Among the Stars

After Charms one Friday a few months later Peter, James, and Lily approach Wisteria as she packs up her stuff.

“Can we talk to you for a bit?” James asks.

Wisteria tenses up and starts to look around, but Peter sighs and says, “Sirius isn’t here. I sent him ahead to save our seats at the table while Remus grabs some study material from the library.”

“What’s this about then?”

“The furry little problem.”

Lily rolls her eyes. “I thought we all agreed not to call it that.”

“Yeah, but no one could come up with anything better, so we’re using it anyway.” James argues.

“What about the situation? Has something happened?”

James beams at her. “Hell yeah something happened! I did it!”

“You don’t mean…”

Peter nods excitedly. “Yeah. He managed to do it.”

“James that’s incredible!”

“I don’t trust myself to maintain the form for very long though, so I’m afraid it won’t be much help tomorrow night.”

“That’s perfectly fine.” Lily assures him. “Wisty and I finally got permission from Madame Promfrey to help her out with Remus when he gets back.”

“I guess we aren’t the only one’s working our asses off to help him.” James comments. “Impressive as always, my dear Lilypad.”

Lily rolls her eyes at him. “Anyway, we figured we could go to the Room of Requirements for a bit to give James a chance to show off.”

“Yeah, okay. Just give me a minute to finish packing up my things and tell my friends to save me a seat.”

Fifteen minutes later the four friends are in the Room of Requirements with James taking deep breaths and shaking out his hands nervously. Lily smiles at him. “You can do this James. I know you can.”

He looks momentarily shocked before his cocky smile is back on and he waves off her comment. “Of course I can Lily-pad, I’m James Potter, I can do anything.” He gulps and takes another breath. “Okay, here goes nothing.” He closes his eyes and mumbles to himself a bit and before their very eyes starts to shift. Now instead of their friend, standing before them is a Stag. He’s a little on the small side and his antlers are far from fully grown, but he’s still definitely a Stag.

“Incredible.” Wisteria breathes.

“Isn’t it!” Peter says, practically buzzing with excitement.

“You did it.” Lily says in awe. “You actually did it! James! Look at you! You have an animagus form! I wonder if it will grow more as you do? Do you think that one day you’ll have fuller antlers?”

“We should do some more research and find out.” Wisteria suggests.

“I could ask McGonagall.” Peter suggests.

“Okay, but don’t be too suspicious about it. The last thing we need is for you guys to get caught.” Lily says, watching as James prances around the room.

Wisteria laughs, a little giddy from the excitement. “This is insane! I can’t believe you guys are actually pulling this off!”

“Now, now.” James says, shifting back into a human. “Give yourself some credit and at the very least say ‘we’re pulling this off’. After all, you two are the ones that did the boring stuff, we get the fun part.”

“And the dangerous part. That’s incredibly advanced magic, and you did it!” Lily practically squeals.

“I hate to end this so soon,” Peter speaks up, “But if James and I don’t go soon Remus is gonna get suspicious.”

“Oh, right. Okay then, let’s head out. And you two be sure to update us as more progress is made with Peter and Sirius, okay?” Lily says.

“Of course, Lily-pad, any excuse to talk to you.”

Lily rolls her eyes and she and Wisteria say goodbye to the boys as they head out first. “I can’t believe he hasn’t given that up yet.” Lily complains.

“At least you’ve gotten used to it. Besides, it’s not like he’s a bad guy, maybe you should give him a chance.”

“No way. At least, not anytime soon.”

“But possibly in the future?”

“One never knows what the future holds.”

“I’m sure he’d be through the roof if he knew he still stood a chance.”

“Which is exactly why you’re not going to tell him.”

“My lips are sealed.”

“Good. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go see Mary in the infirmary.”

“Infirmary? What happened?”

“Have you not heard? Mulciber cursed her. Nothing too dangerous of course, but enough to give everyone a bit of a scare and to get him detention for the rest of his time at Hogwarts.”

“I had no idea. Tell her I say hello and wish her well.”

“Of course. I’ll see you later Wisty.”

“Yeah, see you.”

By the time Wisteria gets to the Great Hall for food only Penelope remains of her friends. As she takes her seat Penelope doesnt even look up before telling her, “Christy is off with her new boy, a Gryffindor I think, Shay is spending time with Will, and I don’t really know where Jane wandered off to.”

“Sorry it took me so long to get here.”

“It’s fine. You were talking to Lily about Mary, right?”

“Yeah, when did you hear about it?”

“The whole hall’s been buzzing about it so word got around a couple of minutes into us eating. Come to think of it, Jane is closer to Mary than the rest of us, she might have gone to visit her.”

“Yeah, that makes sense.” The two eat in silence for a few moments before Penelope suddenly says,

"So there's this Slytherin boy in Potions that I've been talking to."
"Oh?" Wisteria asks, a knowing quirk in her eyebrow.
She nods. "His name is Nick. His mom was a squib and his dad a muggle, but they died when he was little so he was raised by his maternal grandmother who was a witch so he was raised in the wizarding world."
"Okay. So..."
"He's cute. Sandy hair, a mischievous smile, the kind of sweet boy with a devil-may-care attitude that I love to read about. The other Slytherins tend to pick on him because of his parents, so we became partners for the class."
"And I take it you want to date him?"
"Well... Yeah."
"What about Remus?"
"You can’t spend your whole life on one person right? I'm moving on."
Wisteria smiles. "Then when do I get to meet this 'Nick'?"

“You’ll be playing him in the game tomorrow. He’s a Chaser. You could meet him afterwards.”

“Ah, I, uh… I actually can’t hang around long after the game. Maybe enough for a quick introduction, but Lily and I promised to study with the Marauders that night.”

“Again?”

“Yeah, sorry. James thinks he found a way to help me with Transfigurations and Peter wanted help in Astrology, so we made study plans.”

“Will Sirius be there?”

“I didn’t ask.”

“So, you’re talking to him again?”

“No. James helping me in Transfigurations and me helping Peter in Astrology has nothing to do with Black.”

“Black? He’s been demoted to last name basis?”

“Plenty of people refer to others using their last names without it being derogatory.”

“You don’t.”

“Well… So what? We all know that I’m not his biggest fan right now and it’s not as if I’m the only one. Remus is avoiding him as much as possible too.”

“I never said you were the only one. Anyway, it’s whatever. Have fun with the Marauders, you can get to know Nick later, it’s not as if he’s my boyfriend anyway.”

“Not yet at least. Speaking of boyfriends, where’s Fabian run off to?”

“Last I saw he was sneaking around with his brother. They’re probably setting up some prank.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right.”