"We're telling you this because we trust you," James Potter started off.
"Prongs, I really-" Sirius said wincing a little.
"Relax, Pads, we've known the since first year," James retorted, "How would you feel if you hung around me all the time, but didn't know?"
James Potter raised his eyebrows so his round glasses slid a little down his nose. Absent-mindedly, he pushed them back up and then ran a hand through his already tousled black hair, making it even worse. Sirius Black shook his head again, his equally dark hair bouncing around in vigorous curls that framed his dark brown eyes. Millie Webber and Becky Wilson both stared, trying to figure out what was going on.
"You finished?" The blonde stared at Sirius, her bright blue eyes staring in anticipation. Millie anxiously ran her hand through her fine fringe, sweeping it out of the way.
"Yeah," The short-haired redhead agreed, "James is right. I want to know the reason behind the nicknames." Becky's greeny-bluey eyes had a knack of turning grey sometimes. Some people were convinced she was a little bit of a Metamorphmagus, but she brushed the jokes aside, laughing.
"Oh, go on," Sirius reacted as if he were trading away a life secret. Which, technically, he was, "Just do it!"
James took a deep breath and leaned in towards the two girls, "We're Animagi," he whispered, even though he was in the comfort of his own dormitory.
Millie and Becky both looked at each other then simultaneously burst out laughing.
"Okay James and I really am a Metamorphmagus!" Becky retorted, laughing again.
"Like you two could pull off being illegal-" Millie started only to be hushed by the two boys. She he rolled her eyes continuing her sentence but in a hushed tone, "Animagi!"
Millie and Becky continued laughing, sharing jokes and insults completely ignoring the boys.
The boys had looked towards each other and raised their eyebrows, Sirius giving James a look that said he'd expected that. Unnoticed, James leant forwards again, but this time he muttered something to Sirius. Sirius looked at the two girls, grinned and nodded.
"I bet you'd be a cat-" Millie shouted and both her and Becky turned to see a very large black dog, and brown stag standing in front of them, unreadable expressions on their faces. Millie squealed and fell backwards off the bed and the black dog padded up to her on the floor, staring at her with chocolate brown eyes. Becky simply stared at the soft brown animal in front of her.
The dog gave Millie a look as if it were deciding what to do, then bounded on the bed next to Becky and gave her a big slobbery lick on her face. She shrieked, pushing its large body away from her, giggling. Millie clambered back onto the bed while Sirius hopped off next to James. They both transformed into their human forms and fell back onto the opposite bed, beaming. Millie and Becky stared wordlessly.
"What do you think?" Sirius grinned smugly and Becky looked him up and down.
"My boyfriend's a big shaggy dog?" She spluttered. The boys flinched at the volume of her statement and looked around, hoping no one would walk in and randomly finding two girl in a boys dormitory talking about their illicit forms.
"But I thought..." Millie mumbled to herself.
"Yeah?" James asked, smirking.
Millie coughed, straitening up a bit, "Only very powerful and skilled wizards can become Animagi... And you did it by yourselves?"
Before James or Sirius could retort, Becky butted in, saying, "But isn't that really dangerous? Doesn't it have potential to backfire and cause the transformation to go wrong?"
"Well, yeah.." James trailed not really knowing what to say back to that.
"That's so stupid, why would you risk your lives to do that?" Millie decided to speak up too.
"Can't you get sent to Azkaban for that?" Becky asked too.
"Just 'cause you wish you could do it too," Sirius responded, a little stung at their reaction to what should've been an amazing sight.
Both girls rolled their eyes. Okay, maybe they were a little bit jealous, but they weren't going to let them know that.
"So why are you telling us?" Millie asked, "Actually, no. How long have you been... well y'know..?"
"Start of the year," James replied a little haughtily.
"What in the world made you want to be Animagi?" Becky asked, still rubbing her slobbery cheek.
The boys were silent; this had been the question they'd wanted to avoid.
"Hello?" Millie asked, "Are you going to tell us or what?"
"Well you see... The thing is we kind of, like - y'know?" James said making a sentence out of words that really didn't mean anything.
