Magic

4: Finding the Answer

James Potter, Sirius Black, and Peter Pettigrew were nearly falling asleep in Transfiguration, which was quite dangerous, considering what McGonagall could do to them. They had been up all night researching Animagi again, because they wanted to help their friend, Remus Lupin. The boys secretly knew that Remus was a werewolf, so they were keen to turn into animals and help the werewolf control himself.

"Potter? Potter, are you listening to me?!" McGonagall barked. James blinked.

"Hmm? Err...yeah, Professor." he said sleepily.

"Then could you tell me the difference between a Transfigured animal and an Animagus?"

James smiled. That was such a simple question.

"An Animagus can turn into an animal at will, while a normal person has to be Transfigured to turn into an animal with a spell or an incantation."

Professor McGonagall nodded, satisfied.

"Barely escaped that one." Sirius whispered, smirking.

~~~

Sirius spilled ink all over his Charms essay.

"Oh well, I was going to fail anyway." he said nonchalantly. Remus rolled his eyes.

"I find it quite impossible to believe that you're unbelievably smart, but just as lazy." Remus muttered.

Sirius shrugged. Remus narrowed his eyes.

"Now that I think about it, you didn't do that on purpose, did you?"

Sirius shrugged again. Remus eyed the other two boys. Peter's eyelids were drooping, and the candy in his hand dropped to the floor. James nearly face planted into his pile of parchment and books. Remus snapped his book shut abruptly.

"Alright, enough. You three have been doing something behind my back, and I want to know what that is."

"W-who says w-we've been doing something b-behind your back?" Peter asked nervously. Remus rolled his eyes.

"You've all been acting weird. You stay up all night. You 'study' more than usual. Besides, you all despise the library, but now it seems that you can't be anywhere else!"

"Well Remus, maybe we are doing something behind your back, maybe we're not. That's for us to know, and you to find out." Sirius said smugly.

Remus scoffed.

~~~

James dragged himself to the library after finishing his Charms essay. He could barely do things properly because of his lack of sleep. In fact, the only reason he was able to find the library was because he'd been there so many times. He went to the usual area, and began to skim through the usual books.

'I'm never going to get anywhere if I use the same books,' he thought glumly.
James knew that he needed help from someone, but he couldn't trust any of the teachers. After all, becoming an Animagus was illegal, and surely they wouldn't believe any lame excuse he gave them. He sighed and kept looking. After a long time, he rubbed his eyes. He shut the books he was looking at and put them away. James had given up. Maybe they could find another way to help Remus, or maybe they could—

James froze. His eyes widened. Maybe there was someone who could help him, someone who was already used to his lame excuses. That someone was standing a few meters away from him.

"Evans!" he called.

The girl with the sparkling green eyes, long red hair, and freckles turned around and looked at him.

"What do you want, Potter?" she asked.

"I need your help on something." he said, stepping closer to her. She rolled her eyes, thinking it was yet another one of his jokes.

"Please, Lily...it's important." he said softly. Lily's eyes widened. He'd never called her by her first name before, and he'd never seemed so desperate for anything.

"Okay," she replied.

"I need you to tell me something. What do you know about becoming an Animagus?" James asked her, hoping she wouldn't ask questions.

"Why do you—wait...you don't mean..." Lily muttered. She then understood what James was trying to do. She'd known Remus was a werewolf, so he must've figured it out, too. All of this was simply to help one of his best friends.

"You put a Mandrake leaf in your mouth for a month. That's the last step." Lily said.

James' eyes widened. Of course! He grinned triumphantly.

"Thanks for the help Evans!" he exclaimed, running off to Gryffindor Tower. Lily smiled and shook her head.

James ran into his dorm. Sirius and Peter looked up.

"Guess what? We're becoming Animagi soon."