Unlikely Circumstances: Sirius Black (Padfoot) (Early sixth year)

"Don't eat me," I thought. "For the love of Merlin, don't eat me!"

How did I get myself into this mess? I wondered as I frantically ran from Black Wing, the over-sized raven adopted by Ravenclaw students to be their mascot. In my normal animagus form I wouldn't have anything to worry about. Today, however, the one-day that dumb bird decided to escape the Ravenclaw common room just happened to be the same day I was stuck in this smelly, slow rat form. I vowed to take my revenge on Peter when, or more or less if I ever get out of this situation.

It started out as such a simple plan. I remember back to about a week ago, James' loyal lap puppy Peter Pettigrew came to me asking for help. Normally I wasn't one to really care to amuse the boy that they, my group of friends, some how adopted, but Pete struck unexpectedly, hitting at my one downfall, my vanity.

Peter knew I fed off of my vanity, and like a fool I had fallen right into Peter's trap. "Everyone knows how good you are with women," Peter had said slyly to me.

"Why don't you ask James?" I questioned annoyed by Peter's constant whining.

"He has his own problems." Peter glanced at James Potter who was arguing with the object of his affection, Lily Evans. "Besides everyone knows what a lady-killer you are."

I chuckled lightly at this comment, "If only they knew the truth," I thought to myself. "You're full of it Peter," I said out loud and tried to walk away.

"Come on Sirius, they swoon at your feet and besides, I overheard a lot of the girls talking about how much they want to go out with you and how handsome you are."

My head lifted at those words and I turned around to face Peter. "And how," I asked curiously, "did you manage to hear these conversations?"

Peter blushed and shrugged his shoulders, "Girls talk loud."

I doubted that was the full truth. Peter was a sneak and every one of the Marauders knew why he had chosen a small figure for his animagus form. "Okay Pete," I slapped the boy on the back. "Explain to me again how we are going to get this girl to fall madly in love with you."

Peter's face lit up like the Cheshire cat in the muggle movie "Alice in Wonderland". His plan was simple enough, for the most part and actually sounded reasonable to me.

Peter would change into his Animagus form, a rat, and I, who would normally change into a dog, would change into a rat also with the help of a Doppelganger potion. That was the hard part, making the potion. It was a complicated potion with many hard to come by ingredients,(technically we weren't even supposed to try it because of the many side-effects). Peter had actually, by chance, snuck the book with the potion recipe in it from the restricted section of the library last year when we had tried to perfect changing into animagi. Besides, we weren't technically supposed to learn how to be animagi either but we did that too.

Peter changed into a rat and while facing him, I took the potion and was supposed to change into the first thing I saw. I was just amazed it worked. After changing we decided to find the girl and one would play the villain and the other would play the knight.

I'm swearing under my breath because I had stupidly gone through with it, just as planned. After Pete and I both transformed I found myself running around and following Peter in the form of a rat. All had gone well until the point of Black Wing's escape. Together Peter and I had found Peter's girl and as Peter changed back, into human form, I dashed out in rat form scaring the poor miss to death, having her helplessly standing on the counter screaming for help. When suddenly dashing Peter came to her rescue and fearlessly chased me out of the room. I took a quick look back and saw Peter comforting the scared girl, amazed that the plan had worked.

I then searched around and found an empty corridor. I wanted to change back to my normal self as soon as possible. To my horror, I realized I couldn't change. I knew it must have somehow been connected to the bloody potion but couldn't understand why. The potion wasn't even supposed to last as long as polyjuice, obviously something went wrong. I decided my safest bet was to somehow make it back to the Gryffindor common room to find Remus. Remus Lupin was smarter than the rest of us and it was a mystery as to why he wasn't a Ravenclaw, if anyone could help Remus could.

"Yes," I had thought to myself, "Remus can fix me." I had been safely on my way back when suddenly I heard that dreaded cry. I looked up above me and froze. That that brings me to where I am now, out of breath and frantically searching for safety.

"Leave him alone!" A familiar voice jolted me back to the present. I looked up and saw the face of my handsome rescuer, it was Remus. "Get away you stupid bird. What are you doing out anyways?" Remus looked down at me with kind eyes. "Well," he said picking me up, "aren't you timid? Look at those striking colors. What an unusual rat you are."

I felt a strange warmth sitting in my friends' hands. I attempted to tell Remus that it was me, trapped in rat form, but all that came out were squeaks.

Remus laughed, "You seem content with me." he smiled. "You know I'm glad I found you, you saved me time. I was trying to find someone who might have a mouse." Remus gently scratched the back of my ears. "Don't worry, my experiments are all humane."

