"so let me get this straight," Remus Lupin looked up from his charms homework to his best friends, all three standing there looking remarkably pleased with themselves. "you three, thirteen year olds, have decided that not only do you not care that your friend is a werewolf, but that you also want to spend time with said werewolf during the full moon in animal form after performing a long and complicated transformation that many adult wizards have tried and failed." he looked between his friends, trying to tell if they were serious.

"and it was all my idea!" Sirius proclaimed, ignoring all of the negative points Remus had just addressed.

"you know Sirius, I never would have guessed." Remus muttered, sitting up straighter.

"ah come on Remus, think how cool it would be to be able to become an animal. I bet I'll be a lion." Sirius grinned, miming claws on his hands.

"more like bunny rabbit." James snorted, "I can picture it now, Sirius black – the amazing fluffy pink bunny." he ducked the pillow that Sirius had just thrown his way.

Remus was just watching them with his mouth open, unable to say anything else.

"we shall take this silence as a that-is-an-absolutely-bloody-brilliant-idea-and-i-shall-forever-worship-you-my-very-bestest-friends." Sirius decided before dodging the return pillow from James.

Remus snapped out of it and looked to Peter who had remained silent through-out the whole conversation.

"you want to do this too?" he asked the watery eyed boy.

Peter shrugged. "why not?"

"why not?! Why not?! Because you guys could die, that's why bloody not!" Remus yelled.

"well then, it's a challenge isn't it." James said, lounging out on Sirius' bed before being pushed off abruptly by owner of said bed. He scowled at the smirking boy and turned back to Remus. "and I don't think I've ever heard you swear before, Remus."

"because you've never come up with a life-threatening plan before!"

"ah but that's where you're wrong my friend-" Sirius sat up, a look of seriousness on his face. "remember when we left out kat-kibble for McGonnagal? I thought that was pretty life-threatening."

"I can see the headlines now – Teen Werewolf Murders Own Friends. When asked about murder's werewolf simply replies 'it wasn't my fault, I was buttering bread with a very sharp knife and my friends ran into the knife. They ran into it ten times.'."

"ha ha, very funny Remus," James had righted himself and was sitting in the windowsill. "but we are being serious -don't even make any jokes Sirius! That stopped being funny in first year!"

"first year?" Peter snorted, "it stopped being funny on the first Hogwarts express trip." he ducked as Sirius threw yet another pillow. "you know, sooner or later you will run out of pillows." he remarked, ignoring Sirius' scowl.

"back to my point," James raised his voice. "we think that it's a good idea. We looked it up-"

"you were in the library?" Remus gasped in mock-horror. James glared at him before continuing.

"we looked it up, and studies show that werewolves are less violent when around other animals. And they only attack humans so we'd be completely safe."

"you've really though this through haven't you?" Remus asked, joking aside.

"of course," Sirius sniffed. "we are marauders you know, we plan"

"how did we even come up with that name anyway?" Peter asked, looking to the other three. All three shrugged before turning back to the topic.

"you do realize that this had about as much chance of working as James and Evans falling in love." Remus said, raising an eyebrow.

"me? Fall in love with that book-worm. Please Remus, give me some credit!" James scoffed before falling to the ground again. Sirius joined him and sat in a Buddha pose.

"Ommmmm, I see James and Evans married. With a small son. Ommmm, I see many many years of happiness with Sirius as best man at wedding." he opened his eyes and cracked a grin at James' disgruntled expression.

"Sirius, you have about as much seer in you as that odd trelawny girl in hufflepuff." Peter told the smirking boy.

"that girl is odd. She told me that I'd live to be a eighty-seven and then be tragically killed by an apple falling on my head." Remus shook his head as his friends fell about laughing.

"imagine that...werewolf – killed by apple." James roared with laughter.

"suffice to say, I wasn't amused." Remus sniffed as his friends doubled over again.

"ooh, chocolate!" James yelled, grabbing a bar from under Remus' bed. "I thought you said that you'd eaten it all?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at the innocent-looking Remus.

"as I have often said, it is time to stand in the corner and look at the ceiling." Remus muttered, before being distracted by the sound of paper tearing. "that's my chocolate!" he yelled, launching himself at the laughing messy-haired boy.

A swift but furious fight ensued, ending with Remus sitting on top of James, happily munching on his chocolate.

"bloody hell Remus! How much of that stuff do you eat? I'm dying here!" James choked out, trying unsuccessfully to remove the chomping werewolf from atop him.

"oh, hello James. Fancy seeing you here." Remus feigned surprise at seeing the struggling boy beneath him. James blew his hair out of his eyes and tried to glower at his friend.

"This. Is. Not. Funny!" He scowled as Sirius and Peter lent against each other for support in their laughter.

"on the contrary..." Sirius started but bursted into new fits of laughter. "...it's very funny!"

"let me up Remus." James tried to push himself up before collapsing again and banging his face on the floor-boards.

"you know, they say that if you are underneath a werewolf for too long, you become a lunatic." Peter mused, stroking his chin and smirking.

"bit late James isn't it?" Sirius chuckled, "and why, Peter, are you stroking your chin? You look like Dumbledore for merlin's sake."

Peter shrugged. "made me feel smart."

"first time for everything." James muttered, still trying to no avail to lift himself up.

"shut it, Loony!" Peter retorted, smirking at the annoyed look on James' face.

"nothing good can come of a lunatic." Sirius said, shaking his head with mock solemnity. "do you know that werewolves are a type of lunatic?" Sirius told the gathered friends. "But the regular ones are just as bad."

Remus scowled slightly at Sirius. "excuse me, but I am no lunatic!" he said, trying to hide his smile. "I'm simply sitting on one."

"you realize that I'm not just going to lie here and take this, don't you?" James asked, pushing his glasses up his nose.

"I know. I expect you to struggle though." Remus grinned evilly at the writhing thirteen year old. "and you forget, your wand is on the other side of the room."

"shit."

"can we please get back to the reason why we decided to interrupt Remus." Sirius begged. "we seem to have gotten waaaay of topic."

"well can Remus get off me if we're having a serious – don't say it – conversation?" James asked. Remus finished his chocolate and got up to sit once again on his bed. James let out a dramatic gasp and sat up.

"so, do you think this is a good idea?" Sirius asked, looking hopefully at Remus.

"you really want to do this?" he asked, watching his three expectant friends.

"yes!" they chorused.

"and there's no way I can stop you?"

"nope!" James proclaimed happily.

"do you have a book about it?" Remus asked, resignedly.

"yeah." Sirius said pulling a thick book out from under his bed. "why?"

"because, knowing you three, you'll get distracted by something shiny and mess it up." Remus grinned.

"so you'll help?!" James asked, his face lighting up.

"fine!" Remus gave in. the cheers from the three other boys almost deafened him and he clamped his hands over his ears.

"Sirius?" James asked, drawing out the name.

"yep?" Sirius answered, turning brightly to look at his friend who was standing with a confused look on his face.

"why do you have a box of crayons under your bed?"

"ah-"