Author's note!
*Shout out to ImsebestianstanButter for the consistent reviews, you're a great encouragement 3*
I've decided that I'm going to continue this story through Goblet of Fire as a Part Two instalment to this story rather than post a new one. This is mostly to continue growing the following tbh, but also for ease of access for readers. More information soon.
~IMPORTANT~ As we are nearing the end of part one (just a few more chapters to go) I have decided to put the opportunity forward to tell me what you'd like to see more of in the next part as I've only reached the early stages of planning for it, some things cannot be changed i.e if she finds love or not, but if you want to see more interaction with another character or more involvement in classes, don't hesitate flick me a suggestion via review. Happy reading!
Felicity awakens with a start, fumbling around in the dark for the divide in her curtain. She can hear muffled shouting. Still fresh from sleep, it sounds as though her ears are underwater. Other girls in her dorm are stirring, but Felicity is already up, stumbling down the stairs in the dark to find the source.
In the common room, Harry, Ron, Neville and several other third year boys are there, arguing. Fred and George soon join the growing crowd, looking as though they hadn't even gone to sleep since the party was broken up early in the night.
"Are we carrying on then?" Fred asks, looking thoroughly pleased. Felicity notices Ron at this point, he's pale and his forehead is shiny with sweat. He looks as though he's seen a ghost.
"Everybody back upstairs right now!" Percy shouts, arriving into the confusion, pinning his Head Boy badge to his puffed out chest.
"Perce – Sirius Black! He had a knife," Ron says. The common room falls silent again. Felicity's gaze turns sharp, the fog of sleep dissipating instantly at the mention of her father.
"Nonsense," Percy says, though his expression is uncertain. "It must have been a bad dream."
Ron opens his mouth to argue, but the portrait hole swings open and –
"Now, really, enough's enough!" It's McGonagall in her tartan dressing gown, looking even less amused than she did when she came in to break up the party only a few hours earlier.
"This is getting ridiculous. Percy, I expected more from you," McGonagall frowns.
"I certainly didn't authorize this, Professor. I was just telling everyone to get back to bed. Ron here had a nightmare –"
"IT WASN'T A NIGHTMARE! SIRIUS BLACK WAS STANDING OVER ME WITH A KNIFE!" Ron shouts. McGonagall stares at the young redhead. Felicity doesn't stick around to hear the rest, disappearing back into her dormitory to collect her wand and some socks to put as it seems it would be awhile before she'd have an opportunity to sleep again. She pauses at the window next to her bed, noticing a shadowy movement across the lawn. Straining her eyes, Felicity presses her face against the glass to see better. The figure is hurtling towards the Dark Forest, passing under a glowing patch of grass and, illuminated by the moon, Felicity sees a big dog, just like the one she'd seen at the quidditch pitch before the dementors attacked. She frowns, but heads back down to the common room in time to see McGonagall crawl back through the portrait hole.
"Which person," she begins, her skin several shades more green than when Felicity left only moments before. "Which abysmally foolish person wrote down this week's passwords and left them lying around?"
Neville, with a strangled squeak, raises his hand. McGonagall leaves Percy with strict instructions to keep everyone inside the tower before she hurries off. Nobody bothers to return to their dorms, and Felicity seeks out Fred and George.
Ginny is quick to find them as well, leaning against Felicity on the settee she occupies, Fred and George sitting on the ground in front. The three of them have their heads close together, talking in tongues in front of Ginny.
"What about the humpback?" Felicity suggests, leaning forward. It's obvious to her that Black isn't walking through the front doors. More likely, he knows about a secret passageway and nobody in all of Hogwarts knows the secret ways in and out of the castle like them.
George shakes his head vehemently. "We'd have heard if there was a disturbance in Honeydukes," he argues. Fred nods in agreement. Felicity's mind travels back to the dog she saw, an idea tugging at her mind. She is quick to wave it off, blaming the lack of sleep on her wayward thinking.