"No James, we don't see, nor do we 'like y'know?'" Millie mocked.
"We can't tell you why," Sirius said sighing.
"Well, why did you tell us, then?" Becky replied, eyebrows furrowed.
"Because we're asking for help," James said quickly, not liking how he needed it. The nicest word to used was independent, but right from birth he wanted to do everything by himself and he didn't really want to stop now. But he knew he needed too.
"For what?" Millie asked curiously.
"Well, for the reason we are," He smiled, "We'd completely understand if you didn't want to help out, but wouldn't it be pretty cool to be Animagi?"
"Illegal," Millie muttered.
"Hold on," Becky said, a smile appearing on her face, "You're offering to tutor us to become... Animagi?"
"Yeah," Sirius grinned, "Awesome, no?"
"Hell yeah!" Becky grinned broadly back and started bouncing on the bed without realising it. Millie blinked.
"Is it hard?"
"A little," James mused, "But we wouldn't ask if we knew you'd fail." He winked at the end and Millie laughed and fell back onto the bed, her arms stretched out.
"I'm in," She said, excitement fizzing up inside of her and she felt Becky bouncing even more.
"Me too," She smiled, "When do we start?"
"Tomorrow," Sirius replied, James nodding in agreement, "Third floor, 10 am? I know it's Saturday, but we'll need the whole day for the basics."
Millie sat up and Becky said, "It's a date!"
The next day, Becky and Millie were waiting on the third floor steps. Millie was enthusiastically perky in the mornings, but more likely to fall asleep at night, whereas Becky was more of a night person, and even having to get up at 10 o'clock was a struggle. So while Millie was springing up and down excitedly on the balls of her feet however Becky was sat down eyes closed face leaning on her hands.
"This is gonna be so fun!" Millie said, acting really hyper, "Don't you think it's going be fun?" She was actually running on a lot of caffeine thanks to the four coffees she'd had this morning. By the looks of it, Millie was about to bounce of the walls.
Becky yawned wishing she'd gone to bed earlier now, but she liked having her little chats with Alice. "Yeah, yeah," Becky muttered ignoring Millie.
"I wonder what they're actually going to teach us to do? And where we're going to go?"
"I can answer both of them," A voice said and both Millie and Becky turned to see Sirius and James walking up the corridor. It was good that most people were out today, because they were going somewhere secret.
"Where are we going then?" Millie grinned.
"Here," James replied, catching up. He tapped the wall beside him.
"Hate to break it to you James, but that's brick, not a room," Becky said sarcastically, then yawned.
James ignored her and walked past her. Then back. Then back again. Sirius and Millie watched and Millie burst out, saying, "What are you doing!"
"Full of questions, you," Sirius said, poking Millie, "Watch!"
Millie watched James warily and gasped. Becky looked up and saw a curled iron door appearing where a wall was two seconds ago, as if it was melting in reverse. It stopped growing with a clank of metal and James smiled.
"Welcome to," Sirius smiled as James opened the door, "The room of requirement!"
Becky yawned to herself standing up walking over to the others. "So..?" James hinted for Becky to say something.
"So? It's not a brick," Becky said grumpily.
Millie on the other hand grinned, "That's too cool, do things just appear in it if you want it?"
"Yeah," Sirius answered, "We-Peter found it last year when he needed to go to the bathroom."
"Oh," Millie muttered, "Do you think we can close it and let me walk pass it?"
"Why?" Becky asked making her way inside. The room James had imagined was nice. It had loads of Gryffindor colours, a couple of chairs that looked comfy, and a table. It wasn't a lot but it was plenty of room to practice. And cushions.
"So I can wish for coffee to be in there!" Millie said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"No," Both James and Sirius responded grinning walking into the room, with Millie trailing behind, pouting.
Becky swatted Millie away as she continued to jabber on. Becky asked, "So what do we do?"
"Becky can I see your wand a sec?" Sirius asked and Becky rolled her eyes pulling it out of her pocket handing it to him.
