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Pandora had always found her name quite fitting. She and the Pandora she'd been named after had quite a lot in common, after all. For example, they were both drawn to awful, morbid things. She sometimes wondered if her mother had predicted her child would be born with an insatiable curiosity and had chosen to name her accordingly.
Pandora had always let her curiosity lead her. This is what led her to become an illegal Animagus at the ripe age of thirteen, simply to see if she could. It also led her to the Shrieking Shack that fateful night. She'd heard about the hauntings, seen the boarded-up doors and windows, and had immediately decided she needed to figure the whole thing out for herself.
Had she been a normal student, it would've taken her hours to reach Hogsmeade, if she managed to make it off school grounds at all. Instead, a white crow soared through the sky, navigating her way to Hogsmeade under the light of the full moon. The flight had taken her less than an hour, and before she knew it she was crawling underneath a loose plank used to board up the windows.
The room she entered was quiet, the air still as dust gently floated around in the moonlight. Pandora had just a moment to feel annoyed that the rumours had been completely false before she heard a muffled sort of whining in the back of the house. She felt the familiar rush of adrenaline she always got from her particularly reckless midnight expeditions, and if her crow form had allowed for it she would've grinned. Instead, she hopped off the windowsill and flew further into the Shack.
The whining sound grew louder, and her enhanced hearing picked up something that sounded like a vague wet crunching sound as she grew closer to the source of the noise. Not a ghost, then. These sounds were far too real and alive, nothing like the sounds of a normal haunting. Still, she was here anyway. Might as well take a look. She glided to the ground next to the door, deciding it best to stay as close to the floor as possible so she could remain hidden. Whatever it was inside the room, it sounded like it was in pain. She wouldn't want to scare it off or draw the attention of whatever was in there.
She wasn't sure what she was expecting to see when she hopped into the room, but a werewolf certainly wasn't it. She suddenly realised 4 things at the exact same time:
1) This werewolf was definitely not an adult.
2) That meant that whoever they were was from Hogwarts.
3) The wet crunching noise that she now recognised as the creature trying to gnaw its own paw off had stopped the second she entered the room.
4) There was absolutely no way for her to make it out of there in time.
The werewolf was staring at her, large yellow eyes glinting like twin moons in the night. The room had suddenly gone very, very still. It felt like the whole house was holding its breath. Pandora had always kind of figured her curiosity would kill her one way or another. She'd known that, like in the stories, one day she would open a Box she really shouldn't have, and that would be that. She wasn't scared to die, not really. Death was just another mystery to solve.
She stared back at the wolf defiantly, bracing herself for the snap of its jaw. The wolf stared back with an almost perplexed expression on its face, which— didn't make sense. Werewolves had no control over what they did during the full moon; any time they encountered a human, that human was either killed or turned. Even if this werewolf was the nicest human on earth during the day, they wouldn't be able to restrain themselves from murdering any human in sight.
Except she wasn't human. Not right now, anyway. The wolf had no way of knowing she was anything but a crow; it couldn't sense the difference. It leaned forward on its front legs, sniffing at her curiously. She resisted the urge to make any sudden movements, staying as calm as possible as the wolf curiously pressed its nose against the top of her head. Despite herself, she found the gesture kind of adorable. Now that she knew she wasn't in any more danger than she normally was, the wolf seemed rather sweet. It was far smaller than an adult werewolf, still looking juvenile compared to its adult counterparts. She hadn't known there were any werewolves among the students at Hogwarts, but then again, what reason would she have had to look up the werewolf registry?
The wolf had apparently decided she wasn't a threat, backing out of her personal space to observe her from a bit further away, revealing the paw it had been chewing on before she got there. She wasn't sure what the expression looked like in this form, but she winced in sympathy nevertheless. The paw was completely mauled, a bloody mess of bone and flesh that was dragging blood across the floor every time the wolf moved. Carefully, experimentally, she hopped a bit closer. The wolf tracked the movement curiously but didn't seem startled. Deciding to take that as an invitation, she slowly moved around the creature until she reached the paw in question.
