The Marauders: Year Four

Releasing the Animagus Within

Releasing the Animagus Within

The weekend ended and Sirius skulked carefully about the castle, putting off his talk with Marlene as long as possible, afraid of how it would go. Peter told him repeatedly to put in a good word for him when he broke up with her. "Yeah, because, sorry Marlene, we're through, but my friend Peter's available, is a completely acceptable break up line," Sirius said, rolling his eyes.

"I don't see what's wrong with it," Peter replied with a shrug.

"Besides everything?" Sirius said.

Getting to classes and meals with Sirius was like trying to avoid a bomb in a minefield, and Sirius took to using passageways through the castle to get everywhere, carrying the Marauder's Map to every class and checking on Marlene's location vigilantly.

"Why don't you just talk to her and get it over with?" James asked, raising his eyebrows. "You're going to see her at Care of Magical Creatures. And at Divination. It's only a matter of time."

"Yeah..." Sirius said, "But... what if she starts crying?"

"Then you pat her on the back and say something nice to cheer her up," James replied.

"Like what?"

"Dunno... something like how good she smells or that her hair is nice," he said, "Something like that."

Peter nodded, "Girls like that stuff."

Sirius didn't know if that would really be the right response to a girl crying or not. "Girls are so bloody complicated," he muttered.

"Good thing you're taking a break from them, then, ey?" James asked pointedly.

Sirius's face turned red and sped up his walking to get away before the other two could see how embarrassed the comment had made him. He could hear James snickering from behind him.

James, meanwhile, had his own stuff to think about. When he returned to the dormitory after the weekend it was to find a letter had been placed on his pillow. It was from Professor McGonagall, informing him that their first Animagus Lesson would be on Wednesday evening and to please meet her in her office at precisely 19h. James was excited, the prospect of getting to turn into a stag again was itching through him. He wanted more than anything to get back out on the grounds in the woods and have another go at getting a hug from Lily... He'd been dreaming of that night since it had happened, and periodically throughout the summer had tried once again to change to his animagus form, but still all he could do was the bloody antlers. He was ecstatic when he received the letter from McGonagall, glad that she'd remembered her promise to tutor him in the subject if he was truly interested in becoming an animagus.

By Wednesday evening, Sirius still hadn't talked to Marlene McKinnon and Lily was getting anxious. She hadn't yet had a chance to talk to Sirius, who expertly disappeared after every class, no matter how quickly she tried to catch him. It was driving her mad. She had to know - was Sirius breaking up with Marlene? And if he was, why? Who was it he was interested in? Was it what she hoped... He'd been so elusive, so vague. He'd used neutral pronouns, she kept telling herself.

She had to know.

Was it Remus?

She stood at the foot of the stairwell by the boys' dormitories, laying in wait for Sirius to come down. When James descended the stairs, headed for McGonagall's, Lily looked at him expectantly.

"What do you want, Evans?" he asked, reaching the bottom step.

"Where's Sirius?"

"He's upstairs doing homework."