Tales of The Marauders

The Beginning of the Marauders

Once upon a time, there were four best friends. Their names were James, Sirius, Remus and Peter and they all attended the same school. A wizard school. And they were all very big troublemakers. Once a month, Remus would disappear and return the next day. The others were curious as to where he went so they decided to do some research. When they approached Remus and told him what they knew, he was scared that his friends would abandon him. Nobody would ever want to be friends with a werewolf! But they did. James, Sirius and Peter didn't care if their friend was a vicious beast. Heck, he folded his socks! They wanted to help him with his transformations every month so they headed to the school library to research ways to help a werewolf.

After days of research, they found that they could turn into Animagi; somebody who can change into an animal at will. That then became their goal. A few days later, the smallest and weakest of the boys, Peter, who was a plump boy and wasn't very smart- had managed to transform first. Little Peter took the form of a rat. It then became a competition between James and Sirius who would change first. It happened almost a month later.

Sirius sat up in bed one night, determined to transform into an Animagus. At three o'clock in the morning, he was extremely angry at himself. He started to pace next to his bed, thinking hard. Something so simple and he couldn't do it. His anger triggered something in his brain. Click! Suddenly he was standing beside his bed on four feet! He'd done it! He'd beaten James at something! In Sirius' place stood a giant, black dog with a wide grin on his face and pink tongue hanging out of his mouth dripping saliva on the floor.

Sirius trotted over to where James lay in his own bed, sleeping soundly. The black dog started to lick James across the face to wake him. As James opened his eyes, he saw a large, furry black figure sitting next to him. James screamed (loudly, like a girl, I might add) and tried to get out of bed. In his hast to get away, he transformed into a majestic stag, with protruding antlers and a fluffy tail. The stag stumbled, not used to walking on four legs, and crashed to the floor. Something shattered beneath him. It was his glasses.

His scream had caused Peter and Remus to wake. When they saw the black dog sitting on James' bed with a wagging tail and bark-laughing and the stag sitting, not so graciously on the floor, they burst out laughing. Then the four of them, started dancing around the room feeling very accomplished indeed. It was only when they heard footsteps outside their door that James and Sirius changed back to the human selves.

A stern looking woman with square spectacles entered the dorm and looked around. Her hair was pulled back into a tight bun and she was dressed in her pyjamas and dressing gown. She knew the boys well as she was their head of house. Her name was Professor Minerva McGonagall and she was a very strict lady with a lot of respect.

"This Animagus research the three of you have been conducting in the library... One assumes it is entirely hyper-theoretical?" James, Sirius and Peter looked at each other in amazement. Nothing ever slipped past that woman.

Peter replied in a small voice. "Of course." He was a very shy boy who was scared of his teacher.

McGonagall looked over to James and Sirius. James just nodded and Sirius said "Entirely". But Sirius couldn't cover his smile. McGonagall could tell that they were covering something but she didn't push. As she retreated, she said to the boys "Right. I don't want to know. I would rather not know. Wasn't here. Didn't see it. Couldn't have stopped you even if I tried". With that, she left. The boys sat down on the floor and laughed. They couldn't believe it. They'd succeeded! Remus wouldn't have to transform by himself anymore. And it was him that came up with their nicknames: James was Prongs because he turned into a stag, Sirius was Padfoot because he was a dog, and Peter was Wormtail because he was a rat and Remus was Moony because he was a werewolf and turned at a full moon. Together they were the Marauders. And the Marauders had many adventures on the nights that they'd spend wandering the corridors of the school. They even came across 200 giant spiders once. But that's for another time.