Moon Fishing.

Chapter Ten: Ta-dah!

Remus was sitting beneath a tree in the grounds reading Oliver Twist for the fourteenth time. His eyes caressed the worn words as the sun warmed his hair. He jumped a foot into the air when a cold nose was pressed behind his right ear. After his heart settled back into his chest he trained his eyes on the culprit. A huge, black shaggy dog wagged it's tail and barked playfully before slipping it's head underneath his hand so he would pat it. Remus laughed at the dog and rubbed at the surprisingly soft and familiar fur beneath his hands. His palm fell upon the red leather collar and he pulled the brass circle up to the light.

"So, you're Padfoot, eh?" The dog barked an answer and wagged his tail faster. Remus scratched behind his ears absent mindedly until James and Peter came to sit with him.

"Who's the mutt?" James asked Remus as he sat.

"This fine fellow is Padfoot, he is very friendly." Remus replied.

"Have either of you seen Sirius?"Pete asked from his place next to James.

The other two murmered their dissent and silence fell again. Remus continued to read while petting the dog. A few minutes later the fur beneath his hand was suddenly skin, and when he looked down at Padfoot, he saw Sirius in his place, wearing a Red leather collar. Remus pulled his hand away from it's place on Sirius' neck as if he had been burned. When he turned to James and Peter to find out what the bloody hell was going on, they were gone. A rat and a stag sat in their places. His attention shifted back to Sirius when he let out a chuckle.

"Confused?" Sirius asked.

"Of course I'm bloody confused!', Remus fumed, "What the bleeding hell is going on here?"

"It's a present." Sirius said as he pulled himself into a sitting position opposite Remus, "For you. We've been working on it since we found out about your furry little problem. We knew it couldn't be cured, but all the same we hated seeing you hurt like that... So we went to the library - see, we do know where it is- and we researched until we thought our eyes would melt out of our heads, we read and read until we found the solution. We can't be with you on a full moon, when you need us most because we're human, and therefore prey, right? Do James and Pete look human to you now?" Remus looked at the stag and rat and shook his head dumbly.

"B-but..." he began.

Sirius held up a hand and continued. "Animagus'. We became illegal animagus' for you. You won't attack us, we can play on full moon nights so the wolf will have something better to do than to rip into you. We even have nicknames..."

Sirius didn't get the chance to finish the sentence when Remus launched himself forward to hug his friend. Soon he was crying and James and Peter returned to human form and knelt by him. Slowly he settled down. He sat up and smiled at his friends.

"In a bowl to sea, went wise men three

On a brilliant night in June:

They carried a net, and their hearts were set

On fishing up the moon"

When the Marauders looked at him as though he had gone mad, he explained "It was my favourite poem when I was little, I haven't heard it since I was attacked. I often hoped that one day the wise men would take the moon so I wasn't hurt anymore. Of course no one could, but you guys did the next best thing."

Under the tree in the sunshiny grounds of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry The Marauders were rid of their final secret... or were they?