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Mutare Magus Animus


They sat around a fire they’d lined with rocks and set ablaze with a whisper of incendio. The flames flickered and glowed in the little clearing, the trees casting long shadows through the woods, above, a wisp of cloud covered a bit of the moon. James poked the edge of the fire with a long stick as Peter used a stick to toast about the hundredth marshmallow he’d eaten. “This place is brilliant,” Sirius said.

“My dad found it,” James said, “The house used to be my grandparents and he found it when he was a kid, him and his friends used to camp out here. I think that’s why he was so keen to let us come out, even with everything going on and how much my mum was going to worry. He’s been trying to get me to camp out here with friends ever since I was small.”

“Why didn’t you?” Peter asked, “I would’ve every chance I got.”

James shrugged, “I mean, I camped out here with him… I didn’t really have any other friends. Well, maybe the Parish boy, but he was rather tedious because he’s a muggle and he wouldn’t have understood the extendable charm on the tent…” James smirked.

“I didn’t really have any friends before you chaps either,” Sirius said, “There was this one muggle boy that used to draw pictures in the square I watched from my bedroom window, but he didn’t really seem interested in gettin’ to know me when I tried to introduce myself.”

Peter had just stuffed a marshmallow in his mouth, “Uh uhhwayshhh haahaa wott uff fehhhnz,” he said around it, sounding like he did when he’d had the mandrake leaves in his mouth.

James and Sirius laughed.

James glanced down at his watch as Peter gulped his marshmallow down. “It’s nearly midnight,” he said, looking over at Sirius.

“Alright guys, it’s about to get real,” Sirius said, standing up.

James tossed his stick into the fire and Peter looked at the remaining marshmallows in the bag and sadly tossed his into the fire as well. “Hey, Peter, go get the potions while we put out the fire here,” James said.

“Okay.” Peter scurried off, carrying the bag of marshmallows and shoving two more uncooked ones into his mouth as he ducked through the tent flaps. He put the marshmallow bag down on the table and grabbed the three bottles, stuck them into the silk scarf James had bundled them in before, and hurried to get back to the other two. He paused at the door, having just swallowed the marshmallows, and hastened to go back and get some more. In his rush, his toe caught the edge of the carpet lining the floor of the tent and he fell forward with a squeak and a thump.

Peter lay there on the floor with his eyes screwed up tight, terrified to look in the little bundle of the potions. He’d heard them clink together when he landed. He sat up and put the bundle into his lap and opened it up very carefully, certain he’d see a bunch of shattered glass… Sirius was going to murder him if they were broken, he thought tremulously…

But luckily they were okay. All three - red, green, and blue - safe and sound in the folds of the flowery silk scarf.

He breathed a sigh of relief.

James’s voice suddenly came from outside, “Bloody hell Peter, will you stop eating all the marshmallows and get back out here?”

Peter scurried out of the tent. “I wasn’t eating marshmallows,” he said - somewhat truthfully.

“Alright, sure,” Sirius said, “We know better than to leave you alone with food too long - pretty soon it’s just you and no food at all!”

The fire was out and smoking and the moon was pale and James had already illuminated his wand to lead them back through the trees to the field. Somewhere in the distance, thunder rolled and Peter clutched the bundle of potions, wishing that one of them would take them so he wasn’t the one responsible for making sure they got to the clearing alright. There were too many leaves and roots and logs and rocks and things to trip on. He walked as carefully as he could, clutching the bottles to his chest as though he were carrying a baby.

“Hurry up, Peter,” Sirius called, already having cleared the treeline and stepped into the open field. James was looking back, holding up his wand so Peter could see.

Moonlight flooded the field, turning the grass and the flowers pale lavender and blue shades. The boys ran through the tall grasses until they were in the very center, the moonlight completely surrounding them, like a pool of light. The grass added to the illusion of water as it moved gently in the wind blowing up from the coming storm. Peter glanced around the tops of the trees at the stars and felt vastly tiny and worried. He looked about at the other two, but they didn’t seem concerned at all.

Sirius had pulled out Releasing the Animagus Within and opened it up to the dogeared page where the spell was. He looked around at them, eyes sparkling with excitement. Peter wished he felt as excited as Sirius looked. “Alright, Peter, pass around the vials!”

Peter pulled out the bottles and stared at them. “Who was which color again?” he asked.

“You’re green, Sirius is red, and I’m blue,” James said. “Honestly, Peter, you’d forget your head if it wasn’t screwed on your body.”

Peter quickly passed out the bottles to each of them and clutched his own green shade tightly in his fingers, nervously watching them. “What’s the spell again?” he asked.

“Mutare magus animus,” Sirius said, reading it out of the book. He looked up at the other two. “It’s a mouthful.”