Up close, it was even more of a mess. Blood was sluggishly seeping into the floorboards, and she could see parts of the bone. It also wasn’t the only injury. The wolf’s skin was littered with scratches and bite marks as if the wolf wasn’t sure what to do with itself. It was stir-crazy, she realised. Werewolves were meant to roam free during the full moon, even though the Ministry obviously wasn't a fan of that idea. The creature had probably gone mad with being confined in the small house and decided to harm itself as a means to cope.
Thank Merlin she'd reached the level of skill required for wandless magic ages ago.
The wolf tilted its head in confusion as the wound knitted itself back together at her command. Once she was satisfied with her work, she hopped away again and observed the wolf's reaction. It tested the leg once, twice, and then carefully put its weight on it. The confusion quickly morphed into joy, and the creature yipped happily, sprinting around the room. Pandora mourned her lack of lips and the fact they made it impossible to smile.
𓆩☾𓆪
Her presence alone seemed to help the wolf immensely, keeping it occupied enough not to turn its attention back to its paw or any other way of harming itself. Before long the wolf had tired itself out, lying down on a threadbare mattress on the floor as the first sunrays shone through a gap in the ceiling.
Pandora had always let her curiosity lead her, but sometimes, she knew she couldn't. Like the moment when the werewolf started to slowly morph back into a human. Her curiosity demanded she watch, insistent on figuring out everything about the werewolf in the Shrieking Shack. The rational part of her brain, however, had different plans.
Firstly, it would be a major invasion of privacy. The werewolf hadn't chosen to tell her about its identity, and staying around to watch it transform back would be an awful thing to do. Secondly, someone was coming to pick up whoever the werewolf was during the daytime and bring them back to school. If she didn't want her nightly escapades found out, she'd have to bounce. Fast.
There was also the matter of personal comfort. In all honesty, Pandora would rather not start her day looking at a random naked person. Had it not been for her distinct lack of nose, she would've wrinkled her nose in disgust at the thought. She settled for tugging the thin blanket she'd found on the floor over the sleeping werewolf before flying through the hole in the ceiling.
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Pandora Lovegood didn't need friends. She'd never been particularly well-liked; most people found her unsettling, so she just decided not to bother. This lack of friends meant she didn't have anyone to distract her mind from trying to figure out who the mysterious werewolf was, despite her effort not to think about it.
She really hadn’t meant to figure it out.
See, Pandora liked to observe. Sometimes it felt like she was outside of the world, looking in on everyone else more as an observer than an active participant. This meant that she noticed things, things other people didn't. She, for example, noticed how Remus Lupin limped in for breakfast later than usual, with bags under his eyes and a bandage wrapped around his wrist where the wolf had had a particularly deep cut.
And that led to an interesting dilemma. She knew now, so what should she do about it? It was obvious Remus' condition was a secret, even to his group of friends as far as she could tell. She was never supposed to find out, and she only did because she'd decided to investigate his private business. There was a clear unbalance— Pandora knowing Remus' darkest secret and Remus not knowing a thing about her. It was unfair to Lupin. Pandora hated unfairness, always had and always would. Her mom always told her she could be almost obsessive about fighting what she deemed injustice. It wouldn't do to just leave it like this; she'd have to settle the score.
A secret for a secret.
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As it turns out, keeping a werewolf in check was significantly easier with sufficient time to prepare. She'd made a point to carefully track the moon cycles since the last full moon, as well as researching enough about werewolves to be worried the librarians would catch on to what she was doing (not that the search had proved fruitful—there was far too much anti-werewolf propaganda in supposedly 'objective' books).
By the time the next full moon rolled around, she was practically buzzing with excitement. Now that she knew what she was dealing with, she left early enough to make sure Remus would have her company for the entirety of his transformation. She'd also decided to wrap some food in a handkerchief to try and appease the wolf slightly, in the hopes it wouldn't take its frustration out on itself if it was distracted by Hogwarts' magnificent roast lamb.
