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There were two causes to the event that entailed in the early morning of November 7th 1976. The first of which being the fact it had been the full moon the previous night. Which was really less of a reason and more of a fact, because the event wouldn't have happened if the full moon hadn't occurred. It was early winter, meaning, the nights were getting longer and Moony transformed earlier, when the sun was still shining in the sky, transforming back later, when the sun had already risen. Which of course meant that Remus felt even worse when he woke up in the morning, bone weary and absolutely freezing cold. And this particular night had been a bad one.
Normally, this would be fine. Normally, the Marauders would stay with him for the first half hour after sunup, Sirius still in his Animagus form curled up around Remus keeping him warm as James and Peter got out their clothes and wands, treating any wounds on Remus that looked particularly bad. They would reluctantly leave after that, giving Remus another half hour before madam Pomfrey came to escort him back to the hospital wing where he would spend the rest of the day sound asleep.
Normally, this is what happened.
But today was not normal.
The second reason said event occurred was completely unrelated to the first, though was the main catalyst for the whole catastrophe.
There had been an outbreak of pox that week, and whilst it was nothing deadly it meant that Madam Pomfrey was rushed off her feet. And when two students came to her at approximately 5:58 in the morning, moaning and groaning in pain, she'd known there was no way she'd be able to fetch Remus from the shack.
So in a spare minute, she'd gone to Minerva's rooms and asked her to fetch the boy. And of course Minerva was all but happy to do it. She'd accompanied Remus and Poppy to the shack for the first couple full moons Remus had spent at Hogwarts, but had stopped going once she'd realised that Poppy had everything under control and Remus wasn't as fragile as he looked. Since then, many things had changed, and she knew that Poppy no longer accompanied Remus to the willow in the evenings anymore after James, Sirius and Peter had spent a full month persuading her to let them do the honours. And whatever they did on their walk down to the shack seemed to work wonders on the wolf, and ever since Remus had returned with significantly less scars.
So whilst it had been a very long time since McGonagall had seen Remus post transformation in the shack, she wasn't dreading the worst as she made her way through the grounds.
It was here that the final mistake was made. In the early morning daze, Poppy Pomfrey had forgotten to tell Minerva that Remus liked to stay in the shack for an hour after the moon set to get his bearings, and to be awake enough that he could walk back to the castle. So Minerva set off a good half hour before Poppy usually did, meaning the marauders were all still in the shack.
Sirius had different instincts as a dog. When Padfoot had the reins, Sirius only had so much control, and was more than happy to let the animal inside him free. Padfoot's first instinct was play. Fetch and chase were Padfoot's favourite words, especially when they came from Remus. Which played into his second instinct being, protect Moony. During the full moon he got his play time, chasing Moony through the forest, which meant that after he had transformed back into Remus, he had to protect him. Remus was weak and sleepy when he woke up from the moon, so Padfoot simply lay alongside him, his head laid across Remus' chest, letting the boy gently scratch his head as he came back to himself.
Sirius was always the last to transform back into himself, waiting until James kicked him saying 'Get up. We need to get Remus in some clothes and head back before Pomfrey comes'. Even then, he still didn't transform back, not until Remus gently pushed him away and said, 'I'm okay Pads, you can change back.'
Sadly though, on that day, they never even got to the point of James kicking him before the trapdoor opened, and all Sirius could think was protect Remus. He jumped on top of Remus, still in dog form, mindful of his probably cracked ribs, protecting both his body and his dignity. Because Remus was naked, always was after he transformed. Neither James, Sirius or Peter cared, they'd seen it all before and Remus was far too out of it too care. He was fairly sure Pomfrey had seen it before as well, but the trapdoor was opening, far too early for it to be Madam Pomfrey, so despite James hissing at him to change back, he stayed as a dog crouched protectively over Remus.
