Chapter 56: Date (possibly)

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Page 394 was the page about werewolves. Remus had already gone through it before the lesson began, in fact he'd gone through it as soon as he'd got his hands on the textbook. It wasn't the worst account he'd ever read, obviously he always felt uncomfortable by the cold, factual language used to describe someone like him, but his main problem was with the diagrams. It wasn't as if they weren't accurate, he just didn't like the idea of his body being displayed like a scientific dissection, even if it wasn't technically his body. It was his wolf body, but that still didn't make it any less disturbing for him to look at. When Professor Lanier told them to turn to page 394, Remus tried not to look at it anymore than he had to. He simply listened.

"The difference between werewolves and animagi, is that animagi retain their human memories during their transformation, while werewolves do not. When a werewolf transforms, they forget everything about who they are as a human being and simply become an animal." Remus was hating this far more than he was expecting. It wasn't as if Professor Lanier was saying anything anti-werewolf, he was just outlining the facts, but Remus had never felt more exposed in his life. He knew that no one except his closest friends knew he was a werewolf, but it still felt like everyone was about to find out any second the longer that Lanier went on. Not only that, but his friends were now getting what felt like a very intimate lesson into his life, and he wasn't quite ready for that. The sooner the lesson ended, the better.

As it turned out, though, his friends had not been paying much attention to the werewolf part of the lesson at all, for a number of reasons. For starters, they didn't care about the factual, scientific stuff in the books that Remus hated, because they certainly didn't think about him like that at all, but mostly, Sirius and James had become far more invested in the stuff about animagi.

"It would be so cool to turn into an animal, whenever you wanted," remarked James. "You could just... become like a mouse or something and sneak away without anyone seeing you."

"That must be what McGonagall is then," replied Sirius. McGonagall's ability to turn into a cat had always been a source of amusement for them, and Remus remembered everyone being very disappointed in first year when they found out they'd never be taught how to turn into a cat like McGongall. Even Remus had been disappointed. Just because he turned into a werewolf every month, didn't mean the idea of turning into a normal animal that he actually had control over was no less tempting.

"What would you be, if you could turn into an animal?" asked James.

"A dragon," replied Sirius. "A majestic, fire breathing dragon with huge wings."

"I don't think animagi can be animals like that," Remus pointed out.

"Why not? I bet I could do it."

"I'd be some sort of bird then," said James. "Anything that flies."

"What do you need to fly for? You've got a broom."

"Yeah but flying on my own, without any help, would be so cool. Plus there's only so high you can go on a broom, and if I was a bird I could land wherever I want. It would be so easy to sneak out."

"As long as you don't get eaten by a cat."

"I could be a cat," interrupted Peter. "I quite like cats."

"You're nothing like a cat," said Sirius. "Cats are all smug and lazy and elegant."

"I can be elegant."

"I was trying to compliment you. You're not lazy enough."

"Well, I think I'd make a good cat."

"What about you, Remus?" asked Sirius, and Remus stared at him like he was crazy.

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