Disclaimer: You know the drill
an: Thanks again to my beta- Davita10. And yes, Demiguises are in F.B.&W.F.T. Page 9
Chapter 9
Breakups, boxes, and a flaming Snape
I was promptly dragged up to Gryffindor tower by my underarms and thrown into an armchair, which was, unfortunately, one of the flatter ones. Never in my life could I have guessed Hermione could throw that hard. Mental note... never test Hermione again.
"WHERE WERE YOU?!?" she screamed in my face. The entire common room turned to look at her, but I doubt she even noticed. Ron, however, went red.
"Hermione! Shh!" I hissed. "I'm fine, I just needed to get a box."
"A box?" Hermione looked cautious. "From where? The states?"
"Didn't you get my owl? Gringotts."
Ron turned redder. "You didn't get the owl, Ron?" I asked him.
"Well..." He kicked an imaginary pile of dirt around with his overgrown shoes. "Hermione was already fuming so..."
"Ron!" I yelled, now attracting stares myself, "that was meant to calm her down!" Ron looked ready to explode.
"Fine! If you don't want my help, then don't take it!" He left the common room. I groaned. Not this again.
Hermione didn't look finished with me yet, however. "What is in that box anyway, Harry?" she asked, cooling down just a bit.
"I would know," I retorted, "if a certain someone would just let me open it!"
"Open it then," she said, resuming her usual know-it-all look.
I pulled at the old and yellowed yarn binding the package. The brown paper fell off the box with little assistance, revealing a shoe box. Blowing the dust off, I saw "Zonko's levitating shoes... levitate and scare you parents!" stamped across the front. I could only imagine what these things had seen. Picking off the lid, I expected to see shoes. But apparently the box was being used for something else. Reaching inside, my hand found a red leather book. Not some book lurking on the shelves of Flourish and Blotts, but a diary. Using past experiences as a guide, my hand had moved halfway to the fire before Hermione stopped me.
"Harry! Look at the name!"
I looked down and saw "James Potter" printed in the corner in tiny gold foil letters. I gasped. To think I had almost burned it. I could hear Hermione saying something to me... but at the same time it only sounded like meaningless noise. I had gotten to my feet, and they were taking me and my body up to the dormitory. My mind was lost, swimming in clouds and fog. My father had written this book. I slammed the dormitory door behind me and sat down on my bed. I had a lot of reading to do.
I pulled the curtains around me and lit my wand. I opened the book to the first page and chuckled. On the "This book belongs to . . ." page, a crude picture of Snape with his head on fire had been sketched. The tiny signature on the bottom had "Prongs" swirling around in circles.
Turning the page I saw the date... December 18. Year 5. I grinned. Again, there was a doodle at the top, this time of a boy giving off a small "pop" and turning into a deer. So he had started this diary on the day they figured out the spell... I flipped the pages. Page after page was filled with plots for full moons, and recollections of them. This was priceless. But I knew two other people who deserved this... I waved my wand and whispered a duplication spell. I summoned Hedwig, and sent her off to my father's best friends. I then turned my head back to the page.
Dear nameless bit of muggle paper,
Well, we finally did it. My friends and I finally managed to complete the Animagus spell. It took two bloody years to find the damned thing. Luckily Sirius (being the woman-loving manic he is) just so happened to know a 7th year. Apparently she took instructions from McGonagall about becoming an Animagus. She agreed to teach us, if we told her why. So Remus told her! You'll never guess what happened then... She was so startled, she turned into a Demiguise and back again in seconds. Nasty side affect of Animagism. I didn't know you could turn into magical animals too. Anyway, she's going to help Peter out, as he can't seem to get this right. I can turn into a stag though, and Sirius is a dog. It actually looks like a Grim. Sirius Black, the Black dog. He'll never live that one down. I'm going to have to leave it at this for now, since Binns is floating over, and I don't what anyone to find out!
Well, that solved some problems. I had read about Demiguises in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. They were these odd-looking ape things, with hair that could be cut off and turned into an invisibility cloak. That's probably where my dad got the cloak too. But I still didn't have a name...
I must have stayed up reading later then I thought, because I don't remember going to sleep. Just Ron shaking me by the shoulders to wake me up, saying, "Good. You're still here," and leaving. Why did he have to shake me like that? Luckily, it was Sunday, and I hadn't missed any classes. I pulled myself out of bed, and stumbled over to my wardrobe. I pulled out an everyday black school robe and pulled it over my head. Looking in the mirror, I saw my eyes were all red and puffy. Had I cried last night?
I pulled my hat on and tried to tuck some unruly hair under it. I grabbed my father's diary from the bedside cabinet and shoved it into my empty
I trudged down to breakfast and flopped beside Hermione, who was doing–what else?–reading. I swallowed a scone as fast as I could and told Hermione I'd be back later. I hurried to the library, found a table in the invisibility section, and began to read from the diary again.
December 25, Year 5
Nameless bit of paper,
First full moon transformation for all of us. After Remus was lead away, Sirius and I crept to the shack. Torry came with us. Once inside the forest, we transformed and crept into the tree. Peter stayed behind. He can't get the spell right yet. He was really sour about it too. Anyway, we found Remus and I screamed. As well as a deer can anyway. He was biting everything in the shack to bits. He turned and snarled at us, but then gave out a yelp and sat still. We stayed the whole night with him like that. Turns out we could use some odd sort of telekinesis to communicate. Thank God for that. Anyway, we didn't do much, since Remus still had to get used to having us around. We scampered back the castle before sunrise and Madam Pomfrey arrived. We had so much to talk about now. The world was open to us.
See you next moon!
James (who has been dubbed Prongs after I jabbed Torry in the leg...oops.)
"Torry?" I whispered to the silence.