
James smirked. “Oh it was wild” he replied with a wink
He headed toward Lilly and planted a gentle kiss on her cheek and proceeded up towards his common room. When he had almost reached the top he turned around ever so slightly.
“Oh, and Lilly…”
“Yes James?”
“I think we are going to be spending a lot of time together. I think the potion needs a little…. Work.” James cringed as he remembered how seriously wrong everything could have gone last night.
“Well I guess if I have to I can bear spending some time with you; even if you are a bit of a prat.” She teased lovingly. “Now go get some sleep, you look like hell.”
James smirked, clearly pleased with this response and continued up to his common room for some much needed rest.
For now all was well for the Marauders.