At first nothing happened. Then you felt a strange tickling all over your right hand; it soon changed into a discomfort, and you were afraid what would happen next. But the pain you feared didn't come, and you relaxed. It was still your hand; it just felt a little different. Warily, you looked at it. Only it wasn't a hand anymore. You'd got a paw.

"It seems the spell didn't work this time either," said Sirius, sounding bored. He changed into his Animagus form -a gorgeous black dog- and back just to show how easy it was for some people.

"It worked," you said quietly, and raised your paw. "It worked a little."

"Wow," said James. "Look, Peter's got a paw!"

"What? Let me see!" Sirius pushed himself further -and burst into a laugh. James joined him, and so did you, although your laugher was a kind of nervous.

"I wonder what your Animagus form will be," James managed to mutter between laughs. "Maybe a rabbit?"

That comment seemed to be extremely hilarious in Sirius' opinion.

"Hey, what's up, guys?"

It was Remus. You couldn't help it; you felt proud even if you'd only managed to transform your hand. You smiled and waved your paw to Moony.

"Wow, that's a good start, Peter!"

Remus, too, stepped further to see your transformation better. You could see the happiness in his eyes. You were doing it for him. You were doing it so that he wouldn't be so alone when...

"Let me have a better look," Remus interrupted your thoughts. "Can I hold it?"

You stretched out your arm, and he studied the funny-looking pink fingers and nails, then brushed the brownish fur on your wrist.

"I'd say", he spoke after a while, "that this is not any big animal."

"A rabbit?" asked James in a hopeful voice.

"No, not a rabbit," Remus said. "I don't know... Something more like... an otter."

"Weird," said Sirius who was currently twisting the pink fingers of your human-sized paw.

"Or a rat," Remus continued. "It could be a rat!"

When you heard those words, you intuitively knew Remus was right. You couldn't explain how you knew it, but you felt a warm certainty inside you, and when you looked at Remus he knew he had got it right, too. You changed smiles because of your shared secret. You would become a rat. It was perhaps nothing great and gorgeous, but it was still something special. Remus hold your paw in his hands, studying the animal in you with great curiosity.

"I like your paw, Peter," he said."You'll become a great rat."

It was odd that you remembered that old memory just now, in the middle of the chaos. There were other memories that would have helped you more to accomplish your task. Your task was simple -Find and kill the werewolf, the Dark Lord had commanded. Now you had found him, but for some reason the look in his eyes didn't make you hate him. Instead, there was this odd memory that came out of nowhere. You had been friends once. He had been your friend.

You saw him staring fixedly at the silver hand you had raised, ready to attack. There was fear in his eyes, and something else, too; something you couldn't read.

"Peter," the werewolf said in a voice that was barely audible over the noise from the battlefield. "What have you done to yourself?"

That voice... Remus' voice... was asking you a question. You stood completely still. It felt like the time had stopped. Everything was waiting for your answer. And for the first time you felt that perhaps there was more than one choice. When you looked into Remus' eyes, you saw he knew it, too.