She'd run into a problem almost immediately. The food definitely seemed to help, as did her presence, but the wolf was much bigger than she was. Whenever it got bored or frustrated, there was nothing she could do to stop it from throwing itself at the walls in a desperate attempt to escape. Pandora had never disliked her Animagus form until that moment. She tried to distract it by flying around its head or squawking loudly to distract it of course, but that only did so much. By the end of the night, Remus had managed to give himself a myriad of bruises and scratches before finally lying down on the ratty mattress in the corner, resting its head on its paws.
The first rays of sunlight were slowly starting to filter through the cracks in the wood. If she had to guess, it was about 5 AM. Thank Merlin she was already used to functioning on little to no sleep. She tugged a blanket over Remus before settling back down on the floor in front of the wolf and waiting. As the sun grew higher in the sky, the figure under the blankets started to shift. She heard a sickening popping and crunching sound as the wolf slowly, agonisingly, shifted back into the boy. How Remus managed to sleep through what sounded like all his bones and organs rearranging themselves, she didn't know. Perhaps he was used to it.
She heard the change in Remus' breathing before she saw him flutter open his eyes. He just lay there for a moment, taking stock of his injuries, before slowly moving to sit up. He looked down at the blanket with a bemused expression before looking around the room. A faint look of recognition flickered across his face when he noticed her sitting on the floor next to the bed.
"You're—" His voice broke after the strain of howling at the moon all night. He cleared his throat and started again, "You're the crow from before. I honestly thought I'd dreamt that."
She didn't have much time before Pomfrey would come by to get Remus back to school, she reminded herself. Plus, she owed it to Lupin to show him why she came here tonight in the first place. After a moment to brace herself, she shifted back into a human. The fuzzy, exhausted look on Remus' face was quickly replaced with a look of pure horror, eyes wide as saucers as all the blood drained from his face.
"Hi." She greeted, still sitting on the floor with her legs crossed. Remus sat frozen on the mattress and didn't reply, just staring at her numbly. She hadn't really planned what to do once she'd revealed herself, hoping it would become clear at the time. Before she could figure out what to do next, a door opened a few rooms down. Within seconds, she was flying out of the room and back to Hogwarts, leaving a frozen Remus Lupin in her wake.
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Over the next few days, Remus stared at her. He stared during meals. He stared when they passed each other in the hall. He stared during Herbology, the one class they actually had together. Remus stared at her pretty much any time he thought she wouldn't notice, until he finally pulled her into an alcove three days after their second full moon. The hall was empty, most students already in the Great Hall for dinner. She'd already been on the late side before Lupin had decided to abduct her.
"You can't tell anyone." He hissed, though she wasn't sure why he was keeping his voice down.
"Of course not." She agreed, not bothering to whisper. Remus seemed taken aback by that answer, even though she thought that would've been obvious. Then again, she was used to confusing people with every single thing she did. It felt like she was on a different wavelength compared to the rest of the world sometimes, so inexplicably different that others couldn't help but be disturbed. "I wasn't going to, regardless."
If she thought Remus had been confused before, he was downright perplexed now.
"You weren't?" She resisted the urge to roll her eyes, if only because Lupin seemed about three minutes away from a panic attack, and she needed to be patient with him. "Wait, then why were you in there to begin with?"
"Because I didn't want you to hurt yourself?" Now they were both confused. She'd expected Remus to come to her eventually, considering the fact he'd been staring at her constantly for the last three days, but she figured her little display at the Shack last full moon had been pretty clear. Remus stayed silent for a moment as if that answer was the most outlandish thing he'd ever heard.
"Then why did you reveal yourself? I wouldn't have known if you hadn't stayed behind." He pointed out after a few minutes.
"Mutually assured destruction." She shrugged. Remus blinked at her. She was getting a bit sick of the whole confused puppy look. This is why she didn't bother talking to people; they never understood her. They couldn't keep up with the way her brain worked, and she didn't have the time to explain it to them.
"I know you're a werewolf," She ignored the way Remus tried to hush her. "You know I'm an illegal Animagus. If I tell anyone, you can ruin my life, and vice versa."
