Chapter 1
I knew he was after me; my family was gone though no one knew except for me and the headmaster. I felt like eyes were following me everywhere I went. I need a way to go about unseen, I thought. I placed my hand on titles of spells that made the wearer invisible but all of them could be easily seen through with the right spells. I heard whispering and I crept through the rows of books to see James, Sirius, Remus and Peter discussing something heatedly. I came closer to the Marauders to notice it was three against one. Remus was arguing with the others about something supposedly important.
"It is too dangerous," said Remus.
"But then we could come with you and be unseen not to mention safe," argued James and that is what caught my attention.
They stopped suddenly when they saw Ms. Norris looking at them with her amber eyes and they fled. I walked over and picked up the book they had been arguing over. Animagus was the simple title but heavy with meaning. I scooped up the book before anyone saw me and fled to my dormitory. I reached the fat lady and wheezed out the password. When she swung open I ran up through the common room and some people stared but most were used to my weird behavior. I shut the door to my dorm and sat on my bed and read. When I was done I knew that this was an easy way to hide and if I stay unregistered no one would know and I would be safe and I cast the spell. I felt growing fur and myself shrinking. I looked at the mirror and saw a dust grey cat staring back at me; I had a strange pattern that looked almost like feathers. I wonder if you can have several animagus forms. I concentrated on wings and suddenly I was a grey owl with hair fine stripes on my wings with the semblance of fur. I tried to think of legs and arms but I felt my mind slipping away from them and I noticed I couldn't change back. I was flickering between cat and owl but never once did a human face flash up.
A cold voice resounded in my head, "you shall be stuck like this forever unless someone breaks the curse. You know everything but can never tell anyone. You are useless and a failure," a cruel high-pitched laugh bounced around my head and the world spun.
I screeched and I heard footsteps approach me. It was Lily, one of my best friends, "hello there, who are you? Sakura! Where are you?" she yelled, I looked down sadly and she looked at me.
"Do you understand me?" she asked when she noticed my sad look. I nodded.
"Do you know where Sakura is?" I thought then nodded.
Lily smiled, "could you tell me?"
I did some quick thinking and started to stumble around and fell, trying to act dead clutching my side. Lily's eyes widened and she said in a quiet voice, "dead?"
I nodded sadly as she rushed out of the room. I transformed into a cat to see where she was going. She stopped at the couch where the Marauders sat. Since Lily and James were head boy and girl Lily probably thought it was a good idea to tell them but before she could tell them she burst into tears.
"What is wrong Flower?" asked Sirius, concerned. The Marauders knew the extent of Lily's sadness immediately when she didn't bite Sirius's head off for the silly nickname.
"James got up, hugged her and asked, "what is wrong Lily?"
"Sakura," she hiccupped, "dead."
The Marauders POV
The Marauders were shocked. They had just seen Sakura rush through here not two hours ago. Thinking back on it, it had looked like she was scared and was running from something. Maybe it was possible.
"Did you find her body?" asked Remus in a tight choked voice, it was common knowledge among the Marauders that he had a crush on Sakura.
"No but I was told," said Lily through her tears.
"Who told you?" asked Peter.
Lily hesitated, "an owl."
"How can an owl understand you enough to tell you that someone is dead?" asked Sirius.
"I don't know. I need to tell Dumbledore," Lily fled with tears in her eyes.
After she was gone James said, "It could have been an animagus."
"Why, owls are magical creatures maybe they understand more than they indicate," said Remus.
"If owls never told people that other people are dead why should they start now? It is more likely that the owl is an animagus but the question is if the owl is an animagus why didn't it transform back into a human?" said James
"Who knows, what I want to know is how she died," said Sirius.
"You-know-who is really the only option. What other mass-murdering wizards are there?" said James tartly.
"Did you see her when she ran in here? She looked like she was running from something maybe she knew she was going to die," Remus said cautiously.
"She was carrying a book, maybe it will help," Peter spoke up after the long silence. The other boys agreed and went up to the seventh year dormitory. They didn't notice the grey cat that detached itself from the shadows to follow.
Remus entered to dormitory first and walked over to Sakura's bed. It was rumpled like someone had been sitting in it recently. A book lay open to a yellowed page, The Spell of Transformation. Remus picked up the book to look at the cover and then showed it to the boys.
"What does that mean?' asked Sirius.
"Who knows maybe she thought it would help her escape from you-know-who and he got her before she could do anything," said Remus sadly.
"We should go to Dumbledore's office and show him maybe he will have some ideas," said James.
They hurried down the halls to the griffin statue that hid Dumbledore's office. They guessed the password until it opened on "Licorice Wands"
A cat followed close on their heals but they never noticed their small shadow.
"Come in," said Dumbledore and the four tumbled in.
"We were wondering if you have discovered anything about Sakura," said Remus.
"Sit and let me explain," said Dumbledore kindly, "with Sakura we cannot be sure if she is dead. She knew that Voldemort was after her."
