A/N: I know, I know-! It's been ages. I'm really so, so sorry. I won't go into all the sordid details, but let me just say that some family trouble came up and it was really difficult to get any time or muse to write, since it was so draining. While it wasn't technically as long as some authors wait to post, it was still a really long time comparatively to my usual rate, and I honestly apologize. I hope I haven't scared you all away. Thanks for being patient, and here's chapter eight. As a special treat for it being so late, my (rather smutty) oneshot for Mello Yello should be up within the week, if my schedule goes as planned. Thanks!

Chapter 8; Nervous Habits

"Aright." Upon hearing the voice, Sirius Black looked up from where he was thumbing through an old novel he'd found on Moony's bed.

"Excuse me?" He asked, rather politely in his own opinion, as usually he would've said 'Huh?'

"I said alright."

"Alright to what, Moony?"

"Alright to the- You know-" Remus gestured uselessly, suddenly directing a large amount of hatred at whatever had possessed him to make him come over here in the first place, especially in such a public place. All the Gryffindors hung out in the common room. He should've waited, and upon realizing this, only just managed to not slap himself in the face for being an idiot. "The… the thing." He added in an extreme fit of eloquence, or, alternatively, an extreme fit of idiocy. He could practically see realization dawn on Sirius, but the other boy was keen to draw this out as much as he saw fit.

"I'm sorry, Rem. I think you'll have to be clearer than that."

"Oh for-" Remus's voice dropped to a hiss. "You know perfectly well what I'm talking about, Black. It's written all over your stupid smirk."

"Why, Remus!" Sirius exclaimed, handsome face contorted into an overdone expression of surprise, gray eyes glinting with barely-concealed mirth. "I had no idea you paid such rapt attention to my facial features and what it is they convey! There wouldn't happen to be an itemized list for my perusal, would there?"

"I'm leaving. I hate you, you know." And, on that, Remus turned and tried to stalk out of the room. Of course, Sirius always had to have the last word.

"If you hated me so much, I wouldn't be sleeping in your bed, Rembrandt!"

Remus was too busy dying of mortification as everyone in the common room turned to look at him to even comment on Sirius's compulsive addiction to stupid nicknames, or if he even know who Rembrandt was.

(-line-)

"So, you're sure we did it right?" Sirius let out a huff of exasperation as the questions started up again, simply continuing to stir the simmering cauldron, and not even looking up as he spoke.

"No, James. I'm not sure. We can't be absolutely sure until we try it. But we're great at potions, there's no way we bollocked this one up."

"But, this one's different." Said Peter, apparently deciding he needed to make the layer of apprehension hovering over the Room of Requirement worse. "I mean, in class it's one thing, but if we made one little mistake on this, it could melt our brains."

"That seems like a little bit of an exaggeration-" Before Sirius could even finish the practiced eye-roll that was going along with his words, Peter had shoved the Animagi text in front of his face and slightly to the left, as to compensate for his half-rolled eyes. "Oh. Yes. That does actually say brain melting is possible, apparently." James looked more amused than frightened, but decided to pipe up anyway.

"Stir carefully then, Sirius. I'd like to keep my brain as unmelted as possible."

"Yes James, I'm sure your thousands of Evans fantasies would miss you dearly if you were melted. Now shut up. I'm trying to keep count."

"It's up to nineteen." Peter added, helpfully. "Or, I'm pretty sure it is."

"I thought it was at twenty-one at the moment, actually." Added James, shoving his hands into his pockets and still stinging over the fantasizing remark.

"Neither of you are any help!" Snapped Sirius, turning as far away from them as was possible without slowing the steady counterclockwise movement of his arm. "It's at twenty. I think. Pretty positive." He paused to watch the spoon he held continue in a wide circle. "Now it would be twenty-one."

"You think? Haven't you been paying attention?"

"Oh like you're one to talk, James. You've been more than distracting."

"Well it's not my fault I want to turn all the Slytherin robes pink before tomorrow. I mean, it's technically my fault, but it's more the fault of the Slytherins for being slimy gits, really."

"Well, I do quite like turning the Slytherins strange colors…"

"Will you two be quiet and just let Sirius stir?"

"Merlin," Sirius muttered under his breath, tapping the side of the cauldron with his wand to keep the temperature right. "It's a wonder we get anything done."

