Remus Lupin feels particularly good after his latest werewolf transformation on Wednesday, so he asks to ride into London with his mother on Friday. Mrs. Lupin has some shopping to do, as she started a new secretary job at a lawyer firm and needs new business outfits. They both climb into her car and set off toward the city. The Lupin household lives off in the country, away from the hustle and bustle of a city or village. It made it easier every full moon for them to secure Remus and to make sure no neighbors come asking questions about the noises they've been hearing.
The ride into London takes an hour. Mrs. Lupin finds a place to park then she and Remus walk around the city. They stop for brunch around ten o'clock then make their way to the clothing store Mrs. Lupin needs. Remus walks around the store, feeling lost. It's an expensive store with woman's business clothes. Remus idly browses through a couple racks to occupy his time while his mother tries on different outfits.
Remus catches a flash of vibrant red hair in his peripheral vision and glances up. It takes him a moment to recognize the girl he's looking at. She's grown a bit taller over the summer and her hair has grown out, but once he's able to catch her eye he knows exactly who she is.
"Evans!" He calls taking a step toward her. She smiles and they meet halfway down the aisle. "Fancy meeting you here."
"What are you doing here?" Lily laughs, glancing around at the woman's clothing surrounding them.
"My mum got a new job as a secretary at a lawyers office. She needs new work outfits. What are you doing here?"
"My mum's making me try on outfits. There's a big party at my dad's office that families can attend," Lily explains.
A tall skinny teenage girl with blonde hair strides over, she's holding a brown two piece pantsuit.
"Have you seen this? It's hideous. Mum thinks I should wear it to the party but I refuse. I wouldn't be caught dead in this. I told mum Vernon is going to be there and I'd be devastated if he saw me in it, but she just refuses to listen. I told her it's better suited for you." The teenage girl shoves the suit into Lily's arms.
"Petunia, this is Remus." Lily nods toward Remus. "Remus this is my sister, Petunia."
Remus raises an eyebrow at Petunia, "I didn't know you have a sister, Lily."
"Who are you?" Petunia asks as if she hadn't even noticed Remus standing beside her.
"This is Remus, a friend of mine," Lily repeats, "his mum is here shopping for clothes. She got a new job at a lawyers office."
"A lawyers office," Petunia says approvingly, "Lily, it's nice to see you're making some normal friends."
"Normal?" Remus questions.
"Lily has some of the weirdest friends, especially that freak boy," Petunia says matter-of-factly.
"Really now?" Remus asks with a cheeky grin as he glances at Lily. Lily raises her eyebrows and gives him a warning smile. "How weird could her friends be really?"
"Very weird," Petunia nods quickly, "you wouldn't believe the type if I told you. I'd be mortified if I was seen with some of the people she associates with."
Remus glances at Lily again, who gives him another look saying 'I tried to warn you' then turns to a clothes rack and pretends to look through it so she won't be dragged into the conversation.
"That's a very rude thing to say," Remus says to Petunia calmly.
"What's rude is not telling people you have a sister." This is obviously directed toward Lily. Lily refrains from saying anything back for a moment, then turns calmly to Petunia.
"You don't tell any of you're friends about me."
"Because you're a freak," Petunia says nastily.
Remus makes a noise between a laugh and as scoff. He tries to cover it up as a cough but only makes it even more noticeable. Petunia turns a questioning eye at him.
"Sorry, just where I come from calling a siblings a freak isn't approved of," Remus says.
"Where do you live, Remus?" Petunia asks. "We're in Cokeworth, if you're close to there it'd be nice for you to visit Lily during her holidays. Better than her spending all her time with that boy."
Remus grins, he knows exactly who Petunia is talking about. "I''m out in the country so that wouldn't be possible. Though I agree with you, from what I've seen at school I'm not a fan of Severus either."
Petunia eyes go wide and she sputters as she takes a quick step back from Remus. She bumps into a mannequin and knocks it down. She turns quickly in embarrassment and tries to set it upright. Lily and Remus laugh at her and an employee comes over to help. Petunia protest, waving the employee away and insisting she doesn't need any help. Once the mannequin is set back up she shoots a glance back at Remus and Lily before rushing off in haste.
Remus holds a hand on a shelf for support as he laughs and Lily covers her mouth, it takes them both a minute to compose themselves and when they finally do Remus says, "she's colorful."
"She's rude," Lily says simply, "sorry about that."
"No I enjoyed it," Remus smiles.
Mrs. Lupin steps around the corner. "Ah, there you are." She holds three outfits in her arms, which total to be 8 separate articles of clothing. "Who's this?" She asks with a kind smile to Lily.
"Mum this is Lily Evans, a friend from school."
