The Marauders and the House of Black

Chapter Fourteen: A Wolf Amongst Men

For weeks now a stack of books– and several rolls of parchment– sat on the desk of the Marauders' room. It was not that the boy did not want to help their friend, in fact, they wished more than anything that they could, but it was proving to be more difficult than they thought.

As soon as James had brought back the books from McGonagall, he began to dig into them. The books began filling up with small scraps of paper that were covered in jotted-down notes from either James or Sirius. Quite a few issues were arising the more they read about the process.

First of all, they would need an extensive list of ingredients, many of which the boys had never heard of.

"What in Merlin's name is Death's-head Hawk Moth?" Sirius said exasperated.

"A moth I reckon," James responded. "Ask Peter, he knows loads of useless facts."

"Hey!" Peter exclaimed.

"Oh, sorry Pete. I didn't know you were in here," James cringed. "Your facts can be very interesting."

"Do you know what it is?" Sirius said, attempting to get back on topic.

"What's the name again?"

"Ummm... Death's-head Hawk Moth," Sirius repeated.

"Oh yeah, we've got loads of them in Glasgow, they're wicked creepy... like the size of your hand"

"Oh fantastic," Sirius said sarcastically. "We need its chrysalis to become animagi, and we need the whole thing so we've gotta find three of them."

"I can get some when I go home next."

"But that's months away!" James shouted. "I hate that we can't help Remus sooner."

"I dunno, doesn't seem like a process we wanna rush, did you guys read what could happen if we mess this up?" Peter asked.

"Of course not," Sirius laughed. "If I remain in blissful ignorance I won't be scared about it."

The second problem they noticed was proving to be a bigger issue.

"Sirius!" James shouted from his bed where he was reading.

"Yeah, mate?" Sirius called back from the bathroom.

"Come look at this."

Sirius emerged from the bathroom, toothbrush in mouth, and leaned over to read the passage James pointed at.

THE ANIMAGI PROCESS: CHAPTER II

Once, you have procured the necessary ingredients. You are ready to move on with the potion brewing process. You must hold the mandrake leaf you obtained earlier in your mouth for a month– specifically from one full moon to the next. This step is crucial!

*If you swallow the leaf or remove it from your mouth at any time you must start over.*

"Holy shit," Sirius said. "How are we supposed to do that?"

"I- I have no idea." James shook his head in disbelief. "We're gonna have to figure out a way to talk, to eat, to drink. I'm not sure how it's possible."

"Well it has to be possible, I mean there are other animagi out there."

"We can ask Remus for help, I bet he would have some ideas."

"Yeah, yeah just bookmark the page and we can all talk about it later," Sirius said, walking back into the bathroom. A few minutes later some snickering could be heard from the bathroom which confused James.