The Bonds of Spirit are stronger than the Bonds of Blood

Chapter Sixteen

The following night, Sirius led the quartet to the hidden room where they had originally been practicing. Carefully following the twisting and turning corridors, they found the hidden room without running into anyone. They had a near miss on the staircase. Mrs. Norris, Filch's beloved snitch of a cat, had been patrolling at the same time they had been sneaking off. But Remus, ever the prepared member of the group, swiftly dropped some pieces of turkey from that evening's feast. Mrs. Norris was more than happy to ignore the boys hidden beneath the invisibility cloak in favour of devouring the delicious scraps. After giving what seemed to be an approving nod in the boys' direction, she remained quiet and ate without giving any hint of sounding the alarm. Relieved, the boys continued on their path. Fortunately for them, there were no other patrols to avoid on their route, and as such they made it to their destination fairly quickly. Sirius opened the door, noting that the room was exactly as they had left it. It was mostly empty, clearly an old forgotten store room, with decrepit shelves along the walls and some cushions stacked in the far corner. On one of the shelves was a small supply of candles, most of which had been here before the boys had started using the room. Some newer candles were found among the supply, taller and clearly unused as of yet. Taking one of the older candles, standing at half the height of the newest candle, Sirius lit it. He then used that candle to light a few others before setting them into the candelabras on the wall. The room properly lit, he turned to his friends and said "Now we are ready. We know our animagus forms, so all that's left is practicing shifting into those forms! So.... Who wants to go first?" James smirked and volunteered while Peter shrunk back and tried to avoid focus. He knew he had had difficulty just finding his animagus form, so he was certain if he tried first he'd just make a fool of himself. Sirius noticed Peter's reaction and gave him a sympathetic nod, allowing the smaller boy to step back with a sigh of relief. Sirius sat on the ground facing James, Peter on his left and Remus on his right. The trio watched and waited with bated breath as James attempted to fully transform.

It was slow at first, a slight shifting of skin to fur, but soon enough the transformation became more obvious. First his arms and legs shifted. His elbows became knees, his limbs covered in soft, short fur. Finally his hands and feet formed the cloven hooves of a deer. Standing on all fours, James then concentrated on his torso. Ever so slowly, he shifted, growing fur, bones shifting into the proper placement of a fully grown deer, until finally he was a deer with a man's head. Now came the really difficult part. James grew nervous, understanding the risks that came with transforming one's skull. Taking a few calming breaths, he slowly began to shift his skull. First, he grew an impressive pair of antlers, the bone appendages sticking out of his hair almost as if they belonged there. Then his face began to shift, elongating at the nose and jaw before forming a muzzle. He gritted his newly formed herbivorous teeth to fight back the pain, his transformation slowing as he tried to maintain concentration. Peter covered his eyes at this point, terrified of seeing his friend in pain. Remus and Sirius continued to watch, concerned, but kept to their seats. They knew if they interfered it'd cause trouble for James, interrupting his concentration and potentially causing him more pain than if he managed to finish this transformation properly. After quite a while of careful watching, the pair noticed James' ears start to change. They sighed in relief, glad that their friend had managed to maintain his concentration. Not only because this meant their friend was no longer in pain, but also because they wouldn't have to carry him off to the Hospital Wing and try to come up with a plausible reason for James to be partially transfigured without revealing the group's biggest secret. After a few more minutes, in the place where James had been standing was a fully grown stag. Sirius nudged Peter and said "You can look now. He's done it!" Peter lifted his head, peeking at the scene through his fingers, before gasping in surprise. He jumped up from the ground, jumping for joy as he shouted "Yes! He did it! This is actually happening!" Sirius and Remus exchanged smiles while James the stag tapped the ground with his hoof. Shifting back seemed much easier, as James was able to pull it off in a matter of minutes.

Sirius was up next, trading places with James. Like James, he started by shifting his arms and legs. Shaggy black hair grew from his skin, as his elbows also turned into knees. Next were his hands and feet, shifting into four toed padded paws of a canine. Managing to stabilise on his new legs, Sirius shifted his attention to his torso. It shifted, most notably growing hair and looking much more natural with the new appendages. Finally he reached his head. First his ears shifted, changing shape to those of a shaggy haired black canine. His nose and jaw elongated before merging together into a muzzle, large clearly dog-like teeth showing as he gritted his teeth, lips curled back in pain, as he fought to maintain concentration. Finally the rest of his skull merged and shifted until it was the proper shape of a dog's skull, covered in black fur. When the trio looked over in his direction after the sounds of transformation had stopped, they found a shaggy black dog sitting there. The dog, clearly pleased, sat wagging his tail with his tongue lolling out of his mouth. The other three gave a cheer as the dog shifted back into the form of Sirius Black. As with James, shifting into the animagus form took a lot longer and a lot more effort than switching back to human form. Peter nervously took Sirius' place, knowing he could no longer avoid attempting the transformation. He focused on his limbs first, and they shifted and shrank! He was startled, freezing after noticing how his arms and legs had shrunk down to the size of a small rodent. Sirius and James shouted encouragement while Remus gave him a gentle pat on the back and an encouraging smile. After taking some time to calm down, Peter returned to his attempt. As with his limbs, his torso shrank and shifted its form into that of a dark brown coated rat. His giant, human sized head, looked odd attached to such a small body, but he managed to shrink it fairly quickly. But that was the easy part of the skull transformation. After quite a bit of work, and encouragement from his friends, he managed to fully take on the form of a rat. His tail twitched nervously as he looked up at the trio. Sirius cheered at their success.

When Peter managed to shift back, Sirius spoke up. "We have a name for our group now, but shouldn't we have cool nicknames too? I mean, now that we have our animagus forms we should come up with nicknames that suit them right?" The others nodded in agreement before silently thinking. James spoke up first, saying "How about Moony for Remus? Sure he's not an animagus, but he shifts because of the moon." Sirius nodded and said "Moony! That's perfect! And for you James, how about Prongs? You get those massive antlers when you transform after all!" Remus spoke up next. "Alright, Moony... I like the sound of that! And Prongs definitely suits James! For Sirius, how about Padfoot? Since a dog's foot is padded?" James and Peter eagerly nodded while Sirius said "Hmmm Padfoot... Padfoot.... I like it! Brilliant idea Moony!" Remus grinned at the use of his new nickname while they contemplated what to call Peter. Finally James spoke up. "Well he's a rat, so how about Wormtail? The tail of a rat looks an awful lot like a worm." Sirius and Remus nodded in agreement before turning to Peter to see his reaction. Peter thought a moment before saying "Wormtail... It's a bit odd, but it does sound nice!" The names agreed upon, the newly nicknamed Marauders returned to their dorm to get some sleep for the night. It had been one long night full of transformations, but Sirius felt like this was merely the beginning of something amazing! The quartet stumbled up the stairs, narrowly avoiding getting caught as the staircase decided to move. They had several close calls with the stairs on the way toward Gryffindor tower, but with some brilliant teamwork they managed to avoid getting carried off. The four were utterly exhausted when they finally made it to the portrait. Remus muttered the password, receiving an irritated reply from the Fat Lady as she swung forward to allow them to enter. Stumbling up the stairs to the boy's dorm, the collapsed on their beds and slept for what little time remained until breakfast.