"Jamie?"

"Hmm?"

"When do I get to start my Animagus training?"

I blinked, and looked up from my book to face Regulus. He had a pensive frown on his face. "I feel like you've been putting it off."

"Well," I said awkwardly. "It's actually slipped my mind..."

Regulus shrugged. "So when do I start?"

"Well, didn't Dad say something about almost finishing the potion during the school year?" I asked. "We should go ask him- carefully, though. If Mum finds out..."

Regulus grimaced.

It had been two days since Lily had come to us with the news of the McKinnons' deaths. Marlene, evidently, had moved in with Lily (much to Petunia's chagrin). I was just glad the poor girl had somewhere to go.

I had been getting more and more worried about the coming school year. My dad brought me home an Auror book that had all sorts of neat spells and shields I could use. And he'd conveniently taught me the spell he'd used in the summer before fourth year. I laughed when he told me.

"You'll have to speak carefully," he had warned. "It is easily confused with the Killing Curse, even when spoken."

"Well?" I'd said.

"Abra Kadabra," he said quietly. I couldn't help it. I burst out laughing; uncontrollable laughter. Dad stared at me. "What's so funny?"

"Sorry," I managed. "Muggle thing."

"Oh," said Dad awkwardly.

We'd all been rather melancholy the last two days. Even Regulus was down- quite literally, as he'd been floating much lower to the ground than usual. I was kind of glad he was bringing up something less... well, something happier, at any rate.

"We can go ask Dad now," I decided, folding up the page I was on and setting my book aside. Regulus beamed giddily, and floated at least two feet higher off the ground. Huh... maybe his floating was linked to his emotions?

It was a very convenient thing that it was Dad's day off and not Mum's. We were able to find Dad fairly easily- he was trying (and rather failing) to watch a football match on the television he'd brought home yesterday (that was what he claimed to be doing, anyway). Unfortunately, he couldn't quite arrange the antennae, though, quite frankly, I was amazed he'd gotten this far.

"Dad," said Regulus, but Dad continued to fiddle with the antennae. "Dad. Dad!"

"Watch," I said quietly. "Dad! We can't find Sirius and we reckon he's been kidnapped!"

"What!?" exclaimed Dad, shooting upward and destroying any progress he'd made with the antennae. "Are you absolutely sure?"

"Actually," said Regulus. "We just wanted your attention."

Dad scowled. "You could have just called me."

"He did," I said. "At least three times. Constant vigilance, my foot."

Dad turned red. "Ah... sorry, got kind of wrapped up in the tevelinision. What's up, boys? And where is Sirius?"

"I dunno," I said. "In his room, more than likely."

"Did you get the Animagus potion yet?" Regulus asked eagerly. Dad blinked, before grinning broadly.

"Yes, had to hide it from your mother, of course. It's in the wine cellar... hopefully I'll pick out the right bottle, I think Carol would murder me if I gave you alcohol."

"What's wine?" Regulus asked, as I said, quite disbelievingly, "We have a wine cellar?"

"I'll go get it," said Dad. "James, don't follow me. I don't want you to know where we keep the firewhiskey."

"I'll figure it out anyway," I said, unconcerned. Dad gave me a disapproving look as he left the room, or tried to, because he'd made it clear that I got my mischievous streak from him and he fully supported most of my endeavours in the name of mischief.

"Don't you already know where it is?" asked Regulus.

"House burned down when I was fourteen," I explained. "Never even thought to look."

"Oh," said Regulus awkwardly. "I don't know that much about what happened... besides Sirius, you know..."

"Yeah, well," I said. "Not much interesting. Lily's parents died in third year and we got together... we had a pretty normal year, not once did any of us wind up in St. Mungo's. Fourth year... halfway through, my house was torched by Voldie. Otherwise, pretty normal. Fifth year too, up until... yeah."

Regulus nodded. "Sounds pretty boring. Good thing you came back."

I smiled. Just then, Dad walked back in the room holding what looked like a bottle of wine. "I'm almost positive this is the potion."

"Almost?" I repeated.

Dad shrugged. "Looks like it, smells like it, but I didn't want to taste it."

Regulus grabbed the bottle out of Dad's hands. "Well, here's hoping."

First, he took a small sip, probably to make sure it was potion. Crinkling his nose, he shrugged and downed the whole thing. Then he blinked.

"Was something supposed to happen?" asked Regulus, breaking off into a yawn. "I'm just... really... tired."

He yawned again, walked clumsily over to the couch, muttered a 'night', and fell asleep. I chuckled, knowing that was supposed to happen.

"I'll carry him up to his room," I said. "And, Dad, if you really want the television to work, try actually turning it on next time."

Dad turned very red at this, and I picked up Regulus and left the room.


"James!"

CRASH! Thud-thud-thud. "Oof!"

I smiled bemusedly as Regulus shook his head and sat up at the bottom of the stairs, muttering something along the lines of: 'bloody evil things' and 'should've taken off my shoes and flew'.

"Welcome back to the land of the living," I said, chuckling. "So... did you get a form?"

"Yup!" said Regulus happily. "Make a guess, Jamie."

"I have no idea," I admitted.

Regulus gave me a toothy grin. "I'm a fox!"

"Wicked!" I exclaimed. "If you work hard enough, you might be able to go with Moony and us the first full moon after Christmas Break!"

"That's so far," pouted Regulus.

"Reg," I said. "It took me (and Pads and Wormy, first time around) almost three years to get it right."

Regulus's eyes widened. "That's a long time!"

I nodded. "Now all we need to do is get you a nickname. What kind of fox were you?"

Regulus blinked. "Er... a red one?"

"Alright," I said. "Let's go find Padfoot and we can decide on a name for you."