"Yeah, Millie, I'll need to see yours too," James said promptly, holding out his hand. Millie looked puzzled, but gave him her wand. Maybe he'll put some sort of spell in it, She thought happily.
James looked the wand up and down as if he was examining it, muttering a, "Mmmm," and occasionally a, "Yes...Mmm," Millie started fidgeting and looked over to Becky who was staring lazily and Sirius did the same thing.
James snuck Sirius a look, who grinned, and he tossed Millie's wand to him.
"Hey!" Millie and Becky both said in unison and he pocketed their wands.
"You won't need them," Sirius explained, "Seeing as you want to be Animagi-" He elongated the word for effect, "- You'll need to be able to wandless magic, and that's what we're practising today!"
"You sound like McGonagall when you speak like that," Becky said huffily and Sirius rolled his eyes.
"I'll tutor-" He smiled smugly at Becky, "-you, and James will practise with Millie."
"Okay," James smiled encouragingly to Millie, "I'm going to Stun you-"
"Wait, what?"
"Would you prefer me to hex you?"
"Well, no, but-"
"This is what the cushions are for! Use your hands as a wand-"
"James, no-" James ignored her and pulled out his wand.
"Stupefy!"
"PROTEGO!" Millie shouted, and in a bizarre movement, threw her hands out in front herself as if tossing a fireball at James. The spell had the same effect; she felt a surge of power rocket through her body like never before and you could see the glistening blue shield fly through the air and slam straight into James.
He was knocked backwards and literally flew a few feet before landing roughly on the floor, his head making contact before his body. For a minute he felt as if he'd passed out and had to resist the strong urge to cry out loud. Millie squeaked and started to rush to his side.
James briskly stood up and walked the distance back to her, not saying anything.
"Millie, that was awesome," Becky said, definitely awake now. Millie smiled quickly but turned back to James, concerned.
"You okay?" She asked nervously.
James nodded as if it hadn't hurt at all, which it kind of had.
"Are you sure-?" Millie started again only to have James cut her off with a sharp "Yes, Millie."
Becky looked around to see to catch Millie's eye, once she did Becky pulled a face. While James was explaining something Millie started laughing.
"Millie can you concentrate?" James snapped.
"I was just, I mean, Becky-"
"Don't worry, Mills, James is just cranky that you've caught on much earlier than we did," Sirius said, laughing good-naturedly. James scowled at him.
"Okay, my turn," Becky said. Sirius shook his shoulders as if preparing himself for a fight, and drew out his wand.
"'Kay," Sirius grinned, "I'm going to conjure a fire charm, and you need to deflect it."
"With water?" Becky smiled mischievously.
"I don't think you'll have much luck with paper," Sirius mocked, "Just try and get met, however impossible that may seem."
"Ha! Bring it!" Becky said, and held her hands out, much like Millie did. She and James were watching now, James trying to stretch his throbbing back without catching anyone's attention.
"Incendio!" Sirius shouted, sounding like he was in a battle. He slashed his wand through the air and flames of all different colours roared from the tip, darting towards Becky like arrows. She looked scared for a second and panicked.
"Agumenti maximus!" She screamed and opened her fingers out. Gushing jets of water that seemed to be issuing from her palms but not quiet touching plummeted their way to Sirius' now feeble fire, dousing and killing the flames but soaked Sirius.
He spluttered and Becky laughed. As she did, her short red hair seemed to lift up as if a huge gust of wind had blown in the wind and she curled her fingers into strong fists, making the water stream and wind cease. Sirius immediately transformed into his dog form and shook his body, shattering Becky with millions of droplets of water. She screeched again and he transformed back.
"It's easier that way," He explained, laughing.
"That was SO COOL!" Millie shouted and James looked disgruntled. Unable to contain it, he said, "How can you do it right away? It took me and Pads days – no, weeks-"
"They had the factor of surprise," Sirius said soothingly, but winked at the girls.
"I saw that," James muttered, scuffing his foot on the floor.
Becky stretched, "That's woke me up."
"Yeah, you feel really jittery after it though," Millie replied.