"Experiments!" I squeaked.

"Hush now," Remus stroked me again, "they won't cause too much pain, if any at all. Besides, if you're a good little rat you'll be rewarded with cheese."

"Pain!" I swallowed hard. I wanted to run but unfortunately Remus had a tight hold on me. "Damn Peter!" I thought helplessly as Remus carefully carried me to the Gryffindor common room. "I hope she crushes your heart and stomps on it like a troll!"

Once in the common room I saw what Remus had in store for me. It looked harmless enough. I had seen many rats and mice put into a similar maze. "Well," I thought to myself, "it could be worse and besides I'm smarter than any normal rat or mouse." I actually felt inspired to run my friends' race or maze. I had secretly fancied Remus for a long time and knew this could be my chance to impress him, even if it was as a rat.

Remus gently put me in the maze and tapped me comforting on the head. "I have faith in you, after all you remind me of my friend Sirius and he can pretty much do anything. He's brave like you." he said reassuringly.

I couldn't be sure but I thought I saw a small blush and a look of longing in his face, but it was quickly gone. "Okay," Remus said while he placed a piece of cheese somewhere beyond my sight, "go find the cheese." Remus then lifted his finger and I took off.

Just as I was thinking the maze would be simple I felt a small jolt of electricity hit me. I squeaked in pain. I had never realized that Remus could have been cruel enough to rig the maze. After countless wrong turns and what felt like hundreds of small electric jolts I had finally found the end of the maze.

As a reward I nibbled on a bit of the cheese and Remus patted my head, "Good boy," he looked at his stopwatch and picked up the cheese. "Should we try it again with a bit more speed?"

I stared at him, "You've got to be kidding Remus!"

"I think that was a happy yes," Remus laughed again and patted me gently.

"No!" I shouted but it was useless, once again my voice came out inaudible squeaks.

Remus put me back at the start of the maze. "Okay, one more time, faster this time please. Let's see if you can remember the way." Once again he patted my head and told me to start.

Angry at my friend for having such a cruel sense of humor I trudged through the maze. This time I managed to avoid most of the traps. Remus clapped when I reached the end. "I knew you could do it!"

I was rewarded with a warm brushing of my fur from the tips of Remus's fingers. I knew if I was cat at that moment I would have purred. Of course, I never thought I could admit that to Remus. "Yes," I thought to myself, " the great Sirius Black that could make the girls swoon at his feet, who was a fearless Quidditch player, who could even face Remus during the full moon, couldn't get past the fear of telling his friend how he truly felt about him."

"Okay," Remus said picking me up and breaking my thoughts. "Off to bed. I've got a little cage for you in my room."

Remus carried me to our room. To my surprise no one else was there. "Here you go," Remus put me down in the cage. I watched as Remus grabbed his bedclothes and blushed as he began to take off his robes in front of me. I knew I shouldn't watch. I decided to turn around in the cage, cursing under my breath, wondering when the spell would wear off.

"It's okay you know," I heard Remus' voice soften. "I don't mind if you watch me dress Sirius." That made me turn around. "I'm not," Remus continued, "uncomfortable knowing you're looking. You don't stare at the scars, you look beyond them. You always have."

All I could do was squeak. "He knows" I was beyond surprised.

Remus opened the cage and scratched my ears. "That's right I know it's you," Remus smiled. "I knew the whole time. Peter confessed everything with a panic when he couldn't find you." He continued to scratch my ears. "Then James told Peter and I that he had just heard that Black Wing escaped and we all have been frantically searching for you."

"He knew all along!" I didn't know what to think. Then I remembered the maze and turned my head to bite Remus angrily.

"Ouch," Remus laughed as he pulled back his hand. "I guess I deserved that, but I couldn't help myself. Someone had to teach you a lesson about using potions you're not familiar with. Not only that, but for Merlin's sake Sirius a potion that Peter found! Peter! Of all the stupid things!"

I knew my friend had a point. Peter really wasn't that bright of a person. That reminded me, I really needed to start thinking of revenge.

"Oh well," Remus yawned, "No harm no foul." I watched my friend cuddle up under his blanket. "Sirius," he looked sleepily at the cage, "You might not want to spend all night in there, the spell should wear off by morning…" There was an odd pause in Remus' voice. "I guess a person doesn't realize what they have until they almost lose it." He looked at me sadly. "Don't do something like this again. I can't… I mean well, I don't want to lose you." The words slipped away into the silence. I knew my friend was too much of a man to let me know that he'd shed tears for me.

"Soon," I thought to myself, "soon I would tell him and change things for Remus and I. Tomorrow promised happiness for both of us." With that thought I went to sleep.