Annie kissed her parents goodbye and jumped onto the train just as it was leaving the platform. She walked around the train for a while, before finding an empty compartment. She sat down and dug through her bag, pulling out a muggle romance novel. She looked up as she heard a loud banging noise outside in the hallway. She poked her head out the door to see what was going on, and rolled her eyes at the four boys who were running in their direction.
Annie was a fifth year Gryffindor student who went to Hogwarts every year. She was also an Animagi of a cat. She always felt like her and Sirius had a cat and dog relationship. She sighed as he made his way down the hall.
"Sirius." She said, a not-so-friendly greeting.
"Annie." He replied with his usual smirk.
"What're you looking at?" She said, sitting back down in her compartment.
"You're face. It's quite a sight, I assure you. Not in a good way." Sirius said.
"Oh, because you're so good to look at." She said sarcastically.
"Yes, I am. Just ask the girls of Gryffindor." He said.
"Oh, how arrogant you are. If only you knew the hardships of real life." Annie replied. He smiled.
"Right. But I don't want to live in real life. I want to live in Sirius-life." He said.
"Sounds luxurious." She said sarcastically.
"Oh it is." Sirius replied. Annie heard a clap of thunder and jumped. She looked up at Sirius, who looked like he'd just won the lottery.
"You're scared of thunder, aren't you Annie?" He asked, a huge smile plastered on his face.
"Of course not! Why would I be afraid of-ah!" She said, breaking off her sentence to scream at the next clap of thunder. Sirius started laughing loudly.
"Prongs, come in here! Lafine's afraid of thunder!" He yelled down the hall. James was in the doorway in a second, laughing.
"No way!" James said.
"She's like a cat!" Sirius said. Annie rolled her eyes and pushed Sirius lightly, only because he was too big to push any further, and Annie was always small.
"Aw, the cat's too small to hurt anybody." Sirius said in a baby voice.
"Shut up, Sirius, go away!" She said, trying to push him towards the door.
"No, I don't want to!" Sirius said, sitting down on a seat in her compartment and pouting.
"Sirius! Get out of my compartment!" She said.
"This isn't your compartment. It's the Hogwarts Express' compartment." He said.
"Then get out of the compartment!" Annie said, frustrated. Why was Sirius so difficult?
"Aww, you're so sensitive. Don't you want someone to protect you from the evil thunder?" He said as another clap of thunder came around, and lightning flashed out her window. She jumped and sat down on the seat opposite to Sirius.
"See, you do need me." He joked.
"Shut up, Black. I hate you." She said, drawing her knees up to her chest. Sirius smiled and stood up.
"Alright, you're boring." Sirius said, walking out the door. Annie sighed in relief and opened her book, but dropped it when another loud clap of thunder sounded. Annie inwardly screamed.
The train ride passed by slowly, and Annie was even more terrified that she had to actually go out under the thundering sky.
She slowly walked out and jumped when Sirius wrapped an arm around her.
"Evening, Annie. What's wrong? Scared of the thunder outside?" He asked. Annie was about to make a retort when a clap of thunder sounded, and Annie wrapped her arms around Sirius impulsively. She looked up and blushed. Why as she blushing? She didn't like him. At all. She rolled her eyes at his smirk and marched off, onto a carriage with other people whom she didn't know.
She sat down at her table and sighed, looking up at the roof. It made a flash of lightning and a clap of thunder every so often, and Annie was contemplating leaving for a moment, before Dumbledore stepped up and started talking. She listened and soon after ate her food, walking out to the Gryffindor tower and into the common room to hide. She went up to her dormitory and changed into a cat, running downstairs and sitting on her favorite chair in the common room. She was normally there in the evenings, everyone knew her as "that weird cat that nobody owned."
She was sleeping when someone burst through the portrait hole. She jerked her head up and glared at Sirius. James patted her on the head like he always did.
"Honestly, I can't see how you like that thing. It's awful!" Sirius said.
"Well, I think Muffins is adorable." James said.
"You've named her?" Remus said, sitting on the couch.
"Yes, yes I have. And I think Muffins is perfect, since you bring her a muffin from the Great Hall every night." James replied.
"That reminds me," Remus said, tossing a muffin to Annie. She grasped it with her paws and bit into it.
"She's not even really a cat, is she? She's more like a kitten. And she's adorable!" James said, drawing the "adorable" part of his sentence out.
Annie took another bite of the muffin and looked up at everyone. They were sitting in the same place they sat every day, like nothing's changed for five years.
"Did you notice? She hasn't grown up or changed from a kitten in, what, five years?" Remus said.
"Yeah, you're right. Maybe she's an animagi" James said.
Annie sighed inwardly, before letting out an adorable meow.
"No, a human can't pull that off." James said, scratching Annie's head. She purred and crawled into his lap. James had always been her favorite when it came to how he treated her as a cat.
"Are you sure? Maybe it's one of those crazy girls that wants to date you." Sirius said, sitting farther away from James and Annie.
"Aw, Muffins is not a fangirl, she's too cute." James said, patting her on the head.
"I still don't understand how that thing is so adorably cute." Sirius said, shaking his head.
"You just don't like it because you're a dog." James said. Annie looked up and lifted her head. A dog? What could that mean?
"And you love it because I don't." Sirius mumbled. James smiled.
"Exactly!" James said, looking up as a pair of girls entered the dorm.
"Evening, Evans. How are you this fine night?" James asked.
"James, what are you doing to that poor cat?" Alice said, picking Annie up off James' lap.
"I wasn't doing anything to it, Alice!" James said defensively.
"Uh-huh. Sure." Alice said, holding Annie in her arms and petting her. Annie leaned her head on Alice's arm and purred. People did treat her nicer when she was a cat.
"I wasn't!" James insisited.
"I refuse to believe that, James." Lily said, patting Annie on the head. Alice let Annie go and she went back to her chair, biting into her muffin.
"I was petting her!" James said.
"Whatever. I'm going to bed." Lily said, walking upstairs. Annie got off her couch and ran off towards her dorm, pushing the door open with her paw.
She had a dorm to herself, luckily. She changed back to herself and changed into her pajamas, laying down on her bed and going to sleep.