At dawn, McGonagall returns to tell the students that their search has once again turned up a blank. Black had gotten away again. The next day, Felicity is perched on the stairs in the Entrance Hall, watching Flitwick teach the front doors to recognize a picture of Sirius Black. Dark ringlets brush the pages of her book, 'The Art of Animagi'. Fred and George have taken to trying to lighten the mood with jokes and tricks that even McGonagall is turning a blind eye to, and try as she might, Felicity's preference for quiet overwhelms her desire to help them on their mission.
Deciding that her theory is at least worth being heard, just in case, Felicity heads towards Dumbledore's office. The password, much to her satisfaction, is the same as it was on her last visit. At the door of his study, Felicity knocks.
"Come in," Dumbledore calls quietly. Felicity cracks open the heavy door and passes through with a cautious smile. "Miss Black," Dumbledore greets in surprise.
"I hope I'm not interrupting," Felicity says, creeping further into the study with the beginnings of regret.
"Not at all. How can I help you?" He asks, lowering the parchment he'd been studying.
"Well, after the incident last night," Felicity begins, squaring her shoulders and taking a breath before continuing. "Well, I had an idea. Nobody seems to be able to find him whenever he sneaks in, which means he's getting past the dementors as well. So – well I wanted to ask if you'd considered the possibility that he's an animagus?"
Dumbledore studies the girl from over his spectacles with twinkling blue eyes. "All animagi are registered, we would know if he was. That is, however, a very good thought, Miss Black," Dumbledore muses.
"Do you really think every animagus registers with the Ministry? From what I understand, it's a voluntary process and, given the advantages of being able to take another form, I doubt everyone registers."
Dumbledore is silent, though he has a soft smile, reminiscent of what Felicity assumes to be nostalgia. "You are quite right, Miss Black. I appreciate you coming to talk to me about your concerns. You know, you truly are a brilliant young witch."
Felicity doesn't stay long with Dumbledore, feeling unsettled that he seemed so unbothered by her idea. Perhaps it wasn't as realistic as she'd first assumed? She collects her book and heads to the only place no one will expect to find her – the library.
For the first half hour, it's quiet. Felicity manages to get through a good portion of the book on animagi before she first hears it. A sniffle and stifled sob, unmistakably feminine. Using her wand, Felicity shifts the books on the nearby shelf to investigate. Facing away from her, leaning against a stack of book, is a head of frizzy hair. Felicity sighs, sliding her book into her bag and walking around the shelf, placing a hand lightly on Hermione's shoulder.
She jumps, wide eyes searching to find the source, but relaxing as she sees Felicity. Grey eyes meet hazel and Felicity feels her gut twist. Her bloodshot eyes are circled with rings of purple, her bottom lip trembling as she allows Felicity to look at her.
"Merlin.." Felicity trails off, sitting down next to the girl. Hermione sniffles before throwing her arms around Felicity. She leans back in surprise as frizzy hair encompasses her vision, but hugs her back. "Is this because of Ron and Harry? Because so help me, I will jinx their asses into next year, those litte –"
"It's Buckbeak," Hermione whispers, pulling away and wiping her nose on her sleeve. Felicity frowns, thin lips pursing.
"Hagrid's Hippogriff?"
"His trial is coming up and I just can't focus on helping Hagrid, I have so much work to do but I promised I'd help," Hermione's voice grows shrilly as she explains, and Madam Pince begins to stalk towards then, her pruned face scowling at the disruption.
"Come on, let's go somewhere else," Felicity helps Hermione collect her things casting a small sneer at the librarian as they pass her, ushering her from the library with one last, longing look back into the quiet rows of towering shelves.
While they walk down into the Entrance Hall, Hermione explains the situation to Felicity, whose sneer steadily becomes more belligerent through the story. She leads Hermione down into the basement, still listening to her story.