Minerva McGonagall had seen many things during her time at Hogwarts, but nothing could have prepared her for the sight that greeted her when she opened that trapdoor. James Potter and Peter Pettigrew stood in the corner of the shack, wands out as though ready to fight her, and a big black shaggy dog stood over Remus Lupin, snarling at her. Within seconds of her appearing, James and Peter has put their wands down, but the dog remained in its position over Remus. Saying it was the dog that shocked her the most would be a lie, however it confused her to no end. She wasn't shocked that Potter and Pettigrew were there, in fact, it was no surprise at all. The boys were close, and the fact they snuck down here so early in the morning to comfort their friend was no surprise. No, what surprised her was the lack of one Sirius Black.
Now, she knew that Sirius was a late riser. It was well documented by the fact that almost every day he would run into the great hall five minutes before breakfast ended, tugging on his tie as he entered the room. But it struck her as odd that he wouldn't be here with the rest of his friends despite the early hour, especially given the close nature of the relationship he had with Lupin. She noticed small touches in her lessons and little glances in each other's direction when they thought the other wasn't looking. It was clear to anyone with half a brain cell that they clearly cared for each other deeply, and in a so very different way to the way Sirius and James felt about each other.
And so that was how she learnt that Sirius Black was an Animagus, because the way that dog was looking at her was all too similar to the way Sirius looked at Slytherins who would curse the muggleborns and make jibes at Remus' parentage.
"Sirius Black, would you kindly transform back into a human or must we have this conversation with you as a dog?"
Padfoot made a little whimper, similar to that of a dog being scolded and looked down at Remus, nuzzling his snout against his neck. Remus was looking at McGonagall, but his eyes were glazed over and there was no doubt they'd have to recall the events to him later in the hospital wing.
"Errr, Professor? Could you turn around for a minute? Remus isn't exactly dressed and I don't think Sirius will move until his dignity had been restored," James said, the confidence he usually held completely absent from his voice. McGonagall waved him off with a flick of her hand, turning around and facing the door. She heard the shuffles of three teenage boys trying to dress a fourth, and then eventually a whispered conversation before a cleared throat. "You can turn back around now Professor."
Lupin had been clothed and moved to the bed, where Black was sitting next to him, raking his fingers through his hair gently.
"Am I right to assume that Mr Black is not the only one of you who is an Animagus?"
"Errrr, yeah," James scratched the back of his head, looking sheepish. "And you are aware that being an unregistered Animagus is illegal?"
"Yes Professor, but-" Sirius started to say, but a groan that came from Remus shut him up. "Hey, you're okay Moons, we'll get you to Pomfrey soon," he whispered softly, his hands never stilling in the other man's hair.
For all that McGonagall wanted to continue the conversation, her student's safety was her first priority. This could wait for the time being, besides, both Potter and Pettigrew looked dead on their feet, and it looked like the only thing keeping Black awake was the periodic moaning coming from Lupin.
"Okay, Potter, Black, Pettigrew, take Mr Lupin to the hospital wing and then return to your dorm. I'll arrange for food to be sent up and inform Professor Slughorn that you will not be in attendance of his lesson. I believe you have double potions this morning?"
She hid her smirk after seeing the shocked faces of Potter and Pettigrew, Black still too preoccupied with Lupin to pay much attention to anything. "Uhh, yeah. Professor…?"
"I'd get moving, if you don't get Mr Lupin to the hospital wing soon I fear Mr Black may fall asleep on the poor man."
"Yes Professor," James said, moving to the bed and nudging Sirius gently. "Come on Moony, time to get you all fixed up and comfy in bed."
The three of them levered Remus up off the bed, James and Sirius each taking an arm each whilst Peter held the remainder of their belongings and opened the trapdoor for them. "Oh, and gentlemen, I expect you in my office after your classes this afternoon."
"Fuck. Fuck. Fucking shit," Sirius slammed the door to their dorm shut as they walked through. Peter immediately collapsed onto his bed, though was still looking at Sirius and James.
"Alright mate, just calm down." James held his hands up, trying to placate Sirius as the man started pacing the room. "Don't fucking tell me to calm down. This is so bad. So bad. McGonagall knows about us."
"I know, I know. I was there Padfoot," James snapped, sitting down on his bed a raking his hands through his hair in exasperation. "She's gonna kill us. She's actually gonna kill us and then she's gonna make us register."
