Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs (PA)

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Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs is the eighteenth chapter of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

Wormtail

After a few moments, Ron reacts to the absurdity of Sirius Black's statement (PA17). "You're both mental," he says, and Hermione echoes the feeling. Harry adds that Peter Pettigrew is dead; he was killed by Sirius twelve years ago (PA10).

Black's face twitches, and he confesses that he meant to assassinate Peter back then, but was unable to. He savagely reaches for the rat once more, only to throw his weight on Ron's broken leg; Remus pulls him away and patiently explains that the children need to be told the full story. "There are parts of it even I don't understand, and Harry — you owe Harry the truth, Sirius!"

Sirius stops struggling, and doesn't take his eyes off Scabbers, who is clamped tightly under Ron's bleeding hands. "Tell them whatever you like. But make it quick, Remus. I want to commit the murder I was imprisoned for..."

Ron tries to leave, but Remus points his wand at him and says he will have to listen to the story.

Harry points out that witnesses saw Peter die, and Sirius retorts that they did not see what they thought they'd seen. Remus, however, confirms that everyone believed Sirius had committed that murder, including him, until he saw Peter on the Marauder's Map that evening — and the map never lies.

Hermione nervously notes that they studied Animagi in McGonagall's class (PA6), and that there were only seven registered wizards with that ability when Hermione last checked it; Peter isn't on the list. Remus laughs, and explains that there were three unregistered Animagi at Hogwarts.

Sirius impatiently tells Remus to hurry on with the story. When Lupin is about to comply, the door behind him opens with a loud creak, but no one enters. Ron says the place is haunted, but Lupin says it isn't; he was the one responsible for the screams and howls the inhabitants of Hogsmeade used to hear; Dumbledore encouraged the haunting rumours.

Moony

It all started with his being bitten, Remus says. His parents tried everything, but there was no cure; the Wolfsbane Potion is a very recent discovery, and it makes him safe—as long as he imbibes it for the week before the full moon, he keeps his senses after the transformation.

At the time of his childhood, however, Remus became a monster every month, which as a rule would prevent him from ever attending Hogwarts. When Dumbledore became Headmaster, however, he made the necessary arrangements for Lupin to be able to study: the Whomping Willow was planted (PA10), the Shrieking Shack was built, and so was the tunnel between the two. Once a month, he went to the Shack and transformed there.

Remus continues, saying that the transformation is very painful. Deprived of human flesh, he scratched and bit himself. Apart from that, he was happy at the school, having found three best friends: Sirius, Peter, and James Potter. It didn't take the three long to notice that Remus disappeared once a month. He made up stories such as his mother's sicknesses, afraid that they would reject him once they discovered the truth.

Eventually, of course, the three wizards worked out the truth, and became Animagi. It took them three years to find out how to do it, because James and Sirius were the most intelligent students in the school. Animagus transformations can go dangerously wrong, and Peter needed all the help he could get from the two others.

In their fifth year, the boys managed to become Animagi, and were therefore able to keep Remus company during the full moon, because werewolves are dangerous only to humans. Every month, the three sneaked out of the castle under the Invisibility Cloak; Peter, the smallest, pressed the knot under the Whomping Willow, and they went through the tunnel.

Remus reminisces that his mind seemed less wolfish when he was with his friends. The four of them were reckless; trusting James and Sirius' Animagus forms to keep the werewolf in check, they roamed the school grounds and Hogsmeade at night. This gave them a formidable amount of knowledge regarding the place, enabling them to write the Marauder's Map. This was also how the four got their nicknames: Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs.

Hermione interrupts him, saying that that was an extremely dangerous thing to do. Remus agrees; many times, he narrowly missed biting a student, but the four Marauders were young and thoughtless. Moony sometimes felt guilty for betraying Dumbledore's trust, but he brushed those feelings aside.

Remus confesses that all this year he has battled with himself over telling Dumbledore or not about Sirius' being an Animagus. He decided not to, out of cowardice and unwillingness to admit that he has betrayed the Headmaster's trust. Remus convinced himself that Sirius had entered the school using dark arts he learned from Voldemort — and so, in a way, Severus Snape was right about him all along.

Sirius reacts strongly for the first time to the story. "Snape?" he asks harshly. Remus tells him that Severus is now a Hogwarts teacher. Turning to the children, he adds that Snape was in school with them, in the same year, and he fought Remus' appointment tooth and nail, claiming that Lupin could not be trusted.

James saves Snape's life; fanart by LadyBelial.

He goes on to explain that the reason Snape dislikes them is that Sirius played a trick that nearly killed him: Snape was jealous, Remus believes, of James' Quidditch talent. He was also very interested in knowing where Remus went every month, having seen the boy cross the grounds with Madam Pomfrey one evening. So Sirius thought it would be amusing to tell him how to get past the Willow, and he did ("It served him right," Sirius sneers. "Sneaking around, trying to find out what we were up to... hoping he could get us expelled..."); James, however, heard of what had happened and went inside at his own risk to rescue the teenager.

Snape was forbidden by Dumbledore to tell anyone about what he had discovered. Harry concludes that the Potions teacher doesn't like Remus, therefore, believing that the werewolf had been in on the joke.

"That's right," a cold voice from the wall behind Lupin sneers. Severus Snape is removing the Invisibility Cloak from himself, pointing his wand at Remus.