"Where is he?"

"Probably in his room," I frowned. "Kind of weird... I haven't seen him all day."

"Do you think he's asleep still?" Regulus suggested. I gave him an incredulous look.

"Padfoot?" I said bemusedly. "Sleep in?"

Regulus shrugged in a way that sort of said, 'yeah, well, it was an idea'.

"It was a bad idea," I told him dryly, and he gawped at me. "And, no, I can't read minds. Yet. I need to look into that, actually."

"Maybe Evirah knows something? Or there might be something in Siri's books," Regulus said, eyes lighting. I made a note to myself to make sure he didn't learn how to read minds.

"Or I could just ask Dumbledore," I pointed out. "It's called Legilimancy."

Regulus just grinned.

"Back to the point," I said. "We'll check Sirius's room and if he's not there, then we can panic."

"Panicking is fun," said Regulus cheerfully. I groaned, and hoped Sirius would be in his room. Regulus panicking was not something I wanted to see.

As calmly as I could, I walked up to Sirius's room and knocked on the door. No answer. So I opened it. "Padfoot...? You in here?"

No response. Now I was rather worried. I walked in the room. There was no one anywhere, as far as I could see, and the window was open (the window on the second story, mind you).

"Haha, very funny, Sirius," I said unsurely. "Come on out, joke's on you."

Again, nothing. I frowned. This was very unlike Sirius. I checked the closet, under his bed, heck, I even tried a Homenum Revelio. Nothing at all.

Now we could certainly panic.

Where on earth could he have gotten to? He can't have snuck past me and Dad. Maybe Dad, but not me! That left the open window, but his broom was still in here and he certainly wasn't dumb enough to jump out... right?

Suddenly, I rather doubted that. I ran to the window and looked down, hoping not to see Sirius splayed unconscious below. To my relief and, at the same time, bewilderment, all I saw was the normal sight of grass and bushes.

Perhaps he was somewhere in the house...? After all, how could he have gotten out?

"James, is he in there?" came Regulus's voice from the doorway.

"No," I said, flabbergasted. "His window's open and there's no sign of him! I don't think he jumped, but..."

"So we can panic?" he asked eagerly. I rolled my eyes.

"No," I said. "Panicking will get us nowhere. Let's search the house and if we still can't find him, we ask Dad for help."

Regulus pouted, but (thankfully) agreed, and we set off.


Sirius was not upstairs. Nor was he downstairs. Or upstairs again. So now, it was to plan B. Regulus and I made our way to the stairs before pausing. Regulus stared at me. "You go first."

"No, no," I replied. "You first."

"Alright," he said, and he took off his shoes and sped to the bottom, airborne the whole time. He looked back up at me smugly and I scowled at him, before taking a hesitant first step. So far so good. Another step-

"Woah!" I yelped as I inevitably lost my footing and tumbled down the stairs, land on my face at the bottom. "Bloody stairs, why do we even have those!?"

"How else would you get upstairs?" asked a voice, and I pried myself from the floor to face Dad.

"I can fly, Reg can fly, and Sirius can just bloody deal with it," I said, annoyed. "Have you seen him, by the way? He's not in his room and neither of us have seen him all day!"

"Haven't," said Dad with a shrug. "But I got the telvelinision to work! I managed to watch most of the game. It was pretty cool, actually, I've never seen a real Muggle football match. I wonder if their feet get tired from all that kicking?"

I rolled my eyes. "Dad, this is important. Sirius is missing for real this time."

Dad frowned. "Oh. Have you checked the whole house?"

"Yes," I said. "Everywhere. I even found the wine cellar."

Dad swore under his breath and muttered something about Mum killing him. Whether she would kill him for letting me find the wine cellar or for losing Sirius, I wasn't sure.

"Do we have any clues?" he asked.

"Sirius's window is open," Regulus offered. "But unlike me and James, he can't fly. His broom is still in his room, though."

"He could have jumped," shrugged Dad. "Don't they say dogs always land on their feet?"

"That's cats, Dad," I said. "But you never know with Sirius. I just hope he wasn't kidnapped."

"Can we panic now?" asked Regulus, grinning. I shook my head, narrowing my eyes at him, and he pouted. "Aw, man."

Dad frowned deeply. "Were there signs of a struggle?"

I shook my head.

"Then I highly doubt he's been kidnapped," said Dad. I nodded; that did make a lot of sense. He probably just ran off because he was bored or something. "You two go to the village and look around. I won't call Carol or alert the authorities just yet. BE careful, though, and James, wear your battle robes, just in case. I'll look around the property."

I nodded, and ran upstairs to get changed quickly (and I actually made it back down safely!). Regulus, despite his seemingly indifferent attitude towards Sirius being missing, looked decidedly worried. I gave him a smile. "Don't worry; knowing Sirius, he's probably just gotten into a spot of trouble with the Muggle police or something."

Regulus snorted. "Or better yet, some kid found him as Padfoot and decided they wanted a dog."

I laughed aloud at that. That was quite possible, and if that was what happened, I hoped it was a little girl that decided to dress him up in pink, because he definitely deserved as much for running off. With a nod to Dad, I grabbed Reg by the arm and ran out the door.

A/N: And Reg has an Animagus form! What do you guys think? Sirius is missing, but I promise he's fine, if not a bit disgruntled. XD By the way, James's dad is not watching American football. I figured they lived in Great Britain, so of course they'd call soccer football. :P I'm so sorry this took so long! Big thanks to my reviewers: N. E. Person, sk8boards4ever, and jkawesome! Free pictures of Padfoot dressed in pink! XDDD Hope you enjoyed!

Sadly, I still don't own Harry Potter.