Chapter 3
Their biggest concern while preparing for the new school year now revolved around how to pack and successfully smuggle the motorcycle into Hogwarts. Sirius' trunk had been expanded several times throughout his Hogwarts career so expanding it further came as naturally to them. But, even so, there is only so far a wizard can expand a trunk before it is simply not going to fit school things, extra books, gags and a motorcycle in it. But James and Sirius weren't among Hogwarts' top students for no reason. Leafing through their memories along with several old school textbooks led them to a very nearly perfect solution: a shrinking solution. A proper shrinking solution would only take slightly over an hour to brew and could be used to shrink the motorcycle down to a more manageable size. Remus suggested they let Peter brew it since he needed the practice anyway and after a few false starts, he produced a nearly perfect shrinking solution, which they enthusiastically applied all over the motorcycle and then sat down to wait for it to take effect. They waited. And waited. Remus watched the clock. James coughed. Peter fidgeted while Sirius watched the motorcycle intently.
"Nothing's happening!" Sirius finally burst out in frustration. "Did you make the potion right, Peter?"
Peter glanced at Remus uncertainly. "I think so…"
"He did. We made sure with every step," Remus confirmed. "Potions may not be my forte but this potion isn't too bad."
Sirius frowned and Remus could tell he was hesitant to press the issue much further with him. He didn't mind so much but their friendship had been rather polite as of late and Remus wasn't sure whose fault that was entirely. He wasn't sure he wanted to know.
"Maybe it has something to do with the fact you have to swallow potions," James suggested. "Now that I think about it, I don't know of a single time we have used a potion externally. Some of them may be bad to touch but most of them are swallowed."
"You could have thought of that before and saved us the time," Sirius groused.
"Sorry." James raised his wand and approached the motorcycle. "Transfiguration time, Padfoot!" He announced cheerfully. Sirius smiled and did the same. Remus had the utmost respect for their transfiguration skills; very few wizards could become animagi and even fewer managed it by their fifth year. He waited as they discussed what to transform it into and then finally, a few waves of the wand, prods, and spell casting, a simple object appeared on the ground: a pincushion.
"No sense in overdoing it," James consoled Sirius as he picked is very unimpressive motorcycle up.
"I know, but a pincushion? I haven't transfigured a pincushion since…what, first, second year?"
"I'm relieved to see you're still in practice then. After all, you never know when you'll need an emergency pin cushion."
"Oh, yes. I'm sure there will be several instances in my life when something tragic will happen, all for want of a pincushion," Sirius deadpanned as he threw his motorcycle-cum-pincushion inside one of his robes and then shut his trunk.