The Last Marauder Standing || Sirius Black

35-Under Pressure

It's been a few weeks since Christmas and we are now back at Hogwarts. The next quidditch match is coming up next week, and everyone is buzzing with excitement because I have a brand new broom, the fastest broom anyone has ever had on a Hogwarts quidditch team. The house cup was practically in the bag, we just had to win this game against Hufflepuff and we would make it to the house cup game against whoever wins the Slytherin vs. Ravenclaw match.

While everyone was buzzing about quidditch, I was usually in the library studying. Exams were in a few months and with the recent distractions in my life, between getting a boyfriend and being kicked out of my house, I felt extremely behind on work. NEWTS were coming faster than I had anticipated and it was driving me mad.

Sirius often begged me to take a break, and occasionally I would sneak off with him for an hour or two away from my books, but most of my time was spent reading about charms, transfiguration, curses, astronomy, and worst of all arithmancy.

The one person that often joined me in studying was Lily. As I sat on the floor of the common room writing my transfiguration essay, I let my mind wander back to winter break when we told Lily we were animagi.

"So... what exactly did you all need to tell me that was so important?" Lily asked nervously, looking around at us as we sat in the Potter's living room around the Christmas tree.

"Well... you know about Remus'... condition" James started, and Lily nodded, still looking confused. "So... when we were in fifth year, the boys and I decided to do something that might help him during his... time of the month" James grinned at Remus who whacked him on the back of the head.

"Okay... I'm still confused" Lily shook her head.

"Maybe we should just show her, Pads" Sirius shrugged, his arm draped lazily around my shoulder. "Peter, you first" Sirius pointed to him. He looked frightened, but stood up and gulped before making eye contact with Lily.

"Well... here goes nothing. Please don't step on me if you're angry" Peter asked.

"What-" Lily started but was cut off by Peter transforming into a rat before her eyes. "Merlin! Where the bloody hell did he go?" She jumped, looking around on the floor. She then spotted Peter, now Wormtail, looking up at her. "Y-you're kidding me, right? This is a prank" She shook her head.

"Sorry, Evans. This is far from a prank" Sirius chuckled, taking his arm off me and standing up before her. He transformed into a black shaggy dog and Lily's jaw dropped. It took her a second, but she slowly turned to James who looked nervous.

"You too?" She raised her eyebrows.

"Don't be mad! It's not that I didn't trust you it's just that it's very illegal and after a while, I just didn't know how to tell you and-" He was cut off by Lily clamping her hand over his mouth.

"James, I'm not mad" She laughed a bit at his rambling.

"You're not?" He asked when she pulled her hand away, a bit shocked. I was too. The boys were mad at me for not telling them I was an animagus and we weren't even really friends. I was sure Lily would be furious that her boyfriend she's been dating for more than 6 months was keeping this secret.

"Well, I would have loved to have been told a bit earlier, but I always knew something weird was going on with you guys. Actually, animagi did cross my mind when Estella told me you knew about Remus, but I didn't think you lot were smart enough for that" She chuckled, and James glared at her.

"Excuse me, but who here tutored you in transfiguration? That's right, me" He held his head up high, and Lily just rolled her eyes.

"Just show me what you can turn into, you git" She joked, ruffling his hair. James immediately stood up, eager now that he knew Lily wouldn't kill him. He transformed, presenting himself as a large stag. Lily's eyes widened, seeing as James was the largest out of all three of them. Remus sighed and sat back on the couch.