He was a dog. He was a fucking dog.
After having this sentence repeat in her head for the past few days, Hallie was ready to lose it. The word 'dog' was now meaningless to her. What a funny sounding word it was too, especially after having thought it about a thousand fucking times. Dog. Dooog. Dawg. Spelled backwards it was God, which, Hallie thought to herself with a snort, was certainly apt given that Sirius Black likely thought of himself as one. Dog.
"What was that?" Hallie snapped out of her thoughts to see Ben and Asha staring at her oddly.
"What?" She blinked. "What did I miss?"
"You just laughed to yourself. Like for no reason," Asha demanded.
"Yeah, and like kind of, uh, weirdly too. Everything good? You've been a bit… off this week." Ben looked unnerved. Perhaps her laugh was more hysterical than she thought. She probably sounded like she was about to lose it.
Maybe she did already lose it. Maybe she didn't really see Sirius turn into a dog and it was actually just a hallucination. Maybe it was all a symptom of some larger illness. Wouldn't that be nice?
"You're doing it again; you're smiling to yourself," Asha accused. "What is wrong with you?"
"I think I might be ill," Hallie said happily. "I'll go check with Pomfrey now."
"Do you want us to come…?" Ben offered, rather weakly. He looked torn between supporting his friend and finishing his pancakes.
"I'll be fine. Hopefully, it's just something blurring my vision or something and it'll be cleared up with a potion."
"Tell her to check your mental functions while you're at it," Asha muttered, unconvinced.
Assured that it was likely some fumes left over from Potions or a stray spell gone awry that she didn't notice hit her, Hallie was more relaxed than she had been since Wednesday night. This was the most logical explanation after all—having something wrong with her rather than Sirius actually turning into a dog. She knew what she had seen quite clearly; there was no denying that. But if it was all a trick then everything could go back to normal and Sirius could continue going on his stupid runs in the middle of the night.
Hallie had studiously avoided glancing at or even facing the Gryffindor table during mealtimes, determined to avoid Sirius until she processed it all herself. So she didn't notice the concerned look he wore as she walked through the Great Hall and she didn't see him get up and walk towards her.
"Hallie! Wait up!"
She turned with a pleasant smile on her face, a bit overly friendly to be considered characteristic, but hey, she was suddenly in a good mood. She had just diagnosed herself with a likely concerning illness, after all. Until she saw it was Sirius waving her down.
"Got to go, late for class!" she yelled in a panic and nearly ran out of the Great Hall to get away from him.
"Class? It's Saturday." She heard him say in confusion. He caught up with her in the hallway though and Hallie couldn't bring herself to meet his eyes.
"Hey, sorry I didn't catch you on Wednesday. I tried looking for you this week but I couldn't find you anywhere and you seemed busy whenever it was time for dinner..." He trailed off, looking at her expectantly.
"I just had a lot going on this week, sorry." She didn't make eye contact, instead staring at a thread on her sweater. "I should get going now actually."
"Hallie." His sudden serious (ha) tone stopped her. "Are you mad?" She finally looked up at him. Sirius ran a hand through his hair, looking more hesitant than she'd ever seen him. "I thought we had a good time hanging out last week in Hogsmeade. If I did anything to, I don't know, if I upset you or something—"
"No, no, you didn't do anything at all," she said, feeling guilty. "I'm just working through something right now. I promise I'll let you when it's… resolved, I guess."
Sirius would probably be the first person she'd go to once she had an official diagnosis from Pomfrey. Then they could laugh about the ridiculousness of her vision together. Sirius would certainly like that.
"I'm just going to see Pomfrey now but if the news is what I think, we can catch up afterwards."
"The hospital wing? Are you ok?"
"Oh yes," she assured him. "Likely some light brain trauma. Perhaps a minor concussion I didn't realize I got."
Sirius was not as reassured by this news as she was.
"Brain trauma?" he exclaimed. "What—"
"It's completely fine! Good news, in fact."
"Well I can definitely see some of the damage appearing now," he said sarcastically. "I'm coming with you."
"No, I'm alright really. I can go by myself."
"You can't just say something like brain trauma and not expect me to react," Sirius argued.
"I want to go alone!" She panicked. "I'd prefer it."
"If you're sure," he said warily.
"I am," she stated with finality and turned around for the second time to go get the diagnosis she knew she had.
"Well, you're good to go." Madame Pomfrey flicked her wand to remove the potion bottles from Hallie's bedside table.