"How nice to meet you, Lily, I'd shake your hand but-" She tries to shuffle the clothes around in her hands.
"No worries," Lily says kindly, "It's nice to meet you too. Congratulations on the new job."
"Why thank you, Lily. You're too kind. Remus, why is it you're always getting in trouble when you have friends like this?"
"Mum," Remus protest.
Lily giggles, then says with confidence, "Remus is a very good student."
"See," Remus says, "and that's coming from Lily. She's top in our class next to me."
"You know the troubles I'm talking about," Mrs. Lupin says firmly, "we've already had this talk."
"Mum!" Remus says again in disbelief. "I was only out past curfew one time."
"You only got caught one time, somehow I don't believe that was the only time you were out at night when you weren't suppose to be."
Lily giggles again, then hears her mother call her name. "I have to go try something on. It was good seeing you Remus." She heads off toward the changing rooms.
Remus calls after her, "See you in school."
Sirius Black sits in the small library located beside the sitting room in 12 Grimmauld Place. Despite being a place meant to read the lighting here isn't much better than the rest of the house. Sirius has a lantern sitting on the end table and pulled as close to the armchair he sits in as he can. The Black's library isn't a room Sirius has spend much time in, over the summer he's spent more time in the room than he did the previous 13 years combined. The books in here are something he'd find in the restricted section at school, filled with dark magic and dangerously difficult spells.
While looking through the books Sirius found a small collection on Animagi, he read his way through the first book a couple weeks into the summer. It wasn't very helpful, and mostly scared him. The book was filled with images of witches and wizards who had bad experiences while attempting to become an Animagus. Sirius is now halfway through the second book, and it's proven to be helpful. There's tips and pointers listed throughout the book on what the witch or wizard can do when completing their training to make things go more smoothly. A later part of the training includes making a potion, and over the years the potion has had a few minor changes to it, the reason for this being the Ministry stopped the trafficking of Judo Beetles due to their shells being coated in a deadly poison. The potion had to be altered with several new ingredients to substitute the beetle. However, if the person wishing to become an Animagus can find the beetles it's suggested to use the old version of the potion, because the old version only takes two weeks to make compared to the month and a half of the new version.
Sirius uses another book to bear down on as he takes notes from the Animagus book, he's so focused on his note taking he doesn't notice when someone else enters the room. "Is that school work?"
Sirius looks up quickly. "Uncle Alphard. I didn't hear you come in."
Alphard chuckles, "I've learned how to move around this house unnoticed."
"It's a handy skill to have," Sirius laughs. Alphard takes a seat in the armchair on the other side of the end table. He puts his reading glasses on and opens the book in his lap. Before he starts reading he glances over the frames of his reading glasses at Sirius's book. Sirius tries to cover his hand over the pages so Alphard won't be able to read them, it's a failed attempt.
"They start teaching that at thirteen now?" Alphard asks. "When I was in school we learned about that in our fourth year."
Sirius contemplates lying and saying it is for school, but then decides against it. "I was just reading it for fun."
Alphard chuckles and looks down at the book in his lap. "Is it something you consider doing later in life? Becoming an Animagus."
Sirius shrugs. "Could be interesting."
"It's dangerous work, I had an uncle... or was it a cousin? Well either way he attempted to become an Animagus, got himself stuck at a Raven for three months. He hid out in the attic here at Grimmauld Place."
"What happened to him?" Sirius asks curiously.
"His brother found him up there after three months half dead. His feathers were coming off and he was half starving despite the food left up there for him. Went mad, everyone thinks, couldn't stand being a bird anymore and tore out his own feathers and forgot how to eat. He died a couple nights later from starvation."
Sirius gulps and closes the book quickly. Alphard chuckles, "Don't let that discourage you, boy. You've got a good head on your shoulders, and you make good grades, no?" Sirius nods. "Well then see, my uncle... or cousin? Was a blithering idiot. Didn't know his left from his right most days. It's surprising he made it that far in his training. You know at some schools they start their training young, and some students complete it around your age."
"Really?" Sirius asks grinning.
Alphard nods, "Yes sir. Though I suppose the laws in their countries are a bit different about it than ours. So many backwards laws in our Ministry." He shakes his head and continues to read his book.
Sirius frowns at his uncle, "Uncle Alphard?"
"Hmmh?"
"You said I have a good head on my shoulders, do you really mean that?" Sirius asks. He hasn't heard a word of approval from anyone in his family the past couple years.
"I do," Alphard says, not looking up from his book.
Sirius smiles and stands up, he stows the books back in the proper places on the shelves and pockets his notes, he hesitates at the door. "Thanks," he says to his uncle before opening the door and walking out.