Finally, understanding dawned on him. She could actually see the moment he finally caught on; it was quite amusing. Remus stepped away from her, finally allowing her a bit of personal space as he looked at her like she was a puzzle he was trying to solve. She stared back at him, much the same way she'd looked at the wolf back when she first entered the Shrieking Shack. Defiantly, not afraid of what was about to happen.
"You showed me who you were to, what, make sure we were even?" She once again resisted the urge to roll her eyes, but just barely.
"It's not fair for me to know something like this about you when you didn't even know I existed until, like, three days ago. We're all equals here, Lupin." She explained. "May I please have dinner now?"
Wordlessly, Remus stepped aside to let her walk past him. She felt his eyes bore holes in the back of her head almost the whole way to the Great Hall.
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Pandora had kind of figured that would be that. Remus had finally caught on that she wouldn't be revealing his secret, so now he'd leave her alone until the next full moon. Imagine her surprise when, about a week after that conversation, Remus Lupin sat down at her table in the library and started casually pulling books and parchment out of his bag.
"What are you doing?" She asked, narrowing her eyes at him suspiciously. The library was basically empty; there was absolutely no need for him to come bother her here. Remus paused, hand still inside his bag, and looked up at her innocently.
"Working on my DADA essay?" He didn't look on the verge of a mental breakdown this time, so Pandora felt safe to roll her eyes.
"I can see that. Why?" She asked. Remus had started putting his stuff down again, and she wanted to stuff it all back inside his bag and shove him out of the library. The wolf she could deal with; werewolves were easy. They ate, they slept, they did the occasional manslaughter, whatever. The wolf wasn't complicated. It was the boy that was the problem.
People, as a rule, didn't like Pandora. The feeling was mutual. People were complex, exhausting, dramatic, and they had a million ways to dance around what they wanted to say. To them, Pandora might as well be from a different planet. Remus Lupin was just a needless complication in her already complicated life, and she didn't care for it.
"Well, teachers assign homework for a reason. Making it is kind of the point." Remus shrugged, grinning. Pandora suddenly understood why the Marauders liked him so much. She wondered why Remus was taking the time to talk to her at all: they were even, he knew his secret was safe, what was the point? She considered leaving, but, as always, her curiosity won.
"Why are you talking to me?" If Remus was taken aback by her question, he didn't show it.
"I just like this table." He shrugged. There it was again, the dancing around the subject. The lying. She could tell he wasn't telling her the actual reason, but she had no idea what the real reason could be. She wasn't giving up, though. Once something captured her attention, she was damn well going to discover everything there was to know.
"You gonna tell me the actual reason?" She asked, staring Remus down. That usually did wonders; her appearance wasn't exactly conventional, and she was well aware she freaked people out simply by staring at them. Remus squirmed a little in his seat before giving in.
"I just—no one else knows. About, you know, my little problem. But you know, and instead of waving me out of the school with a pitchfork, you did me a huge favour and then told me something that could land you in Azkaban for the rest of your life if I chose to tell anyone, because you thought it wasn't fair otherwise. Most people would've reacted very poorly to something like this—to someone like me—but you didn't. I don't know, I guess it felt nice not to feel like a complete outsider." Remus blinked, as if he hadn't expected to actually tell her any of that (she had that effect on people). She had no idea what to say to that, though, so instead she looked down at the piece of parchment Remus had written part of his essay on. At the top of the page, he had scrawled the word Changelings.
"Did you know my dormmates are convinced I'm a changeling?" She said instead of replying. "Last year, one of them got quite hysterical, insisting that no one that acts and looks the way I do could possibly be human. Made quite a fuss about it; she was very stupid for a Ravenclaw. The school had to interfere to make sure it got resolved peacefully."
Something in Remus' speech had resonated with her. She obviously couldn't fully relate to his situation—she didn't turn into a bloodthirsty beast once a month, after all— but feeling like an outsider? That, she felt familiar with. She looked back up at Remus, who was looking at her with an understanding look on his face. I see you, it seemed to say. An odd sentiment for someone who was only used to observing others, never being observed in turn. Perhaps she could get used to the feeling over time.