"What? What do you mean good to go?" Hallie demanded.
"Other than a lack of exercise and a concerning insistence that you have a Traumatic Brain Injury instead of just pretending you have a cold like all the other students do to skip class—" Here Pomfrey threw her an admonishing look— "you have nothing wrong with you. Medically, that is."
"Nothing?"
"Nothing," the nurse snapped back. "I have conducted every possible test there is on your eyesight and brain. You are fine. Now get out of my office."
Hallie slowly slipped out of the chair. If she wasn't crazy, then what the hell was Sirius?
Ever the dutiful Ravenclaw, her search began in the library. Asha and Ben were already there, the former hunched over a Potions essay due next week (which Hallie herself had yet to start on, ugh) and the latter flipping through a textbook while obviously not reading it.
"There you are." Ben unceremoniously tossed the book on the table, ignoring the dirty look Madame Pince threw him. "So, what's the verdict?"
"I'm here, aren't I? 'Good to go' were her exact words."
Neither Ben nor Asha looked convinced. Hallie couldn't blame them.
"Anyway," she said hastily, throwing her bag on an empty chair. "I just came to finish some work. I'll be back in a minute."
The obvious answer was that Sirius was an Animagus. Except he was only 16 years old and this was a process most adults couldn't manage, so he (again, obviously) couldn't be one. That should be easy enough to verify through the Ministry Animagus Registry, however, and Hallie made a mental note to ask Madame Pince about getting those records. In the meantime, she pulled some books about werewolves, Polyjuice Potion, and human Transfiguration. She already knew it wasn't a full moon that night, that Polyjuice Potion didn't work with animals, and that no full human Transfiguration worked as smoothly as Sirius's did. But what else could she look up?
Balancing the stack books in her hands (she had once told Sirius all Ravenclaws were required to balance at least 10 books at a time to make it to second year. "Really?" "I'm obviously joking."), Hallie maneuvered around the shelves before running into two younger students. Both of them guilty shoved their hands in their pockets.
Hallie narrowed her eyes, warning bells going off. "What are you two looking for?"
"We're doing a Potions project," the Slytherin student, a fifth year if she had to guess, said confidently, irritated at her interruption. The other student, a Hufflepuff, wouldn't meet her eyes.
"We're in the Ancient Runes section. Empty your pockets, please. I'm a prefect," she said firmly at the Slytherin's protests.
The Slytherin pulled out several small vials of a light green potion. The Hufflepuff only had some galleons on him.
"Is this an illegal potion?" Her voice was quiet. The other two froze, exchanging looks.
"Of course not—" the Slytherin began.
"I'm confiscating these. 50 points from Slytherin and Hufflepuff. You know how dangerous these things are."
"You can't take them!" he protested. "Do you know how expensive it is to make them? There isn't even a good reason against them!"
"Is putting people in the hospital not enough of a reason? You also get a detention for making and distributing these." Hallie turned to the Hufflepuff, who looked terribly guilty. "I don't know why you're buying these from him but I promise you you're better off without them. A bad grade isn't the end of the world."
The Hufflepuff looked near tears. "I have two papers and an exam this week and I'm already failing Ancient Runes."
Hallie softened her voice. "I know, it's rough. But talk to your professors for extensions or help with study plans or make a study group with your friends or something. It sucks but in the long run, how're a few bad grades going to really hurt your life?"
"Easy for you to say," he said bitterly. "You have a whole House behind you making sure you don't fail and bring down the Ravenclaw reputation."
"Excuse me? I have a whole House behind me trying to ensure I fail. I don't know what you've heard about Ravenclaw but trust me, I don't have it any easier than you do."
She pushed past them as smoothly as she could with her books and left them grumbling behind her.
"What took you so long?" Ben asked, bored again already.
"I had to confiscate some of those potions that supposedly help you work better. I guess since it's almost exam season, demand is going up." She kept her voice low, not wanting to alert anyone as she slipped the potions into her bag to turn into a professor later.
"Potions, DADA, and Transfig?" Ben raised an eyebrow at her reading selection and Asha finally looked up from her furious scribblings.
"Just some light reading. Thought I'd take a break from homework." She kept her voice light.
"Obviously." Ben matched her nonchalant tone.
Hallie tried to ignore the suspicious looks he threw her as she opened the first book.
Werewolves do not transform into anything other than wolves, as the name suggests…