"It's 'cause of Moony." James grinned as he spoke, leaning in a little closer to the bubbling cauldron than Remus would've thought wise, had he been there. As he was not, no one commented about the possible danger. "He keeps us on track with his Prefect-ways. Encourages us by discouraging us, as it were." This last statement was punctuated by James pushing his glasses back up his nose just before they slipped into the potion. Glasses were not a standard ingredient in most potions.

"He doesn't always discourage us." Pointed out Peter, rocking back on his heels as he watched the potion's color shift from a sickly green to a far more soothing blue. "He comes up with some pretty brilliant stuff when he wants to. What color is it supposed to be in the end?"

"Er," Sirius nudged the book that had been unceremoniously dumped at his feet at some point with one socked toe, continuing the stirring diligently as he peered down his nose at the dog-eared page. "White. That says white, doesn't it?" James picked the book up to verify, tousling his hair like a madman.

"Yeah. White. What did we put in it that would make it white?"

"How am I supposed to bloody know? It's been brewing for months with no interaction except for the temperature changing!" It was hard to seem irritated while trying to keep up a rhythmic motion, Sirius decided, resisting his usual urge to throw his hands about wildly while he spoke. Expressive, he called it.

Unseemly, Moony would say.

"We could check the list again." Peter stuffed his hands in his pockets and glanced around. "Did we keep the list?"

"Again, Pete, months ago." James gave the floor in front of him an appraising look. "You two don't think the room might've kept the list, do you? I mean, it'd make sense."

"Worth a try." Sirius shrugged with his free shoulder, and ignoring the niggling voice in his mind (one that sounded strangely like Remus) that told him that James making sense was a very, very dangerous thing. "I Require the ingredient list for the second Animagus potion."

"Oh," Said Peter, as the creased parchment dropped into his hand, written in Sirius's messy scrawl and accented by border-commentary in his and James's handwriting, along with a few helpful doodles of what an ingredient might look like and also Lily's hair. "That's handy."

"That it is." James grinned his most mischievous grin, which, coincidentally, was just his normal smile. "I Require Lily Eva-" He was stopped by Sirius's sleeve in his mouth.

"You twat, you almost made me lose rhythm! You can't do that! She'd come in here and want to know what we were doing and where we bloody are!"

"It was unicorn hair." Said Peter, wisely keeping out of the way of the one-sided argument taking place.

"Yeah," James replied dreamily, as he spit out the fuzz that had been on Sirius's robe. "And she's smart enough to figure it out too."

"Right. So shut up." Sirius spat, giving the cauldron a last tap with his wand before apprehensively pulling out the spoon, watching as it shifted from the cool blue to a dazzling white within seconds. "I think that's as many as we needed, actually."

"You were keeping track while you stuffed your shirt in my mouth?"

"Yes, though it must come as a shock to know that not everyone is as one-track minded as you are." James snorted rudely at this.

"Yes Sirius. Because you are the boy of many tracks. You with your obsessive mirror-looking and inability to focus for more than five seconds-"

"That proves it, then! My hyperactivity prevents me from having a one-track anything!"

"Um. Are we going to drink it, then?"

"Yeah, Pete. Thought I'd let it cool first, right?"

(-line-)

It hadn't seemed like a life-changing sip.

One gulp, one down-the-hatch, and one apprehensive, nose pinched, medicinal swallow; they had all seemed like fairly normal sips. But it is the content that makes the digestion, and so, white liquid settling in their stomachs, three out of four Marauders were nervous.

James ruffled his hair and paced through the room like the floor was going to swallow him whole if he stopped moving. Sirius gnawed at his lower lip until it was red and bruised, and twisted his sleeves around his fingertips until the buttons on his cuffs popped off. Peter sat stock-still, twitching every so often, and tapping his toes on the floor. Suddenly they felt it; a shift and a change, a twitch in the air, and Sirius found that hidden beneath his human mind there was an unbelievable urge to chase squirrels. James stamped the floor several times. Peter twitched much more than usual, entire body tight with listening. Then all three boys broke the trance and rushed to each other, whooping, grinning, tackling.

They'd achieved the mind bit.

They just wondered what sorts of animals they were becoming.

A/N: I always appreciate reviews, as they give me muse, but they're not necessary if people don't want to leave them. Chapter 9 is in the works!