"I obviously can't relate to your situation entirely, but you are not the only outsider here." She finished.
Pandora Lovegood didn't need friends. She never had; she never would. Yet she still worked in comfortable silence with Remus Lupin until the library closed and thought, Maybe I could get used to this.
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It was surprisingly easy for her to get used to her new normal. Suddenly, she saw Remus every day. Whether it was a quick wave when they passed each other in the hallway or a few hours spent together in the library, Remus made a point to see her as often as possible. Sometimes they talked, sometimes they just sat in companionable silence, but Pandora found she didn't mind either way. Remus was... nice. He'd listened attentively when she told him about the book on the bond between corvids and wolves, even though she was pretty sure he didn't care, and he never made her feel awful about the fact she was different.
Over time, she learnt more and more about Remus. He told her about his family, his friends, the way he preferred his toast, the books he'd been reading. Surprisingly, she let him get to know her too. She told him about her mother, how she became an Animagus, the spellbook she'd been writing since she started Hogwarts, and the way she absolutely despised tea (to Remus' horror).
They also still did every full moon together. She'd quickly learnt Remus hated when she put herself in danger, especially when it was to help him, so of course he'd tried to stop her at the start. He'd claimed the wolf was still dangerous, even if it didn't recognise her as human. Crows were great, but they definitely couldn't overpower a werewolf. He'd given in pretty quickly after she turned into a crow on the spot and dive-bombed him.
He'd told her, long after having given up on convincing her he was too dangerous, that the full moons had gotten a lot easier since she showed up. Easier, but not perfect. Despite her insistence that she'd be fine, her crow form was no physical match for the wolf. Sometimes, when it got particularly restless (which was more and more often lately), it would revert right back to the mad wolf she saw that first night. An animal in captivity, slowly tearing itself apart. Those were rough nights, and healing spells could only do so much.
Still, life wasn't so bad. Their routine worked, and they'd both gotten very used to the new way of doing things. This, of course, was when the Marauders came to ruin it all.
She spotted them exactly 8 full moons after the original two. The wolf had been getting particularly rowdy, probably because Remus had been so stressed lately, so she'd almost been too stuck in her head to notice the three figures moving towards the Whomping Willow. Remus had told her enough about his friends that Pandora recognised Marauder shenanigans when she saw it. She broke off course, quietly perching on a nearby tree and looking at the intruders.
"I still can't believe you tore the bloody cloak, Prongs." The figure on the right, Sirius if she had to guess, hissed.
"You try suddenly having these great big antlers on your head, see how you like it." The figure she recognised as James grumbled in reply.
"I still think the nicknames are ridiculous." Peter huffed. They were close enough for her to see what they were up to with ease now. She had a feeling whatever they were doing would be important, and though she hated to keep Remus waiting, her intuition was rarely wrong.
"Don't be a wet blanket, Wormtail." James and Sirius chorused. She wondered how Remus usually fit in their group dynamic. She'd seen him with the whole brigade before, but they'd never been introduced.
"Speaking of, get on with it. It's fucking freezing out here." Sirius added, rubbing his arms for the dramatic effect. For a second, she seriously considered shifting back just so she could roll her eyes. Stupid birds and their restricting eye sockets.
"Are you sure we can't just use a stick?" Peter complained. "I really don't want to get within whomping range."
"Pete." James scolded, staring Peter down. For some reason, the idea of James being upset with him was clearly a big deal to Peter.
"Yeah, yeah, 'm going. Don't get your panties in a twist." He relented, though he didn't sound too happy. He took a deep breath as if to brace himself, and then a rat fell in the place where Peter had just been standing. Aside from McGonagall, she'd never seen any other Animagi except for herself. She noted that Peter's transformation was particularly graceless. If she had to guess, they hadn't been Animagi for long (if one of them was an Animagus, all were. It was the Marauder way). She didn't have time to speculate further, though; Peter was on the move, darting underneath the Whomping Willow's branches and pressing a knot at the bottom of the tree. Then, for the first time in her entire school career, the Whomping Willow's branches froze.