Sirius snapped at this. There was absolutely no way on earth that he was gonna register as an Animagus. No way. The whole school would know they were Animagi if they registered, and then it was only a hop skip and a jump to figuring out that Remus was a werewolf. "No way. We're not registering. I'd rather get expelled than register."
"No one's registering Pads. But I don't know what we're gonna tell McGonagall," James sighed, and Peter nodded, although looked about a minute away from sleep. Honestly, James felt the same, only the nervous energy coming from Sirius keeping him awake.
"Oh go to bed. I'll figure this one out," Sirius waved James away, sitting down on his own bed, his leg bouncing unconsciously. "Pads…" James started to object, but was cut off by a lengthy yawn.
"I've got this Prongs, don't worry about it."
Honestly, James was too tired to object. "Okay, but go to bed yeah? We're gonna need energy if we're gonna get through today alive," James yawned, throwing his jumper and jeans on the end of his bed and crawling under the covers. Peter had already conked out. Somehow he'd gotten under the sheets but was still fully clothed bar his shoes that had been chucked across the room. Sirius himself was yawning, but was making no moves to get into bed. "Pads?"
"I'm gonna go visit Remus," Sirius mumbled, throwing on a jumper and grabbing his wand.
"Sirius. Come on," James moaned, but Sirius paid him no notice, just leaving the room and shutting the door quietly behind him.
"Fuck."
"Let me get this straight, you became Animagi at the age of 16 with no external help just so your werewolf friend wouldn't have to be alone on the full moon?" McGonagall asked, sighing slightly but unable to keep the disbelief off her face.
"Technically we were 15, but yeah," Sirius mumbled under his breath, causing a stern look to cross her features.
"And you are aware that becoming an unregistered Animagus is illegal and is worthy of a sentence in Azkaban?" She raised her eyebrows at them, somehow surprised at their recklessness. She understood why they didn't want to register, but she'd truly never thought them this stupid. The calibre of wizard it took to become an Animagus should know better. Personally, she knew she'd never have been able to do it without Albus' help, so how these teenage boys did it without any of the resources she'd had was beyond her. And whilst she felt bad about the thought even occurring to her, she was surprised that Peter Pettigrew managed to accomplish it at all. He spent his time shadowing his friends, far inferior compared to them, and frankly, below average compared to his other classmates.
"We know that Professor, and whilst we truly don't want to go to Azkaban, if we register, people will find out about Remus. He's been so much better since we started joining him in the shack. Surely you've noticed that?" James argued lightly, unsure of how mad she was. She was a wall that they couldn't get anything out of unless she wanted it.
"I have noticed, but surely the risk isn't worth it. And surely Lupin would've stopped you."
"It's not his fault Professor. He didn't know, not until after we'd put the mandrake leaves in our mouths for a month. We weren't gonna let all that misery go to waste. Don't you remember how awful it was?" Sirius immediately jumped to Remus' defence, not wanting him to get in trouble. It wasn't his fault, he hadn't known until it was too late and had still spend every moment he could trying to convince them it was a bad idea.
"Oh, I remember Mr Black. I will admit, I had my suspicions during your month-long vow of silence in which you spent the entire time smelling truly foul. I decided to believe that it was related to a prank I wished not to know about."
"Professor McGonagall, you should've seen how Remus acted before we started joining him. He would claw at himself, throw himself at the walls. He hurt himself Professor, and we couldn't just stand by and let that happen. What kind of friends would we be if we let Moony hurt himself like that?" Peter and Sirius nodded along with James' statement, causing McGonagall to sigh.
"As admirable as that may be gentlemen, it's not only highly illegal, but also highly dangerous. You could have died, or become mutated. Or god forbid you might have been electrocuted during an electrical storm. You never thought to ask an adult for help, or informed one of your classmates what you were doing in case something went wrong? For goodness sake, I'm an Amimagus, you never thought I might have some input on this?" She was starting to lose her calm that she'd gained in the time since walking into the shrieking shack that morning. She'd always prided herself on keeping her students safe, and here were three of her students who not only went through a complicated and dangerous process entirely by themselves, but also went into a confined space with a werewolf each month. "And regardless of the dangers of the Animagus process, you thought it unnecessary to tell someone that you spent all night with a werewolf, which despite Lupin's mild mannerisms, is still a deadly creature?"
