A gift fic for the ever so lovely CP for meeting (and smashing) her writing goals for Round 9!
Love your work, keep it up, and hope you enjoy!
The Chronicles of a Twenty-Something (Illegal) Animagus
To any other person, a rabbit playing with a wolf and a fox might be a cause for concern. For a couple of obvious reasons, but the main one being the fact that, in general, wolves and foxes eatrabbits for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
So the fact that I'm watching the aforementioned rabbit happily riding around on the wolf's back while the fox chases them around, is a pretty bloody rare natural phenomenon. I mean seriously, David Attenborough (the bloke my dad is completely barmy about these days – he's bought his entire collection of documentaries) would be jumping out of his socks in excitement. I mean, where on earth would you see that happening? Least likely of all in a tiny backyard of a London townhouse.
But as if that's not weird enough, thisis really about to burst your bubble, because I'm an elk. Yes, an elk. Kind of like a deer, but so much better. At least that's what I tell myself, because to be completely honest, they both look the same to me!
Well, I'm not really an elk, per se, I'm a human – of the wizard variety – and I willingly turn into an elk when I feel like it. Let me tell you, it's gotten me out of some pretty sticky situations too. But that's a story for another time. Because, here's another kicker, the rabbit, fox, and wolf? They're humans too. My siblings to be exact.
Oh, and my name's James, James Potter. Yeah, I know, my mum and dad are famous, and yes, we do holiday in Mustique. No, I won't set you up a meeting with them, and yes, that book and movie series are based on real events.
Anyway, like any decent human-being, you're probably wondering why we'd willingly turn ourselves into animals. I mean, for one, being at the top of the great food-chain of life is so overrated, but on another note, why wouldn't you turn yourself into an animal?
And it seems that my grandad, Teddy's dad, and our great-uncles (yeah, even Pettigrew), thought the same thing too. I mean, they're the real reason we became Animagi (that's when you turn yourself into an animal) in the first place. They're our idols (even though Albus thinks otherwise, deep down I know he thinks they're the coolest) and what better way to honour their legacy than by following in their footsteps and becoming illegal Animagi – just like them.
Of course, we'll never be on the same level as the Marauders (that's what they called themselves), but we can dare to dream.
The funny thing is though, that we're kind of similar to them, especially when you consider the sorts of animals we turn into. I mean, my grandad (James Potter Senior, or James Potter the First) was a red stag, and I'm an elk. Teddy's dad was a werewolf, and he's a wolf. Albus is a fox, which is kind of similar to Sirius' Animagus? And of course, Lily's a rabbit – which, I suppose, belongs to the rodent family, just like Peter's.
But, given everything we've heard about them, we're nothing like them…at least we certainly don't think so.
We've been illegal Animagi for about two years. In the beginning, we used to turn into animals all the time. But now that some of us have ruined the party, settled down, and had kids (Teddy) we've restricted ourselves to only transforming during full-moons, because even though Teddy isn't a werewolf, full-moons are still pretty uncomfortable and being an animal helps him cope with the whole bloodlust situation.
Which brings us to tonight. We always meet up at our (dad's) house and set out from there. Usually we just hang out in the park outside Grimmauld Place, we'd love to cause more trouble, but if my mum and dad ever found out about us being Animagi – and illegal ones at that – they'd positively ground us for weeks (despite the fact that we're all in our late teens or early twenties).
However, every now and then we do like to get a bit rebellious. Last month we visited the zoo after it had closed. It was pretty interesting to think that even animals could sense that we weren't what we seemed to be. In fact, a vixen got a little too frisky with Al and I swear I've never seen him move that quickly before. Besides, Teddy and I still haven't stopped bringing it up in conversations (will we ever?); which is especially embarrassing for Al because now the girl he fancies, thinks he's got a thing for animals. And not a David Attenborough-esque thing either, but a Belle from Beauty and the Beast kind of thing.
And tonight, we've got something pretty excellent up our sleeves. We'd love to tell you, but what happens during full-moons, well, stays a secret. At least among the four of us. All you need to know is that involves a lot of fake blood, some acting (on Teddy and Lily's behalf), and a Halloween prank on my parents that will possibly go down in history.
So anyway, this is James Potter, signing off.
And if you happen to be Rita Skeeter; no, I don't have an ego the size of Saturn.
It's actually the size of Jupiter.