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Surprisingly enough, it’s James who has the most trouble with the animagus transformation. Considering how good he is at Transfiguration, both Sirius and Peter -and later Remus, when he finds out- thought he’d be the best at it.
He 's not.
The best one out of the three of them, the one who masters the animal form the easiest and controls the shift the quickest, is Sirius, to everyone’s surprise, including his.1
Peter is next, even though he has to hide a rat tail in his trousers for over a week, once he feels comfortable in his rat form, the shift comes to him as easy as breathing.
James himself is not sure why the mastering of his form is so difficult to him; he understands the process on every level and follows every step to the letter. And yet, he spends an entire weekend stuck as a stag, unable to shift back, stumbling around the forest on clumsy four limbs. Sirius laughs himself sick to the stomach when he finds out.
But even when he finally controls the shift, it creeps upon him in the most inopportune moments. When he’s stressed over the exams he fully shifts into a stag in the middle of the dorm, when he’s pissed off he’ll rip off his trousers changing his legs into a pair of hooves, when he’s nervous his wild hair will take a curious texture, almost like fur. In short, James Potter needs to learn how to deal with stress real quickly if he doesn’t want to be found out.2
By the time they show Remus, the four Marauders are in agreement to keep James out of stressful situations as much as humanly possible.
Then, of course, there’s the war.
Tom Marvolo Riddle, also known as Lord Voldemort or alternatively, the Dark Lord, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and the most powerful and dangerous dark wizard of all time3, shares one of the characteristics most evil people do: arrogance.4
He believes himself untouchable 5 and cares little for things he believes beneath him. It’s what, in every version of this story, brings about his eventual downfall.
In some versions, it is his utter dismissiveness of house elves and a crucial lack of understanding of how love works. In this one, it’s his utter dismissiveness of how James Potter reacts in stressful situations. He is well aware of how powerful both Potters are, he is slightly less aware of tricks they might be hiding under their sleeve.
But he doesn’t care. They are no match for him with a wand and they must be removed as the threat they are. It will be easy.
At no point it occurs to him they might not face him with a wand.
Anyone who claims that James Potter works well under pressure is a liar, and James himself will be the first one to tell you.
He’s learned to mask it over the years of course, and he’s gotten better at it. Necessity, Death Eaters’ fixation in surprise attacks and prophecies related to his family have left him with no other choice; he’s come a long way from being fifteen and popping out antlers at the sight of a pretty girl.
That being said, he’s sure no one can blame him for what happens next.
They feel the wards break around them, and for one moment the betrayal overcomes the imminent fear. Even Harry has gone quiet, recognising something important has changed. Lily wastes no time in holding him close to her chest, and shares a panicked look with James; he nods once. Go.
She runs upstairs and he runs in the other direction, the thought of having left his wand behind not even crossing his mind. His mind is a current mess of please not them, please not them, fucking damn it Peter and what the fuck now.
James is feeling so stressed trying to think of a plan of action that he wouldn’t be surprised if he were to spring out antlers any moment now.
…Huh, antlers.
The sight that awaits Tom Riddle when he enters the Potter’s residence is one he was not expecting. He had carefully crafted what he’d do when he was face to face against them once more, and none of those plans included the possibility of a… deer 6 in the middle of the living room.
For a moment, they do nothing but stare.
And then all hell breaks loose.
The bloody thing breaks into a run towards him, and the Dark Lord is so surprised by this turn of events that he suddenly forgets every single spell he has ever learned.7
Between one a blink and the next, Tom Riddle has 500 pounds of deer crushing his chest, hooves on his ribcage, antlers pointing at his neck and he lost his wand somewhere in the middle.
Unfortunately, human bodies do tend to bleed out when suddenly stabbed, beaten, and crashed into and, to Tom’s greatest regret, this body in particular was very much still human.
What an embarrassing end for the Dark Lord. 8
Sirius Black, once again, laughs himself sick when he hears about what happened. And if it's slightly more hysteric and relieved than in good fun, well, who could really blame him?
- And Minerva McGonagall’s, but that’s not relevant right now. [ ▲ ]
- He does get found out, in fact. By one Lily Evans, on their second date, when he springs a pair of antlers after she kisses him on the cheek. Sirius laughs himself sick again when he hears of it. [ ▲ ]
- According to some sources, at least. Namely, himself. Gellert Grindelwald was not happy when he heard. [ ▲ ]
- And lactose intolerance. There is a surprising correlation between villainy and the inability to enjoy cheese. [ ▲ ]
- See ‘the most powerful and dark wizard of all time’. [ ▲ ]
- James will later assure that the transformation was a hundred percent on purpose. It’s upon the reader whether to believe him or not. [ ▲ ]
- Except for one, but he is not sure how Aguamenti could help him right now. [ ▲ ]
- It’s unclear if he would have considered ‘killed by a baby’ more or less embarrassing. [ ▲ ]