"C'mon, Pete." Sirius said, wasting no time in getting closer to the roots of the willow and scooping Peter up. Then, he disappeared between the roots. James quickly followed suit. She waited for a moment, but none of them emerged again. She'd kind of known they wouldn't, though; she already suspected where they'd gone.
She set off for the Shrieking Shack.
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Whatever secret passage the other Marauders were using to get to the Shack clearly took longer to navigate than flying did, and for that she was grateful. It meant she had time to calm the wolf down a bit before it would be subjected to the whims of 3 immature teenage boys. When she got there, Remus had already transformed, and the wolf was definitely uneasy. It was pacing up and down the hall, sniffing the air. It immediately relaxed when it caught her scent, stopping its pacing and looking at her with the bright yellow eyes she'd long since gotten familiar with.
Thankfully, the wolf seemed calm today. Or, as calm as a werewolf could get. It definitely hadn't been before; she could spot about ten new gashes in the walls that hadn't been there last full moon, but it seemed to do okay now. It was oddly touching to think it'd been upset because it missed her presence, not because of its usual restlessness. She made a soothing cawing sound, trying to reassure the wolf she was there and okay. It responded by pressing its nose against her, something she'd learnt to recognise as the wolf expressing affection.
Remus heard it before she did, ears shooting up in alarm as it turned to look in the direction of the noise. She could hear it now too, the clamouring and stomping of something approaching. She made the split-second decision to fly up, tucking herself between some loose planks. If anything went wrong, she couldn't have interfered from that close to the wolf. The second she hid from sight, a stag, a dog, and a rat walked into the Shrieking Shack from Merlin knows where. The wolf faced them, snarling at the intruders. Peter cowered from where he was riding on the antlers of the stag, but the other two stood their ground. The dog— she assumed that was Sirius, based on the way James had been referred to as 'Prongs' by the Whomping Willow—barked back.
For a moment, she was afraid the wolf was going to pounce. Then, slowly but surely, it relaxed. It now looked a lot closer to the way it had when it first met her: curious and lonely, but not murderous. Perhaps it would be alright after all, she thought as the wolf curiously circled the intruders. Then James tried to push Remus towards the still-very-open entrance to the tunnel, and she decided the Marauders were absolute and complete idiots who had a penchant for ruining everything. She was just about to fly out of her hiding spot and discover how James reacted to having his ear chewed off by a crow when she paused, thinking.
Every full moon, there were two problems she couldn't fix: she couldn't stop Remus from attacking himself in frustration, and she couldn't let the wolf roam free like it so clearly wanted. By the way James was herding the wolf towards the passage with ease, she could tell they wouldn't have a problem restraining it if need be. Which in turn also solved the second problem; if they could keep the wolf from going towards the school, it could run around the forest without a care in the world. Maybe the idiots weren't ruining everything after all.
She reluctantly allowed the other three Animagi to herd Remus through the passage door.
Then again, she mused, you should never trust anyone but yourself not to fuck something up. Not without decent supervision, anyway. Pandora had learnt pretty early on in life that she was alone; if she wanted something done right, she needed to do it herself. She quickly flew through the passage after them.
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Seeing the wolf so happy and free almost made her forget she was there to supervise 3 idiots and a highly dangerous magical creature. She'd been shadowing them for the better part of the night, darting between branches and watching the group run through the Forbidden Forest like they owned the place. So far, there had been no severe incidents. There was a brief moment when they emerged from the Whomping Willow where the wolf started sprinting for the school, but Sirius had fought it all the way to the forest, snarling and rolling through the grass until the wolf forgot what it had been doing in the first place.
She'd only had to interfere once, when Remus had taken a particular interest in a rabbit he found and attempted to eat it. He'd told her a bit ago he sometimes tasted whatever she'd fed the wolf in the morning, and she figured he would appreciate not waking up to the taste of raw rabbit.
