How I Did It, by James H. Potter

Author's Notes: Thanks again to my two great betas! One more chapter to be uploaded, but for now, enjoy!

The day after the full moon, Sirius grabbed me by the collar on my way out of Muggle Studies.

"I thought you skived --"

"I did. Look, James. Hold on. Pete, hey, come here!" Sirius waved Peter over, and we all slipped around the corner and into a secret passage that Peter had found the year before.

"What's up, Sear?" I asked. "You missed a great lesson. I told Professor Drake about Telly Smith, and she seemed to be fascinated. We discussed him for..." I faded as I saw the look on Sirius' face. It was...serious - and mildly annoyed. "Okay, what's wrong?"

"Have either of you seen Remus this morning?"

"Should we have?" Peter asked. "He's in the hos--"

"I know. I drank a potion to get a fever so I could skip Drake's class and went to Pomfrey. While she got the potion to get rid of my fever, I snuck over to say hi to Remus. Well, he wasn't awake, and I just have to tell you that... Guys, I am not waiting another month. If we can help as Animagi, there is no point in waiting."

Ah, so Sirius was worried about Remus. We all were, but Sear, he's got a thing about protecting the people he cares about.

"If you two want to wait, fine, but I won't. I want to do it tonight, so tomorrow, when Remus is released from the hospital wing, we can show him and he'll know that he won't have to do it alone. If you don't, I'll do it myself," Sirius finished determinedly.

Peter and I stared at him. I said, "Tonight?"

"Yes, tonight," Sirius repeated impatiently. "In the forest, that should be safe..."

"Safe? The forest?" Peter said, looking at Sirius as though he were insane.

"It'll be fine. So, will you? You will, won't you?" Sirius looked at us with pleading eyes that reminded me of a puppy.

"Yes," Peter and I said at the same time.

"Now let's go," Peter said, "or we'll be late for Defense Against the Dark Arts, and Schuck will take points off."

***

"Sh, come on," Sirius said, leading the way out the doors. Only two of us could fit under the cloak, so Pete and I went invisible while Sirius ran the risk of getting seen. Once we hit the edge of the forest, the cloak came off and I shoved it in the pocket of my robes as we plodded on.

"Okay," Sirius said. He took several tea candles from his pocket and ignited each of them with his wand before directing them to hover in the air around us. They lit up the clearing we had chosen. I felt like I was at a sacrificial right or something.

"Ah!" Peter said, jumping and falling backwards.

"What?" I asked, looking around. All I saw was Peter's tennis runners and Sirius' creepily lit figure bent over a book.

"I thought I saw... No, forget it. It might have just been Sirius."

"What?" Sirius said upon hearing his name.

"Peter saw something and got scared, but he said he..." I didn't bother finishing. I had the distinct impression that Sirius wasn't listening.

"So what do we do?" I asked him.

Before he responded, Pete gave a frightened squeal of some sort and said, "Who are you?!"

Sirius and I spun around, but saw no one.

"Sirius, James! Who are they?!"

"Peter, what the hell are you talking about?"

"Those people, just there! And there! And - and - OH MY GOD, THEY'RE EVERYWHERE!"

"WHO?!" Sirius and I bellowed together.

"THEM!" Peter practically screeched. "Back, ye devils! Ahhh!"

I looked at Sirius.

"One there" - he pointed behind Sirius, who swatted at air but connected with nothing - "and there" - he motioned to a tree to my left, which was standing quite alone - "oh, the horrors! They must be dead!"

"You're seeing dead people?" I asked. "But you see people who are dead all the time," I reasoned. "You were just talking to Nick in the common room, and he's been deceased for what, five-hundred years?"

"Something like that," Sirius confirmed, watching Peter, as though worried for his sanity.

"I... These aren't ghosts! They're people; people that are DEAD!"

"Inferi?" Sirius asked, confused.

"No, no, just dead people!" He grabbed Sirius, who was thankfully closer, by the robe and shook him. "D'you hear me?! DEAD. PEOPLE."

Sirius blinked. He whispered to me, "Think he's cracking under press--"

"I am not cracking under pressure they are right there!"

Sirius and I stared at each other. He looked at me meaningfully, asking, and I nodded.

"Sorry, Pete," he muttered, and promptly hit Pete hard across the back of his head. Peter sank to his knees and hit the ground with a thump. Sirius sighed. "Dead people, I ask you. I think he's just nervous."

After about ten minutes of attempts to wake up Pete (mostly on my part, as Sirius was willing to continue without him), he was up and seeing no one but Sirius and me.

"Okay, we can go now," I said, turning to Sirius. "What do we do?"

"You should know, James," he said, with a slight tone of superiority that reminded me of his heritage for a second. "We perform the spell on ourselves, holding our wands. And then, we do it again with the wands away, and...it should work. And from then on, we just...transform whenever we feel like it. Are you ready?"