"Wait," interrupted Lily, "you-know-who was after her?"
"You know how I feel about saying Voldemort, fear of the name increases the fear of the thing itself and yes she was. She was searching for ways to hide from him and there are two possible happenings. She did in fact die at the hands of Voldemort or his followers or the more complicated option is she didn't. She may have told you she had died so you wouldn't worry about her because who worries about dead people, she may have told you that so you wouldn't look for her and if you believe it Voldemort will believe it and she will be safe. Though the way the owl delivered the message was quite peculiar."
"Yes the owl acted as if it understood me and then it acted out someone dying when I asked where Sakura was," said Lily
"I wonder if we could train owls to do that like Sakura did. Teach them signals for different words, give them a message and then when they find the person they are to deliver it to they give it to them by acting out and since it isn't written it cannot be intercepted. A secret way of communicating."
"Maybe we could use the owl that told me of the death of Sakura. She seems to know what people are saying anyway and we can teach her the signals," Lily said thoughtfully.
Dumbledore smiled at the young lady and nodded, "will you go see if she is in the dorm still?"
Lily left and a grey streak raced after her. When she was in the common room the cat raced up the stairs and transformed into the grey owl who fluttered onto a perch just as Lily entered the room. "Come on Dumbledore wants to see you," and Lily held out her arm. The owl clucked and landed on her arm.
They arrived at Dumbledore's office a few minutes later. Dumbledore and the marauders were discussing signs that the owl could use.
"Why aren't you a fine creature," said Dumbledore, "such a fine creature needs a name. Your wings are grey like storm clouds and ashes; I think we shall name you Ash. Ash we were discussing a secret message service in which the wizard tells you the message and you act it out to the person who it is intended. Do you think you can do it?" Everyone held his or her breath if the owl understood English it would nod our shake its head. Ash ruffled her feathers waited a bit, almost like she was thinking about and then very slowly nodded. Dumbledore was stunned; he had thought that perhaps in the trauma of loosing a friend Lily had made up the owl's uncanny ability to understand what humans were saying.
Dumbledore shakily wrote a letter to each of the teachers that were in the order of the phoenix. The Marauders, Lily and Sakara knew about the order and he told the students, "I am calling an order meeting in the light of this new communication. Ash please take these to the teachers of the order, their names are on the letters. I will fire call the others."
Ash took the letters and flew out the window. The Marauders and Lily made themselves comfortable, they were all astonished that they hadn't started fighting yet, usually they didn't get along, Sakara had tried to get them to be nicer to each other but Lily still thought that James Potter and Sirius Black were arrogant gits, Peter a follower following whoever was strongest. The only one she could stand was Remus. Usually if they met and Remus or Sakara wasn't there they would start a fight somehow.
Sakura/Ash flew through Hogwarts dropping letters in several teachers' laps. By the time she arrived at Dumbledore's office the majority of the teachers were there getting comfortable for the meeting. A few more people came from outside Hogwarts and Dumbledore called the meeting to order.
"I know this is a little bit of a short notice but we have gained a small advantage over Voldemort. A secret message system. It cannot be traced and it cannot be interfered with."
Several people didn't see the advantage and even more didn't understand how anyone could do this.
Dumbledore motioned for silence and started to explain, "it is a small advantage because Voldemort won't be able to know our plans yet we can still play with his mail because he doesn't have the same system we do. Lily could you get Ash."
Lily fetched the owl and said, " this is Ash the extraordinary owl that will become our secret messaging system."
"How will it work?" asked McGonagall.
Dumbledore answered, " Ash understands human speech. We are thinking about making actions for words so that we tell her a message and she acts out the message to the recipient. If she is caught mid-flight she will just look like an owl without a message and nothing to worry about. Ash nod for me."
Ash did as she was told and made eye contact with each member. She swooped around the room and landed on the perch in a corner.
"Where is Sakura?" asked Mrs. Potter.
Ash cringed and everyone looked at her, "why did she cringe?"
"Because Sakura is dead," said Dumbledore quietly but everyone heard him. You could have heard a feather drop in the silence that followed and then suddenly it was as if the someone had turned on the sound everyone started talking, crying and yelling. Ash gave a hoot and the room hushed. She flew to all of the crying people and nuzzled each. She chattered at the yellers and landed on everyone's shoulder at least once. When she was done an atmosphere of calm had been created.
"Thank you Ash," said the sniffling Lily.
"How do we all use Ash it is not as if she will always be right where she is needed at just the right moment."
"I was thinking that whenever she was finished she would come here and you can fire call and just say I need Ash and if someone is listening it won't make any sense and it won't endanger anything and when she gets here I will tell her if she is needed."
"Is that everything?"
"Just one more thing," said Dumbledore, "Sakura's funeral will be next week. Good night."
Ash flew out the window to watch the members walk down to the gate and apperate away.