They'd gotten lost a few times, the other animagi not as familiar with the forest as she was, but by morning the wolf curled up on the forest floor not too far from the treeline, not having caused a singular incident. She perched down on the tree directly above Remus, observing the others for a moment. She'd assumed she'd have to wait here for Remus to wake up to explain why he was in the Forest instead of at the Shrieking Shack, but the others didn't seem to have any intention of leaving Remus here without explanation.
Once again, her mind was at war with her curiosity. This moment was clearly deeply personal for Remus. For once in her life, she didn't really want to intrude. Remus had had enough people who felt entitled to his secrets; she didn't want to be one of them. The first sunrays shone through the branches, and she quietly left the forest. Remus would be alright. If even a fraction of what Remus had told her about his friends was true, he was definitely in good hands.
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She'd lasted about a day before her curiosity got the best of her.
It happened like this: she'd been sitting in the library, hoping Remus would show up so she could grill him on what happened after she left. Then she noticed the people in question walking towards the Forbidden Forest, and she was soaring after them before she even had time to process what she was doing. It hadn't taken her long to catch up, and she was hiding between the branches and observing from above them within a few minutes. Surprisingly, Remus looked okay. More than okay, he looked happy. Remus usually looked like he carried the weight of the world on his shoulders, especially after a full moon. Now, he looked like someone had finally relieved him of the burden. Even the usual exhaustion and bruises from the full moon didn't seem to ail him.
"I can't believe you forgot your wand. You were a stag for most of the night! How did you even manage to lose it?" Sirius complained, kicking a rock out of his path petulantly.
"Would you have preferred parading Moony back to school without clothes? I had to summon those, prat." James said, rolling his eyes. She noted his glasses were the same shape that the markings on the stag's face had taken.
"I still can't believe you guys became Animagi." Remus interrupted before Sirius could retort, voice filled with wonder. He didn't even object to the nickname, though Pandora thought it was a bit on the nose. If she had to guess, he was too preoccupied with his amazement to try arguing about the more reckless parts of the evening (i.e., letting a werewolf loose on school grounds). She'd have to make sure she'd be there to dive-bomb him when he did start that inevitable argument. No way in hell was she letting Remus stay in the Shack again when this had proven a safe option.
"'Course," Sirius shrugged easily. "Figured you could use the help."
Then she accidentally brushed against the branches of the next tree, rustling the leaves. It shouldn't have been noticeable, but when she peeked out, James was looking right at her.
"Okay, which one of you pissed off the local birdlife? Because I know it wasn't me this time." He sighed. The others stopped talking, clearly confused. She filed questions about the 'this time' away for later.
"James, I love you, but what the fuck are you talking about?" Sirius asked, amusement clear in his tone.
"We're being stalked by some kind of white crow." He announced, pointing up at her. "Crows hold grudges, you know. I don't need a bird to execute its revenge plan on me today, I already lost—"
"Pandora?" Remus interrupted, frowning up at her. She hopped down the tree, perching within sight on a thick branch. Then, she transformed back. Peter yelped, tripping over his own feet in shock. The other two kept themselves slightly more under control, gaping at her with a bit more dignity.
"Remus, get your friends under control." She said wryly, glancing down at where Peter was scrambling to his feet. Sirius was the first to recover.
"Is everyone in the bloody school an Animagus now?" He asked, throwing his hands in the air theatrically. Sirius Black did most things theatrically, she noticed. She decided not to point out she'd been an Animagus for more than a year at that point.
"Figured I'd best introduce myself sooner or later if they're going to be spending the full moons with us." She said to Remus, jumping down from the tree and landing gracefully in front of them.
"Right. Okay. Yeah. Everyone, this is Pandora. She usually spends the full moons with me." Remus said. She curtsied, still amused from the reactions her transformation had received.
"She's an Animagus." James said to Remus before wheeling around to face her. "You're an Animagus. How are you an Animagus?"
"The same way you are, I imagine." She replied dryly.