"What if we mess it up?" Peter said, with an odd squeak in his voice.

"We won't," I said, sounding more confident than I really was.

"Ready?" Sirius asked again.

"I dunno..." Peter looked highly concerned now. "I mean, people have really gotten screwed up for doing it wrong and--"

"Well, I'm doing it," Sirius said, pointing his wand at himself.

He performed the non-verbal spell and stuck his wand back in his pocket. Peter and I held our breath and Sirius handed me his book. The split second that my eyes had moved to the cover of the text, I heard Sirius. It sounded like he was in pain, but when I raised my eyes, the lights had gone out. Suddenly, I couldn't hear him anymore. In fact, I couldn't hear anything except Peter hyperventilating and a weird whining. Then silence. I raised my wand and lit the candles that had dropped to the ground. In their light, I got the biggest shock of my life.

A huge black dog was staring up at me with passionate grey eyes and a smirk. I know that dogs cannot smirk, but Sirius totally was. Peter fell over again and muttered, "Grim..." However, once Sirius turned his head to him, Pete realised what had happened.

"Awesome..." he said, reaching over and patting Sirius on the head.

"This is un-bloody -believable!" I shouted, pumping my fist in the air. "Peter, hold this!" I shoved the book at Peter and immediately did the spell myself. I felt a strong pain course though me twice, then a dull throbbing all over, then... I felt fine. I felt free. I felt WILD! Like an animal or something! Well, you know.

"What am I?" I tried and failed to say. I dropped my head down and saw four skinny, light brown legs. My head felt kind of heavy... Sirius the dog was barking playfully, with a strange glint of laughter in his eyes. Think, I told myself. What do I feel like?

And the answer came.

A deer.

I was a bloody deer.

Sirius and I changed back at almost the exact same time, and I heard him laughing, laying on the ground, eyes shut, laughing freely.

"I'm a bloody, effing deer," I announced.

"Stag, I think," Pete corrected me.

"Same difference," I said. "And you, Sear, can shut the hell up - wait a sec."

Sirius' laughing subsided a little and I heard something odd. His laugh reminded me of a...

"Dog," I said.

"Hm?" Sirius asked, cocking his head at me.

"Oh my God," I exclaimed. "Sirius, don't move!" Sirius froze "Peter, what does he look like, right now."

"He looks like a... Ha! A dog!" Peter began to laugh. "Do these transformations come with side effects?! Ha!"

"Huh?" said Sirius. "Only if it isn't done quite right, which is...oh shite...which is very probable. At least we didn't die. Hey, Pete, you haven't gone!"

"Hey, there's a stag and a bloody Grim. How can I top them?" Peter said, trying to smile, all the while aware of the book in his hands.

"Go on, then!" I goaded.

"Are you sure I should?" he asked. When Sirius and I both confirmed he had to, or we tell every single person in Hogwarts, even Severus Snape, that he wouldn't sleep if we turned out the lights until he was fourteen, he took a calming breath that didn't calm him, and performed the spell. After the second part, I looked around.

"Holy Merlin and shite!" I shouted. "He's disappeared!"

"Wait." Sirius' voice was very quiet, but something betrayed that he found something quite amusing. "Don't move, Pete."

I watched Sirius bend down and pick something up, and when he turned to me, his hands were clasped over something. He brought them close to my face so I was almost cross-eyed looking at them.

"Surprise!" he called, opening his hand to reveal a rat. "It's Peter!"

Pete jumped down and transformed back, quite red in the face. "Am I a mouse?"

"A rat," Sirius said, smirking. "What kind of Animagus is a rat?"

Peter's blush deepened. Sirius seemed to notice he'd been a bit cruel and said, "But look! You aren't dead."

"Nah, but my nose feels weird. Please tell me it's still there..."

I looked closely at Pete, grabbing a candle. "It's a little... Sirius? What would you call it?"

"Pointy?" he suggested. "Not aristocratically pointy, just...sort of...pointy. Ah, no one'll notice."

Peter moaned. "I'm a rat, guys."

***

"REEEEEEMUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUS!"

"What?" Remus said, buttoning his school shirt as he stood next to his hospital wing bed. He had a deep gash down his cheek.

"Gotta surpriiiiiiise for youuuuuuu!" I sing-songed.

"Ugh, if it involves testing out some spell, no."

"Nah, nothing like that! Come on, come on, come on!"

"Where are the other two? Usually Sirius shows up..." Remus looked around, as though Sirius might be hiding and waiting to jump out and scare him.

"He's in the common room, hurry up! Pip pip, come on now, leeeet's go!"

