Choices

Choice seventeen: Sirius

Seeing James becoming his alter ego last night was amazing; one minute, it's plain old James... and the next, it's an enormous stag. Okay, so I felt the pressure in that moment.

James is like my brother, my kin... but he's also my biggest competition. We push each other's buttons. It's the pureblood thing; we've got to be the best.

So after James became himself again I moved forward... and I couldn't do it. I was so embarrassed. I wanted to be able to do it since James had.

So blocking out all sound I sat on the floor and closed my eyes. I thought hard while sitting there, I pictured James in animal form, then the owls in the tower and the cats in the dorms. I thought of all the magical creatures Kettleburn had ever shown us.

Then I got that feeling in my stomach. You know the way it sort of jumps when you get nervous and you think you're going to throw up, but then the adrenaline rushes in and you want to do something dangerous.

As the feeling intensified I thought hard of the words on that piece of parchment. I saw the parchment in my minds eye then a fuzzy feeling took over. I let it take over me didn't try to fight. I felt myself hunch over, my legs shrunk but my arms stayed as they were.

A tickling sensation ran over my body and my shoulder blades changed shape. I felt my head change at the same time and then I saw a snout like thing where my nose used to be. I looked up I was shorter than normal. Peter was tall next to me.

I sniffed and I could smell the corned beef sandwiches that we had brought but were still in the bag; I couldn't smell them before. My nose felt wet and then I heard a small whistle and my ears stood up... they were standing up!

Then Peter's voice as he happily said 'here boy'; I tell you I wanted to go lick his hand. I stood up and that's when I knew I had a tail, and it was wagging. For some unknown reason I wanted to catch my tail and so I chased it, in a circle.

Remus' laughter distracted me and I ran over and pounced on him, licking his face with my large pink tongue. I knew what I was now I was a dog. Man's best friend, loyal to the end, that's me. I moved back to the middle of the room and thought again.

I felt myself transform back and when I became myself again I knew I had made the right choice. Seeing the smile on Remus' face as he stood up wiping the wet patch I had left told me that I was right to be helping my friend.