A Plan to Tell

The Marauders sat at the table in Sirius Black's flat. Sirius sat down with a pot of tea, beaming his mischievous grin at his three best friends, James Potter, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew. "Well?" asked James.

"Well, what? Can't I just ask my three best friends over for a cup of tea?" Sirius replied with a laugh in his voice his hands held out in front of him.

"Of course you can Padfoot, but we are your best friends, we know you better than that." James replied, grinning.

Peter let out a small chuckle.

"Okay, Okay, well… I want to tell Lily that we're animagi," Sirius said.

Remus choked on the cup of tea he had been drinking, Peter clapped him on the back. He was pale as a ghost when looked at Sirius and said, "YOU WANT TO WHAT?"

"I want us all to tell Lily that we're animagi, and I want you to tell her you're a werewolf, Remus," Sirius answered, his hands folded across his chest. "I figure, since James and Lily are engaged now, we should tell her, they say you shouldn't have secrets in a relationship right?"

Remus looked wide-eyed at the dog animagus. He then looked to his left at Peter who after a moment of showing a thoughtful expression, which was rare for him, he nodded in agreement. He then looked with a pleading expression to James as if to say 'Help me here, Prongs!'

But, he just looked at him, nodded, and said, "You know he's right, Remus."

The werewolf threw his hands up in exasperation and put his head down on the table, rubbing his temple. He thought to himself, 'These men will be the death of me, Lily will hate me, and I know it.'

The three other Marauders leaned forward, and James was the first to comfort Remus, "Remus… Moony, look at me," Remus looked up at James, looking very upset, tired, and old. James rubbed him on the back. "I know Lily, she won't care that you're a werewolf, mate. She won't care that we're animagi, she loves all of us, and she loves Remus, Peter, Sirius, and James. She loves Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs. She loves the Marauders. We'll always be that, on the inside, she doesn't care about the outside, she cares about the inside, she always has, she always will."

"He's right, mate," Sirius added, patting him on the arm. Peter repeated Sirius' gesture.

Remus sniffed, "You're right, mate. Thanks, I needed that,"

All the Marauders smiled at each other, "So; I expect you had a plan for telling Lily?" Remus asked.

Sirius smiled his mischievous grin. "Of course, Prongs, do have a date with Lily coming up any time soon?"

"We're having dinner at her place on Wednesday," James replied.

"Perfect, how easily do you think you could slip this into her drink?"

Sirius slid a small vial of gray potion across to James, which Remus quickly intercepted. "Merlin's beard! This is Sleeping Draught! Where'd you get this? You want to give Lily this?"

The men, and particularly James, looked at the dog animagus in an accusatory way, to which Sirius put his hands over his head in innocence, and replied, "Wait, Wait Wait! First off, it's a weak Sleeping Draught; it'll put her asleep for two hours, which is plenty of time for my plan. It's completely safe James, if anything goes wrong, I also bought the antidote."

James looked somewhat wearily at him before saying, "Alright, what's your plan?"

"I say we do it in true Marauder style," Sirius said, grinning. The others looked at each other, wondering what he was up to. The Marauders then proceeded to huddle up at Sirius Black's table into the wee hours, planning this great announcement.