"Remus wouldn't hurt us," Sirius argued, and James nodded in agreement. "It's true Professor. Moony adores Padfoot, spends most of the night playing with him, and he respects Prongs. Hell, he doesn't even try to hurt Peter, just chases him around and then gets stuck under the bed. He understands that we're his friends. His pack."
"Be that as it may Mr Potter, however you couldn't have known that before you spent the night there. He might have killed you. Do you have any idea how Remus would feel if he hurt you?"
Not even a year ago Minerva had waited in the hospital wing for Remus to wake up to tell him what had happened the night before. He had been horrified at the fact he'd almost hurt Snape, almost killed him, despite the rivalry between the men. He hadn't forgiven Sirius for the rest of the school year, that much was obvious from the stony silences between the four men at the back of her classroom. It seemed that Sirius running away from home had fixed their relationship somewhat, although she was unsure that Sirius would ever be fully forgiven for his actions.
"We know Professor. He hates us coming with him, but even he doesn't deny that it helps him."
"It's true Professor McGonagall," Peter spoke up for the first time, and despite the nerves so clearly radiating off of him, she'd never seen him so passionate about something before. "Remus came to James' for the last week of the holiday and he looked so awful. Worse than…" he paused himself before he could finish his sentence, briefly glancing at Sirius. "Well, he looked bad."
"Way to be subtle Pete," James chastised, rolling his eyes. They hadn't talked about Sirius showing up in the Potter's living room in the middle of the night since coming back to school, and they definitely hadn't mentioned the amount of new scars that graced his body, especially not the new one that traced along his cheek.
"We can't stop going to the shack, and we can't register."
McGonagall went silent, mulling over her options. As she saw it, she didn't have many options, any really. "There's no way I'm getting you to register am I?"
They all shook their heads completely in sync, and she sighed.
"Well, I'm giving you all detention. Every evening from now until eternity. You can have the evening of the full moon and the day after off."
Sirius' eye lit up, his back straightening along with the other two boys. "You mean you'll let us keep going with Remus?"
She exhaled, pinching the bridge of her nose between her fingers. She hadn't thought it possible for them to come up with a new way to torture her, and yet here they were. "I don't believe I have any choice in the matter, and that you will continue finding ways to be with Mr Lupin with or without my say so. It is easier for everyone if I allow you to join him."
"Thank you Professor. Thank you so much," James said, and at least they didn't look like they were about to yell at her if she said the wrong thing. "However, there will be some conditions to my agreement, and if you fail to meet those conditions, I will find a way to confine you to this castle all night during the full moons."
"Yes Professor," Sirius' voice almost came out as a whine although he was so eager that she was sure she could've said anything and they would've agreed.
"You will come straight to me after you drop Lupin off with Madam Pomfrey, in which I will check that you are all healthy and unhurt. Then, and only then may you return to your dorm, however I will expect you to be on time to your first lesson. Failure to do so will be treated harshly." Minerva knew there was no point in controlling them, however she would see to it that they didn't get hurt, and if they did she would help them. And she would make sure no one else ever found out about their Animagi forms, not even Albus. She understood their want to keep this secret, she wasn't sure Albus would, and if he did, she was sure it wouldn't be for the same reasons the boys had.
"Thank you Professor, really. We knew what we did was stupid, really, we do. But what kind of Gryffindor's would we be if we if we didn't do everything in our power to help a friend?"
"One's with a hint of self-preservation," she mumbled under her breath in an act that was completely unlike her. But she'd had a long day, and she'd just become an accomplice in a crime.
"Ahhh, we wouldn't be Gryffindor's then Minnie," Sirius shot back lightly, causing her to tut.
"Alright, you're dismissed. Remember, I expect you in my office after lessons tomorrow," she waved her hand in dismissal, already thinking about the firewhiskey hidden in her cabinet. The three off them got up, and she was entirely content to forget about this until the next full moon before Sirius spoke up.
"Hey Prof? Can we ask you a question?"
"What is it Mr Black?" She sighed in exasperation.
"How do you keep your clothes on when you transform? Ours always get ripped to shreds."