I bounded off, hoping Remus was on my trail. I had learned on my way to the hospital wing that my transformation into a stag had one very noticeable perk; I was quite the speedy runner, but now, I'm even faster! So I skidded into the empty common room. Everyone was already heading to class. We'd be late for Potions, but it was worth it.

"James," Remus said, finally entering, "Slughorn's not going to be pleased." He looked at me. "Where are Pete and Sirius?"

"I'm right here!" Sirius called, bolting down the steps and jumping the last five. As he jumped, he transformed into the huge dog. As Remus' eyes widened, I took my cue. I grinned as I left my human form behind and turned into a stag. A stag, in the middle of Gryffindor Tower! Remus' jaw dropped and Peter walked down saying, "Holy crap, Remus! What the hell is a stag doing in the common room?" As soon as he got to Remus, he turned into his rat form and ran a few circles around Remus' worn black shoes. Remus was shaking his head in utter disbelief.

***

"Guys, I'm writing a book," I revealed at dinner a month later. We'd already gone with Remus, or Moony, as we'd begun to call him, one night while he was a wolf, and it was so awesome! A few days after the full moon, with Remus in great health (or as good as health gets for him), we were already thinking about all the opportunities we had. There had been a lull in our conversation, and I deemed it a great chance to announce my literary work.

"Huh?" Pete said, his mouth stuffed with a potato.

"It's called 'How I Did It'," I continued.

"Did what?" Remus asked. "Become an An - well, you know?"

"No," I said.

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Not playing a guessing game," he said. "Anyway, what the hell d'you want to write a book for? Dull, innit?"

"Doesn't have to be! It's about us, our lives and stuff," I said, a little touchy that my best mate seemed to think my literary dreams were a bit boring.

"Oh, if I'm in it, I suppose it's much better," he said. "No, honestly, James. You really writing a book?"

"Well, not a novel," I admitted, "but a decent length story."

Pete hit his fist on the table and coughed. He'd evidentially had trouble swallowing his mouthful of dinner. He took a swift drink of pumpkin juice and said, "Won Lily Evans' heart."

"What?" I asked, bewildered as to why those words had sprung from Pete's mouth.

"Remus said 'Did what?' and that was my suggestion," Pete explained, picking up his fork and jabbing another potato. Or, at least, he tried to, but his fork hit gravy and plate. "Wha'! My potatoes are gone again!" he roared.

"Here, have another," Sirius suggested, looking alarmed and pushing the platter toward Pete. Pete grumpily accepted and did not look away from his plate the entire meal.

***

During our next Charms class, we got a little shock.

"Class, settle down, class!" Flitwick said squeakily. "Class, excuse me, I have a very important announcement!"

Slowly, the class shut up, last of all me and Sirius, who were finishing a game of hangman.

"Um... 'L'!" I guessed.

"Wrong again, Potter! You're dead," Sirius cackled, as his shabby stick drawing of me, complete with glasses and hair struggled against the noose Sirius had drawn about its neck. As the stick figure's glasses fell off and shattered at the foot of the gallows and stopped twitching, Flitwick gave us a reproving look and addressed the class as a whole:

"I am pleased to make a little announcement!" he said.

"Didn't he already announce he was going to make an announcement?" Remus muttered. Pete snorted softly.

"Excuse me, sir, does it concern the new Charms Club?" Lily asked.

"No, Miss Evans, it does not, though I advise all of you to check your house bulletins for news on the club. This is a personal matter that I wish to share with you all."

"Hope it doesn't involve the loo," I murmured, and Sirius let out a bark of a laugh. Everyone looked at him as he covered his mouth.

"As I was saying," Flitwick went on, "I am no longer vertically challenged!"

After a brief silence, Lily said, "Really, Professor?"

"Isn't 'vertically challenged' a you-fa-watsit for short?" Peter hissed.

"Euphemism," Remus corrected, "and yes."

"Still looks a bit smaller than the average man to me," Pete said.

"Yes, really!" Flitwick was saying. "And I am offering extra credit to any student that can guess how much I have grown!"

"He's got to be kidding," Sirius said, doodling on the hangman paper. "He can't be serious."

For a second, I considered making the "Serious-Sirius" joke, but thought that, even after its banishment by Sirius two years ago, it was still way overused.

"Is he joking, or trying to kid himself?" Sirius whispered, while Pete, out of nowhere, raised his hand.

"Mr. Pettigrew?" Flitwick called eagerly.

"Er, let's say three-quarters of a centimeter?" Pete suggested.

"No, no, good of you to open up the floor though, Mr. Pettigrew, yes, very good... Anyone else?"

For the entire lesson, people failed at guessing how much Flitwick grew. He was most disappointed, but let us go lunch happily enough.

"No homework," he called from on top of his book stack, which I noticed was missing several books, as though he'd deemed them unnecessary.