"No— I—But— How?" James floundered. She gave up on trying to have a meaningful conversation with any of the others, turning towards Remus again.
"Please tell me they're not always like this." She sighed, crossing her arms. From the corner of her eye, she could still see Peter gaping at her like she'd grown a second head.
"Cut them some slack; I was pretty shocked too." He pointed out, though he sounded as amused as she was.
"Yes, but you also realised I knew you were a werewolf. You have an excuse." It was like a switch had been flipped. The other three Marauders finally processed what was happening, their brains coming back online to bombard her with questions. Behind them, Remus laughed, looking happier than she'd ever seen him.
𓆩☾𓆪
Before she met Remus Lupin, her life had been so predictable. She kind of missed it sometimes. See, if this had been before meeting Remus, Pandora would've gone to the library, claimed her table by the window, worked on her spellbook, and gone back to Ravenclaw Tower after. Instead, she'd gone to the library, seen Remus sitting there and bee-lined for his table. It was a strange sort of feeling, sitting down with someone and knowing that you were welcome to do so.
They mostly studied in companionable silence at first, Remus deeply immersed in his Potions homework, Pandora busy trying to figure out a modification to a spell she'd been stuck on for three days. It was nice. Familiar.
Then, of course, their peace was disturbed by Sirius, James and Peter walking right up to their table. Since they'd been formally introduced, the other Marauders had felt comfortable with just walking up to their table whenever to come bother Remus, and by extension her. She sighed, stubbornly refusing to look up from her book as James jumped into explaining some new harebrained prank idea that she was only half paying attention to.
"—So if we levitate the boxes from the gates back to the Tower, we should be all good. Now—"
"Capacious extremis." She suggested, not looking up from her book despite the fact she knew the others were staring at her.
"What?" James asked.
"Undetectable extension charm," she explained absentmindedly. "Just use it on a bag and shove all the boxes inside. Lot less conspicuous than 15 flying boxes of gunpowder flying to Gryffindor Tower."
For a few seconds, no one said anything. Then, "You, my friend, have the mind of a true Marauder." Sirius said, sounding vaguely impressed.
"Well, it's hardly my first prank. Remember the Mandrake incident?" She smiled despite herself. She wasn't usually one for pranks, unless the spellwork was complicated enough to make it worth her while. It also helped that the Marauders had flooded the Ravenclaw common room. Wet socks were an excellent motivator for revenge.
She could see the other four gaping at her from above her book.
"No way. No fucking way that was you. We tried to figure out how that worked for weeks! How did you do it?" James rambled, sounding as impressed as Sirius had. Pandora Lovegood didn't need anyone's approval; she was a brilliant witch and she knew it, but it was kind of nice to have it regardless.
"A good witch never tells." She said, not bothering to hide her grin as the others loudly protested.
𓆩☾𓆪
She still wasn't sure how it had happened. One moment, she was unsettling enough to be accused of being a changeling, and the next she was sitting by the Black Lake, enjoying the early summer sun with an entire group of people around her. She let it wash over her, trying to immortalise this moment in her mind.
Small groups of people sitting around the lake the way she was, talking and laughing. The sun glinting off the water. Sirius and James brainstorming nicknames for her because it was apparently a requirement for 'honorary Marauders'. She'd given up on trying to convince them she didn't need a nickname.
It had definitely taken her by surprise the first time Remus and his friends had insisted she come along for something. No, not insisted, expected. Like Pandora's inclusion in whatever they were planning was a given. They hadn't stopped either, practically dragging her along for every stupid plan they made. For the first time, Pandora didn't feel like an outsider. She wasn't observing the other groups walking on school grounds from the outside; she was one of them now.
"I still vote Ravenclaw." James repeated for the sixth time that discussion.
"1; way too on the nose. 2; Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, Prongs and Ravenclaw? Really, Prongs? I expected better from you." Sirius argued as the pair descended back into bickering. She rolled her eyes, resisting the urge to smile. Remus looked up from the game he was playing with Peter for a moment to share a long-suffering look with her.
Pandora Lovegood didn't need friends. She got them anyway.