the secret of Erised {s.b.}

chapter 13: luminescence

Three weeks had passed since James, Sirius and Peter had finally become Animagi, and it was finally time for a full moon. They had been practicing in the Room of Requirement almost every night at Remus' request. He had asked them to practice as much as possible because he didn't want something to go wrong when they were all in the Shrieking Shack and he had no control.

The training had been... interesting. That first time was easier for them because the potion had helped them, but after that, it had become more challenging to transform into their respective animals and back. James got stuck with antlers for a couple of hours until Remus figured out a way to remove them. Peter's teeth remained like a rat's for two days. He tried to hide them from the rest of the school by not talking, but McGonagall forced him to answer a question in her class. He was sent to Madame Pomfrey who fixed him in twenty minutes.

As for Sirius, he got stuck with dog hair on his face. It didn't look bad. Somehow the hair had managed to only stay in his eyebrows and beard area, so for everyone else, it just looked like he had stopped grooming. A lot of girls noticed this and would walk more frequently behind him as they admired him and his beauty. He had gotten used to the attention and had grown to like it and play along with it.

Almost a month had gone by since the beginning of the year and Sirius had already managed to go on a date with six girls; two Gryffindors, one Slytherin, and three Ravenclaws. He hadn't actually asked any of them to go out, all of them had walked up to him and asked him or sent him an owl during morning post. He didn't want to be rude and tell them that he wasn't interested and embarrass the poor girls, so he accepted all invitations. Of course, after a month of this and more dates scheduled for the future, Sirius became quite a ladies man and a flirt. It all came naturally to him, to no one's surprise.

The boys were in the Common Room waiting for Madame Pomfrey to pick up Remus and escort him to the Whomping Willow. The plan was for the rest of them to follow shortly hidden by James' Invisibility Cloak. Remus had explained to them that there was a knot near the entrance to the secret tunnel that stopped the tree's branches from moving, so Peter would transform first and press the knot since his Animagus form could easily avoid the wild tree. Then, James and Sirius would go down the tunnel and transform, leaving the Invisibility Cloak at the entrance for their return.

"Are we sure this is going to work ?" Peter asked.

"Wormtail, we've gone through this plan a thousand times," James said.

"And we tried it the other night, remember ?" Sirius asked.

"Right," Peter replied as he nodded his head rapidly and scratched the back of his head.

Remus was the most nervous out of all of them. He wasn't going to admit it, but he was terrified of hurting his friends. Them becoming Animagi and putting their lives at risk for him was not something that he wanted.

"I want you to promise me something," he blurted out. 

His friends turned to look at him. 

"I want you to promise me that if I attack any of you..." he began, "Then you'll do whatever you have to do to get me to stop, alright ? I don't care if you hurt me... I don't want any of you to spend a night in the hospital wing because of me... let alone turn into one..."

His shaky voice trailed off as the rest of the ground exchange worried glances. They had seen Remus upset and worried, but they had no idea that he feared turning one of them into a werewolf. 

"We promise," James said and the other two nodded in agreement.

Suddenly, Madam Pomfrey walked in alongside Professor McGonagall. They eyed the boys sitting in front of the fireplace and approached Remus.