Becky shook her shoulders not really having an opinion on it. "You should really use an element it's really fun," Becky said.
"Can we try it again?" They both asked.
After a couple of hours the girls had really got the hang off wandless magic. Millie specialised in a lot of defensive spells, but her favourite had to be when she used wind. In her own words it actually felt like you were running through it, and you just felt alive! James disliked getting blown back though.
Becky on the other hand liked water, a lot. She liked the way it felt coming out of her finger tips. Sirius, however, was getting sick to death of water and at one point used wind to blow it back in her face.
It was around three o'clock when they started getting hungry. Actually Sirius was the first to get hungry.
"Shall we practise some more tomorrow?" Sirius said.
"No!" Becky laughed and forced water onto him again. He thought the non-verbal spell, Protego and water splashed around and a little bit back onto Becky as he shielded himself.
"Yes!" James complained, dodging a jet of some unknown purple magic Millie had a tendency towards. She said it was pure power, but James was more realistic, "Stop shooting whatever spirit-thing that is!"
He tried to say it with a straight face but laughed and Millie did too. Sirius waggled his eyebrows at Becky who grinned too.
"I'm starving," He announced, "If we go now, tomorrow we can actually move onto animals."
"But, don't they need-" James started, looking shocked.
"At the rate they're going?" Sirius laughed, "They could be in their forms by Wednesday!"
"Ooh, seriously?" Millie exclaimed and Becky blew a raspberry.
"Come on, kitchens it is!"
When they finally got down the kitchen, Millie and Becky sat opposite James and Sirius, munching on the food that a House Elf named Gretchen provided.
"So, did you know you were gonna be a deer?" Millie asked eating a cookie.
"It's not a deer, it's a stag," James replied as Sirius snorted.
"But did you know?" Becky asked, inquisitive too.
"Well, it's your Patronus, usually," James said a little shiftily but liked the fact he and Sirius knew how to cast a Patronus before them, "Although, sometimes your Patronus changes whereas your Animagus form is permanent."
Millie's face suddenly broke out into an enormous grin, "Yes!"
"What? Why?" Sirius asked, taking another bear-sized chomp out of his sandwich.
"'Cause my Patronus is a red panda, and I love red Panders! They're so cute!" Millie said, acting a bit like a six year-old, sounding like one too. Sirius and James swapped slightly annoyed looks.
"What –you know how to do a Patronus Charm?" James asked bluntly.
"Well...yeah," Millie muttered, blushing slightly at his tone. Becky stuck her nose in the air.
"We've known since third year," She said, "Do you have a problem with it?"
"But that's when we learnt it!" Sirius laughed and James tried to join in too. They were his friends!
"Yeah, the same teacher tutored us," Millie said in a 'duh' tone then laughed.
"So if your Patronus is a red panda, what's yours?" James directed to Becky.
"What?" Becky asked seeing as now everyone was looking at her.
"What's your Patronus?" Sirius asked.
"It's a Lynx," Becky said.
James laughed, "Isn't that a wild cat?"
"Yeah, so?" She replied huffily.
"Well isn't it a bit weird that Sirius is a dog and you're a cat?" James sniggered
"Cat-family," Millie corrected.
"Nope, 'cause I still love dogs," Becky said smiling, leaning over to ruffle Sirius' hair. He pretended to like it, much like a dog would.
"Excuse me, Masters and Misses?" Gretchen asked timidly, hands ravelling and unravelling in her surprisingly clean pillowcase, "It's getting quite late; I hate to interrupt, but I think it would be wise for Masters to take Misses back to dormitorys."
"Okay," Sirius agreed and James said brightly, "No problem." Gretchen beamed and replied, "Thank you," In her quavery voice.
"Thank you," Millie smiled at them. Sirius ironically offered his arm to Becky, who took it, giggling. James looked at Millie, grinned boyishly and did the same. Millie gave him a tiny smile and took it too.
"Promise we'll do more tomorrow?" Becky called over her shoulder.
"Yeah, yeah," James said.
"It's a date," Sirius smiled.