“Tongue twister,” muttered James.

“I’m very good at tongue twisters,” Peter said, “Peter piper picked a peck of pickled peppers…”

Sirius rolled his eyes, “Not now Peter.”

Peter flushed red.

Sirius looked at his bottle and took a deep breath, “Well, at least it’s a silent spell, so we don’t have to actually say it outloud, so it doesn’t matter if it’s a tongue twister.” He paused, “It’s going to be interesting to see what animals we turn into. Any last guesses?”

James said, “Maybe you’ll be a porcupine.”

“Then you’ll be a duck.”

“I don’t want to be a duck.”

“You haven’t got a choice, have you?” Sirius said, punching James in the shoulder.

“I hope I’m something big like a elephant!” Peter said excitedly.

James looked at Peter in surprise, “Ruddy hell, an elephant tromping about the Forbidden Forest?! What do you want to be an elephant for?”

“They’re big and safe!” Peter explained, “I couldn’t be hurt by anything.”

“You’ll bloody step on Remus,” said Sirius, “And squash him.”

“At least he wouldn’t have to worry about his furry little problem any longer,” James said, “And after all, that is the point of becoming animaguses.”

“Animagi,” Peter corrected.

“Whatever,” said James.

Sirius meanwhile had peeled the wax away and popped the cork off his little bottle. He raised it up toward the moon, the pale light making the bottle seem to glow in the darkness. He looked at the other two, “C’mon you lot, we haven’t got all night.”

“We sort of do,” James replied, but he complied, tearing away the wax from his bottle. He uncorked it with his teeth and spat the cork off into the dark.

Peter followed suit, trying to be as cool as James with the spitting of the cork, but he managed to nearly swallow it first and more choked it out onto the ground. James slapped him on the back. “Oh Peter…” he chuckled, then raised his potion once again as Peter raised his.

Sirius looked about at them and drew a deep breath, “Alright boys… ready?”

“Ready,” James replied.

“No,” squeaked Peter. They both looked at him. He took a deep breath, “Okay, yeah, go on then.”

“Bottoms up.” Sirius announced and they clicked the vials together, lowering them and drinking down the potion. They stood there for a moment, looking at one another as the potion settled into their stomachs - it was a strange sort of feeling, sort of somewhere between a foaming and a burning. It took him all his fiber to concentrate on the spell, his eyes closed. Mutare magus animus, he thought, Mutare magus animus.

“Have you lot said it yet?” Peter whispered.

“Shut up, Peter, I’m concentrating,” James said.

Sirius opened his eyes. “Anything?” he asked.

James shook his head.

“What about me?” Peter asked, “I feel different.”

“You look exactly like Peter,” said Sirius, frustrated.

“Mutare magus animus!” said James, trying it outloud and tapping himself on the nose with his wand.

There was a funny cracking sound and James suddenly fell backwards with the weight of his own head. He gasped, kicking as he hit the ground, “What’s bloody happening?!? WHAT’S BLOODY HAPPENING?!” he shrieked.

“You have a -- a -- a horn,” shouted Sirius, looking down at James as he flailed about under the heavy weight of a horn sprouting out of one side of his head. “Bloody hell you’re going to be a unicorn or a rhino or something!”

“That’s not a unicorn or a rhino horn, you dummy,” Peter said, “That’s a deer horn! My squib uncle hunts elk and stags and he has them up in his house on plaques. And -- that’s what that is!”

“It’s heavy!!” James complained, “And why isn’t the rest of me changing?”

“Try saying the spell again!” Sirius suggested, panicking.

James tapped his nose again. “Mutare magus animus!” A second horn grew out of his head.

Sirius’s eyes were wide.

“Now there’s two of them?!” James cried out, “Sirius. That was the OPPOSITE of what we needed to have happen!”

“Well I dunno how to fix it! I’m not an expert on this for Merlin’s sake!” Sirius snapped.

“WHAT DOES THE BLOODY BOOK SAY?!” James demanded, “I can’t go about with a ruddy horn on my head!”

Sirius quickly flipped through the pages of the book that he’d forgotten he had in the grass at his feet and read on down the page to the part about turning back into your own shape. “Try mature magus humanus?” he suggested.

“This bloody better work or I’m going to throttle you,” James threatened.

“How? You can’t even stand up,” Sirius pointed out.

James glowered, “I’ll bludgeon you with my horns.”

Sirius grinned, “That would be quite the way to go, bludgeoned by my own best mate’s deer horns.”

Still glowering, James tapped the wand to his nose. “Mature magus humanus!”

Another terrible cracking sound and the horns had disappeared and James was there on the ground quite his normal self again, eyes screwed tightly shut. “Oh Merlin, that’s going to make for one bloody hell’uva headache later,” he murmured.