Felicity stops in front of a stack of barrels and taps out a rhythm. Hermione's words die on her lips as she finally notices Felicity's actions.
"Wh-what are you doing?" Hermione asks a little frightfully.
"Stay here, I shouldn't be long," Felicity instructs as the barrels open to reveal a small passageway. Hermione watches in bewilderment as Felicity disappears down the passage.
The Gryffindor steps down into the Hufflepuff common room and smiles slightly. The whole room smells faintly of pollen and light pours in from the windows near the ceiling. Many Hufflepuffs look up, startled at her entrance. Kitty, who is sitting at a table with Cedric Diggory and two others Felicity doesn't recognise, stands and hurries over, ignoring the confused glances.
"Sorry, guys, I just needed to get Kitty," Felicity smirks impishly at the others, allowing Kitty to push her back into the passageway.
"Why can't you just owl me like a normal person?" Kitty chastises, but her grin is evident.
"That's no fun, besides, it's important," Felicity replies as they emerge from the barrels. Hermione is standing exactly where she was when Felicity left her, and a look of understanding washes over her face. "Hagrid needs our help."
Down at Hagrid's hut, the man in question and his Hippogriff are in his pumpkin patch. Felicity bows low to the animal, being careful to keep her expression soft as Buckbeak considers her for moment before bowing. Kitty repeats the process and the pair approach to pat him.
Felicity listens to Hagrid express his concerns while running her hands down his ashy feathers and across to his rump, admiring the flexing sinew underneath her hands, feeling his beak nuzzle at her hair.
"He'd never hur' a fly, ol' Beaky, but them committee members are goin' ta take one look at him an' tha'll be it for 'im," Hagrid says, pulling out a handkerchief the size of a small table cloth to blow his nose on. Felicity and Kitty exchange determined expressions before casting their gazes on Hagrid.
"We'll do everything we can, Hagrid, don't worry," Kitty assures, offering a reassuring pat on his forearm. Hermione visibly perks up after their visit with Hagrid and Felicity smiles, feeling glad that their support eases the weight she seems to be carrying around with her, certainly, Felicity wouldn't let Buckbeak suffer such an unfair fate.
Over the next weeks, Felicity spends every spare moment studying old legal cases and as the fifth years' homework begins to steadily increase, most nights are spent in the library until it closes. In the common room, she and Hermione share a table, trading books and notes on cases.
One evening, long after everyone else has gone to sleep, Felicity is curled on the chair next to the fire when George shivers down the stairs in his pyjamas, rubbing the sleep from his eyes as he comes over to warm himself on the fire. Felicity closes the book, sucking absently on a sugar quill.
"You're up late," she comments dryly.
"I figured you would still be up," he says with a small smile. "How come you're so busy lately? Fred and I have barely seen you at all."
"I'm helping Hagrid with a Hippogriff problem," Felicity replies with a shrug.
"Flo –" George starts, looking troubled. "Are you okay? Like really okay?"
Felicity considers George, intrigued by his concern. "Do you mean because of Black?"
"Yeah."
"I mean, I guess so. I don't really know how I'm supposed to feel. It's strange though, because I don't feel... frightened of him like I know I should be."
"He is your Dad, after all. Maybe that makes more of a difference than you realise," George suggests thoughtfully. Felicity nods slowly, conceding that he is probably right.
"I wish he wasn't. I hate that it hangs over me. I look like him, apparently he was a bit of a marauder himself at school. Shit, I probably have similar mannerisms, too. May as well stamp 'Death Eater' on my forehead."
"I don't think you're like him, Flo. I don't think he'd lose sleep over a hippogriff the way you are, or stand by your friends the way that you do. You're a good person, Flo, the best I've ever met, actually," George insists, his voice quiet but determined. Felicity's resolute gaze settles on George for a long time, her stomach twisting in his presence.
"Thanks, George. Really." Felicity says with a gentle smile before standing up and collecting her things. "Let's go to bed."